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.

Home

        It was barely noon, and the people were ready to collapse from
exhaustion.  Since early that morning, when Shinji returned, the crews and
workers, scurrying like so many ants trying to please their queen, had been
on the move non-stop.  The computers had to be booted up, their programming
shifted to accept three year old data, but most of it turned out to be
useless anyway.  They had spent the whole day getting Unit 1 ready for use,
and Shinji was getting more and more impatient by the minute.
        "Why can't I take her out now?  What's taking so long?  There can't
be too many differences.  What's so different now?" are just some examples
of his litany.  Never once did he stop and realise how much like Asuka he
sounded.  It even amazed her.  'To think that Idiot Boy is so impatient.
He can be such a pain in the butt.  And speaking of butts...'  She allowed
herself the chance to glance at him, and the aforementioned body part.
Even she had to admit that he was gorgeous.  But, of course, she'd never
tell him that.  That would ruin all her fun.  At last, it was time!
        Back in the, _his_, entry plug, Shinji was taking a quick trip down
Memory Lane.  He remembered his first time in here.  He remembered
practising in it.  He remembered pulling Toji and Kenskue into the plug.
He remembered meeting Asuka for the first time.  He smiled at the memory of
her hand print on Toji's face.
        "Are you ready, Shinji?" Ritsuko asked as if it was any other
business day.
        "I am ready," he responded, stressing the 'am'.
        "Filling the entry plug," Maya said, with relief in her voice.
Finally they would get off her back about finding out what's wrong with
Unit 1!  That was assuming this worked.  If it didn't, they would have four
pilots for two operational Eva's, and then it would be back to the salt
mines.  When the yellow liquid started to stream in, Shinji's body, in a
replay of a month ago, jack-knifed straight.  Screaming, he put his hands
to his head.
        "NO!  NOT NOW!"
        "Shinji!  What's wrong?" Misato yelled, scared out of her mind, but
Shinji was in too much pain to hear.  "Get him out of there!  Now!"
        It seemed as if he was being pulled into a dark cloud.  He couldn't
see clearly.  He couldn't hear right.  All of his nerves lit up like so
many Christmas lights, and all of them screamed in pain.  Then suddenly the
cloud disappeared.  Everything was normal, except the pain.  That stayed.
He heard Misato yelling to get him out.
        "I'm alright, now," he said, his voice much more calmer than he
felt.  "I can go on."
        "Are you sure?"  The pain throbbing on the inside of his skull made
coherent thinking impossible.  And it gave him a very short fuse.
        "Yes!  Yes I'm sure!  Get on with it!  Now!!!" he snapped.
Everybody in the control room jumped at his voice.  What happened? was the
question on everybody's mind.  What happened to Shinji Ikari?  This person,
this gorgeous person, wasn't Shinji.  Three years ago, what happened to
him?  And then all eyes locked on the one person responsible.
        Commander Ikari didn't even blink under their gaze.  _He_ is what
happened to Shinji three years ago.  He didn't even care about his own son,
it seemed.  All that mattered was the mission, and it's accomplishment.  It
made the workers seriously consider his sanity, if he ever had any.
        "Begin sychronization," Ritsuko said, her training overcoming her
personal feelings.  It was her voice that broke the ice, and the others all
started doing their individual jobs and the Commander silently thanked her.
The plug screwed into it's socket in Eva 1's back.  Pilot, machine, and
interface all worked smoothly to accomplish the same goal.  "Third stage
reached and passed."  And in that moment, there was no pilot.  There was no
machine.  There was no plug.  There was only one organism with brain and
body connected by a highly developed nervous system.  But all to soon, the
feeling was gone and they were back to human and machine.
        Shinji felt something.  A feeling from so long ago, coming back
like an old friend.  Joy.  Pure, uninhibited, joy.  He was finally home,
back where he belonged.  He was so happy that he almost didn't hear
Misato's disbelieving voice when she heard his Synch Ratio.
        "Are you sure?  Shouldn't there be _some_ fluctuations?  After all,
it's been three years since he last sat there!"
        "What is it, Major?" Commander Ikari asked.  Ritsuko risked a
glance at Asuka, guessing at how she'd take the news, and then answered the
commander's question.
        "His Synch Ratio is high.  Higher than it's ever been before."
        "How high?" Shinji, Asuka, and Toji asked simultaneously.  Misato
swallowed, looked around nervously, sweated, and then finally blew out her
breath.
        "Steady at 76 percent."  Toji was amazed.  Shinji was amazed.  Rei
didn't seem to care.  Asuka blew her top.
        "You're kidding, right?!  You must be joking!  You're lying!
Ikari, I hate you!"  Shinji choked on some LCL.  He'd been back for only a
few hours, and just when he thought Asuka had changed over the years, she
proved him wrong!  Maybe things hadn't changed as much as he thought.  One
of the major things that had changed was Toji.  When Shinji ran away, it
was because Toji was missing an arm and a leg, was in a coma, and was
expected to die.  All at Shinji's hands!  It didn't matter to him that he
had no control, it was still his body, he still felt... Shinji shut that
line of thought down before it went any farther and he sank back into
depression.  Every time he had that line of thought, he got depressed, and
then, more often than naught, one of his headaches would take over.  He was
still getting those with alarming frequency.  Maybe he'd talk with Ritsuko
about it, later.  He was busy right now.
        He turned the Eva's head to look into the control room, and locked
on his old friend.  He zoomed the lenses, and made a mental note to ask
Misato and Ritsuko about Toji, and how he got his limbs, and his life,
back.  He had a lot of catching up to do.  And then Asuka stepped into the
camera.  Her face looming huge in his screens due to the zoom.
        "OK you little jerk, let's see what your '76 percent' synch ratio
can do." And then Misato gave the order for Eva 1 to be launched.  Shinji
had never felt that level of exhilaration before.  Not ever.
        It was fifteen minutes after launch, and Commander Ikari hung up
the phone.  The head of the psychiatric department offered a few
interesting ideas, all worth following up; later.  Turning his gaze back to
the screens in front of him, was almost felt...glad.  Not for the pilot, he
was glad to have three operational Eva's.  If the price for that was being
in close proximity to it's pilot, he'd pay it.  Truth be told, he was glad
that Shinji had ran away.  He couldn't stand being so close to his past.
But, the past has a strange way of repeating itself, and here it was, right
back in his face.
        Shinji, on the other hand, was far too happy to pay attention to
the threats Asuka was carrying on with.  He had started off with just
walking, getting back into the habit.  Then he ran.  Then he sprinted.  Now
he was doing cartwheels, hand stands, hand springs, flips, somersaults;
every gymnastics move he could do, he did.  He was bubbling with laughter,
energy, and sheer joy, when the Commander threw a wrench into his plans.
"Get suited up," he told the remaining pilots.  "All of you."  When the
three were ready, and in their Eva's, he gave them the rest of their
orders.  "Put him through his paces.  I want to make sure he can still
function."
        "Even me, sir?  Eva 3 isn't yet totally finished," Toji asked.
        "Consider this a shake-down; get to it." The pilot all gave an
affermitive, and prepared for the g-forces as they shot out of the cages.
        Shinji was blissfully unaware of what was going on.  He stopped
when he saw the emergance panels opening in the ground.  The other three
Eva's popped out, where released, and put their heads together, almost like
a football huddle.  They where on a secure line, so Shinji couldn't tell
what they were discussng.  In a few minutes they nodded their heads, turned
back to him, and Toji explained it all, in two words.
        "GET 'IM!!!"

end part 3
Thanks to Master Wong, Jon Farber, Thor Odinson, and Kent Armstrong for the C&C.
Cory Holmes
gholmes@rodeo.sd27.bc.ca