Chapter 50

General Harris sat in front of a computer console at the US Army Command Surveillance Post in the Sahara Desert. The room was a secure hold where several computer consoles lined the walls. In the center of the room was a large conference table with a large plasma screen on the far wall.

A huge metal door secured the room. Above the door was a solid green light to signal that its occupant was in the room and that there was to be no admittance unless permitted. Towards the right of the door, the flag of the United States of America stood. To the left of the door was the flag of the United Nations.

Harris had a smug look on his face. His feet were up on the console and he sat back in his chair wearing his desert fatigues. On his shoulder board, his four silver stars shined against the light from overhead. .

As he sat, he smiled at the four inch hunting knife with a serrated edge that he twirled around in his hand with a look of satisfaction upon his face.

"Its too perfect." He snickered to himself. "General Ikari has bought about Fourth Impact herself. This is a glorious day. Her precious little Hope ran into Angel 20 after being freaked out! It couldn't get much better then this…. except for one thing…."

Harris smiled as he flipped switches on the console and then punched in a code into the terminal that read:

'SEELE COMMAND: GENERAL ORDER 2 – INITIATE."

"Now the Earth as we know will be reborn and I will aspire to the heights of God." Harris snickered "Oh but before I do that, General Ikari will pay me a visit. Then as I tell her how incompetent she is and how this all her doing, I will take this very same knife that I am holding and I will stab it directly into her heart. I will watch her blood spill at my feet and then I will tell her that I killed her idiot Shinji. I will tell her I purposely gave him the toxin that caused his cancer. I will also tell her I killed her daughter's fiancé, indirectly of course, but that I take full responsibility for killing her very own daughter. I will tell her that SEELE was totally and completely oblivious to my own wishes and in the end, I have become the master of all of life. Then I will watch her die and leave her there as I complete Instrumentality. The smallest satisfaction I will have that day is having General Asuka Langely Soryu Ikari lying dead at my feet. Should I stab her in the heart though? Perhaps, I could be creative on how I kill her."

General Harris snickered as he twirled the knife around in his hand and then he heard a buzzer sound.

"Yes?"

"General Harris, sir. I have Commander Dell of NERV here. He wishes to speak with you."

"Is he alone?"

"No, sir. Uh…General Ikari is with him."

Harris smirked and laughed. You have the most perfect timing, Asuka. I may as well kill you now. Perhaps, I'll fuck you first. That was always an experience I wished I could have. I think I will fuck you and then kill you. No, maybe I will fuck you and kill you while I'm fucking you. Yes, that might be even more satisfying. Nothing will happen to me once General Order One is underway. I don't care if you have your little boy-toy Dell out there. Once Instrumentality begins, he'll turn into a load of useless liquid. Today, life will be reborn and you will die.

"Sargeant, have Commander Dell wait. Please tell General Ikari that I need to speak with her immediately.."

"Yes, sir."

Harris smiled as he turned off the monitor and stood up from his chair. He stuck the knife back into a holster on his belt and then covered it up with his fatigue top. He picked up his fatigue cap and placed it on his hand as he snickered.

"Send her in." He said with a broad smile as he licked his lips.

Suddenly, the intercom sounded as a soldier said over the intercom. "GENERAL HARRIS, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY! AT FIELD HAS BEEN DETECTED. DIRECT HEADING TOWARDS OUR FACILITY. ALL PERSONELL NEED TO EVACUATE."

"Maintain your position." Harris said coolly. "We have nothing to fear."

"Oh yes you do!"

Harris jumped and gasped.

The power in the room shut down. The light above the door switched to a solid red.

A computer voice sounded. "LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS. ROOM SECURE!"

Harris suddenly felt uneasy as he had a feeling that he was not alone in that room.

"GENERAL HARRIS! ARE YOU OKAY? WE CANT GET THROUGH!" A voice on the other side of the door said. "Sir, the controls are not responding! General Harris, are you okay? General?"

It was dark.

Hot.

Sticky.

"Maniac!"

Harris was panicked as he heard what was just said, in a voice that scared all of him down to his core.

Then, from out of nowhere a huge lightening bolt struck through the center of the room. It struck into all of the computer consoles making them completely useless.

Harris' eyes went wide as he pulled out a gun, looking around the room nervously.

"WHAT?" Harris yelled as the gun he was holding was knocked out of his hand and went flying across the room.

Then, he screamed as he felt a bolt of energy strike him dead in the chest, which sent him reeling against the console.

He felt himself forcefully spun around as his jaw made contact with something hard, which threw him against the conference table.

Harris bellowed out in pain and turned around and then felt like someone had hit him hard in his stomach.

Harris held onto his stomach as sweat came down his face and he reached for the phone only to hear quite sharply.

"I don't think so."

Harris yelled out in pain once more as he was thrown into a wall face first. He called out in pain as his nose crashed into the wall and blood splattered from it.

He then found himself spinning around again until, he found himself hit dead in the face again, being reeled back as he backed into a chair and called out in pain as he felt someone grab him by his shirt.

As she shook his head, he was thrown back against the wall hard and grimaced in pain as he found himself pinned against the wall by a gigantic white and blue energy force that was right in front of his face.

"You're day of reckoning has arrived for only yourself, Harris!"

"Who…. who…. Who…are you?" Harris asked as he breathed heavy and shook with fear. .

"So, you, the seventh member of SEELE, General Nathaniel Harris. You have been a a traitor in the United States Army. You executed the rest of SEELE yourself. You destroyed so many lives. You tried to destroy my family. You killed me! Death is too good for you. I always swore that if anyone ever tried to hurt my family they would pay with their life and you will be paying, Harris! I'm going to make you pay!"

Harris trembled like a leaf as he stared into the energy and heard the voice. Sweat poured down his face. He lost control of himself and he soiled himself..

He couldn't move.

A face began forming in that energy and looked back at Harris…a very angry face that he recognized in an instant.

"Ikari?" He asked nervously as he shook violently in fear seeing the image in the energy. "We…. killed you."

Then the energy took form and all though it wasn't solid, it was in the shape of a man who had his hand wrapped around Harris' throat.

Harris became a quaking, petrified, sweating, broken man who could only stare wide-eyed and stunk from having soiled himself.

"You killed my body, not me. You killed so many and destroyed so many lives. You alone wanted to destroy the Earth. You tried to build an angel from the data you stole out of the Magi! I'm not going to let that happen. You're going get justice."

"What are you going to do, Ikari?" Harris asked nervously. "Will you kill me? What will you do?"

"I wouldn't waste my time with killing you! I'm not a killer. I'm better then you are. . You'll be disgraced and dishonored. You'll get what you deserve, Harris. As for your dream of starting Instrumentality. I TOOK OVER INSTRUMENTALITY, HARRIS! I BECAME ANGEL 20! "

Harris started to whimper as he looked into the furious face of the entity before him. He shook and his eyes were wide with absolute terror. "Ikari…" he squeaked out.

"Harris, you tried to throw the world into Fourth Impact! You tried to throw the world off balance and in turn, I countered it! I shed my human form when you took my life and when I became something more I had one agenda: to destroy you and everything that you represented. I've turned your creation against you. I can't wait to see Asuka's face when she arrests you. Believe me, I'd love to kill you but I won't. You will pay with your life but not by my hand. You are going to self-destruct by your own choosing. You will live within your own torture by your creation forever. You're going to remember this for the rest of your life. This is the day that Shinji Ikari destroyed SEELE!"

Then as Shinji's eyes glowed with a white-hot intensity and burned into Harris' fearful, terrified eyes General Harris screamed like a little girl who had just seen the monster underneath the bed.

The power came back on and the huge metal door opened up. Commander Sawyer Dell of NERV, walked in with his pistol drawn followed by two armed guards and saw the most peculiar thing that he had ever seen before.

The energy hurled the fat General across the room; the General bellowed in pain as he went slamming into a wall, face first, while his knife fell out of the holster and onto the ground.

The fat general let out a painful groan and landed face first with a thud on the floor right in front of Sawyer Dell.

Tapping into his headset, he said. "General Ikari, Geneal Harris has been..."

Then Sawyer thought he heard laughing.

Sawyer saw the calm stream of white and blue energy just hovering in the room. For a moment, he thought he saw a face and someone smile at him.

"Huh?" Sawyer asked. "How can it be you?"

Then he watched as the lightening shot upwards towards the sky in less then a second and was gone.

Completely gone.

Vanished.

Disappeared.

No trace of it anywhere.

Sawyer stood with wide eyes and his mouth open. "What the hell…."

Asuka came storming into the room. She was dressed in her desert fatigues with her cap on her head, around her waist a pistol that she drew from its holster.

She stood over the weakened, beaten, shell of a man and yelled as loud as she could as she pointed her weapon at him. "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST, YOU FAT-ASSED, POMPOUS, TRAITEROUS SON OF A BITCH!"

On the floor, Harris let out a groan as he tried to get back up. Sawyer slung his rifle over his shoulder and grabbed Harris by the back of his jacket, picking him off the ground.

"Look who we have here!" Sawyer said as he looked into the face of a very shaken and fearful General Harris. "Looks like you got what you deserved, Traitor!"

"Commander Dell, may I have a word with General Harris?" Asuka asked.

"Oh by all means, General." Sawyer said as he held up Harris by the back of his fatigue jacket.

"Hello, General Harris." Asuka said with a smug look as she saw a weakened, beaten, broken man staring at her. "I should make you pay for what you did!" Asuka growled as she rushed at him and stuck her pistol underneath his chin. "Believe me, nothing would give me greater satisfaction then to blow your head off right now."

Sawyer became nervous as he watched her and was afraid that he would have to stop her. Her eyes were full of hatred and she smiled cruelly as she looked at Harris.

"What you've done would easily constitute and justify my killing you." She growled. "But," She said as she drew her weapon back and stepped back, putting her gun back in its holster. . "I won't decide your fate. However, I will do this!" Asuka growled as she hit Harris hard in the face with the butt on her pistol.

"Ikari?" Harris groaned out as his eyes rolled back into his head.

Asuka continued to smile at him as she said. "Let me tell you what we have in store for you, you fat pompous son of a bitch! We have a lovely cell reserved for you as well a lengthy stay courteously of the very same people you betrayed…the taxpayers of the United States. By the way, thank you for your intelligence…it really helped."

"Ikari." Harris said in a dazed voice, as he felt dizzy.

"Get this putrid, stinking pile of shit out of my sight!." Asuka growled.

"Sure." Sawyer said. "But before I do that." Reaching for Harris' shoulder boards, he ripped them off of his uniform "You don't deserve these!" Sawyer said to him angrily as he shook the shoulder boards in Harris' face and threw them on the ground. "You are under arrest, Mr. Harris, the charges are multiple beginning with treason." Sawyer shoved Harris towards the soldiers and said. "Spray THAT down with the hose and then lock him up!"

The soldiers nodded as they placed the ex-General in handcuffs and then lead him out of the facility.

"Good work." General Ikari said.

"No, we didn't do anything." Sawyer said. "I can't explain it. We got in here and we see this…. this…energy of some kind…"

"…What?" Asuka asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, before we got in here there was an AT field detected and for a minute, I thought I saw…."

"What?" Asuka asked.

"Shinji." Sawyer said.

"WHO?" Asuka asked.

"I thought I saw…Shinji." Sawyer said. "That's impossible though…. I mean…maybe my mind was playing tricks on me or something."

"Odd." Asuka said.

"Commander!" Lt. Fuki said. "Check your relay. You'd better see this."

"What is it?" Sawyer asked.

"Sir, its angel 20…. we've lost Unit 1's signal."

"I'm on my way!" Sawyer said.

"Commander, report immediately as soon as you return!" Asuka said. "I'm going to have a look around here and see what this bastard has been up to. I'll be on the relay."

"Acknowledged, General. I'll contact you from base."

"Acknowledged." Asuka said with a nervous look.

Sawyer quickly ran out of the room and outside to a waiting helicopter where he got in and it took off heading back to NERV Command.

Asuka seated herself at the computer console as she punched in her code to activate the relay and thought to herself. Energy? Sawyer thought he saw Shinji? What the hell…could it be? Could it really be?

"General Ikari!" Dr. Ibuki said over the relay in Asuka's headset. "Are you watching this?"

"What?"

"Asuka, there was this…. transformation of some type in Angel 20. It turned into…a backwards tornado type of thing…then there was this AT field…. Bigger then I've ever seen…. or has been recorded…. it was even bigger when Shinji berserker the EVA! It had come out of Angel 20…. and struck into the center of SEELE's base. Then, Angel 20…. it…fell…into this form…. its odd…it looks like…. LCL fluid…. after that, we lost Unit 1's signal."

"What?"

"Yes." Dr. Ibuki said. "Asuka, I'm sorry. Unit One is gone. It was absorbed by the AT field."

"What?" Asuka asked painfully. "Did Hope eject?" Asuka asked in a low voice.

"No, Asuka." Dr. Ibuki said sadly. "She didn't."

"Did you… record it?" Asuka asked.

"Yes. Are you sure you want to see it?" Dr. Ibuki asked.

Asuka breathed in and nodded her head as she said. "I owe it to her. Send me the visual, Maya."

"Okay. Sending now."

Asuka's eyes fixed to the visual and there she watched.

She saw when Hope made Unit 1 run towards Angel 20, merged with it, and saw a large energy discharge.

She saw as Angel 20 turned into a strange upside down funnel formation and saw Unit One dissolve right in front of her.

Asuka put her hand over her mouth as she watched, holding back her sobs.

She watched as a large bolt of white and blue energy had come out from that formation and struck into the center of this very same building and then left just as quickly disappearing into the sky, vanishing without a trace.

She saw the formation lose its cohesiveness and plummet to the ground in the form of what looked like LCL fluid and form into a huge lake.

The visual stopped and the screen went black.

Asuka sat in her chair in front of the monitor, unable to move, her face twisted in grief and pain. She bought up her elbows on the desk and intertwined her fingers together.

She bowed her head, leaning her forehead against her hands; tears fell from her eyes. She couldn't control the sobs that came from her as she thought.

My daughter.

My daughter is gone.

She gave her up her life for us.

Oh, my Hope!

My baby…

My precious little girl!

I love you.

I'm so proud of you and I will honor you brave and valiant sacrifice.

Hope, you were a solider, like me, you valued duty and honor, just as I always taught to you.

I will miss you all of my life.

I was glad we got to be together before this Operation and that I could give you Misato's cross.

I'm glad we were able to have a wonderful night all being together. I know your father would have wanted it that way.

Shinji, I hope where you are that you are taking care of her.

I hope that you both watch over all of us everyday.

Please take care of her, Shinji.

Wait for me when I get there.

I promise you, my sweet girl that I'll never forget what you did today.

I'll tell Sawyer myself.

I owe him that.

"Go to her, Asuka. Bring her back."

Raising her head and taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. She breathed out and then cleared her throat as she stood up.

She quickly wiped her tears away and once again appeared to be the commander in charge.

She said firmly. "Ready my chopper now!"

General Ikari then walked out of the room not caring about the laurels she had won but only having one task on her mind at the present time.