Chapter 19

Half a world away from where Ryoji Kaji had apprehended the last recognized SEELE agent, the Geofront in Japan, Misato was in her office accompanied by Sub-Commander Tanaka. They were reviewing the final draft for the next month's budget. Commander Katsuragi hated few things quite as passionately as she hated balancing NERV's checkbook, but so far all her suggestions to the UN to hire a financial team to handle the monetary matters fell on deaf ears. All the fun of a root canal spliced with a colonoscopy, was interrupted by the crackling of her intercom.

"Commander Katsuragi?"

Misato pressed the speaker button on her com and responded. "I'm here Haruna, but we're a bit busy at the moment. If it's not important, can it wait for another twenty minutes or so?"

"I'm so sorry to bother you Commander, but we've received an urgent call from a Ryoji Kaji requesting to speak with you. Would you like me to tell him to call back later?"

Misato narrowly avoiding ordering the secretary to pass a few expletives to the JSDU agent before she hung up on him. Then she thought it over for a moment… Kaji wouldn't call her office directly unless it was something important. Begrudgingly she replied, "No, go ahead and transfer him over… This had damn sure better be important though."

Five seconds of agonizing waiting later, her ex-lover's voice could be heard over the phone. "Commander Katsuragi?"

"Whoa, how formal of you… This really must be important. What rock did you crawl out from under this afternoon?"

"Oh some big ones… Mountains actually, out here in West Virginia I believe…"

Misato sweat dropped. "Where?"

"…In the United States love…"

"Well, why didn't you say so?!... And don't call me love! It's not like I have an atlas in front of me, so how am I supposed to know every state over there… Isn't there like thirty of them or something?"

"Well, fifty actually but…" Kaji shook his head, reminding himself of why he called, and it certainly wasn't to participate in this banter with his old flame. "Let's not do this… I have something serious I need to discuss with you Commander."

"I would certainly hope you do. Now spill it! You've got five minutes to convince me not to hang up this phone."

"I won't need that much... A few minutes ago, we arrested the last known member of the SEELE organization."

That was certainly good news, Misato thought… She didn't voice it of course, that would be like giving him credit. "Excellent, so you couldn't wait to call and brag about it I see."

"Misato please! What I have to say is extremely important, so would you please forget any residual bitterness you feel towards me for at least a minute or two and listen to what I have to say?!" Kaji was rarely serious… Rarely had he ever been forceful with Misato either… Both factors helped Misato's decision that Kaji deserved to be heard. Ryoji took her silence as a prompt for him to continue. "I can't say if this information is 100 accurate or not, but I have to pass this warning on to you. Before we caught up with him, the old man claims that he launched some sort of advanced Eva unit, and if he's telling the truth, it's now heading in your direction."

"New Eva unit? You mean like the Eva series?"

"Yes, but he claims this unit is far more advanced… Faster, stronger, with more firepower… Here's the real kicker though… Supposedly, this unit is packed with enough explosives to blow the entire city to the moon and back. Again, these were all the ramblings of an old man with nothing to lose, but you know as well as I do what SEELE is capable of… Take care Misato."

The click that preceded Kaji hanging up the phone seemed to linger on forever. Tanaka noticed the concerned look on his Commander's face and responded accordingly. "Commander… Is there a problem?"

"Potentially… Kaji just informed me that a SEELE operative they recently apprehended claims that he launched some form of advanced Eva unit that is currently on course to Tokyo 3, aiming to launch an attack on the Geofront."

"I assume we're going to take the threat seriously," Tanaka stated rather than asking. He took everything seriously.

"We have no other choice… If Kaji was concerned enough about it to call directly to my office, then I doubt it's just a bluff… Either way, we should sound the alert and get all essential personal to their stations. We need to get the Eva's and their pilots prepped and ready as soon as possible.

For the next 45 minutes, the Geofront experienced total chaos, though it was much more controlled chaos than the circus of blunders that ensued after the rouge pattern blue was detected several days before. Sub-Commander Tanaka had made it aggressively clear how displeased he was with the total lack of coordination and discipline, and not so subtly hinted heads would be on the chopping block if significant improvement wasn't shown during the next emergency response. Little did the staff know how little time they would have to prepare, but to a person, they were dedicated to achieving one singular goal… Under no circumstances were they going to piss off the Sub-Commander.

For their part, Section 2 had no problems gathering up the pilots and rushing them to the Geofront, the children arriving mere minutes after the alert was sounded. A few minutes later, all three were dressed in their plug suits, gathered at the Eva cages, and all three were wondering what in the hell was going on.

"Hey, Misato!" Asuka yelled up at the Commander, interrupting the conversation she was having with one of the technicians. "You plan on telling us what's going on?! Don't tell me that Angels are attacking again!"

Misato frowned, annoyed at how the girl always felt what she had to say were the most important words spoken in any room. She quickly got over it, as she needed to brief the kids anyway. "Not an Angel… An Eva, not unlike what we saw with the Eva series. We have reliable information that a member of SEELE has launched some advanced prototype of an Evangelion, and it's possibly on its way here to attack the Geofront."

"You can't be serious…" Shinji mouthed though he had no doubts that she was.

"We haven't confirmed this information as of this time, but we're not taking any chances."

As if on cue, Lieutenant Aboa noticed a blip appear on the radar. "Commander, we have a hit! We've just picked up an object on radar speeding towards the Japanese coast! From the looks of its trajectory, the object is heading in this direction!"

"How long do you estimate it will take for the object to reach Tokyo 3?"

"Well, if the speed it's moving at right now holds steady Commander… I'd say in a little less than an hour."

"At least that gives some time…" Misato shifted her focus to the three pilots below. "Okay guys, here's the deal. We're going to try to confront whatever this thing is on the outskirts of town. Shinji, I'm going to have you take point and confront the enemy head on if need be. Rei, since Unit 00 still only has five minutes of battery life without a power source, we're going to have you support Unit 1 from a distance. Now let's get moving guys!"

"Wait a second!" Asuka chimed in. "What about me?!"

"Asuka… You and Unit 2 will wait here on standby in case Units 01 & 00 are both incapacitated."

"You want me to sit here and rot while they get all the action?! I should be out there helping! I'm a far better shot than Wondergirl anyway!"

"She is technically correct Commander."

Misato ignored Rei, knowing that her stating of the obvious wasn't Rei trying to convince Misato to deploy Asuka rather than her. Asuka though, she knew she couldn't tune out. "Asuka… You know full well why you have to stay behind. You're sync rate just isn't high enough to choose you over Shinji and Rei."

"But…"

"No arguments… You're not being deployed unless it's absolutely necessary. Now that's the end of this discussion. Let's get moving!"

Biting her lower lip, Asuka did her best impression of a four-year-old angry that it was nap time, and stomped her foot. Okay, perhaps it wasn't quite that childish, but she was still pouting and was totally unapologetic about it. Shinji looked to her with a sympathetic smile, but on the inside he was majorly relieved Asuka wouldn't be taking part in any potential combat. He never liked the thought of Asuka or Rei putting themselves in harm's way but now… Just the thought of Asuka being hurt because she couldn't sync properly with her Evangelion was enough to nearly bring on a panic attack.

"Sorry Asuka… But hey, we don't even know for sure if we even have an enemy to fight yet… Either way, I'm sure you would've torn whatever this thing is a new hole, but for this once just leave it to us."

Asuka's expression left no illusion that she was in the mood to be consoled. Shinji had pulled back the hand he was going to place on her shoulder… He was learning fast when to and not to push certain buttons with the red-head. "I better be going," Shinji said, as he saw a pair of techs near his Eva's cage waving him over, anxious to get him inside his entry plug and into the purple behemoth. "Let's hope for the best…"

"Shinji…" she said softly, stopping the boy in his tracks.

"Yes Asuka?"

"If the worst does happen… You better not die out there stupid…"

Shinji's sad smile belayed his own sense of dread. If everything Kaworu had told him was destined to come to pass… He may have to leave everything he had out on that battlefield. "I don't plan on dying… Not when I finally have something to come back to…"

"Idiot…" Turning slowly, she wrapped her arms around his waist as she buried her forehead into his shoulder. "You're turning me into mush… I'm not sure I like…"

Shinji only smiled in response. He kissed the side of her head, and freed himself from her embrace. Asuka didn't put up much resistance, though she couldn't fight back the sense of dread she felt as he headed towards his entry plug. She'd give anything if she could only take his place.

Commander Katsuragi's plan seemed simple enough… So simple in fact, it hardly felt like a plan at all. Not that Shinji cared, he was too on edge, and Rei wasn't one to question orders. Shinji did support the idea of confronting the incoming EVA outside of the city. Even on full alert, with everyone in the city safe within their shelters, a battle inside Tokyo 3 itself would unavoidably result in massive casualties. Misato and the bridge staff were still hanging on to the hope that the threat of an Eva attack was nothing more than a bluff, and this unidentified blip on the radar would prove to be something inconsequential. Shinji knew better though. After his talk with Kaworu, he knew what he was going up against… And the drastic measures he might have to take to stop it.

Shinji was pacing back and forth in a large open field that was along the projected trajectory path of the incoming object. Unit 1's S2 engine allowed him to roam freely without fear of his Eva running out of juice. Rei was not so fortunate, and was stuck anchored a mile or so away near the closest serviceable power source. She'd be providing support for Shinji with her positron rifle while Shinji would have to go at it alone if it came down to a melee battle. Asuka had blasted Misato for the setup of the two units, pointing out how easy it would be for the Rouge Eva to simply change its flight path and bypass the Evangelion roadblock, providing the invader an unabated path to the Geofront. Misato looked passed being second guessed, and simply informed Asuka that she was playing off the hunch that, if SEELE truly had unleashed an advanced Eva Unit against them, one of its objectives would likely be to destroy the other Eva units.

"The bogey is still approaching fast Commander," Aboa informed the crew as he studied the radar. "It should make contact with Unit's 1 and Zero in less than fifteen minutes…"

"Is the object in camera view yet?"

"No Commander… Unfortunately, the object won't be in range until it's almost on top of Shinji and Rei…"

"Damn it…" She knew even NERV couldn't have camera's set up every few feet from coast to coast but still… "Damn it!"

As it would turn out, Zeus was ahead of schedule. A minute or so later, NERV security cameras picked up the first images of what they would be going up against. It was as if their worst nightmares were coming true.

"It doesn't look all that different from our Eva's except for the color…" Hyuga noted, the jet black color and the unhinged jaw. The feral snarl of the Eva Series was still fresh in all their minds. "Maybe it's not all that different structurally either."

"It doesn't matter either way," said the Commander. "It's the explosives resting inside that abomination that are my primary concern." Misato quickly got on the horn with her two active pilots. "Shinji, Rei… The target is approaching fast… We've confirmed that is an Evangelion. Though it doesn't appear structurally different from our Units, don't be deceived by it. Also keep in mind that this thing is rigged to explode and blow us all to hell, so please be careful."

Shinji didn't respond… Hell he barely heard what Misato had said… He was too transfixed on the jet black missile speeding towards him like the Angel of Death ready to reap judgment on all the unworthy… The pun wasn't intended, that's just what the damn thing looked like…

"Shinji, are you there? Shinji!"

"I'm here, and so is it Misato… I'm getting ready to engage…"

"Shinji! Don't do anything rash… Use your rifle and see if you can't blow that bastard out of the sky!"

"Right…" The gun was already in Shinji's hand, as he had anticipated having to use it. "He knelt down, steadied himself and aimed. It was only seconds later that the monster came into range. Without hesitation he fired the first shot. It was a direct hit, connecting with the incoming Eva's neck, but Zeus appeared to shake it off as if a gnat had just flown into his face. Shinji fired again, and again… Each shot just seemed to bounce right off of Zeus without any effect. Panicked, Shinji unloaded the rest of the clip into the descending monster, but received no reward for the effort. Shinji tossed the gun aside, and went for his progressive knife, but before he could get a grip on it, Zeus crashed into him. The black unit tackled the purple unit to the ground, dragging it hundreds of feet before skidding to a stop. Zeus lifted up to one knee, straddling its prey. The beast let out a primal scream as it lifted its arm, and what appeared to be its own version of a progressive knife protruded out from its wrist. Before it could deliver the kill shot though, he was interrupted… By a bullet between the eyes. Zeus howled in surprise more than anything as it shook its head, not so much hurt as very annoyed. It looked off into the distance to see another Evangelion crouched down with a rifle in her hand. Unit Zero fired again, this time staggering the Black Eva a bit.

"Get off of me!" Shinji grunted, using the distraction to unpin himself from underneath Zeus. He staggered to his feet, and immediately went for his knife. He turned towards Zeus, hoping to catch the Black Eva from behind while its attention was on Rei, only to find Zeus looking directly at him. Its jaws open wide, he delivered a blast directly into Unit 1's chest.

Now, Shinji wasn't sure what it felt like to get hit with an N2 mine, nobody did since being instantly incinerated was part of the process. Shinji decided this must be what it felt like if one had time to process the type of pain felt before the body turned into ash. The explosion in the center of Unit 1's chest sent the purple cyborg hurdling backward, reclaiming the ground it lost when Zeus had dive-bombed it. When Unit 01 finally skidded to a stop, it laid there motionless. Back at NERV Head Quarters, with Shinji unresponsive, all hell was breaking loose.

"Shinji! Damn it, answer me Shinji!" Misato pleaded frantically. She would've been satisfied with any type of communication, but all she received over the com was silence… Not even static. It was if Unit 1 had been sucked into a black hole.

"I'm not getting any vital signs for Unit 1 commander," Maya stammered reluctantly. "I'm not getting any readings form Unit 1 at all though. I don't know if that's because Shinji is deceased, or if that explosion fried the Eva's internal hardware…."

"He's gotta be there… He wouldn't go down that easily…" Misato hoped more than really believed that.

Misato wasn't the only person trying to contact the Pilot of Unit 1 without reward of a response. "Shinji! Answer me damn it! What's going on out there?!" Asuka yelled into the com.

"Damn it, I should be out there… I need to be out there… I'm going to be out there!" She just didn't care anymore. NERV could court-martial her for all she cared, she just couldn't bare to sit back not knowing what was going on out there. Asuka took every step necessary to manually launch her Eva from the holding bay… It was all to no avail, as the manual release would not respond. "Why the hell am I still sitting here?! Launch damn you, launch!"

"Umm… Commander," Hyuga looked up at Misato, noticing erratic readings coming from Unit 2. "It appears you were right…Asuka is trying to manually launch Unit 2."

"I figured that would happen. That's why I had you lock down the manual controls. In fact, go ahead and mute her com too. I've got enough stress to deal with without having to hear her curse me out every other sentence."

"Misato! What the hell is the big idea locking me do…" That was as far as Asuka got with that sentence before the com link between herself and the bridge was cut. Thirty seconds of cursing and screaming later, she realized Misato had cut her com which led to another massive meltdown. How Asuka wished she wasn't in her entry pug, because then at least she could find something to throw. "Damn it, I hate this! Why am I even here if they think I'm so useless?!"

Asuka applied pressure to her face with her palms, trying to calm herself. Steadying her breath, she switched her com link from the bridge back to Unit 01. "Shinji… Damn it you idiot, you better not be dead! Answer me already!"

Back on the bridge, Misato and company had little time to savor their success at keeping one problem child in line. Now it was time to deal with a second one.

"Um, Commander!" Hyuga yelped suddenly. "Unit 00 has unplugged her power cord, and is rushing towards the black Evangelion!"

"What?! What the hell is she doing?! Open her channel, and put it on speaker now!" Hyuga complied instantly. "Rei, what are you doing?! We don't know enough about this Eva yet for you to risk running out of power! Don't engage, that's an order! Please do not engage!"

Rei's response was to close her channel to the bridge, much to the shock Commander Katsuragi. She could only watch the video fed in abject horror as Unit 00 moved within striking distance of Zeus, her progressive knife drawn. "Stupid girl… Why of all times would you choose to ignore orders now?"

The answer to that question was quite obvious when you thought about it. For a complicated girl, Rei's motives weren't usually hard to figure out, especially on the rare occasions they were driven by raw emotion. Rei had witnessed Zeus launch that devastating attack on Unit 1, and more importantly, listened as Shinji was unresponsive afterward. Shinji was all she had left, one of the few reasons she could find to go on living in a world where many considered her an abomination. Mad science run a muck. The thought of losing him threw the usually stoic girl into a blind rage. Unaccustomed to this emotion, she did not resist it, giving in to the overwhelming desire to take that knife and stick it in this bastard's throat. It seemed like she might succeed to, but Zeus held his ground, catching both her arms, one hand on each holding her back. The black Eva Unit was considerably stronger than the prototype, but sheer determination and rage were fueling Rei enough that she was able to prevent Zeus from completely overwhelming her. At least at first… When Rei began to threat that she might not be strong enough to out muscle the Black Eva, her confidence wavered, and Zeus immediately began taking the upper-hand. Zeus powered Unit 00 down to its knees. Releasing her non-armed hand, he delivered a violent downward punch to the top of 00's head, a blow that would've knocked the Unit to the ground if Zeus hadn't still been holding on to her other arm. Gasping for breath inside og the entry plug, Rei grabbed at her head as if this would stop the plug from spinning.

With Unit 00 at his mercy, Zeus yanked the Unit's arm upward and violently, separating the arm from its shoulder. Inside the plug, Rei grasped at her left arm which was now dangling limp at her side. She didn't even notice the long knife protruding from Zeus's wrist until it was plunged deep in Unit 00's abdomen. Rei felt the wind leave her body as she coughed up blood. It would only get worse as Zeus started to slice and cut.

"What the hell is it doing?…" Hyuga asked in horror.

"Oh my god, it's going to saw her in half!" Misato panicked as she realized what the Black Eva was doing. "Cut Rei's neuro connectors now!"

"But she won't be able to connect with her Eva…"

"The only way Rei's going to survive this is if you cut her connection with Unit 00 now! Do it!"

There were no further objection, and so Rei's connection with her Eva was severed mere seconds before Zeus had sliced his way through Unit 00's belly. Retracting it's blade into his wrist, Zeus stuck its gigantic fingers into each side of the wound and began to rip and tare. With a feral growl, Zeus succeeded in separating Unit 00's torso from its lower body. Zeus tossed the upper half of the Eva to the side, the torso landing half a meter away, the black Eva not even bothering to give the discarded piece of garbage a final look. Unit 00's lower half merely fell backward in front of the might of Zeus. As if the beast had received a total high from literally ripping his adversary to pieces, Zeus released a roar that could be heard for miles around. With those two minor obstacles removed from its path, the seemingly unstoppable monster took to the air, continuing on its path to the Geofront.

Hyuga looked up at Commander Katsuragi, his expression conveying what everyone on the bridge was feeling. Total and absolute shock as well as a near crippling sense of dread. "Commander… That thing just went through both of our Eva's like they were cheap toys… What are we going to do?"

"There's only one thing we can do…" Misato said with no small amount of regret. "Order a full evacuation of the facility aside from essential personal. As of this moment, Project Deep Freeze is officially in effect…"

The three so called bridge-bunnies all looked at one another. Project Deep Freeze was so top secret that they knew very little about it, aside from their own personal roles in initiating the plan. The Commander did trust the three enough that she had warned them that Deep Freeze was a last resort type of plan with a high probability of mass casualties.

"Commander…" Maya spoke up sounding worried. "At the rate the Black Eva is going, it'll be here in less than five minutes… That's not nearly enough time to evacuate the entire complex."

"I know," came Misato's simple reply.

"What about Unit 2?!" Aboa suggested. "Shouldn't we launch her to defend the Geofront? Maybe she could at least buy us the time we need to evacuate."

"What good would that do?" The way her eyes bore into the Lieutenant made him want to crawl into himself and hide. "You just saw what that thing did to Unit's 00 & 01… Unit 02 won't be any more effective, unless your plan was just to dangle Asuka in front that monster like a carrot. Do you want to be the one to ask Asuka to throw her life away while you run away?"

"Umm… No Ma'am, I don't," Aboa submitted. He really hadn't thought about it in those terms.

"Then let's not waste any more time… Let's get as many people out of here as we can… And get Asuka out of Unit 2 and get her somewhere safe. Now, you all should know your assignments. I need to make sure everything is in order…"

Misato's subordinates remained professional and agreed, but as soon as Misato left the bridge, the three long-time friends all looked to one another with the same look of frantic bewilderment. It was hard to believe that the situation had degraded so much so quickly, an all three were thinking along the same lines, wondering what the future was going to hold for them… If they had a future left at all, that was…

"Damn… How am I not dead?" Shinji asked of himself as he eyes slowly opened. The presence of a warm liquid substance forced his left eye to shut, and it wasn't the LCL. This was actual blood that had dripped from his forehead down into his eye. Shinji wiped what he could from his eye, and as he did so, heard a voice crackle over his com… It was Asuka, pleading with him frantically to respond to her. Shinji tried, but no sound was coming forth from his mouth… Damn, it hurt to talk… It hurt to think… Fuck, it even hurt to blink.

Through the eyes of his Eva, Shinji could see Unit 00 struggle with the jet black demon known as Zeus. Finally, his throat managed to produce a sound. "Rei…"

Shinji watched in horror as Zeus overpowered Unit 00, dislocated her arm, and eventually started tarring the Eva in half. The scene was enough to clear the cobwebs from his head, allowing him to remember that he'd been fighting and how vital success in this battle was to keeping the people he loved safe. He came around just in time to watch Zeus rip Unit 00 clear in half.

"Rei! No!" Shinji frantically struggled to get his Eva back to its feet, but the giant mech remained unresponsive. Shinji could swear that the black beast was taunting him, as it appeared to look his way before it fled the area, presumably headed for the Geofront. Shinji reached an entirely new plane of panic. "Please be okay Rei… Damn it you piece of junk, move! Everybody in the city is going to be killed if I can't do something to stop that thing!"

"It would appear the situation is as dire as we feared," spoke the voice of Kaworu, whose image appeared next to Shinji. His presence stunned Shinji out of his desperate rant.

"Kaworu… How are you here?"

"I'm not here exactly," he began to explain, his usual smile more subdued and sympathetic than normal. "What you see is merely an astral projection of myself. It takes a massive amount of effort to communicate with you like this, so I'll keep this brief." Kaworu coughed in his hand and began. "I was really hoping we wouldn't have to resort to such drastic measures this quickly but… I've acquired the device you requested, and left it in the agreed upon location. I'm assuming there will be no talking you out of the decision you've undoubtedly made."

Shinji was hesitant but nodded his head. "There's no other choice… This Evangelion is everything you said it would be and more… It ripped right through Rei and I like we weren't there, and our strongest weapons didn't even phase it… This may be the only way I stop it, while protecting everyone at the same time…"

"As I assumed…" Kaworu's lips twisted back into his typical smirk. "How do you intend to get your Unit 01 off the mat, to coin a phrase?"

"There's one thing I can try… I can ask Mom for help."

Kaworu had expected this response, but couldn't fight back the misgivings he had about Shinji's plan. "You realize that you have given up a lot to protect this world and the people who live in it. Why do you still appear to feel so indebted to them?"

"It's not so much that… Maybe I feel I owe it to myself. A lot of people consider me a hero for bringing us back from instrumentality, but I've never agreed with that… Maybe after today, I can finally feel like I deserve that title."

"Well then… It does ease my mind to hear you're doing this for yourself, and not just for everyone else… I'll leave you to it then Shinji Ikari… Either way, we'll see each other soon…"

Kaworu's image faded away, leaving Shinji to ponder what exactly the enigmatic former pilot meant by that. Clearing such thoughts from his head, he focused his mind on his Eva… And tried to call out to the only person who could possibly help him.

Deep inside the Core of Unit 01, a wisp of a person who once lived floated purposelessly in the vast void that was the expanse of Unit 01's core. It was rare she received contact from the outside, so it immediately caught her attention when she heard a voice calling out to her… The voice of Unit 01's pilot and her son… How he had reached her she did not know, but she also didn't care. As if she'd ever ignore a cry for help from her little boy. "Shinji…"

"Mom…" Shinji's eyes snapped open, shocked that he'd gotten a response at all, let alone as quickly and clearly as he had. Fearing that whatever connection he had made might be gone, he shut his eyes tightly and tried to focus. "Mom… Are you still there?"

A brief pause followed before he received his answer. "Yes, it is me Shinji…"

"Mom… This is so great," Shinji laughed, chocking back a few tears that escaped from his eyes. "How am I able to hear you right now?"

"I do not know… Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth… If you're contacting me, then you're obviously piloting Unit 01, and something has gone terribly wrong."

"Yes it has mom… I was fighting with a powerful Eva Unit and now Until 01 is completely unresponsive. I can't even twitch a pinkie right now. The problem is, the Unit I was fighting is now headed for the Geofront, and if I don't do something fast, it's going to destroy the entire city."

"Well, we can't allow that now can we…" said the slow disembodied voice. "I'm unsure as to what you think I can do to help you though…"

"There is one thing we can do mother…"

Yui Ikari remained silent, knowing exactly what her son had in mind. "But Shinji..."

"I know the risks mom… But I can't do nothing again and watch while everyone around me dies… Not when there's a chance I can still put a stop to it… Especially for the people I care about… You should understand better than anyone the willingness to sacrifice yourself for the people that you loved."

Yui didn't respond, but deep from within the Eva's core, she smiled. Her little boy had grown up so much… How she hated that she couldn't be around to have seen it.

Back at the Geofront, everything was going to hell much more quickly than expected. Zeus would be arriving any minute, the evacuation had barely gotten off the ground, and the worst news yet… Oh damn, it didn't get any worse than this. "What do you mean it's gone?!"

"I mean just that," the scientist said warily, more than a little intimated by his angry superior. "The balkelite bomb is missing…"

"Well then, please explain to me where the hell it could've gone?! That's a 200 million yen device that has the potential to flash freeze a small city, locked in one of the most secure storage facilities in the world, and your telling me the bomb has disappeared?!"

"Yes Commander…."

"Damn it!" Misato's communication device offended her for the final time as she slammed it against the wall, smashing it to pieces. Placing her hands on the table, she hung her head over it, feeling a strong sense of déjà vu harking back to the events leading up to the JSSDF assaulting the Geofront. She had never felt as lousy at her job as she did right now.

"Commander…" Maya addressed Misato warily. "Should we proceed with the plan as instructed? Has something gone wrong?"

"Has something gone wrong?! Only that there's no way to save the city if we can't trap that damn monster inside the Geofront…Or that we're all basically floating around on a pond like ducks waiting to get shot!" Misato showed years of accumulative restraint, as those thoughts didn't form words upon her lips. "Yes, there's been a slight change in plans Maya… Inform Aboa and Hygua to abort their current assignments and shift their focus to evacuating the Geofront as quickly as possible…"

"Um… Yes Commander," Maya obeyed, well aware that her Commander was holding something back, but Maya was too professional to question Misato about it. If anyone had bothered to monitor the Eva's at that moment, they may have noticed Unit 1 activate as Shinji's sync rate spiked to nearly 400%.

Somewhere on the outskirts of the city, Kaworu stood atop the roof of the building he'd agreed to meet Shinji at. Next to him was a cylindrical bomb like device that was roughly the same size that he was. Escaping the Geofront unnoticed took no small amount of effort, but his other worldly powers had made it possible. "The Lilin baffle me at times… If they'd put half the effort into preserving this world as they do creating weapons capable of destroying themselves, perhaps Second and Third Impact would've never been considered necessary. Oh well, I hope Shinji knows what he's doing, and he'd best hurry." From his vantage point, Kaworu could clearly see Zeus in the distance approaching fast.

"What's the status of the evacuation Tanaka?!"

"At 30% Commander… Though I fear the evacuation will prove to be more for show than it is effective at preserving lives. Much of our staff doesn't really have any place to go, or the time to get there if they do. Not before that Evangelion arrives… The staff might almost be safer remaining inside the facility."

"You might be right about that…" Misato grumbled, her fingertip in her mouth as she played chess with people's lives. The entire evacuation scenario was intended to help as many staff members as possible avoid getting caught up in the Balkelite blast that was obviously not happening as of now. The bomb itself was what she'd expected to do the most damage, preferably before Zeus had the chance to even get started. Now that Zeus was pretty much free to wreak havoc upon the Geofront completely unchecked, the folks who had cleared the blast zone were now possibly in as much danger as those still stuck inside the complex. "Damn it, we're running out of time!"

Misato got on the com and yelled out orders aimed at the entire facility. "The enemy is almost on us. I repeat, the enemy is closing in and an attack is imminent. All non-essential personal please take cover immediately. At this point, you'll be safer inside the building than you will be outside if you're caught out there when this thing shows up. I repeat, all non-essential personal take cover immediately and brace from enemy attack."

"Um... Commander," Aboa balked, not exactly sure what to make of what he thought he was seeing. "We've picked up another ping on the radar and it's approaching our location fast… It even appears to be moving faster that SEELE's little toy… The object is roughly the size of an Evangelion…"

"Don't tell me there are two of them now!" Misato threated, her head popping up over Aboa's shoulder to get a better look at the radar. "It can't be one of ours. Both our active Eva's are out of commission."

As if on cue, the vitals for Unit 1 suddenly roared back to life... Well sort of… The only major statistic showing was Unit 1's sync rate with its pilot, and the number was staggering to say the least. Maya was so shocked, it hardly even registered that Shinji's heart rate and vitals were still blank. "Commander… You're not going to believe this… Unit 1 has just reactivated!" What Maya didn't know was that Unit 1 had been active for quite some time now. "It shouldn't be possible… Shinji's sync rate is reading five-hundred and thirty-four percent!"

"Over 500…" Misato nearly fell over. On that one occasion when Shinji had topped 400%, he was subsequently absorbed into Unit 1. Did this mean Shinji was… The Commander shook the thought from her mind. There wasn't time to worry about that right now. "Can you get me a visual of Unit 1?"

"I should have one in just a moment," Aboa promised her, and a few key strokes later, he managed to bring up a video feed of a fast approaching Unit 1. Two things stood out immediately. The first was Unit 01's jaw which was completely unhinged and locked in a feral grin. The second thing was… Well… "Um… Did I miss a memo or something? Since when is Unit 01 able to fly?"

"You don't think Unit 01's gone berserk again do you?" Maya asked her Commander as she stared at the screen, feeling obviously mixed emotions.

"It's possible, but hard to tell… All that matters right now is that, assuming Shinji is still in control, we still have a shot at defeating SEELE's Eva… Let's just hope Unit 1 can get here before Zeus wipes us off the map."

Below the flying black behemoth, the streets of Tokyo 3 were in chaos, and had been ever since the emergency sirens began going off. Luckily for them, the invader had no interest in what he viewed as puny insects. He was less than a mile away from his destination, from his destiny. Zeus was practically hovering over the Central Hub of NERV when it felt a presence speeding towards him from the direction he had just come. Zeus sensed immediately that it was another Evangelion Unit, one that felt much more menacing than the two Eva's Zeus had so easily dispatched mere minutes before. Zeus didn't have to wait long before his new adversary came into view, speeding quickly towards him. The Unit continued to surge forward haphazardly, showing no signs of slowing… It just kept coming, and coming, and coming. Zeus braced itself and within seconds, Until 1 collided with the Black Eva, pushing it forward in an attempt to use its momentum to knock Zeus off of his feet. The Black Evangelion was just too powerful though, and fought the smaller Eva off of his person. Jumping back, Unit 01 fired a blast from seemingly nowhere directed at Zeus's face. The Unit braced itself and absorbed the attack, it having little to no effect. Zeus was distracted defending himself long enough for Unit 01 to speed off and flee from his adversary. Hoping Zeus would give chase, the black Eva took the bait. After all, his primary objective programmed into him by SEELE was to destroy NERV's most dangerous assets, its Evangelions. The destruction of NERV's central headquarters was secondary.

Back in the Geofront, Aboa updated the obvious to everyone listening. "Commander, the incoming Evangelion has rerouted course from the Geofront and is now pursing Unit 01!"

"Commander…" Maya started to ask hesitantly. "Do you think there's a chance Shinji is still piloting Unit 01, or…"

"Or what?" asked the last voice Misato wanted to hear at that moment. Asuka stood behind her, still moist from LCL. She obviously didn't bother showering after being extracted from Unit 02's entry plug, not that she could've if she wanted too, considering they were under evacuation orders at the time. "Why wouldn't Shinji be piloting Unit 01?"

"I don't know," Misato addressed Maya, making a point to ignore Asuka's question. "He's not answering his com, we can't pick up any vitals, and there's that off the charts sync rate… As of now, we can't rule out the possibility that Unit 01 is acting of its own accord…"

"Own accord?..." Asuka muttered to herself, knowing too well what that usually meant… A berserk Eva or worse… "Shinji…"

"Unit 01 and the Black Evangelion have left the city limits Commander…" Hyuga updated. "Right now, it's hard to tell if Unit 01 is running away, or trying to lead SEELE's Eva outside of the city…"

"No, Unit 01 is definitely leading it somewhere… It wouldn't have just attacked SEELE's Eva out of the blue, only to run away. It's almost as if Unit 01 has a plan…" Misato truly did hope this was the case, as it would point to Shinji still being in control of his Eva, to some degree at least.

Zeus was considerably faster than the older model Shinji usually piloted, but not so much so that it could catch up to Unit 01 with ease. The Black Eva was slowly gaining ground and would eventually catch up, but that didn't matter to Unit 01. The plan was to lure Zeus outside of the city, far enough away, that when Zeus finally did catch up to him, Unit 01 could spring his trap without causing any unnecessary damage to Tokyo 3 and its citizens. So far so good as the two Eva's were now several miles outside of the city. Unit 01 had a particular destination in mind, and it appeared he would reach this location before… If the Eva could talk, it might claim that it spoke too soon. Unit 01 felt a hand grasp around its ankle, and upon looking back saw that Zeus was now in close enough proximity to initiate contact. Unit 01 kicked the hand away and modified its plan accordingly, coming to a stop nearby, hovering over the barren crater of a dormant volcano. The surrounding landscape was a brown lifeless wasteland, ravished by the effects of 3rd Impact.

Unit 01 stood still and waited patiently, though he did not have to wait for long as Zeus sped towards him. Unit 01 made no effort to move or attack, and thus practically invited the black Eva to wrap its hand around the purple mech's throat. The black Eva's blade once again slid out of the compartment on its wrist. It aimed for Unit 01's throat, plunging the blade downward, and finally forcing Shinji's Eva to react. Unit 01 caught Zeus by the wrist, but immediately recognized the magnitude of the struggle he was about to undertake. Unit 01 could barely hold Zeus back. The black Eva was just too powerful, and slowly began to overpower the smaller Evangelion. Luckily for Unit 01, it had no need to overpower Zeus… And actually had the black Eva right where he wanted it. Wearing what could almost be constituted as a smirk, Unit 01 opened its mouth revealing a small, by Eva standards, cylindrical object. Before Zeus had time to process the potential threat, Unit 01 bit down on the object.

The explosion that followed hardly made a sound, but what was left in the balkelite bomb's wake was three square miles of a glass-like material. In the middle of that block of balkelite was Zeus backing away from Unit 01, wearing what almost appeared to be an expression of fear on its face. Unit 01 stared intently at the other Eva, its arms spread outward as if ready to commence their battle. It was a scene literally frozen in time, and would remain that way for years to come.

The staff at NERV Headquarters was awestruck by what they'd just seen. No one was quite sure how to react either. Had they just won? Should they be celebrating? What did all this mean for Unit 01 and its pilot? As for the group amassed on the bridge, only Misato truly understood the extent of what had just happened. She just couldn't understand how it had. "That was the balkelite bomb… But how? How did Shinji get his hands on… It shouldn't be possible…"

Misato's words were as unsteady as her legs which had suddenly gone weak. The Commander had to will herself not to collapse down to her knees in front of her staff. Asuka would've loved to ask what a balkelite bomb was, but she had much deeper concerns at that momnet. "Misato… If I understand what I'm seeing correctly, then this means Shinji is trapped inside Unit 01 which is currently frozen in balkelite correct?" Misato nodded her head slowly, fearing the question that was undoubtedly to follow. Asuka remained rather stoic… Her stance and demeanor made her appear quite serious, but otherwise showed no obvious signs of emotion. "Would I be correct in assuming that there's no feasible way to extract Shinji or Unit 01 from the balkelite?"

Misato didn't want to answer her. Good God, how she didn't want to answer that question. The long pause that followed wasn't helping ebb Asuka's anxiety. The answer would be far worse than Asuka feared. "The balkelite bomb was highly concentrated and designed to completely encase the Geofront in balkelite in the event that we were attacked by an Angel or JSSDF level enemy, and were otherwise unable to stop them."

"I see…" Asuka gulped hard. "And I assume nobody knows how Shinji knew about the bomb, let alone how he got his hands on it without you noticing?"

Another long pause followed before Misato responded. "That statement is accurate…"

"Okay then…" Misato was expecting an eruption to finish the job Third Impact failed to accomplish, and quite frankly, she couldn't blame Asuka if she completely lost it. Strangely though, with an empty look in her eyes, Asuka left the bridge leaving Misato alone with her grief. Sadly, Misato knew she had no choice but to deal with the aftermath of what she had just witnessed before she could even allow the reality of it to sink it.

"It's no small miracle that we survived this attack," Misato declared, as she marveled at the carnage Zeus had created. Sub-Commander Tanaka was supervising the clean-up of Unit Zero, who Zeus had ripped in half, but Misato felt she needed to see the damage firsthand. "How bad is the damage?"

"Extensive," Tanaka replied as the pair walked a line that stretched the sizable salvage area, considering the mass of Unit 00 and the spread out locations of various Eva parts. "I'm not an expert on the physiology of these mechs of course, but from what our people have told me, it's not good…"

"And what about Rei?..."

"Pilot Ayanami…" Tanaka hesitated briefly. "Survived, but she was in rough shape… Pre-Medical exam, we already know she's suffered a broken arm, numerous lacerations, and a highly probable concussion. She was conscious when she was extracted from the entry plug, so that's was a good sign…"

"That is good… Did she say anything before she was transported to the hospital?"

"Yes…" Tanaka hesitated again, and then looked his Commander in the eye, showing her the utmost respect. "She asked me how her brother was doing…"

Misato was caught off guard, enough so that she stopped walking, and had to fight to catch her breath. Tanaka waited patiently for Misato to recover, and then they continued their walk. "What did you say to her when she asked you that?"

"I told her the truth… That her brother sacrificed himself to stop the rouge Eva, and saved Tokyo 3 from annihilation." Tanaka predicted Misato's next question and answered that one too. "I can't quite tell you how she took the news… She had no noticeable reaction, and did not utter another word, not even as they were loading her up in the ambulance to take her back to the Geofront."

"The fact that she asked you how Shinji was doing at all should tell you what she was feeling at that moment…" Misato sighed, knowing what she would have to do next. "Regardless, knowing she's still alive is encouraging news… News I really needed at the moment. I'll leave you to handle the rest of the clean up here Tanaka… I have to… I'm going to visit the detonation site of the balkeltite bomb…"

Though his stern by-the-book demeanor would never betray a hint of it, he truly pitied his Commander at that moment. Her affection for the pilot of Unit 01 was secret to no one. "Understood Commander… I'll update you if we find anything out of the ordinary."

"Thank you Tanaka." Misato came to a dead stop when she saw the car that would escort her to the giant ice sculptor that had been abruptly erected five miles east of town. With a deep breath, she willed her feet to move towards the awaiting vehicle that would take her to face the most difficult thing she'd likely ever have to endure in her life. For someone who experienced two impacts, sent children she loved to certain death on countless occasions, and worked for Satan himself, Gendo Ikari, that was saying something.

Asuka Langley Soryu had been a blank slate ever since she had fled the bridge for somewhere a little less suffocating. She chose the pilot's changing room for privacy purposes, and once she got there, was anything other than a blank slate. She was more like a raging bull on a rampage, ripping lockers off hinges, punching others, and throwing everything not nailed to the wall or the ground.

"Damn stupid baka! You just had to go play the big hero again didn't you?! Show everybody else up right?! Well congrada-fucking-lations! You saved the city again, and this time, nobody had to die except for you! Shinji the Martyr, I bet you're probably expecting a fucking statue too aren't you!... Bastard!"

It had been quite an annoyance the moment when Asuka first realized that focused rage no longer felt quite as good as it once had… Sometimes it just felt petty and non-constructive, like now for instance. Face red from tears she barely realized she'd cried, she dropped to the ground, pulling her legs up to her face so she could bury it in them. "I should've never let myself get close to him… Every time I do, that person finds a way to either leave me or hurt me… Shinji was the one person I let myself hope I would never have to fear that from, and if he didn't just do both… Damn you Shinji… What am I supposed to do now you selfish bastard?!"

"Selfish Bastard? You have always been quite the interesting one haven't you Asuka Langley? What Shinji has done is completely selfless, and yet you can still manage to twist his sacrafice for the people of this city into some kind of intentional slight against you."

Asuka's head snapped upward, not so much shocked that someone was in the locker room with her, but rather by whom it was. "You…"

Kaworu stood over her, that typical smug smile on his face, and it stayed there even as Asuka's hand wrapped around his throat and shoved him up against the lockers. "You son of a bitch! You got Shinji that bomb didn't you?! You're the only one who could've gotten past security to get your hands on it!"

"Astute observation Mrs. Soryu," Kaworu said still smiling.

"Why would you do that?! I thought you were supposed to be his friend or something?! Why would you help him throw his life away like that?!"

"I helped him because he asked me to... In order to safeguard the Lilin he loves, such as yourself. A sacrifice you don't appear to appreciate."

"I didn't need him to sacrifice himself for me!" Asuka half growled and half sobbed as she released the reformed Angel's throat. "I didn't need him to protect me! I just needed him with me, and the idiot couldn't even do that right! This city could've just burnt in hell for all I care!"

"Ho… Now who's sounding selfish?"

"So what if I'm being selfish, I don't give a damn! We risked our lives so many times for those same people… My life has been shit, nothing but hard work and dedication, and it's gotten me absolutely nothing! Shinji was the one thing I had in my life that made me feel normal, and now he's gone… So please forgive me if I sound selfish!" Asuka punctuated that sentence with another right hook to the closest unfortunate locker.

"Hum…" Kaworu sang, his smile broadening.

"What?" she snarled, seriously considering if she needed to punch this douche in the face.

"Oh it's nothing… I never could understand why Shinji held so much affection for you, but now I'm starting to see why."

"Well, fantastic for you, now why the hell are you here?!"

"Believe it or not… To apologize to you."

Asuka's brow furrowed as she stared at the reformed angel as if he'd just grown a second head. "Why the hell would you feel the need to apologize to me?!"

"I may not have pushed him to make the decisions he has made, but I didn't try that hard to talk him out of them either… I'm also the one who informed Shinji about the balkelite bomb, and as you deduced earlier, I helped him acquire it."

"Great…" Asuka grunted, her hands clenched into fists. "So you enabled him to play the big hero, so he could protect all of us pathetic people he didn't think were capable of protecting themselves. What are you expecting? Me to forgive for your role in his idiocy?"

"To answer your question, no I'm not expecting forgiveness from you, nor do I feel responsible enough to even desire it. What I do understand, is that you were important to Shinji, which makes how you perceive him important to me. Many of his final thoughts centered around you… Fearing how his demise might affect you, and weighing that against what might happen if he didn't stop SEELE's Evangelion. He almost wavered in those final moments, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to imagine a world without you in it… Even if he wasn't able to be there with you."

By then Asuka was hiding her face behind her hand, fighting and failing to hold her tears at bay. She didn't want to be hearing any of this. She desperately needed her anger to lean on, to burn away her own self-pity. She wasn't ready to consider Shinji was anything more than a selfish coward who found yet another way to run away. Even if she knew deep down, none of this was true, she needed to pretend it was and pretend to hate him for it. She might completely fall to pieces otherwise. "Why are you telling me this?! Is it supposed to make me feel better?!"

"I had my doubts it would… But now, if anything I came to you to solidify my own piece of mind… And I felt I owed you as much for the brief but abundant happiness you'd brought into his life… I also felt obligated to let you know on his behalf… That his heart was still with you, up until the very last moment.

"Stop it, just stop it! All you're doing is reminding me of what I'm never going to have again! I can't listen to any more of it!" Asuka had dropped down to her knees practically cradling herself. "Please just leave me alone…"

Several moments passed with no response, leading Asuka to wonder if Kaworu had respected her request. Sure enough, when she looked behind her, he was gone. She was thankful for that, but hated him for sucking all the anger out of her, an emotion that had served as her security blanket for years. All Kaworu had left her with was a shattered heart, and the inability to hate the man she loved. She couldn't stay in that locker room, she decided, or even the Geofront for that matter. Drying her eyes, she straightened herself up and exited the changing room. She walked tall, showing no signs of emotional strife. That's what she wanted anyone she might've passed in the halls to see, rather than see how badly she was hurting inside. Her days of exposing her emotions where people could easily see them were over, as short-lived as those days might've been for the handful of people who got to enjoy them. Asuka lost count of how many people she passed in the hall ignoring their stares as she walked passed them. She refused to look anyone in the eye, knowing all she was going to see was pity in them. Oh, how she despised being pitied.

She would blame Shinji for the months to come for the raging storm of bitterness and contempt that would come to engulf her life. More than Shinji though, she would blame herself. She was the one who let Shinji get too close, and then foolishly opened her heart to him. Just as everyone else she ever loved had, he spat on that gift and abandoned her. She would never make that mistake again… Never again would she allow someone to get close enough that they could devastate her like losing Shinji had. This was the promise she made to herself as she fled out the front entrance of the Geofront, still dressed in her plug suit and with LCL dripping from her hair.

Misato let out a sigh as she arrived at her apartment, but it wasn't a sigh of relief at returning home after a long day at the office. Honestly, she was only here because she had nowhere else to go. She was far too exhausted to do what she really wanted to do, get shit-face wasted and with any luck, flood out some of the images of Shinji that had been swimming around in her head these past few hours. Seeing Unit 01 frozen in balkelite did nothing but hammer home the fact that Shinji would never be coming home. Even if there was a way to extract Unit 01 from the balkelite without realizing Zeus in the process, Shinji likely would not have survived… Unless he'd been absorbed into Unit 01, which was only a marginally better option. Of course, this was all theory, and human tissue had never been tested to see if it could survive being flash-frozen in balkelite, but simple physics and common sense would suggest it's not. Despite all the technical marvels mankind could dream up, thawing out a caveman who'd been frozen in ice for 10,000 years will win you nothing but a dead caveman.

Misato staggered into the apartment to bit of a surprise, the faint stench of dried blood. Misato felt some relief to know that Asuka was home rather than off brooding somewhere she shouldn't. Misato found the red-head on the sitting room couch, her chin resting on her knees. Apparently, she either didn't make it to her bedroom, or for whatever reason didn't want to be in there. She was wearing a nightgown, but otherwise Misato could tell Asuka had done little to clean herself up after emerging from Unit 02's entry plug.

"Hey…" Misato greeted the girl, though honestly had no inclination as to where to continue the conversation from there. Asuka didn't help either, as she merely grunted. Sighing again, Misato leaned up against the couch next to her ward, allowing silence to linger for several minutes. "Rei's got a dislocated shoulder, a few fractured ribs, and some cuts and bruises… Otherwise, she's in remarkably good shape considering."

"Isn't that great for Wondergirl…" Asuka snorted, though lacking the bile she would've liked to accompany the comment.

"Come on Asuka… I know you guys don't get along that well, but you can't tell me it's so bad that you can't be relieved she's not dead…" Asuka didn't respond. Misato could sense her pulling deeper into her shell. "Asuka listen to me…"

"No don't… I don't want to hear it…" she pleaded in as neutral a tone as she could manage.

"You might not want to hear it, but you need to…"

"Damn it Misato, just save it for somebody else will you?!" Asuka screamed up at her guardian. "I already know what you're going to say! You're going to try to sell me on how Shinji died to protect us, and how everything is going to be okay… Everything is not okay! Shinji's not with me anymore and there's nothing remotely okay about that! There's nothing good about this… Nothing is okay, and things aren't going to be okay for a long time…"

Misato looked down at the girl, stunned to silence by her outburst… And apparently won over by it, as she collapsed down on the couch next to Asuka. "I know… No matter how many different ways I try to spin what happened in my head, I just can't come up with anything positive… I should be thankful for what he did for us… There's no telling how many lives would've been lost if I would've had to detonate that bomb inside the Geofront… I should be grateful, but I'm just not…" She was sobbing by this point, barely avoiding breaking down entirely. "I'm too angry and way too confused to be grateful… I could barely bring myself to come home knowing Shinji wasn't going to be here… I wasn't sure if I could handle it…"

"Why should you be grateful? You have every right to angry…" Asuka wasn't showing it outwardly, but Misato might have just ripped her heart in half if it hadn't already been broken. Empathy was not an emotion she experienced often. "Let the people who didn't know Shinji from their third cousin's dentist be grateful… They didn't have to lose anything… They get to go on living their lives that Shinji saved like nothing ever happened. We don't get that luxury… We didn't get anything but an empty bedroom down the hall, and a void in our hearts the size of the Evangelion Shinji piloted. I say we deserve to be angry, and have every right to wallow in our own self-pity if we so chose. We deserve something don't we?"

Misato couldn't argue with her logic… She'd have been too exhausted to argue even if she'd wanted to anyhow. Both women stared blankly, Asuka at the wall, and Misato at the ceiling. Neither were seeing what was within their line of sight, but rather looking past them and seeing nothing but that balkelite bomb exploding, and in Misato's case, the massive block of glass that would immortalize the struggle been Unit 01 and Zeus for years to come. Yes indeed, it would be a long time before things were ever okay again within the Katsuragi household.

End of Chapter 19

-And so ends the main arch of my story. Don't fret though, this isn't quite the end even though the end of this chapter seems like it definitely could've been. I haven't communicated with the readers all that much, up until this point there hasn't been much reason too. The first seven or eight chapters of this story opened to a response I could only compare to crickets chirping, but I've amassed a nice little reader base since, that I felt I owed an explanation too. The last several chapters of this fic are obviously going to be taking a drastically different direction from the previous 19, and I can warn you right now that some of you are going to love it, some of you will hate it, and I'm sure even a few of you will think I should've ended the story right here. That's just not my style though. When I first began this story, I wanted to accomplish two things with it... The first is what I stressed at the beginning, that I wanted to create an Asuka/Shinji pairing story that was believable... Well, believable within the bizarre universe of Evangelion, that didn't fall back on drastic and immediate changes to the core characters. My second goal, was to create a story that I personally would've enjoyed reading if I happened to stumble across it while looking for a good piece of Evangelion fan-fiction. I've had so much working on this story, and I'm not sure how many readers realize just how important it is for a fan-fiction writer to have fun in order to complete a project like this. Too many would-be authors take criticisms too personally and compromise their work and change to satisfy the whims of what they think the readers want, rather than sticking to their original vision. Falling into that trap can make writing more laborious than fun, resulting in many of these tales getting abandoned way too early. I should know, I've fallen into that pit before. I'm very proud of the ending I have planed for this tale, and I fully stand by it, though I'm well aware it may prove divisive in the end. I do hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed working on it. The questions I'm sure you all have circling in your heads will be answered soon.