Chapter 14

The spear sliced through the air and carved its way into Unit-02's upraised arm, only halting once it passed the elbow. Before Asuka could even summon the breath to scream in agony as her own arm split in front of her face, seven more spears shot down out of the sky and stabbed into and through the deactivated robot.

Asuka keenly felt every wound as it copied itself onto her own body through her link to the ruined machine she piloted. Unit-02 was deactivated. Her mother was gone once more. Why was she still feeling the pain? Why were the wounds transferring so vividly to her own body?

The searing agony of nine fatal wounds prevented her mind from being capable of latching onto an answer. She barely even noticed as the white demons landed around their downed prey, but she felt their claws and teeth tearing into her Evangelion as clearly as if it were her own body being ravaged by wild beasts.

Blood poured from her wounds in torrents, flooding her plugsuit, but she did not even feel close to blacking out. It was as though they were somehow prolonging her death, making it last as long as possible.

"-ka!"

Why was she not dead yet? She was an Evangelion pilot. An elite soldier trained to protect the planet. Ready to give her life if it meant the continued existence of the human race.

Did she not deserve a quick death worthy of a warrior?

"-ond!"

Where was her mother?

"-hear me?!"

Where was Shinji?

"ASUKA!"


"Damnit!" Misato slammed her fist into the console she was leaning over, ignoring the pain as she repeated the gesture. The only thing to be heard from Unit-02 was shallow, fear-filled panting.

"Do we have anything left of our static defenses?" Ritsuko demanded. "Anything at all?!"

Shigeru's fingers flew over his keyboard. "Negative. All of Tokyo-3's armaments are offline."

Makoto cut in. "Air support will be in firing range in twenty seconds!"

"Fat lot of good they'll do against an AT-Field..." Misato muttered darkly. Her eyes were closed and all she could focus on was the sound of Asuka's fear in her ears.

Ritsuko pulled her up by the shoulder. "If they can buy even a few seconds, that will be more time for us to think of something!" she very nearly shouted at Misato.

"And just what the hell is there?!" Misato retorted, shoving the scientist's arm away. "Asuka's paralysed, conventional weapons can't do a damn thing, and our only other pilot has just been knocked out!"

"Air support has engaged the target! They..." Makoto trailed off in surprise, which drew the attention of his arguing superior officers. "They've stopped the target from advancing! Their weapons are hitting it directly!"

"What?!" Misato and Ritsuko both exclaimed at the same time.

"Checking... Confirmed! The target has not raised an AT-Field, and is being slowly pushed back by our forces."

Anticipating the next order, the spectacled technician typed a few commands. The giant map above shrunk to one side and was joined by the view from a mounted camera on a gunship. While there was no sound, the picture clearly showed several missiles impacting on a massive white humanoid figure in the distance. Its arms were raised up in front of its face and chest, and as the bridge crew watched, the beast took a step backwards as more fire erupted in front of it.

On Ritsuko's command, the view zoomed in. Each missile hit and cannon shot tore chunks out of of the white Evangelion's body, but the pieces were quickly regenerated as an orange liquid flowed into the wound and solidified before turning white to match the rest of the body.

"Looks like we're at a stalemate, at least until our forces run out of ammunition," said Misato with a hand on her chin. "But we still need to think of something."

"I was expecting them to buy us a little time as the target got distracted," Ritsuko replied. "This is much better. They should be able to hold it off for a few minutes, if we're lucky."

Misato nodded. "Agreed. Hyuga, order the air units to slow their attacks and conserve their ammo. Keep the target where it is for the time being."

"Roger, transmitting orders now."

Ritsuko sighed heavily and leaned on Maya's chair. "Still, what can we do?" The young woman in front of her was focused on the battle, and as Ritsuko's gaze took in the data that was streaming across the screen, she raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Wait a second..."

Standing upright, she gently pushed Maya's chair out of the way and leaned in closer. "Commander," she said. "I believe a solution to the stalemate has just presented itself."

Misato walked up next to her and tried to make sense of Maya's screen. "Is... is Shinji awake?"

The scientist shook her head, but a smile still formed on her face. "No, but Unit-01 is." She tapped some keys, and the battle screen was replaced by a diagram of the lift shaft that Asuka had just recently used. A blip was quickly making its way towards the surface, and despite not using an elevator it was moving almost as rapidly as if it were moving on a horizontal plane.


Purple claws grasped a support, and pulled the beast upward. Massive legs perched on that same support for just long enough to propel it towards the next ledge. The distance between Unit-01 and the surface vanished quickly. The lift cradle had been retracted after Unit-02 disconnected from it, so now all that stood in the way was metal and concrete on a sheet of armour plating to cover the gap in the ground.

Unit-01 accelerated.

The final support cracked with the force of its kick-off, sending the ruined metal tumbling down the shaft, and the purple beast burst through the obstruction head-first as if it were paper.

The impact sent masonry and steel flying for several hundred meters in every direction. A particularly large chunk slammed into the side of the frozen red Evangelion's face nearby, with enough force to knock its head into the building it was hiding behind.


Inside the entry plug, Asuka hissed and rubbed the side of her head. While her sync ratio had been too low to properly feel whatever had just hit her, the collision had been enough to tap her head against the side of the plug and knock the dazed redhead out of her waking nightmare.

"What the hell just happened?" she asked herself. Her sync ratio was starting to climb again, bringing with it the comforting sensation of strength and power.

"Asuka! Are you alright?!" came a voice through her comm. Misato was on the screen, looking worried.

Waving off the question, Asuka returned both hands to her controls before asking, "I wasn't imagining things, was I? That's really-"

"Yes." Misato nodded grimly. Asuka gripped the controls tighter as her teeth clenched. "It's one of the Mass Production Evas. The good news is that it doesn't seem to have an AT-Field. Unit-01's already on its way to neutralise the threat, so-"

"Wait, Shinji's awake again?" Asuka interrupted.

"No, he's still unconscious, but Unit-01 is active."

The grimace on the redhead's face faded and was replaced by a grin Misato had seen many times before. There was no humour in that expression.

"Good, that makes me feel a bit better about what I'm about to do."

"Asuka? What are y-" Misato began, before Asuka's finger cut the connection.

Unit-02 stood up to its full height, discarding the unused pallet rifles. The power plug on its back shot away, retro rockets firing to soften its landing on the ground. By the time it came to a halt, the red Evangelion was already away, sprinting towards the white demon.

A timer appeared next to Asuka's head, reading 02:42:53 and beginning to count down.

With a cry of "Out of my goddamn way!", Unit-02 flew past the slowly stomping Unit-01, pushing the purple robot aside as it passed. Ahead, the aircraft stopped their assault and pulled away, obviously alerted to Asuka's sudden charge.

The icy ball of fear tried to make itself known again, but it was melted by the white-hot fury she now felt as she closed in on the source of many of her sleepless nights. It lowered its arms, just in time to receive a giant red fist in its face at a respectable percentage of the speed of sound. For a fraction of a second before the white Evangelion fell, she noticed that the beast's brainpan was already missing, as were most of the teeth in its disgusting red-lipped mouth.


"Well that's interesting," remarked Shigeru. "It's retained most of the damage Pilot Soryu inflicted on it during their last battle." The holographic screen changed, shifting to a view from one of the VTOLs still flying near the two battling giants, and the officers could now see both the broken skull and jaw, as well as a jagged scar on the stomach of the Mass Production Evangelion.

"Really?" Misato asked, raising an eyebrow.

The long-haired technician nodded. "We were here until the very end. All three of us, and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki." He lowered his head and shuddered. "We saw everything that happened. Asuka tore into them like she was possessed, she even bisected some of them. I'll never forget the carnage. But then... they got back up anyway."

Nearby, Maya's shoulders were beginning to shake as she recalled what happened when Unit-02's power ran out. A hand dropped softly onto her shoulder, and the young woman looked up to see Ritsuko smiling reassuringly at her as her hand gently squeezed. Maya raised her own hand and placed it over Ritsuko's, returning the smile.

"I just hope Asuka gets some relief after this," Misato mused. "Perhaps killing one of them will help keep the poor girl's nightmares at bay."

"I just hope she doesn't get caught up in her revenge and run out of power," replied Ritsuko, as she and her protégé finally broke eye contact.


The timer read 02:30:00.

Asuka's mouth twisted more and more into a psychotic smirk as she set about getting her revenge. As her target attempted to remain vertical, a knee to its midsection was followed by another right hook, shattering its jaw even further and dropping the white giant to its knees. Unit-02's right leg delivered a swift kick to its ribcage, knocking it over onto its back.

Moving to stand above it, Unit-02's right shoulder pylon opened up, and several very sharp spikes fired out of the launcher and buried themselves in the white Evangelion's head and neck, pinning it to the ground. The creature thrashed about, trying to free itself while also attempting to swipe at the red Evangelion above it.

"That's wiped the smirk off your face, hasn't it?" Asuka manically laughed. She fired several more stakes into the body for good measure, before opening her left pylon and retrieving the Progressive Knife within with her right hand. She was about to carve its chest open and smash the core, when the waving arms gave her a better idea.

The knife blade flashed in the sunlight as it descended, stabbing deeply into the giant's left arm and also pinning it to the ground. Unit-02's foot stomped down, pushing it deeper to prevent her enemy's writhing from working it loose. The red foot shifted to a spot just under the white Evangelion's right armpit, and Unit-02's hands grasped onto its free arm. Beneath its armour, massive bio-mechanical muscles flexed.

And Unit-02 tore the beast's right arm completely out of its socket.

The struggling creature's efforts redoubled with the loss of its arm. Asuka stood above the crippled Evangelion and basked in the joyful sensation of revenge. Although she didn't believe the Mass Production Evangelions were capable of feeling fear, and despite its lack of eyes, she still waved the beast's severed arm in front of its face before idly tossing it behind her.

The timer hit 02:00:00, and a power warning beeped at her.

In front of her, a comm window opened with Misato on the other side.

"As much as I truly enjoy sitting here watching you get some revenge, Asuka, you need to finish this," the woman said. "Ritsuko says that you need to destroy both the core and the Dummy Plug to ensure that thing stays neutralised."

"I'll be fine, Misato. I still have two minutes. This bastard hasn't even felt a fraction of the agony I suffered." Asuka brutally kicked the white Evangelion's ribcage as she spoke.

"Please, just make it quick, I-" Misato's eyes wandered to the side, and she did a double take at whatever she saw, screwing her face up. "Uugh... Unit-01 is..."

Asuka turned Unit-02 around. Before her, where the severed arm had landed, Unit-01 was crouched. It had picked up the discarded limb and was now eating it. While she was too far away to hear it, she could still imagine the sickening sound of bone and sinew parting as it fed. When it noticed the red Evangelion staring at it, Unit-01 growled threateningly, trying to protect its meal. It then turned away from Unit-02 before resuming eating.

'Well it's definitely not Shinji doing that...' Asuka thought disgustedly. The bloodlust started to fade from her mind as she witnessed the Evangelion's cannibalism.

Turning back to the crippled giant beneath her, she fired the last spike remaining in her launcher into its left hand, and pulled her knife out. The stab wound slowly healed over, and the bloody stump of its right arm had already closed up. Its struggles had greatly slowed down, but it was still writhing as Unit-02 knelt down next to it, preparing to carve its torso open.

The knife stabbed deeply into the beast's chest, and Asuka tore a ragged line down towards its belly. Working quickly, she laid the weapon aside and placed both of Unit-02's hands on either side of the wound, tearing it further open. Before the orange liquid could attempt to close the wound, Asuka plunged a hand into its upper torso and yanked out the long cylindrical tube that was the Dummy Plug.

She stared at it for a moment, before enclosing the plug in both hands and squeezing them together as if it were a soda can. When her Evangelion's hands opened, the tube was only a tenth of its original size as it crunched into the ground.

Reaching into the chest cavity once more, Unit-02's hand searched for a few seconds before finding its target. This was harder to pull out, due to the Evangelion's strange regenerating capabilities, but Asuka finally managed to extract the S2 engine from within its body.

Along with the orb came numerous arteries attached to it, several snapping off as they stretched past their limit. The core itself was not the usual red colour, at least not completely. Swirls of orange, the same shade as the liquid that caused its wounds to regenerate, drifted around the orb.

Asuka picked up her discarded knife, and was about to plunge it into the S2 engine when an angry roar from behind stopped her. Unit-01 had dropped the mutilated arm, and was now slowly advancing on Unit-02 and the half-dead Mass Production Evangelion, still chewing on a piece of flesh.

The timer hit 0:30:00, and turned red as the warning sounded again, much louder this time. Asuka glared at it for a moment before returning her attention to Unit-01.

It roared again, perhaps attempting to drive away what it saw as competition for food. Asuka gave the core a final angry yank as she stood up, and the last of the connections broke away. The white beast shuddered and arched its back, before collapsing and laying still.

"Asuka!" Ritsuko suddenly said. "Normally we would request that you hold onto that thing so we can study it, but I believe it's become corrupted and dangerous. I don't like the way Unit-01 is looking at it either. You must destroy it!"

Another roar came out of Unit-01's mouth as it took another step closer, and Asuka's temper flared.

"Shut the hell up!" she yelled, turning on her Evangelion's external speakers. The purple robot's jaw slammed shut for a moment, before opening again and bellowing louder.

Asuka had had enough. As she turned the volume on the speakers up as far as they could go, she took a deep breath, before screaming at the top of her lungs. The jaw locks on Unit-02's face gave way, and the red Evangelion echoed its pilot's yell as it leaned forward. It gripped the S2 engine in both hands, and brought it rapidly upwards to meet its descending forehead.

Whereupon the device promptly cracked and exploded in Unit-02's face.

By the standards of an N2 missile strike, the explosion was not very powerful, but it was still enough to knock both Evangelions to the ground, just as Unit-02's power finally ran out and turned Asuka's entry plug red as its emergency backup power kicked in.

The dazed redhead slumped into her seat and groaned, rubbing her forehead. She would not be allowed to relax in silence, however. Misato's reprimanding voice quickly came into her entry plug. "Pilot Soryu, that was quite possibly the most stupid and dangerous thing I've ever seen you do!"

She grinned ruefully at her guardian and superior officer, and after a few seconds Misato returned the smile.

"But I'm glad you're alright, Asuka," she continued. "Recovery teams are on their way. Unit-01 was knocked out and has shut down, so I guess I should thank you for that ridiculous stunt."

Asuka chuckled. "Maybe next time I should just headbutt Unit-01."

The smile on Misato's face grew a little wider for a moment, before she turned serious again. "Do you feel better now?" she asked.

Sitting back upright, Asuka sighed and thought about the question for a moment. "It's far too early to tell just yet," she finally responded. "But if those things still haunt my dreams after today, I'm going to be angry."

"How did revenge taste?"

Asuka leaned back and closed her eyes, resting her head on the seat with a satisfied grin. "As sweet as the chocolate Shinji gave me."


The only good thing that could have been said about the sudden appearance of an enemy thought dead was that there were no casualties. The citizens of Tokyo-3 were very well used to the alarms, and many people found themselves automatically heading for the nearest shelter without a second thought. Despite government reports that there were supposed to be no more Angel attacks, nobody wanted to risk being caught in the open in case they were wrong.

While one of the pilots had to be taken, once more, to the medical wing, a freshly showered Asuka had been brought to a room to face Misato and Ritsuko, and they were now going through possibly the most boring part of any engagement in Asuka's opinion: the debriefing.

"To answer your first question, Asuka," Ritsuko said, sitting across from the redhead, "Shinji is unconscious but stable. As far as we can tell, he's simply asleep."

"And I've given the order to let him stay like that for a while," added Misato from her spot next to the scientist.

Asuka relaxed into her chair, knowing there would be no need to be formal in front of the two adults. "Well, after today I guess we could all do with a nap."

Misato smiled. "Unfortunately, this comes first. Rits?"

At a tap of a button on the console in front of Ritsuko, the lights in the room dimmed as the holographic display unit built into the briefing room table flared to life. A recording appeared and started playing, showing the white Evangelion moments before Unit-02 had engaged it.

Focusing on the view, Ritsuko said, "Since we didn't have any functional surveillance equipment topside besides the VTOLs, our available information on the MP Eva you fought is limited to what we saw through the cameras on the aircraft and your own eyes, Asuka. Based on its injuries when it came ashore, the MAGI have identified it as Unit-09, the first Eva you eliminated during the attack on NERV last year."

Another button press, and the recording froze on a close-up of Unit-09's face. Next to it, an image appeared of the same Evangelion with the time-stamp showing the date of SEELE's attack. Despite the horrendous damage inflicted to its skull and jaw, Unit-09 had its mouth open and lips curled upward as if laughing.

The sight of the white Evangelion's grinning face caused visible tension in Asuka's posture. To Misato, the girl looked as if she was about to leap onto the table and try to punch the hologram. Misato cleared her throat, and Ritsuko took the hint, changing the view to a series of recordings displaying the wounds Unit-09 took from the missiles and cannons, and the orange fluid seeping in to seal them. The girl calmed down once the face was no longer visible.

"We know that S2 engines and Angel cores grant regenerative capability to the entity in possession of them, but this is the first time I've ever seen such a rapid rate of healing," Ritsuko continued as she put a hand to her chin.

Asuka grinned. "I'll be honest, I was half-expecting that thing to start growing its arm back when I ripped its old one off. Once I saw that wasn't happening, I knew it would be easy to rip out its plug and core."

"Indeed. Speaking of which..." Ritsuko changed the display again. Now it showed the large orange and red core held up in Unit-02's hand. "I really would have loved to study this but judging from its appearance, something seems to have... perhaps infected the core, spreading to the rest of the Evangelion."

"That could explain why it wasn't able to keep up its regeneration, if its power source is corrupted," Misato said thoughtfully.

"That is the current theory," Ritsuko replied. "The injuries inflicted to Unit-09 by Unit-02 didn't heal nearly as fast as those caused by the gunships, which suggests that perhaps the initial assault drained its energy to a point where it couldn't heal quickly enough. It used more energy to heal itself than it could generate, especially when Unit-02 entered the fray."

The display shifted once more, showing an injury being filled in by orange liquid.

"I think that's LCL," Asuka noted, pointing at the screen. "Even the stuff that closed its wounds looked like LCL when I was ripping into it."

"Yes..." Ritsuko leaned in, staring intently at the image. "But how could LCL do that?"

Misato waved her hand in dismissal. "That's not important right now. There's a far more critical question to ask." She leaned on the table. "An MP Eva came back from the dead. What's to stop the others from doing the same?"

Ritsuko paled at the question, while Asuka gazed downward. After a few seconds of silence, she looked back up and said, "If they're stupid enough to come back as well, I'll send them to meet their friend. My mother may not be in Unit-02 anymore, but I'm still an Evangelion pilot. It doesn't matter if it's an Angel or another Unit or whatever. If it threatens us, I'll destroy it."

Misato beamed, and even Ritsuko allowed herself to smile slightly at the girl's declaration.

"Good to hear, Asuka. I don't think there's anything else to discuss on this matter, so you can go for now," Misato said.

Asuka stood up. "Right, I'm going to go check on Shinji before I get something to eat."

"I've already instructed the nurses to let you see him," Ritsuko mentioned as the redhead started to leave. "But... please don't wake him up." Asuka stopped at the door, turning back to look at her for a moment, before nodding and leaving.

While waiting for the elevator to take her down to the medical wing, Asuka's eyes were unfocused as she thought to herself.

'Just what the hell happened to Shinji to make him believe I'm not real?' she wondered, recalling Shinji's strange moment of lucidity.

"You're not Asuka!" The scream of his denial echoed in her mind.

'Should I even be near him? What if he wakes up and tries to attack me again?'

'Maybe it would be better for him if I didn't go down there...'

She turned around, and was about to leave when the ding of the elevator's arrival sounded behind her. Asuka looked over her shoulder at the empty elevator car.

After a while, the doors closed.

Asuka stared at the elevator buttons for a while. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted her own face in the reflective door, which then hardened as she gazed into her own sapphire orbs. She pushed the button to take her to the hospital floor.

'No, I'm not going to be scared of you, Third Child. If you want to try and push me away... like I did to you... it'll take a lot more than just trying to hurt me..'


Misato watched the door close behind Asuka, before sighing and turning to her friend.

"Have I mentioned recently that I wish we never had to use children for this?" she asked.

Ritsuko hummed, forgoing a proper response to the clearly rhetorical question as she plugged a storage device into the projector. The hologram of the white Evangelion disappeared, to be replaced by a Progressive Knife next to some tools. Misato raised an eyebrow when she spotted what seemed to be a chainsaw.

"What's this, do we have a problem with our weapons now?"

"Judging by today's performance, our current armaments should suffice. Our R&D department has been restored enough to begin a new project. There are a couple of ideas that we played around with a bit last year, but we had more important things to devote real time and money towards." Ritsuko waved at the screen. "Now though, we can actually start work on something. What I need from you is a decision on what the department should prioritise."

"Is this really the best time to bring up research?" Misato asked, raising her other eyebrow to match its twin.

The scientist shrugged. "No time like the present. Might as well get it out of the way while we're here."

"And are you asking me because I'm the one in charge, or because you want my opinion as a friend?"

"Yes."

A tank of LCL appeared on the display in front of them, with a silhouette of a human floating in it. "This one is rather ambitious. We've discovered that LCL, when purified and mixed with certain ingredients, is capable of some amazing healing properties. The plan is for a healing 'tank' that we could fully immerse critically wounded victims in. We would still need to realign bones and remove foreign objects like bullets, but then the compound could also be used to speed up recovery after surgery. Injuries that would normally take weeks to heal could be done in a matter of days."

The view changed, showing an arm with a tube filled with liquid around it. "It would also be easy enough to shrink it down to a 'wearable' state. After all, it's a waste to dunk someone in a tank when all they have is a knife wound on their arm. We could even produce bandages soaked in the compound, for use on minor injuries."

Misato whistled through her teeth. "Impressive. If we had this last year, it might have saved Shinji a lot of time in a hospital bed."

Ritsuko nodded, and displayed the other file. "Secondly... well this last one isn't really a new idea. It's just a plan to try and improve prosthetic technology. Our work on the Evangelions let us make some incredible jumps there, to the point where what we have is adequate for civilian use, and even some athletes. But they're not perfect yet. In simple terms, the very best prosthesis available can get a person back to ninety, ninety-five percent of their original capability."

"That doesn't sound so bad. Ninety-five percent of an excellent runner would still be great," Misato reasoned.

"But it's that last five percent that could mean everything. Besides, It's not just athletes." Ritsuko tapped at the projector controls, and brought up a man in a military flight-suit. "For example, this is Nawara Van..." She squinted for a moment before giving up. "I'm not even going to try and pronounce that last name. He was a fighter pilot in the American air force before he was shot down. While he ejected in time, shrapnel from his own jet severed his leg below the knee. The best prosthesis was not enough to bring him back to the level required for pilots, and he ended up being discharged for medical reasons.

"So there we are, Commander. Two ideas, but for now we only have the ability to focus on one at a time," Ritsuko finished.

Misato examined the plans for several minutes, occasionally asking for clarification on certain points. Eventually, she sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Tell me, Rits. Which one would you want to work on?" she asked.

Without hesitation, Ritsuko replied, "The healing tank. It would be the easiest one right now. LCL is plentiful, as are the ingredients needed. All we really need to do is design the tanks and the canisters."

"How soon could you get a prototype of the large tank finished?"

"About a month, I believe. It would probably take longer to test than build."

Misato nodded and stood up. "Then tell the research department to get started on that. Is there anything else to discuss?"

Ritsuko tapped on her PDA. "Just a couple of things. The dead MP Eva appears to be melting into LCL, which is flowing back into the ocean."

"That's a shame. I was hoping to throw it in the hole with the Angels," Misato remarked, before tossing her head back and finishing off her now lukewarm cup of coffee.

"And that's the second thing. The hole in the Geofront roof is completely fixed now. We've started dumping the smaller bodies in there first, and something... interesting is occurring."

Misato froze with the cup to her lips, staring suspiciously over the rim. "Interesting how?"

"The corpses are turning into the same material as the Geofront shell. But instead of reinforcing the dome, the material is... growing upwards and filling the pit. They also appear to be far more efficient than simple steel. The remnants of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Angels alone have filled the pit more than our calculations predicted. If we had known that sooner, we could have used their bodies to fix the hole in the roof as well."

The commander and the scientist started heading for the door. "That's good, isn't it?" Misato asked.

"Very good. If the trend continues, we may only need to bulldoze the rubble into the hole after the Tenth Angel is disposed of."

The two friends parted ways outside the briefing room, heading back to their respective offices. Ritsuko to start analysing Shinji's neural data, and Misato to collect her things before heading home. As she reached the door to the dreary black office, her secretary got the woman's attention.

"Commander, a message came in for you about half an hour ago," the young dark-haired woman nervously said. "They said it was very important, but... you were in a meeting and I didn't know if you would have wanted to be disturbed."

Misato had to stop for a moment, slightly confused about why her secretary had not contacted her if the message was significant, before she recalled the previous occupant of her position. "That's alright. Just remember something," she said, patting the air in a reassuring gesture. "I'm not Commander Ikari. If you have something that requires my attention, then by all means get in touch with me. I'm not going to be annoyed with you if I'm interrupted."

The woman exhaled, letting out all the stress that had built up over the last thirty minutes with the breath, then nodded at Misato with a smile.

"Now, what was the important message?"

The secretary told her. Misato's mouth hung open in shock, before she walked quickly into the office. She emerged seconds later, struggling to put her jacket on, and running to the elevator. Her secretary contacted the aircraft hangar, ordering a VTOL to make ready for the Commander.


On the shore a girl awoke, and stared up at the late afternoon sun.

She wearily got to her feet after a few minutes, and absently began to brush the sand from her clothing. She stopped after a moment, staring at the hand she had just been using. The sand particles that had gotten into her uniform were starting to irritate her skin, and for possibly the first time in her life, the girl felt... annoyed.

It was an... interesting feeling. But not entirely unwelcome.

Never before had she felt the need to be concerned with either how she looked or her own comfort, but now she found herself focusing on removing every speck of sand as she resumed her task. When her school uniform had been wiped clean, the girl spent a long while gazing at the setting sun. Eventually, she heard a faint sound from behind, and turned to look.

A large stream of orange liquid was slowly making its way down the beach towards her. Intrigued, she stepped aside as it neared, and watched it seep into the ocean where it rapidly dissipated.

The girl crouched down next to the liquid, and dipped a hand into the flow.

"I see... you are returning to your brothers," she softly said after a few seconds. "Do what you will. Now that I have returned, I can help protect humanity from the likes of you. They will prevail, and they will earn their right to exist."

Just as she was about to withdraw her hand, she felt a prickling sensation in the back of her head.

"This was only the first, and the weakest," said a strange, and yet very familiar, voice in her mind. The prickling intensified, becoming a painful throbbing. "Humanity must face all of my Revenants. Do you truly believe they will survive?"

Through the headache, the girl smiled, recalling a fragment of a borrowed memory. "Humanity has the will, and so it deserves to survive. I believe in them."

Despite the absence of a person to look at, the girl could sense the smile on the face belonging to the voice.

"We shall see."

She pulled her hand out of the liquid, and the pain in her head ceased. She collapsed backwards onto the sand, already tired after her return and now exhausted from the sudden mental contact.

As her vision dimmed she spared one last irritated thought for her clothing, now covered in sand again.

An unknown amount of time passed before she opened her eyes. A white ceiling hovered over her head. Before she could even begin to wonder where she was, a fireball seemed to suddenly appear in front of her.

"Welcome back to the real world," Asuka remarked with a smirk on her face. "Wondergirl."