Author's Notes: Thank you all once again for the reviews and support for the previous chapter! Means a lot to have heard that you enjoyed it!

Here's the next chapter - there are some differences from the original, and I hope they aren't too jarring.

As always, apologies for the spelling and grammatical errors that are seen throughout this chapter. Hope it isn't too bad to deter you from reading.

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

"Is this good enough? Can I leave now, Commander?"

Asuka froze when she heard how nonchalant and cold Shinji's voice was when he spoke those words. He almost sounded like his father with that tone. She tried to speak but was once again having difficulty forming words, still taken off guard by his tone and, "He… wants to leave?"

All she could do was croak out, "Wha-"

Misato nodded as she uncrossed her arms, "Approved." She placed the radio close to her face, "Escort Three Dash back to his quarters."

Three armed soldiers, dressed in all black and wearing a helmet that also covered their eyes, came rushing in and pointed their guns at Shinji. One of the men came behind him and pushed his back before ordering, "Let's go."

Asuka's eyes went to Shinji's back, who was barely visible with the man in between the two, then to the other armed guards, and finally to Misato. She didn't understand what was happening. There were too many things going on right now and not enough time to digest the current situation.

Asuka watched as Shinji give a quick nodded and started to walk towards the door with the armed guards behind him. She shook her head, "No! Not yet! I'm not done!" Not wanting to lose this chance, took a deep breath and screamed, "WAIT!"

Everyone in the room froze and all but Shinji turned toward her. All the pairs of eyes other than his were now on her.

Now that she managed to get everyone's attention, Asuka continued as she slammed the same hand on the wall, "After all that… That's the first thing you say? 'Can I leave now'?" "And it was not to me. But to Misato." She attacked the wall one more. "No 'welcome back'? No 'I'm glad you're awake'?"

Asuka's hand clenched into a fist against the wall and banged on it again before continuing, "Why won't you answer my questions? Why won't you say anything to me? Why…" She gritted her teeth and placed her head along the wall, "Why won't you even look at me now?"

The eye patched eye side of Shinji's head turned slightly in her direction. There was a brief pause. No one else in the room dared to speak nor did they think to speak for him as the ambient humming sound of the room filled the empty void. The hard awkward silence could be felt in the air as they were waiting for Shinji to finally say his peace.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally said with the same cold emotionless tone as before, "I just don't want to talk to you. That's all."

Asuka's eyes blinked at his response. "Wha-"

"I only came here because Commander Katsuragi ordered me to."

"What are you-"

"I'm done here." Shinji's head hastily went to the Commander, away from Asuka. "Unless you need me for something else, Commander?"

Misato crossed her arms again, almost as if she was reconsidering her options for a quick second. But her decision soon solidified once she made eye contact with him through her shades. "That is all. You are dismissed."

After hearing the approval to leave, he made his way to the door with the guards following closely behind him.

Asuka couldn't believe what she heard. All she could do is stand here in shock, mouth agape from what she heard. "That's-...You….-" She shook her head to recover from the shock. Her hand banged against the wall to grab his attention.

"That's it? That's all you're going to say? And now you're just going to leave? What do you mean you don't want to talk to me?"

Both her hands now smashed against the wall as she continued, "After what happened between us, you're going to say that and end it there? Just because you're done doesn't mean I am, Idiot! So come back here and - Damn it, stop! Don't you run away!" "Don't leave, not again!"

But her fellow Pilot didn't listen to her. Nor did he look back. Shinji kept walking forward. However, he was biting his lips away from everyone's view as he quietly said just low enough only for him to hear, "I'm sorry." The door closed behind him as the words left his mouth.

Sakura let out the breath she didn't know she was holding after Three Dash left the room. Her tensed fingers around the clipboard relaxed. Her first words ever since Shinji Ikari came into the room was just a mumbled, "Finally."

Asuka quickly turned to Misato, "Why did you let him leave? What the hell Misato? You said that you'd get me to talk to him again together-"

"My part was to let you see him again," Misato walked up to the see-through wall until she was looking down on her former ward. "I never promised anything about letting you talk to him."

"Her too?" Asuka gritted her teeth, "Why are you all like this? What the hell happened to get you to be like this?" Both her hands bashed against the wall, "I wasn't done! Call him back in here so that I can talk to him!"

"Three Dash has other priorities to attend to."

"Aren't I a priority too?"

There was no response as Misato continued to meet her glare.

Before Asuka could follow up, Ritsuko looked at her watch and cut in, "Commander, we have to get going. We'll be landing shortly for repairs to be done to Wunder."

Misato turned her back to the girl, "Asuka Shikinami, until further notice, you will be detained in that room. Second Lieutenant Suzahara, watch her until we give you further instructions."

Sakura nodded, "Roger."

"Bull crap!" Asuka said, "I refused to be detained here without being told what's going on! I deserve an explanation!" She watched as Misato turned and made her way out with Doctor Akagi, "Don't you run away too! Misato! MISATO! Come back here and tell me what's going on! Get the Idiot back in here!"

But her demands were left mostly ignored.

As the two commanding officers left, the Commander turned, "Second Lieutenant Suzahara will be explaining what she can to you until we land." The door closed and the shades in the wall darkened, covering the translucent wall once more.

Asuka slammed on the wall with her head, "Damn it!" She said while gritting her teeth, "Why won't you and the Idiot tell me what's going on? Why are you all acting like this?"

"Um," Sakura walked over. She leaned in and said, "Ms. Shikinami… Well, actually, can I call you Asuka?"

She turned her head while still touching the wall, "What do you want?" She did not want to deal with this girl's questions right now.

"I'll take that as a yes then!" There was a small giggle, "I'm sorry about the Commander, she can be a bit strict. But please try to understand her position, she's going through a lot of stress right now, especially with what the whole ship had to go through with that abrupt movement to space."

"Oh, so you're being nice to me now instead of probing me with questions now that I was ignored by both the Idiot and Misato. I don't need your pity." Asuka got up and turned her back towards her while crossing her arms, not noticing Sakura's expression turning dark at the mention of the 'Idiot'. But her eyes soon blinked in realization at what Misato had called the girl next to her. Her head quickly turned, "Wait Suzahara? Are you related to-"

There was a quick nod, breaking the cold expression before Asuka could notice, "Toji? Yes, I'm his little sister. He used to tell me a lot about you. I have to say, he over exaggerated a bit about you. You aren't nowhere physically aggressive as he made you out to be."

"Hold up, little sister?" Asuka's body fully turned to face her, "But you look older than he does."

"I guess an introduction and some clarifications are in order. Though there are limits to what I can tell you since you don't currently have clearance as of yet, but I can tell you this much-"

"You're finally going to tell me about what's up with the Idiot and Misato? Why the Idiot is acting like that?"

The cold glare returned, but this time Sakura didn't try to hide it, "I would appreciate it if you don't bring up Three Dash in front of me."

But that didn't phase Asuka one bit. "Three Dash? What's with everyone calling the Idiot by that?" She matched the glare head-on, "And why not?"

Sakura shook her head, breaking the unneeded tension between the two. "Let me start from the beginning." She took a deep breath, "My name is Sakura Suzahara. And Asuka, you may have a hard time believing this, but you've been asleep for fourteen years."

Shinji kept walking down the narrow corridor with the arm guards behind him. Their gaze underneath the helmet never left him, their target. But he didn't care. All he wanted to do was go back to his quarters until they landed.

"OOF!" He almost lost his balance when an unexpected weight pushed him forward.

"Puppy!" Mari, still wearing her hot-pink plugsuit, cheerfully called to him as she wrapped her arms over his shoulder while leaning her body to his back. "How did the meeting with the Princess go?"

One of the guards called out, "C-C-Captain Makinami! Please, let go of-"

She turned and said, "Oh you three are still here?" She waved her hand at them to go away, "You three can relax. You are all dismissed. I'll take it from here"

"But proper procedure with the recent events during the mission indicates that at least one armed guard is with Three Dash at all time. And you don't currently-"

They all froze when Mari revealed a small pistol in her other hand and waved it in front of them, "I know the new rules. Now, if you would excuse us."

The three of them looked at each other, a bit unsure if they should comply or not. But ultimately gave each other a nod and saluted her, "Yes sir-uh, I mean, ma'am!"

Mari carefully watched the three of them go back down the hallway before they turned the corner and disappeared from her view. She aimed the gun at the wall and pulled the trigger, firing a plastic ball out of the barrel and letting it bounce off the metallic surface.

"They really still are novices if they couldn't tell this was just a toy gun. And 'sir'?" Mari shook her head, "We're really going to need to train them more." She then wrapped her other arm around Shinji once more, while still holding onto the toy. "Right, Puppy?"

"Captain Makinami, why are you here? Shouldn't you be on standby in Unit 08? And can you please get off?"

"Ehhh? 'Captain Makinami'? What's with the colder tone? I just wanted to see how that long awaited reunion went! Why aren't you glowing-? Nyah!" She gave out a sarcastic yelp as he pushed her off. "That's not the way to treat a lady, you know."

She placed both her hands behind her back and went up next to him and leaned in to see his face. Mari said, "You know, you're more active than normal, guess you're… happy? No, this isn't exactly what that is…-"

Her cheerful manner disappeared as she examined the frown on his face, realizing what his oddly colder demeanor meant.

"Don't tell me you botched this up!"

Shinji glared at her, "Captain Makinami-"

Mari went up in front of him, "After all that waiting you did-... After all that effort we went through to finally get her back, you decide now to get cold feet? Hell, I even gave you a haircut for this when you got back, and yet-!" She ripped the hat off of him, "You decide to hide behind this stupid hat that Snowball gave you. Why did you decide to mess this up?"

Shinji snatched the hat back from her, "I never agreed to meet with her. That wasn't part of the plan."

"Because that's a given! Especially after you-"

"Ms. Mari, can you please drop this?" He placed the hat back onto his head.

"No, we're not done here. Not after you got us to falsify the mission report, putting the awakening all on you. You owe us and you owe it to yourself! So go back there and-" Her eyes widened. "Wait, is it still about that?"

"..."

There was a disappointed sigh from her, "That's a childish reason, and you know it."

He remained silent.

"But, as childish as it is… It's still a reason, I guess. I just don't agree with it. In the end, you're running away again… Fine. Answer me one thing and I'll drop this whole thing for now." She crossed her arms, "Are you really okay with how things are with her?"

Shinji looked to the ground, unable to meet her gaze to take a moment to think on the answer. "I…" He clenched and unclenched his hand, which didn't go unnoticed by her. "I… It's enough."

There was a loud exaggerated sigh from Mari, "Guess the Princess is right to call you an Idiot after all. An Idiotic Puppy…"

Mari clasps her hands together while still having the toy gun in between them.

She put them next to her face as she cheerfully said, "You know, I still miss the days when you were still timid and not a hard ass. You used to get flustered when I was on your back like before, that was cuuuute. Oh, let's not forget the time back when you remembered your dear 'Aunchie Marie.' That was so adorable!"

There was no response, just a hard gaze from him.

She crossed her arms and gave a pout, "Fine. I'll stop. Excuse me for trying to relieve the tension."

Shinji ignored her sarcastic remark and walked past her. After hearing the skipping steps following after him, he changed the subject, "Why did Wunder suddenly go off course?"

She decided to play along, especially with the way Puppy was right now, "I know right? I was surprised by that too! What's even more surprising is our little power core is generating at twenty-percent output right now, just like that one time before. Luckily that's also allowing us to stay under NERV's radar. But at the same time, we're barely flying as is."

Shinji stopped and turned to look at her, "Power core? Unit 00? What happened to Rei?"

Ritsuko said, "As stated before, Unit 00 somehow took full control of Wunder and risked the entire ship to provide backup to Three Dash for the mission. But, just like the previous incident years ago, it is now in a dormant state, outputting at low efficiency. We're assuming a few days before the Unit 00's S2 Engine is recharged to full. We should have all the damages on the ship repaired by then."

Misato continued to walk forward to their destination, "So, it's like before. Taking control of Wunder made the S2 Engine temporarily weaken." She turned her head slightly to her, "Is there anything else to add?"

Ritsuko took out her tablet and started to scroll down to find the exact information she was looking for, "We noticed a signal was sent out from its core using Wunder's systems and managed to establish a connection with the Tesseract, specifically Unit 02."

That caused the Commander to stop her march with her colleague stopping a few steps behind. Misato turned, "Who else knows about this?"

"Just you, me, both Five and Four Dash, and soon probably Three Dash as well. They know to keep any information to just each other unless told otherwise."

"Good. Keep it that way." The two continued forward, "We can't let any traces of Unit 02's Awakening get out, for her sake. It's what he wants as well." There was a quiet mumble but it was just loud enough for her partner to barely hear, "It seems Unit 00… Ayanami is still willing to risk it all to watch over Shinji."

Ritsuko stopped again when she heard her friend speak those words. She never acknowledged the two of them by their names, especially after getting heavily involved in this war. There was a small smile as she quietly said, "Guess, despite how it all went, that meeting with Shikinami was good for something after all."

She hastily continued forward before Misato had the chance to realize she was lagging behind. Ritsuko's tone changed to push her luck based on Misato's kinder pitch, "You know, I'm surprised that Three Dash would decide to handle their reunion the way he did."

"It's his decision. We gave him the opportunity, it was up to him on how he wanted to use it."

"Still, weren't you at least a bit disappointed by how it went?"

"And how did you expect their meeting to go?" Misato turned her head to Ritsuko but kept walking forward, "You may be surprised, but I'm not least surprised. It's better this way."

Asuka slammed the side of her fist against the wall. "What do you mean NERV are the bad guys? Do you mean to tell me I've been working for the other side all along?"

"Well-"

"And what do you mean this is a flying ship? And I was in space? How?"

"Oh, those ones are easy-"

"And fourteen years? How the hell has it been that long?"

"There is a lot to unpack-"

"Just what happened in the fourteen years that caused both Misato and the Idiot to be-"

Sakura's kind tone immediately broke as she yelled, "Please!" Asuka stopped at her sudden loud response. "Just… please. Don't bring him up again."

But she didn't comply. She placed her hands on her hip and asked, "Just what did the Idiot do for you to hate him so much? He can barely hurt a fly."

"It's best if you forget everything you know about Shinji Ikari. In fact, it's best to think that he died fourteen years ago. This… Three Dash isn't him."

"And why-"

"Because he's a murderer and a monster who will hurt everyone around him," Sakura bit her mouth and looked to the floor next to her patient. "It would've been for the best if you finished the job back then."

Her eyes widened when she felt a stinging sensation on her cheek as her head was forced to turn. Sakura could feel the heat building up in the area where Asuka had slapped her. The unexpected action from the redhead caused her to drop her clipboard.

Asuka breathed heavily as she seethed in her anger. How dare she say that? She was a Pilot, not a murderer. And Shinji may have been an Idiot, but he doesn't deserve to die like that.

Sakura took a deep breath before kneeling down to retrieve her property as she looked down to the floor, ashamed that she let her own emotions get out of hand. She got up as she held the clipboard close to her chest with one hand while holding her cheek with the other.

She continued to look at the floor as she said, "Just be careful when you're around him."

Asuka crossed her arms, "I know him better than you think, don't you ever assume you know more about him than I do."

Sakura mumbled, "Fourteen years is a long time for you to see the hero you once admired fall from grace. It's the same for anyone. Don't say I didn't warn you." She felt a sound coming from her radio. She made the distance from Asuka as she answered the person from the other line.

Asuka took this moment to calm herself. "That was too close. I almost lost control again as I did with the Sub Commander. I need to calm down. I can't risk losing any chance I have to see that Idiot again." Her hand tightened, "I still need to give him a piece of my mind for being such an ass back there."

"Roger," Sakura nodded as she placed the radio back in her pocket.

She turned to see her patient with a small smile, "We'll be landing shortly." There was a hissing noise as a portion of the wall opened, revealing a cabinet where a pair of clothes came out. "Those will be your new pair of clothes. I'll leave you alone to change. Call me when you're done, I'll be waiting outside."

Still, angry sapphire blue eyes watched with care as she watched the brunette exit the room. When the door hissed closed, Asuka let out a frustrated scream, "Why is no one giving me a clear cut answer!" She stomped on the floor.

"What really happened? What did the Idiot do? Don't I at least deserve to know that much?" Asuka let out another scream.

When she managed to calm herself down, her eyes went to the clothes that were laid out for her and then to the hospital gown she was wearing. "Mind as well change into actual clothes."

As she got closer, her eyes widened at what the clothes laid out for her were. How could she not? It was familiar clothes that she was all too used to wearing. And now that she had the time to look at it closer, she noticed something that rested on top of the neatly folded clothes.

Kaworu laid on his back as he watched the ceiling in wait for his roommate to return. What he didn't expect was for Captain Makinami to be with him, putting her weight on Shinji's back as the two came into the room.

He smiled at them, "Welcome back, Shinji. Hello, Captain Makinami."

Shinji gave him a small nod, "Hey, Nagisa."

"Snowball!" Mari waved at him, putting even more weight onto Shinji's back, practically being on top of him, much to his dismay. "I thought you'd still be with Unit 00."

Kaworu sat up and said, "My time with Unit 00 was cut short. Ayanami fell asleep due to exhaustion with her little intervention."

"But why come back now? Before you stayed with Unit 00 until the S2 Engine was up and running again."

"She was less than happy that I stayed with her before. She seemed uncomfortable about that fact, so I wish to respect her feelings on the matter." Kaworu saw Shinji push Mari off with her giving him a small pout.

Shinji sat down on his bed that was on the other side of the room from Kaworu's with Mari pulled up a chair and sitting down with the back of the chair facing them.

When the two were situated, Kaworu asked, "So, how did your meeting with Asu-" He stopped when he saw a hard glare from Shinji. "-Unit 02's Pilot go?"

Mari turned her head towards him, "How do you think it went? Puppy doesn't have that afterglow you'd expect after-"

"Ms. Mari," Shinji cut in.

"Sheesh, if you were going to be like this, then why did you purposely choke in the last inning? I thought you'd be crying in joy and smiling that you finally got to see her again, and yet here you are, mopping while sitting down-... now laying down." Mari sighed in response to another movement from him, "And now you're facing away from me."

"You know why."

"Yea, I know. And I know I said I would drop it, but I changed my mind since you're moping this much."

Kaworu tilted his head, "I'm confused, why aren't you happy that you finally got to see her again?"

"Oh my little innocent, naive Snowball, you really do have much to learn." Mari shook her head, "Puppy's happy alright, he just doesn't want to be."

"Shinji," he got up from the bed, "Why are you doing this?"

"Kaworu please stop. I don't want to talk about this. I just want to rest until we land," Shinji wrapped his arms around himself and brought his legs close to his chest as he faced the wall.

Mari let out a loud exaggerated sigh, "Well, I need to get going. I still have work to do anyway, to help prepare for the landing procedures."

Her attention now went to the other Pilot in the room, "Hey, Snowball, catch," she threw the gun towards Kaworu who managed to catch it with ease as it practically landed on the palm of his hands. "Relax, it's a toy gun just for show. We need to keep up appearances."

"Yet another aspect of Shinji's decision I don't understand," he placed the toy on the bed and turned to him, "Why are you putting so much burden on yourself? Even the ones that are not your fault?"

There was no verbal answer. Shinji's arms tightened themselves around himself even more in response.

"I don't understand how this will bring you happiness."

Shinji finally answered, "It's just what I want. Is that good enough?"

There was a long silence in the room from his response. The other two were unable to figure out a response to this with the tension that was being generated.

So, instead, Mari stretched, "Man! I won't lie." She started to rub her shoulders, "Mission above the Earth's atmosphere really puts a different type of stress on you. I think I'm going to take a nice warm shower while I still can. What about you two?"

Kaworu just gave a small smile to her.

Shinji gave no response.

"Fine, don't come yelling at me when the warm water runs out-" There was a small alarm that rang from her radio. "Ah crap, it's that time already? We'll be landing soon. I gotta rush now to make preparations with the Commander, wish we had a little more time for a shower but oh well. You two behave!"

Kaworu watched as Mari left, still being cheerful as ever. His attention went back to Shinji who still was refusing to face anyone, "So, what are you going to be doing now? Will you be leaving her alone from here onwards?"

No answer.

"Okay, if you do not wish to talk about this, I won't say more on this. Instead…" He reached out his hand to his roommate, "Would you like to head to the piano room for what they call a "quickie" before we land?"

Shinji's head raised up slightly in response to the offer.

"That looks lovely on you," Sakura said as she saw Asuka come out of the room in the middle school uniform.

Asuka fidgeted around, trying to fix herself in the slightly loose clothing, "Don't you have anything that's my size?"

"Unfortunately, that's the only spare clothing we had. Sorry if you're unhappy about the size, but please bear with it."

"Fine, whatever," but she didn't stop trying to fix herself.

Sakura opened her mouth but closed it once more, unsure how to say the next words.

Asuka, taking notice of this, stopped playing with her clothes and placed her hand on her hip, "You want to say something?"

"Well… Um..." She bowed and quickly said, "I'm sorry for losing my temper."

"I don't care about you getting mad." Asuka kept a cold glare on Sakura while placing her hand in her pocket, touching the object resting in it.

Sakura's head raised up, surprised by her comment, "You don't?"

"No. Instead, I want you to specifically apologize for what you said about the Idiot."

She bit her lips. She looked into Asuka's eyes with a cold glare of her own. Asuka said as she waited for a response, "Well?"

Sakura turned and placed the clipboard close to her chest, "We need to get going."

"Then I won't apologize for slapping you."

"That's fine…" She walked forward, hearing Asuka following her soon after.

"At least answer me this. What do you mean by 'forget everything I know about the Idiot'? Just what did he do?"

Sakura took a deep breath. As the older one, she needs to be the mature one here and not act like a child. "I'm sorry, but I can't answer that."

"You can't or won't?"

"Both. You don't have clearance and it would be best if you heard it from the Commander, not me. You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." "Especially with the way you reacted when I talked about him."

"Then what about the First?" She grasps the object in her pocket tighter, "You still haven't told me about her. Where is she? Don't tell she's with the now 'villainous' NERV?"

"About her status… You also most likely won't even believe me if I told you. She's with WILLE, not with NERV. Ms. Rei…" She shook her head, "Please ask the Commander if you see her."

There was a sigh from Asuka, "What's with all these secrets? Don't I deserve to know the status of my fellow Pilots?"

Sakura's head turned, "You currently aren't registered as a Pilot for WILLE. You're currently registered as a civilian who's currently under WILLE's care."

"What do you mean I'm not a Pilot? A civilian? That is not what this is. Not when you're here to babysit me. What am I, a child? A prisoner?"

"That's not what I said, this is the proper military procedure as you may already-" The two of them stopped when they heard piano music starting to fill the hallway. Sakura knew what this was and tightened the grip on her clipboard to her chest.

Asuka walked forward a few steps ahead of her, "What's got you frozen like that?" She looked down the hallway, the direction where the noise was emanating from, "You guys had a piano in here?"

Sakura shook her head, "Sorry… Let's… get going." She rushed past Asuka, knowing that she would follow her.

"Hold up, why are you running now? Damn it, slow down, will you? Aren't you supposed to be watching over me? At least answer my questions, damn it!" Asuka was practically chasing after the girl. Not that she had much choice on the matter.

"Why is he allowed to roam freely and do as he pleases?" Sakura bit her lips. She didn't slow down as she continued to say in her mind, "I don't care if he has guards now to watch his every move. He should be locked up in a cage and only let out when WILLE needs him for missions. I know I'm not the only one who feels like this."

Cracks could be seen forming on the sides of her clipboard, "It's not fair."

Kaworu watched in the corner of his eyes Shinji's expression as the two played side by side on the piano, which was made easier by the fact that the hat was now resting on the spot next to him on the chair. The two were in perfect sync as they played the piece together. Each of their movements complemented each other.

But that's not what he cared about. Being able to play the piano in sync with each other was an obstacle that was taken care of during the early days.

He was paying careful attention to Shinji's mouth and noticed it hadn't moved one bit since they started. Despite the key component finally being within Shinji's grasp, it hadn't made him smile.

As the two played their final note, they let it sing until it slowly died out. Kaworu finally asked, "Did this make you feel better?"

"It helped," Shinji put on the hat, "Thanks, Kaworu."

"Tell me, Shinji, what needs to happen for you to truly be happy?"

"I thought you were going to drop this. I don't want to talk about her."

"I never said anything about Pilot of Unit 02. I asked about you." Kaworu's smile widened ever so slightly. He got him to mention her, even if it wasn't not by her name. To him, this was a small victory.

Shinji looked away in response. After a bit of hesitation to answer his question or not, he finally said, "I don't know, okay?"

"Then, is this the road you truly desire?"

"Yea, it is." He got up, no longer wanting to stay be probed about Asuka from Kaworu. "I need to get going. The guards are waiting outside, right?"

Kaworu nodded as he watched Shinji walk towards the door, "That was the agreement with the Commander to allow us a quick intermission to play together."

He pressed the button to open the door, to which the same three guards came rushing in. Shinji turned his head slightly as the guards started to surround him, "Thanks for offering to play the piano with me."

Kaworu closed his eyes and widened his smile, "Of course, I'm always happy to play with you, Shinji." As the door closed behind them, leaving him alone, he looked to the ceiling with his smile disappearing.

"Shinji… Why aren't you happy? Why aren't you smiling? She's here now, so why are you still in so much pain? Ayanami… she can never be here again physically, but you finally have her… so why?"

"Oh my little, innocent Snowball, you really do have much to learn." Mari's words repeated in his head, "Puppy's happy alright, he just doesn't want to be."

"I don't understand, how is he happy yet still have that expression? Why does he not want to be happy? She's here now, so that should be all that is required."

Asuka covered her eyes from the gust of wind that was hitting her as she got out of the VTOL, landing on the concrete floor. She looked around, noticing the red ocean sea on one side with the green woods covering the land and the mountain on the other.

She held her hair back as she looked over to the giant ship that was resting on the dock nearby. Several other battleships were stationed next to it, some slowly landing on the solid concrete floor of the dock. She covered her ears as more VTOLs started to land close by.

"This way," Sakura grabbed her arm and led the way forward, struggling to keep the hair out of her eyes.

As Asuka took another look at her surroundings, she noticed some staff she saw from the ship rushing out of the recently landed VTOL and rushing to the ships and some crates that were starting to come into view.

"Where are we going?" she said, as they started to make their way into the woods.

Asuka took another glance and noticed that smoke just started to emit from multiple areas around the ship.

She asked, "Shouldn't you be looking into that?"

Sakura kept walking forward with Asuka in hand. She shook her head, "Later. We're to meet with your escort to a safe haven, a sanctuary for everyone in this world. I believe either Big Sis or Mr. Kensuke is supposed to be your guide."

"Great, I'm being handed off like some prisoner... Wait, Big Sis? Does she have a sister? And the Geek? He's here? What about the Jock? Or Hikari?" Asuka looked at the hand on her arm, then back at Sakura, "And what about you?"

"I still have matters to attend to after we meet up with your escort, I have to help out with the repairs and anyone who may have gotten hurt. Ah, it should be here." Sakura took a sharp turn, leading to a stair going down to the meeting area. But, a few steps down, she noticed the people who were waiting for them.

She froze.

Asuka stumbled forward, almost losing her balance as momentum from Sakura pulling her suddenly stopped. "What the hell?" She turned to her who wore a cold, angry expression. Her eyes followed the direction where the furious glare was.

Asuka saw the back of a dark green hooded figure with a strange brunette wearing a plugsuit on his back arguing with each other. "Who-"

"Ms. Mari," an all too familiar voice groaned, "Can you please get off?"

"But Puppy!" a new voice she was somewhat familiar with, answered. "Don't you like it when you have a beautiful woman, such as myself, on you?"

Asuka froze when she recognized the first voice.

"Why are you hiding behind that hood?" Mari tried to take the clothing that was covering his face.

Shinji grabbed the hood and pulled it down against the opposing force, "I just… I don't see the need to show my face outside of Wunder. And please, get off. You're kind of heavy."

She stopped working on the hood and now, instead, pinched his cheeks, "You know, you really shouldn't say anything about a girl's weight." She complied with his request, practically jumping off of him. She put her hands behind her head, "Where are they?"

"Are there more people coming, Ms. Mari?"

"Yup."

"Is it the Commander?" He fixed his coat, "Is she finally going to go back to the Village to visit?"

"Do you really think she's going to come? There's a lot to work on the ship now, some systems were fried among other damages slowly being found throughout the Wunder. The ship wasn't ready for space travel."

Shinji turned his head slightly to her, "Then who?"

Mari said, "Ahh well... It's definitely someone you know." Her eyes went up to the two who were standing still on top of the stairs.

Mari's smirk widened. She gave an overly gestured wave, "Princess! Little Nurse!" She noticed Shinji's head twitching a little, enticing her to increase her voice, "What a pleasant surprise to see you two here!"

Sakura bit her lips before taking a deep breath to calm herself. She walked past a frozen Asuka as she said, "I was expecting either Ms. Horaki or Mr. Kensuke to be here."

"Yea, about that," Mari gave a little giggle, "They may or may not have gotten held up." She held out her tongue teasingly at her.

"You…" Sakura glared at her and then went to Shinji's back which still was facing her. She said to her, "You planned this, didn't you?"

"Me? Nooo! Oh, whatever for do I need to do that?" Mari sarcastically said, looking away to hide her playful smirk.

"Why is he here? Is he even allowed in the Village?"

Asuka slowly made her way down, "Idiot Shinji?" Causing Shinji to hold his hood down further, despite having his back to her. "It's the Idiot alright!" She sped her steps in response, trying not to lose the opportunity given to her.

Her voice got louder, "There you are. You didn't think you could get away from me, did you? There's no use hiding from me. You have some explaining to do, Idiot."

A new voice called out, "Oh, good. Everyone's here?"

Everyone's head went toward the direction of the voice as both Asuka and Sakura took their last step down. Mari immediately turned her back towards him as Sakura gave a quick bow to the man.

"Hello, Mr. Kaji," she politely said, "Happy to see you here. Would you mind giving me a proper explanation of the situation?"

Author's Note: Thank you all for making it this far. Hope you all enjoyed it. Again, hope the changes weren't too jarring.

This was a shorter chapter, but this was a setup chapter for the next one, which will focus more on Village 3. I hope the pacing for this chapter wasn't too bad.

Thank you all for your reviews: AsteroidOdin, Greg242, Afredo12StarLegionaire, Jenathan, MooseTracks101, Corydon Ex Circo, James Birdsong, calborghete, LetsPilot, YourBlandestNightmare, corvi1718, tomdj1701, engel17white, deathbringer374, and every Guest Reviewers and people who gave out separate reviews in Discord/DM's.

Again, hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Till next time!

Take care.