Chapter 17: Eclipse

However, we have three results to showcase for the consideration of the Human Instrumentality Committee, as well as recommendations on what uses they might have.

- Confidential Report on the Theory and Application of Long-term AT-Field Manipulation, Section 4, "The AT-Edit System and Its Successes"

Terminal Dogma, Geofront, September 3rd, 2039 Hours

Shinji's eyes widened as the Units standing above him began to float into the air, drifting away from him. Towards Lilith.

He got Unit-01 to its feet, turning to see the remaining Mass-Production Evas floating up and away as well, their wings unfurled and rising fast as Asuka took an ineffectual swipe at one of them as it passed her by. "Oh, come on!" she shouted, and Shinji blinked before he remembered that their souls were linked.

As the Evangelions surrounded Lilith in the air, it began to slide off its cross, the nails in its palms seeming to do nothing as the hands lifted off them like dough from a hook. The mask that held SEELE's logo slowly dripped down from off of Lilith's face, and a mop of hair, white as the body it grew from, began to drape down its back as the face, once ovoid and featureless, began to become defined.

It became a woman's face, with sharp but shapely cheeks and a rounded nose, and Lilith opened eyes that were the solid grey of an oncoming storm cloud with an iris that was the deep orange of the LCL that surrounded it as its body went from fleshy to feminine, and a familiar diagram, one that Shinji had seen on the floor and ceiling of the commander's office as well as on a screen, glowed into existence around the Units and Lilith.

"Shinji! Danke Gott, you're still up and fighting." Shinji jumped slightly as Asuka's face appeared in a panel alongside Daniel and Kaworu's. Her voice echoed slightly as he first heard it through his soul, then through his speakers.

"We need to get to the surface, now." Daniel said, his expression grim as the room began to rumble. "If we get ahead of this, we have a chance of stopping it. Come on!"

With that, FT Unit-00 turned and began to dash up to the Geofront surface, the others following quickly after as the assembled ritual began to dig through the ceiling.

As they ran, Shinji almost felt his teeth rattle as the shaking grew, and he heard the crumbling of stone and shearing of metal behind and above him.

As the group burst onto the dark Geofront surface, the rumbling now underneath their feet, growing in intensity, reached a crescendo as Shinji watched the ground little more than a kilometer away bulge and buckle.

"We have a few seconds at least." Daniel said. "I have an idea, but it's a long shot."

"Well, a long shot is better than nothing, Bruder." Asuka replied. "Shoot."

"We need to remove the other Children's Entry Plugs." Daniel continued, his eyes narrowing as they all saw the ground around the bulge beginning to grow a deep red crystal. "That should give us enough time to get another solution ready for the MP-Evas."

"It's not much, but it is better than nothing." Kaworu said.

"Right, then." Daniel said. "I'll take the green one with the Lance. Shinji, you take the golden one, and Asuka, you get the deep blue one."

Before he could continue, the ground split open, and the glowing System Sephirothicum, the Evas slotted into different circles surrounding Lilith, continued its ascent. As it rose, the core material surrounding the hole exploded outward, a wave of red crystals breaking around the rocks that were the Eva's and Titan's hastily raised AT Fields.

The strength of the AT Field around the ritual group was breathtaking. Shinji swore he could almost physically feel it as he looked up and saw the massive skyscrapers that hung from the ceiling begin to be pushed up, the ceiling of the Geofront itself beginning to split as they continued to rise.

"No better time than now." Daniel said, as massive wings sprouted from FT Unit-00's back, black with a glittering night sky within. "Let's go!"

. . .

Rei looked around her and reached out to Eleanor as she grabbed Suriel's arm. "I understand it's beginning, but where is the mechanism that enables Instrumentality? Can you guide us to it?"

Suriel was silent, and as Rei blinked, she caught Eleanor entering her line of sight. She looked around, then nodded. "A mindscape. I should have figured."

"I'll explain later," Eleanor continued as she laid a hand gently on the side of Suriel's face, "but right now, we need to get into Suriel's head to figure out where to go. Time may be next to meaningless here, but we'll move as quickly as we can anyways."

Eleanor closed her eyes, her brow furrowing slightly as her fingertips turned into transparent water that gleamed with an unseen light.

Then, the hallway began to move around them, giving Rei a slight sense of vertigo as she looked down at her unmoving feet. She looked back up as the hallway started to speed by faster and faster, then in what felt like an instant, they were in an open field, the sky above the same deep crimson, swirling like storm clouds as it pivoted around a point in the distance that they approached quickly.

In a moment, the trio stopped as if they had not moved at all, and Rei shook her head slightly before she looked up at a spire of what looked like core material. Eleanor opened her eyes as she took her hand off of Suriel's face, walking forward and missing Suriel's wide-eyed stare at the back of her head.

"Alright, here we are. I guess." Eleanor said, then shook her head. "Suriel's head is a bit of a mess right now, so I can only hope this is where we're supposed to be."

She looked over at Rei. "Connect to Suriel's mind. See if we can get any sort of visual on the outside world."

Rei nodded after a moment, looking around herself as Eleanor walked up to the pillar, then turned to look at Suriel. She still ogled at Eleanor for a moment before Rei put a hand on her arm.

Suriel jumped slightly as she looked over at Rei reaching up towards her face. "I wish to see the outside world. Can you assist me in that task, Suriel?" Rei said softly.

Suriel flinched slightly as Rei's fingertips touched her jaw, and Rei stretched up to the tips of her toes to properly reach the side of her face. "perhaps maybe its begun its begun okay yes" was the surface stream of consciousness that Rei perceived as she simply touched Suriel. Then, she focused, and her fingertips became stained glass as she connected with Suriel's soul.

She felt the weight of a thousand lives once again, but pushed her way through it, slowly making her way past what seemed to take up the bulk of Suriel's mind. Then, almost intuitively, she found it. Sight beyond.

She bound herself to it, and her view of the clearing fuzzed into blackness. Then, as if she were opening her eyes, she saw a wall of concrete and metal, lit up by the glow of the sigil that Lilith floated in the center of.

After what could have been a moment or an eternity, Lilith seemed to burst through a floor, and Rei felt her eyes widen as she saw a familiar-looking hallway within the depths of NERV-HQ. "We seem to be ascending through NERV-HQ at an unknown speed." she said, then felt her own (metaphysical) body, seemingly tiny in comparison to the giant whose eyes she peered through, blink after a moment of silence.

She focused for a moment, then made sure to repeat what she had said out loud. "Got it. Working on it." was the somewhat terse reply from Eleanor, and Rei could almost see her brow furrow deeper as her cheeks puffed out slightly in her mind's eye.

After a few more moments, Rei watched as they broke through the floor once again and began to float through Central Dogma, the AT Field of the combined Units and Lilith tearing apart the massive room in a cyclone of nearly invisible destruction. "We have just breached Central Dogma." Rei said, her voice edging on concern.

"Got it." Eleanor nearly growled. Then, after a moment of silence, she actually growled in frustration. "Damn it, how do you work?" she said in exasperation. Rei felt the frustration build into a punch to the spire, and Rei could feel a ripple of energy pass through her, out into Lilith and, presumably, the world around them.

"Oh, dear." Eleanor said after a moment, embarrassment clear in her tone. "I really hope that didn't do anything. Anything bad, at least."

Rei had her doubts.

. . .

Kaworu watched as his friends, his family, flew into the air, their AT Fields unfurled and running as strong as they could to try and make their way through the AT Field of the combined ritual.

It was like watching flies try to get through amber. They had stopped at what Kaworu had assumed was the AT Field itself, and for all their shifting to get to their intended targets, they still only sat on the surface, only slowly making progress if they made any progress at all as they continued to rise into the air.

The skyscrapers now began to fall, pushed to the sides by the invisible drill that the ritual group's AT Field had made, and the Units over top of it flew back. "We can't get through like this." Shinji said, his brow set in annoyance in the panel that showed his face. "There has to be a way around this."

Shinji glanced over at Kaworu as Unit-01 hovered beside the other two Units. "Do you see anything down there, Kaworu?" he asked, desperation edging into his voice.

Kaworu looked up, his Sight blinking on as the Frames that made up the AT Field of the ritual group burst into sight, spiraling slowly as the top of the System Sephirothicum began to touch the Geofront ceiling, and the Black Egg began to peel up and out, revealing the darkness of the night sky.

An AT Field also surrounded the Units and Lilith, but at the base of the massive drill, there was… nothing. A clear path, Kaworu realized with mounting hope.

"The base of the AT Field is open!" Kaworu said. "The Units within still have AT Fields, but they don't look as strong as that of the drill. We might be able to breach them."

"Perfect." Daniel said as FT Unit-00 began to drop towards the ground of the Geofront, now covered in core material that seemed to glow with an inner light. "We've wasted enough time as is here. Hurry! And Kaworu, get to the surface. Staying here will just make it harder for you to help when we need you."

Kaworu nodded, and FT Unit-01 began to rise from the ground, flying past Shinji, Asuka, and Daniel as he rocketed to the surface through the opening that the ritual had created.

As Kaworu settled on what was the outskirts of Tokyo-3, he observed the now growing ground cover of core material spreading out beyond his sight, then turned his gaze to the ritual, which now began to rise into the open air, the three free-floating Units that tried to stop it now under the drill and making their way towards their three targets.

'But it will still only account for the three Evas piloted by the Children.' Kaworu thought grimly. 'We'll need a solution for all of them.'

Then, Kaworu had an idea. It was crazy. Completely and utterly. As able to speed up the end of the world as to stop it. But there was a chance.

. . .

Tokyo-2, 2043 Hours

Ryoji Kaji felt the rumbling in his feet, distant though it was right now, and looked to where he knew Tokyo-3 was. He, and those around them, saw an orange glow in the sky. As the gathered people began to murmur and whisper to one another, and the rumbling began to intensify, his phone began to ring.

He turned away from the sight and answered as he walked away… somewhere. "Misato, I really hope that orange light I'm seeing is a celebration." He said, his serious tone draining any levity his words might have held.

"Ryoji, I'm at Matsushiro." Misato said, deathly calm. Kaji's eyes widened as she continued, as memories of an end of the world he had watched on a screen spooled through his mind. "And if that orange light is what I think it is… get here, as fast as you can. I don't care how you do it, just… be here with me. Please."

Ryoji was silent for a moment as he realized the direction he was walking in. "Alright. I'll be there, Misato." He said quietly. "Promise."

"Thank you." Misato said, equally quietly. Then, the line went dead.

Ryoji looked back up, and his pace quickened. Before he left, he had a quick visit to pay.

As he passed from the light of a streetlight into the waiting shadows, he became one with them, the world in his vision becoming framed with feathered shadows as if he were on the verge of passing out, and he felt himself become faster. He hadn't had much chance to try out this 'shadowrunning' before now, but he wasn't dead yet. And, really, that was what counted.

Across walls and ground, through parks, wherever darkness fell between him and his destination, he passed through, until he became human again standing across the street from a small, but comfortable looking house.

He wasted no time crossing the street and knocking on the door. He waited for a brief second that seemed to stretch into eternity, it opened, showing a rather attractive young lady, with a freckled face framed by glasses, which themselves framed eyes with no small amount of concern in them.

"Oh." the woman said softly. "Hello, Mr. Kaji."

"Hello, Ms. Horaki." Kaji replied. "May I come in for a moment? I have someone I need to check in on."

Kodama Horaki nodded and stepped aside, Ryoji not bothering to take his shoes off. "I won't be long." he said absentmindedly. "Just picking someone up."

As they walked down the entry hall, Ryoji continued. "So, how are your friends?" he asked casually.

He watched from his peripheral as Kodama's eyes narrowed only slightly at the seemingly airy question. "Oh, just fine." she replied, almost as casually. "Haru managed to convince a few others in one of my classes to read the Lone World manifesto. And Kiku said she'd try and talk to her friends about it as well."

"Good, good." Ryoji said quietly as they wheeled into the living room. "I'll follow up on them. If we continue to exist then."

The room went quiet, as Bunzaemon and Nozomi Horaki looked up from the dining room table, and one Ichigo Ayanami looked up from the couch as she sat next to Hikari and a rather familiar looking penguin.

"Wark?" Penpen squawked, tilting his head in what could be construed as confusion.

"Hello, Penpen." Ryoji said with a smile. "I hope you've been nice and comfortable here."

"Wark." was the reply, mulish in tone.

"Awww. No beers this time around?" Kaji said sympathetically.

"He's only been having coffee and green tea in this household." Kodama replied sternly. "I've a mind to give Ms. Katsuragi a word about the irresponsibility of giving an animal human food, let alone beer."

"Wark!" Penpen said, likely in annoyance as he glared at Kodama.

"Well, Penpen," Ryoji said as he walked over to the penguin, "we'll be taking you to Misato now. Call it a little extra surprise."

He picked the penguin up, a confused "wark" trailing up to just in front of his shoulder, which Penpen rested his beak upon.

Ryoji glanced down at Ichigo and Hikari. "And how have you two been holding up?" he asked quietly.

"I have been doing well." Ichigo replied calmly. "The Horaki's have been pleasant company."

Hikari nodded. "Yes." she paused for a moment. "Is… is it happening?" she asked, unable to keep the fear out of her voice. "Have we failed?"

Ryoji shook his head. "Well, we haven't turned into LCL yet, so… no. And if that's the case, I'm sure the other pilots are doing all they can."

Hikari seemed to take courage from the words as she nodded. "Yes. If there's anyone who can do this, it's them."

"That's the spirit." Ryoji chuckled. Then, he turned to regard the rest of the Horaki's gathered behind him. He could see the uncertainty in their eyes. He was desperately trying to keep it from showing in his own.

"Thank you for taking care of Penpen and Ichigo. Misato and the Theisman's will appreciate that." he said.

"Of course, Inspector." Bunzaemon said. "It has been good to have them."

Ryoji nodded. "I'll go ahead and leave now. Good night."

After a few more goodbyes, including a surprisingly tearful one from Nozomi to Penpen, Ryoji stepped out the door, back into the night. He looked over to the orange glow that had only gotten stronger. And if he focused, bolstered his sight with Interfacing…

There, hanging in the sky, was a terribly familiar looking symbol, and within it, several massive figures.

He looked only for a moment, then turned away towards Matsushiro as he and Penpen became shadow, with a somewhat terrified "wark" the last sound the two made as they went on their way to the last bastion of NERV.

. . .

Deep within Lilith, Eleanor shook her head. "Rei, see if you can find any instructions on how to operate this. I can't intuit it." she sighed in exasperation, her voice subtly laced with rising fear.

Rei nodded and tore herself away from the vision of Lilith rising into the open air, focusing as she sifted through the mind of Suriel, looking for guidance on how to stop the process.

"It cannot be stopped now." Suriel said aloud. Rei flinched slightly.

"Can't be stopped?" Eleanor said offhandedly. "I've heard that before. Hasn't stopped me then, won't stop me now."

"The Instrumentality cannot be deactivated." Suriel continued. "Instrumentality is the destiny of this world now."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Eleanor replied. "Rei, see anything yet?"

Rei continued her search and then found a different vision. Suriel's own. Rei's brow furrowed as she saw the spire of core material. Floating above it were seven lines of light, undulating slightly as they formed a circle around the top of the spire that became a cone, then another line that went through the center of the pillar as it went deep below them.

"Mother," Rei said quietly, "how many enemy Evangelions were there before we entered Lilith?"

It was a moment before Eleanor replied. "Seven. Why?"

Rei's brow rose fractionally as she opened her eyes, and the sight of the lines of light remained as she noted the spire glowing slightly, slowly building in intensity. "I was not able to find anything that might be considered an instruction manual. But I believe I've found a new perspective on our situation."

"Well, don't keep it to yourself." Eleanor said as Rei looked over to see her walking towards her. "Link me in."

Rei removed her hand from Suriel's face as she lowered herself and turned to Eleanor, reaching out a hand. Eleanor took it, and Rei gave Eleanor new eyes to see the world around them.

As Eleanor took in the view, she nodded slowly. "It looks like we've been coming at this from the wrong angle." she said after a moment, before sighing quietly. "If we can somehow disrupt those lines of power, then we might be able to slow the process down."

"Might?" Rei asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, there's also a better than good chance that we might cause a catastrophic reaction within Lilith if we handle this poorly, scattering our souls throughout the solar system." Eleanor replied as vambraces of water appeared around her arms and legs, a latticework of tiny streams crisscrossing her body as she began to float into the air.

"No pressure, clearly." Rei replied slightly sardonically, as she began to float towards one of the seven streams.

. . .

Misato stared at the much smaller screen of the Matsushiro command center as it showed the circling drone feed of… the apocalypse.

The command center was silent as a freshly dug grave as they watched Toyo-3 swept away by the peeling up of the ground beneath it, the massive sections blooming like flower petals as a glowing sigil rose from its center, 8 figures held within, one in the center slowly growing larger and larger as crimson gems seemed to wash across the ground away from the sight like a wave of blood.

It was hard not to succumb to hopelessness. But there was a chance, as her eyes followed as best they could the three near specks that blazed up towards that symbol hanging in the sky that it lit up, and she found herself, for the first time in months, years even, seriously praying. 'God, Guides, whatever's out there that's been letting us win every time… let them make it happen again. Don't ditch us now.'

"Ms. Misato." A calm voice rang out in the room as Kaworu's face appeared.

Misato blinked as she flinched slightly. "What do you need, Kaworu?"

"I have an idea on how to eliminate the Mass-Production Evas as a threat." Kaworu continued. but I'm going to need Eleanor to retrieve something from the Infinity Box."

"Kaworu…" Misato said. "Eleanor and Rei are in Lilith right now, trying to stop Instrumentality."

She watched as Kaworu's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, and marveled silently at his self-control as his expression became calm again. "Then I'll need you to retrieve Kadmonel's vessel and teleport it to me."

Misato's eyes went wide. "Kaworu… you could start Third Impact. There has to be another way." she said, fighting back memories of a giant of light.

"Ms. Misato," Kaworu said, his expression edging on pleading, "Kadmonel is perhaps the only person with enough power behind him to extract the remaining pieces of the soul within the MP-Evas from within the AT Field we face. If we can deactivate those Evas, this all falls apart. Please. Trust me."

It was a silent moment before Misato took a deep breath. "Alright. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Ms. Misato." Kaworu replied. "I'll be ready whenever you are."

Misato nodded, then turned to look at Ritsuko, Maya, Naoko, and Kensuke. "I'll be back in a moment." she said, taking a step forward. Then, she paused and looked back at the screen that showed Kaworu's face. "Question, Kaworu."

"Yes?" Kaworu replied.

"You said that the Children's Units had been taken over by Dummy Systems, correct?" Misato asked, and around her, eyes widened as Kaworu nodded.

"Yes. Not the system we're familiar with, though. Before I lost connection with their souls, I saw the word 'NuDummy' flash through their minds." Kaworu replied.

Misato nodded as she looked back towards the four scientists. "See what you can do to buy them time. If you can disable the system, do it. Either way, it'll be better than nothing."

The four nodded as their heads ducked to their laptops, typing madly as they muttered to each other. Misato walked past them, taking another deep breath as she held out her hand, reaching out with her mind and soul.

In only seconds, she felt the weight of a familiar crystalline key as she raised to a wall, pressing in and hearing the deep, melodic gong of the door opening.

Then, she stood in front of the open doorway, steeling herself as she prepared to retrieve the being that, inadvertently or not, killed her father. Taking a deep breath, she stepped across the threshold.

. . .

Eleanor and Rei floated in the air next to one of the lines of energy, feeling it ripple and hum as the energy coursed between them. After a moment, Eleanor cautiously stretched out a hand, stopping for a moment as she got close, then plunged her hand into the stream.

It flowed around her hand, almost enveloping it in light. Eleanor's brow furrowed, and she pulled her hand back, red and blistered for a moment before returning to normal. "Well, we won't be stopping them like that." Eleanor said, exasperation subtly lacing her voice.

"Perhaps." Rei agreed. Then, she looked at the spire, where all the lines of energy converged. "But if we cannot stop it in transit…"

Eleanor followed her gaze, lightly connecting with Rei's soul as they brainstormed for a moment.

"It's going to be risky." Eleanor said as they came to a decision in the space of moments.

"Of course." Rei replied as they began to float down to the ground beside Suriel. "But with the fate of the world on the line, what isn't?"

"Point taken." Eleanor said slightly mulishly as she spread her hands out, two bands of coral growing into existence on her wrists. On the ground in a circle around the three, a similar ring of coral sprouted from the ground.

As this happened, Rei reached out towards the spire, a ring of opaque glass forming on her arm near her elbow and around the spire itself.

"What… are…" they heard Suriel say behind them, voice filled with uncertainty.

"Something that's really dumb." Eleanor replied. "Ready?"

Rei simply nodded, and Eleanor counted down. "3… 2… 1… now."

In an instant, a sheath of glass flowed up around the spire as a dome of coral surrounded the trio. Neither of them had to see the energy crash around them as it was reflected off of the spire's surface to feel its heat, or how it slowly degraded whatever it touched.

"Now what?" Rei asked as she focussed on maintaining the glass sheath around the spire.

"Now, we keep at this and hope it gives the others time to come up with something." Eleanor replied, a string of strain vibrating in her voice slightly.

"Were it so easy." Rei said quietly.

. . .

Misato took the stairs two at a time as she descended into the Infinity Box, the cool air chilling her as it dried her sweat.

She emerged into the bare blue chamber and looked around. No defining features, as usual. 'Well, they wouldn't exactly keep it out in the open, would they?' Misato thought as she tsked in exasperation.

She closed her eyes and opened her Sight, looking around the room until she found a cluster of glowing lights hidden underneath the floor. She linked herself to the room, and focused, pulling the sphere up out of the floor.

She opened her eyes, and there before her, sitting on a pillar of stone, was a sphere roughly the size of a basketball, glowing prismatically with rippling lines.

She wasted only a moment staring at it before she walked forward, taking the surprisingly light sphere and turning on her heel, dashing up the stairs.

She ran back to the command center's deck, looking up as she watched the System Sephirothicum floating in the air seem to malfunction somehow, portions of it fading in and out.

She was somewhat mesmerized by the sight until she felt Kaworu's soul announce its presence. "Alright," he said, "I can feel Father's presence. Now, you just need to send him to me."

"Alright. You'd better be damned sure about this, Kaworu." Misato replied, and she looked down at the sphere in her hands and focused, Frames sprouting up and seeming to make a latticework cage around it.

She felt the air chill as frost, following the invisible lines of the lattice, spread out across the sphere, engulfing it, swallowing the light that it shone. Then, it was gone, and the frost fell like snowflakes.

Misato fought against old, hard memories as she watched the frost drift to the floor. Then, she blinked as she felt a hand on her arm, and something nuzzled against her leg. She looked over to her leg to find Penpen rubbing up against it, then up to look into Ryoji's eyes. "You came." she whispered.

"Like I promised." Ryoji replied.

. . .

Kaworu felt the sphere that contained his father, his brothers and sisters, appear in his hands as he and FT Unit-01 flew into the air, coming to a stop in front of Lilith, now nearly four times her previous size as the Units surrounding it slowly drifted apart.

"Kaworu, whatever you're trying to do, do it now! Whatever's going on can only help us at this point!" Asuka shouted into the open channel.

Kaworu gave no reply as he drove a Frame like a spear into the vessel, connecting to Kadmonel and, by extension, all the Angels. "Father! Help!"

With those words, he poured all he wished to do to save the world. And Kadmonel, once Adam, understood and sprang to action.

FT Unit-01 spread its arms wide, as a pill of ink, tiny next to the colossus, sprang into existence. Then, it ballooned to fill the Titan's hands, and rainbow lines began to pulse and ripple across its surface.

A dot of white appeared in front of the sphere, growing larger, then bulging out, becoming a stream of white light that became… a being.

. . .

Misato kept Ryoji in a long embrace before she heard a gasp from all of the command center. She risked a look at the main screen, and her eyes went wide in horror.

FT Unit-01 now itself held a massive version of the sphere she had just sent to Kaworu not moments before. And from it… a giant of light emerged.

She took in its differences along with the rest of the command center in stunned silence. Instead of pylons hiding an inhuman face, it was the torso of a man, the head of a man bearing the face of man, reaching out a human arm towards Lilith as the Mass-Production Evangelions twitched and writhed.

Try as she might, she could not look away from its face, sharp and refined, with hair that fluttered in an unseen wind covering at times the black and red eyes that stared at Lilith.

And they all watched as, after what seemed like agonizing moments of time, the cores of the Mass Production Units revealed themselves, and a light flew from them.

As it did, the Units slouched over, dropping as one like flies from the sky as the System Sephirothicum disappeared. And still the giant man reached out towards Lilith.

Lilith reached back out, seeming to smile weakly at the sight.

"We…" Ryoji said, his voice slow and full of cautious hope. "We won. Right? Am I understanding this correctly?"

Misato nodded slowly. "I think we did." she said softly.

"Not just yet."

Misato and Ryoji turned to look back at Ritsuko and Maya still at their computers. "We're about to get into the NuDummy system. We're in."

She paused almost dramatically as she typed a few more lines of code, then pressed enter.

She looked up at Misato. "NuDummy system is shut down. Now we've won."

. . .

Mariah Marlowe blinked, then found herself surprised she could do that much as a light in front of her faded into darkness.

She breathed for a moment, feeling her breath gust off of something in front of her face. What was she doing in here? What was the last thing she remembered?

Kaworu. Puppy. The sights and sounds and memories of… something. Something horrifying. Something that wasn't Instrumentality. Couldn't be Instrumentality. That couldn't be the mission. What they were supposed to do. Could it?

She shook her head as she reached for the mask in front of her, finding a pointed end to get a solid grip on, then lifted her mask off to see… the end of the world. It couldn't be anything else.

She saw a man, but only half of him, massive and pale as a ghost, reaching out to something with a slight smile on his face that became a glum, resigned expression as something began to fall under her.

She looked down, and watched as a massive woman, hair whipping past her blank, almost smiling face, fell towards the ground that, she noted with no small amount of alarm, was now far, far below them. A ground that was covered almost as far as she could see in deep red crystals that glimmered in the moonlight.

The woman hit the ground, sending up a plume of red dust as she settled into a massive pit. Was that… where the city was?

She glanced at the red… something in her hands, slowly twisting back together into what a seemingly distant, whispering thing knew to be the Lance of Longinus. In the corner of her eye, the giant white man disappeared, leaving something almost like it, yet so much smaller, hanging in the air.

What… what was going on? Did she do this? This wasn't the mission. She was supposed to save the world, make it better. She was supposed to be Superman. She was…

"Mariah Marlowe. Or do you prefer Mari?"

She numbly looked over at a panel that had appeared in front of what she remembered was the star one, hovering in place with wings that were made of the night sky that surrounded them. "Mari. Mari works." she said, equally numbly.

"Okay. Mari, I'm going to need you to shut down Unit-05 and eject your Entry Plug. Better safe than sorry, after what's happened." the man said. He appeared to be in a Plug, like she was, but…

"You have horns. Like your Eva." Mariah said. "And a beard. I didn't know an Eva pilot could do that."

The man looked up for a moment, then chuckled. "It's a long story. But we can sort that all out, we can sort all of this out, if you eject the Entry Plug. Can you do that?"

Mariah blinked, then shook her head slowly. "I… I don't think I can do all that…"

The man sighed and nodded. "Okay. Don't worry about it then."

He glanced over at something else, apparently muted as his lips moved without a sound. For a moment, she could swear he cursed as he looked down at something with wide eyes, then took a deep breath as he closed his eyes for a moment before he looked back at her, wiping away tears for a moment before he continued.

After a moment, the view of the wasted world, the one she created, disappeared, the panel showing the man's face remaining. "Okay, then. Don't worry about it. We've got you." he said, his voice heavy with… something.

She connected the dots as she felt something pulling her Entry Plug out of where it rested. "You're leaving something behind, aren't you?" she said.

The man's eyes widened for a moment, then he nodded. "Yes." he said quietly. His next words contained a resolve that somehow didn't surprise her in the slightest. "But we're coming back for them."

He took another deep breath as a forlorn smile turned his lips up slightly. "Well, you'll have to settle in. We're in for a long walk, so…"

He glanced to the side, and more panels popped up, all of them seeming to contain pilots, including Mana and Mayumi, one of them even including Puppy.

"Let's make some introductions, seeing as we have the time, shall we? My name is Daniel Theisman. I'm a Gemini, cinnamon is my favorite flavor, and I don't come from this universe."

. . .

The cheering in Matsushiro's command center finally died down, and as the view of the drone changed, to a satellite view, the once triumphant mood became far more somber.

Misato pulled herself from a long, deep kiss with Ryoji and looked at the screen, reeling from what she saw. On the continent of Japan, a massive red circle stretched across part of the land, into the water, glittering like a light show in the parts on the land, turning the ocean that it traveled into the deep crimson of blood.

"What's the damage?" Misato asked quietly.

"Well," Ritsuko said, coming to her side, "at a glance, I'd call that… a little over 50 kilometers of Japan covered in what looks like core material. Active core material."

"Active?" Misato asked.

"The material we use for the cores is technically in a deactivated state once it takes a soul in. It's when it's activated that allows it to take in the soul." Ritsuko replied. "The area surrounding that zone of core material for about a kilometer is likely very dangerous without an Eva's AT Field or an equivalent." Ritsuko replied, a deadly serious look on her face.

Misato nodded slowly. "Speaking of Evas…" Misato said. "What about our remaining pilots?"

Keys clacked into the silence for a moment, and the view on the main screen changed again, showing what must have been a drone view of two Evas and two Titans, walking away from what was once Tokyo-3. Three held Entry Plugs in their hands as they walked towards Matsushiro. Unit-01 held the Lance of Longinus, leaned on its shoulder.

"Unit-01 is doing fine, save for some wounds to the Eva's body. The Frame Titans are a little worse for wear." Ritsuko said.

"And Unit-02?" Misato asked. "How is it even still walking?" she continued, more than a little wonder in her voice.

"It seems she's doing the same sort of thing that Daniel did when he first created an Eva during the… first Battle of Tokyo-3. Keeping her mother's soul with her." Ritsuko said. "It's a wonder she's made it this far without collapsing."

Misato nodded. "Alright," she said, raising her voice for all to hear, "get the bays ready for two Evas and the Titans. They'll likely need medical treatment ready and waiting for some of them, depending on how high their synch ratios went during the battle."

As the staff complied, and the center became filled with quiet murmurs, Misato looked down at Penpen. "In the meantime, you and I need to go get a beer."

"Wark!" was the happy reply, and Misato chuckled softly.

"Well, I'm glad someone could find some joy in this situation." she said quietly, as she turned and walked out of the command center.

. . .

One foot in front of the other. Don't let the Plug fall. That was all Asuka could focus on right now. The conversation (more the ramblings of that Mariah chick) was little more than a muffled roar in her ears as her head pounded.

She needed to keep an eye on where she was going. But...

'It's amazing that Daniel could keep this up like he did.' Asuka wearily wondered. Then she smiled slightly. 'But he isn't the best Eva pilot of all time. I can push through this. I can-'

"Asuka?"

She blinked as she looked over at Shinji, then blinked again as she took in the concern splashed across his face. "Are you okay? Did something happen in the Plug?"

Asuka shook her head. "No, rookie. It's just… been a long day. I'll be fine."

Shinji nodded slowly as Asuka smiled slightly. Then, her eyes widened as she felt something brush against her soul.

"Asuka," Daniel said quietly, "how long have you been going without a core?"

As a gasp went up in most of the panels, Asuka sighed. "About 30, 45 minutes. And that's with an S2 Organ." she replied.

"With the amount of Flux in your system and what you've been doing that I felt on my pass through, that's far more than I'm comfortable with." Daniel said frankly. "Go ahead and shut down. We'll carry you the rest of the way."

"Oh, come on, Daniel." Asuka sighed. "You did this-"

"For all of 15 or 20 minutes, running on adrenaline and Metos." Daniel interrupted. "You are far beyond what wrung me out for two weeks. Jünger, let it go. Please."

"Maybe that's you. But I'm the best Eva pilot here, Daniel. I'm going to be fine." Asuka said, a slight growl to her voice.

"Asuka, you're this close to suffering from Flux Crush." Daniel said. "Damn it, I don't want…" he swallowed slightly. "I don't want to watch you die again just because you're being stubborn while piloting the Eva."

Asuka stopped, and Unit-02 stopped along with her. Memories that weren't hers, that she'd seen on a screen, flashed through her mind for a moment.

"Fräulein, I'm not going to risk him having the off chance of being wrong." Kyoko chimed in. "We fought the good fight. Now… we can take a moment to rest."

Asuka sighed after a moment. "Alright." she said, unable to fully keep the defeated tone out of her voice.

As she disconnected herself and her mama from the S2 Engine, the exhaustion she'd been staving off hit her like a pile of bricks, and she watched through heavy eyes as she leaned forward without feeling anything.

In an instant, something stepped in front of her, and she felt her stomach drop slightly as she felt Unit-02 being picked up.

"Ms. Asuka? Can you hear me, or are you dead?"

Asuka glanced over at Mariah, who looked at her with an expression that almost glowed. "Yeah, warrior princess?" she asked groggily.

"Was it really you who went up against my Unit-05?" Mariah asked excitedly.

After Asuka nodded, Mariah gasped loudly. "If what I watched the camera feed of is true, then… that was awesome! I'm so glad we got to dance. You're as much a warrior princess as you call me."

Asuka narrowed her eyes. "Thanks… I guess. And let's put a cap on 'warrior princess'. We're not buddies." she mumbled.

"Alright. I guess I'll stick with princess, then." Mariah replied with a smug look on her face as Asuka rolled her eyes. "After all, every queen needs a princess."

'Yeah, right. We'll see who's the queen of this… later.' Asuka thought before the darkness of unconsciousness took her.

As Asuka dozed off, Daniel sighed and looked back at where they had come from for a moment. Looked back at where their home had been.

'Eleanor, Rei… I'm coming back. I promise.'

With that, he turned back, carrying Unit-02 over FT Unit-00's shoulder as he and the others continued towards Matsushiro. It would be a long, lonely walk tonight, the moon making the crystal that surrounded them quietly gleam red as blood.