To those of you who remember seeing that teaser for _The Seven Days of
Fire_: Bear with me, I'm still trying to get my information straight, from
available Evangelions to characterizations (major and minor) to hidden
agendas ... it's going to be a while, I'm afraid.
	_Apocrypha_ is a somewhat different story, revolving around
Eva-04, the one which vanished during testing. There's something about the
Evangelions ...
	I should warn you that the series is more than likely to contain
spoilers, but the Prologue which follows is pretty safe. It's gonna be
confusing though ... so don't say I didn't warn you.
	One other note: this is the *incomplete* version. After I
fine-tune it, I'll add the Author's Afterword and 'signature.' All
reasonably constructive C&C is invited; flames are not.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation and copyrighted property of
Gainax. "Michael" is Michael Theseus Fire Hawk, my original character for
_Apocrypha,_ and as such is my creation and property.

AUTHOR'S FOREWORD:
        If you wish to contact me by e-mail, my address is:
        trmiller@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us

        This is my second attempt at writing in the Evangelion universe. My 
first attempt, _The Seven Days of Fire_, is on hold until I can finalize some 
of my information.

        Neon Genesis Evangelion: Apocrypha              by Tim Miller

        Prologue

        Over the intercom, I can hear the countdown. "10 ... 9 ... 8 ..."
        "Ready, Michael?" another voice asks me from the command center.
        "I think so," I reply shakily to the unseen voice.
        "3 ... 2 ... 1 ..."
        And then everything goes white.
        My universe is ending.

        This can only be Hell; I am going insane - what else can this be? 
Something unimaginable, pressing on my mind from all sides - why haven't I 
died yet? I shouldn't be able to feel anything!
        And then I hear it - no, not hear. Not feel, either. But it's there.
        I'm not alone, but that's what terrifies me - I don't *want* to be 
with this ... whatever it is! What happened to the others?
        {They are dead}
        Where am I?
        {With me} {Forever}
        What happened?

        It is not until later that I begin to understand.
        Evangelion 04 is alive. It is a fierce, alien life - like the life of 
humans, and yet so unbearably different; it is alive, it knows it is alive, 
but more than those it knows *what* it is. And it seeks ...
        What does it seek?
        What do *I* seek?
        What do I want?
        {can't die} {you won't die} {I won't let you}
        It needs me? What can it need?
        {together}
        I'm frightened ... no, terrified. Evangelion can't help me now.
        And yet somehow, it does. The source of my fear acts to calm my fear.

        My mind has been shattered many times over; somehow a piece of my 
thought stays coherent - that core of myself which my mother would say is my 
soul. And I begin to understand, finally, what little I can grasp.
        Evangelion awoke to know my presence, and only my presence. This is 
Hell to it too, the maelstrom outside us. Something mysterious, terrible, has 
happened to us both; all we can do is ride it out.
        And Evangelion knows only a little more than I do. I am older than it 
by nearly all of my fourteen years - yet only with its (his? her?) help can 
either of us escape.

        The fear is gone now, but nothing has replaced it. I only know that 
Evangelion and I are together, linked, united in something neither of us can 
control. Maybe together we can understand what has happened, but our 
destinies have brought us together. Whatever happens now, we can only meet it 
together, human and Evangelion.
        It knows so much more than I do - and yet its questions are as 
unanswered, and perhaps unanswerable, as my own. It is sentient, and yet it 
is an animal, wild and untameable - uncontrollable. But somehow I know it 
will allow me to control it.
        How strange ... why should I need to control Eva? It was built for 
combat -
        Oh. It didn't know that. Figures.
        But it'll fight. That seems to have answered one of its questions.
        Where are we?
        It doesn't know.

        Evangelion isn't a machine, it's alive. Did they know what they were 
building? I finally understand -

        - Blinding white light. Pure light.
        Is that ... the sun? Or is it God? Or has something else happened?
        Where are we now?
        What has happened?