Chapter 47

Hope's breathing began to labor as she looked up into the giant white light that enveloped her and Unit 01.

She could feel her heartbeat slowing down. She took a look at her own vitals. She could the flashing warning screen as it read: "DANGER: MEDICAL EMERGENCY. PILOT: RED ZONE STATUS: SEVERE. SYNC: 0 HARMONICS: 0."

"I'm almost done for." She whispered.

"No, you're not."

She breathed in as she heard it. She looked into the light and tried to focus on what she saw in that light.

As she looked closely she what she was seeing was not within the light, but in Unit 01 with her..

As the image became clearer to her, she gasped with her eyes wide as she said in a barely audible tone.

"D…D…Da.…Dad?"

The image smiled at her, it was almost transparent, but she could see it clearly and she bought her good arm over to touch it.

"Daddy?" She asked again as a tear fell from her eye.

She breathed in as she felt her hand being grasped gently. She smiled and then laughed a little as she looked.

"It is you." She said softly as she sniffled.

"Yes." He said to her. "It's me, Hope. It's Dad. I'm here. I've been right beside you the whole time. It's really me."

Tears came down her face. "Daddy…"

He was smiling at her and he was holding her hand. He didn't look like he had the last time she had seen him when the cancer had weakened him which had made him appear pale and thin.

Instead, he looked the way she always remembered him before he got sick.

He was strong, he looked younger and he smiled at her. He wore a simple white long sleeved shirt and his blue jeans. His hair wasn't gray at all; it was brown, like Souke's hair color.

"Daddy, am I dying? Is that why you're here? Are you here to take me with you, Dad? Am I going to die now?"

"No." He answered her

"Daddy, I…. I'm hurt…bad." She told him. "The vital display…says…I'm dying, Daddy."

"It's okay, Hope. I'm here now."

"Daddy, I can't do it. It hurts too much."

"Hope." He told her as he lightly touched her cheek with his palm and then wiped her tears away with his thumb.

He stared at her.

His face dropped to sadness as he could see the wounds on her body.

He saw the pain that she was in as she looked back at him and he knew that she needed him.

"It's okay, Princess." He told her reassuringly. "Hang onto me. Daddy will keep you safe."

"Help me, Daddy." Hope pleaded, as a tear rolled out of her eye, feeling her heart beating slowly inside of her and found it hard to breathe.

"I'm here. Nothing can hurt you now. Hope. Believe. You are the one, Hope. Use my strength. I will keep you safe. I will make you better. I am going to guide you and give you the strength you need. For the hope of the world, Princess, you and me, with all of our strength, we'll do this together. Trust in yourself."

"Daddy? How? I'm hurt so bad. I…I can't, Daddy. How can I?" She asked.

"Leave that to me." He told her with a smile.

"How, Dad?" She asked as she felt her pain. Then as she watched him smile at her, Hope's eyes got large as slowly he started to disappear in front of her.

"DADDY?" She cried out in fear. "Daddy, no! Don't leave me! Please! Don't let me die alone, Daddy! Daddy, come back! DADDY? DAD! COME BACK, DAD…. Please? Come back? Dad?"

Suddenly, Hope breathed in and out as she suddenly felt strength come from within her. Her heart was beating stronger and she took a deep breath.

She bellowed out loudly as she felt a pain come from within her shoulder, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she screamed out, reaching for her shoulder. The pain was unbearable. The pain went into her body and she screamed as she felt her body going through a change that she wasn't quite sure of.

She heard her shoulder bones cracking; fusing together and all at once, the pain…all of her pain…was gone.

She opened her eyes as she exhaled.

She felt stronger.

She moved her shoulder around and her eyes widened.

She also went to touch her head and noticed. "No gash? My shoulder's better? I'm not…what the fu…how the hell…"

Not a single cut or bruise on her body remained.

Her vitals were increasing and the read out shifted as it now read: "STATUS: PILOT GREEN ZONE. HEALTH: 0100. . SYNC: NOMINAL. HARMONICS: NOMINAL."

Her eyes widened. "What the hell…"

She was perfectly healthy and strong.

"What the…" She was confused and unsure. She could see the white light almost right on top of her.

Fearfully, she shouted out. "DADDY!"

"I'm here."

The eyes of the giant unit opened, flashing red.

Hope saw power come back on.

The EVA sprang to its feet and then repelled the white entity off of it with a discharge of its own AT field.

"Whaa…" Hope felt like someone grab her arms and force them onto the controls. She thought she could feel strong arms on top of her own and heard whispering into her ear.

"I'm right beside you. Listen to me. I'm going to help you."

Hope nodded her head and looked ahead. "Okay, Dad."

Hope tightened her grip on the controls and could feel energy pulsing through her and it was making her stronger.

"Dad, what is that?" She asked nervously.

"That is your power, Hope. You're power is coming through the EVA. This is all you now. Hope, listen to me. The secret of the EVA's power is you. You control the power. You control the energy. To destroy Angel 20 you are going to have berserk the EVA and cause an AT field that's large enough to make it collapse upon itself."

"How do I do that, Dad? How do I berserk?" Hope asked.

"What I've always told you, use all of your strength." He answered gently. "With all of your strength, Hope, you need to believe. Make the EVA you."

"Dad, I don't understand!" Hope said as she looked at Angel 20 who was off in the distance just hovering. "What do you do to berserk? What is berserking, Dad?"

"To berserk is 400 percent sync and harmonic ratio. There is an easier way. The EVA is you. You are the EVA. That is the key."

"I have to get my sync and harmonics ratio to 400 percent, Dad?" Hope asked.

"Yes but its more then that." He told her. "You are the one hope. You and the EVA are one in the same. The EVA accepts you as long as you accept yourself. That's the key, Hope. You need to believe. You need to know that you are in control. You are the same. You are the EVA. Do you accept yourself, Hope, as the pilot of Unit 1?"

"Yes!" Hope said firmly. .

"Take control!"

Hope did just that.

She made the EVA turn and face Angel 20, then pulling her particle rifle from the side, she said firmly.

"Unit 1, lock on target and fire!"

Hope smirked as she went after the target and fired the particle rifle at Angel 20, and then chased after it, with a smirk, yelling out with all of her strength. "COME AND GET ME NOW, Blödes arschloch!"

The voice chuckled as it said, "You're just like your mother."

Hope chuckled as Angel 20 rushed at her to which Hope held off the blinding white entity and fought it with everything she had.

"That's my girl." The voice said proudly as it watched carefully