Chapter 9-In the Depth of Human Hearts

After the explosion which he could only assume was some sort of horrible flashback, Shinji opened his eyes and looked surprised that he was still in one piece considering he was inside a deranged, shapeshifting angel. All around him was red fluid that felt similar to LCL, but felt like arid, hot air in his lungs. All around him were thousands of grey cables which converged into a dense knot in the center.

"Dad…" He saw a forlorn Katsuragi aimlessly floating in the core fluid, looking numb.

Shinji swam over to her urgently and inquired, "Captain! Are you okay?"

She didn't look up for a long time, as she started to laugh. "I remember Dr. Kassab Anu from the Amundsen Scott Polar Research base. She and my father were always working closely together. I really liked her, and I felt bad that she was having a child out of wedlock." Her eyes looked at the surroundings but her tortured mind was far away, back at the South pole. "I thought it was odd that she was so nice to a mouth, bratty, spiteful teen like me."

Shinji looked distressed, "That…that was Rami's mother, wasn't it? That vision was from Antarctica?"

"Yes on both counts. Her older brother was Dr. Jadel Aarif, Rami's uncle." She finally looked up at her charge, "Shinji, what you saw was a massive crystalline geofront, just like the one under Tokyo-Three. It's where my father found the First angel, Adam. He wanted to dissect the giant alien to uncover a limitless power source, its S2 engine."

"S2 engine?"

"It's an angel's core, like the one we're floating in."

The terrified boy nodded with a white face, "Who's Rami's father then?"

Again she laughed, but this time tears seeped into the red fluid as she realized her reality would never be the same, "Ha! I can only conclude that Rami-chan is my…my half-sister. Oh God, what am I going to say to her?"

Shinji sighed softly, "I don't know what to say either, M-misato-san."

She gave him a half smile, "Thanks for using my given name at last, Shinji-chan!"

"Y-yeah." He blushed a bit, "Let's go get Rami-san."

"Agreed! We'll hash out the emotional crap later!" They both pulled themselves along the cables to the remnants of the entry plug, which looked like a shredded tin can that had been detonated from the inside.

Katsuragi called out, "Rami-chan! We're here!"

"It's all my fault! I'm sorry!" There was not a single voice, but an intermingled chorus coming out of the damaged speakers that had once been part of the entry plug.

"Rami?" Shinji looked all around. "I'm okay!"

The chorus of voices sobbed, "It's all my fault! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Shinji-kun! Leave me to die!"

Shinji reached the tattered pod and pounded on it, "N-no! I mustn't run away! I've been running away my whole life! Not once more!"

"But Ramiel has gravely damaged you both! My sin can never be forgiven! My mother seduced and then fatally wounded your father, Captain!"

Misato shook her head grimly, "You are not to blame Rami-chan as you were a helpless baby in your mother's womb! It was never your fault that your soul was fused to Ramiel's."

Shinji touched a cable within the tangled mess, "Come back to us. We-I-i need you."

One of the cables morphed into a slender brown hand and interlaced its fingers with the boy's. "S-s-shinji-kun. I'm so sorry."

"Ack!" Shinji's blue eyes widened, and he reflexively tried to pull his hand free.

Misato clasped his shoulder as hope flared up, "No! Hold on to her, Shinji!"

He fought down his anxiety attack and squeezed the disembodied hand although he was freaked out of his wits! A second hand and a pair of luminescent blue eyes morphed out of the wires. "I'm a fallen angel. I'm so sorry."

He took a deep breath and smiled slightly, "I'm your friend, Rami-san! Please don't be a hedgehog and pull away!"

Rami's head with spiny white hair and torso partly emerged from the tangle, tears filling her eyes, "Shinji-kun."

Shinji blushed furiously at her unnerving gaze but tried his absolute best to focus on his dear friend's face. He was succeeding in pulling her apart from her spiteful angel persona! However, he was shocked as she hugged him in a vice-like grip. He quickly hugged her back in relief. His short lived elation turned to horror as she pushed him back in the swirling core fluids, rested her delicate hands on his cheeks, and touched her forehead to his! Was she about to kiss him?

Six kilometers away Rei pulled the trigger, "Commencing shot!" The energy pulse from the shot from the particle cannon and a bright hot bolt hit Ramiel dead center and impacted thirty meters below the core exiting the wounded angel on the opposite side.

Rami shrieked as agony coursed through her entire body. The temperature of the core skyrocketed and both Shinji and Misato screamed in pain. The outer shell morphed wildly between random shapes as red blood gushed in a torrent out of the open wounds.

Hyuga gasped and cursed under his breath. "Damn! The shot just missed the core! Cannon fuses are exchanged. Recharge time thirty seconds!"

Thousands of shells rained down on the black angel, and no barrier stopped their arcing trajectories. Thousands of kilograms of matte black crystal fragments were blasted off the Fourth angel's shell and cascaded into the ocean below.

Standing behind Commander Ikari, Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki clenched his fist silently, ruing that one his precious student's daughter was about to die.

Aoba clenched his jaw, "Coastal substation is nearing capacity!"

"Hurry up," Ritsuko fumed.

"Doctor, there is a high energy reading from within the Fourth angel!"

Akagi noticeably paled. "Rei!"

In the cockpit, Rei looked with a quiet sadness as she saw her former friend wildly flail around. "Recharge in progress. Five seconds."

Shinji saw the bright pulse flare around them and gasped, "Rami, don't use your positron beam on Rei!" He clung to her body in desperation.

Her eyes flickered between blue and the normal brown, but she shook her head as she regained her senses. "O-okay!" A viewscreen reappeared showing her adversaries, and she shot out a conical crystal dart in place of the particle attack.

"Centrifugal cannon is recharged," Hyuga reported in triumph.

The blond doctor barked, "Rei fire now!"

"Yes Doctor."

Suddenly alarms in her field of vision alerted Ayanami to a hurtling chuck of black crystalline debris coming directly at her! She pulled the trigger, but the beam only nicked off part of the crystal chunk before it impacted with the cannon and Unit 00 knocking both into the floodplain below.

Ken screamed as the scaffold he was on nearly toppled over! After the dust cloud dispersed and the swaying stopped he gawked as he saw Unit 00 sitting on its rear atop the ruined substation with a cracked eye lens, thousands of black crystal shards littering the area, and the positron cannon in three pieces. He looked back out to sea in the angel's direction and he started to laugh uncontrollably. He realized that Unit A4 was amazingly awesome!

Gendo clenched his interlaced fingers in frustration. He fumed inwardly that nothing about this cursed angel ever went according to plan!

Aoba sighed deeply, "Crystal debris impact! Unit Zero has sustained right hand and optical damage. The positron cannon has been destroyed!"

Maya gasped, "Why did the angel cancel its beam attack?"

The bespeckled tech murmured under his breath, "The angel pulled its punch. Rami-san is still somewhere in there!"

"You son of a…" Ritsuko balled her fists. "Rei, get up! Go grab the Gatling cannon and shoot the blasted thing down!"

Ayanami's weak voice came over the speakers. "Y-yes. I..I am functional. I can still fight."

The Fourth angel shimmered and reformed into a bright blue octahedron. The incoming cannon fire started deflecting off its protective barrier.

A holographic viewscreen appeared to Akagi's left. Rami's face appeared with a determined frown. "This is Unit A4! Please stop the friendly fire!"

The trio of techs looked over to Akagi in stunned surprise.

The doctor barked, "You turned on us Jadel! You can't be trusted ever again!"

Misato gave a V-sign and winked as she appeared on the screen next to Rami, "Chill out Ritsuko! Shinji just tamed the wild angel! She's with us again!"

A pair of embarrassed teens' voices chorused next to her, "Captain!"

Commander Ikari coldly commanded, "Cancel first stage alert! Reclassify the Fourth angel as Unit A4."

"Yes sir." Ritsuko narrowed her eyes and bitterly ordered, "Stop bombardment! Unit Zero return to Eva socket V-14, followed by Unit A4. Cancel evacuation order."

Jadel breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm on my way, Doctor Akagi! T-thank you."

Ikari couldn't help but smile as he saw the lights of Tokyo 3 suddenly banishing the inky darkness on the viewscreen. He and Rami watched with awe as the defense towers smoothly retracted and massive skyscrapers directly over the geofront started to rise hundreds of meters into the air. There was a tense moment as the giant angel passed over the naval cordon, but the ships held their fire. After passing over the Wakaba wreck and over the mountains the outer layers dispersed and the red core quickly docked with the extended EVA transport carriage. After the clamps engaged, the mechanism shot down through the multiple underground armor layers and seconds later emerged into the brightly lit Evangelion storage cage.

Misato exhaled softly, "There. Looks like Rei is okay. I see Unit Zero looks a bit dinged up."

Shinji nodded as he saw Unit 00's blue and silver face armor and red eye lens were scored and cracked. Jagged pieces of black shards jutted out of the face plates at crazy angles. Any other damage below the neck was hidden by the millions of gallons of Tang-colored LCL. He felt a sudden twinge as he saw an uninjured Ayanami stand by the entry plug conversing with his father and much to his shock, both of them wore slight smiles!

The crane trundled past the fully repaired Unit 01, and gently deposited the sphere on the cradle. The captain draped her red jacket over Rami's torso to preserve her modesty. Ikari laughed slightly and blushed as he removed his shorts and handed them to his friend. The cables shimmered and vanished along with the core. The only physical remnant from their misadventure was the ruined entry plug. All three NERV combatants gratefully breathed in the cold metallic air.

"Angel-chan!" Jadel looked up and gasped as Ken gave her a bear hug and laughed as he spun her around. "You're back!"

Misato chuckled at the overenthusiastic tech, "Nice to see you too, Technician Ryujo!"

He laughed and set the petite girl down carefully in a nearby chair, "Captain Katsurasgi, I see congratulations are in order." He nodded and gave Shinji a friendly pat on the shoulder, "You too Pilot Ikari!"

Shinji pulled his t-shirt down to hide his white briefs. "We kinda half-assed it, Ryujo-san!"

The tech had a booming laugh. "Well, be sure to celebrate later! Don't worry Pilot Jadel. You'll have a new entry plug by noon today!"

"T-thank you."

A soft voice interrupted the boisterous reunion, "Jadel-san?"

Everyone turned to see the blue-haired girl in the ghostly white plugsuit looking sadly at Rami.

With Shinji's help, Rami got to her shaky feet and threw her arms around the waifish pilot. "I'm so sorry, Rei-san!"

Rei nodded silently and gently hugged her ally back. Both Ikari and Katsuragi were floored at the spectacle.

"Misato-san, when has you ever seen Ayanami-san hug anyone before?"

The captain shook her head in disbelief, "Never!"

By 0400h, after endless debriefings and a city-wide D-17 evacuation order being lifted, a weary Misato limped into her apartment. She smiled as Shinji, Rei and Rami followed her inside.

Rei quietly inquired, "Are we here to conduct further pilot conduct reviews, Captain Katsuragi?"

Misato gratefully popped open a beer and then started to laugh uproariously, "You're kidding right?" She had started the day being the legal guardian of Shinji, and ended it discovering that one her other charges was her younger sister!

Rami managed a small titter, "I'd say this is more of a sleepover than a meeting, Rei-san. We were supplied with futon mattresses by the nice NERV security men that gave us a ride."

"Ah. Understood, Jadel-san."

"I wouldn't mind being called Rami. We're friends after all."

Ikari flushed slightly, "She's right. I'm fine with Shinji."

Rei looked at them both with a slightly puzzled frown, "Why would consider me a friend? I broke my promise to protect you. I nearly killed you both."

Ikari shrugged, "It's not a big deal. You were just following orders. It could have just as easily been me in your shoes."

Jadel nodded enthusiastically, "I will never betray you again! I am Rami, not Ramiel!"

"She's right! We are the proud First, Third and Fourth children! Together we make an unstoppable team!"

The raven-haired lady stretched and yawned, "I'd bet the Second child would be making retching noises right about now seeing the love-fest going on in here."

Shinji turned around looking interested, "Really? How well do you know him?"

Misato took a swig from the beer can, and simply couldn't resist messing with her charge. "I've known the Second child for years! Sohryu has a higher sync ratio than even you Shinji! You're in for some stiff competition whether you like it or not when we meet up with the UN fleet and Eva Unit Two later this week."

"Wow," he mused in wonder. "Sohryu-san. A pilot that talented could really help out with the Angel battles! I'd like to get along with him."

Misato got an impish smile, "I'm sure meeting A.L. Sohryu will be quite the unforgettable experience!"

The boy looked thoughtful, "You know I came to this place only because father sent for me. I wasn't expecting anything good to happen."

Rei looked slightly surprised, "You don't have faith in Commander Ikari's work?"

Shinji squirmed a bit at the question as they all took seats around the table. "NERV isn't the issue. The Evangelions are awe-inspiring, and I'm frankly terrified to pilot one, but they are amazing. The problem is that f-father hasn't been kind to me in a long time." He looked at his comrades in arms seriously, "I'm terrible at friendships. Still all of you…I…well, you all have made an unbearable situation a lot more tolerable. Thank you for your support."

Rami beamed and blushed, "You support us too, Shinji-kun."

Katsuragi leaned on the table and smirked as she hugged a dozing Pen-Pen, "It's like we're one screwed up crazy family, aren't we?" She held her beer aloft, "Cheers everyone!"

The next morning the three children and Misato watched with solemnity over a vast and sterile graveyard with simple grey monuments as far as the eye could see as sailors in dress whites from the JMSDF fired salute after salute with elegant bolt action rifles. Thousands of sailors stood at attention to honor their fallen brethren from the JDS Wakaba. Katsuragi was dressed in a small black hat and a severe black dress trimmed in white with red cuffs and collar. Next to her the pilots were wearing jet black uniforms with thin gold highlights and green triangular clasps at shoulderblade level. Shinji was in black pants and the two girls were in black midi skirts and black tights. All of the children were wearing new black leather bomber jackets decorated with their nametags, NERV emblems, and cartoon decorations representing their Units on the back. Ikari's jacket featured a demonically grinning purple oni with eerie green eyes wielding a huge lance; Ayanami's caricature was a snarling dark-skinned orange-eyed Cyclops swinging a huge club; Jadel's figure was a cobalt angel with white wings, and spiny white hair shooting a lightning bolt from its outstretched arm.

Misato sighed softly as the soldiers returned to their positions. She hefted a small wreath of flowers and laid it on a small tripod. A dignified young man wearing an eyepatch and dressed in a pearlescent naval uniform with his left leg in a cast slowly limped over and saluted the Captain. "It's an honor to meet you in person, Captain Katsuragi! Thank you for everything you and NERV have done to save the world!"

"I'm just doing my job, Lieutenant Houjou. Fighting angels is my destiny after all." Her serious face softened a bit. "How are the Wakaba survivors holding up?"

The man looked sad but composed. "We all have nightmares about what happened. Each one of us asks every day why we were spared when so many of our friends drowned. I still have no idea why I ended up as the only surviving bridge officer." He steeled himself, "Still we have our duty. All but four of us requested to be assigned to a new destroyer together."

Misato empathized with his familiar expression of inner pain, and she reached over and squeezed his shoulder, "You're strong Houjou-san. Remember that NERV has your back. Let me know if there is anything we can do."

Houjou smiled with difficulty, "It would be a big help if I could thank the pilots on behalf of my crew."

"Sure."

They walked together until they were in front of Rei, "This is Ayanami-san."

The Lieutenant saluted, "It's a pleasure miss."

She managed a tiny smile, "Yes."

"This is Jadel-san."

His eye widened, "Are you the pilot of the blue octahedronal angel?"

Rami tried her best to not break down sobbing, "I-I can't say Lieutenant Houjou. I'm so sorry about what happened to you and your crew!"

He bowed deeply, "We are all in your debt! Thank you!"

"No need to t-thank me!"

"Finally this is Ikari-san, our ace pilot."

With effort, Shinji reached over and squeezed Rami's wrist to comfort the quietly crying girl. Impulsively she took his hand and clenched it tightly. His face mirrored his friend's misery, "Mister Houjou, I wish I could have done more."

"No. Your only job is to destroy the vile angels. You did just that." He looked seriously at the slightly built boy, "Our ship was expendable, but you are indispensible, Ikari-san! Call on us as backup anytime." He saluted and left a Wakaba flag signed by over two dozen crewmembers with the Captain.