Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

T-plus 198 hours, 49 minutes, 16 seconds

Lieutenant Maya Ibuki stared into the dark lens of the video camera, trying to collect her thoughts in the last few moments before the debriefing began. Her mentor, Dr. Akagi, had assured her that everything was going to be fine. The video conference that was to take place was a mere formality, and that there would be no actions issued against her for her role in the events that had transpired during her time as Mission Commander in the DPRK. The people on the other end of the camera had already been briefed on everything that had happened, and that this was in reality more of a question and answer session than anything else. Of course, the fact that she had no idea just who exactly was going to be asking the questions worried her, as did the doctor's assurances that she didn't need to be concerned about that, saying that they were senior researchers and ranking officers at other NERV installations. The whole setup of the room seemed to be designed to elicit uneasiness and trepidation- she sat in a small illuminated circle while the rest of the room was cast in shadow. Alone, on the spot, and with no idea as to whom she would be conversing. It was more like what you'd expect from an interrogation than a follow up debriefing.

A red warning light switched on, slowly flashing in the dim light of the room. As the interval between flashes decreased, she swallowed down her doubts and fear. She had to be professional. She had to be sure, confident and self assured. No matter what they asked, she just had to remember that she had been the mission commander, that she had taken the teams to the DPRK and had brought as many of them home as she could. No material that was left behind was classified. Everything that had gone wrong was from events and circumstances beyond her control. The personnel losses were beyond her control, and were not anticipated by her commanding officers.

None of those thoughts did anything to settle the dread, fear, and sorrow that she had been inundated with over the past week. None of it helped her when she lay in her bed at night, sleepless and sick. This interview was supposed to be the closing action of her end of the disastrous launch mission and Evangelion combat mission, but she was certain that it would do nothing for her sleepless nights.

The light changed over to a solid glow as the camera's aperture twitched as it focused in on her. A speaker hissed as a deeply modulated voice greeted her.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Ibuki. We've already read the reports, but we would like to hear directly your impressions of the events from the time that your teams were situated in place, having taken command of the site and establishing the temporary manufacturing facility.

Maya took a deep breath, and began.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo didn't look up from watching the woman report to the SEELE council as Ritsuko entered the observation deck.

"They will want to speak to the girl."

"Well, they'll have to wait in line." Ritsuko said, crossing her arms across as she joined him in watching her protégé below them. "She's catatonic. We can maneuver her around, have her sit up and the like, but there's no response to any other stimuli. Her eyes remain unfocused, and she only stares at whatever in front of her."

"So she's like Misato then, and not like Shinji after his episodes."

"It's very similar, yes, which makes me wonder if there was any contact between Misato and ADAM. If there was, then-"

"It doesn't matter." Gendo said, abruptly interrupting the scientist. "It might have mattered before, but now, it isn't worth our time. Nothing ever came of Katsuragi's time spent in recovery and observation. No new insights to the Angels, to ADAM, and they were never able to find any clues from the MRIs and brain scans. If Soryu's current condition is the same as Katsuragi's after Second Impact, then her usefulness to us is minuscule. Rei will be the only pilot that we have left."

Gendo winced as his body shuddered, a series of tremors running through him. He remained upright purely by force of will as the nascent god-thing writhed within his flesh. A rope-like appendage snaked its way just under the surface of his face, pressing up against his skin of his cheek before retreating back down his neck to where the main body of the growing creature nestled in his flesh.

"As soon as it is convenient, I want you to test her in sequence with the dummy plug system. If she can establish a connection, good. If not, we will have to rely on Rei as our only Pilot." he continued, ignoring the Sub-Commander's offered assistance.

"Is this to take precedence over my work on the salvage operation?"

"Yes. If she can still offer us use of Unit-02 her current state, then that doubles our operational capacity. The recovery of Shinji is still a primary concern, but Kozo should be able to carry that project while you run the tests. Lieutenant Ibuki will assist you."

"Is that wise? She's torn up about the whole thing. She might have objections to using Asuka in her current state- and she'll probably object to the idea testing her anyways."

"That's a valid concern, from both her and you," Gendo admitted, watching the young woman below as she answered questions and made explanations. "but we don't have a choice. If you want, swap her out for another technician, and stick her on another project."

A smirk crossed his face, one that Ritsuko hadn't seen in over a month.

"Actually, yes. Go ahead and pull another one of your technicians to assist you on Soryu. We'll promote Ibuki, and then have her head up the project to recover the Lance. On the outside, a reward for outstanding work in the face of a difficult assignment, and on the inside, a 'punishment' detail so she doesn't think that we're just trying to make her feel better about herself after a disastrous mission."

"The Lance is currently in orbit around the moon, Gendo." Ritsuko reminded him. "We still don't have a spaceport of our own, and we won't pull the same deal with the DPRK again. Even if they were trustworthy, the UN would certainly move to block a similar deal under the weapons embargoes."

"Yes, yes, I know. Only the fact that there was the threat of the Angel were we able to get away with the first one. So the task will be difficult, but not ultimately impossible for her to accomplish. SEELE was unhappy that I was able to maneuver that with only some slight prodding from their side. The old men would much rather have us more dependent on them. There are other resources available for her to pursue in order to recover the weapon. We won't need to deal with the DPRK. Of course, if the Lance remains outside the reach of everyone, so much the better. My plans work with it being beyond the reach of SEELE or with it in our possession."

"Fine, fine." Ritsuko said, sighing as she turned to leave. "I'll start getting the test chamber set up for the experiment. Unit-02's repairs are underway, and it will be ready for duty by the end of the week. I'll put in the papers for Maya's assignment and promotion as well."

"Very good."

With a final glance down at her protégé below, Ritsuko turned and left the shadowed observation room, the door locking behind her.

Nodding to himself as he continued to watch the debriefing, Gendo reformulated his plans and assessed possible corrections to the new issues facing his scenario. The newly promoted Captain was holding up well under the interrogation, although he wondered how composed she would be if she knew just who it was she was talking with. As it was, she was calm and in command of herself, and only a little unsure at times as she responded to their questions.

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

T-minus 45 hours, 37 minutes, 30 seconds

Asuka glared at the landscape before her from her perch atop the superstructure of the launch facility. The view from up here was amazing, but did nothing to temper her anger. She had thought that going to one of the most reclusive nations in the world would have been interesting, especially seeing and working with their space agency. It should have been, anyways, but it appeared that the 'Glorious Leader' had other plans. This was not a joint mission between NERV and the DPRK. Very few people had remained, mostly just political officers, who served as liaisons to the actual scientists and technicians who were now stationed several kilometers from the launch site. NERV had full run of the facilities, but were barred from leaving the area. Despite the agreement between them, the Koreans still did not trust the Japanese, and NERV, while a multi-national private organization, was still a primarily German-Japanese venture. The government wanted as little interaction between their peoples as possible- but she wasn't sure if it was more out of a hatred for the Japanese personnel or a desire to limit cultural contamination. Either way it meant no exploring.

What was even worse, was that there wasn't anything for her to even do! It was all up to the fabrication teams right now. They were finishing the construction of the launch vehicle around her Unit-02, so she wasn't able to even do anything with it. To be sure, she had helped design the launch vehicle, incorporating it and her Evangelion into the massive rockets that would launch her into space, but now there was nothing that she was allowed to assist with- nothing that was worth her time. Oh, she could weld and set rivets, and do all of the other things, but that was a waste of her talents. Besides, what good was it to bring the technicians and engineers with them if they didn't get to do their jobs?

She couldn't even access her MAGI link, to check on the programs that she had set to run before she left. It was too much of a risk to try to connect from over here. Back-door connection or not, an IP address from the DPRK trying to connect to the MAGI that wasn't part of the temporary linkup from their field station was sure to set off red flags, and she wasn't willing to risk trying to set up a piggyback signal. The cyberwarfare division of North Korea was undoubtedly trying to hack the NERV communication systems, and she didn't want to accidentally let them in through her own efforts.

So here she was, bored out of her skull, waiting for the chance to go and kill the Angel that remained in distant orbit. It was apparently content to sit there, neither drawing closer or going farther away. It was locked in orbit over Tokyo-3, and continued to swat down anything anyone sent at it, although it seemed that everyone had given up on that endeavor, electing to not waste their stores of weapons in such a futile endeavor.

Waiting, with nothing to do, and no good news of Shinji. No good news from anyone. Maya had her hands full, what with overseeing the mission, and while she wasn't opposed to her hanging around in the background, it was clear that the woman wasn't going to assign her anything to take care of or supervise.

Well, it would only be a few more days, at the current rate of progress.

She could wait. Patience was one of the many German virtues, after all.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

T-minus 1 hour, 16 minutes, 20 seconds

Rei watched the sky, staring up into the night. She could not see the Angel that sat above her, of course, but but she wondered if she could locate it using her own Angelic abilities. In the past, there had been a sense of awareness of the Angels, and she could feel Lilith down below. Even past the anti-psychic shielding and even with her power diminished by the Lance, Rei could feel the familiar presence of the Second Angel in the back of her mind.

She wasn't sure if she could feel the being of light and matter. Perhaps it was just her mind playing tricks on her, but she thought that she could feel something out there, up in the darkness of the night sky.

Rei longed for the operation to be over, for the Pilot-Captain to deal with the Angel and return.

Her experiments with the clones and download of the captive agent were at a standstill. The results were... not promising. The breakthrough that she had enjoyed in actually getting the clone to accept the upload without compromising the clone's Ego-Border was not enough. The uploaded image either was compromised by the apparent pain of the man during the download, or any number of other potential issues, from an incompatibility between host body and foreign image, to even just an inability of a stock human to be imaged. She had discounted the inherent differences between her physiology and a pure humans earlier in the testing process, but it seemed likely that the ability for her to have a (more or less) copy made of her mind and implanted into a clone body was directly related to the amount of Angelic material in her genetic makeup.

It was frustrating, the girl admitted to herself as she scanned the skies. She was no closer to being able to get Shinji back, and by all appearances, neither was the official project. Perhaps it was time to find a different avenue. The longer that they waited, the less of a chance there was for success. The Commander's deadline for action was fast approaching, and they would attempt the same salvage program that had failed to achieve anything in the past, regardless of promising simulation results or not.

The very idea prompted a sinking feeling in the pit of her being, a sensation reminiscent of the zero-g tests along with a freezing cold that sent shivers down her spine and chills run across her skin.

She did not know what she would do if she lost him. He had come to hold a very significant place in her heart. If that part of her was ripped away, if he was gone...

Staring up into the night sky, her eyes burned like twin fires. She could not lose him. Not now. He was hers, and she was his. If they could not be together... If he was gone, and she left behind...

In the depths of the subterranean city, Unit-00's animating spirit grinned as it felt the pulsing power and tumultuous emotion from its younger sibling, the psychic emanations bridging the gulf that separated them. The mindless drones opened their mouths and wailed into the LCL, the normal vacant expressions replaced with worry, psychic mirrors for their queen, their exaggerated expressions grotesque mockeries of human pathos.

Her phone pulsed in her pocket, the vibrating alarm letting her know that she needed to return to NERV to standby as the Pilot-Captain's launch time was at hand. What good she would do, sitting in Unit-00 was unknown, but it was the will of the Commander. His orders were to be obeyed, his plans to be fulfilled, and his strategies followed. His scenario had brought her Shinji and new desires, a reward for faithful obedience. She would see his will carried out, even at the cost of her life. The Pilot-Captain was headed towards the heavens, and should she fall before the Angel, Unit-00 would be ready to attack and to defend- whatever was necessary.

The burning glow faded from her eyes as a soft sigh escaped her lips. Turning away from the ruins of her old apartment, Rei made her way back towards NERV.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

T-minus 3 minutes, 20 seconds and counting

Asuka grinned as she checked her panels again, feeling the vibrations from the massive engines as they warmed up. She had said her good byes a few moments ago before cutting communications and switching to standby mode. After the superstructure had separated and the umbilical cables retracted from the rocket there would be no more communication with mission control until she re-entered full gain out in space. If anything went wrong between now and then, she wouldn't know what hit her.

It was exciting, in its own right.

What was more exciting, was the fact that it was finally happening. While the mission had technically started when they had left Japan for Korea, it was finally truly underway. In a few minutes, she would be leaving the Earth, headed into space.

She watched with eager anticipation as her mission clock counted down, her heart beating like a drum in the darkened confines of the Entry Plug.

From beyond the layers of armor and launch vehicle, the booming voice that sounded over the loudspeakers was a mere whisper inside the Entry Plug. "T-minus 90 seconds and counting, all systems go."

The vibrations grew in intensity, rippling through the LCL and resonating in her bones. Asuka's lips curled back her grin less like an excited child anticipating an exciting ride and more like the hungry grin of a tiger before pouncing. Quivering with nervous energy, she checked her restraints one last time. She had undergone G tests and zero-g free fall stress tests before, in what seemed like a lifetime ago back in Germany, but now it was going to be the real deal. A massive three stage rocket, not some centrifugal whirling carnival ride. Actual space, not a high-altitude plane dropping down towards the ground. Her chariot to the stars four times the size of Von Braun's Atlas boosters, and the final propulsion system, still technically illegal, was more powerful than his wildest dreams.

The whisper could not even be heard anymore past the vibrations of the great engines warming up.

T-minus 30 seconds and counting. This was going to be it. Her first solo kill. And it was going to be in space. No assists, no crazy bullshit, no support from anyone else. Just her. 15 minutes of full gain mode to maneuver, close, destroy, and configure for re-entry.

She had this. She had to have this. Rei was the only possible backup, and she was confined to Earth. If she failed out here, she would die. The knife's edge of existence, the ultimate expression of the will to live, of the will to seize victory from unknowable power.

T-minus 15 seconds and counting. Down below, liquid hydrogen boiled into white vapor as the engines neared ignition as the countdown continued.

The time for second thoughts, second guesses and alternate plans was long gone. Only one path lay before her now, and on it she would find either victory or death.

T-minus 9 seconds and counting. Red sparks were shooting out of the igniters at the base of the launch pad.

Either way, she would find glory.

T-minus 5 seconds and counting. The main engines started, eight cones of fire so hot, so intense, that they were invisible to the naked eye at the actual engine nozzles, with only small white cones visible six feet below the ringed apertures.

4.

3.

2.

1.

0. We have lift off. Solid state boosters engaged.

Asuka screamed in exultant joy as her body slammed back into the throne as she raced for the sky. That her voice was lost even to her own ears, drowned out by the devastation that pushed her up and away from Earth's firm embrace did not matter.

T-plus 5 seconds. White cones flashed into existence ahead of the rocket, visual cues as Asuka breached the sound barrier, leaving sonic booms in her wake. The trail of smoke no longer appeared to be perfectly vertical, instead shaping into a graceful arc as she crossed over the peninsula towards Japan.

T-plus 2 minutes. The four external solid state boosters, with their aluminum fuel mix expended, decoupled and fell away. The main tank, filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen, wasn't even down by a twentieth, the heavy lifting having been done by the boosters. Over one million kilograms of fuel had been burned in the two minutes since takeoff.

T-plus 5 minutes, 15 seconds. Evangelion-02 reached space, officially marking Asuka as the first Evangelion Pilot to conduct operations off the Earth. The liquid fuel tank was down by a half as the titanic missile rode its oxygen flame into the eternal night.

T-plus 7 minutes. The first stage continued to burn, taking the launch vehicle out past near orbit.

T-plus 9 minutes, 45 seconds. Separation between first and second stage occurred, the secondary systems engaging as exterior shields were blown away, allowing the dark eyes of the Evangelion to look on the starry field across which it traveled. A pair of nuclear explosions further propelled the second stage towards its prey, hurtling across the empyrean. The second stage fell away, leaving the only the third stage. A countdown clock appeared on Asuka's display, and she slipped the restraints loose, preparing for battle.

T-plus 199 hours, 34 minutes, 45 seconds

"And your sensors did not pick up any change from the Angel following the separation of the Evangelion from the secondary stage?"

"That is correct." Maya replied, wondering why they wanted to go over this part again. "There wasn't any response from the Angel until Unit-02 had exited the launch vehicle and configured itself for combat. While she was still on standby, her third stage passed the previous intercept point."

"And then what happened?"

"Nothing. The Angel did not react until she reached the activation point, at T-plus 12 minutes. Pilot Soryu switched over from stand-by mode to full gain, activated her AT-Field and engaged the Angel."

T-plus 12 minutes

Asuka howled with excitement as the mission clock reached 12:00. She switched over to the full-gain mode, finally activating the Evangelion.

The starry field of open space appeared before her eyes, but what caught her attention was the massive, glowing form of the Angel. Her AT-Field splashed into existence, and she launched a diversionary spray of missiles from one shoulder mounted missile pod as she brought her modified pallet gun to bear even as the directional thrusters altered Asuka's trajectory.

The missiles detonated fruitlessly upon the Angel's AT-Field, but the Angel's light weapon flashed through the area where Unit-02 had been only moments before. They had done their job.

"Unit-02 to NERV, Unit-02 to NERV. Activation has occurred, and I have engaged the Angel. All systems are operational." Asuka reported into the radio, her voice light and excited. It was hard for her not to laugh. While the lag in communications was not very long, it would still be noticeable. "I'm moving to intercept and counter the enemy AT-Field."

Altering her course again, she shifted the protective energy field into a tight wedge, forcing it into the spherical shield of the Angel, eroding away at the glowing hexagonal pattern that hung in space between them. As soon as a small hole appeared, Asuka fired a harpoon at the Angel, the tow line snaking out from the chest mounted launcher. The harpoon hit and pierced the Angel, a spray of blue blood ejecting out in a series of wobbling spheres.

The tow line was not meant for her to get closer to the Angel, at least not yet. For the initial engagement, it was meant to keep her from drifting too far away from the Angel during combat, and to help preserve the compressed gases that served the directional thrusters.

Asuka opened up with the pallet gun now, each shot throwing her back at a rate of a few centimeters per second, only to have that momentum arrested by the cable tether. A succession of rapidly expanding spheres of smoke billowed out from the barrel of the weapon, and the barrel slowly began to glow red with heat. Ignoring the glowing barrel, Asuka ejected the spent magazine and slammed in the second of the three spare that she had attached to Unit-02.

"Unit-02 to NERV, the target's AT-Field is down. First tether is in place, first magazine is expended." She chattered excitedly, opening up again through the smoke, her sensors cutting through the visual obstruction with ease. "It's bleeding, but there's no sign of the core."

Light flashed from the Angel, seeming to come from every facet of the crystalline body. It poured over Unit-02 and seemed to fill the inside of the entry plug with brilliant, blinding light. Cursing, Asuka squinted as she continued to fire, still sending reports back to NERV.

"It's trying to blind me!" She shouted, engaging her filters. "Polarization filters have no effect! Changing to a different spectrum!" She changed over to IR, but was still bathed in the same blinding light. Cursing again, she swapped through different levels of thermal sensors, but nothing abated the eye piercing light.

Worry began to mount as she began to hear something, a low ringing in her ears.

Eins Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Lieutenant Ibuki stared at the political officer, mouth agape. "Are you serious?" Almost every eye in the room was trained on the pair standing at the head of the control room.

"Quite so," the commissar said, his Japanese stilted but apologetic. "Our orders are to seize you, your people and all technology associated with the Evangelion Project, and your manufacturing systems. They were quite clear about this. You will be debriefed, and then released at a future point once our scientists and engineers are satisfied."

"But our agreement! We've honored it, every step of the way!" Maya said, anger fighting with the cold fear churning in her gut. "We've already delivered on our-"

"New transmission incoming from Unit-02!" One of the technicians called out, worry in his voice as he furiously typed away at his terminal. Asuka's panicked shouts filled the room, along with buzzing interference.

"There is nothing you can do for her now." The commissar stated, ignoring the pilot's frantic updates. "These messages are already minutes old anyway, and according to the mission plan this part of the mission is being handled at your Tokyo-3 site."

The buzzing sounds flattened out, cycling through a strange series of unintelligible noises that tugged at the edges of Maya's memory. Ignoring it, she kept her focus on the man in front of her, who had until just a few moments ago, been a reliable partner in getting Unit-02 into space.

"But why? After all we've done? There's no reason for this, we've shared all the technical specs with you already!"

"They have doubts about that." He replied, whistling sharply. The doors behind him flew open as armed guards flooded in, weapons leveled at the NERV personnel. "But I do not doubt that you will make certain that they believe that you've told us everything."

Asuka screamed suddenly, and the radio transmission surged with thousands of voices suddenly before being cut off by one of the DPRK soldiers.

Trembling with both fear and anger, Maya leaned in close to the man, grabbing him by his uniform's coat.

"There will be such awful consequences for this, don't be a fool!" She hissed, glaring at him. "Just one operational Evangelion will be enough to wreak destruction on your country! Even if you want to go back on your word, on your agreement, think of that!"

"I don't think that anyone will be coming to rescue you or punish us." He countered, coolly and indifferent, the apologeticness fading from his voice. "After all, NERV did nothing when other nations seized the people and equipment in their borders. There was only a half-hearted attempt to pull property out or to destroy what they could not take." Reaching up, he pulled her hands from his jacket. "You will remain as our guests, and NERV will do nothing."

His words hit Maya like a hammer, and the realization that yes, that NERV had indeed simply cut their losses and run from confrontations with national governments across the globe. Commander Ikari was not likely to risk anything to rescue them- and even if he did, it wouldn't be in time to keep them safe and unharmed. She sank to the ground, tears welling up in her eyes, unable to function in the face of armed threat.

In space, the deadly dance continued, both participants reaching out to the other, unaware and uncaring of what was going on the small world far below them. Asuka screamed as thousands of voices flooded her entry plug in a cacophonous tumult of noise before coalescing into a single, thunderous and overwhelming shout.

WHO ARE YOU?

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

T-plus 234 hours, 34 minutes

Rei watched as the technicians led the blank faced redhead down the gantry and into the waiting test body. She had just finished up her own training simulations, and was preparing to head back to the locker-room to shower and change. She would then take this body to her quarters, and change over to the drone that rested in the laboratory, while this one would rest as if sleeping.

She herself no longer needed sleep. Her mind had not slept for over two weeks now. Her time was filled with experiments, testing and training. Her physical bodies certainly did not require it- only periodic immersion into the LCL tank after extended periods of time without being home to her consciousness. Without it, they would begin to break down. The last experiment had shown a five day period before tissue breakdown began in the internal organs, with seven days before connective tissue began to fail.

Her latest experiment modeling the salvage of Shinji had finished running while she had been mid-simulation, and it had returned as a failure. The rest of the day would be put towards trying to figure out where the operation had gone wrong.

She did not take comfort in the fact that the official operation was having as much success as her own efforts. Any effort into his recovery was welcome, and she no longer cared who got him back or how. All that mattered was his return. There were infinitely many Rei Ayanamis, but there was only one Shinji Ikari.

She could not duplicate him in the same manner as she had been duplicated. She could clone him, to be sure, but she could not put a copy of his mind into that clone. Despite all her efforts, it was beyond the capability of a stock human to endure.

The Pilot-Captain's encounter with the Angel had left her a shadow of her former self. When Rei had visited the older girl after her recovery from Unit-02, the normally animated redhead seemed unaware of her presence. Rei had been quite interested in speaking to her, particularly concerning the second stage of the battle. However, no conversational topic could elicit a response from Soryu.

Daily observation of the other girl became an added task to her list of self imposed duties. As the only remaining Pilot still on active status, Rei was also the least experienced and successful in battle. Returning the Pilot-Captain to active duty, if not to her former self, was a new priority if the continued existence of NERV and mankind was to be assured.

Having Shinji back would be a more acceptable alternative, but the Pilot-Captain actually existed in a non-disincorporated state. Restoring her to active duty was likely to be easier and to occur before Shinji's, even as the Commander's imposed deadline drew ever closer.

They would have one shot at this, and if it failed, then the Commander's Scenario was rendered obsolete. Without Shinji, without Unit-01, there could be no controlled Third Impact. NERV at that point would attempt to destroy SEELE, Lilith, the ADAM sample, the Evangelions, everything. Mankind would have to continue on its own, without the Fires of Prometheus to light their way through the dark night of the future.

Of course, she would have to perish alongside Lilith and the ADAM sample. They could not leave a source of Angelic material like herself available for misuse in the event that some part of SEELE managed to escape the cleansing fires. This did not bother the pale girl at all, for apart from the fact that she had accepted the inevitability of her own death long ago, a continued existence without Shinji was not one that she could contemplate. Not now. But past that calm acceptance of death, there was something else, a new thought taking form.

She had always been destined to die. She had not been necessarily destined to die with Shinji, but after their time together she had assumed that it would be so. If she was to be denied this...

The Pilot-Captain vanished from sight as the test body's entry plug sealed shut, and the technicians checked the terminal screens, running through a quick series of tests before reporting over their radios to the control room that jutted out into the Pribnow Box.

Rei let out a soft sigh as she left the test chamber, headed towards the showers. There was much that needed to be done, but very little time in which to actually accomplish anything. If she could not correct the failures in her latest simulation, there was perhaps time enough to construct one more test.

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

T-plus 12 minutes and 25 seconds

WHO ARE YOU? The unified thousands of voices seemed to asked, the words slamming into the pilot on an almost physical level. Asuka sagged back against her throne, before rallying and returning fire.

The voices broke again, returning to the formless chattering noise, just as the blinding light ceased. The Angel's AT Field flickered back into existence briefly, trying to shield itself from the resumed onslaught.

Asuka expended the second magazine and loaded her third, slamming it home. The AT Field was set for maximum erosion, and her rounds tore through empty space unhindered. The crystalline bird's form shuddered with each impact, but for all the spinning globules of cobalt colored blood that were ejected from it, the glowing body regenerated with ease. The Angel's body flashed with light again, completely bypassing the the dimmed settings Asuka set her visual sensors to.

WHO ARE YOU? The question was repeated for a third time.

T-plus 200 hours, 14 minutes and 45 seconds

"Stop it! Stop asking me that!" Asuka's voice screamed, sounding tinny over the long distance transmission. The transmission was filled with static, and oddly distorted.

"Who is the pilot talking to?"

Maya didn't know which one of the mysterious members of the oversight committee asked the question. The voice distorting equipment that they were using changed the modulations of their voices constantly, sometimes even while they were speaking. It made it impossible for her to keep track of how many people had asked her questions, and which ones were focusing on what events. It was a system designed to keep her off balance, to make her unsure of herself. To ferret out hidden or wrong information. This was an interrogation, not a debriefing.

"We can only assume that she is talking to the Angel." Maya said, dreading the next line of questions that was sure to follow- the Commander had warned her about this in a strange, clandestine manner. She was supposed to keep information from these questioners, information that as some of the top scientists of NERV they should have access to. Which raised the question of if these were NERV scientists, why was the Supreme Commander of NERV trying to keep valuable information from people who worked for him?

It meant that there was something else to this inquest that she wasn't seeing. There was information that she wasn't privy too that would make this mystery clear. It was possible, she reasoned, that these people were actually United Nations officials that NERV had coordinated with before, but if so, why try to hide that information from her?

"I have not heard anything from anyone other than the pilot." This voice was highly pitched, with a fast paced buzzing component to it. "Have your technicians scrubbed the audio?"

"The MAGI are still working on it," she truthfully replied, "but there is a lot that they are working on right now, and so they can't devote maximum resources to this." That certainly was the truth, although the supercomputers had not been told to prioritize that aspect of the investigation and recovery projects centered around Unit-02 and the last Angel. "The recording logs in Unit-02 also have suffered similar distortion and degradation. We are following all leads on this, in order to better help the Pilot in her recovery."

The Commander had been adamant about keeping the fact that Shinji had suffered Ego-Border collapse from this committee. Any aspect of that situation was to be kept from these people, and there was to be no sign that any resources were being used on his recovery as opposed to this project.

For some reason he wanted to keep that topic to NERV-Central personnel only, even if her suspicions were wrong, and that these people were part of NERV. It was an interesting, and suspicious fact, but the bright Lieutenant didn't know what to make of it, but it had sparked a bitter realization that one way or another that she had been lied to about too about who these voices were, about the purpose of this meeting. They were intelligent, but they were asking the wrong sort of questions for scientists interested in the phenomena surrounding the Angel and the pilot of Unit-02. They were looking for something else, something different.

Maya tried to keep her realization of this second betrayal from her voice and face.

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

Maya screamed, huddling behind a desk as shots were exchanged back and forth between the NERV and DPRK personnel. She had never really done well in the emergency drills required of them, and they hadn't done much to prepare her for the reality of combat.

The technician standing over her exchanging fire with the enemy soldiers collapsed backwards, blood pumping from his chest as he wheezed in wet gurgling breaths. Maya recognized the sucking chest wound for what it was almost immediately. Shouts and screams filled the control room, interspersed among the deafening sounds of gunfire. Sobbing, the mousy technician tried to put pressure on the dying man's wound even as he drowned in his own blood.

More Japanese voices filled the air as other NERV agents maneuvered in on the North Koreans. Section-2 Agents poured in from behind the soldiers, catching them unprotected in a deadly crossfire.

A man leaped over the desk, trying to escape the punishing gunfire. Maya looked up into the frightened eyes of the political officer.

An uncharacteristic look of hate and anger crossed her face as she scrambled for the pistol lying at her side, ignoring the man's pleading expression as she brought it up, finger curling back on the trigger.

T-plus 15 minutes and 4 seconds

YOU ARE WEAK. YOUR SONG IS AN ABOMINATION. STAND ASIDE OR BE DESTROYED. I WILL BE JOINED WITH THE GREAT MOTHER.

Asuka squinted at the Angel with hate filled eyes, her face twisted with anger. Unit-02 thrashed violently as she ejected the cable that tethered them together. She flung the useless rifle at her foe, and with a blast of her thrusters, she sent herself tumbling away.

"Du magst Songs? Ich habe da einen Song für dich, du Scheiße fressendes Mistschwein von einem Bastard." She growled, hands flying over the controls. She reached down between her feet and ripped open a panel, fingers fumbling for a set of cables. Closing in on them, she yanked them free of their connection, shorting out some of the control systems. "Ich singe dir ein ganz spezielles Lied vom Teufel!"

"EINHEIT-02! " She shouted, squinting into the blinding light with a furious glare. "Sonderprotokolle anwenden! Erlaubnis, Soryu: Blitzkrieg!"

The normal entry plug lights were washed out under the brilliance of the Angel's AT-Field, but there was a noticeable change as the regular running lights switched over to a dark red.

"EVANGELIONS MARSCHIEREN IN DIE HIMMLISCHEN LÄNDER!" She screamed back at the Angel, over the thundering chorus of singing voices. "UND SIE SINGEN EIN LIED DES TEUFELN!" Kicking open another panel in the side of the plug, she smashed her armored foot through the robust electronics sheltered beneath it. "Wir pfeifen auf unten und oben. Und uns kann die ganz Welt Verfluchen oder auch loben!" Laughing wildly, a manic, almost unhinged laugh, she reached under the control yoke and flicked a switch. "EINHEIT-02! Beschränkungen auflösen!"

The red Evangelion shuddered as restraint and control components were blown apart, sending small sections of armor flying off. Some went flying freely out into space, nothing more now than additional space trash, but others were still braced in by the additional space equipment. One small piece of jettisoned armor punctured a thruster tank, sending her into a spin. Slamming a hand against the eject override, Asuka sent the damaged air tank flying off. Alarms began to sound as her synchronization ramped up quickly, surpassing old scores in seconds.

"WO IMMER WIR AUCH SIND, WIR SCHREITEN VORAN!"

She opened up with the last of the missile pods, and launched their contents at the Angel, her AT-Field gaining in strength as Pilot and Evangelion became one. With one last look at her control panel, sharp eyes taking every last detail in, she reflexively licked her lips. "Ich wünschte du könntest das sehen, Shinji." Flipping two more switches, she looked back up at the Angel. "UND VERDAMMTER TEUFEL, SIE LACHT GENAUSO! HA HA! HA! HA! HA HA!" Asuka slammed her fist down against the final button in the sequence. "Bestien-Modus aktivieren!"

T-plus 18 minutes and 32 seconds

Gendo frowned as Asuka's singing rang out over the loudspeakers. He looked down at Ritsuko's station in the command center, watching the woman react with horrified shock.

"Special protocols?" he asked his second command, who merely shrugged. Looking up at the time delayed relay of information, he let out a small sigh. "Why is it that I think that this is going to be another nuclear tipped lance event?"

"Because both pilots are of above average intelligence?" Kozo replied, watching as the readouts change, as energy levels dipped and rose, and warnings flashed on screen as vital restricting components were removed. "Because both are dedicated to the destruction of the Angels, and both are adept engineers? Because she has a history of personal modifications to her Evangelion's systems, and burning desire to be the best and overshadow the other pilots?"

"ABORT! ABORT! SEND OVERRIDE COMMANDS IMMEDIATELY!" Ritsuko was screaming down below, trying to interrupt the pilot's command sequence.

"It's too late for that! She's beyond the effective range of remote commands! Even if it goes through, we won't know what situation we're putting her in!"

"It looks like she's trying to remove the restraints and artificially increase her synchronization." Kozo placidly commented, ignoring the frenetic commotion below. "These patterns seem reminiscent of her mother's contact experiment- but you can see some differences in the modulation of the EM pattern."

Gendo lifted his head from his hands, staring at the readouts, his stomach churning. "This is not good. They are similar, but there's several differences in the stabilization pattern. Look at the modulation in the AT Field- she's figured out how to mimic part of how Shinji controls Unit-01."

"She's unlocking the Evangelion's true power. She's attempting her own modified Contact, her own Instrumentality."

"This is bad."

"Yes. What's worse is that we won't know how bad until after the time delay."

"Contact everyone that will listen to us. Have them prepare all long range countermeasures and intercept weapons."

"Do you think that it will work? It may be wounded now but by the time anything is launched, it will have regenerated."

Gendo paused, watching the monitors. With another sigh, he picked up the phone and opened a channel to Rei in Unit-00.

"Rei, go and get the Lance. If, for any reason, it becomes necessary, use it."

"Yes, Sir."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Thank you very much, Lieutenant Ibuki. I think that this satisfies this inquiry."

"Yes, sir." Maya responded, no sign of the relief that she felt showing.

The cameras switched off, and the speakers went silent. Maya stood up and swiftly left the room.

A side door opened, and Gendo strolled into the room, standing before the camera, hands in his pockets, his body slouched into a posture of disinterested attention.

"Ikari." The voice that came over the speakers was unmodulated, and belonged to Lorenz Kiel.

"Chairman."

"The loss of the Lance is unacceptable. You must take steps to reacquire it. Your pilots run amok, and threaten our operation. This is also unacceptable. Take control of the situation, or I shall send someone to do it for you."

"Consider the second done," Gendo began, "but the first will require resources beyond what I have, now that you-"

"You forced my hand, Ikari. We are close to the end now. There's no time for little games or diversions. Instrumentality will come to pass, our death and rebirth into KADMON. I have let you indulge in your petty schemes, but it should be clear to you now who is in control. The whole world jumps at my command, Ikari. Do your job, or I will have you removed."

The communications system switched off. Gendo turned and left the room.

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

T-plus 15 minutes and 15 seconds

Evangelion Unit-02's four eyes burned with baleful viridian fury. A toothless maw opened and roared into the silence of space, bloody pieces of destroyed restraints ripping loose. A flickering of hexagons appeared around the bloody gums of the beast, and a new set of teeth grew in, pushing up and out of flesh and metal. Sharp fangs filled the snarling mouth, deadly tools to rip and tear.

In one great hand, a sword of glowing light formed, almost as tall as the crimson giant that wielded it.

Inside the Entry Plug, Asuka screamed out in hungry joy.

"WIR KÄMPFEN FÜR NERV! WIR KÄMPFEN FÜR ERDE! WIR LASSEN DIE ENGEL NIE ZUR RUHE KOMMEN!"

A glowing bridge of multi-hued fire arced out from Evangelion to Angel. Elation built up inside Asuka as she charged down the rainbow bridge, the burning zweihander held high.

"WIR HABEN IMMER WIEDER GEKÄMPFT. WIR HABEN DEN LEVIATHAN, DIE ZWILLINGE UND DEN DRACHEN GETÖTET! WIR SIND BEREIT, ES MIT DEN ENGELN AUFZUNEHMEN! WIR RUHEN UNS NIEMALS AUS. WIR SIND DIE, DIE ANDERE VERNICHTEN!"

Unit-02 leapt up, pushing off the bridge of light, swinging the sword around laterally into the Angel as she collided with it. Behind her the rainbow vanished into stray cosmic radiation, igniting an Aura Borealis back on Earth.

The Angel screamed as its blinding light vanished. Unlike the Evangelion's monstrous cries, this one skipped across the empyrean to be heard. Blue blood flooded from the awful wound in its side, painting swaths of the Evangelion with it.

Even as she drifted away from the Angel after the initial impact, Asuka twisted and jumped off a new surface of rainbow colored fire, positioning herself for another charge. A new bridge formed underneath her feet, leading back to the Angel. Charging again, Asuka glanced at her panels, reveling the in warmth she felt with the improved synchronization, the sense of rightness and belonging. Bringing her sword back around, she leapt once more at her foe, zweihander whipping up over her head.

The burning weapon broke on the newly reformed AT-Field. The shrieking Angel blasted Asuka with a beam of light more reminiscent of the geometric nightmare that had plagued Shinji and Rei than its earlier blinding light.

This beam hit with physical force, burning blood and paint off the Evangelion. The tether broke under the assault, and Unit-02 was sent flying back through space. Unit-02's own AT-Field flashed into view, saving her optics from being melted into useless slag. Unit-02 roared again, mimicking the rage of the pilot nestled within.

Her own eyes beginning to glow green, Asuka set in a new string of commands, adjusting dials and flipping switches as a red flush spread across her skin, a sunburn that went unnoticed as she fought. Turning her hateful gaze through the emptiness that stood between her and the Angel, she flexed her shoulders. Unit-02 also flexed as burning wings erupted forth, her glowing sword re-materializing in her hands. The Entry Plug sank in deeper as her synchronization score increased, numbers spinning up on the screen. The heat that had blossomed in her chest continued to warm her, engulfing the pilot like a loving embrace.

Her score crossed 76% as she flew through the night at her enemy, a terrifying monster of flesh, steel and fire, fangs bared in vicious, hungry anger.

NO! the voice of her mother screamed out, in frantic worry.

Asuka's eyes widened as the sword fell from her hands, vanishing into a spray of glowing hexagons. A core of cold shock ran through her, a freezing chill that cut through the warmth of synchronization as the spirit within the Evangelion pushed her away, desperately trying to keep from completely merging with her daughter.

NO! the voice echoed in Asuka's ears, ringing in her mind.

The voice was not a memory.

This was not a memory.

Asuka screamed as she felt her mother's mind, felt her soul, merging with her own, even as it tried to push away. Waves of strange pain rocked her as she felt her very soul try to merge and split with that of her mother. Memories blurred and faded, old feelings and thoughts vanishing, reshaping and changing. For a single, horrifying second she saw herself as a small child on the day that her mother had her accident, that awful morning. Pain and terror racked her body as unknown thoughts raced across her mind.

The synchronization score dropped like a brick, and Unit-02 became little more than more space junk.

The wounded Angel took advantage of the situation, and swatted the suddenly tumbling Evangelion with a new blast, sending the titan plummeting back towards Earth.

The glowing form shimmered as it healed. A new beam of light jumped forth from the Angel to the falling Evangelion.

HATE HATE HATE HATE burned through Asuka's mind as she whimpered in the darkness of the Entry Plug, no longer connected with her war machine. The Angel's voice thundered into Asuka's mind as she screamed and cried, twisting and thrashing in her seat.

YOU WILL BE DESTROYED. YOU WILL DIE. NO LONGER WILL YOUR SONG MAR THIS WORLD.

Deep inside the systems of Unit-02, Kyoko Soryu screamed in terror, trying to reconnect with her daughter, desperately trying to rekindle synchronization. They had to engage the Evangelion for re-entry. They had to be sure that the intercept course with Earth was correct. She had to get Asuka away from the Angel.

I WILL REND YOUR SONG SO THAT NOTHING REMAINS. THE DISCORD AND DISHARMONIOUS STRINGS WILL BE CUT. YOU WILL DIE AND THE WORLD WILL BE BETTER FOR IT.

Space and light shimmered and shifted around the Angel as it drew power into it, making ready to destroy the hated, hurtful shadow once and for all. The glowing light took on a slightly blue color around the edges, with thin veins of energy traced through the blinding form to a now visible orb of red, resting where a more traditional being would have a pelvis.

A beam of light, white shot through with blue, stabbed out at the defenseless Evangelion.

A bifurcated, twisted spear rocketed through space, trailed by a narrow tube of ozone layer and atmospheric gases from Earth.

The Angel exploded into fire and light, a great burning cross in the night, visible to the naked eye down over nighttime Japan. When the tube of gases, drug along by the Lance as it had tore through the atmosphere, hit the fire it too erupted into flame. As fantastic as this display was to those on Earth below, Rei stood still from where she had thrown the weapon, trying to find the falling form of Evangelion Unit-02 in the midst of the twisting firestorm overhead.

The wounded rag-doll made from metal and meat was hard to spot, but Rei found the it among the burning backdrop before it hit the upper atmosphere. It was, she noted, not properly configured for re-entry.

It was also off course.

This was a problem.

As Unit-00 plotted an intercept, Rei launched into a sprint, lifting up her AT-Field overhead, stretching it as far as she could like a net. She had once promised the girl that she would not let her fall. She had not then, and she would not now.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Maya frantically counted the people around her as they rushed across the tarmac to the waiting aircraft. It wasn't nearly enough people. While the fabrication teams had left earlier, there had still been more people on the ground here than there was making a break for the cargo planes, even discounting the bodies they had left behind in the control room. Three of the five cargo planes waited on the tarmac, while the remaining escort gunship had taken off, and was making strafing runs around the area with its 20mm and 40mm cannons. The crew was trying to buy them time to escape, but once the DPRK Air Force arrived in the area, the gunship would be as much of a target in the air as the cargo planes on the ground.

Too many people, good people, her people, dead or held by the political officers and soldiers. Fresh tears ran down her face as she sprinted up the waiting, welcoming ramp, ducking under the small arms fire being put down by the loadmaster. The sound of his rifle was lost in the deafening report of the circling AC-130 Spectre Gunship as it laid waste to the general surroundings.

She was shoved into a seat by a hard faced Section-02 agent as the plane lurched into motion, headed down the runway towards freedom.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Maya stared at the wall of her apartment, trying to think. It was hard, trying to deal with the pain. It was still fresh and hot, a horror unlike anything else she had experienced, even when dealing with the very real terrors of the Evangelions. This was much more personal, even if less visceral than some of the things she had seen while working as a technician on the command bridge. The official paperwork for her promotion sat on the counter, barely looked through. She was tasked with the recovery of the Lance, currently in orbit around the Moon. How she was supposed to accomplish this she had no idea, but her mentor had mentioned something about resources and political favors. Even so, it was hard for the newly minted Captain to focus. The interrogation had only poured salt on open wounds, but the subtle clues and information that she had picked up on during the hours under the proverbial microscope taunted her. The bridge crews had always known that the Supreme Commander was a scheming and plotting ruthless son of a bitch, but she had gotten the feeling that there was some sort of power imbalance between him and the "NERV Scientists". Some of the questions they had asked, some of the questions they had not asked- it was curious. Something was rotten here, something hidden just out of sight.

As a member of the main command crew, she was 'privileged' in that she could be said to rub shoulders with the highest echelons of NERV Command. She worked directly with the Chief Scientist, the head of Tactical Operations, the pilots, and often interacted with the second most powerful man in NERV. She certainly knew more about the Supreme Commander than most. But what did she really know? Sure, everyone speculated about just what went on behind the tomb like doors to the man's office, just as they wondered what went on behind those gleaming glasses as he sat above them watching the children fight for the future of mankind. He was at turns coldly distant and a figure of bombastic, burning passion.

Furthermore, what about the other strange occurrences? The sabotage that had crippled NERV just as an Angel approached? The weirdly coordinated protests against NERV operations across the world? The men who had tried to abduct Shinji from the recovery ward? The vanished UN Inspector?

The Geo-Dome was rife with secrets, it seemed. Rei had kept secrets and had built a nuclear tipped lance. Asuka had kept secrets and had managed to get a large amount of life threatening modifications done to her Evangelion! She of course was charged with keeping some secrets, and kept out of the loop on others. Of course, to anyone with a security clearance, this wasn't necessarily something to be concerned about- things were based on a need to know, but still... There clearly was more than the regular sort of secrets running around.

When the young woman started to add up the things she knew and figured them against the things that she didn't, a strange and worrying image began to take shape. Things were definitely not all that they seemed. Just who were those voices? What power did they hold over NERV, that even the slightest idea that Shinji wasn't asleep in a coma had to be hidden from them? This went beyond even trying to project an image of strength to ensure confidence in their ability to deal with the alien threat. Gendo Ikari had openly laughed in the face of the United Nations- so who were these people, who supposedly worked for him, that he was tip-toeing around and keeping secrets from?

Reaching over to her tablet, Maya opened a secure connection to the MAGI and got to work. She was as close to a top level user as one could get, with just a few less privileges than her beloved mentor. It was time to put that to good use.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei looked up from her tablet to glance at the sleeping girl. There was little difference between the times she was awake and sleeping- only the breathing pattern gave evidence that Asuka was truly asleep and not just lying there with her eyes shut. Watching the older girl's chest rise and fall in the dim light, Rei considered her feelings towards the Pilot-Captain. She certainly was a source of some irritation, but her positive aspects outweighed the negative. She was a keen scientist and engineer, with a solid sense of tactics and a healthy dedication towards piloting her Evangelion and fighting the Angels. There was, Rei considered, a burgeoning, if somewhat resistant, affection for the mind shocked girl. There was respect, to be sure. One could not help but respect the fiery tempered pilot. She had never given up in any assault against the Angels. She attacked all obstacles in her path- even if she did complain about many of them. Then there was the impressive modifications she had made in secret. The MAGI had obviously help her in some way, but they had kept it hidden even from her- and they were her own closest allies in her own private endeavors towards seeing the machinations of the Supreme Commander come to bear.

A formidable individual. A capable rival. A dedicated leader.

So what had happened up there, high above the planet? What had gone wrong?

She had sensed the moment that the unauthorized modifications had been activated, Asuka's soul igniting in the darkness above so brightly that it fought the Angel's own fires. Those fires burned brightly, yet were snuffed out all so quickly. The Angel had reacted almost as quickly, and time seemed to have slowed down as she watched, fascinated, with her senses stretched out as far as the could reach.

The moment that Asuka had done dark, Rei knew what she had to do.

Urgency driving her actions, her older sister had worked with her in unison, ramping up their own synchronization in order to launch the ancient weapon up through the atmosphere to strike the Angel before it could harm Asuka. The burning vortex of atmospheric gases and the playing lights of the aura borealis triggered in the planet's magnetic field had been duly gratifying, but there had been no time to appreciate the display.

Falling back to Earth, off course and not properly configured for reentry, Unit-02 made for a hard target to locate. It had taken all of her ability and concentration to find the tumbling giant, and only slightly less to catch the plummeting war-machine with her AT-Field, much in the same manner as they had arrested the fall of the Eighth Angel.

Rei stood up and crossed the small distance to sit on the edge of the girl's bed, studying the sleeping face, which twisted with despair and fright, so unlike how Asuka was normally. So unlike how she was now, when awake, a placid and unmoving visage that held none of the fire that had been present before.

The soul of Kyoko Sohryu had been reticent and as unwilling to speak as Unit-01's inhabiting spirit, but had eventually yielded answers. The synchronization score had risen, risen fast and risen high. A boundary had been crossed, and she had felt their connection begin to change- she could feel a tugging on her spirit, pulling part of her out of the Evangelion just as part of her daughter was being tugged inwards. She had reacted out of sheer, blind terror for her daughter, and she had felt her daughter's mind recoil back at the realization that she was there.

Asuka's mind had retreated back into her own body as synchronization cut backwards, but she was defenseless against the hate that had poured off the Angel, affronted that such a being could exist, that such a thing would strike against it. The Angel had launched a mental assault unseen before from the previous Angels, just prior to its attempted physical attack.

If their connection had occurred during a test and not combat, perhaps it would not have so disastrous.

Unit-02 had attempted to enter a berserker state, to do what the spirit of Unit-01 had done several times before, but no matter how much she had railed against the now lessened restraints that blocked her within, she could not utilize the Evangelion by herself.

This was an interesting bit of information. Unit-01 seemed to act by itself as often as Shinji piloted it. Even Unit-00 had acted entirely of its own volition when her sister had raged against their own initial synchronizations. Why could Unit-02 not take command during this situation? Further questions to probe into this problem had fallen flat as Kyoko retreated into herself. She was unwilling and uninterested in doing anything else but brood, worried that she had crippled her daughter.

Asuka whimpered in her sleep, tossing and turning, muttering in German under her breath, too softly for Rei to catch, although her command of the language was limited. It was unlikely that she would have been able to understand the whispered words even if she had caught them. Reaching over, Rei pulled the sheets back up over the girl and placed a pale hand on her brow. Asuka had been chilled and clammy ever since Rei had started keeping her company at night. Her red hair, a source of pride and vanity in the girl, hung limp and dull. Normally, Rei now knew, the vibrant copper hair was the target of an intense daily hygiene routine. The nurses and caregivers assigned to assist the girl kept it clean, but did not give it the care that is was used to receiving. Fingers running through the copper strands, Rei marveled at the fineness and texture.

Rei went back to her chair, but tugged it over towards the bed. Watching the sleeping girl closely, she wondered if the catatonic redhead would appreciate or respond to a thorough hair care treatment- like the one that she had been subjected to. Resources would not be an issue. She had plenty of supplies on hand, in order to keep the hair of her drones matching to allay any suspicions from casual observation her. The problem was the timing.

They were going to attempt recovery tomorrow.

By all rights she should be ecstatic, she knew, but the final simulations and tests were not promising, but they were running up against the deadline. Irreparable damage was certain to Shinji's mind after this point, they said, even if it was still highly probable now. Her own simulations and tests in other avenues were even more disappointing. This was not a problem that she had been able to crack on her own- and she had run out of ideas to try.

Looking back at Asuka's prone form as she rolled onto her side, Rei wondered if the other girl would have had any other ideas they could have tried, if she had brought her into her confidence. Her reflection off the tablet's screen seemed bitter and accusatory. Asuka obviously had solved at least some of the issues with her mother's contact experiments and had corrected them in her modifications to Unit-02. What could they have accomplished, had they worked together on the issue of pulling Shinji from Unit-01?

But now there was only waiting, waiting for the morning to come and the recovery effort to begin.

Awash with restless energy, Rei sent her mind to another drone body.

Rei was far beyond the need for sleep anymore, finding that her control over her nascent Angelic powers sufficient enough to forgo such concerns of rest and eating. She still consumed food, however, in order to not raise suspicions, but she had stopped pretending to sleep in her room altogether. No one noticed that much, at least, or they at least thought that she slept in Asuka's room while she sat in here. Everyone was more concerned with other things, even the agents tasked with her safekeeping.

Inspecting her other sleeping charge, she studied the drugged agent. She was certain that he knew nothing more of interest, but she had no clue as to how to put him to good use for her own ends, or how releasing him would serve the Commander's while keeping her own efforts secret. Swapping out a nutrition IV, she walked over to the glass tank that kept her other bodies, watching as they turned to gaze back at her with empty eyes and smiles.

All efforts to make a backup copy of the agent had failed. She was certain now that she had not missed an opportunity to make one of Shinji, although the slimmest of chances existed that she had. Synchronization was still different from the downloading process, even if tangentially related. She was certain that the issue lay in the differences between her and stock humans, not anything related to experience with the mental link with the Evangelion.

Perhaps a change of environment would help the other pilot, Rei idly wondered. Her lab was full of things that the girl would normally be more than excited to see and inspect- but would it be enough to break her out of her catatonia? There was also the problem of getting the girl away from prying eyes long enough to sneak her down to the lab. They were keeping a watchful eye on her, and while an annoyance, it was an understandable one.

Letting Asuka have access to her labs and letting her in on her own secrets would have been a problem, Rei reasoned as she watched the drones. She still would have had to hide the agent, or try to reason with the other girl as to why his continued captivity was necessary. She doubted that would have been an argument she could have won, given the hold the man had on Asuka's heart, even if it was clearly not returned.

Turning away, she wandered across the lab, looking over at abandoned projects, a layer of dust covering her tools and equipment. Some of the modifications that had been made to Unit-02 were not without use to her, even with the special arrangement that she and her sister had. The ability to more finely control and shape the AT-Field would be welcome in future fights. That said, the technicians were going over the Evangelions with a special intensity, set on finding any and all discrepancies between their current systems and how they should be.

The Commander and Dr. Akagi did not want a repeat of the most recent fight. Any modifications she might plan for Unit-00 would have to wait, both for the current systems checks to conclude, and to see how closely they would inspect the Evangelions in the future.

Even if she felt like turning her restlessness towards working, she would not be able to put them to use for some time. All there was to do now was wait, wait as each second seemingly took an eternity to drag on and pass.

She had never before felt this way, even before her first fight with an Angel, that battle, so long ago now it seemed, where she was tasked with protecting Shinji as he took aim at the geometric nightmare that was boring its way down towards Lilith.

Eyes glowing, a smile crossed her face, remembering. He had been so sure of himself then, at that moment, opening fire for a second time. The mountain still bore the scars of that fight. Such power, such devastation. Frightened, scared, hurt, he had still stood up, burning with a desire to protect her.

That she could so effortlessly throw herself away, he would not accept.

She loved Shinji Ikari. She knew that he loved her.

She jumped back to the drone in Asuka's room, to continue her night there, watching over the other pilot. There was nothing else that she could do tonight.

If she was not to be reunited with Shinji, then she would have to come to terms with that. But what would she actually do? What would the Commander do? His plans for Third Impact all depended on Unit-01, without Shinji being merged with its soul. She existed to facilitate his plans. If those plans could not come to fruition, and if Shinji was trapped within the Evangelion, her continued existence here would not be worth bearing. Would he initiate his emergency scenario, and destroy everything in an effort to deny SEELE their victory? Or would he attempt something else?

She would have to find a way to gain entry to the Entry Plug and conduct a Contact Experiment. She would have to join herself with the Evangelion, with Shinji.

Asuka thrashed suddenly, flinging sheets to the floor. Picking up the discarded linens, Rei watched the sleeping girl.

A shiver of renewed excitement ran down Rei's spine. Depending on the nature of the merging, Third Impact could still be attained, but by her hand instead of the Commander's.

If she was to be the guiding hand of Third Impact, what would she do? If she initiated a full contact experiment and entered Unit-01 the way that the Commander planned, she would have everything that she-

A small question that Rei should have asked herself a long time ago suddenly inserted itself into her thoughts. It was a small thing, really, a known oddity that nevertheless had gone uninvestigated by the inquisitive girl.

The Commander's Scenario for Third Impact had the stated goal of him being merged forever with the soul of Yui Ikari, entombed in Unit-01.

This predicated that the driving soul of Evangelion Unit-01 was Yui Ikari.

Rei, Unit-00, and Dr. Kyoko Soryu had determined that the current soul was, in fact, not one Yui Ikari, but someone else entirely unknown to any of them. They had moved on to trying to puzzle out just who was joining with Shinji, but with the burdens of fighting the Angels and the pressing needs of other experiments and other outside annoyances had placed that particular item onto the back burner.

None of them had asked the question that now bothered Rei.

If the Commander wanted to join with his wife in Third Impact, and Yui Ikari was currently not in the Evangelion, where was she?

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Misato stared at the purple titan, watching as the technicians and engineers ran final tests on the equipment that spilled out from the exposed mechanisms and housings of the Evangelion's spine and chest. In about eight hours they would be taking their only shot at recovering the boy that she had come to love and care about.

She loved all three of the child soldiers, true, but the boy had a special spot in her heart. He had come so far from the frightened and easily startled civilian that she had picked up on the streets. That strange inner fire that flashed so brightly and briefly had drawn her to him like a moth. If only he could burn that flame lower but longer, what leader he could be.

It had been hard, at first, to see any family resemblance between father and son. Shinji had been such a hesitant boy, and even after all she had done to try to draw him from out of his shell, he still remained that way.

Not so when finally roused to anger and action, but how quickly did that fire fade! Rei was the only thing capable of keeping that candle lit it seemed, but the small flickering light was nothing compared to the firestorm that they had all seen within him.

His rage at the helm of Unit-01 gave them all pause, even the constantly fiery Asuka. He could frighten anything, when given in to the berserker state.

He had taken on the guise of ADAM, a neat enough trick, given that he had never seen the monstrous form of the First Angel. But Asuka had shown that she could replicate that feat, although her attempt at the burning wings of light had fallen short of the boy's.

Lost in thought, somewhere between mourning for her lost little brother and hoping against hope that she would see him again, Misato didn't notice Ritsuko's approach.

"You should get some sleep." Ritsuko said, pushing a steaming cup of some unidentifiable dark liquid into her friend's hands, knowing full well that the woman wasn't about to sleep any more than she was. "Nothing is going to happen for a few hours."

"Is it going to work?" Misato asked, taking a long draw from the steaming mug, barely registering the supremely bitter taste of the beverage. "What do we do if it doesn't?"

"If it doesn't work?" Ritsuko watched the Evangelion, looking at the dull glow that emanated from its eyes. "If it doesn't work, there is no 'what do we do', Misato. If we fail, and there is a very good chance that we will- he's going to burn this place to the ground. He'll activate the scorched earth protocols, try to assassinate as much of SEELE as possible, and ensure that no one can initiate Third Impact."

"Is he sure that it'll work? I mean, Lilith is weak, but we don't have the Lance anymore, and even then that had only kept her weak and kept Him asleep."

"We're confident that Rei will be able to deal with Lilith. I'm confident that we'll be able to blast this place down to the basement rock. I'm not confident that he'll let anyone know before setting the plan into place."

The pair stood in silence, drinking coffee and watching the technicians.

"Might be good to take Asuka out someplace else to convalesce after all of this. Take a break from the hustle and bustle of the Geo-Front."

"I don't think that he'll let someone with as much working knowledge of the Evangelions as Asuka out of the collateral damage zone, Misato. Even without an Evangelion, even without the cores, even without the MAGI, she'd be a wealth of information."

"I wasn't planning on asking."

"Some place warm would be nice. Sunny beaches, blue skies and blue water."

"You wanna come with?"

"I wasn't planning on it." Sighing, she gestured halfheartedly at the facility. "This place has been my life's work. This is where I've made my mark on the world, for better or for worse. I think that it we have to erase it from existence, I'd like to go with it."

"And him, of course."

"Well, yes."

"How long do you think I'd have to get her out? We're supposed to go into lock-down in about three hours. Does he plan on kicking off his Armageddon immediately?"

"I don't know, but I think that you'll have time to get her out before this place goes up. Once Tokyo-3 gets locked down, there won't be any communications in or out until he gives the okay to lift the security blanket. I know that he has plans to assassinate several members of SEELE, but I don't think that any of them are currently in place."

"He doesn't tell you about his plans?"

Ritsuko didn't answer, instead taking a long drink from her mug. "He doesn't tell me everything. He plays things very close to the vest still. Only Kozo knows more than I do, and even then I don't think the old man knows everything Gendo has planned."

"You didn't get a chance to pick his brain while working on the recovery operation?"

"Hah. He's a very capable man in his own right, don't get me wrong, but he's spent far too long playing politician for the Commander. While he hasn't been keeping up with the advances we've made, he's sharpened his subterfuge and political skills to a razor's edge. He's as committed to this project as the Commander, but only the two of them know why. No point in me trying to crack that nut, not when we were working on this."

"Kaji told me once that they knew each other in the old days, but he wasn't an original member of Project E or GEHIRN. The Commander brought him in shortly after the project transfer to NERV, after the loss of his wife."

"Yui was one of his doctoral students. They had remained close after her graduation, but she never approached him to bring him on board with her father's work for some reason."

"The Commander must have made an impression on him, or the other way around for them to have joined forces the way they did."

"Gendo certainly makes an impression, that's for sure." Sighing again, the blond turned away from the observation window, heading back towards the elevators. "I'm going to go check on some more things and maybe catch a nap. You should think about it too- one way or the other, you'll want to have at least had a little rest."

"Hey, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about, for the recovery mission." Misato said, following her friend towards the elevator. "I know that it's not really 'scientific' or even 'procedural', but I don't think that could hurt."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"All systems are prepared. Tokyo-3 lock-down is complete, Unit-00 is standing by, and all systems are in place to begin." Ritsuko Akagi, Chief Scientist of NERV-CENTRAL and Head of Project E, reported to Gendo Ikari, Supreme Commander of NERV. She looked up at him from the main command bridge, currently staffed with the best engineers and technicians from the three different Evangelion Teams. Different colored patches adorned their uniforms, each sporting the logos painted on the shoulder fins of the war machines. While this operation was for the recovery of the pilot of Unit-01, it was a group effort.

Gendo looked down at the waiting crew, his expression as unreadable and inscrutable as always. No hint of what he was feeling was present, something that awed and worried the men and women assembled below. They were poised to try a risky operation to recover his son, but you'd never know it to look at him.

"Begin the recovery operation." Gendo ordered, sitting down at his desk, folding his hands over his face as he hunched forwards to watch the main screens.

Turning around, Ritsuko nodded to Captain Maya Ibuki. "Beginning recovery operation. Initiate system lock."

"All systems are locked in. All restraints are in position." Maya replied, hands flying over her console.

"Initiating cage isolation. Faraday system is activated." an engineer sporting the mushroom cloud of Unit-00 called out from a wall terminal, shunting normal circuits off and activating the Faraday Cage.

"Isolating Reactor-3 from normal power operations. Reactor team, report."

"Reactor-3 is isolated from main grid. Removing control rods now." A rumble was felt deep below them as the graphite control rods were pulled from the nuclear reactor, letting the fission reaction run unhindered to send all 1314 megawatts to the Evangelion cage.

"Charging cage LCL."

The LCL in the Evangelion cage shimmered as electrical current was dumped into it, matching it to the LCL inside of the Entry Plug.

"Stage One is complete, moving to Stage Two." Ritsuko announced to the room. "Prepare Secondary connections."

"Cage personnel report ready."

Nodding, Ritsuko scanned the small inset screen on the main display, watching the data stream across it. Satisfied that everything was withing calculations so far, she moved over to the station that normally monitored pilot synchronization during battles.

"Commence Entry Plug isolation."

Down in the Evangelion Cage, workers scrambled over the stripped titan, attaching emergency recovery equipment to the cap of the Entry Plug. Other technicians readied manual plug depth restraints, ready to drive them into the slotted housing to prevent plug re-entry.

Unit-01 stood partially submerged in the shimmering LCL, armor plating removed. Flesh and interior superstructure both were exposed, as was the cream colored capsule that housed the last of Shinji's physical remains. Isolation restraints had been inserted into the limbs of the Evangelion, and the mechanical housings and supports disengaged or removed. In theory, right now Unit-01 was a slightly more meaty version of the simulation bodies. In practice, nobody knew if the Evangelion would generate new flesh connections to re-mobilize itself in response to the recovery operations.

Emergency medical teams stood by on the gantry, waiting to see if their services would be required, one way or another.

Above them all, on an observation catwalk, a silent and blank faced Asuka, accompanied by an attending nurse, watched the proceedings. In the access hallway that the cage connected to, Rei sat in Unit-00, pallet gun in hand. She was keeping an eye on both the recovery teams and on Asuka, although her official purpose was to act as a countermeasure to a berserking Evangelion.

"Isolation teams report ready!"

"Attach recovery umbilical cord to socket."

Workers cleared the area around the normal umbilical cord jack that had been serving to draw off power from the S2 Engine that had formed after the gristly consumption of the Angel. A new cord, modified to handle the power being fed to it from an unfettered reactor, was lowered and locked into place. Connection lights flashed green as it hit home.

"We have power input. Data feeds are reestablished. Connections are good."

"Flash the Entry Plug electronics. Prepare to send data package."

An orange light flashed along the diagnostic display strip on the Entry Plug as the software that ran the on-board computer systems was reset and new code installed. The light changed back to green after a few minutes, and a confirmation signal was received back in the command room.

"Begin power pluses, pattern one."

"Beginning pluses!"

The LCL inside of the Entry Plug began to receive electrical pulses in the pattern of Shinji's resting heartbeat from his last recorded test.

Rei focused all of her senses on the war-machine housing Shinji's soul, but still could not find him as she had found the Angel in the space.

"Begin pattern two."

"Pattern two initiated. All systems are green."

A second set of electrical pluses began, mimicking Shinji's brain activity patterns.

"Begin plug pressurization in sequence with power pulse pattern one."

"Pressurizing."

The emergency resuscitation system that pressurized the LCL activated, pulsing in time with the heartbeat electrical pattern.

"Begin plug removal."

"Plug removal initiated. All systems are green."

Slowly, almost tortuously, the plug started to spin up and out of the housing superstructure. As it was deeper than generally intended, at the rate it was proceeding it would be another minute before it cleared the first of the sockets where the titanium rods the waiting technicians held could be inserted to prevent it from regressing back.

"Plug has cleared restraint level seven!"

Rods were inserted into the spiral arrayed holes, forming the first barrier to prevent the plug from regressing back down towards the glowing core.

Catching Misato's eye, Ritsuko nodded. "Begin Modification Protocol Three."

"Modification Protocol initiated."

Inside the Entry Plug, the opening stirrings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony began to play. Misato shot her friend a subtle nod of thanks. She didn't know if it was his favorite song, but she knew that he liked it.

"Initiate organic framework insertion procedure."

Engineers made way for the pair of workers that had been standing by on the gantry as they scrambled up to where the exposed Entry Plug waited. The rising cylinder continued its slow ascent from the depths of the Evangelion, and more rods were shoved home to block re-entry. The lead technician, satisfied with the readiness of his equipment, nodded to his companion, who in turn waved to a trio of engineers waiting with a gurney. On the gurney was a heavily modified ICU stabilization casket. LCL was visible though the observation window, with something suspended within. They rushed the gurney up to the waiting pair even as another two technicians maneuvered a connecting hose to the base of the casket.

Once a third set of the titanium rods was installed, the other workers abandoned the service gantry. As the lead engineer ignited the waiting plasma torch, his subordinate keyed back to the waiting command team.

"Insertion team ready, waiting for clearance."

"Standby, Insertion Team." Ritsuko ordered, watching the wave patterns generated by the MAGI and the ones from the Evangelion. "Wave patterns are within tolerance. Halt plug removal."

"Entry Plug removal halted."

"Begin insertion."

Sparks flew from the side of the plug as a circular hold was cut into the metal, the next endpoint for the LCL filled casket. Cutting through the different layer of armor took a several nerve-wracking minutes. Finally, the cameras inside of the plug showed the glowing outline on the far wall.

"Halt cutting!"

Disengaging the torch and dropping it to the cart, he grabbed a port housing. Lining it up with the still hot metal, he slammed it home and bolted it in place.

"Housing installed, ready for Stage Two!"

"Begin Stage Two. Insert organic framework."

The free end of the hose connected to the casket was handed up, and locked into the newly installed housing. Satisfied with the connection, the technician activated the serrated edge of the hose, which finished cutting through the armored plating.

"Linkage complete," Ritsuko said, watching the five inch tube break through on the monitor. "Activate pumps."

The casket hummed as the pumps pressurized and began to push the contents into the Entry Plug.

The assembled crew and onlookers watched the monitors displaying the live feed from inside the plug. Slowly, a pale object began to appear. A soft, gelatinous skeleton oozed through the tube into the plug, soft bones held together by ligaments and small amounts of other connective tissue.

The product of many a heated argument and modification to the cloning device that served to grow more bodies for Rei, it was a backup framework for Shinji's recovery out of the LCL. As the only other person who had ever completely sublimated into LCL had entirely resisted recovery, they were unsure how Shinji's return would actually take place. In theory, he could emerge straight out of the LCL like a precipitate out of solution. Under this model, he could emerge as he had entered, in which case he was likely to die outside of the LCL, having been torn in half. Alternatively, he could show up with a completely new body, a new physical representation of his ego. Another idea was that a new body would be built up on top of an existing framework- a reconstruction of his body from what remained in the plug. It was to this end that this gelatinous skeleton, a (mostly) perfect clone of Shinji sized to his measurements prior to the incident, existed.

The insertion of the skeleton as a new framework was to address two primary issues with the idea of a reconstruction of his body from existing materials. One; a new body built up from the inserted skeleton would have two legs. Secondly, there some debate over if Shinji's body would actually return at all, or if it was matter of splitting his conciseness apart and shifting part of it back into a body- if this was going to be the case, then they needed somewhere for his soul to go to, and his lower half, the only part of him that currently existed, wouldn't provide that. They needed a whole body- but they couldn't exactly just open up the Entry Plug to plop in a completed clone body. Hence the need for a semi-soft skeleton that could be forced through a tube.

Only a few of the technicians knew what was going on at this stage- the products of NERV's Artificial Evolution Labs were still a closely guarded secret, even at NERV-CENTRAL. The cloned skeleton was mostly human, and had only 5% Angelic material in its genetic make-up, the minimum amount needed to allow the vat gown framework to be aged up appropriately and to allow the completion of the body inside the plug from the modified LCL mix that had been pumped in with it.

"Framework insertion complete, isolate port."

The technician at the foot of the casket pulled a lever, dropping a self sealing port bolt into the tubing, which was pushed along by the pumps' pressure stream until it connected with the restraining collar at the mouth of the tube. Slowly, the engineer, wearing the purple and green of Unit-01's crew, twisted the hose to the left until the gear teeth on both components meshed together, watching for the tell tale glow of the thermite paste fusing the bolt to the sides of the hole they had cut.

Smoke pouring off the newly installed port, he cut the hose free, tossing it down to his feet as the red clad assistant handed him welding equipment. Picking up a large plate, they maneuvered it in place over the blocked port and began welding, creating a double seal between the outside world and the contents of the plug.

"Isolation complete!" the engineer reported back to command. "Pulling back from gantry now."

"Begin body restoration."

It was slow going, easily one of the longest parts of the process that was planned out for the day. Now that the framework was inserted and sealed in, they could finish growing the cloned body, cell by cell. First, the skeleton would harden as tendons, muscle and nerves began to grow over it, while internal organs would grow as their supports completed. The circulatory system would be filled with LCL until replaced by new blood. Likewise, his gastrointestinal tract would be filled with the LCL, beyond that what was normally absorbed into the body, and so he would be experiencing a diarrheic effect until his system purged itself. He would require easy to digest foods for a time until his stomach microbes reestablished themselves. The LCL in his lungs he could cough up normally, being accustomed to the process after immersion, but they would be ready to pump his lungs if needed. They would also have a full set of immunization shots ready to give him.

Silence fell over the command staff as they watched the gradual growth of Shinji's replacement body, cell by cell. In the meantime, Beethoven continued to play in the background as the pattern of electrical pulses mimicked the boy's brain activity.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji paused, panting, as he fought the Angels. He could hear something, faintly, at the edges of thought and awareness. The twinned Angels, currently joined together, took advantage of his temporary distraction and charged at him. Swatting them aside with a casual slap, he tried to focus on the ethereal sounds, ignoring the eruption of fire and light.

The battered cityscape of Tokyo-3 misted and vanished into smoke along with the Angels, being replaced by a dark void.

Brows furrowed in concentration, Shinji felt an uncomfortable tugging on his mind that was strangely familiar.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Body reconstruction is complete." Captain Ibuki announced to the room in general, watching her display screen that showed the body's status. It had long ago completed the external components, and they had watched the floating lifeless creation in more or less silence until the internal organs had all completed. It had been a somewhat surreal experience for the assembled crew, even considering the amount of weirdness that went along with working at NERV. Apart from being slightly paler that he had been before, the body was visually indistinguishable from before- something that had been checked by Kozo and Ritsuko before finalizing this part of the recovery procedure. It would not do to have any hint of Angelic heritage show in the boy.

Other than the heartbeat, there was no sign of life in the body.

"Initiate cascade sequence. Begin pattern three."

The electrical pulses shifted to take on a slightly different pattern, this one more reminiscent of the original Contact Experiment that had split Shinji's soul, not that any apart from three people present could recognize that pattern.

"There is an energy spike in the S2 Engine." Lieutenant Aoba's voice was calm, but warning. "It's still within tolerances for the draw off equipment."

"Bring the secondary systems on-line. Signal Unit-00 to prepare to engage on my orders."

Misato started murmuring into her headset, keyed into the main communications channel for the Evangelions as the other technicians brought the massive capacitor bank circuit on line Immediately the surplus power from the spike dropped, feeding into the capacitor bank, but the large gauge cables began to smoke and the capacitors themselves began to glow.

Sitting in Unit-00, Rei felt the power surge from Shinji's Evangelion. It was like a punch to her stomach leaving her breathless and lurching. Beyond the increase in the power output, there was thrumming of something... else... on the edges of her perception. It was not quite like her awareness of her drones, or that of the presence of Lilith down in Terminal Dogma. It was something more than her drones, and less than Lilith. It could only be Shinji.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji thrashed and screamed inside of the Entry Plug, feeling the pull on his mind, the tugging on his soul. A pain unlike anything else that he had ever felt- even compared to the worst horrors of fighting the Angels. Outside, the shifting landscape had changed to a war ravaged Tokyo-3, buildings shattered and burning.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"Third sequence is showing no progress. Preparing to initiate the next sequence, in three, two, one, mark." The humming machinery and electronics switched in tone as the next pattern of simulated mental waves and synchronization settings passed through the connecting cables.

Ritsuko stalked back and forth across the command bridge, eyes flying across the various screens and displays, mind calculating new information with the results of her many previous tests. Eyes hard, she turned up to look at the Commander, shaking her head.

Things were not looking good.

"Prepare to begin the seventh sequence." She ordered, turning back to watch the main screens. "Modify the pulse wave with program R-78. Increase plug pressure by one-quarter atmospheres, and increase the temperature by ten degrees."

Gendo sat silently, watching the frantic work to bring his son back. They were running out of time.

The fresh body sat lifelessly in the Entry Plug, devoid of even the empty half-life of Rei's clones. There was no sign of anything else stirring in the LCL. There was still hope, but it was slipping quickly out of his hands. The sinking feeling in his heart was the same as it had been watching his wife as she climbed into that other Entry Plug so many years ago.

If they could not split his son back out of the Evangelion now, everything that he had done since that day was in vain. A monstrous edifice of lies, manipulation, torture and coldly calculated murder. His future world, his planned Heaven, one that would ensure the future of Mankind was vanishing like a mirage in the desert.

It would take some time, readying the final preparations for his scorched earth plans, verifying the deaths of the SEELE Council, arranging the final disposal of the loose ends, but in the end it wouldn't be more than month before all this place was nothing more than atomized dust below a newly expanded bay.

Doctor Akagi was one of the best scientists to ever work on Project E. She had not entirety gotten her position based on nepotism. She hadn't even gotten it primarily on nepotism. Still, their plans were running out. His hand was going to be forced.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei stared at the still form of Unit-01, silently watching as Sub-Commander Katsuragi screamed at it. LCL pooled underneath the girl, still dripping off her plug-suit, having rushed to the cage from Unit-00. Dr. Akagi was not far behind the sobbing woman, trying to get her to come away from the Evangelion and allow the crews to finalize the recovery of the special equipment used in the recovery procedure. The plug had been removed and the entrance opened, the lifeless clone body being retrieved by the attending technicians. High above them, the Commander watched from the observation window, pulsing with energy from the ADAM embryo growing inside of him.

She was cold, and felt a hollow emptiness inside that hurt. It was a sense of loss that cut at her core that was like nothing else that she had ever felt before. This...

Shaking her head in disbelief, Rei felt the tears welling up behind her eyes. There was no hope. Trembling, fists clenched and held tightly to her sides, darkness began to creep in at the corners of her vision as she fought back the tears. The Commander would not cry. Crying was something that Shinji did. Shinji Was Gone. She would not be able to fulfill her purpose with him. She would never see him again. Shinji Was Gone.

The Commander remained.

But Rei did not want the Commander. Rei wanted Shinji.

She had failed Shinji. She had failed the Commander. She had failed the Pilot-Captain.

There was no more point, no more purpose in being.

But all of that paled next the fact that she might not see Shinji ever again before the end. The only option that she had now was to attempt an unrestricted Contact Experiment with Unit-01, to join with him inside it.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Shinji Ikari, the Third Child, Pilot of Evangelion Unit-01, screamed in pain and clutched his head. He lay in a fetal position on the floor of the apartment he shared with Miss Misato and Asuka, one wall missing and overlooking a burning city.

Tokyo-3 was shattered and broken, a burning war-scape often seen from the Entry Plug. Shinji was accustomed to seeing from the viewpoint of his titan, strong and powerful, insulated from the burning wreckage and choking smoke. It was entirety different as a small, defenseless child.

To be an Evangelion was to be a Colossus, immense and unyielding. The Evangelion was a force of nature, a storm fueled by his emotion, his mind. He was the unmoving object and the unstoppable force.

But to be a human was to be weak, to be frightened and cowed. Fragile, easily hurt. Easily killed.

Something was burning inside his mind, tugging at his consciousness. Imperatives he could only dimly feel warred with the sense of rightness that he now felt that he had not remembered feeling in so long. Strange shadowed commands and pulsing feelings pulled at him, twisting his mind and his body.

Thunder sounded across the sky with a familiar voice as lighting with a woman's face flashed in the smoke filled clouds. Music thundered in his veins while booming refrain of German singing filled his lungs. Shinji's entire world was chaos, the twisting clouds of storm and smoke took the forms of friends and enemies. The fires that ravaged the city leapt and danced amidst the ruins, towering flames reaching up to the clouded skies. Everything was red and orange, the air hot and choking. Fear gripped his heart, and the lizard part of his brain screamed at him to run and hide, to flee this place, to escape these feelings. He wanted to do nothing more than to find a hole, jump into it and pull it closed behind him.

Still though, past the unnatural tightness that he felt on his mind, heart and soul, Shinji's nature warred against these thoughts of flight. The faces that appeared in the lightning and twisting clouds reached out to him, calling to him to stay, to return.

Return?

Fight warred with flight as the sound of tearing cloth filled the air, bringing a sudden stop to all noise. Everything went dark, and he was left alone, floating and weightless, in the silence.

Lifting his head, he looked around, trying to find anything in that inky darkness, but to no avail. As far as the boy could tell, he was the only thing that existed here. Despite there being no source of light, he could see himself. He wasn't glowing, so the part of his mind that had paid attention in class told him he shouldn't be able to see his hands in front of his face in this otherwise impenetrable darkness, but Shinji could look down and see his shirt and slacks, bare feet sticking past the legs of his trousers.

Feet?

Something was wrong with that, but he couldn't say what or why.

He drifted in the void for what seemed to be an eternity, alone in silent solitude, until a faint buzzing sound could be heard at the edges of his hearing- a voice. A girl's voice, soft and delicate. A voice unused to strong emotion, on the edge of cracking. In those sounds he could hear a girl on a precipice, waiting to fall over the side and to be lost.

Rei's voice.

Rei... Rei Ayanami.

His girlfriend. His love.

Something clicked back in place in Shinji's brain, as the world came rushing back into sight. The darkness became the Evangelion cage, and he found himself suspended over the purple titan, his Unit-01. Below him was Miss Misato- kneeling before the service gantry, clutching the railing as if for dear life. Past her stood Rei, the white material of her plug suit glistening with LCL, and he could almost smell it, that bloody copper taste filling his mouth, which was watering with hunger. Two technicians, both wearing the skull and crossbones insignia of his Unit-01 stood with his lifeless, naked body almost immediately underneath him. Dr. Akagi was walking slowly towards them from the elevator bank, her face cast in resigned sorrow.

Rei was saying something, but her words were just out of comprehension, only the tone and inflection coming through to him.

The men began to take his body away, prompting him to scream. Pounding his fists on an invisible barrier, Shinji shouted at them, that he wasn't dead, that he was right here, couldn't they see?

"Why won't you listen to me?" Shinji screamed at them, tears in his eyes, fists beating against the invisible surface. A fist became an open hand as he slapped the barrier, and his fingers brushed against a ledge just inside his reach. Eyes opening wide, he lunged forwards, flailing limbs grasping for, and then finding, that second dimension to the barrier before him.

Red light filled his vision as he kicked and scrambled to climb up and over the barrier.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Lieutenant Aoba, watching the video feed from the cage on the command bridge, glanced over at a flashing light that caught his attention.

"Oh, shit." Scrambling for his headset, he shouted out a warning to the rest of the bridge members on duty. "Unit-01 is reading as Blood Type Blue!"

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Alarms blared in the cage, but all therein stood transfixed where they were, caught in the deadly display.

Evangelion Unit-01's eyes were burning infernos, twisting orbs of spiraling fire. The LCL bubbled and boiled around the giant, the same nightmarish light shining from the exposed orb in its chest. The whole of the cage was lit with its red glow, all other lights drowned out by its radiance.

Up overhead, a spark of liquid fire erupted like a fountain out of thin air, coalescing into a small ball that began to stretch out into a thin line. The line spread out to form a glowing halo crowning the Evangelion.

Misato's tears dried almost instantly, the heat stealing the moisture from her face. She looked up at the hellish sight, stomach lurching.

Rei watched, interested and awed despite her despair.

Ritsuko gaped in dumb confusion, horror writ across her face.

Gendo, having arrived at the observation deck, watched in numb shock. From his vantage point, up above the Evangelion and its halo, he could see down into it. A spiraling vortex of flame descended down inside that thin circle, reaching down into eternity. And within that twisting firestorm a small burning figure was climbing up.

A glowing hand reached up over the side of the halo, joined by another, pulling itself up. A boy's burning figure stood atop the halo, featureless save for two eyes that burned like the sun, twin specks of pure focused flame.

Unit-01 went dark and sagged against its restraints and moorings. The halo vanished, and the burning figure dropped to the helmeted head. Metal smoked underneath its feet and hands as it climbed down to the catwalk- prompting the two technicians to flee, one grabbing ahold of the kneeling Sub-Commander to drag her away. The other tried to pull Rei away, but she pushed past him to meet the approaching thing.

Slowly, a face began to form out of the burning light- Shinji's face. The metal catwalk hissed and puddled underfoot as he walked, leaving molten footprints in the grate that pinged as they cooled behind him. His burning body changed, the fires fading to leave warm flesh behind. The burning star-eyes were the last thing to change as Shinji reached out to Rei, who raised her own hands to meet him, her eyes never leaving his.

He pulled her into an embrace, leaning his head down, eyes closing as he kissed her like a drowning man breathing air.

When he opened his eyes again, they were the same blue shade that she had long ago memorized.

"Rei..." Shinji whispered, his breath catching in his throat.

"Shinji..." she whispered back, ignoring the shouts and pounding of running feet fast approaching them from behind her.

"Rei, I saw you. I had to come back... I-"

Shinji's next words vanished as his eyes rolled up into the back of his head. He collapsed in her arms, going into convulsions.

Author's Notes:

It has been entirely too long in coming, but I felt that I had written myself into a corner with some aspects, and so the chapter went through many rewrites and was put on hold a few times so I could come back to it fresh. So between that, school and work, there's been some time delay in between this chapter and the last one. I hope that this chapter was worth the wait, and can only hope that the next one won't be so long in coming. I am graduating in December, though, so we'll see what happens.

There was a scene that I had in mind for a very long time involving a fight between Rei and Asuka during Shinji's recovery that had to be cut entirely because it wouldn't work. It was going to be used to further develop how other characters saw the relationship between Shinji and Rei, and made Rei more immediately instrumental in the recovery process. I'm still rather attached to that scene, and it was hard to come to terms that it wouldn't work with how the rest of the story unfolded to get to this point. There were a few other scenes that changed several times through the rewrites, but none were ones that I had planned out for so long. I mean, I had this scene imagined back right around the Halloween party chapter- so quite a while!

However, I think we've covered some decent ground with this chapter. We're exploring Maya's character some more now. She's been given a promotion and a new task, but she's losing the idol worship she has for her mentor- she's figuring out that she's being lied to. She had her first actual combat experience here instead of when SEELE's forces invaded, during her own mission to boot! It will be interesting to see where this takes her. She also took Ritsuko's place in the SEELE interrogation- which makes sense, since it was her mission. She's not dumb by any means, so of course she's starting to see that somethings rotten in Denmark. What will she do? Rei is beginning to understand that doing things by herself might not be the best idea- but she's been such a loner for so long that it will be a hard road for her- she's only really opened up to Shinji, even if she did allow Hikari in a little bit. But the mutual respect that is slowly building between Rei and Asuka, over their technological terrors may bridge the distance between the two. But don't expect her to just let Asuka stroll into her labs next chapter! She was only starting to think about how they might have fared working together to get Shinji back. Now that he's back, is she going to drop the interest in Asuka, or will she split her time hovering over the both of them? Shinji is her priority- and even so she hasn't given him any hint as to who (and what) she really is.

In the next chapter, we're going to explore some of the nature of Kozo and Gendo's friendship and partnership, as well watch the fallout of Shinji's recovery. We'll take another look into Asuka's psyche, and Rei will have to decide what she's doing with Kaji. How she deals with him is a turning point in her character- will she go hard or soft, and for what reason?

At any rate, I think that's enough of my ramblings and musings. I should get started on Chapter 38 instead! But I do want to thank all of you for your continued interest in this story of mine, and every time that I see how widespread and how numerous my readers are, it humbles me. I hope that if you have any comments or questions that you'll let me know, either through private messages or in the reviews. I'm more than happy to talk to you about things, although I'll try of course to keep upcoming events a surprise.