I hate being awoken in the middle of the night by my cell phone.

It rarely means good news.

Reading Misato's number on the ID screen sent a chill up my spine. I prayed the call was going to be an accident, like she hit her phone in her sleep, or something else mundane, but putting it to my ear and hearing her angrily grumbling to herself told me everything I really needed to know.

"Oh good, you picked up. We have a problem!" Her voice was hurried, backed by the sounds of her shoes clacking hard on the ground, as she began cursing a couple times under her breath.

I was already getting out of bed, opening my drawers for clothes. "So you aren't calling to tell me about a dream you were having, I'm guessing?"

"Ugh, this isn't the time for jokes! I have enough of a headache as is." I heard her car door close. "There's another Angel. Its current status is hard to judge, all I've been told is that it's hanging out in lower orbit. It's been launching attacks from there aimed at the ocean, so get Asuka, and get on the road as soon as you can!"

The line clicked.

Goddammit. It's not even been a full week since the last Angel. What's going on?

Asuka sleepily slid her door across as I exited my room. She yawned loudly, and began glaring at me, noticeably peeved that the phone call had woken her from her slumber. "Could you keep down your late night commotions, please? Some of us are trying to sleep." It took only a split second after the words left her lips that she realized what might be going on. "W-Wait! It's not another Angel, is it!?"

I nodded. "It seems that way. No real data on it yet, but Misato and Shinji are already on their way to the HQ, so we'll know something soon." Speaking quickly, I passed her in the hallway. I expected her to groan that an Angel was interrupting her sleep again, but like magic, her eyes widened with an expression only Asuka could have when an Angel was involved:

Joy.

The main monitor showed us exactly what we were dealing with.

Suspended just outside the planet's gravitational pull floated a large, almost incomprehensible monster. It was long. Hundreds of meters long, easily. Its elongated body had three main sections; two "wings" at either end, extended out from a large "eye" in the center, presumably where its core resided. Most of its body was a pale orange, while the eye itself was a psychedelic mixture of bright greens, reds and blues, swirling and mixing as it scanned the earth for where its next attack would land.

Hyuga rubbed his hand across his chin nervously. "Awful, isn't it?" He said softly, as we all stood around the tactical planning room, watching the screen in morose awe.

"Have we tried hitting it with anything? N2 Mines?" Misato inquired. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were glued to the screen.

Aoba answered her quickly. "There was no effect. Its AT Field seems to be powerful enough to destroy anything that gets near it without even having to contact it." He scratched the back of his head. "We couldn't even get the scanning satellites out of the way before they went up in flames. The scans finished, but…"

"So you said it had already attacked the ocean, right? What do you think it's doing?" I said, looking over the tactical map deck.

"It's dropping parts of itself." Maya enlarged the images as she spoke, showcasing the damage its bombs had made to the ocean floor, visible even from these satellite pictures. As she moved them further along, following the drop path, the most recent one had hit just on the edge of Japan, forming a large crater.

They were making a beeline for Tokyo-3.

"Destruction like that…" Misato bit the tip of her thumb. "Even those parts it's dropping must have AT Fields." Dr. Akagi nodded.

"It seems like the course of the drops are being steadily corrected. I'm sure you can all tell what it's trying to aim for."

I crossed my arms. "It's learning, and it wants the HQ." Dr. Akagi gave another, more dejected, nod before continuing.

"With the damage even these small pieces are creating, my calculations say that if its entire body were to drop upon Tokyo-3?" She scoffed. "This entire section of Japan would just end up as part of the Pacific Ocean."

Everyone in the room went quiet for a few short moments, with this revelation suddenly making this the most dangerous Angel we've seen thus far. How do we deal with something that's looking to meteor its way into us at any moment?

Misato spoke up, her new role as Major seemingly giving an extra boom to her voice (even if she would be outranking everyone present without her promotion). "Have we been able to contact Director Ikari?"

"It's been impossible to get through. The Angel seems to be jamming all of our damn satellites too." Aoba responded flatly.

"What about the MAGI?"

"The MAGI are unanimous upon the decision to evacuate Tokyo-3." Maya informed.

Misato clenched her jaw, and I could tell she was already desperately trying to find a way to deal with this sudden, nigh-apocalyptic situation on her hands.

"What are you going to do?" Dr. Akagi stared at her friend, with a look on her face equal parts worry and curiosity. "This is your operation. We have no back-up, and no one else here outranks you. What will we do?"

Without skipping a beat, Misato started issuing her orders.

"Alright, listen up. Inform all relative ministries that you can contact that I'm putting declaration D-17 into effect immediately. That states all residents within a 50km radius of Tokyo-3 will evacuate as soon as humanly possible, and this includes any non-essential NERV personnel. Also, back up the MAGI to Matsushiro, just in case."

Within the hour, Tokyo-3 was entirely cleared out. Every man, woman and child deemed non-essential, assisted by the JSSDF, had been taken safely outside of the suspected blast radius.

I was not deemed non-essential. Though, even if I had been, I would've requested to stay. At this point, I was fully prepared to see any operation through. Besides, I couldn't just leave Asuka. Whether this operation ends in success or failure, I was here to the end.

It was strangely calming in a way, being this deep into territory so far beyond worrisome that it didn't even feel real at all. I mean, if this Angel did fall, and we weren't able to stop it, then that would be a near instant death. I would hope anyway.

The only sound around me was the hard clack of my boots on the pristine white tiles, echoing down these eerily silent halls. No more creepy than usual, luckily, but still, even simple trips back from the bathroom in this place were unnerving. Impressive, really.

I re-entered the tactical planning room, and Misato greeted me with a soft smile. "We all set?" She said, her cheerfulness belying the stress I'm sure she was facing. "So just to be entirely clear, before I lay out this plan, no one else wants to leave?" Her eyes glanced towards the operators.

Hyuga, Aoba and Maya all stood off to the side, shaking their heads in tandem.

"If I just left while you guys and the kids stayed here to risk your lives for everyone, I'd never be able to live with myself." Hyuga announced, puffing his chest out a bit.

Aoba smiled. "Yeah, this is our most important job. We're not just gonna leave it to a skeleton crew."

Chuckling to herself, Misato stood from the chair she had been sitting on, placing both of her hands on the map deck. "Alright, I understand. Just had to make sure, because this…" She trailed off for a moment, before revealing why she was being so hesitant. "...this one is going to be beyond risky. Almost impossible, but as long as we can do it without flaw, it'll give us the one chance we need to get this sucker."

"Are you serious!?" Dr. Akagi spilled her feelings out as soon as Misato finished. "This plan is too much, we can't sanction something like this! It's borderline suicide!"

One of Misato's eyebrows raised as she sat back in her chair, confidently meeting Dr. Akagi's gaze. "You don't have to worry about sanctioning. I'll get the pilots to sign wills before they head out. That should comply with enough of the rules to get by with the UN, should we survive."

Dr. Akagi's fury was unlike anything I had seen from her before. "Not only are you going to try sacrificing us all on a whim, but you're throwing the Evas away as well!? For what, your own selfish desires!?" Her fists were clenched hard. "This mission's success rate is only 0.00001%! That's less than one in ten thousand!"

"It's not zero."

Misato's words changed the air in the room completely. Her confidence in the face of such a threat, against these odds. No wonder she's in charge.

She continued, after letting the room stew for a moment. "If I'm still here, I will do anything, and everything I can to eliminate the Angels. With this bastard looking to take us out with no mercy, even if the situation looks unwinnable, we have no choice but to try!"

Dr. Akagi turned to leave. As she did so, she left Misato with one final thought.

"You can say whatever you want to. To me, this plan looks like you're just trying to satisfy your ego. The Angels are just where you've now chosen to aim your revenge."

...and with that, she exited the room to go begin prepping the Evas. Maya followed shortly afterwards.

Misato let out a huge sigh before standing up, giving me a look. "Well, now that that's out of the way, let's go break the news to the kids." She quickly brushed past me and out the door we went.

It was a little awkward, watching her and Dr. Akagi fight like that, and now being here with her in these silent halls, not really knowing how to follow on. I've gotten better at making small talk, I think, but this felt a little beyond me to start.

"It's important if you just say what's on your mind, skippy." She almost made me jump.

"O-Oh, sorry. I just…" Misato's expression didn't change, her head was facing forward. She was obviously undeterred by Dr. Akagi's feelings. "I agree with you."

"You don't need to try and make me feel better. I'm fine."

"That wasn't my intention. Maybe Asuka's rubbed off on me, but I agree that every small chance we have, we have to take. If it means destroying the Angels, then it's worth trying. Regardless of if it's one in ten thousand, or one in a billion."

Misato giggled.

"I appreciate you being on my side for this, but I don't think Ritsuko is wrong either. She has every right to be angry at this plan. It's really foolish."

We both stopped at the elevator doors.

"...but it's the only one I've got. This is Misato's Gambit."

It was really foolish.

Now, that's not to say I could blame Misato. This was such an impossible situation to plan for, the fact she came up with anything at all was incredible. It's just that in order to pull this off, we'd need a miracle.

The Evas were tasked with placing themselves directly underneath the Angel when it falls, activating their AT Fields to catch it, stopping its catastrophic descent. Whichever Eva ended up closest to the drop zone was to activate the Field at maximum power to do this. The other two, meanwhile, were to approach the now caught Angel from opposing directions. As the first was keeping it in place, the others were to locate its core and destroy it.

So many factors were at play here.

The speed of the Angel's descent. The location of the Angel's descent. The running speed of the Evangelions. The Eva's battery timers. How easy the core is to locate. How difficult the core is to destroy. Heck, we don't even know if an AT Field can support this Angel's weight!

When Misato first detailed her plan, I was skeptical. I still am, but now I think I'm okay with this risk. There's only two outcomes here: either we win, or we die. A coin toss. Balanced. I've made peace with that.

Even more than that however, I don't think Asuka is going to accept defeat, even with these odds. We will win.

We have to.

"So, let me get this straight. You want us to catch this thing by hand!?" Asuka was flabbergasted. It did sound incredulous, but that was the nature of the plan.

"Correct." Misato said, flatly. "The Evas will stagger converging upon the same point that we have determined to be the most likely drop zone for the Angel. You will receive it with the AT Fields to keep it in place to be dispatched."

Shinji inquired further. "Well, what if the drop zone is wrong?"

"Then we all die."

Asuka followed Shinji's thought. "Okay, and if the AT Fields snap under the pressure?"

"Then we all die."

There was silence from the group for a second. After they mulled those prospects over, Shinji spoke again. "Um… what exactly are our chances of pulling this off?"

Misato gave me a look and I let out a breath before answering him. "Generally speaking? Low. Abysmally low."

A loud sigh came from Asuka, as she placed her hands on her hips. "You realize just how big of an ask this is, right? We're gonna need a damn miracle, or several, just to have a fighting chance!" Misato was quick to step in.

"Miracles aren't just things that arrive out of nowhere, Asuka. They aren't works of a higher power's mercy either. They're manmade, as a result of determination and courage."

"A whole lot of good determination and courage are going to do if we all get blown away instantly." Asuka retorted with a huff.

Misato closed her eyes for a brief moment. "Look, I understand how you feel. It isn't great, but this is the best plan we have." She let out a soft breath before opening her eyes, giving the three teens an honest expression. "You can refuse to do this if you wish. No strings attached. I won't force anyone to be here who doesn't want to be."

I wasn't surprised, but after Misato gave the pilots their chance to opt out, all three stayed silent.

She continued. "I see. So, you're all going to trust my plan, no matter how crazy it is?"

Asuka scoffed. "I might not think the plan's sane, but that's irrelevant, isn't it? If we don't do this, we're all screwed anyway!" Shinji nodded, showing he felt the same way.

From her coat, Misato produced three small folders. "Okay, so, the regulation states that in a situation like this, you're all supposed to write out wills. Have any of you done that before?"

"I don't need to write something stupid like that." Asuka's voice was louder this time, as if the notion of writing a will offended her. "I'm not going to die. Besides, if this does fail, the Lieutenant and all my belongings are going to be gone too, so writing one would just be a waste of time."

"I don't need to write one either." Rei's soft voice was almost a whisper compared to Asuka. "There's no point."

Shinji stared at the two girls for a moment, gathering his thoughts, before he confidently turned to Misato. "That goes for me as well."

Placing the folders back in her coat and nodding her head, as if she expected this outcome, Misato smiled. "You don't know how proud you've made me! If you can pull this off, I'll treat you all to the best steak dinner you can eat!" Giving me a sly thumbs up as the kids celebrated the reward, Misato turned and promptly exited the room. Steak dinners are expensive, aren't they? Well, in a case like this, I'm more than happy to foot the bill. Misato's been through a lot today.

"Man, she really must be crazy. A steak dinner is our reward for saving Tokyo-3 from certain destruction?" The enthusiasm from mere seconds ago faded fast, with Asuka's expression falling to one of slight annoyance. I did think those oohs and aahs sounded forced. "I guess it's better than what we get most times: nothing."

"You don't have to act like that, you know." Shinji prodded. "Misato's working really hard. I was just trying to keep her spirits up, not mock her."

Asuka turned up her nose at the boy. "Well, in any case, I wonder what the most expensive restaurants are in Tokyo-3? If this is our reward it better be damn good! I won't accept anything less than five stars!" She briefly tossed Rei a look. "Hey, you're coming with us too, alright First Child?"

"...I don't think so."

One of Asuka's eyebrows raised. "Huh, what? Why not? You hate us that much?"

"No." Rei started to walk towards the door Misato had left through. "I just don't like eating meat." The door shut behind her, leaving the three of us standing in the mostly empty room, all a little put off by her mysterious words. She certainly was unique.

"I guess you've already written your will, eh, Lieutenant?" The redhead's attention now fell on me. She stared expectantly, like she knew I had, but my head shook slowly. I wasn't interested in writing a will myself, and neither was Misato for that matter.

"Nope, seems like I'm just that confident in you guys." Confidence was a part of it, sure, but like Asuka said herself, everything I have is in Tokyo-3. If the plan goes south, it all gets vaporized. Maybe my sister deserved to have something sent to her, but in the grand scheme, would that matter much compared to what the world would be without the Evas? Without NERV? Asuka frowned angrily, quickly stomping up towards me.

Her voice was an angry whisper. "You mean you didn't even send word to your sister, or anything?" Was she reading my mind? "I can't believe you! All the trouble you went through, and you don't have any final words for her?" I leaned in close to her face to respond.

"I trust you, Asuka. You're not going to let this thing beat you, right?" I smiled slightly, goading her playfully. She gritted her teeth.

"...it's more for you than me, dummkopf!"

"Then don't make me regret my choice. Go out there, work as a team, and kick its ass."

Unfortunately, just before the Evas were to be sent out, a hiccup occurred in the plan.

We all stood in the command center, watching the flashing red signal on the main monitor.

Signal Lost

"The Angel's magnetic field has disrupted the last of our satellite readings. All sight on the target has been lost." Maya announced frantically.

"Damn." I growled. "So what's the back up plan?"

"We... don't need one. All we need to do is open the original up a little more." Misato was trying to keep her cool, but it's obvious the stress was hitting her hard. "There's no location estimate now, so we'll just plot all the potential drop zones instead of a single one!"

The Tokyo-3 map opened onto the main monitor, almost completely covered in red dots. It was a very menacing image.

Asuka nearly screamed. "AHH, what the hell!? How are we supposed to deal with that many potential areas!? That's the entire damn city!"

"I know, okay?" Misato bit back. "We just have to set up the Evas at three specific points, and as soon as the Angel comes back into view, you'll all have to run to it. Just like we planned, but this time, it's going to come even closer to the wire than before! That's all!"

Dr. Akagi took this moment to cut in with an extra layer of stress. "Just a reminder. Even a near-miss will be enough to wipe out the entire area. Tokyo-3, NERV HQ, the Geofront. Everything."

"...fantastic." Shinji groaned despondently.

"What are all these plotted points based on?" A rare question from Rei.

Misato hesitated before answering. "...intuition."

"INTUITION!?"

Even I expected this to be some sort of scientifically calculated data, but… I guess she really was telling the truth when she said 'no location estimate'...

Asuka let out a large sigh. "I think I felt what little miracle we might've had just run away…"

"You know, Misato buys lottery tickets all the time." Shinji bemoaned. "I've never seen her win anything bigger than another free ticket."

"I bet she celebrates over the free one with a beer, doesn't she?" I added.

"...yeah, she does." All of Shinji's spirit was now drained, and the three pilots began making their way towards the Eva containers, with this newly refined plan sinking deep into the pits of their stomachs.

"You're worried, aren't you?" Misato gave me a weak smile. The pilots were ground level now, waiting for the Angel to come into view. Everything was silent. It was all up to them from here on.

I thought about it for a second. "No, I don't think I am."

"Because you've made your peace with all this?"

My shoulders shrugged lightly. "Yeah, there's that, but also because I promised Asuka I'd trust her judgments. She said she's not going to lose, so we're going to watch her win." Misato chuckled loudly.

"Well, aren't you just the sweetest?" She said, in a joking tone. We both stared at the monitor, all the red drop points overlapping into a great sea, covering the city. "I believe in Shinji too, and Rei. They're all good kids. In a way, it is reassuring that the Evas are as safe as they are. As long as the AT Fields are active, even a drop like this shouldn't… well, hopefully not, anyway."

I swallowed hard. "Yeah. Let's not think about that outcome. It's not going to happen, so it's pointless to think about it."

"Confidence is key, eh?" The Major smiled. "If it were up to me, I'd do the job here myself, but I feel like even if I forced everyone else to evacuate at gunpoint, you'd probably stay right where you're standing."

"That's right."

"Then it's a pleasure to take this risk with you, Lieutenant."

"Every risk is worth taking if it means victory, Major, so likewise."

The alarms rang out across Central Dogma, accompanied by Aoba's voice over the PA. "Maximum power to the surface telescopes. The Angel is in sight! Distance… 25000 meters and closing, quickly!"

Misato's expression grew more dire than any I had seen her make before. "ALL EVAS, ENTER THE PREPARATION PHASE OF THE PLAN!"

All three Evas crouched into running positions, at their designated points around the city. Whoever ended up closest to the target would have to hold the Angel up until the others arrived, so the closer to the center of the city, the more dangerous it may be, as no Eva would end up closest to it at all. I prayed it wouldn't end up like that, but on the other hand, we had no idea if a single AT Field was going to be enough. I bit the tip of my thumb hard, my eyes glued to the monitors.

"The satellites are still down, but we now have a visual on the target." Misato began explaining to the pilots. "The MAGI will guide you until the target reaches a distance of 10000 meters. After that, all calculations are off, and you'll have to follow it yourselves to make the catch, got it?" She paused briefly. "Good luck."

With that, the umbilical cables disconnected, the Evas pushed off from their starting points, and the mission had officially begun.

They had 5 minutes.

Bounding through the city, all three Evas leaped and tore their way across every type of landscape Tokyo-3 offered. Over hills, across highways, through ponds, as fast as the machines could run.

"Distance, 12000!" Aoba relayed. It was soon time for MAGI's guidance systems to deactivate.

It was Shinji.

As the enormous Angel's body rapidly descended upon the city, Shinji was the first to reach its location. MAGI had deactivated. Shinji positioned himself underneath, skidding to a halt through rows of houses and beyond, ending up stopping atop a small hill.

"ACTIVATING AT FIELD, FULL POWER!" The ground around Unit-01 shook and began cracking apart at the sheer force of its AT Field extending. Within seconds, the field met with the Angel's own, slowing its descent to a crawl. With outstretched arms, Unit-01 reached for the target to steady it into place.

How could we've known the Angel would have the ability to fight back?

With its arms only meters from the bulbous center eye of the target, separated by just their AT Fields, Unit-01 was essentially left completely defenseless at this close range. The eye contained a hidden weapon. In front of Shinji's eyes, the center of the Angel split open, like a flower opening towards the sun. From inside extended a smooth black, lanky body, one of which we've been used to seeing from most Angels. Its arms stood out as a peculiarity though, forming into large, gangly hands, which reached out to pierce through Unit-01's AT Field with ease, clasping around its own shaking ones. In a split second, the Angel's arms crushed the Eva's hands, and upon seizing the opportunity, those arms transformed into long spear-like appendages, pinning Unit-01 in place.

Shinji's screams were bloodcurdling, as Misato's serious demeanor melted. Frantically, she called out for Shinji, over and over. We all stared in horror as the Angel's emotionless eyes met with Unit-01's. Its descent had stopped, but it wasn't going to go peacefully.

Asuka and Rei were still a ways away. Shinji just had to hold out, there was no other choice.

The spears pushed down through Unit-01's forearms, eventually splitting out through its elbows, and with it, gushes of the Eva's blood poured onto the dirt. Crimson rivers flowed down the broken earth of this hill, still being split by the Angel's weight pushing Unit-01 deeper and deeper into it. Shinji's screams had turned into labored groaning, as he attempted to push back, albeit to no avail. The AT Field had reached its limit.

"I'm practically there! Wondergirl, push back with the AT Field, I'm gonna go straight in for the kill!" Asuka screamed across the radio. Without waiting for Rei's response, Unit-02 reached its destination. Asuka bounded up the hill, unsheathing both of its Progressive Knives as it approached the target, and leaped.

With a single slash, it bypassed the Angel's weakened side AT Field. With most of its attention focused forward, Asuka was able to get in extremely quickly. Thrusting with the other knife, it took aim at what seemed to be the core. The knife was pushed back, however, by the core's movements. It was an entity all on its own, moving out of the way of the killing strike, leaving Unit-02 stranded, using the Angel's body to balance.

"ASUKA, HURRY!" Shinji pleaded, just as Rei arrived to take some of the slack off of Unit-01's AT Field. It wasn't much help, as the Angel continued its focus upon the Eva in its sights, forcing its spear even deeper into it. As the tips dug into its knees, Shinji let out a new wave of even more savage screams of torture.

Asuka was frozen. The core kept darting around the inside of the bulb. She began to sweat. "...I can't…. I can't hit it… I CAN'T FUCKING HIT IT!" Her knife's tip shook, her eyes followed it as it zipped around and around in an indeterminable pattern.

30 seconds left. Soon, the Evas batteries would run out, and that would be it.

If those 30 seconds went by without a victory, then the Evas would be left without power, without AT Fields, and all of Tokyo-3 would be destroyed.

"Come on, Asuka…" I whispered to myself, biting deeper into the tip of my thumb. I tasted blood, but I was so focused on the screen I didn't care. "I know you can do this…!"

Without warning, Unit-00 jumped up, using Unit-01's arm as a step. Pushing up through the weakened AT Field, Rei placed both of her Eva's hands upon the core, holding it in place. This was the chance they needed, and with mere seconds left to spare. Asuka quickly called out a thanks, before aiming the knives, stabbing both forward.

The blades barely cracked the core's surface. Its searing energy, torching Unit-00's hands, forced Rei back. The Angel's true body underneath began to shrivel, as all of its energy refocused back into the core, causing it to expand, and with it, the Angel's AT Field refocused around its inner body in self-preservation.

This momentary shift.

Without anything to stand upon, Unit-02 fell backwards, heading towards Unit-01.

Unit-00 slammed into the hill just a second earlier.

The battery timers hit 0.

To say my blood ran cold was an understatement. The world around me just began to fade away. I watched Unit-02 fall backwards, lifelessly, in slow motion. This was game over. The end of the line. We took a risk, and it failed. I was prepared for this. I was prepared for this, wasn't I? I knew this was a possibility! I knew this outcome was the most likely one! But why!? Why were we allowed to get so close!? To have victory dangled in front of us, even against the odds, even against the unforeseen circumstances? Why!? Why like this!? I refuse to accept that we got this close, only to fall at the last second, with no way out! I absolutely refuse to acknowledge that this, of all things, is what gets me killed! A stupid eyeball with wings!? Hell no!

As for myself, I could do nothing, but there was one other person involved here, one I was certain was more angry about this outcome than I was. I just had to hope that she could feel how angry I was too!

I screamed. I screamed loud. I didn't know if the radios inside the Evas could still receive transmissions when the batteries were dead, but I didn't care. I put my trust in her, and I was not going to let her forget I was here. That I was counting on her. That I wasn't about to throw in the towel either!

"ASUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Just as the scream left my mouth, the battle was already over.

With its battery depleted, Unit-02's eyes opened.

This was Asuka's purest feelings of desperation. It had to be, but… it was different than when I watched Unit-01 destroy that Angel during the first battle. There was no ferocity here. No fear. No berserker.

It was just Asuka, refusing to back down. In that split second, she pushed beyond her limits. She pushed beyond the Eva's limits.

In one quick, fluid motion, as both of the knives stayed lodged in the core's surface, Unit-02 rebounded. Extending both of its arms out to push off of Unit-01 (which was also in the process of falling), like an acrobat, it pulled back a single leg. With enough force to pierce the AT Field, that leg extended, like a shot from a cannon, connecting with the knives.

The core exploded into a geyser of Angel blood, pouring down like a waterfall upon the two Evas that lay motionless on the hill, and as Unit-02 fell gracefully down to meet them, its eyes turning dark, the Angel's deceased body fell as well to blanket them.

For a moment, as the world faded back into place around me… I didn't believe my eyes.

Against all possible odds, this was somehow a mission complete.

...and as everyone else in the command center exploded into thunderous applause, I could do nothing but cry. Not of sadness, not even of joy, but of gratitude. Whoever allowed us this miracle today, I'm indebted to them.

Author's Note : When thinking of how I could change this fight up a bit, I had decided a while back to not go with either the anime version, nor the Raising Project version. Instead, I enjoyed the more dramatic Rebuild version of the Sahaquiel fight, so I used it! Unit-02's berserk mode is something practically never seen, so I wanted to use it as well. Someone was looking out for Asuka here, for sure.

I'd like to do more unique things for the battles like this in the future, so I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter! I may take a bit of a break from Angel fights for a while (we've had a lot recently, haven't we) so for the next 3-4 chapters, I'll probably focus on some more slice of life stuff, adapting Raising Project events, and throwing in a few of my own I've been cooking up!

Thanks for checking out the fic, peace!