Chapter 51: Forceful Embrace

In Antarctica, an aircraft carrier was travelling through what use to be the frozen land at the South Pole. Instead, large isolated parcels of ice floated on the sea. Instead of the cool blue, the water had turned into a rusty red. Both Commander Gendo and Sub-Commander Kozo were on the flight deck staring out in the direction the ship was travelling. In the center of the landing runway, a large object was covered with various wrappings. Its length was as long as the flight deck.

"Nothing has lived here since that incident 15 years ago," Kozo said seeing his breath in the cold environment. "It lives up to the name of a Dead Sea."

"And yet we are standing here as living, human beings," Gendo said with hands in a heavy winter coat.

"That's because of the power of science."

"Humans use science as a means of obtaining power."

"That mindset caused Second Impact and resulted into this," the Sub-Commander stated with mild irritation. "Is this price for obtaining power worth it?"

"It can be if you consider this to be purification back to the land's origin. No sin can be found here," the Commander said smirking.

"If people and living things are considered a sin, might as well live in hell instead," Kozo said when both he and Gendo heard a flight deck technician head toward them. He stopped and saluted.

"Situation Report from NERV HQ sir. An Angel was discovered in satellite orbit above the Indian Ocean."

In space, a massive creature was looking down on the planet. The Angel had a rough idea where both its father and mother were located. Not having a clear idea of when to fall from orbit, Sahaquiel got a small piece of itself and dropped it down to the blue planet. The small body parcel went down through the atmosphere as air friction surrounded it with intense heat and streaks of flames. From the ground, people could see a falling star through the sky far out above the sea. The organic comet made its way faster and faster to the ocean. Once it shot through the water, a massive entry hit the salty liquid splashing it high and wide.

Shortly after entering, an explosion erupted underwater. A liquid mushroom cloud came out of the sea and flung water high and wide into the air and sky. Sahaquiel, with its pale orange body length of two football fields and three massive eyes, slowly moved in orbit. It felt nothing from the various gravitational pulls as it freely moved in space. Finding a closer place to drop, it released another small piece of itself.

-NERV HQ-

"What do we got on the Angel?" Misato asked Makoto. Typing on his monitor, the tech brought up a couple of popup windows showing satellite photos, topography, and an x-ray scan.

"The Angel was discovered some hours ago in orbit above the Indian Ocean. Satellite picked these images since it was found. Large explosions and their impacts can be seen trailing toward Neo-Tokyo's direction. It is doing this by releasing small amounts of itself and sending them down to Earth."

"Has the UN done anything?"

"They have sent fighter jets that can reach the stratosphere. However, missiles launched at the Angel have no effect. They have also sent a couple of missiles with N2 warheads and still did not have much effect on the Angel."

"Rats. Guess that leaves it to us now. Get the Evas ready and send word to the pilots."

"Roger," Makoto stated as he typed a few commands on his monitor and made comm-links to the three pilots. They were on standby in the Eva cages. All were ready and waiting for the orders to be sent out. He relayed the message to them in which all complied and were sent to the surface. Once there, they heard the Major start talking to them.

"Alright you three listen up," Misato stated over the comm-link. "This Angel is possibly the longest one by far. It has been steadily heading this way while dropping parts of itself like comets. This leads us to believe it will kamikaze itself to the hill that is directing above NERV HQ. Therefore, we need to do a different attack plan."

"Makoto will send each of you a coordinate. Go to those places once you get them," she said and heard all three verbally comply. On the large screen, the bridge staff saw all Evas move to different points in the city. Once there, they stated that they were at their destination point. The Major pulled up a bird's eye view map of Neo-Tokyo 3. Not only did it provide real-time pinpoint of where the Evas were and the impact point, it had written details of the plan of action.

"On my mark, all three of you will run as fast as you can to the impact point. It is on top of the hill on the opposite side of the city. You all should see it on your HUD."

"Shinji, you will be the front man. Once you reach the designated point, project your AT Field to max and hold the Angel. Asuka and Rei will join you shortly and do the same," she said. Brining up another document, Misato then read the technical notes from what Ritsuko gave her about defeating the Angel. It had results from MAGI complied with other Angel battle data.

"Once all three have your AT Fields up, Rei will break off. The Angel's AT Field should be weak enough to pass through. Go to the largest eye and quickly rip open the membrane protecting it. Once done, switch back to projecting your AT Field. Asuka, at this time, you will break off. Use a Prog-Knife and insert it into the center of its eye. MAGI predict that is where the core lies."

"Shinji, you keep on pushing your barrier field out as much as you can. I need you to keep pushing to the max or past it at this point. Is that understood?"

[Understood] Ayanami stated.

[Very well] Shinji said.

[That doesn't sound really hard] the Second Child stated a little bit disappointed. She wanted to be the center person.

"Angel made its last drop and is moving to the destination point in one minute," Makoto stated.

"Okay. It is all timing here you three. Good luck," Misato stated then cut off the link.

Inside the Third Child's subconscious, there was a bit of activity going on. He kept going back and forth from the cockpit view to his conscious chair view in his mind. Despite this, his voices were everywhere in the background. It seemed similar to being locked in a bad nightmare episode where he couldn't wake up. He could at least distinct who was talking.

'It is my turn to wreck some havoc,' Sno stated with hands in his pockets.

'We need to discipline him more,' Shonj stated with a frown.

'Yes. He has been taking away our attractions from us,' Shino stated crossing his arms.

'He is losing control,' Shoji stated adjusting his glasses.

'One more push and we will be out of his head permanently,' Shinzin stated with a dark chuckle.

'Out of his head…what does that mean?' Shonj asked.

'Heh heh, listen well then. He is on the edge of losing all restraint on us,' the silver eye voice stated.

'…but that means?' Shoji stated in surprise seeing Shinzin's face grin evilly.

'Unlimited access!' Sno stated excited.

'Freedom!' Shonj stated with an evil laugh.

'To come and go as we please!' Shinzin stated with equal dark mirth.

'I'm drooling just thinking about!' Shino said thinking about what he could do.

'…when will this happen…' Rana asked a bit apprehensive. All of them were giving shark smiles and becoming more evil as one large voice.

'Ha hah hah, sooner than you expect!' Shinzin shouted. Suddenly, the hallway double doors opened nearby. The spirit in Eva-01 emerged. All the voices darted their eyes at it and saw the adult female look startled. She looked back and forth between the murky group of voices and the Third Child. Slowly walking around them, she headed toward the male pilot as the doors were left open. The voices never dropped their eyes from watching her. It made her feel goosebumps on her skin going toward the conscious seat.

'…Shinji?' Yui asked quietly side stepping till she was next to the pilot in the middle of the chamber. She was surprised that the Eva captor allowed her access. In the past Angel battles, it didn't allow her for some reason. This time though, it seemed to be curious about something. It never communicated with her verbally. It only used false imagery to constantly make her feel guilt or pain.

'Dr. Ikari,' the Third Pilot thought not moving his eyes toward her. She could see that he looked tired and was breathing deeper than normal. He also looked a bit pale as well.

'Are you alright?' Yui asked breaking off from looking at voices.

'Other than being a little exhausted, I am fine…how are you?' he thought feeling the evil voice slowly insert a sharp needle in various places inside of his body. They felt ice cold.

'Doing okay…what were they talking about?'

'…they were discussing…about when…the gates of the mind's realms become one,' he thought blinking slowly feeling his heart being squeezed then released slowly. The dark clone made a nasal sound before screeching at him in various pitches.

'…the mind's realms becoming one?' Yui asked a little confused. Looking back at the voice group, she recoiled. Instead of the six dark silhouettes that she initially saw, there were only two. There was a small one that had red-blue orbs for eyes. The other was a very large one with many different color orbs around its head. Both of them started to move closer to them.

Slowly, the room environment started to change. Random images were appearing on the walls. Various sounds and voices started going in and out. Parts of the wall started elongating itself or sink in. Feeling unnerved, she looked back at the Third Child. He looked a little sick as the veins in his head started to twitch visibly. However, he kept a tired stoic face.

'How…how bad is it now?' Yui asked afraid of what it possibly was.

'Based on how much has been progressing and the definition of the mental disorder, I believe it would be at borderline stage 5 Dr. Ikari,' Shinji thought calmly. He saw something in his peripheral that showed the figure of the spirit look downcast. It became quiet as he continued to deal with the various things that were around him and the morbid presence squirming slowly inside of him. The change of views from the conscious seat and in the Eva cockpit became faster.

'Something the matter?'

'…I failed…I couldn't help you…' Yui stated quietly. Shinji glanced to see her express emotions of dread, sorrow, guilt, and pity.

'…a…l…o…o…k…o…f…j…o…y…' the evil voice whispered as it slowly clawed the inside of his ribs with his nails. Both saw the spirit's dark chains tighten and pull her through the double doors. They closed and the spirit was gone.

'…' the male pilot thought looking back to what was in front of him. Not understanding what the scientist was saying or feeling, he concentrated on trying to memorize what was around his view. Shinji tried to ignore the growing volume of his voices' enthusiasm and the slow turning of his mind's background. Knowing the dark clone was swimming inside of him like a parasite, he continued to concentrate as far as he could. Above his head in the cockpit, something lowered slowly.

"…" Shinji said looking up slowly to see the black-red eye voice beheaded. Its neck was in a noose dangling above him. Black blood was oozing out of it and contaminating the LCL around him. It changed the color to give the orange a darker and murkier tint. Looking at its expression, the voice was staring him down with wide open eyes and an evil and wicked smile.

"Angel has stopped in direct path to Neo Tokyo-3. Beginning its descend and increasing its projector," Maya stated out loud.

"Okay. Get ready," Misato stated through the comm-link.

As Sahaquiel made it's descend down to the atmosphere, the intense air friction and heat it felt did not faze it. Despite increasing its velocity, the Angel's three eyes were still able to magnify and see clearly where its target was. It started feeling a foreboding aspect that made its eyes start to twitch. Not understanding why, it ignored it and continued with its descent.

"Launch!" Misato stated.

All three Evas shot forward and sprinted toward the mountain. Glancing up, the three pilots could see the large and long Angel descend rapidly from the skies. Despite seeing its massive body, it was engulfed with air friction flares. While Shinji made Eva-01 run, his vision in the background of his mind started influencing what he was actually seeing. It started splitting his vision into fragments. Some parts were a first person view of him running through a forest from the past. Others were visions he had in his subconscious realm. Not stopping, he kept sprinting till the last fragment vision cut out. Seeing that he was halfway up the mountain, he slowed down quickly.

"…" Shinji said looking up to see the beheaded evil voice bore back at him. Putting the Eva's hands up and concentrating on projecting it's AT Field, he started straight through the lynched head.

'…ArE#$ $yOu $^$^ReAdY #$^mY &$%$^$^sEeD?' the dark clone stated in broken up white noise.

Each break up caused the male pilot's vision to go static. As his vision cleared, the Angel was right above and quickly made a fierce impact with his projected AT-Field. Intense weight was felt as the Eva bent its knees a little. The air friction pushing down sent fast winds down the mountain pushing all the vegetation in all directions. Sahaquiel saw the barrier that the purple war machine produced holding it up in the air. Believing that the fake brethren below and nearby were inferior, the Angel kept pushing down on it. Strangely, the foreboding feeling was stronger than before.

'Ready for what sir?' Shinji thought with a stoic expression.

In his side vision, he saw the remaining two Evas run up the mountain. They stopped and stood next to him. Each mimicked his position and pose. Sahaquiel felt two more AT Fields projected against itself. Feeling trapped, the three war machines were preventing it from descending any further. Weighing its options, the Angel thought of self-destructing. However, it would be a vain suicide. Blinking its three eyes from realizing something, the foreboding from before didn't come from the other two that joined.

'…?' Sahaquiel thought moving all three of its huge eyes instantly to look at the purple unit. The sensation seemed to be growing from it.

'the-THE-the-ttttttttttttttttttt…F…I…R…S…T-contact #$% CONTACT!#$^&$%$CCCOONNNNTTTAAACCCTTTTT!,' the dark clone's head screamed at the top of its lungs at Shinji.

As it was blaring in pain and pleasure, something started moving. The small part of its spine sticking out of its head was growing. An entire spine forcefully grew out of the evil voice's neck. Whipping its bones above its head to cut the noose, it slowly swam like an eel to Shinji's face. When it made forehead to forehead contact, the Third Child blinked surprised. The unbearable volume of his voices were silenced; however, a loud and large blood bursting explosion occurred directly behind him. It showered blood and body parts at every inch of the cockpit and entry plug. Shinji's eyes widened as a painful flashback came.

"The Third Child's sync ratio is fluctuating wildly!" Maya stated. "Vitals are rapidly increasing! Reaching danger levels!"

"Disengage neural links 2750-2800! Increase pressure by 5%!" Ritsuko ordered.

"Bring up his cockpit view as well as an external view!" Misato ordered. The two views came up in popup windows on the main display monitor.

"Shinji! What's wrong...!?" Misato stated then saw something that stopped her. Both female pilots were about to execute their part of the plan when they saw Eva-01 slowly lower its hands. The AT Field it produced went away which increased their load tremendously making both grit their teeth hard.

[YOU IDIOT! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?] Asuka yelled.

[…] Rei didn't say anything as projecting the AT Field was taking all of her concentration. Both pilots saw popup windows and glanced at it while grimacing.

'A…h…H…h…SO-YOU-DO-REMEMBERIT!...let's-LeT's-lEt'S-LET'S-LET'S!-LET'S!...r…e…l…i…v…e…that-THAT-THAT!-THAT!EXPERIENCE AGAIN!…AGAIN!…AAAGGGGAAAAIIINNNNN-MMMMMYYYYSEEEEDDDDDDDD!' the black-red eyed voice chaotically stated in front of the male pilot's wide eye face.

In Shinji's subconscious, it was just himself, the dark clone, and a black abyss. Glancing side to side, two walls littered with bloody syringes were rapidly closing together with the two of them in the pathway. The evil voice had the same body as his and clapped his shoulders. Looking back at it, the dark clone had an inhumanly wide grin that caused the corners of his mouth to rip showing more teeth.

'…a…b…s…o…l…u…t…e…b…l…i…s…s…he heh…ha ha…AH HA…HAHAHA-' it whispered to an evil hysterical laugh. Shinji only parted his mouth as when the two walls slammed together with him and the evil voice between them.

In the cockpit, the male pilot's expression slowly changed to a grimaced. The pain from that vision was beyond anything he ever felt. Feeling all his senses go blind and viciously burn, he closed his eyes feeling something turning his sight red. Shinji didn't know if he blacked out or not. To determine if he was still there, he clenched and applied pressure to all his muscles and mind. The grip on the controls intensified as if he was strangling them. All his muscles flexed and became tight. He clenched down on his teeth hard and exposed them. Feeling the chaos in his mind scorching him alive, his head started to shake in place. As he closed eyes tighter, he took deep and forceful breaths through his teeth. He sounded like he was in agony.

"…"/[…] Everyone said frozen in place. They were feeling a dark tension brewing from viewing the Third Child. Each harsh breath he took added more apprehension and dread.

'…?' Sahaquiel thought seeing the purple war machine bend over and then clenched its hands into fists. Something was developing inside of it that made the foreboding feeling grow into something massive, distorted, and chaotic. The false sense of it being a brother changed instantly to an intense emotion and sensation. Not understanding still, its curiosity was stronger than what its insides was telling it to do.

Everyone saw the mouth guard of Eva-01 fall off exposing its off-white jagged teeth. Shinji threw his head back and was hyperventilating painfully through his teeth. The purple unit raised its head and roared at the Angel. It was deep, monstrous, and agonizing. It screamed with such intensity that it shook the senses of people watching. Both Eva pilots felt their cockpits rumble a little from the roar as they continued to hold up their AT-Field. The Angel felt all of its insides tighten feeling the unknown emotion gripped its attention and insides harsher.

As Eva-01 continued to roar, it started to tremble. All of the Unit's limbs shook a little as it breathed harshly and screamed more deranged and distorted. It caused things to rumble more nearby.

"…!/[…!]" everyone said startled that the roar intensified and shook their insides a little more.

Suddenly, sparks of orange electricity started forming above the head of the purple war machine. It continued appearing and disappearing as the electricity continued to expand itself. Once it reached the length and width that was larger than the Angel, four orange sparking points stopped and held their position. A loud cartilage pop was sounded making everyone flinch. Looking at the cockpit of the Third Child, he had veered his head to the right with his head still thrown back. Eva-01's roar glitch a couple of times till it went up in pitch. It was high enough to changed its monstrous deep roar to a low pitched human male. It screamed in agonizing torture.

With intense speed and brightness, four orange lightings shot out from a center spark above the purple unit's head. Viewers could see that the four points formed a makeshift and crude looking cross. The shape concaved up a little to show that it's length and width was longer and wider than the Angel's body. The First and Second Child felt their immense pressure of holding the Angel reduced greatly to barely needing to project an AT Field. Despite that, both were still looking lost to what was developing right next to them.

Inside Shinji's subconscious, the two syringe walls slowly parted away. Two individuals were standing with the evil voice still holding onto the shoulders of the other. In the bottom center of each wall, the needles were dripping and splashed with blood. Several of the syringes were depleted of its contents while others broke and leaked over others. The evil voice was moaning and grinning. The sensations it felt from the impact and the aspect that the male pilot was still conscious was joyous. However, something was amiss that made it chuckle evilly at him.

'mmmmmmYYYYYyyyy…s-e-e-d…you YOU! YOU! aRe HoLdInG…some…SOmeeeeeeeee BACK!' the dark clone stated in distortion feeling its black blood and the needle fluid ooze out of all the punctures over its body. Looking at the Third Child, his body was also littered with needle holes and leaking the crimson iron-smelling liquid with the syringe fluid. Shinji had calm down a little to just breathing in and out harshly through his clenched teeth. He tried to open his eyes despite how painful and injured they felt. It caused the evil voice's mouth to stretch beyond the length of its head. Its lips broke and bleed as many bloody teeth were shown in front of the male pilot.

'…T…r…U…l…y…M…y…S…e…E…d…' it whispered in an morbidly deep evil voice. It started patting the Third Child's head with a derange hand with several cut-up and broken fingers.

'ONEMOREPUSH!' the evil voice shouted.

'ONEMORESTRETCH!' it said with an innocent voice softly grabbing the sides of the pilot's head. The several fingers on each side of his head made him flinch a little.

'ONEMOREMEMORY!' it barked madly using to fingers to force open Shinji's bleeding eyes.

'ONEMORESHATTER!' it screamed as a syringe forced through its right black-red eye. The inhuman smile turned into a menacing grin as teeth started cracking and breaking from being clenched so hard together.

'I-WILL-SHOW-YOU-THE-RED-EDEN!' it shrilled to the top of its lungs causing Shinji's ears to pop loudly with blood shooting out of them.

At the same time, the evil voice shoved its head down on the male pilot. It butted its head on the Third Child's while stabbing the center of Shinji's left eye with the syringe. The contents inside forced into his eye causing everything in his left vision to become chaotic, black, and morbid. The dark clone started to chuckle as it faded away. Its action caused something to occur outside.

The orange lightning bolts began to converge slowly toward each other pressing the Angel's body together and upward. At the same time, Eva-01's roaring became rapid and short. Each breath it took in, it shouted louder, stronger, more painful, more deranged, and more distorted. Rei and Asuka's widen in bewilder fright as they slowly took a step back. The intense and eerie vibes from the purple unit was overwhelming.

"What…What's going on!?" Misato asked in fear, confusion, and shock.

Her voice echoed throughout the bridge. The only sound being heard in the command center was the savage and insane roaring of Eva-01 and the bending and folding of the Angel's body. Ritsuko stared in astonishment and fearful wonder at what was transpiring. Based on the last test and what the Third Child's brain patterns were showing, the doctor would say that he was nearing the limits before it breached to a continuous surreal world. Suddenly, an unknown comm-link opened up.

[…please…] an odd voice called to NERV and the pilots. It sounded close but not quite like the male pilot.

Both female pilots looked at the shaking figure of the Third Child as he suddenly stopped. His body remained dead still till it flinched a little up then down rhythmically. It repeated this at a normal pulse rate as a heartbeat sound through the comm-link. His head slowly moved down till everyone saw his face. They saw his closed eyes with the left one slowly oozing black and red liquid. The grimace in his face returned slowly to his stoic expression; however, the intensity of his presence was recognizable to everyone watching.

[…kill…me] the voice pleaded again. The evil and malice aura was feeding out through the Third Child's comm-link. Everyone watched in concern and apprehension as Shinji slowly opened his eyes. They revealed a bleeding black-red eye in his left and a dark magenta in the right.

"…!?" Asuka as well as the staff at NERV watching recoiled with horror.

'…no…no…NO…' Rei thought feeling afraid. Wanting to end this, she turned her attention to the Angel. Ignoring the monstrous painful barking Eva-01 was still doing, she tried reaching the Eva's hands at Angel's center eye. A frenzy of orange lightening and sparks stretched out from one of the solid bolts that were still slowly converging on the Angel. Immense pressure was pushing down on her Eva's hands preventing her from getting near the Angel.

[…please…help…me…] the voice stated in a scared and shaking tone.

'…that isn't…Ikari,' Rei thought noticing that there was another comm-link open. She saw that the male pilot's lips didn't move. Looking closely at the eyes of the Angel, all of them were shaking in place as if what it was experiencing and seeing something horrific. All of its pupils were dilated. She saw all three start frantically looking in all directions. It gave a sensation of wanting to escape despite being trapped.

[…no…no…stay away!]

"…!?" Ayanami said knowing that it was the one talking through the comm-link. The orange bolts of lightning had converged past a 45 degree angle. Given Sahaquiel's unique body mass, it was able to form and fold without too much hindrance. However, its two outward eyes were being electrically shocked. They were pressing against the two frenzy orange lightning beams that were greater than its body length. Not knowing how to get out, the Angel bypassed its own will to self-destruct. However, nothing happened.

[…what…why…I don't understand…why!?] the Angel voiced in a panic over the comm-link as more pops, folding, and squeezing was heard. Sahaquiel tried to self-destruct again when nothing happened. Looking around with its center eye, the other two were non-responsive. It couldn't see the purple unit anymore. As the orange bolts continued folding upward, the Angel looked back and forth between the red Eva and the blue Eva.

[…PLEASE…HELP…ME!] it shouted in fear at both of them causing Asuka to part her mouth and take another step back in feeling more scared. Rei blinked and watched what was going to happen tensely.

"…!?" Shigeru stated realizing who was communicating through the additional comm-link. "…that's…the Angel talking."

"…!?" the NERV bridge crew said with wide eyes.

Sahaquiel slowly felt itself becoming lighter and weaker. Trapped in the synthetic's prison, it felt something whip into its mind. A cold-dead hand gripped it and started to squeeze. An evil and menacing aura resonated from that invasion. Terror gripped the Angel's insides and mind intensely.

[…h…e…l…p…yyyyeeeessssss…i…I!…I!…WILL HE#%$#LP YOU!…s-H-o-W-e-R-m-E…sh-sh-sh!# $^oooowwwwwwwwwwER ME! WiTh ThE sTeNcH-THESTENCH! tthhhaaaaatttt rrrruuunnnnnnssssssss…t…h…r…o…u…g…h…yo-yO-Yo-YO-YOU-YOUR VeIns!] an evil voice whispered and shouted madly at the Angel. Feeling the pressure from squeezing starting to hurt, it saw a small opening in front of its center eyes as it shook in place. It showed something white and tranquil.

[…B…L…E…S…S…M…E…BlEsS…mE…bLeSs Me…BLESS ME! BLESS ME! BLESS ME! BLESS $% ME# $^WITH#%^#$^THE!#$LIQUID#*^!YOUR! #^CREATORS#%^*GAVE##%^*#YOOUUUUU!…GIVE-ME-MY-GENESIS!] the evil voice savagely raged and barked in distortion.

The orange lightning streams slowly came together and squeezed the Angel tightly. The female pilots and the NERV staff watched in horror. Sahaquiel started bulging and ballooning as the pressure continued to compress the Angel to death. Rapid bending and popping sounds of flesh were running through all the audio speakers in NERV making the staff quiver in fear. Voices from the Angel was heard as its sounded like a man being strangled and gargling to death. The Angel was not seen any more except the orange lightning that formed around it in a tight frenzy cocoon.

Eva-01 suddenly stopped raging and barking madly. It stood up straight and placed its open hands at its side. Moving its head up, it was staring at the bottom end of the energy cocoon. Shinji only blinked when a large grotesque pop boomed startling everyone. A small opening formed at the bottom end. Instantly, all the blood, insides, and pieces of the Angel flowed out splashing onto Eva-01. Only lasting several seconds, the inners trickled out slowly to nothing. A gentle breeze moved the vegetation below a little. It was enough to sway the orange energy cocoon and blow it away to nothing.

"…" everyone said feeling locked in terror from seeing what had transpired.

A dead silence was heard as nobody made a sound. All were staring at the two images; Eva-01 showered with Angel blood and the split image of two Ikaris on one face. The tension in the air was immense and thick. It raised the back of everyone's neck hairs to stand on end. Before anyone let out a word or breath they were holding, they saw the male pilot close his eyes slowly. The comm-link visual glitch then became static. The sudden white noise slowly brought everyone back to life and to move again. Misato shook herself and reminded herself who was in charge at the moment.

"The Angel has been defeated. Order the pilots to return to base," she said with authority getting a verbal reply from the staff around the bridge. Hearing heels walk next to her, she looked at Ritsuko.

"I will do a full analysis of with MAGI on what happen to Eva-01. I will send a medical team to take Pilot Ikari," the doctor said with the Major nodding.

Both female Eva pilots heard the order. They saw Unit-01 turning around and walking back to a nearby docking pad. Following behind him at a distance, the comm-link to the purple Eva was still static on their ends. Out of what was happening, neither of them could help the male pilot. Asuka reverted back to not wanting to deal with him anymore. At the same time, she had a feeling that he was at the ends of his mental rope. Everything going forward, the redhead imagined that he would be placed in isolation or in a nut house.

"…" Rei said staring at both the back of Eva-01 and the static visual of what was the Third Child. She was experiencing helplessness again. The aspect that he was close to being mentally gone occurred to her. Thinking about what she could do for him, nothing was coming to mind.

'I don't have any experience with the mental disorder…I don't understand…how it works…how it feels…how it bends perception…it is almost as if…' she thought feeling her chest tighten and her face to become tense. The aspect that she never asked him about it made the sensations she felt worse.

'If I ask him about it…' Rei thought with anxiety. A sense of urgency to converse with the Third Child occurred. The three Evas reached a docking pad. Standing on separate ones, they started their descent to the NERV HQ.