In the corner of a small red house on a short one-way street, there is a hole that leads to a water pipe. Next to the pipe is a handle that, when pulled, reveals a doorway. Beyond that doorway is a small fortune in uncut diamonds.

But that's completely irrelevant.

Disclaimer: I don't own Eva. Despite what she might say, Layra-chan doesn't own Eva. I do happen to own some Eva shirts, a model of Unit 01, and all of the non-canon characters in this fic.

Fourth Impact

Chapter 28: Unit 21

"Young lady, you have a lot of explaining to do." Asuka glared at her daughter and waved the envelope full of pictures in the air.

"Look, mother, you know how Lilli-kun and Takoru-kun have been trying to get me and Adamu-kun together?" Asuka nodded. "Well, don't tell them, but this is—"

Shinji walked slowly into the room, his face livid. "I just got a call from Rei offering to take you and Adamu to a fancy restaurant this weekend." He said. "What's going on here?"

"It's a misunderstanding…" Misato exclaimed helplessly.

"I hope so." Shinji told her. "You're only fourteen, and I'm not letting my daughter get herself into this kind of thing."

Misato began to sweat, unable to say anything in her defense. You're going to die, Lilliko, Takoru. You're going to die slow and painful deaths!

At school the next day, the kids got over their fear of Misato and bombarded her with questions just as she stepped into the classroom. Some questions though, Misato wasn't prepared to answer.

For the record, it wasn't that she didn't want to answer them, it was just that they were questions that are never anticipated…

"No I'm not starting an Angel breeding program to take over the world!" she shouted for the umpteenth time. "I still have my dignity!" she spun to face another annoying interviewer. "And I'm not pregnant with an Eva!" she flared. "I am, however, getting very, very ANNOYED!" the old fear of her finally set in again and the crowd backed away.

"I must say, she's taking it better than I thought she would." Takoru remarked slyly. Misato spun to face him, bloody death burning in her eyes.

"Suzuhara Takoru Horaki, you are going to pay for this!" she stormed over to him, her fingers clenching and unclenching as if she were already holding his throat.

"Oh, come on," he said sweetly. "It's fair turnabout for keeping your relationship a secret for so long and making us spend all that energy trying to get you together."

"If you had paid a bit more attention," she hissed, coming up to him, "I wouldn't have to kill you right now." She punched him and he flew back into Lilliko, who caught him with a chuckle.

"You're sure getting worked up about this."

She glared at the blue-haired girl. "I just barely escaped getting grounded by my parents," She told Lilliko, "when they found out about the pictures and your mother offered to take us to a romantic restaurant." A chorus of 'oohs' came from behind her. She shot a glare at the kids and they quieted. "And now I get to class, and find out that some idiot has been spreading perverted rumors about me!" she stomped over to Lilliko and slapped her, hard.

"I would have punched you too, but my hand still hurts from your boyfriend's iron-ball of a head." She spun and strode over to her seat, slamming her AT field down about her.

While Lilliko stared at the girl, her brother came up behind her and tripped her, sending her sprawling onto Takoru. He yelped as she landed on him in an indignant heap. "Just to let you know, I'm not too happy either." Adamu said, stepping into the classroom. A single dark glare from him silenced the other students.

The pilot looked up at the screen in front of her. All she could see was the LCL. She could hear all the noise outside, though. And she could hear Lillith.

She sighed. Her activation test had been postponed because of the berserkers, and now that they were finally 'ready,' the Eva had slipped into hibernation. It all felt so silly.

A loud pounding came from her right as the last of the restraints were roughly smashed into place. A voice fuzzed in on the audio link, "So, are you ready, Tenya?"

Tenyana Selvanski nodded. "Ready." She could hear Lillith also getting ready.

"Begin activation sequence." Tenya could feel the jolts of electricity race up and down her spine from where she herself had fiddled with the wiring. Lillith's last four attempts at taking an Eva had failed, mostly because Lillith had little knowledge of human technology. Tenya, however, had more than enough. Unit 21 would be subservient to Lillith, even as Tenya was.

"Sync ratio at 56 and climbing." Tenya closed her eyes, letting Lillith take control of her mind, and thus the Eva. Unit 21's eyes flared as Tenya's body began to fall apart. Tenya suppressed a scream as her body dissolved in Lillith's blood, her soul floating free.

"Pilot signs disappearing!" They had caught on to her. "Signals rejected! Sync ratio at 198 and climbing rapidly!"

Unit 21's mouth broke out of the restraints and it let out a roar, its arms tearing free and swinging wildly. The umbilical cord was pulled out, but Unit 21's S2 took over immediately. Flesh shot from the Eva to join to the S2 just as the fuse between the S2 and the Eva exploded. The Eva was alive.

Lillith slid her awareness into her new body as Tenya's disappeared completely. Then the mother of humanity turned to the control station and with a flick of her wrist destroyed it.

AN: Do you think I should end the chapter here? I mean, I doubt that the rest of the chapter will be nearly as—

Whack!

All right, all right, more story. Hmph.

Sirens went up. "We've lost another facility, this time the East Russia one." Misato turned to her co-commander and shook her head.

"Another berserk Eva?" she hazarded. Ritsuko nodded grimly. "Has it metamorphosed yet?"

"Not yet, but it took out the entire facility. With a vengeance." Misato groaned and chugged down a beer. She looked up at the ceiling, which had been covered in flowers at her goddaughter's six-year-old insistence. Though the flowers had eventually disappeared, the room still smelled like a wild field, and was awfully distracting in the sterile NERV headquarters.

"I don't trust this." Misato muttered. "We should never have given the other facilities autonomy under the UN."

"We should never have authorized the construction of more Evas." Ritsuko pointed out. "But we needed the money." Misato groaned again.

"And I need another beer." She opened a special cabinet that she had built into the Bastard's desk and pulled out a dew-covered can. After chugging it down, she looked Ritsuko straight in the eyes.

"We need to evacuate Tokyo 4."

AN: Another good stopping point—

Whack!

"Takoru, where are you?" Hikari demanded.

Isya stuck her head into her brother's room. "He's gone to his girlfriend's place!" she called down to her mother.

Hikari frowned and grabbed the phone, calling Takoru's cell. "Hey, Suzuhara Takoru here. What can I do for you?"

"Takoru," Hikari said, trying to keep her voice level, "get back here right now and pack up your stuff."

"I'm not going with you." he said softly. Hikari's eyes widened, as did his father's, who was listening in the kitchen.

"What do you mean, not going with us?" she asked slowly.

"I'm staying with Lilli-chan's family, the Nagisas. Mother, I'm part of the team. I need to stay here and help fight Lillith's Chosen."

"Takoru, you're only a human being." Her mother almost shouted into the phone, "You're vulnerable."

"Not with the Sword." He countered. "It blocks anything. I'll be fine."

"Takoru," Touji said calmly, "you aren't doing this because of Lilliko-san, are you?"

Takoru bit his tongue. "I'm doing it for everybody." He finally replied. "I'm doing it for you, and mother, and Isya, and Rakota, and Amika. And I'm doing it for my friends on the Track team, and all of my classmates. I'm doing it for all the people in NERV, and I'm doing it for all of the people who have made Tokyo 4, and live here, and are depending on me. And I'm doing it for everyone on the planet, and everyone still in the Sea of LCL. And I'm doing it for the Ikari family, and the Nagisas," he sighed into the phone, "And yes, I'm doing it for Lilli-chan. I'm doing it for everyone."

Silence.

Hikari paused, unable to speak. She'd never heard such resolve, such determination in her son. Touji was equally shocked.

Finally, it was Amika who broke the silence.

"Be careful." She whispered, nestled in her sister's arms as they listened from her Isya's room phone.

Takoru could feel the tears welling up in his eyes. "You too." He managed to force out. "You too."

No one knew who put down the phone first, but they were soon disconnected, perhaps for eternity.

Takoru turned to his girlfriend, who had been listening from the other side of the room. She nodded and put her arms around him.

"You'll see them again." She promised. "I'll make sure that you will." He nodded. "In the meantime, we need to get revenge on Misa-chan and Adamu-chan. No one slaps me."

AN: I have an odd tendency to insert cute little girls into my stories. No, it's not a sign of anything Freudian, I just like to have a certain level of cuteness, no matter how grim. Of course, sometimes the cute little girl dies, and that brings the grimness factor way up. Sad.