Broken heroes

Chapter 21:

The end of Sin

part 1

The attack

Command room, around two hours before the invasion.

"How are the preparations on the defenses going?" Ritsuko asked to the three bridge bunnies and so they replied "almost done, all the guns are set up, we just need to get the rocket buildings ready, VEGA has full access to the weapons right now"

"okay, how many enemies are we going up against?" the scientist asked and so Samuel replied from her left "around fifty thousand soldiers and a lot of air and ground support, at the moment they have settled at around two hundred kilometers from the city, making a long range attack too ineffective"

Suddenly from over them Fuyutsuki asked "what about Terminal dogma?"

This time VEGA replied, and he said "the trap has been set and the Slayer is in position, Rei has tol-"

As VEGA was talking, the girl entered the room along with the Slayer and as the man asked everyone to follow him downstairs, she thought "It is a relief to know that I'm finally going to enjoy life in a while, without the fear of being cloned again"

"Oh really? Have you shown the Slayer the machine that we saw in your video?"

"No, he found it himself while walking around Lilith's room"

"Really? Strange, he told me that he was positioned outside of it, he had no reason to enter so far inside"

"{actually he wasn't walking around} Don't do that! Sorry VEGA"

"No wait, let her continue"

"{when he entered I immediately felt that there was something wrong with him, but it was made clear to me when he kneeled to the ground in pain and released a lot of yellow energy into the ground, plus I also saw something glowing on his back.

It was thanks to that discharge of energy that he was able to find the hidden door behind my cross}"

"his powers must be growing again…okay I'll try to talk to him"

And so he opened a channel with the Slayer's suit while the group made up by Samuel, Ritsuko, Misato, Kaji, the angels and the pilots took the elevator down to Terminal.

"Slayer, do you mind if I ask you about something?"

"Did Lilith snitch on me for what happened a while ago?"

"Yes, she told me that you were feeling pain that brought you to the ground and after that you released a lot of energy, am I correct?"

"Yep, checked all the boxes"

"okay, this might have been caused by the fact that you are nearing your fullest potential so your body had to regulate itself to the new power it had inside of it…

But this wouldn't have happened 'normally'"

"I had a vision"

"what did you see?" The Father asked with a calm voice and so the Slayer replied as the doors to Lilith's room opened.

"I saw Them VEGA, but they weren't in a random location like most of the time, instead this time we were in a blossoming Tokyo 3 that maybe only you would have been able to build.

But, as I approached them and hugged the two of them, they dissolved into a yellow liquid that looked like LCL and then the environment changed to something that I would see in hell.

The buildings were destroyed, the ground was black and lifeless with a strange red dust everywhere, the same next to the city had turned red and various burnt crosses appeared.

Then there was a red ring of something that floated around the Earth and on the moon there was a gigantic blood mark.

After this, I saw that everyone had died, as their lifeless corpses appeared in front of me.

The worst part was that suddenly, they all woke up and looked at me, with twisted smiles on their faces, as they begged me to join them in paradise"

"Hmm, I think that I understand what has happened here"

"tell me"

"this 'vision' that you had, it might have shown you the result of the third impact if it succeeded.

It's probable that you were so worried about the consequences, that you accidentally used your powers on your subconscious and created that scenario by yourself"

"I can do that?"

"you can affect any part of your body with your own free will"

"okay… So that happened because I'm worrying too much, right?"

"exactly, but I understand why it is like this.

You simply don't want to be left alone again, I can see that you care about all of us unconditionally, because we keep you company and that's enough for you.

But losing us, would have a tremendous impact on your life, possibly sending you down a path of depression and sadness after losing everything for the third time…

And even though you want to be more open about it, after so many years in hell you don't know anymore how close you can get to someone, as there is always the possibility of you losing that person and being hurt by it, but since our arrival in this dimension, you have been getting better at it…

Right?"

"... *sigh*

since when did you become a therapist that gets almost everything right?"

"almost?"

"It isn't only because of hell, that I have my problems… There is something else, in my earlier life, but I'm still not ready to talk about it"

"and you don't have to. It would be detrimental to talk about such things without rest, so, take your time"

"damn you really need to open up a studio after everything is done, you would make tons of money for how nice it feels to talk with you"

"I would probably make it free, but I will think about it. Right now I am doing this with you also as a sort of 'apology' for having given you such a burden, after all, it was my decision to let Davoth live.

And to be honest, I also wanted to make sure that you were ready for the battle, since… I believe that he will be there"

As VEGA said that,the Slayer immediately stopped walking in front of everyone, but since they were in the middle of a hallway, Mari, who was the closest, approached him and asked "is everything alright Slayer? You have been silent for a while now"

He turned to look at her,seeing how she was smiling at him and looking at him with caring eyes.

So,feeling his chest warm up a bit, he deactivated the silent mode of his suit and said "No, it's fine, don't worry about it, I just remembered something that I need to do later.

Now, the room is to our left"

He announced as they approached a cross section and after turning, they entered one by one the giant dark circular room.

In the middle of it a tube filled with LCL, similar to the one in the medical wing, was placed vertically with a console next to it.

On the ground there were strange white incisions that most of them didn't recognize, while the ceiling was occupied by the giant soul machine that allowed for Rei to be cloned.

Then, the Slayer went next to the console and pressed a button, which revealed the enormous LCL tank that made up the walls of the room.

And one thing was seeing Rei's clones on a video cassette.

The other was finding yourself in the middle of a room surrounded by lots of floating teenage naked bodies that all looked the same and all had the same soulless creepy smile on their faces.

When the bodies were revealed, Shinji noticed that his sister was getting visibly frustrated and tense just by being in there, so he approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, receiving a small smile in return.

Then Akagi went up next to the console and said "so, Rei, do you really want to do this?

We can't go back afterwards, you'll be stuck with your current body, but the LCL baths will be gone, since your soul won't be as fractured anymore"

And so the girl replied "both me and Lilith have agreed to do this, we are starting to learn to share this body too, so please Akagi, proceed"

"alright" the scientist replied as she started pressing various buttons to input the arrest code, but, once she pressed 'send' she got back an error message.

"what!? Wait, maybe I typed it wrong"

She thought as she began once again the operation, but in the end, she got back the same result.

She tried two more times, getting more tense with each failure as the others started worrying too.

After the last error message, she lowered down on the console and said "I'm… I'm sorry Rei, but, the code… My mother… it doesn't work anymore…

Gendo must have changed it, to prevent me from shutting this down, Kaji?"

"Sorry Rits, I'm empty handed on this one"

This caused Rei to almost start crying, knowing that she couldn't be freed from her pseudo-immortality that had plagued her entire life, and even though the others were trying to comfort her, especially Shinji, the pain she was feeling was too high at the moment.

Suddenly though, VEGA said "Hold on, I think that I am about to figure out the new code, just give me twenty minutes"

"is it really that encrypted?" Samuel said and so VEGA replied "every letter of this new fifty letter code is locked by its own 20 letter password, all of them encrypted in the strangest of manners.

But now that I think about it, I'll just need five minutes"

"That's still time I don't want to lose" the Slayer announced and then he said "Tell me Samuel, don't these tubes look a lot like the Argent filters you had on the Mars base?

I think that I'll handle them with the same care"

"wait Slayer I don't think that it's- *crash*

That sound was the Slayer punching open the main central tube and the console, destroying them both, but seeing that it wasn't enough, he took out the heavy cannon and fired a large volley of micro-missiles at the soul machine over them.

He stopped a while later, when pieces of metal began falling to the ground and the slow quiet hum of the machine had stopped.

This was followed by the clones beginning to launch hysterically as their bodies dissolved into LCL, but not completely, as they left major parts like limbs and heads clearly visible and intact.

When the last clone died, Rei suddenly fell to the ground, holding herself up with the small amount of force that she felt into her as she took rapid breaths.

She had never felt so complete and alive before and the suddenness of it all almost made her unconscious, but she was able to stay focused until her body began to stabilize.

When she was finally ready to get up again, she found Mari waiting with a hand in front of her, which she gladly took as her girlfriend brought her into a hug, making her blush a bit.

Suddenly, a big piece of the machine over them came crashing down, breaking the floor and revealing a new secret giant room.

"what the fuck? Ritsuko?" Misato asked as she looked towards her friend, who replied:

"hold on, I don't remember ever seeing this room, can we get some lights?"

Then when Ramiel flew closer to the hole he said "Wait a second, it almost feels like there is part of me there…

Yep, there it is! Right below us! You can see it's blue tint!"

As he said that he began descending rapidly down the hole, and as the echo of his movements filled the room, everyone understood just how big it was.

Finally as he got down at the rubble, Ramiel moved it away with his AT field, revealing the small section of his body trapped underneath it.

He asked himself as he picked it up "what is a part of me doing here? Plus it's full of a strange black dust too, just what the heck is this new place?"

As he thought that, a small piece of debris fell from above, landing to Ramiel's left.

*clang*

"Did… Did it just hit something metallic?" Ramiel asked and so Zeruel replied "it sounded like it, try using your lasers to illustrate the area"

"good idea!" the angel replied as he changed shape into his 'anti-air' mode and fired a bright laser across the room.

He then immediately changed again and deleted the decapitated evangelion head in front of him while he shouted in fear.

The laser went on to hit the opposite wall of the room, which proved to be really far away.

As the destroyed unit 00 head fell down below, it made a new sound clue different from before, as everyone was sure to have heard something made of rock crack.

"what the hell was that?" Samuel asked, turning to Ritsuko who seemed to have resolved the mystery as she said "I think that I figured out what this room is, but we need to go down there to check"

So Zeruel and Kaworu said "we'll give you a lift with our AT fields, so you can get down there safely"

On the platform below

"so, are you going to tell us what it is while we search for the light switch?" Misato asked as they walked around the platform in total darkness,making light only with their phones or other things.

Before Ritsuko could answer, Kaji said "we found it, but it's broken, give me and Samuel a moment"

So this time Akagi replied "Okay, now Misato, for your question, this room should be where we kept the evangelion prototypes that came before unit 00,most of them were just copies of it that failed to adapt correctly to the bodies and so, since they were broken, we threw them down here, I think that we also threw some of Ramiel's shards down here after he was hit"

"oh yes I see some of them down there too!" the angel said, but this time Ritsuko stopped him as she said "Wait, don't go down there yet as there is something else down here"

"what is it?"

"this is the room where we found Lilith in, the black seed is down there"

As soon as she said this VEGA got more tense, along with the Slayer, who turned to look at the scientist, just like everyone else, except for Kaji and Samuel, who had just fixed the lights.

As they pulled the heavy lever, the entire place was filled with light from above, revealing that the room was at least five hundred by five hundred meters big and its walls were decorated with tons of dead copies of unit 00,but the thing that got everyone's attention, was the giant fucking black moon surface under them that had a Lilith sized rectangular hole in it.

Along with this, four circular craters, with three further away and one closer, all of this with a circular trench running around the four craters that had the hole in the middle of this circle.

"Jesus Christ, since when did we have a moon in our basement?!"

Misato shouted as everyone looked around the area, especially Samuel, who had activated a special visor in his body, which was dedicated to detecting Argent energy.

And as he looked towards the black moon he thought: "oh shit"

"can I go down there now?" Ramiel asked as he pointed towards the blue shards that were resting in the closest crater.

Suddenly VEGA said from the Slayer's suit "I think that you can go now, we still have a lot of time left"

"yay" Ramiel replied as he flew down to the bottom of the revolving staircase and while he was descending, the Slayer thought "VEGA seemed tense when he said that, and even Samuel looks like he's worried about something…

Well, now that I think about it, the position of those craters does resemble a lot the Father's symbol,let's just hope that neither Kaworu or Rei get some new memories from seeing this"

Suddenly, he received a coded message from Samuel to his suit, directed to him and VEGA especially, it read:

"I am detecting Argent energy near those craters and near the trench, is that a sign of what you told us about dad? Kaji seems to be suspecting something as well"

"Yes, but I'd rather not talk about it at the moment, let's just check out the site, shall we?" VEGA replied with clear worry in his voice, basically confirming what the two of them were thinking, so they didn't push the issue any further as they knew how sensitive of a subject it was for him.

Strangely, Kaji didn't seem that disturbed about this discovery, which prompted the Slayer to get close to him and ask without being heard by the others "you seem less traumatized since I've last seen you"

"Oh you don't know how many drugs I've taken that night after learning this, but I'm better now.

Now, I think that we all recognized that symbol down there right?"

"yep...let's keep this secret though, now come on, let's go see what walking on the black moon feels like"

And so the three men started descending down the stairs, with the rest of the group already waiting for them at the bottom, but they hadn't stepped on the black soil yet.

When they finally arrived, Ramiel was the first to advance out of the metal platform, but he could only float for a couple of seconds before his AT field disappeared and made him fall to the ground.

He tried getting back up, but he was unable to as his AT field was suddenly too weak to even lift him for a moment, so instead, he got a little bigger and then changed shape into a sort of walking tripod, then he asked:

"do you know what happened to my AT field? I can't use it all of a sudden"

And so Lilith replied from Rei's body "{it is the effect of the black moon, the closer you get to it the weaker your AT field becomes, this is what will cause the human souls to merge during the third impact}"

"an impact which is not going to happen!" Asuka precised looking at Lilith dead in the eyes.

After this, the Slayer walked on the moon soil too and after seeing no effect he said "well, it doesn't seem to work on humans at the moment, also I feel lighter, it's possible that there is less gravity over here"

And so Mari said "Wait seriously? Let's try something blue!"

She then grabbed Rei/Lilith by the arm and began running across the moon, then at one point, she jumped, making a leap ten meters into the air as she screamed in amusement, Rei was screaming a bit too, but only because the ground was approaching and she had no control of her AT field at the moment.

Thankfully though, less gravity meant also an easier landing as Mari touched the ground gracefully, while Rei almost fell over.

The rest of them didn't have time to comment on this as they saw Asuka jump in the air with Shinji too, but it was more like she was throwing him.

Next followed Kaworu, who had been launched with a surprise attack by Leliel and Zeruel.

And unfortunately for him, he landed on top of Shinji while Asuka was in the proximity.

Which caused him to be launched in the air once again, this time with a red cheek from a slap.

This madness continued for a while until they reached the trench and when Mari jumped over it, she noticed something at the bottom of it while she was floating in the air:

"Hey, there is something down there, it was yellow and it gloed a lot! Do you know what it is Rei? Or, Lilith I suppose"

"{Strange, I have never noticed something like this before…How deep is it?}"

As she said that, Rei took control again and picked up a small rock.

She let it fall down towards what looked like a river of yellow gas and lava, counting in her mind the seconds that it took for the rock to fall, taking into account the different gravity.

But as soon as the rock made contact with the strange matter, this started reacting wildly and a moment later it exploded into a giant pillar of energy which missed Rei just by a little bit before dissipating and making everything return to normal, except for the burn mark on the ceiling.

As everything calmed down, Samuel walked forward and said "okay, by the way it reacts, it seems to be Argent energy in a volatile state, so contact with anything other than air is going to cause a similar reaction to what we have seen right now"

As Samuel said that, Misato noticed that Rei was standing still near the edge and so she said "it's better if you walk away from that Rei, we wouldn't want to make something else fall down there right?...

Rei? Are you okay?"

Seeing that she wasn't getting a response, see walked towards the girl a shook her shoulder with her arm, but after still not receiving a reply, she turned her around completely, only to see that her eyes had gone white and that she had the Father's symbol on her head, but she didn't recognize it.

While she was trying to wake up the girl, she heard Shinji say "It's happening to Kaworu too! Kaworu can you hear me?!"

And from the side, VEGA watched, thinking "they are starting to remember… I need to make this stop immediately, if they can figure me out… I don't even know what's going to happen, but I wouldn't certainly be good"

Nowhere

Play: [opening of dream] The end of Evangelion Ost

"Rei"

"Kaworu"

"{Lilith}"

"Adam"

"what a strange meet up isn't it?" Kaworu said as he looked around at the other girl and at the two white beings who were strangely their same height.

What was even more peculiar was that Adam was present too and that he had talked, he had only told his name, but still, it was unusual for him.

"{why are we here?}" Lilith asked, looking at the evangelion-like shape of Adam, whose body was perfectly white except for his two small completely black round eyes.

"the exposure to Argent energy seems to have caused this, but I can't understand why" Rei said, looking at Kaworu's red eyes as she felt a bit of hatred coming up inside of her for no apparent reason.

Then the boy said "I can hear the others trying to wake us up on the outside, it seems that we have the same strange mark on our foreheads from what they say"

"it is his sign" Adam added, taking the attention of everyone.

"I don't know why I know this, but that sign is of someone or something very important"

"{and you don't know who?}"

Adam nodded horizontally, but then he added "I know that he is among us, I have felt his power for a while now, but I don't know his identity, even if he appears in our memories"

And as he said that, a rapid sequence of images flashed in front of everyone, showing them a big city, and a big crowd in various locations, but the one that seemed to stand out from the rest was a tall being made of pure light that walked among them.

So Kaworu, confused by the unknown images just like Rei, asked "what is that place?"

"{it's where we come from, our original planet}"

"and he-"

Suddenly though, a shock interrupted Adam while he was speaking and a moment later a new figure, still and made of light, but shorter, appeared next to the previous humanoid.

On the smaller figure, Rei immediately noticed something and so she said "that new figure… It has VEGA's symbol on its back, and it wasn't there before"

"it is possible that it was a left out detail, as our memory is still unclear"

Then Kaworu added "so, is that VEGA? It looks like him, and if he is, does that mean that he was alive so long ago already?"

"{Yes, but right now he seems to be something of a helper to the taller being, even in the other few moments that we remember}"

So Rei said "we should ask him later, right now I propose to try and search for a way to wake up again"

As soon as she said that, everything, but the tall white being disappeared and then he turned towards the group.

These were the words that were emanated from him "Beware of the devil in God's clothing"

And then a bright white light was generated from him, causing Rei and Kaworu to wake up on the black moon once again.

As they opened their eyes, they found the Slayer on top of them as he kept sending Argent towards their bodies with his powers, but he stopped once they woke up again, and then he said "huh, it looks like VEGA's idea to use my Argent worked, are you two okay?"

And Kaworu replied "Yes, we had a kind of conversation in there, there were Lilith and Adam too for some reason… Wait who was the one who got the idea to use Argent on us?"

"Uhhh,VEGA" The Slayer replied as he got back up from his crouching position and then he helped the pilots get up too.

Once they were standing again, Rei said "then later we would like to talk with him privately about something"

"Sure" the Ai replied from the Slayer's suit not really adding anything else "that was close, if the Slayer hadn't intervend I wouldn't have been able to control their conversation"

"shall we go back up?" Kaji asked and so everyone nodded as the place was starting to creep them out, especially with the mutilated evangelion corpses in the distance.

But before anyone took a step, Ritsuko asked "Actually before we go, do we even know how this Argent has ended up down here?"

Samuel was quick to reply saying "I believe that it was infused in here when the shield that protected Lilith's chamber was destroyed, the part that covered the room with the cross was only a smaller part of the entire sphere, so it's possible that when the cables were cut, the Argent that was in this room was attracted by the moon and it formed this trench"

As the robot said that, he noticed Mari jump again back on this other side of the aforementioned trench, so he thought while she floated above the unstable Argent:

"yeah let's just gloss over the fact that my scanner says that this Argent is in its purest form and around seven billion years old, and I know of only one who can make such criteria be true at the same time*

Then, he noticed that Ramiel was still standing still with his three legs on the other side, so he told him "Ramiel come on let's go, we need to go back up now"

"wait! I want to at least try to get those parts of me over there inside the crater!

It'll be easy don't worry"

"fine, but don't take too long"

And so the small blue tripod began walking again towards the edge of the crater, but after a couple of steps, a crack formed from the ravine towards Ramiel's direction.

Before anyone could say anything, it grew bigger and stopped right next to Ramiel, only to release a wave of Argent that almost hit him.

The moment after that, the cracks spread out in a large area towards the crater and as the ground under him began to shake, Ramiel decided that it was in his best interests to run as fast as he could.

Every few steps that his pointy blue legs took, a powerful wave of Argent was released from the ground, reaching the ceiling and leaving a burn mark on it.

Samuel would have already gone back down from the platform to help him, but he was busy holding off his siblings, plus the Slayer was already halfway there.

From his elevated position, Samuel kept track of the angel as he dodged Argent spires left and right, or rather, the Argent dodged him.

There was in fact something strange about the behavior of the pillars of energy that were coming from under the ground, since they seemed to move out of the way right before they hit the angel.

And so he thought as the Slayer jumped over the ravine "Huh, I guess that it's dad the one who is moving the Argent away, still, why doesn't he prevent it from exploding all together?

Maybe he wants to do something with it?"

Back down, the Slayer was now very close to the edge of the crater, having almost caught up with Ramiel, who was already sliding down towards the glowing blue spikes.

"wait, they didn't glow before, oh well who cares. Pieces of me here I come!" Ramiel thought as he jumped into the pile, changing form mid air back to his normal self.

At the same time, the Slayer began running down too as the Argent beams seemed to have stopped.

He looked in front of him as Ramiel exposed his core and lifted up the blue matter, which began rotating around him, but after a while, a yellow glow could be seen by everyone appearing under him.

Ramiel noticed this too, but it was too late for him to do anything about it as the rocks were melted away.

He was surrounded by the energy in an instant, feeling it go through his AT field and skin like it was nothing, but when e he felt it reach its core, he didn't feel pain, but rather, he felt like he was absorbing it.

From the outside nothing that was actually happening could be seen as Leliel and Zeruel shouted their brother's name along with Samuel too, but they were reassured by VEGA who told them "don't worry about him, look"

And as he said that, the Argent beam started slowly dissipating, revealing that Ramiel hadn't been hurt a bit.

On the contrary, everyone could see that now his core and skin were different, with yellow rings circling diagonally around the red sphere which now had almost a 'spark' of electricity in it, making it look very similar to a life sphere.

Then,on his various sides, there were yellow glowing plant-like decorations, which ran along the middle of each face and connected with the next one, forming a very nice pattern to look at.

The Slayer especially, could see this clearly as he was the closest to him and so he asked "are you okay there?"

And the angel replied "Yep,actually I've never felt as good as this! I don't know what that Argent did to me, but it looks like I am stronger because of it as I can float now"

"hmm, could you be able to stop the fake Lances now?"

"I don't know that, but a chance is there for sure"

The Slayer hummed as he looked to the ground, then he turned around to look at the others coming back.

At the same time he silenced his suit and asked VEGA "what the fuck did you do?"

"I might have 'manipulated' the Argent a little bit… I've found that it is compatible with their cores since they are basically earlier versions of the life sphere, so I needed to try it out.

I could say that it was a success, given the fact that Ramiel is now probably resistant to the black small lances as well"

"so… What now?"

"I think that I'll try this on Leliel and Zeruel too, I want to make them as safe as possible"

"That's good reasoning" he replied as he unlocked his suit and raised his head to the group that was descending in front of him.

And after a bit of conversation and persuasion, he was able to make Leliel and Zeruel be irradiated by the Argent,much to VEGA's delight.

As the beam dissipated from Leliel, who had brought her core out of the dimensional limbo, she was seen with two halos at her opposite poles, her core had received the same 'electrical' change as Ramiel's and her black and white skin was now accompanied by four small black spheres that circled around her constantly.

Finally, when the beam went away from Zeruel, his body had been changed, now having orange spots that covered his front and back like a medieval knight's armor, his shoulders were filled with glowing spikes and his tendrils were not only sharper, but they were also filled with a powerful electrical current that sent small waves of yellow light up to the tips every now and then.

His face had been changed too, now sporting three spheres in a triangular pattern just like the Slayer had seen on the Icon of sin during his laser attack, but he wasn't worried about the resemblance, after all it was VEGA the one who had applied the modifications.

While the angels shared their impressions on their new looks, Kaji approached the Slayer and asked him "VEGA is quite the artistic designer isn't he?"

And so the Slayer replied "are you still under drugs to keep you from screaming?"

"exactly"

"then, yes, I do like their new designs, it makes them look a bit more like a crossover between angels and mythical beings if you think about it"

"That's what I was going for, I'm glad you like it, though I hope that they won't need to use their powers later, even if they are stronger.

Removing their limitators was a good idea, but now I can't control them anymore, so it's going to be harder to get them out of trouble" VEGA replied from the Slayer's predator suit, making Kaji immediately take a step back.

Then the Slayer, hearing VEGA's worries, replied "hey, you should worry less about it, we have a plan after all and even if something goes wrong, you are God right?"

Kaji stood with an open mouth as he heard him talk like that as if it was nothing, but it was VEGA's reply that surprised him even more.

"I know that… It's just that I don't want them to get hurt… in the few months that we have known each other, I've grown to love them a lot and if it was for me I simply wouldn't make them fight at all, but unfortunately the city isn't strong enough to stop the attack by itself…

I just hope that I don't have to take extreme measures to make sure they are safe"

"what would these 'extreme measures' be?" Kaji asked with lucid eyes and so VEGA replied "I… It's better not to talk about it"

After that the group began walking back towards the clone room, since there was nothing else to check out down there, but suddenly alarms fired all throughout the geofront and Ritsuko received a call from a terrified Maya.

"Sensei! They are launching an attack on us, they are using all ten MAGI systems in the world to try and hack us!"

So Ritsuko said "shit, we need to get there quick, VEGA, can you hold them off too?"

"I am only allowed access to the weapon systems, not the MAGI itself, but I'll see what I can do"

"yeah… Let's get up there now, I think that I know how to solve this problem"

Hearing this, Leliel created a portal directly in the command room, making them arrive much earlier so that Ritsuko could get to work immediately.

"okay, open up Casper's maintenance trapdoor, I need to get direct access to it!"

And so, one of the three MAGI was lifted from its normal position, revealing all the intertwined circuitry under it.

As this was happening, VEGA kept a steady eye on the enemy troops, which seemed to be getting prepared for something.

"what are all those pieces of paper Ritsuko-sensei?"

Maya asked as she watched the scientist take a look at them quickly and then write something on the PC she had connected to Casper's CPU.

"they are notes Maya, left by my mother in case something like this was going to happen.

They are supposed to create a barrier that will hold off the enemy attack for a couple of hours, giving us time to think and organize"

A minute later, the enemy had been able to hack 50% of the MAGI, but Ritsuko was almost done, so VEGA decided that it was a good time to check up Naoko.

"It has been a while since we talked, right? How are you feeling?" he asked to the three women in front of him and Casper replied

"those two can't hear you right now, they have been able to take control of them, and for me, I'm not feeling very well, but I trust my daughter to be able to bring us out of here"

"you Akagis are a family of smart people aren't you?"

She smiled at him with a sad face and said "T-Thanks, but that's only on the scientific side, for the relationship part instead we are the worst, as you already know"

"Hey, leave that affair with Gendo in the past, both you and your daughter have had your problems and you thought that he was the right person to help you.

Now he turned out that he wasn't, but that's also because he himself has his own big patch of internal problems as you have already discussed with Yui.

I think that you should try to get past it, also because your daughter might be luckier than you, just look at Maya for example"

"wait do you really think that-"

"if I think? It's obvious she has a crush on her, now it's just Ritsuko the one who has to exchange the feelings"

"I guess AHHH!"

Suddenly Casper went to the ground and grabbed her stomach in pain so VEGA was quick to get down to her and ask "Are you okay!?"

"they… There is only 25% left of me, but don't worry, the barrier should be up any second now… Ow"

And so he remained immobile next to her, meanwhile Ritsuko was just finishing to install the barrier, but she couldn't find the last piece of paper that held the password for the activation.

With every percentage point of the MAGI that got corrupted, the more agitated she got and the harder it was for her to focus on the task at hand.

Only 20% left and the MAGI, along with her mother, would be gone.

15%

10%

5% "Ritsuko I found it!" Maya shouted at her as she handed her the piece of paper and as Ritsuko looked at her in the eyes, she read the password that was: "take the chance"

Her cheeks flared up as she read that with Maya in the background, but she quickly turned back to the computer and finally activated the barrier.

She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the percentage stop counting down at 4% and she said after taking a deep breath "T-Thanks Maya… You just saved everyone here"

A second later, the alarms fired again as Ritsuko immediately took her eyes back to the monitor where the percentage had gone down to 3%.

"Wait what!? No no no no no no, this is impossible!

-2%-

They shouldn't be able to get through it! Only if they had the-...

-1%-

My mother gave the password to Gendo!"

She shouted as her desperation overtook her and then she just put her head on one of the metal sides of the machine and began crying.

-0.1%-

VEGA was now standing over Naoko's almost dead body, not caring about the three mothers behind him as his right hand was filled with energy.

He touched the scientist's forehead with it and suddenly light seemed to come out of her mouth and eyes as her skin regained colour, leaving the three women shocked, but unable to do anything.

Back in the physical world, Ritsuko had started crying, but when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, she didn't oppose resistance as she found Maya looking at her in the eyes.

Then Ritsuko suddenly hugged her and the woman replied with the same gesture, but then she said as she noticed something on her computer "stop crying sensei, the corruption stopped! Look at your computer!"

"w-what?!" Akagi said as she grabbed the device and looked at how it was blinking at only 0.1%,not going down anymore.

"but… But…how? Wait…

VEGA?"

She asked and so the voice from the core replied "Sorry Ritsuko, I had to take more control of the MAGI to save it, I'm keeping it alive right now, but I'm not doing anything else"

"VEGA...I-

I don't know how to thank you for not listening to me.

But please, can you try to get rid of this mess?"

"I'll do you one better" he said as Yui, Kyoko and Maria saw him lift in the air inside of his core and then they were kicked out.

Then everyone watched as yellow electricity began running down from the giant core towards the command tower through the giant black and blue cables that connected him with the MAGI.

Samuel let out a light chuckle as he saw the MAGI be completely freed from the attack in a couple of seconds and once that was done, the core began glowing a bit more as VEGA opened various windows on the room's big screen.

Seeing that he was acting as if he was charging up something, Fuyutsuki asked him "VEGA… What are you going to do?"

"just sit back and watch for this one"

As he said that, a wave of energy was released from the core and on the big screen, a new map was displayed, showing with lines and dots the connection with the other ten MAGI systems in the world and how this line was being filled with a red overlay.

The red lines reached their targets all at the same time and in the moment they hit, the words "Target destroyed" appeared over every MAGI that went offline.

Everyone except Samuel and the Slayer was left with their mouths open as they kept switching between looking at the screen and at the core.

"all of the MAGI bases…. have blown up…." Hyuga said from his position as he looked at the estimated death count.

Then something else happened, but VEGA didn't show this on the screen and he neither told anyone.

Since he had just found a way to access the ongoing SEELE meeting.

SEELE meeting

"SEELE 02 give me a report of the damage!" Lorenz Keel asked with an angry voice and so the monolith replied with a worried voice "the hacking attempt has failed and it is not possible to try again because the Ai has activated the self destruct of every other MAGI system"

"Hmm, it would have been much easier if they just let us take control, now we'll have to use the force.

That stupid cyber bin constantly throws a wrench in our plans!"

"Oh? Are you talking about me?" VEGA said with an intimidating voice as he appeared in his orb form at the place where Gendo would normally sit.

Everyone was dead silent for the following seconds, while in the command room, everyone had started feeling a strange sense of fear coming from the core and Samuel was able to recognize this.

He then remembered something that VEGA had told him the day before while they were making up a plan of action.

Flashback

"If I get the chance, I'll try to get access to the MAGI and connect myself to each one of them, that way I would be able to maybe find the SEELE meeting if what Kaji has told me is correct" VEGA said and so Samuel replied

"isn't there the possibility that they might discover your presence if you enter their meeting?"

"That's the hard part, I'll need to contain myself from killing each one of them on sight, because of the similarities that they have with the ones that orchestrated the first third impact"

"hmm, since you aren't going to be able to tell us if you find it or not like you said before…

How do I know if you were successful?"

"Fear.

If you start getting uncomfortable and feeling fear by looking at my core, then that's when I'll be among them.

Unfortunately you won't be able to do anything to help me stay calm, it's a matter I have to resolve by myself"

"I believe that you'll be able to keep your emotions at bay, dad"

"thank you Samuel"

End flashback

"I really fucking hope that he keeps his word"

SEELE meeting

The silence by now had been present for around two minutes and none of the members was sure how to break the ice.

So after a while VEGA said with a menacing voice "Shocked right?

You thought that I wouldn't have been able to find your hiding hole?

Or maybe you let me in as part of your plan to end humanity? That could be it too, but judging by your reactions…

I think that you are just scared right now"

Now the silence was even more still than before, since VEGA was right, they were scared shitless of him, because at no point they had thought about him ever getting inside one of their meetings, as it should have been impossible even for an Ai to hack all the MAGI systems at once.

But it turned out that VEGA wasn't the dumb Ai they thought of him, instead, he was the only one who in the entire history of SEELE as an organization had been able to bring its members out of their comfort zone made of lies and corruption and plans, so, now the members were exposed for who they were, just a bunch of old people with the mad idea of trying to play God.

And if there is one thing that history has shown, is that you never try to beat God at his own game, even the devil learned this from him.

Finally, after even more silence, Lorenz Keel moved forward and asked with a calmer voice "what do you want?"

VEGA grinned at that question and then he answered "simple, I want you to dismantle everything you have worked for and admit every wrong action that you have ever done, then, I might leave you alive"

"Don't bother us with your crap, you have lost, there is no way your little city fortress is going to survive the attack, all of your friends will die and especially that tin can of your son.

One of you, mobilitate the troops!"

"how brave of you, to send all of those men to die for a lost cause"

"a lost cause?!" SEELE 02 shouted and then he continued "this project has been in the works for thousands of years!

We will bring humanity to a new stage of evolution and we will guide it to a new golden era!"

"you mean that you will just take control of instrumentality and make everyone your slave right?... Don't waste my time with lies"

"how? How dare you insult our noble goal!" SEELE 04 said and then he continued "Why are you doing this?! Why do you want to deny us immortality!?"

"ugh, just a bunch of old idiots" VEGA thought before he said "Let me tell you a story to explain why.

There once was a king who had many sons, he tried to love all of them equally, so he gave each one of them a village with a small population to rule over.

He wanted his sons to be able to develop those villages into cities and then into kingdoms, so that one day they could become as great as him.

There is a difference though, while the king and his sons were immortal, the population of the villages wasn't, but this is something that the king wanted, so that the people will be able to treasure life and follow his sons' guidance.

Years pass and as the villages develop into kingdoms, he is more proud of his sons' achievements each day that passes, especially for the one who had inherited the king's own kingdom, as he wasn't immortal like the others.

In the middle of all of them though, there was one of his sons who had become corrupted.

He was so worried that his rule wouldn't be good enough to let his people survive, that he began a desperate search for a way to give immortality to his people.

He searched far and wide throughout the entire country, but he wasn't able to find it in physical form.

Unfortunately, the great search had continued to corrupt him even further and with him his people too, making them unrecognizable from before.

He had now become an evil tyrant that had forgotten his original goal and now he just wanted to finish the search.

In his madness, he started waging war against the other kingdoms, killing his brothers to try and steal their immortality.

With every kingdom that fell, he became stronger and so the king decided to stop him by sending his best sons and their kingdoms against him, all except for the one in his own kingdom, who was still too young.

Despite this, the corrupted son defeated all the ones that the king had sent against him and in the end he fought against his Father himself.

Blinded by his hubris, the son was defeated by his Father, who had managed to make him unconscious.

Despite what the youngest son was telling him, the Father couldn't find it into himself the courage to kill one of his own sons, so instead, he brought him back to his kingdom and then he sealed it off from everything else, hoping that if he ever woke up again, he would learn to understand the treasure that is life.

But in his subconscious he knew that one day the corrupted son will try to strike again, so he took his soul and he placed it into a new body, but this time, without giving it the concept of immortality.

This way, there was no reason for it to go and search something it doesn't know to exist.

And then he just waits, patiently hoping that one day this newborn will be strong enough to defeat his corrupted son.

Because, the moral of the story is, that immortality is not found or created nor stolen, it is something earned through life.

That is the story of me and my son who became the devil"

And so he left, having sensed that the troops had begun advancing towards the city and that the minds of the SEELE members were too far gone to change their views, so instead he returned to the command room and took control of the weapons as the feeling of fear disappeared from the room and it was instead exchanged with the warm feeling of determination.

Before talking again, he looked at everyone in the room, especially Samuel, his dearest son, and the Slayer, the son that was the only hope against Davoth.

Then he also looked at the angels, thinking of how he had come to care for some of the survivors of his first kingdom so much that he considered them on par with the previous two.

Then he looked at everyone else and thought of how proud he was that humanity had been able to accomplish such feats like the city over him without his help.

He was truly proud of everyone, after all, he wouldn't be God otherwise.

And as the first guns were aimed, he stopped for a moment before firing and asked "is everyone ready for this?

If someone wants to there is an organized bunker down section 32, you can go there and hide until the battle is over, I know that most of you have already thought about this, but I needed to let you know that you don't need to fight today if you don't want to"

And so, Samuel walked near the core and after placing a hand on the white VEGA characters of the closed control panel, he said "don't worry dad, we are all with you on this one"

VEGA stopped to think for a moment and then he said "then let's go and stop the third impact"

Play:[Bataille decisive] Evangelion 1.0 OST

*BOOM*

"may-day! May-day! We've been hit! We are goi-bzzzzt"

"Sergeant field report!'' The captain shouted into the radio and from the other side the man replied "they are resisting well, but we managed to destroy some of their turrets and missile buildings, despite the heavy losses we might be gaining an advantage!

I've just been told that the undercover squad is about to breach the geofront!*

At the target door

As the squad leader went away from the plastic explosive, he held the detonator in his hands and after looking at his massive assault group of over two hundred men, he said :

"Okay, this is the only door not reinforced enough on this side to require the use of heavy explosives, get ready everyone! Blasting un 3! 2! 1!"

*BOOM*

*Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-...*

As the smoke settled, everyone could hear the fast wriiing sound of a gatling gun's rotor engine, but what they weren't expecting, was four guns at the same time.

And as the Slayer looked at the scared soldiers in front of him, he tried to imagine them as demons, so that it was easier for him to look at their bodies as they were filled with lead by the chaingun turret mod.

Especially with his new powers, the bullets were almost four times as fast, along with the fire rate being doubled and their damage on impact being devastating as each one of them either dismembered a person completely or made their body explode.

All of this while he ran around shouting voice lines of the Heavy from team fortress 2.

After a while all the soldiers were gone, with him having never stopped firing except for a brief chainsaw reload.

Suddenly though, a new explosion was heard in the distance and so VEGA told him "they have entered from the other side, this group was a distraction"

"okay, I'm going now, have you found Gendo yet?"

"the scanners are detecting a blue blood pattern in that area, you might be able to intercept him"

"perfect" he replied as he closed the communication and after a jump, he began running towards the top of the pyramid, as it was faster than going around.

Command room

If the situation in the geofront was going well, the same could not be said about the surface, since the enemy forces had managed to advance significantly and more and more defenses were being destroyed.

So VEGA said "we are losing control of the city above, I'm not sure if I can hold them off much longer"

"Do you want me to send out the Evas? They are ready to launch" Misato asked him and he replied:

"No, they are equipped with the same Longinus weapons that we saw in Tokyo 2 and their AT fields aren't strong enough to defend them from thos-"

"I can go out dad!" Ramiel said as he flew closer to the core, waiting for VEGA's response.

"absolutely not, an angel is even more vulnerable than an evangelion to those things and I'm not going to let anyone risk their lives here"

"but my AT field is stronger now! Thanks to what happened down there, I can feel it dad"

"It's still a no"

"Dad pleaseeeeee, what other options do you have?"

Hearing this question, VEGA realized that his son was right, if he didn't send them out, the plan would be ruined.

Fighting back against his parental instincts as much as he could, after a bit of silence he replied:

"... Okay, but let's see if you can actually resist against the lances first, so I want Zeruel and Leliel to be there to cover you okay?

And if you are in danger even if for a single moment you have to come back down immediately"

"we were going to follow him anyway, there is no way that I'm missing a fight as big as this, my honor as a fighter is on the line"

Zeruel added while Leliel was forming the portal that would have brought them to the surface.

VEGA sighed as he saw them cross the portal and appear in the city above, immediately drawing fire against them.

This was being watched by everyone in the geofront too, especially the pilots, with Asuka being angry at VEGA because he didn't let her be deployed into battle.

Then, as the cameras turned towards the trucks with the Longinus turrets, Rei noticed something appear on top of a building, only visible thanks to the high resolution of the command room's screen, where she was sitting next to Akagi.

And so she asked "Doctor Akagi, shouldn't the city have been evacuated weeks ago?"

"Why are you asking this Rei?"

"I can see someone on top of that building over there" she said pointing towards the location where the camera showed one of the tallest rooftops of the city, which was also near Ramiel.

Suddenly though, a familiar voice filled Rei's head as VEGA told her "don't let them see it please, I just want to make sure that they are safe in case their AT field fails"

"Oh, I understand"

"actually, doctor Akagi there is nothing there, excuse me, but I got confused"

"No problem Rei, we are all under pretty heavy stress right now"

"They are about to fire the Lances!" Maya shouted as she saw the turrets turn towards the three angels and so, everyone made a small prayer and hoped for the best.

Surface

"Ramiel, we are being aimed at! Get ready!" Zeruel told his brother as they stopped firing and activated their AT fields while Leliel teleported underground.

They saw the turrets fire their black double pointed projectiles at them and as they heard the vibrations that those made in the air.

They strengthened their AT fields as much as they could, while the yellow humanoid on a nearby building was ready to intervene,not knowing that both Adam and Lilith were thinking of having seen him before…

*vzoommm- DAAH*

That was the angelic sound that the shields made when the Lances hit them, as the symbol of the Father appeared right in front of the Lances.

Then suddenly, yellow lightning ran down the impaled projectiles and a moment later, they disintegrated into bits.

VEGA let out a sigh of relief as he took control of the weapons once more and disappeared from the building.

Then he said "well, it looks like we have just turned the side of this battle,sorry Asuka, but I guess I won't launch you now"

"No I want to join too, you dumkoff! I want to go out and-" *call ended*

"Shinji could you calm her down for me please?" VEGA asked and so the boy nodded, closing his call as well.

Then he returned to the cameras and watched as Ramiel was patiently preparing his counter-attack while Zeruel and Leliel had already destroyed the first turrets.

As the blue angel contorted in ways that only a 4th dimensional being like him could, the sky filled with dark clouds as a powerful storm began coming down.

Ramiel's body was now in the double star form, but this time there were also two bright halos right behind him while some strange symbols rotated around his core.

As the storm intensified and lighting began to strike, Ramiel finally fired as all of the energy from the bolts was sent to his body and into his beam, but then, he also noticed the halos glowing much brighter and rotating faster as they influenced him in a strange way.

The blast that came out of Ramiel was so strong in fact, that it made the angel recoil a couple hundred meters backwards as he watched his projectile travel towards the large firing station that had been set up on a mountain.

Then, as the projectile hit, the entire mountain was destroyed as an enormous hole replaced most of it.

And Ramiel couldn't be more excited as he let out a few happy giggles in celebration,then he began preparing the next shot.

Meanwhile, VEGA checked in on the Slayer, only to see that he had defeated every enemy in his path and he was now following the location of the moving blue blood pattern.

Corridors

"run run run, shit, he almost got me with that destroyer blade attack, aaah! My arm, even if it's regenerating it still hurts as hell"

Gendo thought as he kept running faster and faster with the power given to him by the embryo of Adam, but it was needed since there was the Slayer running behind him.

Thankfully Gendo knew the hallways of NERV like the palm of his hand, so he was able to stay out of line of sight of the Slayer as he kept turning corner after corner.

Then, when he finally reached the elevator to Terminal dogma, he got in and closed the door behind him.

He allowed himself to breathe for a moment, feeling somewhat safe in the metal box that was being lowered over an enormous hole by some metal cables.

"wait.

Oh shi-"

His thoughts were interrupted when the cabin started free falling as the Slayer cut the cables with the Doom blade and as the metal started falling down, he noticed the emergency vent that Samuel had used during the military invasion after the near third impact.

Terminal dogma

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

*crash*

When the elevator hit the ground, it was completely destroyed as its various parts were sent flying everywhere.

But, Gendo was still alive, thanks to the AT field that he had created before hitting the ground and as he walked out of the debris and readjusted his glasses, he used the embryo of Adam to do something else.

Command room

Suddenly Rei fell to the ground, fainting, but she then lifted herself up with her AT field and as Lilith took over she said "{it's time}"

And then she started teleporting away, making everyone alarmed, especially when Kaworu spoke "Ah! The embryo… Gendo must have arrived in Terminal Dogma!

I can feel that he's trying to bring the angels there to fuse with Lilith!

I'm going to try and stop him VEGA, you inform the others!"

"Okay,the Slayer is already there, but I think that he wouldn't mind some help.

Watch out though, we don't know how much that thing can control you"

Then Asuka, who had really started to grow impatient, asked VEGA

"Now, can we do something too or are we just going to sit here until we sleep?"

And as VEGA noticed a big group flying of targets directed towards the city he said "well, it looks like you'll be deploying too now, SEELE has decided to bring out the rest of their units"

"Same as the white one we saw in Tokyo 2?" Mari asked and so he replied "Exactly, so watch out for their weapons"

"Nya, of course VEGA, also another thing…

Bring me back my girlfriend in one piece angel boy or you are dead to me!"

She shouted at Kaworu, who simply kept going forward with the mark 06 and the Lance of Cassius in his hands,trying to keep his head focused as he felt the influence of Adam being stronger for every step he took, but then he felt it suddenly get weaker for no apparent reason.

Apparent was the right word, since he hadn't noticed the symbol of the Father appearing on his evangelion's back as VEGA kept secretly shielding him from the effect.

Terminal dogma

Gendo was walking along the big area that was once occupied with LCL, looking at the giant red damaged doors in front of him.

Under his feet, the ground was curved, showing where VEGA's core had fallen and remained for a couple of days, but, among those cracks in the ground, he also noticed that a sort of yellow energy was floating a couple of millimeters off from the surface.

But he didn't mind it as he avoided stepping in it as he kept going forward.

He was close now, just a couple hundred more meters and he would be one move away from reuniting with his dear Yui and offering Shinji his apology gift, he just needed to get in Lilith's room and then Rei would have helped him by sacrific-.

*clang*

He heard the sound of footsteps behind him and so he stopped, not having to turn around to know that the Slayer was waiting with the super shotgun pointed at his head.

"so it has come to this" he said and the Slayer replied "it seems like it, any last words?"

"Do you want to know why I'm doing this?"

"to get Shinji to forgive you and to see Yui again, right?"

"Well, yes.

It seems that VEGA has told you about our conversation"

And so the Slayer said "Yes, and I can assure you that this is the worst you could do for both of them.

I've talked with Yui in unit 01 and Shinji, both of them want you to just stop all of this and just love them again.

What you are doing right now is not an act of love, but selfishness, you want to start an impact just to see someone you love again, that is the most selfish thing one could do, especially for their son"

And so Gendo turned around to say Wait, you talked with unit 01?! With Yui?!"

"Yes, I did, it was VEGA who discovered her and made the connection possible.

It happened during the cross testing, remember? Right before you gave Rei the drug.

So, yes, I've talked with her quite a bit, we even saw each other during the near third impact…

Anyway, from what she has told me about you… Well, she isn't sure if she hates you or not.

After all you have done with the Akagis, the pain you have caused Shinji by abandoning him, that time you almost made him kill Asuka,that had pissed me off so much.

So, now I have to ask you something, from father to father…

Why couldn't you let her go? Why weren't you able to care for Shinji on your own?"

As the words came out or the armor, the Slayer could see that Gendo was now visibly shaking from hearing Yui's thoughts about him.

His palms were sweating, his glasses were about to fall off, his blood pressure had risen, and the embryo was ready to strike.

In his mind, he was trying to push out some sort of reply, but being used to having them prepared, he was caught out of water with nothing coming out of his mouth,despite his lips tongue and vocal chords being ready to move and make the air vibrate.

Finally, after various seconds that felt like years, the man spoke:

"She… she was the one who completed me, the day I lost her, it was as if I had lost half of myself.

The pain was so great that I couldn't even find it in me to try and take care of Shinji as without her, I simply couldn't live like before.

She had taken the wreck of a man that I was and found some good in me, she was able to bring it out and made me happier than ever.

When she got absorbed in unit 01, she went out with a smile, did you know this?

She asked me to take care of Shinji for her as well as myself.

She had done all of this to secure a nice future for him, where he could live without the threat of an alien invasion killing everyone.

But mostly, he wanted both of us to be happy and I failed her completely at that.

The few days that passed between me and Shinji after she went away, might have been the worst in my entire life.

I couldn't get over her loss, and Shinji, being only four at the time, was blaming me for it, but he was just as lost as I was.

After a while, I understood that I was no longer able to be his father, to care for him in the way that Yui had asked me to, so I sent him away, with some professor to raise him in my place.

In doing this I basically ran away from my responsibilities as a father and in doing so I failed both my son and my wife,just like you said"

Suddenly, the Slayer did something unexpected, he lowered his weapon and looked straight at Gendo.

Then he said "you know what I found funny about your life story?

We both watched our wives die in front of us, but differently from you, I also saw my daughter die shortly after.

But that's why I understand why you have acted like this.

After I defeated the invasion, society was able to rebuild itself, but I came out so mentally damaged by everything that I had experienced, that no therapist on the planet was able to bring me out of my madness.

I don't remember how much time passed before the demons came at us again, this time from Mars and so, they sent me there, like if I was their disposable anti demon toy.

I was far too damaged to care though and in the end, I defeated the invasion just like before.

It was then that a portal opened straight to hell, it was the one that the demons were using to invade us… And after entering it…

I locked myself inside of hell, so that no other man would have to suffer as much as I did and to be honest, I didn't even expect to last a couple of days, but hey life is full of surprises I guess.

For example, what if I told you that Shinji has basically forgiven you?"

Gendo jumped backwards when he heard that and so he replied "you are bluffing, there is no way that he could forgive me for what I have done to his life"

"and that's where you are wrong.

Sure, you might have caused him a lot of pain, but thanks to you now he also has a girlfriend, friends, someone that he can look up to and a dad that he doesn't hate.

You see, while Shinji constantly said that he hated you, that was caused by the fact that he couldn't place the fault on himself for his suffering, because he already hated himself.

But now, he has been able to find his way out of that pit along with Asuka, and you have helped him Gendo, by making both good and very bad decisions.

What I'm trying to say here is that you are not hopeless, you can still be forgiven by Shinji if you stop running away from your responsibilities, and that will in turn positively affect your relationship with Yui…

Once this whole mess is over and she gets out of unit 01 of course"

Then, as Gendo adjusted his glasses, he replied:

"That's the thing, as long as SEELE is around, they will keep trying to cause Third impact, not letting any of us be truly free from them.

The only way to get rid of them is to let someone else control Lilith, that's why I want to give the embryo to Shinji once Lilith has collected all of humanity"

"It's better to just not trigger the impact at all, especially because VEGA might lose control if it happens"

"and what is he going to do? Lilith is going to be invincible once she and Adam are fused together and there is nothing that he can do to influence this"

And so the Slayer said as he swapped the super shotgun for the crucible:

"You don't understand that there are much greater forces at play here and if that impact is triggered, then nothing you wish for might happen.

Sorry Gendo" He said as he activated the crucible and took position "I can't let you proceed"

He stood still as the man removed one of his white gloves, revealing the embryo and how it had spread across his arm.

The eye in the centre twitched as it looked at the Slayer and so both were ready to fight.

From the distance, Rei had observed the interaction, constantly fighting to take back control of her body.

Suddenly though, a metallic sound came from behind her and as she turned around, she saw the mark 06 with the spear of Cassius looking at her.

She then felt Lilith take over and she could only stare as the blue and white unit was launched across the corridor thanks to her AT field.

She then said "{you stay out of this Adam,I have already won, I will fuse with Ikari and let him have his wish, all that I care about is to make all if humanity return to me.

Give up now and your struggle will be over}"

Kaworu managed to stop after he touched the ground again and as he moved the head of the unit upwards to look at the floating girl, he tightened his grip on the Lance and got ready to run at her.

But before doing this, he said "you are wrong Lilith, the battle has just begun"

TO BE CONTINUED-