Apotheosis Echo: Re(verb - it)erations

by StriderInCosmos

The end has passed, and a storm looms over a broken world. At its edge, a Captain who cannot fully chart her course plunges in regardless. Within the lightning, a Priest sees his gods, and hopes to draw them to the dying Earth he wishes to gift to them. Against the rain, a Soldier and his family seek to dispel the tempest. The storm looms, and the End is nigh. But what End?

24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Parting the Veil

It's been a long road, getting from there to here…

I don't quite recall where I've heard that before, but it seems far too accurate to my life than I'd care to admit. The road is long, not just now in the middle of this Corite, but through every path I've gone down.

At the very least, the company's nice to have along. Even if, in some ways. I will always walk alone.

- From the personal journal of Daniel Theisman

On the Road to Village-3, March 21st, 2028

The sun, unsurprisingly, rose red, the light of it suffused by the stark grey clouds that still gave of their rain, the thunderstorm of the night before now becoming a still-persistent shower as it hid the massive moon up above. It gave the landscape the feeling of a matte painting, a dream-like scene laid out by an ailing artist.

Daniel stepped out the door, pausing under the awning as he observed the rain after a samey, but still somewhat energizing breakfast. "Well," he said as he looked back at the others, many of the Children, save for young Shinji, the Ayanami unit, and Asuka Shikinami, huddling under ponchos from the survival kits, "at the very least, we'll get washed clean before we get to the village."

He stepped aside, gesturing out the door. "After you, Asuka Shikinami. Lead us home."

Shikinami nodded, walking out the door past Daniel and out into the rain, probably quite grateful that it would wash off the remaining musk and dried flakes of her Entry Plug's LCL. They streamed out behind her and continued on the last stretch of their journey.

The rain concealed the sound of their footsteps for the most part, save for the occasional splash through a puddle that broke a mostly silent walk. Hovering above them, scattered across the skyline, clumps of vans, trucks and sedans, train cars, and radio towers, among many other things, caught the rain, sending it pouring down in sheets that they had to at times dodge as they took momentary shelter from the rain.

The sound caused the conversations that the Children had from time to time to grow slightly louder to compensate for the constant drum-like sound across the crystals and the concrete and steel that they covered. "Y'know," Asuka Ikari-Soryu said as they stood in the cover of several larger chunks of Corite, "at least the gravitational anomalies aren't moving on us. That would make things really annoying."

"These things moved where you're from?" Shikinami asked incredulously. "What did you guys do differently, and how do you screw up worse than this?"

"For one, Eleanor and myself interfered by entering Lilith itself during our Near-Third Impact, in order to try interfering with the process of Instrumentality," Rei replied. "Secondly, Kadmonel was used to shut down the Mass-Production Evangelions. His interference may have had unintended side effects, to say nothing of our own work."

"What's Kadmonel?" young Shinji asked quietly.

"Kadmonel is the ancient name for the being we would come to know as Adam, Shinji," Kaworu replied.

Young Shinji and Asuka's eyes went wide, and even Ayanami seemed perturbed. "You're kidding." Asuka Shikinami shook her head slightly. "Adam is a singular being? And you managed to convince him to not end the world?"

Kaworu and Rei looked at each other with somewhat bemused expressions. "Kadmonel and Suriel, the being who would become Lilith, are far more connected than you might expect. We can tell you the story of their origins if you so wish to hear it."

They began to walk again, Daniel grinning slightly as he looked between his kids. "You might even meet their kids at some point when this is all over. They're all actually really sweet, once they were unshackled from the overriding urge to wipe out humanity."

Young Shinji blinked, then his eyes narrowed. "Wait. So… the Angels live… peacefully with you?"

"They're in human bodies now." Asuka Ikari-Soryu replied. She nodded slightly as if still trying to convince herself of the truth of the statement. "They're about… 2, 3 years old now? I'd never thought I'd call an Angel cute, but here we are."

Shikinami stopped in her tracks, turning slowly to look at Ikari-Soryu, her jaw going slack in awe. "How?" she whispered.

"Because magic is… well, magic," Daniel said, sauntering up to Shikinami before pausing. "Like I said, they're sweet. Bardiel in particular is a consummate actor. He's going to make it big someday, I think."

Shikinami shook her head, turning back towards Village-3. "Look, the last thing I need in my head is an Angel singing one of Mari's show tunes. We've probably got a few more kilometers before we can establish a signal again. Let's get going."

Shikinami walked off down the road, the others following after with a mixture of bemusement for most and confusion for others.

As they walked, the kilometers melting away being paused only briefly by another lunch, the rain began to ebb, even as they took shelter underneath a massive ruined building that was part of a long thoroughfare, up against rather useless vending machines and under a canopy. They sat there for long moments, waiting on Shikinami as she fiddled with her device, nodding once as it began to beep quietly. "Our signal is broadcasting. Now, we just have to wait for someone to find us and pick us up from here."

She leaned against one of the vending machines, sliding down to seat herself next to young Shinji as the older Children moved across the street towards another piece of cover, a bus stop that was across from the long row of vending machines. The Ayanami unit followed Rei across the street, sparing a glance back at the three who remained under the overhang that protected the vending machines.

Daniel looked over at their passing for a moment, then took a seat by young Shinji across from Asuka Shikinami. There they sat in silence for a moment, taking in the melancholic, unearthly beauty of the landscape around them.

Finally, as the world began to grow dark, and the rain began to subside somewhat, Shikinami seemed resolved to break the silence, her face scrunching up slightly in thought for a few moments before she looked across at Daniel. "So, Bardiel," she began, the words drawing the attention of both her companions towards her, "the older me said that he's a toddler. A decent one."

Daniel recognized the question wrapped in the statement, nodding slightly. "You're wondering how they could change so dramatically. The Angels, I mean."

Asuka nodded, and Shinji had a wondering look in his eyes, one that Daniel knew intimately. "Does it have to do with that magic you have, Interfacing? Did you tool around with their souls to get them to be like that?"

Daniel nodded slightly. "Only enough to remove the shell around them that would fundamentally keep them from becoming like humanity. That kept many of them from any higher intelligence than that of a beast."

He looked out, towards Kaworu and Rei. There were cracks in Kaworu's shell back then. The one that Kadmonel had placed around it so many ages ago. It was what had made him able to burst the bands of his heritage and its terrible duty. "It doesn't really matter what vessel a soul is in, whether it's humanoid or monstrous or artificial. A person is a person. Capable of great and terrible things."

"So how does a monster bent on destroying the world, however ignorantly, become something like that?" Shinji asked quietly, the nearly whispered words almost lost in the rain shower. "How does a monster appreciate the world around it, care for it?"

Daniel recognized the depth of what Shinji asked. He still didn't fully have the answer to it. He still struggled with wondering how much of him was still that monster from so long ago. Even still, he smiled as he answered as best he could. "With time, and patience… and help, Shinji."

Shinji regarded Daniel silently for a moment, then looked away as he drew his knees to his chest. Daniel felt a pang of sorrow for the hopelessness that was in Shinji's expression, however hidden it might be.

"I understand, Shinji." How many times had he said those cursed words? "It's a lot. But there's always time if we make room for it."

With that, the street fell into near silence as they continued to wait, the world going deeper and deeper into darkness as night came on. The only sound that continued near them was the quiet beeping of the transponder in Shikinami's device, going on for a few more minutes until she muted the sound and began to simply stare at her device.

The world drew darker still, and it was around 8 or 9 o'clock before they all saw a pair of headlights in the distance, bright for their singularity in this now shadowed wasteland, turn onto the street. The other Children stood with Daniel and began to cross the street to them, Asuka Shikinami dragging young Shinji to his feet as the car, its red paint dimly visible behind the now nearly blinding headlights, came to a stop in front of them.

Daniel glanced over at Shikinami, seeing her grin slightly as the door of the car, a boxy Suzuki, opened, and someone in a bulky hazmat suit stepped out and around the door. The brightness of the light he stood behind left his face, nominally shown by a clear part of the suit in front of it, covered in shadow.

"Well," Shikinami said, "took your sweet time didn't you, Ken Ken?"

"Ken Ken?" young Shinji murmured as the man chuckled.

"Well, there was a lot going on at the village today, Asuka," Ken Ken replied. "And everyone knows if you send this sort of signal, I'm your preferred pickup."

"Though…" he trailed off as he bodily turned to take in the near dozen people that were before him. "I don't usually see you with this many people. You've got quite the entourage."

Daniel glanced back over at young Shinji as the boy continued to connect the dots, his brow furrowed in slight confusion as Daniel raised his hand, an utterly thin sheet of quartz forming across his palm and slowly beginning to glow, becoming a warm beam of light shining into the face of the man before them.

It revealed the face of a young man, not even into his thirtieth year, with brown hair, a face with some stubble, and brown eyes that squinted for a moment behind circular glasses.

Finally, Shinji's eyes went wide. "Kensuke?" he said incredulously.

Kensuke Aida smiled slightly. "It's good to see you're doing alright, Shinji," he said warmly.

Asuka Ikari-Soryu nodded as she smiled. "It's about time you two got back in touch anyway, nerd. I've almost started missing those round frames of yours."

Kensuke regarded the older Asuka for a moment, then looked intently at the other pilots, finally landing on Daniel. "Wait a minute. What's going on here?"

Daniel stepped forward as the light blinked out of his hand. "That's a question for when we're not standing in the rain, Kensuke. We'll even give you the quick and dirty version while we're on our way into the village."

"And… you are?"

"I'm Daniel Theisman." he reached out a hand, grinning slightly. "I'm from another universe. Not the same universe as the other, older versions of your friends in front of you, but still."

Kensuke looked down at the hand, utterly mystified as he took it and shook it once. "Man, even my weirdest sci-fi never even got close to this…"

"More importantly," Daniel interjected as his grin became a warm smile, "I'm a part of WILLE, as are my older kids. We've been keeping an eye on Shinji and Asuka. It's been a pleasure being a friend to them."

"I'm sure." Kensuke seemed to be regaining his composure, his bafflement fading into mere confusion. "I hate to burst your bubble, though, but…"

He looked over towards his car, the suit he wore blocking his vision but showing his intent regardless. "I don't think you all are going to be fitting in my old Jimny."

Daniel's smile began to take back that grin he'd had as he stepped past Kensuke, opening the door and peering into the car for a moment before touching the doorframe. As he did so, Asuka Shikinami began to speak again. "So, what's with the hazmat suit? This stuff is supposed to be safe now, isn't it?"

"It was, for a pretty long time," Kensuke replied, not seeing the magic at work within his four-seater car. "Then something happened yesterday that set the core material around us off. Doctor Akagi issued a general warning, and now we get these suits."

Kensuke turned to look at what Daniel was doing to his car, and his eyes went wide as he saw the two seats in the back double, then double again, an entire row seemingly added to his car's interior without doing a thing to the outer shell.

"Whoa…" Kensuke shook his head slightly. "And I thought the glowing palm was a neat magic trick. This…"

He paused for a moment, and Daniel looked over at him to see his eyes gleaming. "It's bigger on the inside now!" he said with a chuckle.

Daniel's eyes began to gleam in turn as he stood, motioning the Children over as he put the driver's seat down, two more seats behind it lowering seemingly of their own volition. "I don't hear that too often. It's been…"

The smile faded as the Children began to file in, the Ikari-Soryus and the Nagisas getting into the furthest back seats as he shook his head slightly. "Too long." he finally settled on as the rear seats came up, and the younger kids began to get in, the Ayanami unit and Shinji getting in before Daniel climbed in himself.

Asuka Shikinami pushed the seat up, walked around, and opened the passenger side door, Kensuke getting back in as they began to turn around.

"So," Asuka Shikinami said as they began their drive towards Village-3, "what exactly made the core material so dangerous, then?"

"Well," Kensuke replied after a moment, "it started turning people into LCL, for one."

He paused for a moment. "I wonder why you all didn't turn into the stuff, too. Maybe it has something to do with piloting the Evangelion?"

"Sounds about right." Asuka shrugged, leaning back in the passenger's seat and settling in, as they all did, for the ride home.

"So, Asuka," Kensuke finally said as the ruined city began to fall behind them, "what's the deal with your magic friends?"

. . .

Eleanor looked up at Unit-08 in the temporary gantry that it occupied while repairs were being done on its usual space, then sighed quietly as she shook her head.

Whatever Mari had done to crisp the arms had done so thoroughly. That was before she had used the completely cooked arms to shield her fall into the ruined high-rise that they'd extracted the Evangelion from. Thus, its torso and arms were now bound in LCL-soaked bandages, the sight almost that of an incomplete mummy.

"Well," Ymris, who stood next to her, said with a shrug, "at least it isn't as bad as Unit-02 is."

"At the very least I tried to preserve Unit-02 as best I could. It's hard to do when trying to still channel the blast into the Mark.09."

"That does sound like a tricky AT Field to whip up on the spot, doesn't it?" Mari said, hands on her hips as she stood across from Eleanor beside Ymris. "That you managed something even close to it is pretty damn impressive."

Mari was silent for a moment before pouting slightly. "Still leaves the poor princess's Eva a proper mess."

Eleanor nodded, looking back at Unit-08 for a moment, swarming with technicians and mechanics to fix those portions of the Eva that could be done so reasonably, then looked back at Mari, pausing for a moment to regard the distantly sad look in her eyes. "Miss them?" she asked quietly.

Mari nodded. "Yeah." her voice was equally quiet. "I mean, going from three roommates down to one is bad enough as is, but when they're your copilots, or at least an image of them… it's hard not to miss them."

Mari looked up at Eleanor. "Do you think they'll be okay? I mean, I'm sure Danny boy and the others can take care of themselves, but… Shinji and Asuka…"

Eleanor smiled slightly. "Once they get to Village-3, they'll be fine. I know it."

Mari nodded as she looked back at the gantry, a far less open one, that hosted Unit-02. "So, how bad is Unit-02 here compared to the last time you saw this in the loop?"

"Well, we're from outside the loop. And the version we saw is quite different from this world as well. So…" Eleanor shrugged. "It's really kind of a washout."

"Won't make it any less important to get to Paris and get those parts from the Jet Alone stored there," Ymris interjected. "Even with Eleanor's other pilots, not having Asuka Shikinami here is going to make things that much harder."

Eleanor glanced over at Ymris, and saw in her eyes a distant concern that caused her eyes to point at Unit-08, but not entirely see it. "Something on your mind?" she asked quietly.

Ymris blinked, her focus returning to the present as she looked over at Eleanor for a moment, then back at Unit-08. "Something's coming," she said rather ominously. "Or rather, something's here."

Eleanor and Mari both arched a brow, and Ymris looked around herself almost conspiratorially before she looked back at them, a deadly seriousness to her expression. "In one of my last regular correspondences with Tavis, he mentioned that he'd gotten in contact with a splinter group of other like-minded Scions. One that had at least some sort of Seabreaker presence. More likely than not, they're here by now."

While Mari simply tilted her head in confusion, Eleanor's blood ran chill for the briefest of moments. 'A sizeable number of experienced Interfacers and those familiar with the Worldsea… who knows what tricks they might have up their sleeves?'

"I'm assuming this is supposed to be a bad thing, correct?" Mari asked.

"Unfortunately so," Eleanor replied as she pulled out her clear-pad. "I'm going to need to get in touch with our eyes in the sky. If you'll give me a moment?"

She dialed up to the Val, waiting patiently as the pulsing, hollow ring of the tone continued for a moment.

Finally, a warm hum presaged the line connecting. "Hey, miss Eleanor. What's up?"

Eleanor smiled. "Hey, Kensuke. I've got something I need you to look for with the ship's sensors."

"Alright. What's the target?"

"It's a fleet of Seabreakers. If they're anywhere near here, they'll be able to be picked up. Some of them might be stealth ships, but the Val's got good enough sensors to differentiate between an asteroid and a ship."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Kensuke muttered at the end of the line as she assumed the scan began.

It was silent for a moment, then Kensuke chuckled somewhat awkwardly. "So, I saw the Errant jump in recently," he said, seeming to try and pass the time as the sensors worked their sometimes literal magic.

Eleanor raised a brow. "Oh? So the others made it here. Did they at least say hello?"

Kensuke chuckled on the other end of the line. "They said that much before they asked for Daniel and the others' location and went off after them. Did they get in touch with you?"

"Not yet. They might be betting on being the trump card Daniel needs in a desperate situation."

"With Mr. Kaji being who he is, it figures. And that's not even mentioning-"

The sensor's steady beeping interrupted Kensuke, and he paused for a moment as he took in the results of the scan.

It was silent for a moment, then another as Eleanor's heart began to beat a little faster against her will. "Ken? What're the results?"

"The ship is reading about 35 vessels within the Solar System alone." Kensuke's voice was almost haunted. "It's also reading several dozen more potential positives on an inbound course from within the Echo and from beyond."

Eleanor's blood seemed to freeze over fully now. A fleet that large… not even a dedicated warship like the Val could stand up to that forever.

"I'm assuming that's… bad, based on your expression," Mari said, an uneasy look on her own face.

Eleanor nodded. "There's a lot of ships out there. Which inevitably means a lot of people that are trying to support Tavis' try at remaking the world."

"How big?" Ymris asked.

"Dozens of Seabreakers. Could be converted civilian haulers and bulk craft, could be scavenged military vessels and q-ships. Either way, who knows how many hundreds, thousands of former soldiers and zealots could be on their way."

"Tavis…" Mari said, cupping her chin. "He was the guy in the weird white Evangelion that wouldn't stop yapping at Daniel, right?"

Eleanor and Ymris both nodded. "Indeed," Ymris said quietly. "He's utterly dedicated to trying to make things the way they were, for the Scions at least. Making things the way they wanted it to be."

The words hung heavy for a moment before Eleanor remembered she was still nominally talking to Kensuke. "Keep an eye on things for now. We might need you down here to help, but let us know if anyone makes any sudden moves."

"Most of the ones that are in-system are mostly hanging out in the far Jovian parts of the system, or in the Oort cloud," Kensuke said, trying to sound upbeat. "I think we'll be able to handle things here."

He paused for a moment. "I'm not entirely sure about the Errant, though…"

Eleanor smiled slightly. "She's a tough ship. She made it through the Unity War pretty decently, and she's seen her share of scrapes since. Her minder will help give the Scions trouble at least."

"Alright. We'll be in touch," Kensuke said. "I'll try and get in touch with Daniel, but there's some sort of Pneumaic interference. Probably background emissions from Fourth Impact. Maybe you could touch base with the Akagis and try and figure it out?"

Eleanor's brow furrowed slightly before she nodded. "I'm a bit busy at the moment, but I'll see what I can do. Talk to you later."

With that, she ended the call, then sighed as she slipped the clear-pad back into one of her pockets. She glanced between Mari and Ymris after a moment of contemplative silence. "Well, with all that said, let's get to the more immediately fixable problem, and find out how to get Unit-08 combat capable again."

. . .

A red Suzuki rumbled across the desolate wasteland toward the towering wall of ACC Pillars, relied upon so desperately despite their eerie, almost seemingly evil construction. Beyond the invisible wall that stretched from Pillars, a field of grass stretched, a swatch of illumination from the headlight showing the green, shimmering blanket that stood defiant against the encroachment of the core material.

The car paused in front of the field, and Kensuke looked in the rearview mirror for a moment. Whatever Mr. Daniel had done to the seats in the back, it hadn't compromised his rearview mirror, which showed the back window just as it always had. However, if he tried to look at the back, all his passengers (what a strange way to think about that) seemed like images sloppily layered onto each other on the mirror.

"Are we waiting for someone?" Asuka Shikinami asked somewhat archly. "Last thing I knew, the ACC Pillars were just for keeping the core material out."

"That's still true, of course," Kensuke replied. "It's more about making sure that no one just wanders out here without protection. We should see a patrol come along soon enough."

As Kensuke said, three narrow beams of light began to approach at an ambling pace from the right of the car, pausing for a moment before they picked up speed. The lights resolved into three people, two men and a woman, who waved the car through after confirming that there was indeed someone to drive it.

As they passed from the crunching, shifting sound of the core material to the near-silence of the grass, one of the men, a rifle slung over a shoulder hanging to his side mirroring the other man, leaned on the car. "Mr. Aida," the man said, his tone tired and more than a little gruff. "What has you out here this late at night?"

Kensuke smiled slightly. "A pick up for some lost pilots, Mr. Komuko. How's the wife?"

"Chihiro's actually getting some sleep." Mr. Komuko replied. "You went out for…" he paused for a moment, tired eyes narrowing under a frown. "Three, right?"

Kensuke chuckled somewhat uneasily. "Yeah. But I came back with…" he glanced back, doing a quick head count. "Eight?"

Mr. Komuko looked thoroughly unamused as he glanced at the back for a moment. "That many? Whatever kind of joke this is, it's not funny."

Kensuke began to reply before the buzz of the back right window drew everyone's attention to Daniel, a smile on the man's face as he waved at Mr. Komuko. "Come and take a look, sir," he said affably.

Mr. Komuko's hand still drifted to his gun at the sight of the unexpected man as he slowly approached, looking through the window. His eyes went wide as he saw the impossible sight. "What the…"

"You'll get used to the impossible the longer we're here." Asuka Ikari-Soryu said with a smug grin from the back as the other man and the woman all crowded behind Mr. Komuko, sharing his disbelief at the sight. "Besides, you've lived through the end of the world. A little magic shouldn't be too much of a shock now."

"Jünger," Daniel said with a chuckle as he looked back at her, "there's no need to needle at the poor guards. Their brains are already fried as is."

"So," Kensuke said meaningfully from the front, drawing the attention of the patrol back to him, "is there anything special that I'm going to need to do with these guys, seeing as they're coming in from the hostile, liquid-making wilderness that this world has become?"

One by one, the patrol leaned out of the car, Mr. Komuko turning back to Kensuke. "This late at night… I'd have the doctor check on them. Get them to the hospital, and I'm sure he'll be crawling all over them, even as late as it is."

Kensuke smiled as he nodded. "Yes sir. I think I can do that."

He waved before beginning to roll up his window. "Good night! Stay safe."

With that, the Suzuki rolled into the night again, the patrol passing on its way along the perimeter now quite awake, and quite chatty about the nigh-on miracle that they had just seen. A little ways away, the car came to a stop again, Kensuke stepping out to take off the bulky hazmat suit and take a deep breath of the fresh night air before stuffing it in the trunk and getting back into the driver's seat to bring them home.

As the car trundled through the wilderness, onto what sounded like a dirt road, Kensuke once again spared a thought for the younger Shinji (that was going to take some getting used to) and glanced back to see the boy beginning to drift off, his eyes fluttering tiredly. It was so strange, he pondered as he glanced over at the clone of Ayanami, then over at Asuka. It was like a snapshot of younger days, better days, had drifted out of memory and into being. The younger Shinji especially made it feel so.

But, for now, he had to get to the clinic. Even if Shinji slipped into sleep, the good doctor would still be more than a little happy to see Shinji in the flesh again.

. . .

Ymris Joranna, now former Scion of Unity and somehow still head of Evangelion maintenance, walked into the clinic that had been set aside for those people that were wounded in the battle to stop Fourth Impact from ending the world. Almost all of the people here had been in the arm of the ship that had gotten badly damaged, burns and broken bones being ministered to Doctor Aanderson.

Now that she'd revealed her waterbending, Katara's healing was coming along much more quickly, with several men being checked out by Sakura Suzuhara before being released from their care.

As she walked past the tears of wonder and joy, however, going further into the clinic, she came face to face with security team members, two guards standing watch at the end of each hallway. Standing at the other end, Toph was speaking with one of the guards, her words not able to be made out before she paused, looking over at Ymris and walking towards her.

"So," Toph said, her expression guarded, "what are you doing over here?"

"I'm told this is where the people who walked away from Tavis' movement were," Ymris replied. "Why is that?"

Toph sighed. "Commander's orders, Emmie. If what I'm hearing, if what they heard, is right, then there's a chance that your old buddy might have done something to their minds. Even maybe something to their souls. Something Katara's healing water can't fix." she paused for a moment. "Until Eleanor with her Mending Interfacing… bending… thing, comes in and gives them a clean bill of health, the risk of one of them being a sleeper agent is too high."

Ymris' jaw clenched. It was terrible, treating them like this… but it made too much sense. Tavis was sure the ends justified the means, however dark they were. She wouldn't have put it past him now to make one of them able to turn on the others, or try and find a way to sabotage the ship or an Evangelion.

Even still, they were people. People she'd worked with and cared for, and in some sense, ministered to when she still followed the path of the Scions. "Can I at least see them individually? They're still people after all," she asked quietly. "You can even come with me if you like."

Toph was silent for a moment, clearly skeptical. She had every right to be, after all. As much as both Daniel and she were trying to hide the truth of their origins, Daniel had at least done so to protect them. She and Takeshi, along with the other Scions, were simply trying to rip the world out from under them. That a nearly decades-long friendship was now in question was really the least egregious consequence of her duplicity.

Then, finally, she nodded slightly. "I've got my eye on both of you, just in case anything happens. Pick a room and we'll get started."

Ymris sighed quietly and nodded. "Thank you for giving me this much, Toph. I'm glad that I'm able to be trusted this far."

Toph smiled slightly. "Zuko was a lot like you, you know. In a bad place because it seemed like the only way things worked. He just needed some help, is all."

Ymris considered the words for a moment as she picked a door in the hallway. She was so young when everything she came from burned. How long had she been a part of the Scions, now?

It didn't matter anymore, as she opened the door to reveal Second Technician Juro Watanabe, the somewhat older man standing from the simple cot that had taken the place of the medical bed with a worried look in his eyes. "Ms. Tennison, it's…" he paused as he took in the rather inhuman ears that were among the subtle, but cumulative, changes that made her look just inhuman enough. "Well, what should I call you, miss?"

Ymris took a deep breath. "Call me Ymris. As complicated as that might be in Japanese."

Mr. Watanabe blinked, then nodded. "Alright then, Ms. Ymris. What's going on? We all got placed here under guard. Did we do something wrong?"

Ymris glanced back at Toph for a moment, who nodded silently. "Mr. Watanabe," she began as she looked back at the man, "Tavis and the other Scions might have done something to you and the others. Until we're sure that something isn't going to happen and that you're not going to hurt yourself, or anyone else, we're trying to keep you safe."

Mr. Watanabe nodded with a weary sigh after a moment, settling back down on the bed. "It figures that a man willing to end the world is capable of doing something like that," he said forlornly. "You're not wrong to worry. I spent my fair share of time in Military Intelligence during the Impact Wars. I understand. But…"

He shook his head slightly. "All this Interfacing throws so much of my training out the window. I'll just…"

His face twisted in sorrow. "I'm not even sure if I should be talking to you."

Ymris' Sight flashed on, and he took in the soul of Juro Watanabe. From what she saw, there wasn't anything that was obviously wrong with either the core or any of the Frames immediately surrounding it, so she relaxed a little. "I think you'll be alright," she said, putting as much of a smile on her face as she could. "What do you want to know?"

Juro still seemed unsure. "Well, how are repairs going on the ship?"

"Best estimates say that once we have the new turrets fully installed, we'll only need about two or three days more in port before we head out."

Juro chuckled, running a hand through dark hair that was starting to see flecks of salt and pepper at the sideburns as he shook his head in apparent disbelief. "That little time for a ship that large…"

"There's something about it." Ymris agreed. "Beyond the ghosts and the White Cells. It's like it tries to speak to us sometimes. Like-"

"It's actually alive," Toph interjected, her voice quiet. That she, renowned among the crew for either being the least superstitious or the most ignorant of the specter problem aboard the ship, could say that much was telling.

There were times for all of them when the Wunder hummed a certain way, almost leading them all on to one place or another. Rei, most of all, seemed attuned to the vessel, sometimes leading repair crews or those people that still got lost on the ship where they needed to go. Even now, she was probably helping Mr. Takao or Mr. Tama by showing them something regular eyes might have missed.

"Yes. Whatever it's made of, it seems to be used to us now." Juro said quietly as they pondered on the facts for a moment. "What about the Evangelions?"

"Well, we're going to Paris for a reason," Ymris said with a grimace. "Unit-02 needs more cybernetic augmentation in order to even stand a chance in a fight, and Unit-08 might be in need of some new arms. Mrs. Theisman has an idea that might have the arms we're sketching up become braces instead, but Mari seems excited about it regardless."

Juro nodded. "I see." he paused for a moment. "I… I wish I could talk about this with Miyomi."

Ymris blinked. "Miyomi? Who is that?"

Juro blinked, then chuckled softly. "My… well, my ladyfriend, as it were. All this talk of growing, of perfecting ourselves, finally got me out of the funk that losing my first family got me into. I started seeing somebody."

His slight smile became a grimace. "She's still in Matsushiro with her mother and brothers. I… I hope we can get her out. Get all of them out. They need to know what could happen if they help Tavis any further."

"And we will, in time," Ymris said. "In fact, I'll try and ask Daniel to look into it. I'm sure he'll try his best to help."

Juro smiled again warmly. "Thank you, Ymris."

Ymris returned the smile, genuinely now. "Of course. Whatever I can do for you, for all of you, I'll make it happen."

She turned and started to make her way to the door. "For the… well, for…" she heard Juro from behind her, trailing off as the injunction had become… cold. An almost evil thing.

She paused at the door looking back at the now rather forlorn man. "For us, Juro. For Miyomi."

. . .

Daniel looked around with enhanced eyes as they rolled through the dark, still town. Besides another patrol that had stopped them briefly, all within the town were asleep. He was unsure if they'd be seeing the good doctor himself this late.

'Perhaps so, though.' he mused as he looked over at young Shinji, now fast asleep and leaning against him. 'Toji might just jump up and attend to us, no matter how late it is.'

As they pulled up to what he assumed was the hospital, looking like it was part of a makeshift railway junction, he saw a singular light standing against the darkness over its entrance revealing part of the word 'clinic' in bold kanji. The car turned off, and Daniel scooped up young Shinji into his arms as they all exited the car. As Kaworu exited last, he glanced back at the open back seats, the Expression he'd woven, the lines of Frames flashing an off-white light for a moment, unraveling as eight seats once again became two.

"Aw," Kensuke said as he watched the sight, "I was looking forward to having a ten-seat car."

Daniel chuckled as they walked over toward the clinic door. "Give me some time and a moment to get access to my tools, and I might be able to whip something up for you."

They paused before the door as Kensuke almost hesitantly tried to push the door open and found it, somewhat surprisingly, open. Inside, a single light in the front waiting room was on, the room or rooms beyond cloaked in darkness. Standing in that waiting room, a young woman, dressed in somewhat ill-fitting gray scrubs, stood from a chair, fidgeting slightly as she rubbed her eyes and ran a hand through her somewhat frazzled hair. "Oh. Hello. You're here."

Kensuke nodded as he led the group in, filling the room in short order. "Hello, little miss Komuko. Is Toji around?"

"Not yet." little miss Komuko rolled her eyes. "You should know how long it takes to wake him up."

Kensuke chuckled, then turned as they heard someone running toward the door, pausing at the entrance.

It was clear that the man, taller than most of them, had dressed quickly, his white coat rumpled and the white shirt underneath only buttoned up to the top two. It did much to convey both his haste and his surprise, the look on a face fairly tanned and strong, sitting underneath a close-cut head of black hair, one of slack-jawed amazement. His brown eyes scanned the gathered group, who began to step aside until a path was cleared to Daniel and young Shinji.

"How did you get all these people here, Kensuke?" the man said, taking a stethoscope that had been hanging around his neck and approaching young Shinji.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you," Kensuke replied with a chuckle.

Daniel regarded the man calmly as he looked up at him for a moment, then took him in fully. "Wait a minute. Who are you?"

Daniel took a deep breath before smiling. "An Evangelion pilot, Dr. Suzuhara," he said with a smile. "Me and my impossible band."

Dr. Suzuhara's, Toji's, eyes went wide as he looked back from the brief examination that he was giving young Shinji, and saw the other pilots fully now. "No way…"

"Believe it, jock." Asuka Ikari-Soryu said, a warm smile on her face. "Of all the things I expected you to do growing up, going into medicine was not one of them."

"You're… Asuka?" Toji looked around. "And Shinji, and Ayanami, and…" his eyes narrowed as he regarded Kaworu for a moment. "Who are you?"

"I am Kaworu Nagisa." Kaworu said with a slight smile and an equally slight, perfunctory bow. "A pleasure to meet you again. Or at the very least, this version of you."

Toji shook his head as he returned his focus back to young Shinji. "Too tired to think about this right now. How long has he been out like this?"

"He nodded off on the car ride here," Daniel replied. "We all just came in from the Corite." he nodded slightly as Toji looked up for a moment, a confused look joining the tiredness lingering in his eyes. "The core material. I believe the patrol we ran into wanted you to give us a checkup."

"Then it'll have to wait until morning. I don't have the time or energy to do it right now, seeing as I just put the baby down to sleep." Toji sighed heavily. "For now, I'll confine you all here, and you guys can sleep on the cots. I'll get to you all first thing."

He took off his stethoscope and hung it around his neck again, looking at all of them. "It was good to meet you all. But it'll be better to meet you guys after I've had some sleep. Good night."

With that, Toji looked up at a clock that read nearly 1 am. "Come on, Koharu. We both need the sleep, and I'm sure Chihiro is still waiting up for you."

Koharu nodded as she followed after Toji. "Do we need to lock the door?"

"Here? I don't think that they'll get up to anything too crazy." Toji paused in the doorway and looked back at Kensuke. "They won't, will they?"

Kensuke smiled as he shook his head. "I'm sure they won't."

Toji nodded. "Cots are in the doorway just ahead of you guys."

Thus, Toji and Koharu exited into the night, Koharu closing the door behind her. Kensuke sighed, then nodded. "Alright. I'll be going home as well. See you guys later."

Kensuke followed after Toji and Koharu, leaving the pilots alone again.

"Well," Daniel said, "let's get some sleep. I'm sure we'll all need it for whatever comes tomorrow."

"What could we possibly need to prepare for?" Asuka Shikinami said incredulously as they made their way into the main room of the clinic, rows of cots sectioned off by curtains revealed as Shinji made an array of candle-flame lights appear above them. "We're in the middle of the safest place in Japan."

"When you're in our line of business, Shikinami," the older Shinji said as he picked out a cot that looked relatively comfortable, "it's not unreasonable to be ready."

The words left Shikinami the closest Daniel had seen to shaken in the last couple of days. That she picked the cot that was right next door to young Shinji's was also noted.

Daniel settled into a cot after drawing the curtain, sighing quietly. They'd made it this far now. But this was hardly the end of the journey. If anything, the road grew more obscure from here on out. Now, he and his would need to trawl the shadowed, twisting paths of human emotion and trauma that were the minds of the Children of this world.

'Easy to think that.' he said with a slight scoff as he closed his eyes. 'Easy to think that my trauma will somehow make me an expert on theirs. But at the very least, we're here to help. That's something.'

He had to remind himself of that, sometimes. That of all the death and loss and sorrow that would be coming tonight and every night, that he could lift another even a little was worth the cost. At least, it felt like it most of the time.

. . .

Mari Makinami, as she was wont to do in the few days that they'd been there, decided to take a walk through the ship. It felt… odd, to almost be dressed up like a regular girl again. As she slipped on a jacket over a t-shirt, along with some jeans to guard against the early spring chill, her hand brushed over her neck, bare now of the DSS Choker. Dr. Akagi herself had removed it, with good old Ryoji watching the whole thing himself.

She didn't seem coerced into it either. She seemed genuinely sorry that the things had gone on them in the first place. And, she thought as she glanced over at Rei, she'd gotten as many people as she could free of those Chokers.

'I just hope that Danny Boy will be able to get them off of Shinji and Asuka.' she mused. Then, she blinked as she took in the rather humble state of affairs that Rei wore, a simple gray jumpsuit that didn't seem to fit her too terribly well.

"Hey bluebird," she said, drawing Rei's attention to her, "how likely is it that you have anything else? I don't think I've seen you wearing anything except those and that hospital gown you were in… ever."

Rei shook her head. "I do not have anything here. All my possessions were in Tokyo-3. They are most likely gone now."

Mari nodded assuredly, knowing exactly what she needed to do now. "Alright then. It's time for a shopping trip."

"I am unsure of our ability to go on a shopping trip," Rei said, and Mari was grateful that expression was coming more and more easily to her, even if it was concern. "Our last shopping trip with Daniel and the others was mostly at his, Eleanor's, and the adult versions of ours' expense."

"I think I have a way around our current poverty, Rei." Mari grinned. "Let me see what I can do. But come along with me. It's good to have someone as great at listening and being insightful as you are around."

Rei smiled slightly as they exited, walking side by side through the long, sometimes winding corridors of the Wunder. "So," Mari said after a moment, "have any good conversations with the ship recently?"

Rei sighed quietly. "As I have said, it does not work like that. It is more… intuiting emotions, a game of, how did you put it again? Warm and cold."

"Oh, come on." Mari rolled her eyes. "The ship's as good at listening as you are. Surely, the thought's at least crossed your mind."

Rei sighed quietly. "What would the purpose be? It is a largely inanimate object with no means to respond to me vocally. How does one carry a conversation on with something like that?"

"Simple, really." Mari had an almost smug grin on her face again. "You just say what you need to say to the ship, and trust that she's listened."

Rei's eyes narrowed slightly. "I don't believe that constitutes a conversation, Mari."

Mari shrugged. "Maybe not, but sometimes you just have to get the words out of you, don't you?"

Rei shrugged slightly. "I suppose so," she said after a moment.

Mari nodded as they came to a stop in front of the door leading to the bridge. Rei looked over at Mari and tilted her head slightly. "As I did not ask when you brought it up, what is your solution, if I may ask?"

"Easy. We convince Ryoji to take us into the city. We're old pals, and besides, you need clothes. It's not like we're trying to blow his cash on luxuries."

Mari nodded, assured of the ironclad nature of her plan as she opened the door to the bridge, and stepped through, Rei following behind her a little more slowly as she looked up at the command station, satisfied with her intuition as she did indeed find Ryoji at the top, supervising things from the bridge alongside the good doctor and his wife. "Hey, Ryoji!"

All three of the people on the command station looked down at her as she waved, Ryoji smiling slightly as he waved back. "Been a while, Mari. How are you?"

"Been doing as best I can since Bethany Base." Mari shrugged. "It's a wonder I didn't catch you before you went off and saved the world."

Ryoji nodded. "Well, the IPEA liked its cell work." he paused for a moment. "What's got you up here?"

"Rei needs actual clothes, I need some fresh air, and we figured you're just the man to help us combine the two."

Ryoji nodded, looking at Ritsuko and Misato. "I'm sure you guys can handle this while I'm away?"

Ritsuko nodded. "Of course, Commander. The Wunder should be up and ready to depart within the next 3 days, along with the fleet." Mari swore she saw the woman glance over at Misato. "Once we get the Enchanted Shields strapped onto the bottoms of several of the ships."

Misato put her hands up. "Hey, you never know what kind of things we'll need to shield against. They'll make an effective layer of defense to supplement the ship's AT Field."

It was silent up there for a moment, then the three of them chuckled softly, almost too softly for Mari to hear. "It's been too long since I've seen this side of you, Misato," Ritsuko said, equally quietly.

Ryoji nodded. "Alright. I'll be back with the kids as soon as I can. With how soon we'll be up in the air, we'll try to keep it to a single day."

With that, he climbed down from the command center, coming to a stop before the two girls and studying Rei for a moment. "How long have you been wearing those?"

"Since my release from Dr. Akagi's care. They are comfortable now. I do not require much from my clothing."

Ryoji arched a brow. "And what exactly does that mean?"

"In the time before Near-Third Impact, my clothing accommodations from Commander Ikari were school uniforms and whatever auxiliary clothing was needed to continue my education."

Ryoji and Mari's eyes went wide. "Jeez, bluebird. I dropped out of the sky, and I still had a couple of different changes of clothes. This is worse than I thought."

Mari nodded assuredly. "That seals it. We, and by we I mean I, are going to give you a crash course on what everyone else wears. We'll make you even more of a normal girl yet."

With that, the trio made their way out of the ship in short order, the two girls leading the way down the thoroughfare of shops with Ryoji in tow as they took in the crisp air of the city.

Now, they wandered from clothing shop to clothing shop, jewelry store to jewelry store, trying different styles and kinds of clothes. Mari appreciated, almost savored the challenge of it. There weren't exactly many albino people with blue hair and red eyes that she knew, so matching anything to her was a tricky balancing act. That Rei was open to learning made things if not easier, then at least less constraining.

And, at the end of the day… it made her feel like a regular girl again. Just shopping for clothes with a friend. Never mind that she was doing it after the end of the world and as the pilot of a giant biomechanical robot. It had been so long since she'd felt like that…

"Ms. Mari?" Rei said, pulling her mind back into the present, which was a dressing room that was stacked with several pairs of pants and a few shirts.

"Yeah, bluebird?"

"You seem preoccupied with something. What is it?"

Mari opened her mouth to reply almost on instinct with something glib, then paused as other memories returned to her. "Well… what do you know about the person that you come from?"

"Yui Ayanami?" Rei was quiet for a moment. "I do not know much. Only that she is Commander Ikari's wife, and that he wishes to use Instrumentality to be reunited with her."

Mari nodded. "I knew her, and Gendo. We went to college together. She was… a lot like you. Quiet, a little reserved, but nice once you got to know her. You share a lot with her like that."

She said nothing about how many times she'd gotten to know Yui. Over and over again as time looped. Sometimes they'd just been classmates. Many times they'd been friends. A few times, they'd been more than that before, inevitably, Gendo came into her life. She said nothing about the cold, calculating streak that sometimes was intensified depending on the loop. She knew so much about Yui. She loved her. And a part of her, not insignificant, feared her.

Rei nodded as she pulled on another shirt, then frowned slightly. "If you knew the Commander and Yui Ayanami in college, then how are you able to pilot an Evangelion? You would be too large to comfortably fit into an Entry Plug in any regular circumstances."

Mari was silent for a moment. This loop, that would be the case. But with what had happened, so soon after Yui's Contact… with who waited in Unit-08's core…

"I'm not quite ready to talk about that right now, Rei," she said quietly, grateful to see Rei nodding slightly.

"However," she continued as she smiled, "I am excited about Unit-08. Eleanor's done her Mending magic and gotten my Eva's arms out of being wrapped together. Granted, I'm still gonna need what equates to braces, but they're going to be awesome. Let me tell you…"

. . .

The first thing that young Shinji felt was a weight on one side of his chest as he slowly began to wake up. Raising his arm almost on instinct, he felt it brush against something… furry? Where was he?

'Last I remember, I was… in the car with Kensuke. Did we arrive?"

He cracked open his eyes, finding himself on a bed staring up at a wooden ceiling. At least, he would have been, if a dog in a cone, a puppy really, and a toddler weren't staring down at him. The dog barked, and he heard the rustling of a coat along with several sheets. "What's the dog doing in here?" said a voice that was vaguely familiar.

He began to push himself up to a sitting position, the dog getting off his chest as he began to look around. He was in a rather spare place, sitting on a cot across from a similar one, both partitioned by mostly clean white curtains. 'A hospital. Why am I not surprised?'

The man who owned the voice turned into the curtained-off room, shooing the dog away and gently picking up the toddler. He looked familiar as well. He just couldn't quite put together the pieces with a sleep-addled mind. "Alright, Mizuki, let me do my work. Your mama's waiting for you." the man said, handing over the child to who Shinji presumed was her mother.

He looked back at Shinji and stood there for a moment before smiling. "It is you. I'm not dreaming. It's good to see you again, Shinji."

"Who… are you?"

The man chuckled. "It's been a while, hasn't it? It's me. Toji Suzuhara."

Shinji was fully awake now, his eyes going wide for a moment as Toji approached. "I didn't expect you to be a… doctor."

"It's just where life took me, is all." Toji got out a penlight and clicked it on, flashing it in front of his eyes. "Granted, I'm not exactly sure what happened to you guys to make it so you walked all the way here, with a whole bunch of other people no less, but… it looks like you're fine, physically at least."

Toji clicked off the penlight, pocketing it as he offered a hand that Shinji took, standing after a moment and rubbing his eyes. "Where are the others?" he asked Toji.

"We're still waiting for you. Most of us, anyways."

Shinji glanced back to see Daniel, dressed in the jeans, shirt, and jacket that had been his regular attire aboard the Wunder. "Asuka Shikinami went off with Kensuke back to where they're staying. I imagine she's in the middle of introducing Bradley to him now. Shinji Ikari-Soryu went off with his wife and the Nagisas to the Suzuhara household. And I'm here to stick with you and Ayanami."

"Okay." Shinji nodded, then looked up as Toji began to chuckle. "What is it?"

"We've got a big enough house I would think, sir," Toji said to Daniel. "I think we can put you all up in enough rooms if you don't mind sharing."

Daniel chuckled in turn. "We've been doing that since we boarded the Wunder. We'll be fine."

Toji nodded, then looked back at Shinji. "Come on. I've got some clothes for you once you get that Pluguit thing off. We're a little higher in elevation than Tokyo-3, so it gets chilly up here."

Shinji nodded, looking back at Daniel as Toji went off to get said clothes. "Where did you get those? Did you stow them in your survival pack thing?"

Daniel's smile grew slightly as he raised his right arm, pulling the sleeve of his jacket back to reveal a bracelet of gleaming silver. "It's in here. If I tap this…"

He tapped on the dark gem set into the bracelet above the top of his wrist, causing two sets of glowing rings to appear over the back of his hand. As he pressed down on them, the familiar clunk-hiss of a Plugsuit sealing filled the air for a moment as a diaphanous, fabric-like substance billowed from it, then composed itself into the Plugsuit he'd gotten used to seeing over the past two days. Another click of the glowing disks made the Plugsuit seemingly explode into that fabric again before being sucked into the bracelet. "That happens."

Shinji nodded slowly. "Okay then."

Daniel shook his head. "It doesn't matter right now. Right now, we just rest as best we can, and get everyone back on their feet, okay?"

Shinji wasn't sure he would be able to get back on his feet. He wasn't even sure what foundation there was to stand on. Who was he? He still wasn't entirely sure.

What he was sure of, as Toji came back with a familiar-looking bundle, was that the clothes he'd gotten would be a little big for him. As he finished putting them on, zipping that ever-familiar running suit jacket, he walked back out to see Daniel and Toji standing next to a young woman about his age, maybe a little younger.

"We're running out of Tamiflu, doctor," the young lady said, hands on her hips. "With late spring and early summer coming up, we're probably going to need things to treat minor burns on hand, too."

Toji nodded. "I'll talk to your mother about that, Koharu. Otherwise, I'm off for the day. If anything happens, talk to Goro, and if it really needs my attention, let me know."

Koharu nodded, then turned to look at Shinji. She was a fit, short-haired young woman, her black hair only touching her shoulders as she studied him with discerning black eyes. "Good to see you're awake," she said in a level tone.

"I'm not so sure about that," he said as he rubbed the back of his head, glancing over at Ayanami crouched down next to the dog.

Koharu smiled slightly. "Around here? It's not too bad to be awake. At least if you've gotten enough sleep. If you're experiencing any symptoms, let us know. We'll do our best to treat you."

Shinji nodded, and Toji walked over to him. "Let's get going to my place. I sent the others ahead, and my father-in-law should be talking with them now."

Shinji and Ayanami followed after Toji and Daniel, emerging into what looked like a rail hub, several tracks with cars on them stretching away from a rotating rail that looked almost like a landlocked bridge.

"This place is… strange," Ayanami said, drawing the attention of the others to her. "There are so many people here."

Toji nodded. "This is Village-3. It used to be called Hadano, back when it was an evacuation point for Tokyo-3. After Near-Third Impact, people decided to settle here. Now there are more than a thousand people who call this place home." he paused for a moment. "Have you never seen a crowd before?"

Ayanami simply shook her head as she looked around at the sight. Daniel answered for her. "She's a clone of Rei. She hasn't seen more than a dozen human beings in her entire life."

"Is she now?"

Daniel nodded, then looked back at the railworks. "I don't recall this part of Hadano being a railway yard."

Toji shook his head. "It wasn't before KREDIT came along. We made it up, carousel and all, when we needed to get supplies here from the dock down the way."

Before Toji could continue, a woman, in a white dress and green jacket obviously far along in pregnancy, walked over to them. "Hello, Doctor," she said, bowing slightly as she kept a hand on her bag.

"Hey, Mrs. Matsukata. It won't be long now. Make sure and get your rest." he said cheerily, his tone showing that these words were neither unfamiliar nor unexpected.

"I will, I promise. I just need to get my food consignment, and it's off to bed with me while Tatsuya waits on me."

The two shared a chuckle, then Mrs. Matsukata looked over at Shinji and Ayanami. "Are these the two kids that you're taking care of on behalf of WILLE?"

Toji nodded. "Something like that, yeah. Word gets around quickly, doesn't it? Treat them nicely if you see them again. They've been through a lot."

Mrs. Matsukata nodded with a chuckle, glancing over at Daniel. "And I don't believe we've had anyone from out of town here for a while. Who are you?"

"I'm Vice-Chief Daniel Thiesman of WILLE," he said with a nod. "Pleasure to meet you, ma'am. I was the original caretaker of these kids when we were on the Wunder."

"Wow…" Mrs. Matsukata was clearly at least somewhat awestruck. "What an experience that must be. I have a brother on there, working as a computer technician. Have you met…"

Toji chuckled. "Go, Momoka!" he said good-naturedly. "Neither of us wants you to miss your food consignment."

Momoka rolled her eyes. "Alright, Toji," she said in an overdramatic huff. "I'll get going. It was nice to meet you all!"

With that, she made her way past them, towards a building that had a line of people stretching out past its doorway for quite a ways. "She's on her way to the food distribution center, in case you're wondering," Toji said after a moment. "They hand out food shipped in from KREDIT three times a week."

"What is KREDIT?" Ayanami asked quietly.

"WILLE's civilian wing, one might say," Toji replied as they began to walk. "They facilitate trade between the Safe Zones, make sure life is decent, and get the ACC Pillars that make the Safe Zones a thing in the first place where they need to be."

Ayanami nodded, then they were silent for a moment. Then, Toji looked over at Shinji. "I don't suppose you'd have recognized her, Shinji," he said, quiet contemplation in his voice.

"Why's that?" Shinji asked, now somewhat concerned as he wracked his brain.

"Momoka was one of our classmates, way back when," Toji said, looking back up into the distance. "Our entire class evacuated here when it was clear the city wasn't going to be safe. My assistant that you talked with is Chihiro Tanaka's oldest kid."

He paused, then sighed quietly. "The world might have moved on, Shinji… but it's good to have you back, Shinji. Ken and I missed your common sense."

Shinji looked away, embarrassed. Was he really that well-liked by… anyone? Especially after what he'd done at Near-Third Impact?

He glanced over at Ayanami, and found her down on her hands and knees, peering under a railway car. "What is that? It's not like the dog in the clinic."

As the others walked over and crouched to look with Ayanami, Toji chuckled. "That's a cat, Ayanami. There's plenty of them around here that live under these cars, cats and dogs both." he shook his head slightly. "You've never seen a cat before? That's… unfortunate."

"Unfortunately, Toji," Daniel said, his expression and his voice sad, "that's not the half of it."

Toji nodded, concern in his expression as he stood. "Well, come on. The house isn't too far away."

They continued their stroll through the busy but still relaxed village before stopping at a large, long house, a sign by the door reading 'Suzuhara: Please ring the buzzer in case of emergency'.

"Welcome to my old and happy home,"Toji said as he opened the door. "Make yourselves at home. I'm sure my father-in-law is helping your friends do the same."

Shinji slipped off his shoes as he entered, the long hallway into the central living area feeling almost like Misato's apartment. "We're home!" Toji called. "Let me get some food ready and we'll have a meal."

"Finally!" an old, old voice called, pausing for a moment to cough quietly. "The man to blame arrives."

Toji chuckled. "You can browbeat me in the kitchen or in the dining room, pops. Either way, our guests are going to be staying for a while."

"It was getting lonely anyway." the voice replied as Toji nodded them towards what was likely the dining room. "A house like this needs to be filled to be useful."

Shinji walked towards the sectioned-off dining room, sliding open the door to reveal the rest of the Children sitting at two tables, one clearly having been moved into the room to allow everyone a seat, along with an old man in a white shirt, brown lounge pants, and a blue, fuzzy jacket sitting at the head of one. The man looked up at him from below a head of thinning white hair, pushing up his glasses as he looked at Shinji intently.

"Welcome in, young man," he said as he glanced over at Daniel and Ayanami. "I see my son-in-law decided to finally listen to my griping about how empty this house was."

"Hello," Shinji said, bowing to the man. "I'm Shinji Ikari."

The old man nodded. "I see. I'm Bunzaemon Horaki."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Horaki." Shinji paused for a moment. "Are you…"

"My daughter, Toji's wife, is Hikari, yes." Bunzaemon nodded. "Take a seat, young man. And do be quick about it. I don't know how long we'll have to talk."

Shinji nodded, sitting down at the end of the table as Daniel and Ayanami sat to his right. "I don't think we've ever met, sir."

Bunzaemon shrugged. "My daughter and son-in-law have told me plenty about you. Enough to make whatever rumors about your involvement in Near-Third Impact be little more than that." the man sighed quietly. "It's a rough world you've left us, however accidentally. But we've made the most of it."

The room was filled with quiet conversation for a few minutes as they smelled whatever Toji was cooking. Soon enough, Toji entered the somewhat cramped dining room, a pot with steam rising out from under its lid in his hands. "This is the first of our dinner tonight. I'll get the other one in just a moment," he said with an easy smile.

In short order, the pots were on the tables, the bowls were filled with a warm, savory stew, and everyone prepared to eat. As they ate, Shinji picked at his food somewhat, the others chowing down silently in appreciation of the variety the meal afforded them.

Ayanami, watching Bunzaemon sip the broth in his bowl, copied him, slow and somewhat hesitant.

"It's good, isn't it?" Toji asked, grabbing seconds for Daniel.

"It feels strange in my mouth. Warm and soft at once." she was slow, almost hesitant in her description as if feeling out how applicable the words she might say would be.

"That's what we call yummy." Toji smiled widely.

Bunzaemon nodded. "Yes, Hikari does know how to cook the best meals. I'm just glad that you can follow her instructions."

"Ah, I see," Kaworu said, nodding slowly along with the other older Children. "Hikari's recipe followed faithfully. Of course it's going to be quite good-tasting."

"Yeah," Asuka Ikari-Soryu said, "as much as I like you, jock, Hikari is just the better cook."

Toji shrugged as he began to reply, then paused as they all heard the door open. "We're home! Sorry we're late!"

Toji's face lit up as he looked out from the dining room. "Hey there! We've been waiting for you!"

From the relative darkness of the rest of the house beyond the doorway emerged a woman in a simple brown dress, her brown hair in a ponytail and kind brown eyes set above freckles and a soft smile. In her hands, she held a baby, barely a toddler, dressed in blue overalls and wearing a white and orange striped shirt.

"Hey, Hikari," Toji said as she sat down next to him. "Shinji's here!"

Shinji nodded as Hikari's smile grew. "I almost couldn't believe it when I heard you were here. It's almost like being in a dream, seeing you like this."

She paused as she looked around the room at the others. "Who are all of these people?"

Daniel nodded. "I'm Daniel Theisman, Vice-Chief of Evangelion Engineering on the Wunder. As for everyone else…"

Hikari looked over at the other table, the other Children intently looking at her. The older Shinji nodded. "Hello, Hikari. It's nice to meet you. Again, at least for us."

Hikari frowned slightly, then her eyes went wide as she looked between the two Shinjis. "How are there… two of you? And two Asukas? And two Ayanamis, just in here…"

She paused as she looked at Ayanami herself. "I am not the Ayanami that you know," Ayanami said, her face settled back into expressionlessness.

Hikari nodded, looking over at Rei Nagisa. "And who are you?"

"I am Rei Nagisa," Rei said with a slight smile. "This is my husband Kaworu."

The two of them nodded to each other. "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kaworu," Hikari said before looking back at Ayanami. "But we'll still need a name for you."

"How about…" Toji began, he and Hikari looking at each other.

"Ms. Lookalike!" they said in unison with a smile on their faces.

Unfortunately, their excitement stirred the baby in Hikari's arms, and she began to cry. As Hikari began to gently rock her, Ayanami leaned in to look, and Shinji thought he could see some small amount of wonder glimmering in her eyes. "What is that?"

"Our daughter Tsubame," Toji said as he scooted over to be by Hikari. "She's cute, isn't she?"

"She's human, but small. Why did you shrink her?"

"You…" Toji paused, then sighed quietly as he shook his head. "You haven't seen a baby before."

"This is a baby?" Ayanami nodded slightly. "I see."

She reached out and gently poked Tsubame's cheek with her index finger, stirring the baby from its fussing as she cooed, taking Ayanami's finger with a tiny hand. Rei seemed almost enraptured. "This is 'cute'?"

"It is," Toji said with surety. "Our daughter is just the cutest!"

With this, the baby began to cry again, and Hikari fussed over her again. "It's okay. Daddy's just very happy about you is all. It's going to be fine."

Shinji glanced over to the other Children. All of them looked between each other and Tsubame. And he wasn't exactly sure what they might be thinking or feeling. They seemed at once taken by the baby in Hikari's arms, and unsure about something.

As Toji and Hikari both tried to calm down, all in the dining room heard a banging on the door, and the baby began to cry again as Toji looked up at the door opening and closing. "Alright, the boss is here!"

Pushing the door to the dining room aside, Kensuke revealed both himself and a bottle of sake. "Sorry I'm late!" he said, Toji and Bunzaemon's cheering matching the cry the baby gave.

Hikari silenced the men at least with a hush, finger to her lips as Kensuke put the bottle on Toji's table with a slight blush. "Sorry, Hikari."

"All this noise is upsetting her," Hikari said as she looked at Toji. "Are our guests going to be leaving soon?"

"Actually, they're going to be staying with us for a while," Toji replied. "I've got it. How about you get the four…"

He looked over at the older Children, and Asuka chuckled. "You can just call us the Ikari-Soryus and the Nagisas if it makes things easier."

Toji nodded slowly. "Right. How about you help them and Ms. Lookalike get set up in some of the spare rooms we have while you take care of Tsubame? That should cut the noise level down."

Hikari nodded as she stood. "Alright, then. Please, come with me. Let the boys have their fun."

The older Children nodded, standing from the table. "Thank you for the meal, Toji." the older Shinji said with a smile. "It was good, as Hikari's recipes usually are."

Toji chuckled. "Of course, Shinji… Ikari-Soryu." he continued to chuckle as he shook his head. "That's going to be fun."

With that, the six of them exited the dining room, Asuka pausing in the doorway and looking back at Daniel. "You coming?"

"I'll stay behind and give them the rundown. Go get comfy." Daniel replied. "I'll be along."

Asuka nodded and disappeared beyond the door.

"So," Bunzaemon said, looking intently at Daniel, "what's this business with two of everyone?"

. . .

Asuka Ikari-Soryu was at once impressed by how many rooms this house had (seven spare rooms in all!) and grateful that she would be sleeping with her husband, and just her husband, for the first time in what felt like ages. 'If only we had our noise dampeners.' she pined as she looked over at Shinji, still slightly sweaty from the walk over here. 'Then again, I have wondered about whether souls can do anything like that…'

Either way, she was set up as best as Hikari could manage at the spur of the moment, and she paused at the doorway that Hikari had slipped into before sliding open the door. "Mind if I come in?"

Hikari looked back at her, her back turned to her, and Ayanami stood to her right. "No, no. Come in."

Asuka nodded, shutting the door behind her. "How's the baby?"

"Doing fine. She's been sick the last little while, and it looks like she becomes a bit of a drama queen when she does."

"What are you doing?" Ayanami asked, and Asuka walked around to see that Hikari was breastfeeding little Tsubame.

"Well," Hikari began, "babies grow up, at least in the beginning, by drinking their mother's milk. This is how they drink it."

Asuka took a seat across from Hikari as Ayanami looked down at herself, her hands beginning to rise toward her chest. "It'll be a while before you have to worry about anything like that, Ayanami." Asuka chuckled.

"I see." Ayanami let her hands drop back to her sides.

"So," Hikari said after a silent moment, "what brings you over here to see me, Mrs. Ikari-Soryu?"

"Well, frankly, it's been too long since I've talked to any version of Hikari," Asuka admitted with a shrug. "I thought it would be nice to… well, get to meet you, I guess."

Hikari nodded. "How do we know each other where you're from?"

"We're in the same class as Shinji, Toji, Kensuke, and the rest when I arrive in Tokyo-3 with Unit-02. Frankly, I'm surprised that we hit it off as well as we did. I would have thought a foreign student who was used to playing by her own rules would clash with the Class Rep." Asuka chuckled for a moment.

Hikari smiled slightly. "She must have seen something in you to think otherwise. You seem very calm and kind."

Asuka chuckled again. "Trust me, when we met, that wasn't the case." she paused for a moment. "Shinji helped smooth over the rough edges I had when I arrived. You did too." she paused. "And I think we both learned a lot of patience from Toji and Kensuke."

The women shared a good-natured laugh at the two stooges' expenses. "I can see that." Hikari agreed.

Asuka nodded, and her smile shrank somewhat. "That's how it started. We knew each other as classmates. Then we knew each other as wingmates."

Hikari blinked, her brow furrowing. "What do you mean?"

Asuka sighed. "Remember when Unit-03 arrived in Tokyo-3? The whole deal with the 9th Angel?"

Hikari nodded. "Of course. Poor Shinji was despondent for days. Toji couldn't even reach him."

Asuka nodded. "Where I'm from, you were chosen to be the test pilot for Unit-03. You became the Fourth Child."

Hikari's eyes went wide. "Me… an Evangelion pilot?"

Asuka nodded. "Yeah. It made things scary for a bit, for everyone involved. But you handled it like a champ. You took your duties seriously, you took our safety seriously, and you gave it your all every time you stepped into the Entry Plug. I know you have my back, and I'll always have yours."

It was silent for several shocked moments, then Hikari nodded slowly as Tsubame let go, slipping her dress back into place. "I see," she said quietly. "I'll probably never get to know you quite like the other version of me does, but I'm glad that I was able to help you become a better person. That's a precious thing."

Asuka nodded. "Yeah. It is."

Again it was silent for a moment, then Asuka looked down at Tsubame. "How long have you had her?"

"A little over a year and a half." Hikari smiled as she looked down at her baby, now sound asleep. "She's been the light of my life, as much as she and Toji compete for the title. I'm so excited to see where life goes with her."

Asuka nodded slightly. She wondered now that she saw little Tsubame in the flesh. She was sure Shinji did too. But right now, the sort of questions that she wanted to ask, that she wanted to answer… those could come later.

"Again, Hikari, thank you for putting Shinji and me in a separate room." her smile became a grin. "It's been far too long since we've had some privacy as a couple together."

Hikari chuckled. "Certainly. I have to admit, it surprises me that the two of you got together, based on what little I saw of you two here."

Asuka chuckled in turn. "You know, at the moment… it surprised me too. But it's the best surprise I've ever had."