"Pilot Sestina synchronization score has dropped dramatically since the fifteenth Angel, and in the dual synchronization test, she actually reduced Shinji's score." Ritsuko reported to Gendo. Standing in front of his desk always made her feel like she about to be disciplined: the dungeon-dark illumination, the sever headmaster pose, the imposing desk.
But they were not alone, so she pulled herself together. Later.
"Hm. Suspend her. We don't need defective pilots. Especially where she had just been an unexpected bonus, and is not actually critical to the scenario."
"Ah, commander – I think it would be better to call it a medical leave, for her to recover," the vice commander stepped forward from the background shadows that always cloaked Gendo's office. "That would be... more humane."
"What about pilot Sohryu? Her sync score has also fallen precipitously."
"She may still be useful, but we should activate another plot, in case she continues to deteriorate."
/\ PoC /\
Shinji sat at the dinner table alone. Misato hadn't even bothered to call to say she would be late. And he had no clue where Asuka was. He still hadn't worked up his courage to talk to her. But he really needed to.
He went over to the computer and called up the class directory. "Hello, Hikari?" He dialed the Horaki household.
"One sec, I'll get her." A young girlish voice replied before calling into the distance, "Hikari, your boyfriend is on the phone!"
Shinji waited in embarrassment for several minutes, until finally, the breathless response came, "Toji?"
"No, it's Shinji. Is Asuka there?"
"She left about an hour ago. I don't know where she went. I'm kinda worried about her – she was very quiet. Did something happen between the two of you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it used to be that all she talked about was you. Then, a couple of weeks ago she tells me that the two of you are dating, but not to let anybody know. And now – nothing."
"I don't think we were that serious."
"Maybe you weren't, but she was," came the stern reply. "You need to talk to her."
"I know. That's why I am looking for her."
"I will let you know if she calls."
The next day, Asuka wasn't in school. Shinji resolved to go look for her. As school let out, Inia texted, 'are we going to hang out?'
'Sorry. no. I have something to do.'
He felt bad - they hadn't spent much time together in the past couple of day, but this was important. Also, whenever he saw her, he remembered how much her presence hurt Asuka. It was like he was remembering Asuka's emotions, especially her pain.
/\ PoC /\
Asuka sat in the bathtub of the condemned building. It had been badly damaged in one of the earlier battles, and part of the wall was torn off, so she could see the skyline from her spot.
'Nobody gives a damn about me.' She again contemplated the shards of broken mirror laying on the sink. They were very jagged.
/\ PoC /\
Inia gave up – this was the third time she'd called Shinji, but he hadn't picked up.
Her head still throbbed from that telepathic attack, and her empathic sense was stunted. It was like she had sat in front of a jet engine – she could barely 'hear' anything. It was scary. She didn't know what people's moods were. She sometimes couldn't even tell when somebody was approaching her. She had spent the first couple of days after she was released from the hospital hiding in her room. But she was coming to terms with it a little now.
But Shinji was ignoring her, and that was scary in a different way. She wasn't certain where the other refugees from BETA earth were. Cryska called, but she was still in Geneva.
She hadn't realized to what extent Shinji had become the anchor in her life until he wasn't there.
And now, she was on medical leave. It was like all of her moorings to the outside world were slipping free, and she was a ship that had come adrift.
"Um, hello? Are you Inia Sestina?" Inia whirled in surprise to see a white haired boy smiling at her.
/\ PoC /\
"Rei, Have you seen Asuka?" Shinji asked as the quiet girl as they left their latest training session.
Rei paused and nodded, "Yesterday, on my way home, she passed by near apartment." and gave her fellow pilot the address.
"Thanks," Shinji walked off quickly.
/\ PoC /\
Shinji raced through the desolate streets. This part of Tokyo-3 had never been fully completed, and after the damage it had sustained from the battle with the fourth Angel, it had been completely abandoned.
The young plot wasn't certain how he expected to find Asuka – he really hadn't thought that far ahead. He just knew that he had to find her and help her.
/\ PoC /\
"How do you know who I am?" Inia asked guardedly. It was really uncomfortable talking to somebody she didn't know with her emapthy not working - she had no sense of this person at all.
"Your famous. I saw a news article about your rescue from the Beta Earth, and so I really wanted to meet you," He held out his hand to shake, "I'm Kaworu. I just transferred to Tokyo-3 because of work."
"Oh. It is nice to meet you" Inia recovered some of her usual cheer. "Do you know your way around the city? I could show you around." Meeting this boy might actually be a good thing: keeping busy would help keep her mind off of her problems.
"I would like that."
/\ PoC /\
Shinji was just staring out the second floor balcony of an abandoned apartment building in the forlorn hope of seeing Asuka when his phone went off. It was another Angel. 'Why don't they stop.' Shinji was frustrated. The Angels just wouldn't give them any peace. He had important things he had to do. He had to rescue Asuka. But instead, he had the Angel to deal with.
As he called in for a pickup by Section Two, he asked the operator, "Do you know where Asuka is?"
"Sorry, no – her cell phone is back at the Katsuragi apartment, but she is not there."
Shinji shrugged. He wold have to deal with once crisis at a time.
/\ PoC /\
Inia looked on as Kaworu took the call on his cell "I have to go. I really enjoyed our time together, and I hope we can do this again." The two of them were in downtown Tokyo-3. It was less crowded than it used to be, as many people had moved away due to the Angel threat, but a surprising number were willing to risk it, for the jobs. But as a result, it was a very young city, with few families except those of senior NERV staff present.
"Yes, we can get together sometime again. Where are you going? Maybe I can go with you?" Inia asked suspiciously. Kaworu was nice, but there was something off about him. While she was having a hard time sensing anybody empathically right now, he was a complete blank, like he wasn't there. That was the first time something like this had happened, and she was curious as to why. Was it her damaged sense, or did this boy have a telepathic ability as well? She hadn't asked, as she wasn't certain she wanted to reveal that much of herself to him.
"I wasn't completely forthright with you – I am a pilot for the Evangelion program as well. I just wanted to enjoy your company without having all that baggage involved." He smiled disarmingly.
Inia nodded understanding. It was hard to stay suspicious of the easy going guy, "Oh, ok. I'll ride with you to NERV."
/\ PoC /\
As the three pilots gathered in the command center to be briefed, Misato arrived looking slightly rumpled. "Rei, Shinji, please greet Kaworu – he was just added to the roster as a reserve pilot. I apologize for the rushed introductions, but with Asuka missing, we will have to move him up to active status right away."
"He's going to be piloting Unit 02?"
"I would prefer to be the copilot in Unit 01," Kaworu volunteered.
"Sorry, but without practice, that could end up causing more harm than good." Misato countered, "besides, we need you in Unit 02." She switched on the display. "This is another angel that appears to just be hanging there in the sky. We will advance cautiously. Ritsuko has installed dampers into the Evangelion's armor that should prevent a repeat of the sort of telepathic assault we had last time." She hoped. Ritsuko had admitted that she wasn't exactly certain that it would work. It did block the A10 connectors, but those were like a squirt gun compared to the fire hose the Angel had used.
/\ PoC /\
The three Evangelions moved, staying under cover as they advanced. The Angel glowed, and it seemed like there was a faint hum coming off of it as it hung - a giant white ring, or possible an ouroboros - directly above the heart of Tokyo-3.
"On the count of three, all Eva open fire" Misato began , "One, two.."
The Angel split apart into a coil and darted down like a snake, spearing into Unit 01. Or at least it tried to, but Shinji threw himself to the side, so it brushed by. But before he could recover his feet, it whipped around and attacked again.
Shinji managed to get Unit 01's hand between his face and the Angel, but the thing latched onto his palm and coiled around his arm. Shinji screamed in pain as he dropped his rifle and scrabbled for his progressive knife.
Rei charged, her cumbersome sniper rifle at the ready, while Unit 02 tried to grab the other side of the quickly lashing Angel.
"Get closer to Unit 01," Misato ordered Kaworu. "It's not moving as much there"
Both Eva converged.
Shinji got his progressive knife out and jammed it into the thing in his palm.
Just as the other two Eva got close, the Angel released its hold, darting at Unit 00, which wasn't as fast as Unit 01 had been. The Angel attached itself to prototype and now it was Rei's turn to scream in pain. Vein-like rivulets pulsed on the Angel and into the Evangelion, like they were injecting something.
"Unit 00 is contaminated." Shigeru proclaimed.
"Deploy anti-bodies to counter!" Ritsuko commanded.
Shinji lunged for the Angel, but the other (free side) smashed into him, piercing his shoulder.
Shinji cut at it with his knife. "Kaworu! close in and kill it!" Shinji yelled.
The Angel realized that it was trapped, and it released from Unit 01, but Shinji's free hand grasped onto it. The Angel was still strong enough to jerk the Eva hither and yon, but its motion was greatly restricted.
"Contamination is still spreading. It is compromising the neural link"
Finally, Unit 02 managed to grab the middle of the snake-like thing, but it seemed like Kaworu wasn't certain what to do next.
"Stab the core," Misato commanded.
Unit 00 was now covered in bulging veins, and they had started to creep up Rei's body as well, up to her face.
Finally, Kaworu stabbed the Angel, and it collapsed in on itself, like a balloon that had been stuck with a needle.
"Everybody ok?" Misato asked.
"Ma'am, Unit 00 is still contaminated, and the contamination is spreading. Some part of the Angel must still be alive inside." Maya said breathlessly.
"Neural links are collapsing!"
"Has the contamination spread to Rei as well?" Gendo asked from up on his balcony.
"I'm not certain, sir, but I suspect it has."
Gendo thumbed on his com. "Rei, how are you feeling?"
"I am in pain," came the gasping response, "And I.. I am not certain what I am seeing."
"Rei, I need you to concentrate. " Gendo spoke intently, leaning close over the microphone, "Activate the self destruct."
"What?" Shinji yelped, as Unit 01 staggered back to its feet. "Don't do it. Eject. I know we were never close, but I value you as a friend. If you die, I will miss you. Eject now!"
"Rei," Gendo continued calmly. "pull down the lever and slide it to the left. Now flip the three switches. Do it now."
"Yes, sir."
"Charges primed," announced Makoto in a detached voice. He almost couldn't understand what he was saying. "Self destruct in three seconds"
"NO!" Shinji staggered towards Unit 00, before he was tackled by Unit 02, which raised it's AT field.
BADOOM!
Unit 01 struggled to get up, "You murderer. We're all toys for you. You don't care, not even about Rei. I'm going to kill you. You bastard!"
"Ritsuko, Force-eject the third child"
The entry plug shot out of Unit 01, barely missing Unit 02 before deploying a parachute, to slam into the ground. Much of the area around it had been decimated by Unit 00 explosion, destroying any building that had not been lowered in Tokyo-3.
"Arrest the Third Child for insubordination and threatening a superior officer."
/\ PoC /\
"Do you know if Shinji is ok?" Inia asked. She and Kaworu were sitting on small boat dock over the lake, dibbling their feet in the water.
"He will be, the commander will let him out of the brig soon. That is one thing I have observed – the commander may seem harsh, but he is doing what he believes is in Shinji's best interests."
"Really?" Inia looked skeptical. She had 'felt' the commander, and he was all sharp edges and hard surfaces. He hadn't struck her as very caring, but she had only met him in passing once. And maybe Kaworu was more reliable source of information than her memory.
Inia kicked he feet in the water, enjoying the sensation. She felt very disconnected right now. Piloting had been her life, but now that she was on medical leave, she had no connection to the outside world. She wasn't enrolled in school: She hadn't had an official education past primary school - Cryska used to tutor her privately, but the Russian command didn't see the need for her to have an education beyond piloting TSFs - and she barely knew anybody at NERV, having been working there for a very brief time before her medical leave. It was like she was living in a bubble.
Cryska was one of her few connections left, and she wasn't certain when she would be able to come visit.
"I spoke to Ritsuko – she said that you were going to be tested again at the end of this week, to see if your ability to sync with an Eva had recovered." Kaworu suspected it had become more pressing with Shinji being in the brig.
"Yeah." Inia brightened. "Let's go to the mall, we can get some ice cream there." Hanging out with the strange teen had become the high point of her otherwise flattened emotional landscape.
As they entered the crowded mall, Kaworu mentioned, "despite how many people there are here, each person is on their own. It is remarkable how isolated people can be, even in a crowd. It would be nice if everybody could lower their barriers and join together as one."
Inia looked surprised, but then nodded, "Yeah. I feel that way too. Back on my Earth, what you call BETA Earth, people really didn't reach out to one another either. Even though all of humanity was fighting against the BETA, our governments were still scheming against each other, trying to get an advantage."
Once they go their ice cream, they sat on a bench and watched the people stream by. Since the mall was close to the school, a lot of teenagers were in the crowd. 'I imagine that some of these are Shinji's friends.' Inia realized that she couldn't identify Kensuke or Toji or any of the other people Shinji had mentioned in their conversations.
/\ PoC /\
Shinji looked up as the door opened on the dank, ill lit room. "Commander Ikari says that you are free to leave." It was Misato, "but you are permanently suspended from piloting." Given that it came from his father, Shinji suspected the 'free to leave' actually referred to NERV, or possibly all of Japan.
"I convinced the Commander not to fire you, so there is still hope." She smiled, but it lacked her usual cheer.
"I don't really care about that right now. I think we need to find Asuka." Shinji had spent the time while imprisoned dwelling on his personal failures, and Asuka was at the top of the list. He was supposed to help her. He actually kind of liked her, but instead she was depressed, hiding from people somewhere in the ruined part of Tokyo-3. And it was his fault.
Misato nodded "I'll help. I just went off duty." As they headed up to the parking garage, she added, "I feel kind of responsible for what's going on with Asuka. I should have paid more attention to her, to both of you, instead of doing my own thing." That being her code for spending all of her nights with Kaji. Misato pealed out of NERV, heading to the section of Tokyo-3 that Section 2 thought Asuka might be haunting.
There was a silence in the car for a few moments before Shinji quietly contradicted her, "I don't think it's your fault. It's mine. I don't know if you knew, but Asuka and I, we started dating back a few weeks ago. But then I ran into.. an old friend, and we really hit it off, so I kind of broke up with Asuka."
This was a lot for Misato to process, so she went for the most relevant part first, "How did Asuka take it?"
"Um, I didn't really tell her." Shinji looked down at his hands in embarrassment. "I was planning to, but she disappeared."
"Hmm," Misato kept driving. "Who is the girl? Inia?" When Shinji didn't deny it, she continued, "How is she a 'old friend', when you met her for the first time a couple of weeks ago?"
Now it was Shinji's turn to silent. Finally, he whispered, "Don't tell Ritsuko, but Inia is a telepath. And she somehow linked with me when she was in her world, and we started talking. We talked almost every day since last summer."
"That's why the two of you had such a high sync score in the Eva, together." The weirdness of the revelation didn't faze Misato – it was no stranger than anything else going on around NERV, and it finally made a lot other stuff make sense.
"Yeah, but it's weird – since she came to our earth, we only can communicate telepathically in the entry plug."
/\ PoC /\
"Asuka!" Shinji yelled. It was his third day of searching, and it was starting to get dark now. Misato had been able to help search that first day - the following morning she had to go back to work. But he kept going from building to building. This one was promising - the rubble was disturbed. He pushed his way in, following the tracks up to a second story bathroom.
"Asuka!" He was surprised to see that there was actually somebody there.
The redhead turned to face him from her seat inside the empty bathtub. "What do you want?" the voice didn't have any anger in it. It didn't have anything in it.
"I was looking for you. I looked all over." As Shinji stepped in and enveloped the girl in a hug, she stiffened in shock.
"You came all this way to tell me you were dumping me."
"'No. I want to make it official . We'll tell everybody that we are boyfriend and girlfriend." His own preferences didn't matter. Asuka needed him. And she was a good person.
As Shinji pulled back to look at Asuka, he realized that his shirt was covered in blood."You're bleeding!" He realized that there was a deep gash on her arm that was oozing blood.
"I cut myself." Asuka explained.
Shinji pulled off his button down shirt and tore a strip from it. "Apply pressure there," he wrapped her arm tight. "Hold it in place, I'm going to call an ambulance."
"No. I'm not leaving."
Shinji lowered the phone.
"Ok."
"Ok?" Asuka asked.
Shinji sat down, leaning against the outside of the tub, "In that case, I'm going to stay here too." He had taken responsibility for Asuka back when they first met, so he was going to see this through. No running away.
/\ PoC /\
It was full dark as Inia and Kaworu sat down to have dinner. Inia hadn't planned to spend all day with this guy she barely knew, but he was very easy to talk to (and she had discovered that she hated being alone). He was very calm, and he had a positive outlook. Hanging out with him was almost like having her empathic sense back. Which was why she had invited him over to her apartment to have dinner. It was just take out – she wasn't much of a cook.
"Thank you for the meal. Eating with others truly is a pleasure."
Inia smiled. "It's nice to have company." She felt conflicted. Despite how easy and pleasant Kaworu was, something about him still felt wrong. Maybe it was just that he wasn't Shinji. "It's getting late, and I want to call it a day, if you don't mind."
"I was hoping I could stay the night."
Inia's smile faltered. As a soldier, Inia was familiar with the relaxed sexual mores of many of her colleagues, but this was not her. "I am sorry, I am not interested in you like that," she replied brusquely.
"I apologize," Kaworu explained breezily, "You misunderstood a simple request for companionship as something else. There would be no harm in it."
Inia smiled and showed him the door. "I do not know what you intended, but I think you should go now." That one moment had crystallized something in Inia's mind. He was too pushy, and his superior attitude was not appreciated. Shinji would never do something like this. It was with a restored sense of self that she closed the door behind the white haired teen.
Just as the door to her apartment clicked shut, the door in her mind clicked open: her empathic sense surged back with her restored confidence. Inia's knees almost buckled. She hadn't admitted it to herself, but she was scared that if she was able to sense emotions again, that she would get hurt, like with the 15th Angel. But the alternative was worse.
As she stood there, allowing all the sensations wash over her – it was like running her hand over a bunch of objects, feeling them – furry and warm, or hard and smooth – when she sensed an abnormality. She had felt it only once or twice before.
Like touching a hole where there should have been an object.
An Angel. And it was close by.
Inia grabbed her phone and ran.
/\ PoC /\
"So this is what it takes to get you stay with me." Asuka whispered, staring at out across the city from the bathtub.
"No, I.. I do like you, and I do want to be with you."
"Liar. You love your white haired alien girl. The one you piloted with."
"I.. Inia is a friend. And I do like her. But it wasn't fair of me to abandon you just because I'm friends with her... I have a responsibility.. I promised I would be there for you. So I will."
Asuka finally turned and looked towards Shinji. She could only see part of him, reflected in the broken mirror above the sink as he sat on the floor leaning against the tub. "Are you?" She paused, "Are you going to stay with me no matter what pretty girls show up, or how infatuation strikes?"
"Yes."
"Go away. I don't want you."
"I don't care."
"I don't want somebody who sees me as a burden, as this pathetic girl that they need to be responsible for."
Shinji opened his mouth, but he couldn't figure out how to articulate what he felt. So he continued to sit.
/\ PoC /\
WHOOP!
WHOOP!
WHOOP!
The alarms were blaring, and the staff in the command center went scampering for their stations. "Ma'am, we have a blue signal on base!"
Misato spun around and ran to peer over Makoto's shoulder, "What? Where?"
"Not certain – the sensor aren't designed to be that accurate inside the geofront.
"Call the pilots!" Misato commanded. "Where are they right now?"
Maya pressed a few buttons, "Rei is still in intensive care. Asuka has not reported in – her cell phone is at her apartment. Shinji has not reported in. His cell phone is turned off."
"Why don't we have any better way of recalling the pilots?" Misato fumed. "Send Section 2 to Shinji's last known location."
"I've located the blue signal – it is heading down, towards Terminal Dogma."
"Close all intervening bulkheads, buy us some time!" Misato ordered.
"Major, Let me try." Inia ran in, out of breath.
"Her sync scores were negligible after the incident with the 15th angel," Ritsuko reminded Misato.
"We don't have a lot of options here." Misato turned back to Inia, "Suit up. You're on."
/\ PoC /\
Shinji was leaning back against the tub when he felt a sense of urgency from Inia. It didn't have any words, just a feeling. 'I wonder if she's in the Evangelion?' Shinji turned his phone back on. "Huh. Hey, Asuka, there is another Angel attack. Misato called for us to report in."
"So?" Asuka paused, and then added, "Why don't you go. You're the responsible one."
Shinji sighed in exasperation and rubbed his head, "Asuka, we both need to go. If we don't stop it, it could lead to the end of the world."
Suddenly, Asuka was yelling "Maybe I WANT to see the world end. Have you considered that? Let it all come crashing down!"
"I want you to pilot with me. In unit 01."
Asuka paused, before giving a weak laugh, "that's the lamest pick up line I have ever heard."
"Should I make the call?" Shinji held up his phone as he looked questioningly at Asuka.
Asuka sighed and stood up. "Do it."
/\ PoC /\
Inia fidgeted in her plug suit. She never did like them – they weren't padded like her flight suit, so she could feel every bump and cranny of her pilot chair. (Well technically Shinji's pilot chair). Which was probably the point, but still. The LCL began to pour in, and she had the usual moment of panic before she got control of herself.
"Unit 01 activated and ready to go."
"Her sync is back in the mid 60's." Ritsuko pronounced, "Whatever happened with the 15th, she's gotten over it."
"Pilot Sestina, head towards the back freight elevator. That should bring you most of the way down.
"I am moving to intercept," Unit 01 walked over to the specified elevator shaft. It had a bulky platform – it as obviously not one of the high speed elevators used to launch the Evangelions to the surface - and it was surrounded by the detritus of Evangelions: sections of armor, a case of progressive knives, ammunition, etc.
"Major, raise the elevator above the floor level," Inia commanded.
As the elevator went up, Unit 01 used its progressive knife to cut a length of cable from a spool that was sitting nearby. Once the platform was high enough, Inia looped the cable around the main support column of the elevator and jumped into the shaft. Unit 01 slid down in a controlled free fall.
As soon as she landed, Misato broadcast. "The Angel is to your left, right by the doors to Terminal Dogma." Her voice came in staticky, broken, as the transmission was bouncing around inside the rocky corridor.
Unit 01 turned and ran through the Evangelion sized tunnel. As it did, all communication to the surface was cut off. The tunnel came to an abrupt end at a human-sized door that was far too small for the massive Eva. Ina could still sense the Angel from the other side.
Unit 01 pulled back and smashed through the wall, into a giant chamber dominated by ornate double doors. They appeared to be made of some bronze colored metal, with an intricate knot-like pattern carved along the edges, and the center panels dominated by what looked like a tree made from intertwined bodies. As strange as that was, Inia was a trained soldier, so she didn't stop to gawk.
"Hello," Hanging at head height to the Evangelion, in front of the doors, was Kaworu. "I see you came."
Inia stopped in shock. She could tell that this was the Angel. "Who are you?" Inia demanded. Kaworu had seemed a little strange, but nice. How could he be here? "Why are you doing this?"
"'This?' Do you even know what 'this' is?" He asked mildly. He gestured, and the doors began to slide open with a complex musical tone, "I will trigger paradise. All people will be joined as one. There will be no more pain, no more anger, no more confusion. Is that not what you want? Isn't that what you seek to have with Shinji?"
Inia stops, confused. Kaworu floated into the room. It was one shock after another. The bottom of the huge grotto was filled with LCL, which was dripping out of a giant, seven eyed humanoid that was pinned, crucified, to the wall with giant spears. Another Angel?
"What the..?"
"This is Adam, and.… oh." Kaworu stopped, momentarily abashed. "Actually, this is Lilith. But that does not greatly alter anything. I will bring an end to everything. To suffering, to anger, to time itself."
"No!" Unit 01 stepped into the LCL and grabbed Kaworu. The Evangelion's hand wrapped around his entire body, leabing just one hand free.
"No? But what about joining with Shinji?"
"I... I want to be with Shinji, but not like that." Inia replied tentatively. Kaworu was making everything confusing. Or maybe she had been confused from the very start. With the way her relationship with Shinji had begun, she never really had to think about what it was, or where it was going. "Each person being separate is what makes people interesting."
Inia decided: their telepathic rapport was enough. "If I was that close with everybody, then it all becomes meaningless. We would all be the same." Unit 01 tried to pull Kaworu out of the room, but he did not budge.
"Having observed you Lillim, I suspect you may be right. But I have a duty to my brethren." He shrugged. "If you want to stop it, you will have to kill me." He dropped his AT field.
Inia looked appalled. He spoke of dying so casually. And with the Eva, she could end his life with a slight gesture. But even if he was a little strange, he was still a friend. The idea of killing him like that, like a fly, was nauseating.
Kaworu reached out towards the crucified giant and closed his eyes. The spears began to vibrate loose. The giant's left hand started to reach towards Kaworu.
Unit 01's hand closed spasmodically, crushing the Angel.