All characters copyrighted by Gainax, not me.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
In this fic, Yui Ikari is NOT part of Unit 1.  If you have a problem with
this, don't read.

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        Hikari walked into the classroom, still unhappy that Toji would't
tell her anything about what happened the previous day.  He, Rei, and Asuka
had to report to the NERV base early in the morning, and when they came to
school that morning, the two 'normal' pilots were looking happy.  Rei,
however, wasn't at all like she usually was.  She had a gleam in her eye
that no-one understood.  When asked about it, she would give her standard
answer of silence.  When Toji or Asuka were asked about it, they just said
"You'll find out, soon enough."  It seemed that whatever happened yesterday
morning was very interesting.  It got to the point where Hikari couldn't
take it anymore.
        "Dammit, Toji!  We've been going out for a year now!  Tell me
something!"
        "Alright... something."  Toji was simply too happy to tell the
other students.  Hikari took it like Asuka would.  She spun on her heel and
stormed into the class.  She was usually the first in the room, but there
was someone there before her.  He was sitting in _Shinji's_ desk.  All the
students knew that Shinji was in pain.  Lot's of it, when he ran away.  And
there was an unwritten rule that no-one was to sit in that desk, it always
was and always will be, Shinji's Desk.
        But when Hikari saw this...this... _idiot_ in that desk, she got so
angry, she forgot about Toji not telling her anything.
        "What do you think you're doing?  Get out of that desk!"  A few
other students had gathered around the door to see what was going on, now
revised their opinions and started to feel sorry for that boy.  He was
going to get an earfull and then some.  The idiot didn't answer Hikari,
which only made her more mad.  She stormed up, right behind him, and
yelled, "Hey, are you listning to me?  That desk belongs to Shinji Ikari!"
By this time, Toji, Asuka, and Rei had appeared in the doorway.  Hikari was
opening her mouth for another verbal assault when the idiot spoke for the
first time.
        "And, just _who_ do you suppose I am?" he said, slowly turning
around to face her.  Hikari's jaw dropped.  There was dead silence.  No-one
talked or moved a muscle.  Shinji smiled at her.  "It's been a while," he
said, unconsiously using his father's line.  When he realized what he'd
done, he winced inwardly, but showed nothing.  Hikari's jaw worked
wordlessly as she tried to say something.  Shinji attributed it to shock,
but Hikari just couldn't get over how beautiful he was!  Like Asuka before
her, her eyes roamed all over.  Rei, in a change of character walked over
to Hikari, and said:
        "You can pick up your jaw, now."  Monotone, as usual, but that
couldn't have come from Rei.  She just didn't say those things!  Rei also
couldn't understand why she said it, but it had felt...interesting.  Toji
stepped up, into her field of view.
        "You wanted to know what happened yesterday?  Well, he's what
happened," he said, taking her hand, which startled Shinji considerably.
        "How long has this been going on?" he asked, indicating the two
hands.  Before he could get an answer, however, he was surrounded by a
dozen or more people all asking different questions.  At once.  He looked
helplessly over to Asuka; no help there.  Rei; Rei was watching,
expressionless.  Toji and Hikari smiled at him.  It seemed that the old
Shinji, no spine, always stubling over what he said, was coming back.
"C-could you-u all stop, p-p-please?"  Hikari started to open her mouth to
yell at them, when the Teacher came to Shinji's rescue.
        "I see that trying to get some decent school work drilled into your
skulls today will be useless, so take the day off.  Just, try to be
considerate of the boy," he added with a smile.  He himself had questions
for him.  Just now, right before class, he'd recieved transfer papers for
one Shinji Ikari.  Nobody moved, in fact, everyone sat down around Shinji,
and all asked him questions.  He took a look around, and realized that
there were more people there than when he left.  The questions just kept
coming, with no end in sight.
        "One at a time!  One at a time, please?"  Somebody from the back
shouted out the first question.
        "Where ya been?"
        "I went to Hiroshima."
        "Why?"
        "Nobody I knew lived there," he said, without any remorse.
        "What did you do?" another voice called from the back.
        "Nothing."
        "Nothing?  You must've done something, like get a girlfriend!" the
voice added with a chuckle.
        "Nope.  I just survived."
        "How was your life, away from all this?" Hikari asked, concerned
for her friend's roommate.  She hadn't yet admitted to herself that she
liked Shinji.
        "I wouldn't call what I did 'living'."
        "Huh?"
        "I went through the motions of living, but I wasn't alive.  I was a
walking dead person."
        "Why?" Asuka asked, out-of-character for her to show concern or
even interest in Shinji.  He smiled and gazed around the room before he
answered.
        "All my friends and family were here, not in Hiroshima."
        "Why'd you leave?" another back voice called, and all were amazed
as to how quickly the smile faded.  That was another question he couldn't,
or wouldn't, answer.  Why?  Was it only because of his father?  Was it
because he had hurt his friend?  Or was it because he enjoyed it?  The last
possibility scared him the most.  He couldn't answer it, so Asuka did for
him.
        "Personal reasons," and the tone suggested pain on the part of
anyone who pushed the issue.  The crowd, having a new target for their
questions, started the interrogation all over again.
        "Hey!  Look!  Asuka is standing up for her 'Idiot Boy'!  My, oh my,
how have the times changed!"  Now it was Asuka on the defensive.
        "Hey, that's not what I meant!"
        "Oh, really?!"  There was too much yelling going on, and Shinji's
head started to pound.  Slowly at first, but faster and faster; harder and
harder his head was assaulted.  But then someone cut through the pain with
one simple question.
        "Are you living with your father?  I'll bet you were happy to see
him!"  Asuka, Toji, and even Rei to an extent, sucked in a breath.  They
knew how sensitive a subject this was to him.  Shinji's head slowly
swiveled around to face the person.  When people were asked later, they
reported that they couldn't see him move.  In a flash he'd run forward and
slammed into the person, full-force.  The boy layed on the floor for a
short while, the wind knocked out of him, when Shinji grabbed onto to
lapels of the boy's shirt and hauled him up, and slammed him onto the wall.
        "Let's get one thing straight, right now," he said, his voice low
and dangerous; slowly biting off each word.  "I HATE HIM!" he yelled, his
skull pounding.  He pulled the boy away from the wall a little, and pushed
him back onto it; hard.  "UNDERSTAND!?" he said, repeating the procedure.
"DO YOU GET IT?!" he said, again bouncing the boy off the wall.  The boy's
knees buckled and he sagged to the ground.
        "Got it," was the wheezed reply, barly audible.
        "Good," Shinji replied, voice still low.  He stalked out of the
room, the students parting like a flock of sheep parts for a wolf.  Shinji
didn't even see them.  The next thing he noticed was the door to his new
apartment.  He unlocked it and walked in.  It was completely furnished,
with appliances right off the lines.  Furniture was in the newest styles.
He sat down on the couch, and locked his gaze on the ceiling.
        It was few hours later that Asuka, Rei, and Hikari walked in.  He
hadn't changed position; he was still on the couch, staring at the ceiling.
Asuka looked at him, then at the ceiling, trying to see what he saw.  Then
at him.  The ceiling again.  She walked up to him, and waved a hand over
his eyes.  "What are you doing?"  She got no response, so she left him
alone, muttering "What an idiot, what a complete and total idiot".  Her
hand was on the knob to her new room, thankfully larger than her old one,
when he called out to her.
        "Making the ceiling familiar."  Suddenly overcome with pity for
him, she walked into her room, told Hikari to get ready to have some fun.
She told Rei the same thing.  When the three of them were all ready to go,
she walked up to Shinji, still on the couch.
        "We're leaving."
        "Enjoy."
        "No, you don't understand.  You're coming, too."
        "No, I'm not."
        "Again, you don't understand.  This is non-negotiable," she said,
seizing his hand, and pulling.  "Hikari, help me here," and her friend
gleefully joined in.  Rei was watching with interest.  Most people were
flat, monochromatic.  And then you get Asuka and Hikari.  Apart, they're
formitable.  Together, they're much worse.  The two of them managed to haul
him to the door before he asked a question.
        "What will we be doing?"
        "Shopping, silly.  Shopping!" with a wicked grin on her face; ear
to ear.
        "Shopping?" he repeated, horrified.  "You know I hate shopping, Asuka!"
        "Yup, that's why we're going!  Now, come on!"  Hikari and Asuka
muscled him out of the door, and Rei locked it.  Shinji's pleas to be let
go fell on deaf ears.  Any of the bystanders that they passed in town
looked on as the two girls, one pretty and the other gorgeous, pulled an
exquisit boy their age from store to store, even making him carry the stuff
they bought.  There was so much that Shinji couldn't see where he was
headed.  Rei followed, not saying anything.  To Shinji, it was pure
hell...but somehow, entertaining.  The most interesting time was in the
clothing stores.  After much discussion, they got Rei to try on some
clothes, with Asuka and Hikari.  Then they started to get Shinji to choose
what outfits to put on, and hell deepened.  It hit an all-time-low when the
girls started to pick things for _him_ to wear.  Some of the outfits Rei
chose were...of questionable motivations.  It was hours before they got
back to the apartment, and Shinji was happy again.  Twice in as many days!
He couldn't believe it.  Three years without being happy, and then twice in
two days!  He would have to find a way to thank Asuka, without her knowing
that he was thanking her.  There would be no fun if she knew.  'Ouch!  I
think part of her personality is rubbing off on me,' he thought.
        Meanwhile, far away, the five members of Seele, without Commander
Ikari present, were having a heated discussion.
        "Ikari is flexing his muscles.  His son is back, and Unit 3 is
completed.  He must be warned," the small man with glasses, in yellow,
warned.
        "Our last warning had no effect," the large man in green rebutted.
        "So, our course of action should be to remove him as
Commander-In-Chief of NERV?" Yello asked.
        "No, we need him to finish the program," the man in blue spoke.
The other two looked at each other and nodded.
        "Agreed.  But he must be punished."
        "So, we'll send in the completed Eva's 5-13 to the Geofront, while
simultaniously having the U.N forces strike.  That should have the desired
effect," Keel Lorenz, the leader of the Committee, said.  "The objective
will be to kill everyone there except the Commander, Dr. Ikagi, and Kaji."
        "What about the pilots?" the man in green asked.
        "Hmm.  Rei is expendable.  As is Toji.  The only ones to keep will
be Shinji and Asuka," Keel said.
        "Speaking of Shinji, what do you think of him now? the man in
yellow asked.  "Quite a change, don't you think?"
        "Yes.  Very interesting, but that is not the subject of
discussion," Keel reminded the group.
        "Yes, the subject was how to put Ikari in his place.  So, we're
agreed about sending Unit's 5-13 in?" Nobody objected.  "The U.N forces?"
Again, nobody objected.  "Then let us make the preparations," Keel said,
ending the meeting.

End part 5
Thanks to Mister Panda.
Cory Holmes
gholmes@rodeo.sd27.bc.ca