Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.


Chapter Two: Memory

Strange Visitor loved to fly.

She still didn't remember anything of her existence prior to waking up inside of NERV headquarters about a month ago, but she felt quite certain that she hadn't been able to fly before then. The sensation of pure freedom, the exhilaration of the speed, and the simple joy that came from the wind in her hair all felt too fresh and new for her to have ever gotten used to them in the past.

It's almost good enough to make me forget that I still have no idea who or what I am, she thought, a scowl forming on her face.

Having soured her own mood, Strange Visitor decided to head back to her 'headquarters' and hope that Asuka had decided to pay her a visit. She liked it when she got to see her friend, even when the girl had been in the bleakest depths of her depression.

Strange Visitor spotted Asuka's copper-colored mane of hair through the windows as she approached the skyscraper she currently called her home base, and she smiled.

Until she got close, that was. As soon as she drew near enough to Asuka, her empathic abilities were triggered, and she felt like someone had doused her with a bucket of ice water.

What in the world? She wondered, grimacing as she tried to analyze the emotions she was picking up.

It wasn't the oppressive cocktail of acute sadness, self-loathing, and feelings of uselessness that had been consuming Asuka when they had first met. This was also a heavy and unpleasant thing, but it was more like…

"Dread." Strange Visitor whispered.

Suddenly not so eager to see her young friend, but seeing no point in avoiding her, the electric woman completed her journey to the abandoned skyscraper and entered the sky lobby at the top floor.

"Asuka?" she said quietly. "What's wrong?"

The redhead didn't appear the least bit phased by this total lack of preamble. "I did some investigating today," she said, "trying to find out about, well, you."

"You didn't caught accessing information you shouldn't, did you?" Strange Visitor asked, worried.

"No, nothing like that," Asuka said, waving a dismissive hand. "I found out that you…appeared during a blackout that was caused when Dr. Akagi was performing this experiment to try and repair Unit Two's core."

"Yes, so?" Strange Visitor asked, not understanding the reason for Asuka's dismay. "Does that mean anything?"

"Only when you combine it with what I learned recently," the redhead said quietly. "You see, apparently the scientists in Tech Division One think that the reason I stopped being able to sync with Evangelion so abruptly is because of Unit Two, not me."

"But that's good, isn't it?" Strange Visitor asked, only growing more confused as the conversation progressed. "If the problem was with the Evangelion, then maybe they'll get you a new one. You'll be able to pilot again."

Asuka shook her head. "With the way my sync ratio was dropping even before the battle with the Thirteenth Angel, I doubt they'll reserve a new Evangelion for me," she said. "If they even have one. NERV did just lose Units Three and Four, after all."

"I still don't see why you're so upset," Strange Visitor said.

"I used to think the Evangelions were just giant dolls," Asuka said quietly. "But apparently there's more to them than that. Some…some spark of life is necessary to make them work. I don't know the details; the techs are super tight-lipped about it, but what I was able to find out is that…they think that spark escaped Unit Two the night Dr. Akagi caused the blackout."

The pieces finally came together in Strange Visitor's mind. "You think I'm that spark," she said. It wasn't a question.

"It makes as much sense as anything else," Asuka said, clearly unhappy about it, "and it's the only actual theory about where you came from that either of us has been able to come up with."

"So…what now?" Strange Visitor asked slowly. "Do you wish for me to go back inside Unit Two?"

As much as she wanted to make her only friend and ally in the world happy, Strange Visitor found that the idea of becoming part of an Evangelion utterly terrified her on a primal level. Additionally, she wasn't sure that regaining the ability to pilot would be the best thing for Asuka.

"I…" the young redhead began, then she stopped, hesitating.

Asuka's emotions weren't powerful enough to trigger Strange Visitor's empathic senses again, but then, they really didn't need to be. The Second Child was tempted; she clearly wanted back into Evangelion in the worst way.

The moment dragged on, the tension growing by the second.

"No," Asuka finally answered, her voice barely above a whisper. "I couldn't ask you to do that for me. Whatever you might've been before, you're…you're a person now."

Strange Visitor placed a hand on Asuka's shoulder and bent down so they were eye to eye, her gentle green gaze meeting Asuka's blue eyes.

"Thank you, Asuka," she said.

The redhead smiled.

Then the moment was broken by the ring tone of the Second Child's cell phone. With a scowl, she reached into her pocket and accepted the call.

"What?" she demanded. Then there was a brief moment of silence as Asuka listened to the person on the other end of the line. "Yes, I understand."

Without another word, the girl ended the call.

"What's going on?" Strange Visitor asked.

"They've detected an Angel," Asuka said. "They want me to go to NERV, but I'm not sure if I will."

"Why?" Strange Visitor asked.

"Because I can't do anything," Asuka scowled, not meeting her friend's eyes. "If I go to headquarters, I'll just sit there. Being useless."

Strange Visitor placed her hands on Asuka's shoulders. "You should go," she said. "You've put so much effort into piloting Evangelion, you should see it through to its conclusion. Even if the end of your career as an EVA pilot is coming, even if it never quite went the way you wanted it to. If you feel like people think you're useless, then remember your achievements. Remember that NERV probably couldn't have stopped the Seventh Angel without you. Or the Eighth. Or the Ninth. Or the Tenth. Remember how much hard work you put into it, and be proud."

Asuka swallowed, feeling…alleviated by the strange woman's words. "Thanks," she said.

Strange Visitor smiled. "Give 'em hell, girl."


The atmosphere within the NERV command center was tense.

Granted, the command center was always tense whenever they detected an Angel, but today was noticeably worse than usual. The double whammy of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Angels had left everyone in a grim mood; combined with the knowledge that both Units One and Two were basically useless, their stress levels were at an all time high.

However, Misato trusted everyone to behave in a professional manner. Not that she had much choice about it, though.

"Report," she demanded.

"The Angel should be coming into visual range right about…now," Makoto said, inputting a command at his terminal.

The main screen shifted from the (currently useless) tactical map of the area around Tokyo-3 to a view of the Fifteenth Angel. The latest would-be harbinger of their doom appeared to made out of some kind of living pink crystals which formed…something that looked like an enormous pair of wings. It was still, seemingly motionless against the backdrop of outer space.

"It's beautiful," Maya gasped.

Loathe though she was to ascribe any positive quality to one of their enemies, Misato found that she had to agree; this Angel was truly a sight to behold.

That didn't mean she wasn't going to do everything within her power to see it dead, though.

"Target status?" she asked.

"The Angel is maintaining a geosynchronous orbit over Tokyo-3, but otherwise it isn't making any moves," Makoto reported.

"It's out of range of all our weapons," Aoba added grimly. "We won't be able to attack it effectively until it comes closer."

"I guess it's our move then," Misato mused aloud, quickly going over all options in her mind. There were distressingly few. "We don't have much of a choice. Prepare to launch Unit Zero with our most powerful positron rifle."

"Deploy Unit Two prior to launching Unit Zero," Gendo added in an almost offhand manner.

Misato's eyes widened, and she whirled away from the main viewer to look up at the Commander. "Sir?"

"Launching an Evangelion may be all the provocation the Angel needs to attack," Gendo said. "Unit Two can serve as a decoy, if nothing else."

The look in the Commander's eyes all but dared her to object, and Misato was forced to swallow her protests. She had been impressed when Asuka had reported for duty, shortly after NERV had detected the Angel; the Ops Director hadn't expected the Second Child to show up, since the experience would likely just serve to remind Asuka of her inability to pilot.

And now we're rewarding her professionalism by making her bait, she thought grimly, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned back to look at the main screen.

"Launching Unit Two now," Makoto announced quietly after a few moments.

Misato's eyes flicked over to one of the smaller screens, which was currently displaying a diagram of every single lift tube. She watched as a little red dot representing Unit Two moved upwards for several seconds, finally reaching the surface.

"No response from the target," Makoto said, saving her the trouble of having to ask.

The image on the main screen split, one half still showing the Angel, the other displaying Unit Two. The crimson Evangelion was currently motionless, and, having been released from the restraints, was slumped forward. Its posture reminded her of Unit One during the First Battle of Tokyo-3, when Shinji hadn't had a clue how to control his Evangelion.

Here's hoping she doesn't experience any of the agony he had to endure that first time, Misato thought.

"Unit Zero is launching now," Aoba said. "Estimated time until Rei has the positron rifle assembled and ready to fire is two minutes."

The Ops Director nodded silently, her eyes still glued to the screen. It actually looked like the Angel would allow them to get all their ducks in a row before it did anything, but could that really be true?

"Attack from the Angel!"

Apparently not.

The great pink thing in space shone a great light downwards, like the spotlight of a god, and illuminated Unit Two. The sound of Asuka's shriek immediately filled the command center.

"What's happening?" Misato barked.

"I don't know, the MAGI can't understand the Angel's attack," Aoba said. "The AIs are unable to come to any agreement about it."

"We're not picking up any heat or electrical energy from that beam," Makoto added.

"The psychograph is going absolutely crazy!" Maya added. "Asuka could have only seconds before irreversible mental contamination!"

Misato had had more than enough. "Recall Unit Two! Do it now!" she barked.

"Right," Makoto acknowledged, the technician's hands blurring over his keyboard as he input the command, only to have his efforts rewarded with an error message. "Something's wrong," he said. "The lift's not functioning!"

"What? Why not?" Misato demanded. "Has the Angel done something to it?"

"Unknown," Makoto answered.

Asuka's screams continued to fill the command center. The Ops Director desperately wracked her brain, trying to come up with some tactic or maneuver to get the redhead out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, she drew a blank.

Misato didn't think she'd ever felt quite so helpless before.

"Ma'am! Pilot Ayanami reports that she's assembled the positron rifle and has a hard target lock!" Maya spoke up.

"Then tell her to take the shot!" Misato snapped.

"Roger!"

Moments later, a lance of burning energy went rocketing upwards from Tokyo-3. It took the positron blast only seconds to reach its target in orbit, and it hit the Angel's AT field with an enormous amount of destructive force.

Yet it still wasn't enough.

"Target is undamaged," Makoto reported grimly. "It's just too far away; the beam degraded too much."

Misato's hands balled into fists. "Rei, forget about sniping the damn thing!" she ordered. "Go and pull Unit Two out of the path of the Angel's attack!"

"Belay that," Gendo said.

"Sir!" Misato protested. "Asuka is—"

"Irrelevant," Gendo replied, causing several of the personnel on the command staff to gasp at the sheer callousness of the statement. "If Unit Zero also succumbs, then we will be defenseless."

A horrified silence filled the command center for several seconds.

Eventually, the ear splitting scream of the Second Child broke it. "It's trying to get into my brain! I feel it trying to violate my mind!"

Everyone turned to look at the Commander. Gendo Ikari appeared unmoved by the Evangelion pilot's obvious agony.

Shinji, who had been waiting inside Unit One's entry plug with a steadily increasing level of anxiety the entire time, was just about to start pleading with his father to send him into battle. However, before he could say a word, Aoba's terminal began to beep insistently for his attention.

"Uh, sir, I'm detecting some strange energy readings heading toward the Angel at significant speeds," he said. "I think someone else might be getting involved in this battle."


A Few Minutes Earlier…

Strange Visitor stood atop the roof of the building that she currently called her home. Steely gray clouds blanketed the sky above her, and a slow, steady rain was falling to the Earth.

The scarlet superwoman had feared rain at first, thinking it might react poorly to her electrical powers. However, this had not proved to be the case; she found the rain as dreary as anyone else, but it did her no harm.

At that moment, though, the precipitation was the absolute last thing on her mind. Every bit of her attention was focused upon Unit Two, which had emerged from beneath the ground moments ago.

Why did they send her out? Strange Visitor wondered anxiously, her gaze pinned on the silent crimson war machine. What's the point if she can't even make it move?

No answer was forthcoming, unfortunately. Another Evangelion, a blue one this time, was eventually deployed, and it quickly began assembling an enormous firearm of some sort. However, Unit Two remained completely ignored.

She wanted to help battle the Angel, to protect her only friend in the entire world. Unfortunately, the beast was nowhere in sight, so Strange Visitor was forced to merely observe for now.

Then the light came down to shine upon Unit Two, cutting through the cloud cover like a hot knife through butter.

And Strange Visitor's empathic sixth sense just exploded.

"Ahhh!" She shrieked, grasping at her head with both hands, fearing that her skull might explode with the sheer intensity of what she feeling.

Staggering as though hit by a physical rather than an emotional blow, Strange Visitor retreated backwards several steps before tripping and falling onto the hard concrete of the roof, where she soon started to writhe in agony. She was fortunate that she had not fallen off the roof entirely; in her current state, she wouldn't have had the presence of mind to do anything besides fall until she hit the ground below.

Invasion!

Violation!

Get out!

Strange Visitor cried out in pain again, emotions assaulting her even as she tried to get them under control. Unfortunately, her efforts were all proving futile; her empathic ability had never forced such powerful negative emotions on her before, not even when she'd picked up Asuka's suicidal depression.

Asuka, she thought, her eyes popping open as she realized it was her friend's emotions she was feeling. The girl who'd already endured so much pain in her life was the one being subjected to this mental torture.

That allowed Strange Visitor to find the will to weather the empathic storm; with a Herculean effort, the electric superwoman managed to suppress the emotions tearing through her, and suddenly the intense agony became a much more dull and distant thing.

But Asuka's still dealing with all of it, she thought, setting her jaw and getting back to her feet. She hadn't had the vaguest clue where the Angel was before, but now she was quite sure that all she had to do was follow the beam of light that was hurting Asuka so much.

Strange Visitor took to the sky, shooting upwards into the atmosphere. Within seconds, she had ceased to bear the form of a woman, her body transmuting itself entirely into a bolt of crimson lightning that streaked toward the heavens at incredible speeds. Before long, she was through the clouds that blanketed the sky over Tokyo-3. Mere moments after that, the blue sky above her darkened, revealing a sea of stars.

My god, this thing is in outer space, Strange Visitor thought as she finally drew close enough to the Angel to get a good look at it.

Unlike NERV's Operations Director, she didn't even take notice of its beauty before her thoughts turned to killing it.

"Die!" she roared, putting on an extra burst of speed as she careened toward the Angel.

Of course, the beast's AT field flashed into existence just as Strange Visitor drew near, the barrier of light trying to stave off the attack from the electric superwoman. The nearly impregnable defensive field of this Angel was almost a match for that of the Fifth Angel, which NERV had only managed to brute force their way past by utilizing all the power in Japan.

This Angel's AT field managed to hold for all of 0.0024 seconds before it collapsed beneath the force of Strange Visitor's attack. The electric woman then slammed into the body of the Angel itself, and the monster shattered like the crystal it appeared to be made from. Shards of it went flying in every direction, quickly losing their uncanny luminescence once they lost contact with the rest of the Angel.

Strange Visitor's opening attack by itself would have killed the Angel, if she had hit it dead center. However, doing that would have required her to fly straight through the beam of light it had been emitting, and Strange Visitor understandably hadn't wanted to do that.

So instead she had ended up colliding with one of the Angel's "wings" and utterly destroying the appendage. This, however, seemed insufficient to slay the beast; the Angel had ceased in its attack and it was spinning crazily in the zero-G environment of outer space, but it appeared to be getting itself under control. In fact, it looked like it was trying to get into position to resume its earlier attack.

There's no way I'll let that happen! Strange Visitor decided, bolts of crimson energy crackling around her clenched fists.

With a grunt, she unleashed a blast of destruction, jagged bolts of scarlet energy bursting from her hands and striking the Angel, this time hitting it dead on. More of its crystalline mass broke off and went flying into outer space, while the remainder of the Angel itself began to veer toward the Earth. Strange Visitor flew off in pursuit of it, but even before she could catch up to the wounded beast, she could see flames licking its battered form as it began to enter the atmosphere.

Unwilling to bet that it would simply be incinerated by the heat, Strange Visitor continued to pursue it, mercilessly taking pot shots at the falling Angel as it careened toward the Earth.

After what you did to my friend, I'm going to make sure you're dead! Strange Visitor thought venomously as she chased after it.

For several minutes, it fell toward the ground, apparently having given up entirely at fighting or trying to escape its attacker. However, Strange Visitor soon realized that its trajectory would take it at least close to Tokyo-3, which was unlikely to have happened by mere chance, considering how far up they'd been mere minutes ago.

Is this damn thing actually trying to get there so it can attack from up close? Strange Visitor wondered with a worried frown. They were falling very fast now. Where only seconds ago, she had been able to see continents, now she could see cities. A few seconds later, she could pick out individual buildings, and then city streets.

"Here we go!" Strange Visitor exclaimed, finally relenting in her attacks on the Angel and bringing herself to an abrupt halt in midair.

The Fifteenth Angel was not so capable of putting the breaks on; it continued to plummet downwards, finally crashing into a large rice patty just outside of Tokyo-3. There was a terrific Boom! as it hit the ground, throwing up a huge cloud of dust and debris.

"There's no way it could have survived that…could it?" Strange Visitor wondered aloud, slowly descending toward the Angel as the dust began to clear.

Amazingly, the thing's body hadn't been completely annihilated by the impact, though it did appear to be quite dead. What remained of it was badly scorched and curled up, making it look like the world's largest and most bizarre dead insect. Its bright glow had been completely extinguished.

In the rough center of its body, exposed after Strange Visitor had blasted away several layers of the crystalline material that made up its body, was a large ruby sphere. A great crack was easily visible in the red orb.

The electric superwoman was about to declare her mission accomplished and head back to Tokyo-3 when she noticed movement from the core. The crimson orb seemed to shudder, and then what looked like purple smoke emerged from the crack in it.

"What in the world…?" Strange Visitor muttered, frowning out of confusion.

Then, numerous pieces of the Angel's corpse broke off and flew toward the mysterious…thing that had risen from the core. They rapidly came together, encasing the strange blob of energy in the crystalline material.

The crystal, which had become dull and lifeless, suddenly flared with light, brighter than it had been before, and Strange Visitor was forced to shield her eyes and look away.

The light quickly faded, allowing the electric superwoman to look at what had happened. Her eyes widened at the sight.

A man floated above the body of the dead Angel, wrapped in armor made from living crystal. Most of it was the same pink color that the Angel had been, but portions of the chest, as well as the cowl that covered the man's face, were a blue so dark they were almost purple. He also boasted a pair of crystalline wings that were as black as midnight.

He looked confused; as Strange Visitor stared at him, he looked about his surroundings with a blank expression upon his face. Then his gaze finally settled upon Strange Visitor.

"Kis…met?" he asked, speaking as though he was unused to forming words.

"You know me?" Strange Visitor asked, taken aback. "You know who I am?"

The answer seemed to startle him, and he shook his head as if to clear it. Then his gaze flicked toward the silent titan in the distance; Unit Two was clearly visible above the buildings it stood behind.

"The job isn't finished," the man declared. "I have to destroy her…"

"What?" Strange Visitor exclaimed, getting between him and Unit Two. "Don't you dare hurt her!"

"Out of my way!" the armored man barked.

He raised his hand, and a blast of pink light burst forth from his palm. The attack caught the surprised Strange Visitor right in the chest, causing the electric woman to let out a cry of pain and go tumbling toward the ground.

His only obstacle out of his way, the man took off, his armor glowing so brightly as he flew that he appeared to become a beam of light.

Gritting her teeth, Strange Visitor forced herself to ignore the pain in her torso and took off in pursuit of the man at top speed.


"What in the world are they?" Misato asked as she stared at the command center's main viewer.

The massive screen was currently showing the strange woman – who had appeared from nowhere to slay the Angel – and a crystal-covered man who had emerged from its battered corpse. The two were clearly having some kind of conversation, and Misato would've gleefully traded a month's worth of Yebisu for audio at the moment.

"The woman appears to be that figure who's been seen around the city lately," Makoto observed. "Strange Visitor, I think."

"That would help if we knew what she was," Misato groaned. "And I don't think I've ever seen or heard of that guy before."

"The MAGI are picking up something very similar to a blue pattern from him, but with a lot of strange variances," Maya said. "They are unable to reach any firm conclusion on what he is."

Misato resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "What else is—?"

She cut off as the man abruptly sucker punched Strange Visitor with some sort of energy beam and then took off. A moment later, the electric woman was in hot pursuit of him.

"Where are they going?" Misato asked, even though she really didn't think anyone on the command center could actually tell her the destination of the two beings.

"They're heading straight for Unit Two!" Aoba exclaimed.

The Ops Director's eyes widened, and her gaze instantly went from the long haired tech to the main viewer. Strange Visitor and the nameless man dressed in crystal currently appeared to be a pink spear of light followed by a crimson thunderbolt. Neither one of them looked very friendly.

"Is the lift working yet?" she demanded. "Can we recall Unit Two?"

"Negative, it's still malfunctioning!" Aoba said.

"Major, we're picking up enormous energy readings from those two!" Makoto warned. "The MAGI all feel that either one could easily penetrate an Evangelion's armor!"

"Eject Asuka's plug!" Misato commanded. "Do it now!"


"Oh, Gott! Move! Move! Please, just one more time! Move!" a panicked Asuka begged her Evangelion as she pulled frantically on the control yokes.

The Second Child's sync ratio was still too low to make Unit Two function, but it remained high enough to get the neural link working, at least for the sake of activating some of the onboard systems. In this case, that meant that she was able to see outside, to see the beam of light that was streaking toward her, but unable to do anything to evade it.

The Angel's horrible psychic attack had terminated just before it had really managed to breach the inner sanctum of her mind, just before it had truly been able to violate her. However, being spared from the mental invasion wouldn't mean much if she died right then.

"Come on! Come on!" she pleaded, still to no avail.

She could see the bolt of scarlet lighting following the streak of light, and Asuka knew that her friend was trying to help her. However, it looked like Strange Visitor was going to be just a little too late.

I don't want to die, she thought. I still have to prove that I'm not a failure. That I can be great even if I wasn't the greatest Evangelion pilot. I don't want to die!

Unfortunately, the absurdly colored bolt of destruction that was bearing down on Unit Two didn't seem to care about what the Second Child wanted. It continued to draw nearer, rapidly closing the distance between itself and Unit Two.

Then the walls of her entry plug went dark, and Asuka was thrown forward as it abruptly began to move. Her entry plug came to an abrupt stop just as she was realizing that NERV must have ejected it. Asuka quickly opened up the hatch and poked her head out…and her jaw dropped at what she saw.

Her entry plug had landed on the roof of one of the many tall buildings in the city, her vantage point allowing for a perfect view of Unit Two. Or, more accurately, what remained of Unit Two.

The crimson Evangelion had a massive, gaping hole in its torso. The place where she would've been if NERV hadn't gotten her out of there was simply gone. Asuka could see the few shattered remnants of the EVA's core, the edges of the red material smoking slightly.

Mein…mein Gott, she thought, knowing she should be furious at that…thing for destroying Unit Two, but too horrified and awed by its power to feel anything but shock.

Then she spied movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see a man clad in what looked like crystal flying toward her. The getup he was wearing should've looked ridiculous, yet somehow Asuka found herself swallowing in fear.

"Hello there," he greeted her, coming to a stop once he was within arm's reach of her.

"What are you?" Asuka asked quietly.

"I've been many things, to many people," he said, a malicious grin spreading across his face. "To you, I am death."


"Mein…mein Gott," Strange Visitor breathed, not even realizing that she was using Asuka's phrase. It felt very natural in her mouth all of a sudden.

She had seen the metal tube flying out of Unit Two, and she knew that Asuka had been inside of it, that Asuka was safe. Yet she couldn't help but be stunned by the damage that the man who'd emerged from the Angel had made when he'd crashed through the red Evangelion. The hole in Unit Two's torso looked large enough to drive a truck through. Clearly, her crystal clad foe was at least as powerful as she was, Strange Visitor decided.

But I can't run, she thought. So long as that man's around, my only friend in the world is in—

Strange Visitor stopped in mid-thought as a shooting pain abruptly blossomed behind her eyes. She cried out and grasped her head.

With Unit Two's core completely shattered, the last remnants of the soul that had been trapped inside it were liberated, and they were returning to the other vessel of that soul. Strange Visitor felt knowledge and emotions flooding into her brain, so quickly that she feared it would overwhelm her and break her mind to pieces.

Then, as abruptly as it had begun, the pain ceased. One moment, she had been in abject agony. The next, the pain was gone, and she found that missing fragments of her soul, and—just as importantly—her memory had been restored to her.

Yet before she could even contemplate the knowledge she now had, her gaze fell upon the man in the crystalline armor. He was looming over Asuka, and the redhead girl looked utterly petrified.

A moment ago, she would've seen someone threatening her only friend in the world, which would've been bad enough. Now…

"Get the hell away from my daughter, you bastard!" Strange Visitor roared, surging forward.

The armored man turned his gaze away from Asuka to look at the electric superwoman, but that was about all he got the chance to do. Crimson lightning erupted from her hands and slammed directly into his chest, sending him flying and tearing a cry of pain from his mouth. He careened through the air, trailing smoke as he went, until he finally collided with one of Tokyo-3's many tall buildings, crashing right through the wall until he disappeared inside the structure.

At this point, most people probably would have assumed that the man in the crystalline armor was dead.

Unlike most people, Strange Visitor knew better.

"Go find somewhere safe, liebste!" she told Asuka before flying off in pursuit of her foe.

The Second Child didn't immediately obey the electric superwoman's command. Instead, she merely stood where she was, watching Strange Visitor with wide eyes as she flew off, mind reeling with disbelief.

"…Mama?" she whispered.

However, Strange Visitor was already well out of earshot by this point, the crimson superwoman hell-bent upon destroying the being that had tried to harm her daughter. She reached out with her electromagnetic powers as she advanced toward him, tearing a dozen I-beams out of a condemned husk of a building. The huge bars of steel obediently floated in the air after her as she advanced towards her foe. She reached the structure she had catapulted her enemy into just as he was getting back to his feet. The crystal-clad man leaned heavily against the side of the huge hole in the wall that he had made, eyes falling upon the superwoman.

"Hey!" Strange Visitor called out to him. "Catch!"

One of the I-beams went rocketing forward at the speed of a bullet, and again, the armored man never had a chance to react. The end of it slammed into his chest like a battering ram, throwing him backwards. Within seconds, he was crashing through the opposite wall of the building and hurtling toward the ground, falling to the street with enough force to shatter the asphalt.

Yet Strange Visitor wasn't still done. She soared after him, sending the remaining I-beams careening downwards toward her prone foe.

Unfortunately for her, the armored man finally managed to get with the program. Just before the many tons of rebar steel could crash into him, pink light blossomed around his form, creating a dome of blinding fuchsia radiance. When Strange Visitor was able to look at him again, the I-beams had disappeared from view, annihilated by the forces he had called into being.

"You know, Kismet, I don't remember you ever being quite so ferocious," he remarked as he got to his feet.

"Kismet is gone, even though her knowledge and power live on in me," Strange Visitor said, crossing her arms over her chest. "What about you? Are you Kestrel? Or the Angel?"

"Mostly Kestrel," the man replied. "My…host didn't exactly have a mind of its own. Not in the same way humans do, anyway."

"And why does a Lord of Chaos have any interest in killing an individual human girl?" Strange Visitor demanded.

"I won't pretend that the Angel, including its desires, hasn't become a part of me," Kestrel said. "I'll destroy those abominable copies of Adam, and I'll murder those who control them."

"No," Strange Visitor replied, tongues of energy crackling into being around her clenched fists, "you won't."

She held her hands forward, and crimson lightning burst forth from them, arcing toward Kestrel. The transmuted Lord of Chaos was prepared this time, however, and a dome of rose colored light flared into being around him, shielding him.

"My turn!" he snarled.

Kestrel unleashed a beam of energy at her, and Strange Visitor was just barely able to dodge it, wincing as she saw how the asphalt she'd been standing on had actually melted from the brief hit.

"Die!" he roared at her, firing off several more blasts.

He's totally lost it, Strange Visitor thought, even as she frantically flew through the air in crazy patterns to avoid the attacks. I think he's gained more of the Angel's nature than he realizes.

The Kestrel in Kismet's memories wasn't exactly a pleasant person. Of course, the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos had been fighting one another since time immemorial, so those recollections were probably rather biased. However, not even Kismet had ever viewed Kestrel as the berserker he'd become.

This, combined with his zeal for murdering the Evangelion pilots (most importantly, her daughter), convinced Strange Visitor that she had no choice but to put Kestrel down. She concentrated, summoning her electromagnetic powers, and several of the cars that had been left abandoned on the city streets silently rose off of the ground.

The former Lord of Chaos, still firing wildly at his foe, never even noticed.

"Kestrel," Strange Visitor spoke, "I'm sorry I have to do this to you."

A frown of confusion formed on the armored man's face, but it was soon replaced by an expression of wide eyed terror as he saw over half a dozen cars flying his way.

Windshields shattered, frames crumpled and Kestrel was instantly buried beneath several tons of metal and glass. It seemed to happen in the blink of an eye to Strange Visitor; one instant, Kestrel had been standing there, and the next, a pile of twisted metal was in his place.

"Whew," she breathed, allowing herself to descend back to the ground, her shoulders relaxing.

She turned to look back the mangled form of Unit Two, which was still visible in the distance. Hopefully she'd be able to find Asuka with minimal difficulty.

There's so much I have to tell her, she thought. Starting with how that wasn't really me who—

The pile of cars she had buried Kestrel under exploded, keeping Strange Visitor from ever finishing her thought. Her gaze snapped back to what she had assumed was her foe's funeral pyre just in time to see the cars that had composed it spinning wildly through the air and then crashing back down on the street.

"Tell me, did you really think that would kill me?" Kestrel asked, on his feet and looking no worse for the wear. "Did you really?"

Strange Visitor responded with a bolt of lightning.

Kestrel deftly evaded the attack and flew through the air toward her. The electric superwoman's own feet rose off the ground as she prepared to dodge his charge…but she had misread his intentions.

Kestrel had never planned to crash into her, or even unleash another energy blast at her. Instead, the crystalline spikes on his armor's shoulder guards broke off and flew toward her like shrapnel.

Strange Visitor cried out in pain as the needles pierced her chest, her arms, her shoulders, and even by her neck. Frantic, she lashed out around her with crackling tongues of scarlet energy, but her wild attacks failed to connect; Kestrel had been savvy enough to expect that response and had pulled back.

"What's it feel like to be on the receiving end?" he snarled, unleashing another blast of pink light and finally catching her right in the stomach.

Strange Visitor couldn't answer him at the moment, seeing as how she was barreling through the air, propelled by the force of his attack. She soon crashed into the side of a nearby building with enough force to plow straight through the wall, great chunks of debris falling upon her in a punishing avalanche of concrete.

Unlike the electric woman, Kestrel held no illusions of ending the battle so simply. The transformed Lord of Chaos stood and waited patiently for a moment.

Then chunks of rubble went flying in all directions as Strange Visitor burst forth, once again on her feet and not looking worse for the wear at all from having been buried alive. Even the wounds from his needle attack had vanished.

The crimson haired superwoman looked ready to fly at him in a rage, but Kestrel held up a hand and she paused, frowning.

"I don't know about you," he said with a small smirk, "but I feel like I could do this all day."

"So do I," Strange Visitor replied, her tone a mixture of surprise and defiance.

She hadn't really noticed it before, but she wasn't truly fatigued at all. She had also taken a considerable amount of abuse, yet she didn't feel hurt. She wasn't even suffering from sore muscles.

"This fight could last forever, for all we know," Kestrel pointed out. "Are we going to do battle for all of eternity? Will the last Lord of Order and the last Lord of Chaos clash until the sun goes cold?"

"Well, you could always surrender," Strange Visitor suggested, placing a hand on her hip.

"Funny," Kestrel replied with a scowl that said he thought it was anything but.

"You want me to be serious? Fine," Strange Visitor spat. "You've said in no uncertain terms that you want to murder my daughter. If fighting with you forever is what I have to do to keep you away from her, then I will."

Kestrel smirked. "You know, I was actually hoping you'd refuse to stand down," he said, his red eyes suddenly glowing with a harsh inner light, "because now I get to do this."

Strange Visitor frowned at him in confusion for a second…then she released an ear-piercing scream of agony and collapsed to the ground, clutching her head and writhing around.

"How do you like it?" Kestrel asked, approaching her. "It's a little something derived from the abilities of my old host. I call it the Thought Bomb. It bombards the victim with every bad memory they possess. All at once. Continuously. But then, I guess you know that already."

Strange Visitor didn't reply. She was too busy clinging to her sanity to even look at him.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I have some tasks I need to finish," Kestrel said.

He flew off, heading back toward Unit Two. Strange Visitor watched him from the corner of her eye, and from somewhere, she found the will to reach a hand out toward him, as though she would pluck him from the sky and pull him away from Asuka.

Then the memories rose up again, and she lowered her hand, clenching her teeth as she tried her best not to get lost in that sea of misery and pain.


Asuka knew she should've done what Strange Visitor had told her to do, she really did. After all, while she knew she was much tougher than the average fourteen-year-old girl, she didn't have any illusions about being able to defeat that freaky guy.

He had blown a huge hole in her Evangelion just by flying through it, after all.

However, she just couldn't run in the opposite direction that Strange Visitor had taken off in. Not after the electric woman had referred to her as "my daughter."

So instead she had followed the loud crashing sounds until she'd gotten close enough to observe Strange Visitor doing battle with Kestrel. Then she climbed a fire escape to give herself a better vantage point, hoping to see everything without being seen.

Can it really be true? She wondered as she watched the two clash. Can that woman really be my mother?

Asuka didn't see how that could be possible. Her mother had died years ago; Asuka had seen the grisly proof of that with her own two eyes, and she'd never be able to forget that image.

However…she wanted it to be true, she realized. Strange Visitor had been so kind to her since they'd met. The woman had lifted her out of her intense depression when everyone else had been obsessed about Shinji's entrapment within Unit One. She had been caring. She had been supportive.

Yes, because Mama was like that, the redhead thought bitterly, rolling her eyes.

Only Asuka wasn't quite being fair, and she knew it. Her mother had been a workaholic before she'd been a madwoman, yes. However, she had been good to Asuka on the rare occasions that she'd actually put some time aside to spend with her daughter.

But that doesn't change the fact that I saw her dead body, Asuka thought, swallowing.

The logic was indeed indisputable. Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu was very, very dead.

Yet logic didn't get Asuka moving. The Second Child remained firmly in place, watching Strange Visitor battle Kestrel with wide, unblinking eyes.

Even if she's not my mother, she is my friend…and she might be all I have left, now that Unit Two's been destroyed, Asuka thought.

A great crash pulled her from her thoughts, and Asuka turned her attention back to the battle going on at the street level just in time to see Strange Visitor thrown into the side of a building with enough force to crash through the walls. The redhead gasped, feeling her stomach plunge into her shoes.

"No…" she breathed, feeling her eyes grow moist.

Despite having apparently won, Kestrel just stood there, rather than celebrate in any fashion. It became clear why when Strange Visitor burst from the rubble a second later.

Asuka's heart leaped. Wow, she's a lot tougher than she looks, she thought, amazed.

She had known that Strange Visitor had the ability to dish out some serious punishment, but she hadn't realized that the electric woman could take it, too.

The two foes spoke for a few moments, but Asuka couldn't hear a thing they were saying. Then Kestrel's eyes glowed with a malevolent luminescence that Asuka could easily see, even from her position.

And Strange Visitor collapsed to the ground, screaming. Her cries of agony echoed through the empty city, easily reaching Asuka's ears.

The Second Child's hands gripped the railing of the fire escape so tightly her knuckles turned white. Her friend was being tortured somehow, and she had a strong suspicion that the guy had invaded Strange Visitor's mind the same way the Angel had tried to invade hers.

Gott, I hate this, she thought, unable to bear just standing around and watching this awful scene unfold, but also having no idea how she could help. If only Unit Two wasn't out of action…

Kestrel suddenly took to the air. For a moment, Asuka thought he was heading back to Unit Two, to finish destroying the now appropriately ruined symbol of her shattered pride. However, she soon realized he was heading straight for her.

"Shit," Asuka hissed, and headed for the ladder that would take her back to the ground.

Unfortunately, she didn't even make it that far. Kestrel moved with such speed that he almost seemed to simply appear before her, barring her path. She let out a gasp of surprise, and it was only with a great effort that she kept it from turning into a scream.

The "carbonation behind a cork" feeling that she experienced sometimes around Strange Visitor was back, too. Except this time, it was stronger than it had ever been before; Asuka felt as though something was on the verge of bursting out of her.

She had a sneaking suspicion that "something" might be vomit.

Regardless of all that, she straightened her back. If this guy was going to kill her (which she was pretty sure he was), then she'd die defiant and on her feet.

"That thing you pilot is a monstrosity," he said without preamble.

Asuka just quirked an eyebrow. She had no idea how to respond to that one.

"It's a monstrosity," Kestrel said again. "A pale, cheap imitation of the All-Father, used to slay his own offspring…used to slay my siblings."

Asuka's eyes widened with realization. "You're an Angel," she said. "You're the Angel."

Kestrel smiled wickedly. "After a fashion," he said. "And as I've said, you and your colleagues have been slaying my family, the flesh of my flesh. Yet now here you stand before me, helpless."

Asuka's hands balled into fists, and the feeling of something building inside her torso intensified further. She was strong tempted to employ the extensive self-defense training she'd received back in Germany. However, she knew it wouldn't be terribly effective against this guy.

"What should I do with you, I wonder?" Kestrel mused aloud. "Shall I do it quickly or slowly?"

"Just get it over with and kill me already," Asuka spat, disgusted with the theatrics.

"Kill you?" Kestrel asked, feigning surprise. "Oh, no. I'm not going to do that, at least not at first. No, I was more thinking about finishing what I started in my…previous form."

Asuka's eyes widened.

"You can hear her down there, can't you?" Kestrel asked, gesturing toward Strange Visitor with a quick jerk of his head. "I think I'll start by doing the same thing to you."

"No…" Asuka breathed.

The Second Child was shaking with fear. She hated herself for it, but she couldn't make herself stop. She had just avoided complete mental violation not one hour ago.

"I really hope you're not overly attached to your sanity," Kestrel said, "because you'll be leaving this world without it."

"No…"

"Oh, yes," Kestrel said, his eyes glowing with that evil light again.

The light that had been the precursor to Strange Visitor's agonized screams. The light that was now the precursor to her own mental invasion.

"NO!" Asuka screamed.

Then the most curious thing happened. The air around them seemed to concuss. Thunder boomed, but it seemed to come from Asuka, not from the rain clouds above them.

Most importantly, Kestrel was picked off his feet by some unseen force and flung backwards. He crashed into the side of the building with enough force to leave a spider web of cracks on the brick wall and then collapsed back onto the fire escape, landing in an undignified heap. He groaned loudly.

At this point, Asuka knew she should've seized the opportunity to run like hell, but she couldn't. She was just too tired. The redhead felt like she'd just run a marathon; she was panting heavily, and her legs felt like jelly. She had to lean heavily on the railing just to remain standing.

What the hell did I just do? She wondered, noting that the mysterious pressure building up inside her had completely abated.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to ponder the question. The transformed Lord of Chaos had bounced back after Strange Visitor had buried him beneath an entire auto show's worth of cars. Getting flung into a wall didn't keep him down for very long.

"I'll bet you think you're something special after having done that," Kestrel said as he stood, visibly recovering.

Asuka wanted to retort at this point that she knew she was something special, but she didn't get the chance. Kestrel grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air, rage burning in his red eyes.

The redhead smirked at him.

"What's so funny?" he demanded.

"You didn't notice," Asuka managed to get out.

"Notice what?" Kestrel hissed, eyes narrowing.

"Her screams. They stopped."

Kestrel frowned in confusion for a second, then his eyes widened as it clicked. Strange Visitor's tortured cries had ceased the moment Asuka had somehow pitched him into the wall.

Unfortunately for him, the realization came just a moment too late.

"I told you to get away from my daughter!" Strange Visitor roared, just as crimson lighting slammed into Kestrel's side, throwing him into the wall a second time and causing him to release Asuka.

The armored man growled wordlessly and hurled himself at Strange Visitor, and the two began to grapple in midair, tongues of crimson energy crackling and flashes of pink light everywhere.

"Asuka…run!" Strange Visitor barked at her, and the Second Child immediately began to retreat down the ladder.

"I'll kill her eventually," Kestrel spat, even as he continued to struggle against his foe. "I'll kill them all."

"Not while I'm around," Strange Visitor vowed.

The two of them whirled and twisted through the air on a wild course as they both fought to control their trajectory. The erratic path caused them to crash into several of the city's many tall buildings more than once, but aside from releasing the occasional grunt of pain, neither even acknowledged that they'd collided with anything.

"We're right back where we were a minute ago," Kestrel grunted. "We're engaged in a battle with no foreseeable conclusion."

"No, not this time," Strange Visitor said.

Lightning erupted from the storm clouds above them and instantly sought out the two combatants. Strange Visitor, a being of electricity as much as she was a creature of mystical energies, had no difficulty absorbing the power. Kestrel, whose abilities differed from hers, was not so lucky. He threw back his head and screamed in agony, his skeleton becoming visible through his flesh for a few brief fractions of a second.

Then his body went limp. Strange Visitor released her grip on him, and he plummeted through the air, looking almost peaceful.

At least until he crashed into the street below, landing with enough force to crack the asphalt beneath him. The electric superwoman descended toward him. Amazingly, Kestrel was already getting up again by the time her feet had touched the ground.

"You see?" he asked smugly as he got back to his feet. "As powerful as we are, we can't kill one another! You can't destroy me."

"Maybe not," Strange Visitor replied, "but I know someone who can."

She pointed to something above Kestrel's shoulder. The grin slowly fell from the transformed Lord of Chaos' face, and he turned.

Unit Zero stood behind him, holding a very long spear made from crimson metal. The prototype Evangelion thrust the butt of the enormous melee weapon downward toward Kestrel with uncanny accuracy, especially given the size disparity between the spear and the target.

"No!" Kestrel yelled, and attempted to get out of the path of the strike.

Unfortunately for him, he had made the mistake of turning his back on Strange Visitor. The crimson haired superwoman unleashed a stream of energy at him, and it struck him right in the center of his spine. It wasn't a powerful enough attack to send him flying; it was just strong enough to cause his muscles to spasm wildly, preventing him from dodging the attack.

The Lance of Longinus came down on him. Against any other weapon, his Angelic and mystic properties would have protected him. Against the Lance, he was reduced to a large smear on the butt of the weapon like any mere mortal would've been in his place.

"That's what you get for trying to kill my daughter," Strange Visitor said.


"The target has been destroyed, Commander," Rei reported from inside Unit Zero's entry plug. "Your orders?"

"What's the status of the other one?" the rather demanding voice of Gendo Ikari came from her radio.

A tiny, almost imperceptible frown appeared on the First Child's face. The Commander was doing his best to hide it, but she knew him very well and could hear the stress in his voice.

He was worried. That by itself worried her, too.

"She appears unscathed by the battle," Rei reported.

"Do you think you can take her out, as well?" Gendo asked.

Her radio managed to pick up several gasps from the personnel inside the NERV command center, and to an extent, she understood their surprise. The red being was not emitting a blue pattern, and she had done nothing but assist in the fight against the Angel.

Rei, knowing enough of how the Commander's mind worked, wasn't truly shocked, though. The electric woman was both an unknown element and a threat to the Scenario, and she was thus unwelcome.

That didn't mean she had to like it, though. Indeed, she felt a mild wave of nausea sweep over her at the question.

"Negative," she answered truthfully. "She is too small and too quick. It is unlikely that I will be able to hit her."

"…very well. Return the Lance to Dogma and then take Unit Zero to cage four."

"Acknowledged," Rei said, watching on her HUD as Strange Visitor flew off into the city.

She briefly wondered where the woman was going before giving a mental shrug as she headed back toward headquarters.


Asuka was halfway to one of the Geofront access points when she saw a bolt of red lightning passing overhead. She stopped in her tracks, looking around for any sign of the pink light that was the herald of an appearance by Kestrel.

Then, from seemingly nowhere, she felt someone crash into her.

"Ooph!" the redhead gasped as the wind was driven from her lungs.

Her first thought was that this was Kestrel coming to finish her off, and her body stiffened as she prepared to fight back with every remaining ounce of strength she had.

Then she realized that the person who'd crashed into her was hugging her, and she allowed herself to relax.

Slightly.

"Oh, Asuka, mein liebste, I'm so relieved that you're safe! For a moment, I thought that he was going to get you! Oh, I've missed you so much! Of course, I wasn't fully conscious for most of the time that we were separated, but I could still feel it. And look how much you've grown…" Strange Visitor babbled, on the verge of sobbing with the flood of emotions she was feeling.

For several seconds, Asuka just stood there, blinking stupidly, and not hugging Strange Visitor back. She knew that the electric woman suddenly viewed her as her daughter for some reason, but this Niagara Falls of emotion was still rather shocking.

"Wait! Wait! Hold on a second!" Asuka exclaimed, pushing away from the woman as she regained her composure. "You think you're my mother, don't you?" she asked in an accusatory tone, pointing a finger at Strange Visitor.

"Asuka, I am your mother," she said. "I'm Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu."

That Strange Visitor knew that threw Asuka for a loop. She had spoken with her unusual friend about her mother many times, but she'd never referred to her by name.

The redhead felt a spark of hope ignite inside her, but she ruthlessly suppressed it.

She wanted Strange Visitor to truly be Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu. She wanted her mother to still be alive, and to be the caring and compassionate woman who had saved her life and paid attention to her while everyone else in the world was ignoring her in favor of Shinji.

She wanted that so bad, but she was afraid to believe that it could possibly be true, even for a second.

I…I probably just told her Mama's name once and forgot about it, she decided.

She didn't think that her trusted friend was lying to her, but she did think that the woman was confused somehow. Asuka wanted it to hurt as little as possible when she discovered the truth.

"That's…that's impossible," she protested, her mouth suddenly dry. "My mother's dead. I saw her body!"

"I know," Strange Visitor said sadly, placing her hands on Asuka's shoulders, "and I am so sorry that you had to see me like that, liebste. Please, you have to understand, the Contact Experiment broke my soul into two pieces, and that caused me to go mad. If there had been the slightest trace of sanity inside my head at the time, I would have at least made sure you weren't the one to find me. And I certainly wouldn't have hung that awful doll, either."

Asuka gasped. While it was possible she'd shared her mother's name with Strange Visitor, she knew she'd kept that part a secret. Asuka hadn't been able to make herself share the knowledge that her mother had also hung that doll—the abominable piece of cloth and stuffing that Kyoko had treated like it was her daughter.

"It…it is you, isn't it?" Asuka asked, tears appearing in her eyes.

"Yes, Asuka, it's me," Strange Visitor said, smiling.

The Second Child suddenly found herself struck by a thousand different emotions, ranging from joy to confusion to disbelief. She was nearly overwhelmed as countless impulses assailed her, but one eventually won out over the others.

It was, quite honestly, not the one she or anyone else would've expected.

"Why didn't you tell me it was you when you first caught me?" Asuka demanded, white hot fury suddenly coursing through her. "And where have you been all this time? I…I've had nightmares about finding you for almost as long as I can remember!"

Strange Visitor recoiled as though struck. "Asuka, please understand, I've been trapped inside Unit Two for years. The damage it took when you fought the Fourteenth Angel allowed me to escape, but I left a piece of myself behind. My memory. I didn't get it back until Kestrel completely destroyed Unit Two," she said. "And I never would have done anything to hurt you. The whole reason I went through with the Contact Experiment to begin with was to ensure that there would be a world for you to grow up in. To make sure the Angels didn't destroy everything."

That threw the redheaded girl for a loop, and she felt her anger quickly ebbing away in the face of her confusion.

"How did you get stuck inside my EVA?" Asuka asked with wide eyes. "How is any of what happened possible?"

"It's a long story, Asuka," Strange Visitor said, gently stroking her daughter's rain slicked hair. "A long and complicated story."

Asuka's eyes narrowed. She needed to know the whole tale if she was ever going to trust this woman enough to love her the way a daughter should love her mother. Regardless of the fact that the electric woman seemed to truly be Kyoko Soryu, the Second Child couldn't accept a vague statement like "it's a long story" and all the horrible facts it might hide.

"Tell me," she demanded.

Strange Visitor smiled gently. She knew that some very powerful people were going to 'ask' about her, and she would therefore have to tell the story at least twice if she explained it all to Asuka now.

She's had to grow up without a mother. I think she deserves to have me to herself right now, she thought.

"It all started long before the Contact Experiment," she said. "A being named Kismet who was very much like a god—a dying god—latched onto me as a way of extending her life just a little bit longer…"


"Sir, the Second Child has just used her ID card to enter NERV headquarters," Makoto reported. "Strange Visitor is with her. They appear to be heading here."

"Very well. Tell security to let them come," Gendo replied.

"Yes, sir."

The atmosphere in the command center was tense, many of the personnel there not entirely comfortable with allowing someone as powerful as Strange Visitor into the heart of NERV.

Gendo himself realized that it was a risk, but it was a calculated risk, and one he had little choice but to take. The…thing that had been birthed from the carcass of the last Angel had only been put down with Strange Visitor's assistance. It would obviously be very difficult to kill or incapacitate the woman, who was roughly equal to it in terms of prowess.

Also, the many surveillance cameras NERV had located throughout the city had allowed him to watch (if not listen in on), the long chat Strange Visitor had had with the Second Child. The affection that the electric woman had shown for the EVA pilot had been all too plain to see.

Perhaps the Second will be useful again yet, Gendo thought, allowing a very faint smile to form on his face.

He had no new Evangelion to offer Pilot Soryu, but the promise of one would be enough to ensure her obedience. If controlling the Second Child meant he could control Strange Visitor, then the old men would be able to do nothing to prevent the execution of his Scenario.

The door to the command center swished open, allowing Asuka and Strange Visitor to enter. For a long moment, everyone was silent.

Then Shinji, who had come to the command center to wait for Asuka, rose from his seat. "Asuka?" he asked nervously. "Are you okay?"

His words seemed to break the tension in the room, and Asuka favored him with a small smile. "I'm fine, baka," she said, then cleared her throat. "Everybody, I'd like to introduce you all to my mother, Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu."

Silence reigned inside the command center again, this time because everyone was gob smacked by the Second Child's announcement.

Eventually, Misato spoke up. "Asuka," she said gently, "you know what happened to your mother…"

The Second Child smirked. "It's a long story," she said.

"And I'm sure we'd all love to hear it," Gendo broke in, immediately getting everyone's attention. "But what we need to know right now, Strange Visitor—or Dr. Soryu, if you prefer—is if you're willing to help NERV destroy the remaining Angels."

The woman in the crimson containment suit didn't respond. Instead, she rose off the ground, levitating up from the second tier of the structure in the command center until she was face to face with Gendo.

"Did you know, Ikari, that I can sort of see electricity?" she asked him, tilting her head slightly.

Gendo frowned, confused by the non sequitur. "No," he answered.

"Oh yes," Strange Visitor said. "I can see electricity, even…bio-electricity. You know, the kind that flows through everyone, carrying nerve impulses."

"And the relevance of this is…?" Gendo asked, growing impatient.

"I'm seeing something very interesting in your hand," she said. "It looks a lot like that Angel I destroyed."

Strange Visitor reached out to grab him, and Gendo attempted to pull away from her. However, she was too fast, and she had soon had a solid grip on the man.

Misato, along with several others in the command center, immediately drew her pistol and pointed it at Strange Visitor, ignoring Asuka's angry shout of protest. However, no one dared to take a shot, fearing to hit the Commander.

"Now what's this?" Strange Visitor asked, ripping off Gendo's glove and exposing the embryonic form of Adam to everyone present.

The command center staff gasped, save for Fuyutski, who just suppressed a sigh and allowed himself to tiredly collapse into a nearby chair. This was not how he'd foreseen the Scenario crashing and burning.

"Well, Ikari, it looks like you've got some explaining to do," Strange Visitor observed.


One Month Later…

Things had been hectic, to say the least, since Strange Visitor had exposed Gendo Ikari's greatest secret. There had been a slew of investigations performed by the UN and the Japanese government, despite the best efforts of SEELE, and they had managed to unearth the whole grisly plot.

For some time, it had seemed like the government would go public with the story, but both the Japanese Diet and the UN Security Council had agreed that the people would demand NERV be shut down if that were to happen. With the Angel War still ongoing, that had been deemed unacceptable.

Thus, Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutski had been "transferred" to NERV-Siberia, and Misato Katsuragi had been made Commander of NERV Central.

It's enough to boggle the mind, Shinji silently decided, as he stood on the roof of the apartment building he called home and looked out at Tokyo-3, which was currently bathed in the blazing orange light of the setting sun.

"There you are, baka."

Shinji jumped at the sound of that familiar voice behind him and turned. Asuka stood by the door to the roof, her hands planted on her hips.

"Um, hello," he said.

The redhead walked next to him, leaning her elbows on the protective wall that ringed the roof and looked down. She was silent for several moments, looking down at the street below.

"Are you all right, baka?" she asked him abruptly.

"Huh?" he asked.

"Are you all right?" she repeated, speaking very slowly this time, as though the person she was addressing wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

"I'm fine," he replied. "Why do you ask?"

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Maybe because you recently discovered that your father had an evil plan to destroy the world, and that the man is now freezing his ass off in some Russian gulag?"

"I'm fine," Shinji said guardedly.

"Don't lie to me," Asuka demanded.

She then raised her hand so they hovered just a few inches from his eyes. Then, crimson sparks crackled into existence by her fingertips.

Shinji knew for a fact that Asuka couldn't do anything more than this, at least not yet, but he still reflexively leaned away from her. He quickly became extremely conscious of his position on the edge of the roof of a ten-story building.

"Spill," she commanded.

"Okay, okay," Shinji said, and she pulled back, allowing him to stand up straight. "I still don't understand how you can do that."

"Mama thinks it's because Kismet joined with her while she was still pregnant with me," Asuka answered. "Apparently, it affected me somehow, and then contact with Strange Visitor activated my dormant 'supernatural potential.' I know it's a pretty lame trick now, but I'm definitely getting better. At this rate, I'll be blowing things up with my mind by the time I'm sixteen."

Shinji would be lying if he said that thought didn't scare him, but he was still glad for Asuka. He secretly thought that discovering this new, extraordinary talent made the loss of Unit Two a lot easier for her.

"I'll try to stay away from you when you're in a bad mood," he said.

Asuka smirked. "As though I needed mind bullets to make you fear for your life," she said, then frowned. "Now, talk, Shinji."

"All right, all right," he said. "I…I know I should be upset about what it turned out my father was doing, and about what happened to him, but…I'm not."

Asuka gave him a skeptical look. "You're not?"

He shrugged and gave her a sad smile. "I guess I sort of gave up on my father after the Thirteenth Angel and the Dummy System," he said.

"Oh, I see," Asuka said awkwardly.

"But…thanks for asking, Asuka," he said. "I'm surprised you even have the time to worry about me. Everything's been so crazy lately, and with the move…"

She shrugged. "I noticed that nobody's been paying you any attention," she said. "I know how that is. After Unit One absorbed you, and before I met Strange Visitor…"

"Ah," Shinji said. "Well, thanks."

"You're welcome," Asuka replied.

The two of them turned to look out at the setting sun in comfortable silence. It had almost retreated entirely beneath the horizon when the door to the roof opened again.

"Ah, I was wondering where you had gone off to," Kyoko said as the two teenagers turned to look at her.

The scarlet-haired woman in the red and white containment suit was nowhere to be found at the moment. Instead, the attractive strawberry blonde that Kyoko had been prior to the contact experiment stood before Shinji and Asuka; with Kismet's knowledge at her disposal, Strange Visitor had managed to figure out how to change back and forth between her human form and her "electric" state, allowing her to live a normal life.

Of course, explaining how Kyoko Soryu was back among the land of the living after having been officially dead for several years—along with the accompanying paperwork—had been an utter hell, but that hurdle had finally been cleared.

"Just wanted to check up on the baka here," Asuka replied, hooking a thumb in Shinji's direction.

"I see," Kyoko said. "Well, dinner came, and I don't want it to get cold."

"Right," Asuka said. "I'll see you tomorrow, Shinji."

"See you," he said.

"Good evening, Shinji-kun," Kyoko said with a small nod and a smile as she and her daughter headed back into the building.

As soon as she had officially started existing again, Kyoko had rented out the apartment next to Misato's. Asuka had, of course, moved in with her mother, and the two of them had just recently finished settling in.

When Asuka entered, she found the pizza the Kyoko had ordered sitting on the coffee table, along with paper plates, a few cans of soda, and a small stack of DVD cases, all for various chick flicks.

Corny, Asuka thought, knowing that her mother planned to make the evening a "girl's night in."

Still, she wasn't about to rebuff her mother's attempts to make up for lost time. Asuka plopped down on the couch and reached for the pizza box.

"There's no pineapple on this, is there?" she asked, having recently made the shocking discovery that her mother actually liked the stuff on her pizza.

"Just on my half," Kyoko replied as she selected a movie and put the disc into the DVD player.

For a few minutes, the two of them just sat on the couch and ate as they watched the guy in the movie pursue a woman who didn't know he existed.

This is nice, Asuka decided with a small smile.

"So, Asuka dear, tell me more about your relationship with Shinji," Kyoko said.

Asuka groaned.


Author's Notes: And so all three of the mothers' stories in the SOE2 series are now complete.

I thought the ending to this one, with Strange Visitor seeing Adam in Gendo's palm, was a tad abrupt, but the mothers' stories are supposed to be short.

I don't really have much else to say here, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well.