Um... *slightly embarrassed look comes over his face* I finished fixing up the fic, I think. I don't care if I screwed up royally with this "patch", so I'm not going to apologize for it, I'm just going to make you read it, and I'll make you LIKE it!

Mua ha ha ha ha ha ha! *cough cough gag choke* I definately MUST stop laughing maniacally.
*--**--**--**--**--*


Shinji stared at the ground below. Maybe, as some philosophers said, death was
the ultimate release. Shinji wanted badly to find out, but only continued to
stare at the broken pavement below instead of making his hasty way down to meet
it.

Shinji sighed. Asuka had cried herself asleep. Maybe Shinji would kill her first
so she didn't have to suffer through her entire life without him, as long or
short a life that may be. He cared about her, he really did, and he was willing
enough to admit that to himself and to her, but he felt that she didn't really
need to go through loss after loss and pain after pain on his account, or anyone
elses either. She had just gotten over her "thing" with her mother, why restart
the whole experience over with him doing what he had to do?

It would be a mercy killing. Yes, that's it. Surely God and Kaworu would
understand, and maybe he'd get into Heaven with them all and be happy for
eternity. Ayanami might understand, but he doubted it. Asuka, she would
understand it very well, and she would forgive him for it. Yes, a mercy killing.

Shinji went inside. His stomach felt queazy, as all his instincts told him that
it would be murder, cold-blooded, and stupid. It was as plain as that. But his
head told him to do it anyway. He could reason it out later again that his
intent was mercy, and not killing just to kill. But how to go about killing
Asuka?

She had removed all the knives from the apartment one day, fearing Shinji might
do something to her, or worse, himself, with them if they stayed. She also threw
out the iron and ironing board, since they didn't need to look presentable to
anyone else in the world. Anything and everything that could be used as a
weapon, including sewing thread and needle, were thrown out. Where Asuka had
hidden everything was beyond Shinji, but apparently she had swept the entire
apartment building and all the ones near the one they lived in. She had done it
all in the days Shinji was stuck in bed because of his "accident". Every few
hours, she would check up on him, making sure he didn't have another "accident"
while she searched all the surrounding apartments, stores, and other remaining
buildings in the area.

Anything Asuka could consider a weapon, she had removed from Shinji's grasping
hands. That didn't mean she had cut off his hands, and it wasn't for lack of
trying that he failed when he used them against her. He had tried, three times
already, to kill Asuka with his bare hands. Each time, her neck got redder and
redder, her face bluer and bluer, but he couldn't bring himself to finish the
deed.

"Maybe it was because I didn't feel the way I do now. Maybe I just wanted her
dead just to satisfy something in me. I didn't feel it was a mercy to let her
die like I do now."

Asuka pulled her ear away from Shinji's bedroom door. "Oh my God. He's going to
try to kill me out of mercy? Misato, I wish you were here. Protect me from
Shinji, please, Misato!" she whispered. 'Protect yourself. He's weak, and dumb,
and he never finishes what he starts. He doesn't do anything right, which is why
he kisses so bad and why he screwed up making this world.' "But I can't protect
myself against him. I don't want to anymore. I want to make him understand me!"
Asuka grabbed her head and began crying again.

Shinji heard the crying and opened his door. He went to Asuka's and knocked on
her door. "Asuka? What's wrong."

Asuka felt like screaming, "Paper-thin walls, baka Shinji," but she only held
her breath.

"Asuka?" He opened the door to find Asuka sitting against a wall crying. "It's
me, isn't it? I'm causing you so much pain, aren't I?"

"You're the only one besides me who's here, idiot!" she screamed. As quickly as
the words were out of her mouth, she covered her mouth. "No! I didn't mean it
like that!" she said from behind her hands. Shinji closed the door and ran. "No!
Wait! I didn't mean that! I didn't mean that, Shinji! Shinji!" she screamed. She
ran to the door and flung it open. She ran to Shinji's door and found it locked.
Strange, locks on any doors inside the apartment. When did he install this one?
She made sure nothing could prevent her from reaching him, and him her, if
anything were to happen.

Asuka screamed and kicked at the door. Besides making a foot-sized hole, nothing
significant had happened. She removed her bloodied foot and kicked again. She
continued until her foot was too torn up to stick it through the door again, and
she could crawl inside. She saw Shinji sitting on the balcony railing outside
his room. He was crying.

'Why did I have to say something so stupid? Why why WHY?!?' Asuka crawled in the
room. Shinji didn't seem to notice anything, including the noise of either her
violent entry into the room, or her yelping in pain every time she had to step
with the bad foot. He seemed too lost in his own little world to pay any
attention to her. "Shinji, come here, please. Eeep!" She stepped with her bad
foot again. "Please?"

"Asuka, isn't the sky so lovely at night without everyone's lights on?" He had
on his face a pitiful little smile. "I don't know whether I'll miss it the most,
or the way it used to look."

"Shinji, please, get away from the balcony. Eeep." She grabbed Shinji's shirt
and yanked him toward her, then cringed and yelped as she put even more weight
on her torn foot. Shinji fell toward Asuka. Together they landed on the ground,
him on top of her. Asuka, despite the pain, moved Shinji's head so she could
look into his eyes. "You know, the Bible says this way is correct. Man on top,
woman on bottom."

"I asked you to stop teasing me, Asuka." The tone in his voice was unchanged
from when he was on the balcony railing. She kew he wasn't going to do anything
to her now.

"I'm not teasing you."

"Yes you are. You're only doing these things so you can feel better about
yourself. You don't realize you don't have to tease me. I'm already suffering,
and you're finding your way into my hands every time I need to inflict my
suffering on something. I don't want you to suffer because of me." He grabbed
her by the neck and started squeezing. "I don't want you to suffer because of
me. When I die, you won't have to suffer. This is the only way you won't suffer,
Asuka. Because I love you."

Asuka's eyes bulged. She tore at his clenched fists with her nails, making his
hands bleed. Still, he kept a firm and steadily increasing grip on her neck. She
tried touching his cheek, the action that made him stop all the other times
before, but it had no effect this time. Her last resort was to unzip Shinji's
pants and feel around inside. He let go of her.

"Stop this, Asuka," he commanded.

Asuka let go and scurried backwards. She grabbed her own neck and coughed. Air
returned to her in gulps. This made time number six, the fourth time he had
actually tried to kill her, the sixth time he put his hands around her neck in
anger. This time, he was going to finish the job. He was, until she wanted him
in her last moment.

Asuka stared at Shinji. He was backed up against the railing he looked angry and
scared at the same time. He got up and turned around toward the outside. "I
wanted to keep you from suffering from my mistake, Asuka. I wanted you to be
free of pain and unhappiness." He grabbed the railing and put a leg over. "I'm
sorry, Asuka. I'm sorry you're going to have to suffer."

Asuka leapt up and grabbed Shinji's other leg before he could pull it over the
edge. "You are not, NOT, going to kill yourself, Shinji Ikari!" she shouted. She
got up, never mind the pain in her foot, and pulled Shinji's body up and over
the railing to her side. She carried him into his bedroom and threw him through
his door. "I'm sick and tired of you pissing and moaning about how I shouldn't
have to suffer and you should because you made a really lousey mistake! I'm sick
and tired of you complaining to all Hell that you want to die. And I'm sick and
tired of your God damned hands on my neck! Shinji, you're really the last man on
Earth! Everything I ever said to you, everything I ever joked about or teased
you about when I told you, 'Not even if you were the last man on Earth',
EMPHASIS ON MAN, it doesn't really matter anymore, damn it! I love you and you
are not going to die on me now!"

Shinji stared at Asuka from behind a splintered door and from behind hands
sheltering his head. His eyes were watering. Tears streamed down his face. He
had never once been as truely afraid of her as he was at that moment. It seemed
as if the retribution of God himself had set its sights on him, and she was the
weapon He was using. She way she held her hands on her hips, the way she stared
furious at him, the way her foot bled... The way her foot bled? "Asuka, you're
hurt."

Asuka stomped over to him, on her good foot, and slightly limping off her bad
one, and she gnashed her teeth. She bent over to grab Shinji. He shook all over
by that point. Asuka picked up Shinji by the arm and stoof him out in front of
her, her breath still coming through somewhat restricted airways ragged.

Then, her face lost its anger and she hugged Shinji. "I don't want to lose you,
Shinji." She cried onto his shoulder.

"Asuka-"

"Shut up and hug me." Shinji hugged Asuka as ordered.

"Kiss me, please," he asked. She complied and kissed Shinji.

The moment between them lasted just that, a moment, before Asuka cold no longer
hold her own weight up on her bad foot and passed out from the pain.

Asuka collapsed. Shinji caught her before she fell to the ground completely.
"Asuka?!?" he yelled. He let go of her with one hand, still supporting her with
the other, and felt her neck for a pulse. "What did I do? Asuka!" He felt her
pulse slowing down from once raging to now a faint whisper. Then it regulated.
He forgot completely about her breathing, but whether he would have remembered
or not, he couldn't feel it or hear it with blood pounding in his face and ears.

Shinji picked up Asuka completely and carried her to her room. Tears from his
face hit hers on the way. He put her down onto her bed. He ran back to his room,
forgetting about the wood on the floor, slipped, and fell. He got up again and
went into his room. He grabbed the sheet from his bed and walked swiftly back to
her room, remembering the broken door on the floor. He reached her bed and began
tearing at his sheet. When he had made a strip of cloth, he dug the noticable
splinters from Asuka's foot and then wrapped the cloth around it. He tore more
strips, to be used as bandages later. He might have to change the one on in a
few minutes. Already he saw blood staining the off-white cloth.

"Asuka, I don't want you to die. Please, don't die, please!"

Asuka opened her eyes. "Baka. I'm not going to die from this. You're
overreacting." She brought her hand to his face and caressed it. He grabbed her
hand.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Asuka smiled. "Stop apologizing. You're a man, Shinji. The last man on Earth."
That didn't stop him from apologizing.