Disclaimer: I do not own NGE or TTGL. If I did, both would have ended… differently.

…

Once again, Simon found himself floating weightlessly hundreds of meters in the air, and then heard the steadily increasing roar of the wind as he and the other occupants of Lagann began to fall to the earth below.

"Oh shiiiiiiiiiiii-!" Simon and Yoko screamed in unison as they hunkered down and grasped the sides of the mecha for dear life.

Kamina hollered as well, but for him is was a whoop of exhilaration as he leaned over the side of Lagann's head, drinking in the scenery below as it grew increasingly larger.

"Hey! Look! There's some ganmen down there! And there's people there too!" Kamina shouted, louder even than was necessary to be heard over the roar of the wind.

"What?" Yoko carefully peeked over the edge as well, seeing a couple dozen humans shooting at a pair of ganmen. "Crap. They're from my village. What're they doing fighting way out here?"

"Whatever. Hey, Simon, aim for that one!"

"Aim?! We're falling, you idiot! How's he supposed to aim?"

Laughing, Kamina placed his hands over Simon's on the controls, and pushed them as far as they would go. Somehow, the mecha managed to accelerate even faster toward the ground, causing the three of them to nearly float out of their seats. Yoko, who didn't have a grip on the controls like the others, wrapped her arms around Kamina's neck. Even she wasn't sure if she was trying to hold on, trying to stop him from pushing them toward disaster, or both.

There were two ganmen arrayed on the desert below, and a couple dozen humans. The humans were bunkered down behind a rocky outcrop, with the ground around them littered with shell casings. As they approached, they could see one of them wearily turn their head skyward, freezing when they saw yet another ganmen falling from above.

Just as they began to wearily turn their weapons toward the new threat, they noticed the trajectory the smaller mecha was taking. The steady fire slacked off as everyone turned to watch as Lagann collided with the beastman piloted ganmen like a meteor. The resounding clang of metal on metal nearly deafened the observers, and a cloud of dirt and debris obscured their view. When the plume of dust cleared, both units could be seen sprawled out cold.

Cheering, spirits renewed by gifts from above, the humans turned their attention, and weapons, upon the remaining mecha. It staggered under the redoubled firepower, cracks and gaps appearing in its armor. Finally, the light faded from the robot's eyes, and it crumpled to the ground in a heap of nearly unidentifiable parts. With both mechas out of action, the humans crawled out of cover and sallied forth to see what could be scavenged.

Kamina was the first to return to his senses. Kipping to his feet, he observed that they'd been thrown out of Lagann after it impacted. Seeing the motionless, but intact, bulk of the larger ganmen, an idea struck him. Taking the stirring Yoko's rifle, he marched over to the prostrate behemoth and stomped his foot into the face of the ganmen. The face of the mecha began to slowly, jerkily lift, its operation impeded by the massive dent near the top. The grinding noise came to a stop with the mask half off, and the occupant of the vehicle found a rifles muzzle pressed against his own. The two stared wordlessly at each other for a few seconds, and then the dark form within the cockpit fled past Kamina, making a break for the open desert. Kamina fired a potshot after him, but missed.

Seeing the commotion, a group of villagers with weapons at low port headed in the direction of the two intact ganmen. Upon seeing a now upright Yoko, they visibly relaxed, holstering or re-slinging their weapons.

"Hey, Yoko! We were worried when you didn't check in last night," spoke the leader, waving as he approached.

"Last… Night?" Yoko repeated slowly, a blank look on her face. "I've been gone for a week!"

"Huh?! You get hit on the head? How'd you not know how long it's been since you left?"

"Umm, I think that's gonna be a lo-ong story."

"Have anything to do with these two guys?" He asked, gesturing toward her companions.

"Oh, right. This is Simon, and the one who needs to give me back my rifleis Kamina, both from Giha village," She said, snatching her gun from Kamina, who rewarded her with a sardonic grin. Facing the two boys, she gestured toward the group slowly filtering in around them, "and this is my village. This is Dayakka Littner, our leader." She then hurriedly gave a brief account of what had happened, with a promise to tell the story in detail later.

"Welcome to the surface, boys" he acknowledged them once she'd finished, "you can stay with us, so long as you're willing to pull your weight."

With the introductions out of the way, Dayakka turned back to his crew, "alright, you layabouts! Let's get these mechs broken down so we can haul 'em back to camp."

As the crew approached, crowbars and other implements of deconstruction at the ready, Kamina leapt to block their path, shouting "Hey, don't touch my new ride!"

As they stopped, more from shock and confusion than from Kamina's physical impediment, Kamina cracked a smile and started to explain his idea. "Simon here has already got one ganmen, right? That means that we can pilot them, just like those beastmen. I'm gonna drive this one, since I captured it fair and square, right?"

The dazed onlookers stared, then grins to match Kamina's own spread across their faces as comprehension dawned. Yoko seemed resigned to his antics than the others, but when even Dayakka agreed, the matter was settled. After sending a runner back to the village proper, they began the process of hauling a second mech back in one piece.

Despite their exhaustion after hauling everything back to the village, their victory kicked off a party that ran late into the night. Kamina's overdramatic rendition of their story thus far put him in the spotlight, though he dragged Simon in as well to help him tell the story. Yoko tried to play the voice of reason, toning down Kamina's exaggerations and Simons hero-worship of Kamina, but the crowd-pleasing nature of his story-telling led to inevitable victory for Kamina and Simon's version of events. Finally, even Kamina's boundless energy seemed spent and he and Simon collapsed in a storage room they'd taken over as temporary lodging.

…

Worlds away, Shinji Ikari opened his eyes to the afterimages of the two falling asleep. Staring up, he gazed upon the ceiling of a hospital room. He slowly sat up in the bed, feeling the pull of dried LCL on his skin and in his hair. Seeing that he wasn't attached to any monitors or IVs, he cautiously got out of bed. Despite his slow standing, his head swam momentarily, but then he steadied himself and moved toward the door… which promptly burst open and a purple-haired cannonball crushed him against her chest.

"Ohthankgodyou'reokay! When we couldn't find the others I was so worried even though the medics said you'd be fine." Misato spoke in a rush, barely intelligible due to talking into Shinji's hair.

Shinji awkwardly patted her back. "Slow down, please. What happened? Who is missing?"

"Yoko, Kamina, and Simon. We haven't been able to find a trace of them since the angel was defeated. Augh!" Misato tried to pull at her hair, but Shinji actually smiled.

"I think you can stop searching."

"What?! Aren't you worried about them, too?"

"I think they've gone back to … wherever they came from."

"How? And how could you even know?" Misato was starting to calm down and think rationally again, but was still unsure.

Shinji smiled sheepishly this time. "It's mostly a feeling. I, uh, sorta saw them while I was out. A dream. I know that's not much to go on, but…"

"It's a lot better to think than that they're… gone for good, right?" Misato finished.

"Yeah." Shinji nodded.

Misato stood up straight, attempting to project an aura of surety despite her near-breakdown, and nodded to herself. "Alrighty, then. I'm going to call off the search. There's a lot to do to clean up after this angel, anyway."

…

Gendo once again sat alone in the darkened conference room. As the projectors came to life, an even more confident smirk than usual failed to conceal itself behind his tented hands. This time around he spoke promptly, "As I assured you gentlemen earlier, our guests have left the stage. Despite their presence, all three Angels have appeared, and been defeated, without incident."

Grudging murmurs of agreement sounded around the table, though not from the man at the other end. Gendo allowed them a brief pause, then continued on to his next topic, "As discussed previously, now that your other concerns have been taken care of, will Unit 02 be released for transfer?"

"It is en route as we speak."

"Excellent. I have everything I need. Good day to you all." Gendo turned to leave, but stopped as Kihl cleared his throat.

"I trust that such disturbances will not be allowed to interfere with the scroll's predictions again?"

"You can count on it. We now have contingency planning in place if they, or any other outsiders, manage to intrude upon the scenario."

The projectors died and Gendo walked out of the room, where Fuyutsuki was waiting. They both walked toward the elevators, stopping to wait for a lift to arrive.

"Is our other special delivery on its way as well."

"Of course. It will rendezvous with the carrier before they arrive in Tokyo 3."

A lift arrived, and Gendo stepped in. Turning back, he replied, "excellent. I'll leave you to it" as the lift doors closed.

Fuyutsuki gazed bemusedly at the door, before hitting the button to call another elevator car.

…

As Misato drove them home, once again in her Renault now that she wasn't ferrying a crowd, she turned to talk to Shinji, "hey, I know it sucks not having them around anymore, but what say we make the best of it? Would you like to move into my suite? It's gonna be lonely without them around, and it's just gonna be worse with you in a whole 'nother apartment."

Shinji gazed out the passenger window for a while.

"May… maybe later. Tonight I think I just want to be alone for a while. Is that okay?"

"Aw, he wants to play the brooding loner, does he," Misato mocked managing to bring some levity back to her persona.

Shinji, also feeling his spirits return, managed to fire back, "Maybe if you weren't such a slob…" though he trailed off a bit at the end.

Misato laughed uproariously, and reached over to tousle his hair. "He lives! That's more like it!"

Shinji, however, blanched and pointed ahead. "Misato, eyes on the road!"

The car swerved even more violently than usual as Misato corrected, overcorrected, and they continued home.

…

Shinji Ikari had once thought that being the new, unknown student in class was the most awkward position to be in. Now, he knew he'd been wrong. Being an existing student, but still virtually unknown by the people still in his class, was far more awkward.

As a new student, one could expect to be surrounded by others, eager to find out where the new guy would fit into the pecking order, but it would usually stop during class, at least. But under the current circumstances, he was surrounded by stares of people who he didn't know, but who knew him, and the stares kept up even after class started. At least none of them messaged him.

Things finally broke during lunch. Toji, tailed as always by Kensuke and his camcorder, approached Shinji's desk.

Toji scratched the back of his head awkwardly and averted his gaze, but finally managed to get out, "so, uh, hey Shinji. Where are, you know, Kamina and the others? I never really finished apologizing to him, or, uh, you, really. So, sorry, for earlier, to you, I guess." He trailed off and one of his sideways glances turned in a meaningful direction, and Shinji noticed that Hikari was camping out nearby, probably to make sure Toji was actually apologizing.

Shinji managed to iron out a response, based on what 'civilians' were allowed to know. "They, uh, had to go back home. I don't have any way to contact them right now, before you ask. Uh, thanks for the apology?" To Shinji's eternal relief, that seemed to be enough even for Hikari, and Toji slunk off, and Kensuke followed, though not before throwing a somewhat suspicious glance his way.

…

After class, he was cornered once again, this time by Hikari herself. "That idiot apologized properly to you, right?"

Shinji, who just wanted to get away, quickly affirmed this, "Yeah, he did, and no, I couldn't help him find the others. Can I go now?" While he asked this, he was already moving toward the door, when the class rep cleared her throat again.

"Actually, I was hoping you could help me with something else. Rei has missed a bunch of school lately, and she wasn't in school today, either, and I was wondering if you could take some handouts to her. Those two", her tone leaving no question as to who she was referring, "have been useless, and I was hoping you could do better."

…

And so Shinji found himself in front of a dilapidated door in a building that seemed to have been partially smashed. Since it had been dark then, and was light now, he couldn't tell if it was a part of the city he'd fought in against the 3rd Angel. He hoped it wasn't, at least.

When he knocked on the door, just how damaged it was became obvious; with at least one hinge broken, the latch didn't engage, so the door swung open slightly at his knock. Despite his better judgement, he slowly pushed the door the rest of the way open, softly calling Rei's name. Stepping cautiously inside, he could plainly see that the buildings appearance wasn't just outward. The walls were visibly cracked, and it looked like half the lightbulbs were broken. He could even see the remains of some of the bulbs littering the floor, though they'd at least been pushed out of the main walkways. The building's damage wasn't the only detritus, either; regular trash seemed to be piling up in places as well.

Shinji heard a sound and froze, straining to listen more closely. Hearing the sound of running water, he had a premonition of disaster, and called out again, loudly, "Rei!"

He heard the water turn off. Now that she knew he was here, crisis was hopefully averted, and sighed in relief.

A premature sigh, as it turned out, when a dripping wet Rei walked out of from the direction of the bathroom, with only a small, soaked towel draped over her shoulders, despite the warning. Shinji yelped and turned away from her near-nudity, facing another drift of trash. Standing rigidly straight and avoiding turning around, he quickly tried to move on to his reason for being there. "So, Rei, I brought some handouts from class for you. Uh, should I put them down somewhere?"

Rei stared at his back, then responded, "You can leave it on my desk."

Shinji started to look around for the desk, but then caught himself. "Uh, Rei, could you put some clothes on so I can turn around?"

In what seemed to take an agonizingly long time to Shinji, Rei complied. Shinji, near-terminally embarrassed, shuffled the papers off and made a hasty exit once he could find the desk without getting an eyeful. As he left, the image of the half-destroyed building gave him an idea.

…

Finding himself yet again in Misato's apartment making dinner, he finally broached the subject. "Misato, you wanted me to move into one of your spare rooms, right?"

"Yeah, and you begged off. You ready to move in with ol' Misato?" she replied jovially, already several beers in.

"Uh, actually, I was thinking about Rei. I was at her place today, and…"

Shinji was cut off by Misato's lighthearted mockery, "Ooh, visiting a girl, are we. What a ladies man! Tell me mooore."

"N-no, nothing like that," Shinji manages to break back in, "it's just, the place she's living in, it's been totally trashed." Worse even than here he carefully did not add. "I was thinking that maybe we could have her move in with you. That way, you'd, uh, have company like you said, and she'd have somewhere a bit nicer to live."

"Omigod, such a gentleman!" And Shinji once again found himself smothered in Misato's sloppy embrace. "What a great idea! I'll see what I can do about that. I just got some news at work today, too, so this might be for the better."

"What news is that?" Shinji asked wearily.

Misato grinned. "It's a seeecret. I'll be taking you on a little trip in a couple days, that'll answer all your questions. Maybe we can bring little Rei along as well", she cackled.

…

Authors notes:

I'm faintly sure I suck at writing the Gendo-Seele scenes, but they're fun to write. I think I'll be adding more when there are good reasons to do so (and oh, will there be).

And yes, I'm skipping Jet Alone. Sue me (unless you're Gainax, then please don't sue me).

For any, ah, returning viewers, I'm doing some re-writes of earlier chapters. Chapter 1 is done; mostly making it a bit leaner and meaner, and hopefully making the dialogue better. There won't be much, if any, cutting in other chapters. I'll aim to drop future updates alongside a new chapter as well.

Sorry for the really long delay. I won't trot out a litany of meaningless excuses. I will say that I was unhappy with the earlier chapters, so re-doing them is helping he get back into the grove, I hope.