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 g

etting 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