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

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


Chapter Three: No Fear, No Surrender

It was a completely normal dinner in the Katsuragi apartment. Misato had already down three cans of Yebisu, Asuka had lodged her nightly complaint about Japanese food, and Shinji was just eating quietly. Nothing could have been more ordinary for the slightly dysfunctional, impromptu family.

Yes, all was as it usually was, until Misato took her spoon and rapped it against her empty beer can a few times, promptly getting the attention of both her wards, who looked at her curiously.

"Shinji, Asuka, I have an announcement to make," Misato said. "You're going to hear about it pretty soon at NERV, but I figured it would be best if I told you first."

Both EVA pilots were silent, waiting for whatever declaration their guardian had to make. It was unusual for Misato to get quite so formal when she wasn't at work and being the Operations Director.

"Earlier today, I went to the Commander's office, and I resigned my position as the Operations Director," Misato said.

"What?" Asuka asked, shocked.

"Why?" Shinji asked at the very same moment.

"I just didn't feel that I was in the right… state of mind while I was commanding the last few battles. It's hard to explain to people who have never had to command other people in combat," Misato said.

She hoped that her two wards wouldn't demand very much in the way of an explanation; she had no intention of telling them the truth, but she didn't want to lie to them any more than was absolutely necessary.

"I'm haven't left NERV, and I'm still going to be your guardian," Misato added quickly, before either Shinji or Asuka could say anything. "They're keeping me on as a tactical consultant. You haven't gotten rid of me that easily."

Shinji and Asuka traded a long, shocked look, neither of them knowing just how to react to this bit of news.

Finally, Shinji spoke up. "Well, if that's what you want, Misato," he said slowly, as though he was still half-expecting to wake up any second now.

"It is," she said as earnestly as she could. "I feel like I've had a great weight lifted off my shoulders."

"So, do you know who the new Operations Director is going to be?" Shinji asked.

Misato shook her head. "Nope. I asked the Commander, but he said he had to decide," she answered. "I'm sure he'll fill the post quickly, though. It's not a spot he can really leave empty for very long."

"Oh," was all the answer Shinji could muster, still feeling rather shocked.

Misato's gaze flicked over to Asuka. She hadn't known how the German would react to the news that she'd left the Ops Director post, but she had expected Asuka's response, whatever it was exactly, would be rather loud, much like Asuka herself. However, the redhead was just staring at her food, a pensive expression on her face, which confused Misato.

No point in questioning small favors, she decided with a mental shrug, and went back to eating.

The rest of dinner was a rather quiet affair after Misato's announcement.


Later that evening, Misato was standing on her apartment's veranda, looking out at the night sky. She'd never concerned herself with stargazing very much in the past, feeling that there were more than enough problems on Earth to deal with. Since a man had crashed out of the heavens and given her a ring that gave her powers rivaling those of the Angels and the EVA's, however, she'd found that the night sky could command a little more of her attention.

The screen door between the veranda and the opened, and Misato turned. For some reason, she was surprised to see that it was Asuka and not Shinji who'd come out.

"Hello, Misato," Asuka said as she closed the door behind her.

"Hi," Misato replied simply.

Asuka walked over next to Misato and then leaned on the railing, looking out at the city. She was silent for a long, long moment.

"Why did you quit from being the Operations Director?" Asuka asked finally.

"I told you," Misato replied. "I didn't feel like I had the right state of mind for someone commanding a life or death battle."

"I don't buy that," Asuka said bluntly. "Did it have anything to do with what happened at Mount Asuma?"

"What?"

"Mount Asuma," Asuka repeated. "Don't think I don't know how freaked out a lot of people were when you ordered me to dive beyond the D-type equipment's limits. But I agreed with you that not stopping was the right move, so if that's the reason why you left, you can just stop being an idiot, march your ass up to the Commander's office tomorrow morning, and tell him that you want the job back."

Misato couldn't prevent a small smirk from appearing on her face. "Why Asuka, are you actually saying that you want me to hang onto the post?" she asked as innocently as she could.

Even in the dim light of the moon, Misato could clearly see on the redhead's face that Asuka was extremely at being forced to come out and say it. The purple haired woman nearly laughed, and the only thing that stopped her was the knowledge that Asuka would instantly get angry and storm off in a huff if she did.

"What I'm saying is that there are a lot of really stupid tacticians out there in the world," Asuka answered. "And seeing as how NERV can't seem to do the sensible thing and let me command the battles from the field, we could do a lot worse than have you calling the shots. I'd rather not roll the dice again."

You just can't come out and tell me that you actually trust me, can you? Misato thought. And Rits and I called Shinji the hedgehog.

"I'm sure the next Operations Director will be competent," Misato said. "I'll say one thing for Commander Ikari: that man has never been willing to tolerate idiots. Besides, I'll still be around. It's not like I'm leaving the Operations Department entirely."

"You never answered my question," Asuka said, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Why did you quit being the Operations Director?"

Damn, Misato thought, displeased that her attempt at directing the conversation away from that had failed.

Though she probably should have known that Asuka was too clever to be misdirected in such a manner. It was easy to forget because of how immature the redhead often behaved, but Asuka was extremely intelligent.

"It doesn't have anything to do with you, Asuka, or with Mount Asuma, not really," Misato said. "I hate the Angels, and I've been letting that get the better of me. The last couple of battles, I haven't even thought about the risks I've asked you and the others to take. I just wanted to kill the Angels so badly that I became blind to everything else. And that's a really bad thing for someone in a command position to do. It can lead to giving orders that get people killed needlessly. I didn't want that to happen, so I stepped down."

Misato felt guilt twisting in her gut as she delivered this little speech, which she'd been trying to avoid the need for ever since she'd informed her wards about her decision to leave the Ops Director post. While her failure to consider Asuka's safety at Mount Asuma had troubled her, she never would have quit over it.

She felt like a huge fraud, but she wasn't about to reveal her secret, especially not to Asuka. So far as Tokyo-3's more…unusual denizens were concerned, the German ran strangely hot and cold, applauding a few and detesting all the others. Misato had never been able to figure out any real rhyme or reason to whatever method Asuka used to judge whether any given superwoman deserved her praise or her scorn, so she was far from keen on the idea of telling the German about her new role as the Green Lantern.

"All right," Asuka said, jolting Misato from her thoughts. "If you're really committed to this, I guess I can't stop you. But if the new Operations Director is some idioten, I expect you to keep him from ordering us to do anything stupid, chain of command be damned."

Misato smirked. "I'll do what I can."

Asuka nodded. "I'll hold you to that."

That said, the redhead opened the screen door and slipped back inside the apartment, leaving Misato once more alone with her thoughts and the stars.


The next day, Commander Ikari called all the senior staff and the Evangelion pilots into his cavernous office. Strangely, having so many people present somewhat reduced the intimidation factor of "the lair," until it was almost tolerable.

Maybe that's why it's so rare for him to call in more than one or two people at a time, Misato mused darkly.

"I'm sure a few of you can guess why I've called this meeting," Gendo began once everyone he'd summoned had arrived. "However, most of you don't know the circumstances that brought this about, so first, I need to inform you all that Captain Katsuragi has left the Operations Director post."

There were a number of surprised looks and questions in response to that announcement, but Commander Ikari cleared his throat and everyone took the hint and immediately fell silent again.

"She has decided to remain with us as a tactical consultant," Gendo said, folding his hands before his face in his usual manner. "However, the Operations Department cannot function without a real leader, so it has fallen upon me to appoint one."

A pregnant pause followed, everyone instantly realizing that he was about to appoint a new Operations Director, and that it would probably be someone in the room.

Maybe it'll be me, Makoto thought hopefully. Hey, then I'd get to spend a lot of time with Misato-san!

Please don't be me, Maya thought. I only took that command training because I was told it would look good on my resume!

"I've decided," Gendo said, "that the new Operations Director should be…Mr. Kaji."

All eyes immediately turned to the long haired man.

"Him?"

"Him?!"

"Me?"

"That's correct, Mr. Kaji," Gendo said. "NERV will bestow the rank of captain to you as soon as the paperwork clears."

"But, sir, do you really think I'm the best person for this job?" Kaji protested. "I've never had any formal training in tactics."

Gendo smiled. It wasn't an easy thing to notice, with the way his hands were concealing so much of his face, but Kaji saw it.

"There is little that one can learn from a course in tactics that could help in this war," the Commander said. "Against a foe like the Angels, the knowledge of why the Greeks were able to hold of the Persians so long at Thermopylae is useless."

"That may be," Kaji conceded reluctantly, "but still—"

"What an Operations Director truly needs is the ability to come up with unorthodox and effective plans," Gendo interrupted. "Much like the one you devised for our use against the Seventh Angel."

Kaji knew when he was boxed into a corner. "If you really believe I'm the best man for the job, I'd be honored to step into the Operations Director position."

"Good," Gendo said. "You start immediately."

"Yes, sir," Kaji said.

Despite himself, the spy had to admire the brilliance of the Commander's move. Since Misato wasn't leaving, Ikari could put just about anyone he wanted into the Operations Director's chair without having to really worry about not having a crazy but brilliant plan available when it became necessary; NERV wouldn't suffer because he had been given the job, but Kaji simply wouldn't have the time to go digging for information that he once had. Disappearing for long stretches of time wasn't exactly kosher when you might be called upon to command a battle for the fate of the planet at any moment.

It also probably didn't hurt anything from the Commander's perspective that he was one of very few people who could probably control the Second Child.

"I expect all of you to adjust to this change quickly," Gendo addressed the room. "That's all. You're dismissed."

The group of NERV personnel all seemed to trade a collective look with one another, then obediently filed out of the huge room.

A light buzz of conversation started the moment the doors had closed behind them.

"Captain Katsuragi, why did you resign?" Makoto asked at once.

"Personal reasons," Misato replied, tired of lying. "I'd rather not discuss it."

"So," Kaji said, turning to Misato. "It looks like we'll be spending a lot of together in the future. In a professional capacity, of course."

He smiled at her then, and he was a handsome bastard when he smiled, damn him.

"I'm so looking forward to it," she replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Remember, Katsuragi, it would only end in tears again, she told herself. Don't give in. It wouldn't go well this time, either.

Now if she could just keep repeating that, she might have a chance at not repeating the mistake she'd made back in college.


"The Green Lantern," Gendo mused.

A few hours after the appointment of the new Operations Director, the Commander and Vice Commander sat in the cavernous office of the former, both of them gazing up at a holographic projection of the city's new super-heroine. Of course, since no one had yet captured the woman on film, it wasn't really her image that floated above Gendo's desk. Instead, it was a two-dimensional projection of an artist's depiction.

"That's what they call her," Fuyutski said, "or, if the tabloids are to be believed, what she calls herself."

"What name she goes by is irrelevant," Gendo said. "She is a threat to the scenario."

"That's assuming she really was the one who killed the last Angel," the Vice Commander pointed out. "There's no real proof of that. In fact, it's possible she's not even real. I wouldn't put it beyond the tabloid media to invent a new superwoman when sales start flagging."

"Perhaps," Gendo conceded. "It's too early to begin focusing any significant portion of our resources on her, considering the various other difficulties that have arisen."

Fuyutski nodded in earnest agreement. There were already enough obstacles in the way of Instrumentality that they had to deal with. Trying to figure out how to counter difficulties they weren't even positive were real yet would just serve as a distraction they couldn't afford.

"However," Gendo continued, "a little research would do no harm. I want you to tell Dr. Akagi to have the MAGI run a search for the symbol that she wears on her chest, and for anyone calling themselves the Green Lantern. I also want NERV to know where that cult leader can be found at all times."

"Yes, sir," Fuyutski replied, hoping Gendo was able to keep his efforts to combat the Green Lantern at this level until the situation warranted more.


As it turned out, Misato needn't have worried quite so much about what prolonged exposure to her old flame would do to her.

Kaji's first act as Operations Director, after claiming Misato's office, was to decree that his tactical consultant would handle half of the paperwork that required someone of captain's rank or higher to complete. Needless to say, this hardened her heart toward the long-haired man considerably.

Of course, if she had ever had a tactical consultant working under her, Misato would have dumped at least half the paperwork on the poor soul, but she somehow failed to mention this as she was righteously complaining to Shinji at the end of the week.

"And another thing, NERV sort of gave me a pay cut without actually giving me a pay cut," Misato continued, finally switching topics after going on about Kaji for over ten minutes.

"How is that?" asked Shinji, who had been patiently listening to his guardian rant while he went about the task of tidying up the kitchen.

"They're paying me the exact same amount, but a big chunk of my paycheck is now 'stipends' for supporting you and Asuka," she grumbled. "But I never saw any stipend before!"

Shinji nodded. It sort of made sense. Cold though his father might be at times (okay, actually all of the time), the man wouldn't want the guardian of his son and the Second Child being unable to feed them.

"I'm just glad that you don't have to work as much overtime as you did before," he said.

Shinji made this comment with such simple sincerity that Misato found herself almost absurdly touched. Despite the number of problems and the amount of garbage he had to put up with in his life, he still somehow had it in him to be concerned for her. And he could even express it after she'd made him endure her venting to him for several minutes, something for which Misato suddenly found herself feeling guilty.

"Hey, Shinji, what are you up to?" she asked him.

"Me?" he asked, sounding rather surprised by the question. "N-Nothing really. Why?"

"I was just wondering," she replied. "I know that Asuka went out this evening, but you don't seem to get out of the apartment very much, except when you go to the arcade with Toji and Kensuke."

Shinji looked away, appearing almost ashamed. "I'm not nearly as social as Asuka," he said quietly.

"Hey," Misato said, "why don't we go out and do something?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you've got nothing to do tonight, and I've got nothing to do tonight, so why don't we do something together instead of being bored separately?" Misato asked.

Shinji hesitated, trying to figure out how to say no without coming off as a jerk. It wasn't exactly that he regarded spending the evening in his room listening to his SDAT as so exciting, but it was… safe. Predictable. Routine. Something he couldn't screw up or offend anyone by doing.

"What would we even do?" he asked.

Misato shrugged. "We'll figure it out," she said.

"Uh, I don't know," Shinji said. "It's a school night."

Misato couldn't help but laugh at this response. "You do realize that you're the teenager, and I'm the guardian, right?" she asked. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you've gotten our roles mixed up or something."

"Uh, I…"

"Come on, Shinji-kun, I'm not going to take you bar hopping, and we're not going to be out all night," Misato said. "I know I come off as a crazy party girl sometimes, but I'm not that irresponsible."

"Well, okay," Shinji relented, now out of objections.

"Great, come on," Misato said, leading him out the apartment.

"Uh, shouldn't you change before you go out?" Shinji asked, gesturing to his guardian's current attire.

Misato was in her usual "loafing around the house" outfit, which consisted of very short denim shorts, a tank top, and no bra.

"We're not going to the Ritz, Shinji-kun," Misato replied cheerfully as she grabbed her keys. "Now come on."

Why do I have the feeling I'm going to regret this? Shinji wondered as he followed her down to the street.

"Hop in, Shinji-kun!" Misato said enthusiastically as she got behind the wheel of her Renault Alpine.

Oh, that's why, he thought, getting into the passenger seat and made extra sure his seatbelt was fastened securely.

With a grin, Misato started the car, then gunned the engine as she pulled out with a screech of tires and got out on the streets of Tokyo-3, the usual cacophony of car horns heralding the self-styled Queen of the Road's entrance.

"So," Shinji said after taking a moment to regain his composure, "where are we going?"

"I don't know," Misato replied, turning her mind to the question.

This certainly wasn't the first time she'd gone out with no destination in mind, and experience told her that, more often than not, such outings eventually led to hitting one of the old fallback places to have fun. With Ritsuko, that usually meant a bar or a club. With Shinji… well, she wasn't sure what that meant.

That little observation platform I took him to that time is really only cool when the city's about to transform, Misato mused. I guess we could go to the arcade, but he goes there all the time with his friends.

Misato frowned. She wasn't about to let the evening become even more lackluster for their venturing out of the house; she did have a reputation to maintain, after all. But now that she thought about it, she couldn't immediately come up with any activity they would both enjoy.

"Misato, watch the road!" Shinji abruptly shouted.

The purple haired woman pulled her attention back to the street and then casually turned the steering wheel, putting her car back into the proper lane.

"Hey, I have an idea!" she exclaimed suddenly.

"That's good," Shinji replied in a small voice, looking strangely pale for some reason. "What is it?"

Misato smiled.


"Mini-golf?" Shinji asked a few minutes later as they got out of the car.

"Yup," Misato replied cheerfully as she locked the doors. "Why, you have something against mini-golf?"

"No," he replied. "It's just that I wasn't exactly expecting it."

He wasn't exactly sure where he'd been expecting Misato to take them, but he could definitely say that a mini-golf course wasn't it.

"Sometimes what you don't expect is the best thing possible," Misato said in such a positively sagely tone that Shinji couldn't help but snicker.

"Where did you read that?" he asked.

"Probably a fortune cookie," Misato answered without missing a beat. "Or maybe the internet. Who cares? Let's go!"

Her enthusiasm was infectious, and, almost in spite of himself, Shinji found himself smiling as he followed her toward the modest complex.

Misato bounced up to the entrance and addressed the teenage boy who was minding the counter. "Two clubs and two golf balls, please," she said.

"Uh… uh, sure," the clerk replied dumbly.

The guy was blatantly staring at Misato's chest, and Shinji found himself fervently wishing that she'd at least bothered to put on a bra before they'd left the apartment. The guy wasn't even trying to disguise the fact that he was undressing Misato with his eyes.

When the young clerk began to reach blindly behind the counter for the requested items, absolutely refusing to pry his gaze off the voluptuous older woman for even the brief moment it would take him to do his job, Shinji couldn't take it any longer. Acting more on impulse than anything else, he cleared his throat very loudly.

The older teenager turned to look at Shinji, and then a confused, incredulous frown appeared on his face. Shinji couldn't be sure if the older boy was shocked that someone as young and unimpressive as himself was in the company of a woman like Misato, or if he was surprised that Shinji was trying to warn him off ogling said woman, despite the age and size disparity between the two boys.

Either way, the guy seemed to realize himself and had the good grace to look abashed at his behavior, if not intimidated by Shinji. He pulled his eyes off of Misato's curvy form and got the requested items, placing them on the counter along with a scorecard and a short pencil.

"That'll be 1,000 yen," the clerk said.

Misato cheerfully handed over the money, having either not noticed that the guy had been nakedly staring at her or, more likely, not having cared about it in the slightest. She laughed as she took a look at the golf balls.

"Here," she said, tossing one to Shinji, "this will be yours."

He fumbled with it slightly before catching it, but at least he managed not to drop the thing. Shinji groaned as he opened his palm to allow himself to see it. The ball was purple with a green stripe running around the middle of it.

"Even on my off time, I can't escape it," he muttered, though in reality he was more amused than anything.

After all, he would have gone crazy a long time ago if he couldn't laugh inwardly at the smaller bits of bad luck he tended to somehow draw to himself like sugar drew ants.

"Guess not," Misato said, handing him one of the golf clubs.

As though in an act of mercy, she gave him the one with the blue grip rather than the one with the violet grip. He appreciated it.

The two of them headed over to the first hole, which was a simple, straight shot with the slowly rotating blades of a miniature windmill serving as the only obstacle between the tee and the hole.

"Ever played this before, Shinji-kun?" Misato asked.

"No," he answered. "I'll probably be bad at it."

"Who cares if you are?" she replied. "We're just here to have fun. Besides, this game is easy! Here, let me show you."

She bent over to place her ball in the proper place. Shinji tried not to stare at her rear as she did this, truly he did, but with her in those tight little denim shorts of hers, it was simply too much to ask of a teenage male such as himself.

By the time she stood up, Shinji was far more inclined to cut the guy at the counter a little slack for his display of naked lechery earlier.

"Okay," Misato said, "there's really nothing to this. First, you hold your club like this. Then, you line up your shot and swing."

She demonstrated, striking her golf ball solidly. However, it went off at an angle, banging on the short walls that enclosed the first leg of the course, then struck part of the little windmill, missing the tunnel that led to the hole entirely. Eventually, it rolled to a stop roughly three inches away from the tee.

Misato turned to look at Shinji and glared at him. "Don't say anything," she said, though there was a playful edge to her scowl that even he couldn't fail to notice.

The Third Child just bit his lower lip to keep himself from sniggering and raised his hands in a placating gesture. Apparently satisfied, Misato turned back to the game.

Five swings later, she had finally managed to get the little ball into the first little hole.

"Okay, maybe this game isn't as easy as I remember it," she said as she took her ball back. "Still, remember that the real objective here is just to enjoy yourself."

Shinji nodded and placed his disturbingly Unit One-colored ball on the tee, then he stood up straight, lined up his shot, and swung gently.

The ball rolled straight forward, managed to miss the rotating windmill blades, went through the tunnel, and plopped neatly into the hole.

Misato laughed. "Beginner's luck," she said. "C'mon, let's move on."


"I'm not sure this is such a good idea," Hiko said as he regarded the pistol that sat in his lap.

His friend and companion Koichi rolled his eyes in response to this. "Don't wuss out on me now, man," he said. "There's nothing to this. In and out in under ten minutes. Piece of cake."

The two men were sitting in a very old, very beaten-up car. The car itself was sitting by the curb, right by the "border" that separated the upscale part of Tokyo-3 from the depressed area of the city.

It wasn't unusual for big cities to have both affluent sections and slums, but in the so-called "City of Tomorrow" the contrast was uncommonly stark. Remaining bits of what had once been Hakone, which was hard hit by Second Impact, stood right next to the young, modern structures in many places.

"I don't know," Hiko said. "The cops actually give a damn if we pull this kind of thing in the rich people's places."

"That's what the ski masks and the gloves are for, dumbass," Koichi responded. "So they can't see our faces or use fingerprints to track us down."

"There are also… other things that could happen," Hiko said.

Koichi released a harsh burst of laughter. "You think one of the city's superwomen is gonna show up to bust us?"

"It's not like it's never been know to happen," Hiko replied stubbornly.

"Listen, I am not going to drive all the way to Tokyo-2 to do this," Koichi said firmly. "This damn bucket of bolts probably couldn't make the trip. Besides, there are probably dozens—hundreds—of crimes that happen every day in this city without one of the super bitches showing up to bust it. Running into one of them is like… like being struck by lightning. It really sucks if it happens to you, but odds are, it never will."

Hiko hesitated, still having doubts.

Koichi sighed. "Look, man, we pull this job, we're set for months, at least." He said. "The people over on the rich side of the city… they don't give a damn about us. They were too damn cheap to rebuild the whole city, and the part we live in can just go to hell for all they care. There's no damn work where we live, but nobody in the good part of the city would ever think about hiring one of 'our kind.' So we don't have the money to buy food most of the time. My neighbor died because she couldn't afford to get herself penicillin. She died, man, and none of the rich assholes over there ever gave a damn.

"Meanwhile, just to add insult to injury, they built a place right by the border that's there purely for them to go to have fun," he continued. "While we scrape to just to be able to survive and don't always make it, they drop money for recreation." He spat the last word as though it was an obscenity.

"So?" Hiko said.

"So?" Koichi echoed. "So today, I say we show those rich jackasses that it's not nice to refuse to share."

Hiko was silent for a moment. Then he turned to Koichi and said, "Let's roll."

Koichi smiled and turned the key in the ignition. The engine sputtered and coughed for a bit, but eventually it started. "Knew you'd come to see it my way."


"Another hole in one!" Misato groaned, covering her eyes with her palm, even as she smiled.

Shinji blushed as he went to retrieve his golf ball. "I've only gotten three so far," he said modestly.

"That's three more than I've gotten," Misato said as she checked their scorecard. "You're killing me here, Shinji-kun. You're a very multi-talented young man, you know that?"

He rolled his eyes, though the effect was somewhat spoiled by the humorous expression on his face. "Piloting, playing the cello, and mini-golfing. Yeah, I've got talent coming out my ears," he said sarcastically.

"And you can cook, don't forget about that," Misato said, wagging a finger like a teacher might.

"I'm not a very good cook," he protested.

"You're a lot better than I am," Misato replied.

That's not exactly a big achievement, he thought. While it was true that he had the most culinary skill of anyone in the Katsuragi apartment, Shinji really tended to think of that as akin to a one-eyed man being king in the land of the blind.

However, since Misato took teasing even worse than he did, Shinji decided to hold his peace on that subject.

They moved onto the ninth hole. Shinji was able to sink the ball with three strokes less than it took Misato, which was about what he'd been averaging so far.

Even though the mini-golf course was far from bustling at the moment, a group of people were already at the tenth hole, forcing Misato and Shinji to stand and wait their turn.

"Misato?" Shinji spoke up after a few seconds.

"Yes, Shinji-kun?" she replied.

He suddenly wanted very badly to say "nothing" and to just continue the evening as they had been doing so far; he was having a really good time and didn't want to ruin it. Shinji found he actually preferred the relative tranquility of the mini-golf course to the loud sounds and flashing lights of the arcades, and he enjoyed the company of his guardian when she wasn't deliberately pressing all of his buttons by teasing him mercilessly.

That he was winning wasn't exactly hurting his evening, either.

However, there was a question that had been bugging him ever since Misato had dropped the bombshell that she was resigning from the Ops Director post over dinner not too long ago, and Shinji didn't think he'd again find an opportunity as good as this to ask her about it any time soon.

"When you told us you'd left the Operations Director job, you said you didn't think you were in the right state of mind for it anymore," Shinji said.

As he expected and feared, Misato's cheerful expression quickly grew more sober. "Yeah," she agreed.

"What exactly did you mean by that?" he asked.

"I meant that my desire to destroy the Angels was preventing me from looking at the battles as objectively as a good commander should," she answered.

Shinji nodded. This was about what he'd expected.

"But why do you think someone else wouldn't be affected that way by their emotions?" he asked. "Almost everyone who was around at the time lost someone in the Second Impact, and I can't imagine that most of the people who would have applied for the job wouldn't have their own axes to grind against the Angels."

Misato sighed. Shinji deserved to know, but that didn't mean she liked the idea of recounting the story any more because of it.

"Do you remember what you asked me, after the whole thing with the Jet Alone was over?" she asked, rather than respond to his question directly.

He frowned slightly but answered her. "I asked you how you could be that brave."

"Remember what I said?" she asked.

He nodded. "You told me that when you've lived through the worst thing in the world, when you've seen it with your own eyes, there's nothing left to be afraid of."

"Glad you've been listening," she said, forcing a weak smile. "I never did tell you what the worst thing in the world was, did I?"

He shook his head.

Leaning in close to him in an almost conspiratorial manner, she told him. She told him of what she had experienced at the bottom of the world when she was about his age. She told him about why she'd been there, about the dysfunctional relationship her father had had with the rest of his family, and how he'd made one last-ditch effort to patch things up with his daughter by taking her with him on his research expedition. She told him about what had really happened on the day of Second Impact, from the perspective of the only surviving eye witness.

"When Adam first awoke, it was like… like an enormous bomb went off at the research site," Misato said, her eyes unfocused as she gazed into the past. "Everything was just chaos. People lay dead and dying everywhere. I still remembered how great patches of snow were stained red with blood, some of which was mine."

She pressed her palm to the area just below her breasts. For once, Shinji felt neither embarrassment nor excitement as he looked at Misato's chest.

"It was my father who saved me," she continued. "He was so… so weak in everyday life, but so strong at that time of disaster. I still don't understand how someone could be that way, but there it was. He got me into an escape pod and sent it jettisoning out to the sea, just before he died."

Shinji said nothing, looking raptly up at his guardian.

"I opened up the pod to get a look at what was going on, though today I wish to God that I hadn't," Misato said. "I saw Adam, the First Angel, stand up. He was a giant made of golden light, easily as big as an Evangelion, and with these four… wings that seemed to stretch up to forever." A pause and she added as she remembered the scene: "They kinda looked like a dragonfly's."

"And?" Shinji asked.

"And then he roared, and I saw the entire continent of Antarctica just… explode," Misato said. "Pieces of rock and ice went flying everywhere, and the ocean became as red as blood. And for the first and so far last time in my life, I was completely overcome by fear. I was paralyzed by it. I closed the hatch on my pod, then just curled up into a fetal position and shut down. I was in a near-catatonic state for years after that."

"My god," he breathed. "Misato…"

Shinji trailed off after this, finding himself at a complete loss for anything meaningful to say in response to her story. He never had been any good at comforting people.

She straightened back to her full height, and her eyes lost that unfocused look that made it obvious she was staring into the past. "So, that's why I think someone else would have better judgment than me when it comes to commanding the battles against the Angels," she said. "Maybe just about everyone was hurt by that monster, but nobody was as close to it as I was."

Shinji knew he really should say something at this point, but any appropriate words still refused to come to him.

Fortunately, he was saved from having to say anything by the man with the gun.

"Hello, boys and girls!" a guy in ski mask shouted as he barged onto the course. "This is a robbery. Everybody down on the floor. Now!"

The few people present on the course all immediately complied, laying down flat on their bellies.

"Good," the robber said. "If you all cooperate, this shouldn't take long, and nobody has to get hurt. Now—"

"GOD DAMN IT! Don't even try to trip that silent alarm, you little punk!" another man, apparently the robber's accomplice, shouted from over by the counter.

The robber sighed. "That idiot better not kill that kid…" he muttered before turning his attention back to the hostages. "None of you move! I'll be right back!"

The guy walked off to go help his friend harass the teenage boy who was working at the counter.

Well, these guys are real professionals, Misato thought saracastically, even as she chastised herself for bringing Shinji to a place so close to the bad part of the city.

"I'm going to try and find a place to hide," Misato whispered. "If I can get the element of surprise, I can take out those two idiots."

Of course, she didn't exactly need the element of surprise, not when she had the power ring sitting on her finger, but she didn't want to tell anyone that.

"No!" Shinji hissed. "It's too dangerous."

"He's right, lady," one of the other golfers added. "These guys aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they do have guns."

"Guns they don't want to use, because that could add a murder or attempted murder charge if they ever get caught," Misato countered. "I'll be fine. I am in the military, you know. I've been in worse scrapes than this."

This said, she began to crawl away on her belly, not giving Shinji or anyone else an opportunity to protest further. The mini-golf course was outdoors, but there was a concrete wall all around it, to prevent people from just bypassing the clerk and coming in without paying. There were parts of this wall that contained small storage and maintenance rooms. If she could sneak into one of those without anyone seeing her going inside, she could have the ring put her in costume. After that, stopping the two punks as the Green Lantern would be a piece of cake.

She had almost made it when one of the robbers came back and spotted her.

"Hey!" he shouted. "What do you think you're doing?!"

The guy was trying to sound tough, but Misato could hear a slight waver in his voice. The hostages refusing to act meekly and cooperate wasn't part of his game plan, and he didn't quite know how to respond to it.

Realizing this, Misato jumped to her feet and peeled away, sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her to a fire exit.

Damn it, if I knew that I'd be running this evening, I would have put on a bra! She thought, grimacing as she bounced all over the place.

"Stop, bitch!" the robber yelled and fired a shot.

The bullet didn't strike her, and it didn't strike the ground anywhere near her. Either the guy was a god-awful shot, or he didn't have the nerve to do more than fire into the air to try and scare her. Which one of these things was true didn't make a difference to Misato, as they both boded well for her chances.

"Stop!" the robber yelled again.

Ignoring him again, Misato finally reached the fire exit and pushed it open. Alarms began blaring as she left the golf course.

"Why is it always a dark alley?" she grumbled as she observed her surroundings.

She couldn't change yet; the robber was right on her heels. Not even somebody who thought it was a great idea to rob a mini-golf place would be stupid enough to not realize who the Green Lantern was if she put her costume on at that moment.

Instead, she cast her eyes about for something she could use as a weapon, knowing that she only had a few seconds, at most, before a man with a gun burst through the door after her.

Fortunately for her, she found the perfect thing with barely any searching at all.

"Damn it, bitch," the robber said as he burst through the door. "I don't want to hurt anybody, but—oofph!"

He was rather harshly interrupted by a broken golf club striking his midsection, causing him to double over. Misato took the opportunity to bring her knee up and slam it into the guy's face. There was a meaty crack as his nose broke from the impact.

Not giving him so much as a moment to recover, she knocked the gun from his now loose grip with her makeshift weapon, then dropped the trashed golf club and threaded her fingers together. With a cry, she brought her hands down on the back of neck with every ounce of strength she could muster.

The man crumbled to the ground and then didn't move. The whole fight had taken approximately twelve seconds.

Guess I still got it, Misato thought as she squatted down to check the guy. His pulse was steady, but he was also out like a light. Perfect.

Misato curled the fingers of her right hand into a fist, and emerald light flared around her.When it had faded, the Green Lantern stood in her place.


Shinji was worried. The robber had chased Misato off a couple minutes ago, and the two of them had dashed right out of sight. The fire alarms and sprinklers had gone off not soon after, which had given him hope that his guardian had made an escape. However, there had been no sign of her since then, and he and the other hostages were left with the remaining robber. The guy had finally realized that it would make his life easier if he forced the teenager who'd been minding the counter to wait with all his other hostages. The criminal had then stripped them all of their valuables, but now he had nothing to do and seemed to be growing more and more antsy with every second that passed.

Shinji desperately wanted to do something, but there simply wasn't anything he could do. Being powerless was hardly a new thing for him; it was practically the story of his life, but that didn't make it any more tolerable.

"Hey, jerk, why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

Shinji turned to look in the direction that the shout had come from, believing that it was Misato he'd heard. However, his eyes quickly told him that it was not Misato.

It was the Green Lantern.

The new super heroine in town actually resembled his guardian quite a bit, but even a quick look revealed a number of key differences. While she had the same voluptuous build as Misato, she was also a good bit more muscular, and her hair was ebony black instead of purple. Also he realized that her voice, now that he mentally replayed it, wasn't quite like his guardian's; it was a little deeper and throatier. Maybe if Misato had a head cold she would sound that way.

She floated about a foot off the ground, her body surrounded by a halo of emerald light that the Third Child found strangely familiar, as though he'd seen it before somewhere. The robber gaped at her stupidly for what was easily fifteen seconds.

Then he recovered. Without hesitating, the man brought his gun up and fired three shots. Even in the large mini-golf course, the reports sounded deafening to Shinji.

A shield made from green light formed before the Lantern, easily blocking the slugs. She smirked at the robber. "Nice try," she said. "You want to surrender now and make it easy on yourself, or are you going to be difficult about this?"

"All right, maybe I can't hurt you," the robber said, "but I'll bet I can still hurt—"

A blast of jade energy shot through the barrel of his gun, vaporizing it, before he could point the weapon at any of his hostages. The man let out a cry of surprise and dismay, dropping the now ruined firearm.

"You bitch!" the man shrieked. "You know how hard it is to find a piece like that?!"

Obviously blinded by rage, the man went running toward the luminescent superwoman.

"How did I know you'd have to do this the hard way?" the Green Lantern asked rhetorically as a jet of emerald light burst forth from the big ring she wore.

Shinji's eyes widened as he watched that shaft of light take on the form of a giant golf club. The robber stopped dead in his tracks, and a rather wicked grin spread over the super-heroine's face.

"Like being struck by lightning…" the robber muttered to himself.

"Four!" the Green Lantern yelled.

The huge golf club swung, striking the robber dead on. The man let out a cry as he was sent flying, the wallets and jewelry he'd taken falling to the ground as they were knocked out of his pockets by the force of the blow.

Now that was a hit, Shinji thought as he watched the masked criminal soar about twenty meters before crashing into the obstacle of the course's final hole, which was a miniature version of the Imperial Palace. The small structure collapsed around the crook, who groaned and then went silent, obviously down for the count.

The Green Lantern turned toward the teenager who worked at the golf course. "This place has insurance, right?"

"Uh, yeah," the guy replied, staring at the Green Lantern just as fixedly as he'd been staring at Misato earlier. "I think so."

"Good," the super-heroine said, then turned her attention to the small crowd of people. "Is everybody okay? Nobody's hurt right?"

"Uh, it looks like everyone's fine," Shinji spoke up after quickly surveying the other people who'd been unfortunate enough to decide to go golfing that evening. "Um, did you happen to see a purple-haired woman earlier? She's about your height."

"Yeah, I was on…patrol and happened to catch sight of her fighting with this creep's partner," she said, gesturing toward the robber who lay in the rubble of the miniature palace. "She disarmed the guy before I could jump in, then she told me what was happening here."

"So she's okay?" Shinji asked urgently.

"She's fine," the Green Lantern confirmed.

"Thank goodness. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to her," Shinji breathed a sigh of relief, then realized that the jade champion was smiling at him. "What?"

"Nothing," she replied, waving a hand dismissively. "Well, I have to fly. Places to go, people to see, crooks to catch…"

"Oh, sure," Shinji said. "Thanks a lot for the save."

Several other golfers echoed Shinji's sentiments. The Green Lantern's smile widened. "Hey, it's my job," she said. "Catch you later."

With that, she flew off into the sky, leaving a trail of green light and several very grateful people behind her.


Mere moments later, the Green Lantern returned to earth in an isolated alleyway. The moment she returned to the ground, she willed her costume away, and it vanished in a brief puff of jade flames.

"Great job changing my voice, ring," Misato growled sarcastically. "I sounded almost exactly the same!"

"This ring will further alter your vocal cords if you request for your voice to be changed again in the future," it answered.

Misato sighed, not quite satisfied with this response. Silly though it might have been, she'd really wanted an apology from the thing.

Well, hopefully I look too different as the Green Lantern for Shinji to even guess the truth, she thought. He probably won't be able to remember the details from a chaotic situation like that anyway.

With this in mind, Misato began to make her way back to the golf course.


With the way Misato had tripped the fire alarm, there wasn't even any need for anyone to call the police. The authorities arrived a few minutes after the Green Lantern had left, and while the fire engine was quickly sent back to its station, the police car that had trailed it (for crime was high in the "border region" of the city) remained for quite some time.

The unusual manner in which the criminals had been thwarted ensured that the cops were especially careful about minding their P's and Q's, so they kept everyone at the course for hours as they took statements and examined the scene of the crime. As a result, it was after midnight before Shinji and Misato were walking back into their apartment.

"Sorry, Shinji-kun," she said as she checked for Asuka's shoes, feeling pleased to find they were present on the mat by the door.

"What for?" he asked.

"I told you we wouldn't be out all night," Misato explained, glancing at the clock she kept on the wall.

"That's not your fault," Shinji said.

"I know, but we were supposed to be having fun, not dealing with an armed robbery," Misato groaned.

"I'm actually glad you decided we should go out and do something, even in spite of that," Shinji said. "I had fun, nobody was hurt, and… it was kind of cool, getting to see the Green Lantern, I mean."

Misato smirked. "Oh, does my little Shinji-kun have a crush?"

"No!" he said, coloring slightly.

"So the Green Lantern's uglier than those pictures in the tabloids have made her look then?" Misato asked.

"It's not that," Shinji said.

It really wasn't that. Studying the Green Lantern's features hadn't exactly been at the top of list of priorities while she was there, but he hadn't failed to notice that the woman was gorgeous.

"Then what is it?" Misato asked.

He shrugged. "Having a crush on a superwoman just seems… silly. Like having a crush on a pop idol or something," he explained. "I mean, it seems pointless, since you're never going to be around her for more than a few minutes at a time, at most."

Misato had to fight very hard not to laugh at that. You'd be surprised, Shinji-kun.

"That's a very mature and boring attitude to take, Shinji-kun," she said.

"Uh… thank you?" he said in a tone that made it obvious that it was more a question than anything else.

"You're priceless, Shinji-kun," she laughed.

The purple haired woman was sorely tempted to plant another kiss on the boy's forehead, but he was awake now, and she didn't want to give him the wrong idea. So instead she hugged him, for once bending down slightly so that his face wasn't buried in her bust. After a brief, awkward moment, he slowly lifted his arms and hugged her back.

They ended the gentle embrace after a few seconds.

"Go to bed, Shinji-kun," she said. "You have school tomorrow, as you so unwisely reminded me earlier."

He nodded and headed for the hallway, only to stop and then slowly turn around to face her again. "Misato," he said, "I was…very, very relieved when I found out you hadn't been hurt."

She smiled at him. "It was a lot of fun tonight, in spite of everything," she said. "We should do it again, just without the criminals next time."

"I'd like that," Shinji said. "Good night."

"'Night." She replied.

Shinji walked off, soon disappearing into his room. Misato lingered in the kitchen, grabbing herself a beer. She drained it with her characteristic speed, but refrained from her usual whoop of joy—Asuka would be on the warpath if she was so rudely woken up at this time of night, and Misato honestly wouldn't be able to blame her.

Instead, she leaned against her refrigerator and let out a soft sigh.

I wish I wasn't too old for you, Shinji-kun, she thought.


"This really isn't necessary, Chiron," Kaji practically growled the next day. "I know my magnetic personality is hard to resist, but you don't need to visit my office every fifteen minutes."

"I'm just checking up to make sure that you're not accidentally venturing to the wrong place, Ryoji," the chief of Section Two replied.

Kaji forced himself not to wince. He hated his given name. "I know my way around," he replied, "and I think that you'd have more important things to do than check up on little old me, despite how competent and highly trained the members of your own department are."

The two men had been trading jabs in this manner for most of the morning. Both Commanders were out of the city, having ventured to the South Pole, and Chiron had been hovering about Kaji in their absence to make sure the long haired man didn't abuse his new privileges as the Operations Director.

I wonder if Ikari put him up to this, or if he decided to make my life hell all by himself, Kaji thought.

Before Chiron could respond to Kaji's latest barb with some thinly veiled threat or insult, klaxons started to blare all through the base. The two men exchanged a look, and then Kaji quickly rose and headed out, rushing toward the command center.

"Status report," he demanded as soon as the doors opened for him.

"About two minutes ago we detected a massive object orbiting the Earth above the Indian Ocean," Makoto said. "Wave pattern analysis confirmed that it's an Angel."

"Can we get a visual on it?" Kaji asked, walking up behind the bespectacled technician.

"I'll see what I can do," Aoba said.

"Sending recon satellite six into that orbit now," Maya said. "T-minus two minutes to contact."

"The target has been sighted," Aoba said.

The main screen switched to a view of the Tenth Angel, a huge orange thing that looked like it had an eye in the center of its body. Hyuga gasped. "It's enormous."

"It's a big one all right," Kaji agreed.

"Recon six in now in range," Aoba announced. "Commencing data search… search complete. Transmitting data."

Mere seconds after he said this, the satellite scanning the Angel crumpled, and the image of it was replaced by snow.

"It looks like a nice use of the AT field," Maya said fearfully.

"All right, Situation Room, everyone," Kaji said. "And somebody contact the pilots."


"The Angel has been dropping parts of its own mass onto the Earth for the last two hours," Maya reported. "The combination of the AT Field impact and simple kinetic energy has been causing huge tidal waves when it hits the ocean."

"Unfortunately, it looks like tidal waves will be the least of our problems," Ritsuko put it. "The Angel has been steadily correcting its error ratio. It's learning to aim itself."

"We detonated an aerial N2 mine on the target," Makoto added. "No effect, I'm afraid."

"The Angel has been hiding since then," Aoba continued. "It's using its ECM jamming to keep us from accurately locating it, despite its size."

"It's coming here," Misato said.

"It's a safe bet," Ritsuko agreed. "And if it falls on us, this area will become part of the Pacific Ocean."

"Can we contact the Commander?" Kaji asked.

"No, we can't get through the Angel's jamming," Aoba said.

"What do the MAGI say?" Kaji asked.

"All three recommend evacuation," Maya answered.

"What will you do, Kaji?" Ritsuko asked. "You're the one in charge of all this now."

The man turned to regard the bottle blond scientist. "I don't suppose you had the MAGI calculate the odds of our success if the EVA Units were to engage this Angel head on?"

The question was asked in an appropriately serious tone, but Ritsuko could detect an undercurrent of Kaji's usual humor. This didn't surprise her, considering how ironic the seemingly innocent question really was. Where the Angels were concerned, she made it a habit to have the MAGI calculate the odds of everything.

"Yes, sir," Ritsuko answered, ignoring how strange it felt to address Kaji in such a manner. "The MAGI tentatively estimate the odds of victory against this Angel as over 10,000 to one."

"That's about what I would have expected," Kaji said. "All right, I'm issuing a D-17 special evacuation order. I want everyone within fifty kilometers of here evacuated by the time that Angel's ready for its final attack."

"Yes, sir!" Aoba, Maya, and Makoto said in unison.

"Kaji, you're not evacuating everyone, are you?" Misato asked abruptly, just as the trio of technicians was about to move to their tasks.

"Yes, I am," he answered plainly.

"But you can't do that!" Misato protested. "The city will be completely destroyed! NERV didn't build the great fortress of humanity to let the Angels destroy it without a fight!"

"Katsuragi, saving the city isn't an option," Kaji said firmly. "Our choices are fleeing and continuing the war somewhere else or staying here and throwing away the Evangelions and the Children in a futile fight."

"You're not really trying to command battles by the numbers, are you?" Misato demanded, aghast.

"Numbers like 10,000 to one are pretty hard to argue with, but no, not entirely," Kaji answered levelly. "My instincts are telling me that staying here is suicidal as much as the math is, and to leave the city is just the logical course of action."

"I don't believe you!" Misato exclaimed. "Your first battle and you respond by waving the white flag!"

"Misato," Kaji said, and the almost placid demeanor he'd been sporting until now began to break as some of his annoyance seeped into his voice. "Isn't this the very reason you decided to leave the Operations Director job? You're thinking with your emotions here, not your head. Can't you see that?"

Misato just crossed her arms and silently glared at the man who had once been her lover. Not wanting to be in command when situations like this arose had nothing to do with the real reason for her resignation, but she couldn't very well tell Kaji that. It made for a maddening situation.

For his own part, Kaji was more than a little annoyed at his ex-girlfriend, though he didn't show his displeasure nearly as openly as she did. Misato's decision to resign from her old job had introduced no small number of complications into his life. He didn't exactly expect gratitude or apologies from her, but it would've been nice if she didn't try to bite his head off for commanding as he saw fit.

"All right, enough!" said Ritsuko, ending the tense moment. "Kaji's the one in command, so we evacuate."

The technicians and various other personnel took that as cue to get to work on executing the new Operations Director's orders, only too glad for the opportunity to be away from the tense stand-off.

Misato just turned on her heel and stalked out of the command center without another word. NERV might be running in the face of this Angel, but the Green Lantern certainly would not.


It was utter pandemonium. That was the only way to describe the scene at the great landing ground of the JSDF airbase. People of all ages, from all walks of life, were rushing about in all directions. Many of them were carrying hastily packed suitcases, but when something was dropped, it was allowed to lie where it had fallen. The sounds of crying babies, shouting people, and spinning helicopter rotors all melded together into one chaotic cacophony.

The city of Tokyo-3 was going to be destroyed, and everyone was understandably in a rather panicked mood as they rushed to get out before that happened.

Being an EVA pilot, Shinji enjoyed certain privileges that the rest of the people in the city weren't fortunate enough to have. For one thing, he and Asuka had been told what was happening earlier than the rest of Tokyo-3's citizens, giving them a somewhat better chance to pack. (Not that Shinji needed very much time, anyway. The only material items in his possession that he really cared for were his SDAT player and his cello. Asuka, however, had definitely benefited from the advance warning.) Also, the transport helicopter that the pilots were to take out of the city was reserved and guarded for them by Section Two, who for once did an exceptionally good job at the task they were given. This might have had something to do with the fact that to execute this task, all the men in the black suits needed to do was stand around the chopper and look big and surly, but Shinji supposed it was still something to put into their win column.

"Where do you suppose Misato is?" Shinji asked, clutching Pen-Pen to his chest.

"I don't know, Third Child, but I wouldn't worry much. Misato's a grown-up. She can take care of herself," Asuka replied with an uncharacteristic lack of heat.

The redhead had been behaving oddly ever since they'd gotten the news about the evacuation, but Shinji didn't have much trouble figuring out why. Asuka wasn't one to run when faced with the enemy, so he was sure there was no way she approved of this course of action, unlike himself, who was guiltily relieved that they wouldn't have to fight this Angel. However, the orders came from Kaji, whom Asuka had been thrilled to learn would be replacing Misato as the Ops Director. The German was feeling rather torn, to put it mildly.

Shinji hugged Pen-Pen tighter to himself, feeling anxiety twist around in his gut. Misato was an adult, of course, despite how often she acted otherwise, but he had seen the look in her eyes when she told him and Asuka about what Kaji had decided to do.

He had never seen her so furious before, and he was worried about what she might do in such a state.

"Ikari," Rei said.

"What is it?" he asked, snapping out of his thoughts.

"I believe you are squeezing the penguin too hard," the blue haired girl said, pointing at Pen-Pen, who Shinji realized was releasing a series of rather strangled sounding noises.

"Oops," he said. "Uh, here, why don't you hold him for a while, Ayanami?"

Shinji handed Pen-Pen to Rei, who held him under his wings and stared at him for a few seconds. Then the penguin released a loud "Wark!"

Rei actually smiled at this, albeit very slightly, and then sat the water fowl down on her lap.

Shinji returned to brooding about his worries, or he would have, had he not happened to spot a very familiar red jacket in the undulating crowd of people outside the helicopter.

"Misato!" he shouted, leaping out of the chopper and making his way through the disorderly press of humanity as quickly as he could, an annoyed Section Two agent trailing him.

She didn't hear him over all the other noise, but he eventually managed to get close enough to her to place his hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn.

"Shinji-kun," she said in surprise, "shouldn't you be in the sky by now?"

"We're supposed to take off in a few minutes," he said. "Why don't you come with us? There's plenty of room on the helicopter for you."

"Sorry, Shinji-kun, but I can't go yet," Misato said. "I have to help supervise the evacuation. They really need everybody they can to try and keep things from totally falling apart here."

Shinji couldn't really dispute that; a look around them was all it would take to confirm Misato's statement. However, the logic she displayed did nothing to quell his fears.

"All right," he said, "but please… be safe, and make sure you leave yourself enough time to get away."

She smiled at him, then, seeming to read his mind, said, "Relax, Shinji-kun. I may be crazy sometimes, but I'm not stupid. I'm pissed about what Kaji decided to do, but I'm not going to stay here and let myself get killed to make a point."

"Promise?" Shinji asked, feeling incredibly childish making such a request, but needing that extra bit of reassurance.

"Cross my heart," Misato replied with a small smile. "Now, go get on that helicopter and get out of here, Shinji-kun."

He nodded. "I'll see you later, Misato."


Hours later, one last transport helicopter took to the skies that had been packed with aircraft earlier, evacuating the last of the NERV personnel who had lingered to ensure everyone else would get out safely. This final group was cutting it exceedingly close, and the pilot intended to push his machine to its limits to make sure they made it away in time.

Needless to say, Misato wasn't on this one, or any of the other helicopters that had left the city. She had made sure that the records would say she had taken one of them out, but in reality she remained in Tokyo-3, a city that was now abandoned save for her.

It was perhaps the most desolate scene she'd ever seen, save perhaps for a few she'd taken in whilst at the South Pole. Truly, it was the calm before the storm.

Misato had never liked the calm before the storm; she hated waiting.

"Ring," she said, "is anyone else here besides me?"

"Negative," it answered at once.

"Good," she said. "Where's the Angel?"

"The Angel is approximately 10,000 kilometers above your present position," the ring answered. "At its current velocity, it should enter your visual range in under two minutes."

"Then, I think you know what to do," she said, grinning maliciously.

"Affirmative," the ring said as it transformed her clothing and body into that of the Green Lantern.

The glowing heroine took off, surging upwards through the air toward her enemy at top speed. Wind gusted past her, and the air soon grew thin and cold as she rapidly gained altitude, but she noticed none of it. The jade force field that enclosed her body could protect her and keep her alive in the harsh environment of outer space; the conditions in the upper atmosphere were nothing to her.

It wasn't long before she saw the Angel approaching, its massive form wreathed in plasma from the heat of its entry into the Earth's atmosphere. There was enough distance between them for the thing to still look small, but the Green Lantern wasn't fooled for an instant. The Angel was utterly enormous, totally dwarfing the EVA Units in comparison.

For a moment, the Green Lantern felt indecision stir in her breast. Though she had managed to destroy the previous Angel by herself, it had been a close thing, and the sight of the Tenth made it abundantly clear that the two monsters simply were not in the same league. Even worse, the very simple, very direct approach being utilized by this Angel demanded an equally straightforward counter. There would be no victory through clever tactics this time; she had to overpower the damn thing, and she wasn't sure she could do it. She considered retreating.

Then the moment passed, and she urged herself to greater speed. The ring was one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. If the Evangelions could kill this Angel (and she had faith that they would have succeeded if Kaji had allowed them to enter the battlefield), then so could she.

Eventually judging that she was close enough to engage the Angel, the Green Lantern raised her fist and focused her willpower, and a beam of light shot forth from her power ring, quickly taking on the form of a green hand that was the size of the Angel's central section.

"I'm going to kill you, you monster!" she roared. "You're not going to hurt anyone like Adam did!"

The great hand she'd created reached the Angel, causing the beast's AT Field to flash to life. The Green Lantern didn't care about the barrier just at the moment; she wasn't planning on killing the Angel yet. She wanted to get it out of the Earth's gravity, first, where its massive size gave it a greater advantage.

So she pushed, straining against the incredible weight and momentum of the Angel, but it wasn't enough. The thing continued to plummet toward the ground, pushing the Green Lantern and her huge construct downward as it did so.

"No…" she said through clenched teeth, her face scrunching up with effort as she strained, not with her muscles, but with her mind and her very soul.

It's not enough, she thought, I need more power.

She channeled a burst of extra will through the ring, hoping that if she could just slow it down and diminish its momentum, then she could succeed in forcing back into space.

Her construct glowed more brightly, seeming to solidify. For a moment, she thought she could see its pace slowing, that the two structures on the side of the main body were beginning to fall forward as inertia began to carry them past the center, which she was interdicting.

Then the emerald hand shattered as though it were made of glass, the shards flying everywhere but quickly changing into swamp green smoke that almost immediately dissipating in the air. The Green Lantern released a cry of surprise and dismay.

"No!" she shouted, wasting no time in creating another hand and beginning another attempt.

"Warning, Lantern. Ten minutes to impact," the ring said.

"Don't care," she gritted out, sweat beading on her brow as she gave the task of stopping the Angel everything she had.

Damn you, monster, I am going to kill you with this ring, she thought hatefully, trying to gradually funnel more and more of her willpower into her construct, hoping that the rapid power surge was what had caused her previous one to break under the pressure.

"Eight minutes to impact," the ring spoke up.

"Still don't care," she said.

More slowly this time, the hand grew brighter, sharper, and more clearly defined. And, almost though it was almost impossible to perceive with the naked eye, the Angel again began to slow.

"Rate of descent decreasing," the ring reported. "Time to impact is now eight minutes and thirty seconds."

"Well, I guess it's a—"

The Green Lantern was cut off as her construct shattered once more, and the Angel sped up, once again unimpeded in its quest to flatten the city of Tokyo-3.

"Damn it!" she screamed.

"Recalculating. Time until impact is now six minutes. Recommend immediate withdrawal," the ring said.

"No, damn you!" Green Lantern snapped, furious.

She tried again, pouring every ounce of willpower she possessed into the construct from the start this time. The construct broke almost immediately.

"Why isn't this working?!" she shouted, livid with frustration.

"Your willpower is currently laced with rage," the ring answered, quite unexpectedly. "This compromises the integrity of your constructs."

"What?!" Green Lantern exclaimed. "You mean that in order to kill this thing, I can't hate it while I do it?!"

"Affirmative," the ring answered. "Two minutes until impact."

She turned her head to look down at the city and saw that she was getting uncomfortably close to it. She didn't quite have that "way high up" perspective where the buildings looked like toys and the trees looked like broccoli any longer. She had time for one more shot at this.

But I have to do the impossible to succeed, she thought, distraught.

Her drive to destroy the Angels, the willpower that she had used to propel herself into the Operations Director post, had come from a rather complicated brew of emotions, but lust for vengeance had always been chief among them. She didn't know what she could draw strength in combat from, if not her old hatred of her enemies.

This Angel is trying to smash your home, and humanity's best chance at surviving this war with it, she thought, frantically trying to marshal the necessary will.

However, she knew without even making another attempt at stopping the Angel that this approach wouldn't work. She couldn't get truly worked up about defending her currently empty apartment, and the human mind simply wasn't wired to become very emotional about a faceless mass of people.

Or, as a certain Communist leader had so bluntly put it several decades ago, one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.

She needed something else to inspire the unwavering, primal need to win, the limitless determination to succeed, no matter what.

You promised Shinji you wouldn't die here, a little voice whispered from within her mind.

Her eyes widened as she remembered that. Since she had never intended to die anyway, she hadn't given much thought to the vow she'd made, and in the heat of battle she'd forgotten it almost entirely.

Now, however, she remembered not only the promise she'd made him, but the laundry list of tragedies he'd suffered through already in his young life. His dossier contained little else, and she'd witnessed firsthand what had happened when he and his father had met for the first time in years.

She couldn't break her promise to him by dying and add one more disaster to his life. She could not.

"For Shinji, then," she said to herself, doing her best to not think about everything the Angels had taken from her.

One more hand burst forth from her ring, and immediately the Green Lantern knew that this one was different. The light it was formed from was nearly blinding, and it looked almost solid. All her previous constructs were pale shadows in comparison to this one. The great green hand reached out and began to press against the mammoth Angel's AT Field, and soon, the Angel began to slow. She was finally doing it.

Now the question was, had she figured out how to win in time?

"Impact in one minute," the ring announced.

"Come on," Green Lantern groaned. "Come on."

The Angel was really slowing down now, but there was so little distance between it and the ground that the Green Lantern wasn't sure whether or not she could hope to win the day. Thanks to the thing's AT Field and massive size, it would still destroy a hell of a lot of property if it managed to hit the ground, no matter how slowly it was going at the time.

The Green Lantern felt her boots touch the ground and came to the horrible realization that she had effectively lost. In mere seconds, the Angel above her would reach its goal, and she would be dead.

"No," she breathed. "I promised, damn it."

She continued to pour her willpower into the ring, intent on fighting the Angel until there was no longer breath in her body, intent on never surrendering to it, but hope had been lost when her toes touched solid ground. Even as she continued to struggle against it, she instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

Then, all of a sudden…nothing happened.

The Green Lantern's eyes popped as she realized that her "final moment" had dragged on for too long, and she looked up to see that the Angel had come to a full and complete stop above her. She broke out into a broad grin, triumph washing away the grim emotions of mere moments ago.

"Going up," she said.

Her feet rose off the ground once more, and the Angel was pushed up further into the air by the power of her ring and will. Its AT Field flashed angrily as she sent it back towards orbit, but there was little the thing could do.

Little, but not nothing.

Great blobs of the Angel's orange mass quickly pooled on the surface of its body before they went sloughing off, sending a sphere of matter that was capable of creating a tidal wave falling toward the beast's emerald enemy.

Not long ago, the task of keeping the Angel from resuming its descent while simultaneously stopping the relatively small missile it had dropped would have been impossible for her. However, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814 was a much better ring-slinger than she had been that morning, and at the moment, she felt like she was all but invincible as power surged through her and into her ring.

"I don't think so," she said, capturing the projectiles in a sphere of green light, while carefully maintaining focus on the construct of a hand. "Incinerate."

There a great burst of light, and the spheres of Angelic matter were reduced to ash.

It continued to throw these things at her as she forced it to ascend, and Green Lantern had to do some rather difficult mental juggling to ward them all off without losing her hold on the Angel, but the momentum of the battle had shifted her way, and she'd be damned if she was going to lose it.

"Exiting upper atmosphere," the ring announced.

Seconds later, she found herself among the blackness of outer space, a billion stars creating points of frozen light without number in the distance. Against this backdrop, the Tenth Angel looked almost tranquil.

She dispelled the hand. It was no longer necessary now that they were far enough from the Earth to be weightless. The Angel immediately began to drift closer to the planet, but it was far too slow to escape her now.

A jet of light burst forth from her ring and formed a new construct, this one far more elaborate than the great hand from before but no less potent. It was the exact size and shape of the experimental positron rifle that had ended the Fifth Angel.

The Fifth had been the most powerful Angel NERV had encountered up to that time, with an AT Field of frightening strength. Yet the enormous gun had managed to pierce both its AT Field and its armored body from a distance of several kilometers away.

And now an emerald replica of that firearm was aimed at the Tenth Angel from point-blank range.

"See ya," Green Lantern said cheerfully as she commanded her ring to pull the trigger.

A blast of blazing green energy erupted from the barrel of the gun, crashing right into the Angel's AT field. The barrier of orange light held… for approximately 0.03 seconds. Then the lance of emerald energy slammed into the Angel's core, shattering it, and then blasted out the other side of the beast.

"Ring?" Green Lantern asked.

"The Angel has been destroyed," it replied.

"Beautiful," she said, "now to take out the trash."

The giant green hand made one last appearance for the day, grabbing hold of the enormous carcass and flinging in the direction of the sun. It would likely take centuries, if not longer, but the thing's body would one day be incinerated as it approached the largest fusion reaction in the solar system. The idea pleased the Green Lantern.

"Guess my job's done. I should probably head home," she said. "But first, I think I should put in an appearance planet-side. Ring, can anyone on Earth see me up here?"

"Negative."

"Good."

A small shaft of light came from her ring, quickly forming a green duplicate of Misato Katsuragi. Not yet satisfied with her creation, the Green Lantern then concentrated harder, her teeth clenching as she struggled to modify the construct to suit her needs.

Finally, the thing's colors changed, the green disappearing and being replaced by several other hues, until the construct was a perfect ringer for the former Ops Director, save for the completely empty look in its brown eyes.

"Wow," Green Lantern said. "This is freaky."

She shook her head, putting these thoughts aside. She didn't want to waste any time; she couldn't be in two places at once, but if she was quick enough, and clever enough, she could do the next best thing and fool everyone.

Assuming, of course, that she could make her plan work. The Green Lantern concentrated hard, and then closed her eyes.

And when she opened them, she found herself staring at the Green Lantern.

"Now this is freaky," Misato proclaimed, waving a hand in front of her own face and getting no response.

Still, it had worked; she had managed to transfer her consciousness from her own body to the construct. Now she just had to get back to—

—Misato suddenly found herself standing in the corridors of NERV's auxiliary base in Matsushiro. Suddenly feeling rather dizzy, she put a hand to her head and leaned against the wall for a second.

Right, I'm not in a real body right now, she thought. This thing's just a construct made of light, with force fields giving it some substance. And that means I can move at the speed of light.

"That would be so cool if it wasn't so… jarring," she decided aloud, then went looking for the base's command center.


The atmosphere in the Matsushiro base's command center had been rather grim at first, to put it mildly. The senior staff (sans Misato) and the EVA pilots had gathered to watch the Angel's final assault on the city, even though no one had actually wanted to do so. Asuka in particular had tried to escape, but Kaji had asked her to stay, saying he wanted her to see the power of their enemies so she'd understand what she was up against. The redhead had reluctantly agreed to remain.

So they had all watched as the shadow of the Tenth Angel had fallen upon Tokyo-3, fully expecting the great being falling from the heavens to smash the city beneath it like it was made of sand.

And then… a green light had appeared.

The assembled group had watched with baited breath as the Green Lantern had dueled with the Angel, becoming certain that she was doomed to failure as her repeated attempts to push it back into space met with no success.

Just when all hope was lost, she had succeeded and then disappeared into the blackness of space with the beast.

"The blue pattern has vanished," one of the Matsushiro techs reports a few minutes after they'd lost track of the Angel and the Lantern. "The Tenth Angel is dead!"

Cheers erupted from the assembled personnel, especially those who'd come from the Tokyo-3 base. The new superwoman had spared them a grievous defeat.

The relieved whoops and cheers were just starting to die down when the former Ops Director happened to walk into the command center.

"Misato!" Shinji exclaimed. "Where have you been all this time?"

He had been worried when she'd failed to materialize anywhere at Matsushiro, fearing that she might have stayed behind despite what she'd told him.

"I kind of got turned around in here," she admitted, a rather sheepish grin on her face. She sobered quickly however. "And I guess I didn't try very hard to find the command center here. Didn't want to see the Angel take the victory we gave it on a silver platter, though it looks like I didn't have to worry about that, no thanks to NERV."

"We can't depend on the superwomen to back us up against the Angels, Katsuragi," Kaji said levelly. "I did what I thought was best."

"Hmm, I'm sure you did," Misato said, her tone making it clear she approved of his decision no more than she had before. "Shinji, Asuka, get your stuff. I need to go powder my nose, and then we're going to try to beat the rush back to Tokyo-3. Rei, you can tag along if you'd like."

The trio of pilots all nodded in acknowledgement, and Misato departed from the command center.

"Hey!" one of the techs said moments later. "It looks like the Green Lantern's coming back down!"

Without waiting for any order to do so, the technician zoomed in on the super-heroine and put the image up on the main screen. She was just a dot of light at first, but she quickly got close enough for all of them to get a good look at her as she soared above the skies over Tokyo-3, green fireworks spewing out of her ring as they went. The jade pyrotechnics all flew away from her for a few seconds before they exploded in a spectacular light show.

Back on the command center, Makoto leaned over toward Aoba. "Is it just me, or is this new one ridiculously awesome?" he asked.

"Is it just me, or is this new one ridiculously hot?" Aoba replied.

Makoto looked up at the main viewer again. "Nope, it's not just you."


Meanwhile, half a world away, Gendo Ikari was having a good day. They had successfully located and retrieved the Lance of Longinus, which meant that SEELE's power over him continued to dwindle. With Adam, Lilith, Unit One, and now the Lance under his control, there was little the old men could do to stand in the way of his scenario's fulfillment.

"Sir," a sailor said as he entered the enclosed observation deck where he and Fuyutski stood, "there's a telex for you from Japan."

The man held out an envelope. Gendo accepted it and then dismissed the man. His day took a distinct nose dive as he read the message.

"What is it?" Fuyutski asked.

"The Green Lantern is real," Gendo replied, "and she's just officially become a thorn in NERV's side."


Author's Notes: What to say here? Well, first, I'm sorry for dragging my feet a bit on this update. Hopefully the size of this chapter helps to make up for it.

I'm not sure if I pumped as much suspense into the battle against the Tenth Angel as possible, but overall I'm pleased with this chapter. Fans of the Green Lantern books may notice the similarity of Misato's interpretation of Second Impact to Hal's interpretation of a certain plane crash. Also got to showcase another trait Misato shares with Hal, namely her refusal to ever give up, even when that would probably be the smart move. (Incidentally, Asuka also shares this trait. If I didn't have her otherwise occupied, I think she'd make a pretty decent Guy Gardner to Misato's Hal Jordan, but that's neither here nor there.)

Animefan29, I'm pretty sure GL's have been able to phase through stuff for a while, though the only specific example that comes to mind is from the episode "In Brightest Day" of the Superman animated series. In it, Sinestro flings Kyle into a building, and he phases through (without even trying or knowing he can) rather than crashes through.

Orion, told you Misato was doing it wrong last chapter. :P Really, Lanterns are capable of incredible destructive power, so brute forcing her way past AT Fields is not off the table for Misato.

Gunman, you called it. I half expected everyone to think some figure from the comics would make an appearance, but clearly my plan was less mysterious than I'd thought.

NefCanuck, oh, I have plans, of that I can assure you.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader. Now for some fun.


Omake

The Greatest Green Lantern of Them ALL

It was a perfectly normal day at the Katsuragi apartment. Shinji was preparing to cook dinner, Misato was on the couch drinking beer, and for the purpose of this omake, Asuka was…somewhere else.

Then, a cry of pain sounded through the living space.

"Ow!" Shinji cried.

"What's wrong, Shinji-kun?" Misato asked, looking over at him.

"Pen-Pen jabbed me in the ankle with his beak," the Third Child replied, rubbing the place. "He just waddled up and tried to stab me. I think he almost drew blood."

"Oh, he's probably just mad at you because you haven't cooked him fish in so long," Misato said.

"Then I guess I'd better go get some," Shinji said with a sigh. "I'll be back in a few minutes, Misato."

"Okay," she said.

Grabbing his wallet, the Third Child left the apartment.

Misato was about to go back to laying on her couch and drinking beer when a flare of emerald light that had not come from her suddenly filled the apartment. Jumping up in alarm and ready to assume her alter ego at a moments notice, she turned to look in the direction the light had come from…and her jaw dropped.

Pen-Pen was floating several feet in the air, his little bird body clad in the unformed of a Green Lantern. There was even a small mask over his eyes. A tiny green ring rested upon one of his claws.

"Wark! Wark wark!" he squawked at her.

"Universal translator activated," her ring said.

"So," Pen-Pen said, "it looks like you got yourself a Green Lantern power ring, Misato."

She blinked. "Pen-Pen, you can talk?"

"Of course I can talk!" he exclaimed. "Ring! Tell the rookie who I am!"

"Pen-Pen is the former Green Lantern of Sector 2814, having preceded Abin Sur," his ring answered. "Sector 2814 was the most orderly sector in the universe during his tenure, and Pen-Pen was known as the greatest Green Lantern of them all. Having been allowed to retain his ring even after retirement by special permission from the Guardians of the Universe, Pen-Pen currently holds the title of Honor Lantern."

"That's right!" Pen-Pen said. "I've been watching you, rookie, and I have to say that your performance so far has been absolutely pathetic! Since you're too stubborn to go to Oa for training, I guess it's my duty to the corps to whip you into shape myself!"

"Um, okay, I could definitely use a teacher," Misato said. "How do we start?"


Some time later, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean…

"Pen-Pen, I really don't see how this is supposed to make me a better Green Lantern," she said, gazing at the ring construct of a large green net she currently had going, which was full of various types of sea life.

She had been fairly enthusiastic at first, but when Pen-Pen had ordered her to catch fish, well, she had grown suspicious of his motives.

"Do not question me, rookie!" the bird roared. "Now get back to work!"

She sighed. "Fine."

He watched her fly off, shaking his head. "Poozer."