Chapter 24: Thus, saith the lord

The loss of even a single life can have far reaching consequences. When Yui was used to power EVA unit 2, Gendo went insane. After Gendo went insane, he started mistreating Shinji.
After Shinji started becoming depressed through his father's gross mistreatment, he could no longer pilot properly and no longer save the world.
Because he could no longer save the world...

There is no way to tell at a glance the value of a human life. The scruffily looking kid might grow up to be the next Einstein or Lebron or Jackson while the handsome one might be the next Jack the ripper in the making.
The only fair thing to say is that each life is priceless and thus it is wrong to try and fix a fixed value to any single one of them. And that the best scenario is one where no one dies.
Sometimes triaging and picking people with skills required for the group's survival is necessary when not everyone can be saved, but by this logic Shinji and Rei should still be given much better treatment since everyone is pretty much screwed without them by the show's logic.

As a further note. The lovely thing about Lola from Angelo Rules and the Same Lola in my story is that her voice actress Cassandra Lee Morris kicks ass with a soothing tone that really yeets depression away.
She did Kyubey's voice from Madoka, Ritsu's voice from K-on and Leafa from sword art online, Patema from Patema inverted. Her best role and the one very few people know about is as Nadya from First squad moment of truth.
So, when you think of Lola. Think of a sword wielding, invert who can also create magical contracts.

Kaworu POV

As I spare one final glance of complete sympathy at the poorly assembled Rei clone of surprising power through my cascade of tears, Squid girl and Miho run to my side as they hold me by my arms and wipe my face with a handkerchief in my time of mourning.
That life of that Rei. So short yet so tragic, so unfair, so unjust.
It would have been perfectly possible for NERV to let her fully incubate but no, just had to send it out to try and delay the inevitable takeover that they knew was coming.

Misato POV

They've rushed me to the emergency room and hooked me to a massive bunch of machines which would make even Shinji's Evangelion seem simple by comparison.
I've been here well from night till morning till midday and now it's early evening and the winter sun is already beginning to set. They were even generous enough to commission a special pale purple hospital gown for my arrival. Nepotism did have its advantages.
From my surprisingly comfortable hospital bed where I now lay with arms and legs limply outstretched, I make out the blood transfusion device, the oxygen pumper, the pulse monitor attached to the two of those. As well as a lot of other bewilderingly complex looking devices that not being my far less ignorant doctor friend Ritsuko I could make no guess at.

Kaji tells me that since I'm technically of adequate rank to be considered triage worthy that such treatment is my right.
Had I been one rank lower like Lieutenant Ibuki, it would be straight to the waiting room until the doctor was ready and even then, only if I forked over an extraordinary tribute that I knew I would not have even if I had not wasted a penny of my frugal pay on alcohol.
Never mind that I was bleeding straight from my chest and would have certainly passed without Kaji's immediate interventions.

I can hear the maddened screams of some of those such unfortunate sufferers from the waiting room below. Their yells of grief and desperation would keep me up all night if not for Kaji being here to attend my bedside like I'm the commander himself.
I tell him through my weakness that such attention is not necessary for a drunken layabout who left her "son" to be beaten to an utter pulp and his eardrums screamed to bursting point.
He tells me that it's the least a disloyal husband like himself owes his strong and stable wife who's kept herself sane through all this debacle far better than himself.

"Even if you did have to turn to the bottle as a coping mechanism." he abashedly admits when I point out that the only reason, I look better than I look is because I've pumped so much depressant in the form of bitter beer into my system. It acted as a numbing barrier that allowed me to skirt the negative emotions life had always thrown my way. But it also blinded me to the love Shinji unconditionally offered to me but needed from me in return.

"No Shinji NO!" I remember screeching as with a concerned frown as Kaji with addled concern flags down an aide and immediately roars at her to sedate me before I get out of hand.
"He cares so much about me." I gratefully remark inwardly from the bottom of my heart as the sedation took effect leaving me out until now when I finally wake up.

I think I can hear gunshots and explosions in the distance. It can't be the Evangelions. They do not shoot, they punch and kick. What a cavemanlike method of combat in this modern day and age when there existed majestic ballistic beauties such as missile artillery and gatling guns which pick off targets from a thousand paces.

Kaji kept on trying to hint to me that something was wrong and now and only now was I beginning to see his rhetoric. This fact alone which I should have known like the back of my hand being a master gunslinger before I fell to alcoholism should have rung a bell.

I would never drink again from this day forth. I made this vow here and now as once again I'm forced back into unconsciousness from the inability to breathe well.
Only clean water would be permitted in my diet starting from here on out, with the occasional unsweetened vitamin smoothie I would force myself to choke down despite my utter aversion for those.
No more beer. To prove my determination, I'd never even utter the name of that poisonous spirit.

So that in this way the next time I aimed a shot at the lying faker who slipped right under my nose to completely brutalize my beloved son until he no longer knew the meaning of love, my arms would be unshaking, my breath would be controlled and my vision unclouded as I aimed a shot.
Your day of discipline for the strictest violation of military and humanitarian protocol of NERV's conduct came soon pilot Asuka Langely Soryu.
I shall see to it personally.

They said that the long-lived folk of peaceful Okinawa had an Ikegai. A purpose for getting up in the morning every day and taking good care of their health no matter what.
I think I had found mine.
It had taken a suicide attempt and Kaji's complete and absolute attention but I had figured out my inner purpose.

The failed mother who had been partitioning with God to let her join him in his heaven was now begging him to give her healing in the mortal plane instead.
The chest stab which she'd wished with all her heart to be fatal, she now thanked with all her soul for recovering so well and so quickly. She had cursed herself for being so lousy with a melee weapon having spent her entire military career wielding only ranged weaponry and for being too drunk to aim steadily.
Even if she had promised to reject all alcohol, she did have to thank the final can of beer for making her clumsy enough not to make her pathetic attempt at self-pity fatal.

One final change. I remind myself before the world goes completely black.
If my heart was going to change and Shinji was going to see these changes as being sincere and permanent then so too could my frightening appearance not remain the same.
When I woke back up, I would ask Kaji to go to the nearest shopping mall he could find, and buy me the cheapest and most practical dress of white with the traded in money from my previous fancy one of night black. I knew from the occasional bits of his absolutely heart-breaking talks to himself that I was occasionally sober enough to listen in on that my Shinji hated red thinking it must be the colour of hell.
Well then it stood to reason he would also loath black for the same reason.
A change for the better meant a change in every aspect of myself from head to toe.

Kaji POV

The dismantling of NERV could wait when the closest thing Shinji would ever have to a guardian who gave an ass about his welfare and the closest person, I could ever call to a paramour was at stake.
I was going nowhere until Misato could come with me.
The destruction outside seemed to agree with me since while I heard on the news that much of NERV's army in Tokyo 3 was cut down and many buildings were captured, the group of immaculately dressed schoolgirls in their tanks never came near the hospital.

These rebels weren't brainless marauders. Nor were they here for petty motives such as revenge. These were pragmatic professionals who came with a deeper purpose.
I could respect that with all my pride. They had done a good job whittling down NERV for me and my personal team of spies and hackers.
The saying, my enemy's enemy was my friend came to mind here.

But that could all be postponed. Nothing comforted my Misato more than when I read classic Shakespearean Literature that were the one subject, she enjoyed in earnest from her school days.
I was not like Romeo. If the killing of even my most dangerous and despised adversaries tore me away from my Juliet, then I'd swallow my pride and let them go.
I was not like Hamlet. I was not about to abandon Ophelia to let her fall to madness to follow my own madness.

Kaworu POV

Did such tyrants really think they could hold onto power forever? Did they take the citizens who put their lives into their hands as fools?
Even supposing that I died this day which part of me sincerely wished I did, it would have simply been my legion of girls und panzer to finish the job instead.
Supposing that they were then also tragically vanquished by NERV's ultimate weapon then the common people would have gone up in arms.
Guns, knives, shovels. There were many weapons a simple human could turn to even without an Evangelion or tank if they intended harm.
When all else failed we each still had our fists and feet. Be he the commander as he may, Gendo was not impervious to a simple fist in the face to smash his brain in.

Begging the question why one of his followers hadn't done it already.
He wasn't even a very strong man spending most of his days chilling like a boss on his gilded throne in his high castle.
Love? It couldn't have been. I had heard the rumours of how appallingly he treated each partner he had developed the slightest inkling of sexual attraction toward.
The equipment he bestowed what was meant to be his elite guard was so poor and judging by the shoddy condition of even their official uniform and their skin and bone forms, their pay couldn't have been good either.

It clearly wasn't love. I didn't know what it was but it was the opposite of love.
Fear? Angst? Greed and the lust for whatever gave those poor lackies their next meal.
Give a man a fishing rod and not a fish and he got fed for life was a good saying.
It's better to eat for a day than not at all and to starve was even better.

I didn't know and didn't want to waste time thinking on it as I straightened the dark navy trouser and blazer one of girls, Klara, another Russian like me, had spent the duration of the tank raid stitching up for me in my honour.
My muscle mass had reverted back to normal and my hair had once more become the ugly grey that both I and Shinji loathed.
The power of the dragon balls which NERV stole without knowing their full potential was only temporary but they allowed me to take out its ultimate weapon.
Their kleptocracy and urge to steal everything not rightfully theirs would really be their downfall.

Even as squid girl put out the deafening signal that the main headquarters of NERV was now under our control and to surrender immediately.
There was already the tedious task of giving a proper and heartfelt burial to each victim me and my tank squadron had slain in our conquest to get this far.
This was not a waste of time for it was a reminder to ourselves and those still living that we did not in fact hold in contempt those whose time we'd cut short.

There would be incense. Fresh flowers. Tombstones marking each and every soldier and officer's name, rank and serial number. "It was an honour to fight you and may each of you have the blissful place in paradise that is your due" I would make certain to intone along with a specially composed choir of morning sung by the entirety of the Oorai girl students who now made up me and Squid girl's forces.
I knew this would give Kozo and Gendo all the time they needed to flee the city.
Let them. Killing them would do no good anyway and only further vindicate Shinji's belief that I really was a bad guy.

Not to mention the great words of Che Guevara. That cruel leaders were replaced only to have new leaders who turned cruel.
Removing Gendo wouldn't have stopped the ruthless disregard for enviromentalism and the need for unity in these bleak times where mankind needed to act and fight as one since they were standing together against a global crisis.

It was indescribably cathartic to see those still within NERV's headquarters surrender without a fight.
How it should have been from the start.
But this was only the Japanese branch and like Rome, like Mongolia, like the German fascist State party following a near effortless victory of the second world war before splitting the spoils with the Japanese axis, NERV had managed to get the entire planet in its iron grip and it was choking it breathless.

There was no need for my group of students to keep each thankfully unarmed worker at gunpoint as I humbly walked with bowed head into the reception area to give my sincerest of condolences for the destruction I'd wrought.
They understood that they were outmatched and that we meant no harm as long as they did the same.
This war was over and now it was time for memorials, terms of truce and then a jubilant celebration.
Or as Hana Isuzu, rising rap star would have put it. It was party time.

Asuka POV
Shinji. How pathetic. No really Shinji. Just pathetic, weak, stupid and bratty can you possibly get?
I've seen you do stupid things before but I have never seen you be this shockingly devoid of thought and common logic.

Do you think I'm afraid of your insults?
Do you think you're such top dog for being able to spout off so many swear words that would make a common thug seem polite in comparison?
Oh, so you think you are so cool using the S and F word in the same sentence.
I hear you telling me that I'm the most ungrateful daughter that he's ever seen in his lifetime.
As if you've seen anything being the moron you are and always will be.

I hear you telling me that I should be ashamed.
For what? That stupid voice talking to us back there wasn't my mother.
Yes. She called me "daughter" and "dear" but did she once complement my piloting abilities that far exceed yours in the long years, I spent training while you got good in one day?
Your streak of successes is nothing but a fluke of beginner's luck Shinji.
Just as your birth from what I've heard is a fluke that never should have happened.

With how badly your mother's pregnancy bearing you went; you should have died.
Screw you Dr Akagi for not letting him die. Screw you for letting him grow up to take my place on the great stage of fame and prestige.
Now you too are my enemy and I intend to show you Akagi just how your long life wasted away on pointless rhetoric and Greek Mathematicians hasn't made you one bit wiser than stupid Shinji.

What's that Shinji? I'm a terrible pilot who shouldn't have ever come to Japan.
Hah. Very good. You've just put in perfect wording my exact sentiments for you.
But oh well. I'll have plenty of time to teach you some manners when I knock you off your crazy rocker and drag you back to our apartment which will soon be my personal mansion with the great reward I was promised by the commander, his truly.
He's rewarding me Shinji. He's not giving jack to you for costing him his time and valuable military equipment. Oh, and his childish soldiers too. But no one really gives a damn about those. He can always hire more. You're the ungrateful son who needs to shut his trap and apologize to his generous and giving father.

He hits you? He almost starves you? He works you half to death?
What a good father.
If I were in his place then I'd kick your gosh darn head off and not give you a crumb while you give me back rubs and foot massages until those pretty little hands of yours fall off.

Yes Shinji. You've shown resilience and confidence for the first time in your miserable existence of running away and cowardice.
I am very impressed.
Now. Taste your reward. Peek a boo.
HERE COMES MY FOOT! Say hello to my big foot of solid titanium that today has gotten bigger for the sole purpose of reminding you that you will forever be a wormy little man worth nothing.

"Nuclear launch detected" The hazard perception system suddenly cries.
Despite being but a computerized recording, the woman's voice behind it sounds like it's on the verge of giving itself a systematic shutdown as it lets out a cry that sounds actually quite terrifying.
Then I hear it. A sudden whoosh that only gets louder the more I try to tune it out to focus on chasing Shinji down even as he continues to spin the jeep wildly.
It's only when the noise from above gets too deafening to ignore that I crane my head skyward.

It wasn't a bird. It wasn't a plane. It wasn't even a missile for if it was then I'd have no fear whatsoever in my upgraded Evangelion's heavy armour to absorb it with ease.
I thought I'd never see the day someone got so tactical.
It was a nuke. A TACTICAL NUKE!

"WAS? NEIN!" I manage to blurt as the single most devastating device in mankind's arsenal spears me head on.
I feared no man but that thing. It scared me.
Evangelions for all their metallic armour plating were still living beings composed of living cells on the inside. Even small amounts of radiation had shocking impacts on their biological structure.
They were very sensitive. Thinking bad thoughts was enough to disrupt an EVA's thought processes but now a literal bag of lethal biohazard was about to be loaded straight through the bloodstream of mine.

The Evangelion did indeed have a fortified AT field which for the most part absorbed any pathetic attempt at inflicting even a scratch flawlessly.
But for all their hardiness, they were not designed to deflect damage but rather to absorb it completely for their eventual goal remained the defence of the few surviving cities and settlements that survived the first two impacts.

Instantly I felt the metal seat I had been comfortably sitting on grow hot and molten.
My entire form was drenched completely in putrid sweat that made me feel sticky.
I was being steamed and cooked alive like a bratwurst in an oven.

"NO!" I bellowed even as the controls around me collapsed into sheets of billowing flames and the voice which I was even now trying to convince myself definitively did not belong to my mum moaned out repeatedly in grating fashion "critical damage...critical damage".
"IT'S NOT OVER. IT'S NOT! I WON'T DIE. I WON'T!"
I meant every word of my vow as the power system of the Evangelion went into battery saver mode and I spared a glance at the two cretins in their shining jet plane looking down at me in pity.
Did they really think such a superficial blow would be enough to take me out?

All they had done was stunned me. This upgraded Evangelion was not only unrivalled in its offensive prowess but could also draw upon the entirety of its power network and that of its pilot's when absolutely necessary to strengthen its AT field to impregnable invincibility. An AT field that sparkled bright blue as it came into being, making me dizzy and sleepy as it drained my life force to power itself.
Too bad it meant that I had to sit and watch helplessly as Shinji and his friends were quickly able to hurry out the door of the warehouse as the jet landed to take them all in.

I very nearly broke my teeth clenching them solid as I raised a hard hand to smack the motherboard. My head boils like an erupting volcano as my face turns fire red and a trail of smoke billows from my ears accompanied by a screeching train whistle.
My sleepiness gets to me first however and I only succeed in directing my blow of force into my own face instead, causing a thin trail of blood to trickle from my cracked-up nose. I really hoped stupid Shinji didn't see that.

What truly gets to me to really rub salt into my wound is Ritsuko's look of complete benevolence and old-world kindness and gaiety of innocence as she helps the still living Lola who now has a slight stagger in her step into the waiting flyer that will whisk them far away.
I liked her better when she was a hollow husk with the sole intent to murder everyone in NERV before killing herself. I hated Ritsuko when she was nice to others.

In spite of her evident weakness, Lola still finds it in herself to spare me one last glance of sincere friendship as she boards the graceful blue jet which quickly closes its door even as her weary green eyes fixate firmly into my quickly narrowing red ones.

"So Ritsuko and Maya. You too have made a mortal enemy of the legendary Asuka Langley Soryu. You should have stayed to yourselves." I grumble with my last ounce of consciousness as darkness reigns.
It would not last long but it would mean that I had lost Shinji's trail once again and let Lola live.

One way or another, that goody two shoes wannabe with the most insulting outfit anyone could choose to wear in front of me would pay for keeping the pizza to herself and the customer.
I would chase them to the ends of the Earth if I had to in search of the ambrosial godlike reward promised by commander Ikari. And for the pride of my mother. My actual mother and not this pretentious faker who was only trying to fill my incorruptible soul of purity with lies.

Shinji POV

This was normally the point in time where I morphed into the world's largest cry-baby to gag and weep at the witnessing of the most destructive arm of mass destruction ever conceived by humankind being launched oh so close to me and my friends. Nearly killing us all of us.
It was only because of the absorptive properties of Asuka's EVA's AT field that protected us from the nuclear missile's wrath and reign of fire.

I understood it was rude not to introduce myself properly to the two pilots who'd saved us all with their timely intervention and bravery.
Instead as the jet was shot hurriedly back into the air as quickly as it would go, I took one look of complete adoration at Rei who was now sitting beside my half-witted hollow shell also trying to recover from the shock of nearly being exposed to lifelong radiation poisoning.
I did not say a word as without warning, I wrapped my arms with complete boldness around her as she practically loosened every fibre of her slightly smaller form to let herself fall into my embrace.

We said nothing to each other as for the second time since we'd confessed, we pressed our lips to each other as tightly as we could and passionately kissed.
Talking would have used up precious air in our lungs and we wanted to keep this moment of blissful indulgence up for as long as possible.
I did not need to speak to let Rei know just how afraid and proud she had made me with her deadly accuracy with her assault rifle.
She similarly needed no such small talk to tell me how I had broken each and every one of even her already godly expectations for me by being able to uphold a heavy weapon almost twice my size for the entire duration of a drawn out and dangerous conflict where my life was on the line each second of it all. We were more than just good at piloting an EVA and seeing it for ourselves as we defended each other to the end had really ignited our already burning passion for each other tenfold.

Yet this contact was far from perfect. For as blissful as it was for us to realize first hand just how effective a team we made, the undeniably tragic fact remained that we'd slain a slew of those who were once of the same cause as we.
We had both felt the hurt of losing our mothers yet we'd sent countless families and their children into fits of grief worse than ours.
Yes. It was in justified self-defence. Yes. They fully intended to defy our simple wish for freedom and any pleas we could have thrown their way would have fallen on deaf ears the same way they did with Asuka. The sound of my father's coins filling their purses would deafen our pleading for mercy out, just as it did when not once during the entire fourteen years I was alive did a single NERV member ask after my well being.
They seemed to believe that being the son of their chief meant I couldn't feel negative emotions such as grief, loneliness and sorrow.

Did it take a genius in this messed up world to realize that being his son only made him hate me more since it meant unintentionally or intentionally, I took up more of mother's time, that she could have given to him instead?
Or that being born to the richest man on Earth did not guarantee that I get a penny of his vast fortunes?
I never wanted to say this even to myself. But for an organization called NERV, the appaling lack of nerve possessed by many of its personnel really got only my nerves.

"I feel so terrible Rei" I breathlessly gasped as I was forced eventually to pull away from asphyxiation having used up all my air in the longest, most Impassioned kiss I'd given to anyone since the day I came into existence.
"All of dad's workers only wanted to capture me so they wouldn't starve to death and we killed them.
Dad actually sent people all this way across the country and I spurn his attempt to extend himself in cold blood. I turn into a crazed murderer and mow down all of them just to save myself and..."

Rei POV

"And us. They would have captured us too and even if Mari was wrong about how your dad wants us dead for the next part of whatever crazy scheme he's pulling, do you think he'd just let Mari and the others go liket that?"
I was not going to wait for Shinji to finish his sentence of self-depreciation.
This was not NERV but he still thought it was.
I had enough of this.

I was no longer Shinji's manipulative higher up that he needed to suck up to for his continued breathing. But he still thought I was. He still feared I was about to slap him again like I'd done back there.
No Shinji. Old Rei would have but not new and improved Rei.
Just as how old soldier of the old team fortress two was nothing more than a loud-mouthed braggart who held no respect for anyone but himself.

Specifically to prove my change to Shinji, I would start growing my hair out longer.
The only reason I left it so ugly and short was because my commander didn't like long hair.

"Shinji. You do realize don't you that if you die then the entire planet is dead?" I sharply ask, unintentionally raising my voice.
"You do understand that all these rebels sitting beside us now and those two pilots who literally fitted an atom bomb to this plane, all came because of how important you were to them."

I was about to get forceful once more. I loathed force but it was necessary as I pulled Shinji's arms until our eyes were level once again.
"It wasn't until yesterday night after you told me that you returned my love for you when I was able to get a good night's sleep without wondering if I should just kill myself instead."

He looks morbidly puzzled.

"Yes Shinji. You're not the only one who's tried to jump off the deep end after all life's thrown at them. In fact. I've tried it many times. When I was on a rooftop. With a cleaver, then a baseball bat, then a tyre iron. With a bathtub and a swimming pool to try and suffocate myself. With a rope and a stool. I've tried them all Shinji and if it wasn't for the fact that my soul can just be removed and put into another body then I'd be long gone by now."

"You did all those horrible things to yourself?" Shinji growls, unable to contain his anger any longer despite his pacifism.

"Until you came along Shinji. That was all I tried to do. All I wanted to do. My sole goal in life was to find a way to put an end to my life so that there was no way for me to be brought back."
Rei unrelentingly continued to explain as despite the evident pain it was causing her, she continued to keep unblinking eye contact.

"Rei please stop" Mari quietly pipes up. "We get the point. Gendo was a monster." As the rest of the rebels except Lola give a pained and empathetic nod and mmhm.

"No Mari. I'm sorry. I won't stop until Shinji knows how much he means to me and how much everyone needs him. Until he knows that every single tough decision, he's been forced to make means more to everyone both those he can and can't see than he will ever know."
Mari quivers briefly seeming ashamed for being so uncharacteristically mean even if done with good intentions. I soften my scowl at her briefly to let her know that no offense is taken before turning back to the love of my life.

"Shinji. I understand. I too will forever regret having to open fire on those soldiers who came for us.
They had families and children who will miss them as you miss your mother dearly.
But you had to do what you had to do. You didn't attack them. They attacked us.
We had to defend ourselves for the world that depends on us. Even if we are no longer working for NERV in its operations, we still have a moral duty to mankind in light of our powers that only we and we alone have. "

I narrow my eyes as I steel myself with a gentle stamp of my right foot.
"Part of that duty involves actually staying alive. If we die then we can't do anything.
You've probably heard this many times before Shinji. But for your sake and ours I will say it once more anyway. Discretion is the better part of valour. But you knew that when you agreed to run away with me and Mari."

Mari POV
"If I may also add something with your permission Rei" I politely speak after raising a hand and awaiting an approving look from the blue haired waifu of Shinji.
"I know I must sound completely insensitive saying this Shinji. But you've been doing everything your father, Misato and Asuka have asked you to do for years by now.
Every order they gave, you followed, whether it hurt you to do so or not.
Yet what one good thing have they done for you?"

Shinji whimpered as he struggled but failed to keep himself from choking out a sob.
"Absolutely nothing!" He blurted out as he immediately covered his mouth in regret.

"You've been kept in the dark all your life by your father. He never showed you the full extent of the abhorrent atrocities NERV has committed under his command.
Soon I will be able to show you first hand the full extent of how badly NERV have poisoned this world.
Soon I promise you will see how the Angels were nothing more than an excuse for him to cover his own ass. You won't believe me even if I try to tell you now Shinji."

"I'll believe you Mari. Of course, I would." he tries to protest.

"The bottom-line Shinji" Ritsuko puts in getting a lot more confident now that she no longer had a psychotic stalker to clap her mouth shut whenever she spoke out of line. "Is. Are you really going to side with the most uncaring parent in existence who had no qualms in breaking your lifelong friend Rei into doing his bidding of destroying all of mankind against her will? Not to mention giving me some of the most inhumane treatment humanly possible which I'd really rather not recount for all our sakes."

The surprising conviction the blonde doctor puts into that question is music to my ears.
She's finally overcome her prejudices for Nami blue and realized that anyone capable of forming meaningful relationships should be counted as a human.
Good on you Dr Akagi.
I underestimated your sanity after all.

Shinji needs no pause as he puts his face forward with a clenched fist.
"For the promise I made to Rei, my mother and all of mankind when I signed up as a pilot.
Heck no! And to all of you for helping me snap out of my stupidity. Thank you."

Ritsuko POV

Deliberately, I waited until close to a whole minute had elapsed as I held with shaking breath my peace.
An apology this important which had been waiting this long to be delivered deserved my utmost sincerity. It deserved every last bit of love that I had within me left to give after years of being both physically and mentally raped by Shinji's father and abandoned by my mother.

I could not await a better time when I had better control to deliver it.
Seeing how savagely our own allies were willing to turn on us had more than reminded me we might well die at any moment.
I knew full well and accepted even better that Rei had every right in light of my past mistakes to spurn my every word.
To throw my attempt at reconciliation back in my face and smash it to a fine pulp too.

But this had to be done.
We had not properly greeted the pilot yet aside from a brief thanks for her opportune arrival but if I tried once more to procrastinate as I had been doing since the day of Rei's creation, I would be walking the same dark path of my mother Naoko. I respected my mother despite her mistakes and regretted not showing more regret until now but I could not let her loss be for nothing.

"Rei..." I whisper, cracks in every syllable as I give myself a hidden pinch to encourage myself.
"There is something I need to say to you."

At first, I think she must not have heard me but then with a strained motion she very reluctantly after another turns to regard me coldly.
There is ice in her face as she wordlessly faces me that could freeze even fire.
Maya gives me an encouraging pat on the back unseen by her to steel me just in the nick of time to go on with my apology before Rei disregards me again.

"Rei..." I groan as every muscle in my body bulges with pressure.
"What? Doctor" She impatiently asks, each breath sounding completely dead inside. My mere presence made her lethargic to the point of dropping off.
Her eyes were already beginning to close as she stifled a gargantuan yawn completely uncharacteristic of her usual decorum.
I had do get on with it now or never.

"Rei...Sweetie...I'm so sorry."
I lose complete control of myself as I put every bit of my little courage into my voice to the surprise and shock of everyone else in the cabin. The sanest member of NERV and Bridge combined and already the floodgates were beginning to open on the first sentence. I really
"I'm really ashamed of everything cruel, terrible and spiteful I've done to you over the years I've been alive and I'm sorry. I destroyed all your clones and then tried to destroy you. I didn't mean for it to go all that far I swear."

Rei still did not make eye contact. Her gaze drifted off into a corner as if considering other complex matters. Shinji and Mari kept quiet in respectful silence as did their underage rebel friends.
I had to wonder whether there even existed a useful adult anymore in these dark times.
Not counting Maya since of course she was always useful and always there for me when I needed her.

"It was a moment of weakness." I choked out as painful salty water filled my eyes and heated phlegm filled my rapidly soaring up throat.
"Because of my selfishness. My vanity. My inability to handle my losses responsibly like a civilized adult. Rei."
I've been able to keep from sobbing till now but here I have no choice but to let out my first incredibly choked up sob as the first pathetic dews of lamentation fall.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I could spend the rest of my mortal existence trying my hardest to keep apologizing but it would never atone me of all the irredeemable sins I've committed upon you."

"It was incredibly cruel of you to try and kill me without a justified reason" she apathetically states. By now It's clear her apathy is but the defence mechanisms she has built up over the years to keep the fact she's constantly forced to be in contact with me at least tolerable.
It's her way of coping with her bloodthirsty murderer that keeps her from turning to barbarism herself.
"I already tried to tell you that I was sorry for what happened to your mother but you wouldn't listen. So, I suppose in a sense that makes us. Well, I wouldn't say even exactly. But."

She shakes her head in disgust.
"I don't know what it makes us. I'm grateful that your mother created me and that you tried to take care of me like a parent would before you went off the deep end.
But I don't know. In your own words doctor. Angels have no thoughts and no feelings.
So, you tell me what I should feel right now."

"Well, I for one think medic deserves utmost forgiveness and absolution for her past sins right this instant." The pink haired pyromaniac manages to bark out with surprising firmness in light of her weekend state of injury.
She turns to me sheepishly. "Sorry. I never got your name despite you saving my life back there."

"It's fine. My name is Ritsuko Akagi. Doctor Ritsuko Akagi but the doctor bit is not necessary since we're no longer at NERV." I explain, relieved of this slight break in the emotional tention.
"Oh. And what's your name sweetie?"
I manage with a degree of relaxation to ask trying to drag on this digression for all it's worth.

"Lola Anwalt Rules, born Lola Anwalt Gruneschmitz." She points a happy finger at the spiky brown haired American she's been sitting beside and hugging until the moment she addressed me.
"The faithful wife and right-hand lady of my faithful husband Angelo rules. It's a true honour to make your acquaintance Ritsuko. I've heard lots of great things about how you've saved NERV from loads of catastrophes too many times to count."

"That is correct. Yes. The one I'm most proud of myself is that sudden virus outbreak where I invented the working vaccine with less than one second to spare. It's nothing really. Saving lives was my branch of research when I started my career."
I pray I'm not coming off as bigoted. It's just such a breath of fresh air to get the chance to voice just one of my many accomplishments that I was never given so much as a slap on the shoulder for back in NERV. Shinji and Rei were busy piloting and Maya the sniper was busy doing what a sniper did which was sniping.

"You think it's nothing. You saved my life back in the forest when I thought for certain I would never make it." Lola retorts, raising a hand to emphasize her excitement.
"I don't know what the rest of you think." She says as her spark of enthusiasm fades upon seeing the deep frown on Rei's paling complexion.
"But I for one think that Ritsuko for certain deserves a second chance no matter what she did.
You did all say when we founded team fortress 3 that universal justice means that anyone who helps one of us out instantly gets the green light from the rest of you."

Lola gives her hair a quick flip as she shifts her sights upon the still frowning Rei who is now also furrowing her brow. "Don't be this way. Rei. Please. Ritsuko helped me when I was in need and I'm sure she can help you too if you give her a chance."
"I second that." Maya quickly adds as she slams a palm to a nearby wall to emphasize her seriousness.
"You're being extremely harsh on my senpai right now Rei without knowing the full context of all the good she did in the past along with her bad. The most important one being that Shinji would never have been born successfully without Ritsuko's medical expertise and attention."

Shinji and Rei give one another a look whose emotion cannot be fully understood as Maya keeps her hand raised.
"You probably don't remember Shinji but I do. So please listen to me. When you were little, your mother Yui was having great difficulties in your pregnancy. Your father was very upset about having to have a child and he took his rage out on her by depriving her of all the food and supplements she needed to have a healthy childbirth and sometimes he even got downright violent."

She draws a breath as the tragedy of Gendo's cruelty briefly fazes her.
"Your mother was also under a lot of stress already from how she was going to save the world as the Angels got stronger. None of the doctors operating on her during her labour were licensed. They were all quacks who faked their way into the ward to get a quick yen and by complete fortune Ritsuko was there. Your mother's condition was very serious. It required that Ritsuko stay one day and one night in the hospital constantly running supplies back and forth as she operated on Yui like crazy.

Rei slowly manages to curb her yaws as she begins to blush the slightest bit in embarrassment.

"A single wrong cut and Shinji and Yui would be no more. She literally had to chug through an entire jar of coffee just to not doze off and she was the only person in the hospital since none of the hospital staff were paid enough to care enough to stay overnight. This night left her so knackered that my Senpai actually no joke slipped into a coma the next morning and needed an entire week to recover."

Rei's embarrassment turns to a crimson shade of hurt as she holds her head.
She seems to be having an extreme existential crisis and I haven't even told her the most traumatizing part of this yet.
Maya looks to me briefly for my approval to which with some difficulty, I nod feeling a strong headache of my own. I half expected that the instant the explanation was over was the exact second when Rei put me in the same headlock that she was put into by my mother.
It would be a worthy way to go.

"Without Yui Rei. There'd be no you. It's sad but you needed to know this eventually.
A large part of the genes that were used to construct you came from Yui and she needed to be alive for the extraction process to succeed.
Without Ritsuko. Neither you nor Shinji would have ever come into being, let alone gotten the chance to meet each other. I would also have been dead long ago."

Maya POV
"What. How!?" Shinji suddenly blurts out, already captivated and swooning over my tale of my Senpai's heroism that bordered on insanity.
I'm glad. Not everyone hated her after all.

So every nerve and fibre of my entire form and being lit up with the bliss of heaven as I finally got to tell my little brother everything.
I told him how his father or rather, our father was a very wild and indecent animal when it came to his teenage romances.
How a one-night stand between him and my mother Amane Ibuki who died when I was born, led to the birth of a daughter he never wanted to acknowledge out of how I could soil his carefully built-up reputation and create a great scandal that would immediately get him evicted from his throne.
How he falsified records so that no trace ever remained of this affair that he hid from even Yui while he was in the process romancing her.

How I was more or less conscripted into NERV so that Gendo could keep his beady eye on me at all times. So, I'd be no threat to him. So that if I ever tried to get the truth out to his son, then it would be all too easy for him to have me eliminated the way word of mouth and urban legend claimed he had done with a lot of his former opponents running against him who all mysteriously vanished or surrendered.

"Officer Ibuki..." Shinji begun only for me to tear up as I shook my head and reached out to place my hand on his lap from where I now sat.
"I'm not officer Ibuki" I cried out in between spasms of grief that seemed to wrench my body apart.
"I'm your sister. You don't know how much it means for me to finally get the truth out to you...brother."

"Si...si...sister" My younger brother had to try a few times before he could bring himself to utter the true title describing my until now hidden relation to him.
"My sister."

"Yes. Shinji. I'm so sorry it took this long for me to be able to tell you. But now that we're together again little brother. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Screw our father and his lack of love.
It's you and me against the world from now on. It was a joy to watch you grow and develop into the hero you are now and it's a true honour to be able to follow my amazing little brother's journey with his beautiful bride to the very end wherever it takes us. "
"Y...yes" Shinji stuttered. Somehow his eyes were completely dry. His default frown from years of neglect was beginning slowly to twist upside down briefly before reverting.
He manages to make it a compete smile on the fifth try as he takes my hand in his.

"Maya" He lovingly announces. "My Onee chan."
"Shinji" I reply without any need for thought. "My Otouto."

"Rei" Rei cannot resist the temptation to add despite her usual meekness. "Shinji's Eien Waifu"

"Mari" the English brunette whose thus far stayed out of the conversation joyously chimes as she pulls from her sleeve a bunch of beautiful Sakura flowers.
"The luckiest bridesmaid and personal assistant for the Besuto one true pairing"

"But this reunion would never have been possible without my senpai" I quickly continue before anyone has any further opportunity for discussions.
"I was forced onto the streets after my mother's passing without a penny. One winter's evening I slipped and fell face first into a pile of snow. I was too weak to get back up from days of not being given any food despite my best attempts at begging for work."

I force my expression to contort into a scowl of deadly seriousness.
I need to get Rei to realize that Senpai is an altruist of sanity level 11 of 10 who couldn't harm a fly even if she tried. Her neural readings would break the sanity chart if it tried to read hers.
"Ritsuko found me nearly dying when she came out of school that night after staying late to finish a research task. She could easily have just left me but she took me in even with how she and her mother were struggling to make ends meet.
I was just a filthy beggar worth nothing to anyone and she did that for me. So, Rei. Forgive my bluntness. But say one more time that my Senpai has never done anything meaningful for anyone and I'll draw my rifle onto you. The same goes for all of you, yes, even you, little brother.
I might not be able to bring myself to kill you dead but I'll for sure put quite the rounds into your legs."

I briefly look down and flash a devilish gritting of my teeth before looking back up.
"So please. Give Ritsu Senpai one final chance. I rest my case."

"I vote not guilty" the American Angelo is first to elect in bad but perfectly understandable Japanese.
"I second Angelo's vote" His geeky looking friend in the Japanese uniform complements him.
"Innocent!" their blonde companion who looks just like Ritsuko back in her school days briefly shouts.
"Need I say more for the saviour who has my eternal gratitude" Lola quips almost offended as she briefly caresses the still healing part of her ribs.

"Well. She looks alright so yeah. Inno." Mari warbles out professionally after a brief finger to her noggin.
"Whatever my hero Shinji decides I also decide. Count my ballot as not guilty and you can do the same for my co-pilot companion Fio."
The pilot who between the gaps of silence in our debate has managed to introduce herself as Setsuko III Sorakage, the third Setsuko to hold this title in her family since the tragedy of the second world war, with her family name meaning quite literally Sky shadow.
Fitting considering the magnitude of the nuclear strike that without it, Asuka could not have been neutralized.

She courteously explains that since Fio hails from Italy that she will be doing the translating for her co-pilot who has until now been trying to denote her opinion on Ritsuko's vote with a furious thumb's down unseen by anyone.
Thumbs down being the symbol for spare the gladiator from the ancient Roman colosseum.

"What say you. Shinji. Little brother?" I anxiously ask with a gulp at my younger brother.
Normally his harmless look makes him so endearing but with how much weight his vote and his vote alone mattered in determining the fate of Senpai, I couldn't help but be deathly afraid of even his most innocent smile.
Wait, he was smiling. And directing his smile at my senpai as he copies "Fio's" motion of also turning his thumb down?
Oh, I see little brother. When in Rome, do as the romans do. Just one of your many adorable qualities that make me so proud to be your big sis.

Seeing Shinji's example, every single occupant of the jet proceeds to each turn their thumbs down.
The invisible smoking barrel of the invisible gun of judgement was turning slowly away from my Senpai.
Little brother. How our dad has abused your kindness so cruelly.

"Doctor Akagi has been a good friend and ally to us ever since the day I've known her" He reasons with fiery conviction in his eyes and his words.
"As my good sister has put it; She's not a bad person. She just made some bad decisions.
But if she was really as heartless as they'd all have you believe. Answer me this.
Would she really have risked her neck to escort the love of her life to help us fight this battle?
Would she have turned on NERV knowing that this would paint a big target on her back just to help us out? She could have just stayed in her lab and continued to curry favour but she gave all that up."

He puffed his chest out.
"Dr Akagi didn't run away from Tokyo 3 and NERV. She came to us in our hour of need. What sick creatures would we be not to show her the gratitude that she richly deserves."

He turns to his two fellow children looking them each up and down in turn.
"Who fired that cloud of neurotoxin to finally end the attempt on our lives back there, letting us leave dad's platoon unscathed. Our own firepower may have been formidable but it was that toxic cloud that really decided the victory."

"Ritsuko did." Mari quickly answers to which Rei makes a very painful gesture to demonstrate her begrudging acquiescence with the Briton's statement.

"Who stopped the several viral outbreaks while all of us were back in NERV's headquarters.
When we were all losing our heads over the nightmarish terror of slowly being poisoned to death while being flayed alive inside and out?" Shinji asks yet another question.

"Ritsuko again." Mari admiringly trills to which Rei lets out a deep sigh as she nods as slowly as she can in agreement.

"I knew she was a great medic from the moment I set eyes on her" Lola cannot prevent herself from butting in briefly. " But I never knew her to be this shockingly amazing like Shinji says."

"Right." Shinji agrees as he raises a hand to the sky in wistful thoughtfulness. "We all know that the past cannot be changed. What's done is done. Doctor Akagi, my sister's senpai has expressed sincere remorse and repentance for her failures and shown us through her initiative today that she's firmly on our side. She couldn't go back to NERV if she wanted to. And you Rei sorry to say this, still have to make it up to her for not being thankful for her part in bringing you to life."

He puts a hand on Rei's shoulder which she at first tries to shrug off but soon decides against.
"So please Rei. Be the nice and forgiving angel I fell in love with. Don't be this way. The only way we can all get through this is if we stick together."

"Tell me why?" Rei demands with a low snarl as her crimson eyes go squinted. She's trying but slowly failing to hold onto her grudges.

"Ain't nothing but a heartache." Shinji instinctively drones back to which her bout of confusion strengthens and unable to help herself, she bangs a nearby wall with a shuddering fist.

"TELL ME WHY!" She roars with even more anger that makes Asuka and Gendo look like purring kittens in their most frightening moments.

"Ain't nothing but a mistake" My little brother hums almost musically. He seems alone to know that this specific choice of wording when delivered in this almost whimsical intonation will act as a calming buffer rather than an insult on his beloved bride of choice.
Good choice Shinji. I'll make certain to give full blessings to you both if I haven't done so already.

"Tell me why." The blue haired humanoid asks more quietly this time, regaining her usual exterior of calmness and passivity. It's truly relieving considering the unbridled rage she would surely have gone into without Shinji's soothing presence.

"I never want to hear you say. I want it that way." Shinji insists, patient as always despite her impatience and uncooperative attitude in our urgent situation.
"Please Rei. We are heroes now. It would be against our code of conduct not to give our adversaries their chance to reform especially when they have earned it. She's in the same boat, or rather jet, as the rest of us Rei."

Rei lets out a brief cough.
Her gaze drifts from us to the view outside to around the cabin to the corner of Ritsuko's own field of vision.
She sniffs as if she has caught a very bad cold as she finally speaks the first words to my Senpai in which she shows no sign of lethargy.

"I guess I'm outvoted then." She faintly croaks as she lets off another cough to which Shinji quickly unfastens his seatbelt to take a blanket lying fortunately not too far away to place it over her shuddering form. "I suppose for now I can see past your past conduct of dubious morality doctor."
Yet another cough despite the warm green and red tartan blanket insulating her.
"But I am watching you doctor. My forgiveness maybe something it is only right for me to give out in light of your supposed change of heart."

Her soul along with her sight slides away for a fraction of a second before sliding back, still not looking Senpai in the eye.
"But my trust is something you will have to earn. It was very mean of you to try and just kill me in such a way as you did. That is the best I can offer everyone."

"That's only fair." Mari sadly concedes as Rei against all my predictions finds it in herself to take off her own seatbelt to stand for a moment as the cabin falls silent.
"On behalf of everyone else's opinion on this matter as well as the continued ensured success of our group. I find the defendant Ritsuko Akagi; not guilty at least for now.
The defendant though temporarily acquitted may be called upon at any date in the near future to attend another pending trial at a higher court."
She sits down as soon as she is finished announcing her verdict. I never knew Rei could be so pedantic.

"Court adjourned" She simply states as her lids droop and she falls into the comfort of slumber on Shinji's lap.
I let off a brief squeak of delight as sleepiness also takes over me and I fall asleep on my own object of affection's lap. I feel so much safer when she watches over me.

I was indescribably glad to find that Ritsuko Senpai was not the imposter.
Thought at the same time secretly fearful that there was still an imposter among us.
Who it was and what they wanted was a question for another less fortunate time such as this.

To those who'd believe upon a glance around the jet that there was but one Ikari on board this exquisite device of flight, you would be dead wrong.
To guess two would be equally incorrect.
There were three Ikari's riding this high-speed ride to a better place.
Shinji had finally found a loving family after all. And so had I.

Misato POV

I've woken up at last. The sky is pitch black and the streetlights have turned on from my limited view of the outside city.
A bevy of school uniform and skirt girls now stand attending me, one of them giving my monitors another read and joyously relaying the information that I'll soon recover to another girl who pleasantly runs out of the room to record the news.
All of them are now also wearing nurse uniforms and hats in addition to that uniform I'd recognize anywhere as the emblem of the discontinued Oorai Tank academy.
Their eventful competitions helped me pass many a night leaving my depression at the door for another day. "Panzer vor to all of you lovely girls" I cheer to them much to their delight.

They tell me that though this hospital now belongs to their new leader a so called "Squid girl", that there is no need for me to worry since they will be taking good care of me in place of the incompetent doctors who have now been fired and forced to retake a revised medical course.

"About time this reform happened" I gladly remark to them as I thank them for their attention.
Kaji shows up at the door as my eyes creep fully open holding the one outfit remaining in the discount aisle that both matched my depression, and was affordable with the pittance that my ruined black dress and threadbare red jacket were worth.
My old trainers wouldn't even be accepted by any store for resale.

He pulls like a magician from the first bag, a simple yet elegant white robe full of folds and decorated on the left sleeve with various illegible red talismans.
From the second bag, he unfurls a skirt of the very hue of the brightest flame that reaches all the way to my feet in stark contrast to my old dress which left a large part of my legs inappropriately visible to permanently scar Shinji for life. It also left me frequently shivering on colder days which this new outfit would be certain to prevent.

The plain brown strapped sandals also decorated on the sole with illegible symbols came free with this purchase.
Kaji. What could I say? You had outdone yourself once again. I'm truly glad Ritsuko doesn't have you and I do. Perhaps the one good thing to come out of this pointless fiasco.

"I did not fetch them from the clothing department" he humbly admitted when asked.
"But from the Anime aisle. It was the only place I could find something I could afford that I felt you'd like."

"I don't like it Kaji. I love it" I quickly brush his concerns aside as with a burst of strength, I manage to at least sit up.
Asuka would not go unpunished any longer now. This I vowed. Her punishment would be incredibly severe.

I send the swarm
I send the horde
Thus saith the lord

I found myself breaking into song once more as the fires of my rage fanned freely, emboldened by the sight of the new outfit I'd soon be switching into. I only wish I still had my golden cross.

Once I called you daughter
Once I thought the chance to make you laugh
Was all I ever wanted

I continued, as I gained strength from every lyric as Kaji nods proudly.

"I send the thunder from the sky. I send the fire raining down" One of the new uniformed aides helpfully puts in also in passionate song.

And even now I wish that god had chosen another
Serving on your foe on his behalf
Is the last thing that I wanted

"I send a hail of burning ice. On every field. On every town" Another Oorai girl joins in, even more loudly than the first.

This was my home
All this pain and devastation
How it tortures me inside
All the innocent who suffer
From your stubbornness and pride

I knew from the news now flickering on my bedside television that despite the benevolence of my new nurses, their takeover had been far from bloodless.
It may have been Gendo's bad leadership of NERV that forced their hand but deep down I knew that Asuka was the real culprit behind why things had been going south since the day she took her place as Shinji's teammate and my roommate under my roof.

The girls and Kaji were all beaming like me like I was some sort of messiah as more girls rushed into the room to hear my musical vow to smite down evil.
One even did the pleasure of raising a microphone to my lips which I managed despite my weakness, to nod my great appreciation for.

I send my scourge
I send my sword
Thus, saith the lord

"Thus, saith the lord" The entire company in the now tightly packed hospital room re-vibrated as Kaji stretched out his open palms. Knowing exactly what he wanted, I took them warmly as we raised our head up to the sky as a trumpeter and violinist who had also joined in, stroked up their finishing chord as loudly as they could go as cracks begun to appear on the windows.

THUS SAITH THE LOOOOOORD!

Kaji and I concluded, our following smiles matching each other like a mirror.
I was glad Tokyo 3 got taken over.
My old regiment would never have been as helpful to me as these new members would be certain to soon prove themselves in my quest for vengeance.
I intended to make Asuka eat every last insult she'd given my selfless son.
To make her feel every bit of suffering she'd caused him.

...

Once again really special thanks to fictionelement777, neoWarkid4, bandiras, An enemy of the state, Fantasian, Kycosoccerref and every other unnamed guest for your kind and generous reviews.
You are all great people. Thank you so much for reading and see you all next time and bye.
You're kind reviews bring a tear to my eye. And sorry about the long update.
I've been watching this movie called Eureka seven.
It's also got a boy who pilots a killer robot for the sake of an alien girl he and only he loves.
Each frame I would point to some character and say, hey, that's just like X from Evangelion.
Really goes to show that as old as Evangelion is, it still has a special place in anime.
It's like a root from which many great ideas were founded.