Once Shinji didn't care about anything; then he found people to fight for--only to learn that he couldn't protect them, or keep those he let into his heart from going away. As mankind tilts on the brink of the Third Impact, human feelings are fault lines; good, for cracking the world open, or bad, to be welded forever shut. Kaworu, the Angel of Free Will, now offers Shinji his own two choices--but what if neither is the right one...?