Herald: Ok, I'm a bad bad boy I know...I forgot all about this project and now its fall...and college...sigh wonderful. Anyway I'm proud to present the 12th chapter of my story (I had this almost finished before...heh). I'll try to work on this one some, but don't expect absolute progress...sorry. I'm very very busy anymore (12 credit hours of upper level classes, and 18.5 hours of work on campus leaves me pretty much bushed every night).

One leg was restored while the other was knocked out from under him, bringing him back to his knees. He finally had to be sedated because of the rapid emotional changes and their effects on his blood pressure and heart rate.

Rei lay there, staring out the open window and breathed deeply the ozone filled air. 'How is this world different from the one I just left? There is no Kaoru, but there is a boy named Shinji.' She looked over at him and immediately felt two emotions: revulsion and love. Revulsion because of his look. He looked like he was a demon, especially with the unkempt condition of his hair. The emotion of love was what hit her the worst. She didn't know why she felt that way for him, who he was, or even what she was in this world, but she knew she felt for him.

Worst of all was what hit her next, the fear of having this boy whom she loved turn out to be nothing more than a demon, intent on killing her. Adding to this was the storm itself. Almost constant lightning and high winds were pushing through the sound of the torrential rains. The above ground hospital was purposely here for this fact. The storms of the Post-Second Impact world seemed to almost have a quality of healing about them. It was almost as though some higher entity took pity on the world and tried to heal it through the roving cyclones.

"God's in His heaven, all is right with the world." The commander stated from his position in the shadows, adding to Rei's fear. "To think that man is watched over by someone is foolish. The Angels are proof of that. Man can only rely on his own strength, and no other. Although people say that they have faith, that they want to go to heaven, many deep down don't feel that way and run from what they don't understand."

Rei turned her head to face him. "Then why do they want to attain Instrumentality? What does SEELE have to gain?" The memories of this man and the mission he stood for were fresh in her mind from her eavesdropping of the crisis talk surrounding the disappearance of this Soryu girl.

"There are some things I don't even know. SEELE has reasons that I was never curious about. Why should I care about them when I was so focused on my own goal?"

The bed bound girl had to give him that. Focusing on one point made it impossible to view what was happening far away.

"Tell me. How long have I been unconscious? What have I missed in that time? Who am I?" The last question seemed to hit the man in the gut, knocking the air out of him.

"You have been unconscious for…" He shook his head. "I can't remember. Shinji was out two weeks, and you were out a little while before that." He sighed and started to rub his temples. "You…have missed a great deal. Shinji…merged with a future version of himself, and a part of the 12th Angel which had enveloped him. This has created a new Shinji, different and superior to the one before the attack of the twelfth, but as you have shown yourself, scarier and more misunderstood."

"As for whom you are…." He took a moment and tried to filter through the information in his head. "All you need to know is that Shinji loves you. That is something you are required to know. Especially because of what will be coming."

"What do you mean?"

"SEELE has taken one of our pilots. Luckily they don't have their hands on Unit-02, but that doesn't matter because we are essentially defenseless with you two in the hospital. If they are going to strike, it will coincide with an Angel attack, and it will be a hard strike in order to destroy us all. Thankfully, I hold the key in the palm of my hand to keep Third Impact from happening, and SEELE is completely unawares." He held up his hand and stared at it, while the lightning revealed the beast that was inhabiting it. "I have thought about destroying it…preventing any chance of Third Impact, but….I would have to destroy my hand and give up on being with Yui." He looked down, losing himself in his own thoughts.

'Such a dark version of the other world…which one is real?' Rei silently remarked. Both worlds held a chance at happiness, and each had those that were there saying that they loved her. For some reason this tore her up the most. The emotion of love seemingly was something that this body must not have ever experienced. 'Love…war is hell, and love is worse than war. Sure the windfalls can be great, but the moment you fall out of love or go against those you love, it can be life scarring.' A philosophical part of her jumped up and answered the questions of what her views on love were.

"What drove Asuka away, I wonder?"

"She ran away…cause of me." Another lighting bolt revealed the red pupils of the teen sitting in the bed next to her. She jumped at the image, but told herself that everything would be okay and settled down with almost inhuman calmness. "I said something stupid in our last battle, and she thought that I was going to leave her to be with you."

"But according to your father you love me…" Rei was confused, she was told that this boy loved her, but at the same time it was obvious that he was heartbroken over this other girl. She also held feelings for the name, but could not recall an image; they were weaker than her feelings for her boyfriend, but…

'Wait a minute…boyfriend?'

"We don't know how much time we have to prepare for the battle that will come. I'm going to get the nurses to evaluate you. We'll need to do some tests to see if either of you can still pilot." The elder Ikari rose from his chair, bones creaking, adding an eerie sound to the storm outside, and walked quietly out the door.

"Pilot what?" Rei honestly asked.

Shinji could only stare as he wondered where to start. "Damn…what a day…" He mumbled before he started telling her entire life story from memory. Rei's mouth almost instantly dropped and stayed there until Shinji mentioned the name from her other world.

"Tabris, also known as Kaoru. He's the 17th Angel."

This was the last thing Shinji said before he fell unconscious and found incased into the far wall of the room several minutes later.

Rei was no where to be seen.