Disclaimer: I own no rights to NGE or its characters in any way, shape, or form.

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

AN: Some OOCness in this story. Also, full of what I believe to be angst (the entire story).

Chapter 01: Survival on the Street of Insincerity

He was a seemingly average boy, in a seemingly average modern town. He was of a slight build with short brown hair and blue eyes. The town he lived in was none other than Tokyo-3.

The boy in question is none other than one Shinji Ikari, 16 years of age, about 5'7", and roughly 150 lbs. or so. Shinji was not very average at all, despite his appearance and normally cowardly demeanor. He is the pilot or rather, ex-pilot, of Evangelion Unit 01; the protector, or rather, one of the protectors of the Earth.

He was about to be at school with the other two protectors of this Earth; Asuka Langley Soryu, and Rei Ayanami. However, this story doesn't yet include them. It was a seemingly average day to everyone but Shinji.

"How much longer am I going to be in here, Dr. Akagi?" he growled out.

"The synch test is almost over, Shinji. Then you can go to school."

Shinji didn't say anything further and concentrated on the task ahead of him; raising his synch test scores so he could get out of there as quickly as possible. They had been falling a lot lately, and Ritsuko wasn't exactly liking the fact that they were falling fast; soon he wouldn't be able to do anything in Unit 01, and needless to say, Gendo wasn't exactly happy about it; he still needed him for Instrumentality, though, being currently in a top security jail cell, that would prove to be difficult to carry out. It had been discovered that Gendo Ikari, Shinji's father, had done some rather devious things that had been stumbled upon and he had been arrested right then and there, but that too is for a later time.

"Alright Shinji, you can go now" Misato said from Central Dogma. When he was out on the cat walk, heading for the locker room, Misato turned to her faux blonde friend and asked, "So, have his scores improved any?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "I'm sorry, Misato. It didn't drop as far as it did last time, but I think we need to intervene in his life and do something about his scores, and who knows, we might even give him the shot in the arm that he needs to believe that he has a life worth living."

"So, you heard that from Asuka, have you?"

"Yeah, she told me all about the 'incident'. I never thought he would blow up like that on anyone, though I suppose she deserved it, but still…"

"Yeah, I was certainly surprised, to say the least."

"Here's her complaint forms that she filled out" Ritsuko said handing Misato a small stack of paperwork that had Asuka written all over it.

"You didn't let Commander Fuyutski see these, did you?"

"Of course not; I wouldn't be handing them to you if he had. However, the question still remains, what should we do about his scores and sudden violent tendencies?"

"Hmm…I don't know, but if we both think on it, we should be able to come up with something.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Several days later…

As of late, all of Shinji's classmates, and even the few friends that he had, were staying as far from him as they could. After the death of Kaoru Nagisa, also known as the last Angel after Second Impact, had died at the hands of none other than Shinji, he had taken a turn for the worse; he had gotten very temperamental and violent, and even Asuka, who was normally that way, but to a lesser degree, had tried to stay far from him.

The only 'person' (if you can really call a half-Angel a person) that even tried anymore would be one ex-pilot Rei Ayanami. As the Earth wasn't threatened by the threat of the Angels anymore, the three children weren't really needed as full time pilots anymore, and therefore weren't listed as true pilots anymore, making them technically ex-pilots.

However, though, as small as Rei's efforts were, they did help some. Everyday, he would come to her apartment, and try to talk to her and her to him; to try and get him to not feel quite so angry, though she hoped it would work, it never really did.

To tell the truth, not even Shinji knew why he was so hell bent on destruction; self destruction or otherwise. All he knew was that he was so hell bent on some form of destruction.

When Asuka had tried to help him, even a little, he snapped at her and almost killed her with his bare hands by strangling her, though he stopped himself. Needless to say, she doesn't want to help him ever again. Today, however, something was noticeably different about him. No one could put their finger on it, but something different; it would probably be his horrible appearance that day.

It was just another seemingly average (that means terror-filled) day at the Tokyo-3 High School when Shinji walked into his first hour class looking like he had been fighting with (not in) his Evangelion unit; he had half-drooped eyes, and bruises on various parts of his body, and his clothes were extremely raggedy, he was stumbling to his seat, and he knew only one thing at that moment, he was feeling pain all over his body.

Almost everyone wanted to at least try to find out what was wrong and help him, but he would only allow Rei any where near him for any reason. After he sat down, Rei magically appeared in the doorway and rushed towards where Shinji was sitting and stood nearby him and then started talking to him in a low whisper so no one else could hear.

"Shinji, what has happened to you?" Rei asked concernedly.

"I…I…don't really know. I went to sleep in my room, but when I woke up, I was laying in the street, strangely enough, near your apartment. It looked about the time to get to school, so I came."

'Shinji…' Rei thought. 'I wish you would let me help you…'

"Rei" He said quietly. This caught her by surprise as she was lost in her thoughts for a moment. "This…may seem strange, but…I…I need your help."

She wasn't sure that she had heard him correctly, but she knew her hearing was rather good. "H-how can I help, Shinji-kun?"

"I…I…I was kind of wondering if…" he hesitated a moment, but forced himself to press on; he knew he needed help, and bad, but he really only trusted Ayanami at the moment. "If…I could s-stay at your apartment?"

AN: Short yes, but short for a reason.