Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion: 2nd Branch of NERV Story

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

It's time to continue on with my story. I wrote Episode 10 a while back and got me back into wanting to write more episodes. Although, I have a good idea of what this episode is about, I still have to work on it. Once again, I will be improvising and will be getting to the ending of my story. I will also have a surprise at the end of the series, which will depend on how you liked my series. This episode will probably be as short as episode 9, but I will do my best to entertain you like always and make up for the shortness of these two episodes with my final two episodes. I'm really looking forward to realizing the goal I have for this story. So, enjoy the episode as much as you can because I always want to make my readers happy.

Episode 11: All That's Needed Is Someone To Say "I Love You"

The weekend passes by quickly due to there being no synchronization test since Nero had just gotten out of the hospital and both pilots got to spent their weekend enjoying each other's company. During the same time, Jerry continued to make his jokes about the two, which kept on getting on Rivka's nerves. On Monday morning, the two children went to school, and once they get to their classroom, the two of them see Betty with Nero standing on Rivka's left while holding her hand.

Betty turns to face the two pilots while smiling, rushes towards them and shouts out in a joyful tone, "Rivka! Nero!"

Both Rivka and Nero grin at Betty without letting go of each other's hand.

Betty stands in front of them without losing her smile. "I've missed you guys!" She then glances down and sees that they're holding hands, which causes her to gasp with her right hand over her mouth for a moment. After that, the brown-haired girl puts her hand down and leans towards the two teens. "Are you two together?!"

Rivka and Nero briefly look at each other while lightly blushing and then revert their attention back to Betty as they simultaneously nod with a content smile.

Betty screams out of happiness with her hands clasp together and brought up to the center of her chest. That outburst makes all the other students look at Betty for a moment with curiosity as the brown-haired girl tries to calm down while asking with an excited tone, "How long have you two been together?!"

Rivka continues to blush a little while gazing at Nero out of the corner of her eyes and then sets her sights back onto Betty with a mild grin. "For a few days."

Betty's happiness increases as she's smiling and turns her attention to Nero with some curiosity joining. "So, is Rivka the one that you wanted?"

Nero smirks, contentedly nod at Betty as there's a small shade of red on his face and then focuses on Rivka. "Yes."

Rivka returns her attention to Nero while blushing even more and promptly kisses him on the lips.

Nero kisses Rivka back with his left hand on her right cheek while maintaining his hold on the blond-haired girl's other hand with his right hand.

Betty's filled with joy, puts her hands together in a gesture and places them near her chest. "Awe! That's so beautiful!"

Not long after that statement was made, the couple stop kissing one another while creating a very small space of separation and grin at each other.

Betty smiles again and says with a smart-ass tone, "Alright, love birds. Stop making a scene in class."

Rivka blushes a bit more with shock overtaking her expression and then hurriedly looks at Betty. "What do you mean by that?"

Betty points towards the other students who are watching them with a hint of arrogance being displayed. "Did you think I was the only one who saw your love-fest?" She giggles.

Rivka diverts her attention to everyone, turns bright red before getting very irritated and shouts with her hands clenched into fists while lowered to opposing sides of her person. "What are you looking at?!"

Due to Rivka's outburst, the other students quickly look away while trying not to laugh as Rivka continues to be irritated and mutters, "Freaking annoying bastards. They don't know how to mind their own business."

Nero moves his head towards Rivka and whispers into her ear, "Remember... Control yourself." He smirks.

Surprise appear's on Rivka's being as she shifts her attention onto Nero with red maintaining itself on her face and then says in a defensive tone, "I know that! I just can't help it!"

Nero walks up in front of Rivka while still holding her hand. "It seems like I'll have to help you out with that."

Rivka nervously nods at Nero with some of the redness on her face fading away.

Nero gives Rivka small peck on the German girl's left cheek and then smiles at her again. "Good."

Betty keeps smiling while now standing behind Nero. "Hey, Rivka."

Rivka peers at Betty with curious taking form without making Nero move out of the way. "What?"

Betty comments with a proud demeanor, "You know I was right."

Rivka blushes again and becomes extremely annoyed. "Shut up!"

Betty laughs while turning to the right and walks to her desk as Nero now stands to Rivka's left again with confusion brimming. "What was that about?"

Nervousness rapidly appears as Rivka faces Nero and waves both hands at the 7th Child. "Nothing! It's nothing at all!"

Confusion continues to dwell within Nero's mind until the black-haired boy decides to shrugs it off and lightly grin at Rivka. "Alright."

Soon after that, the two of them went to their respective desks as class started. The day continued on normally for the children, while in the 2nd Branch, there's a private conversation between Jerry and Isabel as they reside within the Commander's office.

Jerry stands in front of Isabel's desk while gazing at her as she's sitting down on the other side with a sly smirk after telling the Commander some interesting news. "What do you think?"

Isabel rests her back against her chair while grinning at Jerry. "What I think is why you took this long to tell me about the pilots' relationship?"

Jerry chuckles while planting his hands on the desk and mildly leans towards Isabel with a hint of skepticism. "Does it bother you?"

Isabel laughs a little with her eyes closed while briefly shaking her head and then looks at Jerry again. "No, it doesn't bother me one bit. I'm actually happy for them." She suddenly frowns with her gaze towards her desk, gets up from her chair after a few seconds of staring at her desk and turns around to face the giant glass that displays HQ. Afterwards, the Commander walks up to the glass and watches all of headquarter's personnel working while saying with a faint tone, "They deserve to at least have something normal like that."

Jerry momentarily cocks his head slightly to the right with concern being displayed and then sighs while shutting his eyes After that, the Major walks up next to Isabel and faces towards her with his eyes now opened. "You're right. It seems unfair that they have to give so much and not be able to be normal."

Isabel glances at Jerry before nodding in agreement and then reverts her focus back out the window until Jerry unexpectedly chuckles again. This causes the Commander to return her attention to Jerry while being a bit surprised before deciding to cross her arms with curiosity taking over. "What's so funny?"

Jerry leans against the giant glass with his left shoulder without taking his eyes off Isabel and smiles. "I just remembered what it was like when we were young."

Isabel blushes and instantly turns her back to Jerry while asking with nervousness in her voice, "R-Really?"

Jerry chuckles a little while lowering his gaze and sees Isabel's nicely shaped ass. After doing that, the Major sets his attention onto the back of Isabel's head with devilish smile appearing to display that he just thought of something inappropriate, gets closer to her and wraps his arms around Isabel's stomach with his head placed next to the Commander's head while caressing his left cheek against her right cheek. "You remember, right?"

Isabel blushes even more with her eyes deviating away from Jerry and places both hands on top of the Major's arms. "You're getting touchy. You haven't done this since we were teenagers."

Jerry maintains his hold on Isabel and closes his eyes again while saying with a soothing tone, "I remember this feeling as if it were yesterday. It wasn't so bad being with me, even though you kept it a secret that you dated a guy who's three years younger."

Isabel sighs before looking at Jerry out of the corner of her eyes with sadness resonating in them. "I'm sorry. I guess, I couldn't accept that I have fallen in love with a younger guy. Because of the way my friends and family were, I didn't want them to judge me for something I wasn't certain of."

Seriousness quickly appears on Jerry's expression while immediately releasing his grip on her and walks around the desk with both hands in his pockets.

Isabel hurriedly turns to Jerry with a distraught look on her face. "Although I was older, I was still just an immature girl who didn't realize she was ashamed of someone who was perfect for her!"

Jerry stops in front of the desk and faces Isabel again. "You know something interesting?"

Isabel just stares at Jerry with a hint of confusion overtaking her person.

Jerry grins at Isabel and says with a sincere tone, "I never stopped loving you. Sadly, you are my commanding officer and it would be unprofessional for any relationship to be established." He laughs softly while slanting his head back a bit with his eyes shut and returns his focus to Isabel. "But who knows... Someday we may be able to be together. I just hope that day will come really soon 'cause it's annoying to wait."

Isabel giggles while nodding in agreement. "Yeah."

Jerry breathes in deeply and turns away from Isabel. "Well, I got to get back to work." He then lifts up his right hand and waves. "I'll be seeing you later, Commander." Jerry walks out of the room.

Isabel watches the Major leave and then thinks while watching the exit, "I never stopped loving you too, Jerry."

With that thought, the day continues on until it ends with a couple of days passing by as the pilots are really enjoying their time together. It's now Thursday afternoon and there wasn't any fencing class either today or yesterday for some reason that wasn't revealed to the two children. Due to this, both are at the apartment by themselves as Jerry's working at the 2nd Branch. Nero's sitting on the couch with a long-sleeved yellow shirt that has a small cross in the middle of the 7th Child's chest and black jeans as he's doing his math homework with his music player on. Meanwhile, Rivka's speaking on her cellular with Betty as she's searching the confines of the refrigerator while wearing her green pajamas.

Betty asks Rivka through the cellular with a teasing tone, "So... What are you and Nero going to do?" She then giggles a little.

Rivka promptly turns red and defensively shouts out with her gaze to the cellphone, "Not what you're thinking!"

Nero turns his head to the left so he can set his sights onto Rivka with a nonchalant demeanor. "Anything wrong, Rivka?"

Rivka quickly faces Nero with an upright posture while still being very red and nervously responds to his question. "No. Nothing's wrong, Nero."

In the meantime, it can be heard that Betty's laughing her butt off from the other end of the phone call.

Nero nods with a light smirk taking form while not being able to hear Betty's laughter and calmly says, "Alright." He then resets his attention to his homework with concentration showing.

Rivka sighs out of relief, turns back around to look into the refrigerator while being fairly annoyed and whispers, "Why did you have to ask that?"

Betty laughs again. "Because since you two are alone, I'm curious of what you could possibly do. That's why I ask."

Rivka's annoyance continues as she softly says with a harsh tone, "Well, we won't do anything sexual if that's what you're trying to say! We both agreed that doing anything like that could change the relationship to a level we aren't ready for!" She then pauses for a moment before yelling out with a defensive tone, "And we've been only dating for over a week, so get those kind of thoughts out of your head!"

Nero briefly lifts his head up to stare in front of himself while being quite curious about Rivka's outburst, however, shrugs to himself to display that it isn't much of a concern and gets back to his work.

Betty calmly replies to Rivka while trying not to laugh. "Alright, Rivka. I get that nothing extreme will happen between the two of you, gee."

Rivka slams the refrigerator's door with her eyes locked onto the ceiling and yells out proudly, "Damn right!"

Betty giggles out of amusement. "Well, I have to go. I'll see you two tomorrow. Bye."

Rivka smiles while calming down with her eyes closed and lowers her head. "Bye." She then hangs up her cellular, opens her eyes while placing the cellular on the kitchen table, turns around without losing her smile and walks up behind the couch. After reaching the couch, the blond-haired girl folds her arms together while resting them on top of the couch and leans forward to look at Nero from his left. "Almost done?"

At that very moment, Nero closes his math book, swiftly puts away his papers and peers at Rivka with a kind grin. "I just finished."

Rivka continues to smile and leans forward to kiss Nero on the lips.

Nero kisses Rivka back before pulling back after several seconds and gives her a curious look. "It's interesting how confident you are with kissing me."

Rivka lightly blushes while licking her lips and mildly tilts her head to the left. "That's because I'm tired of hiding how I feel about you."

Nero's content to hear those words, however, shortly after that, the Japanese boy loses his grin while taking his eyes off Rivka with a somber expression. "I'm happy that I'm with you, but I don't know how long it will last."

Rivka frowns, walks around the couch to momentarily stand to Nero's left and sits on the couch with concern being noted. "Why do you say that?"

Nero locks eyes with Rivka. "I'm so use to pain that I'll always expect to be in pain by something. When I told you how I felt about you, I knew what I was getting into, but I didn't care. I just wanted to be with you."

Rivka happily smiles while trying to hold back tears and gently says, "Nero... I'm happy that you told me because I wasn't sure if I would've ever told you how I feel."

Nero gives Rivka a sad smile. "I know. The sad thing though is that I'm still worried about the pain I'll suffer through soon."

Rivka promptly grabs Nero's hands with both of hers while sadness appears and leans towards the black-haired boy. "Don't think like that. If you keep thinking like that, then you won't be able to stay happy with me."

Nero just stares at Rivka for a while before saying with an apologetic tone in his voice, "I'm sorry, Rivka... But how do I know that this happiness will last?"

Rivka takes a deep breath with determination taking over. "Because I promise that you'll always be happy with me as long as you believe that you'll be happy! I just need you to believe in what I'm saying and believe in me."

Nero's instantly astonished by Rivka's statement with his mouth slightly opened and thinks, "To believe in her?" His expression then changes to curiosity while thinking with his mouth shut, "She would be the first person that I would ever believe in." Nero drops his head to look down at Rivka's hands, which are still holding his hands, and thinks, "Can I actually trust someone other than myself?" The 7th Child ceases his train of thought for a few seconds until he suddenly grins while veering his attention to Rivka and confidently says, "I will."

Rivka's a little shocked by Nero's quick answer, however, smiles not much after that and joyfully shouts out while getting closer to Nero, "Really?!"

Nero nods with an honest look on his face. "Yes. I believe in you."

Rivka's overwhelmed with happiness and throws herself on top of Nero while kissing him on the lips.

Nero falls backwards due to Rivka jumping on him while being quite dumbfounded by her actions. As Rivka's on top of him, the black-haired boy presses his lips against the 6th Child's lips with his eyes closed and thinks, "I believe in you, Rivka. Hopefully, you can save me from who I am. If not, things won't end well for us."

The two teens continue to make out for several minutes, and afterwards, spend some time watching television together until it gets late. They both share a final kiss and go to their respective rooms as both go to sleep for a few hours, however, Rivka wakes up due to a bad dream that she just had.

Rivka frantically sits up on her bed, briefly looks around in the dark and then gets up to walk out of her room. The German girl doesn't waste any time going to Nero's door, stops right in front of it, hesitates a little before reaching for the door and opens it. Having done that, Rivka walks in while closing the door behind her and sees Nero lying on his bed. He's facing the opposite direction from Rivka as he's listening to his music player while the blond-haired girl gradually heads to the 7th Child's bed and lies on it with her back to Nero.

Nero slowly opens his eyes due to feeling the bed move and turns his head to the left with a tired expression. Not even a five seconds after doing that, the Japanese boy takes notice of Rivka lying behind him and is overcome with worry while removing his right earphone. "Rivka?"

Tears fall down Rivka's face as she yells with her voice cracking a bit, "Don't look at me!"

Nero's worry remains as he completely turns himself to face towards Rivka's direction. "Why?"

Rivka responds while still crying. "Just don't, Nero! I just want to lay here with you!"

Sadness joins in with Nero's worry and nods while gently saying, "Alright, Rivka."

Rivka doesn't say anything while trying to stop crying, however, has difficulty doing that. Then, Nero moves up close to Rivka and embraces her from behind while burying his head into the upper part of her back. This greatly startles Rivka as she snaps her head to the right and sees Nero with tears forming in her eyes. "What are you doing?"

Nero gazes at Rivka by positioning his head to the right of her head and whole-heartedly smirks at the blond-haired girl. "I'm here for you like you're here for me. I won't let you suffer alone."

Rivka's dumbfounded for a moment until happily smiling, loosens Nero's grip on her so that she can turn her body to face him and kisses her boyfriend on the lips. "Thank you."

After receiving Rivka's kiss, Nero shows pure content while grinning. "You're welcome." He then kisses her without letting go of his girlfriend.

Rivka passionately kisses Nero with her eyes shut and thinks, "I'm so glad that I have him here. This is the first time I've had anyone make me feel this happy."

Meanwhile, Nero stops kissing Rivka and watches her with a caring smile.

Rivka opens her eyes with confusion arising. "What?"

Nero replies without hesitating. "I love you."

Rivka's caught a little off guard but quickly smiles back at Nero. "I love you too." She then gives him a quick kiss on the lips again and closes her eyes while moving her head away from him a little. "I'm tired."

Nero gives out a short laugh. "Then go to sleep."

Rivka continues to smile while lightly nodding. "Okay. Goodnight."

Nero places his forehead against Rivka's forehead while shutting his eyes. "Goodnight."

Both Pilots go to sleep and that ends the night. The next day of school starts off normally for the pilots, however, at the 2nd Branch's HQ, it isn't going as usual. This is due to an argument between Jerry and Thomas involving the children's relationship. While they argue, William and Dana are silently watching as they're standing at Dana's post.

Thomas screams at Jerry while standing right in front of him with an immense amount of anger showing. "How could you let them be together?!"

Jerry replies with a fierce tone while being very irritated. "What the hell does that suppose to mean?!"

Thomas' anger increases with his hands tightly clenched to opposite sides of his being. "Pilots aren't suppose to be dating each other!"

Jerry responds while enraged by Thomas' statement. "Says who?!"

Thomas immediately answers with arrogance in his voice, "Says me! And I bet the Commander would agree! Do you actually believe that she'll stand for this?!"

Jerry confidently shouts out while pointing his right thumb at himself, "I already told her and she's fine with it!"

Thomas' shocked by what he just head while stretching out his left arm in a gesture. "What?! What can she be thinking?! Pilots don't need to be in relationships! All they need to do is fight and be our tools!"

Jerry gets really pissed off and suddenly punches Thomas in the face with his right hand, which results in the Captain falling down onto his back while holding his face in pain with both hands. After that, the Major yells out passionately while giving Thomas an intense glare, "Don't you ever say that again! If you do, I'll kill you!"

William walks up next to Jerry, puts his left hand on his friend's right shoulder and says in a calm tone, "Relax, Jerry." He then shifts his attention to Thomas with a serious look on his face. "This selfish fool will never understand your feelings and will keep running at the mouth, so just ignore him."

Jerry tries to calm down with his focus still on Thomas. "Unfortunately, you're right."

Thomas moves both hands out of his way of vision to look at Jerry while sitting up. "You think you're going to get away with this?! I'll have you arrested!"

Then, Isabel comes out of nowhere and stands to Thomas's left while giving him a cold stare.

Thomas sees Isabel out of the corner of his left eye and hurriedly rises to his feet while lifting his hands up in a gesture. "Did you see what happened?!"

Isabel maintains her gaze on Thomas with a serious demeanor. "Indeed. I saw and heard exactly what happened."

Thomas promptly shouts out with a stressful look taking over, "Well, what are you going to do about this?!"

Isabel glares at Thomas while facing him. "It's quite simple what I'm going to do."

Thomas just looks at Isabel with concern brimming.

After that, Isabel says without any hesitation, "You're fired."

Thomas's overcome with disbelief. "What?!"

Jerry veers his attention to Isabel and contentedly smiles.

Isabel replies with a commanding tone. "You heard me!" She then stands sideways so she can point at the exit with her left hand. "You're fired! Now leave or I'll have security escort you out!"

Thomas quickly becomes enraged with his right hand lifted up and clenched. "You can't do that!"

Isabel's eyes resonate seriousness while putting her hand down and facing Thomas again. "I just did."

Frank walks up next to Isabel and gives Thomas a stern look with his arms folded together. "Now, leave. Before we have you thrown out."

Thomas gets even more angry and screams out while pointing out towards everyone with his left hand. "You'll all regret this! I'll show you it was a mistake trusting Nero, the two pilots being in a relationship..." He then points at himself with his other hand. "And NOT listening to me! You'll all see!" Thomas turns and marches out of the room.

Dana quietly watches Thomas leave while staying at her post and thinks, "Poor, Thomas. He shouldn't have been so mean though."

Jerry walks up to Isabel with a pleased grin. "Thank you."

Isabel directs her attention to Jerry with a kind smile. "You don't have to thank me. I didn't do it just for you. I did it for the pilots." She then looks at Frank with a relaxed composure while placing both hands on her hips. "We don't need someone like that in NERV."

Frank cheerfully nods at Isabel with his eyes closed. "You got that right."

Isabel continues to smile while turning towards William. "However, now we are short a crew member."

William mildly laughs while crossing his arms. "Don't worry about that. I'll take over that position. I can manage the MAGI inspection from there."

Isabel nods with approval. "I'm glad to hear that." She then focuses on the others in headquarters. "Now, let's get back to work."

HQ's personnel sharply nod and are about to get back to work until a giant explosion occurs right next to the 2nd Branch.

As a result, Isabel sets her sights on Dana and shouts out with urgency in her voice, "What's going on?!"

Dana frantically types on the keys of her monitor and responds with a bit of panic showing. "I don't know! There was a sudden explosion on the east side of us!"

Jerry promptly says in a commanding tone with his eyes on Dana, "Try to figure out what's going on!" He then shifts his attention to the giant screen as it displays the outside of the 2nd Branch but there's nothing out there, which causes the Major to think with fear taking form, "Could it be an angel?!"

At the same time, on the west side of the 2nd Branch's facility, Thomas desperately searches for cover due to the large explosion and hides behind some bushes while trying to regain some of his composure. After doing that, the former Captain receives a call on his cellular while not knowing who's calling, picks it up and hears a man's voice.

The man says with a firm tone, "It's about time we had this talk, Captain."

A small amount of worry appears on Thomas' expression while staring at the ground with a crouched posture. "Who the hell is this?"

The man laughs in a menacing way. "Don't be concerned about that right now. There will be a helicopter heading your way in roughly ten minutes. It'll bring you to me so we can talk and will soon know who I am."

Thomas asks with nervousness taking over, "How do I know I can trust you?"

The man laughs again before replying. "Because I'm going to prove that you were right about Nero... And you'll get the opportunity to get back at everyone for doubting you. What do you say?"

Thomas' momentarily silent until smiling in a sinister manner. "That sounds good to me."

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I told you that it was going to be short like episode 9 *Laughs*. Don't worry though because the next episode will be quite interesting. This episode took me a while to write since I couldn't make up my mind about what to write. Plus, I wasn't in the mood to write that much. I'll be taking my time with the next episode, so you'll have to be a bit patient. I really hope you all enjoyed this episode and look forward to the next one.

That's it. Talk to you all later.