(As the great dragon rampaged, his unlikely savior rolled up in a sleek blue automobile. The door opened, and a lovely woman greeted him. "Hey. Sorry to keep you waiting!") - Ch.6
("I brought you here because you were needed." His father's voice was calm, yet distant, detached; nothing had truly changed.) - Ch.2
("I CAN'T! I CAN'T PILOT THAT THING!") - Ch.3
(The distant figure shrugged off his cries of protest, callous and unfeeling. "If you're going to pilot, do it now. If not, then leave.") - Ch.2
(The girl had blue hair, and glowing red eyes; despite her injuries, she was going to step forward in his place.) - Ch.2
(I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away!) - Ch.2
(It was his first time in the Entry Plug, and the orange fluid enveloped him. It tasted like blood; they said it was breathable; henceforth, he thought of it as breathing blood, and it was always a macabre thought.) - Ch.2
(Her voice came through loud and clear on the intercom, flush with authority and vigor. "EVANGELION UNIT-01: MOVE OUT!") - Ch.6
(The Evangelion walked the earth for the first time, a harbinger for something great and terrible.) - Ch.13
(With a mouth not his own, yet so much more, he howled. Facing him was a great wyrm, the first of many.) - Ch.2
(The senses of Unit-01 felt clunky. Obtuse. Faded. It was all he could do to not collapse. And yet the pain of the dragon biting into his arm was all too real; his first battle, and far from the last. He could never recall all that he had done...but the video footage of the Evangelion going berserk and brutalizing the First Ahamkara were all too real.) - Ch.26
("Of course, we've got to do it flamboyantly, eh?" His confused expression prompted the woman to elaborate. "A welcome party for my new roommate, of course!") - Ch.7
(The city was small, and clustered together; yet, in the light of the setting sun, it seemed almost intimate. If that even made sense. "Never forget...this was the city that you saved.") - Ch.7
("...tadaima," he said nervously. The woman's smile was beautiful, and she replied "Okaerinasai!" He actually thought she might have been sincere.) - Ch.2
(The first time he opened her refrigerator, the sight of all the beer was inwardly repulsive. He tried to square the image of a beer-guzzling flirt with the coolly authoritative stature of a Captain, and failed miserably.) - Ch.7
(She had to know what she was doing, walking around in such...indecent clothing. She had to know! Was she doing it on purpose?!) - Ch.6
(He stared dumbly as she chugged the entire can of beer in one go. Upon finishing, she let loose a hearty and throaty whoop. "YEAAAAAAAAAH! This is the life!") - Ch.7
("This place is supposed to be home from now on! You can actually kick back, and relax!")
(He pointedly tried to ignore the feminine undergarments drying on a hangar in the bathroom, even as his mind screamed that this was ridiculously inappropriate, this was so inappropriate! And that's when the penguin - seriously, a penguin - startled him, prompting him to scream with shock and run out of the bathroom. That he was standing completely naked in front of Misato didn't cross his mind until several seconds later.) - Ch.28
("What you did today, Shinji-kun...it was very noble. I just wanted you to know that.") - Ch.3
(Shinji quietly entered the classroom, looking at unfamiliar faces, not knowing that at least a few of them would become treasured friends. The only one he recognized was the quiet blunette from yesterday, staring quietly out the window, as though ignorant of the bandages around her form.) - Ch.28
(The blunette with red eyes stared quietly at him, utterly uncaring of her physical injuries; without saying a word, she looked back outside, even as their teacher continued speaking.) - Ch.14
(The wyrms emerged, granting wishes of power and intrigue. Those they deceived became mere thralls, avatars of destruction.) - Ch.2
(The Lightbringer had fled their world, and a great multitude followed it, seeking the paradise of Mercury, the greenery of Venus, the waters of Mars; they had remained behind, to reclaim their home from them.) - Ch.2
(Center the target, pull the trigger...center the target, pull the trigger...) - Ch.2
(He tried to ignore the memory of a claw piercing his not-eye, of cold demands that he fight. He looked over the cliff, and wondered if anyone would miss him.) - Ch.2
("You need to know the systems of Eva inside and out," commanded Misato, hovering over him as he read quietly from a thick user manual. "You never know when you'll need to perform some field maintenance!") - Ch.26
("I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away...") - Ch.16
(The boys in the Entry Plug whimpered at the sight of the wyrm: a sinuous snake that wound around the skyscrapers of Kyoto. Their whimpering only increased as he let loose a furious howl, one mirrored by Unit-01 as it charged.) - Ch.9
(The handlebars were mostly for show, as his thoughts and will were the primary motivators for Unit-01. He still grabbed them, if only to make sure he had something to hold on to, to keep from falling away...at least, that's what it felt like.) - Ch.7
(The First Child never complained or bickered: every task that was placed before her, she did without question. He boggled; how could she stand the monotony of this war? How was she so strong? He asked; her quiet answer was enough to chill him: "Because I have nothing else. If I die...I can be replaced.") - Ch.28
(The red leaf was a sign of hope for everyone else; a heavy burden for him.) - Ch.2
(Without Eva...would anyone care about him?) - Ch.2
(Slowly, surely, he pulled the trigger; charged positrons erupted from the rifle, piercing the once-impenetrable scales of the flying beast. At last, the red wyrm fell.) - Ch.9
("Why are you crying?" she woozily asked, sitting quietly in her Entry Plug; Unit-00's scorched form was standing nearby, still smoking from the Ahamkara's last attack. "...I do not understand." With vociferous desperation, he ranted; never say that you had nothing else! Never say that you could be replaced! As he delivered his plea, his mind snidely whispered: you only say this to assuage yourself. Becuase if she had nothing...then she would be just like you, who also has nothing...and then you would have no excuse for your weakness, in the face of her strength; no excuse for your cowardice, in the face of her bravery.) - Ch.28
(For the first time, she smiled. There was an unusual expression in her red eyes, and they actually watered. "I apologize," she said, reaching up to wipe them away, a natural reflex. "I have never smiled before. It hurts.") - Ch.28
(He had many questions; about the giant in purple armor, about the enemies they faced. He never asked, because he knew there would be no answers.) - Ch.2
(The roar rattled him, a promise of destruction for rejecting their gifts.) - Ch.3
("To move the Evangelion, you must open your heart to it." It was the best advice that she had ever given him. Even if Unit-01 frightened him...even if the prospect terrified him...he had to open himself up to it.) - Ch.20
(The hand that was not his own clenched tightly, plunging the knife into the scales of the great wyrms.) - Ch.1
(He quietly followed his friend into the hospital room, staring despondently at the young girl laying on the cot. She tried to say that her injuries were no big deal; compared to her brother's fist against his cheek, the shame of his failure felt that much more painful.) - Ch.19
(Shinji yelped as he was sent flying, tumbling head over heels; woozily getting to his feet, he gazed into dispassionate red eyes, and at the casual motions of her combat knife. "That was slightly faster. Again.") - Ch.19
(He eyed the elevator panel oddly; all floors below Central Dogma needed a thumbprint and retinal scan to authorize access. There was also another odd panel of sorts, shimmering white and blue; another layer of security? He sighed, and pressed the button to head to the parking garage where Misato was waiting. Whatever lied beneath was just another mystery that would never get answered.) - Ch.23
("Simulations can only go so far." Shinji looked mutely at the various weapons laid before him, then at the various targets at the far end of the firing range. He looked up at Misato, who was unwrapping some new earplugs. "I want you to have an instinctive understanding of what it's like to handle a gun.") - Ch.7
(Unit-01 gripped the sinuous neck, digging in deep into the ground as the beast thrashed about. He held it just long enough for Unit-00 to descend from above, progressive machete decapitating the dragon in one fell swoop.) - Ch.23
(He resisted the urge to blush as Misato and his friends praised the dinner he had made; it wasn't a big deal, honestly...he just wanted them to have a good time.) - Ch.19
(He witnessed from afar as civilians fled from the rampaging dragon. Resigning himself to yet another battle, he stepped forward to save them.) - Ch.3
(He watched despondently as the thralls advanced, their very footsteps burning the asphalt; whatever their wish had been was irrelevant. And so Unit-01 stoically smashed them under its foot, slowly turning to the dragon that watched slyly from atop the skyscraper.) - Ch.11
(Unit-01's eyes seemed to narrow, focusing on the scales along the dragon's torso, shattered by an extensive missile barrage. With swift prejudice, the progressive knife struck, stabbing through the gaps, and into the softer flesh.) - Ch.11
(Center the target...pull the trigger.) - Ch.3
(Evangelion Unit-01 gazed at the waters of the Sea of Japan, knowing that the Ahamkara that had reduced Sado Island to a ravaged husk was under there. Without hesitation, he delved into the deep.) - Ch.36
(The first of the wyrms had nearly ended him. Months later, when a proverbial hydra torched probability itself with its gaze, he put out its eyes with pinpoint shots.) - Ch.3
(The months passed, and the Japanese mainland bore more and more scars. Yet the waters of Lake Ashi...the strange and grandiose Geofront...they were but a few constants.) - Ch.23
(For every wyrm that was killed, another seemed to rise. Different day, same cycle of frustration.) - Ch.3
(Sometimes, he rather enjoyed the rather idyllic beauty of the Geofront...but then he would recall the cold and sterile environment of the complex below. As the months went by, the drudgery of the war completely tainted it, reducing the scenery to a mere veneer of natural elegance.) - Ch.23
(Yet another day of simulations. Another day of testing. The monotony was broken up by school...and, on frequent occasion, a draconic abomination. The mind-numbing dread had become a constant companion.) - Ch.14
(She smiled. "Thank you." And then she turned away; it was the last time he ever saw her.) - Ch.3
(The blue cyclops advanced in his place, holding a large canister. Ramming it down the gullet of a massive wyrm, the two vanished in nuclear fire. And thus did he scream.) - Ch.2
(As his scream of anguish faded, the massive wyrm emerged from the nuclear fire, scorched but alive. The blue cyclops did not. And thus did his screams became rage personified.) - Ch.3
(The wyrm's wing lashed out, slicing through the Evangelion's arm. Searing pain consumed him, but it only made his fury burn hotter; howling, he willed Unit-01 to lunge forward, its horn gouging into the dragon's face.) - Ch.8
(The dragon's corpse was sprawled over the mountainside, and it had been dead for minutes now; and yet, as an entire town lay in smolders behind them, Unit-01 kept stabbing away at the dead beast, lost to Shinji's rage.) - Ch.11
(As far as fifteenth birthdays went, Shinji thought that spending it unconscious in a hospital wasn't too bad in the grand scheme of things. Even if the circumstances leading to it had been painful, it had been...quiet. And yet, awakening to the sight of a slumbering Misato - slumped over his cot, hand gripping tightly to his own - was an oddly heartening experience, one that almost made his prior ordeals worthwhile.) - Ch.11
(He grimaced at the sight of his erstwhile guardian: slumped over onto the table, having fallen asleep amidst a bunch of beer cans and various operational reports. It was odd, to see someone who commanded such respect at NERV be such a slob in her off period. Still, that was no position for sleeping; with a resigned sigh, he slowly tried to place her arms around his shoulders, and quietly tried to carry-slash-lug her over to the couch. He grunted, letting her slide off onto the cushions...only to yelp as her arms sleepily dragged him down with her. The snoring woman impulsively hugged him tightly into her chest, which was clad in a tank top...and only a tank top. Petrified with fear and terror and shame and a heady cocktail of other feelings, he imitated the behavior of countless prey animals and went perfectly still. It was one of the most stressful nights in his entire life.) - Ch.28
(The dragons attacked as a pair, spewing fire and lightning; Unit-01 stormed through the fire, ramming its fist down the beast's gullet and tearing at the stomach within. Howling, the Evangelion turned around, swinging the dragon at its colorful twin.) - Ch.26
(The dragon was dead, its spine snapped. Unit-01 rose, and Shinji's eyes fell upon the blasted peak of Mt. Kusuyagadake, the shattered isthmus that once connected the mountain to the mainland, and the trail of carnage that their battle had left. Nothing can stop me. It was perhaps the first time he consciously realized what great power lied within Unit-01's grasp...within his grasp. No one could stop me. He could just leave. He could leave it all behind. I could destroy anything they sent after me...) - Ch.20
(With a sudden lurch of his gut - impulsive revulsion at the thoughts he was entertaining - Shinji vomited into his Entry Plug; the bile floated lazily through the LCL. "...eww.") - Ch.20
(He asked Misato about the casualty report from the Sendai operation. "...it doesn't matter, Shinji-kun," she quietly said. "After what the dragons' Vassals did...it was going to be a mess regardless of what happened." He knew that...and yet he asked again, because it was his right to know. With great reluctance, she showed him the after-action report. Casualties were in the hundreds of thousands...it was a telling reality of the war against the wyrms that it didn't even surprise him. Perhaps that was the most horrifying part of it all.) - Ch.28
(Some people looked at him now as though he were immortal; some called him the 'Invincible Ikari'. He was all too aware of how fragile life was.) - Ch.10
(The beast had five heads, all breathing hot gas and tongues of fire. Despite the heat and the burn, Unit-01's A.T. Field held firm; with a desperate howl, he swung the progressive sword, unleashing the might of the Eva's soul.) - Ch.20
(He spoke of the recent mission to Otsuki, a small town about twenty-five miles north of Hakone; Toji nodded, speaking rather fondly of childhood visits to his grandparents. That nostalgic smile faded as he continued to speak of the horrific serpent that had snaked its way into Otsuki's underbelly; as he spoke of how the town no longer existed, the sorrow in Toji's eyes rendered him incapable of feeling anything other than disgust, all directed inward at himself.) - Ch.23
("Well...I'm home," he murmured, stepping into the apartment. It felt as empty as he did.) - Ch.17
(The great wyrm tossed him aside; through the supernatural senses of Unit-01, he felt it when his back crashed into the highway, filled with panicked evacuees. Vehicles were crushed, and flesh was pulped. Wearily, he rose...and stared at the paste of concrete, metal, and corpses that his collision had caused. Dozens...maybe hundreds...howling in despair, he and the Evangelion shared a transcendent anguish. In a flash, he was upon the dragon, ripping away at it with his bare hands.) - Ch.8
(He looked up at the starry sky, and relished the quiet dark. It was a reprieve that he...rarely had these days.) - Ch.6
(The door to the cell opened, chasing away the darkness of solitary confinement. Shinji warily looked up, facing the stoic silhouette of Gendo Ikari. "The final casualty figures are in from the last operation. Your...tantrum...resulted in the deaths of one thousand, two hundred and forty people. The Horaki family was among them." His heart froze, and his jaw dropped. His palpable horror was apparently enough for his father. "I'll give you another day to think about the cost of your insubordination, and how high a price it was." Despite the man's apparent words of concern, he still seemed as cold and distant as ever. "Next time, you will follow orders." With a decisive slam of the door, Shinji was once more cast into the dark. Before long, the blackness was joined by the sound of deep sobs and agonized screams.) - Ch.9
(He heard the roar from beyond the mountain ridge. Oh how he wished for a different life...and yet, this had become all he knew. It was now the only thing he was good at.) - Ch.6
("I heard Dr. Akagi, father; I asked her, and she told me about the soul within Unit-01!" The makeshift command center - a far cry from the technological stronghold within the Geofront, now consumed by shadow - was dark, empty of all save two: himself and the Commander. "Why? Why did it have to be mother? Why was she the one who had to be the soul of Eva?" He yanked at the lapels of his father's jacket, staring up into the man's impassive face. "All these years...I thought she had DIED! WHY DID YOU LIE TO ME?!") - Ch.26
("The Ahamkara will eventually subvert us all, if we do not strike them at their source. For that...our only hope is Unit-01.") - Ch.3
(He gazed at the eyes of the dead boy, wide with fright. He then gazed at the eyes of the boy's killer, wide with madness.) - Ch.6
(The school had been pulverized. The thrall that had once been his friend walked slowly towards him, with eyes shedding anguished tears. Shinji knew that the boy could easily kill him...and yet, there was resistance. With tremendous agony, the thrall bared his neck, even as possessed fists reached to strangle him; it was an invitation, a last request, that of a prisoner pleading for mercy. Shinji grimaced, his body shivering with anxious misery; why did it have to be him? WHY WAS THE BURDEN ALWAYS HIS?! Howling with grief, he took his small pocket knife and jabbed it into his friend's neck.) - Ch.11
(The school was supposed to be a place of normalcy, a place of escape. One fateful day, a lone wrym granted a single wish to a desperate boy: by the time the sun had set, the entire building was destroyed, and the beast's thrall had to be put down.) - Ch.7
("Shinji, I'm coming in." He hadn't moved from his bed since returning from the battlefield, leaning on his knees. His bed crinkled as Misato sat beside him. The silence was...oppressive, and smothering. Just like the school had been that day, when one of his few friends had begun killing everyone.) - Ch.7
("...the tears won't come, Misato," he said, despondently. One of the few constants of his life: gone, in an afternoon of fire, blood, and carnage. "...I feel sad, but the tears won't come.") - Ch.7
("...Shinji...this is about all I can do for you right now." Her hand slowly rested atop his own. Wearily, he looked to his right; the woman was facing straight ahead, not wanting to look him in the eye. It was strange; he could remember the first time he had met her, looking up to see her face. Now, after two years of constant battle against the wyrms, they could see eye-to-eye. Perhaps that, more than anything else, was what decided it; Ayanami, Horaki, Kensuke, Toji...they were all dead now. When it came to the people that he cared about...when it came to the people that cared about him...who else was left? Thus, when Misato slowly turned to look at him - a strange intensity in her eyes - it was ultimately no surprise when he lunged forward, kissing her deeply out of a desperate, lonely hunger.) - Ch.7
(There was no time for words, or for thoughts; only the frenzied hunger of two individuals seeking complementation in the only way that was left to them, through ravenous kisses and grasping bodies.)
(He woke up in Misato's arms, somewhat numb and bewildered by...well...everything. The woman was staring at him, an inscrutable, unknowable heaviness to her gaze. He looked back, unwilling to move, unwilling to speak...unwilling to do anything other than just lie there, resting in a loose embrace, hoping that the world would just ignore them. However...by this point, they both knew better, didn't they? The next day, the operation to destroy the Source of the Wyrms would commence; little did they know that this moment of peace would be their last one together.) - Ch.7
(Standing at the edge of the great abyss, he wondered how they could've gone so long without knowing.) - Ch.7
(The great beast stepped forward, facing the three-eyed Giant.) - Ch.1
(Deep beneath the Geofront, in this dread chamber of bone and ruin, two Giants clashed. Darkness and black shadow swirled from the white Giant...and it was laughing. It was pleased. It was not curved and pasty, but jagged and harsh; he was facing the Giant in its true form.) - Ch.25
(The Source of the Wyrms screamed in Unit-01's face, smashing it into the wall. With immense fury, the Evangelion tucked its leg in, kicking the great Giant into the main deck.) - Ch.23
(Soul warred with soul, and his howl seemed to pierce everything.) - Ch.1
(The furious melee continued, as the two Giants' thrashed and ripped and roared; every movement carried tons of force behind it, and it felt as though the entire Geofront would fall down around them.) - Ch.24
(Punch, after punch, after punch! The three-eyed Giant scowled, white hand glowing with green fire; the horrific jab smashed into his left shoulder, and there was nothing but pain.) - Ch.24
(He heard a remorseful sigh, as their burning radiance filled the ravenous void...and then he was rocketing away at unbelievable speed, spinning uncontrollably.) - Ch.1
("Shinji-kun...be safe," whispered the voice within Unit-01. And then, without any input on his part, the Entry Plug was jettisoned, its acceleration boosted to a ludicrous degree by his Eva's A.T. Field.) - Ch.26
(After what seemed like forever, there was a sudden stop, and a horrific collision. And then there was nothing.) - Ch.1
(The screaming warrior descended like a comet, and struck the Bardielim with all the force of a lightning bolt. It was his first encounter in this new life with another Guardian, and she wielded power as easily as breathing.) - Ch.27
(Will and instinct and experience provided the form: Shinji's entire body, glowing with Light, crackled with an electrical aura as two sparking blades manifested in his hands. And he answered the horrid howls of the Hive with one of his own.) - Ch.27
(Lord Saladin patted him on the shoulder, a gesture that was meant to be reassuring; he believed that it was. "...that sort of rage is not necessarily a bad thing. It can drive you past your fears, to fight instead of flee; however, that anger is only as useful as your control over it. Do you control it? Or does it control you?") - Ch.20
(The stalwart man did not falter nor fail, even with the three axes embedded into him. He could see Misato's body begin to tremble with rage and sadness...and yet Saladin did not appear to regret it. "...make it count..." And so he fell, once and for all.) - Ch.35
("Unfortunately, Pahanin's memories after the event were...compromised. We will only be able to provide you some basic details of what to expect." Osiris glanced between him and Eris, before turning back towards the projector. With a few hand motions, the Vanguard Commander conjured the image of a large, circular door of segmented, glossy metal. "Although the location will have changed...the entrance should hopefully look the same.") - Ch.38
("I liked doing a lot of work with the Pilgrim Guard," explained Vell as they were gearing up for their departure from the City. "They always had a lot of good things to say about Lord Gheleon. Never saw him myself, but there were a lot of times we'd have overwatch in some ruins, or when an enemy ambush got triggered before we ever got near it. Like a very reclusive guardian angel." A brief pause, as he grabbed another ammo block. "...he was a good man.") - Ch.38
("My order understands the perspective of Osiris, and his drive for understanding." Eriana-3's voice filtered through the speakers of his cockpit; their voyage to Venus would take another hour, so their whole team had time to...well, chat. Eris and Eriana's debate had started to get heated. "But understanding the enemy should only go as far as learning their strengths and weaknesses. All of this talk about the possible history of the Hive, the philosophy of the Vex Minds...they're superfluous.") - Ch.38
("Lord Zavala actually based this off of what he learned from Sakura Suzuhara," explained the Titan; Shaxx and Ikora served as a distraction down below, dispersing the clusters of Iruelim. "It's more of a...'brute force' application of our Light. But it's a useful intermediary for those who've yet to learn how to manipulate their A.T. Field." The Titan knelt down atop the bluff, and saw Fallen turning their wire rifles towards their position. "Shinji, Eris, Eriana; get ready to open fire!" He braced himself, letting his Light surge...) - Ch.38
(The contemptuous words of Eriana-3 filtered through his helmet's speakers. "Typical of House Iruel, to turn any machine to their favor." He watched with a strangely morbid curiosity as Zeruelim and Israfelim took the fallen remnants of individual Vex units, draining and scraping away at any hint of the milky radiolaria; each shell was then bathed in the yellowish glow of an Araelim, nullifying any trace of the Vex's indomitable psychic will from the shells. Then, once they were sufficiently 'purified', the units were inhabited by swarms of Iruelim. Still, they couldn't let the Fallen gain a foothold in this region; with a small hand signal, he let his Light surge, forming a javelin of indigo energy. In the next instant, two Shadowshots slammed around the Fallen, binding most of them; a flurry of grenades fell next, exploding with the power of Void, Arc, and Solar; then, as one, he and his five teammates descended upon the Fallen from all sides.) - Ch.38
("The thanatonauts of my Order have long experimented with A.T. Fields in our attempts to minimize or thwart the twisted energy of the Araelim," explained Eriana-3 as she quietly cleaned her sidearm; in the distance, Eris and Ikora were keeping a wary watch on a large-scale counter-offensive by the Hezen Corrective against the fortifications of House Iruel. "But Sakura Suzuhara brought back an organized, disciplined sense of metaphysical fundamentals, courtesy of her tutelage from the Sage...and with some additional guidance from Commander Osiris...we were able to create something new, uniquely suited for Warlocks and how we channel our Light.") - Ch.38
"
