The boy turned to the girl and asked her to repeat what she had said.

She sighed and shook her head. "Not even listening half the damn time," she muttered. "I SAID... if we could go back what would you do?"

The boy looked back out at the horizon, his eyes gazing at a face.

A face of an old friend.

Maybe if I could listen to people...

The girl laughed loud and long.

End of Evangelion

Part 6

Deep in Terminal Dogma, they worked. It didn't matter that the Commander was dead. It didn't matter that he had been usurped by Colonel Katsuragi. All that mattered to this crew of fifty strong scientists and engineers was the work itself, and she had given them plenty of work. The enormous warehouse level that had once been used to construct Evas and other large machinery hadn't been used in a while, but they were all too eager to dust it off and dig deep into the Eva series that SEELE had deployed against them.

The remains of the Eva series were lined up in a neat row on giant transportation pallets, some of them with exposed and broken plugs, and some with no plugs at all.

While the rest of the crew rushed about, taking samples and dismantling the Evas with heavy cranes, a single man in a lab coat stood above it all on a catwalk leading out to the entrance halls of the top secret facility. He held a clipboard in his hands.

"Hello," called a voice to his right.

At first he thought it was one of his crew on a break. He turned to return the friendly greeting, and raised an eyebrow.

A boy? How did...

"You can't be down here," said the supervisor firmly.

The boy only smiled and ran a hand through his light hair.

"Awaken, ADAM's alter egos, and servants of the lilim."

Alarms blared throughout the facility, but it was too late.

The supervisor dropped his clipboard and ran.

The tactics station was in an uproar. Maya couldn't believe what she was seeing on the screen.

"High alert!" shouted Makoto. "The Eva series is moving!"

Misato's eyes widened.

Behind them all was Gendo's old seat, empty.

It only took Misato a second to get her bearings. "What's the status of our units?!" she shouted.

Maya finally found her voice. "Units 01 and 02 are prepped! Pilots Souryu and Ikari are already heading to the plugs!"

"Where's Ayanami?!"

Aoba leaned over his computer. "Ayanami's status is... she's in Terminal Dogma?"

As the Eva series stood from their pallets and the teams that had been assigned to them ran away in panic and fear, their cores slowly reformed. Instead of dummy plugs, however, they were pink, and round.

Kaworu turned when he heard footsteps approaching him from the left. "Ah, Ayanami," he said, "What brings you down to this dreary place?"

Rei reached out with her left hand, grasping the railing of the catwalk. "I am going to give you this one chance. If you deactivate the Eva series right now, I will walk away and we will never speak of this again."

His smile widened. "Wonderful. I never would have seen this coming. You are an impressive person, Ayanami. What happened to cause this particular change, I wonder?" Perhaps his little speech about the marbles was more spot on than he had thought.

Her eyes narrowed. "Deactivate the Eva series."

Kaworu let out a sad sigh, and his smile faltered ever so slightly. "I am afraid I cannot do that."

The alarm system blared in the background, preventing their short conversation from falling completely into silence.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Rei turned and ran, fully intent on sortieing in Unit 00.

Kaworu turned back to the twisted monstrosities that had once been tools of SEELE. "If only things were that simple," he whispered.

"Th... this is..." Maya's fists clenched.

"Blue pattern!" shouted Aoba. "The final angel!"

Designation: Tabris.

Misato leaned over Makoto's chair, laying a hand across it. "Shinji, Asuka, are you ready?"

"We just got to the stations," Asuka responded, "Give us a second."

Units 01 and 02 lay open and ready, their plugs exposed. Below them on the long catwalk we stood, facing each other in our plugsuits. Asuka looked worried.

"It's Kaworu," I said. "He's the final angel."

"What? But he's human," said Asuka.

I mentally slapped myself for not telling anyone what I had heard.

Lilim.

Was I really just hoping he wouldn't do this?

I shook my head. "We should go. We can't let him reach Lilith."

Asuka nodded firmly, and we climbed into our Evas. The plug closed shut and I felt it lurch back inside.

"Flooding plugs with LCL." Maya's voice. "Systems nominal."

"Close the the barriers!" Shouted Misato, "If there's a door down in the lower levels leading to Lilith that can be shut I want it locked down NOW! Shinji, Asuka, you'll use the same transport vents you used during the power outage. With the systems up we'll be able to lower you down to Terminal Dogma. Your mission is to intercept the angel and stop it no matter what! Units 02 and 00 will need to be powered, there's a set of cables being prepped down below."

The LCL flooded into my plug, and I felt it bleed into my lungs.

It smelled like copper.

Units 01 and 02 fell from the docks, and we stepped forward through the LCL pools.

"Where's Rei?" I asked as we moved.

"She's on her way," said Misato. "Stay focused, she'll be there to help before you know it."

"Got it."

"Walk." The sound of the crosswalk system blared. "Walk."

Rei didn't move.

"You and I are the same," said Kaworu, still with that smile on his face. "We both choose the forms of Lilim, and are put here for a singular purpose."

Rei pondered on this for a moment, and then shook her head. "You are wrong," she said.

"Oh?"

"We choose our own purpose. Lilim, angel, it does not matter."

Instead of arguing, to Rei's surprise, he nodded and said, "That is the answer I was hoping for."

Her eyes snapped open, and her grip tightened on the Eva's controls.

What was this feeling?

Deja vu? She had read about this.

"Flooding plug."

First, a deep breath of air. Then, when the plug was filled, a deep breath of LCL.

She had wasted time trying to speak with the final angel.

Why had she done that?

Maybe... maybe she just wanted to prove that he had other options.

If they were the same, and he had no choice but to fulfill his purpose, where did that leave her decision to betray Gendo?

She blinked, and the docking clamps on her Eva snapped up.

Unit 00 fell into the LCL pool and began to take long strides forward.

First things first, she had to make sure Third Impact didn't happen.

EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY. BARRIERS Z6 THOUGH Y8 CLOSING. PLEASE PROCEED TO BATTLE STATIONS.

Kaworu stepped up onto the railing. Every last Eva had been repaired.

"The perfect test for his newfound strength," he whispered.

He stepped off, but did not fall. The flash of an AT Field surrounded his body, and he began to float.

To his left, the large door leading out into the endless halls of Terminal Dogma clamped shut with an emergency barrier.

This would slow him down, but he had tools for that.

He raised his hand towards the door, and one of the Eva Series broke from the newly formed pack, clashing into it with its whole body.

The door suffered a large dent.

The Eva roared, its tongue lolling out of its mouth.

It pushed, and pushed, until the metal gave way and split.

"Colonel!" shouted Makoto, "The Eva series are tearing through the barriers!"

Misato gritted her teeth. "How long until contact?"

"Units 01 and 02 are one minute out!" shouted Maya.

Not enough time, they had to do something.

"Z Barriers destroyed!" yelled Aoba.

The ground beneath them shook.

Hadn't Gendo planned for this?

Of course he had, but Misato had no way of knowing how he wanted this confrontation to go. For all she knew this was when he was planning on initializing Instrumentality.

She decided to go with her gut. "Unit 01, while Unit 02 is coupling its power cable you need to run ahead and engage the Eva Series and the final angel."

Asuka's voice snapped over the line without a moment's hesitation, "By himself?! Are you CRAZY?!"

"Asuka... it's okay."

"But..."

"If we don't do something, it's over. Even if it's just to buy some time... I have to do this."

"Don't be a dumbass!"

"You said it yourself!" he snapped. "Back when we were defending NERV from SEELE. If we hesitate, we all die."

"Fine... but if you die..."

"I won't."

Misato leaned forward onto the tac center, bowing her head.

Maya looked up at her. "Ma'am?"

"This isn't fair," she hissed.

I looked down. Our Units were about to clear the shafts. If we were a second too slow, it would be too late. Unit 01 landed, and I kicked off the ground so hard it left an indent in the metal. I didn't even look back to see Asuka head for her power cable.

"I apologize if I am overstepping my bounds, but I like to think that we're friends."

I ran.

I ran so hard my whole body shook from the force of the Eva hitting the ground.

The dark lining of Terminal Dogma rushed past me, as if giving way to my passage.

I saw them, standing just before the large doorway leading to Lilith. All of them faced me.

"Hostiles have reached Heaven's Gate!" shouted Maya.

"God help us all," whispered Makoto.

Nine, just like the day SEELE attacked. I could barely make him out, but in the center of that crowd of Evas...

"KAWORUUUUUUUU!"

He turned, and spread his arms wide, smiling.

"Shinji-kun. I'm so happy you made it."

Misato's eyes widened. "Kaworu?!"

"Confirmed," said Maya, "Hostile angel in the guise of a human. That's him alright."

Prog knife deployed.

Step forward.

Attack.

Keep moving.

"I'm sorry it has to be this way Shinji-kun."

"SHUT UP!"

One of the Eva Series moved towards me. I noticed that they no longer had their weapons, but that didn't make them any less dangerous. I thrust the knife into its head.

It punched me, sending me barreling to the ground.

"This is so strange," said Kaworu, "That no matter what I do... it ends like this."

The Eva pounced for me, and I dove to the side.

"What are you talking about?!" I shouted, "I don't understand!"

"What is purpose Shinji-kun? Is it something you decide for yourself, or is it something that is given to you?"

I grabbed the Eva's throat and slammed it into the ground.

"Heaven's gate is opening!" shouted Maya.

With a loud clang, the door behind Kaworu and the Evas began to slowly slide open.

If he got to Lilith...

No!

"I won't let this happen... I'm giving you one last chance." I dug into the Evas insides, and its blood covered Unit 01's hands, my hands. The core was an angel's core. I crushed it and the Eva went limp. "If you back down now, we can all walk away from this."

"Funny," he said. His smile seemed... sad. "Ayanami said the same thing. I was wondering where she got it from."

Two Evas charged me this time, and Kaworu turned away, floating through the door.

"I won't let you!"

My fist crashed into the Eva that had charged me on the left, but I didn't have enough time to react to the other one. I closed my eyes tight and flinched.

No impact came.

When I opened them again, I saw red.

Unit 02. Its left hand was around the Eva's throat, and its right had thrust its prog knife deep into its core.

"I thought I told you to keep your hands off the merchandise, pretty boy."

I grinned, "Asuka!"

"Sorry I'm late."

Just as Kaworu crossed the threshold of the door, he heard the second child's voice.

This was new.