Waves.

It was the sound of waves crashing on the beach that had 
finally brought him to.

But the waves sounded wrong.  They were too soft to be 
water.  Water rumbled along and hit the sand with a low, 
grating thrum.  This sounded more like oil.  Like oil 
slowly seeping in and out of the coarse sand.

But he did not care about how or why the waves sounded 
wrong.  His attentions were directed to a more immediate 
concern.

The wind whispered in his ears, sounding for all the world 
like the ephemeral babble of a billion souls.  It tugged at 
his unkempt brown hair, ruffled his soiled white school 
uniform, played with his sand-filled socks.  The wind felt 
warm against his skin, like a summer's breeze, blowing in 
from the sea.  It carried with a vague copper smell with 
it, a smell the boy did not usually associate with the 
ocean.  These facts he filed away as unimportant. His 
attention was occupied with the person lying on the sand 
before him.

His tear-filled eyes made it hard for him to stare at the 
prone figure for too long, as feelings from deep within his 
heart shook his nervous body.

Shinji cried, lost between pain and joy.  His hands hung 
loose around her throat, numb and disaffected.  It was 
over; his pain, his father, the Evangelions, they were all 
in the past now.  If anything, the images of depressions 
now seemed like figments of his overactive imagination.  
His memories had a sense of unrealness to them, like a haze 
that prevented their full recollection.

His hands moved of their own accord, shivering with his 
tears, caressing her face and lost in the touch of her 
skin.

"Asuka," he finally choked out in a strangled whisper.  His 
heart was hopelessly lost to her, lost in hope and fear at 
the same time.

"Who the hell is Asuka!!??"  Shinji fell hard into the wet 
sand as the girl he had been perched over suddenly sat 
upright, her large red eyes reflecting the blood sky.  Her 
face screamed indignation, surprise . . . and betrayal.  
"Who the hell is this Asuka, Shinji!  You'd better start 
explaining, Ikari, or mark my words as Rei Sohryuu 
Katsuragi, I'll make you pay!

Shinji cried to the heavens, his voice hoarse beyond 
despair, and collapsed unconscious.

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August 3, 2000