Not Another SI Fic: Part 4 End of Evangelion

by Enigmatic Magus

The finale to NASIF4 the events of the movie come an angel early and with some moderate changes. See how a renegade NERV bolstered by the Galactic Empire responds to SEELE's assault.

1. Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ranma ½, Sailor Moon, System Shock, or Wing Commander. All characters, vehicles, and settings belong to their respective owners, and I'm merely borrowing them for nonprofit entertainment purposes only.

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The third planet orbiting the sun of a rather plain solar system on the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy had guests.

The first guest was currently in a geostationary orbit south of an island nation on the western edge of the planet's largest ocean. Almost exactly one mile in length, the triangular ship was continually oriented towards the nation of Japan, its delicate sensors and communications equipment constantly monitoring a relatively small area near the southeastern coast.

All the information recovered, both functional and useless, was then sent to Earth's second guest, which was currently in a much further geosynchronous orbit, closer to that of the moon. Similar in overall shape to the smaller ship below, the eleven-mile-long vessel had also oriented itself towards Earth, and while its sensors weren't actively trying to pick up everything from the planet below, they were still listening, able to pick up the more powerful transmissions from an entire hemisphere, as opposed to the smaller ship's diminished area of coverage.

The Imperial design- entirely common in another universe but utterly unique here- was anachronistic, possessing technologies evolved over thousands of years, and the power in nearly every system aboard each ship was as staggering as their capabilities to those below. Or they had been, at first.

Now, however, those of the staff of NERV currently aboard the Imperial-II class Star Destroyer were not awed, or even impressed, as another advanced product of a galactic civilization failed to live up to their expectations.

"This is pointless," Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, Director of Project E stated, tossing the delicate-looking device away in disgust. Turning to co-worker and protégé Lieutenant Maya Ibuki, the doctor sighed, before speaking. "Tell Kyle we're going to need him to interface. This thing's too powerful to risk activating here, and we'll never get results at this rate."

"Yes, ma'am," the lieutenant replied, before punching the order into the datapad she had on hand. 'Here' was one of the smaller Star Destroyer's hangars, heavily modified during construction to act as a bay for housing Evangelion Units- huge biomechanical humanoid constructs that tended to defy definition. Despite their robotic outer appearance, inside their colorful armor lie a mostly biological beast, cloned and modified from the very creatures they were designed to battle, Angels. Unfortunately, as advanced as it was, the original technology came from this Earth; because of that, both testing and modification were sometimes much more difficult considering the clash of technologies.

"Also, see if SHODAN can get the schematics for the Pribnow Box, and whether or not the design can be modified and adapted up here somehow," the doctor said, as she wiped some of the accumulated grease and sweat from her hands. Glancing around for a moment, her eyes came to rest on a relatively empty corner where a secondary control room protruded. 'There,' she decided. 'If we can retrieve a relatively functional body for the simulation unit, we can monitor pilot-unit interaction from in there.'

The whole hangar, she knew, had once been capable of being exposed to vacuum. While that was impossible now (or, at the very least, dangerous, thanks to the modifications), the control room left behind would be perfect. Its thick transparisteel windows would be able to withstand the pressure of the fluid in the tank she'd have to have installed with minimal modification.

Sighing, she realized that the cooling fluid for the tank would also need to be obtained, and somehow ducted into here. The logistics of such an operation should have staggered her, but she knew there were probably half a dozen ways she didn't know about that it could be done.

Focusing her attention back on the cause of her frustration, she frowned again in thought. 'I'd really prefer to be doing this at Matsushiro.' Before her, in almost ridiculous-looking restraints, was a black and green Evangelion Unit, with the numbers 04 stenciled in various locations. 'Not that it needs them. The color alone makes it easy enough to identify which unit is which,' she mused. Still, the decision hadn't been hers, and the bureaucrats below had demanded they be properly marked during their inception.

The ship they were on, The Nerve, almost mockingly named after the organization she worked for since its not-so-humble beginnings, was the smaller of the two ships, and she knew that currently, it was monitoring the situation back home. 'Home' being the currently-blockaded city of Tokyo-3, from which Ritsuko and Lieutenant Ibuki had come, as well as the two Lieutenants manning the ships modified Bridge, Shigeru Aoba and Makoto Hyuga. While Dr. Akagi was here, trying once again to interface with Unit-04 without setting it off on a destructive rampage, those two were still trying to interface the ships new MAGI-system to the Imperial-level sensor grid.

"Man, whoever wired this together definitely went for the brute-force approach," Lieutenant Hyuga said, leaning over his terminal with a frown.

"Hah! If we could only have been so lucky," Lieutenant Aoba retorted from where he crouched near an opened service panel. Before him lay yards of colored wire, now exposed for him to dig through in order to find the specific one his laptop was indicating he needed. "Tell me again why Dr. Akagi isn't here for this?" He bent down after consulting a diagram on a datapad nearby, reaching in up to his shoulder for a moment before pulling out the end of a Cat-5 cable and connecting it to a second laptop sitting nearby.

"She wants us to get some more hands-on experience with the system. Doesn't want to be the only one able to fix it if something goes wrong," Hyuga replied, before glancing over his shoulder at the other Lieutenant to verify what his console was telling him. "You're up? Good. Let's try rerouting the sensors through a single unit, instead of all three."

Aoba frowned. "You sure? Back in Tokyo-3, it took all three to handle the sensor input, and these should be able to pick up a lot more."

"They also had to run an entire city. This system has hardly anything to chew on. Think we should try assigning one of them tasks until its workload is maxed, then start on the next? Or should we even the load on all three?"

"Even load across the board. That way there's room to shift jobs around," Aoba replied quickly.

Hyuga nodded, typing something in rapidly, and a moment later the console beeped at him. Turning to look at his co-worker he smirked, "Thinker's chewing through the data with room to spare."

"Huh," Aoba grunted, before turning back to the laptop. "You want to give Lover life support and Fighter defensive systems?" he asked, listing off the remaining cores of the MAGI. Each was named after the personality of the two ships' combined leadership.

'Thinker' was named after Nabiki Tendo, or Admiral Tendo to the crew aboard the Jupiter's Thunder, and she was, like it sounded, analytical at heart, though some would also go so far as to call her mercenary. Aoba wasn't quite sure of the entire story, but she had, apparently, come from a different universe than the other two leaders of the two-ship fleet, and after temporarily returning to her home universe, had been taken along for the ride when the Thunder had left, with no guarantee it would return.

'Lover,' was named for Makoto Kino, who, like the Admiral, was also from a different universe than both the ships and the overall commander of the fleet. Unlike Nabiki, Makoto had yet to return to her home, and was under the impression that it was still somewhere ahead in their journey. While not as passive as the name made her out to be, she had apparently once gone around fighting demons or monsters (the explanations he had gotten weren't specific, and he hadn't asked for elaboration) and called herself a sailor-suited warrior of love and justice. As far as Hyuga and he were concerned, anyone declaring that much was probably lucky getting stuck with such a label. Not that they'd ever say that out loud. Apparently Mrs. Kino could summon lightning and throw it with deadly accuracy, something Dr. Akagi had vehemently protested, despite having seen it personally. Or so the rumors said.

The final system, 'Fighter,' was named after the de facto leader of both ships, who had apparently come from a third universe that had been described as both boring and uneventful. Kyle, or 'Lord Kyle' to the crew, was anything but boring and uneventful, though that was, by his own admission, due to events that hadn't happened in his home universe, where 'this entire mess began,' as he sometimes said. Aoba wasn't sure what to make of the man, though he knew enough not to piss him off. If he didn't use his bizarre-yet-effective martial arts on you, he just needed a splash of water to change form and become an angel, though he (or 'she' as an angel)still fought on their side. It was still disturbing to watch, even after he had proven himself in battle with the native Angels of this universe.

Fighting the encroaching Angels was what NERV and the Evangelions had ostensibly been designed for. While Kyle had shed light on NERV's true purpose, the staff on hand had quickly taken up the public mission for real, and since then, had done their best to fight the Angels until they stopped coming. While Lieutenant's Aoba and Hyuga fought from the bridge of NERV because it paid the bills, others fought for revenge.

Misato Katsuragi, Major in NERV and previous caretaker of two of the organization's pilots, was one such person. She was the sole survivor of Second Impact, the event which had initiated the Angel war and literally reshaped the face of the world. Unlike Dr. Akagi or the bridge crew, she was currently Earth-side, helping oversee the second set of modifications to Tokyo-3's defenses after a battle with an Angel had gone unexpectedly.

"Tactical Ops to Command, we're ready to activate," she said into her commlink. It was Imperial technology, but she didn't mind; the small size and clearer reception made things easier, and she enjoyed the lack of eavesdroppers on the command channel. Any Earth-based technology, she knew, would fall to rusting pieces long before it began to make heads or tails of the encryption system used.

"Secondary and tertiary uplinks standing by, you're clear to proceed," Commander Fuyutsuki's voice came back a moment later. She waved to the Technicians huddled around a large gray device, and they nodded back before activating the device.

"Uplink established, we're getting a clear signal," the Commander said a moment later, deep within the bowels of Tokyo-3. NERV Headquarters -looking almost identical to the bridge of the starship named (and shaped) after it- was pyramidal in design, and deep inside, at the top of the Level Two bridge sat Kozo Fuyutsuki. He was fit enough to be topside helping despite his graying hair, but as the most Senior NERV Officer, he knew his place was down here, overseeing the repairs and ready to tackle whatever problems might crop up as the day dragged on.

"Commander, all channels check out. Should I dispatch the Major to the next substation?" A temporary technician asked from the tier below.

"How many more have we got?" he asked, glancing up at the holographic map that took up a large section of the hollowed out chamber. He knew roughly how many had been in the ruined area before, but the hardware brought down from the ships in orbit was more powerful and could cover more area, skewing the numbers.

"Just one, sir; The MAGI insisted we place a redundant backup station with built-in emitters just north of Crater Lake 3," the technician replied.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Dispatch the major and her team," he ordered, before diverting his attention to the monitor built into his desk. The previous Commander had rarely used his Command-level access here on the bridge, preferring to work in his darkened office, but Fuyutsuki didn't care for the oversized and barren room, preferring to work here, where he was needed if anything were to go wrong. Even then, the staff of NERV had proven themselves repeatedly when the chaos of battle threw them a curve. His role, he mused, had largely become administrative, the staff that manned the level below his usually capable of giving reasonable orders under pressure.

Glancing up at the screen again, then down at the technician working at Lieutenant Ibuki's station, he made a mental note to bring up promotions for the standard bridge crew at the next performance review meeting. Almost all the staff was overdue, and only the previous Commander, as well as NERV's budget, had prevented them from doing so in the past.

Gendo Ikari, whom Fuyutsuki had replaced, was currently locked up in the brig of the Jupiter's Thunder, and had been there since just after the arrival of the warship. Not that he'd ever voice his opinions, but once more, Fuyutsuki wondered where they'd be had that ship never arrived. He was grateful, to be sure, but he was only human, and as such, he knew it natural to wonder about the 'what-ifs' and 'might-have-beens' when he had an idle moment.

One of the biggest changes to the timeline, or 'scenario,' as some of the more sarcastic took to calling the progression of events Kyle had brought with him, was the loss of Asuka and subsequent deactivation of Unit-02. Unlike the other pilots, Asuka had been outspoken, competitive, and full of pride. That attitude, however, had been a front, and when her true self had emerged to the forefront in a self-destructive frenzy, Pilot Soryu had been absorbed into Unit-02, from which only she could decide when to emerge.

The Four-eyed Unit-02, painted a bright red, was currently being kept in stasis in a gigantic Eva-sized locker, where hundreds of sensors watched and waited for any sign of Asuka's projected return. The locker was aboard The Nerve, off in a corner across the hangar diagonally from where Dr. Akagi had chosen to place a Pribnow Box.

Nearby, Unit-00 was being refitted by a mixed crew of Imperial and NERV technicians, who were finishing up replacing the remaining legacy systems with their Imperial counterparts. The blue unit's sole eye was covered by a darkened lens, giving the impression that it was merely sleeping, much like the other units.

The Pilot of Unit-00, both a Pilot for NERV, and a Lieutenant in the Imperial Navy, was currently in the primary control room overlooking the converted hangar, the slanted floor-to-ceiling windows giving an unobstructed view of the activity below. The statuesque Pilot was wearing an Imperial Navy uniform, the gray outfit doing little to draw attention from her most striking features.

Lieutenant Rei Ayanami had blue hair and red eyes. Unlike the hair, which could have been dyed, her eyes were naturally blood-red, and no colored contacts could look so convincing. While most of those aboard the ship and at NERV below had long since gotten used to it, she still received stares from the occasional person who hadn't been forewarned, though those stares tended to waver when she returned them with the steady look of her own.

Still, despite the occasion contest of wills, she was used to the stares, mostly because she had always been this way, and knew there was nothing she could do about it. Her entire outlook on life had been similar, though recently she had been coaxed into taking some steps towards more independent thinking. Her joining the Navy was one such step, as was her desire to pilot more than just Eva, now that she was aware of the various types of craft she could potentially fly.

Standing behind her, closer to the door, was Shinji Ikari, Lieutenant in the Imperial Navy as well, on loan to NERV after splitting with the organization earlier. His dark brown hair was not quite long enough to obscure the blue eyes currently focused on the purple figure clamped into one of the loading bays. His Evangelion: Unit-01.

Unlike the three other Evangelion Units below, Unit-01 was unique. It had been created from Lilith, not Adam, and its capabilities were utterly indeterminate. Every time the limits of what it could do were decided upon it broke them; a literal walking contradiction. And within the heart of the beast itself lie the soul of the young Lieutenant's mother, the driving force that enabled Unit-01 to break the rules and go the extra distance to protect her son.

Yui Ikari had been missing and presumed dead for over a decade, and yet still held power over those around her. From Shinji's desire to be with her, to Fuyutsuki's wish to meet her one last time, Dr. Akagi's attempts to outdo her, and Gendo's plans to release her, hold her, once more... a majority of the personality issues plaguing NERV could somehow be traced back to Yui, and had the larger starship above not appeared, the events would have continued to a fatal, apocalyptic conclusion.

Behind the two pilots, the bulkhead door opened, and the third active pilot stepped in after spotting the other two standing inside.

"So this is where you two disappeared off to," Kyle said, drawing their attention away from the windows and the Evangelion Units beyond. Glancing out himself, he sighed at the restrained form of Unit-04, before returning his attention to the people in the room.

"Commander," Rei acknowledged.

"Sir!" Shinji said, looking somewhat surprised, "you're awake!"

Kyle smirked. "Yeah, finally. I've been up for a couple hours now. Had to talk with Makoto and Nabiki, then SHODAN some, but I thought I'd come thank you two before we headed on down to the post-op debrief and the subsequent... meeting." His voice had gone from cheery to almost guttural as he growled the last word out.

While most of the people from this universe seemed to have little problem with them, The Imperials and their leaders seemed to abhor NERV's numerous meetings, preferring to act, and only after looking through some of their training had Shinji realized they had been drilled to handle most plausible situations. The debriefings had been expected, but a majority of the others had been the responsibility of Moffs, of which Kyle's fleet was decidedly missing.

"You don't like these meetings, do you?" Shinji asked, tentatively. "Sir," he amended, a second later.

Rei, who had also browsed the training regiment, knew that NERV was primarily a civilian agency, despite its use of military-grade hardware and overall militant structure. While she may not have understood as well as those older and more experienced with such things, she knew that the Imperials were simply unimpressed with the lack of training in their NERV counterparts, and NERV was annoyed with the Imperial's lack of patience and aggressive demeanor.

Kyle shrugged. "It's not so much that I dislike them as... well..." he paused, as if thinking deeply, before smirking, "yeah, I hate 'em. What's to like?"

"They can help your performance in later missions by pointing out viable tactics, alternatives, or procedures only noticeable after reviewing previous operations," Rei offered.

Kyle blinked. "That's the debrief; those aren't so bad. And are you saying you like that?"

"It improves my performance, and can help me survive longer. Following Lieutenant Ikari's battle with the Fourth, he moves around on the field more, indicating that he learned to not stand still during an engagement without a good reason," she elaborated.

"I didn't learn that in a meeting," Shinji protested.

Rei shook her head. "You did not. I did. One to NERV, SHODAN."

Kyle and Shinji were left staring at the spot she had been standing as the Fleet's Artificial Intelligence activated The Nerve's teleportation system and sent the blue-haired pilot to the planet's surface.

"Blunt, isn't she," Kyle quipped finally, before smiling slightly.

"I... yes sir," Shinji said, nodded.

"Well, I guess that's that. I had wanted to thank you two, but I guess it'll have to wait. SHODAN, two more to NERV," the taller pilot said.

"Next time, try to consolidate your group if you intend to travel from the same place to the same place." SHODAN said, the condescending tone indicating her annoyance at having to repeat an action.

"Quit bitching. It's not like this-" Kyle began from the control room; "-uses up a lot of CPU cycles. Or are you less powerful than I originally thought?" he finished from the corridor in NERV where the two appeared.

While the teleporter was advanced, even it couldn't penetrate the hundreds of meters of reinforced concrete and steel armor that made up one of Tokyo-3's primary defenses.

Shinji looked around with a frown. "Where are we?" he finally asked, moving over to a nearby window. Unsure of their location himself, Kyle followed, scowling as he glanced out at the pyramidal NERV Headquarters building, below and across the geo-front from where they stood.

"Somewhere above level thirty, and in..." he frowned in thought for a second, "E-block, I think. Or maybe U; I might be thinking upside down."

Shinji's eyes widened. "You recognize this place?"

Kyle laughed once before moving towards a junction in the corridor ahead. "Hell no. I just remember all the corridors in the armor are divided into alphabetical blocks, and the levels go up from Zero, which is Central Dogma. Since we're above the Pyramid, I know we're above level thirty."

"Oh," Shinji replied, looking down. After all this time, Shinji still wasn't sure how to handle the Commander. Or Lord, as the Imperials referred to him. Most adults, Shinji knew, would probably have tried to come off sounding smarter than they were. He knew Dr. Akagi hated it when someone pointed out that she had made a mistake. Glancing ahead, he smiled softly to himself as he remembered that it was usually one of the Imperial Leaders who pointed such mistakes out. Kyle did it, but Nabiki also seemed to enjoy it. Even Makoto had on occasion, when she seemed angry enough.

That reminded him... "Kyle... sir... Umm... what's your rank?"

Kyle paused mid-stride, turning to look back and down at the surprised Lieutenant. Not that he was trying to seriously intimidate the kid, but he had to stall for a moment as he thought up the best response. It had been the same way back in the Wing Commander Universe, when he'd been discreetly told that the rank he'd chosen for himself was actually below his true station. Since then, he'd avoided bringing it up, but when plainly asked, he didn't have so easy an out. "My rank, huh? Why do you ask?"

"I was looking through the field manual Admiral Yuki issued me, and I just realized you never wore rank insignia or a uniform, so I don't know how else to find out, sir." Shinji's reply was truthful, and served to make the older pilot wince a little.

"I'm above ranks, since I asked pretty much for the ship itself. Honestly, according to my aide, as far as the Imperials are concerned, I'm their Emperor. But since I'm Emperor of just a ship... well, two ships, now- I prefer to take a less... pompous-sounding position."

"You're an Emperor!?" Shinji squeaked, surprised.

Kyle frowned at his reaction. "And that's why I ordered everyone not to say anything. It's just a- a pair of ships. To my crew, whose very existence is because of a rather greedy wish, I'm their Emperor. To you and everyone who didn't appear along with Jupiter's Thunder, I'm simply the Supreme Commander of Imperial Forces." As he spoke, he started walking, and by the time he finished, he and Shinji had stepped into a monorail that slowly took off before speeding around the geo-front.

"Is that an official position in the Galactic Empire?" Shinji asked as the train sped along the tracks.

"It is. But if you come with me, and we find ourselves in the Star Wars universe, I hope you won't dispute it when a big black-armored cyborg comes along with the same title and position," Kyle joked. Shinji wasn't sure what to make of that, and it showed on his face. With a sigh, Kyle turned to a camera in the corner, knowing SHODAN was watching. "Schedule both Pilots for remedial pertinent pop-culture training."

"Remedial what?" Shinji asked, his confused expression growing.

"You're watching Star Wars. You'll probably understand a lot more after it's over."

Shinji wasn't sure about that, but if it was an order, he knew he'd have to comply. 'And,' he mused to himself, 'I could be ordered to do a lot more than just watch a movie.' "What rank should I refer to you as?" he asked, finally, as the train pulled to a stop near the Headquarters structure.

"If you must refer to me by rank, 'Commander' will do, or 'Supreme Commander,' if you want to sound somewhat pretentious. Since you're not one of the people who appeared with the ship, however, I'll become very upset if you call me 'Lord,' and if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer it if you just referred to me by my name like you have been."

"But sir, that's not-" Shinji started to protest, unsure how exactly to tell the Supreme Commander that the Rules and Regulations required him to refer to a superior as such. He didn't get far, however, before his protest was interrupted.

"Captain Archer already pointed out to me that things don't work that way. But rules can be changed, or overridden, and I'm telling you right now, as an order, that that's the way things are."

Shinji blinked, and looked down as they continued to their destination, afraid he'd angered his superior. He wasn't sure how the Commander would punish him if angered enough, but he was Shinji's best chance of seeing his mother again, and getting away from Tokyo-3, where everything bad in his life seemed to exist.

He'd told no one of it, but his goal, now that he knew everything about the Evangelions and NERV and the original timeline and his family, was to leave this place, this world, with his mother and Asuka and Rei. Leave, and live a relatively simple life somewhere NERV and the Angels and everything bad could never bother him again. He knew it was unlikely, especially if he tried to stay with Kyle and Makoto and Nabiki; and Asuka was trapped inside Unit-02, and Rei seemed more interested in working... but it was his goal, his dream, and he didn't want to jeopardize it.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said, as they approached the conference room.

"Don't be sorry, you didn't do anything wrong," Kyle replied, before stopping outside the door. "You've led a fairly tough life, Shinji. I'm not going to ride you about it, but I was hoping that, when all this is over, we could be friends, kind of." Not that he figured Shinji would be interested in many of the same things, or anything like that, but he had enough subordinates already. Shinji was a new face to talk to, and not yet set in his ways like most of the other people from NERV were. Even Rei was fixated on duty, and admirable as that was, it meant most conversations with the First ended up being job-oriented. Shinji was probably one of the few people he could shoot the shit with as it were, and he'd be damned if the kid pigeonholed him in an ivory tower inside his own mind.

Shinji, on the other hand, misinterpreted Kyle's meaning. "I don't want your pity," he said, scowling.

Kyle blinked at this. Before, Shinji never would have voiced his opinion like that. Maybe he was rubbing off on the kid after all? 'Or,' he thought with a frown, 'more likely, the stress is getting to him. This series is like one massive powder keg.' "What do you want, then?" he asked, finally.

Shinji paused, looking thoughtful as he debated internally how to respond to the question. Finally, honesty won out, though just barely. "Your respect, sir," he said softly.

"Oh, is that all?" Kyle replied with a little laugh, before opening the door. Before he stepped in, however, he winked at Shinji over his shoulder. "Kid, you already have it."

Kyle left Shinji standing there in the doorway as he made his way to his seat, a smirk plastered to his face. The best part was that it was true. He wouldn't defer to Shinji for command orders anytime soon, and initially, he'd been ready to dismiss the kid as a loser who couldn't handle pressure at all, but now? Shinji had saved the world; saved it more than once, on his own, without any training once, with little training a second time, and against million-to-one odds a third. While the rest of the Angels up until he had arrived had been joint-efforts, there were also the potential victories that would have happened if he and the Thunder had not arrived.

"You're late," Nabiki said, frowning.

Everyone else turned to look at Kyle, who shrugged nonchalantly, "SHODAN put me down on the far side of the city."

"You sure you didn't get lost?" Misato asked, still somewhat embittered to the Imperial leader. When he'd arrived, she'd seen him and his ship as the salvation of NERV, a way to take Shinji and Asuka off the firing line for good, and let them lead the lives they should have been able to. When she'd read what was supposed to happen, she'd been even more sure that Kyle, Makoto and Nabiki had arrived in time to save her and everyone she cared about.

But now, with the loss of Asuka, her excommunication by Shinji, and the overall state of Tokyo-3, far from the ideal place she'd hoped everything would be, she felt betrayed. It wasn't anyone's fault she'd had such high expectations, and the rest of the people at the table knew that, but she was still feeling spiteful, and despite the lack of professionalism it showed, she couldn't help but feel that they, and Kyle in particular, had had a role in taking her charges from her.

"Isn't that your specialty?" Kyle shot back, slipping into his chair. He understood her attitude but didn't agree. And frankly, after a good month of snide remarks, he wasn't feeling sympathetic enough to let them slide without slinging some mud back her way.

"Enough of this!" Commander Fuyutsuki barked, hoping to cull the sniping before it could really get going. While Kyle outranked him to the Imperial Forces, at NERV the Imperial leader was still his immediate subordinate. Hopefully the younger commander would understand that now was not the time.

Kyle bowed his head in acquiescence as Shinji took his seat. Misato opened her mouth to get a final remark in, but held back, realizing she'd lost this confrontation. Scowling, she nodded as well, collapsing back in her chair and resigning herself to simply glaring.

Ritsuko rolled her eyes at the theatrics, glad she'd avoided Misato's temper this time. While she knew Kyle was at the top of the Major's shit-list, she was in close second after her explanation as to why Asuka couldn't be recovered by force. Even after the discussion, Misato had spent the next couple weeks trying to persuade her to attempt it anyway. When it was finally apparent that the Doctor wouldn't budge on the issue, Misato had stormed off and hadn't said a nice word to her since.

"Since almost everyone here has tasks waiting for them, I'll try to keep this brief, but we all know it has to be done, so let's start," Fuyutsuki said, once again gathering the attention of everyone seated. "We'll skip the plan overview, battle-prep, and computer analysis, but we do need to debrief the pilots." He turned to Rei, but didn't speak. It wasn't necessary; she knew the attention meant it was her turn to speak.

"The battle began before deployment operations could be completed..." she started, reciting from memory her accounts of what had happened from the moment her EVA had started falling from the wreckage of the AT-AT barge. Despite it having happened only a week ago, everyone listened to the recounting attentively, as Rei had a habit of pointing out easily-missed details as if they had been blindingly obvious.

When she'd finished, Kyle sat up, knowing his explanation of events was next. Using Rei's detailed explanation as an basis, he quickly pointed out what had happened during the few gaps in Rei's story when she'd been unable to see what he was up to, before going into detail of the conversation he had with Armisael during his 'apparent catatonia' as Rei and Dr. Akagi had called it.

"So it spoke to you?" Lieutenant Ibuki asked. She of course had read the summaries before and knew that the same thing had happened with Rei originally, but she couldn't ask the original-timeline Rei what had been said. Here, however, was someone who had actually spoken to the enemy. If they could find out why they were attacking, or what their goals were, then maybe they could find a way to end this war without further loss of life.

Kyle nodded, recognizing her expression and wincing internally as he knew he was about

to crush her hopes. "Armisael was... well, first off, it was a 'she,' or at least presented

herself as such... and she was rather irate at my presence. Called me a bunch of names-"

Misato blinked in surprise. "The angel used profanity?" she asked earnestly. That was a definite surprise. Maybe the angels weren't so far removed from humanity after all.

Kyle shook his head, not having meant to give that impression. "Ahh, no, not exactly; more of the condescending, belittling inflection. Called me 'you' and 'traitor' and 'fool' I think."

"You think?" Dr. Akagi asked, looking up from the clipboard she'd been writing on. Aside from the words he'd quoted, she had written and underlined 'superiority complex' and beside it had written 'god complex' with a question mark following. She, like Lieutenant Ibuki, was interested in the psychology of the Angels, but for a totally different reason. She knew peace was highly improbable, but if they could get a psychological edge on their final foe, they'd potentially have half the battle won, before it even began.

"I wasn't paying too much attention after I realized talking would get us nowhere. After briefly talking to Lieutenants Ikari and Ayanami while they were present, I was paying more attention to the surface below the LCL, and whether or not I could push off enough to clear the surface and let my wings give me the momentum to tackle her.

"You... assaulted the angel inside its mind?" Dr Akagi asked with eyes wide. The audacity of the act should have surprised her, and had it been anyone from NERV, she would have ordered immediate testing for possible psychosis and/or subsequent mental contamination. 'But this is pretty much par for course for Kyle and his crew. I could never fully convey the potential dangers just coming into contact with another being inside their own mindscape implied,' she thought with a frown, before making a note to test the Pilot's brainwaves for any variations sometime that day.

Kyle, however, sighed dramatically at her question, annoyed at the sudden bout of twenty questions this was beginning to shape up into. "Look, it's not like I could have said, 'Please, Miss Armisael, let me out and I'll let you cause your third impact,' right? I had to do something to force her to let me go. And it worked."

Ritsuko nodded. "I understand. It was rash and foolish, but it worked, so this time, I'll admit that the end justified the mean."

Kyle, surprised at the capitulation, nodded. "Right." From there, he went on to describe the rest of the battle, up to his passing out from the pain of being forcibly given a core, his recounting slightly less detailed than Rei's, but clearing up a couple issues her recollection had left untouched.

After the few requests for further details were taken care of, Shinji began his debrief. Unlike Kyle (who clearly hated having to recall everything) or Rei (who seemed indifferent), Shinji enjoyed being able to tell everyone what happened. While his presentation was no more detailed than Kyle's, as well as being shorter, everyone listened to what he had to say about piloting, and it was one of the few times he managed to let others know how piloting felt to him.

When Shinji finished, there were fewer questions for him than had been asked of Rei or Kyle, but he answered then with enthusiasm. When Misato had asked him for clarification near the end, he went over everything calmly, which was something the rest of the people at the table found pleasant after Kyle's relatively flippant attitude.

"Is there anything anyone else has to say about the battle with the Sixteenth before we move on to the next phase of the meeting?" Fuyutsuki asked, knowing most of the questions and comments had been made already.

Before he could move the meeting forward, however, Kyle spoke up, much to everyone's surprise. "I've got something to say, Commander," he said, scooting the rolling chair back and standing up. "After I was incapacitated, leaving an irate Armisael in charge of Unit-04, Rei and Shinji risked their lives and their Evangelions to hold down the berserker Eva before it could rampage through both NERV and Imperial forces nearby." He'd been surprised to hear that both had done so against orders to stand down, and knew that now was the time to express his gratitude, as well as set an example for his counterpart at NERV, who had apparently chosen to focus on the disobeying of orders as opposed to the saved lives.

General Hongo, who'd been monitoring the situation from their makeshift headquarters when Unit-04 had been commandeered by the Angel, nodded her agreement with Kyle as he spoke, briefly catching both Lieutenant's gazes. Some Imperial officers might have preferred underlings who never questioned orders, but she knew that in this instance, the Pilots had made a far better in disobeying.

With an extravagant bow, Kyle thanked both pilots; "-on behalf of the Imperial officers you undoubtedly saved in defiance of questionable orders." At this, he shot Dr. Akagi a glare, since she had been the one to order the pilots to stand down. Ritsuko winced and modified her mental notes to schedule the brainwave test for two weeks from now, instead of one.

Fuyutsuki's eyes narrowed slightly at being put on the spot like this, but even some of the NERV staff had turned to him expectantly. "On behalf of the NERV forces your intervention also protected at great personal risk, you have my thanks, as well."

Rei didn't react much, merely nodding slightly as she usually did, while Shinji seemed to break out of his shell a little, smiling at the two Commanders, before a stray thought killed it. 'Asuka should be here,' he thought, belatedly realizing that would just be asking for trouble. But no, if she had been there, she'd have not only gone in to stop the out-of-control Eva, she'd have probably managed to do so while verbally scolding Dr. Akagi and managing to stop Unit-04 with some flashy move he had little hope of ever copying.

Despite how Commanders Kyle and Fuyutsuki had made it sound, he knew that the ungainly tackle he'd executed in Unit-01, followed by Rei's belly-flop-esque tackle in Unit-00 was far from what Asuka would have had Unit-02 do.

Commander Fuyutsuki cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention before speaking. "The next order of business is the current status of ground forces in the area. Major Katsuragi has been overseeing defense installation, while General Hongo has been overseeing the overall coordination and unification of our defense networks."

Had it been anyone else, Misato would have objected, but while she may not have thought highly of the Imperial Commander at the moment, she felt nothing but respect for the young General who had almost single-handedly drawn up the current defensive web covering the surrounding countryside. What General Hongo lacked in apparent age, she more than made up for in tactical understanding and insight.

General Hongo, on the other hand, was growing weary of the tension between her superior- a man to whom she owed her very existence, as well as willing to stand up for her and her men when others tended to view them as disposable tools- and the purple-haired Major whose drinking habits were more renowned than her keen grasp of military tactics. Still, she'd gotten the assigned jobs done, which was what mattered to the General most, and for that, she'd allow the Major to say her piece before presenting an overview of their current defensive situation.

Misato, realizing the General was deferring to her, activated a pre-programmed display, and the screens mounted around the room came to life. As she spoke, the display would occasionally change as she described each site she'd overseen the installation of NERV or Imperial hardware.

"Most of the sites visited were either radar arrays destroyed during the Fifteenth's incursion, or those that lost forces pulled away to assist in the battle with the Sixteenth." The screen briefly displayed the path taken by Zeruel, and the damaged sites along the path, before switching to show staging points that were deprived of units. "Most of the Imperial forces not destroyed by Unit-04's rampage have returned to their assigned areas, but the remaining gaps in the defenses had to be patched rather quickly."

General Hongo took over, "Instead of replacing every unit and vehicle lost, we repaired what we could, and replaced some of the larger encampments with semi-permanent radar installations." The squat, domed building was as ugly as it was bizarre, and the only reason nobody questioned it was due to the fact that everyone at NERV had seen uglier products of Imperial design perform far better than their appearance would have one think.

The briefing continued for a while, Misato and the General taking turns to explain the arcs of redundant radar coverage, possible corridors of attack, and potential deployment options for the shuffled forces out in the field.

"So, aside from a full-scale surprise invasion, we're back to a defensive norm?" Fuyutsuki asked, as they wrapped up their presentation. Most of the people had paid attention, but it was obvious the details had either gone over some people's heads, or they were aware that the information was less than useful to them.

"That is correct, Commander," Misato answered, before grinning, "I'd say, honestly, that our defenses are better than they were before being destroyed. Even an invasion would have trouble getting in range to do damage without being spotted now."

The Commander of NERV nodded, "Good to hear. Dr. Akagi, you said you had something you needed to ask the pilots?"

Ritsuko nodded, flipping up the page on her clipboard and looking at the one below it as she organized her thoughts. Finally, she looked at Kyle, "Your interaction and subsequent imprisonment of Armisael in Unit-04 has made most forms of testing impossible without you present inside the Entry Plug."

"Oh?" he replied, already having a feeling he knew where this was going.

"You're going to need to interface with Unit-04 for me to get any workable readings from it. And both Rei and Shinji need to be on hand, in case the Unit berserks again."

"Sounds easy enough. When?" the Sub-Commander asked, pleased his assumption had been correct.

"Now wait a minute," Makoto Kino said, leaning forward in her chair. She'd remained quiet this entire time, growing relatively bored with the whole meeting and wishing it would hurry up and end, but this was not how she'd hoped things would wrap up. "Last time Kyle interfaced with that thing, he had something foreign lodged into his chest. What's stopping the angel from doing something worse, this time?"

Nabiki, who had also remained silent, voiced her own opinion, "Unless you can guarantee that there's no risk, I'm going to pull rank here and tell you it's not happening on one of my ships."

Kyle cleared his throat, and Nabiki winced. "Kyle's ships... but you understand my concern. I'm sure the Trio and Admiral Yuki would agree. A Star Destroyer does not have the damage-resistance a forest clearing does."

"The Admiral does have a point," Kyle conceded.

Ritsuko just scowled, setting her clipboard down and crossing her arms. "Look. This is something never before dealt with, and even the MAGI were astounded that you would try something so reckless. Now I have to deal with the fallout. Is it safe? I don't know. But I do know that the only way to find out is testing. And in order to test with the least likely chance of trouble will be if you're in the Entry Plug when we finally reconnect Unit-04's power source."

A couple eyebrows around the table quirked at the outburst, before Kyle chuckled, "I guess that answers that."

"So you'll consent to the tests?" Lieutenant Ibuki asked, leaning forward.

"Down here, yes. But Nabiki's right; until we can verify that activating Unit-04 won't cause any damage, her stipulations make the most sense. Wouldn't you agree?"

Ritsuko waved that off dismissively. "Considering the equipment still missing up there, you'll get no complaints from me. All I ask is access to the MAGI system aboard The Nerve. Its input could be helpful, and it's not swamped with the issues bogging down the original MAGI down here."

"Actually," Lieutenant Aoba said, drawing everyone's attention, "Hyuga and I would like to request that the MAGI aboard The Nerve be officially designated. A couple times during the reprogramming, we had issues through the uplink from here."

"Issues?" Dr. Akagi didn't like hearing anything bad about the MAGI. Part of that was pride; her mother had designed the system. A far larger portion of that displeasure, however, was the fact that she was responsible for the system, and if something went wrong, she had to drop what she was doing and repair it immediately. NERV had spare Evangelions and Pilots (most of the time); Tokyo-3, however, did not have a spare administrative supercomputer.

This was one of the reasons she was beginning to force the three primary bridge officers to work on the system. Not only could they work on a MAGI that was not an essential part of an entire city's infrastructure, but they could also begin learning some of the more administrative maintenance she was currently forced to do.

Shigeru Aoba winced, not having intended to make the doctor give him that look. "Ahh, nothing like that. Some of the reference commands sent one system looking for a link to the MAGI system at Matsushiro."

"Bet that query died fast," Nabiki mumbled, glancing up at the clock. Everyone smiled bitterly at that. With Tokyo-3 blockaded and cut off from the rest of Japan, its data-links to the rest of the world, along with power, water, natural gas, and roadways had also been cut off. Even radio was intermittent, the military channels strangely silent and the civilian ones within range censored to reveal nothing but what the week's top hits were.

Dr. Akagi appraised the two Lieutenants for a moment, before nodding. "Very well. Do you have a suggestion as well, or did you bring this up so we could discuss it?"

Hyuga blinked, before piping up, "Well, it's the Commander-"

"Sub-Commander," Aoba interrupted, quietly.

"-Sub-Commander's Ship, so we can't make the decision-"

"Damn right," Kyle interjected with a small smile.

"-but we assumed with the Terrestrial MAGI systems being numbered, the space-borne system would be Alphabetic; 'MAGI-Alpha,' and so on, if any more are produced," the Lieutenant finished.

"Unlikely," SHODAN said, drawing everyone's attention to the speaker her voice had emanated from. "The Nerve's MAGI system is in place because the redesign used plans that including housing for the system. In a standard Star Destroyer Bridge, the MAGI would at best occupy guest or storage rooms. At worse, critical systems, turboshafts, ducting or electrical relays would be interrupted. Unless Mr. Kino requests it, all future Imperial ships will be of standard design."

Everyone in the room looked around in surprise, and finally, Commander Fuyutsuki spoke what was on everyone's mind. "Who is Mr. Kino?"

Kyle blinked, "umm... I am."

There was a lot of noise then, as everyone from NERV tried to speak at once, and finally, when they quieted down, Dr. Akagi spoke, ostensibly for everyone still confused. "But... you introduced yourself as 'Kyle.'"

Kyle just nodded, "uh-huh..."

"And your personnel all refer to you as 'Lord Kyle,'" she continued.

Makoto and Nabiki had joined Kyle in his nodding by now. "Uh-huh?"

"So... why didn't you tell us?"

"You never asked?" Kyle replied, looking confused. When it was apparent that's not what they wanted to hear, he shrugged and relented, "It's just..." he trailed off, thinking for a second before shrugging, "It's still kind of new to me. And I'm not really used to it. I just tend to introduce myself as 'Kyle.'" Looking around at all the surprised faces, he sighed. "It probably doesn't help, what with the whole Japanese-American cultural differences," he mumbled,

"New to you? But... didn't you take his name?" Misato asked Makoto, who shook her head.

"He took my name, since he had family back home," she responded. Makoto was enjoying this revelation, since it had secretly annoyed her a little that Kyle had hid the fact for so long. Nabiki had known, of course, and the Imperials more than likely knew. Still, it hadn't been a secret o anything. If anyone had asked, they'd have been told.

"And you don't?" Ritsuko asked, bluntly. Only after speaking did she blushed, realizing how rude that had been.

Makoto glared for a moment, before nodding. "That's right. I was an only child when my parents died in a plane crash." She preferred not talking about it, but the tactless question of the doctor had managed to let her ire win out over her preference.

"As interesting as this is," Commander Fuyutsuki's voice rang out, silencing the few voices still mumbling in surprise, "we've deviated quite a bit from our purpose." The revelation had surprised him as well, but this was definitely not the time to discuss it. At least he now knew what to call the younger man. Up until now, he, like most of the others at NERV, had assumed Kyle had no family name.

"Yeah," Kyle said, frowning a little. The uproar the fact had caused was a little excessive. Still, now they knew, though he'd assumed they had asked someone else before.

"Ahh, right," Makoto Hyuga said, when it was pointed out by SHODAN that he was the last one to 'have the floor' so to speak. "If there aren't going to be any more MAGI systems manufactured, then I can't really see any reason to stick to a set, series-based naming system. However, if there's a possibility of more in the future, I'd suggest adhering to a system that can allow subsequent MAGI systems to be designated easily." His suggestion ended somewhat abruptly, and there was a pregnant pause as everyone mulled over what he had said. That or they were still stuck on the previous topic.

Finally, Kyle spoke up, "I don't really see a reason to have more than one MAGI system... Aside from their apparent versatility, a ship-wide AI like SHODAN should work well enough on any subsequent ships built."

"So what do you want to call it?" Nabiki pressed.

"Hmm..." Kyle hummed in thought, before smiling. "Since it's the first MAGI I built, MAGI-Alpha would work..." he trailed off, glancing around expectantly.

"But...?" Misato asked, to which he grinned.

"'But,' it's also the last MAGI I'll ever build, so I'm going to have to go with MAGI-Omega, or 'Omega' for short."

"'Omega?'" Dr. Akagi asked, frowning. That had almost been pretentious, bringing up 'alpha' and 'omega' like that. 'His MAGI system was just a copy of NERV's. Any modifications...' her thoughts paused, as she reconsidered something, 'well, with the technology at his disposal, and no city to administer taking up its attention, I suppose it might prove a little more powerful... from time to time...' Never mind the fact that just a few minutes prior, she'd verbally admitted the MAGI aboard The Nerve was faster. Resigning herself to spending even more time working on that ship and it's odd amalgamation of technology, she returned her attention to the conversation.

------

As the meeting began winding down, the NERV personnel and Imperial officers either dispersing to return to what they were doing, or moving on to start their next scheduled task, a meeting of a different sort was beginning.

In the wake of Second Impact, the Internet had been damaged, as coastal cities, home to millions of servers and hubs had been destroyed in the rising water levels. After years of rebuilding, however, the Internet had been brought back to its former glory, and along side it, like a shadowy twin, a second, more sinister worldwide network had come into being. While it mirrored some aspects of the original network, this private interconnected system was controlled by twelve people. While a few more knew of it, it took MAGI-level processing power to fully interface with it, and proper access codes to do any more than receive an "Access Denied." Anyone caught even attempting to get into the system tended to turn up dead after reading those two words. It was a private party line, and interlopers were dealt with quickly, and terminally.

In the depths of this shadowy cyberspace, eight monoliths sat within a simulated chamber, the dim lights not reaching the digital edges, and before them all sat the image of the person who had gathered them, brought them together, and set them on their path.

"Tokyo-3's arrogance grows with each passing day," one Monolith, labeled "SEELE 04 Sound Only" in glowing red letters stated.

"Their arrogance has merit, the newly installed defenses are as good as those they replaced, if not more so," A second responded, this one "SEELE 07."

"The addition of one unit or one hundred is of no consequence," the seated figure intoned. Had the others been physically present, his statement would have drawn stares, but as they were currently represented by their monolithic avatars, the black structures merely waited, red labeled faces all waiting for Keel Lorenz to continue.

All but one; "This... lord," SEELE 06 spat, "has thwarted every incursion and rendered the scrolls all but useless. I fail to see how anything he's done is merely inconsequential."

"Things... have not progressed as we had initially planned, no," Keel conceded, before fixing the monolith with a stare. Despite the headgear hiding his eyes, it was enough for the man behind the monolith to shrink back slightly in his chair, only slightly relieved that his avatar would not display the same failure of confidence. Keel was not a man to cross lightly.

"However," the seated figure continued, "the Angels have come as foretold, and were fought off, one Pilot and one Evangelion Unit disabled, one Unit destroyed, and now we await the final messenger."

"Are you saying this... this mess, is, and has all been part of the scenario? That we mistranslated the part about a giant spaceship from another universe coming to render unwanted aid and interfere with carefully laid plans?" SEELE 02 asked incredulously.

"It is a possibility," SEELE 04 conceded, grudgingly.

"Our time grows short, and this solves nothing. You called us here, Lorenz, so I assume you have a plan," SEELE 11 stated, drawing the others' attention.

"Tokyo-3 is too well protected to send the Seventeenth as initially planned," Keel said evenly.

"This is known to us," SEELE 06 replied quickly.

"Their defenses, however, are coordinated by the MAGI system of Tokyo-3, buffered and assisted by a computer system located aboard the larger of the two ships in orbit." Keel continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted. "We have acquired both a portion of this AI's code, as well as the assured assistance from someone within, to help us in taking the Tokyo-3 MAGI system intact. If we move quickly, we have a chance to turn their defenses against them."

There were a couple surprised murmurs from the monoliths as the news registered.

"Who is this insider?" SEELE 09 asked, speaking for the first time. He had been close to SEELE 05, and had witnessed his co-conspirator's ruin from without, as private information became public knowledge and the man had been hauled away for a lengthy prison term. He didn't think trusting anyone in Tokyo-3 was a good idea.

"It is of little concern to you," SEELE 10 replied, sharply.

Keel nodded in agreement. "Prepare your MAGI systems and Technical departments for an electronic attack on Tokyo-3. Once we've taken the city's defenses and computer, we'll be free to finally initiate the final step of our plan."

"And if they fail?" SEELE 11 asked softly.

"Then we try something else," SEELE 04 stated, before disconnecting, the monolith disappearing as the light above it shut off with an audible clunk.

The rest of the Monoliths began to disappear, one by one, until only Keel and the tenth remained.

"You are certain the insider will assist?" Keel asked levelly, concern evident in his voice. To the others he'd spoken as if it were a sure thing, but if they opened themselves and the Tokyo-3 MAGI managed to turn the attack back, they could lose a large portion of the initiative and power they had remaining.

"Trust me, she may not be conventional, but we can trust her," SEELE 10 stated, the predatory smile evident in his voice. He'd personally made contact with the insider, and knew they would assist in the digital takeover when the time came.

With that, the final two committee members disconnected, the empty room collapsing as the data maintaining it was deleted from the system as if it had never been there.

------

Back in Tokyo-3, after having the three Evangelion Units delivered to their original loading bay within NERV Headquarters, Dr. Akagi looked up at the restrained Unit-04, huge clamps, locks and restraints holding it upright as Kyle, in his angelic-form, crawled into the Entry Plug sticking out of its neck. "Remember," she called out, getting the distant figure's attention, "Rei and Shinji are standing by to intervene if you lose control."

Kyle blinked. "Was that supposed to reassure me?" she called back, before slipping into the seat and slapping the button that would close the large hatch.

The Entry Plug, an elongated-pill shaped container from which one piloted an Evangelion unit, had been engineered for extreme survivability in mind. Based on the escape pod design that had saved Misato Katsuragi's life from almost ground-zero at Second Impact, it was both rugged and compact, featuring a built-in life-support system as well as the interfacing system for the Evangelions. While they had all been modified and upgraded with Imperial-level technology, the size hadn't changed at all from their original design, and as such, they still felt cramped upon entry, the LCD Screens deactivated and the dim lighting helping to make the interior claustrophobic and dreary.

As the seals registered that the plug was now airtight, LCL was pumped into the plug, the breathable liquid quickly filling the interior, and Kyle took a final breath, before the level rose above her head and she exhaled, releasing the air in her lungs before she began breathing the pinkish fluid. Knowing it was the blood of Lilith, and not some manufactured chemical didn't help make breathing it any easier, and only the fact that she'd done this a dozen or so time before made it acceptable. That, and the knowledge that, if she puked now, she'd be breathing in her own vomit until they finished and cycled the LCL out later that afternoon.

In the control room, Dr. Akagi nodded. "Alright, the plug is ready. Insert it manually, and prepare for stage one connection."

Lieutenant Ibuki nodded. "Yes, ma'am!" After inputting the proper command, the Entry Plug spun into the Eva like a screw; the entire thing sinking into Unit-04's spine where it would normally assume control of the unit around it.

Inside the plug, one of the smaller screens came to life, the image blurry in the fluid. "Kyle, you've been inserted and we're about to begin... put your A-10 Nerve clips on," Ritsuko said, with a sigh.

"Yeah, yeah," the pilot mumbled, fumbling with the headband for a moment before setting them on her head. It was interesting to feel the tickle in the back of her head a moment before the plug around her went from underwater-blurry to totally clear.

Pulling the clips away for a moment, she watched the image clarity fade out, before setting them back in place and grinning as everything became clear again.

"Finished?" Dr. Akagi asked, scowling. She hadn't planned on this test, and knew that it was eating into her schedule. If Kyle were feeling antagonistic, then her day's plans were looking shot.

"Yeah, I just... think that's kind of neat," Kyle replied, gripping the butterfly handles before her and closing her eyes. "I can't feel much of anything. You must have shut it down hard," she stated, looking at the small screen with a quirked brow.

Despite the change in apparent sex and looks, the quirked brow was a decidedly Kyle-esque expression, and the doctor smiled slightly to herself as her first concern vanished. If Armisael managed to usurp the pilot's body, she'd have a hell of a time bringing the angel down. Now if everything went as well as the rather simplistic plug insertion had gone, she could get on with her daily schedule..

"Begin," she ordered, the technicians around her (mostly secondary crew) started bringing Unit-04 back online.

Inside the entry plug, Kyle waited, listening halfheartedly as the control room microphones picked up the numerous steps involved with bringing a questionable unit out of stasis. Finally, Dr. Akagi announced that they were preparing to reconnect the S2 engine and Micro-Fusion Reactor.

"Go for it," she mumbled, closing her eyes and waiting for whatever it might entail. After more than just a few skirmishes inside Unit-04, Kyle was used to most of the sensations that could be felt when sitting within the bulky biomechanical creation. In all her time as a pilot, however, they'd never taken Unit-04 so far offline, and as such, she wasn't quite sure what to expect, if anything.

As the last finger in the control room stroked the 'Activation' button on one of the many panels within, the interior of the Entry plug vanished, replaced by a decidedly familiar endless waist-deep sea of LCL.

"YOU!" A voice hissed, its familiar tone bringing a smile to Kyle's face. The smile grew as she looked around, and realized it was she who was standing on the surface of the LCL, Armisael waist-deep in the fluid ahead.

"Looking a little soggy there, Armisael," Kyle quipped.

"Is this why you've come? To taunt me?" the Angel asked, scowling.

"Not particularly, no. We were just testing Unit-04 for re-activation. You know, your prison? We want to make sure it can fight." Kyle smirked, hoping to eke a reaction out of the imprisoned Angel. Much to her displeasure, it didn't work as intended.

"My 'prison,' is it?" Kyle nodded once. "Then if you're the warden, you run a poor prison, traitor. When you leave here -crawl from within this abomination- I will again take control and proceed to destroy everything around me. Then, I shall wait for the next messenger to come and assist them in bringing about your end."

Kyle frowned. "Ahh, yeah... about that... any way we could maybe work out a deal where you don't go nuts like that?" Not that she expected the Angel to agree so readily, but before pointing out the truth, she wanted to tease the imprisoned Angel's soul before getting to the point.

Armisael, meanwhile, stared wide-eyed at the figure before her, before laughing. "You come to me asking for help after imprisoning me here? You are as foolish as those you ally yourself with, traitor!"

"You keep calling me that... I don't think you understand just what you're dealing with," Kyle said finally, before looking around. "Is this your mind, or mine?"

"In this? We both have some control, though I cannot escape, while you may come and go freely," she stated, frowning. Apparently, Kyle assumed, she didn't like to lie, or couldn't. And Armisael didn't seem quite sure what to make of his prior statement, either.

"I need some hot water," Kyle asked, trying to imagine a cup of steaming water in her hand. Armisael, correctly believing such a request wasn't a threat, nodded, and a moment later, a cup appeared. "Hope this works," she said, before dumping the steaming cup on her head. While there was no feeling of shifting like he usually felt when hit with water, Kyle opened his eyes and looked down to see himself back in his birth form, the specially-designed plugsuit shifting and stretching to conform to his original shape. Armisael stared wide-eyed.

"This is my true form," he explained, smiling at her expression. "Despite what you may have thought, I'm no turncoat angel. Merely a cursed human."

"But.. you... we..." Armisael stuttered, before frowning, "and so, it would seem I'm truly imprisoned by the enemy. Fine then, human. You have defeated me." She stared down, sullenly, before jerking her eyes back up at him, "My being! What has happened to the piece of divinity I gave you... your... the other you?" she asked suddenly.

Kyle frowned. "Oh, that? It's stuck in my chest, where nobody is willing to take it out, and it apparently can't be targeted for removal by teleportation, despite its dimensions being readily quantifiable." His frown deepening, he sarcastically added, "Thanks, by the way."

Armisael scowled. "Of course you can't remove it, it's part of you... part of your soul, now; attached in a way that no human science can remove," she spat, looking almost disgusted.

"Why the sick face?" Kyle asked, before smirking. "You know if you puke here, you're going to have to... err... stand in it."

Armisael shuddered, before returning his gaze. "I gave up what I am to ruin you, thinking you were merely Fallen. Instead, I find I gave my being, my spark... my Divinity to a human. A liar and a thief is what you are," Armisael stated, scowling, "and now you're Touched... it's hideous to contemplate."

"It's a curse. I have to pilot like that. If I tried in this form, I'd be torn from my body and stuck in the core, like you are now," Kyle stated, before frowning in thought. "You know, I wonder if I can pilot like this now, since the core isn't empty anymore," he mused, before shaking his head. "In any case, you gave it, and while I didn't openly accept, I didn't know how to turn it down, so this... situation... is all your doing," he finished, smiling down at the angry angel below.

She was shaking in anger now, and he prepared to catch her if she tried to tackle him, as he had done to her before. Finally, she spoke again, "your point is... taken."

Kyle grinned. "So you won't go berserk anymore?"

Armisael glared. "Shouldn't I? Even moreso now; you've taken everything from me! If that is all I have, save this meaningless eternity," she waved a hand at the endless LCL around her, "then I will fight it, until I die, or some other alternative appears before me," she stated with finality.

Kyle's grin grew into a smile; finally. "Armisael... you almost sounded human, there." The Angel shuddered at that, and he shrugged. "Don't be so quick to dismiss all your options. Besides, I wouldn't be so quick to turn your back on us. While we didn't intentionally lie, someone else set you up from the moment Sachiel first appeared, and you and all your siblings were headed right into their convoluted little trap."

"What do you mean?" Armisael demanded, her expression a mixture of grief and anger.

"Well..." Kyle began, intending to explain the truth about SEELE and Instrumentality to the Angel, when suddenly he felt himself- no, herself get pulled back from the mindscape and into the entry plug, where a quick glance showed the Unit being shut-down again. As her remaining senses returned to her, Kyle looked up in surprise, the numerous alarms ringing behind Ritsuko punching through the confusion and at least explaining why the conversation had been cut short.

"What's going on?" she asked, as the plug was ejected.

"We're under attack," Ritsuko said, before shouting at someone off screen to deactivate a connection. Turning to look at Kyle again, she elaborated. "They're targeting the MAGI. We've got to cancel this test and intercede before we lose everything." A moment later, the hatch to the plug popped open, before the LCL even had time to fully drain. A small torrent of the fluid poured out around the edges, spilling across the grilled catwalk and dropping away to the floor below with a loud splatter.

A few minutes prior, Ritsuko had been ready to cancel the test anyway, as the sensors had only briefly registered a synchrographic spike, moments before Kyle was reduced to a seemingly-catatonic state again.

"He's down again; what does the EKG show?" she asked, preparing to slap the big red button that would cancel the test.

"Her... His brain is functioning as if she were awake and coherent," Ibuki replied as the display before her showed the information requested. "Unit-04 is showing signs of coherent thought too, though it's weak and intermittent." Turning to look at Dr. Akagi, she frowned. "The sensors might be bad."

Ritsuko shook her head. "No, we replaced all of them right before this test. This is something else."

"Could..." Maya paused, then looked at Ritsuko thoughtfully. "Do you think he's... she's... Kyle's talking to it again?" she asked, her voice so low it was almost a whisper. In the small, quiet room, however, her attempt at privacy failed, and everyone who heard her question was left trying to make heads or tails of it. At least, those who hadn't been present at the earlier briefing.

"It's possible," the Doctor responded, after a couple second's thought. "If he is, I don't want to end this test just yet. Be prepared to run an emergency abort if the Unit shows signs of activating while he's still out."

"Abort?" the lieutenant asked, surprised at the severity of the order.

"Yes, he subdued the Angel once, but this time, it could be the other way around. We have no idea how to tell-"

Ritsuko was interrupted by a shout from a technician who was monitoring the MAGI systems off in the corner. Before she could turn and glare, however, the young man spoke up, "ma'am, connection to Matsushiro MAGI established."

The room was instantly abuzz with voices, and Ritsuko finally had to shout at them all to shut them up, "put it up on screen" she ordered, frowning. The main screen, set in the center of the wall to the front of the room and framed by two thick windows overlooking the testing chamber, flickered, its display changing from the interior of the Entry plug to a graphical representation of the Tokyo-3 Data network.

The previously darkened link leading out towards Matsushiro was indeed glowing, a connection active as the two MAGI systems initiated communications protocols. As she watched, a satellite link also activated, as did a standard T3 link to Tokyo-02.

The whispers around the room had just started speculating as to whether or not the blockade had ended when an alarm sounded, the link to the Matsushiro MAGI flashing red to indicate an incoming data attack.

"Oh, shit," Ritsuko muttered, as more links activated, while those already open began turning red as well.

"But... it's... it's too early!" Maya said, drawing some attention away from the paling doctor.

"End the test, eject the plug, and call the Thunder for help from SHODAN and MAGI-Omega," she ordered, sending Maya and the few technicians not too busy staring hurrying to comply.

After explaining the situation to a visibly groggy Kyle (who quickly straightened up), she hurried from the room towards the bridge, Lieutenant Ibuki following as the technicians left in the minor control room were left to wonder what was going on.

The Level Two Bridge was abuzz with activity as Kyle made it there, not bothering to switch forms or shower the LCL from her form as the Imperial leader hurried to where she needed to be. When finally she emerged from a side-door, Kyle turned towards the main screen across from the bridge, behind the giant holographic map of the area, where it displayed just how many links were being used to digitally assault the city.

"The MAGI and SHODAN can't handle this?" Kyle asked with a frown. After all her posturing, SHODAN shouldn't have been having trouble with the inferior MAGI systems at the other sites, or the standard users attacking from wherever else they were.

"This assault is not so simplistic as we had been lead to believe," SHODAN's voice ground out, her face appearing on one of the side monitors. "These attackers are concentrating their MAGI systems on the MAGI system here, and the other attacks are apparently for me."

"You can't handle contemporary attackers?" Kyle asked, incredulously.

"I can handle those just fine. These, however, are using some of my own attack and defense algorithms against me. And they're adapting at a fairly impressive rate."

"Now where the fuck-" Kyle mumbled, spinning in preparation for an attack as someone tapped her on the shoulder.

Nabiki jumped back, the cup of hot water she was holding splashing onto her hand and making her scowl. "Relax. It's too early for that. SHODAN will show these prehistoric copycats what she can do, and we'll start preparing," she stated, before handing Kyle the cup and stepping back.

The display showed one of the smaller data-links go dead as SHODAN either shut down or destroyed the computer at the far end, and a moment later, two more went dark. Mild cheering started from one of the bridges below, but they stopped as the links re-activated.

"What the-" Lieutenant Ibuki mumbled, before rapidly typing away on the computer. She turned to Look at Dr. Akagi, who was also typing frantically, and called out "It's a mobile station on a wireless network connection. They have to be laptops or something similar," she said, her typing continuing unimpeded. "That's past the First Defense Line," she mumbled as she continued to type.

After a minute, she slammed a finger down on the enter key with a flare of finality, and a number of the smaller links died, the superior smirk on her face growing as the cheering from below returned, louder. And then, as if a switch had been flipped, the links were back up.

"Impossible!" she shouted, turning to her terminal. "I just shut down the Radio-LAN. We... I can't get back in! I'm locked out!" She said, her voice strained and rising. "Level-two access disabled," she announced after another futile attempt at re-entry.

"The MAGI turned it back on; they're in the system!" Ritsuko announced, her fingers flying over the board. "SHODAN, leave those amateurs alone, we've got a bigger problem!"

"How far are they?" Fuyutsuki called down, knowing the MAGI's defenses were not something easily brushed aside.

"First and Second Defensive Lines compromised, Third is failing now... they're going down a lot faster than they should be," she stated in shock. Typing again, she continued, "Right Flank is being compromised as well, Left Flank is holding, for now. Final Defense Zones and Side-Barriers holding... again, for now."

The AI's image frowned, a rare sight, before some of the monitors around the room flickered, and lines of code began scrolling rapidly across the screen. "Good," the Doctor exclaimed a moment later, nodding at her screen before taking her lab coat off and tossing it on her chair. Standing suddenly, she spun and quickly made her way over to a large access panel set into the base of the central command tower.

"You're activating the 666 Firewall?" Nabiki asked, eyes wide. She'd assumed SHODAN and the MAGI could handle any digital incursions without relying on that last resort.

"In any other instance, I'd be hesitant, but somehow they have a massive foothold in the MAGI already, and I can't allow them to get any deeper," the Doctor explained as she crawled into the hole. The tunnel was littered with old post-it notes and wires, and as the doctor disappeared within, the others present turned back to the screens around them, waiting for them to display the activation of the firewall.

"Is she in there?" Misato asked, the lift bringing her up to the level everyone had congregated on. Above them, on the smaller command deck, Fuyutsuki made his way to the edge where he could oversee operations.

"The Doctor's shutting them down now," Kyle said with a frown. "We're going to have to gear up quickly, this... is neither expected... or good," he elaborated, turning to Nabiki. "I want you to return to the Thunder, and coordinate things from up there with Makoto."

"Didn't she come down for the meeting?" she asked, with a frown.

"She's overseeing the.. err... now's not the time," he growled back, and she nodded.

"Rei and Shinji are standing by in their Eva's," Lieutenant Hyuga said, his screen flickering to show both pilots looking concerned from within their entry plugs.

"Have them move to launch positions and stand by," Fuyutsuki ordered from his perch. "I'll brief them from up here," he offered, moving back to the terminal on his desk.

"Misato, you and General Hongo set up most of the defenses, so you're going to have to coordinate them and bring our sensor net up to full power once Dr. Akagi stops this digital attack," Kyle said, any hostility exhibited earlier in the day gone as the situation unfolded around them.

"Are you sure they're coming?" Ibuki asked, having turned in her seat to listen as orders were quickly handed out. "Couldn't this be a-" she paused for a moment, and Kyle jumped in, to finish what she might have said.

"-a mistake? No chance. This was the prelude to an assault, and things are about to get a whole lot worse." The conviction in his voice killed whatever retort she might have had, and she nodded numbly, realizing things were still spiraling out of control, despite everything they had done to improve their world from the original timeline.

"What should we do?" Hyuga asked, waving his hand at Aoba and Ibuki to indicate the primary bridge technicians.

Pausing in thought, Kyle turned to the three terminals they usually sat at, and frowned. "Once things come back up, I'll probably have you three transfer up to The Nerve and operate your positions by remote. If things in here get bad, you all can at least work unmolested, instead of dodging bullets... literally."

The three nodded, and Kyle turned to the tunnel Dr. Akagi had disappeared into. Before he could inquire as to how much longer she'd be, the screens around them flickered once, twice, and suddenly the lines of code froze, before going blank.

"I'm being discon-" SHODAN said, her sentence cutting off as she was apparently booted from the system.

"That's not good," Nabiki said, softly, before turning to the tunnel Dr. Akagi was crawling out of, her face pale.

"I can't activate the firewall. They... Melchior has been compromised," she explained, leaning against the wall.

"Melchior must have kicked SHODAN from the system," Ibuki said, glancing at the blank screens the AI had previously occupied.

"Contemporary Long Range Radar and Observation stations offline!" someone stated over the PA.

"That's past the Third Line.. this is impossible," Dr. Akagi shouted, turning to glare at the giant screen as if were lying.

Misato stepped forward and grabbed a discarded headset, not bothering with the earpiece and headband as she held the microphone up to her mouth. "Call them on the analogue landlines! Have them disconnect from the MAGI and re-route all data to their Imperial Counterparts, upload all telemetry and tracking data to the Thunder, and coordinate coverage with SHODAN," she called out, her voice sending dozens of technicians below running for the phones.

Turning her attention back to Kyle, she frowned. "We didn't cross-connect the Imperial structures to contemporary offensive encampments. Once those go dead, we'll be unable to bring them back up unless we manually run cables for tracking to them."

Nabiki frowned, "That's a fairly large oversight."

General Hongo spoke up then, stepping forward, "it was a joint decision. The loss of the MAGI was, at the time, inconceivable."

"It still is," Dr. Akagi growled, stepping over to a terminal and typing rapidly. While the rest of the bridge crew had been utterly locked out by now, she still knew more about the ins and outs of the system than the rest, and quickly gained enough access to at least monitor the situation within the MAGI. What she saw made her jaw drop.

"My god," she whispered, as more and more subsystems were hijacked.

"What is it?" Lieutenant Ibuki asked, having heard her surprising exclamation.

"Melchior wasn't compromised... it sold us out!" she explained. While Casper and Balthazar were actively fighting the takeover, Melchior was only putting up token resistance, and kept feeding garbage data to the other two, which caused them to lag in their defenses and lose more and more subsystems. The Final Defense Zone and Left Side Barriers were now beginning to fail.

"Can you stop it?" Misato asked, looking pissed. Bad enough that there were humans out there that wanted to end the world, but this computer- a computer they had entrusted with their lives- was now working to bring about their end? Misato growled at the thought.

Nabiki stepped back from the obviously pissed Major, before glancing at the tunnel Ritsuko had crawled out of. While everyone waited for the Doctor's response, she made her way to the door.

"I can't shut it down without the assistance off Caspar and Balthazar. And if they drop their focus on defense, they'll quickly be overrun," she explained, clenching her fist.

"Can you shut it down?" Kyle asked, frowning.

Ritsuko looked pained at that, before shaking her head, "It's not like a regular computer system. It was developed to run at all times... shutting it down will kill the system, and there will be no way to bring it back up."

"And you can't stop-" Kyle started to ask, before the image onscreen shifted again, and new alarms sounded. The few satellite links on screen were dwarfed now by a single, solid beam of light that connected to a new figure onscreen, a Star Destroyer.

"They're after The Nerve," Fuyutsuki said after a moments pause.

"Ritsuko, shut it off," Kyle ordered, his voice hard.

"I can't, it's not... there's no power switch. We'd have to physically destroy it," she said, her pained expression not loosening up. This was her mother's legacy they were talking about destroying, and she did not want to be a part of that.

"Then we'll have to destroy it," Nabiki said, holding up a white cylinder Kyle immediately recognized.

"What's that?" Misato asked, frowning. She'd been meaning to examine more of the weapons aboard the Thunder, but had been unable to, so she was just as clueless as the others.

"It's a Thermal Detonator," Kyle said, nodding. Unlike a conventional explosive, the Thermal Detonator would explode up to a certain range, utterly vaporizing anything within the blast radius, but not touching anything outside it.

"A grenade?" Fuyutsuki asked, frowning. While he assumed Nabiki knew how to handle it, it was still dangerous to wave around.

"Not quite," Kyle said, before glancing at the screen showing the incursion attempt against The Nerve. "But not now. That a 'trooper-issue?" He asked, though he was pretty sure it was. When she nodded, he turned to the Doctor.

"Are the cores in there?" He asked, pointing at the tunnel. She didn't respond, only staring at the opening, and he growled, "Dr. Akagi- Ritsuko!" calling her name drew her attention finally, and he spoke again, through clenched teeth, "I realize this is hard for you but it has to be done. Are the cores in there?"

She nodded, before visibly pulling herself together. "Yes." She pulled on her lab coat, "the cores are inside." She turned to Nabiki, resigned to destroying her mother's final Legacy when suddenly a number of NERV Security forces and Stormtroopers rushed into the room, weapons drawn.

"Freeze! Hands in the air!" One of the NERV Security officers stated, while the Stormtroopers seemed to pause upon seeing Nabiki and I.

"What's the meaning of this?" Fuyutsuki shouted down at them, enraged.

"Sir?" one of the officers asked, frowning. "We received orders to detain everyone on the bridge for questioning. Someone sabotaged the MAGI."

"On who's orders?" He shot back, his scowl increasing.

"Yours, sir. They were sent from your desk."

"Oh, isn't this nice," Kyle groused, before turning to the Stormtrooper Captain. "What were your orders?"

"Lady Kino ordered us to detain you and Admiral Tendo on suspected psychological contamination. The order was relayed from the surface, sir."

He didn't sound convinced, and Kyle sighed. "Trooper, officer, the MAGI has been compromised, and sent those orders to prevent it's destruction."

"The orders were legitimate, sir," the trooper insisted.

"The Orders were falsified, and if we had time, I'd show you, but we've got about thirty seconds before SEELE takes total control of Tokyo-3's Administrative computer and wipes us all out," Dr. Akagi spat, before pointing at the access tunnel to the MAGI's core.

The Stormtroopers looked hesitant to trust her, but the NERV Security forces merely asked Fuyutsuki if he was rescinding his order.

"Of course I'm rescinding them! And ignore any further orders you receive digitally," he commanded, sending half the gun-wielding forces off the bridge.

"Trooper, as your Supreme Commander, I'm ordering you to stand down," Kyle said, finally.

"Our orders, Sir, are for your own safety, once we verify-"

Kyle saw red. "I did not ask for a bunch of mindless Stormtroopers when I made my wish. If you do not stand down right now, I swear to god I'll bisect you with an AT-Field so many times, your bodies will have the consistency of LCL before they manage to hit the floor," he hissed, switching back to English as his temper flared. The few around him capable of understanding him winced slightly at the mental image that threat brought up.

"Captain," Dr. Akagi said, softly, "as the leading expert in this entire Universe on Angels and possible Angel Contamination, I give you my word Kyle and Nabiki are not being influenced. Furthermore-"

Whatever she was going to say died on her lips as the lights went out, the chamber illuminated now only by the multitude of screens still flashing their warnings.

"Next goes power and air," Ritsuko said, glaring in the dim light.

Kyle glanced at Nabiki, who returned his flat stare, then followed his gaze as it jumped to the Tunnel and the Thermal Detonator in her hand. Nodding slightly, she moved to toss it into the tunnel.

"Stun her, she's got a grenade!" One of the troopers suddenly shouted. Before she could throw the detonator, a batch of blue rings collided with Nabiki's chest, sending her sprawling to the floor. The detonator rolled under a chair, where it began beeping ominously.

"Oh shit," Kyle said, wishing suddenly that he had not accepted Nabiki's hot water. As everyone scrambled to get away from the beeping device, one person shoved her way past the others and dove at it, as the beeping grew higher in pitch.

Dr. Akagi knew she had to do it. And she had to do it now. "Bye, Mother," she said, as she threw the grenade at the looming tunnel, the opening now pitch black in the dim light of the various monitors.

There was a flash from within the tunnel, and the screens died as well, the only illumination now being the LEDs on the devices with battery backups, and there were surprised shouts from below as the technicians and staff who hadn't been forewarned lost what little light they'd had.

There was a moment of silence, before a muffled voice spoke out, "Lord Kyle, I've received updated orders. We-" the trooper paused, before speaking again, sounding almost terrified. "We were the victims of sabotaged communication lines. Our previous orders were not from Lady Kino."

"No shit," Kyle said, tonelessly. "You men are going to head straight to the surface and wait for me to contact you. You will do nothing, not even defend yourselves if attacked, until I give you new orders. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Lord Kyle," they chorused, sounding properly horrified.

Their fear and misery was exacerbated when Lieutenant Aoba muttered, "but we are about to be attacked."

After a moment, when there was no noise to indicate they had moved, Kyle growled, "Well? Get going! Move! Move! Move!" As he shouted, the sounds of armored feet running out the door could be heard, and as they faded off in the distance, the rumble of diesel generators could be heard starting up somewhere below them.

Slowly, emergency lights began to flicker on, the pitch-black interior becoming only a murky darkness with semi-recognizable shapes moving around within. Most of those present reacted negatively as the dim red lights brought back memories of the attack in a hallway not to far from where they stood, and for a moment, it was uncomfortably quiet, before someone broke the silence.

"Alright, Maya, break out your laptop, we need to activate a couple independent systems and reroute everything we can't handle here to the ships in orbit," Ritsuko said, wiping her eyes. It had been hard, but she knew it had to be done, even if a part of her hated herself for it. Now all that was left was picking up the pieces.

"Yes ma'am... and... Doctor? I'm sorry for your loss," the lieutenant said, before slipping away.

"We all are, Ritsuko," Misato said, from nearby.

There was a murmur of agreements, before Fuyutsuki spoke up, "We need to get out of here and prepare for an assault on Tokyo-3. Doctor, you and your assistant shall stay here and help activate crucial systems. Lieutenants Hyuga and Aoba, from what I can tell, you're unable to work from here, so you should return to The Nerve and help coordinate and monitor things from there." Most of what he had said, he knew, was re-iteration, but the group below seemed a little reassured, now that they had direct orders, and he knew that for some of them, a purpose would help keep the fear of what was coming at bay.

"You should go too, Fuyutsuki," Kyle said, looking around. "NERV is practically dead, and there's little to control from here, now. Start evacuating all non-essential staff, and get them to the shelters, along with the civilians in town. If.. no, when this gets messy, we're going to need as few variables in the mix as possible."

"What should I do?" Misato asked, her shadowy figure clearly agitated, with her hands on her hips and her foot tapping the darkened floor impatiently.

"You and General Hongo need to head to the surface to coordinate defenses," Ritsuko replied curtly.

"We can use the deployed Garrison as a base of operations," the General said, before turning towards the door.

Misato turned to follow, before pausing. 'What about you?"

Kyle turned towards her, and shrugged before making his way to a cupboard beside a dead terminal and rummaging around for a first-aid kit. "I'm going to see to Nabiki here," he explained, pulling out a vial of smelling salts, "then," he paused, leaning down and cracking it open under her nose, causing the Admiral to start awake. Patting her on the shoulder, he turned back to Misato and grinned nastily. "Then, I'm getting back in Unit-04."

"But you can't! Rei and Shinji are in the Launch Bay, and we'll be launching them soon. Half the controls needed to safely reconnect you are disabled for good, and until we can get to The Nerve and take over, Unit-04 is- is..." she trailed off, scouring her mind for the best way to describe it.

"Is?" Kyle prompted, as Nabiki climbed to her feet somewhat shakily.

"It's more than just a liability!" Ritsuko exclaimed. "It's too dangerous!"

"I understand the risks, Akagi, but at the moment, the imminent destruction of all life on Earth is a bit more pressing. Get Unit-04 powered up, and I'll take care of the rest... even if I have to strangle that angel to get her to cooperate," Kyle growled, stepping over to a water fountain and splashing himself.

"She's that reluctant to fight?" Ibuki asked, surprised.

"No, she wants to fight me, and she's kind of sad that she put her core in me, knowing I'm human now, but I doubt she'd willingly help us, unless I finish the conversation I was interrupted in the middle of," he explained, before pulling Nabiki aside.

While still apparently woozy from the stunner blast, she seemed coherent enough to understand what was going on. "Head down to storage room 11B and get the football," Kyle whispered to her. While she hadn't taken a job in NERV like he had, she still knew most of its secrets, and the football was one of the largest NERV still had. Much like the football in the American Government, this was a briefcase. Unlike its American counterpart, however, this one held Adam, returned to his cryogenic storage container after being surgically removed from Gendo Ikari's hand.

"Take it to the surface, and get to the Thunder with it ASAP. If Kaworu is coming, and there's no reason to believe he isn't, then at least Adam will be out of his reach," she finished, before stepping back over to the others, who had continued ahead.

Nabiki slipped away unnoticed in the dark, and Kyle turned to General Hongo a minute later. "General, order all troopers within the structure to begin evacuating all non-combat personnel. Also, have a squad find Admiral Tendo and escort her until she is safe aboard the Thunder."

"Yes, my Lord," she relied, pulling a commlink from a belt pouch and speaking quietly into it. "And sir?" she asked, gaining Kyle's attention again. "I'm sorry for those troopers' lack of faith. It won't happen again."

Kyle looked at her for a moment, before nodding. "See that it doesn't. Dismissed, General." With that, the General made her way to the forefront of the group, putting some distance between herself and her superior.

"Where's Nabiki?" Misato asked finally, realizing belatedly that the Admiral was no longer with them.

"She's running ahead," Kyle replied, being intentionally vague. Misato was about to demand more, but he suddenly turned down a side hall, Ritsuko and Maya following. When she turned to follow as well, General Hongo spoke up, "Our destination is not theirs, Major." Misato frowned, but turned to continue to the elevators ahead.

"This is a very bad idea," Ritsuko stated a few minutes later, as she glanced over the darkened control panel. Nearby, Kyle was climbing into the exposed entry plug, while Maya was across the room, sitting on the floor while she pounded away on a laptop connected to a data port nearby.

There was a loud, metallic clang as the big clamps restraining Unit-04 disengaged, and a moment later, the huge doors leading to the launch bay began to grind open.

"Got it," she shouted, closing the laptop and pulling the plug from the wall before stuffing the package under her arm and making her way back over to Kyle and Ritsuko.

"You'll find that a lot of seemingly bad ideas are actually good ideas... from a certain point of view," Kyle replied finally, collapsing into the entry plugs chair after squeezing in through the cracked-open main hatch.

"From a certain point of view?" the doctor asked with a frown that was invisible in the darkened room.

"Now's not the time for movie quotes," Kyle replied, slapping the button that would close the plug the rest of the way.

"Irrelevant idiot," Dr. Akagi grumbled, before pulling a lever that would flood the plug with LCL. When the little status light turned green, she pulled down the much larger lever that would activate the hydraulic plug insertion system, before turning to go. Without the MAGI, the automated systems that would allow her to do everything with the push of a button lay dead, potentially forever.

Originally, what she had just done had also been impossible, but after the power outage during Matariel's assault, tertiary mechanical systems had been installed wherever the Evas were likely to be stored, to avoid having to summon potential security leaks into high-security areas to assist with the manual preparations. The lever and battery-operated systems they'd installed were now the only truly reliable systems they had, with the loss of the MAGI.

Staring at the darkened, menacing form of Unit-04 for a moment in an attempt to organize her thoughts, Ritsuko Akagi sighed, before turning to look at a waiting Lieutenant Ibuki. "Let's go. We've got to re-activate the S2 engine without help of the MAGI, and then activate the launch system, sound the Angel Alarm, and manage the Security Systems here and abroad..." she trailed off, frowning, before sighing. "And I thought today's original schedule was bad."

"At least we know what to expect. When this is over, we should be able to move on with our lives... we'll have won," Ibuki said, looking on the bright side. Ritsuko wasn't too sure about that, but as she and Maya worked in the darkened control room, she felt that maybe, just maybe, things would turn out different, and it would all work out. Snorting softly at her own idealism, she began manipulating the system into working without the MAGI.

Kyle was annoyed. While the plug had internal lighting that currently beat the pitch-black interior of NERV, at the moment she was helpless, waiting for Ritsuko to activate the Evangelion she waited within so she could help turn back the attack they all knew was coming.

Without the relay systems, and this deep within the geo-front, the radio was useless, so anything could be going on outside. Trying not to think about it didn't help, so instead, she mentally went over what she knew had originally happened next.

SEELE, after losing the fight for the MAGI system, had sent its military forces in: a combined assault on air and land. Tanks, Hovercraft, and soldiers were their primary forces, and only later did the Mass-Production Evangelion units arrive, being defeated by Asuka, before reactivating and destroying Unit-02.

Kyle winced at that thought. No, she decided, this time things would be different. They'd be facing Imperial units and three Evangelions, and none of them would lose power like Unit-02 had. Not with the modifications Ritsuko and Lieutenant Commander Cantrall had installed.

The timing was also altered, this assault moved forward to just after the battle with Armisael, instead of Tabris.

"Tabris..." Kyle mumbled, realizing there might be more than just Mass Production Eva's to be wary of.

"You know the final messenger?"

Kyle jumped, surprised to find himself once more within the mind of Unit-04. Or the shared mind, if what Armisael had previously stated was true.

"He's... umm... coming. I think. At the head of a hefty-sized army."

"Tabris is not one to lead, and there are none who would... do you mean humans?" She asked, shock evident on her face.

"Yeah." Kyle shrugged. "Tabris is Kaworu, the fifth Evangelion Pilot. Originally, he was supposed to come close to causing Third Impact before asking Shinji to kill him when he realized he was set up. This time, though..."

"You speak as if all this has already happened," the angel stated, confusion evident in her voice. Then she frowned. "And before you were torn from here, you insinuated that my siblings and I had been fooled."

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, the truth is, when Adam caused Second Impact, a recovery team captured him and froze him in his embryonic form and only recently brought him here. What you and the others would have found, if you had made it to Central Dogma, would have been Lilith, which would instigate Instrumentality. Not the Third Impact you all seem so dead-set on causing."

Armisael's jaw dropped open.

"It's true," Kyle continued, not bothering to pause and enjoy her incredulity, "SEELE actually caused Second Impact, and manipulated everything that's happened behind the scenes in order to bring about Instrumentality."

"And Tabris?" the angel asked, when she could finally speak again.

"Tabris is like Rei, a hybrid of Human and Angel that SEELE coerced into coming here. He knows what he is, though, and he thinks he's going to find Adam and be reunited."

"No! We have to stop him!" Armisael shouted.

Kyle's grin grew predatory. "'We' have to stop him?" He asked, smirking down at the Angel in the LCL.

"You... if what you say is true, then he has to be stopped," Armisael stated finally.

"Then you'll help me? Work with me?" Kyle asked, his mirth disappearing as he stared at the angel inquisitively.

"If you'll give me your word that what you say is true..." Armisael began, her head bowed as she stared at the surface of the LCL.

"You have it," Kyle replied, nodding.

"Then you have mine that I will work with you to stop Tabris," the angel finished, turning her face up to look at Kyle without the expression of hatred, disgust, or arrogance she so typically wore.

Kyle nodded, before pausing. "Tabris is being escorted by an army. He will not be alone, and we will not make it to him uncontested."

Armisael scowled. "The humans that get in our way have only themselves to blame; foolishness in their eternal arrogance," she growled.

"Chill, Armi. Remember: I'm human, too," Kyle pointed out, before holding out a hand to the Angel.

"'Armi?'" Armisael asked, looking momentarily confused.

Kyle shook her head dismissively. "Forget it. Do we have a deal?"

Those last five words were spoken flatly, and more quietly than usual, but despite that, in the infinitely expanse of Unit-04's mindscape, they seemed to echo ominously.

Armisael glanced around once at the reddish expanse around her, noticing the ripples in the water had grown into little waves, and she could actually feel small currents pulling at her robe. Looking up at the proffered hand, and the confusing human behind it, a brief flash of trepidation crossed her face, before she set her jaw and reached out to take it.

As their fingers drew close, there was a rumble in the distance, like thunder, and the LCL began to twist and roll, real waves appearing in the distance. When both hands clasped the other, there was a crack, like the universe itself had just broken in half, and the sea of LCL exploded upward, the only calm area as far as the mind could see a small 6-foot circle in which the two stood.

With a tug, Kyle pulled Armisael's figure out of the LCL, and the Angel set foot on the invisible surface keeping both above the fluid. And suddenly, Kyle was back in the Entry plug.

"-get out of here and hope for the best!" Kyle heard Ritsuko shout, the Entry plug alight as every system was activated and powered up.

"Oh... my... GOD..." Kyle said with awe, as she felt herself connecting with Unit-04 in a way that made all previous attempts seem like a fumbling man in the dark.

There was no video connection with the Doctor, but apparently an audio connection was active. "Kyle?" she asked, sounding very surprised to hear him. Moments ago, Unit-04's eyes had flashed, and suddenly the active sensors around NERV had started going crazy.

"I'm here, Ritsuko," the pilot replied, sounding somewhat pre-occupied.

"Doctor, his synch ratio is fluctuating around 150," Maya hissed, turning her laptop so that Ritsuko could see the screen.

"Did you... convince Armisael?" the doctor asked, warily, unsure what to make of what she could see on Ibuki's screen. The Sine wave Kyle's piloting typically produced was gone, the steady line in its place reminding her of the reports of Kaworu, and his ability to Synch at whatever level he wanted.

"We did. It's a temporary truce... but holy shit, if you could be here..." Kyle said, closing her eyes and letting the Eva's senses fill in for them. Smiling despite herself, she willed the Evangelion to head towards the Launch bay, awed at the ease with which it complied.

"I'm glad," Ritsuko replied, her voice conveying a large portion of her relief. "You just about shook this entire sector to pieces when your forcibly re-activated Unit-04... and you're still pumping out enough power to light up a small city."

"Sorry," Kyle replied, though he didn't sound sorry at all.

"Whatever. Try to rein it in until we can launch you to the surface. It's not electricity, but some of the systems in the control room started giving anomalous readings when you started up. Save it for SEELE," she ordered. In his apparently shocked state at the clarity of the mental connection to Unit-04, she assumed she could get away with ordering him around, if she were careful not to make it too obvious. Frowning, she wished idly that the MAGI were running; the multitude of sensors and analyzing algorithms would have definitely helped her to understand what had happened.

"On my way," Kyle replied, as Unit-04 made its way through the darkened interior of NERV, uninhibited and unhindered. On the way, Kyle finally came down from the almost euphoric high the synchronization was giving her and asked, "How are you talking to me?"

"One of your Stormtroopers came by and gave the Lieutenant and me a commlink," Ritsuko replied.

Glancing down, Kyle blinked in surprise. She was right, the radio was still dead. Instead, its Imperial counterpart, which had been disabled earlier, was now active, and receiving a number of held communications from both nearby and orbit.

"Commander?" Shinji's voice responded, sounding surprised. He'd been in Unit-01 for almost an hour and a half now, and had been falling asleep when the new voice had come out of the commlink. He'd spoken to Rei for a little bit, but that conversation had felt forced, and after being sent here by Commander Fuyutsuki, all he'd had to do was wait and speculate.

So it was a surprise when he heard Kyle's voice coming from the speakers. Keying up a video-link, he was even more surprised to see the Imperial Leader back inside an apparently functional Unit-04. He had assumed the Eva was out of commission, and had expected to be connected to the bridge.

Kyle glanced up at the new window as it opened, and nodded to Shinji with a smile before closing it back down. He didn't mean to be rude, but at the moment, they didn't really have time to chat, and if things went as planned, all three Units would be topside soon enough, anyway.

"It is good to see you've regained control of Unit-04," Rei stated a moment later, not bothering to open a video link.

"Good to be back in the driver's seat," the pilot replied glibly, before turning her attention back to Dr. Akagi, who was speaking on the Command Channel.

"How long was I out?" she asked, before looking at the list of various callers and available channels. While some were broad-channel communications between Stormtroopers, there was a data-link to The Nerve that was currently deactivated, and an incoming transmission from Jupiter's Thunder.

As she activated the data-link, Dr. Akagi responded, "You were out for about a half hour, this time. It started much like before, but then everything seemed to die down, and we were about to pull the plug, when the energy sensors started redlining."

"Oh," Kyle replied, as the uplink was established. The few screens that had remained blank suddenly came to life, as telemetry and radar tracking from orbit was delivered to the systems aboard. The channel reserved for the Pilots and the bridge which Shinji had called him on a minute ago lay open, and Kyle left it that way, before shutting off the private channel to the bridge. Finally, the Communications system was acceptably configured.

Now all he had to do was re-configure all the other systems that had been reset to their default settings when the Eva had been shut down. Knowing MAGI-Omega was monitoring the data feed, Kyle ignored the systems transmitting data about him and Unit-04, and activated external telemetry feeds. Tokyo-3 popped into existence on the screen, and she smirked as she realized the myriad stations had listened to Misato and were now uploading all their data to The Nerve where it was processed before being sent back down to Unit-04. There was a blurry patch to the south of Tokyo-3, however, and as she watched, it crept east and northward, beginning to encircle the city. "We're being jammed?" She asked when she realized what it was.

"That just started about two minutes ago. I think it's safe to guess what's coming next," a new voice cut in, and a second later Nabiki appeared, looking somewhat more awake than the last time Kyle had seen her. Behind the Admiral was the Bridge of the Jupiter's Thunder. Apparently Nabiki had made it aboard safely.

As Unit-04 entered the Launch bay, hundreds of figures could be seen running around, the entire room lit up by numerous floodlights that had been dragged in to ensure that nobody wandered into a no-pedestrian zone. Aside from the dangers posed by the Evangelions, there were literally dozens of AT-STs parked on the far side of the room, and as she watched, Kyle saw a pair of the two-legged vehicles step out of the formation against the wall and make their way towards the catapults at the back of the room, where all the catapults but three were occupied; if not by Units -00 and -01, then by a Scout Transport, each of which had a jury-rigged brace to keep it from collapsing on its trip to the surface.

"I can't say much about Imperial Forces down there, but we're getting prepared up here," Nabiki stated, drawing Kyle's attention back to the interior of the Entry Plug; before the Admiral could say anything else, however, a worried-looking Makoto Kino gently but firmly pushed the Tendo aside, to take her place onscreen.

"Hey Mako-chan," Kyle said softly, smiling at her through the communications link. Despite everything that had happened so far that day, just seeing her helped make things a little better, and from the relieved expression on her face, it was readily apparent she felt the same way.

"Hey, Kyle," she replied, her reprimand dying on her lips as she heard his heartfelt greeting. "How're you doing?"

Kyle sighed, glancing outside Unit-04 before stepping onto the remaining Eva Catapult. "It's been a busy day at the office," she quipped finally. On one of the interactive displays, he quickly indicated which exit she wanted the Eva to emerge from, before frowning when nothing happened. After a moment, however, the catapult backed up to the wall, the clamps set into the rail locking the Evangelion in place before launching all three Units to the surface.

"It's not over yet," Nabiki said, a new window opening to display her face, currently frowning as she looked at something before her. "That jamming field is still spreading, and Omega and SHODAN think it's going to encircle Tokyo-3. Contemporary Radar systems will be useless with that up, and even our Imperial systems will be somewhat affected."

Kyle sighed dramatically as Unit-04 finally emerged from the ground, the Unit's built-in Radar finally getting sensible returns. Glancing at the clear blue skies above Tokyo-3, the transformed human looked at his wife on screen, and gave her another quick smile. "Looks like I have to get back to work. Take care of things up there for me."

Makoto wanted to say more, but looking around at the officers on the bridge preparing for a full scale attack, she knew now was not the time. "Give 'em hell," she said, smiling back.

"No less than they deserve for trying to cause it," Kyle replied, scowling at the horizon for a couple seconds. Turning back to the image of his wife, she shrugged, before winking. "I love you, Makoto. Stay safe."

Makoto, aboard the Jupiter's Thunder, the ship he had named for her, smiled softly, before replying, "I love you too. Thunder out." As the transmission was terminated, Makoto summoned her henshin stick, before turning to the crew. "All right, everyone... It's about time for the battle to begin. We might not have to worry about being attacked up here, but that's no reason to be lazy. Signal all personnel to battle stations and bring the shields up to full. It's time to end the threat to this world once and for all."

As she spoke, the Officers around her straightened their statures and moved to comply with all the decorum they could muster. Lady Kino may have appeared as nothing more than an out-of-her-league college student when she wanted to, but right now, she was their commanding officer, and as they hastened to obey, the men and women serving under her and Lord Kyle mentally renewed their oaths to fight to the death to protect their leaders.

END PART 1

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Author's notes:

Wow, a little late, aren't I? Sorry about that. I have the second half outlined, but I'm still writing it, so expect another lengthy pause before I finish it. Hopefully this half was good enough to satiate everyone until I can get it out. While switching to Third Person had been my initial intention for both halves, sadly, my first attempt at writing the second half as such was so full of random information that it read almost like an instruction manual. While I still intend to use everything I planned, I'm going to have to revert to First-Person Perspective to avoid some of the hang-ups I kept hitting in my first attempt.

Once more, I'd like to thank my pre-readers for their diligent perusal of this half in all it's iterations, and without whom I'm sure you all would have had to force your way past some pretty horrible sentences...

Just one more upload to go, and I'm finally done with Eva.