A/N: Hello everyone! I live! Thank you all for your patience! Sorry for the delay with this chapter, and the length of this one. This one may be unnecessarily lengthy and a bit lackluster compared to the previous chapters, so apologies if you get bored with this one. Hopefully, this is engaging enough to get through it all.

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

Asuka was trying her best to drown out the sounds on the chair from her corner in this makeshift hospital. She could still hear "Doctor" Hikari giving her diagnosis and treating her patients. And god, those sounds of crying children...

She hated it.

She gritted her teeth as she tried to focus on her WonderSwan handheld game. The earplugs from the SDAT sat in her ears but no sounds were emitting through it.

"Of course, what did I expect of such an outdated device? Only worked for about just over a week before breaking down. What trash."

Asuka had to mute her WonderSwan per the Doctor's "request". More of a demand, really. Something about being distracting to the Doctor and her patients.

"Then why force me to come with you?" Asuka quietly asked.

She would've plugged in the SDAT's ear plug into her game… Except the Idiot's damn music player was so old that the plug didn't match the one needed for her game. And Hikari didn't have a spare, plus Asuka wasn't going to start asking around for one.

Fortunately, people were leaving her alone for now, despite being forced here by her landlord. And that was good enough.

"That Idiot left me. And Misato didn't even try to come back."

Asuka's jaw tightened and began to practically slam her fingers to the buttons.

"I'm a Pilot. I don't belong here. I need to be out there fighting. I should be with the Idiot and Misato… Not here with these people... I never thought I'd say this, but I miss your annoying monotone voice, First."

She blinked when a lollipop appeared between her and the screen.

"So much for people leaving me alone."

When she turned, she saw a little girl with long black hair and wearing large circular glasses holding out the candy to her.

"Big sis, have some! Mommy always says 'caring is sharing'!" the little girl said as she tried to push the lollipop to Asuka. She then tilted her head. "Or was it 'sharing is caring'?"

"Mommy…" Asuka turned away from her as she resumed her game. "I don't want it."

"But you look sad! And candy always makes me happy when I'm sad!"

Hikari came over and placed her hand on the little girl's shoulder. "Mayumi, you're mom's done with her checkup. You should join her," she said.

"But big sis looks sad!"

Asuka gritted out through the skin of her teeth, "I. Am. Not. Sad."

"Mayumi," Hikari said, "I'll take care of her, don't worry. Hurry, you're mommy's waiting for you. She needs her rest, and I need you to take care of her while I'm not with her."

"But…" the little girl pouted. "Okay."

Hikari watched as the little girl ran to her mom who was holding onto her slightly enlarged stomach. The family waved their goodbyes to her as they went back out. She waved back with a big smile before sighing as she turned to Asuka.

Sensing the glare from her friend, Asuka turned her head slightly to her and asked, "What?"

Hikari placed her hands on her hips with a disapproving stare. "That's really all you can say? Out of all the adults and kids who came here, Mayumi was the only one who was trying to be nice to you. You didn't have to be so mean to her."

"I only came because you forced me to. You didn't say that I had to engage in conversation with anyone, let alone be nice to a kid."

"But she's just a child, you-" She sighed when her friend went back to playing her game. "Honestly, is playing that game all you're going to do?"

There was no answer as Asuka continued to try to distract herself.

"Can you at least get me the medication for our next patient? It should be in the bottom cabinet in the next room labeled 'S-Medication'. That's all I ask right now."

Asuka continued to play her game as Hikari turned to look at her next patient.

"This is stupid. I shouldn't have to do this. I shouldn't even be here…" She paused her game and let out a sigh.

As Hikari was talking with the patient, she noticed something next to her. She turned to see her friend waiting impatiently for her with a bottle held out.

"What?" Asuka asked, "Aren't you going to take this?"

"...I didn't think you were actually going to do it." Hikari smiled and said, "Thanks Asuka."

Once Hikari took the bottle from her, Asuka walked back to her corner and resumed her game.

"Say," the elderly woman said, "Isn't she the newcomer who Junior was showing around?"

Hikari replied, "Yes. She's a friend."

"Not much of a talker is she?"

There was a deep sigh. "She's just being difficult… But based on her situation, it's understandable. She was essentially in a coma for fourteen years. She'll come out of her shell soon enough."

"At least I hope she will."

The elder looked toward Asuka and fixed her glasses. A confused look appeared on her face. "Fourteen years? But she looks to be around Junior's age… How long were you friends? How old is she exactly?"

"It's complicated," Hikari said.

"Ah…" the elder decided not to pry for more. The Doctor helps the Village a lot. The least she could do is respect her request for privacy. Besides, she knew with her old age not to get involved with anything "complicated". Her old bones can take only so much.

"Remember," Hikari said as she placed the bottle on the elder's hand, "Please take this once per day before you go to sleep. If you take it more than once, it could damage your nerves-"

"Yes. Yes. I know…" She looked closely at the contents in the bottle and said, "It's amazing how KREDIT makes these magical pills. Did Aida ever tell you how they're made?"

Hikari shook her head. "Unfortunately, not yet."

"That boy and his secrets, he'll never get a girl at this rate."

Kensuke sneezed behind the mask of his white hazmat suit.

Junior, who was wearing the same safety uniform, turned to him. "Are you coming down with a cold Mr. Kensuke?" he asked.

"I hope not. God knows how many meds we have left before the next batch."

"Take better care of yourself, you don't want Ms. Horaki getting mad at you for getting sick, especially out here."

"Don't remind me." He looked at the giant black pillar with red engravings on its surface.

It was being monitored by multiple equipment and machinery operated by staff wearing similar hazmat suits.

"Back to the matter at hand," Kensuke said as he took a tablet from another staff nearby. "So far everything seems to be operating smoothly. No anomalies here."

Junior nodded and said, "Fortunately, we haven't had any incidents ever since Dr. Akagi handled the issue a few years back."

"We still need to do our due diligence. We can't let the main Pillar fail on us. This is our lifeline against the L Barrier out there."

One of the staff next to them clenched his hand as looked at the pillar with hate filled eyes. He mumbled, "We're trapped here like animals in a cage… It's all because of them… because of him…"

Returning back to her house, Hikari announced, "We're home!"

Asuka didn't announce her arrival as her friend did. She quickly walked into the kitchen to grab a piece of bread and made her way into the guest room that she took over. The door slammed closed behind her.

"Welcome back, Hikari," Toji said as he was wheeled in by his in-law with the sleeping child in his arm.

"Hmph," Bunzaemon crossed his arm and said, "That girl needs to learn some manners."

Hikari leaned over and wrapped her arms around her daughter. She brought Tsubame close to her chest before saying, "You can't blame her, really."

"The girl just takes food whenever she wants without any appreciation. She doesn't even take the ones that we make for her! Just bread."

"At least she's eating, father," she said. Hikari started gently rocking the baby in her arms slowly. "Better than her starving herself to death."

Toji looked at the closed guest room door and said, "Hikari, no offense, but her diet is bad. She's eating but it's just bread and water. That can't be healthy for her. As a doctor, shouldn't you be more concerned about that?"

"Asuka needs a friend, not a doctor. She just needs time to adjust. She'll start eating normally again soon. I know it."

Toji shook his head. "She better, or I'll get her out one way or another."

Bunzaemon turned and made his way into the kitchen. He said, "Fine. Fine. As long as she's paying for the rent by working as your assistant or around the Village, I'll leave it be. Nothing is for free here, you know."

Toji managed to turn his wheelchair around with one arm and followed his in-law. He said, "But Kaji does that weekly free meal for the Village, or are you forgetting already with old age?"

"No. I haven't forgotten. I just can't believe it's for free. There has to be more to this."

"But you still take the free meal," Toji said with a sly smirk while teasingly elbowing Bunzaemon's leg.

"I didn't say that we shouldn't. The food's good. We just don't know how long it'll last or when that single Father is going to start asking for compensation."

"Mr. Kaji is not the type of person to do that, pos."

The older man gave out a small grunt. "Am I not allowed to be suspicious of a man who runs charity during these times?"

Toji made his way to the fridge and said, "Here pops, I'll help you out."

Bunzaemon shook his head, "No. The last time I let you 'help out' in the kitchen, I got yelled at by my own daughter."

"Oh you worry too much, pops, the fact that she yells at you means that she cares, doesn't it? Besides, I have to carry my weight every now and then?"

"You've already done more than enough for all of us. It's because of you that both Hikari and Kodama are still alive. I haven't forgotten what you've done for us, and I never will. So please, stop thinking that you need to make yourself useful around the house. You've done more than enough."

Toji froze at that statement. His thin hand started to shake at the fridge handle and held his head down. "But it wasn't enough to save Nozomi… and everyone else."

Hikari had followed them into the kitchen and watched their little banter. She smiled while the two were talking and getting along, more or less. But when the topic of her sister came up with seeing her husband distraught, she had to step in.

"You didn't kill Nozomi," she said, rushing over to her husband. "You didn't fail to save her. It was that monster that killed her."

"But if I was just faster… If I was just better, she would still be here, wouldn't she?"

"Dear," Hikari made her way to her husband and placed her hand on his shoulder while holding their child with the other. "I never blamed you and I never will. We're here because of you. Please, remember that."

Toji grabbed her hand and placed his head on top of it. Tears started to stream down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, I promised that I wouldn't let this get me down like this."

She glared at her father and said, "This wasn't your fault either. My father had to bring it up."

Bunzaemon scratched the back of his head. "You told me to get him to never work around the kitchen again. I just did what had to be done to make him stop."

"Father, I love you. But sometimes, you go too far."

"I… I know. I'm sorry. That was out of line."

"It's fine. You meant well pops," Toji said. He looked up to her, "I… Can you help me to our room, Hikari?"

"Of course, dear," Hikari said as she managed to push the wheelchair with one arm while having Tsubame sleeping on her shoulder through it all. She glared at her father once more before leaving the kitchen. "And don't think we're done here."

"Yes, I know… Toji, son…" Bunzaemon looked at his son in-law with apologetic eyes. "Again. I'm sorry."

"Again, don't worry too much about it, pops," he said as he turned to look at him with a grin. "We all do it from time to time."

Hikari gave a small smile as she brought her to him to their room. She leaned down and asked, "Do you want me to get you anything? Water?"

He shook his head and said, "No, it's okay…" But then his eyes landed on their child. "Actually, I know that you just got back and all, and would love to hold onto Tsubame, but do you mind if I have her back for a bit?"

"Of course, you don't even have to ask," Hikari said. She slowly and carefully gave the sleeping Tsubame to him.

Toji managed to receive her with his one available arm and look at her. Warmth filled in his eyes.

Seeing her husband wanting some alone time with their daughter, Hikari said, "I'll leave you alone with her. I'll help out my father after I give him an earful."

"Prez," he said, stopping her before she exited the room. But his eyes never left their sleeping child. "Be easy on him, will you? Pops meant well."

She smiled and said, "Just for you, Dear."

Hikari slowly closed the door behind her. But before she went into the kitchen, her eyes wandered to the guest room.

"Asuka… You just need time. As long as you come out with me, I know you'll be able to adjust to this new world... Hospital work may not be for you. Maybe I should think about getting you involved with something else if this doesn't work for another month or so… like farming. Maybe doing some manual labor will force you to eat. Ah, but I won't do that unless I have to."

ONE MONTH LATER

Mari screamed as Unit 08 came crashing down against a blue and green colored humanoid drone.

It had two angelic masks tied to it at the front with a red spear similar to Spear of Longinus between the two masks. It had four sets of rotating pylons, in place of its limbs, helping it stay afloat.

Unit 08 managed to pierce the barrel of its gun through the enemy's armor and fired multiple rounds. Mari then quickly jumped up just before the drone exploded. But soon, a swarm of them started to rush after her.

"This is why I hate Mark.44A's," she said as her EVA landed on the ground. "They're just mindless animals sent to do those two old fart's orders. But whatever, they're your problems now, Puppy! Snowball!"

Two EVAs dashed past her as Unit 08 jumped high up in the air.

One that was easily recognizable as Unit 01 but with a double-bladed chainsaw attached to its left arm and a regular metallic gray colored hand attached to the other. There was also a large object attached to its back wrapped in a cloth.

The other was a silver-colored EVA supporting additional colors around its armor that were composed of red, dark gray, black, and white. It looked very similar to Unit 03 but with silver coloring and additional details. Attached to each of its elbows, through a rail system, were large armor plates that had three drill systems at the front.

"Unit 01 engaging the enemy," Shinji said as Unit 01 held out its left hand with the chainsaw starting to spin.

"Unit 04 providing support. Attaching the Rapidborer system" Kaworu said as the two large plates attached to Unit 04's elbow moved up the rail and attached to its arms. The three drills on each plate started to spin.

The two EVA's crashed against the large swarm of the Mark.44A's.

Unit 01 quickly cut through one while grabbing the other by the spear. Using the drone's body as another weapon, Unit 01 smashed it against another. As Unit 01 made its way to the heart of the swarm, the clashing of metal from the chainsaw was heard as it cut through multiple Mark 44A's.

Unit 04's Rapidborers started to smash through multiple drones one by one. It was able to destroy any that tried to attack Unit 01's back, allowing Unit 01 to proceed without having to worry about its back. Soon, as the two made it to the center of the swarm, the two stopped with their backs against each other.

They were surrounded, but the two Pilots didn't care. They were used to this type of engagement. The movements of both EVA's were so much in sync that they looked like they were almost dancing to an imaginary tune that the two Pilots could only hear. Despite the numbers disadvantage, they were able to easily maneuver around the drones.

Each step that was taken by one, the other followed with the adjacent leg as to keep with the beat. Blocking the attack the other couldn't handle. Even if one was to go offbeat, the other was more than able to compensate to correct their rhythm back.

Unit 04 smashed down both its drills on the Mark 44A that was coming straight for its chest. Seeing the EVA being defenseless, more started to charge toward it. Fortunately, Unit 01 quickly jumped over Unit 04 and cut through each of the drones with a heavy swing of its weaponized arm.

The silver-colored EVA got back up and went to cover Unit 01's back as they continued to engage a seemingly endless swarm.

Kaworu said, "Thank you for the help there, Shinji. It looks like I owe you two."

"I still owe you four, Kaworu," Shinji said.

Unit 04 uppercut one away as its Pilot responded, "But our previous mission made up for all of anything that you may have owed me."

"That mission near Village-4 doesn't count. Do we really have to talk about this now?" he said as Unit 01 cut down one with a vertical swing. "Can't this wait until after the mission?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, of course. But I thought we should still get this out in the open lest we forget…"

The two continued to battle against the swarm, it almost seemed endless. But, this was still part of the plan.

However, someone's timing was off. Realizing who it was, Kaworu said, "Captain, we require cover fire."

"Ah crap, that's right," Mari said a large sniper fire managed to take out the closer Mark.44's that were near the two.

Unit 08 had managed to get onto a floating battleship that had a string attached. It retrieved a sniper rifle that was situated on it and aimed down to the swarm below.

"You're slow again, Ms. Mari," Shinji said as Unit 01 took off the wrapped object behind it.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, taking another aim. "This one's on me. It was just so amusing to watch you two practically dance your way through the swarm."

Unit 08 fired multiple rounds, getting the attention of the majority of the swarm, but some still stayed behind to engage the grounded EVAs.

"Better hurry up now, Puppy."

Unit 01 unwrapped the cloth, revealing a large cannon with an arm piece attached to it. The left prosthetic with the double-bladed chainsaw detached and landed on the floor. Unit 01 then attached the cannon's arm piece to its missing left limb. Once attached, the accents around the cannon started to glow yellow as the barrel started to spin.

While Unit 01 was getting situated, one of the Mark 44A's headed straight for it. Fortunately, Unit 04 managed to smash it onto the ground.

Kaworu's smile never left him as Unit 04 continued to defend Unit 01 against more of the swarms that were still coming toward them. He said, "Do not worry, I will cover you, Shinji."

"Thanks, Kaworu."

Using its other arm for support, Unit 01 brought the large cannon up and aimed at the large swarm heading towards Unit 08.

"Ms. Mari, this is cutting it close," Shinji said as a hologram of a scope appeared in front of him. The monitor in front of him displayed the floating ship that Unit 08 was on barely in the firing radius.

Mari smirked as she took multiple shots and said, "Well then Puppy, my life is in your hands. Don't let your Aunchie down!" Her fingers moved to the ship hologram next to her. "Gotta put in the command for the ship to move now."

"Locked on… Pulling the trigger," Shinji said as he fired the cannon, releasing a massive blast of concentrated AT-Field energy towards the swarm above them.

The energy released would've forced Unit 01's aim to change if it wasn't for Unit 04 coming to support it at the last second with its Rapidborers retracted back. The shockwave of the attack sent dust clouds that covered the entire city with a bright light at the center of the blast.

The blast managed to stay on course, taking out the remaining Mark 44A's, even the ones that were charging down on the two from above.

Mari cheered, "Yea! That's what I'm talking abo- OH SHIT!" Unit 08 had to jump off to dodge the blast that engulfed half of the ship. "Why didn't it move like I wanted to? Was it THAT close?"

"Damn it Puppy!" she said as Unit 08 entered freefall. The light from the blast disappeared and the ship she was on exploded. "That was on purpose!"

"I told you… Ms. Mari," Shinji said as he panted. The cannon powered down as it dropped to the ground. Unit 01 fell to its knees. "This was going to be close."

"Yea, but I didn't know it was going to be this close!" Mari exclaimed. Unit 08 managed to crash into a building, breaking most of its fall. "Ooow."

The pink EVA came out of the rubble as it rubbed its back. Mari groaned, "That's going to hurt tomorrow. Thank god this was not an important building, or that Commander would've had my head."

"Are you alright, Captain?" Kaworu asked as Unit 04 helped Unit 01 stand back up.

"Just peachy. But at least we managed to clean the area up of these mindless bots while keeping most of the city intact, clearing the way for the Pillar to be placed."

"So this mission is finished."

"Hold your horses, Snowball. We're not finished until the Pillar is set up," Mari said as she stretched, pushing both her hands to her lower back. Hearing a pop, she let out a moan, "That felt good."

Shinji said, "So what's next, Ms. Mari?"

"We wait on Wunder for an update."

They waited for a few minutes after Mari sent in their report, but nothing was received. She tried again, but the end result was the same.

"Weird," she said, "They're usually on top of communications. But now that I think about it, that boat did not move."

Kaworu said, "Should we return to check up on the situation with Wunder?"

"Our orders were to stay here after we finished this part, but-"

"Shinji."

Shinji's head rose up when he heard a voice calling to him, forgetting about the exhaustion he was feeling after that attack. He quickly turned to the direction where Wunder would have been on standby, waiting for them to finish their mission. Unit 01 dashed forward without a warning.

Shinji could only say the name of the person who was calling for him. "Rei!"

Both Kaworu and Mari, who were caught off guard, could only watch as Unit 01 sped up, breaking the sound barrier. Unit 04 turned to Unit 08 as the shockwave reached the two.

"Captain?" he asked, waiting for her permission.

"Geeze," Mari groaned. "Puppy really needs to learn to wait. While we have our orders, let's check up on Wunder to see what's up. This is unusual, especially for Junior's mommy."

Misato yelled, "Any success in establishing contact with the Pilots?"

Midori Kitakami frantically typed away at the keyboard, trying to figure out how to get in contact with the EVA Pilots. "Not yet, Commander!" she replied.

During the operation of the three Pilots clearing a sector of the Nemesis Series, a giant drone managed to catch them off guard.

It came out of the ocean below where they were floating above. Despite its size, it managed to slip through Wunder's sensors. It had multiple ribbon arms around Wunder's wings and body. The drone had a giant disc as its main body that was surrounded by pylons attached to the edge. There were multiple metallic ribbon-like tentacles protruding from the center of the disk.

And somehow, it was jamming their communication, so WILLE couldn't get in contact with their EVA Pilots.

The ship could barely move due to the restraints. And this specialized version of the Nemesis Series was trying to pull the Wunder apart. If it wasn't for the AT-Field acting as the barrier, Wunder would've fallen from the sky.

"Commander!" Koji Takao said, "The AT-Field won't be able to withstand the pressure much longer!"

Misato gritted her teeth before ordering, "Again! Deploy the AT-Field at the front. Focus fire at the center!"

All the Wunder's turrets turned to the center of a new AT-Field it generated. The attack managed to bounce off the AT-Field, redirecting the trajectory to the large drone. But the blast was blocked by its own AT-Field and was redirected to the ocean below.

Ritsuko walked up as the ship started to rumble from the stress. She said, "This giant variant of the Mark.04C is able to generate an AT Field that strong? Professor Fuyutsuki managed to outdo himself this time."

Misato slammed against the railing next to her. There was no way out of this.

This Mark.04C variant had caught them off guard, preventing them from moving and fighting back. If they didn't do anything soon, they weren't going to make it out in one piece. There had to have been one more card to play… But what-?

She gritted her teeth.

"Unit 00 and Unit 02."

Misato turned to Ritsuko, "Arm the self-destruct sequence within both Unit 00 and Unit 02. We cannot let NERV retrieve Wunder and both EVAs containing the S2 Engines all in one piece-"

"Commander!" Midori said. "Sensors are picking up an object coming towards us at immense speed!"

"What now?" Misato's attention immediately went to the main screen. She ordered, "Bring up the visual!"

"Right away!"

The screen showed something rushing towards them. But they still couldn't make out what. Then it zoomed in further. It now showed a one-armed Unit 01 dashing towards them, leaving a trail of smoke behind it.

Koji whistled. "That's some speed," he said. "But we're still miles off the nearest coast he can jump from. There's no way he's going to be able to make that jump, no matter how fast he runs. And where are the other two? Shouldn't at least the pink one be with it at all times?"

Misato quickly held her hand out and ordered, "All turrets, aim towards Unit 01 right now."

Everyone turned to her, each wearing a confused look.

"We're going to give him the leverage he needs to get to us. You have your orders!"

Sumire smiled, never one to question the Commander's orders. "Aye aye!" she cried out as she struggled to steer Wunder turn ever so slightly to have a better aim towards the EVA.

Midori grumbled, "Let's hope we hit him and take him out, that way we can at least go in peace knowing we killed that monster."

Koji started to laugh at his orders. It was crazy, but what better idea did they have? "Tama, make sure you increase the engine output to help Nagara aim!"

His assistant replied as he frantically looked over the manual, "Wait! Wait! But with the strain of the ship, protocol indicates-"

"Forget the protocol from that book! Just focus on following orders right now!"

"But-..." he threw the book away and started to use the controls in front of him, "AGH! Fine! Don't yell at me if we explode!"

Ritsuko said to her friend, "You know that this plan is risky. What if we end up taking out Unit 01 by mistake?"

Misato tightened her grip on the rail in front of her with both her hands. She said, "It's a risk I'm willing to gamble on." "Shinji…"

Unit 01's eyes glowed brightly as it took its last step on the land. It jumped up into the open ocean towards Wunder. But, as expected, it wasn't enough to make it to Wunder.

"Ms. Misato!" Shinji yelled, hoping that she would get the message despite the communications being down.

All available turrets at Wunder aimed at Unit 01 and fired a charged blast at it. Unit 01 held out its hand generating an AT-Field. It blocked the attack and pushed it down to the ocean. Unit 01 used the force as leverage to push itself higher up in the air.

But it still wasn't enough. Unit 01 still needed another push…

Soon the diverted blast exploded upon contact with the surface of the ocean, causing a shockwave just enough to help boost the EVA even higher up in the air. It was just enough for Unit 01 to latch on the nose of Wunder.

Unit 01 then pulled itself up and jumped towards the giant Mark.04C. While dodging the ribbons that were trying to stop it, it managed to rip through the drone's AT-Field with its arm and land on top of the giant's body. Unit 01's mouthguard broke as it let out a roar.

Using both its mouth and arm, it started to rip apart the armoring around the drone until making it to the main core that lay underneath. Unit 01 quickly pulled its fist back just as the extra ribbon arms were raining down onto it.

Releasing another roar, Unit 01 punched the core, causing an ear-shattering blow and clearing the skies of any nearby clouds.

The attack from Unit 01 managed to create a gaping hole in the body of the drone, taking out the core as well but at the cost of its remaining prosthetic arm. The ribbons that were on their way to the EVA froze. The tendril holding onto Wunder started to loosen.

"GO!" Misato yelled.

Sumire screamed as she pushed the controls forward.

They knew that they only had seconds before the giant drone exploded on them. Under normal circumstances, Wunder might've been able to withstand the blast. But with the damages that they suffered, the AT Field and armoring may not be enough.

So they pushed Wunder to full maximum output to pull itself out of the tendrils that were still wrapped around it.

Mari and Kaworu both finally arrived at the coast, seeing a giant Mark.04C with a gaping hole at the center and Wunder trying to get itself out of the entanglement. They soon saw an armless Unit 01 jump down from Mark.04C's body onto one of Wunder's wings and bite off one of the ribbons.

"You're living up to the name, Puppy," Mari said as Unit 08 took aim at the tendrils with its rifle. Then fired multiple rounds in succession, successfully cutting off multiple ribbons that wrapped around Wunder.

With that, the ship finally managed to fly forward, forcing the rest of the tendrils to unwrap. There was a loud deep screech from the Mark.04C variant before it exploded into a cross. Unit 01 was pushed by the explosion but fortunately, managed to bite onto the metal plate at the edge of the ship.

Unit 04 zoomed into the dangling Unit 01, seeing the Entry Plug popping out in the back. Kaworu zoomed in further to see Shinji coming out of the Entry Plug as he looked at Wunder while holding on to his right arm.

"Nice," Mari said, "He managed to not fall into the water. But, I wonder... why did he run off like that? The Puppy is usually good on following orders."

Kaworu placed his hand on his chin, thinking the same question as Mari was. Though, only one answer came to mind. "Rei, did you call Shinji here?"

He's going to have to ask that when he talks to her later.

From a distance, a strange yet familiar orange-colored EVA with one crimson red circular eye observed the entire battle with Wunder. It was staying afloat by a strange white substance on its back acting as wings.

"Subject has yet to make an appearance," the Pilot reported over the radio.

"That's fine," a familiar elderly voice said. "We've at least confirmed that she's not on the ship. Unit 02 didn't make an appearance despite the situation they were in. It's a shame that Mark.44C ver. K was taken out so easily by Unit 01."

"What are your orders now, Sub Commander?"

"Return to base. There's no reason for you to stay there any longer."

"Yes sir." As the Pilot grabbed the controls, her hand flinched as if she remembered something crucial. "However, Sub Commander, what about him? Would it not upset him that the subject did not return with me?"

"He'll just have to be patient a little while longer."

"You were very irresponsible to let him out of your sight, Captain," Misato said, chastising Mari in the Commander's quarters.

"Geeze, it all ended up working out, right? Why are you being such a hardass about it?" Mari asked.

"This isn't about how it ended, this is about how it's going to affect everyone in Wunder. Especially the ones who hold ill feelings toward Three Dash. They will start to get weary that he can no longer be kept in control."

"You know," Mari sighed. "You can call the Puppy by his name when it's just the two of us-"

She stopped when she saw Misato take off her shades revealing a cold glare.

"Okay," Mari said, "Fine if that's how you want to play it."

Misato crossed her arms. "You had your orders to always keep him within eyesight during missions. You will be reprimanded for this. And this is not something you can get out of like you usually do with your other antics."

Mari looked at her commanding officer with an unusual nonchalant gaze when she heard that, finally understanding why Misato wanted to see her.

Noticing her gaze, Misato asked, "Anything you want to add, Captain?"

"This isn't just about letting the Puppy do his thing, is it?" Mari said, "You're also using this as an excuse to get back at me."

"..."

"You never liked the freedom I was given while Little Junior's father was still in charge. You loathe that I was given this position by him before he left, especially before giving the Commander position to you. Let's not forget my history with him after you guys' little fall out after your College days…"

Mari pointed to her commanding officer before ending with, "Let's make this clear as if it wasn't obvious before. You don't like me."

Misato placed her shades back on, covering her eyes. But Mari could tell this had an effect on her.

"Are you done?" the Commander asked.

"As long as we're not hiding behind false excuses when it comes to this, yea, I'm done. We're both grown-ups here, let's at least act like one when we try to take petty punches at each other."

There was a knock on the door before Misato could issue Mari her punishment.

"There is an issue, Commander, Captain," Kaworu called behind the door.

"Kaworu," Shinji's voice was also heard, "I told you I'm fine."

Misato immediately said, "Come in, Three Dash, Five Dash."

Mari sighed in relief when she saw the two come in. Despite taking a stand, she really needed a distraction away from Junior's mother's wrath. But what caught both her and Misato's eyes was that Snowball was practically dragging Puppy into the room.

"What is it?" Misato asked.

Sakura hated this.

She hated that she was touching him, his skin… being in the same room as him. Treating his injuries.

She hated all of this.

The only solace to the situation was that the monster refused to look her in the eye. And it did bring her some amount of joy seeing him wince when she was treating his arm. He was wearing a pair of black pants while the rest of his body was bare for her to inspect for any injuries. If the situation was different and he wasn't a monster, she might've felt differently about this, especially looking at his body's fine tone.

But that's not reality now… Is it?

"Why do I have to do this?" She thought to herself, "This just doesn't make any sense."

And she couldn't get out of it. Not when the Commander was overseeing the whole situation from the corner of the room.

Mari said from the corner opposite to where Misato was, "Careful, you're going to break your teeth if you grit them any tighter."

Sakura finished placing bandages on Shinji's bare shoulder and threw them to the tray nearby. She said, "Why do I need to treat him, Commander? His injury will heal by itself. It will be gone by tomorrow at the latest. This monster heals much faster than any of us normal people since he's not human."

Shinji looked to the floor next to him, eyes filled with guilt as he grabbed a dark blue jacket from the side and zipped it up.

"Hey now," Mari said, "You're being a bit childish here, don't you think? You're a nurse, it's your job to treat people's injuries."

"Yes Captain," Sakura said as she looked at Mari in anger, "People. Not monsters."

Misato, who seemed unfazed by Shinji's title, asked, "Are you done treating him?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes, Commander. I'm done."

"Good. Now, back to your posts, Three Dash and Four Dash."

Mari skipped to Shinji as she patted his back lightly to not hurt any other injuries he may be hiding. She then placed a cap on his head for him and said, "Come on Puppy. Let's go."

Shinji nodded as he secured the hat into a more secure position. He said, "Okay. And Sakura, thank yo-"

"I don't need your thanks. Just get out of here. I can't stand to be in the same room as you any longer," she said with poison in her voice.

He didn't say anything more as he quietly walked out of the room with Mari following closely behind him. But before she left the room, she held out her tongue at Sakura and quickly ran to catch up with Shinji.

But Sakura didn't care, or if she did, she didn't show it. Instead, she turned to the Commander and asked, "Is there anything else you would like me to do, Commander? Preferably not involving him?"

Misato stood still, almost as if to hold herself back. She shook her head. "No. That is all, Second Lieutenant Suzahara."

Sakura, expecting this, bowed and said, "Then if you'll excuse me, I must get back to my research."

Misato watched Sakura walk out of the room while holding a tablet close to her chest. Once the door closed, Misato's hand started to shake in anger.

"Shinji…" she mumbled.

There was another knock, forcing her clenched hand to relax.

"Commander Katsuragi," Kaworu's voice said. "Are you still here?"

She opened the door and asked, "What is it you need, Five Dash?"

Kaworu smiled at her and said, "I just wish to say my thanks for supporting Shinji's treatment when he tried to hide his injury. Despite the distance between you two, it makes me happy to see that you still care for him."

"A Pilot's health is a priority, regardless of who it is… Why didn't you go with the two of them?"

"As I stated, I wished to give my thanks to you… and I have a request."

Misato looked at him in silence, waiting for him to ask.

"I am requesting access to Unit 02's cage once more."

Sakura gritted her teeth as walked down the hallway, the incident still fresh in her mind. The way he looked… how healthy he was...

She stopped and quietly said, "It's not fair that you get to walk while my brother can't. It's not fair that he's sick and you're not. It's not fair that he's so weak and frail while you're strong and healthy. It's not fair that he's… You made him like that, you monster. It's all your fault."

She dropped her tablet. Her hand then went inside her pocket, gripping onto the object that rested inside. Her fingers danced around it.

"-but still, Puppy, that was really fast," Mari said as she continued to talk while they walked down the hallway. "You broke the sound barrier and made it just a nick of time to save Wunder's ass. And the way you nibbled off that giant tentacle like an actual puppy, that was cute!"

As she kept going on and on about the mission, he kept quiet. He kept his hat down in an attempt to cover most of his face as the crew onboard Wunder passed by them. He didn't need to see to know the stares filled with anger and fear towards him. He was used to it by now, but he still couldn't get himself to look them in the eye.

"Are you just going to mope?" Mari asked. She knew about the glares, but she made a promise to not to make a big deal out of it when the crew did this. She merely held out her tongue at them when they weren't looking. "Oh come on, you did something good today, Puppy. You didn't just fight off NERV's weird animal machines, you saved people today. You should be happy that you saved lives today."

"Happy…" Shinji repeated that word once more in his mind. Why did that word specifically stand out this time? Was it because Ms. Mari and Kaworu kept talking about it?

…

When was the last time he was truly happy? Should he be happy? Did he even deserve to be?

"Happy," he repeated the word again, causing an image to appear in his mind.

There he was at Misato's apartment, cooking dinner while Asuka was on the dining room table playing her handheld game. The frozen image held the two bickering as Asuka gave a sly remark resulting in Shinji retorting back. Despite what it may have seemed, there was a hidden smile behind his slight argumentative face.

"Asuka…"

Mari leaned over when he stopped walking. She saw the corners of his lips starting to twitch. Her own smile widened as she saw this. "Is it finally happening? Is the Puppy going to-"

"...Don't think this changes anything, monster," a crew member said as he passed by the two.

The image invading Shinji's mind shattered as he was brought back to reality. The twitch disappeared, causing Mari to release a groan.

"Are. You. Kidding. Me? We were so close to a genuine smile! It was RIGHT THERE!" She immediately turned and yelled, "You! Hold it!"

The member almost jumped at that. He turned and saluted her. His legs were shaking in fear. "Y-Yes, Captain?"

"You ungrateful-... You owe Puppy an apolo-"

She didn't finish as Shinji quickly grabbed her wrist. Mari turned to see him giving her a pleading look with his one available eye. Begging her to stop.

"Don't look at me like that… Ms. Yui held the same eyes." Mari let out a sigh and said, "Your shoes are untied."

He looked down at his boots and noticed that they were indeed untied. "T-Thank you, Captain."

"Yea, whatever. Come on, Puppy." She turned and walked forward.

Shinji gave the man an apologetic bow before quickly following to catch up to her. He said, "Thank you, Ms. Mari."

"How can I say 'no' when you give me that puppy dog eye? But you need to learn to stand up for yourself, Puppy. Stop letting these people have their way. And it's getting hard to keep looking the other way when they keep doing this to you."

"Ms. Mari-"

"I know. I'll drop the subject. Just stop being a coward and start taking action for your own needs and not anyone else's, that's all I ask. You only live once, Puppy. Make the most of it. Just a word of advice for getting me out of trouble with Junior's mommy."

"Thank you, Ms. Mari," Shinji said.

"But!" she exclaimed as she wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "I have to know one thing. What were you thinking that got you to lose focus and caused your lips to twitch?"

"..."

"Were you thinking about the Princess?"

He did not speak to her for the rest of the way back to the room, answering Mari's question whether he intended to or not.

From inside a white plane of nothingness, Rei watched the small circular image in front of her. Within it, the entire scene played out from inside the nursing room to the small incident in the hallway. The image managed to focus on Shinji's mouth twitching as well.

"I do think some people would say that it is inappropriate to spy on them without their permission," Kaworu said as he appeared inside the white plane.

"I wished to confirm that Shinji would be properly cared for and treated by Suzahara," Rei said as she turned. The image behind her quickly disappeared. "But I do have to thank you, for bringing Shinji to Commander Katsuragi for his injury."

"There is no need to thank me. Even though it is an injury that would recover in a matter of hours for him, it is still something he needs to let the Commander know instead of hiding it. Though I was surprised that the Commander's immediate reaction was to bring him to see Suzahara, one of our best nurses aboard in Wunder."

Rei nodded, "Yes, that did surprise me as well. But it seems, despite the coldness from Commander Misato, she still cares about him."

"I told her the same… Ah, before I forget, thank you Rei, for always watching over him, especially for the times I cannot."

"Did you not just state earlier that it was 'inappropriate' to spy on him?"

Kaworu smile widened as he said, "It's good to see that you have not lost some of the teasing habits you've picked up from Captain Illustrious."

Rei blinked at that statement. She quickly said, "This is not teasing. I am merely asking why you are contradicting your earlier statements."

"My first comment was what people call 'a joke'. Captain Illustrious is also influencing me more than I would like… Did you call for Shinji during that battle?"

"Yes."

"I see…"

"Is there an issue in calling for his aid?" Rei said as she tilted her head in confusion.

Kaworu shook his head. "No, I was merely curious as to how Shinji would know to head for Wunder."

"I see."

A pregnant silence fell between the two.

Rei looked closer at Kaworu's face. She knew that look. A smile with the eyes eagerly waiting to ask something but is waiting for the opportunity to. Any normal person may have missed it. But not her.

"What is it you wish to ask me?"

"You know me so well, Rei," he said. "I have come to ask you for your assistance with something."

BACK AT VILLAGE-3

There were many words that Asuka could've used to describe the work Hikari basically forced her to do. Many that she can't say out loud, especially around all these grandmas and kids.

For a month Hikari was trying to get her to do anything other than hospital work since all she did was play her game. And even if Hikari managed to hide the game from her, Asuka would barely help out unless specifically asked to do a task.

"A few days," Hikari said to her before leaving her here. "Just try this one out for a few days, and if you don't like it, we can do something else."

"A few days," Asuka mumbled.

She found a hiding spot under the shade of a nearby tree. Asuka managed to hide from the old grandmas and kids working on the farm. She especially did not like wearing a farmer's overalls with a headband underneath a straw hat. She had the ugly overalls wrapped up to her knees. Her focus was on her game, as always, waiting for the time to pass.

"Farm work," she scoffed. "Yea, like I'm ever going to do-"

"There you are," an old lady wearing a blue button-down and a straw hat said. "Doctor Suzahara did mention that you might pull something like this, so she had me keep an eye on you."

"Great," Asuka said, turning away from her. "Now I have a babysitter."

Her focus was on her game, not on the old lady. She was hoping that the old lady would get tired and just walk away. She did not expect the grandma to quickly snatch the game off her hands.

"HEY!" Asuka exclaimed.

"You can have this back once you do some work. Come, little girl. Since it's your first day, it'll be only a few hours. You can take off around lunch or whenever you finish your portion."

"That's not what- hey!" Asuka couldn't finish as she was grabbed by the arm and forced up. She had to give credit where it was due, this old lady was both sneaky and strong for her old age.

"So light and skinny. Are you eating?" the old lady asked.

"That's none of your business."

"We'll keep things even simpler today then."

Asuka tried to get out of her grip, but the old lady held strong, stronger than most people Asuka knew. She was practically dragged into a rice patch portion of the big farmland. This part, like the other parts of the farm, was being worked on by other people of the Village, both young and old.

The old lady then handed Asuka a basket filled with green plants and grabbed one of her own. She said, "Follow what I do."

Asuka watched as she walked into the pond. The lady grabbed a plant from the basket and knelt down planting them into the ground under the pond.

"See? Easy. It's a messy job but simple."

"I am not doing this," Asuka said as she was about to drop the basket.

"You do that," she said as she held up Asuka's WonderSwan from her pocket. The handheld game was being dangled off the lady's fingers. "This goes too."

"You-"

"As I said, you'll get this back when you do some work. It's only a few hours."

Asuka looked up to the skies, almost praying to any god out there why she was being forced to do this. She then let out a deep sigh. "Fine."

Asuka walked in and had to hold in a yelp on the unexpected cold temperature of the water. It wasn't too cold per se, but it was just colder than she had expected. She grabbed a plant from the basket and gave the old lady a look.

She motioned for Asuka to continue.

Asuka sighed and leaned down to plant it into the ground.

The grandma smiled. "Good. Keep going," she said as she continued to plant her potion.

Asuka could only let out a groan as she did what she was told. This was the only way she was going to get her stuff back and go back to "her" room.

"This is torture. Why do I have to do this? A Pilot doing farm work. This is embarrassing."

"One thing," the old lady said.

"What?" Asuka said, not looking her in the eye as she continued, "Is this not good enough? You just said that I was doing it well."

She shook her head, "No, that's not what I meant. Make sure you kneel down instead of leaning down while standing. That's how you hurt your back. And watch your steps, it's easy to trip here."

"Whatever," she said as she continued to do what she did before.

"Don't say I warned you, girlie."

"This is stupid." Asuka said as she proceeded to do this… mundane work. "I would rather work with Hikari in that stupid clinic work instead of this. A few days… No. I'm not doing this-" She let out a scream, "GAH!"

She had tripped, landing on her behind with the basket being tossed up. The water splashed around her, and she started to feel the water sip into her clothes.

The old lady and everyone else who saw started to laugh. "I told you to watch your steps."

Asuka growled as she held her hat down, covering her blushed face. "Idiot, I'm going to kill you for leaving me here."

ONE DAY LATER - BACK AT WUNDER

Within the Commander's quarters, Ritsuko pressed the button on her tablet displaying on the wall monitor a giant black pillar with red glowing accents around it. It was centered around a city that was no longer covered in red coating and was cleansed of it. The city now showed the normal colors that lay dormant for years.

"We've managed to secure the location without any further issues and interference," she said. "But we still need to account for the damages during the battle with the variant."

Misato nodded as she grabbed the tablet from her to look over the reports on her own. She said, "We've managed to now secure a new location to gather spare parts for our EVA's, especially with Unit 01 after the recent mission. That's good enough for now. But for the damages, where is the closest area we can land for repairs?"

"Village-3. Luckily, we're due for resupply from there as well."

Misato flinched.

"Misato," Ritsuko said, her voice softening, "Maybe this could be an opportunity to see Junior-"

"Sub Commander Akagi," she said, quickly recovering from the unexpected shock, "There is no time for the family business with either of us, that was the burden we both took on when we took over WILLE."

"But he's still your son."

"And we have our duty as leaders of WILLE to uphold," Misato said. She gave the tablet back to Ritsuko and said, "End of discussion."

Ritsuko sighed, having failed another attempt to get her friend to see her son. "It's been years. The least she could do is show her face."

She watched Misato open up the door to exit. But both of them were not expecting to see a person waiting behind the door.

"What is it, Three Dash?" Misato asked coldly, masking her surprise.

"Hello!" Mari said, jumping from behind Shinji and waving to the two. "Sorry about the intrusion, but Puppy here," she pinched his cheek, "Wanted to talk to you about something."

Shinji looked at Misato through her shades with hard yet warmed filled eyes. "Ms.-... Commander, I have a request to make."

"You think you're in any position to make a request, Three Dash?" she asked.

Mari let go of Shinji's cheek and took a few cautious steps back. She could feel the cold aura emitting from the leader of WILLE. But she still said, "Aww come on, let him ask. He did save Wunder yesterday, you know. The least you can do is listen to his one little request. You rarely get one of those from him."

Misato's head turned towards her. The Captain could feel the angry glare towards her under those shades.

"Okay, shutting up now."

Misato's head turned back towards Shinji, motioning for him to continue.

"We will be landing at Village-3, correct?" he asked, standing his ground with his hands clenched into a fist.

Ritsuko walked up and answered for Misato, "That is correct."

He took a deep breath and said, "Then, my request is…"

"This is the last time I'm helping out those old grannies with that farm!" Asuka said as she ran into the bathroom. Water dripped behind her as it left a trail from the front door to the bathroom.

The commotion managed to startle Tsubame from her sleep in Bunzaemon's arms. He yelled, "Aw come on! I just got you to sleep. I scream and it's fine, but when she screams it's not?"

"Come on pops," Toji said as he held out his arm to him from his wheelchair. "I'll take it from here. It must be tiring for you to be watching over her all morning."

He grunted as he gently placed the baby in her father's arm. He said, "She came in awfully early today."

Tsubame started to calm down as Toji gently rocked her in his arm. He said, "There, there Tsubame. Red didn't mean it. She's just being cranky…"

Bunzaemon sighed, "I'll go mop up the mess the girl left behind."

"Thanks pops," Toji said.

He kept rocking Tsubame the best he could in his wheelchair as the two were left alone. His child ceased her cries and released a giggle. She reached up to her father with her small arms. He brought her closer to his head, allowing the child to touch and play with his sunken face.

Soon, his eyes wandered to Asuka stomping out of the bathroom wearing a red jacket zipped up and blue jeans. He continued to watch her in silence, as if he was waiting for her to say something to him, only to receive nothing in return.

Toji released a small sigh as the door closed behind her after she went into her room.

Bunzaemon, who finished cleaning up, shook his head and said, "That girl is becoming more trouble than she's worth."

Toji looked at the door with sad eyes while Tsubame continued to touch and play with his face, oblivious to the situation around her. He said, "Red…"

There was a knock on the front door, causing Toji's father in-law to release another sigh. He placed the mop against the wall and walked to the door.

"I'm coming," he said, opening the door. His eyes widened at their guest. "Well, what do we owe the visit, Little Junior? Did you come straight here from work?"

Junior, who wore a black shirt and a pair of jeans, looked over Bunzaemon's shoulder and said, "Hello, Mr. Horaki. Is Asuka here? I heard that she got mad after getting wet today and left immediately."

"That girl… Yes, she's home," he grumbled. Then his eyes went to a small lunch box in the boy's hands.

Noticing the glance, Junior held up the wrapped bento box to him and said, "Mr. Kensuke told me I should bring this to her. Ms. Horaki was the one who made this for her, actually. They said that they should give you a break cooking for her once in a while."

"The food is wasted on her," Bunzaemon said as he scratched his head in frustration.

"What do you mean?"

"She hasn't eaten anything we made her. Everything we make for her has gone to waste.."

Junior froze when he heard that. He asked, "Wait, so she hasn't been eating?"

"She just eats bread and water. Just enough to survive, I suppose. That good for nothing girl, does she not realize all the food that's precious here is being wasted on her?" He looked at Junior who seemed like he wanted to do something. "You want to give the food to her in person?"

He nodded and said, "If that is okay."

"If you want to, go ahead," Bunzaemon said as he stepped aside, allowing Junior into their home.

Toji, who was hearing all the conversation, soon saw Junior come into the house. "Hey there, kiddo."

"Mr. Toji-" Junior tried to say but Toji interrupted him.

"I told you to stop it with the "Mr.", makes me feel old."

Bunzaemon gave out a chuckle. "Now you know how I feel whenever I talk to these kids in the Village."

Toji gave out a small laugh too. He soon pointed to the door where Asuka was staying. "Red's staying there if you want to try your hands in getting her to try actual food for once."

Junior gave a nod and said, "Thank you, Mr.-... Uh, Uncle Toji."

He gave out another groan. Hearing her father release a strange noise caused Tsubame to giggle in his arm. He said, "That's not any better."

Junior made his way to Asuka's door and knocked. "Asuka?" he said, "It's Junior. I know we haven't had the chance to talk much, but do you have a moment?"

"What?" Asuka asked from behind the door.

Toji looked at his in-law with wide eyes and was met with similar wide saucer eyes. She rarely, if at all, gave a response when they tried talking to her. She only talked to Hikari.

"I thought you would be hungry, so I brought some food-"

"Not hungry."

"Ms. Horaki cooked this, don't you want to try it?" Junior tried to push on. "I heard that you weren't eating well so-"

"Are you deaf? I said I'm not hungry."

"But-"

Bunzaemon walked up to Junior and placed his hand on his shoulders and said, "That girl doesn't want it. Bring that food back to my oldest daughter."

Junior let out a defeated sigh. "Okay…" But then he got an idea. "Would you like the food then? I'm sure Ms. Horaki would love it if at least either you or Mrs. Suzahara ate her food."

The elder man looked at the lunch box for a moment, almost thinking about his options. He eventually took the wrapped box from him and said, "Fine. But next time, tell her to bring the food herself next time.'

"I'm sure Ms. Horaki would be happy that you made sure that the food didn't go to waste."

Bunzaemon gave a grunt as he walked into the kitchen.

Toji laughed as did Tsubame who was mirroring her father's reactions. "He's just a bit touchy since it's about Sis," he said.

"I heard that!" Bunzaemon yelled from the kitchen.

Junior gave a small chuckle at their dynamic. It was good to see a family with a good relationship with each other.

"Family…" his eyes went to the floor. "Wonder if mom's going to come to visit soon."

His eyes then went to Asuka's door. "Asuka… Brother Shin, what do I do about her? I can't do anything if she doesn't let anyone in."

Seeing Junior's concerned face, Toji said, "Junior, you're doing your best. It's up to Red to take the steps she needs. You can only do so much. But look at the bright side, at least she talks to you."

"But she's-"

"She can't be like that forever. Yea, she's being a bit of an ass and acting like that longer than she should. But she'll eventually get out of it. Or I'll make sure she does, one way or another," Toji said. "But how much longer do I need to be patient with her?"

Junior looked to the door again before slouching. He said "Okay…"

Kensuke placed a cardboard box on the shelf before grabbing the toolbox that was next to him. He hummed as he heard Junior explain the situation to him.

"Huh, Toji developed some patience. He actually grew up a bit," Kensuke said. "Back then, he would've found a way to force out of her room then and there, wheelchaired or not."

"So, we should just leave her be?" Junior asked.

"She needs to sort out her own feelings. We can't do much more for her."

Kensuke made his way out of his spare shed with the toolbox at hand and walked towards his makeshift house. The lights from the house were lighting the way in the dead of the night.

Junior followed after him and into the house. What he saw next almost made him laugh.

Kodama was covered in dirt and oil as she was working on a small military generator. She was working on this for hours, not realizing how late it was.

"I give up!" She threw up her hands in frustration. She said, "I don't know how you do this Kenken. This is too confusing."

Kensuke chuckled as he put the toolbox next to her. He said, "But you managed to figure out the previous one. This one's similar."

She turned to look at him and said, "No they're not." She then held up a small box. "What's with this little thing?"

He gave out another chuckle when she showed him a metallic box with wires hanging out of one surface. "That's the replaceable power supply. Did you follow the schematics I've shown you on how to install it?"

"Yea, I did. But I can't make heads or tails on what these drawings are. And why are the wire colors so different from the other one? At least the other one was simple. Red was positive and black was negative. But what's with the yellow and- oh hi Junior, when did you get here?"

There was a small laugh from Junior. He said, "Hi Ms. Horaki-"

"Aw crap, it's night already?!" She cursed as she frantically got up. "It was my turn to make dinner tonight."

"Don't worry about it," Kensuke said. "You've made lunch for all of us today-"

"But it was my turn to make food for you guys today."

"You're too busy with figuring the generator out. Plus, you're dirty right now. Take a shower. I'll have dinner ready by the time you get out. We'll work on the generator together once we finish eating. Okay?"

Kodama was about to argue back because she did not like leaving things half-baked. Well… normally anyways. Something about that smile Kensuke gave her always made her back down.

"Oh okay," she said as she got up and dusted the dirt off of her. Kensuke had already made it to the kitchen when she finished. She then turned to Junior, remembering something. "So, did our little angry redhead like my cooking?"

Junior shook his head and gave out a sigh. "She hasn't been eating well. She didn't take the food you made for her either."

Kodama's eyes widened when she heard that. She walked closer to Junior and said, "Wait, what? And Hikari is okay with that? At least please tell me that dad- actually, no. He won't eat them... Please tell me that Toji and Hikari-"

She shook her head and continued, "No, she won't eat anything I make ever since we fought all those years ago."

Junior said, "Actually, Mr. Horaki took the lunch box."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, that's... surprising. He was pretty mad at me. But since he took it, guess he's calmed down a bit. Wonder if having a grandchild changed things for him…"

"But what should we do about Asuka? She doesn't eat anything but bread and water."

Kodama gave a shrug and said, "Eh, what can we do, force feed her? That's not going to help. In fact, I think that's just going to make things worse in the long run. It's not healthy but at least she's eating something. Just a bit surprising that Hikari is letting it go for this long."

"But Ms. Horaki…" he tried to say something. It felt like everyone was giving up on Asuka. He had to do something, but what can he do? She pushed him away, and there was no one in the village who could-

"Hey~ We're back!" a familiar voice broke Junior's train of thought.

The two turned to see Mari waving at them with a small backpack on her. Shinji, who looked strangely tired, followed behind her closely with a small backpack of his own. Both wore their respective plugsuits while Shinji wore his coat over his with the hood over his head.

"Brother Shin! That's it!" Junior thought to himself.

"Welcome back, Mari. Still wearing that same uniform I see." Kodama said. She then turned to Shinji. There was a small strain in her voice as she said, "Ikari."

"Hi Ms. Horaki," Shinji said with a bow, refusing to meet her gaze.

"You look exhausted."

Mari almost screamed, "That's what I said this morning!"

Kensuke popped his head over and said, "Oh right, Commander Katsuragi did say that they'll be stopping by for repairs. Things got bad again?"

Mari's happy demeanor immediately disappeared and let out a groan, "Please don't mention her right now."

"Brother Shin!" Junior immediately rushed to him, surprising everyone in the room.

Shinji blinked at the frantic emotion that Junior was showing. He asked, "What is it, Junior?"

"It's about Asuka."

Shinji's face now became filled with concern. Immediately forgetting about everything else. "What happened to her? Is she okay?"

He shook his head and replied, "No, she's not okay. She hasn't been eating well. I'm sorry I can't do more but she needs help."

Mari asked, "Is the Princess just refusing to eat?"

"From what I heard and seen." Junior looked into Shinji's one visible eye. "Please… You have to do something, Brother Shin."

Shinji took a deep breath, remembering how the last thing Junior asked him before he left was to do something for Asuka. And now, the first thing he asks of him is to do something for her again…

He looked to the floor. "This isn't how things should be… She should be happy and safe here without me. I shouldn't be getting involved with her."

Then that same memory he had about Misato's apartment appeared in his head once more.

"Please," Junior begged once more, "If she stays like this, she's going to get hurt."

That got him to drop his bag.

Underneath the blanket, Asuka continued to play her game that she had managed to snatch the game off of the grandma before coming home. The light from the small monitor lit up the darkness inside.

"I'm a Pilot but I'm being forced to help out in a clinic and stupid farm work. Doing all this mundane volunteer work. Why do I have to humiliate myself to do this?"

She got frustrated and turned off the game. She got the blanket off of her and grabbed the doll next to her.

"Stupid Idiot Shinji. He left me here, abandoning me… After everything the two of us went through- after everything I went through because of him, he doesn't care."

Asuka started to play with the doll.

"Fine. I don't need him. If he's just going to leave me, I'm done with him. He doesn't care for me anyways, so why should I care for him?"

She released a frustrated sigh. "Why am I acting like this? Like some love-struck girl who's been dumped. We weren't dating or anything like that…"

The kiss reappeared in her mind, the events from that night replying clearly in her head.

Her stomach then growled, breaking her out of her thoughts. It wasn't surprising to her, especially with how she's been eating. She looked outside to see the moonlight shining into the room and then to the time she set on her game.

"Good, Hikari and the others should be sleeping."

Asuka got up from the bed and looked at the small gaps on the bottom of the door. She saw that there were no lights nor flickers of the candlelight, further confirming her assumption about the rest of the household. She opened the door and almost released a small yelp, but she still jumped a bit surprised by the person who was lurking behind the door.

"Junior?" she said, louder than she meant to. She lowered her voice as she continued, "What are you doing here?'

Asuka's eyes fell onto a small neatly tied bento box resting in his hands. She immediately knew what this was about.

Junior held up the bento box and said, "I thought you might want some food. You didn't get to eat anything today, right?"

"What's it to you? Why do you care?"

"Because that's what I do. I want to help out where I can. And I want to help you."

"Why? You don't owe me anything as much as I don't owe you anything," Asuka said as she crossed her arms.

He blinked in confusion at her comment. "Do I need a reason to want to help out? We're friends, aren't we?"

She scoffed, "We're not friends. We're acquaintances at best."

"You may not think of me as a friend, but I think of you as one. And because I see you as a friend, I want you to eat this." Junior held out the bento box closer to her.

She inspected the box now that she had a better view of it. The way it was warped and stacked seemed a bit familiar to her. But she shook her head and pushed the thought back.

"No thanks. I'm good-" She froze when her stomach released another growl. "Damn it."

He smiled and pushed the food to her one more time. "I know you are the type of person who stands by her decisions, but do you think you can just make an exception just for today? At least just with this food?"

Asuka's eyes refocused on the box in Junior's hands. Her stomach released another growl as her eyes became further glued onto it.

"Ms. Kodama and Mrs. Suzahara didn't make this one if that's what you're worried about," he said.

"Then who made it?" Her eyes still never left the box of food.

"I did, just for you," he said in somewhat of a strained voice, almost forcing it out.

But she didn't catch that as her mind was becoming filled with thoughts of food before her, her body welcoming anything else other than bread in its system. Both mind and body forced her to accept the offer.

Asuka didn't say anything as she snatched the box from him and took it inside her room. But she left the door open, almost welcoming him inside.

She sat down and unwrapped the covering. Her mouth started to water when she opened the contents inside the box. It could be hunger speaking but the food before her looked extra appetizing to her. She grabbed the wooden chopsticks attached to the side of the bento box.

Asuka did not think about savoring it as she started to stuff food inside her mouth.

Junior smiled at the way she was eating. It was good to see her finally eating, her bones were starting to show with how little she had been eating. Hopefully, with this, she'll be able to start eating better. And if he's lucky, she won't figure out who really made this-

He froze when Asuka stopped. He watched her slowly swallow the contents inside her mouth. He immediately knew why.

"You did not make this," she said as she stuffed the chopsticks inside the box.

"What are you talking about?" Junior said as Brother Shin's voice echoed in his head.

"Don't knock on her door. Wait for her to open the door this time. And tell her that you made the food for her."

He knew this was not going to work. But he did it anyway since Brother Shin really pushed this. He continued, "I made this for you. Mr. Kensuke helped me out a bit, yea. But I-"

"Cut the crap. The Idiot made this, didn't he?"

He shook his head.

Asuka let out another frustrated sigh. She knew he was going to continue denying this. She quickly got up and ran out of the house.

Junior bit his lips when heard the door slam open. "I told you this wasn't going to work. She knew it was your food when my dad was handing out the food… Why don't you want to talk to her, Brother Shin? Is it because you're a Pilot?"

He got up and chased after her. But not to stop her. He went after her to make sure she got to her destination correctly and safely.

On the living room floor, hidden by the table, Bunzaemon groaned as he sat up. He was awakened by the commotion. He scratched the back of his head and yawned.

"Damn kids. At least close the door on your way out."

Mari stretched alone in the dark living room that was illuminated by a few candles on the shelves. She tossed the tablet she was looking at for god knows how long. All she knew was that it was past midnight. Any sane person would be sleeping at this hour.

But she wasn't sane, she knew that.

"Strange," she said as she turned to the room Shinji usually stayed in. "Usually the Puppy is out doing his usual routine. But he didn't come out today after cooking… Well, he did seem unusually tired after the mission and especially this morning, which makes sense since he went overboard during the mission. I wonder if he's-"

Mari was interrupted mid-sentence by a furious knock at the door. "Here we go~" She quickly made her way to the door, trying not to wake up the homeowner with the guest at the door.

"Hello there Princess," she said as she opened the door, seeing a panting angry redhead. "Good evening."

Asuka asked in between breaths, "Where's... the Idiot?"

"Aww, that's cute. You came looking for Puppy," Mari said. Her eyes then went behind her to see Asuka's secret guide there, hiding behind the trees. Her attention quickly went back to the redhead and said, "I'm surprised that you managed to find your way here."

"It wasn't that hard. Just had to remember the route Hikari's sister took." Asuka bumped Mari's shoulders as she walked past her.

Mari fixed her glasses. "A month in the Village and you're still feisty as ever."

She turned to close the door but saw that the Junior was looking at her with concerned eyes. Mari gave him a thumbs up, signaling him that she'll handle this, not that it brought any sense of relief to him.

She soon closed the door but chose not to lock it. As Mari came into the living room, she noticed Asuka frantically looking around.

"Which room is his?" she asked.

Mari let out a small giggle when she heard that.

"What's so funny, Thief?" Asuka turned to her with her arms crossed.

"You remember your way here, but you don't remember the room you woke up in."

Asuka's face flushed a bit, now remembering Junior's comment about coming out of "Brother Shin's room". But that still begged the question…

"How do you know that I woke up in his room?"

Mari shrugged, deciding not to tell her that she secretly watched the Puppy carry her to his room bridal style… At least not yet, anyway. "Is this the time you want to be using to ask me questions, or do you want to check up on the Puppy? He should still be in his room."

Asuka quickly turned.

She was right. Asuka was here to talk with the Idiot, not her. She made her way to the room she woke up in about a month ago. She didn't think about knocking as she burst open the door.

"Idiot, you have some explaining to do."

Asuka saw Shinji laying in the middle of his bed with his bare back to her, wearing nothing else but a pair of black jeans. He had his legs close to his chest with his arms around them.

"Don't ignore me," she said when she heard no response. She didn't see Mari's eyes widening behind her.

She soon froze when he started to shake with him mumbling, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"What the- Oof!" Asuka almost lost balance when Mari pushed past her, rushing towards Shinji's side.

Mari kneeled next to the bed and started petting him as she cooed, "It's okay Puppy. It's all okay. It's not your fault."

But that didn't stop Shinji from mumbling the same words, "I'm sorry."

Asuka couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her fists started to shake at the image in front of her. The relationship was more than the two were letting on, wasn't it?

Mari's words from a month ago repeated in her head, "It's not what it looks like-"

Asuka mumbled, "Liar."

Shinji had someone in his life. And it wasn't her…

…

This was too much.

As soon as Asuka started to turn to leave, she stopped when she heard Mari say, "He's asleep you know."

Asuka didn't need to turn to know that Mari was still petting his head. She asked, "And why should that matter?"

"Puppy always has nightmares on the few occasions his body allows him to sleep."

"That still doesn't answer my question."

"I tried to help him. Snowball tried. Even that Pilot-Wannabe girl tried. But we can't do anything to help calm him down in this state."

Shinji's mumbling words still filled the room, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Again," Asuka turned to her, frustrated at what the Thief was going on about. "That doesn't answer my question."

"Oh, you know where I'm getting at with this. There's no need to be shy," Mari said. She got up and walked toward Asuka. "Maybe we weren't the ones who could help him." Her smirk widened. "You are."

"Wha-" Asuka didn't have the time to finish as she was yanked forward from her wrist.

Mari said as she dragged her to the bed, "And there's no need to put on that jealous face. Puppy and I aren't like that."

"I. Am. Not. Jealous. And let me go-" Asuka again couldn't finish as she was forced sit on the top corner of the bed. "What are you- HEY!"

Mari soon brought Shinji's head onto Asuka's lap. She winked at the angry girl and said, "You can thank me later."

Asuka tried to grab her, but she barely managed to dodge.

"Nyah~ You gotta be faster than that to catch me!" Mari waved to them as she skipped her way out of the room. "Have fun!"

Asuka growled, annoyed by her. "I don't get how a person like her can exist."

She twitched when she felt Shinji squirm on her lap.

She blushed at the unusual sensation. "Idiot, don't move like that!"

How could a person not wake up with the amount of noise and movement around him? She was practically yelling and he was still sleeping through it all.

"Nnngg… Asuka…" Shinji groaned in his sleep.

Asuka flinched, hearing him call her name. Not with the same coldness as before, but with the warmth it once held before this strange world.

Her anger toward him lessened. She took a closer look at his face. Even her face softened. The only thing now filling the room was the small rhymes of his snoring. The beating of her own heart got louder in her ears, her face heating up at the situation.

Despite the dim moonlight from the cracks of the wall lighting up the otherwise dark room, she could perfectly make out every part of his body. Especially his sleeping face.

"At least he stopped mumbling those two stupid words."

She couldn't help but brush his hair.

"Idiot... Why do you have to look innocent when you're like this? Why is it so hard to stay mad at you when you're like this? Despite abandoning me here…"

Asuka let out a small yelp when she felt his arm wrap around her, pulling her stomach closer to his head. His head rubbed against her.

"Y-You Idiot!" She raised her hand with a heavy blush on her face, ready to hit him. Asleep or not, no one does this to her and gets away with it.

"Asuka…" Shinji mumbled. "Please… don't leave."

"Wha-"

"I... missed you."

She took a sharp breath when she heard that. She couldn't move. Time seems to freeze around her as those words. She felt something when she heard those words leave his mouth… She didn't know what to do next.

What is she supposed to do with this information?

…

After what felt like an eternity, Asuka's raised hand went down to his head. Not to hit him. But to pet him.

"Idiot, then why did you leave me? Why are you avoiding me? Why don't you want to talk to me?"

She couldn't help but smile when he rubbed his head against her once more. Though, her eyes still twitched from this action.

"I'm going to definitely hit you tomorrow for this, among the other things we need to sort out."

For now, she was just content having him this close to her, especially when she once thought he forever disappeared from her life. She had almost forgotten about the anger she felt, the feeling of abandonment…

Because he was here now. And now was all that mattered.

"Why can't you be more like this when you're awake instead of being an ass, Idiot Shinji?"

Mari slowly withdrew her phone from the small gap in the slightly opened door. She then quietly closed the door so as to not disturb the two… Well, the Princess, mostly.

She made her way to the couch in the middle of the living room before jumping onto it. Her eyes were focused on the phone, having taken pictures and videos of the whole event.

"I knew the Princess was the key to your nightmares. She was and will always be your light through your dark times. Even back then all those years ago," Mari said with a warm smile. "Now, only if I can get you to be with her and not push her away."

"You know, Sister Mari," Junior said as he popped his head over the couch. "It's impolite to eavesdrop and take videos of people's private life."

There was a small laugh from her as she turned off her phone. "Look who's talking about 'privacy'. You chose to come into the house because you were curious, weren't you? Trying to eavesdrop too, you naughty boy."

Junior looked to the ground, and stuttered out, "T-That's-"

"Don't worry. I'm just teasing you, Junior," Mari said. She got up and rustled his hair. "It's okay to be curious. Especially about the 'Mysterious Brother Shin's' relationship."

"Stop it," he said as he pulled himself away.

"Aw, look who's being shy."

"Why are you always like this? Is everything a joke with you?" he asked, fixing his hair.

Mari let out a laugh. "Once you've lived as long as I have, you realize that being all serious all the time is no way to live. Just look at the Puppy, does he look happy being serious about everything?"

"N-No, but-... There has to be a reason why he's doing all this in secret and hiding from everyone and pushing Asuka away."

Mari strangely stayed quiet when she heard that, finding that information strange to her. "You don't know?"

"Know what exactly?" He said, "I know Pilots are hated in the Village because of the event that happened in the past with another Pilot, that can explain why he's so secretive. But I still can't understand why he avoids her but not you or me... I guess Mr. Kensuke and Ms. Horaki too. They're friends, aren't they?"

"You coward," Mari thought to herself, "I can understand the other kids, but still keeping that hidden even to your own son? He's old enough to know. What's going to happen when one of the older Village members, or people around his age who now knows, tells him before you do?" "Ask your dad. He's a fountain of knowledge."

"Just like how I was tricked into asking my dad about the 'birds and the bees' when I was just five?"

She laughed, "THAT was funny. Not getting a picture of that old flustered bushy face is one of the things I regret the most."

"But you were the one who told me to ask him that!" Junior let out a frustrated groan with a blush on his face. "Whatever, I'm out of here. I have to get back before my father gets mad at me for staying out so late anyways."

He turned to leave the house. Mari reached over to the table to get him a spare coat. But as she did, she noticed the envelope underneath.

"Oh crap," she quickly grabbed the envelope and a coat before tossing them to Junior. "Hey, Little Ryoji. Catch."

He barely had time to turn from the entrance door and catch the two objects thrown at him. He looked a bit annoyed but more curious as to why she would throw these two to him.

"It's supposed to get cold on your way back, so be sure to stay warm," she said before laying back down on the couch. "And that's a note from your mommy."

"M-Mom?" he frantically tried to open up the envelope, dropping the coat as he did.

"I wouldn't open it here, Junior. That's something meant to be read with your daddy. Puppy was supposed to give this to you in person but as you can see, he was immediately preoccupied with cooking for Princess before passing out. And now… he's in his happy place."

"Why would mom write a letter for us? She never did before, so what's so different about this time?"

Mari stretched as she said, "Does it matter? She wrote it for you. I would just take it and go home quickly to read it with your daddy."

"And I don't think you'll like the whole truth behind why she wrote it…"

He didn't need to hear that advice twice. He quickly rushed out of the house, forgetting the coat on the floor.

Mari jumped off the couch and grabbed the coat before dashing after him. "Hey, Little Ryoji! You forgot the coat! It's supposed to be cold tonight!"

He felt something soft and warm on his face. He felt comfortable for once in god knows how long. He could feel something soft in his arms. It was nice and warm.

He could feel the corners of his mouth twitch.

And this smell… it smelled like-

"Get off me you monster!"

Asuka's scream from that fateful battle broke Shinji's blissful trance. He woke up, confused at the unusual sensation around his body. He knew he fell asleep in his room, having lain down due to the exhaustion he felt.

But he did not remember this sensation as he fell asleep.

When he quickly looked up, he saw the strands of familiar red hair he knew all so well.

"Asuka…" He quickly realized that he was held close to her with him holding her as well. She held his head close to her chest while he had his hands wrapped around her waist.

He shook his head. This cannot happen. He can't be-… A monster like him shouldn't be this close to her.

Shinji quickly unwrapped his arm and gently pried her arms off. He froze when she groaned and turned away from him. He let out the breath he was holding, realizing she was still asleep.

He softly brushed her hair, feeling a wave of peace in seeing her face-

Shinji quickly shook his head and pulled his hand back. He was doing it… again.

He placed a thin blanket over her and whispered, "Why are you here, Asuka?..."

His eye hardened in realization. There could be only one person who would put him in this situation.

"Ms. Mari…"

He grabbed his hanging coat and got out of the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

Shinji was about to go into the other guest room but then heard a small "nyah" sounding snore from the couch. He made his way to see a sleeping Mari with a dumb smile plastered across her face.

She let out a laugh as she spoke in her sleep, "Hehehe. Ms. Yui…"

He leaned over and held her nose. After about a minute, Mari's eyes shot wide open as she gasped for air. She immediately set up, Shinji letting go of her nose.

She rubbed her eyes as she said, "What the… Puppy? What time is it?"

"It's six in the morning," he said as he got up.

Mari stretched, her brain still trying to comprehend what just happened from the grogginess. She then smirked at this unusual action by him.

She said, "You've never done this to wake me up. That was a very childish thing for you to do. Despite that angry glare, you're in a brighter mood. Having been woken up in the Princess' arms like you always wanted definitely made you happy, didn't it?"

"I'm going to head out now, Captain," Shinji said as he made his way out of the house, pulling his hood up. He was behind schedule. He didn't mean to sleep for this long. "Kensuke said that he needed to take more today since they were running low. But before that, there are a few things I need to take care of."

"Hey wait!" she said as she quickly got off the couch and chased after him. "You can't just leave like that! You have to tell me how it was! You smell just like the Princess instead of your usual LCL scent, you know. It must've felt nice to have the Princess in your arms. Did you still have those nightmares with your Princess taking care of you? Is she still in your room?"

Mari took a quick glance back at Shinji's room as he continued to walk away from the house.

"Princess, don't give up just yet."

Junior was asked to pick up Asuka by his father to bring her back to the Village, having known about Asuka's location from Junior just before reading the content of the letter in the envelope.

On his way there and back to the Village with her, he couldn't help but have a big bright smile. The letter from his mother had put him in a brighter mood.

"I'm proud of you both for all you do for the Village. Stay strong. Junior, keep your head up. No matter what, I'll always be proud of you."

It wasn't long nor did it hold any 'motherly' content. But it was much more than what both he and his father were expecting. Normally it was nothing, not even a letter from her. While the two were uncertain about the letter, his dad confirmed that it was indeed his mother's writing.

But that still didn't stop his dad from wearing a weary face.

However, that didn't matter to Junior. Just the fact that she wrote to her made him ecstatic. Almost made him happier than he's ever been.

His smile only grew wider as those words repeated in his head.

…

Only if he could say the same thing about the girl next to him.

She was fuming the moment she got out of Brother Shin's room, demanding to know where 'the Idiot' went this time. But how would he know?

He responded with, "He normally disappears from time to time but he does end up coming back here. You could also probably find him in the usual hiding spot if you wait there."

Asuka shook her head. Quietly proceed to walk back to the Village with Junior by her side.

Junior decided to finally break the ice between the two, figuring that she won't talk otherwise. "Do you have plans in the Village today? Are you helping out Mrs. Suzahara today at the Clinic? Or are you helping out with the farm?"

"I am not helping out those old grannies with that farmland."

"I don't blame you. I heard about what happened the past two days you were there… But don't you think you should give it another shot?"

"I gave it 'another' shot already. I am not doing that again," she said.

Junior said, "Okay…"

He was lost in what he could do for her. If she went back to Mrs. Suzahara's place, she's just going to hold herself in her room for days until Mrs. Suzahara forces her out of the room again. At least if she's out, Asuka's not secluding herself from the Village… But what can he-

Junior placed his clenched hand over an open hand with an expression of someone finally understanding the answer to a difficult question. "That's it!"

"What?" Asuka turned to look at him, curious as to why he would suddenly sound even more excited all of a sudden.

"What about visiting the place I work then? It's not my shift today, but I think my father will be okay if I brought you to show you around if it's only for a bit. Everyone in the Village has been to it or will have a chance to see it eventually. Why not use this chance to see it?"

"And why would I want to-"

"Come on!" Junior grabbed her wrist and started to drag her in a different direction she wasn't familiar with. "Let's go!"

"Hey, wait, I didn't agree to this!" Asuka yelled, only for her words to fall on deaf ears.

He kept leading her along into the unknown path in the woods with a wide smile on his face like this was the greatest idea he ever thought of. But, unlike the excited boy, Asuka's eyes were on Junior's wrist with a frown.

"He's weaker than that granny."

She could've broken free. Despite still feeling a bit weak from her diet from the past month, she was stronger than him, that much she could tell. Especially with the years of training to be a Pilot. It would be so easy… but when the thought of hurting him crossed her mind, she stopped.

Not only was this strange feeling hurting him getting to her, but there was also one thing she can't forget about him. "He's Misato's kid… Gah, fine. The very least I can do is humor your kid, Misato. You owe me one."

Misato felt something cold behind her. She took a quick glance behind her to the woods leading into the Village-3.

"Is something wrong, Commander?" Ritsuko asked, seeing that the Commander was unusually distracted.

"Nothing. Just felt someone call my name. Continue, Sub Commander Akagi," Misato said as she turned to face her again, listening to the reports of the ship.

"You're off your game today," Ritsuko thought to herself. "Is it because of Three Dash's request? Did you feel something as you did it?"

Asuka was frustrated at the route and the amount of effort they were taking to cover themselves with a protective hazmat suit. Hers was orange while his was white, strangely enough. Was this all necessary?

Oh well, at least Junior was quiet despite having that childishly excited face.

Which was better for her.

Currently, they were being driven by an escort. The driver and Junior were talking but Asuka didn't care. She looked out of the window, letting the winds flow through her hair as she held onto the covering mask of the hazmat suit.

"I'm such an idiot, letting my guard down. What did I expect was going to happen after I woke up? He just left without saying a word. I came for him and he left again. I'm done with this chase. I'm done. If you are going to run away from me, leaving me behind, I'm done."

She then mumbled behind her teeth, "If you don't care, I won't care anymore too."

Asuka soon felt a slight push of the car stop.

"We're here," Junior said, getting out of the car. He placed the hazmat helmet over his head, securing it with the main suit. "Make sure to zip up, it's dangerous around here."

Asuka quietly got out and placed the covering over her head as well. Junior came over behind her to help lock it onto the main suit.

"I can do it myself," she said.

Junior smiled behind the plastic glass covering and said, "I know, but I just wanted to make sure it would be secure the first time."

"Whatever. Let's get going so that we can get over this quickly."

She followed Junior as he led the way. She looked around and saw weird black pillars with red engraves on them all lined up at a distance. With a quick glance, even though this was her first time seeing them, she could tell that they were generating a barrier. Especially the strange glow it was emitting.

Her eyes then wandered to the base of one of the black pillars. She noticed that the area past the barrier was covered in some blood-red coating while the area on the other side was the green pastures she was more familiar with. Far beyond the barrier, she could see abandoned buildings and frozen giant figures covered in the same red coating.

Then as they got closer to their destination, she noticed that the ground beneath them changed to have that strange red coating as well.

"What happened here?"

Junior looked toward her direction as well, almost reading her mind he said, "Those pillars are what's keeping this land clean from most of the L Barrier. There are patches, like here, where not all of it were cleansed."

"You mean the red covering here and the land beyond here?" she asked.

He nodded and continued, "The Village also has a separate Pillar at the center, getting rid of the remaining L Barrier."

"But what happened here?"

He looked at her in confusion before blinking in realization. He said, "That's right, you don't know... Well, I wasn't there when it all happened. But from all the stories I and everyone else around my age had heard, it was caused by some monster initiating Third Impact."

That caused Asuka to stop. Junior, hearing that the footsteps behind him disappear, turned. "Asuka?"

"Third Impact? You mean we lost?!" No, that was impossible. If they did lose and the Third Impact really did happen, none of them should be here by now.

"It's what I was told by my dad. That's all I and the rest of the people my age know. The Third Impact happened and the survivors were very lucky to have survived thanks to the combined efforts of TRIDENT and WILLE. Especially Uncle Toji."

Asuka couldn't believe what she was hearing. The Third Impact happened but they were still able to survive. "There has to be more than that. Humanity can't and shouldn't have survived another Impact after the Second Impact."

"I don't know the details… and I don't really care for it if I'm being honest. We're here whether we like it or not. The only thing we can do is keep our heads up and move forward." Feeling Asuka's angry glare behind the suit, Junior said, "I'm sorry, that's all I really know."

She still had her doubts. "Then who do I ask for the answer?"

"Other than Uncle Toji, I guess anyone from WILLE, especially the members of Wunder… There's Sister Mana too. But she rarely stops by other than to help out with the festival."

"WILLE… that's what your mom's a part of…"

"Yea, her and both Brother Shin and Sister Mari."

The nickname for the Idiot made Asuka's fingers twitch. "In other words… I won't get any answers. One just plays everything off as a joke while the other refuses to talk to me even for a minute. But Misato… I don't even know if I can talk to her again, if at all."

Asuka remembered something that Junior mentioned. "Jock knows? …Of course he does. He was part of this TRIDENT crew. Are his injuries related to the Impact?"

"Junior?" a familiar voice called out. "There you are. You were supposed to have met me further up."

The two turned to see a larger figure show up wearing a white hazmat suit similar to Junior. Behind the shaded plastic glass, they could see that it was the older Kaji who was coming toward them.

"Sorry dad," Junior said.

"Don't be sorry. I was just worried that something might have happened since you are never late." Kaji's head peaked to the side to have a better view of their guest. "Asuka, it's good to see you finally running around and about."

"Kaji," she said with a nod behind the covering.

"Was Junior giving you a hard time?" Kaji asked.

"Dad," Junior groaned.

Asuka said, "Your brat was telling me about those pillars… And can we get going? It's suffocating inside this suit."

She needed to get this over with quickly so that she could get back sooner and talk to the Jock about the Third Impact. If she learned anything from the past month here, she can only have her way after dealing with other people's things, much to her annoyance. In other words, she wasn't going to be able to head back without going through Junior's request.

Kaji turned and said, "Of course, whatever the young lady wants. Shall we?"

"Just get going," she said.

The three proceeded to make their way across the red field. From the corner of Asuka's eyes, she saw some giant red-coated hands protruding out from a distance. She could only assume this was a weird byproduct of the Third Impact.

"What are they?"

She then heard the father and son duo discuss something.

"Kensuke called," the older Ryoji said, "Both backup generators are working now. They'll be installing one to the warehouse and the other to Mrs. Suzahara's clinic later tonight."

"That's great! That means that we won't have to worry about our food storage and the sick if the power goes out."

Kaji nodded and said, "They were asking for volunteers later today to help out. Would you mind helping them out, Junior?"

"Of course," he said as he held his hand to his chest. "Leave it to me!"

Asuka looked to the side once more. She thought to herself. "Why are you doing this? What do you get out of this? Recognition? 'Just want to help'? I don't believe that for one second. Not with those eyes of yours."

They soon arrived at a nearby crater holding one of the pillars as the ones at the border. Except this one looked a bit different. It seemed to have been connected to others through cables attached at the top and some dug underground. There could be workers seen surrounding the pillars with the same white hazmat suit with strange equipment and trailers.

Most importantly, the ground within the crater wasn't covered in that red coating. It was covered with green pastures and even some puddles forming around it.

Kaji said, "We're here. This is the main control site for the Hex Pillars. Come on, let's head down and get you introduced, Asuka."

Junior followed his father down the makeshift steps against the hill down. He gave a quick glance at Asuka and said, "Watch your steps Asuka."

Before following them down, Asuka said, "Don't treat me like a child."

Kaji took the tablet from one of the workers, reviewing the current condition and data given off of the main system. The worker took a glance at the orange uniform coming towards them and asked, "Is that a new assistant? Or a visitor?"

"She's related to a friend. She's just visiting for a bit. I just wanted her to get acquainted and see what we do."

"Then she'll be pretty bored, visitors don't get to do much," the worker said.

"She'll only be here for a bit," Kaji said.

The worker's eyes visibly widened when he noticed Junior's face behind the glass shade. "Junior is here too?'

"He's only showing her around. He's not here to work."

"Good. We can't have our staff overwork themselves, especially our most prized protégé."

Kaji smiled at the comment he just heard about his son, feeling a large sense of pride rise up from his chest. "Misato, if only you were here to listen to this."

He then handed the worker back the tablet and said, "According to Aida, there were no anomalies yesterday. Today there isn't one either. But we should still do our diligence, we don't want a repeat of what happened years ago."

"Yes sir," the man gave a quick salute and made his way towards the crowd working on the pillars. "Take out the scanner to check for radiation! Hop to it!"

Asuka has seen NERV staff coordinating to work on the EVA's before, so this wasn't new to her. They were fast and efficient with each of their movements. The trailers were seen opening as a man lift started to rise up from the inside. There were two staff on the man lift as they began to rise up from the top and one started to scan the surface of the pillars with strange equipment held by two hands. The other slowly lowered the level of the man lift to cover more areas.

More trailers were seen opening up as additional man lifts appeared from inside as more staff started to do the same. Some, at the bottom of the Pillar, attached a monitor against the lower surface of the pillar. The monitor began to display heat signatures across the surface. They began to drag the surface to cover more surface.

"So, this is all you do?" Asuka asked. "Run inspections?"

"It's a long process, Asuka," Kaji said. "There are other levels of inspections we have to run. We also run some additional tests with the L Barrier density afterward."

Junior stepped closer and added, "There was an issue in the past where this broke down due to negligence."

Kaji scratched the back of his head covering and laughed. "Yea, I still remember the earful from Ritsuko for not taking charge and enforcing the standard procedure with KREDIT."

"I've never seen Auntie Akagi get that mad before. She was a whole other person," he said.

Asuka looked at Junior, "I'm surprised you're not helping out today. Why? Because you're not on shift today?'

He nodded, "Yea. Unfortunately, as much as I want to help, continuous exposure to the L Barrier is not healthy for a person."

"And you chose to bring me here despite knowing that?" She then looked at the father and said, "What were you thinking letting your son come here?"

Kaji shrugged. "We space out the shifts where a quick visit such as this doesn't affect the body. This procedure was made by our favorite Shi-...Aida. He thought of everything when it comes to safety around here when working with this equipment."

Asuka's eyes narrowed at the quick correction within that statement.

Junior laughed and said, "Don't be modest, dad, you worked with both Mr. Kensuke and Mrs. Suzahara to come up with the scheduling."

"I can't take all the credit," Kaji said with a shrug. "Junior, but I think it's time for you to go. Remember, you have to account for the walk back to the car and the drive back."

"Yes dad, I know. You don't have to worry too much," Junior said with annoyance in his voice, losing the formal demeanor he was holding before.

His father said, "Someone has to." The next line he only decided to keep to himself. "Since your mother's not here to be the one worrying too much."

"Okay, dad. Come on Asuka, let's get going. Unless you want to stay here?"

She looked at Kaji's eyes through the plastic shades. Almost waiting for him to elaborate on something.

"Do you need something?" he asked.

She shook her head and turned. She wasn't going to get any answers from him. She knew that much, especially since he was the type to keep all the information to himself. "No… nothing. Come on, brat. Let's go. It's suffocating being inside this suit."

"Brat?" Junior said with a confused look as he followed her.

Kaji watched as the two kids started to disappear from his view. He said, "Asuka… I can't tell you because of my promise to him. I can only drop hints here and there. Please, Help him to realize his not the monster everyone thinks he is."

On the drive back, once they were within the safe zone, Asuka quickly took off the hazmat suit head covering, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Junior did the same. They made a quick stop to drop the hazmat suit in the container labeled, 'For Cleansing'. They then switched cars.

Something along the lines of, "You can never be too careful of the L Barrier contamination."

Asuka sat alone in the back while Junior sat in the passenger's seat the rest of the way back.

The driver said, "Never gets easy, does it, Junior?"

"No sir, unfortunately, it does not," he said.

Asuka looked to the side, seeing the sunset view with the pillars and multiple electric poles running across the same road. She took in the sight of the sunset, letting one fact sink into her mind.

"Third Impact happened and we're still here… People are still alive."

She then turned her head to the other side to see the green pastures and trees covering as far as the eye can see, just until the first building from the Village could be seen.

"Then what are we-... What is WILLE fighting for? Why against NERV? Why are Misato and the Idiot fighting against the very place they worked for? Did they steal my Unit 02 and leave me here?"

She jumped slightly when she felt someone shake her shoulder, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Junior was looking at her with concerned eyes. He said, "Are you okay, Asuka? Do you need to see Mrs. Suzahara?"

She quickly said, "I'm fine."

"Well, either way, we're still going to have to see her, especially me since I went when I wasn't scheduled for one. I should be fine but as a safety measure, I have to."

"What's with the 'we'? Why should I go with you to see her?

Soon Hikari's voice called out, "Oh, Junior, what are you doing here? And Asuka? Where have you been?"

Asuka turned to see where they were. They were just outside at the back of the clinic where vehicles can park. The clinic's doctor was outside to greet them, having heard a car pull up.

Hikari ran over and said, "I was worried when you weren't in your room. Father told me you went out with Junior but- Oh…" Her eyes widened as to why Asuka was in a car designated for the return back from the site. "You went to the site today?"

Junior answered for Asuka, "Yes, we did because I thought-"

"What were you thinking Junior?!" she yelled, "You weren't scheduled to go to the site today!"

"We were there only for about an hour or two at most."

"Wait... You did that to show Asuka something new outside the Village, didn't you?" Hikari sighed and shook her head. "At least you got her out of the house… But that doesn't excuse you for your health. Even if it's fine, how could your father have allowed this?"

Asuka got out of the car and said, "I'm heading back-"

"Oh no, you don't!" Hikari immediately grabbed both Asuka's and Junior's wrists. "You aren't going back right now. Not like that. Do you have any idea how much contamination is on the clothing itself despite the protective layer?"

The driver said, "If it's the same with you all, I'll be heading back to the site to pick up more people. It's about that time."

Hikari nodded, "Thank you for bringing them here. I'll take it from here."

"My pleasure, Mrs. Hero," the driver said before taking off to his next location.

She muttered under her breath, "I keep telling you people, I don't like the label of a 'Hero'... neither does he."

Hikari then shook her head, putting the anger towards that name to the back of her head. She began to drag the two inside the clinic as she said, "Come on, let's get you all cleaned up."

Despite the two's persistence, Hikari forced them into separate gender showers and baths that were attached behind the clinic. Fortunately, there was also an entrance next to her office.

When the two emerged around the same time, Asuka was wearing a spare school uniform she was familiar with while Junior wore the male uniform from the same school.

She almost flinched at how alike Junior looked to the Idiot while wearing that uniform. Junior, feeling a pair of eyes on him, turned to meet Asuka's eyes. She quickly looked away in response.

"Is there something on my face?" he asked.

"Wasn't there anything else you could wear?"

He shook his head, "Sorry, but this was all that Mrs. Suzahara left. Why? Is something wrong with it?"

"...You just look like an idiot," she said as she proceeded to see her friend. While Asuka wanted to get out of here, she knew that if she did so without telling Hikari, she would probably "ask" Asuka to do something within the Village that's much worse than that plantation work.

Junior followed her and said, "Is that better than a 'brat' within your social level?"

"Why would that matter to you?"

"Just curious," he said with a smile, not that Asuka had the chance to see it since she was walking ahead of him.

He was just happy that she seemed to be opening a bit more to him, albeit in a different way than he would like. Now, only if she could try to open up to the Village a bit more.

Asuka didn't knock as she opened the door and said, "I'm done 'cleaning' myself. I'm heading back now."

She didn't care about Hikari's annoyed glare that she was giving her. She didn't care about the patient looking at them with surprised eyes. She just wanted to go back.

"I told you to knock when you were done, Asuka," Hikari said.

Asuka shrugged and said, "At least I stopped by.

There was a sigh from Hikari. "True… Okay, you can head on back now if you want. I have a few more things to take care of here. Junior, can I ask you to guide her back?"

"Sure," Junior said with a nod.

"I don't need an escort, especially not from a brat like him," Asuka said as she walked across the room to the exit.

"Wait, why am I back to 'brat'? Is it because of how I spoke to my dad that one time? Hey- wait up!" He stopped midway briefly to bow to the two in the middle of the room. "I'm sorry about the intrusion."

Hikari's patient laughed when the two left.

"I'm sorry about that," Hikari said.

"Don't worry about it, it was cute. Did you get the new batch in today? I know we were running low."

She nodded, "Kensuke said that he'll be here with them later today with the backup generator."

The patient looked at the bottle in her hand. "We're lucky that both he and Junior's dad do so much for the Village, aren't we?"

"I just hope those two don't tire themselves out."

Junior was basically running to catch up to Asuka when they left the clinic. How can a girl walk that fast? "Hey Asuka, please slow down."

She slowed down and said, "If you're going to 'escort' me, at least try to keep up."

"Aren't you hungry? Don't you want to get something to eat? It's about dinner time too."

She was about to deny it but the mention of 'hunger' made her stomach growl.

"Come on, my treat. Actually, I think my dad's going to give out dinner today too once he gets back," Junior said. "Besides, what do you have to do back at Mrs. Suzahara's place that you want to head back there so fast?"

Asuka said, "Is it wrong wanting to be alone? And I don't want to eat the food that your dad hands out." "Not when it's actually made by that Idiot."

"I get that you're tired but aren't you at least hungry? We haven't eaten in a while."

"I never said I was tired."

"You didn't," Junior said. He pointed to her face. "It's plastered across your face."

Asuka sighed and crossed her arms. She said, "If I'm tired, I would've said so. If you're here to judge me for how I look, then just leave."

"Why are you pushing me away? Just when I thought we were getting along."

"Why are you doing all of this for the Village?"

Junior tilted his head at the unexpected question that immediately came. He asked, "What?"

She fully turned to look at him. "What's the point of doing what you do for the Village? You work a dangerous job and you seem to help out the people in the Village with their constant adoration for you."

"It's because I want to-"

"Don't give me that excuse," Asuka said. "You're doing this for something. There's no one alive who does this much for 'no reason'. Is it for fame? Or is it to get praise from your father and mother-..."

She stopped.

This was similar to what she asked the Idiot about that night, about why he pilots an EVA.

"I guess I want Father to praise me. He praised me today, for the first time in my life. It made me feel so happy. I wonder if he approves of me now?"

She was treating him like Idiot Shinji. This entire time, her willingness to talk to him and do whatever he asked her to do…

It was because he's like the Idiot…

Asuka shook her head. "Forget I said anything. You aren't him."

Junior fist clenched and shook in anger at the accusation. The last part seemed to have triggered something within him. It didn't matter if she took it back, the damage was already done.

"I don't know who you're comparing me to," Junior said. He then took a deep breath. "But I do what I do because it's how we will survive here in the Village, Asuka. If we start acting selfishly, we won't be able to live. I won't deny that there are few who are only doing it for their own selfish reason, but at least they're doing something for the Village."

She was unfazed by his reaction. She was willing to drop this entire conversation, but since he pushed it, especially with that last part seemingly being towards her, she responded with, "And which one are you?"

Junior took a hard step forward and placed a hand on his chest. "I do it because I want to help the people in the Village. It's as simple as that."

"Then why do your eyes look the same as the Idiot's when it came to piloting an EVA back then?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"You're lying to yourself. You're looking for something by helping these people out. It's not from the goodness of your heart. It's because you want to get something."

"I'm not lying to myself, I do it because I genuinely want to."

She shook her head. "Then why do you have his eyes, wanting praise from someone? Who are you trying to please? Yourself? Or someone close to you?"

"I'll always be proud of you." His mother's words to him through the letter appeared in her mind.

He looked to the floor. "I'm doing it for the Village and nothing else." "I am… I really am…"

Asuka looked at him with narrowed eyes. Tired of this conversation she said, "Fine, you keep telling yourself that."

Junior didn't respond after that. Asuka was almost daring him to retort back with the same excuse. But he held his tongue, unsure about his reason anymore.

They soon heard a voice yell, "Okay, put it down slowly!"

The two turned to see Kensuke with a few other people holding up a large generator. They were bringing it to the back of the clinic's building.

Asuka turned her back to him and said, "Isn't that what you promised your father that you would do? Volunteering to help install the generator?"

Junior turned without saying anything, wearing a sour expression. He ran towards the group to help with the generator. But not before stopping briefly to say, "I'm doing this because I want to. I really hope you come to understand that."

She shook her head when she heard the footsteps grow weaker. She began her walk back to her "home" as she said, "If you're going to keep on lying, then at least sound confident, Brat."

The volunteer helpers and Kensuke were struggling to bring the generator. One was struggling to keep a good hold on it to keep it up. His sweat dripped to the floor, the gloved fingers slowly slipping.

Before it was too late, a sudden support was felt boosting on the side it was falling. Everyone turned to see Junior made in time to provide support.

Kensuke smiled, sweat dripping from the sides. "Good to see you, Junior. We were wondering when you would show up."

He gave out a forced laugh, "Sorry, I was preoccupied with things."

"Oh, I'd bet. How's Asuka treating you?"

"He knew I was with her?" "She's… tricky."

"Tricky…. Huh. That's the first time I heard anyone describe her like that. Anyways. Let's get this thing moving!"

Everyone grunted as they continued to bring the generator forward.

But Junior's mind was still elsewhere. Thinking about what Asuka said to him. Why was he doing this?

"Good work. You did well."

A memory of his mother's words he heard many years ago resurfaced. The rare words of praise from her. And it wasn't to him…

Junior shook his head, pushing that aside. That didn't matter. He was doing what he did because he wanted to. Nothing else…

"I'm doing this because I want to…"

The walk back was always long. Well, longer than Asuka would've liked, anyways. She hated how the fastest way back was to cut through the Village and any other way would've been much longer with all the unnecessary turns and detours.

She did not care for the curious looks and stares from the people in the Village. She just wanted to get back.

"Oh come on! This thing was working yesterday!"

A familiar voice managed to catch her attention. When Asuka turned, she saw Hikari's older sister and several other people surrounding a generator connected to the warehouse Junior showed her.

Kodama was frantically looking at the generator on each side, looking to see why it wouldn't start up.

One of the surrounding people said, "Should we call Mr. Aida for help?"

She shook her head and said, "No, he's busy with installing a separate generator at the clinic. We can't put that on hold just for this."

"Maybe we should just wait?"

"I…" she released a big sigh. "Yea. I guess we don't have a choice but to wait. Geeze. And this was supposed to be the easy part, the hard part being getting the generators from the trucks to the buildings."

Asuka turned and began to walk away. This was none of her problems. This wasn't even her home. So why should she bother staying any longer?

"I won't deny that there are few who are only doing it for their own selfish reason, but at least they're doing something for the Village."

She stopped and sighed at Junior's words to her. "So… you're calling me deadweight."

Asuka gritted her teeth and turned. She marched her way through the crowd. She made her way to the generator and crouched down next to Kodama, inspecting the machinery before her.

Kodama and everyone blinked when they saw her. Kodama said, "Asuka? What-"

She stopped when she saw a hand being reached up to her.

Asuka said, "Give me a flip head screw and a wrench."

"Wha-"

"You're not going to be able to troubleshoot the issue without opening this block. The problem has to be inside."

One person from the crowd asked, "And how do you know that?"

Asuka couldn't resist a retort, "You don't have to be a genius to figure out that if nothing on the outside is broken, then it has to be inside that's the issue."

Kodama looked at her, unsure how she should handle this. How does this girl know all this? Normally tech-savvy people like Kenken would know how to fix a military-grade generator like this one.

That or you would need to be from the military since they have to know how to operate and fix one for an emergency-

She snapped her finger. "That's right. You were a Captain with military training before all of this."

Kodama then quickly reached into her pocket, pulling out the two tools that Asuka asked for. "Here."

Before grabbing it, Asuka said, "Just know that I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart or anything cliché like that. I'm doing this for that food so that I don't owe you anything after this."

Kodama smiled, "I know. You're not the type of person to do this for nothing, Asuka. Besides, I heard you didn't even eat what I made you."

Asuka didn't respond to the last comment. She snatched the two tools and began to work to open one of the plates in the generator. The crowd, even Kodama, leaned over to see what she was doing, curious as to how this newcomer was going to fix this.

The plate dropped to the dusty ground, revealing the circuitry underneath. Everything looked fine to everyone behind her. To a normal person, there wasn't anything wrong with what they were seeing.

Asuka sighed. She quickly unplugged some cables before swapping them with each other. Then she began to switch more cables around and removed others permanently. Once she was done, she closed the plate.

She stood up and looked at Kodama. "Turn it on now."

Kodama managed to give a nod and flip on the switch, the generator turning on now. Everyone but Asuka almost jumped up in surprise at the sudden noise.

She then said, "You just happened to plug whatever fit, didn't you?"

"Y-yea?"

"Amateur. That's the first thing you should've learned. Just because it fits, it doesn't mean it belongs there. And half of the stuff you had in there was just a waste of space and resources. While it wouldn't cause an issue now, it would cause issues later if power consumption becomes an issue. Honestly, just what has that Geek been teaching you?"

Everyone just stood there, perplexed about how the 'quiet' girl in the Village managed to figure out and fix their issue.

Asuka sighed as she got up, brushing off the dirt on her. Seeing that no one was saying anything, she said, "I'll be going now-"

She blinked in surprise when Kodama immediately brought her into a strong bear hug. "Asuka! Thank you so much! If I had known you knew about this, I would've asked for your help long ago!"

Asuka tried to speak but it was muffled by her head being squished between Kodama's breasts. Then, much to her annoyance, Hikari's older sister started to pet her too.

"I'm happy to know that you do have a kind side to you like Hikari said you did."

Asuka managed to push her off, gasping for air when she was finally free. "I wasn't being nice. This was just returning a favor."

But Kodama's smile never left her face, not believing her words. "Sure, sure," she said.

Then people around started to get closer and surround Asuka, each giving their own words of praise.

"Thank you so much! It's so good to know that there's someone else who knows about this other than our Aida."

"I never knew you had it in you, little girlie."

"Can you teach me sometime?"

Asuka's eyes twitched, she would have pushed everyone away normally, but she just stood still, accepting the praises as they came. "Just take it, Asuka. That way, word will get around and that Brat will know that I'm not a deadweight. And maybe Hikari will stop sending me out to do stupid chores around the Village."

Though she knew that the last part was never going to happen. But hopefully, the next ones she is forced to go to won't be worse than that farm work with those old grandmas.

Through it all, no one noticed a little girl turning around as she felt something. She saw something hiding in the woods nearby. Noticing an eye filled with pain, she quickly ran to her house, which was nearby, without her mom noticing.

From hidden behind the tree, at a distance, a lone hooded figure watched the whole event. He was watching her with concern since she came back from the main L-Barrier site. He was worried that she was having a hard time adjusting to the Village.

But the scene that was appearing before him put that doubt behind his mind.

From behind him, a female voice said, "Looks like the Princess finally decided to help out of her own free will, without being forced to do so."

Mari was behind him, leaning against a tree with her hands behind her head. She continued, "You must be happy now, Puppy. This is what you wanted for her, wasn't it? For her to finally start adjusting to a peaceful life here."

Shinji's clenched hand relaxed. "Yea… it was."

"Just answer me one thing, Puppy, and I want an honest answer. Are you really happy with seeing her like this?"

He didn't answer her right away. He watched her getting patted on the back by the Village people. He held his hand over his chest.

"It's enough," he replied.

Mari pushed herself off the tree and skipped over to him. "Is this all you want though? There has to be more. Especially when you just 'happen' to catch Asuka coming back from the site and continue to watch her from afar. "

He didn't respond. He watched Asuka slowly make her way out of the crowd and head back to Suzahara's house.

"You want to have more of what you had this morning, don't you? You're longing for it. While you were scared, you were secretly happy to have finally been with her after fourteen long years of hiatus," she said. Then her smirk widened. "You want to go deeper, don't you? Something more intimate?"

"Why did you do that?" he said, his eyes never leaving Asuka's figure.

"Do 'what' exactly?" Mari's playful smirk never left her. "Showing her into your room? She did that on her own. Getting her to stay on your bed? She did that on her own too. Getting her arm to eventually wrap around her while you wrap yours around her? You two did that on your own."

"...I'm leaving, Captain," Shinji said as he turned and walked in the opposite direction to where Asuka was going, heading deeper into the forest.

"Aww, come on!" she said as she chased after him. "Don't be mad! I was just teasing you! I also thought you deserved something after our mission!"

"Wait!" a voice called out from behind.

The two looked behind them to see a little girl panting at them. Shinji quickly turned away from her while Mari walked toward her. "Hey there. It's not safe for you to be out here all alone, where's your mother?"

The little girl held out a candy in Shinji's direction. "I saw his hurting eye. I wanted to give him candy since candy makes me happy. Mommy always said 'sharing is caring'!"

Mari patted the girl as she said to Shinji, "You hear that, Puppy? This little cute girl-"

"Mayumi!" the little girl said.

"-Wants to give you something. She ran all the way here after noticing your sad puppy-eyed face. Are you just going to push her too? She's just a little girl."

Shinji didn't say anything as he kept his back toward them.

So Mari gave the girl a little push, "Go on. He's just being shy."

Mayumi ran to Shinji and tapped his hand with her wrapped candy, causing him to look down at her. The two made eye contact.

She giggled, "You look like a pirate from the book I read!" She then pushed the candy up to him once more. "Take!"

"Are you sure you want to give it to me? I'm not a good person."

She tilted her head. "So you're a bad person?"

"Very."

Mayumi then said, "Then would this candy make you a good person?"

Shinji shook his head. "Sorry, that's not how it-"

"Oh come on, Puppy," Mari said from behind. "Just take the candy already! Or are you going to make the little girl cry?"

He glared at her before looking back at Mayumi's wide eyes behind those circular glasses.

Shinji let out a sigh before kneeling down. He said, "I don't want you to get in trouble for giving me candy for free."

"Candy is meant to be shared with people!" She held out her candy further up to him.

"I…" he looked at her smiling face and pleading eyes. Those innocent eyes… He once had that too, didn't he?

She jumped up and down with excitement when he took the candy from her. "Thank you Big Brother!"

"Thanks…" He barely managed to hide a little flinch when he heard her call him 'Big Brother'. But he was sure that Mari was able to catch it like she always does. He placed the candy in his pocket and asked, "Why did you want to give me the candy?"

"Because I want to see everyone in the Village smile! People get sad and that makes me sad. So I go give candy to people who are sad because they always smile when they get one!"

Mari went down and hugged the little girl and started to rub her cheeks next to hers. "Aww, aren't you just the cutest little thing!"

The little girl giggled before saying, "Sorry I didn't get you one, Big Sister."

"Don't worry. I'm not much of a candy person anyways," Mari said. She let Mayumi go and patted her head. "You should get going, you don't want to make your mommy worried about you."

"Okay! See you later Big Brother, Big Sister!" she waived to them as they ran back to her mother.

Mari waved to Mayumi before turning to Shinji with a warm smile. "See that, Puppy? There are random strangers out there who are kind and will be accepting of you."

He shook his head and said, "But she's just a kid. And she doesn't know who I am."

"Does that matter?"

Shinji took out the candy from his pocket and grazed his thumb over it. "Would she feel the same when she realizes what I've done, just like everyone when they all eventually find out? Especially Junior when it's time?"

There was an exasperated sigh from Mari, "Do you have to be a downer about everything?"

Asuka let out a deep sigh as she came into the house. Finally away from the crowd and have some peace she wanted. Not that the praise wasn't something she didn't like. It just felt… empty to her.

It was praise from people she didn't know nor cared about. But that didn't matter. At least now, word will get around.

Now… "Where's the Jock?"

Her question was answered when she heard something fall and glass shattering.

"Damn it," she heard his voice curse.

She made her way into the living room where Toji was having a hard time picking up a small picture frame from the floor. He was struggling in his wheelchair, trying not to fall off while trying to reach down for the picture with his remaining arm.

"Come… on…" he said, "Just a little bit…"

Asuka came over, no longer able to see this display before her. She picked up the picture and took a quick glance at it before handing it to Toji.

"Oh. Thanks, Red," he said as he took the picture from her. He was unable to mask his surprise that she helped him at all, let alone looked his way. "When did you get back?"

She ignored his question to ask her own, "Where's your in-law and child?"

"Pops and Tsubame went out for some fresh air. They'll be back later."

Her eyes went back to the frame in his hand. "What's with that picture?"

"This?" he said as he looked at the frame once more. "This is the picture we all took before my last mission."

The picture held a younger Toji, wearing a dark navy plugsuit, holding Shinji in a headlock with a few others laughing next to them. Rei was in the corner with a rare small smile on her face as well, looking at the group. Asuka did notice that Shinji had his eye patch while holding a weird smile that stood out outside of a short-haired brunette looking at him with a blush.

Toji shook his head and said, "I was just thinking about the days before all of this. Especially the last time I saw Ikari's smile. The good old days. Don't let Hikari know about this."

"That's fake," she said.

He turned his head up. "What?"

"That's a fake smile, a forced one.'

He looked closer at the picture. "Huh," he said, "Now that you mention it… How did you notice this with just a glance?"

She ignored his question again. "What's this about your 'last mission'? What happened?"

Toji smiled at her, unfazed by her avoidance to answer his questions and ask her own. The smile caused her to take a small surprised step back.

"What?"

He shook his head and said, "I'm just happy that you're finally talking instead of ignoring me."

Asuka looked away. "Don't get used to it, Jock."

There was a small chuckle from Toji before he looked back at the picture, remembering that fateful day.

He said, "Well, to put it simply, this was the final picture taken by Captain Illustrious before heading out to deal with the Twelfth Angel and the shit show that came with it. The day that Dr.- sorry, Sub Commander Akagi… or more specifically… "

Toji took a deep breath before he finished, "WILLE calls that day the day of the Final Third Impact. The day I failed to save Nozomi and everyone else."

Kyoko was crunching down as she drew circles on her imaginary ground within her white world. Unknown to how much time had passed nor did she care.

Her fingers stopped once she felt a familiar presence behind her. "Oh great, you again, how did you even get back in here when I locked you out?" She got up and turned to see both Kaworu and Rei. "Oh because of her… Great."

Rei gave a slight bow and said, "Hello there, Mrs. Shikinami. Thank you for what you did earlier, for letting Asuka have her chance to save Shinji."

There was a sigh. "You kept your end of the bargain for getting him to come in here after the battle for me to give him a piece of my mind. So I guess I should give my thanks where it's due… so thanks."

Kyoko's eyes then went to Kaworu and said, "I can somewhat understand her wanting to come in here… But what I can't understand is you. I thought I made it perfectly clear that I don't want to see your face here again after beating you up multiple times. I even found a way to finally lock you out. But you're still so persistent."

He kept his usual smile and said, "While you have managed to put a gate against me, and the injuries I sustained forcing a quarantine on Unit 02, my objective will never change. But for me to achieve that goal… I require you to abandon your plan."

She scoffed, "And why should I? It's a simple wish and a win-win for all. Why is your goal more important than mine?"

"The happiness you wish to force upon them is not the happiness that your daughter and Shinji want. This is an endless cycle where it is impossible for you to achieve your final destination, no matter how much you try again and again."

"There you go again, talking about how my plan results in an endless loop, but not explaining anything about your 'grand plan'."

Rei looked at Kaworu with a confused look and said, "I do not understand, what does she mean?"

Kyoko let out a loud laugh when she heard this. "Are you serious? You didn't even tell her anything, the person who was willing to help out?" She then pointed to Rei while trying to cover her laughing mouth with the other. "And you helped him out anyways? God. You're much more similar to Yui than I thought. Doing favors for your friends without a second thought."

Kaworu looked back at Rei and asked, "Have you felt it? How different she is compared to everyone else we have made contact with?"

A/N: That's it for this chapter! Thank you if you made it through it all. I cut out some parts with this chapter, but I ended up revising some scenes which added to the overall length of the chapter even more.

And again, sorry about the delay. Work has been busy. But this story is not dead (yet)!

For this chapter, I wanted to build up some of the Village life and work that goes around, some of the team dynamics between Kaworu and Shinji, Wunder crews, and explore some of the knowledge that is in Village-3... Resulting in a giant chapter.

In regards to Unit 04, in case some people get confused, it's the version from the REAL 4D attraction.

Lastly, thank you all for your reviews and support AsteroidOdin, Alfredo12StarLegionaire, KaiserDreamCancel, YourBlandestNightmare, MooseTracks101, tomdj1701, Calborghete, gary2000, marduk-report, metalora, engel17white, LetsPilot, Detmer, 01, Rubertforumfree, Guest reviewers, and everyone on discord who gave their reviews.

We'll be in the Village-3 for a couple more chapters and the next ones shouldn't be as long as this one. Hope you stick around for the ride.

Take care!