Author's Notes: Rose -- heh, sometimes I forget what's in my head and what I've put in writing... I'll make an exception here and explain a little. I've never explicitly stated why sometimes the children all pop up on the beach, and sometimes only the one in control is there. Let's just say it has to do with the controller's mental state. In this case, Touji entered the resets, having become an Eva pilot (atleast, let's assume that's why he's there. I hate tacking myself down...). Since Asuka didn't know he had become an Eva pilot, he showed up by default the next time the Children visited the beach.

Chapter 25

"So Touji's taking the apartment next to Ayanami?" Asuka asked.

"Yep," Shinji answered, "Plenty of room for him and his sister there," he said, his hands on his knees as he sat cross legged against the elevator wall. He looked over as Asuka got up, took the telephone from its receptacle and wailed into it.

"Oh, come on, we're trapped here, and it's getting hot and cramped and uncomfortable! Someone help!"

"Jeez, don't over play it," Shinji muttered. Rei sat against the wall next to him, her head leaning against his shoulder, her eyes closed.

"All MAGI system computers have shifted to self-analysis mode." the speakers blared.

Misato paced back and forth in the control room next to the Pribnow Box.

"Where are they?? We should've started the autopilot test hours ago!"

"Have you confirmed it?" Fuyutski asked Aoba.

"Yes, I have." he answered. The monitor before them showed a pattern of red on one of the protein walls. "This is the part that was delivered three days ago. When I zoom in, I can see something like a stain. I wonder what it is?"

Shigeru, who sat on the opposite side of the bridge, turned his chair around, phone in hand.

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Children have been found." Fuyutski turned in surprise.

"All of them?" he asked.

"The three that were supposed to undergo the autopilot test. They were trapped in an elevator." Fuyutski raised his eyebrows.

"Well, send them to the Major." he grunted. "They're her problem now."

"I don't see why you have to be so pessimistic all the time." Asuka said, her arms folded across her chest, as the NERV personnel escorted them down the hall. "Or would you rather be launched naked in an entry plug into the middle of the forest?" the two escorts had long since decided that they were not being paid enough to try to puzzle out what must (to them) have been a very confusing conversation.

"I'm not being pessimistic," Shinji insisted, "I just wish there were a more... legitimate way."

The doors slid open, revealing the three Children and the two NERV personnel with them.

"Oh thank goodness!" one of them exclaimed. "They're all yours, ma'am." They turned to make their escape before they could be trapped into another confusing assignment. Misato turned at the sound, her hands on her hips.

"There you are!" she said angrily, "Where..." she was interrupted by an alarm going off and the 'alert' symbols which began flashing on several wall surfaces.

"What happened?" Ritsuko asked, whirling around. Asuka turned, giving Shinji a smile. Shinji rolled his eyes.

The three of them watched as the technicians around them worked frantically.

"It's destroying the water-circulation system of the simulation bodies!" Maya reported.

"Fire the laser quickly!" snapped Ritsuko. Seconds later the machinery swung into position and fired. Steam obscured the view for several seconds, then the beam was suddenly deflected by a faintly visible shimmer.

"AT-field!" gasped Misato.

"Impossible..." Ritsuko stared through the glass in shock. The simulation bodies were suddenly covered in what looked like orange mold, which began to pulse faintly.

"What is that?"

"Analysis pattern blue," Ritsuko answered, looking over Maya's shoulder. "That's definitely an Angel." With that, red 'Emergency' lights began flashing around the room.

"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir." Misato said into the phone, before setting it back in its receptacle and turning. "We'll isolate the box! All personnel evacuate!" Papers flew as everyone in the room ran for their lives. Behind them, the window began to glow with purple spots as stress fractures grew along the edges.

"Move it!" Misato yelled, pushing Ritsuko and the Children before her. Behind them, the hatches slammed shut just as the windows gave way.

The three made it to Central Dogma, where they watched the Angel blow past everything the technicians tried to do to stop it.

"I can't shut the power off!"

"The Angel's still invading," Maya said, looking over her shoulder at Ritsuko in horror. "It's reached Melchior." she turned back to her monitor. "Oh no. It's been taken over by the Angel! Melchior has been reprogrammed." Asuka looked at her monitor eagerly, watching the machine code scroll past.

"N...now Melchior's hacking Balthasar!" another technician reported. Shinji walked over to look at his monitor. "Damn, it's fast!" the technician exclaimed. Asuka looked over at Rei.

"I think this Angel's even faster than you!" she said with a mischevious smile.

"We'll see." Rei said quietly.

"Change the logic mode." ordered Ritsuko. "Set the synchro code to fifteen second cycles." As her command went into effect, the red squares representing the Angel's encroachment slowed dramatically.

"Guessing from the speed, we have about two hours." Shigeru reported, wiping the sweat from his forehead in relief.

Asuka, Shinji, Rei, Maya, and Misato watched as Ritsuko bent over an open floor hatch on one of the bridges of Central Dogma. Seconds later, the large box-like structure beside them began to rise with a hum. A complex snarl of pipes, machinery, and circuits became visible as the entire assembly rose to about three times its original height. Ritsuko removed a panel, and Asuka looked over her shoulder.

"What... are those?" Maya asked, from behind her. stuck to the floor, ceiling, and walls of the small space were countless pieces of paper with programming code on them.

"These are developer's notes." Ritsuko said, as she crawled in.

"Unbelievable." Maya exclaimed. "It's a hidden code... a hidden code for MAGI. It's a secret collection of techniques, isn't it?" Asuka gave Shinji a quick smirk, and he smiled ruefully. This was indeed the gold mine she'd predicted. While Ritsuko kept the Children busy helping program the self-destruct hack that would be delivered to the Angel, they had no trouble memorizing every single scrap of information inside the small cubbyhole. For now, watching the technicians manipulate the security protocols and backdoors was more important than beating the Angel as quickly as possible.

Kaworu released Iruel abruptly, having gotten the information that he needed from the MAGI databanks. There was no longer any need to retrieve Adam now. He had just found a more direct access. Let the Old Men wonder where I've gone, and worry. he thought. There has certainly been enough usury on both sides that this is justifiable. His expression turned grim as he prepared to make his way to the surface. They're partially responsible for this heresy, after all.

Rei got up. What was that? She walked towards a wall, putting her hand on it. With senses she didn't know she had, she reached out.

I know I felt something... withdraw.

She closed her eyes. A trace of something entered her mind.

We were promised peace!

Unconsciously, she stretched out a tendril of something towards the strange disturbance. She gasped. It's... She opened her eyes to find Shinji standing beside her, a worried look on his face.

"Pilot Ikari, I think I'm in contact with the Angel..." His eyes widened.

"Can you calm it down?" he asked wryly. She was not in a mental state that she could recognize his tone of voice, and so she tried to act on his suggestion.

I can bring you peace. she tried to convey. For a short while she wasn't sure if she had been successful, then,

A horrible entity is at war with us! the mental tone was that of weariness.

I can protect you. Rei insisted.

How? the demand was insistent, yet hopeful. Well, how could she protect them? Then an idea formed in her mind. She sent them a mental image. The answering riot of joy nearly overwhelmed her.

Try not to do much damage on the way. You will draw attention to yourself. She told them.

Yes... the voices spoke. then they added, ...Mother.

Rei smiled as something stirred within her. It had been a long time since she had experienced a new feeling.

Around them was a whirl of activity. Balthasar had been completely taken over, and Ritsuko desperately programmed the final pieces of the self-destruct hack. As before, Ritsuko and Maya managed to send it at the last second, clearing the MAGI of infection. As everyone else was busy whooping and congratulating one another, Rei collapsed against Shinji's chest. He put an arm around her to keep her from falling. Seconds later, he heard her murmur,

"I did it..."

In the Pribnow Box, the computer circuits formed by most of Iruel's nanites died. The Angel's core nanites, however, had already separated from the group and were making their way as fast as their little legs could carry them (and as fast as they could chew through walls) to the destination they had gotten from Rei's mental image. At one point the small machines accidentally broke into a corridor, and partially overran a technician's shoes. The technician wearing them happened to look down and see the small moving particles.

"Eyeee!..." he yelped, raising his foot and shaking it. The orange dust motes settled to the floor, rejoining their brethren, and went on their way. They chewed through the opposite wall, now knowing what kind of passages to avoid. The technician looked down at the small pinpoint holes in the opposite wall and shivered involuntarily.

What the hell was that?

Asuka stood and stretched the kinks from her back, then she noticed Shinji.

"Hey, what's wrong with Ayanami?" she asked. Rei picked up her head up off his chest and looked at him with hearts in her eyes.

"Thanks to Shinji I'm going to be a mother!" she said, happily.

"Wha-at??" Asuka yelled.

Shinji sweat-dropped, and Rei's cheeks tinged with pink as she realized how that had sounded. She looked over and saw Misato and Maya, their hands over their mouths, their eyes bugged out.

"Umm, could you reset things?" she asked softly, "That kind of came out wrong..."

"I ought to leave you two hanging." Asuka snapped, folding her arms. "You both deserve it!"

Ritsuko's dreamy voice drifted out of the cubbyhole,

"...mmm... Shinji's mind and Rei's typing skills..."

Asuka recoiled from the woman's words,

Gyaahh! No! Quick, reset! Reset! she frantically closed her eyes.

Author's Notes: Galos, I'm going to have to put you up for another medal (how many is that, now?). Not only was I able to use your joke, I managed to do it without possibly destroying the plotline by actually making her pregnant ;-)