This is a work in progress. It is not a finished product. I feel that I still have to flesh out some parts, and figure out some things. If you have suggestions, feel free to e-mail them to me. I have come up with a sketchy resolution (as in how the story will result), but I still have to work out how it gets there. Please be patient. It may be days or months between posts due to my work and current situation.

Also, I am planning on putting a compiled addendum at the end of this story. If you run across a word or idea that you do not fully understand, be sure to tell me! I will add that to the addendum to expand and explain parts of the story in greater detail. I hope that you enjoy this fic. It is my first after a long time being away.

Also, look out. I am sure there are some glaring errors in this. Spelling, grammar, sentence structure. It is late and I don't have my computer with Word on it here to check everything. So WordPad has to do. I will get to it though. So without further ado...

LIFE AFTER EVA

DAY 1

"I feel sick."

Shinji let his hands slide off of the girl's neck, and leaned on them, letting sand creep through his fingers. Asuka just stared at him, waiting for him to finish. The boy cried as he slowly came to grips with the situation he was in. Alone, save for the only person who really knew him at all, and witness to the end of life as it was known on Earth. The yellow waves washed up against the white sand and retracted back into the sea.

He rolled off of her, and lay with his back to her. She lay there watching the sky, wondering at the turn that things had taken. A day before she had battled and beaten nine Eva Mass Production Model combat units by herself. Today she was lying on the beach. Her arm nearly split open, her left eye injured, and "saved" by Shinji once again. She hated him. She had been ready for her death after she had fallen. She would have welcomed it. She had remembered being a part of hundreds, thousands, millions of others knowing their thoughts, and feeling their feelings. She unconsciously flexed her hands into fists, and fire ran up the inside of her left arm. Gasping she let it hurt. Pain was at least a proof that you were still alive. And what did not kill you... Did it really make you stronger? That had yet to be seen.

She closed her eyes, and listened to the waves. Surprisingly, her arm stopped hurting again in a few minutes, and she drifted to sleep. In her dreams she relived the Third Impact again. It was in a way beautiful. Even more, it was terrible. It was peaceful. But she was still horrified.

Much later, she awoke again. Shinji was gone from her side. In his place was a stack of wood. Night was falling, and it was starting to get cold. Grunting she rolled onto her side, and used her good arm to prop herself up. It was then that she saw Shinji making his way towards her, carrying a box, and wearing a heavy looking hiking backpack. As he drew closer she saw that he was sweating, and breathing heavily. Setting his things down, he looked over at her, and furrowed his eyebrows.

"I didn't mean to leave you alone, Asuka. I just went to get some things to help us make it through tonight." He turned away so that he would not have to look at her scowl at him. She still had not said anything to him but those three words. He busied himself with starting the fire, and setting up two small tents. He also pulled out a couple of sleeping bags, some packages of what looked like food of some kind, some clean clothes for both himself and Asuka, and some medical supplies.

Darkness had set in, and the moon came up. The new red streak splattered across its surface shown brightly in contrast to the normal white terrain. Surrounding the moon was also a small halo of red where blood had splashed with enough force to be ejected back off the surface.

The light from the fire cast streaky shadows along the sand.

Shinji dug into the box with the food in it, and produced some store bought fish. Undoubtedly the power had gone off not too long ago and the freezers were still able to hold some of the heat out. He placed the fillets on a spit and directed them over the fire. He took some large potatoes and wrapped them in foil, and put them in the fire. He also produced a canteen cup and poured some water in it, and set it just inside the fire to boil.

Asuka was amazed at this. She did not know that Shinji knew anything about camping. Of course she supposed that when it really came down to it, it was common sense and improvising. Adapt, improvise and overcome. She sat and watched the fire, moving a little closer to collect some of the heat. While the food was cooking, he broke out some of the medical supplies and moved closer to her.

"I had better look at that, Asuka. We need to see about getting those wounds to heal." He watched her frown, and she eyed him for a moment. He just looked at her, waiting for her to let him treat her.

"It better not hurt much, or I'll clobber you Third Child." She glared at him unconvincingly. She was grateful for the help, for all that he was doing, but she could not allow Shinji the pleasure of seeing her grateful.

Carefully Shinji unwrapped her arm, and inspected the wound to her arm. A deep gash ran down the outside length of her arm. The bandages had been doing a good job of holding it together, but if it was going to heal right, it would need stitches. Until he could get some anesthetic, a needle and some suture, the bandages would have to do. Taking a cloth, and pouring some clean water on it, he wiped away the caked blood and clot. Then with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, he doused the entire length of the wound, and let it foam, wiping away the excess when it was done. Asuka tensed at the sudden pain, but relaxed as it subsided.

Next he put some antibiotic ointment on, and re-wrapped the wound with bandage after applying a thick gauze strip directly over the wound.

Then came the eye wound. Shinji hoped that it was not really bad. Especially something that would leave her without that eye. He had always liked her eyes, not that he would ever tell her that. She would clobber him for that.

Carefully removing the pad and tape, he saw that the wound was not directly to the eyeball, but more to the bottom of the eye socket. Directly under the eye the skin had been pierced. It did not look too serious but it would be best to leave the area covered for the time being, so he cleaned and dressed it again, and re-taped it.

By this time the water was boiling, and the fish and potato was just about done. Pulling the water off, he produced a box of instant rice. He wished that he could have found some of the good stuff. Not the name brand rice. But it would do. Dumping it into the water, he turned his attention to the other food. He set the fish on a rock, and unwrapped the potatoes to cool some.

The meat and potatoes cooled, and Shinji strained the rice out of the water. They ate in silence. Shinji was thankful for that. He needed time to think over some things. Both of them did. What would happen now? What was their purpose now?

Asuka finished first, and sat back against a large piece of driftwood that Shinji had hauled close to the fire. "Shinji?"

"Mmph?" He muffled through his food.

"Why did you bring me back here?"

"What do you mean Asuka? I did not really..."

"You brought me back here!" She said accusingly. "You brought me back to this... this hell! I was ready to die Shinji, and you took it from me!" Tears welled in her eyes, and threatened to flood onto her cheeks, but she wiped them away, and looked angrily at Shinji.

"But, Asuka. I didn’t do anything to bring you back. I was surprised to see you when I woke up. You were not supposed to be there. I just wanted a world where no one would hurt me. And I was willing to be alone if that was what it took."

"Well how the hell do you explain the fact that I am here? Hmm?" She glared at him. "And don't you even say that it is because of my strength of will or something equally stupid! I am no more or less deserving than anyone else in the world. How do you explain it?" She let the question hang, waiting for an answer.

Shinji thought about it for a while, and spoke up. "Eva protected you."

That set her back. "Eva? Momma? Protected me even then?"

At the mention of her mother, Shinji perked up. There was a connection between her mother and Eva also? He had only pieces of her past. Her mother had worked on the Eva project in Germany. She had died somehow when Asuka was very young. Asuka did not talk about her much. He could understand how it was a sensitive subject.

"Asuka, my mother protected me while I was in Unit 01, but that is only because her essence, her soul was there too. She was there. In Unit 01. She stayed in there. I don't think she could get out. I have thought a lot about it, and I think that somehow her mind and soul was absorbed and her body dissolved like what happened to me. Ritsuko explained it to me some once."

Asuka looked on wondering if that explained her mothers being with her in Unit 02. "What exactly did she tell you. What happened? I thought you said that she had died." Asuka was careful to sound solemn when speaking about his mother. It was a sensitive subject, and it is really not very nice to speak harshly about something like that.

"That was what I had been told. About the furthest back that I can remember, I was... standing at the window overlooking the cages at NERV, and she was down on the catwalk near Unit 01. She had something kind of like a plug suit on, and she looked up and saw me waved, and smiled at me. She was going to attempt activation for the first time. She got in the entry plug, and they filled it, and then I remember klaxons and sirens and the red warning lights and the announcements on the intercom. And when they tried to talk to her, there was no answer. I never saw her after that happened. They had told me that she was buried, but I never really felt like she was there. Then went I was forced to fight the fourteenth angel. While I was in there during that month, she was there. I remember feeling near her. Even like I was almost a part of her. It was strange. I almost did not come back. And. She was smiling. "

Asuka eyed Shinji, absorbing this news. He had never really had the chance to come to grips with his past because he did not know it himself.

Shinji sat back, and sighed, thinking over things. He sipped at his water. "Ritsuko debriefed me after that, and explained some of the background behind A.T. Field theory. I had never really known what it stood for. I had never even bothered to ask. But A.T. Field stands for Absolute Terror Field. The term is taken from psychology, and it is a theory that certain traumatic events can cause someone to block out all or part of that event as they choose because it is so terrible. It is as though it never existed. In the Evas case, it refers to an energy field that living beings give off. She only explained about humans, Angels, and Evas. So I don't know if it is something animals and plants and other living things have. Anyhow, she said that we produce these fields, and that basically it was like a force field for humans that separates our minds from others, and holds our body's cohesion. For Angels and for Evas when they are piloted, it not only does that but it can be used as a protective shield and a weapon."

Asuka listened, never having delved into the ideas behind it this way.

"Evas are like an empty body that has no mind, so the pilot has to share their mind with it, which means that when synching with the Eva, part of your own AT Field is borrowed by the Eva. That allows you to feel it's pain and senses, and you control it using your thought. Ritsuko's mother had notes about that stuff. They hinted that somehow my mothers AT Field had totally failed, and so her body had dissolved allowing her mind to occupy Eva. I don't know exactly what that means. She never took complete control over it. I mean she could have spoken through it or something right? She could have moved it around or something. I did not catch everything that Ritsuko told me. And I am sure she did not tell me everything either." Shinji let it end with that. He had spoken to Asuka more tonight than he had in any one sitting before.

Asuka looked at him with an uncertain look on her face. "Well maybe that would account for my being here. But the next question is, what do we do now? We are here, for what purpose?"

"I don't know. Right now I don't know what to think. I just want to rest and regroup what is left of me." He eyed the tent that he had decided was his.

"Goodnight Shinji." She almost sounded nice. "Don't even think about coming over to my tent." In the blink of an eye her tone changed, and now she was the "Old Asuka" once more.

With some difficulty she stood, and refusing Shinji's help she walked to her tent, and climbed in, letting out a grunt of pain. After zipping up the door, Shinji heard some rustling, and realizing that she was talking the remnants of her plug suit off. He blushed.

"Asuka? There is some soap in there, if you want to go bathe. I.. I promise I won't peek or anything. Just so you don't have to be caked in old LCL."

There was no response so he picked up the leftovers. Dumped the rest of the boiled water out, and cleaned the place up as the fire died down. He scooped the embers all together, and put a couple of logs on it, then went to his tent as well. He lay awake for quite some time mulling over everything. The feeling of loss was overwhelming. In one day he had lost Misato, the people at NERV, all of his friends, everyone except Asuka. But, while they were not actually with him, he knew that they were out there somewhere. Heaven he supposed. He guessed that that was what the whole Eva thing was all about.

Outside he heard the zipper on Asuka's tent door, and for just a moment, he thought she would come over to his tent and tease him or make fun of him. When she never came, he relaxed, comfortable in the knowledge that she had taken the chance to bathe. As the blush crept back in, he yawned and rolled over to try and sleep. Asuka padded back past his tent, and entered hers, and after some more thought provoking rustling...

"Shinji! How the hell did you know my bra size!?"

Shinji almost choked. "Asuka, I have been doing your laundry for the last 6 months."

"Oh. Well you are still perverted." She sounded almost like she was smiling when she said it. With that he finally fell asleep....