The door to her dad's bedroom closed. Konata heard it from her room. He was going to bed later than usual that night... She was beginning to wonder how she would ever get outside without him noticing.

She set down the manga she had been reading - Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days. It was a lot like the original anime series, except without all the psychological trauma, and depression... So yeah, it was actually nothing like the original anime, come to think of it. The series had been reimagined as a more lighthearted comedy, but still featured an occasional giant robot battle.

This was the closest thing she could find to the version of Rei she had met at Comiket a week before. It still wasn't exactly like her, the Rei in the manga had more self-control, although she was still a cheerful extrovert. Maybe Rei's world wasn't a manga or anime series - not in Konata's world, anyway.

There was also the fact that Rei seemed to be an actual human - as in, she hadn't been created artificially. Well, as far as Konata could tell. How would you be able to tell that about someone, anyway?

Opening the door slowly, Konata stepped out of her room. She grabbed her coat and put it on as she headed for the front door. According to the clock, she was already late for the meeting.

The night was dark and chilly. A faint breeze was blowing. Not many people were out walking around past curfew, but Konata was used to being out at this hour. It was the ideal time to leave this world temporarily and not be noticed.

She saw Jason and Rei both waiting under a streetlight. Rei was leaning up against it with her arms folded. She looked up as Konata approached.

"Finally! We thought you'd never show up. What took you so long?" she asked.

"Sorry about that. Dad was still awake, I couldn't get past him. I'm ready to go now," Konata replied.

"So you two will be going into the base," Jason said. "I'll stay back at NERV in your world, Rei. I'll still be in contact with you. We need to get Unit 00 out without being noticed. You can store it just like you would a regular weapon. Rei, you know how to do that, right?"

Rei stared at him. "What do you mean, exactly...? I can't pick something like that up. You realize it's gigantic, right?"

"Like we do with this?" Konata asked. A sword appeared in her hand, appearing as a flash of white before solidifying.

Rei looked at the sword... then looked back at Konata. "So that's what you mean...? I... I guess you can handle that part, then. But after we're done, you've gotta show me how to do that."

Konata's sword disappeared. "It's a deal. So, we're ready?"

"As much as we'll ever be," Jason said, flatly and without enthusiasm. "I still don't see how this could possibly end well."

They departed, leaving the street empty once again.

Chapter 12

The Guilt Is All Mine

The next moment they were standing in Tokyo-3, and the first thing Konata noticed was the change in the weather. It had been early January back home, now it was probably around mid July. She took off her coat, she probably shouldn't have even brought it.

"You'll be okay getting in on your own, then?" Jason said.

"Yeah, there's an old entrance around here somewhere. Nobody's going to be watching it," Rei said. "They aren't supposed to be using that part of the base anymore."

"So then what do we do when we get to the part they are still using?" Konata asked.

"Um... you can think of something when we get there, can't you, senpai?"

"And with that... inspiring plan, I'm going to leave now," Jason said. "Do your best not to make this a total failure. Rei, do you have the coordinates for your world?"

"Huh? Oh, sure." She handed him a scrap of paper, which he copied onto his Talisman. He left them on their own.

Konata looked around at the buildings. They had a futuristic look to them, but it still wasn't radically different than what she was used to. They were on the edge of the city, a section that wasn't entirely urbanized. Rei started walking away from the buildings and towards a lake.

"So the entrance is supposed to be around here somewhere..." She was looking around, her gaze settling on a tunnel built into a cliff face. The smooth stone revealed it as man-made, but it hadn't been used in some time. "There it is! Shall we enter?"

Konata admired Rei's carefree attitude. It wasn't entirely unlike her own, although as far as these missions were concerned Konata took them very seriously. "That leads to NERV? Sure, let's go ahead."

The floor was completely covered in dirt and mud. The walls were only slightly better, you could almost tell that they had once been bricked over although most of it was falling apart. Konata lit the way ahead with a small flame, which was met with another request of "show me how you're doing that" from Rei. As they advanced farther, the amount of mud became visibly less and it almost seemed like this might be part of the base.

Rei suddenly spoke. "Um... to tell the truth, I really don't know what to expect once we get in there."

"Seriously? They didn't tell you anything?" Konata turned around and looked at her in the dim orange glow.

"I guess it's supposed to be something like where I'm from, only different, but they didn't explain how."

"Well..." Konata tried to think, but she didn't really know what to say. Was this world different from the anime as well? "You're the only one who can pilot Unit 00, right? It only responds to you."

"I... guess so, yeah."

"So that would mean if there's a Unit 00 here, there's also another Rei. And probably Shinji, Asuka... everyone."

"But... they're different?"

"Most likely."

Rei fell silent again, probably trying to imagine what these different versions of the people she knew would be like. She was new to the organization... Alternate universes were a hard concept to grasp. And now Konata couldn't help but wonder... Were there other versions of her world? Herself? Her friends? Most likely there were, somewhere out there.

As they continued along, the brick walls stopped and large square gray tiles began to line the wall. They were fairly clean, and almost none of them were cracked or chipped away. And after a few more meters...

"Is that an elevator?" Konata said.

"Looks like it!" Rei ran over and examined it. "Think it still works?"

"Give it a shot." Konata watched as Rei attempted to signal the elevator, and sure enough there was a near-silent rumble from somewhere below them in the shaft.

A small alert appeared on one of the monitors.

"Hm? It says the power in the old abandoned section got switched on." Hyuga Makoto looked at the indicator. Nobody had used that part of the base for years now. Sure, it could be another system error, but he couldn't be sure.

"Do we have any working security measures on that sector?" Lieutenant Katsuragi Misato had stepped over to Makoto's station, and was looking at the blinking text. "Check to see if anyone's in there. I can't imagine how anyone would find their way in like that."

Makoto referred to a map of the base, checking where the disturbance was coming from. It seemed they still had a few cameras down there. He switched them on. Nothing but empty hallways at the moment. The view panned back and forth slowly.

"L-Lieutenant!" Another one of the technicians, Aoba Shigeru, was calling for Misato now. "We're detecting an AT Field approaching the city!"

"An Angel?" She turned back to Makoto. "Keep that security camera online. In the meantime, get the pilots down here right away."

She couldn't help but wonder if somehow the intruder in the old sector and the Angel were somehow related... But there was no time for that. Any attack by an Angel was a threat, and thousands of lives depended on their success.

The elevator was surprisingly smooth, aside from a few bumps and shakes as they descended.

"I can tell you one thing, Rei," Konata said.

"Huh?" Rei looked over at her.

"In just about all the different versions of Evangelion that are out there, you're supposed to be very calm and emotionless," Konata said. "Which is exactly the opposite of how you are, but... If we run into anyone, that's most likely what they expect from you."

"Alright..." Rei thought for a moment. "But we're trying not to run into anyone, right? So I won't have to worry about that."

The doors opened onto a hallway - with light, this time. This part was still powered, maybe even still in use. Either way, it was empty at the moment. From the door of the elevator, the hall stretched out to the left, right, and straight ahead - three different ways to go, all nondescript, leaving them only to guess which way to go.

"Your call on this one. Which way feels right?" Konata asked.

"What? Uh, I guess..." Rei looked around. Not that it revealed any new insight. "Let's head to the right."

Down that hall Konata could see that the path split yet again, in two directions. They could keep going forward or make another right turn. The walls were all the same shade of light green, the kind of muted tone you would see in a hospital. But on one wall...

"Finally, some directions!" Konata went over to them right away. "So the bridge... That's where they would have the EVAs stored, right?" Rei nodded. "It says to take a right turn here."

Rei was about to charge onward, but Konata put a hand up. It was completely silent... except for a slow, rhythmic whir of something mechanical moving.

"What is that?" Rei whispered.

Konata backed against the wall and looked around the corner. Her eyes fell on a small red light. A camera. It was pointed the other way, but as she watched it it began to swivel around towards them. And if it was turned on and moving, watching a part of the complex that was supposed to be out of use, then someone might be watching it. Looking for them. If they saw Rei, it would probably be fine, but Konata didn't look anything like someone who was supposed to be here.

"So, Rei..." Konata said, turning to her. "Are you familiar with Metal Gear Solid, by any chance?"

"Uh... what? What does that have to do with anything?"

"So you're not."

"No."

"Dammit... This is exactly the kind of situation where the skills you develop from games come in handy. We need to get past without that camera seeing us, otherwise there'll be guards all over this place in minutes." Konata was getting a weird look in her eye, a look of manic determination.

"But I thought this section was abandoned? Even if they sent someone, it would be a while before they got here..."

"That's the kind of thinking that will get you killed. And trust me, Rei, it's not a pleasant experience. Now, how are we supposed to avoid it... This is annoying." Konata was scanning the area for blind spots in the camera's vision.

"Wait, are you saying you've gotten k- " Before Rei could finish, there was an explosion from around the corner. They heard a clatter of something falling to the ground, some sparking from broken wires and circuits.

For a moment they didn't say anything, they just stared at each other, wondering who would be the first to move. Finally Rei said, "I guess I could go check on it, then?"

She found the remains of the camera, utterly destroyed. The rotating arm that had fixed it to the wall was snapped, a tangle of wires sticking out from it. The light had turned off.

"I guess we don't have to worry about that anymore, now, do we?" Rei smiled. "I'm not the type of person who would question a good thing. Let's just get going."

Konata couldn't help but wonder what had just happened. Was it just that the equipment here was old, and prone to malfunctions? But really, just exploding like that was a little excessive. Not that it wasn't a good thing, they could move faster if they weren't being watched. She decided it wasn't worth the thought, just like Rei said, and they continued down the halls, following the occasional directions, passing through areas that were starting to seem like maybe they were still in use...

It was a few more minutes before Konata stopped again and put out a hand, pulling Rei back.

"Quiet... you hear something?" Konata whispered.

"No, nothing..." Rei was getting tired of moving so slowly. Her entire world was counting on them, they had to hurry. "Wait..." Rei listened... and heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps. Someone else was in here with them. Not that it was unexpected. "What do we do now?" Rei whispered.

"Hide," Konata said.

Rei looked around, but there was nowhere to go. Those footsteps were getting closer now.

"Where exactly do you think we could - " She turned around to talk to Konata, but she was already gone. How was she so fast? "Oh crap, you're not just going to leave me here, are you?"

"Rei?" She knew that voice - Shinji. Her best friend from school. She turned around.

He was standing there with Asuka, and they were both wearing their school uniforms. Apparently they had just gotten out of school, but - no, they weren't the same people she knew from her world. They weren't her best friends. They might as well be total strangers.

"Um, hey guys, I was just - " Rei didn't know what to say to them. Too much was going through her mind. She tried to smile, act like nothing was wrong, of course she had known these people all her life, there was no reason for them to think otherwise... "Look, it's great to see you guys, but - "

They stared back at her. "Rei, are you... feeling alright?" Shinji asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be?" She tried to laugh it off, but that was met with only more looks of confusion.

Asuka gave an exasperated sigh. "We don't have time for this. Come on, Wonder Girl, we need to get ready."

"Wonder Girl...?" Rei wondered where that nickname had come from. "No, look, I'm actually supposed to be doing... something else... You go on ahead, won't you?"

"No, they said we were all supposed to come. There's an Angel attacking. A big one... And we're all supposed to fight it together," Shinji told her. Rei's eyes widened as she heard that.

"An... an Angel? Here? Now?" Rei said. This was quickly becoming extremely inconvenient.

"Where else would it be?" Asuka said. "Of course it's coming here."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Shinji asked her. Rei was searching frantically for something to tell them.

"She's just fine, aren't you? You're doing your best to seem like a normal human being. I applaud your efforts." Asuka pulled Rei by the arm before she could ask what she meant. Then she remembered what Konata had told her, about this world in the anime. She wasn't supposed to act normal, she was supposed to be devoid of visible emotion, and...

She was already blowing the mission. No thanks to Konata, just leaving her to fend for herself.

"You - You can let go now, I can walk by myself..." Rei tried to say.

Konata had heard the entire conversation, and with a great deal of relief heard them turn in the opposite direction from where she had run off to. They thought that Rei was the same person they knew from this world... They did notice her odd behavior, but that couldn't be helped.

Her phone rang. It sounded very loud in this empty part of the base, and it seemed to echo off every wall. She answered it quickly just to stop the noise.

"Konata, is everything alright?" It was Jason. "I'm in the control room back at the other NERV. We just picked up an AT field signature. It's going to be here in just half an hour. Are you going to be ready?"

"So the Angel's coming so soon? Funny story, actually, same thing's happening here..."

"What do you mean? There's an Angel where you are?"

"Apparently. And Rei just met up with the other pilots, they're taking her with them. Just tell me if anything else goes wrong with this mission."

Neither of them said anything for a moment, then Jason finally responded. "I don't know what else to tell you, just make sure that you get that EVA... And make sure Rei gets back here too. I can't believe we have to take their EVA right when an Angel's attacking, this could end horribly..."

"But we have to do it, right?" Konata said. "They don't seem like they like it when you disobey orders. I want to stay on their good side." Memories of her visit to headquarters were coming back to her. The message she had received, threatening to end her membership as part of Eclipse. She couldn't afford to mess this one up.

"That's true... Just hurry up. I'll see you soon, then." He hung up.

Konata looked around. She could head straight to the bridge now. She hadn't seen if Shinji and Asuka were in their plug suits yet, but she knew that Rei had just been wearing street clothes. She would have to go to the locker room to get ready, and maybe the others would too...

A half hour left. The minutes were ticking down as she stood there considering what to do. Konata decided to give up on stealth. If she was seen, she would run.

She noticed a few other security cameras along the way. Most of them were still attached to the wall, a few were snapped but dangled from the wire. It was obvious that all of them were offline. A power surge, maybe?

Rei was at an absolute loss.

She had gone to the locker room to change into her plug suit. Well, technically this plug suit would belong to a different Rei, who had yet to appear (thankfully). She would need to be wearing the suit to pilot Unit 00, so this did save some time, but how was she supposed to get away from these people to pilot it in her own world?

And where the hell was Konata?

"You certainly seem more talkative today." Rei turned to see Asuka, in her red plug suit that matched her hair quite well.

Another one of those times that Rei had no idea how to act, or what to say... "I... do?"

"So what's been with all the days off from school? Are you really injured or just lazy?"

"Days off?" Rei instantly regretted saying that. She was expected to know what she had been doing, so couldn't she just act like she knew? Make something up... "Yeah... I've been getting sick." That sounded good. Unoriginal, but good enough.

"Seriously?" Asuka was unimpressed.

Shinji stepped out of the boys' locker room. "I'm ready to go now. We... we need to hurry."

"You okay, Shinji? Can you do this?" Rei said. She was concerned for him, he seemed so scared of going out there to fight. It was the same way in Rei's own world, but to a lesser degree. This Shinji seemed like he might have a mental condition or something.

"I'll be fine. Thanks..." He was giving her a strange look again, but it wasn't entirely unpleasant. "You really have changed, Rei. Did something happen since I last saw you?"

"I'm fine. Really. Let's just go." This was another time she wasn't sure what to do. Should she be moving them along, or trying to buy more time for Konata? And they didn't seem convinced that she was the same person they knew. At least, she didn't think that the idea she could be a different person had crossed their minds - but they noticed a difference in behavior, one that Rei didn't know how to cover.

She opened the door in front of them, leading back out into the hallway and towards the bridge, and stopped when she saw a mirror. It must be the wrong door, how had she gotten turned around?

Except it wasn't a mirror.

"What the hell?" Asuka exclaimed.

Rei stared into the face of another girl - well, technically it was herself. Or was it? Something was different about the eyes. They were flat. Dead. Even though they were as wide open in shock as Rei's own eyes were, this other Rei didn't seem fully human.

"What's going on?" Shinji said. "Rei, who is that?"

Neither of the two Reis said anything in reply.

"Who... are you?" the other Rei finally said. "You're not supposed to be here..."

"There are two Wonder Girls? You're - you're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Asuka said.

Rei knew she was backed into a corner. There was absolutely no way she could explain to them what was going on... No sensible way. If Konata was able to get Unit 00, maybe they wouldn't be completely dead. She turned around to face Shinji and Asuka.

"Um... well..." Rei started. "How do I say this... Good luck out there fighting the Angel. I mean it. But we really need to borrow your Unit 00, so..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Asuka said. "What do you mean, 'borrow?'"

Rei had her Talisman out, and was entering the coordinates to go back. She waved her free hand. "Look, just forget about this whole thing, okay? It's all a big misunderstanding. And really, good luck out there, you two. And as for you, other me..." She turned around again. "You'll just have to sit this one out. Is that okay?"

"What...?" The other Rei was showing just the barest expression of shock. It was the kind of expression you might have if you looked out the window and saw it was raining on a day it was supposed to be sunny. Not the kind of face you would have when you met a second version of yourself.

So this was what Konata had been talking about. If only Rei would have gotten it earlier.

"So... I'll see you later then?" Rei said. "Well, maybe not." This had been going on too long, she activated the Talisman and got out of there, leaving the three of them frozen in confusion.

Konata's phone rang again. Once again, it sounded way too loud - not to mention that she was beginning to pass by rooms that seemed to be in regular use. She ducked into one of the darkened rooms to answer it

"Hey, Konata, you doing alright?" It was Rei this time.

"Yeah, but - what happened to you?"

"Well, things were getting kind of dicey, so... I bailed."

"You what?"

"I'm back in my own world now. I'm ready to go whenever you get Unit 00 over here, so... How's that going? We're all counting on you, now."

Konata sighed. "Well, I'm almost there. I think. How much time do I have, anyway?"

"Hang on, let me check." She could hear Rei ask someone else how much time there was, then speak back to her again. "You've got five minutes."

It was already that close? "I need to hang up then. I think I've got this."

"Okay, bye!" Rei still managed to sound so carefree. There wasn't much more that could go wrong with this mission, was there? But then Konata stopped herself - there was, in fact, a lot more that could go wrong.

Lieutenant Katsuragi was standing on a suspended walkway, directly in front of the face of one of the EVAs - Unit 00, to be precise. It had sustained some damage in an earlier confrontation, but the Angel that was approaching was so dangerous... All available units would be deployed, if that was even enough.

She could only hope that it would be.

They had called this Angel "Zeruel" - it was the Fourteenth Angel, and it had landed just minutes ago. The city had already sustained some damage. Like all the Angels, its target was the underground NERV headquarters, and Zeruel was having unprecedented success breaking through the barriers.

She heard the voice of the commander, Ikari Gendo, come on over the intercom. It echoed in the expansive room. "The pilots are ready to enter. Prepare the EVAs for deployment."

Misato breathed a sigh of relief. So much seemed to be going wrong today. There had been the intruders in that old sector - if there truly had been any, they had never seen any evidence. All the security cameras had short-circuited before anything could be seen. They still didn't know what had caused that. And on top of it all, the pilots were running later than usual. Even Rei, who was usually on time...

It was too early to relax, though. The Angel still stood undefeated.

Konata stopped as she reached the dock. She could see Unit 00 now. Well, not all of it, just the huge blue and white head. Seeing it in an anime hadn't given the same sense of scale that she had now. The thing was absolutely massive. So that's why they call them giant mecha.

There was still the problem of Misato, standing right in front of it. Konata supposed she could just run past. It didn't matter too much if she was seen, apparently Rei had already screwed up in that regard.

The bigger problem was the distance between the EVA and the walkway. You couldn't just reach out and touch it. She had forgotten what this room had looked like, and therefore had overlooked that rather important detail.

All she had to do was touch it, and put it into hyperdimensional storage like she regularly did with much smaller objects - a veritable armory of swords, battleaxes, rifles, shotguns, and armor, among other useful trinkets she had picked up. Was it any harder to take in a giant mecha? Especially realizing that it was just so big...

Konata checked the time. Two minutes until the Angel was predicted to arrive in the other world.

She had time to act, not to think. Quickly scanning the area, tracing the path that she would take... Realizing that this would break all kinds of rules. Eclipse, NERV, physics themselves... Was it a good plan? Considering the amount of time she had to think it over, it was good enough.

First, she had to set the coordinates on her Talisman. All she would have to do was press the key to confirm, once she was ready, and she would instantly be gone. She held it in her left hand, keeping it ready. Then she looked back at her target, preparing to move...

Konata broke out into a sprint, charging directly down the walkway. At the sound of her footsteps, Misato turned around and looked at the girl coming straight at her.

"Who are you? What the hell are you doing?" Misato demanded.

"Sorry, we really need to borrow this!" Konata yelled, without stopping. "I'll give it back once we're done, I promise!"

She jumped up, landing on the railing just long enough to launch herself into a spin off of it. She reached out, touched the EVA, and put all her focus into it. She could see it flash white and disappear, although it took a lot of energy to store something so massive. As she fell through the empty space where it had stood, she activated the Talisman and

landed on the floor of the control room of the other NERV headquarters. She landed hard. She laid there for a while, catching her breath. All in all, that had taken about eleven seconds total.

"Oh, you're back," Jason said. "Everything... go okay?"

Konata sat up, still feeling exhausted. "More or less... I got it." She was so out of breath. Using magic usually made her feel slight fatigue, but nothing like that before. At least her part was over now.

She saw Rei, in her white plug suit, standing off to the side. "Hey, sorry I messed up back there. Thanks so much for finishing up on your own."

"You need to get down to the bridge quick and drop off Unit 00. It's going to take some time for them to sync it to the systems here," Jason said.

"Ramiel predicted to arrive in one minute, fifteen seconds," one of the technicians reported. The monitors around the room were showing images of various points in the city, while one showed a floating blue octahedral shape somewhere outside the city limits. That was Ramiel, apparently. Turning to Konata, the technican said, "Rei can lead you to the bridge. Hurry."

It almost seemed to Konata like this was the same base she had been in moments before. The layout was the same, the people working here were the same, and yet... Somehow everything was still different.

She followed Rei into the bridge - the same gigantic open space she had left from. Unit 01 was currently docked here.

"Shinji's going to be the one taking the Angel down. I'm just supposed to cover him. But this Angel...They said something like it destroys anything that gets too close, so we can't attack it directly," Rei said. "Shinji's just supposed to use this sniper rifle thing that they designed. And it's going to knock out the power to the entire city once he uses it. Pretty crazy, huh? I can't wait."

"I think I remember this part," Konata said. "Be careful out there, alright? We're just borrowing this EVA, so don't get it totaled like you did with your own."

Rei looked down in shame. "Yeah, I know..."

They stopped in front of an empty space. Konata looked at where Unit 00 was supposed to be stationed. "I've never done this kind of thing before, but... here goes," she said.

She raised both her hands, trying to visualize the EVA taking form where it was supposed to be. Instead of in her hands, like she would do with just about any other object. It would go where it had started out, in a different version of this world. She closed her eyes, already starting to feel tired again trying to do this...

There was a bright flash of light. Opening her eyes, Konata saw Unit 00, in exactly the right place. That was a relief. It had taken just about everything out of her to do it.

"Wow, that was... incredible!" a voice said over the intercom. "Rei, keep going on up towards the entry plug. Beginning synchronization sequence..."

"I'll see you later then," Rei said, and hurried off.

Konata managed to drag herself back to the control room, finding a place to sit once she got there and staring up at the monitors. There was all sorts of weird text, numbers, and symbols on them... Back when this had just been an anime, she had thought they didn't mean anything, they just looked scientific. But apparently everything was up there for a reason. But she wasn't thinking too hard into it.

She was more interested in just who exactly Rei was... The original Rei was more of a kuudere, she had some emotion but it barely ever showed. This Rei was actually moe. If Konata had to give her a score, she'd be somewhere just below Tsukasa. It was a good thing Tsukasa never had to worry about piloting a giant mecha. Moe was usually an excellent quality, something in high demand, but this wasn't exactly the best genre for it. Hopefully with some more training Rei could find a balance, keeping that cute clumsiness without being entirely hopeless and unintentionally destructive.

"Pilot sync ratio is perfect. Ready to deploy."

We've come far enough, Konata thought. Please, Rei, don't screw up again...

The fight lasted much longer than a usual half-hour anime episode. It actually took two hours for the rifle to be fully charged, and during that time Unit 00 took significant damage. It was equipped with a shield, which held up to the blasts from the Angel, but just barely. Mostly, the Angel was focusing on working its way into the underground headquarters.

"So how do you even manage to take so much damage that an EVA is put out of service for a month? I thought they were pretty durable," Konata said.

"Hopefully we won't get to see how it happens today," Jason said.

"Yeah, really... How much more do you think the shield can take?"

One of the technicians answered her. "The damage threshold has about 30% remaining. Each shot seemed to take away around 20 to 25% integrity."

"And if it breaks the shield and hits the EVA instead?" Konata asked.

"It would probably take a week to get it back into service."

Which brought her back to the question of how Rei managed to take so much damage in that earlier battle. Could you even do that on accident, or had she been trying?

"Just stay positive, alright?" Jason told her.

"That's all we can do now, I guess," Konata replied. "Still, have you ever seen this anime? There isn't exactly much 'positive thinking' going around usually."

"Maybe it's what they need. Rei seems to be good at it in this universe," Jason said.

It was another few minutes before Misato announced the rifle was charged enough to take a shot. Konata couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Shinji missed with this shot. But no... Stay positive, like Jason said. It would hit. It would have to.

When Shinji finally prepared to take the shot... Everything turned off. The lights. The monitors. The sound feed from both EVA pilots. Konata did remember this episode, it had taken the entire power supply of the city to fire the rifle. After a moment in the dark, the lights flickered on. NERV had backup generators, apparently. The monitors stayed black, but they had a weak sound feed coming in.

"We got it!" Rei said cheerfully through loud, fuzzy static. "But, umm... I can't move. How are we supposed to get out of here?"

"Nice work, Rei," Misato said. "Just wait, we need to divert some backup power to you and Shinji. We'll get you out soon enough."

"So once we get back there, what are we supposed to say to them?"

Rei had brought up a good point. Konata was wondering the same thing herself, as they stood ready to return to the original Evangelion universe. Hijacking one-third of their firepower had probably thrown a wrench in their plans, to say the least. The other world's Misato certainly wouldn't be happy to see Konata again. As for the other Shinji and Asuka... Not to mention the other Rei... How much would they be allowed to explain to them?

"You'll think of something when you get there, won't you, Rei?" Jason said, somewhat teasingly. Everyone was much more relaxed now that the mission had been a success. Against all odds, it had somehow worked.

"I'm ready to go," Konata said. She had picked up Unit 00 again, although she was getting exhausted from putting it into storage and taking it out so many times.

"Alright. Let's wrap this up," Jason said, and they warped out.

At first they couldn't be sure if this was the right universe. They could have gotten the coordinates wrong, but...

"Did... we do this?" Rei said.

On closer inspection, this was the same place they had arrived the first time they had come here. Everything had been destroyed. Buildings had been reduced to rubble. Craters of varying sizes marked what was left of the streets, cracks splitting open the earth. It was eerily silent.

"We didn't do this. We just allowed it to happen, that's all," Jason said. There was bitter sarcasm in his tone.

"Oh my god..." Konata said. There wasn't much else to say.

Rei's world had been saved, but this world had suffered in order to unwillingly provide for the other. Shinji and Asuka had not been enough to stop this Angel. Maybe they had been delayed, due to the confusion Rei and Konata had both caused by being seen. Not to mention causing an EVA to just vanish like that.

"What do we do now?" Rei looked at both of them.

"I've never had something like this happen. What's going to happen to us?" Konata asked.

Jason was silent for a moment, in deep thought. "Listen. You go back. I suppose you can leave Unit 00 back with the other NERV... the remaining one, I should say. I'll take full responsibility for this."

"No, you didn't have anything to do with it..." Konata said.

"You've already got a black mark on your record. The last thing you need to be tied to is this. Just go back. And if I don't show up at school... You'll know what happened."

Konata didn't want to think about it.

They left, going their separate ways.

"Is it really so horrible to have to come back to school after break?" Kagami asked.

Konata didn't reply. She hadn't said much all day, in fact. Lunch seemed so quiet without her usual witty remarks. She just sat there, with her head on the table, her face covered by her hair.

"Kona-chan... Is something wrong?" Tsukasa asked.

"I'm fine, really..." Konata didn't even look up. "Just a headache, that's all."

"Do you need to see the nurse?" Miyuki said. "Maybe you should just go home for the day."

Konata was silent again. It wasn't like her to be so depressed over nothing... Kagami had realized that Jason hadn't come to school today, so maybe that was what was wrong with her. But it wasn't like it was the end of the world, right? He was probably just sick. It had been cold out. Lots of people were getting sick. He'd be back in a few days. Konata was probably just putting on an act, or something...

Still, Kagami had a bad feeling for some reason.

Konata had managed to make it to work that day, despite really not being in the mood for it. It was all weighing down on her so much. Jason was still gone. Nothing could change the fact that they had, in effect, killed thousands of people. Possibly caused the destruction of an entire world, for that matter. She doubted that they could ever be forgiven for that, and so it was likely Jason was never coming back. And there was also a chance they would cut her off from the organization as well. They knew she had been a part of it, they had sent Rei to find her specifically, after all.

All this depression and anxiety was being channeled into her performance as a particularly irritated and bored Haruhi cosplay waitress.

Once her shift was over, she left the cafe, stepping out into the stairway of the building it was located in. Her head was hanging down, and she was just staring at the floor. She only looked up once she heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, I thought I'd find you here."

"Jason? What are you doing? I thought..."

"Apparently, it's all alright," he said. "They said that... well, that world was doomed either way. Even if they had all three EVAs available to fight that day... It still would have been hopeless. There was nothing we could do."

"So they just let them die?" Konata said. She couldn't believe it.

"Eclipse had interests invested in a different universe. They put more importance on saving that one. Some things are just inevitable."

"So... Nothing's going to happen to us."

"Nope."

It was somewhat of a relief. But even so, how could the organization just leave so many people behind? Even if that world had been doomed, they couldn't have saved anyone? Maybe it was better than letting both worlds die.

She didn't want to think about it any more.