Asuka was confused on the situation. Not only because she saw a white mass growing uncontrollably before her eyes, but also because that white chunk of meat seemed to have been untouchable. She couldn't exactly graps what happened to it after its expansion, but one thing was sure.

That thing should have crushed her.

She couldn't see it anymore, but everything around her was still intact.

The only damages she could see around the Central Dogma were the ones she made while fighting Unit-06, that was now disappeared alongside the white…thing.

She was not alone in that room though. Commander Ikari and Fuyutsuki were in the center of the room.

"Commander? Is everything okay?"

Asuka words fell on deaf Gendo's ears. He was on his knees, staring right to its front, towards the place where Kaworu, Rei and the white thing were. The sight of his back emanated disbelief, and his body seemed to have not catch up with reality yet. Luckily, Fuyutsuki was less impacted by the events, and could reply to Asuka's question.

"You don't need to focus on this now. I don't think what that boy started can be stopped, but we must try something"

Fuyutsuki took a break, he knew everything was hopeless, but still he didn't want to concede that easily. Their plan was destroyed because they didn't know something about the nature of the Angels and the holy lances, so maybe there was a solution to that situation. A way to prevent the Third Impact, but they didn't know yet. He wanted to at least have the Children try something. Like always, in the end he was cowardly counting on the Children. All the schemes of the great but despicable man that plotted to take over the Third Impact resulted in that same man breaking up one step away from the goal. So now he had to have faith in the Children, not much for his own will, but out of sheer hopelessness.

"Climb up to the top, the only way up is towards that elevator cable. You could use you energy cable too, but I wouldn't want to destroy it as there are no substitutes for it down here. This is an Angel attack, the worst one yet. When you reach a distance in which you can communicate with the command room, gave them the authorization to use that girl know something about this too. The password for the door unlock is -Wille- "

"Got it"

Asuka turned around and got on the sturdy elevator cable to climb up at least until the first stratus in which she could have used some other way to surface. She did it naturally, without any care for the actual situation of the other two. Fuyutsuki watched her as she got farther and farther away, questioning himself if she was just prioritizing the world, or if they were so inhuman on the Children eyes to let her abandon them without a glint of remorse.

For all the big planes and advanced schemes that they put in motion, they were not worthy of a little girl care. Maybe he was just overthinking it, maybe she really just prioritized the world, but even in the most incoherent situation, humans long for attention, and the lack of empathy shown by the Children towards him, made him feel small. Even if she was nothing to him, the fact that he was nothing to her in that moment of despair, made Fuyutsuki understand how fooling he and Gendo were. In the search of an answer, they lost their humanity, and in that situation, even if they manage to find the answer, what good will it bring?

—

When the gigantic figure popped out in the sky, in the command room everyone was speechless. Misato tried to contact Shinji immediately, but to no avail, and all were left powerless to watch that white giantess. The camera showed this giant, but its existence made no sense. Everything it touched was actually no damaged at all, demonstrating how that creature was immaterial.

But even so, it existed. It emanated a AT Field, and the reading of blue diagram were present. It was an Angel, but with a unique diagram. Something they never saw, and yet another evolution of NERV's enemy.

In the command room was also Mari, that reached Misato in there. After all there was no spare EVA for her to use aside from the locked out Unit-05, that was sent there by an afraid NERV EUROPE after the incident of the Tenth Angel.

"Misato, do you copy?"

Asuka voice broke through the line

"Asuka, did you neutralize the Angel in the Central Dogma? We didn't receive any other reading from there"

"Yes, well, kind of. Unit 06 merged with a white enormous body and disappeared"

"Well, this kinda explains what's happening are you? Can you reach a launch pad?"

"I'm actually connecting Unit-02 to the 01-52 launch pad. Ready to go whenever."

"Great, the situation out there is strange, but we lost contact with Rei. We heard Shinji's voice for a moment but then we lost him too. I think this could be like the Tenth Angel incident. We need to stop it somehow"

Asuka attached the EVA on the launchpad, and prepared herself. The situation was awful, but the adrenaline in her body got her to go on without any issues as of that point.

"One more thing, we will need also Unit-05"

"I agree, but it's locked and only Commander Ikari knows the unlock password, and we are not able to contact him either. Fuck how is that now that we need people they are just vanished. First Kaworu, then the Commander"

"They were all on the pit of the Central Dogma. They were fighting over something, and it ended up with Kaworu and Rei triggering whatever that is."

"Wait…did you say Rei? She was on the Unit-01 fighting the Angel on the outside. It's true we lost connection with her, but that could not be truly Rei"

"I'm only telling you what I saw. I too think it was not Rei, but that's what I saw. Anyway, we can think on an explanation later. The Commander gave me the password, it's Wille."

Mari was listening to the conversation in the background. She was quiet, but was smirking, it was her time again.

"Great, unlock Unit-05 and I will reach the Princess out there. We'll find a way out of this eventually"

Misato sighed, ignored Mari and talked to Asuka

"We're unlocking unit 05 right now, but we don't know if we have time to wait until its deployment. I'm sorry top ask Asuka, but I need you to go on the frontline alone, Unit-05 will catch in some minutes."

"Don't worry Misato, I understand"

Asuka placed on herself the burden of that battle. But it didn't weight much. Instead she found force in it,she glued together her own pride and the obsession of being the other people hope she developed after her revival.

She emerged on to a absurd situation. The sky was red, a vortex formed in the sky, right above the head of a giant white Rei. And between those two, something shone. She felt that she needed to reach that shine, as if she believed that was the core.

Hence began the last act

The story of Neo-Tokyo Longest Day