To revolutionize the world, to end the journey by connecting everything, there was still a last barrier to overcome. Yet, it was not the barrier Shinji expected to find. A red demon was guarding the gate for the promised land, but that demon was not something Shinji wanted to fight

"Unit…02?"

No, that was not right. It was not only Unit 02, he heard her voice before she pulled him out of the train, back to reality. Behind the twisted face of a broken yet fearful unit 02 laid the girl that started his psychological downfall.

"A…Asuka? You're still there Asuka? You're still alive?"

"Of course I am, I'm not the type of girl that you, of all people, can kill"

"Thank God, I'm happy, I'm really happy"

"Yes…I…am happy too that you're alive. Shit, what am I saying, what were you doing there? This seems like an end of the world level mess. Please tell me you know how to stop that."

"No Asuka, you're wrong. This is not a mess, this is salvation"

"What are you babbling about? It's quite clear this thing will kill everyone. Just now her minion tried to kill me "

"What do you mean with that?"

"There's a guy, with grey hair, or it's best to say that there was a guy with grey hair. He tried to stop me with some other Angels"

"Wait…did you kill him?"

"I hope so"

"Why? Was it necessary ? He was just helping me out"

"Helping you out in what? Bringing about the Third Impact? That's quite the opposite of what I want to bring out of this battle"

"There's no reason to stop all of this, if you only stopped and talked to him he would have explained, like he did to me. This event, is not inherently bad, it's just a mean to an end. Kaworu wanted to let me express a wish, and the Impact is just the ritual needed for that wish to be granted."

"You're not this stupid, stupid Shinji. He was an Angel, its obvious he was trying to deceive you into starting the Impact. He probably needed you to trigger the end of the world"

"You don't understand Asuka, no, you don't want to understand. I know he was not lying, I could feel that I can control this event, before you pulled me out I was inside this worlds very own fate. Just trust me this once Asuka. I can take you there with me, we just need to return to the giantess hea.."

Shinji's speech was stopped by a strong pain on it's cheek. Unit-02 ran towards his EVA and hit it with a violent punch, that made Unit-01's armor crack while the Evangelion fell to ground.

"I won't let you end this world because of some fucking bullshit and Angel put in your head. If words won't pass through your thick skull, then I will stop you with my EVA."

Unit-02, still showing a monstrous figure due to the induced berserk, took Unit-01's arm and tore it away. Through the communication channel Asuka could hear the painful screams of Shinji, but that sound fell on deaf ears. What Asuka felt clearly instead was Unit-01 foot crashing on her own EVA's stomach, while the tore arm grew back. Asuka was pushed back and had to take a second to regain full control, giving Shinji enough time to get up and start running towards the glowing cross that he was in previously. That must be the entrance to the promised land he tought, while frantically running, but his control on Unit-01 was sloppy. It seemed like the mech itself was not resisting his inputs. On the other hand, Asuka was fully in control of the beast that her Unit-02 had become. So with a feral jump, the girl grabbed EVA-01's head and crashed it to the ground, just a little stretch before it could reach the glowing cross. No words were spoken by Asuka, that just tried to inflict damage to Unit-01, in order to inflict enough pain to Shinji's body to faint him. But Shinji didn't surrender, he endured the pain, and gathered the last ounce of the EVA's berserk strenght, and with Unit-02 still on its back, Unit-01 closed the gap towards the cross, and jumped right in it.

A white flash blinded Asuka's blue glowing eyes forcing her to close them.

When she re-opened them, they were not blue anymore, and she found herself at the edge of a circle of white roses, that made the limits of what seemed like a fountain full of LCL. At the center of the fountain was not a sprinkle, but a gigantic, 3 meters tall blue bud.

"Do you believe me now?"

Shinji's voice came from her right, he was there standing and staring at the blue bud.

"This is the promised land. You see, while I was absorbed into Unit-01 I found myself on some kind of train. There was nothing strange about the train itself, aside from the destination, it always pointed towards this place. And Kaworu helped me reach it. I was supposed to arrive here from the moment I saved Rei from the Tenth Angel."

Asuka sit there, staring at the blue bud herself

" That could still be the trigger to the apocalypse, stupid Shinji. That guy tried to kill me, Mari and Rei while you were here"

"You're lying Asuka, Rei was here with me all the time. She was caged here as a price for rescuing me from inside that train, if you've seen Kaworu fighting her outside, she was probably a fake. You know, I found a fake too."

Shinji started walking towards the blue bud, but Asuka grabbed his arm.

"Think about this Shinji, what's so precious as a wish to risk to kill everyone? If this is about Rei, I'm sure we can find another way that does not involve gambling on a joker's suggestion."

"What good would it be to save Rei, if she would only suffer by living? No, in fact, what good would it be to preserve this world in which we cannot communicate to each other, in which we only end hurting each other endlessly and without even wanting to. I ended up almost killing you, you should understand what I mean. Our fate is to never understand the other humans, to never overcome the hedgehog dilemma, what good comes from protecting this kind of reality? But…if I use this place to change our fate, to undo the walls that separates us, then we can have a better reality. A reality without a "self" but a "collective". A reality in which both Rei and my mom could escape from her cages while at the same time unite into a "whole", that's the revolution I want to bring"

When Shinji said that, the LCL changed, becoming a reflection of the Earth. Shinji's Wish was being granted, and from the reflection you could see the Giantess gathering a orange sphere from a lot of streams coming from all around the world. At the same time white crosses started piercing everywhere on land. The human unification was being performed right in front of Asuka's eyes. And the girl couldn't accept it. She hit Shinji once again, making the boy fall into the LCL.

"Undoing the barriers that separates us? Cancelling "self" to create a "whole"? You're just trying to ran away from the issues, like every time, you're not trying to better the world, but instead you're trying to create a situation in which you don't have to try to live. But a life like that is not worth."

Asuka ran towards the bud, and tried to open that. If the bud was there, it must have some kind of role in the ritual she thought. Shinji got up and tried to stop her.

"You're just defending a wretched world"

"Yeah, maybe that's right, but I'm defending my wretched world, and I don't want you to undo it because you never knew how to deal with it"

"You really are ready to return in that reality? The reality without your mother? The reality in which no one understands you and in which the will trash you once you're a nuisance. It already happened, you should understand"

"Yeah, it already happened" the words came out of Asuka's grinning face "but that's another reason for which I don't want to give up my "self", to conquer it and live through it, and even simpler, I just want to save everyone from your sick idea"

The blue bud blossomed violently, pushing Shinji and Asuka back. Blue petals fell all over the LCL and even more were floating around the promised land, in the center of the bud, at the center of the Impact, was Rei. Her expression was a kind one, a strange one for the usually expressionless Rei Ayanami.

"Ayanami"

Shinji ran toward her and hugged her

"We're at the destination Shinji, I'm sorry I couldn't accompany you here. If I hadn't messed up, maybe you would have reached a different conclusion"

Ayanami hugged him back, but Shinji felt sadness in her words

"Don't worry Ayanami, this solution is the right one. We can be together like this, and we can be together with everyone"

"Sorry Shinji, I don't agree with this outcome"

Shinji was speechless, after Asuka, now Rei wronged him. But they should have understood. They were too damaged like him, so why, why were not agreeing on the unification.

"You see, when you saved me, I felt like you gave my life meaning. So I started feeling like not wasting it. Beforehand I didn't care what happened to me, I never felt really scared to board the Eva, and never felt really dissatisfied in living in the role I was created in. But after you saved me, everything changed, you changed me. I wanted to save you, to give your life meaning like you did. But it seems like I messed up. Even so, I was given another opportunity. I'm the core of the Impact, I'm the trigger for everything, and I was here at the center of everything. I should have just played my role and grant the wish of the Third Impact's master, but I cannot anymore."

Blue stripes started immobilizing Shinj

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to save you"

"Wait, don't stop the unification, don't do it, that's not saving, that's damnation"

Rei smiled at Shinji, she smiled for hope in the face of despair while the stripes covered the entire body of the boy, like a mummification. Then Rei looked at Asuka.

"I know it's egoistic, but will you do me a favor Asuka? Can you please retrieve Shinji, can you give him another chance?"

Rei's smile was sad but pure, watching her Asuka felt like she was not needed as a light anymore.

"I will retain his memories of all of this, and put a sigil on Unit-01 for the time being. When the situation will be calmer, will you retrieve him? I'm sure that he can reach a better ending, and I want to believe it"

Asuka scratched her head

"You're too optimistic, see what a mess he created here"

Rei just smiled at Asuka, while in the LCL reflection the unification was being stopped, the stream stopped and the orange sphere disappeared, while the crosses still were all around the planet

"Yeah, and it's a mess from which the planet will not be able to recover easily, but I still believe in him. I want to believe that by giving him another chance, I can gave him the meaning he gave me"

Asuka was not sure Shinji could recover, even with those events wiped from his memories, she felt like he would always reach the same resolution. But at the same time, she understood. Those were Rei's last moments. And Rei's last wish after saving humanity was to save the villain, was to try becoming hope in Shinji's life, even after her demise. But she wouldn't be able to help him herself, she would need to entrust him to someone. Asuka didn't want to cuddle him only to see him becoming the villain again, but Rei deserved to die knowing that Asuka would have tried.

"I will"

Asuka sighed and tried to keep her emotions in check

"I'm sure you'll be able to give him meaning, and I will retrieve him when the time will come, whatever that means"

With another, happier smile, Rei raised her hands. The promised land disappeared and Asuka returned into Unit-02's cockpit on the top of the Giantess. Unit-01 on the other hand was closed in a coffin, and was being raised up in the sky by the Giantess, until it reached outer space, not too far from the hemisphere to be lost in space. With that last protection gesture, the Giantess died, and disappeared, Unit-02 came crashing in the lake, where Mari fought the Eva Series that were now still in a cross poise. The mech survived the fall, but after that last act, the energy went totally off. Asuka was too tired to keep moving, and fell asleep inside the cockpit while the sky slowly became clear.

The next thing Asuka saw was Mari's face, after she collapsed the American girl opened her cockpit.

"You awake princess?"

"Yeah, that was quite a mess though"

Asuka reached to Mari's hand and came out of the EVA only to be met with the lake being totally red and some of the crosses she saw from the reflection being still on the horizon.

"We won, but looking at this scenery, it doesn't look like a win"

"Well, at least we saved what was possible"

"Now the Earth will have even less life on it thought"

The connection with NERV HQ re-opened, and Asuka heard Misato

"Asuka, what happened? Do you know where Unit-01, Rei and Shinji are?"

"It's a long story. I'll explain everything when I get back"

"It doesn't seem like it will be good news"

"Not in the least, just more troubles in the horizon, and a lot of losses to reclaim this victory and it's possibly not even over because of a couple of stubborn idiots. "

"We suffered major casualities, we don't understand what it was, but the Giantess made a devastating blow on Neo-Tokyo, and I think the world at large could be affected. This could be a price to high to recover"

Asuka cut the connection, watched at the disastrous horizon

"But still…We Remain"