Relapse:∣▍

Chapter 59: "…Standing on the Edge of the Underworld…"

Big.

That was the first thing he thought when seeing the Evangelion for the first time.

Unit-13 was a towering mass of flesh and metal, much larger than any other EVA. With what little time he had to examine it, he guessed a normal Eva would only rise to below its shoulders, and of all the variations of EVAs he'd piloted, he couldn't recall a single one comparable to it.

The rusty catwalk groaned in protest with every step, years of neglect had gotten to it like every other part of the base, but Shinji paid it no mind, he was entirely transfixed on the violet metal titan in front of him. A tad darker shade than Unit-01, it almost matched the color of his plugsuit.

Looking over at the parallel walkway, Kaworu met his eyes and gave a familiar reassuring smile, one Shinji refused to reciprocate. As he waited for the entry plug to move closer, he could feel the eyes of his father on him, he didn't know where he was, but he was sure he was watching.

Instead of dignifying him with any acknowledgment, he climbed into the entry plug and allowed the familiar smell of LCL to overtake him. He had noted how the duel entry system was different outside, how the entry plugs were inserted at an angle near the shoulders and into the torso. The sensation was different, but perhaps that was due to the new cockpit. Its sleek lines and controls were novel, but the layout and general functionality were not.

The display shifted, coming alive with a mosaic of colors around him revealing his co-pilot next to him, already looking in his direction. The mere sight of another seat and set of controls was so outlandish to him, like a fundamental law of nature was being broken. So too were the golden streams that surrounded them, connecting both seats.

Behind him, Rei sat, calmly, taking in all that was happening. In the other entry plug, Asuka sat behind Kaworu, legs crossed and wearing the deepest frown he had ever seen, but she stayed silent.

"What do you think?" Kaworu asked, "The Lilin really outdid themselves this time."

"The pilot is more important than the EVA." Shinji frowned and grabbed the controls, "I'll let you know in a second."

"Hmmm," Kaworu didn't reply as he too took the controls in his hands, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Evangelion unit-13, alive at last."

Instantly, Shinji hated this sensation. A slight headache formed causing him to furrow his brow. It was as if he was walking with double vision, his senses doubled, his world doubled. There were two cores, two pilots, two souls, he could work with Kaworu, despite his feelings he could manage it, but it felt wrong. It felt like he was corralling someone like he was forcing something along.

Whoever or whatever was in the cores also eluded him. There were two, that was certain, but who they were, what they were, was not. They slumbered, and retreated into themselves, almost like they were scared of functioning at all. He could feel some similarity with them, had he known them? Piloted in an Eva with them at one life or another? There was no time to figure those things out, so Shinji ignored them, pushing them to the back of his mind. As long as Unit-13 could move it wouldn't matter soon.

The first steps went as well as they could. Like getting used to a new bicycle, it had a new feel, but it worked the same way. Shinji could feel the energy of Unit-13, he recognized it, there was a difference when an Evangelion had an S2 engine, and you never forgot that feeling. Now he had two at his disposal, what that meant he didn't know. In no time they were striding forwards to a cable and winch, which was positioned right next to a massive abyss.

"How does it feel?" Kaworu asked.

"Unnatural," Shinji replied, earning a snicker from his copilot.

"It's to be expected, I'm sure not even you have ever piloted an Evangelion like this before."

Reaching the edge, they stopped. "What are we waiting for?" Shinji asked.

"Mark.09," Kaworu explained, "she'll be our backup."

Just then Mark.09 appeared, Shinji observed the peculiar machine. It had solid limbs once more, but as they placed Unit-13's foot into the base hook of the cable, Shinji watched their companion's arm latch onto the cable, becoming liquified and attaching to it.

"What's the deal with that?" Shinji asked.

"Mark.09's limbs? They're a mimetic polyalloy capable of manifesting whatever shape is desired… though it requires a bit of an imagination. Not something found with copies." Kaworu explained, his head craning upwards, "The torso is relatively the same, the Lilin thought it would be a more efficient design, no limbs to fix, but it had too many flaws."

"So why is she here?"

"Backup, in case anything happens."

"I'm sure we can handle ourselves, besides, what happens when we do what we came here for?" Shinji asked trying to avoid telegraphing their alternative plan.

Shinji could hear the snort from Soryu in the other entry plug.

"We'll be fine," Kaworu said reassuringly.

Shinji shook his head, he was already beginning to regret this, but there was no turning back now as they crossed over from what had looked like NERV into a darker, unlit area. Kaworu activated a switch on his side and immediately lights on the EVA itself activated. Shinji would have made a mental note of how useful that could be plenty of times before, but he was simply too engrossed by what the lights revealed.

"The… walls…." Shinji stared at the mangled bodies of EVAs, all of which seemed like copies of Unit-01. They composed the wall, every one of them a deep crimson and all missing the same part, their head.

"The remains of those who fell short of infinity," Kaworu said, but seemingly chose not to continue explaining.

"We're almost at Lilith's seal, the main shaft is completely blocked by it," Kaworu said, looking over and down the shaft. "Not once in 10 years has it allowed anyone to pass it."

Shinji looked down, the 'seal' was just a sea of deep blue, not the most imposing thing he had ever gazed upon, but he was sure there was more to it than that.

A flurry of sounds raced through the entry plug, motors and computers seemed to spin up, adjusting the Evangelion for its main purpose.

"We'll need to be in sync," Kaworu stated, a look of determination on his face, "Just like playing the piano together."

Well, that explained a lot.

Shinji reached out, his senses working with Kaworu as one, and only then did he realize what they were doing. The seal he had seen was simply a massive AT field, and they were there to break through.

As they touched the seal, he felt their own AT field slam into it, for a moment it resisted, but he reminded himself what he was doing here, why he had agreed to this, he would not be denied his chance at redemption. With that thought the field gave away, crumbling against the onslaught, Shinji felt it shatter like glass, and as they lowered he witnessed the deep blue crack and break, falling down around them and turning to dust.

"There," Shinji said taking a deep breath, "we did it." Shinji looked over the other entry plug. Not to see Kaworu, instead, he looked at Asuka.

Soryu could feel his eyes on her, and she turned to meet his gaze but said nothing.

A twig of pain went through him, but he looked back down. His goal was within reach, and she would understand.

"The lowest level of Terminal Dogma…." Kaworu said, "The epicenter of the Third Impact."

The room he was expecting was non-existent, Shinji's eyes widened at the sight of Lilith, or what was left of her. The rotting corpse of a fallen god rested on its hands and knees, the cross it had been confined to had collapsed as if to make a mockery of a church's nave.

"I take it that's Mark.06?" Shinji asked, spying a smaller pale figure on top of Lilith, a spear through its chest.

"Yes, what's left of it."

Shinji felt the cable lurch to a halt, and let go, leaving Unit-13 to fall the last way to the ground with a thundering crash. Only once they reached the ground did he realize what it was made from, Unit-13 was standing on a mountain of skulls.

He closed his eyes, not even wanting to know why they were here, instead he pushed the Evangelion forwards, towards their, no, his goal. With every step, the ground shook, a testament to how massive Unit-13 was.

"Cassius and Longinus." Kaworu breathed, peering up at the spears, which they now had a better view of.

"Wait." Shinji squinted, the familiar deep red was present on one of them, the spear that was driven through Mark.06, but the other, was black just like the replicas of the MPEs.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" Shinji asked, pointing to the second spear.

Kaworu leaned forwards, bringing his hand up to his chin, "No… not at all… hold on a second…"

As the words left his mouth the ground around them exploded.

ʡʘʘʘʢ

G-forces pushed her body into the seat as the rocket motors delivered millions of newtons of force propelling her upwards. She didn't have to do anything as computers onboard managed millions of calculations per second to steer her vessel toward the heavens.

After 45 seconds of being crushed into her seat, it all suddenly evaporated, as the sky above her turned dark and the Greek cross around her neck floated into her vision.

Asuka adjusted her helmet, annoyed by its ability to hinder her view, though the projected view from inside the entry plug wasn't real, a bright white overlay with data was supposed to keep her from being disorientated instead. She said nothing as voices came through over comms, altitude goals reached, orbital velocity attained, she wasn't needed for any of that.

"Commence Operation US." Misato's voice came through her helmet.

A flurry of commands came again, this time initiating a retro burn and she felt another jolt go through her as sections of the craft broke away, empty mass jettisoned. Another retro burn, another jolt, she gripped the controls, waiting for mission control to disable remote guidance and return to local control.

Her heart rate quickened at the callout, and she felt the feedback in her controls as she grasped them tighter.

T- 80 seconds to contact.

"Pod 2 prepare for rendezvous, Pod 8 has insufficient altitude and can only provide backup for 96 seconds before reentry."

If only the target's orbit had decayed as much as they'd hoped or if Four-Eyes' boosters had been more efficient. It looked like she would have to do this alone again.

Her field of view lit up with warnings and alarms sounded inside the entry plug. The N2 mines would be detonating any second now, sending kinetic penetrators in every direction, but she was ready. She held her breath as a jolt went through the entry plug, but her AT field held, now the tricky part.

"second wave incoming, Pattern blue, confirmed as Code 4a."

The impact was different this time, and immediately she knew what was happening, the sickening feeling of an Anti-AT field tearing through her own. It made her skin crawl, her stomach twisted and she gripped the controls tighter as she felt the shield guarding Unit-02 be struck directly by the annoyance's projectiles.

"Well aren't you a little prick!" Asuka growled, her hand reaching up to her helmet, if she had to fight, then she wasn't going to handicap herself.

"Four-Eyes Crony!" Asuka shouted, maneuvering her thrusters to dodge a hail of incoming fire, "Where's my cover fire!? You're two seconds late!"

"then you shouldn't move into position three seconds early." A somewhat smug voice came through her comms.

"Improvise!"

"The princess beckons. Your noble wish is my command." Mari replied as a Mark.4a unit exploded in front of her.

Asuka gripped the controls tighter as she felt her thrusters fire to avoid debris and damage, "I've cleared the Fullerene Shift, breaching final defenses, area 89."

Her lip curled slightly, almost according to plan, but that thought was cut short.

"The target object is moving! Orbital correction can't keep up! I'm going to go for broke!"

Asuka braced herself as she was thrown around in her seat by her maneuvering thrusters doing their best to keep her on course, but she knew it wouldn't be enough.

"Orbital correction can't keep up! I'm gonna go for broke!" She shouted, as Unit-02 lined up its arm and fired a salvo of grappling hooks. Her indicators turned green, meaning she was locked onto the object, but now was the hard part.

She watched the cables go slack as Unit-02 got closer and finally flew by her target. Suddenly she was thrown backwards as all her energy was dumped rendezvousing with the target and sending them spinning around each other.

The g-load was sustained, and she knew it would take time for the thrusters to correct for it, so she wasn't worried when the edges of her vision started to go black. She started to worry when the darkness grew.

"C'mon Asuka." She mumbled, disregarding the warnings blaring in front of her.

Her vision dwindled, the darkness consuming all but a pinprick of the light.

"Yoo traint or is'."

A redheaded woman in a white jack leaned down in front of her, a clipboard in hand, her abysmal score was probably on there. "What's the matter Asuka, do you not like the centrifuge?"

"Asuka! Asuka report!"

Her eye shot open, the target encompassed all of her view, and the sound of explosive bolts going off behind her filled her senses. She must have triggered the deceleration burn without remembering it, the benefits of Katsuragi's excessive training.

"Deceleration burn complete." She mumbled out between labored breaths, "Target seized and secured ready to return."

"Roger. We'll be waiting at the retrieval point, rendezvous code is Saturn Five."

"Roger that."

Just as she collapsed into her seat, an rang out and an alert exploded onto her screen indicating a pattern blue.

"A pattern blue? Where's it coming from?" she shouted, looking around her for any sign of the attacker.

Asuka watched as one of the cubes on the opposite side of the tesseract opened, unfolding hundreds of times into four ribbons. Her stomach sank as the ribbons swirled around her, what was this thing?

"You've got to be kidding! We're just about to attempt reentry here!" Asuka looked over her shoulder, scanning for her wingman against the red earth below. "Four-eyed crony! Cover me!"

"No can do, I've got insufficient altitude, I can't engage," Mari responded, the end of her message crackling from the disruption of reentry.

"Useless!" Asuka growled, trying to stick Unit-02s foot around the tesseract and stomp the core, "This wasn't part of the briefing!"

Around her, the ribbons that had unfolded began to glow and she only had a second to throw up her AT field. As the light intensified, a sharp pain manifested in her arm as the light concentrated on her left arm, the only thing keeping her connected to the tesseract.

Asuka hissed in pain as warning blared around her, her angle of descent was too high, her and her target were losing more and more control every moment. She figured at this rate they'd both burn up in the atmosphere.

"Operation objective has top priority, do not release the target object even if it means losing the EVA!"

"You don't think I know that already!" She shouted back, that was just like the cold Katsuragi she had come to know.

As soon as that exchange ended, her arm exploded in pain as Unit-02's appendage was finally torn apart by the light concentrated on it.

Tearing into the metal shell, she held onto the tesseract with all her strength even as the ribbons again flared with light. Explosions surrounded her as both the object and she were bombarded while her AT field was useless against whatever was attacking her.

The world spun as she started to fall into the atmosphere, she was out of time, but all the girl could do now was focus on keeping her grip on the tesseract. She tried to ignore the excruciating pain in her arm by instead focusing on the only thing she could think of to distract her. The occupant of her target.

She didn't know where the words came from, perhaps it was the memories of them together, how he seemed to solve every problem with ease, how he would know exactly what to do right now. The words came out before she even comprehend what she was saying.

"C'mon do something, anything Idiot Shinji!"

As the words left her mouth, her sight was awash in violet light.

She felt an AT field expand outwards from the sarcophagus carrying Unit-01, the purple light growing, slicing the tendrils that had grown from her mission's objective. She opened her eyes to witness it find the core and for a surge of energy to destroy it.

The Nemesis series had no hope of resisting such an onslaught, it couldn't even slow it down. The core detonated in a magnificent cross-shaped blast, rocking Unit-02 one last time as Asuka collapsed back into her seat, her good eye wide open, and her body numb.

ʡʘʘʘʢ

The operation had changed and Asuka wondered why they didn't just take Wunder in guns blazing.

The access tunnels they had planned to use for such a situation like this had degraded extensively. Cave-ins, eroded corized metal, it all left them playing a guessing game.

Each turn was relayed back to Wunder, whose crew was doing its best to guide them and if necessary track them on GPS location to get them closer to NERV HQ. Though the quality of the signal was degrading more and more.

"Power at 33 percent," Asuka said, slowing Unit-02 down so Mari could catch up.

"Make sure you're topped up, we don't know what we'll be meeting," Mari said, handing the connector cable to Unit-02, who set down both her spears and snapped it into its back for rapid recharging.

"How close are we?" Asuka asked, but received no answer, it looked like they were on their own now.

"We can't be far," Mari said, interrupted as they both snapped around, "tell me you felt that too?"

Asuka's eye narrowed, it was the most powerful AT field she had ever felt. One had just collided with another, and it was clear there was a winner. Instantly she grabbed her spears and took off, Mari alongside her, weaving through the crumbling tunnels and using that AT field as a beacon.

"It's right here!" Asuka said, turning a corner, only to find a dead end.

She moved forwards slowly, it was beyond the wall, she was sure of it.

"Send an explosive round." Asuka moved back, setting down the second spear and clearing the shot for Mari.

"As you wish your highness," Mari said, raiding the rifle and racking the bolt.

Asuka had underestimated the cloud of dust obscuring everything, but charged ahead nonetheless, her heart skipping a beat as she plummeted down into what she came to realize was Terminal Dogma.

That meant…

As she landed, she saw the two other figures present. She recognized Mark.09, but it was standing a distance away, the closer EVA was clearly the one they had been drawn to, likely the one housing the S2 engine.

The first thing that struck her was how similar it looked compared to Unit-01. It was clearly a darker shade, but the largest difference was the size. It towered above any EVA she had seen, but that wouldn't stop her.

She launched herself into the air, lunging at the Evangelion with her double spear. Just as she was about to land the blow, its arm reached out, and an AT field flared, stopping her strike in its tracks.

"Unit-02?" The voice came through her comms, and all feeling drained from her body. Her eyes shifted to the face of Shinji Ikari as it appeared on the screen in front of her.

She didn't notice the dark plugsuit he wore, nor the strange A-10 clips, no, the first thing that came to mind when she saw his face was how tired he looked. The boy looked terrible like he hadn't slept in ages, dark circles under his eyes had formed and his face fell after the shock of seeing her through their comm link.

She jumped back, away from the massive Evangelion. Her body was numb, and her mouth hung open. "What the hell are you doing in an EVA?!" Asuka shouted.

He said nothing for a moment, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "Asuka, I can change everything, it'll be better I swear, we'll never need to pilot ever again." He explained. "Let me do this! Please! It'll all be over!"

The way he said it made it sound so sincere like he believed the words he said and it was entrancing for her, she wanted to believe those words.

But she couldn't.

Not after everything.

She had imagined a boy in a cell, defiant against his father, biding his time as he knew she would come for him. Finally, it would be her who would rescue him and the two of them would finally have their proper reunion. Instead, here he was, in an EVA, prepared to continue his father's work.

Suddenly her body was no longer numb, it was shaking, and rage flared in her. He was here, with NERV, with his father. Mari, Misato, they were all right to doubt him.

It was all a lie.

"HAVEN'T YOU CHANGED IT ENOUGH?!" She lunged at him, the spear she held aimed right for center mass, but it never landed. She had forgotten about Mark.09, whose scythe was coming straight down on her as she landed.

Her AT field flared, but the strike never landed, instead it was Mark.09 who was sent flying, as the violet figure of the massive Evangelion stood in its place.

"Get away from her!" she heard him shout.

Why? What was his game? Why did he have to do this to her?

"Just…" she wanted to say something, anything, curse him, hate him, but a piece was fighting against it. There was one part of her that wouldn't be overtaken, one piece that would not give in to her anger. It stood alone, against the storm of pain and fury building in her.

It was the piece of her that still loved him.

And no matter how hard she tried, it refused to die.

It did not, however, keep her from releasing that pain towards him.

ʡʘʘʘʢ

"Our source's information was right," Fuyutsuki mumbled, observing the fight occurring in Terminal Dogma on the screen.

WILLE was a nuisance, but not a true threat, their informant always allowed them to be one step ahead. The flashes of color lit up his face in the darkroom as he waited for Gendo to finish his speech to the last members of SEELE.

The men would die, that was certain. They never realized the leverage the both of them could gain over them should they ever discover where they were in the Americas.

The beauty of it all was they didn't have to lift a finger, already Coalition forces were scrambling to dispose of the last of those who ruined this world.

The elderly man leaned back and closed his eyes. Finally, Yui would be avenged, and the men who started this madness, the ones who wished to achieve godhood would die as mortal men.

As he opened his eyes and watched Unit-13 shove Unit-02 away from itself, he wondered if the boy would ever achieve a similar fate.

ʡʘʘʘʢ

Shinji blocked her strike, the double-bladed spear slamming against his AT field. His entry plug was filled with the war cries of the girl he had known and it was becoming more and more obvious she wasn't in control of herself. Each strike was less precise, less calculated. He winced at every sound, she hated him and he had done this to her.

"I'm sorry Asuka." He said, grabbing the wrist of Unit-02, swiping at her, and throwing her to the side. "I'll make this right."

"Mari was right, you are insane!" She shouted, pushing herself up, "Nothing good can come from working with your father!"

She tried again to strike him, as the sounds of shots pinning Mark.9 behind her continued, but no matter what she did, Shinji would not give her an opening. He was just as good as the last day they spared, despite whatever had a hold on him, whether it was NERV brainwashing, the time spent in the core, or this was how he always was, he was still an expert fighter.

"Asuka. Enough." Shinji said, his voice even, but she didn't care.

He watched her thrust the spear forwards, clearly expecting him to block it with this AT field, but instead he let it through, enough for her to lose balance, before closing it once again.

Unit-02 stumbled backwards, looking at the spear now sliced in half.

"You can't win against me Asuka, you know that." He said, hating his own words, but saying them regardless.

It was true, even on an even playing field his experience was well above her. She probably had years more experience now, he was even willing to bet she could do things he'd never see, but his experience was on a different scale entirely.

"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" She yelled, flipping what was left of the spear around and launching into the air.

A round exploded next to Unit-13, causing him to lose balance, long enough for Asuka to land a strike without his AT field. But Shinji caught the blades, stifling a hiss as the pain shot through his hands.

"Asuka, this is idiotic," he twisted Unit-13's hands, snapping the blade and dropping Unit-02, whose body suddenly became limp.

"You've got to be kidding me, four-eyed cronie, the spear!"

"Asuka…" Shinji spoke up, grabbing her attention. That blue eye looked at him through the screen with such hatred, such pain. All he could do now was tell her the truth.

He took Unit-02's limp body into his arms, leading its gently to the ground "I'm not going to destroy the world." He explained, "I know what Instrumentality is, what it feels like, and I'm never going to let that happen again. I need you to know that."

The anger he had seen on her face now morphed to confusion as he set Unit-02 on the ground. He willed Unit-13 to its feet, turning and making his way to the corpse of Lilith. Behind him, he heard the crash of something and in turning to look back, he could see it was the spear Asuka had asked for, but he just quicked his pace, he didn't need to fight anymore.

"So you were going to let me fight alone back there?" Shinji glared at Kaworu in the second cockpit as Unit-13 finally began to crawl up the pale body of Lilith. His co-pilot was hunched forwards, his hands folded under his chin and deep in thought. Truthfully it hadn't bothered him, the lack of a second input had made things easier and he'd rather it was him who fought Asuka and kept her from truly getting hurt.

"I'm… not certain about this Shinji…" Kaworu said, turning.

"What?!" Shinji gawked, turning his concentration back and forth from Kaworu to his climbing, "What the hell are you talking about? You told me this would work!"

"You don't get it…" Kaworu said as Shinji crested the top of Lilith, "The dark spear… it isn't right!"

"Then we'll find the right one next!" Shinji growled, his anger flaring as he pushed Unit-13 forwards, "This is the only reason I'm in this damn thing!"

He willed Unit-13 forwards, only to feel the cockpit lurch sideways.

"The control system!" Kaworu gasped.

"You gave me a way home, a way to end this!" Shinji shouted, "We can take them for ourselves, to keep from my father!"

"Shinji no!"

As he reached the spears his stomach twisted, and stopped himself as he tried to place the feeling overcoming him. Unit-13 shuttered, something had changed now that they were so close, but what?

It finally struck him, the Evangelion felt dead. He tried to reach out to whatever was in the core, but nothing happened, he tried moving Unit-13, but it didn't respond. Finally, he placed the feeling, the helplessness, something he had forgotten.

Unit-01 tore Unit-04's arms from its torso, the red spray coating the surrounding buildings and fields as he felt himself pulverize Togi's Evangelion.

He was no longer in control and there was no way to fight whatever was controlling Unit-13.

This didn't feel like a dummy plug based on Ayanami, he was sure of that, could it be built into Unit-13 itself? Then who was it based on? Whatever it was, Shinji had never encountered something like this before and he was sure it was just another surprise he had his father to thank for.

"Kaworu what's going on?!" He shouted, but he just sat there, head in his hands, useless.

Unit-13 started walking forwards, its body moving on its own, but it wasn't going berserk. Shinji reached out again, to both cored, desperately trying to make some connection. If he was going to have a chance he needed them.

But whoever they were, they refused to come forwards, to even acknowledge him, it was as if they were asleep, dormant inside the cores.

As Unit-13 reached the spears, the Evangelion was rocked by two impacts, likely from the sniper that had accompanied Asuka. Was it that Mari girl from before?

Shinji had no time to dwell on that as a new alien feeling washed over him. Unit-13 seemed to energize, Shinji watched in disbelief as two new arms detached from its chest from what he had thought to simply be more armor-plating.

Now the four arms latched onto the spears, Shinji scrambled, trying to do anything to prevent whatever was about to happen next. What was there to do though? He had never encountered anything like this before, nothing he did had any effect, Kaworu was useless, and without his mother in the core to fall back on he was helpless.

"I do not believe this is good," Rei mumbled behind him.

"Gee you think Wondergirl?!"

With a single tug, Unit-13 lifted the spears from Lilith's corpse, its four arms hoisting the red and black spears into the air triumphantly. For a fleeting moment nothing happened, it seemed all there to see just froze, too afraid to make a move. Finally, the corpse began to bubble, its skin stretching and expanding like a balloon, before it exploded in a shower of LCL.

Shinji braced himself for the impact with the ground, but it never came, instead the shower of red dissipated, clearing his view of a red pool beneath him while Unit-13 hovered mid-air. Beneath him, a dark blue and orange EVA hovered just above the pool, creating gentle ripples on the LCL below it.

"Mark.06?" Shinji breathed, only to have his attention taken by the sound of an alarm going off, and a window appearing on his screen indicating a Type blue.

An angel, now? Besides the one next to him where…

"The 12th angel is showing signs of life!" Shinji heard Asuka shout through his coms.

So Mark.06 was the angel? Was it inside Mark.06? Shinji squinted, seeing its skin begin to bubble just as Lilith's corpse had, perhaps he was right.

Off to his left, he watched Unit-02, apparently recharged, running towards it. Asuka connected something that had been sent down from her partner above and attached it to the Unit-02s arm.

From the opposite direction, he saw Mark.09 running up to it, scythe in hand. At first, Shinji was confused, why would his father have that clone attack it but not tell him that it was down here to begin with? Only after the clone, decapitated it did he understand.

Shinji's heart raced as the black tendril was released from the Evangelion, swirling around before seemingly focusing on Unit-13. Shinji again tried to gain control of the EVA, desperately trying to manifest an AT field, but nothing worked, soon he was encompassed by whatever it was.

"To think I could be so utterly ensnared." Kaworu said, finally speaking, "Me the first angel utterly defeated by the thirteenth!"

"What the hell are you talking about Kaworu?!" He was the 17th angel, wasn't he?

"It means that the end and the beginning are one and the same," Kaworu said, dejected, "how fitting."

"Kawour…"

"Shinji!"

Shinji whipped around the uncharacteristic panic in Rei's voice drawing his attention.

"I do not want to go!" Rei's face was panicked, but Shinji wasn't sure what she was talking about. "I DO NOT WANT TO GO!" she shouted again, but before Shinji could say or do anything the translucent image of her flickered and vanished.

"Rei?" he whispered, his heart racing in his chest, did that mean...

His eyes raced to Soryu, who was looking at the spot Rei had been only moments ago. Her singular eye was wide, the disbelieve on her face clear. He waited, fear nearly overtaking him as he waited for her to disappear as well, but it never came.

Instead, the angel around them that had turned to the red core now converged, its form compressing to the size of a normal S2 engine in front of Unit-13. Shinji stared in disbelief as Unit-13's mouth unhinged and consumed the core in one bite.

The entire body shook, and Shinji watched the arms turn a blinding white. He didn't know what he expected next, but he certainly did not expect to fly straight up plowing through earth and concrete to finally be met with a clear sky.

There was no time to react however, the blue was overtaken by a deep red that originated from Unit-13. Never had

"What… is this?"

"The opening rights…" Kaworu said, bringing his head up from his hands, "The Fourth Impact."

Shoutouts

Fluffiddy – Perhaps it's only the beginning of the end.

UltraSpink of Da USA – Thanks!

alan2496 – Thank you!

skyf0x – You're on the right track about Kaworu's explanations, but in time you'll understand. Thanks for the great review!

Guest (1) – Well how about we ask a new question? Is he dead in this story?

Attila1987 – I think Shinji is still somewhat blinded by the chance of redemption, enough that he's going against his better wisdom and trusting Kaworu, though it happens that even Kaworu doesn't have all the answers this time. He's also got to account for his father, who hasn't exactly sat idle for the last 10 years. He can throw curveballs just as good as Shinji can now and I'd love to keep up with the 'not-so-stranger in a strange land' vibe with Shinji, where he knows how things are 'supposed' to work based on NGE, but things have moved on and the rules have changed. It's a bit grey whether there was some sort of control going on right before he was grabbing the spears in 3.0, but here he legitimately is not in control, just like in 3.0 after the 4th impact starts, he's needed cause it ends when he's ejected.

Guest (2) – High hopes are for newbies, Shinji's long past that phase.

Fraktal – Well… Mari's out of the picture and Asuka's got a bit more on her mind this time. What would you feel if you saw it through her view? She's been told Shinji's a traitor for years now, but he saves her in Operation US. He appears to be crazy and talking to air, but he's capable of talking to her and even remembering moments together. He tells her to find him and she's expecting Shinji to essentially be waiting for her, she's put her belief in him whether she'll admit it or not, so when she shows up and he's piloting, it's a betrayal because she can't keep going off of faith anymore then he can't really say what he's doing, but in the end, it doesn't matter. I'd say Gendo is once bitten twice shy of his son lol.

engel17white – Thanks, it'll be interesting when it happens.

tomdj1701 – Thanks!

Well, that took a while…

This semester has really sucked, I've been doing so much writing that whenever I would just hate looking at Word whenever I opened it up to write. The good news, however, is that the semester is almost over and I really want Chapter 60 to be done so expect it by the end of December, I'm serious this time. After that everything is dependent, the holidays should give me a good head start.

Until Next Time