Sorry for the slight delay, but as I had promised, 
here's my fanfic.
	Originally, it began out as a 'Test-type,' like Unit-00 
^_^, and it didn't make much sense at all- that's what 
happens if you stay up late for too long and you have a 
sudden urge to write an EVA fic.
	Anyway, I later developed a story plot and decided to 
include this one with, after several modifications, of 
course. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to finish the 
whole story, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Also, I'm 
working on a series of short EVA fanfics. I should be able to 
post my first short fic in few weeks, maybe.
	Okay, enough with babbling. On with the fanfic!
	BTW: C&C *will* be greatly appreciated. You may either 
post C&C to FFML, or send it to me via e-mail at 
AlphSailor@aol.com
******************


	Author's notes: All rights pertaining to Neon Genesis 
Evangelion and characters involved belongs to GAINAX/Project 
Eva * TV Tokyo * NAS. However, this fanfic is of my creation.
	Beware: This fanfic contains spoilers for those who 
haven't seen any of NGE series or the movie. The spoilers are 
hidden within the story, so you won't detect them until it's 
too late. Read at your own risk. This fanfic contains slight 
profanity.


NGE fanfic,
The Awakening: Prologue

Written by Sailor Alpha


	Darkness represented emptiness, a vacuum.
	But Asuka could see that this wasn't true; she was 
standing in middle of the said vacuum, wearing her plug-suit. 
She shivered slightly despite her suit, squinting upward at 
the unknown light source which illuminated her from above.
	A word sang melancholy from no apparent source, 
"Shinji..."
	There was somebody else beside Asuka in the desolate 
t what?, 
as she turned around to face a boy not older than her 
standing few meters from her. She immediately recognized the 
boy in his blue plug-suit, but noticed that he was... 
shrinking? He was walking away, away from her!
	In the background, the same voice droned on, "Shinji 
Ikari..."
	"You're leaving!" Asuka gasped.
	The Child did not listen to her and continued walking.
	"Idiot! You're an idiot, Shinji!" Asuka shook her head 
in anger and frustration, "You're always running away from 
everything!"
	The Third Child whom Asuka had known as Shinji Ikari 
remained silent, ignoring her accusations. This made her even 
more furious, and flung an insult without realizing it, 
"You're a coward! A coward and heartless bitch- you're no 
better than your own father!"
	Shinji was no more than five meters away when he halted 
upon heard her words. Asuka saw him stiffen slightly for a 
moment- did she hit a sore spot? She forced herself to relax 
as she watched Shinji's reactions. A moment later, he resumed 
his walk, but at an accelerated pace this time.
	Caught by surprise, Asuka didn't know what to do, except 
to protest, "H-hey! Come back! I'm not finished!" Traces of 
desperation could be clearly heard inside her voice. "Come 
back, Shinji-idiot!"
	Once more again, the sorrowful tone returned from the 
shadows, "Come back..."
	The red-haired female in a red plug-suit reached out for 
Shinji as he vanished as his overhead spotlight switched off, 
leaving her completely alone. Tears emerged from Asuka's face 
as fear overcame her; she implored, "Wait! Please don't go!"
	She repeated, unaware that the voice within the 
background increased in pitch, matching exactly with hers, 
and the voices chorused in unison.
	 "Come back, Shinji-idiot!"
	There was no response and Asuka collapsed in despair and 
exhaustion after several failed attempts. Resentment inside 
her grew as she realized what Shinji had done to her and her 
face was contoured with anger. Immediately, she got up and 
stood in the general direction where Shinji had gone. She 
took a quick breath and stiffened her arms along her sides, 
then burst forth at top of her lungs with rage.
	"I HATE YOU, SHINJI!"


	Everything went black afterwards, except for a tiny blue 
dot. The dot soon intensified in size until it had engulfed 
the entire horizon, and Evangelion Unit-01 materialized out 
of nowhere, covered with thick red liquid. Its eyes flared 
brilliantly, and the thing gave out a deep growl as it began 
to move amid the remains of Twelfth Angel.
	"I mustn't run away." The voice rang out again.
	The battle scene changed abruptly to Asuka's classroom, 
and she realized was no longer wearing her suit, but her 
school uniform. Asuka saw everyone; Hikaru, one of her best 
friends approached her, chattering rapidly. Beside her was 
Toji Suzuhara, one of 'three stooges,' the second member, 
Kensuke wasn't far behind, and third--
	"Wait, where's Shinji?" Asuka blinked, glancing around.
	"I mustn't run away." The voice repeated.
	"Who in the world are you?!"
	Before Asuka could get a reply, everything went black 
again. A spotlight appeared, illuminating a young girl, 
crying. She recognized the girl, it was her. A memory she had 
so long ago tried to repress. A thread of truth emerged; her 
mother had--
	"I mustn't run away."
	"What did you say?" Asuka asked and heard a reply behind 
her.
	Shinji looked at her quizzically, "I didn't say 
anything."
	Asuka frowned as she laid back on the floor and turned 
to TV in time to see channel switch to some old Post-World 
War Two era film. Asuka became irritated, switching the 
channel back to her show with her trusty TV remote, "Cut it 
out, Shinji!"
	Shinji did not reply, but switched channels with a TV 
remote of his own. Asuka retailed by switching channels 
again. Soon, they moved closer to TV, switching channels 
furiously between their remotes. TV screen became choppy as 
TV struggled to maintain onslaught of commands. Finally, 
Asuka stood up, angry at Shinji for being so stubborn and 
idiotic, hurled her remote at Shinji's head as she glanced 
back to the boy.
	Only Shinji wasn't there, and the room vanished, 
replaced by unfamiliar surroundings.
	Where was she? In a train, a moving train. Asuka could 
hear voices. She recognized those two voices; Shinji and... 
Wonder Girl?! Shinji had his head in his arms, screaming 
while Rei stared blankly at the weakling.
	"Ikari? You're running away again." Rei said.
	"I don't want to listen again! I don't care!" Shinji 
screamed.
	Asuka moved forward, determined to stop Wonder Girl, the 
bitch, from hurting Shinji. And fell.
	She recovered, spitting dirt out of her mouth. Her 
school uniform was now smeared with mud. She looked upwards 
and realized that she had fallen in a shallow pit, but 
where'd the pit come from? She was in a train only moments 
ago.
	"Are you all right, Asuka?" Asuka glanced upwards again 
and saw Shinji reaching out with his hand. She regarded 
smiling Shinji with suspicions before shrugging and grabbing 
a hold of the extended hand, and the boy pulled her out of 
the awful hole. Shinji caught her just as she tripped on a 
ledge and smiled again, offering her reassurances. Asuka felt 
her cheeks warm up as she realized that Shinji was holding 
her. Embarrassed and humiliated, she pushed herself away from 
him.
	And the Third Child vanished, along with everything 
else.
	"I mustn't run away."
	She found herself back in her plug-suit, drifting along 
in darkness. Faces began to flash by her slowly, and she 
recognized each of them. Misato. Wonder-Girl. Pen-pen. 
Hikaru. Maya. Ritsuko. Toji. Kaji. Shinji-idiot. Herself.
	Herself?
	Asuka was relocated inside the cock-pit of her Unit-02, 
just as it was initiating the synchronization process. Lights 
flared around her as steps to connection were completed. She 
looked up to face her large-scale monitor.
	And found herself kissing Shinji as she had done, 
covering his mouth with hers and pinching his nose shut. She 
continued kissing him for a while before finally releasing 
him with a smile on her face. Shinji gasped for breath, then 
looked up at her. Slowly he answered her smile with one of 
his own, "Asuka..."
	"I mustn't run away."
	The trick had worked, the sixth Angel was disintegrating 
as heat of molten rocks shattered the brittle body, but not 
without a cost. Before Angel had perished, it managed to 
slash nearly all cables holding her from above. She realized 
that there was no way she would be able to survive without 
coolant to maintain the D-Type armor, and she would be 
crushed along with Unit-02 by intense pressure of lava. She 
resigned herself to fate as she saw the last strand of 
support snap, plunging her into fiery depths. She closed her 
eyes, awaiting for the inevitable.
	Asuka did not expect Unit-02 to be jerked upwards 
violently, halting its fall. Her eyes flew open and saw a 
large purple on her screen. Unit-01 had dived into lava to 
rescue her, Shinji had risked his life to save her. Asuka 
could only smile as happiness swelled inside her, "Shinji, 
you idiot! What a showoff..."
	Flurry of images returned again, providing a sudden 
influx of emotions which coursed throughout Asuka's body and 
mind. Loneliness. Despair. Betrayal. Love. Happiness. 
Friendship. Images shifted randomly throughout various people 
whom she knew, and their facial expressions seemed to echo 
her thoughts. Her mother was stricken with grief, and Misato 
smiled at her, offering her one of her awful-tasting instant 
foods. Rei, whom she always called Wonder-girl, turned around 
to look at something outside her view, gloomily; Hikaru was 
running towards her, shouting something she did not quite 
catch, and Toji followed behind, but decided to take an 
alternate route to avoid Asuka. And Shinji was smiling, his 
white gleaming brilliantly in sunlight.
	Asuka watched Shinji for a moment, then turned away 
quickly, surrounded by darkness again. She felt terribly 
cold, confused by her feelings, "Stop..."
	"What?! You forgot my lunch again?" Asuka growled at 
Shinji who was cowering beneath her, stammering an excuse 
that he had too much homework to do, and he forgot about 
making her lunch. All Shinji could give was a meek "I'm 
sorry" reply.
	"'I'm sorry, I'm sorry!,'" She mimicked Shinji, glaring 
at the idiotic boy, "That's all you ever say everyday! You 
were supposed to make my lunches, and what am I going to do? 
I'm gonna starve, thanks to you!"
	"Yet another argument between the newlyweds? You two 
certainly look like a nice couple..." Toji remarked, smiling 
wryly, leaning backwards on two legs of his chair.
	The class giggled at Toji's comment while the victims 
blushed furiously. Shinji hastily buried his head in his 
arms, embarrassed. Asuka took a step back, feeling warmth on 
her cheeks until she regained her composure and let redness 
drain away from her face. She frowned, glaring at the boy who 
had embarrassed her in public and began advancing towards 
him.
	Toji wasn't even fazed by Asuka's anger and obvious 
challenge, still rocking his chair as the girl approached him 
until she was close enough to smack, and he was already 
prepared. However, he wasn't prepared for Asuka's sudden 
outburst.
	"Hey," Asuka leaned forward and screamed, "Why don't you 
keep your nose out of where it doesn't belong for a change?!"
	Caught off-guard by her surprise verbal attack, he 
faltered. Unable to maintain Toji's jerky movements, his 
chair gave away from under him. The boy fell backwards and 
his head connected solidly with the ground. Soon Toji was 
swearing and grimacing in intense pain, rubbing his sore 
spot.
	"So there!" Asuka gave him an evil smile and turned her 
back to Toji abruptly.
	And everything vanished, and she was alone in blackness 
again. Her vision was replaced by rush of images composed of 
Shinji and the usual gang, Gendo, Evangelions and Angels. 
Feelings and confusion returned to her, and she heard 
Shinji's words, "I mustn't run away."
	Asuka covered her ears unwilling to hear anymore and 
screamed at Shinji's voice, "Leave me alone, you idiot!"
	Mass of images flooded her again, this time at faster 
pace and contained only Shinji, Angels, Evangelions, and 
herself. This was too much for her to handle as she collapsed 
to the ground, clutching at her head in pain. Photographs 
continued to flash by her at accelerated pace, mixed with 
various words of feelings and names; Shinji, loneliness, fear 
and death stood out more often than rest.
	Soon the images became only a blur, impossible to 
distinguish each of them apart and everything slowly 
brightened until Asuka was unable to see anything. The an 
image quickly replaced the whiteness. An image of Shinji-
idiot smiling.
	And the image of smiling Shinji Ikari shattered into a 
thousand pieces.

 

	"NO!"
	Asuka's eyes flew open and she bolted upright, 
screaming. The walls absorbed any echo her voice would have 
produced, but not her thumping heartbeats. She blinked her 
eyes for few moments, trying to gather her bearings.
	She saw that she was in a hospital room, and she 
remarked at how bleak it looked. Although blinds were drawn, 
they had been nudged aside slightly, enough for Asuka to 
confirm that she was in NERV hospital located near the 
Central Dogma.
	She grimaced slightly as she realized that her head was 
throbbing slightly. She fingered strips of cloth wrapped 
around her gently, muttering, "Damn," as she wondered what in 
the world had happened to her. She glanced upwards and 
subconsciously echoed Shinji's words, "An unfamiliar 
ceiling..."
	Then she immediately knew. She was in the same room 
Shinji had inhabited during his stays after being injured by 
Angels. No wonder why the room had seemed so familiar to her.
	"Shinji..." Asuka managed before intense pain exploded 
inside her head. She remembered. Shinji had disappeared, 
absorbed by the same behemoth he had piloted and saved her 
life more than once. And now he may be gone, out of her way 
forever. She did not feel happy, not at all.
	She also began to recall events that occurred before she 
blacked out. There was another attack, but by an unknown 
Angel. She vaguely recalled being deployed to deal with the 
intruder, and the actual battle itself was even murkier> 
However, she grasped enough from her memories, and she shook 
with horror as she realized what she had done.
	Pain finally subsided enough for Asuka to relax, and for 
her dream to surface, along with memories of Shinji's 
disappearance. In her mind's eye, she saw the image of 
smiling Shinji shatter into a thousand pieces over and over. 
Plagued by painful memories, she cuddled to herself.
	Her voice was hoarse, barely audible as she whispered, 
"Oh God, what have I done?"


C&Cs will be greatly appreciated, in fact I'd love to have some!
If you need to contact me, my address is AlphSailor@aol.com

Sailor Alpha
<AlphSailor@aol.com>