Disclaimer: Evangelion: Neon Genesis is not owned by me, it's owned by GAINAX. This fanfic cannot be distributed without the clear, explicit consent of the author (me). No profit has been made from this piece... yet.

Author's Note: I figure I might as well finish what I started, and do it while school isn't so hectic...

Gendo Ikari had been summoned, and quickly entered the command room. He immediately took control.

"Report." Gendo Ikari said coldly, with this elbows propping up his arms, fingers interlocked, giving only a view of his harsh eyes. The appearance of the commander had calmed the staff down a bit, but the presence of an alien entity which could possibly vaporize half of the Earth still left them nervous.

"The target is 25 kilometers away, southwest. It's just accelerated, the ETA is now 9 minutes."

"Classify the target as the 16th Angel. Prepare Unit-01 and Unit-00. Place the Second in Unit-02, but leave her on standby. Make sure the Fifth will be ready to take over in the case that a change in pilots is required.

"Sir, the Fifth has not underwen-" objected a technician.

"Irrelevant, we will test his performance now. If the Second cannot pilot her Eva, then she is of no use to us. We have no other choice, Unit-02 is not equipped with the Dummy Plug system."

"Units 00, 01, and 02 report ready to launch."

"Launch Units 00 and 01." came the impassive response.

"Launch!" echoed Misato. Both 00 and 01 became suddenly rigid as they shot straight up. Unit-01's head snapped back as it reached the surface, then leaned forward a little, arms hanging at it's side. Unit-00's actions were nearly identical.

"Shinji, you will provide Rei with support from a distance while she engages at close range." came Misato's voice over the comlink.

"No, let me! Uni-" protested Shinji, as he was cut off by his father.

"No, we cannot afford to risk Unit-01. We will place Unit-00 in the forward position as planned."

Asuka was already suited up, sitting in Unit-02. She listened to the entire exchange, finding Shiji pathetic, how he practically begged to fight the Angel in place of Wondergirl.

"Where were you when Arael came and ravaged my mind?" muttered Asuka inaudibly to herself.

"Wondergirl came and saved me, while you did nothing... You stood by and watched as I was violated... Wondergirl, of all people..." thought Asuka bitterly, recalling the incident in vivid detail.

************

Unit-00 bent in a crouching position, prepared to engage in close combat with the Angel while Shinji stood ready with a pallet rifle several hundred meters behind Rei. Shinji gripped the rifle nervously, anticipating the arrival of the Angel. Then, it shot out of the cluster of trees, floating visibly in mid-air. It looked like a glowing florescent lightbulb in a ring shape. Shinji was reminded of a halo, but his thoughts were interrupted as Rei step forward and withdrew her progrressive knife from her sheath. She charged at an incredible speed, and raised her AT-field, which glowed faintly in a hexagonal shape. Simultaneously, the Angel unraveled itself from it's coiled shape, and also flew towards Unit-00, like a snake shot out of a cannon. There was a sudden impact, then Shinji realized that the Angel had penetrated Rei's AT-field, and attached itself to her Eva. There was a collective gasp back at the Command Center. An AT-field that could completely neutralize Unit-00's with such ease had never been observed before. Even the AT-field of the 15th, one of the most heavily protected, was only on par with Unit-00's. Rei grimaced as she felt the sharp pain resulting from the Angel inserting itself into the Eva's abdomen.

Rei stabbed at the Angel repeatedly with her progressive knife, but there was no effect except the sparks flying from the impact. She finally decided to discard the knife and wrestle with the Angel. Shinji fired frantically with the pallet rifle, most of the shots missing the Angel thanks to it's low surface area. One of his rifles was depleted of ammo, so he tossed it and grabbed another. There seemed to be more shots impacting on Unit-00 than the Angel itself. At that point, Ayanami screamed as the Angel plunged deeper into Unit-00, and Shinji stopped firing, afraid of hurting her.

"Continue firing," stated Gendo, "your only objective is to destroy the Angel."

"No! I can't, I'll hit Rei!" cried Shinji.

"Conti-" repeated Gendo, who was interrupted by another technician.

"The Angel is attempting to integrate itself with Unit-00! They're already 32 percent fused! 37 percent!" shouted Aoba frantically.

"It seems as though the latest Angels are attempting to contact us, gain a better understanding of our psyche, physiology... The latest ones have become more human-like... Could the next Angel be...?" thought Gendo to himself.

"Launch Unit-02!" commanded Misato after glancing at the Commander, who nodded slightly when he met her gaze.

"Launch!"

Asuka gave a slightly psychotic grin as she heard the command, gleeful that Wondergirl and the wussy Shinji needed her help once again.

"Payback time Wondergirl... Now it's my turn, bitch, let's see how you like being the one who's helpless..."

"Ikimashoo!" screamed Asuka as the giant bio-mechanical mecha shot out of Tokyo-3. Asuka eagerly pulled at the controls. Nothing happened, except for Eva-02 slouching forward a bit. Asuka sat there stunned at the lack of response, while Misato's eyes widened. Gendo didn't even seem suprised. She tugged at the controls again and again.

"No... This is impossible... NO!" Asuka quickly went from disbelief to rage. "THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" she shrieked while her arms pulled uselessly at the controls with all her might. "No... It's... Not... Possible..." she whispered.

"Sync ratio is at .02%..." reported Maya.

"Retrieve the Second and replace her with the Fifth." said Gendo apathetically.

Unit-02 was quickly brought back in, while Asuka remained in a state of shock. She had to be carried outside of the plug by the NERV personnel while still shaking and muttering uncontrollably. Kaworu put a hand on her shoulder as she passed him, but she didn't take any notice of it. He walked towards the plug with his head turned around, watching her leave from his view. He got in, and breathed normally as the LCL filled the plug.

"Eva-02, launch!" yelled Misato again. Kaworu quickly sped towards the surface, and upon being released from the catapult, he started sprinting towards Unit-00 and the Angel.

"Sync ratio at 400%! That's impossible! He should be absorbed into the Eva by now!" said Ritsuko with disbelief. "This kid..."

Gendo merely clenched his jaw slightly. "It is as we suspected," he said to Fuyutsuki. "He can set his synchronization ratio to any interger he desires."

While Unit-02 moved at it's top speed, Rei was still struggling with the Angel. When she grabbed it, the Angel instead also fused itself with the Eva's hands. Veins popped out on Rei's body, and she felt as though something was crawling inside her, moving upwards. At this moment, Unit-01 moved in, activating it's AT-field. Once again, the Angel suddenly stopped it's previous motion, and the other end of the Angel shot towards Shinji. The Angel penetrated the AT-field almost instanteously, but this time, Shinji caught it before it's end could bury itself into Unit-01. Shinji held onto the Angel tightly, afraid of letting go.

The Angel suddenly reformed into the image of Rei, alebit a much larger version of her. Rei then suddenly had an image of herself standing in a pool of LCL, speaking with an exact clone of her. She found herself asking her mirror image who she was, but was only awarded with a cryptic answer. She then awoke to Shinji struggling with the Angel. The Angel held her arms out, as if trying to hug Unit-01. Shinji reacted with shock, and Rei saw little heads which seemed like her image popping out from the Angel. Each had it's own voice, calling at Shinji, who began to falter.

"Is... This what my heart wants? To be one with Ikari?" thought Rei silently, carefully deliberating what she was seeing.

"No." she said her response outloud. Abruptly, the Angel became drawn towards Rei once again, but this time not of it's own volition like previously. The Angel was completely absorbed into the Eva's core which bulged with all the new mass inside it.

"Rei!" screamed Shiniji.

"What the... She's inversed her AT-field and set off the self-destruction sequence!" screamed Maya. "The Angel is trapped within, it can't escape! Rei is holding it in!"

"Cancel the self-destruction!" Gendo said, finally raising his tone of voice.

"It's not responding!" cried Maya. (Classic line, just had to stick it in here.)

"Shinji! Get out of there!" commanded Misato urgently.

"No! Ayanami!" screamed Shinji. Eva-01 started moving towards Unit-00, but then a hand held it back. It belonged to Unit-02.

"Leave her!"

"NO! I can't!"

"She's made her choice, you have to respect that decision!"

"AYANAMI!"

"Self-destruct in 3... 2... 1..."

"NO! REI!"

"Goodbye, Ikari..." murmured Rei.

"0."

A bright flash steaked through the sky, followed by a huge shockwave and subsequently the sound, which was deafening. Shinji covered his eyes as a reaction to the bright flash. He felt the sudden impact of the shockwave, throwing him back a little, followed by the intense heat, and when he looked again, there was a huge mushroom cloud over where Unit-00 had been. The trees surrounding the area were flattened, and there was a large crater at the site of the explosion. Pieces of Unit-00 were scattered across the area in a 10 kilometer radius, but there was no trace of the Angel left.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIII!" yelled Shinji out of despiration.

"She's gone! There's nothing you can do!" shouted Kaworu at him.

"Units 01 and 02, return to base." said Gendo calmly.

"But Re-"

"A team has already been dispatched to find her, return."

"C'mon." said Kaworu flatly. Shinji walked all the way back, his mind still trying to comprehend what had just happened. He walked slowly, thinking of the old times he had with her with Kaworu at his side, who was also silent. He reached the catapult, and before entering, he shot a final look back at the site of the wreckage before he descended back into Tokyo-3.

Ikimashoo = "Let's go" I might have an extra "O" there since I forgot all my Japanese during summer vacation...

Author's Notes: Yes, I killed of Rei. One down, more to go ;)

Told ya somebody would die. Somebody else might die too... If you don't like being sad, I suggest you stop reading. Of course, if you're the morbid and melancholy type like me, you'll probably want to keep reading.

As always, review! I find your lack of reviews... Disturbing.