Disclaimer: If you cared so much, then you would have noticed by now that I do not own Eva. If you don't care, then why are you wasting your time reading the disclaimer?

Fourth Impact

Chapter 51: Souls of the Evas

She looked down at the tiny figure before her. He hadn't left ever since she had awoken, sitting before her and staring up at her. He barely moved, only shifting every once in a while when she moved her eyes. Beside him sat a giant purple stuffed bear.

Sometimes he spoke softly, begging her to reply. He always started, "Lilli-chan, my love, are you there?" He always ended, "I will always be here for you." What came in between varied in length, content, and coherence. Often he rambled about past events, romantic moments. Sometimes he would trail off, then pick up on current happenings. Sometimes he would just start listing the things he liked about her.

She tried to answer, to respond, but she was trapped within the more primordial mind that was her mergence with Unit 19. That mind did not understand him at all, and felt nothing toward him.

Takoru shifted to get comfortable, his hands on his knees. His neck was starting to hurt, and he was exhausted, but duty to his girlfriend kept him awake. He could hear Ritsuko walking up beside him. The scientist had been doing all kinds of tests on Lilliko, trying to find a way to free the girl. From what she could tell, Lilliko was still inside Unit 19, not turned into particles the way Shinji had been, but physically intact. The problem was her soul, which might have left her body.

"I have bad news, Takoru." Ritsuko told him

"There are few times that you have good news, doctor." He replied sullenly.

"I'm a doctor. People only need to listen to me when things go wrong." She answered, then crouched down next to him. "I'm sorry, Takoru, but she's dying." His eyes widened slightly, but he said nothing. "The Splinters within her are tearing her AT field apart. That body, and soul, will not last."

He blinked, tears forming. "What?" he asked. "What do you mean, not last? Are you saying…"

"She's going to die if we don't separate her from Unit 19." Maya appeared and wrapped her arms around the boy, who began weeping. "She has at most a week to live. Then the Splinters will overpower her super solenoid engine and the disintegration process will begin."

Her wife shot her a glare for being so blunt. "Ritsu-chan, why did you have to say it that way?"

"It needed to be said. He needs to understand the graveness of the situation."

Takoru shrugged Maya's arms off and looked up at Lilliko, wondering if she understood.

Ariline wandered into the cages, discreetly surrounded by her 'escorts.' She walked over to Unit 16 and gazed at her, their eyes meeting. Then she heard the conversation between Ritsuko and Takoru. He's in love with the Eva? He sees it as a person, just like I see mine? She shook her head. No, there was someone in Unit 19, while Ariline herself had been the pilot of Unit 16. Unit 16 was nothing more than pure Evangelion. There was no hope to showing that Unit 16 was just as human as everyone else.

She sat down a few meters from Takoru and sighed. Nothing seemed to be going right. The boy was depressed, Samantha was upset, Adam's host was sad, and she…she was starting to wonder if letting Adam live was really the right choice.

But if Adam died, so would Unit 16, and 19, and all of the Angels, and then many more people would be sad. Was there really a way to win in this situation?

Unit 16 growled softly, breaking her reverie. She stepped up to the edge of the platform so that she could put a hand on Unit 16's eye ridge. Then she vaulted up onto Unit 16's head and walked over to the semi-ejected plug. She settled into Unit 16, encasing herself in Unit 16's encompassing warmth so that she could cry in peace.

Suddenly a screen appeared before her. "What are you doing?" demanded Misato. "I did not give you clearance to enter your Eva."

"Please, just let me weep in peace." Ariline pleaded, and Unit 16 snarled. "I don't want to kill Adam or anything. If I did, Unit 16 would die. I just want to stay with her for now."

A tendril of reassuring warmth flowed out from Unit 16, wrapping around her the way a mother held a scared daughter.

Misato's expression softened, though she did not leave. "You may stay in there, then. But if you so much as cause Unit 16 to blink, we will have to kill you." Ariline nodded, her tears drying as the LCl warmed.

She reached out and very gently picked up the purple bear, unable to recall why it was so familiar. But it had good feelings connected to it, and the boy did not object when she took it. She placed looked at it closely, then held it to her chest, not noticing when it sunk it and was absorbed.

He did though, and stared silently at the spot where the bear had disappeared.

Her thoughts were broken by a faint cold feeling coming from her talons. She looked down to see a small trickle of orange liquid leaking from between her claws. It was starting.

Takoru woke to find Lilliko looking down at him regretfully. He rushed to the edge of the balcony and looked around. Then he saw it, the blood running from her claws. "No." he gasped. "No! She said you had a week!"

She suddenly snapped to attention as she realized what was happening. She was dying, and would be leaving everyone she loved. I don't want to be alone.

She screamed.

Emergency restraints clamped down upon her, but still she screamed in unbearable agony, in physical and emotional anguish. LCL shot from her mouth as her claws began to fall out. Her spines began to sink into her body.

The first go were her wings, which swelled up then exploded into hundreds of humanoid figures. Then her legs and arms shot into her body and burst into yet more figures. Her tail and head imploded, bunched up, then too exploded into bodies. The dragon form continued to melt into figures even as the screaming faded into echoes.

The figures turned and Takoru finally realized what they were. Each figure was a perfect copy of Lilliko. The copies floated around until they were level with the platform, standing in mid-air. Then, as one, they approached him, emitting blank smiles and childish laughter. There was no warmth in their laughter, no light in their eyes, only soulless giggling.  Soulless!

Ritsuko backed away in horror at the sight. It was the dummy plug all over again, all those soulless Reis laughing at her.

Only this time, there was no switch, no button she could press to make them disappear.

The grinning Lillikos floated as if swimming in liquid, reaching out toward him. "Alone." Said the one in front, echoed by the one behind it, then another, then another, until every one of the copies was repeating the word 'alone' completely out of unison. He stepped back, holding up his arms to fend them off. That wasn't his girlfriend in front of him, those were nothing but empty shells.

He came up against the railing on the other side of the platform and watched with fear as the shells approached. The first one reached out to him, her hand millimeters from his face.

"Lilliko," he whispered. Suddenly, each of the shells exploded into LCL, their laughter echoing throughout the cages. And then he could hear the screaming again, a burning shriek that still emanated from where Unit 19 had been. He waded through the huge pool of giggling LCL to the edge of the platform and saw Unit 19's plug hanging in the air. The screams came from within.

"It's floating in midair!" he gasped. "How is it…how am I supposed to get to it?"

Then he remembered: Angels can fly. His AT field would allow him to fly. All he needed to do was to gather the courage.

He found Adamu standing beside him. "Here." Adamu said, giving him the Splinter Sword. "You might need this. And just remember, you are an Angel." Adamu backed away, leaving Takoru standing at the edge.

Takoru grasped the Sword's handle and looked forth at the plug. "I can do this." He cautiously put one foot down off the platform and willed the air to harden beneath him. Nothing seemed to happen. He looked down at the meters and meters to the ground. He closed his eyes and prayed. For her.  And his foot came down upon solid emptiness.

"I did it." Then he looked up at the plug, remembering why he was trying to float. "Lilliko!" his other foot left the platform and he hovered in the air for a second, then took off, running on nothingness to the plug. He got to the plug's door and pulled at the handle, only to yank his hands off as the red-hot metal burned him. Stiffening his resolve, he tried again, twisting the handle until the door flew open, fumes flying out. The screams grew louder as they poured through the open doorway.

Inside the plug was webs within webs of membranes and flesh, and in the center he could see a light. The smell of blood and tears permeated the plug as he pushed it.

Then a membrane wrapped around his leg, trying to absorb him. With a yelp he slashed it off, then chopped through another tendril as it tried to get him. Deeper he pushed, slicing his way through the webbing toward the glow that was Lilliko.

Then he saw her, curled into a fetal ball and screaming. He moved toward her, only to be pulled back by hands. He spun to see yet more copies of Lilliko tugging at him.

"Alone…" they said softly. "All alone…" with a growl he slashed at them, only to see them regenerate before him. "I am all alone. No one stays with me. Everybody leaves. I am alone…" memories of loss flooded the plug. Images of Yumana's death, the sound of Takoru's voice when he told her he couldn't come, the shock of seeing Unit 20's almost headless body falling to the ground.

"No." he told them fiercely. "Lilliko is not alone. I am here." He slashed through their arms and dove forward towards the real Lilliko. "Lilli-chan…I am here."  He dropped the sword and took the glowing girl in his arms, steeling himself against the screams. "I am here for you. I will stay with you forever." Memories resurfaced, of the night that he confessed his feelings for her, of the kisses they shared, the joy of waking up to have her in his arms. "I love you."

Silence.

The plug exploded, metal and flesh and LCL and shards of the Lance of Loginus bursting outward. Light flowed out as a soul condensed, and the pool of LCL evaporated.

A cry of joy shot out from the center of the explosion, reverberating about the cages to become a resonating musical note that filled the air with song.

As the glow dimmed and the song faded, the two of them were revealed. Takoru held Lilliko in his arms, cradling her to his chest. She had her arms wrapped around his neck and was weeping softly into his shoulder, but her tears were warm and full of happiness.

"I'm here." Takoru told her softly. "I'm here. It's all right."

She nodded, rubbing her lips against his neck.

"I am here for you, and will be here for you, forever, Lilli-chan."

AN: How sweet. Strange, but sweet. I think that this scene could definitely have occurred in Eva, only then there wouldn't have been a happy ending.

Anyway, there are still a few more dilemmas to work out, but not to worry, the story is almost done. And for the first time in fifty one chapters, I know what's going to happen next. Sorry to all of you who are feeling betrayed, but I've actually worked out the ending of the story. I know, bad DreyonLegacy, bad, go sit in the corner, etc.

Oh, before I go, just wanted to let you know that I've stuck in another pointless reference to one of my other fics. Two, actually, Operation Spider, and Project Ares. "Wing's don't make an Angel, halo's do." Here, it's the same, with angel (Angel, lol) replaced by the ability to fly and halo by a very similar thing, 'Light of the soul'. And that's your random thought of the day.