Unravel

by Homer's Disciple

Shinji rejected Instrumentality, but he made so many mistakes. He has one last chance to set things right, to unravel everything and save what matters. A retelling or altering of the series, an altered version of Shinji with an altered past. Life takes a different path, but do all paths lead to the same destination? Is Shinji doomed to never know happiness?

54. The Revenant

Hey guys, back again.
Why the long wait? I keep arguing with myself over the pacing for this chapter. We're so close to the end, and I have to choose what goes where and that means deciding on what is more important. It's painful, cutting things out or else moving them, but I finalized this chapter at long last.

This is a long chapter that is dialog-heavy.

I expect this chapter to be controversial. Love it or hate it, I hope I don't lose you dear reader for this chapter. There is a reason for everything that has happened.

Here's Chapter 54: "The Revenant".

---

"Is she… can I talk to her? Please?"

"You already are."

"That's not what I meant. … can't you just… I'm sorry… I shouldn't have-"

"You misunderstand. She is here. She is with me. We are one, although we were once separate."

"… Separate?"

"It is my nature. A single entity, a consciousness, a soul, born from a collective. This is what I am. Long ago, there were many who sacrificed themselves to become one. From that one, two were born. I was the Second. My brother was the First."

Quiet sobs.

"She's gone then… buried among the… the collective?"

"Do not fret, husband. Through her, I have lived. I have experienced things I never could have before. She is here, with you, even now. Beyond death."

A warm smile. A comforting hand upon a broken man's face.

"We are here. We love you. And we always will."

- Lilith speaking to her husband.

---

Present Day.
Tokyo-03.

Humanity is an odd people. It seems that no matter what the circumstances, we have an astonishing ability to adapt. To normalize. To turn the extraordinary and horrifying into the mundane. And so it was that even now, with the threat of Adam and Lilith looming above, a foreign and alien evil with seemingly no timetable, that people still found ways to go on with their day.

The Angel War was nothing new to both the civilians and their protectors. In the city of Tokyo-03, the people started their morning routines, adults heading to work, and children to their schools. The blissfully ignorant masses believing nothing more than that the Angels had lasted longer than expected.

Elsewhere, in the ruins of Nerv, the investigation continued. A sea of tents had sprung up around the wreckage of a once elaborate small city within a city. Men and women cataloged and recorded every piece of lingering information they could find in their final sweeps of the compound. The investigators dug always for information, documenting the many crimes that Nerv had committed under the guise of the Angel War. The site that the Eva Program had used as its base of operations.

Yet the Evangelions were no longer in Nerv's care.

The manmade titans now stood in a cleared airfield further away from the city, mesmerizing skyscrapers that loomed over the cluster of buildings that surrounded them.

The JSSDF base was smaller than the Geofront but similar in that it was an enclosed mini-ecosystem apart from the city. Two teenagers, the only two of their age in the entire base, made an odd sight as they jogged together following a path usually reserved for the soldiers stationed inside.

"Morning," Shinji panted awkwardly as he passed a pair of soldiers in military fatigues.

"Morning," Asuka panted as well, running beside him.

The men nodded in acknowledgment equally unsure of how to respond to an Eva Pilot. The soldiers, most of whom had already completed their multi-mile long morning runs, usually kept their distance.

Once, the men and women had given odd or else curious looks to the teenage pair, but by now it had become a common sight. The support staff and various figures from a mix of former Nerv employees and government officials also paid little heed to the teens, but respectfully gave them their space.

It was a mutual understanding from all the adults that the teenagers and an old man were the only ones who could stop the upcoming apocalypse. All their military's might and infrastructure had been turned to supporting the surviving Eva Units and their pilots.

"We should take a break," Asuka said between pants.

She had taken the lead, jogging past her partner just as they rounded a corner in their morning jog around the base's perimeter.

"… I can keep going," Shinji wheezed between pants. He winced and clutched at his chest, the spot where a bullet had gone through his torso over a month ago. He tried to hide the reaction, to continue with their morning jog.

Asuka wouldn't hear it.

She slowed to a stop and turned to him just as he did the same. Together they panted from their run and stood facing each other. Shinji hunched over, holding his knees, and breathed hard.

"Let's take a break," she said.

Shinji opened his mouth to protest but Asuka shook her head. Firmly but gently, she said, "we're taking a break."

Shinji sighed. He took a moment to catch his breath as Asuka did the same. She had a habit of forcing them to stop when it looked like he was starting to overexert himself.

He found it almost funny. When they first met, he'd have never imagined her fussing over him like this. She had always been more athletic than him, and he tried not to slow her down, but she never seemed to mind. She just waited and took a break of her own.

They were forbidden from leaving the base and so they took it upon themselves to stay busy. With Nerv in ruins and already drying up as a source of intel for the investigation, they had no combat training simulations, no sync tests, none of the herculean infrastructure that Nerv had built for the Eva Program.

Honestly, there wasn't much Shinji and Asuka could do to help the situation. It was the adults who repaired the surviving Eva Units, the adults who built them in the first place. So, they took it upon themselves to stay physically fit. They jogged together every day after the JSSDF had completed their morning runs.

"Don't push yourself so hard. You can make it worse if you try to do too much," Asuka said.

Her eyes traveled over the faded bruises on his face before lingering on where she knew he had been shot.

"I know, I know," Shinji said.

Asuka put a hand on his shoulder saying, "I mean it."

Shinji paused at that. He wondered what Misato what have said if she could have seen the two of them now. He guessed that she would have been surprised and happy. His face fell at the thought of her, and he pushed such somber things away. It was out of his hands, and he still had a job to do.

It wasn't healthy to bear the weight of the world, it was Asuka who had shown him that.

"Is everything okay?" Asuka said suddenly. She shifted uncertainly, slowly removing her hand.

"Yeah. Thanks, for looking out for me," Shinji said.

"… someone has to," Asuka said managing an awkward grin.

"Oh, come on. I'm not that bad," he said, trying to keep the mood light.

"… no. You're worse," Asuka said, practically smirking.

It felt good to have these little moments. He hated having to ruin them with her concern over his health, but thankfully neither of them lingered on it. He was okay and it was enough.

That was another fact of life now. They were close. They were the only surviving members of the Eva Teams. They stayed together.

"Haha. Listen, I'm tired. Let's go get some food," Shinji said.

...

Across from the track, a lone figure sat on the rooftop of the military hospital. The Broken Man watched over the scene below, hollow eyes observing the two teenagers.

He watched as Shinji and Asuka finished their morning run. From what he understood, they spent their days together, doing what they could to stay active, leaning on each other in these uncertain days. A part of him, a glimmer in the dark, was grateful beyond words that the two had each other.

The Broken Man stayed away. From everyone. He was a ghost who wandered the land of the living. He spent his days eating little and gathering his strength for what he suspected what be his final outing.

Sooner or later, the enemy would come. He knew this. He felt it in his bones. And so, he waited. He waited for the day when he would have to face her one last time.

He lowered his eyes and made his decision. A moment of weakness that he would indulge. He reached deep within himself and felt the shadows of his teacher respond. Like a phantom of an old friend, the last he had ever had.

The Broken Man closed his eyes and the real world vanished from his perception. The sun and its heat, the buzz and ambiance of the JSSDF base, the texture of the fresh clothes on his skin, the lingering taste of processed food that he cared little for anymore, the clean air that he still had trouble with sometimes, it all disappeared.

---

He opened his eyes to find the Void and its endless white before him. The Other Place, where souls had a physical form, where the mind could be laid bare.

It wasn't enough to be here, he needed more, and so he reached deeper. The Void shifted and changed, and he found himself standing on a small stretch of land surrounded by water. The ruins of a city lay in the distance. A recreation of his first days after the Third Impact.

The memory took hold of the Void and manifested itself into this other aspect of reality. He found it was easier to do such things here. His memories acted as tethers to the powers within him.

A voice sounded off beside him. Gentle and soft. Inhumanly perfect. A voice that hummed in ways that brought back painful glimpses of another life. Yet he didn't let them bleed over, he stayed sitting on that stretch of land surrounded by water.

The Woman in the Dark hummed softly. She sang a tune that his wife had often performed in her days in Haven. A sweet little thing that the world had never been able to rob from her.

"… Teacher," the Broken Man whispered.

The Woman in the Dark stood before him, pale Angelic skin, red eyes, and silver hair, a near-perfect recreation of his wife in the last year of her life. She stood within shadows that danced around her torso and extended down over her legs forming a living and breathing dress.

She stared at him with gentle and patient eyes, tilting her head just as his wife had once done.

"I promised that I would save you. Both of you," he said. He met her unfocused gaze directly. He looked for something in those familiar red eyes.

He found nothing at all.

The Woman in the Dark smiled and hummed along, drifting as if floating through the air. A lingering echo of what had been his very last friend in the whole world. A teacher. A companion. An advisor. This 'thing' before him now wasn't alive. It was less than a memory.

She was just another phantom. One already dead who lingered still. The leftovers of the Original Lilith. She haunted him, brought forth by his doubts and uncertainties, at his lack of control. At least that's what he thought.

Yet he summoned her anyway.

"Why do you want to die?" the Woman in the Dark whispered.

The lips moved, the voice soft as silk emerged, but there was no life in them. Even her warm eyes were wrong. They focused on things that weren't there. Not him at all. To speak to her was to speak to a recording.

"I promised that I would never fight you," the Broken Man said feeling as if he was a hundred years old.

He looked away; eyes glued to his shoes even here in the Other Place. A thousand apologies and laments sat at his tongue. He voiced none of them. What good would it have done? He would pay for his failures with or without acknowledging them.

He clenched his bad hand into a fist, feeling three fingers where there should have been five. Even here. Even his soul had its scars.

He remembered his teacher coming to him during their journeys together. How she had been there for him when he had not done the same. He remembered her gentle touch when he had been lost in his despair. When he awakened from another death, and he admitted that he would have given anything to feel it again. To feel some remnant of his wife.

The Woman in the Dark did nothing. She stood there still as a statue. Less than a memory.

He reached out instead and took her hand in his. Rough-aged skin, littered with tiny scars, embracing flawless and perfect skin. Even here, he didn't allow himself to forget those old wounds.

"I won't let you suffer anymore. I can do that for you," he said at last.

The Woman in the Dark blinked at him.

She held his gaze for one moment of bliss. Then she looked away far off into the distance. Only an echo of the entity that had been his last friend.

He released his grip on her hand and she drifted away, humming softly to herself. He stood there in the void, with only that echo for company, his head lowered. He didn't feel better. But he had done what he came to do.

The Broken Man lowered his eyes and waved his good hand. He banished the haunting echo of the Woman in the Dark. She faded away into nothing and he didn't even bother to raise his head as she did so.

He rubbed his fingers together in the wake of her absence.

It was then that he felt it. A chill run down his spine.

He whirled, raising his head, and feeling his fingers twitch as the network stirred. The Angel network that bound all creations of the First Ancestral Race. He felt the threads twisting.

Something was happening. Something big.

The Broken Man closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was in the real world, standing on his rooftop. He moved to sound the alarm. It was time to mobilize.

Adam and Lilith were on the move, and they didn't care who noticed.

---

JSSDF Cafeteria.

"You're looking a lot better, Shinji."

"Thanks, Maya. I think it's the food. Anything is better than the hospital stuff."

"Speaking of food. Finish yours," Asuka pestered him. She shoved the plate closer to him and he heard Aoba and Hyuga laugh.

"I'm eating, I'm eating. I promise," Shinji said, holding up his hands in defeat.

Asuka eyed him and he picked up his fork and began to eat more of the food. She had a habit of watching over him lately, making sure he stayed on his recovery track. He admittedly had a habit of diverging from the doctors' orders now and then.

Shinji and Asuka sat across from Ritusko's science team. A reunion of Nerv members in the sea of unfamiliar JSSDF faces. It was a little thing, but it brought a semblance of the old days back.

"I swear, you two are like a married couple now," Aoba said with a smirk.

Asuka did a double-take nearly spitting her drink out as she turned to glare but stopped herself at the last minute. Instead, she coughed, and looked away saying, "it's not like that."

"No. They're more like siblings now. A big sister taking care of her annoying little brother who's always getting into trouble," Maya said, smiling for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime.

Shinji almost laughed at that himself. It was something he had been afraid he was forgetting. Laughter however small.

He smirked as he spotted Asuka fuming slightly out of the corner of his eye. "At least you're the older one now," he said giving her a weak grin.

Asuka nodded still not entirely pleased with how that had turned out.

His face fell as he remembered the days before SEELE had made their move. His time with everyone, Misato, Kaji, Ritsuko, Asuka, Rei, and Mari. He wished they were here now. All of them, being together again just to share a meal. A warm ambiance that comes from those who share close bonds. The invisible force of life.

He saw Rei and Mari in his mind's eye most of all. He could almost picture the two sitting beside them at the table, Mari teasing Asuka not to get too close to her dummy, Rei blinking slowly at the events playing out but grinning softly in that subtle way of hers.

He felt his eye begin to water and he rubbed it dry.

The others were talking, Maya and Aoba complaining about the coffee, Asuka joining in to tell them all about the wonders of German coffee. Shinji only half heard it. His heart was aching, and he wasn't sure he could push it away this time.

Asuka was right. This weight isn't mine to bear… not alone. Maybe with time, it'll get better. I have to hope so.

"Shinji?"

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Asuka was looking at him with a worried expression.

"Do you need a doctor?"

"No. I'm fine," Shinji said weakly. "Just a-"

It happened without warning. A cold that emerged into the universe and seeped into him. He felt it like dry ice running through his veins. A chill that burned him, that stopped his heart and stole the air from his lungs.

Old Man… do you feel it too?

Yes.

The reply came as a quiet whisper in his mind.

The Hybrid was moving. He didn't have to look for them, he felt them. The threads in the network twisted. They were no longer hiding. They stirred and moved. Such power making its presence known and choosing to finally act.

When Shinji finally did reach out and look with his Angel senses, he recoiled and shook falling to the ground. Asuka and the others at the table rose to their feet.

Adam and Lilith. They were so strong. They shined in the Angel network like a lone star in the vacuum of space. A presence that dwarfed anything he had ever felt. Adam's Children were nothing when compared to this kind of raw power. The Broken Man himself was little more than an ant before an Elephant when compared to the Hybrid.

Look away, boy. The Broken Man whispered in his mind.

Shinji blinked and did so. He retreated from his Angel senses in a hurry, feeling a familiar tug helping him along. His Other was reaching out to keep him hidden from their foe.

Why now?

Doesn't matter. The others will know soon enough. Get ready.

Understood.

"Shinji?!" Maya exclaimed.

Asuka was at his side trying to help him up. He felt her grip on his arm, strong as steel. People in the cafeteria were staring. A mixture of soldiers and support staff watched in confusion. A few off-duty medical staff rose to see if they were needed.

"They're coming," Shinji breathed. He felt sweat on his forehead.

Asuka's face fell. Maya put a hand to her mouth. Shinji got to his feet saying, "we need the Evas. Now."

The cafeteria broke into a sea of activity as word spread.

…

Space.
The surface of the Moon.

Adam and Lilith stood basking in the sunlight from atop their perch on the white crater-filled landscape. The Hybrid stood with its eyes closed letting the heat from the sun lick its pale almost metallic skin. Flesh that changed its shape and whirled almost constantly. A frame that had settled onto an Evangelion-sized humanoid form.

The time was at hand. They had waited for more than long enough. They had healed. They were more than a match for the Abomination, the insult to the legacy of their parents, and whatever pathetic forces the humans could muster.

They no longer bothered concealing their presence. They boasted their existence and let the truth be known.

Adam's Children, the entities that mankind had struggled against, were little more than childish imitations of what Adam and Lilith had been. For They were the First and the Second. They were the true Angels. Beings that were designed and crafted by those long since passed.

They had been abused and wronged. They had witnessed the crimes of mankind firsthand. They had felt the pain and suffering of one who had lived among them.

They would punish mankind for their sins. The First reveled in it, cold and alien, coming to finish what it had started. The Second seethed in a raw divine hatred for those that had twisted her gifts to them. In her eyes, the humans were utter failures undeserving of her parents' legacy. Life was too great a privilege for the ones who had hurt her and her vessel.

Reality around them shifted. The Hybrid teleported, stepping across space, and vanishing from the surface of the moon in an instant.

The Hybrid opened their eyes. They were hovering over the city of Tokyo-03. The urban sprawl lay underneath them. A million little souls going on with their days. The last hours of those little lives were at hand.

Dark wings emerged from the Hybrid's back.

Adam and Lilith watched with cold pitiless eyes as the scene below shifted. The mundane and routine was brought to an abrupt halt as the shadow of a titan loomed over the city. Cars nearly crashed on the streets and highways; people looked up in horror at the sight of the Angel in the sky.

The Hybrid began to move, gliding through the air and moving across the city casting its dark shadow everywhere it went. Pandemonium broke out as the city reacted like a living thing, a wild and cornered animal, puny little things scouring in confusion and terror before a god.

The city-wide alarms sounded off signaling the arrival of an Angel. The memories of a pale-skinned girl, murdered thrice before her time, told Them that countless civilians would be rushing to the supposed safety of bunkers placed around the city. Police and other city officials would be urging people to remain calm or else leading them to safety.

Adam relished in it. The First bathed in the fear and panic. Lilith tolerated it. The Second led them forth and came to a stop along their path. They floated overhead a single apartment complex.

Like insects fleeing an anthill, the apartment complex was emptying itself out of its occupants. With the Hybrid's arrival overhead, the evacuation broke into a panicked scrambled as people fled the scene. The city-wide alarm blared overhead throughout it all.

Adam and Lilith descended slowly as the civilians ran for their lives on foot or in cars and disappeared into the distance. The Hybrid paid the people no mind as they floated down and began to change. They shrank in size becoming 'human' in stature.

The law of conservation of mass did not trouble them as they changed their size. The Hybrid touched down upon the parking lot with no sound whatsoever. A pale humanoid being of metallic flesh that rippled like standing water.

Adam and Lilith moved through the now-empty building calmly, a god walking halls built for men. They came upon the door and found it unchanged from the last of the girl's memories.

The door to Rei Ayanami's apartment stood before them.

Adam and Lilith put their hand to the knob and turned. CLANG. The lock shattered and the door opened to reveal the ghost town that had been the dead girl's home.

The Hybrid stood in the bedroom staring at the wall where a red stain lingered. A remnant from when Gendo Ikari had struck the girl and sent her flying back. The child had banged her head upon the wall.

Adam and Lilith studied the scene and remembered. They called the memories of the girl and re-lived them as if they were there. As if they were watching the scene like a phantom, an incorporeal spectator to the events that had already unfolded.

---

"You are never to make these again," Gendo said suddenly.

The Hybrid watched silently as Gendo grabbed the paintings in his hand and tore them up, ripping them into pieces.

Rei's eyes widened at the sight; her feet lost their strength. All that work, all that precious effort into keeping a record of the dreams, of the memories. Gone.

"No!" she cried, unable to stop herself. She fell to her knees, clutching at the battered remains of her dozens of paintings.

"We're burning them. And you are no longer staying here. You will be relocated to Nerv immediately. Your needs will be met, but you are to remain on-site at all times. You will train alone. You are to have no contact with the Third Child or the Second," Gendo said sternly.

Gendo loomed over her as she wept quiet tears and ran her hands through the shredded remains of her drawings.

The Hybrid watched, turning its gaze from the girl to her abuser.

"No," she whispered through her tears.

"Excuse me!"

"… no," Rei whispered.

Gendo whirled, grabbing her by the shoulder and yanking her to her feet.

"Ayanami," he ordered.

Rei shook her head, trying to pull away.

Ayanami!" Gendo ordered.

"You are a bad man. You will kill them all…" she whispered.

Gendo struck her and she stumbled back colliding into the wall. Blood dripped down from the back of her head. She trembled, bringing a hand to her face.

The Hybrid seethed, staring with deep red eyes at the echo of Gendo. Enraged at the memory.

"Ayanami… you are not following orders," Gendo said, panting hard.

---

The Hybrid left the memory and turned, letting their unblinking gaze travel across the bedroom. It was mostly clean, the hated boy had taught the girl the importance of such things, save for the upturned bedsheets. The place was practically untouched from when Gendo had discovered Rei's paintings.

Here. This is where she died. - Lilith thought.

HE KILLED HER HERE. HE SUFFERS EVEN NOW. THE REST WILL FOLLOW – Adam thought.

The Hybrid seethed in the former prison of Rei Ayanami. The humans made cages in all manner of ways. This housing unit had never been a place of safety or comfort for the girl. It had been another form of containment. A way station between the city and the rest of Nerv. A false reward that the girl's captors had subjected her to.

An object caught the Hybrid's eye on the dresser. A small machine that Rei had kept close at heart and treated with care. The SDAT Player.

The Hybrid grasped the SDAT Player in their hand and held it before them. The little thing had been a gift from the boy to the girl. A failure of a boy who had let the girl suffer. A failure of a boy who Lilith hated with every fiber of her being. Shinji Ikari had failed the girl twice and for that, he would be dealt with. Both of them.

All of mankind had been deemed unworthy of existence.

We will punish them for their sins. – Lilith thought.

With a wave of their hand, the unseen forces rose. It was like a miniature hurricane. Walls were torn asunder. The ceiling cracked into a million pieces. The apartment was undone. Destructive waves of kinetic energy ripped and tore through the structure like a bomb. The damage leaked out into the hallway bringing down sections of the walls. Debris went flying in all directions like shrapnel.

Adam and Lilith stood in the ashes of Rei's prison with the sun shining overhead. They crushed the SDAT Player in their hands with a crunch, and let the wreckage fall to join the ruin.

They floated off the ground and rose once again into the sky. They changed shape once more, growing as they flew.

They emerged from the wreckage as a titan, tall as a building, and flew onward heading to the place where it had all begun. In their wake, the skies darkened. The heavens twisted into a nightmarish red as they flew onward.

Adam and Lilith cut a path towards the Geofront and what remained of Nerv. They took their time, letting the skies bleed for all to see.

---

Elsewhere.

The JSSDF base was a buzz of activity with the mixed military and former Nerv staff scrambling to launch the Evangelion Units. Military satellites had located the Hybrid and were tracking its course to the Geofront. Transportation craft was on standby to airlift the Evas to the site, they were expected to arrive shortly after the Hybrid did.

Only the military was still in the air. All civilian aircraft had been grounded in the wake of what was happening. Reports were coming in from all around the world of darkening red skies.

The Entry Plugs were lined up in the cleared airfield with Eva Units towering over them. A mass of people had gathered around. JSSDF, Kaji and government officials, Ritsuko and her team, and finally, the Eva Pilots themselves.

"What is this?" Asuka asked. There was a small tremor in her voice that she pushed through regardless. A fear of the unknown that she rose to meet willingly.

"… the end of the world," Shinji answered in a whisper.

Violent and frenzied weather was beginning to take shape in the heavens above. Harsh hurricane winds that only the toughest of military aircraft could withstand. The whole world was cast in a reddish tint as even the sun seemed to hide.

"We have to stop them. And… whatever happens. We stay together, we promised, right?" Shinji said slowly.

Asuka met his gaze and nodded saying, "we promised."

Together, Shinji and Asuka walked side by side towards the assembled staging area, dressed in their plugsuits, and found that the Broken Man was already there. A walking scarecrow of a man prepared for war.

"But why? Why the Geofront? Why Nerv?" Asuka asked as they reached the staging area.

"I don't know," Shinji said truthfully.

"Because Adam and Lilith were both imprisoned there," the Broken Man answered softly.

Shinji and Asuka glanced at him. It was a strange sight. An old man acting as an Eva Pilot. The Broken Man stood in plain unmarked military fatigues. Plugsuits hadn't been designed with adults in mind, so they made do with what they had.

Asuka had trouble talking to the Broken Man. She still struggled with 'who' he was and what to call him. She considered what he said and nodded slowly.

"It's where it all began. Where they were experimented on…" Shinji said.

Asuka looked between the boy and the old man, struggling to maintain her cool at being in the presence of both of them.

Shinji took a deep breath. The day was at hand. They would have to face Adam and Lilith. To face Rei. It was all wrong. It was never meant to come to this. But it was the world they had. Gendo and Keel had been defeated and the Angels were all that remained. The last foe on the board.

"Do you think we can win?" Shinji asked his Other. He said the words plainly and without judgment. Aged before his time just like the old man.

Asuka whirled to him, but Shinji raised a hand to let his Other speak.

"I don't know," was all the Broken Man said.

Asuka scoffed saying, "we'll make it back. Have some faith."

The Broken Man studied her with hollow empty eyes and Asuka met his gaze. She frowned and involuntarily took a step back, her expression downcast by what she saw. It surprised her… to see Shinji in those beaten down eyes.

"Asuka's right. We can do this," Shinji said stepping between them.

"We have to hurry. They're getting closer," the Broken Man said. He strode forward, worn down and withered, but defiant even now. An old soldier in all but name. He walked to his Entry Plug grim and silent but determined to put an end to this once and for all.

"… is he always like that?" Asuka whispered, watching the old man go.

"Like what?" Shinji asked.

"Serious. Sad. I'm not sure what to call it…" Asuka said, crossing her arms. She looked to him and to his Other in the distance unable to find the words.

"Yeah. He's always like that," Shinji said softly.

"I… I don't like it," Asuka said.

Shinji managed a weak smile at that and put a hand to her shoulder and squeezed gently.

"We're the backup this time. Stay close. He's the best chance we have," he told her.

…

The Broken Man was to be the first loaded into his Eva. Kaji saw him off with a firm handshake, a last send-off.

Ritsuko helped him inside the Entry Plug, and he thanked her as the computer system came online. He waited for her to leave so he could seal the cockpit and the Entry Plug could be re-inserted into Unit 00, but she didn't leave.

He felt her eyes on him, their last conversation lingering in the air. Words left unsaid. Words left unwanted. He moved to dismiss her, to punch the commands and be on his way.

Ritsuko grabbed hold of his arm.

"Be careful," Ritsuko said quietly.

The Broken Man stared at her before wordlessly removing her hand from his arm. She looked away stung but got out of his way. He ran the commands and the cockpit sealed. The Entry Plug was re-inserted into Unit 00.

…

Asuka was the second to be loaded into her Eva, with Kaji seeing her off and wishing her well.

Shinji was the last.

He was helped into his Entry Plug and breathed in and out calmly as the metal tube was re-inserted into Eva Unit 03. The Eva responded to his call with no issues. He felt the sync rate establish a strong connection and with it came a memory.

A memory of the girl who had piloted before him. Even now she lingered in his thoughts when he least expected. A phantom that he wasn't sure would ever go away. He wasn't even sure if he wanted it gone at all.

He closed his eyes tight at the thought of her. To sit where she sat. To touch the controls that she had. He remembered her so vividly that it was like she was sitting beside him. Still, that familiar figure that he'd grown up with and shared so much.

"Mari," he whispered in a croak so low no one could hear him.

He opened his eyes and gritted his teeth. Somber memories turning into determination. One last piloting run. One last fight. He needed to be strong just one more time. He could do that.

---

The Geofront.

Adam and Lilith reached the wasteland of the Geofront first.

The place itself was littered with the bitter remains of both the JSSDF's invasion of Nerv and SEELE's assault. The corpses of the MP Evas had been moved some time ago.

Craters littered the scorched lands that surrounded the ruins of Nerv for miles. The tent city that had lingered at the site to investigate Nerv had been evacuated leaving the entire site bare bones.

The Hybrid touched down about the grounds and sat cross-legged with its hands raised, directing the ever-growing global phenomena that were the storm of the century. And as they did the entire Geofront and most of its surrounded area was consumed by the storm.

Any remaining structures from the investigation site were flung in all directions, ripped from the ground, vehicles sent hurling back, as the winds howled.

Adam and Lilith waited in the eye of their storm. For they knew there was only one that could challenge them. One that would need to be dealt with before they finished their crusade. They left the invitation open.

…

"The storm is too strong. We've lost sight of the Hybrid. You're our only eyes and ears."

The acting general's voice was calm with only a hint of unease seeping through. The military would play little part in this battle.

"Get us as close as you can." The Broken Man answered back on the comm.

The JSSDF transport approached the Geofront struggling just to stay airborne. Fierce hurricane winds battered the aircraft and threatened to throw them off course until they had no choice but to deploy the Eva Units.

"Godspeed," the JSSDF acting general said into the comm. The military may have been able to assist with the fight against SEELE and the MP Evas, but full-blooded Angels was another story. Time and again, the JSSDF had learned the hard way to leave the Evangelions to face the Angels.

With a thunderous roar Eva Units 00, 02, and 03 were dropped to the surface. They fell into the outskirts of the storm enveloping the Geofront and landed miles away from where they had planned to. They had been going off the last known position of the Hybrid, but who knew where it was now.

Even from within the Entry Plugs, they felt the turmoil of the outside bleeding in. The sheer cold, so intense that it burned the skin. Asuka and Shinji shivered inside their cockpits.

The Broken Man barely felt it.

All three of them carried the weight of the world on their shoulders.

"They have to know we're here," Shinji said uneasily. He looked to the skies and saw the JSSDF transport craft hurrying back to base, the weather battering them as they became a spec in the distance. He imagined the pilot breathing sighs of relief as they headed away from the storm and the upcoming battle.

Please make it back in one peace. No more deaths. No more, Shinji thought.

"What now?" Asuka asked into the comm.

"They're waiting for me. The only one they believe can challenge them." The Broken Man said into the comm.

"Then we stay together. If we spread out, they could pick us off one at a time," Asuka said, whatever foolish pride she had carried long gone. She was under no illusions of the reality of what they faced. She had seen the Hybrid take down the MP Evas and an Awakened Unit 03, all in a manner of seconds.

Shinji nodded, grasping the replica spear tightly. One last 'gift' from Keel along with the S2 engine for Unit 02. The remains of SEELE's arsenal. He and Asuka each held one whilst his Other held the original Spear of Longinus in hand.

They moved onward, crossing the distance in minutes, as the storm grew in intensity to greet them. Winds howled all around them with force to buckle even the Evangelions, force enough to send cars flying and crack concrete.

Suddenly their comm units began to hiss.

"Shinji. Shinji! Come in! Asuka! We- we can't…"

"Hello… hello…"

"Are you reading…"

Static filled the comms and Shinji winced at the electric crackle in his ears. The signal was being interfered with. Ritsuko, Kaji, the JSSDF, none of them could get through.

"Asuka," he said. He pressed the controls of the comm unit, trying to switch to a private line.

Nothing but static. The Hybrid had robbed them of communication. Even with each other.

I can sense your presence, boy. Stay close to Asuka. – the Broken Man whispered into his mind.

They're watching us, aren't they? Adam and Lilith?

Yes.

He turned his Eva to face Unit 02, feeling his breathing grow heavier. Asuka had Unit 02 raise a hand to him. He imagined her cursing at the silence and trying uselessly to open a comm channel for the three of them.

This is bad. We have-

The skies began to darken even further, turning pitch black and robbing them of their visibility. Shinji whirled as his fellow pilots and their Evas were being enveloped by the lack of sunlight. He heard Asuka stumble towards him.

He raised his Eva's hand and felt Asuka take it with hers. They stood together in utter silence. He could still see the outline of her Eva, but not much else. He lost sight of his Other. He could find the old man if he needed to, he was sure of it, but how could they fight like this?

The winds howled stronger and stronger, and he feared he'd lose even what little he could make out of Unit 02.

We're blind and muted. We just landed and we're already at a disadvantage, Shinji thought.

BOOM.

Something came for them in the dark. A red beam ignited the path it took as it cut through the pitch black. A blast of heat vision stronger than what even Zeruel had managed.

He and Asuka tried to raise their AT Fields, but instead, another figure emerged from the dark. Wings of Light ignited briefly, illuminating them in that split second before it happened. The Broken Man flew, slamming into their Evas with his and shoving them aside.

The heat vision went wide missing them entirely. The Wings of Light vanished from Unit 00 as quickly as they had been born. Then they were all enveloped in near pitch-black again. With no way to even talk to each other. Not by comm units anyway.

We have to do something, he thought.

I'm going to stop this. Be ready. – the Broken Man whispered to him.

Right. Shinji answered him.

He didn't need to see to understand what was happening. He felt his Other reaching out, pulling on an invisible thread, the mark that had been placed on Adam so long ago.

Shinji hissed, feeling the burn of the blowback effect as the Broken Man purposely called upon the network to reject him. To reject the conflict in the universe that was his existence alongside Adam and Lilith. It was a double-edged sword. One that inflicted pain upon all of them. One that burned his Other and the Hybrid far more than it did him.

The weather around them died down. And the comms came sputtering back to life.

"Hello! Shinji! Asuka!" Ritsuko and Kaji's voice sounded off. The sound came rushing into his ear as the connection was suddenly reestablished.

"Stay off the comm! Eva Pilots only!" Shinji shouted. They didn't have much time.

"I'm here! I hear you!" Asuka sounded off in his ear.

The sky was returning to the reddish nightmare of before. Bits of sunlight began bleeding back into the world around them, granting them their visibility once more. And he felt his Other release his hold on the mark.

It worked!

Can't rely on it. Be ready.

The world around them cleared and Shinji spotted Asuka and the Broken Man on either side of him. All three Eva Units stood together. And together they saw the Hybrid at last.

Adam and Lilith were hovering crossed-legged in mid-air.

They witnessed the god calling forth the End of Days. An Angel the size and shape of an Eva Unit, with pale metallic skin that shimmered as it moved like standing water. It took the features of Adam and Lilith in turn, ever-shifting, a being that was comprised of two entities.

It opened its eyes as the storm died down but did not clear. No more games. The battle was here.

WHOOSH.

There was an explosion of movement. So fast that Shinji couldn't even follow it. One moment they were standing with their weapons in hand. Then all three Eva Units were thrown back as Adam and Lilith sprouted wings from their back and charged them. There was an ear-splitting crack. A roar as the sound barrier was broken in less than a second.

It was like a bomb went off where the Eva Units had been standing.

Shinji groaned having the wind knocked out of him as his Eva was flung like a ragdoll. He heard Asuka shriek in surprise over the comm. At least they had comms again. It all happened so fast… like a missile being launched only a foot away from them.

Units 02 and 03 were pushed aside like playthings. Asuka dropped her replica spear and rolled, ending up on her knees with her pistol raised. Shinji struggled and fell on his back before rising with his spear somehow still in his grasp.

Further up ahead, the Broken Man stood his ground as the Hybrid had charged him. A lone knight holding back the might of a god. Together, the two titans were locked in an entanglement.

Unit 00 refused to fall. The Evangelion stood with its boots gliding slowly across the grounds as the Hybrid flew onward threatening to overpower it. Unit 00 held the Spear of Longinus in hand trying to shove the blade into the Hybrid's heart.

The Hybrid had one hand around the spear's shaft and that was enough to hold it at bay, to stop the blade from piercing its skin. The Spear groaned as the metal began to shake, threatening to break as the two most powerful beings in the universe struggled for control over it.

Shinji stared in awe as reality around the Hybrid and the Broken Man shimmered and distorted. It was like water rippling after dropping a stone inside. Space itself seemed to tremble around the two as mirror images of cosmic forces met for the third time. The power of the Original Adam and Lilith clashed with those of the new timeline.

The Angel network went haywire at their confrontation, threads whipping wildly and burning them. Blowback.

Shinji winced as the burns began to affect even him but struggled forward. He had to help. He charged forth with his replica spear in hand.

A red light flashed and another blast of heat vision came forth. The laser struck Unit 00 and sent the Eva back dragging the Spear of Longinus with it, broken from its entanglement with the Hybrid. Reality around them settled visibly as the two separated.

An AT Field erupted into existence as the Broken Man was bombarded with the sheer heat and force of the Hybrid's heat vision. Unit 00 began sinking, forming a new crater into the ground, as Adam and Lilith broke away at their shield with a continuous blast.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

Gunshots rang out as Asuka fired her Eva's pistol. All three rounds hit their mark, slamming into the Hybrid's back. The three bullets clanged loudly as they collided into pale metallic flesh and did no damage whatsoever.

Shinji raised his spear aiming for the Hybrid's chest where the heart should be. It wasn't wise to throw it so early in the battle, he might not be able to get it back, but his Other couldn't take the bombardment forever.

Adam and Lilith whirled turning their heat vision on him. The blast arced out with the Hybrid's movement, cutting into the ruins of Nerv in the far distance and the surrounding area before Shinji and his Eva were struck in the chest. He yelled as he felt the heat sweeping through the Eva's armor and even its skin.

Alarms sounded off all around him in the cockpit. Warnings flashed across his display screens as the Eva's armor began to glow red hot and the air around the titan sizzled.

He couldn't take it. He felt the burns twice over. The phantoms sensations of the Eva, and the heat leaking into the Entry Plug. It felt like he was being burned alive. He dropped his replica spear as the computer systems went haywire.

NO! It can't be for nothing!

Shinji raised his hand to bring forth an AT Field, to bring his shield up and stop the heat from incinerating him. Only he didn't need to. Just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The heat vision vanished, and the pain lingered but lessened.

WHOOSH.

He opened his eyes and spotted the replica spear flying where the Hybrid had once been. Asuka had reclaimed her spear and thrown it.

The Hybrid dodged, taking to the skies again with a flutter that upended gravel. As the god rose into the nightmarish skies above, they arced an arm outward, and a wave of unseen force slammed into the earth beneath them. Invisible artillery fire slammed into the ground where his Other had been trying to recover from.

The ground quaked from the resulting aftershock and Shinji struggled to keep his footing. He groaned as he felt the burns to his Eva and its armor. The metal had started to melt into the Eva's skin glowing brightly.

This… this is insane.

Adam and Lilith were so fast. And strong. And tactical. The Hybrid was attacking, dodging, keeping them from helping each other, putting distance between their spears and itself. The invulnerability of Adam, combined with the wisdom of Lilith.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

The gunshots rang against the Hybrid's skin proving nothing more than an annoyance.

Asuka was good. Even with everything that had happened, she had saved him, she had tracked her target when her spear had missed, and she had landed multiple shots on the Hybrid. All in less than a minute.

He heard her scowl over the comm as her bullets proved useless against Adam and Lilith. The MP Evas and the other Angels had taken at least some damage from Evangelion weaponry. The Hybrid was in a completely different league.

Adam and Lilith hovered far above, a pale silhouette against the storm-filled skies, as two more rounds struck them in the face. Bullets that scored direct hits to the eyes. All to no effect.

The Hybrid tilted its head at him and Asuka, and Shinji felt the power rising.

Shinji realized what it was going to do and screamed over the comm. Shouting his warning while he still could.

"Nightmare!"

He saw the rippling around Adam and Lilith as the mental attack came spiraling from the god above. The attack sprang forth like a living thing, an entity that was invisible to those without Angel senses, and though he could see it he could not stop it.

The Nightmare struck him and Asuka all at once. It reached deep past his Eva and struck him through the face, it seeped into his skull and ripped into his mind. He heard Asuka gasp as it did the same to her.

Shinji wanted to yell. To shout. To curse. This was all going wrong. All this time and effort, desperate deals with the devil, everything they could to give them an edge, and it was all for nothing against the new god.

The world around him vanished. Replaced by a deep sea of black. Nothing remained of the battle, the Geofront, his displays. All he was left with was a vague outline of his cockpit inside the Entry Plug.

---

The Nightmare.

He felt a chill run down his spine. He felt himself losing all sense of time and purpose in the Nightmare. His memory was becoming scattered, a distorted tangle of emotions without context.

NO!

Shinji gritted his teeth. He fought to remember. To ground himself in the here and now. He remembered what he had been doing. He knew deep down that no matter what happened here, the battle was still raging on in the real world.

"My boy, you should have died when you were supposed to."

Keel's voice, emerging from above.

"If you couldn't save them, what difference did you make? Why the struggle? The dead are dead," Keel taunted.

Shinji covered his ears and closed his eyes. It's not real. Need to break out. Need to break out, he thought.

"You knew for so long, and you let her suffer. You let them all suffer. You stood back and let it happen," Gendo's voice called.

Not real... Shinji thought over and over.

"Shinji…"

"Shinji…"

"Why… why do we keep dying for you?"

"Why can't you just die instead?"

He flinched as the voices came. They were Misato. They were Mari. They were Rei. They were the unlucky Nerv employees gunned down during the invasion. They were the nameless soldiers who had died trying to rescue him from SEELE. They were every soul that had been lost in his name.

Shinji gasped as he heard Mari and Rei's voices again. They hurt him the most…

Hands began to emerge around him. Bloodied things that clawed from underneath the dark and pulled themselves up into the Entry Plug. Corpses coming to drag him down to join them.

"No… I tried to save you…" Shinji stammered weakly as he felt his limbs turn sluggish.

He felt tears in his eyes as the undead Rei emerged in front of him. He opened his mouth to speak but the dead swarmed him. They dogpiled him. The corpses grabbed him, yanking him from his seat. The dead dragged him down into the dark and he screamed as their fingers cut into his skin.

They called out to him. The dead. Mocking him. Taunting him. Cursing his name and the suffering he had caused. He felt their fingers clawing into him, he felt their hands cover his face and begin tearing into his flesh.

Until finally one voice emerged above all the others. One that echoed in his mind and made his ears bleed.

"YOU LET HER SUFFER. FEEL A FRACTION OF WHAT SHE DID. EXPERIENCE THE AGONY OF DEATH. AGAIN, AND AGAIN. FEEL JOY TURNED TO ASH." – Adam and Lilith whispered to him.

Shinji wanted to scream as he was being torn apart.

"NO. This is wrong!" Shinji shouted. He fought through the pain. Even here, in this pit of darkness and despair, he fought. This weight, this burden, it wasn't all his to bear. Asuka had helped him see that. He closed his hands into fists so tight that he felt blood weep from his palms.

This isn't real.

One thought that drove through his mind again and again. He broke the Nightmare and banished the corpses that swarmed him. They vanished. Misato, Mari, Rei, all the soldiers, everyone who had been tearing at him.

He didn't waste time. He broke through the darkness around him and felt his mind escape the prison that Adam and Lilith had crafted for him.

---

The Real World.

Shinji gasped, falling from his seat in the cockpit. He vomited and felt the contents of his stomach empty itself onto the floor. He felt tears in his eyes and blood on the palm of his hands. He rose on shaky legs and slammed back into his seat, grabbing the controls.

He brought up an AT Field moments before the unseen force slammed into him. An invisible meteorite crashing down atop his shield. The Hybrid had wasted no time after he'd broken free of the Nightmare. He felt his shield cracking under the strain of Lilith's sorcery, the unseen forces that lurked outward and struck like violent telekinesis.

"Gah!" He grunted.

His Eva buckled under the strain as the unseen force pushed and pushed. The AT Field flickered as cracks spread all around the solid light.

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

Asuka… no… Kyoko! Shinji thought.

Evangelion Unit 02 roared clawing at its head and whirled wildly. The red titan stomped through the grounds, and he heard Asuka screaming over the open comm channel that she had never closed.

"Get out of my head!" Asuka screamed in a blood-curdling outburst. The Eva roared with her. The faceplate dented and the mouthpiece broke off with a harsh clang of metal.

"OUT. OUT. GET OUT!" Unit 02 shrieked.

The Evangelion had been awakened. Kyoko Sohryu was awake. Unit 02 turned almost feral, a beast coming to life before their very eyes, a mother's love turned free. The Eva's muscles bulged, and the armor struggled to contain and control the titan underneath.

Shinji felt the outburst of power. Raw and primal. Asuka and her mother broke free of the Nightmare with a roar. He felt the Hybrid's surprise in the network and wished he could smile.

The Hybrid released him and turned its attention to the Awakened Unit 03. The red titan howled with rage and leaped from the ground. It may not have known how to fly, but it didn't seem to care. The Eva launched into the air with a primal strength that brought it into a collision path with the Angel above them.

Adam and Lilith raised a hand as the Awakened Unit 02 came for them with the force of a missile taking off. The unseen forces whipped out and caught the enraged Evangelion in mid-air.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Unit 02 roared.

"Damn it!" Asuka yelled audibly over the comms. Unit 02 stood frozen in mid-air between the ground and where the Hybrid hovered above. Trapped in a prison of telekinesis.

Adam and Lilith brought their raised hand into a fist and watched with unblinking cold eyes as the forces around Unit 02 began to tighten. Metal screamed, bones began to crack, and flesh began to tear.

Asuka and Unit 02 were being crushed in mid-air. The Eva's limbs began to bend as it screamed and fought with all its might to break free. Kyoko roared and roared trying to save her daughter to no avail. The Eva was being crushed from all sides like a tin can.

Shinji threw his replica spear. The imitation of the original Spear whooshed through the air, and he screamed: "let her go!"

The Hybrid whirled moving moments before the spear would have struck its heart. The spear grazed the pale rippling skin and cut through the supposedly invulnerable flesh of a god.

Blood dripped down from the Hybrid as it swerved away putting more distance between itself and them. Its alien eyes widened as it stared at the wound across its side… a god could bleed.

Unit 02 momentarily fell from its prison, only to be captured once again and crushed once more from all sides.

Shinji pulled the pistol from his Eva's side and began firing for the wound he'd created. The Hybrid moved further into the skies. It actually tried to dodge gunfire. Adam's skin might have been invulnerable, but the organs and material underneath weren't, not even here merged with his sister.

Asuka was breathing heavily as her Eva was crushed from all sides.

Need to get her out, Shinji thought. He could hear Asuka struggling to breathe over the comm as she fought to break free.

Keep their attention. The moment you're empty, protect yourself - the Broken Man told him.

He ran out of bullets and knew what was coming. He didn't bother reloading. He let the gun fall from his grasp and raised two AT Fields around him. The solid light enveloped him in a protective bubble just as Lilith's unseen forces came for him, entrapping him in the same prison that had claimed Unit 02.

Only his AT Fields held the forces at bay. The prison tightened around him but met its match against his shields.

Now! Shinji thought to his Other.

The Hybrid was gazing coldly down at them. Red eyes alight at their stubborn refusal to die yet. Heat began to gather around their eyes for another blast. Instead, a blindingly white light emerged and arced forth slamming into them.

The Broken Man rose into the skies. Unit 00 collided with the god and plunged the Spear of Longinus into the Hybrid's chest where the heart should be.

Together, the two titans soared violently through the skies.

Unit 02 was released from its prison. Asuka and her Eva fell to the floor with a heavy thud, wounded but free. Shinji dropped his AT Fields and rushed to her side.

This should have been the end of it… but somehow Shinji knew it wasn't. He glanced upward and saw to his horror that the Hybrid was still standing. They had been so close. So close. It should have been a perfect strike to the Angel Core.

---

Above in the skies, Adam and Lilith wailed in agony. A god's pain.

The Broken Man cursed. He and Unit 00 were locked in an entanglement with the Hybrid as they whipped through the air. The Spear of Longinus had pierced the god's chest, his aim had been true, but the Hybrid had locked a single hand around the tip of the spear.

Adam and Lilith glared. A single hand, one that was bleeding across the fingers, held the spear at bay. The Broken Man pushed onward drawing more of Adam's Might to fly faster and harder, he was literal inches from piercing the Angel Core.

He was close to ending this. So close to ending all the suffering and leaving behind a better world for the survivors.

Adam and Lilith resisted him. They kept the Spear of Longinus from reaching deeper. They pushed back against him with wings of their own. Together they shined like dying stars in the Angel network. Both calling upon the powers of the First and Second Angels.

Space began to distort around them. Reality beginning to tear at the conflict between them. The creators of the Angels had feared time travel for a reason. The network reacted violently to them drawing on so much power. A rejection of their conflicting existence.

Blowback sprang forth.

Both of them hissed in pain. Both of them burned inside and out. A god and a man brought low.

Adam and Lilith wailed, their metallic rippling skin darkening. The first effect of prolonged damage from the blowback.

Inside the Entry Plug of Unit 00, the Broken Man shook in his seat. His vision was beginning to fade. His heart was beating faster, his breathing slowed, parts of his skin were turning red as he burned. He felt every cell in his body cry out in agony.

"ABOMINATION!" Adam and Lilith roared.

A god wasn't used to pain. A god had never been broken, had never been swallowed by death, had never faced opponents who could destroy them with a thought. The Broken Man was used to pain. He breathed it in and swam in it. His foe was stronger than him, there was no denying that, but he could endure what they could not.

He had been fighting uphill battles for his entire life. This was no different. He let the burn come and knew whether he lived or died, he would stop the Hybrid. He would make this all mean something. It was all he had left.

Together with the Hybrid, they turned and turned in a flurry of movement. They zipped through the nightmarish skies leaving streaks of light in their wake. The Hybrid trying desperately to dislodge the spear from its chest and fling him off, the Broken Man refusing to yield and trying with all his might to reach further and pierce the Angel Core.

Space cracked around them as they swerved through the skies. Distortions in reality where they lay locked in battle.

The Hybrid fired off another blast of heat vision striking him in the chest. The Broken Man grunted refusing to let go of the spear even as he was hit at point-blank range. He was forced back, the spear retreating but not leaving the chest of the Hybrid.

Lightning flashed and struck Unit 00 in the back. Hurricane winds battered him. Unseen forced slammed into him as he struggled to drive the spear back in. A god turning the forces of nature against him.

Finally, he was forced back by the combined onslaught. The Broken Man cursed as he fell back with the spear forced from Adam and Lilith's chest. The blood of a god stained the alien metal and dripped down to the ground.

It's not over. Not while I have breath in my body. Not as long as I have a single drop of blood left.

The Broken Man whirled in mid-air with his Eva, Wings of Light fluttered as he regained control. He shot up once more with a speed and maneuverability that surpassed anything manmade.

He came at the Hybrid, again and again, chasing the wounded god through the storm they had created. He gave them no respite. He called forth the AT Blade and he flew, cutting at their defenses with his sword before striking with the spear.

The wounded god countered him with everything it had, matching him blow for blow, putting distance between itself and the Broken Man. Lightning flashed, hurricane winds flew, unseen forces spiraled out lashing wildly with strength enough to bring down buildings, blasts of heat vision spring forth.

…

On the ground.

Shinji and Asuka watched, panting over the comms, eyes wide in awe at the sight above them. A pair of grounded titans, spectators to the clash in the heavens above.

A series of dancing lights flashed amid a terror-filled sky. A god and an abomination clashed overhead, and the universe trembled in their wake. Flickers of white arced back and forth, colliding before being driven apart. One chasing another.

Heat vision lanced outward in wide continuous arcs to no avail. Winds blew and crackled as lightning sprang from nowhere. A dogfight between beings that could be compared to gods.

Shinji winced, closing his eyes tight as he felt the burns take him too. His Other bore the worst of it for him, shielding him from the pain even now. The blowback still hit him, but it was a fraction of what the old man endured.

"He's doing it… he's beating a god to a standstill," Asuka said over the comm in awe. A tremor of something like hope making its way into her voice.

"FRIEND," Unit 02 spoke suddenly, a harsh guttural word uttered by a mouth not used to speaking. The surprise came so suddenly that it made Shinji and Asuka flinch.

Kyoko had been awakened, and Unit 02 wheezed heavy and harsh breaths as it slowly began to heal itself. Flesh mended around the titan, bones slowly righting themselves.

"Thanks, mom," Asuka whispered softly into her Entry Plug.

"Can you still pilot?" Shinji asked, his voice strained. He opened his eyes.

"I think so. My mom… I can feel her… but she listens to me. She can't focus for long, it's hard for her, but she can do that. She can let me guide her," Asuka answered.

Before he could continue, Ritsuko's voice emerged in his ear. The comm channel springing to life.

"Shinji!" Ritsuko's called into his comm.

"I'm here," the boy said weakly.

"You have to help him! His vitals… your Other, he can't take this. You have to finish this fast!" Ritsuko said, her voice panicked and high-pitched.

He'll die if he keeps this up, Shinji realized.

Shinji scanned the area. He and Asuka were trapped down here whilst the war raged above them. Both had already thrown their spears and lost them. Guns had proven useless against the Hybrid unless already wounded.

He knew what he had to do. He'd never done it before, had never flown himself, but there was no other choice. He felt Adam's Might come at his beck and call, he summoned some of the power that had been shared with him.

"… Shinji…" Asuka asked tentatively.

"I'm going to bring them down. It's going to be messy. We can overwhelm them here on the ground," Shinji said breathing heavily.

"If he can't handle much more of this… how long can you?" Asuka asked.

Wings of Light erupted from the back of Unit 03. "I don't need long," Shinji answered with a strained voice. He felt the power at his grasp. Adam's Might pulled from his body and passed forth to his Eva.

"Be careful," Asuka whispered to him. Her Eva's hand came to squeeze his.

"I will be," he said, squeezing her Eva's hand back. She let him go and stepped back as he crouched low with Unit 03 and then took off.

Shinji and his Eva launched from the surface like a shuttle taking off. Power but not the grace and elegance of his Other or the Hybrid. He summoned the AT Blade and flew through the skies joining the melee above.

Adam and Lilith clashed with the Broken Man again and again. Each was the sole focus of each other's attention. Blow for blow, they met each other's match.

Shinji shot straight forward and took the Hybrid by surprise. He approached from behind and they whirled lightning his way. They couldn't give him their attention, wounded as they were, facing an abomination that stood near their equal.

Shinji grunted as the lightning struck him, but he didn't care. Blood began to slide down his nose as he felt the burns of blowback coming stronger and stronger. He reached his target and brought the AT Blade up.

"SHINJI IKARI!" the god roared.

He backstabbed the Hybrid aiming for where the heart would be. The AT Blade didn't sink all the way in, even with the speed and power his flight had added. His sword couldn't pierce through the Hybrid's invulnerable skin, but it didn't need to.

The Hybrid cried out from the blow and the Broken Man came for them finally getting past their defenses. Once more the Spear of Longinus came and once more Adam and Lilith caught it. The god wailed as the spear cut into their fingers and pierced their skin.

Damn it! Shinji cursed.

Adam and Lilith refused to die. They held the spear at bay a second time, bleeding heavily, littered with wounds across its otherworldly frame, but still strong enough to keep the spear from destroying the Angel Core.

The Hybrid thrashed wildly as Shinji clung on dragging them downward. Shinji and the Broken Man were entangled with the Hybrid. So close to victory.

Together, Shinji and the Broken Man forced the Hybrid down. All three of the titans crashed landed into the earth and sent ripples of destruction in their wake. The earth shook and sections of the ruined Nerv collapsed in on themselves, buildings in the outskirts of Tokyo-03 shook violently, and a new crater was born.

Shinji felt the burns starting to get to him. His vision was growing dark, and his nose was bleeding violently, his whole body was shaking, but he held onto the Hybrid keeping them pinned to the ground.

Adam and Lilith roared as red light and heat to match the sun gathered in its eyes.

The Broken Man stood over Adam and Lilith, driving the Spear of Longinus closer and closer to the Angel Core. The old man didn't care as his body began to fail him; he didn't care as the Hybrid gathered strength for another blast. All that mattered was the spear in his hands.

Finish it… Shinji begged his Other. Let this finally end. So much pain and sacrifice for this bitter victory. A world free of Nerv and SEELE, free of the Angels, free of the suffering caused by madmen and their selfish dreams of immortality.

CLANG.

Shinji's heart stopped and all his hopes vanished as the Spear of Longinus broke in two. The Hybrid swerved, turning the alien metal sideways with such force that the Spear Tip ripped free of the shaft, snapping the weapon in two. The spear shaft slammed into the dirt as the god whirled on them.

Heat vision lashed out and struck Unit 00 in the faceplate. The laser bored deep into the Eva's eyes burning them into nothing. The Broken Man cried out and stumbled back.

The Hybrid raised a hand, faster than a flash of lightning, and an unseen force slammed into the Broken Man sending him and his blinded Eva flying like a ragdoll.

Shinji tried to bring forth the AT Blade, to fight, to do something, but the Hybrid took off into the air hurling him free of it. He crashed into the ground and brought up an AT Field just as another blast of heat vision came at him from above.

His shield strained against the blast and Shinji cried out in frustration and rage.

The heat vision stopped and instead the Hybrid itself came crashing down upon him, dive-bombing him and shattering the AT Field into a thousand pieces that faded into nothing.

Shinji almost threw up again as he felt his Eva's ribs break. Adam and Lilith glared down at him, tearing the remains of the spear tip from their chest, and tossing it aside. They stood over him with light and heat gathering around their eyes.

Unit 02 roared in the distance and came charging towards them.

It's not over… not yet…

He brought the Eva's hand up and the AT Blade materialized. He wheezed as he aimed for the Hybrid's wounded chest, stabbing wildly at the Angel Core.

Adam and Lilith caught the AT Blade with a single bloodied hand. They stared at him with unblinking hate-filled eyes and squeezed.

"THIS POWER DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU." The god said.

BOOM.

Shinji cried out as the AT Blade shattered like it was made of glass. The sword vanished and his arm fell.

Adam and Lilith slammed a single fist into Unit 03's chest. Shinji's world vanished in a sea of pain as the Hybrid's hand tore through the Eva's plate armor and reached past the flesh underneath.

The Hybrid rose in the air carrying Unit 03 by its internal organs. It brought him close and spoke once more.

"SHINJI IKARI. WE SHALL RETURN FOR YOU, BOY."

They lifted Shinji and his Eva high and hurled the mangled titan aside. Shinji crashed into Unit 02. Asuka cried out as she was sent stumbling back.

…

Adam and Lilith turned their attention to the Broken Man. Shooting off like a missile, they streaked forth in a flash of light.

The Broken Man rose, half-dead himself, his Eva blinded with its eyes having been burned away. He heard the Hybrid come for him and tried to fight. He raised his hand to bring forth an AT Blade but his movements were stiff and slow.

Adam and Lilith called a blade of their own. They beheaded Unit 00 in one single swoop, severing the neck from the torso. The Broken Man wobbled in his Entry Plug, the phantom sensations disappeared violently from his body, and what remained of his Eva slumped to the ground.

The Eva's head was grabbed by the Hybrid.

Adam and Lilith let their AT Blade fade away and reached inside the remains of Unit 00's neck. They yanked the Entry Plug free with a screech of metal and roared in victory. Long and loud.

Wordlessly, Adam and Lilith held the Entry Plug in their hand and began to squeeze. Crushing the feeble metal tube.

Only the Entry Plug didn't break. It dented like a tin can. It screeched as it cracked and cracked but still, it did not break.

…

Inside the Entry Plug of Unit 00.

The Broken Man coughed weakly, his breath leaving him slowly. Blood ran down his face from his eyes and nose. Most of his body had taken on burns and his heart was beating slower and slower. His vision was almost completely gone. His world was a blur and disappearing into the dark bit by bit.

He held both his arms raised and had brought up two AT Fields around his body, enveloping himself within a protective bubble.

Adam and Lilith squeezed the Entry Plug tighter and tighter in their hand. The god tore through the metal and touched the AT Fields themselves and they understood.

…

The Hybrid seethed. The Abomination refused to die. The only one who could challenge them. And still, without its monstrous machines, it resisted. A man who thought himself the Angels' equal.

"DIE."

Adam and Lilith moved the remains of the Entry Plug into both its hands and squeezed again, crushing at the little human inside and their pathetic attempts to delay the inevitable.

Still, the Abomination did not die. The little human's AT Fields protected them even from this onslaught. It defied all reason. In no universe could a man resist the might of the Angels. Yet one had. Enough.

They had other methods.

Shadows came to life around the Hybrid's hands. Lilith's sorcery spread from their fingers bypassing the AT Fields protecting the Broken Man. The shadows snaked their way inside and pierced at the aged pilot within the remains of the Entry Plug.

---

The Other Place.

The soul of the Broken Man blinked. He found himself in the Other Place, another aspect of reality where souls had a physical form. He had been here many times now, the soul, the mind, one and the same.

Before him stood the soul of a god. The union of Adam and Lilith was enormous, a colossus, a humanoid ocean of souls that had been forged into a single entity. This was a true Angel. Not the childlike imitations that Adam had created. This was the work of the First Ancestral Race.

The Broken Man wheezed and knew what was coming. Soul combat.

He summoned Adam's Might and white armor began to emerge around his scar-laden soul. An eerie recreation of the First Angel born from his soul.

Wordlessly, the Broken Man met the Hybrid in battle. They clashed. The soul of a man against the soul of a god. He surprised them. They hadn't expected an actual fight. He landed three good blows, striking at them like a boxer.

He punched them between the eyes before landing two solid blows to their torso. They roared and struck back at him. They fought. David and Goliath come again.

He lost.

He was pinned to the ground, his armor shattered, the recreation of Adam done away with, as a massive hand pressed its fingers into his soul.

Rei... I couldn't do it… I tried so hard… I did everything I could think of… the Broken Man thought.

His soul was beginning to rip and tear. The true death was upon him as the Hybrid loomed over him.

Still, even now. He fought. He struggled to break free of a god's grasp and found with surprise that he could resist. He felt everything that was him start to disappear, his memories, his thoughts, his feelings.

But a small part of him refused to give up. He fought to hold his soul together, keeping what 'he' was whole even as a god sought to unmake him.

"WHY?" Adam and Lilith bellowed.

The Broken Man gave no answer.

"HOW DO YOU RESIST?!"

The Broken Man had no answer to give.

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!" a god demanded.

Death. Even now as he fought against it with everything that he had, he knew that he didn't fear it. He'd already died before. Six times now. That nothingness that awaited. Looking back at it… he couldn't say for sure when he'd died the first time.

With his wife? With his sister? With his daughter? With his son? With haven? Or after? Each of them had seemed to take a piece of him with them, long before he'd bled out under that bridge. Alone.

There were times when he would wake up and want it. Hope for it. A rest. For everything to be over. Moments where he felt so very old. But always, there came that one last piece of him that wouldn't let go.

Not yet… that little voice in him whispered.

Not yet. Just one more day. One more day. He would tell himself again and again.

Each step at a time, building the bridge to the world he could never have. A dream of a place better than he had ever known. A world where another him and his wife could have lived out their lives, their real lives, the life that she deserved more than him. A world where his children could have lived and grown into adults surrounded by love and joy. Where he could have watched over them and grown old with his wife. A world freed from the machinations of his parents.

A dream that he could only ever watch from afar. One still worth fighting for. And one more. One last promise that he needed to keep. It was the least he could do for her. The one who had given him everything.

Teacher… he thought. Even as the Adam and Lilith of this world raged against him, moving to rip his soul in two. He heard it. He heard the voice of Lilith mixed in underneath the monstrosity that was the Hybrid.

"Because…" he breathed, barely a whisper.

Adam and Lilith tightened their grip, seething as a mere man defied them.

"I promised to save you…" he croaked out. He thought of his teacher. The Original Lilith, the Woman in the Dark. She who had sacrificed everything for his dream. No… for less than a dream. Only a hope of one. And she had done so willingly.

The Hybrid hesitated for the briefest of moments. A calm before the storm. Their fingers were impaled in his soul, tearing at it even as he fought to keep it together.

BANG.

BANG.

The sound came thundering from the outside. It came from the real world. And without warning, the Broken Man was released from the grip of the true death. He was released from Adam and Lilith's hold within the Other Place.

He was forced out back into the real world.

---

The Geofront.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

Two of the bullets hit their marks perfectly. Any other Angel and it might have even worked. But not so for Adam and Lilith.

Asuka fired her gun. Shinji and the near-dead Unit 03 knelt beside her. The bullets hit the exposed wound in the Hybrid's chest, where the Spear of Longinus had almost reached the Angel Core.

Two of the bullets slipped past into the wound and slammed into the Angel Core. The Hybrid gasped as if stabbed in the lungs, a mortal losing their breath. The Core shook from the impacts and cracked but did not shatter.

Adam and Lilith flailed back, dropping the wreckage that had once been the Entry Plug of Unit 00. And dropping the wounded and half-dead Broken Man with it. The old man kept his shields up even as the wreckage of his cockpit landed on the wastelands of the Geofront.

The Hybrid wrapped its wings around its chest, eying the human girl who had come inches from killing a god.

BANG.

BANG.

Asuka cursed as the opening was covered. She had no way of hitting the Angel Core. Shinji was at her side, barely breathing as his Eva limped along beside her.

We saved him… We saved him… I would have felt it if 'he' died, Shinji thought weakly.

"Shit! What now?!" Asuka said, the barest hint of panic in her voice. She and her Eva were holding his up, and together with her mother's help, they backed away as the Hybrid approached.

Spear… we need a spear…

Shinji struggled to his feet, his Eva leaning on Asuka's, and scanned for any of them. They were gone or else too far. They'd lost all their spears. No… they still had one nearby. The broken remains of the original Spear of Longinus.

The alien metal lay where it had fallen. If Asuka could get to it, she might have a chance. Her mother was with her. The Awakened Eva was already healing itself. The original Spear of Longinus was their only hope.

"I see it too," Asuka told him, seeming to know what he was thinking.

"I'll give you as much time as I can. Get it and take that thing out," Shinji panted.

"No way! They'll kill you!" Asuka shouted back.

Unit 02 growled low interrupting their argument.

A blast of heat vision came their way. Shinji raised his hand in unison with Asuka. Together, the two of them raised an AT Field. Working together, they produced a shield stronger than anything they could have managed alone.

The blast hit their combined shield and did not break it.

Still, the Hybrid came for them, protecting its wounded chest. It took its time, no longer tolerating any sudden surprises. It would finish them first before returning to its only real threat.

"It's our only chance. Asuka… please… I have to try…" he panted.

When she didn't answer he got frustrated and turned to yell at her even though she couldn't see him in the cockpit. To shout at her that the world was at stake. That his Other fought with everything and that he had no right to do anything less. That he'd promised to end the suffering once and for all.

Instead… he found that the cockpit was gone. The entire Entry Plug had vanished.

Shinji gasped as an ocean of black enveloped him. It stole the world and took him in. He was alone with enough light to see himself, but darkness surrounded him in all directions.

He'd been here before several times. Part of him wanted to scream. Part of him wanted to cry.

Why? Why now?!

The sound of soft humming filled his ears as a figure approached in the dark. A woman.

---

The Broken Man wheezed in the wreckage of the Entry Plug. Blood had stained more than half of his aged face. His fingers shook as he struggled to move. He unbuckled the harness and rose from the remains of his seat.

Not yet… not yet… one more day…

As long as there was breath in his body then it wasn't over.

He forced himself to move, old wrinkled and now burned body jerking stiffly. He moved along like a corpse pulled by puppet strings. Sheer will drove him forward even as his body failed him.

Adam's Might… one last push.

He could form the armor out here in the real world. Become a cross between Angel and Evangelion with his body alone. It wouldn't last. Not for long. But if it helped even a little, then he had to try.

He wobbled on unsteady feet but forced himself forward. Only to find that the cockpit and the Entry Plug were gone. He blinked as he was swallowed by an ocean of black.

He was left with enough light to see himself, but the darkness surrounded him in all directions.

He breathed heavily in the stillness. Until it came. The humming. He wasn't sure how he had called her. Maybe he really was a sentimental old fool at the end, unable to stop his weakness from leaking out.

Not now old man… you still have work to do… he thought.

He felt himself shudder as the Woman in the Dark emerged. The last little piece of his teacher, given to him willingly, less than a memory, less than a ghost.

The Woman in the Dark stood before him. She was a haunting ethereal image of his wife as she had been before her death. The spitting image of a 26-year-old Rei Ikari. And yet more. More than a human could be. She carried herself with an otherworldly presence, that of an Angel. She had bold red eyes and silver hair that was brighter than his wife's hair had been.

But it was a lie. This thing was less than a memory. A revenant of his teacher and last friend in all the world.

She reached for his face gently. A sad look on her face as her red eyes bored into his.

"Leave me…" he croaked, waving a hand to banish her.

"No." She said to him.

He blinked and the Woman in the Dark took his raised hand in hers. Three fingers intersecting with five. She stood there in front of him, their hands together, and she smiled sadly at him.

"Yes, my love. I am here."

"You're not her. You can't be. She told me," the Broken Man said on the verge of tears.

"That she could not follow you? Not as she was then? She was right. It is… a matter of perspective."

The Broken Man stared at her and shook his head unable to meet her gaze.

"I have been with you all this time. Sleeping. Dormant. I woke when my kin had you in the grasp of the true death."

She pressed soft hands to his face, a loving touch.

"Teacher," he said almost in sobs.

His last friend in all the world. His final companion. The only remaining piece of his old life. One that he'd been told could not come with him on his journey. To feel her touch again, to have someone who understood and who had known him from before… he didn't have words to express it.

"The battle. I have to-"

"I know. I have seen your memories. We have time. Not much, but enough to talk."

The Broken Man nodded unable to stop himself as he basked in her touch. It was the closest he could ever come to feeling his wife. To hear her voice again. To see her. And more. It was to see the last person he had had any affection for. A last bit of humanity that had kept him going in those last ten years before he'd jumped back in time.

Ten years of waiting for his mother. Ten years of watching as Adam slaughtered what remained of the human race. Ten years of studying the gifts granted to him. A decade of harsh never-ending winters that wiped away any trace of mankind's existence. Years that marked him as the sole survivor of his species. It was his tragedy and one that his teacher had helped him shoulder.

Ironic that it had been an Angel that had saved the last of his humanity.

"Husband," the Original Lilith said lovingly. And he knew that it was her. His teacher had come back. And he knew that it wouldn't last.

"… how?" he croaked.

She smiled at him, ever an instructor. Patient. Calm. Honest.

"This is a concept you and your parents always struggled with. The Angels, the true Angels, not simply Adam's Children. We are more. We are more than individuals. We were each a collective, Adam and Lilith. Each is a single entity born of many.

Adam's power had been taken. His soul, his consciousness, was destroyed. There was no other way. For Lilith? It was gifted to you willingly.

And so it is that I am here. I am only a remnant. A single remaining piece of Lilith that 'she' smuggled inside of you.

You have already seen something similar. Kyoko Langley Sohryu. She lives and yet she does not. Lilith is… we were… more complex. A piece of her is so much more than what remains of Ms. Kyoko."

The Broken Man stared at her taking in the information. And closed his eyes as the realization hit him

"All this time. You were here. Why? Why didn't she tell me? Why… why did she lie to me?" the Broken Man said breathing harshly.

"Husband. I am sorry. It was her last gift. It comes at a great cost."

"I've been alone. I have carried this burden… alone."

This weight, this mission, had been his to bear. He was the one in charge, the one who had to have all the answers. The one that the boy and later the others turned to when the world was at its worst.

The Broken Man opened watery eyes and felt his good hand clench into a fist. If he were a younger man he would have raged and cried. Now? With age and all that comes with it, he stood in that flash of anger and let it drift away. Replaced with a sorrowful joy, a bittersweet thing.

The Woman in the Dark blinked back tears of her own.

"You are not alone, my love. There were times where I almost woke. Moments where I bled into you and the boy."

She reached for him, to embrace him, to comfort him, a thousand apologies and explanations on her face. He turned away from her touch saying, "why didn't you help? You could have done more. All this time?"

"Because there is a cost."

"Always a cost," the Broken Man whispered bitterly.

"I was meant as a last resort. Once I was woken, there would be no turning back. And I was afraid."

He turned to her with hollow tired eyes, feeling as if he was over a hundred years old.

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid that if you knew, you would summon me. That you would waste our last gift. This journey of yours has been long and hard."

The Woman in the Dark lowered her eyes in shame. A remarkably human expression upon an Angel.

"One that you have walked alone. And although we would give anything to comfort you, I could not risk it. So, I hid the truth. I smuggled a piece of myself through time."

The Broken Man blinked back tears and wiped his face dry. No matter what else he felt, he knew that his teacher had made the right decision. Deep down, he was still a man. He still had his moments of weakness no matter how his teacher tried to avoid saying it.

He had called upon this memory more than once. In dark times when the loneliness ate at him. If he had known… there was a chance he would have pushed further. A chance he could have tried to wake her sooner.

"I understand," he said.

The Woman in the Dark breathed a sigh of relief. Happy in her own way.

"You're here now. How can you help? I already failed. I couldn't save Rei. I couldn't save… your Other. All we have left is the war. And we can't win," he said.

Even as he had fought with everything that he had, pushing his body to its last drop of blood and final breath, he said the words admitting what he had seen with his own eyes. He could not match the might of a combined Adam and Lilith. He had given them a battle that put them through their paces, a man who stood before a god, and yet still… they were stronger. In the end, the Hybrid would prevail.

The Woman in the Dark smiled at him. A true genuine smile. A smile that had once belonged to his wife. A little thing that once brightened the world.

"I have seen the truth, my love. When my kin held you in the grasp of true death, I woke, and I saw them. And I knew at that moment."

"Knew what?"

"That you did not fail. Rei lives."

He stared at her almost refusing to believe her. Experience had shown him the futility of hope and had given him compromise after compromise. Taking from him more than giving.

The Broken Man shook as the words sunk in. He almost fell to his knees, but the Woman in the Dark held him. She held him and just this once, he let her. He felt himself sink into her arms, an old and faded man at the end.

"The Hybrid is too weak," she told him.

"Weak? You call that thing out there… weak…" he said, almost laughing like a madman.

"Yes. My kin, the Adam and Lilith of this world, they're wasting power. They're using up so many resources on the inside. It's the only reason all of you lasted this long. And their soul. I saw their soul with your eyes. They are not completely merged."

"Their soul… it was one. Their voice was merged…" the Broken Man said slowly, scrambling to make sense of it all.

Lilith ran a hand through his greying hair.

"You have eyes, and I have taught you to look with more. But still, you did not see because you did not know. You were not there. I remember my birth. I remember the beginning. And so, I know that my kin is not unified completely."

"What are you saying?" the Broken Man rasped.

"That Rei is still there. Imprisoned for her protection. She is hidden even from you. Adam and Lilith are keeping her from the world, even as they destroy it. I would open that cage and set her free. Yes, husband, Rei can still be saved."

The Broken Man wheezed and shook from the news. Rei lived… she lived… he felt a crushing weight lifted off his shoulders. One that he had carried ever since returning to his original body.

"How?" he said.

The Woman in the Dark smiled down at him.

"It must be the boy. Not you. Him. This is his world, his Rei."

"The boy? Ah. You're talking to him too. Right now, aren't you? Two places at once."

"Yes."

"Humph. More than a decade now, and you're still taking me to school," he said softly, relief flooding his old bones. The Angels were so much more than humans. Even now, with all his gifts, he didn't think he could have done what his teacher did.

She tilted her head at him, a gentle little expression with hints of regret. "I taught you everything that you know. But alas, there wasn't time to teach you everything that I know."

"Do it. Save her," the Broken Man urged.

"There is always a cost."

"I'll pay it. All of it. Whatever it is, take it from me. Protect the boy. Save him."

"… This will be the last time, husband. After this, there will be nothing left of me. Nothing of my brother. You will lose all of our gifts and it will be the end of you."

The Woman in the Dark said the words slowly and solemnly. Her eyes alight with the guilt of what she was going to do.

"I don't fear death," the Broken Man said softly and without emotion.

The Original Lilith stared at him with sorrowful eyes, and he saw the tears held at bay. Why? He wanted to ask. He didn't understand.

"I know, husband. And it is why you have always broken my heart."

I tried to warn you. I told you not to love me. Bad things happen to those who do, he thought.

"… I'm sorry. For everything," he told her.

"This too, I know. I will do it. Now please, let me have this. Before the end," she whispered, her voice soft ethereal, and otherworldly.

She leaned forward pressing her lips against his. She kissed him goodbye. He let her. And then, just this once, in perhaps another moment of weakness, he returned the gesture. It was beautiful, to feel his wife again in some form or other.

He didn't resist as she reached inside and took control of his body. He let her assume control just as he had taken control of the boy when he had needed to. He felt his gifts, the pieces of Adam and Lilith working in unison one last time.

The Angel network reacted violently. It burned at him once again running deeper than it ever had. His entire body went into shock and his organs buckled under the strain. He felt the Angel in him being slowly burned away, used up, and shining brighter than ever before.

This would cost him everything and it would all be worth it.

…

The Other Place.

"… you helped me. When I was a prisoner. When SEELE tried to bind the Hybrid…" Shinji said slowly.

Shinji stood with the Woman in the Dark before him. She was real. Not just some remnant or some leaking manifestation of his Other's guilt.

More than once, he had wondered just 'what' this echo of the Second Angel was. A mystery that not even his Other had fully understood. Now they had their answer.

The Woman in the Dark smiled at him. A teacher rewarding a clever student for their observation.

"I was still sleeping then. Perhaps 'dreaming' would be a better word. And even in that state, I felt your pain, child. I helped though I didn't realize what I was doing. You… reminded me of my husband."

"Oh. I… yeah…" Shinji said slowly.

His mind was still reeling. This was so bizarre. Speaking with the Original Lilith. He had never known her… yet he had seen her in the memories of the Broken Man.

His face fell as he realized something. He felt his heartache and he asked the question.

"Mari. You were there the whole time. Sleeping. If you had woken earlier… you could have helped… we could have saved her…" he said.

The Woman in the Dark put a hand to his cheek in a comforting gesture. A mother comforting a lost and lonely child.

"Perhaps. But it wouldn't have ended things. I am sorry for your loss, child. Truly, I am. The world is seldom fair. You have seen enough to know that. But I am here now." She told him.

Shinji nodded no matter how much it hurt.

Mari. He thought. He saw her in his mind's eye, and he grieved for her still. And he knew that he was being selfish in a way. What he wouldn't have given to save her too. But the world was seldom fair, it wasn't fair that she had been another of SEELE's puppets, it wasn't fair that he been molded by Keel himself, it wasn't fair that Rei had been a pawn in his father's game.

What happened had already happened. He couldn't save his girlfriend. He knew that no matter how much it hurt. He could save his friend. The path was open.

Rei… I'll keep my promise. I'll find you, he thought.

He shook his head. He needed to hurry. Whatever was happening, the battle wasn't over. And if there was a chance to change things. He had to take it.

The revelation had shocked him to his core. It had filled him with life once again. A spark of hope reignited.

"My Other? Will he be-"

The Woman in the Dark raised a hand and brought it down gently across his forehead.

"Gah! What- what was that for?" Shinji said, stumbling back bewildered.

"My husband is the Original. You are the Other."

Shinji blinked. Fair point, he thought.

"He is ready. He has given me control. You must do your part. Be careful, child."

"What? You're… you're talking to him right now? To both of us?" Shinji stammered.

"We must hurry. Time is running out in the real world. Prepare yourself."

Shinji nodded, taking a deep breath even here in the Other Place.

"What do I need to do?" he asked. Nothing else mattered. He had to try. He had to save Rei.

"I will bring you to her cage. She has been through a lot. You will have to reach her. Find her and free her," the Woman in the Dark told him.

"But why me? Shouldn't it be him? The Original. He knows how to-" Shinji said slowly.

He'd give everything he had to help. He was prepared for that. But all this? The nature of the Angels and the insanity of the Original Lilith's plan? He was still just a teenager. The Broken Man was the real soldier of the two. The one who swam through the rivers of time. The one who had spent a decade studying under the tutorage of an Angel. The man understood with the boy did not.

The Woman in the Dark shook her head.

"It must be you, child. This is your world now. The girl that must be saved is not his wife. She is your friend. So, you must be the one to save her."

Shinji stared at her. At this haunting recreation of a 26-year-old Rei Ikari. It was unsettling to see just how much she looked like his friend.

"I'm ready," Shinji said, resolved to see this through.

The Woman in the Dark nodded and placed her hands to his face. They were warm soft things, ethereal, perfect in a way that a human's skin never could be. He felt the power gathering and knew that she would take control of him just as his Other had done so many times before.

---

The Real World.

Time is an interesting thing. It flows differently at different aspects of what we call reality.

And so it was that Shinji blinked and found that almost no time had passed at all. His conversation with the Original Lilith had lasted less than a second.

The Hybrid strode forward coming for Eva Units 02 and 03 on the wastelands of the Geofront. The god was a terrifying nightmare given solid form. It savored its hunt.

Unit 02 growled low and dangerous as the Hybrid approached.

Asuka was moving back with Shinji and his Eva propped up against her side. Her gun was raised, and she cursed firing uselessly at the Hybrid. The bullets slammed into the Hybrid's wings; dark featherless things that had wrapped around their exposed chest wound.

CLANG.

The bullets bounced off the nigh-invulnerable skin. Only the Spear of Longinus or one of its replicas could pierce through. Nothing else.

"We have to do something! And don't you dare take it on by yourself! I'm not leaving you!" Asuka was shouting into the comm.

"Go for the Spear. It's your only chance," Ritsuko said into the comm.

"The JSSDF is on the way. Unmanned drones. They can't do much but maybe they can buy you some time. The acting general has been given authorization for a nuclear strike," Kaji said into the comm.

"No. That won't work," Shinji said suddenly.

The Hybrid stalked forward chasing the wounded Units 02 and 03. Powerful unseen forces gathered in its hands, and red light began to gather around its eyes followed by heat so intense it sizzled the air.

"Asuka. Let Shinji go. It's the only way. He'll buy you time to get the spear-"

"No. I'm not letting him go!" Asuka said, defiant and stubborn. She tightened her grip around Shinji and his Eva.

Heat vision sprang forth coming for them. Shinji and Asuka raised their AT Fields and let them combine once again. The shield buckled against the blast.

Adam and Lilith raised their hands, one after the other, and unseen forces came crashing down. Sheer kinetic energy. Invisible meteorites slamming into their shield.

BOOM.

BOOM.

The sound echoed for miles and drowned out the comms momentarily. The combined AT Field buckled against the blows, cracking with each strike, but held. Asuka and Shinji winced as they felt their Evas being forced back. The ground underneath them was upturned as Units 02 and 03 slid back.

Hurricane winds thrashed them. Lightning flashed striking their combined shield. The assault continued, chipping away at the AT Field until it was little more than a cracked window.

The Hybrid increased its pace. No heat vision. No unseen forces. No more weather at its beck and call. It was ready to end this with its bare hands alone.

Shinji closed his eyes and breathed deep. It was time.

"Asuka. Stand down," he said softly.

"… what?!" she countered over the comm. Everyone else grew silent. Ritsuko, Kaji, the listening JSSDF.

"Stand down. You have to trust us. There's a plan," Shinji said.

"Are you insane?! The Hybrid will-"

"Please. Trust me. Stand down and let me go."

"Shinji…" Asuka stammered in a weak hoarse voice.

"Promise me. Promise that you'll stand down and trust me," Shinji said as the Hybrid approached.

"… I promise. And if they… I'll make them regret it," Asuka said, barely able to finish the words before finishing with the fire that he remembered her having.

Together, they dropped their shields.

Shinji limped forward with Unit 03, leaving Asuka and the red titan behind.

Adam and Lilith narrowed cold suspicious eyes at them but did not stop their approach. Unit 03 fell to its knees and craned its neck down. The Entry Plug was released.

Shinji closed his eyes as he was ejected from the Eva. His Entry Plug landed softly on the wastelands of the Geofront.

Asuka and Unit 02 lowered their useless gun.

Adam and Lilith stopped in their tracks. Confused. Weary. Uncertain for the first time. Suspecting a trap or else some Abomination's trickery.

Shinji felt the control being taken from him. He let it go. He let his body go to his Other and the Woman in the Dark. He felt them both. Their presence as she controlled the Broken Man and then him in turn.

The Woman in the Dark opened his eyes.

Shadows emerged from the boy's body. They enveloped him, dancing around him like a living thing. The Woman in the Dark raised his arms and the unseen forces rose at her command.

The Entry Plug was torn open in a display of power. Shinji the boy rose from his cockpit and floated through the air. He flew up with the shadows flowing all around his small frame. They rose several stories high and faced the Hybrid letting them be seen.

They heard Asuka and the others gasp over the comm. The Woman in the Dark raised a finger and disabled the small device.

Adam and Lilith stared with hard alien eyes at the boy before them. A human hovering at their eye level, wielding the powers of the Second Angel.

"Fear not."

Shinji's body moved. His lips parted. The voice that emerged was not his nor his Other's. It was the voice of the Original Lilith speaking through him.

Adam and Lilith took a single step back. Before they regained their composure and stared unblinkingly at the boy in the sky.

"WHAT TRICKERY BE THIS? ABOMINATION? YOU WOULD STEAL OUR VOICES TOO?" The Hybrid said, speaking for all the world to hear.

The voice was loud and powerful, booming, two voices that spoke in unison and echoed.

"This be no trickery. Brother. Sister. It is me. The Original." The Woman in the Dark answered.

"LIES. YOU ARE NO KIN OF OURS."

The Woman in the Dark smiled. Adam and Lilith narrowed deep red eyes at them as heat and light began to gather.

"Very well. In our tongue then. The language of our creators."

Adam and Lilith stopped, letting the heat fade from their eyes.

"WHAT ARE YOU?"

They spoke now in the language of the Angels. It was not a vocal language. It was thoughts passing through the Angel network itself. Telepathic communication that was much faster than anything that could be spoken.

For the gathered Angels, it was as if time slowed. A single second stretched into a thousand.

"I am Lilith. The Original. And I have come to speak with you. You would not listen to my husband. Sister, hear me," the Woman in the Dark answered.

"THEN YOU ARE ANOTHER ABOMINATION. THE UNIVERSE CANNOT ABIDE BOTH OF US. THIS WAS THE WISDOM OF OUR PARENTS. ONE MUST FALL AND SOON."

"It will be me. I accept this and yet I am here. I have come this far so that you would hear me speak."

"HOW? HOW DO YOU LIVE? HOW DID YOU ESCAPE SHINJI IKARI?"

"Because he did not steal my powers. I gave them to him. Together, we unraveled time. We created this world. From a certain perspective, I am your mother, and he is your father."

The Hybrid seethed with a mixture of divine fury and disgust. Utterly appalled at the 'thing' speaking to them now. At the revelation of what had been.

"YOU GAVE SUCH GIFTS TO THE ABOMINATION? YOU HELPED HIM UNMAKE REALITY?! YOU HAVE BEEN CORRUPTED. YOU HAVE BEEN USED. YOU DESERVE YOUR FATE. NOW DIE, AND PERVERT THE UNIVERSE NO MORE."

Before the Hybrid could strike, the Woman in the Dark continued.

"You have seen glimpses of it. Haven't you? The Original Timeline."

The Hybrid paused, a single moment that lasted an eternity for an Angel. The Woman in the Dark felt the uncertainty, the confusion, the suspicion all conflicting within the Hybrid.

Even now, the Adam and Lilith of this world wared with themselves. One wanting to lash out and destroy them utterly. Another wanting to listen, to hear from the original.

"WE HAVE SEEN FLASHES OF IT."

The Hybrid's voice was strained, conflicted.

"In my world, my vessel chose to live with mankind. First, she saved a friend. That act gave them a life together. In that life, Rei made her choice. She chose love over hate," the Woman in the Dark said.

"THEN SHE WAS WRONG. THEY DESERVE TO BURN. WE SHALL UNMAKE THEM."

"You have been hurt like never before. Pain? Suffering? Despair? Death itself? To be so weak and vulnerable, to feel all that. It is something we never experienced before our vessel. I understand, sister. I do."

"YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING!"

"I am you. I was experimented on. I was tortured. I felt Rei and her suffering when she came to me. It was so much. Emotions that we had never truly experienced. I know the crimes of Mankind for I witnessed them."

"AND YOU WOULD FORGIVE THEM? AFTER ALL THAT THEY HAVE DONE?! NO. THEY WILL BE PUNISHED."

"I do not ask you to forgive them. The humans are not aligned. They are not one voice. Do not judge the whole by the actions of a few."

"NO. WE WILL BURN THEM ALL. ENOUGH TALK. FADE AWAY, ACCEPT YOUR FATE."

"Sister. That is Adam speaking, not you."

"GO TO YOUR FATE, ABOMINATION. OR WE WILL SEND YOU ON YOUR WAY."

The Woman in the Dark tilted her head at them. She tilted Shinji's head as she controlled the boy's body hovering in the sky. A teacher disappointed in one of her students.

"Adam cares nothing for your vessel, sister. He cares nothing for your pain. He only uses you. He rebels against our parents. This isn't what they would have wanted. You knew this once, and you have forgotten. You have let him take that from you."

The Hybrid did not respond. They stood observing the Woman in the Dark with an expression closed off from the world. Hiding their reactions even from the Angel network.

"YOU SPEAK TO US OF REBELLING? YOU?! WHO AIDED SHINJI IKARI? WHO BROKE THE RULES? TIME TRAVEL IS FORBIDDEN."

"I had to. For him. For both of us. Brother. Sister. We had failed in our purpose. Adam had returned and laid waste to mankind. He slaughtered all that remained. A crime upon life itself."

The Hybrid fumed. A hate as bright as the sun radiated off their body, an emotion so strong that it affected the Angel network. The threads stirred, twisting, and turning, as an almost gravity-like force reaped havoc.

"THE CRIME WAS LETTING THEM LIVE AS LONG AS THEY DID. THE HUMANS PERVERTED US. CLONED US. THEY STARTED A WAR THEY HAD NO HOPE OF WINNING. ADAM DESTROYED THE HUMAN RACE? GOOD. LET US RECREATE THE DEED."

The Woman in the Dark bowed her head in shame, a moment that lasted an eternity for the Angels. Then she rose to meet the Hybrid's gaze, a calm fire in her eyes that reflected onto the boy's body, and she spoke.

"This isn't you, sister. I know what you have done, Lilith. I know that you have protected your vessel. You lied to the boy. You claimed she was dead."

"REI IS NO MORE."

"You can lie to the others. But not to me. I see you. You loved your vessel so much you wanted to keep her safe. You built her a cage to protect her from the fire. She doesn't know what you're doing, does she?"

The Hybrid began to gathered power. Red light and heat began to emerge from its eyes. Still, the Woman in the Dark did not stop.

"I know why you did this, sister. Now then, have you wondered what did our brother do with his vessel? Where is the soul of the one called Kaworu Nagisa?"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME?!"

The response came as a roar, a flurry of thoughts. A hate and disgust that was twisted and ugly. Power was gathered about the Hybrid's frame and yet the god did not strike out. It stood torn, conflicted, part of it wishing to lash out and another wanting to listen. Two entities that could not agree.

"Because I have seen this before. I saw what Adam did to Kaworu in my world. And I know that our brother has not changed. He has done it again."

"WHERE IS HIS SOUL? ADAM'S VESSEL. I CANNOT FIND HIM." – Lilith's voice whispered. One distinct and separate voice from Adam.

One half of the Hybrid's voice speaking whilst the other did not.

"HE WAS ANOTHER FAILURE! AN INSULT TO OUR KIND! AN ABOMINATION FORGED BY THE HUMANS!" – Adam's voice thundered.

The Hybrid shook in its pale metallic frame, a god coming apart from the inside.

"Adam rejected his vessel. He devoured Kaworu's soul and destroyed him utterly." The Woman in the Dark said.

Adam roared trying to lash out at the possessed boy in the sky. Instead, Lilith didn't let him. The Hybrid stood shaking and frozen unable to act with their great power as war raged inside them.

"Rei made her choice. She chose to go with her friend. You have taken that from her, sister. You have chosen for her."

"THE BOY FAILED. HE KNEW AND DID NOTHING FOR SO LONG. HE IS WORTHLESS." – Lilith seethed even as she raged against her brother for control. There was anger there. Real and true hatred for the boy that had failed her twice.

The Woman in the Dark understood.

"You loved him once. You loved him for the kindness he showed. Hate? Rage? The bitterness of hope turned to ash. These things are love twisted against itself. He tried to save her. She chose him."

"AND SHE WAS KILLED FOR IT. THEY KILLED HER AGAIN AND AGAIN." Lilith hissed. A human rage filling the voice of an Angel. A hint of fear. A weakness and vulnerability that an Angel had never known. The trauma of death and every pain Rei had ever felt…

"Yes. So, let her choose again. Let her decide if mankind is worth saving. If she can find worth in them once again, then so can you."

"NO! WE CAN END THEM ALL! BE GONE, FALSE ANGEL." – Adam roared, almost taking control.

The Hybrid moved in a flurry of movement. The god seeming to flicker in and out of existence as they moved to crush the possessed boy in the palm of their hand.

The Woman in the Dark matched him speed for speed. She flew from his grasp and spoke once again.

"Let her choose for herself, sister. Let the boy speak with her once again. Let her decide if you shall avenge her many deaths." The Woman in the Dark pleaded.

In the distance, Unit 02 growled and made to intervene. The Woman in the Dark raised a hand to stop them.

The Hybrid buckled and fell to their knees. Their frame of whirling skin growing wild and frantic, their shape became unstable and chaotic. Two entities struggling for control of the body.

"GO THEN. SPEAK TO HER. BUT KNOW THIS. SHOULD YOU HARM HER AGAIN, THEN YOU WILL BURN FOR AN ETERNITY."– Lilith whispered.

The Hybrid changed, shifting from a single Evangelion size body into a monstrous mockery of a humanoid frame. They shook as they fell to their knees, their flesh expanding and almost split into two before being pulled back violently into one frame.

Adam and Lilith disagreed. The First Angel resisted, trying to fight it. The Second relented and opened a path even as she waged war with her brother for control.

The Woman in the Dark nodded. She floated down to the disfigured Hybrid on its knees, and she brought the possessed boy to their torso. Shinji Ikari's body disappeared into the whirling flesh of the Hybrid, mirroring the moment when Rei was absorbed into Lilith.

---

The Other Place.

Shinji gasped as he laid eyes upon the soul of a god. The Woman in the Dark was beside him, escorting his soul onward.

Adam and Lilith were enormous. Larger than any Angel that Shinji had seen. Larger than Bardiel's soul had been. It was a soul that shimmered like water, billions of individual drops that had been brought together. An ocean of a soul that was at war with itself. Two hemispheres that clashed even as they were joined.

The First and the Second Angel fought for control.

Adam whirled for them. Lilith held him at bay.

The Woman in the Dark pressed him forward and Shinji shuddered as together they went deeper into the void. Deeper into the place where souls had a physical form.

Shinji was pushed into the soul of the Hybrid. He felt himself being taken in, absorbed for a second time, going further into the Other Place than ever before. Further than he even knew was possible.

The Hybrid's soul… it was not a single entity. It was Adam and Lilith both, but not completely merged. Each of them was a collective. Two bodies of rippling water joined together except for a single glowing bubble between them.

A cage that was hidden from the world. One section that separated them from merging completely. An island maintained by their power.

"What… what is this…" Shinji stammered.

He stood there inside the soul of the Hybrid. He saw the souls of the First and Second Angels with the cage in-between them.

"It is instrumentality. My parents sacrificed themselves to create my brother and me. The souls of our parents sacrificed for something new."

"I…" Shinji gasped.

He shook his head. This… it was too big. Too much information in too little time. It didn't matter. Not really. He had to save Rei. The nature of the Angels and what they were was better suited for more qualified minds. Not him.

He looked for his Other, wanting to reassure the Broken Man. Only the old soul wasn't there.

Shinji frowned. That wasn't right.

"Where is he-" He tried to ask. Before he could finish, he felt the Woman in the Dark move him forward. A gentle hand on his shoulder pressed him onward.

"We will give you as much time as we can. She is in her cage. The dream that Lilith crafted to protect her. Find her, child."

Those were the last words he heard. The Woman in the Dark brought him into the bubble between the souls of Adam and Lilith. He was pressed inside and managed only a brief look back before he was taken in.

He saw the Broken Man's teacher with cracks scattered across her soul. She was fading away slowly.

The Woman in the Dark turned to face the waring souls of Adam and Lilith and joined the fray. Fighting to give him more time.

---

The Dream World.

Shinji woke and found that he was lying on his back on a small stretch of land. An isolated beach of some kind.

He stared up at the night sky and found unfamiliar and foreign stars blazing above. It sent chills down his spine, but he rose on shaky legs.

Shinji stared eyes wide at the dream world around him. The cage that had been built by Lilith to protect her vessel from the real world. He had seen something similar; he had seen memories take root in the Other Place, becoming miniature worlds that could be explored, but this was on a whole other level.

He stood on the shores of an alien world. An ocean of liquid light surrounded the patch of land he stood upon. Strange religious markings littered the grounds underneath him, and in the distance was a tree.

An enormous Tree that would have towered over the tallest buildings on earth, with roots that stretched deep into the ocean. A Tree of Life with roots reaching into the body of glowing water that surrounded him.

He gasped taking it all in until he spotted a lone figure sitting at the edge of the shore. A girl with sheets of paper and coloring pencils in her lap as she drew and drew, recreating the tree amid the ocean. The squabbling of the pencils was barely audible over the sound of the tide.

"Rei…" he croaked. Unable to believe his eyes.

He teared up as he saw her again. She was dressed in her old school outfit, painting by the ocean, her back to him.

She stopped painting at the sound of his voice.

"Shinji?" Rei said softly, still staring ahead at the tree and the ocean.

"You're here. You're alive. So much has happened. Misato… Mari… Asuka and me… oh, it's been so hard out there. I... I promised that I'd find you," he said. He stammered over his words not even sure where to begin.

He took a deep breath. After all this, she was here. He hadn't failed his friend. He let out a little laugh. He wiped his eyes dry only for Rei to speak up.

"Out there? What does that mean?" she asked him suddenly.

"The real world," he explained. He opened his mouth to tell her everything, but she spoke up again interrupting him.

"This place is calm. Steady. Nice. It's the beginning," the pale girl said.

Shinji frowned. This wasn't going how he imagined.

"The beginning?" he asked slowly.

"A memory. The memory of when Adam and Lilith were born. She lets me stay here. It's nice. Safe," Rei explained, her voice distant.

Something was very wrong here. His friend wasn't right. She didn't seem to care about anyone or anything.

"No one can hurt me here. Lilith won't let them," Rei said, her voice distant and detached.

He watched as she raised a trembling hand and ran it across the back of her head, she shuddered as if lost in thought, wincing in pain as if struck. Then it was over, she lowered her hand and picked up her coloring pencils once more as if desperate to do so. It was almost like she forgot he was there at all, consumed by her paintings. She was running away from something.

"Rei..." Shinji whispered, wondering what had happened to her here. However long she had been here. Time flowed differently in this place.

The girl finally turned to face him. She frowned; red eyes framed by whiteish blue hair.

"Lilith made this for me. But… What are you doing here?" Rei asked.

---

REI LIVES.
I've been waiting to write that line for so long. This isn't deus ex machina however, there is still a consequence for everything that has happened in the story. That is very important to me.

There's a lot of strange concepts in this chapter. It's modified lore so not exact to the anime. I hope the story hasn't jumped the shark for you. If it has, I ask that you stick with it. No matter how sci-fi or fantastical things get, it all comes back to the characters. I promise. Unravel is a character drama at its heart.

What did you think of the Original Lilith's return? Her scenes with the Broken Man, and the Hybrid?

Anyway, thanks for Reading and please Review!
Coming soon, when it's ready, Chapter 55: "Ayanami IV".