With corrections thanks to Vandenbz as always.

[A/N] What's this? Back with this again and not six months later, world must be going mad. Seriously though, glad you enjoyed the last bit, despite it originally being the first part of this. Almost back up to where I was before I took the original version down back in the day, gonna be interesting to finally get back to that point again. Let's carry on, shall we?

Chapter 24: The Abomination

"Well?" demanded the Commander with his usual bluntness.

Fuyutsuki folded his arms as he stopped by the window, "Well, Ikari, according to Dr. Akagi, there isn't a single other viable candidate available to pilot Unit-03 at this time."

Gendo nodded from his position at his desk, "It would seem therefore that we must indeed resort to our fallback option."

Fuyutsuki inclined his head and turned back to regard the Shogi board on the table before the commander. He circled back about, having been dwelling on the next move for several moments before sitting back down to finally slide a single tile forwards. He didn't notice Gendo avert his gaze, essentially preventing himself from seeing the move.

Fuyutsuki stared at the tile his opponent had moved with a frown.

"Is there a problem, Sensei?" murmured the commander.

Kozo couldn't help but be a bit startled by the use of his old title. He smiled almost reluctantly, "What if the scrolls are wrong, Ikari, and Unit-03 goes out of control? In that case we-"

"-in that case we will lose a sacrificial tile that we were planning on discarding once it was taken by the enemy in the first place," cut in Gendo calmly as he stood and walked over to the table with the board set on it. Without looking at the board, he selected one of his pieces at random and moved it in to an equally random empty square.

"And if there had been an actual pilot in the EVA?"

"In that case, it would have been an…unfortunate necessity."

Fuyutsuki's gaze flicked up to the commander as he walked back to his desk. An ironic smirk tugged at one side of the sub-commander's lip, "Yui would be angry if she heard you talking like that…"

Gendo stopped mid-stride. He was quiet for a moment, "Indeed…" he finally murmured before carrying on and settling back into his seat, "Lately I have been finding myself…on edge over the current situation. Yui is planning something or, at least the very least she is certainly allowing herself to be a part of someone's plan.

"All these strange occurrences have been working toward some kind of pattern. Something is afoot, Sensei, and I'm not sure even the old men have any idea that something is happening outside of their scope of influence."

"So…" began Fuyutsuki, moving another of his pieces after observing Gendo once more intentionally make a move seemingly blindly and at random, "So what you're saying is...?"

"The scrolls are void," he confirmed, then moved one final tile to the other end of the board, "we are moving at random."

Fuyutsuki looked down at the board.

Checkmate.

Gendo's mouth pulled into what could almost be interpreted as a smile, "But that's not always such a bad thing now, is it, old friend? With foresight comes hubris, which in turn softens the earth beneath the feet of our victory. It is time for mankind to start forging its own future once more, that is if we ever want to evolve into something more than the worthless, stagnated colony SEELE predicts we shall become without Instrumentality. Their vision of the future is only set in stone if we accept is as such."

"If we are told it is so…we believe it is so…" lamented Fuyutsuki as he eyed Gendo's winning tile resting parallel to his king. He smiled, "Interesting, Ikari…I haven't seen you like this in a long time. Has Yui's presence affected you that much?"

"I no longer need Instrumentality to be with her again, Sensei," he said with rather uncharacteristic quiet, "If she has come this far back, then maybe…maybe…"

Fuyutsuki stared at his long-time friend in slight shock. He had not heard so much as an iota of hope in the voice of the supreme commander in over a decade.

Kozo just prayed his hopes were well founded.

As if to shake off his momentary slip in composure, Gendo picked the king tile up to regard it, as if it held some small pile of answers to his mountain of burning questions, 'Just where are your tiles, Yui?' he mused, 'And what is this pattern you are letting yourself be moved in?' And then there was his final question, the one he was almost afraid to ask, 'and who is your king?'

Fuyutsuki raised his eyebrows as he regarded the commander, who had been staring at the playing piece silently for nearly thirty seconds "Ikari…I'm sure the shogi piece is very interesting but-"

Gendo interrupted Fuyutsuki by slapping the piece back on the board on his way to the door. He spoke as he went, "Have the prototype Dummy Plug prepared for transportation to the Matsushiro facility. Have its data loaded into Evangelion Unit-03 immediately upon arrival. We proceed as planned."

-Z-

Meanwhile, 'The king' was sharing a rather uncomfortable period of silence with his mother.

Yui was almost audibly silent. She had her back to Shinji, her hands balled into fists at her sides. Though Shinji couldn't actually see her face, he could tell from where he was sitting that she was absolutely fuming.

Shinji was just as silent. He opened his mouth to say something, only to realize there really wasn't anything he could say in this instance, and so just closed it again. The only sound over the gentle rustling of the wind through the grass was that of his fingertips drumming uncomfortably off the tops of his legs.

The fact that his mother might have been aware of his actions in the waking world simply hadn't occurred to Shinji until pretty much the instant he had lost consciousness, and when it did, it struck like an armored boot to the joy department.

More silence followed. Yui's eye twitched, but otherwise she continued neither saying nor doing anything.

"Okay!" Shinji finally snapped, sliding to his feet with exasperation. Yui flinched despite herself, "So, I forgot, alright? I'm sorry!"

Yui executed a perfect one-eighty on her heels, folding her arms mid-turn, "You forgot?" she echoed. Her cheeks were still flushed with indignation and embarrassment, "How was it humanly possible for you to forget that I'm here? I mean it's not like I was in another room or something.

"I mean why didn't you just invite her in here and go right at it in front of me? You may as well have!" Yui then took several long, calming breaths. Her face had turned an even deeper shade of red. Luckily for both of them, she had actually been able to block out most of what was going on by doing the mental equivalent of huddling herself into a fetal position, covering her eyes and ears and shouting 'la, la, la, not listening!' and, despite the sheer intensity of emotional and physical stimuli going on at that moment, she was almost completely successful. It was still taking all her willpower however to stop herself from forcing Shinji's body awake so she could drag it off and get herself some emergency therapy.

"Sorry…" mumbled Shinji, still looking away from her.

Yui scowled, "You're 'sorry?' Well let me tell you-"

"-At least I told her…" cut in Shinji in a small voice.

Yui paused and frowned, "Told her what?"

Shinji replied in that same small tone, his gaze averted as he slumped down onto his backside on the slope, "That I loved her…" he responded as he drew his knees up to his chest. His gaze was far away, staring blankly out over the Tokyo-3 dreamscape, "It took everything I had just to say those words.

"I'm sorry I didn't think about you at the time but…all my concentration was just gone when she said that she loved me too. I couldn't see, I couldn't think. There was nothing beyond her at that moment. We were just lost from the rest of the world, and even to you too. It was just her and me. I'm so sorry, mother…"

Yui stared at her son's pained expression for a few long seconds before her shoulders sagged with the weight of defeat.

She dragged herself over to where Shinji lay and slumped wearily back into the grass beside him, hands behind her head. She stared up at the sky that their minds had given form for a moment, watching as the clouds swirled and changed form as she concentrated on them.

Yui inhaled a breath which she let out as one long, tired sigh, "Never mind…I suppose I can't be mad at my son for just affirming, confirming-

"-don't forget consummating-"

"-Yes, thank you, I was trying to avoid that- his love for the one he holds dearest." Yui glanced sidelong at Shinji, "Where is she right now then?"

Shinji shrugged his shoulders, "Right where I left her…" and he summoned briefly up the last memory he had before losing consciousness, the image of Rei cuddled contentedly up in his arms, her still flushed features illuminated by a shaft of moonlight coming in through the window.

"Aww, that's so sweet, she looks like a cute little angel…figuratively speaking, of course." She inhaled another long breath then, "But now that's out of the way, please just promise me one thing…"

"Hmm?" mumbled Shinji, who was still watching the ghostly, silent dreamscape of Tokyo-3.

"Just, while I'm in your body…please don't do that again."

"Yeah, yeah," he responded with a dismissive wave of his hand, I'll make sure to control my urges…"

"Hmph, you say that now…" said Yui with a pout, turning her head away.

"Fine, next time it gets to that I'll just switch with you then. How's about that?"

Yui sputtered before finding her voice once more, "Do not even joke about that."

Shinji grinned, "Ooh, I don't know…After all, you were a college girl once upon a time."

Once again it took Yui a moment to get her words together, "Just what are you implying? I'll have you know that I was nothing more than your average ultrahigh-density studying nerd back in college. I never had time for such things. Sure, it's not like there weren't times when I may have been tempted to experi-hey! Why am I even talking to you about this? And more to the point, how could you accuse your own mother of such a thing?!"

Shinji just shrugged with a serene smile as his gaze travelled about and up to his mother, "I was just seeing how long I could keep you blushing for. Must be half an hour and counting now…"

Yui's bottom lip trembled with agitation. Her whole frame seemed to shake a little with embarrassment, "Idiot!" she finally snapped, folding her arms and rolling prominently on her side away from Shinji, "I ought to spank you for that, young man!"

Shinji smirked and shuffled back up next to her, "No you wouldn't, you love me too much."

Yui just grumbled something inaudible in response.

"…And I love you too, Mom," Shinji then finally said, his grin turning just a little serene as he closed his eyes and laid his head to rest in his mother's lap.

Yui grumbled another inaudible response as her hand came to rest reluctantly on his head.

She supposed she could forgive him, just this once, just so long as she wasn't the one who ended up doing the morning-after snuggling.

"Just one more thing," said Shinji suddenly, not opening his eyes.

"Hmm?"

"You're a doctor, right?"

"Yup."

"Good, well, it's just...I have a biology-related question."

"What is it?"

Shinji opened an eye, "Did I do everything right?"

Shinji had his eyes closed again by the time Yui opened hers once more to glare down at him. She could almost sense him smirking inwardly. She smacked him once atop the head, "That'll do."

"Yes, Mother…"

-Z-

The darkness of the Geofront was illuminated by the moonlight refracting down via the mirrors in the ceiling blocks. This had the effect of casting the cavernous space into an almost eerie silver daylight.

Down below, on a small patch of land where watermelons grew, two shadowy figures had been talking long through the evening and well into the night.

Ryoji Kaji's features were illuminated by the LCD display of Gohan's terminal, "This can't be right…" he murmured. It wasn't his first expression of denial that evening either. Gohan had counted no less than a dozen from him so far. Though in all fairness, that was probably to be expected considering the sheer barrage of information that the agent had been struck with that night. The digital proof was just the icing on the cake.

"'Afraid it is…" said Gohan from Kaji's right. He was sitting on a small rock while munching his way into his third watermelon.

"I thought when I went into Terminal Dogma that the embryo had just regenerated at a massive rate since I'd given it over to Ikari, but-"

"-but," interjected Gohan, "You were wrong. That Angel had been there all along, for years, thousands perhaps. I'm really not sure. Wait, didn't you find the embryo within Terminal Dogma?"

Kaji looked up from the screen, "It's inside Terminal Dogma? I guess I should've finished my search, but I couldn't risk staying in there too long. If I opened too many security doors then I was bound to trigger an alert at some point. Though that confirms why the sixth Angel attacked the UN fleet." He shook his head then, "But then why weren't the Angels attacking Neo-Berlin instead if Adam was their target? It was there originally."

Gohan shrugged, "In Berlin it was stored in constant cryo-freeze. Perhaps the Angels just couldn't sense it, and when they awoke they just went for the one thing that, to them, probably felt most similar to it."

"Lilith..." mumbled Kaji with a slow nod.

"Well that's what I think at least. But now we've got both Adam and Lilith sitting under our feet."

"You have to destroy them," said Kaji, looking to Gohan with a scowl, "both of them."

"We can't," responded Gohan almost regretfully.

"Why?"

Gohan leaned back and idly rolled a stray melon seed between his fingers as he replied, "Because we don't know what effect destroying them could have on the remaining Angels. For all we know it could cause to them all to awaken simultaneously. They might even try to trigger an Impact event similar to the one fifteen years ago. That seems to fit in with why NERV was so wary of trying to take Sandalphon alive."

"So," grumbled Kaji, "We need to play by their rules, is that what you're trying to say?"

"SEELE calls them 'trials', and perhaps they are, their systematic order of one Angel at a time is almost like some long, drawn out tournament." Gohan slid back to his feet then with a confident smile, "Either way, Kaji, you can just leave the Angels to us."

Kaji let out a slight harrumph, his expression returning to its usual default, smug expression, "I suppose I can do that, but I'll need to take this information back to my superiors at the interior. If I can just-"

"-No," cut in Gohan, his smile vanishing instantly. He began pacing back and forth slowly.

Kaji frowned, "Would you care to explain why?"

"Because we don't know what SEELE will do in response to anyone trying to attack them directly. For all we know they've got countermeasures in place should someone try to expose them, measures that can probably be put into motion before any definitive action can be taken against them.

"We're assuming that they would probably start by rescinding the special order protecting NERV and then try to take control of the situation themselves, silencing anyone who may have been told anything. With Adam, Lilith and the EVAs here, it wouldn't take too many false whispers to convince people into thinking that it's NERV who are planning humanity's downfall."

Gohan paused in his pacing to let out a long, tired sigh, "No, taking action now will just lead to one huge bloodbath, on both sides."

"Then when?" asked Kaji.

Gohan nodded, "After the final Angel is defeated. That's when everything will end…one way or another." Gohan then reached down and picked up his terminal before turning to head off.

Kaji blew out a weary breath and sank down onto the rock Gohan had been sitting on. He folded his arms and spoke after Gohan before he could get out of earshot. "Why did you tell me all this, and why now? Considering that you don't want me to do anything with it at the moment, and also considering how much of it is way beyond simple need-to know stuff, I'd just like to know."

Gohan stopped and narrowed his eyes into the blackness. He ignored the way the moonlight focusing down on him from above stirred something within, as it had done ever since he was a child. Suddenly, he smiled in amusement, though he didn't turn back, "If I'm honest? You kind of remind me of this girl I know."

Kaji chuckled, "More hurtful words could never have been said."

Gohan laughed out loud also before turning briefly back towards the spy, "Seriously though, this girl…When I first started school, I had to disguise myself so I could use my power and not be singled out as some freak and be unable to live a normal life. But this girl, who was pretty strong herself, especially for a human, she went to so many lengths just to find out the truth about me, even to the point that it endangered her own life sometimes. My point is simply this, Kaji: I gave you the truth so you wouldn't end up getting yourself killed looking for it."

Kaji fell silent for a few seconds in thought, "You honestly think I'd be so obsessed that I might get sloppy enough to slip up that badly?"

"That depends..."

"On what?"

"On if you want me to be honest or tactful."

Kaji let out another reluctant chuckle, "Well I guess that's fair enough. So what do you expect me to do in the meantime, just lay low and do nothing?"

"What, don't you have any other job besides spying? Jeez, what do you even use as a cover?"

"I…never really needed one, I just hang around and do whatever job's asked of me."

"Yeah, you said you were the Commander's odd-job man. Well just be careful from now on about selecting which of those jobs you execute. However, if I were you, I'd be more wary of SEELE and their demands of you. I'd play more to their side, just for safety's sake."

"Friends close, enemies closer, eh? I'll keep that in mind."

"It's just some friendly advice," said Gohan with a nod, "Now if you'll excuse me, Kaji, I've got to go and tell my dad about everything that's happened. He and Vegeta like to be kept informed."

Kaji inclined his head, "Alright, and thank you for your time, Mor…Gohan-kun. My regards to your family."

Gohan tilted his head back in response, "I'll pass them along," and with that, the Saiyan shimmered in the darkness and seemed to vanish right before Kaji's eyes, having broken straight into a high speed run.

Gohan leaped up and onto the structures and transit rails that lined the rim of the Geofront until he was out of sight, before changing back into his Great Saiyaman outfit mid-leap. Only then did he finally take to the skies, flying at such speeds that it would leave the NERV surveillance systems seeing nothing but a green blur even if they did happen to catch a glimpse of him.

In seconds he was up and through the main tunnel leading back to the surface, contemplating all the way just how more or less complicated he may have caused the situation to become.

Time would tell.

-Z-

"So…" said Vegeta, who was standing outside one of the capsule houses. His arms were folded loosely in front of him as he watched the sun set over Tokyo-3, "The spy figured out your son then, did he?"

"It shouldn't be a problem…" replied Goku, who was sitting atop the house with his legs crossed under him. He watched ahead as Tokyo-3 began shifting into battle-ready mode, as it did during every sunset like clockwork as part of standard drill procedures.

Vegeta scoffed, "You're far too trusting, Kakarot. That's always been your biggest problem."

Goku shrugged, smiling slightly, "I've never felt having trust in people was ever a problem."

Vegeta let out another grunt, "You put far too much faith in such an inferior species. We shall see if that faith was well founded."

"See, this is why you have trouble making friends."

Vegeta didn't dignify the comment with a response, and instead just headed off back to his own temporary accommodation. He stopped however when Goku suddenly spoke up. The Prince noted that his voice had suddenly lost its levity, "Goten was telling me about something earlier. He's been having bad premonitions. He wouldn't say what about, but I think he's right: something is stirring out there. Something just feels wrong, Vegeta…can you feel it too?"

Vegeta didn't turn about. His ever-present frown deepened slightly and he didn't respond immediately. He just stood there, staring ahead in silence, "Yes," he finally said, and he arched his head about to regard Tokyo-3, "Things have been too quiet lately, and I feel something is on the horizon. The awakening of the next Angel should not be far off."

"I have a bad feeling, Vegeta. The others were just like a passing gust of wind, but this time-"

"-yes," cut in Vegeta, "there's a storm coming. But the Angels have been next to nothing so far, and this one will fall as certainly as the rest, have no doubt."

"But there's more than that, isn't there, Vegeta?" said Goku, and Vegeta felt his fist tighten of its own accord, "There's…something out there, like we're missing something that's right under our nose. I can't help but feel like there's some great shadow looming over us."

Vegeta didn't need to voice his agreement. The silence between the two Saiyans that suddenly descended spoke volumes enough.

"It's probably just you…" said Vegeta, almost as if he was trying to convince himself. He then turned and retired for the night without another word, leaving Goku to his thoughts.

"I hope you're right…" the remaining Saiyan lamented quietly, and after a few more moments of contemplation, he too decided to call it a night.

-Z-

"I'm not sure I was ever that young…" commented Ritsuko as she noted down some extra data on her clipboard. She, Misato and a snoozing lieutenant Gohannesburg were cruising towards the Matsushiro facility in a black NERV Humvee. In front of them a flatbed lorry carried on its back a long cylindrical form covered by a shroud. The prototype Dummy Plug they were escorting had been programmed with as much of Unit-03's compatible data as was possible. Now it was just a matter of testing to see if it worked.

Only two of the three passengers knew that within that plug was a soulless clone of the First Child, which was being used as little more than a focal point for the EVA to be fooled into thinking it was being synced with, when really it would be linked directly with the computer systems for remote control, and only one of those two passengers had been given authority to actually know that.

"I think I was…once," replied Misato, briefly reminiscing about her days as a bubbly, carefree college student.

"I sometimes wonder if there's anything he values above sleeping," muttered Ritsuko.

"Eating…" came a sleepy voice.

"You say something?" asked Misato, tilting her head about to regard the lieutenant, who was still slouched over against Ritsuko with this eyes closed.

"Love to eat…" mumbled Gohan incoherently before going right back to his snoring once more.

"Mysterious, carefree and obsessed with food, now where have I heard that before…?" mused Misato, who was still half-asleep herself, else she might have actually made a connection there.

Ritsuko was far too engrossed with double-checking her checklist to listen to Misato's words. Her attention was only drawn up in fact when she felt the vehicle start to slow down. She peered over the top of her clipboard to see that they were coming up to the facility entrance.

"Here we are…" she announced, clicking her pen closed and slipping it into her breast pocket. Gohan let out a loud yawn as he was drawn from his snoozing, whilst Misato straightened her attire in preparation to meet the guard post.

Gohan was about to acknowledge what Ritsuko said, but then stopped. He felt himself scowl as a bizarre sense of foreboding began to churn in his gut for some reason. It wasn't until he felt a hand nudge him in the shoulder that he noticed Misato had been trying to address him, "S-sorry, did you say something, ma'am?"

Misato sighed, "I was asking what was up. You looked like you were about to dash off into battle there for a second."

Gohan glanced away, only realizing then that his fists had been clenched atop his knees. For some reason his body had been tensing itself as if a battle were precisely what he was about to encounter "I'm fine," he said, a frown etched deep into his features still as he looked off into the distance, "just got a bad feeling there for a second. It's probably nothing."

Misato glanced at Ritsuko for a second and then back again, "Yeah, you sure?"

Gohan closed his eyes and shook his head to clear away the cobwebs, "Yeah, probably just tired," and that was the truth. Gohan had in fact spent half the night hacking back into the dummy system to fix the code that he'd sabotaged in the first place. He knew that if the system shorted out during the activation test with him being close at hand then blame and suspicion could easily be aimed in his direction.

And he wanted to avoid that for now if at all possible.

Misato let out a sigh, "Honestly, Moriyama, you're like a student living that last day before the deadline over and over. You really need to get a social life. Try going out some time with the crew. Relax and just enjoy the world. Get yourself a girl if you can."

"Like that would ever work…" he grumbled almost dejectedly without thinking.

Misato blinked, "Oh, and why's that?"

Gohan seemed startled before quickly replying, "I-it's not important. I'll explain…someday…maybe."

Misato cocked a critical eyebrow up, "Why is it that I get the feeling that every time you brush something to the side and claim that it's 'not important' that it's exactly the opposite?"

"Your imagination?" offered Gohan with a nervous smile.

Misato narrowed her eyes at him, "Maybe…but I swear: I'll crack you one of these days, Moriyama."

Gohan shifted in his seat, "I believe you. You have absolutely no idea how much I believe you."

As Kaji had already figured him out, and although Ritsuko was a genius, Gohan was as sure as he was sure that he was a crime-fighting superhero that it would be the Major who would most likely work him out next.

"Enough banter, you two," said Ritsuko as she opened the door to disembark, "we've got a job to do," and it was with no small amount of relief that Gohan exited swiftly to join the doctor.

-Z-

"Huh, its red, I didn't know that…" commented Gohan as he looked over the dummy plug, which had been emblazoned with the words:

Dummy System

Unit-03 Prototype

-REI-

"It uses Rei's neural data, right?" asked Misato as she looked up at it also, while technicians moved to get the crane hooked up to the plug.

"That's right," said Ritsuko, who was back looking at her clipboard again, "We predicted that Rei would have the highest chance of successfully synchronizing with Unit-03 so we opted to use her data for the tests."

Gohan's gaze flicked to the doctor for the briefest of instances. It had been a blatant lie on Ritsuko's part, in that Rei was the only dummy system they actually had, but he was startled at how utterly convincing and capable a liar she was.

"Something wrong?" asked Ritsuko without looking up, as if having somehow felt his gaze on her.

"No, ma'am," replied Gohan calmly, "Nothing at all."

It was Ritsuko who spared him a look out the corner of one eye this time. She held her glare like that for a moment before simply returning to her observations.

Gohan watched the plug as it was hoisted up and out of sight behind the steel walls. A loud 'thunk' then sounded out, signaling the plug had been securely mounted in the insertion arm.

"Alright," he intoned, looking up still with a frown, "let's get this done," he then turned and started walking towards the command building entrance without another word.

Misato fell into place beside him, her mood instantly turning serious also. It wasn't just the lieutenant's mood that was contagious though. For some reason, his sense of foreboding was starting to nag away at her too.

-Z-

Calm…

That was the feeling Gohan got from the dark and domineering form of Evangelion Unit-03 as it loomed over him in the test chamber.

It felt calm.

It was just like the sensation he'd get from any of the other EVAs: a deep, empty power that was neither awake nor slumbering. If anything, this one seemed even more passive than the rest.

And for some reason that was making Gohan feel just that little bit more uneasy.

"Begin activation test," ordered Ritsuko, startling Gohan back to reality as the control booth suddenly became awash with activity.

Seconds later, Gohan heard a loud mechanical churning as the arm holding the dummy plug began moving and, at the same time, the large head of Unit-03 slid forwards in preparation to receive its pilot.

"Beginning plug insertion," announced one of the technicians, and Gohan watched as the plug met the insertion hole and was screwed into place. The head then moved back to its upright position, locking the plug firmly inside.

"Dummy Plug is locked in place," said another.

Gohan looked to a wall monitor and read off, "Telemetry, neural and signal reception is showing nominal," he then turned back to Misato, "Looks like we're good to go."

"Here goes nothing," said Misato with a nod.

Gohan's foot began tapping impatiently as his concerns began simmering back to the surface, and the voices about him seemed to submerge into the background.

"Begin first stage activation," ordered Ritsuko.

Gohan's eyes narrowed in thought, 'It feels so calm… So, not a problem, right?'

One of the technicians spoke up somewhere off to one side, "Activation voltage past critical point. Initiating primary connections."

'Calm down, Gohan…' the Saiyan told himself, 'What would Piccolo say if he knew you were getting this worked up over nothing? Just relax…clear your mind.'

"Shifting format up to the second phase. Connecting Dummy Plug to Unit-03 and opening MAGI linkups for direct signal transmission."

'It's calm…' Gohan again reassured himself, 'it won't go berserk on you.' His brow then twitched suddenly, 'It's…really calm.'

Meanwhile, the technicians were still talking away in the background whilst Ritsuko and Misato observed in silence from either side of Gohan, "Signal reception confirmed. We can't identify a few emotional responses but it seems within boundaries."

"Right," said Ritsuko, "Let's proceed with final connections."

Gohan's thoughts were still going on all the while, 'Much calmer than it should be right now. It's more like…almost like it's…'

"All nerve links complete. All central nerve systems register normal. Data feed to Dummy drive zero at optimum level. All perceptions are in sync with MAGI control. Beginning lead-up to absolute borderline."

'Not totally inactive…' went on Gohan, still deep in thought, 'Hibernating? No, that's not it…more like…'

"We've breached 2600."

Gohan's eyes went wide with sheer horror as he felt a spark of something come suddenly to life, something a hundred times more powerful than any EVA should be 'by god, it's…'

"Approaching critical mark. Absolute borderline in 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1..."

'...It's playing possum!' Gohan finally clicked, and suddenly took notice of what was going on around him. He opened his mouth to cry out for them to stop and he reached for the emergency shutoff, but was stopped dead by a voice off to the side.

"…And rising," said one of the technicians, "Evangelion Unit-03 has been…what?"

Gohan's hand was frozen in midair. He turned his head just in time to see the indicator lights on the board flooding backwards as klaxons erupted around him. At the same time, that tiny spark began flooding outwards to fill the shape of the EVA like a blazing inferno of ki energy.

The blood drained from Gohan's face, "Too late…" he breathed.

"We've lost all connections!" shouted one technician.

"Dummy interface has failed! There's some kind of interference in the nerve impulses!"

"What?" Ritsuko exclaimed, just as the test chamber began to resonate with the deep guttural growling of Evangelion Unit-03, as it began to shake and vibrate on the spot.

"W-what is it?" gasped Misato, staggering back a step just as the shutoff restraints around the EVA's mouth were torn open, revealing the sickly, fungal-like substance that was coating it's flesh and positively crackling with purple-white energy.

"T-that's way too strong!" shouted Gohan just as that throaty growl erupted into a deafening roar. Things seemed to slow down then from Gohan's perspective. He watched as the exposed flesh began to glow with unrestrained power, then the restraints around the EVA shattered, destroyed by an invisible shockwave of released ki energy.

Gohan sensed the building ki blast before he could see it. He didn't have nearly enough time to raise his power to the level that he could deflect something like that fully, especially not to protect an entire room full of people.

The Saiyan had barely an instant to make a decision. He could save himself easily and get away, sacrificing the others.

The EVA roared with triumph and the cage was lit up by purple light as the blast was unleashed in all directions.

Gohan made his choice:

Save who you can.

Gohan lashed out and grabbed the nearest two people to him in that instant -the most he was reasonably confident he could protect in that amount of time- and then hurled them to the floor under him.

Gohan threw every last drop of energy he could into the defense of those under him, as the Angelic blast of Saiyan-infused energy struck him harder than he'd been hit in a long time.

He was only vacantly aware of the side of his uniform burning away and his flesh starting to scorch, having put more into the defense of the two beneath him than he had around himself. The blast passed over Gohan seconds later, and darkness followed right after that.

Bardiel was free. A feeling akin to disappointment filled it as it paid momentary heed to the empty shell that the Lilim had provided it with.

The Angel's tendrils pierced the entry plug and flooded into it from all sides, coiling about the soulless doll and engulfing it. The figure seemed to melt into the spongy white mass as the Angel began reshaping and molding the partly angelic clone's flesh into something that may actually prove somewhat useful.

-Z-

Vegeta had been standing on their training field when his head suddenly whipped around, "Wh-what is that?" he said, gaping slightly at the sudden upsurge in ki that he could feel off in the distance. It was a signal that was growing swiftly with every second that passed.

"It-it must be the next angel," said Goku, staring off in the same direction.

Vegeta looked to him, "That's impossible, Kakarot. You know as well as I do that no Angel could possibly possess that kind of power!"

"It doesn't matter," snapped Goku, "Who knows, perhaps they're adapting to us being here. But whatever it is, I'll bet you a zeni it's not friendly."

Vegeta cocked his head and smirked despite the situation, "Well at least it'll be nice to have a challenge for once. I've been bored out my wits lately beating up on you day after day," and without another word, Vegeta dashed forward and erupted into the sky with a blaze of blue flame trailing along behind.

Goku looked back at Goten and Trunks, "You boys stay here. Just leave this one to Vegeta and me."

"But, Daddy-"

"-No buts," cut in Goku sternly, "I want both of you to stay right here, got it?"

Both boys looked like they were about to raise objections, but both fell silent under the elder Saiyan's glare.

"Okay…" the pair sighed dejectedly.

Goku nodded once firmly before turning away and taking to the skies in pursuit of Vegeta.

The boys stood in silence and watched the two adults vanish in the direction of the mushroom cloud in the distance.

"So when should we follow them?" asked Goten.

"Let's give 'em a few minutes to get totally out of sight. It's always good for the heroes to make a fashionably late entrance, after all."

-Z-

"You're getting slow, Kakarot," said Vegeta, not needing to look back to know he was there.

"Sorry, was just telling the boys to stay out of this one. I'm guessing it could get a little hairy this time."

Vegeta nodded once in agreement. He then said nothing for a brief spell. "So how long before they ignore you and follow us anyway?"

Goku shrugged, "Couple of minutes, give or take. At least I can tell Chi-Chi I tried."

Silence descended for another moment as Vegeta observed the dissipating smoke on the horizon, "Kakarot…" he finally said "You can sense it, can't you?"

Goku knew it wasn't a question, "Yeah, I was hoping I was wrong, but now that we're getting closer there's no way I can deny it…"

"This Angel is part Saiyan…"confirmed Vegeta, and only now did he actually look back to Goku, "How can this be, Kakarot?"

Goku shook his head, "I don't know, Vegeta. It doesn't make any sense."

"What about your son?"

Goku's frown deepened at the thought, "He was there at the blast. I could sense him raise his power for just a second before the explosion. But I can still sense him, just barely. It must have knocked him clean out though."

"It took down Gohan? As much as I hate to admit it, Kakarot, that's not an easy feat for anyone."

"Admitting superiority, Vegeta?" prodded Goku with a smirk, "How unlike you."

Vegeta scoffed and rolled his eyes, "He's still an amateur. With his level of power he should've been able to dodge that Angel without it even phasing him."

"Unless he was forced to take the full brunt for some reason."

Vegeta looked back to him, "You're saying he was protecting someone?"

"Or at least trying to. I can only hope he succeeded."

"Hmph. Your boy really is too human, Kakarot."

Goku chuckled, "In a way, you've become pretty human yourself, Vegeta."

Vegeta grumbled a curse under his breath, "Just so you know, Kakarot, I've killed for far less than that comment in the past."

Goku couldn't suppress a grin as they circled around the next mountain, "I'll try to keep that in mind."

"See that you do, clown."

-Z-

"Status?" asked Fuyutsuki as he came to a halt by the Commander's desk on the bridge.

Aoba responded, "We detected a large object moving away from ground zero moments after the explosion. It headed away from the blast zone and then came to a halt approximately half a mile away. Its energy output has been steadily increasing since it ceased moving. We're also detecting two high energy spikes on an intercept course with two more now moving away from the city behind them."

The sub-commander nodded, "Very well. Summon the pilots and move us up to first stage alert."

"Sir," came the chorus of confirmations.

"It would seem they're taking quite an interest in this one…" murmured Gendo rather suddenly. His eyes were focused on the large holographic map and energy monitor that covered a good portion of the control center.

"All four of them at the same time..." mused Fuyutsuki, "Do they see this one in particular as a threat for some reason?"

"Maybe…" rumbled the Commander, "Or perhaps it could just be for sport. We won't know until the target moves close enough for us to get more accurate readings."

"That's true…" responded Fuyutsuki with a nod, "Matsushiro doubled as our main listening post for the surrounding area. Its loss may seriously hinder our future capabilities in battle."

Gendo's focus remained on the readouts below, "The data we received the instant before the explosion did reveal the object to be putting out an unnaturally high amount of energy. If the readings were accurate, this Angel could prove to be far more formidable than we first predicted."

-Z-

"You took your time!" snapped Asuka as Shinji and Rei came into view.

"Sorry!" gasped Shinji as he staggered to a halt, completely out of breath.

Asuka eyed Shinji critically. She cocked an eyebrow up as they entered NERV headquarters together, "Oh yeah? So how was that 'all-night studying session' that you just had to go and help Rei out with?"

Shinji had to stop himself from tripping over his own feet while stepping onto the escalator, "W-what?" he stammered as Rei's arms came to steady him from behind, "Wh-why do you ask?"

Rei, to her credit, remained as utterly blank and stoic as ever.

Asuka hummed, looking Shinji up and down still, "Must've been a rough one…"

Shinji laughed nervously, "Well, you know, Rei's been absent a lot. She had a lot of catching up to do, what with exams coming up too."

Asuka smirked and folded her arms, "Yeah, must've been seriously rough. Rough enough to make your pants look creased enough to look like you've been wearing them for a week. That or someone took them off in a hurry. All that brainstorming must have been intense too, what with the way it's messed your hair up so badly. Your shirt is also crumpled, buttoned up the wrong way, and you're missing a sock."

Shinji's eyes flicked down to assess himself, then back up to Asuka, who simply raised her other eyebrow in response. He then said nothing as he executed a swift one-eighty on the escalator, quickly padded down his shirt and pants, adjusted his hair and buttons and then swung back about once more, "We…ah…studied some physical exercises while we were at it."

"I'll bet you did…" muttered Asuka, who then marched off the bottom of the escalator and on towards the girls' locker room with Rei following close behind, leaving a stammering Shinji in their wake.

Shinji opened and closed his mouth for a second to come up with a retort.

A weary voice spoke up from within, 'Yui to Shinji, kindly remember that the world is in peril right now. So if it's not too much trouble, can you please dump some hormones for the sake of my sanity and get those legs moving?'

Shinji shook his head to clear it, but couldn't shift the blush that remained as he went off to get changed too.

-Z-

The silence in the girls' changing room was so tense that even Rei could feel it. It was broken, rather unsurprisingly, by Asuka, "So, I'm guessing you and Shinji must have progressed pretty far last night."

Silence was Asuka's reply for a few seconds before Rei finally responded as she adjusted her plug suit, "I don't understand."

Asuka pressed the control on her suit's wrist, depressurizing up against her form. She took a second to adjust her hair before swinging about to face Rei, "Like hell you don't! Look, you can put on the miss goody-two-shoes routine with the others as much as you want, but I'm not buying into it, Wondergirl."

Rei clicked her own suit's pressure controller and stood calmly up. She then turned to face Asuka "Then please restate the question."

Asuka did slight a double-take. She'd been fully expecting Rei to just leave without another word. As such, she hadn't really prepared any further lines of interrogation, "Wh-what I mean is...I guess you and Shinji...l-last night you must have…y'know…"

Rei tilted her head slightly, "No, I do not."

"I mean… you know..." she waved her hand in a circle, prompting her to pick up the point.

Rei just shook her head somewhat.

Asuka growled as her tether suddenly snapped and rolled her eyes full circle, "Goddamn it, you pigment-challenged wonder, did you screw the Third last night or didn't you?!"

Rei blinked in surprise and her brow furrowed as she fell into silent contemplation. She analysed each noun, verb and adjective in the sentence in an attempt to figure out the meaning behind the Second Child's words. She finally attempted analysis by context and came to a possible answer, "Are you inquiring as to whether or not Shinji and I have engaged in an act of sexual congress?"

Asuka shuddered in frustration and responded through her teeth, "Ja, Vundafrauline, that is exactly what I'm asking."

"Yes." responded Rei with perfect simplicity. She then turned without another word and started walking for the door.

Asuka just stood there with her jaw hanging open, "I..ahh…"

Rei stopped by the door and glanced back at her, "Pilot Sorhyu, I'm going now. If there is a problem with what I have told you, please speak it now."

Asuka closed her mouth and fell into silence for a brief moment. She eventually just let out a quiet humph and shook her head. A reluctant smile graced her features as she averted her gaze briefly downwards, "No…No problem, Ayanami, I guess…perhaps…maybe I'm actually a little envious." She cocked her head then, adding "Just a little."

Rei blinked again in mild surprise and she cocked her head, "Why?" she inquired with a genuine note of curiosity, "Do you wish to experience it yourself?"

Asuka almost flinched back and she felt her cheeks heat up, "N-no, I…it's just…agh, shut up, Wondergirl!" She then moved to storm right past Rei and out the door, but was stopped from passing by Rei when she suddenly spoke up once more.

"It is of no concern to myself should you wish to, Pilot Sohryu. However, all I ask is that you seek a partner elsewhere." She then turned to face Asuka just a little more, "Shinji is mine, and I will not let you have him."

Asuka was still standing in quiet disbelief even after the door had closed behind the First Child. She shook her head to clear it, smiling just a little, "Well I'll be damned. It looks like Rei Ayanami's got some fire in her after all. The world has officially gone mad."

-Z-

Twenty minutes later, the three Evangelion Units were lined up behind a mountain several miles from where the infected Unit-13 was waiting.

'You're tensing up again,' noted Yui.

Shinji shook his head and felt his grip on the controls relax a fraction, 'Sorry, I've just got another bad feeling about this one.'

There was silence for a moment, as if Yui were considering something, 'Let me take over. I think it best I handle it this time.'

Shinji pondered this for a moment himself before inclining his head, 'Alright, I'll tag you in.'

"What in the hell's it waiting for?" grumbled Asuka, her fingers drumming impatiently off her knee as she eyed her display.

"Patience, pilot…" sighed Fuyutsuki over the comm link before turning to the three lieutenants, "Status of the object?"

Hyuuga responded, "The target is still holding position and has yet to make any further advance."

Fuyutsuki frowned and nodded, "Hmm…and what's the status of the three EVAs?"

Aoba cocked his head, "All operating within normal parameters, sir."

"Sir!" said Maya rather suddenly.

The sub-commander turned to her, "What is it?"

"It's Unit-01's pilot, sir. His alpha-brainwave patterns; they just…they just changed completely," her tone was notably bewildered as she looked at her display, though secretly Maya was just grateful for something to distract her from her thoughts about what might have happened to her friends and colleagues who were in the Matsushiro facility when it was destroyed.

Fuyutsuki glanced up at the monitors showing the three pilots, "Unit-01, what's your status?"

'Shinji' turned to look at the sub-commander and smiled in a way which was more than a little inappropriate considering the seriousness of the situation, "Why I'm fine, Sensei, and how are you today?"

Fuyutsuki blinked, "Y-Yui? Look, this is hardly the most opportune moment for you to be manifesting yourself. Please can you-"

Yui just shook her head, "-Don't worry, Sensei. I know everything that's going on, and I assure you, I'm just as skilled at piloting Unit-01 as my Shinji-kun is."

"B-but, Yui…"

"Look, sir," cut in Asuka suddenly, "If ghost-mom over there wants to pilot and she does the job just as good as the idiot, then I say just let her."

The sub-commander scowled, "Thank you, pilot, I'll take that into consideration."

"You should listen to Asuka-chan, Sensei."

Fuyutsuki closed his eyes, "Please stop calling me sensei while I'm on duty…"

Yui shook her head "Nope, commander just feels weird when I say it to you. Sensei is Sensei, bottom line."

Fuyutsuki fought back a reluctant smile, "acknowledged, Unit-01. Return to standby."

"Aye-aye, Sensei."

Needless to say, there were more than a few confused expressions dotted about the command center once the exchange was finished.

"Umm, sir?" asked Hyuuga carefully, but not before killing the feed to Unit-01.

"What is it?"

"So, it's true then?" he stated more than asked.

"Is what true, lieutenant?"

"Th-that Doctor Yui Ikari, the woman who created the EVA series, is…trapped in the Third Child's body?"

Fuyutsuki kept his gaze on the monitors, "I don't want to know how you came to hear about that, lieutenant, but yes: For several years now, Yui Ikari's physical and mental form has been trapped in a state of perfect quantum dissolution within the core of Unit-01. And recently, due to an unforeseeable circumstance, her mental ego borderlines and brainwave patterns have been migrated into the brain of the Third Child."

Aoba exhaled a long breath, "That's insane…"

"That's one word I might use…" rumbled the elderly commander.

Aoba cocked his head, "And I thought that kid had enough on his plate as it was."

"Enough!" snapped Gendo, startling the bridge staff into silence, "There is an operation ongoing. This is not the time to speak of such things."

"Y-yes," stammered Hyuuga, who quickly reengaged the video link with Unit-01, "Sorry, sir."

Yui glanced about the command center and then raised an eyebrow, "Why do I get the distinct suspicion that everyone was just talking about me?"

Aoba glanced away as Hyuuga just waved it off, "N-no, it was nothing at all…umm…ma'am," he stammered before leaning in to whisper something to Aoba about 'weird green eyes'.

Maya then spoke up again urgently, "Sir, don't ask me how, but something or someone is accessing our communications frequencies with the EVAs."

Fuyutsuki turned back to her again, "What? Then change the frequency and scramble the signal!"

Her fingers were fluttering over the controls as she shook her head, "I'm trying, but every time I try they just adapt right along with us!"

"This is not the time for this," groaned the sub-commander. He looked up then however when a new voice spoke out from seemingly every direction about him. It was a voice that caused the Supreme Commander to push himself reflexively to his feet. The memory of an ache in his shoulder seemed to tingle.

"You know," boomed that unmistakably cocky voice, "If I were you, I'd tell your children to go and run home where it's safe. This really isn't the place for them, not this time."

"Vegeta…" intoned Gendo in a voice that indicated that the mere mentioning of the name left a bad taste in his mouth. He began walking slowly down onto the main bridge level, stopping near Fuyutsuki as he spoke, "I don't know how it is that you've come to gain access to our communication channels, but kindly disconnect so we may continue our operation."

"Gendo," responded Vegeta with a faux politeness, "Why, don't you sound well. How's the arm?"

Gendo's eyes narrowed as the Saiyan prince himself descended onto the main viewer. A scouter was affixed over one of his eyes whilst Goku flew into the image and landed just up ahead of him.

"Leave," ordered Gendo, who was trying to maintain the professionalism in his voice, "immediately."

"I was not joking, Commander," said Vegeta. He then turned fully about then to face the screen, which was showing a relayed image of what Unit-01 was seeing, "You have no idea what you're dealing with this time."

"Your statement implies that you do."

Vegeta arched his head about to look at the ominous purple glow on the horizon, which was becoming more and more pronounced as darkness settled in, "We aren't sure how, but we may be somehow responsible this time. Stay out of this."

"And what do you mean by that?"

Vegeta frowned, "We aren't sure yet."

"You're not sure?" Echoed Gendo, "Then how-"

"-I'll say it one more time," interjected Vegeta, "Go home, boys and girls. However, if you do still feel suicidal enough to interfere, just promise me one small thing…"

Gendo's frown deepened, "And what might that be, Saiyan?"

"Just stay out of my way. I'm not the kind to stop walking just in case I might crush an insect underfoot." He then pressed a control on the side of his scouter and cut off the link. The Saiyan was then seen to erupt in a blaze of blue flame as he took off in a beeline towards the glow with Goku following immediately after.

"No idea what we're dealing with?" murmured Yui, her tone and mood darkening as she stared off after Vegeta, "I don't like the sound of that," and only now did she notice the glow on the horizon, "And I don't like the look of things much either."

"What'd you think he meant by them being responsible?" wondered Asuka as she watched the two Saiyans vanish over the mountains.

"This changes nothing," announced Gendo over the intercom, drawing all attention back to him. All eyes however returned immediately to the screen when two smaller trails of blue suddenly shot by the EVAs, moving in clear pursuit of the two adult Saiyans.

Asuka cocked an eyebrow up, "What's up with those two? It looks more like they're shadowing them than actually going with them."

"Ignore them and focus on your duties!" snapped Gendo, briefly losing his cool, "All Units, prepare to move out. Proceed until target is on the edge of visual range and then hold position pending further instructions."

"Yes sir," replied Rei without hesitation.

"Sir," came Asuka's response in kind.

"Aye-aye, Gen-chan," chimed Yui.

"Yui…" said Gendo, his voice bordering on a tired sigh, "return control of Unit-01 to Shinji."

"Sorry, Gen-chan, Yui-chan's head of this head today," and without waiting for further comment, Unit-01 moved on after the other two Evangelion units.

Gendo considered arguing the point, but knew from experience that trying to beat Yui in an argument was an exercise with futility, and so he reverted to his decade-old course of action for such situations:

Shut up and let the wife have her way.

-Z-

Vegeta and Goku's auras burst away as they came to a midair halt on the edge of the valley.

A loud, whining and a rushing water-like sound filled the air. It was the familiar sound of a flowing aura, and an immensely huge one at that.

It was entirely dark around the edges of the valley, but the Saiyans' attention was drawn immediately to the center, and they could only stare in gaping disbelief at what stood there.

Bardiel, in the form of Evangelion Unit-03 stood motionless like some great, monstrous sculpture built into the valley floor. It was poised on one knee. One hand hung at its side whilst the other cradled its head.

The pitch-black shape glistened with the light of the dark purple energy that flowed out from between the gaps in the armor and out over the ground about it.

"It doesn't know how to use it properly," whispered Goku, as if wary of the beast hearing them.

Vegeta carefully assessed the Angel, frowning in thought, "but it seems to be learning, Kakarot. At least we know now why it stopped."

Goku nodded, "It's trying to increase its power level and figure out how to draw out our power in full. It must have gotten some Saiyan cells from somewhere."

"Yes," said Vegeta, "and now an Angel has access to our race's millions of years' worth of fighting skills and power." He paused to shake his head, "I never thought something as pathetic as one of them would be able to use our own genetic memory against us."

Goku inclined his head, "Cell and Buu pulled it off. I guess this is just what we get for advertising so well." He looked to Vegeta then, "Should we attack now before it gets too powerful?"

Vegeta smirked,"Hmph, why, aren't you curious to see just how strong it will become?"

Goku chuckled, "It's tempting, I won't deny it, but-"

Goku was interrupted however when a fizzling blue ball of ki suddenly blazed to life in Vegeta's palm, "I was joking, Kakarot. If it'll get us away from this pathetic world any faster then I'll gladly forfeit the challenge," he narrowed his gaze slightly then, "and let it never be said that I haven't learned from the mistakes of my past…"

Vegeta swung his arm around without another word and hurled the orb of energy forwards. He watched as it streaked across the valley floor, curved upwards and then struck the possessed EVA directly on its right side.

Vegeta's eyes widened in shock when the blast struck the field of purple energy only to halt in midair, as if encountering some resistance from it. The two crackled together for a moment before the Angel's energy pulsed outwards, repelling the Saiyan's orb away and into a nearby mountain, blasting out a sizable chunk in the process.

"It's coming…" said Goku even before Bardiel actually started to stir. The Angel's groan echoed out over the twilight as it twitched and began uncoiling itself up into a standing position. It swayed about to face the two Saiyans hovering in the distance.

"Get ready, Vegeta…" said Goku, his body erupting with a familiar golden blaze as he powered up to Super Saiyan out of sheer caution. His now green eyes seemed to burn with intensity as he regarded the Angel.

Vegeta gave humph of annoyance before following suit, matching Goku with his own transformation. He took a fighting stance then and smirked in his usual style, "Well who knew, this might actually end up being some fun."

Any more comments however were instantly drowned out as the Angel let out a sudden, deafening roar. It arched its back, hands by its sides, and the purple flow of energy appeared to explode outwards in a cataclysmic torrent of gold and violet. Vegeta and Goku were forced back in the air and had to hold their arms up to block out the sudden eruption of force.

The cyclone of light settled quickly down, leaving the Angel surrounded by a now steadily flowing, gigantic violet aura flecked with gold. Cracks of violet energy danced over the valley floor. The Angel's shiny black armor now shimmered and pulsed with vibrant pink/purple light and its eyes glowed a bright crimson that was eerily noticeable in the shadow of twilight.

"Vegeta…" said Goku, who had to resist the compulsion to gulp, "We may have…underestimated this one."

Vegeta gritted his teeth, "At least we know how it managed to take Gohan down so easily. This thing's easily as strong as Buu in his most powerful form. "

"It must have been pretending to struggle with its new power. I'm guessing it was really just suppressing it while readying the lions' share for use. "

Bardiel crouched down at that point and thrust both palms forward. A gigantic shockwave of invisible kinetic energy was released directly at the two Saiyans.

Both Goku and Vegeta barely managed to swerve and avoid the blast, which in turn then went on to shatter the entire top half of the hill behind them.

The Angel, as if anticipating the evasion before it had even been made, had already closed the distance between it and the Saiyans with such blinding speed that it should have been impossible for one with its mass. It skidded past the pair and caught Goku with one massive, well-aimed fist in the process, smashing him straight down into the remnants of the mountain and leaving a lattice of cracks behind on the surface.

"Kakarot!" shouted Vegeta as he spun about. He looked up just in time to dodge a colossal dropkick from the possessed behemoth.

With both his anger and frustration starting to surge, Vegeta erupted straight up to a safe distance above the Angel's back. He then let out a roar of effort and began drawing massive amounts of ki into his hands, which he immediately started raining down upon the enemy below in a barrage of yellow energy blasts.

Bardiel was pushed face down into the earth as energy rained down, pounding it further and further in with each recursive blast that struck home.

Growling deeply, the Angel managed to force itself up onto one hand and then flip itself over onto its back. This left it facing directly the constant barrage of energy bolts, which ended up smashing straight into its chest. As a result, the armor plating began to crack quickly away like it was mere bone china.

Vegeta gave a feral smirk as he channeled one final, pulsing blast of energy into his right hand. He then arched about slightly and hurled it down, right into the Angel's face this time.

The EVA's head snapped back for an instant when the blast struck home. Vegeta's smile died however when the Angel merely looked right back up at him and opened its mouth.

A blinding glow of purple greeted the Saiyan in the instant before the Angel released a brilliant pink beam of energy right back at him. The attack struck head-on, smashing through the Saiyan's defenses and sending him spinning sidelong into a cliff face.

Vegeta didn't allow himself an instant for reprieve however and quickly shattered the rock around him before taking back to the skies once more.

The Angel lumbered slowly up into a hunched stand whilst Vegata wiped off a stream of blood coming from his lip. He glared at the Angel, 'Those eyes, and that attack…it's just like a Saiyan in great ape form.'

Vegeta's frown deepened into an open scowl, and he bared his teeth at the Angel as it turned to face him. "So, you've opted to piss me off, have you?" He roared out as his aura burst back into view, flowing far more wildly than before. His muscles bulged out slightly and his hair could be seen becoming even more jagged and pronounced than before. Bolts of electrostatic energy crackled in the air about him.

Vegeta clenched a fist and a crackling blue discharge ran up his arm, "Come on, freak, just you and me…"

Bardiel stood fully up at that point. It groaned quietly, as if cautious about the sudden physical change in its opponent.

The Angel crouched again and then sprung itself directly at the prince, whose upgrade to Super Saiyan 2 gave him more than enough of a speed boost to dodge in this instance. But even so, Vegeta had to admit, for something of that size, it certainly could move when it had to.

The Angel landed with a skid and then swung a huge fist about with quite unbelievable speed. The powered up Saiyan merely dodged once more however, and then again as the Angel swung its leg about.

This time however, Vegeta took the opportunity to shoulder-barge the EVA with the full force of his body and sent it reeling off balance. The Saiyan then continued taking the initiative, and followed his counter by shooting up and slamming both feet flat into the Angel's face.

The corrupted Evangelion was sent careening backwards, but Vegeta wasn't about to let up now that he had such a perfect opening.

He was done holding back.

The Saiyan brought his hands quickly together in front of him and his aura blazed into view. Golden crackles of light danced about the landscape as he began channeling all his power down onto one point, "Let's see you survive this one!" he bellowed as a fizzling of light became visible between his palms, and to anyone with the ability to sense energy this might have seemed like a positively suicidal move considering there was already more than enough power built up in the Saiyan's body to utterly destroy the planet.

The Angel rounded about just in time to catch sight of its enemy once more, "Final…" shouted Vegeta as his enemy began making a loping charge right for him, "FLASH!"

Bardiel was caught mid-stride as twilight suddenly exploded into blazing daylight.

The other three EVA's, who were only now emerging round the mountainside, suddenly found themselves hurled back by the shockwave as a colossal plume of energy erupted from one tiny point and utterly engulfed the enemy EVA.

"T-that's insane!" shouted Yui, who had to cover her eyes block out the brightness as the entire countryside seemed to tremble around them.

Asuka looked on in terror, and was briefly worried if this could be the end, but the attack seemed to have been aimed purposely upwards slightly.

At least she hoped that was the case.

"Did he get it?" gasped Asuka, as the world shook around her.

"I'm unsure…" said Rei, whose eyes were sweeping the rest of the area as she brought Unit-00 back to its feet. She noted with a rare pang of worry that one of the two Saiyans was missing, and she was sure Shinji would be thinking the same at that moment. Her thoughts were interrupted however when two bright streams of gold suddenly shot by them and closed in on the battlefield, "Goten…" she mumbled quietly, her concern suddenly rising even further for reasons she couldn't quite fathom.

"We've got no response from the ejection systems," announced Maya, "the dummy plug is locked in place," though she was hoping this would be a moot point assuming Vegeta could succeed in doing what he did best, which from what she had observed to date was blowing things up…a lot.

-Z-

A feral smirk graced Vegeta's face as he poured out his gathered energy squarely at the Angel.

His amusement however was short-lived when he suddenly noticed that his attack was being engulfed by a field of crackling purple energy. His eyes widened in shock seconds later as he watched that seeping field of energy seem to crush down against the entire blast until it could then start compressing it down into one massive, brilliant golden blotch of energy.

Vegeta watched with rising horror as a giant black foot then proceeded to axe-kick the bulge of light straight up. The force of the blow alone tore up the terrain for a mile around, obscuring the battlefield with a cloud of debris. The blast exploded in the upper atmosphere seconds later, illuminating that entire side of the planet with its light.

"Impossible!" gasped Vegeta, and before he could react, an obscenely stretched arm shot out from the cloud like a bat and struck him head-on. The Saiyan was sent flying backwards a good two miles as a result, bouncing several times before finally skidding to a halt.

Every bone and muscle in Vegeta's body screamed in protest as he lay sprawled out in the dirt gasping for air. He had expended a massive amount of energy with his last two attacks and was practically drained to nothing already. He rolled over and coughed out a mouthful of blood, "Damn it!" he cursed.

The Saiyan braced one hand flat as he strained to push himself back up. He looked ahead and then froze dead to find the demonic visage of Bardiel leering at him, another huge purple glow already built up within its maw.

Vegeta leaned back and staggered up to his feet. He knew he couldn't dodge in time, and so he did the only thing he could: He braced himself for the end, stared death right in the eyes and then drew his arms behind him to prepare all he had left for one last shout of defiance, "You think you can destroy the last prince of the Saiyan race that easily? Did you think that was it?!" he bared his teeth then as a glow of purple-blue energy shimmered to life in his hands "I'm afraid I'm poised to disappoint you, my friend… Galick Gun-"

"Kame…hame…HA!"

"Double Buster!" Vegeta tensed as a twin pair of yellow and blue energy waves smashed straight into the face of the Angel. The Angel's head was flicked backwards and it roared with frustration as its energy blast fired harmlessly off into the darkening sky to no effect.

The forms of Goten and Trunks shot by Vegeta, their auras coming away mid-flight and landing between the prince and the Angel, "Boys, I thought Kakarot told you-"

"Goten, fusion now!" shouted Trunks with a rare note of urgency, cutting Vegeta off as Bardiel quickly drew itself up again. For once the young warrior knew there wasn't an instant to spare for talk or procrastination.

"Right," responded Goten with a nod, and they moved immediately into their well-practiced steps, just as Bardiel prepared to lunge forwards once more.

"Fuu-"they began just as ever, "-sion…" they then arched about as Vegeta forced himself quickly into the air and off to a safe distance, "…HA!" their fingers then connected, finishing the routine before the Angel could make it more than a few steps closer.

Bardiel suddenly found itself forced back by the sudden release of energy and the valley was illuminated by a great dome of blinding golden light.

The hemisphere of light shattered quickly away, revealing Trunks and Goten's hybrid form.

Gotenks started moving into his fighting stance, but then paused to stab a finger at the Angel. His almost body-length golden hair seemed to sway and crackle with the flow of his aura. "Alright then, monster, if Super Saiyan 2 wasn't enough for you, then let's see how you do against a Super Saiyan 3!"

The fused child glanced briefly up and over one shoulder at where Vegeta hung in the air, "Hey, Dad why don't you just go and sit the rest of this one out. Now that the mightiest warrior in the universe has made his presence known you've got nothing to worry about. The elderly really shouldn't strain themselves too much, you know."

Vegeta smirked in spite of the current situation, "Alright, boys, I suppose you can have your fun for now."

Gotenks smirked and turned back to Bardiel, who now seemed to be regarding the child directly, "I'm afraid I've got no time for standoffs, big guy. Time always seems to be against little old me, you see." And without another word, Gotenks erupted from the ground and charged the Angel head-on.

The possessed EVA reared back, only for Gotenks to alter course at the last second and then spiral up the length of its body, kicking it several times as he went.

Bardiel was sent spinning off balance as Gotenks soared about the front of the EVA and then polished his attack run off with a double kick square to the beast's mid-section, sending it flailing backwards.

The Super Saiyan smiled gleefully as he shot up higher into the air, eyes locked on the wide-open target presented by the staggering enemy. He then raised his hands up over his head and a bright golden glow became visible between his palms, "This might not kill you, big guy, but Gotenks guarantees that it'll still hurt like hell!" he then thrust his hands down and began firing a rapid, non-stop barrage of golden ki bolts down upon the Angel,"Continuous Die-Die Missile barrage!" he roared as Bardiel found itself struck by the second rapid-fire assault in as many moments, only in this instance it was exponentially more powerful.

The EVA roared out as it was engulfed in a great golden explosion that sent skidding backwards through the dirt for a good half mile.

Gotenks' aura erupted into view as he quickly began gathering even more power, "Feel honored, my friend, that Gotenks has chosen you to be the guinea pig for his newest, coolest, most ultimate attack to date!"

As soon as Gotenks was sure he'd pushed his power level as high as it could possibly go, he inhaled until his lungs strained to their bursting point.

Gathering his ki about his mouth in a way he'd done many times before, the fused warrior arched forwards and began rapidly spitting out what appeared to be hundreds upon hundreds of tiny white pellets, directly at the still recovering Angel.

Bardiel moved instinctively to bat aside the barrage, only to fail as the storm abruptly changed directions mid-flight and started spinning around him like a swarm of flies. Only then did each of the tiny orbs begin expanding, swelling and then reforming into something else.

"What's this?" muttered Vegeta, who watched on in bewilderment. However seconds later it became obvious what was happening as the spheres finished taking form.

Vegeta shook his head and couldn't help but chuckle, "'New attack', he says…still such a child."

Gotenks smirked and folded his arms. The EVA growled and looked cautiously about as the balls finished taking form into hundreds of white copies of the one he was fighting. The air was then quickly filled with the shrill giggles of a thousand tiny voices.

The fused warrior held his arms proudly out, "Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack: Thousand Ghost Regimental Strike!" He then narrowed his gaze at the Angel and addressed his minions in a low tone, "Take him down, boys…"

The air was filled with elated, screeching cries as the ghosts swirled around the gargantuan form like a grey cyclone. Bardiel lashed out at the targets, who made no attempt to dodge. The rest then happily proceeded to attach themselves to the EVA also.

Then came the explosions. And whilst creating so many individual ghosts lowered their attack power by a degree, the amount of energy the Super Saiyan 3 had put into each one was nonetheless still staggering. This had the final effect of Bardiel being lit up like a Christmas tree by a blanket of explosions that totally covered its form.

Once more, any celebrations that may have been in the works were short-lived. With an ear-splitting shriek of defiance, the Angel released a shimmering blast of purple energy in every direction through the explosions, forcing them back. It then proceeded to hurl a still glowing, lightning-fast fist right at the unprepared Saiyan with every ounce of its strength.

Gotenks didn't even know what hit him. One second he was triumphant and victorious, the next he was just…flying, backwards, with stars in his eyes and a ringing in his ears. It had felt like the planet had just swung about and smashed him one in the face.

The fused Saiyan was only vacantly aware of smashing in through one side a mountain and then right out the other again before finally striking the ground. The sheer force of the impact severed the fusion and left Goten and Trunks laying still and unconscious. They would not be getting up again anytime soon.

"We've got to do something!" shouted Asuka.

'Asuka's right, Mom!' called out Shinji from within their shared form, 'Vegeta's the only one left standing and he's practically down as it is. We've got to try and help.'

Yui gritted her teeth, clearly torn between her desire to help and her urge to protect her son, 'Shinji…that thing just punched a Super Saiyan 3 clean in two. We won't last five seconds!'

Shinji seemed to relax briefly within them, 'Maybe…but perhaps if we can just buy him some time.'

Yui gripped the controls so hard her fingers turned white, "If that thing lands just one solid blow we'll be finished."

Asuka spoke up next, "Once it's past Vegeta it'll come for us anyway. At least this way we get to make the first move."

"Gendo?" asked Yui, turning to the image of the Commander.

Commander Ikari was deathly silent. His eyes were trained on the still-glowing possessed EVA. Professional and personal concerns clashed about in his head until finally, after a rare moment of indecision, he made his choice, "All EVA units…converge on the target. Engage at will."

A trio of confirmations was his reply as the titans broke straight into a run to flank the Angel from three directions.

"All or nothing, Ikari?" murmured Fuyutsuki, glancing sidelong at his friend.

"It would seem…" began Gendo, who appeared to be fighting to stop his teeth from grinding in his mouth,"…that is the only recourse left open to us."

-Z-

Vegeta hung in the air almost limply from his injuries. He could only look on helplessly as the Angel pulled itself back up to full height to face down its last obstacle. Its once immaculate form was now visibly damaged: armor was peeling off here and there, and the gungy blue/white liquid that made up its true form was pouring out from the various wounds inflicted up until now.

Vegeta could swear that there was a look of sick satisfaction on Bardiel's face however despite its physical state.

"D-damn it!" Vegeta cursed as he landed and then pulled himself back up, only to see the Angel aiming a palm right in his direction.

He didn't need the ability to sense energy to guess what was coming.

The lone Saiyan's aura flickered, before almost reluctantly flaring to life as he tried to gather as much energy as he could for one final attack.

Vegeta drew upon all the strength he could find and then raised his right arm up, aiming it straight past the Angel's, targeting where he knew the EVA's core would be, "One last shot…" he grunted. His vision was starting to swim from exhaustion as it was. He knew he was about to fail, and that the Angel's attack would finish him off, but he would not simply lie down and die so long as he still drew breath. A large shimmering of energy became visible in the Angel's hand.

And Vegeta thought he was seeing things when suddenly, to his understandable surprise, the Angel was suddenly tackled sideways by what looked like a gigantic purple and green blur.

The Angel growled with seeming indignation as it was then knocked into from the other direction by a great red shape. Finally, something struck it from behind, leaving Bardiel encompassed by the six restraining arms of the EVA series.

All three EVAs quickly recovered from the impact and then dug in as best they could to keep the enemy in place whilst it roared with fury.

The surprise helped snap Vegeta to his senses, "What are you doing here?!" he shouted, "I told you three to stay out of this!"

"Vegeta!" came Shinji's voice over his external speaker system as he wrestled with the Angel, startling the Saiyan slightly, "This is your last chance! We can only hold him for a few seconds, so if you're going to do something, then for god's sake do it now!"

The prince's eyes narrowed and he clenched his fists at his sides. A roar tore out from the depths of his throat as he called upon every last bastion of power and then poured it into the palm of his hand.

He braced his left arm atop his right, "Just make sure you get out of the way!"

"In just a second," shouted Asuka as she struggled, "that's not gonna be much of a problem!"

Suddenly, Bardiel managed to whip a hand up at seemingly impossible angles to grasp hold of Unit-02's arm. It then used a mere fraction of it might to swing the Production Type EVA about a full hundred and eighty degrees like it were a mere ragdoll and right into Unit-00, battering it clear. It's feral retaliation continued as it swung its other arm about and sent Unit-01 hurtling into a mountainside beside where Unit-00 had landed. It then flicked Unit-02 into the collapsed form of Unit-00 as if on an afterthought.

Bardiel let out a long hiss and then swung back about to face its final prey, and was just in time to hear Vegeta's voice echo out over the valley.

"Big Bang…Attack!" A huge golden sphere of energy erupted up from Vegeta's palm and slammed straight into the already damaged mid-section of the Angel. The blast seemed to fold all about its form like a blanket of light, and the darkening skies were lit up once more by Saiyan power.

Vegeta was hurled back by the force of the explosion, and barely had enough time to recover before slamming straight into the prone form of Evangelion Unit-01.

The Saiyan staggered up onto his palms and coughed out some more blood. He then wiped his mouth down on the cuff of one glove and looked up as the explosion died down. A weak, lopsided smirk tugged at one side of his mouth, "And that's what you get…" he managed to murmur before having to pause and gasp for breath, "…for messing with a Saiyan."

The Prince's relief was once more just another brief reprieve. His face changed to a mask of exasperation and fury as a massive dark mass became visible within the cloud of smoke, crackling with residual purple energy, "That's…impossible," he snapped, "Damn it, just how much more does this thing have left in it?"

Bardiel finished lumbering its way through the swirling dust. The damage from before had been noticeably intensified, so it was clear that the repeated attacks were taking their toll. The armor around the EVA's chest plate was all but gone, exposing the oozing cybernetic components beneath. The facemask was also half-gone, exposing the EVA's grotesque visage. The exposed ruby-like core was cracked and fizzling with purple light as white ooze flowed out from within.

Vegeta tried to push himself up into a standing position, but only managed to make it to one knee. His face was bloodied and armor cracked, as if he were somehow mirroring the enemy.

Bardiel was still in a far fitter state than Vegeta however. Again, it opened its mouth and that familiar shimmering of purple light began swirling as it prepared to finish off its enemy once and for all. And as blank as the Angel's expression remained, Vegeta could swear that it was emanating an almost palpable aura of perverse satisfaction.

"D-damn…" snapped Vegeta as the creature roared with primal rage and unleashed its purple blast directly at the last Saiyan standing.

Vegeta gathered what fumes he had left to dodge with, only for his eyes to widen when he realized that he was standing directly before the helpless forms of the three EVAs. He glanced quickly back at the approaching wave and then again at the EVAs.

He made his choice.

"God...damn it!" he roared and then flung both of his palms forward, unfolding a massive translucent shield about himself and the EVA Units.

The Angel's blast struck the shield and Vegeta felt the strain cut right down to the core, most likely to the point it was endangering his life.

The mountains behind Vegeta shattered and the earth around the EVAs crumbled as the two forces dueled. From Vegeta's perspective, the explosion seemed to go on for an eternity until finally it dissipated around him.

Silence briefly prevailed as chunks of blasted earth rained down upon the remaining combatants. Vegeta slumped numbly down onto his side, and with literally no energy left to maintain his transformation either, the gold bled out from his hair to be replaced by its normal dark hue.

Vegeta would've been disgusted with himself if he had enough clarity of thought left to do so. This was the second time he'd reacted in such a way to protect others. He knew the tactically sound thing would have been to leave the EVAs to their unfortunate fate and use his remaining energy to escape and regroup.

A weak chuckle escaped Vegeta's mouth as he raised his head up just enough to spy the Angel advancing slowly upon him like a predator closing on downed prey, "I guess…I've just been on this damned planet…a little...too long."

Vegeta felt the tremors of the Angel's footfalls growing stronger as it approached. One long rumble after another resonated through his body as he waited for the beast's shadow to fall over him.

"Is this really…how it ends?" he murmured angrily into the dirt as another rumble shook through him.

Ignoring his body's screams of protest, Vegeta managed to force himself up shakily onto one hand, then up to a knee, "Can't be…" he managed to say as he swayed back and got back to his feet one final time, "I… won't allow it!" he snarled through clenched teeth, bracing his feet apart to keep himself up, "I am the Prince of all Saiyans. So don't expect me to die on my knees, you mindless…mutant…freak!"

The Angel paused, as if briefly startled. It then let out one massive roar in response and prepared to charge.

Vegeta just smirked, amused at how the fury he'd elicited seemed to shake the entire planet. However, it took the Saiyan a moment to realize that the Angel was no longer roaring.

But the ground was still shaking.

The Angel turned his attention away from Vegeta, and then looked straight down…at the ethereal golden glow starting to shine up through the cracks in the earth about them.

The trembling intensified, and the debris littering the battlefield began to shake, and then began slowly floating upwards.

-Z-

"What in the hell is going on!" Fuyutsuki demanded, looking desperately about. Even through NERV's massive shock-absorbing systems, the entire Geofront shook like it were caught in the wake of a category nine earthquake.

Maya shouted over the alarms "I don't know, sir! The seismic activity seems to be emanating from the combat zone."

The MAGI suddenly flicked graphs up onto the screens about them, "What is it?" asked Fuyutsuki.

Aoba responded, "We're receiving seismic disturbance reports from all of our monitoring stations." He looked back then at the sub-commander almost fearfully, "Sir, they're coming in from all over the world..."

Fuyutsuki's face paled somewhat, "By god…the entire planet's shaking."

Hyuuga looked about himself, "The Angel's doing this?"

"No," cut in Maya, "The epicenter appears to be a massive energy spike located on the negative y-axis!"

Fuyutsuki scowled, "Its underground?"

"Apparently so sir, yes!"

"What could it be this time?" he breathed, and then returned his attention to the shaking image of the battlefield as viewed through Unit-01.

-Z-

Vegeta had been knocked to his knees by the sudden trembling. He didn't try to get up again this time though. Instead, he just rolled over onto his back to regard the skies above and laughed. He laughed so hard his ribs hurt.

Bardiel backed up a few steps as the light shining through the cracks suddenly intensified. An instant later, the entire valley floor seemed to explode upwards in a great flash of golden luminescence.

Great chunks of earth and mountain floated upwards about the Angel and remaining Saiyan.

And from within the heart of the cataclysm, a lone figure emerged surrounded by a brilliant, crackling gold aura. Lightning licked indiscriminately off his form, shattering some of the rocks with the sheer force of the discharge.

Despite his relief, Vegeta found enough strength to shout out at the Super Saiyan 3, "And just what in the hell were you doing all this time, taking a nap?"

-Z-

Meanwhile, in NERV headquarters, the entire command staff could only watch in gawking silence.

"Who… is that?" breathed the sub-commander after a moment.

Seconds later, the rumbling died down and the floating debris on the screen crashed back to earth, revealing the formerly obscured figure.

"Is that…Goku?" asked Hyuuga.

"It would appear these Saiyans have even more tricks up their sleeves than we thought," commented Gendo, who had to his credit retained far more composure than his subordinates.

"He doesn't have sleeves…" blurted Aoba without thinking.

"He looks more like…Gotenks," stated Maya unsurely as she observed the glowing figure. His aura had caused his normally orange gi to appear luminous gold in color.

-Z-

Goku was stood upon a spire of rock, staring the Angel down, "Sorry about that, Vegeta…" he finally said back down to his companion. His voice was a subtle note deeper now that he was in his third transformed state, "Our friend managed to knock me silly for quite a while back there."

Vegeta scoffed, smirking, "Clowns should stick to funny, you don't do drama that well."

A reluctant smile tugged briefly at Goku's mouth in response. He then looked fully back towards Vegeta, "Where are the boys? I thought I sensed their energy before."

"They're down too. That damned thing caught them with some kind of focused punch. Don't worry about them for now though, Kakarot, they're still alive."

Goku nodded and returned his attention to the Angel, which was now eyeing him with an almost cautious silence.

"That thing looks pretty beat up," observed Goku, "You must've really given it a pounding."

Vegeta let out an indignant humph as he struggled back to his feet, "Don't let that fool you. That thing's a credit to our DNA. I barely have enough strength left to stay standing."

Goku narrowed his gaze, "That bad, is he? Well if he's what you say he is, then I'm probably only going to get one shot at this."

"You have no idea how much I loathe saying this, but you're our last chance, Kakarot, so stow any showboating you've got planned and end it in one."

Goku smiled grimly and clenched his fist, "Don't worry, I've got no plans to play with this guy."

Silence fell for just an instant, and a crackling discharge of energy rippled out between the Angel and Saiyan as they prepared themselves for what was to come.

A roar from Unit-03 signaled the beginning of what would be the final exchange of blows.

Goku took to the skies, leading the Angel away to the opposite side of the valley for safety. He then set down upon a cliff, eye-level with the empowered Evangelion.

"Come on…" growled Goku as the Angel shifted its center of gravity. The creature then angled itself about slightly and hurled a fist right at the Saiyan from where it stood. The limb distended and stretched out to cross the distance between them.

Goku's form shimmered and he leaped up over the arm. He soared along the length of the limb, spiraling about it as he went.

'Just a bit closer!' he thought, weaving to the side just in time to dodge a pair of beams from the creature's eyes. The blast passed harmlessly by and annihilated the cliffs the Saiyan had just been standing on.

Bardiel retracted its arm and swung its other down at the same time, just as Goku arched upwards and right at the exposed core.

"You really should've ran for your goal when you had the chance, Angel!" shouted Goku as both he and the Angel reared back with their fists, "Because now you're finished!"

Goku focused the entirety of his might down into his arm and then hurled it out towards his target. His voice came out so loud that it was like a heavenly decree to signal the Angel's end:

"Dragon…fist!"

Goku's energy erupted from his fist and expanded about him instantly, seemingly transforming him into a flaming replica of the Dragon God Shenlong. The Angel doubled over as the attack punched straight through the core as if it were glass and then right out the other side again. The dragon then coiled about and punched through again and again until it was coiled entirely around the Angel both outside and within. The manifestation then exploded outwards in a great blast of energy, reducing the once mighty Evangelion to a mere scattering of flesh and steel.

The remains of the EVA's torso crashed to the ground nearby and, as if on an afterthought, the red shape of the dummy plug finally slid free.

Silence fell over the countryside and Goku dropped down to one knee. His flowing golden hair seemed to evaporate as he was forced to revert back to his normal state. It was not for nothing that that attack was used only as a last resort.

Goku was gasping for breath, the attack and transformation having drained him to a similar level as Vegeta.

"And so the day is saved by the clown once more…" grumbled Vegeta, though he didn't really sound too upset. He staggered up to Goku's side, "You cut it rather close this time, Kakarot, don't you think?"

Goku chuckled sheepishly and brushed some dirt from his upper lip, "Hah, yeah, for a moment there I could've sworn we...were…" Goku trailed off mid-sentence and then looked about as a series of strange, fleshy sounds became audible from all around them, "Wh-what is that?"

"Kakarot!" shouted Vegeta.

Goku swung about to see what it was that had alerted the other Saiyan, only to see the fleshy fungal remnants of the Thirteenth Angel convulsing. They still held that ominous purple glow too.

"Wh-what's going on?" stammered Vegeta.

Goku pulled himself into a readied stance as he watched the various masses twitch and tug against the scattered bio-mechanical components. It was almost as if the parasite's remains were trying to tear themselves free of the EVA that it had been fused with, "I don't know. It should be dead!"

"Unless that thing wasn't even its body," said Vegeta gravely.

"And that white stuff is?" asked Goku as he looked about himself full-circle. He observed the white mass as it tore itself away from the chunks of debris, leaving the remains of EVA Unit-03 in their wake. All around the pair of Saiyans the white matter began pulling free and began swiftly slithering across the ground.

Vegeta leaned to one side as part of the mass slid right by him. It completely ignored him. He swung around once more, not quite sure where to look. It was only after he completed a full circle however that he did take note of something, "Kakarot!"

"What is it?" asked Goku, who was still glancing warily about himself as the floor of the valley became covered by hundreds of wriggling white masses.

"Look!" he shouted, and Goku looked round. He saw instantly what the prince had noticed: The masses may have been ignoring the Saiyans, but they clearly all had one thing in common.

They were all converging on the entry plug.

"What the hell is it doing?" asked Vegeta with disgust as the slithering shapes suddenly got faster. All of them began speeding up until the valley floor was little more than a great white spiral focusing down upon that red cylindrical shape. The spongy material seemed to leap up as it reached the plug and poured inside the four holes that had been punched in the sides.

The LCL within was displaced out as more and more of the mass forced its way inside. The sound of straining metal became audible as the plug began swelling up and various nuts and bolts were popped free.

The bulging red shape finally imploded, startling the two Saiyans and showering them in fragments of buckled red steel.

"Wh-what the hell?" breathed Vegeta as he beheld the huge floating gelatinous mass of crackling white ooze. "Do you think maybe that it's going to try and take one of us instead?"

"No…" said Goku quietly as he regarded the writhing mass, "I don't think it can." he added. His tone Vegeta noted almost sounded pitying.

"What do you mean?"

"They're always drawn to that one thing, right? This...Adam; they're looking for that one thing to join with, to give themselves to and to complete themselves. It's as if they have no real will of their own. I don't think the EVA it took even had a soul contained within it, else…"

Vegeta cut in then, catching on, "Are you saying you don't think it can take anything as a host that already has a soul because if it does, then that soul will-"

"-Yes," interjected Goku with a nod, "that soul would probably become dominant, and the Angel would become part of it instead of the other way around."

Vegeta snorted, "What a pathetic existence."

Goku inclined his head, but still he didn't take his eyes from the floating mass, "It's pretty pitiful alright."

Goku's eyes narrowed then as the large mass suddenly clenched in midair and shrunk slightly. It then did so again, as if some great fist were trying to compact it down.

Both Saiyans watched with morbid curiosity as the mass repeatedly clenched inwards upon itself. It became smaller and smaller until a vague, humanoid figure became visible within the mass. It was feminine in appearance and utterly featureless, as if something had completely erased its individual form. The white mass seemed to fold in upon the body, shrinking it down further until it was the size of a small child. The bone-white figure's features seemed to bubble and write then as the mass finished it's joining.

Tiny hands reappeared first, small and aptly childlike. Then the shape of hair began forming out of the smooth whiteness. In shape it was tall, spiky and hauntingly familiar.

The rest of the small body was encased in a gi, which was again of a familiar style, and again as white as the rest. Then came the face, and with that the change was complete.

Both Saiyans could only look on in horror as Bardiel finished its reformation. Where once there had been a mass of shapeless white, there now hovered a ghostly white clone of Goku's youngest son.

Bardiel opened its eyes then, and both Saiyans flinched back at the sight. A pair of glowing red irises glittered in the night and looked down upon them with a cold, alien intelligence.

Goku had seen Hell, and creatures capable of rendering whole planets asunder, but those eyes alone were by far the most horrifying thing he'd ever beheld.

The ghostly form hovered there, clad in purest white as its red eyes blankly regarded the almost trembling form of Goku. It was only now that Goku realized that the familiar Saiyan power he'd sensed within the EVA had in fact been that of his own son. He might have realized it sooner, but the sheer, cold ambivalence its ki radiated had made it utterly unrecognizable as Goten.

"K-Kakarot, is that…"

"It's… the Angel," breathed Goku, unable to take his eyes from the hovering form, which for now was just regarding them back in silence. It simply hung there like a floating statue, neither blinking nor breathing. It was simply…still.

"I guess that answers where it got Saiyan cells from," growled Vegeta, keeping his voice as even as possible, "Kakarot, its ki is-"

"-I know," cut in Goku, "it's even higher than it was when it was joined with the EVA. I'm guessing that regenerating its body after being so badly injured must have increased its power level."

Vegeta grunted, "Our genes used against us again."

Goku cocked his head, "And if it's in such a small form now, with all that power compressed down to that size, then it's speed must be-"

"I get it, Kakarot, we're in trouble!" spat Vegeta, "I don't need you rubbing it in."

Goku was about to speak further, but he found himself stunned to silence when the hovering form did the one thing neither would've expected any Angel ever to do: it opened its mouth…and spoke.

"Why do you interfere?" it asked. Its voice was childlike and spliced with a whispering, ghostly female undertone. Goku almost found some relief that it at least didn't talk like Goten too.

"Wh-what?"

"Why do you interfere?" it repeated with absolutely no change in tone.

"What do you mean?" asked Goku with a frown, "Who are you, and why do you look like my son?"

The form tilted its head to one side, as if mildly curious. It then answered, "The empty vessel of Lilith that I took and molded had memories, as well as other shadows of self which were stored within. This is how I speak; how I…comprehend… This is…knowledge, is what this shell refers to it as.

"The shell also had knowledge of the one that is myself. The self that existed in its mind was referred to as Bardiel, the Thirteenth Angel, you would know me as thus. The image I have now; the self that is named Goten, it reached for me, and I received from its touch this power. That which you would call the Super Solenoid organ allowed me to duplicate that power and saturate myself with it indefinitely, and from its gift, I gained other things: fury, anger, the ability and lust to fight; all things I had never known of before. The image itself was merely how the one you would call Goten exists in my mind. If this image is similar to how that form exists in your mind also, then I believe I have succeeded in my task."

"Stop calling him an it!" snapped Goku, who was briefly consumed by a wash of irrational indignation over the blatant insult to his son's image.

"What's this 'shell' then?" asked Vegeta, choosing to take advantage of the Angel's new talkative attitude, "and why aren't you still a mindless beast like before?"

Bardiel answered again, if only so he would eventually get his answer in return also, "The shell is what was once called the 'Dummy Core'. Soulless and almost completely empty, it is what would be referred to as my new host since you destroyed the shadow of the Father. The shell was made of something similar to me, however it also repulsed me in its original image and form, but it was an easy feat to make it blank once more and then remake it into what is before you now." The Angel fell silent for just a second, "Will you answer now?"

"Answer?" echoed Vegeta with a scowl.

"My question: why is it you interfere?"

"What do you mean by interfere?" asked Goku, regaining his composure.

"The shell knew of my brethren, of how we would challenge the Lilim for the right to be the true form. You are interfering in what the shell refers to as the trials…why?"

"I don't need to explain myself to some weak-willed mindless freak," spat Vegeta, "Why do I destroy your brethren?" he mused venomously, smirking, "Your brethren are in my way. As long as you exist, we cannot return to our home."

Bardiel fell into silence for a moment. It was as if it needed time to ponder Vegeta's words now that it was at least partially human, "So to return to where you belong, you would prevent us from returning to where we belong; with the father, the one you would know as Adam? This is not permissible. Only we and the Lilim are to be contested in this world. You are in the way, Saiyan, which is why I was forced to contaminate myself with your dirt in order to remove your obstruction."

Vegeta's gaze narrowed dangerously at the Angel, "My…what?"

Again Bardiel had to pause and ponder his response, "Your…blood…Is what you would call it. It is so impure, so filthy and repulsive. You are abominable."

The Angel shifted slightly then, "But concern yourself not, dirty one. As one who is now similar to me, I shall give you the gift of cleansing by wiping your dirt away. You, this other one, and the others of your kind will all be cleansed. And when I return to the father, he will cleanse me of your dirt, and this world with be cleansed also of the Lilim in kind. It will be…good."

Bardiel was unaware just how many of the temperamental Saiyan prince's buttons he'd just pressed in rather rapid succession, "You would dare to insult my heritage, claim superiority and then presume to threaten a member of my family?!" he demanded, his fatigue lost briefly in a haze of anger, "I think, my friend, that there's only going to be one person getting cleansed here today, and I'm looking at him."

Bardiel blinked for the first time and actually looked somewhat confused, "You would imply that you have the capacity to return me to nothingness?" it queried just as mildly as ever, "You are incorrect in your assumption…" The Goten-like form then erupted into blazing gold aura flecked with purple, "With the shadow of the father discarded, and now that I am in this form, I can see outwardly the entire shape your power takes. Rage is nothing more than a tool to me, one I can simulate freely and use to unlock this abominable power to any degree needed."

Goku frowned. The Angel seemed to have worked out how to use Saiyan power thanks to what must be a far calmer and more analytical mind, especially when measured against the EVA it had been inhabiting.

"Rejoice…" it suddenly decreed, "Your struggle is at an end and the time of cleansing has begun. You need concern yourselves no longer with returning to whence you came, for I shall instead return you to nothingness. Now…be content, for soon you will never feel suffering again."

Vegeta's indignation erupted into full on outrage, his remaining stamina manifesting as a roaring blue aura about him, "You think? You worthless pathetic freak, this ends now!"

Bardiel never even blinked an eye, and just looked down upon Vegeta with utter impassiveness, "Agreed."

Bardiel moved so fast that he seemed to vanish completely. He reappeared in front of Vegeta just in time though to swing his leg round in an arc and strike the Prince directly in the mid-section, sending him flying backwards several hundred meters.

Holding position in midair, Bardiel reversed directions, swinging back about and striking Goku in his upper torso, this sent him spinning backwards and skidding to a halt just a few yards from Vegeta.

Goku propelled himself up off one hand and swung an oval-shaped ki blast right back up at the waiting Angel. Bardiel merely stared at the attack curiously however, and let it strike him head-on to no discernible effect.

Goku used the brief distraction though to grab hold of Vegeta and use his instant transmission to teleport them both away and behind a nearby outcropping of boulders.

Vegeta instantly took Goku's cue when he hushed him and suppressed his power level, which wasn't particularly difficult considering his current physical state.

"What?" hissed Vegeta, who peered briefly out over the rocks to catch sight of the still-glowing figure, who was now calmly surveying the area, scanning for its missing prey.

Goku lowered his voice, "I'm guessing if that thing can sense its 'father', combined with what it learned about us, then I'm pretty sure it can probably sense our energy too."

"Probably," admitted Vegeta, "So what do you suggest we do?"

Goku tried to hold in his gasps for air lest the Angel hear them, "Firstly…take one of these," he said, extending his hand.

Vegeta frowned curiously as he stared at what appeared to be two small green chunks, each barely bigger than a crumb, "Are these…?"

Goku nodded, "I'm sorry, Vegeta, this is all that's left. I was carrying the Senzu beans when that thing hit me. It crushed the bag against me, and when I came through this was all that was left, the rest was barely more than dust. I'm afraid this is all the Senzu we have left now."

"That's all?" snapped Vegeta as loud as he dared.

"Just take one, will you!" whispered Goku irritably.

Vegeta scowled and then took up one of the tiny fragments, swallowing it down quickly thereafter. Goku then followed suit.

Vegeta waited for a few seconds as the small Senzu fragment's effects took hold. He felt his injures at the very least heal to a degree, but his power was only restored by a very small proportion. He looked to Goku, who seemed to be in a similar predicament.

"Well…" sighed Goku, "It's better than nothing at least."

"Kakarot, there's no way either of us will last in a prolonged fight against that thing.

"I've got enough in me for a few attacks at best. If I pull out everything I've got then I might manage just one as a Super Saiyan."

Goku stared down at himself, as if assessing his own condition too. He then looked up over the rock at Bardiel, who was moving systematically through the air over the valley. He guessed the Angel must have sensed them in the area in the instant before they hid their power levels, "I'm about the same. So before we go out there, we've got to think up a plan to-"

"-Kakarot…" cut in Vegeta, who was glaring openly at the other Saiyan now, "you know as well as I do that with our powers as they are there's only one hope of victory, and you knew it before you took us into hiding here."

Goku opened his mouth to speak.

"Don't deny it!" barked Vegeta, "If you had no intention of continuing fighting then you would've taken us straight to the boys and then the EVAs to get us all out of here so we could regroup."

Goku glanced away, rubbing his nose in a bad attempt to appear innocent, "Why, whatever do you mean, Vegeta?"

Vegeta would've punched him if the situation weren't so dire. However, his tactical mind couldn't come up with a better strategy than the one he knew Goku was considering.

And so, with a look on his face that made him appear as though he'd just been told his kitten had died, Vegeta spoke, "Don't make me say it. Just…no." he shook his head and grumbled, "Let's just get on with it."

Goku nodded, "Right, so how do you think we should do this? I mean, we'll need to raise our power levels first to do this, and I doubt he's going to just stand there and do nothing. We can't risk him blasting us from a distance the instant he senses us either."

Vegeta smirked, "The freak loves to talk, but he's got the cunning of a tree stump. That's a bad combination… Just be ready, Kakarot, and leave it to me." Vegeta then stood up and walked calmly out into the open. Goku nodded and followed suit, emerging from the opposite side.

"Bardiel!" shouted Vegeta, and the hovering Angel turned instantly about and flew directly towards the two Saiyans.

The Angel closed to within three hundred yards and then arched up in preparation to attack, only for Vegeta to raise his hand at the last second, "Wait!" he shouted, and the Angel paused briefly, "Before you…cleanse us, there's one thing you must know. It's something you've forgotten."

Bardiel retracted his white fist in midair and hovered back some, staring down at Vegeta all the while, "I value not any knowledge you may possess. I seek only the reunion that is destined for me alone." he then unfurled his fist and aimed his palm at Vegeta. A shimmering of light began to gather.

"But the information I have is regarding Adam!" shouted Vegeta hastily, "It's about your father! It is imperative that you know it."

The light vanished instantly and Bardiel lowered his hand back to his side without hesitation, "Speak quickly. Tell me now what I should know of the Father."

Vegeta paused for a second whilst his mind worked furiously, "The truth is… Adam is… Your father is-"

"-he's standing right behind you!" shouted Goku excitedly, pointing a finger off behind the Angel's back.

"Kakarot!" bellowed Vegeta, rounding on him for an instant before turning back to Bardiel.

Vegeta's jaw dropped.

The Angel had turned around.

Bardiel was carefully surveying the terrain behind it, systematically scanning every square inch.

Vegeta closed his eyes to halt a rapidly oncoming headache, 'I thought I'd been to Hell, but no, Hell is being stuck on a battlefield with only Kakarot for company. This must be my penance for all the bad things I've done in my life…"

"Now, Vegeta!" shouted Goku, snapping Vegeta out of it. He nodded and they retreated swiftly to a safe distance, stopping several feet apart.

Bardiel was experiencing true bewilderment for the first time in its existence as it regarded each and every individual object in its field of vision. It simply couldn't allow even the slightest possibility of overlooking the Father's presence to occur.

"Fuu-"

Bardiel ignored the non-Lilim's pointless prattling momentarily, coming to the end of its careful sweep.

"-sion…"

Cocking its head, Bardiel orientated itself back around again, "You are mistaken, the Father is not here, nor is there any indication-" Bardiel halted mid-sentence, recognizing instantly the movements of the non-Lilim from its earlier encounter with Gotenks. Unfortunately for Bardiel, having a part-human form had the downside of forcing it to process its actions for a brief second, where before it would have just acted on instinct.

And a brief second was all that Goku and Vegeta needed.

"-HA!" The two Saiyan's index fingers connected and Bardiel started to move, but it also knew from previous experience that trying to stop the fusion process once it began was most likely futile. It considered however that if the non-Lilim wished to engage in one final fruitless gesture, then so be it. It had defeated this technique once, therefore it was only logical for it to conclude that it could do so once more.

-Z-

Meanwhile, NERV had been watching the proceedings with a mixture of horror combined with helpless suspense.

"Wait, but isn't that…?" breathed Maya as she watched the massive ball of energy erupt into being on the screen. It was so powerful and intense that it seemed to warp and distort the very fabric of space around it.

"That's Goten and Trunks' technique," said Hyuuga, who was secretly gripped in more excitement than what he'd get from reading his favorite manga series.

"This should be interesting…"Aoba concluded as watched the screen with a small smile.

"Perhaps we still have hope then…" murmured Fuyutsuki.

Gendo was silent. He just stood in the center of the bridge, watching the screen with such intensity that one would've been shocked that there wasn't a hole burned right through it.

The warping space and glowing energy burst away faster than it appeared, and once more the evening skies over Japan were illuminated brilliant gold, only this time it was by an aura so large that it resembled an upturned waterfall that cascaded off of the clouds above, flowing upwards off the newly created figure.

Silence blanketed the command bridge for a moment, "Our hope appears to be a rather shining one, sir…" commented Aoba.

He smirked reluctantly in response, "That'll do, lieutenant…"

-Z-

"You know," Gogeta intoned, his dual-voice echoing almost cockily, "If I were you, I would've stuck with some of that primal instinct stuff that you were so quick to toss away. You see, we've read about you, Bardiel. We call you the Humiliated Child of God…" he paused to chuckle slightly, "Well I suppose I should officially congratulate you... because you've just earned your title in spades."

Bardiel looked perturbed by the transformation. The fact that the hybrid was totally uninjured was barely surprising, but the sheer scope of his power…it stimulated a feeling that the Angel had never experienced before. Confusion once again masked its face as the Angel fought to find the right word to describe it.

"You've outstayed your welcome, Angel. And if you think I'm going to give you a chance to even think about your next move, then you're messing with the wrong Saiyan..."

Bardiel frowned and began moving into a fighting stance, but before it could even do that, he was just there, right in its face.

The Angel moved to shift from a half-formed offensive stance to defend, but was caught half-way by Gogeta's fist punching it square in the face.

The Goten-shaped Angel was sent spinning backwards uncontrollably through the air for over three miles.

Bardiel righted itself in flight and managed to come to a halt using an invisible burst of ki. It then rounded about and charged the fused Saiyan head-on and started hurling blindingly fast flurries of punches and kicks but, to the Angel's increasing frustration, not a single one landed.

Gogeta wasn't blocking, he was simply reading every attack before it came and then effortlessly dodging with superior speed.

Bardiel retracted to a safe distance before Gogeta could counterattack, and for the first time it gasped for air, seemingly out of sheer human instinct, "Why?" it demanded.

Gogeta cocked his head as the Angel went on, "My power should at least match yours. I have the technical knowledge of your fighting skills. Tell me: why can't I hit you?!" the question ended with a roar and Bardiel's red eyed glowed vibrantly. The blind fury it had been using whilst part of the EVA was starting to return.

Gogeta just smirked, "Isn't it obvious?"

"What?"

"In fact, I've already said it once: you abandoned millions of years' worth of basic instinct in exchange for some strange levelheadedness that your 'shell', or whatever you called it must have valued above all else in combat. Now, you can match me in speed and power all you like, but it won't do you a damned bit of good if I can read your moves before you even make them."

"What is it you dare to imply?" shouted Bardiel, his eyes glowing with divine fury.

Gogeta brushed the golden lock hanging over his face aside and smirked again, "What do I imply?" he echoed and then just scoffed derisively, "I imply nothing! I'm saying one fact, plain and simple, Angel, so you listen good…" Gogeta lowered his gaze then and his smirk subtly tightened, "You are inferior to me."

Bardiel let out a deafening cry of rage and its aura erupted once more, only it had lost the golden hue in favor of the deep purple it had been earlier.

The beast was in control once more.

The Angel charged Gogeta again, throwing enraged blow after blow. The fused Saiyan's figure just blurred as he dodged each and every one before vanishing entirely for an instant.

Bardiel looked quickly about, only for Gogeta to suddenly reappear, right in its face again. The Angel froze as the Saiyan looked back at it from mere inches away, "You're nothing but a shell, an imitation; I am a warrior!" Gogeta's form became a blur then as he twirled about and struck Bardiel's much smaller body with a series of repeated, spinning kicks. He then topped it off with one final, earth-shattering knee to the face that sent the Angel careening through a mountain, bisecting it as it went.

Gogeta vanished and reappeared by the severed top half of the mountain before it could land. He axe-kicked it straight up into the air and then shot up and drop-kicked it right back down again onto the still flying form of Bardiel, burying it under tons of rock and dirt.

The fused warrior laughed quietly to himself, "Okay, perhaps that one was a bit much…"

Bardiel exploded out of the top of the mountain with an unholy shriek of rage.

"Never mind, he's back again," commented the Saiyan, who extended a palm and fired an invisible shockwave at the Angel, slamming it back down into the ground.

Gogeta landed almost lazily by the downed form of Bardiel, "Sorry, Angel, but for you it's one or the other, not both. You can abandon all that skill and attack me with all the bad temper you want, but then it comes down to one painful fact…" And Gogeta had to pause as the Angel leaped up and began relentlessly hurling even more punches and kicks at the Saiyan, to which he simply dodged again. He finally just batted aside one of the blows to create an opening and then kneed the Angel square in the gut, knocking it back against the remnants of the mountain, "And that fact is," continued Gogeta as he strolled up to Bardiel, who was embedded down two feet in solid rock, "that without intellect and instinct working together in harmony, anger just dulls the blade."

Bardiel had truly reverted to the basic mind-set it had possessed whilst joined with the EVA, and it simply couldn't help it. And the mere fact that it couldn't help it was once more stirring that feeling it had felt earlier, that feeling it was still trying to put a name to.

"Surrender, Angel…" said Gogeta as he looked up at it. "You've failed. And as allies of the ones you contest with for ownership of this world, I claim victory." And just as Gogeta had planned, that did it.

"You are not victorious!" roared Bardiel in a deep, inhuman voice as it burst free of its confinement on another attack run, but Gogeta's arm simply swung up and caught it mid-flight, knocking the Angel right back into the dirt once more.

Without tactic, without thought, Bardiel attacked in a blind rage. It's single-minded purpose of reaching Adam by overcoming Gogeta blocked out all the rational thought it had acquired to date.

The Angel spun about attempted a drop kick this time, only to be blocked again by Gogeta.

Bardiel bounced off the Saiyan's guard and shot off to try and get behind him. Gogeta's eyes and senses however just followed the Angel as it went. Boredom over the Angel's pointless tactics was starting to creep in. But then something else seeped in too, as the rest of the situation dawned on the fused Saiyan.

Gogeta elbowed Bardiel in the face, knocking it clear again.

The Angel swung around and faced down the waiting fused Saiyan, who was now starting to look decidedly angry for some reason, "You have dared to interfere with the Lilim's time of trials!" roared the white form, "You value your pointless lives and those of the Lilim over such infinite grace and brilliance! You are an abomination!"

Gogeta's composure finally shattered, "Do you have any idea how many innocent people you've killed today; how many are hurt because of your selfish wish? You've hurt my children, you've might have killed my friends! All this pain you cause with absolutely no remorse. Just look at what this world has been through as it is, and then there's you, with your one egotistical desire: to kill all these innocents, these people who have lost everything and yet come through it regardless with such shining brilliance!"

Gogeta's aura blazed into life with such force that the Angel was blown back several meters, "How dare you demean these people and their right to exist? How dare you call my race filthy and meaningless?!"

Bardiel stood back to its feet as Gogeta's anger boiled over about the countless deaths the Angel had caused. The insult to his heritage was just icing.

Both sides of Gogeta had been incensed.

Bardiel snarled and erupted into the air above the Saiyan, "The time for cleansing has come!" it bellowed, raising both hands up and gathering together a massive, shimmering purple orb of ki in readiness.

To the Angel's shock however, the golden warrior simply disappeared, and in his place there was a voice; a calm voice laced with tranquil fury that spoke calmly in the Angel's ear.

The quiet voice spoke with the composure one can find only at the heart of a storm, "I couldn't agree more…"

Bardiel turned about and found those eyes waiting for him once more. And there the Angel was held briefly, and it was no force of the Saiyan that rooted the Angel to the spot. No, it was that feeling from earlier that held it so tightly. It was a feeling granted to it by both the shell it had taken and by the human DNA that raced through its veins.

The Angel was little more than an animal cornered by a superior predator, and it knew it now.

And Bardiel found its word at last, right then, in the last seconds of its existence, just as Gogeta raised his palms up flat towards it.

A sphere of the most brilliant blue imaginable shimmered into being between Gogeta and the Angel.

Both spoke at the same time, and the Saiyan would never let on that he had heard the Angel's final whisper, nor that he felt the tiniest pang of pity for just a fleeting second.

"Is this fear?"

"BIG BANG…KAMEHAMEHA!"

The sphere of light erupted an instant later, swallowing the tiny Angel whole.

And by the time darkness returned to the countryside seconds later, the Angel of Hail was no more...

-Z-

Cell stood atop a nearby hill, watching in perfect silence. There was no sign of his earlier good humor though as he regarded Gogeta from a safe distance.

He had not considered the possibility of this level of threat coming into play.

But it was nothing he couldn't work around, he reassured himself, given some time. It just meant that things might take a little bit more effort than he'd initially thought.

A grim smirk pulled at one side of Cell's mouth as he turned about and then vanished into shadow once more.

-Z-

To be continued…

[A/N] *slumps forward onto keyboard* By god, that took a long time. As I mentioned on my feed, this one really was my Everest. At the same time, I probably remember this chapter most fondly. As badly written as it was back then, it was bizarrely well received, plus it was a ball to write and rewrite (though if I didn't split it this would have ended up as a 35000 word chapter). Anyway. we're almost back to where we were when I first took this down. Just a couple of chapters to go now…

Catch you in Chapter 25: Sweet Sorrow