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

With great reluctance to do so, Shinji got out of the entry plug,

and the pilots spent a few minutes heaving the liquid from their

lungs.

'No matter how often I do this, I'll never get used that,' he thought.

He stole a glance over at Toji. 'How did he get his arm and leg back?'

kept going around and around in his head. Within minutes, they were 

all in the control room, going over the mission profile. Misato took 

control.

"It appears that Shinji and Unit 1 are doing better than before.

Unit 3 is now ready for field duty. Rei and Asuka, your synch rates

are steady, which is good, although I expect Shinji's and Toji's to

fluctuate rapidly."

"Toji, now is as good a time as any to do your injections," Ritsuko

added. This perked Shinji's curiosity.

"Injections?"

"Oh, yeah! You wouldn't know," Toji said. "After the accident-"

"It was no accident," Shinji said, looking his father straight in

the eyes.

"Whatever. Anyway, I was missing an arm and a leg, so what they

did was offer to give me them back, if I would still work for NER-"

"I understand that much, but how did you get your limbs back?" It

was the second time that Shinji had cut his friend off, and this got

the Commander attention. This, clearly, was not the same person that 

he last saw, and he wanted to see what other changes had occured. All 

he needed was the right opportunity to implement his idea.

"What they did, was they cloned them. Then the new limbs were

surgically attached to the stumps of my arm and leg."

"But isn't there some nerve damamge? Shouldn't you have lost some

motor control?" Toji, knowing that Shinji was going through shock

after shock, was patient with him. A feat, it was.

"Right, so they used artificial nerves. The technology is similar

to the Eva's. The injections are to keep rejection from occuring."

"Rejection," Shinji whispered quietly to himself, with a meaning

wholly different than the one Toji used. 'Rejection, rejection,

rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection...' 

kept running and running around in his head. Again, he locked gazes 

with his father.

But whom had rejected whom? Shinji couldn't get an answer for that. 

For sure, his father rejected him first, but then he rejected his 

father by not being family. Then he rejected everyone else for 

something _one_ person had done. One! But who? Was it his father? 

Was it him? Who was it? He really didn't want to think about it. He 

wanted to stay happy. It was the first time in three years, and he 

doubted it would come again soon.

"Alright, everyone. Take the rest of the day off, but stay on call

if you're needed," Misato told the workers. Everyone breathed a sigh

of relief. What a day it had been! She turned to the pilots. "You're

dismissed, too. Go home," she said, and Shinji flinched. Home. Where

would that be? His father's? Misato's? He had to find out. Looking at

his father, he asked: "Accommodations?" and he glanced at Misato. She 

smiled and felt proud, proud that he felt he could trust her. The 

commander, meanwhile, was thinking furiously. How could he set it up? 

He couldn't think of anyway, and then a perfect situation fell in his 

lap.

"No."

"NO?!" Shinji, Misato, Toji and a few others cried incredulously.

"No. The Psychiatric Department wants to run an experiment. As of

1800 hours tonight, Shinji, Rei, and Asuka will move into an apartment

of their own."

"Yes, sir," said Rei. Though she wouldn't show it, or tell people,

she was intrigued about this experiment. The other two simply

exploded.

"WHAT?!"

"You can't be serious!" But one look at the commander proved he was

dead serious.

"What sort of 'experiment'?" Ritsuko asked, feeling sorry for her

friend. Misato'd spent all day feeling happy at having Shinji back in

her home. 'And I was so looking forward to having edible food in 

Misato's apartment again,' she thought.

"They want to see what the effect of living together will have on

three pilots, with no parent figure to intercede," he said, the last

part sounding like he was reciting the phone book. He truly didn't 

care for Shinji. All he was to the man was a tool. Nothing more, 

probably much less.

"Hey, wait a minute, don't we get any say in this?" Asuka demanded.

Now she started to understand Shinji's hatred for the man. But she'd

be damned if she was roomed with Shinji and Rei! Rei she could 

probably stand, but not him!

"No, you don't. Your orders stand. The three of you will be given

an 'allowance' of sorts every month. The rest will be explained to

you, at 1730 hours, when you'll all report here. Dismissed," Commander

Ikari said, almost loosing control of his facial muscles and smiling. 

This was going to be interesting. It took him a few moments to realize

that Toji was still there. "Yes, pilot?" Then Toji started to talk.

Shinji stood in front of the mirror, gazing at his own face. It

wasn't vanity; no, he still couldn't believe that he was here, doing

this all over again. He thought he shut that part of his life down 

three years ago. But, here he was, and yet, it seemed so...right to 

be back. He was in the locker rooms, with the sheet being the only 

thing separating him and the two girls. He finally gave in and let 

himself contemplate this new situation. 'The two of them have gotten 

even more pretty than three years ago. It doesn't seem to have had 

any effect on Asuka. Probably made her worse. Ayanami... she doesn't 

seem to have changed at all. Mentally. Physically, she's beautiful,' 

grudgingly, he also admitted to himself that Asuka was beautiful as 

well. Never did he think of how girls saw him, it just never crossed 

his mind. "And I'm going to be living with them..." he whispered to 

himself. Not for a minute did he believe his father's claim of the 

Psych. Department wanting to do an experiment. The truth, to that man, 

was about as worthless as Fool's Gold. What was taking Toji so long?

He risked a glance over his shoulder, looking at the two forms

silhouetted against the sheet. The sheet, Shinji smiled at the memory 

of a few minutes ago.

He'd walked in with the others, and they had started to get

undressed. They had forgotten that he was there. Toji had only been

recently placed on Active Duty, a week ago, as that was when Eva 3 was

completed, and so it had only been the two of them for three years.

Then Asuka realized that Shinji was there. He'd been opening his mouth

to tell the two of them that he was there, and she took it the wrong

way, of course.

"You stupid...PERVERT!!!"

"H-hey, Asuk-ka, it's not w-what you think!" He stammered out, much

like he did so often back then.

"Oh, I get it, it's not what I think, huh? You're wrong! Dead

wrong! And, speaking of dead..." she let the sentence hang, and balled

her hand into a fist. Shinji ran from the room, fearing for his life.

He waited outside until he was sure that the sheet was up.

Slowly, he came back to the present. He was finished changing, so

he got up and left. He didn't hear the conversation going on from

inside the room after he left to wait outside.

"Are you just going to go along with this?" Asuka demanded,

refering to their new orders.

"We were ordered to," Rei replyed, monotone. "You'd do well to

follow orders."

"Yeah... rrriiiggghhhttt, whatever. It took me a year to get him

out of that apartment, I don't want to be stuck with him again," she

said defiantly. Rei didn't belive it for a moment. She saw the look on 

her face on the school roof last month, and saw that Asuka missed him. 

Rei too, had missed him. Shinji was the only person, other than the

Commander, who kept trying to be a friend, not just a collegue. She 

knew the Commander's reasons, but she didn't know Shinji's. She 

couldn't figure that aspect of his being out. It was also that 

apsect, among others, that caused her to miss him. Unlike Asuka a few 

minutes ago, she knew Shinji was there; she hadn't forgotten that he 

was there. And, even more intrguing, she listened to their 

'conversation' with rapt intrest, although one couldn't have told it 

by looking at her. She rationalized it as information useful when one 

has to live with those two people. 

"Hey, Wonder Girl, did you miss him?" Asuka asked as if she was 

reading Rei's mind.

"Yes."

"'Yes'? Is that all you're going to say, First Child?"

"Yes."

"Shouda' known that was going to be your answer. Why, oh why, do I

always get stuck with the wierd ones?" she asked the roof. The two

girls finished dressing and walked out into the hallway. There they 

found Shinji talking to Toji, who was still in his plug suit. "What 

are you still doing suited up, Fourth Child?"

"As I was telling Shinji here, I was simply asking the Commander

why I wasn't moving in with the three of you, although I don't really

relish the thought of being under the same roof as you every night,"

he replied, with the usual tone he used in Asuka's presence.

"Why aren't you coming with us?" Shinji asked his friend. Even

after three years, he still felt a close kinship with the larger teen.

"Because I still have a family. They've already had a huge impact

on my life, and the Psych. people don't think my family'd let me go.

They're already unhappy at my working for NERV again." Then Misato

came up.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know about this, I swear!" The poor woman

was practically falling to pieces.

"We'll worry about that later. But now, let's get re-aquainted,"

Shinji said, trying to get the woman to stop blaming herself. He

didn't realise that for three years, he himself had done that. Blamed

himself for actions were not of his own will. The results of his offer

were immediate.

"Sure! Let's go!" In Misatos apartment, the next seven hours

where spent laughing, smiling, and having a good time catching up on

each other's lives. Going there was the logical choice, as Asuka's 

stuff was there and had to be packed up. However, the time soon came

to return to the Geofront. There the three of them picked out an 

apartment that was agreeable to them all. With Asuka in that group, 

agreeing on anything was a feat.

The one they agreed on was some distance from Misato or Ritsuko's

apartments, but it wasn't too far from the school. It was still

walking distance. And then Shinji dropped a bombshell on them.

"I would ask a favor of you, Asuka and Toji. Don't tell Hikari or

Kenskue that I've come back. I want to surpirse them." Asuka ran an

appraising look over his body.

"You won't have any problems with that." Shinji couldn't figure

out what she meant by that.

end part 4

Thanks to Andrew Huang and Kent Armstrong.

Cory Holmes

gholmes@rodeo.sd27.bc.ca