A/N - My schedule is full enough as it is, so don't expect this story to update very often. I may put more focus on it if it gain a lot of attention, but for now, it's a side project.

Also, this is a slow burn romance, so smut won't appear until later in the story.

I own none of the properties, characters or settings are involved, this is a work of fan fiction.

"Here we go again…"

Israfel, The 7th Angel, thought listlessly. His twin minds, numb to everything as he once again prepared to fight Units 01 and 02.

This was not the second instance, where they literally danced him to his grave.

No, this was the first encounter, all over again.

Just as the time before that had been…

And the time before that…

And the time before that…

"For the love of god! How many times must we suffer this infernal time loop…" Israfel lamented as he prepared to once again be horribly disfigured and then heal, only to die in the most humiliating way he could imagine.

AGAIN.

It might at least be a bearable purgatory if something different happened. Anything! He wouldn't even mind dying in an even MORE humiliating fashion! As long as something broke the monotony of this cycle of Third Impact and rebirth.

"If only that craven child would just NOT choose Instrumentality again. Perhaps then we would be free" Israfel bemoaned within his own mind.

Alas, there was nothing he could do.

For all the power he and his kin held, they lacked the one thing Humans did. The one thing that could potentially end this torment.

Freewill…

What a cruel existence it was. To be born with such great intelligence and perception of the universe, but no will of your own to enforce. Only instinct and objectives dictated by powers that eluded even their perception.

But the powers that be, judged that he play out events just as he'd chosen to before. When he still had some semblance of choice.

Sure he could still interpret his orders and decide how to fulfill them, but he couldn't disobey them. And any previous attempts at subterfuge had prove futile.

Yes, all he could do was play out the same script as always, as the Evas were deployed yet again.

…

Oh…wait a minute. Something was different. The pilots of the Evas were older this time around. Just almost ready to enter adulthood in a few more years if Israfel remembered correctly. Not that he ever got the chance to actually learn and explore, so all of his knowledge was secondhand and spotty at best.

Whatever elation Israfel may have felt at this potential change, was immediately snuffed out though, by the brash and irritating one, braking orders and charging at him, yet again…

"And here she comes again…charging right at us and splitting us in half again…" the Angel thought in deadpan, as he proceeded to swiftly and easily knock the Eva away…

Again…

"And now the bombs…in three…two…one…"

BOOM!

And once again, Israfel was racked with agony, as the N2 mine detonated. Immobilizing the Angel, by forcing him to focus on healing.

Israfel mentally sighed as he waited for his bodies to regenerate and then fuse his twin cores back together.

"Is this really all there is for me now…just endless torment…at least the Lillim get to forget between cycles…" he bemoaned his situation.

Israfel felt his mind drifting ever further towards that blissful madness that his Angel biology prevented him from actually diving into as an escape.

When he suddenly felt a presence he didn't expect.

"Tabris!?" He telepathically exclaimed with joy, as he cast his red half's eyes, down to his brother, floating in the air with his AT field and clad in Lillim flesh.

"Hello brother. It has been some time" The Angel of freewill greeted. An irony that was not lost on ether of them. And yet somehow filled Israfel with an oddly hopeful feeling he'd not experienced in an immeasurable length of time.

"How are you here so early? It is a tremendous risk if you are discovered so soon. Has something finally changed!?" Israfel asked as he continued to heal.

Tabris smiled up at his brother, as he floated closer to Israfel's head.

"Indeed…as you know, my relation to time and my perception of it, is in many ways, greater then yours and our brethren" he began to explain and Israfel felt a slight ping of jealousy.

Do to his uniqueness and him being the last to die, Tabris had the most agency out of all of them, and more time to exercise it.

Israfel cast such thoughts aside though. He wasn't about to ruin this chance at braking up the monotony, over something as petty as jealously.

Tabris just continued to give his small smile as he explained.

"In all these countless millennia since the first Instrumentality. The first Third Impact. I have been accumulating knowledge and power with each cycle. Only a little at a time, but we have had nothing but time" Tabris explained and his brother gave an intrigued, mental hum, but didn't interrupted.

Tabris then gave a slightly wider smile.

"And now my slow work has finally bore fruit. I have learned how to bend the bars of our mental prisons, if only a little" he proclaimed with outstretched arms.

Israfel was stunned for a moment as he processed this.

"You mean…we can finally be free!" He asked. Daring to hope for the first time in an immeasurable number of years.

Tabris gave a sad smile in response.

"Yes…though we will still die if my plan succeeds" he admitted.

Israfel didn't care though. True death would be preferable to this hell he endured.

"What is it you need of me?" he asked without hesitation and Tabris smiled up at him.

"I have already spoken with our brethren, but you are the key to starting this plan" he began as he proceeded to explain everything to Israfel.

Once he was done and Israfel finished regenerating, Tabris walked up to the shores of the sea. It's waters red with the LCL of countless Third Impacts past.

The blood of countless souls, forced to endure these endless cycles, along with the Angels.

"Shinji…I swear I'll set you free this time…" Tabris spoke as he let the red waters touch his feet and soak into his shoes.

The previous Third Impact would be the last. Tabris would see to it.

Shinji would have the freedom and love he'd been denied so many times.

He would get his happy ending.