::: A/N - Finally finished chapter to personal satisfaction. Other than catching up on an assignment, should prove to be interesting week. Curious to know if the proposed club actually got approved by the school. Anticipation is quite lethal. Also curious of readers' thoughts on work below.

Gendo read Kaji's report silently in the monolithic office at his monolithic desk.

...

From: Section 2, Director, Ryoji Kaji
To: NERV Commander, Gendo Ikari

Sir,

There were no less than thirty-four individuals involved with the 'incident' a few days ago. We have twenty-eight in custody; they are being held within our super-max cells on level B 11. Help from two of the Pilots aided in capturing many of those we have.

On the matter of how the sabotage occurred: Have found fist-sized charges were the primary method. Just enough to cut, but not enough to set off the seismic sensors. Now that we know what to look for, if there is a next time, we'll be able to find the damage much faster. They had various forged I.D.'s paired to falsified data within our recognition system. Tomorrow, you can expect a formal request for DNA coded security cards. I won't lie, they're expensive, but entirely worth the money. It would be exorbitantly expensive for someone to falsify one and only two companies make the necessary equipment.

We're tracking down whatever leads we can find on the other suspects. I will have to let you know when we have all of them. That could be a while.

Every one of them had schematics of their part of the base.

Oh, and considering that... nobody made it into Terminal Dogma.

...

Gendo saw the blinking light on his desk and pulled open a drawer. He answered the call.

Ritsuko hammered away at her keyboard two-handed; whole screens of code flashed into existence and were almost immediately replaced with another before the woman's glasses-clad eyes. It wasn't more than five minutes before Ritsuko stopped and announced to her Magi maintenance crew, "One hundred twenty-first Magi overhaul has been completed. Good work everyone. Let's take a break until five minutes before the Eva test."

Maya slumped into her chair, happy to be done for even a few moments. She looked over at Ritsuko, who didn't turn her head but her lined, blue eyes toward the brown-uniformed woman and called over, "Still alive over there?"

Grabbing her coffee mug and discovering it empty, she answered the blonde, "I'm making the coffee from now on. No more paint thinner for me."

Ritsuko recapped a flask and hid it back in her lab coat somewhere, "Count me in, but I may need more than coffee."

Without alerting the blue-eyed blonde, Maya slipped up beside her and leaned over to tap a few keys on Ritsuko's keyboard, "Forget the drink."

Turning her blue eyes to the screen on her right, the Scientist easily read what Maya was doing: shutting down a few, specific security cameras to a certain, nearby bathroom, "Oh, I see." She lifted her free hand to touch the younger woman's exposed throat with her fingertips and spoke in a low, seductive tone, "Want me alone, do you?"

Maya hummed at Ritsuko's touch; turning her head, she answered by planting a kiss on the Scientist.

Seeing the pair leave, arm around each other's waist, Misato couldn't help but smile. It's good to see Rits happy.

Soon enough, the four pilots strolled into the main area of the Pyramid. Nobody would have known how tired Shinji really was, except for his half-open eyes. They were all in a good mood as they walked and chatted about nothing. IF he saw Ritsuko being led to the bathroom by Maya, he certainly gave no sign and continued walking.

Their instructions were pre-recorded, this time. Asuka swore that Ritsuko sounded down-right chipper, "With the substantially decreased time-table from the Commanders, we need all the data we can gather on the Evas to upgrade or supplant our current technology. This test will be an ultra-clean-room environment. We want data directly from your bodies to the Eva simulation bodies. That means: no plug suits and no germs."

The Red Devil groaned at that last bit, "You have got to be kidding me!"

"I am not joking."

"Huh?! Look, that means a run through what, a dozen shower cycles?"

"The recorders have been disabled, we will respect your privacy. Know that this test environment is well beyond any acceptable clean you will likely encounter again. Simply removing your clothes and taking a standard shower is insufficient."

After they made their way through the myriad battery of detergents and rinses, the pilots now stood naked behind plastic doors leading to the test chamber.

Asuka grunted this time, "Alright, here we are. Buck naked and run through the wash cycle seventeen times."

"Very good. Please proceed to the test chamber."

Turning her eyes to Shinji, the redhead just grinned, "Hey Wonder Boy. This time, I'm sober."

He tiled his head in her direction, "I like you better sober. You're more... animated."

As they sat in their respective plugs breathing LCL and meditating, Shinji abruptly awoke with a shriek, "Gah!"

"Shinji, what's the matter?"

"Something... I don't know what. Whatever it is, it's very, very close."

Alarms rang out over the Pribnow Box and the Bridge simultaneously. The Magi's voice started in, "Anomaly detected over Tokyo Three. Orange blood pattern detected."

"Abort the test. Eject simulation plugs and prep Eva Units One and Two." Misato looked over at Ritsuko, only to see the woman crush a pen in her hand, "We'll get another chance to run the test. Unless you want Ken and Rei to keep at it..."

The Scientist dejectedly let out a sigh, "It will take another eight, solid, sleepless months to prep sim bodies like these."

"Leave Aida and Ayanami connected. We don't want to have to redo the -entire- experiment."

Shinji and Asuka were waiting at their respective Eva cages in their respective plug suits inside of five minutes.

"We have literally zero data about the target."

Unit One checked its pistol again, while Unit Two just rested in silence for orders. Both Evangelions were hiding from the line of sight from the Angel, which floated with an eerie silence toward the center of Tokyo Three.

"Neither the Angel's body, nor the shadow register on electromagnetic sensors. Granted, nobody's lobbed any projectiles at it, either..."

"This city has security cameras all over the place. Does Kaji have anything that could help?"

Another voice joined in the chorus, it was out of breath from having sprinted most of the way to the bridge, "We- we're uploading that right now, Shinji. Sorry I'm late."

"You got here, that's the important thing. Why couldn't one of your men handle that?"

Kaji impishly grinned at Misato and Ritsuko before returning to the microphone, "Sometimes you have to make sure the right people get the right information."

"Yeah. Speaking of information. Misato, we have to know if either part reacts to our weapons..."

"I second Wonder Boy's motion!"

"Major." Gendo had gotten up from his desk and was walking forth from beside Ritsuko's desk, "I'll make the necessary call." He didn't suppress another chance to grin, "It has to be as official as possible."

The Commander went to the radio set up that Kaji was at and pressed a few buttons on the terminal before speaking into the microphone, "This is Charlie One Niner. Authorization code Alpha One Zeta Tango."

"This is Jaysock Overlord. Charlie One Niner, I confirm your authorization. Send your traffic."

"I require precision ordinance on a large mass object floating over my head, Overlord. One shot will do."

"You're in luck One Niner. One standard precision munition is being delivered."

"You're too kind."

"Two minute ETA, One Niner. Uh, callsign Rot reports no joy for radar."

"Yes, we saw that too. What about paint?"

"Uh- wait one."

The main display showed the city's general map overlaid with the two deployed Evas in purple and red, a large hollow white circle for the Angel's body, and a green X with the name Rot in a dialog box. Rot was traveling at mach 1.3 and his remaining E.T.A. was indicated to be 1.5 min.

Sitting in a fancy, larger, brand new F-22e Super Raptor, Rot made sure to enjoy his sleek ride. This country is beautiful. Too bad

He stared into the Angel's black body, its white stripes did not move at first, then they did. Is that because of me? Now he saw the two Evas hiding behind a couple of buildings. Of course not. Who would worry about me harming an Angel? It's not like I'm carrying an N Two mine... Rot couldn't help but look up to the three, circling B-52's overhead. All for this one creature? Mein Gott.

As he streaked in, he said aloud, "Laser designator operating as expected. I can do a non-targeted shot, if necessary, Overlord."

"No, Rot. Stick with paint for now. Update as necessary."

"Roger Overlord."

Eva Unit Two turned its head to see the jet fighter ignite its afterburners. Asuka's HUD indicated the increased velocity and plotted the plane's possible speed, as well as its flight path. Mach two point eight. Nice. As he streaked past her position, the jet let loose all its pent up thrust. Yeesh. Mach three! She manipulated her 3-d mouse and got a good still image of the plane. Her HUD told her all about it, if she cared to read, "F Twenty Two Super Raptor? Jesus. That's a lot of money for a plane."

Shinji was watching too, "I'm surprised it doesn't have an ablative hull..."

"Probably a little harder to form than aluminum, Wonder boy."

Eva Unit One looked over at Eva Unit two and lolled its head.

They watched as Rot released a missile at the last possible second. He easily lifted well past the Angel and away from danger. The missile, however, looked like it would smash right into the Angel's body. Just as it would have, the Angel disappeared long enough for the missile to not be within it and reappeared.

"The body! It shifted Klein-space!"

"Asuka, the ground! Get up!"

Shinji was already climbing up onto the building he was behind. Stealing a glance, he breathed a sigh of relief seeing Unit Two doing the same, "Oh thank God."

"The buildings are still sinking. We could play hopscotch..."

"There won't be much to push against in another minute."

He watched the shadow expand well past their respective positions and begin to swallow up everything in sight. "We- we're..."

"Trapped! Fuck."

Ritsuko sniffled, "The shadow has passed a diameter of nine hundred meters. It's rate of expansion is slowing... but..."

Unit One looked at Unit Two, both still on slowly sinking buildings, "We can't make it out, but we can enter together... at least." The Red Giant nodded to the Purple Behemoth; they launched themselves at one another, crashing into an embrace just before being swallowed by Leliel's true body.

Rei focused on moving her remote Eva's arm, "This feels most odd."

Kensuke tried shifting a leg and was weirded out, "My right side is clear, but my left arm and leg feel all fuzzy."

Ritsuko observed the data with Maya in the Pribnow Box. They were, for all intents and purposes, alone. They both tried to keep things professional during the test. Ritsuko lost their bet when she leaned over Maya's shoulder to look at the data more... closely... and rested her chin on the bridge bunny's shoulder and murmured, "Boost the gain on his L Four connection."

Maya lightly pressed her cheek against Ritsuko's, typing the commands into her terminal, "I think someone owes me a high-class dinner..."

The terminal's Beep startled the scientists and Ritsuko straightened, peering at the new data, "What is that?"

Bringing up the information in question, Maya squinted at the high resolution image, "I'm not sure. I'm going to forward this to the bridge."

"Yes. Please do."

There were two, massive, vertically mounted LED LCD monitors streaming with the data being gathered by the Magi. A live feed of Hyuga popped up on the left one and his voice came in over the PA system, "It looks like corrosion. Hmm?" He looked away from the camera to his right, "Yeah. Shigeru notes that this building was thrown up pretty quickly before the incident in New York. And I have seen some similar reports of nearly identical corrosion in other sections over the last few days."

Ritsuko tilted her head slightly, "Did we receive any large shipments..." No, it can't be. "What's the correlation between the arrival of Unit Four and the first known report of corrosion in the protein walls?"

"Seventy-four hours, nineteen minutes. Rounded down."

"That Unit is still in Cryo right?"

"Yes ma'am. No reports of corrosion from there, so far."

"Right. I hope it's nothing. We can't abort complex experiments for rudimentary hiccups during construction of this facility. Ikari would chew my ass off!"

"Understood!" With that, Hyuga's image winked out of existence.

Maya reached over and gathered Ritsuko's left hand. The blonde looked over to see a warmly smiling Lt. Ibuki, who was softly rubbing her thumb against Ritsuko's skin. When the Scientist smiled back with equal warmth, Maya flicked her eyebrows up just-so, causing Ritsuko to gain a few shades of color in her face.

Only the blaring of another alarm broke the pair's concentration. Ritsuko glared at the free terminal beside Maya, "Dammit! What now?"

"The corrosion is spreading! It's eating through the entire pack of protein walls!"

"What's the IR show?"

"The reaction from the spreading corrosion is creating a lot of heat." Maya stood to peer out of the Pribnow Box into the test chamber with the Simulation Evangelion bodies. She gasped, "Oh no. It's- it's going to enter the chamber!"

"Deploy the mark eights. Set laser power to maximum. Zap every invasive particle!"

Kensuke spoke up, "Um, I have a visual on the remote bodies..."

Maya swore she heard a shakiness in the boy's voice. "Shouldn't we...?" she said, looking over to Ritsuko.

"Yes, eject them to the lake. Seal off the remaining portions with the hermetic seals."

The younger woman observed the blonde manipulating the lasers for a moment before attending to the two children, "We're going to eject you to the lake. Brace yourselves." Hitting a button, the two plugs rocketed upwards through the water. When they reached a given point, a door quickly closed behind their plugs; red light shining between the cracks indicated everything was sealed almost permanently.

"Cancel the alert."

"C- canceling the alert, sir."

"Call the U.N. Tell them an unforeseen error in our own test caused a backward loop resulting in the Magi detecting an Angel within NERV HQ."

The pair looked at one another and simultaneously said very quietly, "Figures."

Ritsuko observed a wide-angle image of the corrosion-eaten wall, "Hey. See that area below? It's marked as having thirty percent ozone. The ... mass... seems to be staying away from that."

"I see it. I'll release more ozone into the matrix."

"Right." Ritsuko smiled as the mass tried to move away from the bubbles of ozone trickling up toward it. Her smile turned to a frown and a groan as the mass stopped, but didn't die, "What's going on?"

"It- it's resisting the ozone!"

"No, worse..." They watched as the mass began growing again, more and more rapidly than it previously did. "It's absorbing the ozone!"

Back on the bridge, Kozo murmured to Gendo, "You're sure about lying to the U.N. after all of this?"

The Commander nodded to the Professor, responding with equal quiet in his voice, "They'll never know."

Every time Shinji started up his Eva, all he saw and heard were static. All except for Unit Two and Asuka. Not that his sixth sense didn't easily connect to her; sometimes it's good to actually talk to someone rather than just think at them.

Sitting in her Eva running at minimal power consumption was definitely boring, but she was getting in a much needed nap.

Batting her eyes open, Asuka found herself laying on a beach in her school uniform. Shinji was nearby talking to some woman Asuka didn't recognize. She became aware of another woman who was sitting beside herself. Turning to see who it was, the color from Asuka's face went away in a heartbeat.

The woman smiled down at the redhead, "Hello my little Asuka."

Tears welled up in Asuka's eyes and a her chest seemed to knot up. So she flopped herself onto the woman, "MAMA!"

Kyoku Zeppelin Sohryu clung to her daughter and sighed, "You've grown so much. I didn't realize how long I've been... away."

Asuka just wrapped her arms around Kyoku's waist and sobbed into her mother's dress. The redhead couldn't form words if she wanted to.

After a while, Shinji and Yui came over. He sat beside Asuka and rested his hand on the small of her back, "Hey you."

Asuka sniffled, releasing Kyoku and sitting up to hug Shinji instead. She whispered to him, "How is all this-"

"We're inside Leliel's body. Anything may be possible here." He hugged her tightly, "If I'm right, we've been in here for nine hours already."

She sniffled again and sat up straight to see his face, "Yeah- -maybe the others figured out how to get us out of here."

Shinji closed his eyes and stretched out with his mind across the empty expanse, "There's still nothing else here. Not even the presence of the Angel."

Yui offered her opinion, "Maybe it's just observing us to see what we're like, how we interact together."

Kyoku nodded in agreement, "Likely. The external structure wasn't very thick. I'd bet this is a Dirac Sea."

Misato eyed her friend on the screen with wonder, "The hell are you talking about? There's no water."

Ritsuko tried to dumb down the theory for the Major and anyone else who cared to listen up on the bridge. "A very thin layer of space comprised of negative or anti-energy. In all likelihood, the Evas are in a different dimension." Taking the pen out of her pocket, Ritsuko shifted some parts of the images on the main screen of the bridge, "The Angel has a pocket of infinite space within a three nanometer thick slice of our universe. We have no idea what sort of laws of physics exist within that space, anything is possible."

She exhaled, "If you'll excuse me, the bunnies and I have a computer system to save..."

"Look, for lack of better terminology, you two basically ARE our Evangelions. How would you imagine we get out of this mess?" Asuka's gaze flicked between the two women; both of whom stared at one another for a moment.

Yui broke the uncomfortable silence with a shrug, "I really have no idea. We have such little information on our Target that I cannot fathom a way out."

Shinji jerked in awe, "Someone else is here!" He looked off to his right, "You three stay put while I check it out." Asuka clung to him like a vice. He smiled at her, "As long as you stay with them, I can find my way back pretty quickly." The redhead sighed and released the love of her life from her deathly afraid grip. He got up and to Asuka's surprise, started running along the sandy beach.

She smirked watching him, "Idiot didn't bother dusting off his pants..." That got an amused reaction from both mothers.

An alarm sounded, nearly deafening anyone on the bridge. Hyuga yelled out, "There's an intruder in the local network!"

Maya chimed in over the PA, "Trace it! We think it's from down here!"

"Confirmed, the intrusion starts by the Pribnow Box. Uh- -damn this thing is fast! I can't stop it!"

Shigeru offered, "Open a false entry."

"No good! False entry ignored."

"It's hacking into the fourth server! That's got some sensitive access codes!"

As fast as the four of them typed, the Angel was vastly quicker. Reforming itself into a biologic circuit made the Angel a living computer with unknown, massive processing power. Kozo went to a free terminal and pulled up the camera from the Test Chamber in question, "Hmm, it's form changes as it learns. Is that the Angel's power: unlimited evolution?"

Gendo punched his left palm, tightly grasping his right fist, "Perfect evolution. There would be no other way to stop the Angel without controlling the path it took."

Kozo stared at the main screen, "Pity. A fascinating topic for discussion. Seeing it in action though?"

"Agreed. Pity."

Shinji was sure he was sprinting, but he wasn't getting closer to the source of the broadcasted feeling. Oh duh, I'm pushing against nothing at all... He stopped physically trying and used his thoughts to will himself closer. The feeling grew closer and closer. He made sure to glimpse back toward Yui, Kyoku, and Asuka. Asuka, I'll be back. Yes, you will, Wonder Boy. Shinji smiled and gazed forward again to whatever it was on the edge of his vision.

At first, he thought it was himself standing at the foot of Unit One. But as he got closer, Shinji recognized the haircut from school, "Toji!?"

The boy shrugged off a black jacket and turned around, a dark blue/dark green plugsuit covering his body. With teary-eyed surprise he was elated to hear the familiar voice of the person heading right for him, "Shinji! My god, you're alive! But how-?"

Shinji stopped himself a meter or so away, enough to just shake hands with Toji, "I'm not -your- Shinji, if I'm following the logic of a Sea of Dirac right."

Toji quizzically gazed at Shinji, "-My- Shinji? That doesn't make any sense. I only know one of you, and he's dead."

Nodding to the taller boy, Shinji calmly explained, "We're inside the Angel Leliel. This is a unique universe or dimension. Since the physics of this type of space are unknown, utterly anything is possible. Even other versions of ourselves."

Toji stared at the boy, No, he's more of a man than what I remember. He grunted, pondering the situation as described. This is crazy. Albeit, I got stuck in this whole mess because of him...

Shinji just spoke aloud, "Tell me what happened."

The taller boy blinked, "Uh- hm." He took a breath before starting to explain, "The battle with Shamshel. You'd picked up me and Ken atop that mountain. Except you were hurt really bad. Looked like a knife to the gut or something. Anyways, you died in the plug as you reconnected. Ken was enthusiastic, but he didn't even know how to throw a punch. So I dragged you out of the seat and did what I could."

Shinji's face twisted into a grimace, "Blood in bloody LCL, yuck."

Toji smirked, and jested to his dead, but somehow new friend, "Took the crews about a month to get rid of your stench." The smirk on Toji's face told Shinji all he needed to know. They shared a laugh.

As they stood there chatting, another figure formed beside them two meters away. Its voice was familiar to Shinji, but Toji had never seen this woman before, "Shinji!" She put a hand on her son's shoulder, a curious look on her face, "But how- Oh! Right. Sea of Dirac."

Shinji nodded to her, "I made contact with my Yui a couple of years ago." Not to mention Adam...

She stared at Shinji for a moment, wonder adorning her face. She let it go when he smiled instead of speaking.

Another round of chatting ensued. Things were certainly different in their respective timelines, but some things were the same. The Angels seemed to be the same, but little things were different. Unit One being black with baby blue accents, for example. Asuka and Rei had also died. Soloing Sahaquiel? Gott Verdammt!

Shinji jerked again, this time sensing multiple presences actively headed toward his position, "We have more visitors on their way." The pair looked at him quizzically. So he added, "I'm pretty sure they're friendlies."

There were several Asukas, Shinjis, Reis, a Toji and Kensuke who'd been fused togther, even a young Misato. Their stories were vastly different. A scant few were sporting permanent injuries: disfiguring scars, missing limbs, and a few with eye patches. The Asuka with an eye patch reminded First Shinji of a pirate, Fitting. Cute, too... Focus man! Gotta get out of this place.

After First Shinji explained what Leliel's trap was, everyone immediately agreed that they all needed to get the hell out. The question remained: How?

Pirate Asuka looked around and grumbled. After a moment, she wondered aloud, "Wouldn't a resonant A.T. field break the link and push us out?"

First Shinji considered her idea, "Possibly, let me check something with my Asuka."

He knew Pirate Asuka had started in with some sort of argument, but he confer with his Asuka before talking with the others again. Hey.

You've been out a while now. I've checked twice on the time. Four hours. So, what's up?

There's a whole mess of different dimensions caught up in Leliel's freakish world here. I'll tell you all about it after we're out and rested. But right now...

I wish you'd come back right now...

I need you to check your A.T. field. Is there a frequency we can exploit?

Hang on.

Yeah.

Hoelle yeah! Massively powerful though. Wait, you said there are others here? How many?

I think it's infinite, I'm going to have every one of them talk to their Evas and get as much power going individually as they can. If we generate enough resonance field density all at once, I don't think that Leliel will be able to contain us for very long. And I will, very soon.

First Shinji opened his eyes to an all out brawl, so he closed his eyes again. This time forcing his voice out into the assembled crowd. Listen up! The fighting stopped and he opened his eyes again, "The A.T. field here is immensely powerful. We're all going to need to push ourselves to the limit to generate enough inverted resonance to cancel the field and force Leliel into oblivion."

He took a breath, "I pulsed that thought pretty far, so maybe another group heard it. Even if they didn't, get to your Evas and start 'em up!"

Everyone assembled nodded and started running off. Some needed directional help, but made their way soon enough. First Shinji was alone with First Toji and his Yui. Shinji extended his hand to them in parting, "Good bye, and good luck."

Toji and Yui both were saddened at Shinji having to go and hugged him together. After a few moments, they let go without a word, but a kind nod. Shinji nodded too, then left for his Asuka.

Even as fast as the pair of them could type, the Angel was still faster. Ritsuko yelled out, "It's hacking into the mainframe interlink of the Magi!"

Maya let out a yelp, "No! If it gets there we're fucked!"

The blonde agreed silently, gritting her teeth as she worked on containment of the intruder, "That bastard is too fast!" She stole a peek at the camera feed from the Angel's main mass, "Crap! We gotta get out of here! It's got control of the sim bodies!" Maya either didn't hear her or was just too focused on what she was doing, so Ritsuko ran over and grabbed the brown-clad woman, "Let's go dammit!" and dragged her up from the chair. As soon as they made it to the pressure door, the simulation body's hand began grabbing and crushing the Pribnow Box. Falling down into the corridor from the impact of the arm, the pair looked back to see the pressure door clamp shut and the thermite weld seals activate.

Maya smilingly admitted to her superior and lover, "Good news is I don't have to pee anymore..."

Ritsuko smirked, grabbing her remote tablet from her jacket, "Shit. We'll never beat it this way. ... -Uh oh." She showed Maya the screen: Patches of Magis Balthazar and Malchior were now blinking red. The blonde explained, "The Angel is rewriting the Magi."

Maya's eyes widened suddenly, "Codes! Switch the codes randomly and rapidly!"

Ritsuko ran over to a nearby secure phone and swiped her card, "Patch me into the PA- Program the primary code to randomly change every fifteen seconds!" Maya came over and looked at Rits' tablet: all of Balthazar and three-fourths of Malchior were now red.

Hyuga slammed his fist into the metal beside his keyboard, "Dammit!" He did take a breath after that, relaxing somewhat. His voice was raspy from the frenzy of work he'd just done, "Crisis averted... for now."

Gendo glimpsed over to see Kozo eyeing him, "The Magi- -have become our ENEMY."

Maya and Ritsuko arrived on the bridge, taking their regular seats. The blonde announced, "Alright. Break for now, but you're all needed in twenty-five."

Hyuga and Shigeru took off. Misato went over to pour a cup or two of coffee.

Gendo slammed the phone receiver down onto the cradle in his desk drawer, "Damn them!"

Kozo eyed the Commander with a good-humored smirk, "The U.N. blaming us for their losses again?"

Slamming the desk drawer shut, Gendo addressed the Professor, "The orders have changed. The U.N. Air Force is being granted operational control, for now."

Misato had delivered Maya and Ritsuko each a cup of coffee. Maya spat her drink out after taking a look at an external feed camera, "Who the hell ordered the rest of the N Two mines be delivered?!"

The Major looked over to Gendo and supposed, "Someone was listening in on our conversations."

He nodded back, "Something like that, yes. They're going to use the overpressure plan to destroy the Angel. We're supposed to be happy if one of the Evas survive the experiment in quantum physics."

Ritsuko added without being asked, "I doubt it'll work." Now all eyes were on her, "I can't believe I didn't think of it before. Even if all the remaining N Two mines were detonated at once, the Angel could logically contain infinite energy within its body. Seeing as it has two Evangelions trapped with no easily visible means of escape..."

"I'm inclined to agree..." Professor Fuyutsuki added, "we have no information about the interior, other than there's more than enough room for two Evangelions plus a good portion of Tokyo Three's main structures."

"Their advisers are quite certain it -will- work, which is why the Brass are even considering this ludicrous plan." Gendo put a hand on his desk. If he could have had a drink in the middle of Nerv HQ, he would be swimming in alcohol by now; more likely than not, the entirety of Nerv would join him.

Maya and Ritsuko were inside Magi Caspar when each terminal on the bridge rang out with several alarms. Hyuga had just sat down with a cup of coffee and it now coated his pants. He yelled out, "Gah dammit! -energy readings are off the scale!"

Shigeru ran back in, not bothering with his chair, "When it rains, it pours." He looked over the data on his terminal and turned to Misato, "Major! The U.N. is about to make their attack!"

Pulling out her secure cellphone, Misato dialed a number, "This is Mike Alpha Mike Kilo. Call off your bombardment, we're getting massive energy readings from the target." She didn't wince as she crushed a fresh cup of coffee with her free, bare hand. If they kill those kids...

"They're not waving off!" Hyuga nearly shrieked.

Gendo tried the radio, "Alpha One Niner to U.N. B-fifty-two bomber group. Our pilots must still be alive. Check your radar for yourself, if you don't believe me!"

The main screen flicked to the current image of Leliel's inverted shadow floating over its body; the U.N. bombers in the background drifting closer to their point of weapons release. All at once, the squadron tilted slightly to their left and began turning away. The Angel's pattern shifted again, but went all black as if it were sick.

Hyuga's terminal showed a 3D map of the energy readings on the surface. A large spike where Leliel hovered increased to a massive cylinder, limited only by the equipment used to gather the data. "Here they go!" he cheered.

What they had thought was Leliel's body rapidly cracked and broke apart, releasing torrents of blood. Then the white stripe pattern on the Angel's shadow above flickered and faded to black. An Evangelion's hand burst out, followed quickly with a geyser of blood.

Misato stared at the screen, a look of awe mixed with horror on her face. She tried to speak, but her voice just wasn't there, so she put her hand over her mouth.

Without anyone having betrayed his presence to the Major, Kaji took a spot beside her. He, too, stared in awe and silence.

A foot from each captured Eva erupted from the Angel followed by more blood. The pair of Evngelions thrust a combined punch, hitting the camera HQ was using with a gush of blood.

If Shigeru could really turn green, he would have. His stomach went into a knot though, "That's going to take a while to clean up..."

Kaji and Misato both cringed at the idea. Together they looked at the tech and uttered, "Ugh."

Ritsuko and Maya feverishly tapped on their respective keyboards, programming a course for the Angel's self-destruction. After they hit their 'enter' keys synchronously, the blonde inched closer to her subordinate, resting her head on the younger woman's shoulder. She whispered, "It's over."