Premise: If use of the physical body fails to entice a Lilin into unity, it is to be discarded.
Premise: Use of Asuka Langley's body has failed to entice Shinji Ikari into unity with Tabris.
Modus Ponens: Asuka Langley's body is to be discarded.
She had failed to serve her purpose. Therefore, logic dictated that she be disposed of. Tossed aside as he ascended through the ego barrier into the mindspace of Unit 01. To tumble, endlessly, through the liquid void of insignificance.
Someone had once told her that when a sailors' time comes, they pray for it. It's peaceful, they say. It feels like going home.
As the surrounding darkness rushed into her lungs, Asuka cursed that man. There was no peace in drowning, only pure agony. A pain that swallowed the senses. Torment that left one able to feel everything and nothing all at once. Conscious of the experience but unable to stop it.
Far in the distance a murky voice called out. Distorted and unintelligible at first, but growing louder, clearer. She could feel another presence closing in.
"...take my hand."
Distress (noun): pain or suffering affecting the body, a bodily part, or the mind.
Through her eyes Rei could see that Shinji was in distress. He wept as Asuka slipped through Unit 01's gnashing jaws.
Guilt (noun): feelings of deserving blame especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy.
Was she the creator of Shinji's distress? Had her actions, or rather her unthinking reactions, caused this? And this unknown hand with a white-knuckled grip around her heart, was this guilt?
Console (verb): to alleviate the grief, sense of loss, or trouble of.
Her mind was searching for something. Some word, some phrase, anything to ease his pain. She parted her thin lips.
"Shinji, I-"
Indentations began to appear around her neck, growing deeper by the second. Her skin, plainly visible, turned from alabaster to crimson to violet as finger-shaped bruises began to form. Only a strange, deep rattle escaped from her mouth.
"Shinji Ikari, I will show you true happiness."
The words dripped into his ear, as if Kaworu were some predator lulling his catch to sleep. Promising a quick, painless escape from life.
Rei's vital signs were plummeting. Synchronization with Unit 13 had fallen below the neuropsychic border. The AT field was blocking all but short wave communication. He could feel his connections to this world slipping away.
No...no...this is...this is all my fault. I won't…
Who are you?
I...
Are you Asuka, by chance?
...I am. Who...
Shinji told me much about you.
He...am I...dead?
Do you want to be?
I…
Why did he take him?
He...who?
We were finally together, but he took him. Again.
...
My poor Shinji. I grieve for him.
But he's...he's not dead.
Is one not allowed to grieve for another's life?
…are you his mother?
Yes.
This is...why am I here?
The Angel left you here. He wants to take Shinji, too.
Angel?
He used you. Exploited your human imperfections.
...Kaji.
Yes.
There had already been enough death. He would not say goodbye to another friend.
"I...I won't...I won't let you take them!"
With a savage thrust Shinji lunged into the impaled behemoth, lodging Unit 13's shoulder fin just below its chin. He willed the Evangelion to rise, slowly dragging Unit 01 up the spear's helical shaft. Monstrous scabs that had formed over the entry and exit wounds broke free, spilling forth years of congealed viscera and noxious odors.
Pain flooded the beast, rendering it lame to Kaworu's psychic hold. It screamed and moaned horrible noises that were neither natural nor artificial. Shinji seized the moment, prying loose the iron grip it held on their neck. Then, taking Unit 01 in his hands, hoisted it off the spear and held it skyward. Rei collapsed forward, her pulse slow but steady.
Night had fallen and the AT field cast a ghostly, prismatic glow over the crater and all within it. They stood motionless under the color-shifting lights, as if Shinji were making some technological sacrifice to neon gods.
Look upon this offering and grant me your favor.
He could feel the shower of blood and oil running down his skin. The thick, ferrous taste pooling on his tongue. The deep, stomach-churning smell of infected flesh filling his lungs. It was a bloodlust he had never felt before. Never wanted to feel before. But in this moment, flooded with anger and fear and hatred, it felt right.
"Give her back."
He growled in a deep, resonant tone wholly unlike his own. His fingers dug slowly, deliberately into Unit 01. Easily breaking through the same restraints that had once kept him safe from so much harm.
"Give...her...back!"
Piercing inhuman skin, drawing more blood to the surface. He felt the Eva's muscle fibers twitching frantically.
"Fulfill your father's promise. Then I will release her."
Rei slowly rose, her throat encircled in black and blue.
"...Shinji."
Her hoarse voice was barely audible.
"I...I caused this. Child of Adam...take...me instead."
"No...no. It is not the body I want, Rei Ayanami. It is what you and I do not have. A soul. But if you choose to continue this struggle, so be it."
Unit 01 began to writhe. The red glow that had haunted its eyes dimmed, replaced with an icy blue gaze. Veins dilated violently, emerging through its restraints as if they were another layer of skin. They pulsed feverishly, racing across the convulsing body. Then, without recognizing the end of one being and the start of another, spread into Unit 13.
He could feel it. A strange crawling sensation that began in his fingertips, slowly tracing down his hands. Waves of excruciating pain traveled from hand to wrist, wrist to elbow, elbow to shoulder. His skin grew tighter and tighter, threatening to tear loose at any moment. He wanted to scream, but the wind had already been knocked from his lungs.
"Shinji…"
Rei gazed at him. Though the same horrible process was flowing through her body there was a look of peace on her face. The sides of her mouth twitched, rising hesitantly before falling, then rising again. She smiled.
"We are all connected."
Her malformed, throbbing fingers clawed at the control board to type a short code. Before Shinji could protest, his entry plug had ejected.
"Hikari Horaki, can you hear this broadcast?"
They had watched the scene unfold from the lip of the crater, tear-stained and exhausted. Unsure of what was even real anymore.
"Rei?"
"I am in need of your assistance."
"What...what can I do?"
"I believe one of your EON units is nearby. Please fetch it and join me."
Only the slightest hint of discomfort came through in her voice, even as Hikari and Mari watched the angelic veins continue to course down Unit 13's body.
Hikari struggled to her feet.
"No…"
Mari took hold of her wrist. His words echoed through her mind: If you attempt to stop what I plan to do, I will kill you.
"Give me your access codes."
"Mari-"
"Please."
Mari pointed to the entry plug slowly descending in the distance.
That's gotta be Shinji. I think he'd be happier to see you."
Hikari's EON sat kneeling at the base of the crater, its once vibrant marigold paint all but worn away. The puncture wound in its right leg already beginning to rust. Yet somehow it held a charge. Mari fired up the unit and made her way towards Rei.
There was a picture taped to the control panel covering the radar screen, faded and creased at the edges. Hikari and Toji sat leaning against each other on a picnic blanket, emerald green grass and a clear blue sky behind them. Hikari gazed up at the camera blushing, a coy smile on her face. Toji with his arms crossed and eyes averted in a vain attempt to play it cool.
But Mari remembered the day vividly. He had proposed minutes earlier and ended up crying more than anyone else. They never let him live that down.
"Rei, this is Mari."
The Evas stood like some colossal tree, the throbbing veins now spread across its entirety. Unit 13's hands had disappeared into the torso of Unit 01 and strange, sky blue strands of spider web-like material enclosed the juncture like sutures. The joints of Unit 13 creaked in protest as Rei willed it to slam Unit 01 down. From the ground Mari could hear the muffled crack of bones breaking from the impact. The beast moaned.
"The entry plug…"
Rei struggled for breath, fighting to control the horrid pain that tore through her very being.
"Cut...it loose and...manually…inse-"
Her voice cracked under the strain.
Mari rushed to the rear of Unit 01 with her progressive blade in hand. Its back was lined with enormous sores and pustules that had begun to break open. The red blood of the Eva seeped from some while others spilled forth Kaworu's blue infection. Pools of the mixture, a deep, oily violet, gathered in the earth.
She swung at the entry plug furiously, tearing through the blue webbing that cocooned it. With every slice more of the sticky filament leapt onto her EON, obscuring her view and slowing her movements. Taking the blade in both hands she thrust violently through the remaining layers and swept down, finally breaking the plug free.
As the entry hatch swung open it hit Mari. Her plan wouldn't work.
"Rei, it's no good unmanned. Hold it in place a little longer."
She tucked Hikari's picture into her chest pocket and forced open the emergency exit at the top of the EON. Unit 01 continued to writhe, but at this height the jump was doable. She watched for a lull in movement and lept. Once inside she pulled the hatch shut and initiated the LCL flood.