From the Command Room in the NERV HQ, Misato observed Asuka's fight.

The despair filling her soul after losing contact with the girl was quickly overwritten by confusion, in seeing the EVA back on its own feet.

A radio communication was opened through the EVA channels, but it was not Asuka's voice piercing through it. Instead Mari commented on the scene

"Like I thought, they did that to her too"

The american girl just surfaced,and was about to go giving Asuka the help she was sorely needing.

"What do you mean Mari? Do you know what's happening?"

"Well, yes…oh, I don't know about the shitshow that is the sky in this moment, not that. But I think I know what happened to the princess there. You see Misato, I was not completely honest with y'all. But given the situation I think keeping secrets won't do much. You see, I'm able to stimulate berserk into Evangelions thanks to an experiment that was performed in NERV US. No one, aside from Kaji knew about it here, and I suppose he spilled the beans to Gendo. Because I think they replicated the experiment on Asuka. I don't know much about the details, but they modified our blood, mixing it with the ones from the Angel. In US they had some samples retrieved after the Second Impact. You know they got there first when shit went down there. I supposed they used on Asuka the blood from what was being kept on the Central Dogma."

"You kept this secret?"

"Well, yes…it was my mission after all. To come here and keep an eye on things, NERV US was not completely fine with HQ having the angel from the second impact stored in the Dogma. And I was surprised myself to see only Gendo knew about it. That was suspicious. I couldn't trust anyone, but now that we're in this situation, I suppose that was a bad call."

Misato directed her attention towards Ritsuko, demanding explanations.

"I…did know about the experiments"

"What? You made that girl go trough something that dangerous? For what end?"

"You should learn to detach emotions while you're working Commander Misato. You know we needed better pilots. We were losing against the evolution of the Angels. We had to do it"

Misato had a lot to things to say. But she couldn't bring herself to say them. That was not the time. But once again, inside herself, Misato understood that she still couldn't trust anyone. Not that any of that had mattered, as outside, it seemed like the world was coming to an end.

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Mari detached her pink EVA, Unit-05, from the rail, while keeping the cable plugged in.

She held a gigantic sniper rifle with the mecha hands. It was a smaller scale, smaller powered version of the one used in the Ramiel incident some time before by Shinji and sniper was developed in the former NERV US, now being inactive. The girl was trying to find a place from which she could shoot and help out Asuka during her fight. Mari loved being a long range shooter, even if she ofter has found herself going on melee against her enemies. She was a really ambiguous girl, but she didn't really care about doing anything about that. She enjoyed her strangeness, so she decided to not fight it, but to embrace it entirely.

She felt no guilt in that situation. She was not feeling guilty of not having predicted Gendo's plan, and the was not feeling guilty that she had revealed secret information to Misato. She just did what she thought was right in a moment to moment basis. She didn't try to reflect on past action, and that fact kept her from being predictable.

Even so, she was set on resolving that situation. Not out of guilt, but out of spite. She was pissed on Kaworu, because he didn't outsmart her, he plainly cheated by being an Angel, a variable that could have not be predicted. Once found the right position, she took aim on Kaworu. She saw that the guy could interject projectiles with the AT field, so she waited for an opening. Until the end, Mari was set on resolving the situation her way. But more than anything, she breathed in the LCL and smiled, as she was ready to fight in the world's Final Showdown

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On the top of the Giantess, Unit-01 glowed of a strange, bright, golden light.

Inside it was Shinji.

He mounted the EVA because he knew he had to do it, and now the machine was flying in the sky without him doing anything.

He actually didn't know what he had to do now that he was in the EVA, so he closed his eyes. And even if he felt his body still being on the EVA, he could see the train, and on it was Kaworu.

"It's almost time Shinji, the train is pratically at destination"

"And what about the destination?"

"You'll know what you have to do there. It's the place where destiny lies. All humans are bound by it, and the rules are defined in that place. You can change those rules and forge your destiny. Have you thought about it? Your wish?"

"I…think so"

"Want to share it? I wanted to have your wish granted, but I couldn't understand what your wish is"

"Before that…why? Why giving this power to me?"

"Because it's you, Shinji"

"That doesn't make any sense"

"Everything makes sense. It's just that it's not always possible to make sense out of everything at the right moment. You're special Shinji, you don't remember it, but you showed to me that you are. And last time, I couldn't make your wish come true. I thought you needed to get stronger to survive in this world, but as it ends up, that wasn't the answer. You know, last time you and I fell in love, but then you had to kill me. And in that killing, I thought I granted your wish. You surpassed love for the greater good. You were always tormented by love, and by killing it I suppose you could have overcome it. But it seems like love was too strong. So I thought about what to do next time, but there was no answer. I could only prepare everything for you. And now it's the moment"

"You mean, we already met?"

"Yes, we already did. But that time, the prophecy was reverted. And now, here we are again, and only Angels remember. Well, I suppose I can say only I do remember. Given that I'm the only Angel that can think"

"I…don't think I can understand, even if I try"

"Will you tell me your wish anyway?"

The train was shaken

"What was that?"

"The force of the monster who's trying to stop you. I'm fighting it on the outside, you have nothing to worry. It's just that it's stronger that it seemed"

"You need help?"

"Not at all, it just took me by surprise. But there's no need"

"You can call support on the HQ if you need"

Kaworu smiled without replying.

"So, will you tell me your wish?"

"I suppose I can, after all you did for me. You said that I struggled with love, and that's true. I loved my parents, but one died too soon for me to remember, and the other was a person I could not connect with. I loved Rei, and…well you saw what that caused. I loved Misato, but we couldn't ever really understand each other. I loved Asuka, but I think she never really appreciated me enough for me to connect with her. And this loss of connection, is the root of the pain. It hurts while you're trying to connect and cannot, and it hurts when someone's dies because you're filled with the regret of not having form a connection with them. And there's no way to overcome this. We're just cursed to live with the burden of being unable to connect with other. So if I really can change fate, I want to change that. I want to erase the barrier everyone has around them"

" Doing that will have consequences. The only way to understand each other is to love individuality"

" There's another way. Which is kinda similiar now that I think about it."

"How?"

"If I can change the world at its' roots. I can make everyone come together as one. I can decide to make every individuality part of a sea of consciousness, erasing pain, erasing suffering, I can make everyone overcome their barriers because there will be no barriers whatsoever"

Shinji talked with excitement in his voice, while Kaworu listened to the whole explanation

"A fascinating solution"

"You think it'll work?"

" I have no mean to know it"

"What happened last time?"

" I don't know, I wasn't alive back then. You'll have to make the jump, to decide for humanity"

The train shook again, Kaworu assured Shinji that was not an issue, but on the outside, things were getting chaotic

"The fate will not be decided just by one Children huh? That's interesting", Kaworu thought this, but he didn't said it to Shinji. From there on, his role was reaching the end.

Now it's time for the climax, he thought

Thinking of that last moment of intimacy with Shinji, as a last interlude