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

Ritsuko Ikagi wanted moan as the migrane continued to pound away at
her mind, but duty and work called. Heaving a sigh, she picked up the
phone and called Toji Suzuhara at his home. "Toji," she said when he
picked it up, "you have to come in to the base, you're behind in your
injections. You know what'll happen if you miss too many of them...?"

Leaving the sentence to hang, she regretting using a not-so-kind
voice.

She really hated doing this to the poor kid, but he knew the risks
when he ok'd the procedure. After taking a quick glance at the wall 
clock, she decided that it was time to get out of bed. 'Why does he 
insist on work starting at these times?' she wondered to herself. A 
few minutes later, she left her room.

Outside of her lab, stood her staff. Collectivly, the were the
greatest minds the world had to offer, but they were individually
bright in their own right. They were discussing the latest data on the
problem with Unit 1.

After Shinji left three years ago, they couldn't get one of the
other pilots to sychronize with the giant war machine, though not for
lack of trying. Even after Toji was again placed on operational status,
he had no luck. They tried all three pilots one after another, no luck.
They tried Rei in Unit 0, then Unit 2, and everything was fine. They 
tried the others in the same manner. But then they tried Unit 1 and...
here they were, three years later, with only two operational Eva's, 
one on standby, and one being constructed.

After the staff Nerv realized that Unit 3 was taken by the
Thirteenth Angel, and the subsequent distruction of the 3, they got
right back to work, rebuilding it. Even though their budget was 
extremely tight, they built a piece here, added a piece there, and now 
they only had a few systems to check before Unit 3 was ready to be sent
back into the field.

One problem, however. There appeared to be no more Angels. After
Shinji left, there had been no attacks. Oh, sure, they detected the
occasional Blue pattern, but it was only very fleetingly. It seemed 
that the Angels were trying to get some intelligience on their enemy. 

More and more enigmatic, it seemed.

As soon as the workers saw their boss, the noise quieted down. It
was 6:30am, and all were bleary-eyed. Too much work and not enough
sleep, though none would ever say that to her face. If you got a 
project in on time, it meant you're already running behind schedule, 
and it should never happen again. Seeing their faces, Ritsuko thought 
back to when Misato and the pilots came back from trying to get Shinji
to come home...

****

"Misato, how'd you do?" Ritsuko asked worried. After he left,

Misato had started to drink even more than before, if it was possible.
Soon she could be seen with a drink at any given moment of the day.
Once she was even caught on duty with a glass of wine. Then, the month
before she left for her charge, she had gone completly sober, never 
touching another drop.

It was in a Nerv lounge, and Ritsuko had work to finish, but
nothing that couldn't handle the diversion of a cup of coffee. Misato
ignored her question and stalked over to the fridge. Yanking it open,
nearly ripping the door off it's hinges, grabbed something inside, and
slammed the door shut.

"Misato, are you alright?" she asked. Misato glanced up at her
friend for a moment, and then answered her with ripping the cork off
the bottle of wine and chugging the whole thing.

****

As Ritsuko heard it, Misato took the day off, went home, and spent
the rest of the day, and most of the night, drinking. She ended up in
the hospital from alcohol poisoning. No-one asked her how her mission 
to get the Third Child went, as her actions spoke for her. She now 
leaned against the wall, outside the control room of the 7th cage, the 
home of Eva Unit 1 for the last three years. Commander Ikari was late, 
for the first time since she had known him. Misato, Toji, Rei, and 
Asuka walked up, albeit the redhead was yawning, whining, 
complaining... "It's just plain too early for this! Why should I be 
the one kicked out of bed, tossed into the shower, dragged back out 
when it was just getting comfy... all to stare at some dumb, stupid 
machine. Takes after it's pilot..." she was cut off by a sharp glare 
from Misato. Asuka managed to look sorry before she started muttering 
to herself about Shinji and his stupidity for leaving.

Unfortunatly for her, Toji heard her.

"If you hated him so much, why were you so broken up at having him
leave? For that matter, why did you smile at him?"

"What's the point of insulting someone if they're not here to hear
you and get angry?" she shot back. "I only smiled because I was told
to; yeah, that's it..."

"Sure." Then the Commander walked up, and any good moods were
instantly ruined. Everyone was sure that he was completely insane;
after what he did to Shinji and the Thirteenth Angel, he didn't even 
try to stop his son from leaving. 

He had just whispered to himself, "You'll come back. You always do."

"Well, Doctor, shall we get to work?" He asked in a tone of voice
that suggested that he was unhappy at being waited for. 'Schedules
should never be gotten behind' was the motto his workers tagged on 
him. Maya Ibuki opened the door to the control room, and oddly enough,
it was dark.

The lights, even the backups were off.

"Hey, why are the lights off? Idiot, I'll bet it's your fault,
Toji," Auska said in her 'I'm pissed off and angry' tone of voice.

"I didn't do it. I wonder who did...?"

"_I_ did," a powerful voice boomed out. Asuka jumped, Toji jumped,
Rei didn't jump. Misato jumped, Maya jumped, Makoto jumped, and
Ritsuko ran for the light switch. What she saw made her catch her 
breath.

Asuka sucked in a sharp breath. Misato didn't know what to do, so she 
just stared. Sitting in one of the chairs, a figure had his back to 
them.

They only saw him for a moment before he swiveled around. Misato saw 
his short hair; ears flat to his skull; piercing blue eyes; nose so 
perfect it seemed to be carved out of marble; sensual lips that seemed 
perfect for kissing...

It was Shinji Ikari in his plug suit. Everybody reacted in a
different way. Ritsuko had to agree with Misato's report of Shinji
being beautiful. Toji smiled, as his old friend finally came home. Rei
just looked. Asuka, meanwhile, couldn't stop her eyes from roaming all 
over his body. The suit, which seemed to be a second skin, outlined 
every line, curve, dimple, and muscle.

The object of her attentions only a brief moment before he was
wrapped up in bear hug by Misato. She was rambling on about how she
thought she'd lost him forever, about how sorry she was for his being
hurt like that, and then a thought occured to her. 'What if he reacts 
like he did last...' and then let him go. It was clear on his face 
that he wasn't ready for that sort of familiarity yet. It was just too
soon from his last headache to feel happy. It seemed to him that after
those headaches, he just couldn't help but be angry at the whole 
world, or he focused all that anger on _father_. He was looking at the
faces of the assembled group, realizing that he had some new people to
get to know, when he caught sight of his most hated enemy. Shinji 
Ikari locked gazes at an older version of himself.

It seemed that the two family members gazed for an eternity, and
Misato saw how much they resembled each other. Shinji was now as tall
as his father, had the same strong cheekbones, had the same chin, same
ears, and, she guessed, the same eyes. But with one set of them 
perpetually hidden, it was hard to tell. Then, apparently disgusted 
with what he saw, Shinji spun on his heel and walked to the umbilical 
bridge. So overcome with anger was he that he didn't even realize that 
he was stalking away. One foot, other foot, first foot, other foot... 
the thoughts in his head refused to make sense. Three years! Surely 
he could be forgiven. NO! Never forgive. Never forget. Right then and
there, Shinji promised to himself to make his father pay for what he'd
done.

Opening his eyes, he saw the Eva. No, _his_ Eva. His Eva? Where had
that come from? But there was no denying it, Shinji wouldn't let
anyone pilot Unit 1. Suddenly suffused with joy, he ran to it, 
laughing. A realization struck him. It wasn't Rei, Asuka, or Toji. It 
wasn't Misato, Maya, Ritsuko, or Kaji. It was Unit 1. That was the 
main reason for his pain.

It was also the main reason for his return. Sure, he missed the
people, the friends he'd made in his year here, but he missed Unit 1 
the most.

He ran a hand across the mettalic face, right below the eye.
Asuka was leading the pack of humans, and all were interested in
seeing was he was doing. Stopping a few meters away from him, she
could hear him whisper, "One," like a name, not a number or 
designation. She could see his eyes shimmering with unshed tears, but
this time they weren't of pain, they were of joy. The joy of being 
home with one's family. Even if no-one was related by blood.

end part 2

Thanks to Andrew Huang and W.E.S.H.2 for the C&C.

Cory Holmes

gholmes@rodeo.sd27.bc.ca