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 this 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 Seven: Consequences

The room was packed to the corners, and it was almost as full of nervous, eager energy as it was with people. Some of the occupants of the chamber, almost all of whom were journalists, were already snapping pictures, even though there was nothing more interesting to photograph than a vacant podium.

It was a waste of film, of course, but the reporters could perhaps be forgiven their excessive enthusiasm, given the circumstances.

After all, the press was never allowed into NERV headquarters, and the Commander never made public statements.

But apparently, the whole debacle with "Legion" had forced the master of NERV to make an exception, just this once.

Finally, after a long wait that the reporters present would have bristled at in just about any other situation, the man himself emerged and stood before the simple, unadorned podium that had been set up in the makeshift press room. The reporters quickly hushed, and many of them pressed the record buttons on their video cameras, waiting for Gendo's statement.

"Good morning," the Commander of NERV said, "and thank you all for coming here. I'm aware that it was on short notice."

Gendo Ikari was deliberately moderating his tone, trying to stay away from the icy cold demeanor which he normally used. He still did not come off as terribly charismatic, and he knew it—which was why he usually did his best to avoid being the public face of NERV; he didn't make his grandfatherly Vice Commander perform most of those duties just because he loathed them himself. However, this was not something the number two man could do, and in any case, the press was listening raptly despite his lack of natural charm.

"Now, I'm sure all of you have heard the rumors concerning Legion," Gendo said. "The ones which state that it was created here at NERV Headquarters. I am here today to inform that those rumors are indeed true."

These were the magic words which broke the silence, and suddenly all the reporters were talking at once, firing questions at him in a rapid stream.

Gendo raised a hand for silence. "Enough," he said, not loudly, but with unmistakable authority. The crowd of journalists immediately began to grow quiet. "One at a time. We will start with you." He pointed to one of the reporters.

"Commander, I think the first question on everyone's minds is, why did NERV build such a thing in the first place?"

"The unit that dubbed itself 'Legion' was the prototype for an anti-Angel drone weapon," Gendo said. "It was meant to first supplement the Evangelions, and then, if the drones performed well enough, to replace them entirely."

"Why do you want to replace the Evangelions?" another reporter asked.

Gendo gave the man who'd spoken out of turn a cold glare, causing him to wilt visibly. However, the Commander then answered the question. "The Evangelions may be effective against Angels," he said. "However, they require an enormous amount of resources. Resources which could be spent on humanitarian projects if NERV could switch to smaller, most cost effective anti-Angel weapons. Additionally, if we were able to switch to drones, we would no longer have to place the Evangelion pilots in harm's way on a regular basis."

Several people nodded at this last bit. That the EVA pilots were, one and all, fourteen-year-old children was something of an open secret within Tokyo-3. The Japanese government had issued a strict gag order on the media, preventing them from reporting any details about the pilots' ages or identities, but of course, all the journalists present knew about them.

Gendo selected another reporter to pose a question.

"Commander Ikari, how did Legion get out of NERV's control so totally?" she asked.

"We were forced to utilize…unusual methods of construction to make the unit a viable measure against the Angels. Methods similar to what makes the Evangelions themselves effective against the Angels," Gendo said. "Unfortunately, despite the best efforts on the part of the world's best and brightest, this technology is still not fully understood. Attempting to apply it in a new way caused the unit to slip from our control."

"Isn't it irresponsible to utilize technology we don't fully understand?"

"Humankind was utilizing electricity to light our homes before all the principles of it were fully understood," Gendo replied. "People died so others wouldn't need to use candles to illuminate their homes. Today, it is our very civilization at stake."

"Mr. Ikari, do you have any comment to make on the 'superwomen' who have been spotted in the city recently?" another reporter asked. "Especially considering that two of them stopped the renegade Legion?"

"The so-called 'superwomen' are loose cannons who will not be tolerated by this organization," Gendo said. "NERV was about to deploy an Evangelion to stop the rogue anti-Angel unit when they arrived and annihilated the prototype weapon. So far as this organization is concerned, they are all guilty of vigilantism. Additionally, Green Lantern and Wonder Girl are guilty of destroying NERV property."

"Sir, is there anything you'd like to say to the families of those who were killed or maimed by Legion?"

"Yes," Gendo said. "NERV is sorry for your loss. And though I know that it cannot truly compensate, this organization will pay five million yen to the families of all the deceased. The medical bills of the injured will also be covered by NERV."

"Commander," the next reporter chosen asked. "How can the public trust NERV when it develops weapons like Legion completely in secret, and then loses control of it entirely? Shouldn't there be greater transparency in your organization?"

"How can the public trust NERV?" Gendo echoed. "That is simple: the public must trust NERV. We are the only organization that has proven itself effective against the Angels. If NERV is disbanded, or if we weaken this organization by letting the public's idle curiosity trump the need for military secrecy, all of humanity could die."

A hush fell over the crowd, and a few people shuddered at the thought of humanity's annihilation.

"This press conference is over," Gendo announced, seizing upon the moment of silence. "Base security will escort you all out. Good day, everyone."

And with that, the Commander of NERV left the room the way he had come, finding Fuyutski waiting for him.

"I think I'll keep serving as NERV's public face most of the time," the old professor said.

"By all means," Gendo replied. "I have no desire to make this a regular event."

"Thank goodness for that," Fuyutski said. "Did you have to be so blunt? This 'we're all going to die if you don't trust us' isn't going to win us any popularity."

"I'm not concerned with popularity. I'm concerned with keeping the public in line," Gendo replied.

"Is there something wrong with your eyes?" Fuyutski asked.

Gendo blinked at the abrupt change of topic. "No," he answered, and then took off his glasses to afford the older man an unobstructed view of them.

"Hmm, the color of them seemed wrong for a moment," Fuyutski said, then waved the matter off. "Anyway, Gendo, cowing the public is one thing, but what about the old men? They won't be so easily fooled."

"I've already spoken to them," Gendo said. "I strongly implied that we could create another 'Legion' if we wanted. Even out of control, it was a formidable weapon. That should keep the old men too wary to act for some time."

"It might keep them too wary to act directly," Fuyutski countered. "Don't forget that they still control the purse strings."

"I have just boxed them into a corner," Gendo said. "If they attempt to slash our funding, it will be seen as them curtailing our attempts to get the Children out of combat, and stopping our reimbursement of Legion's victims."

Fuyutski could only sigh as he followed Gendo toward the younger man's cavernous office.


Nobu had not signed up for this crap.

The job was supposed to have been a simple smash-and-grab. They break the front window of the pharmacy, get inside, rapidly grab all the expensive prescription drugs from the back that they could in under two minutes, and be out before the police could respond to the alarm they had no doubt set off.

They'd known that one of the superwomen showing up was a possibility; in Tokyo-3, it always was, but they were smart (or so they'd thought). They'd paid attention to the patterns of the superwomen to minimize the chance of running into one of them.

It wasn't that hard to figure them out if you just paid attention. Power Girl enjoyed flashy rescues, such as saving people from burning buildings or saving someone falling to his doom. If there wasn't a big crowd around to see her, she probably wouldn't show, and she rarely appeared at night at all.

Wonder Girl was a little harder to predict, but she also tended to stick to daylight hours. Additionally, the blue haired superwoman usually focused her efforts on the slums, which was why Nobu and his associates had picked a place in the better part of the city.

And of course, Green Lantern, though known to have killed at least one Angel single-handedly, appeared most rarely of the three by far. Nobu and his friends hadn't been worried about her at all.

Which was what made the emerald superwoman's appearance in the middle of the heist all the more painful. One moment, they were all frantically cramming pills into the bags they'd bought with them, well aware of how little time they had before the police arrived, and the next, the dark pharmacy had been filled with green light. It was right about then that they'd known they were in trouble.

One of the guys had pulled a gun and actually shot at the Green Lantern, totally failing to consider the heat it would invoke if they killed one of the city's heroes. Fortunately, the bullets had bounced harmlessly off the Green Lantern's glowing force field, but that didn't do anything to help them escape.

Most of them had been caught right in the drug store, despite the way they'd scattered, all of them instantly coming to the unspoken agreement that it was suddenly every man for himself. Green Lantern had managed to conjure a bunch of cages made from green light, trapping most of the guys right then and there.

If the luminous superwoman possessed the super speed of either of her contemporaries, they all would have been captured as they tried to flee from the store. However, she had proved unable to chase them all at once, so Nobu had been one of the lucky few that had managed to escape.

Now the only question was, had he lost her, or was she just taking her sweet time in rounding them all up?

Having gotten four blocks away from the pharmacy, and having run at a full sprint the whole distance, Nobu finally allowed himself to slow to a stop, bracing his hands on his thighs and panting heavily.

Don't think I ever ran so hard before, he thought. Did I lose her, at least?

He looked around, and everything seemed dark and quiet. He hadn't run away from the scene of the crime in a straight line, but had instead zigged and zagged through the city, only paying enough attention to his course to ensure that he didn't accidentally loop back. He didn't know where he was, so it seemed possible that the emerald superwoman didn't, either.

Then he saw the dark streets illuminated by an emerald glow, and he knew that he wasn't out of the woods yet.

Fatigue forgotten completely, Nobu dashed into a nearby alleyway, which he quickly discovered was a dead end. Cursing softly, he rapidly turned his head left and right, searching for any potential for escape. He found it in the form of an old fire escape that was connected to one of the buildings.

Guess it'll have to do, he thought, rushing over to it.

The ladder was raised, but not enough that Nobu wasn't able to jump up and pull it down. He winced at the loud noise it made but didn't hesitate to scramble up. After a few moments of frantic climbing, Nobu found himself on the roof. There was no green light anywhere that he could see, but his nerves were frayed and his adrenaline was pumping. The young thief searched for some way to put yet more distance between himself and the superwoman.

Unfortunately, there was one only obvious way of getting anywhere from his current position without backtracking, and Nobu was feeling just crazy enough to try it. The young man broke out into a sprint, heading straight for the edge of the roof. Stifling the cry that wanted to burst out of his throat, he leapt off the side of the building, landing hard on the roof of the adjacent structure. Nobu stumbled and fell immediately afterwards, but he'd done it, he'd made it.

Emboldened by his success, Nobu leapt to his feet and took off running once more. Soon he had leapt to the roof of another building, and then another.

It was the leap after this where he had a problem.

By this point, Nobu had become overconfident in his rooftop jumping skills, and he had neglected to really take a good look at the gap between the building he was on and the next.

He had literally failed to look before he'd leapt, and only as he started running out of momentum well before reaching the next building did he realize just how foolish he'd been.

"Oh, crap!" he shouted as gravity laid claim to him in earnest.

He really hadn't expected to have to deal with Green Lantern, but he'd anticipated breaking both of his legs even less. Nobu covered his eyes with his hands like a child, unable to believe how disastrous the night had become.

Then he landed on something far softer than concrete, yet far less smelly than a pile of trash bags, and unless his sense of how far he'd fallen was shot (admittedly, not impossible), he was still a decent distance from the ground.

Trembling, Nobu moved his hands away from his eyes. He almost wasn't surprised at what he saw.

The young thief was sitting in the grip of a giant baseball glove, which was made out of emerald light. The Green Lantern hovered nearby, a thin stream of illumination connecting the oversized piece of sports equipment to her ring.

Nobu just sighed. "I'm going to jail now, aren't I?"

Green Lantern smirked. "Yup," she said cheerfully, "but at least you're not hurt."


After dropping all the would-be thieves off at the police station, Green Lantern headed back toward her home, deciding that she really had to get some sleep; she hadn't intended to be out so late, but time had just gotten away from her.

She'd discovered that she really enjoyed using her ring to help people when she'd gone out "superheroing" before Legion had made his appearance. It made her realize that she liked getting her own hands dirty; she had been sitting in the command center, directing battles from afar for much too long. It was time for her to get back to the front line, and not just in the war against the Angels.

But now it was time for bed. Even with her new position, she couldn't make a habit of sleeping until noon, much as she would have liked to.

"Ring, go dim."

"Force field operating at five percent," the ring responded, and the aura of emerald light around her grew fainter until it was nearly invisible.

Approaching her apartment building, Green Lantern circled the premises a few times, noting Section Two's location and that they, as usual, weren't paying very much attention to the task of guarding the premises.

Satisfied that she didn't have to take any elaborate measures to avoid detection, Green Lantern flew over to her bedroom window and opened it, quickly entering her home. Once safely in her room, she silently commanded her ring to remove her costume. Immediately, her Green Lantern uniform disappeared in a brief puff of emerald flame, and she was back in her regular clothing.

Misato was strongly tempted to just take her ring off and go to bed, but if there was anything her experiences in the military had taught her, it was that a soldier who neglected to maintain her weapon was inviting disaster.

At least I don't have to disassemble it and clean it, she thought.

"Ring, power check," she said.

"Power levels 21 percent."

"Less than a quarter. Obviously, it's time for a recharge," Misato muttered to herself, opening her cluttered closet and retrieving the power battery hidden there. Holding her ring up to it, she spoke in hushed tones. "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power…Green Lantern's light!"

There was the now familiar flare of emerald light from her power battery, which quickly died out, and her ring reported, "Power levels 100 percent."

Satisfied, Misato removed the ring and put it into its customary hiding place, then quickly changed into her pajamas and got into bed, not looking forward to the next morning.


Shinji was just getting a drink of water from the kitchen when it happened. He was heading back to his own room with the glass, just passing by Misato's bedroom, certainly not expecting anything to happen during the brief trek.

And then he noticed the green light in the hallway that should have been dark.

Sleepy, the Third Child didn't immediately put all the pieces together in his head. Once he did, however, his gaze quickly began to dart around, searching for the source of the light.

He found it just an instant before the light winked out. All of it seemed to be streaming out from under the bottom of the door to Misato's bedroom.

And then it was gone. If he had blinked, he would have missed it.

For a moment, the Third Child was tempted, oh so tempted, to barge into Misato's room, feeling almost certain that he would find Green Lantern there.

Yet he hesitated, only too aware of how foolish he would look if he burst in and found only his guardian there, wondering what he was doing.

And as the seconds ticked by, Shinji became less confident of what he'd seen. Really, he'd only gotten a glance at the light coming from the crack beneath Misato's bedroom door. His eyes could have been playing tricks on him; the green glow might have been coming from somewhere else, even if he wasn't exactly sure where that "somewhere else" might be.

And really, Misato as the Green Lantern? He thought. Okay, I might've considered it before, but really…

It sounded a little silly when he put it like that.

Finally, his courage failed him entirely, and he resumed his course for his own bedroom. The Third Child told himself that he was simply ludicrous to even consider such a thing as he drank his water and then settled down into his bed.

Yet as he slept that night, his dreams were strangely full of his guardian, who was always surrounded by green light.


As Misato had expected the previous night, she was not exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed when her alarm clock went off the next morning. Thanks to her "extracurricular activities" the previous evening, she had gotten far less sleep than she would have liked.

Knowing that she really shouldn't but unable to resist, she brought her fist down on her alarm clock, hitting the snooze button with far more violence than was necessary or recommended.

Unfortunately for her, the early morning sunshine was streaming in through her window and directly onto her face. Thanks to the bright light, the purple haired woman was unable to get back to sleep, despite her fatigue.

Finally surrendering with a groan, Misato sat up and turned her alarm clock off, rubbing at her eyes.

"Damn sun," she grumbled as she climbed out of bed and retrieved her ring, putting it on. "You better be glad you're yellow, because otherwise, I'd be really tempted to blow you up right now."

Misato let out a massive yawn as she stumbled out of her bedroom and toward the bathroom. Under ordinary circumstances, the purple haired woman would have headed straight to the kitchen for a can of her favorite liquid wakeup call, better known as Yeibisu.

However, when she was sleep deprived, her wires sometimes got crossed, and she'd perform her morning routine out of order. So, she started brushing her teeth first.

At first, the task was the very portrait of the mundane. Misato moved the brush back and forth without thinking about it and gazed at herself in the bathroom mirror with dull, sleepy eyes.

Then, her tooth brushing gradually slowed, eventually stopping, as she focused more and more of her attention on her reflection.

There was something different about her.

Absently spitting her toothpaste into the sink, the purple haired woman leaned close to the mirror, her weariness rapidly vanishing as she became more and more certain that this was not her imagination.

She noticed not long ago that she was starting to develop some tiny wrinkles by her eyes. Nothing drastic, but enough to let her know that, yes, she really was nearing the big "three-oh."

But this morning, they were nowhere to be found.

"What the hell?" She whispered.

Suddenly, those compliments she'd gotten on days when she'd felt like crap and believed that she'd looked like it as well started to make a lot more sense.

Misato just stood there for several moments, staring at her reflection. Then, on a hunch, she put down her toothbrush and stripped off her pajamas, leaving herself standing before the mirror in just her panties, and, of course, her ring.

Close inspection immediately revealed the changes that casual glances had not. Her waist and hips were a bit slimmer than they'd been months before, and her bust was higher and firmer; the very slight but very distressing sag her impressive breasts had started to develop in recent years was gone, replaced by the proud defiance of gravity she had flaunted shamelessly while she was in college. A quick look behind her showed that her posterior was a bit smaller and tighter than she recalled as well.

She'd doubtlessly been getting more exercise since she'd become the Green Lantern, but it wasn't enough to account for all this. Also, exercise wouldn't explain the changes to her face.

"Ring, what's happened to me?" she asked.

"You have been physically regressed to a younger age by this ring," it answered, as if there was nothing remarkable about that at all.

"You did this?" she hissed softly. "Why?"

"You commanded this ring to do so, Lantern," it stated.

"What? No, I…"

She trailed off as she remembered exactly what Abin Sur had told her the power he'd passed to her could do.

"The power ring is fueled by the wielder's willpower. It can make your thoughts and wishes a reality," he had said.

Thoughts and wishes.

How many times had she wished, while wearing the ring, that the age gap between her and Shinji was smaller? That she wasn't too old for him?

Probably too many times to count, but she never thought for a moment that her power ring would decide to grant her wish, or even that it could.

For several moments, Misato was consumed with panic, wondering how she was going to reverse this, and even more daunting, how she was going to explain it.

She forced herself to calm down, however, and tried to look at the situation more rationally. The more she turned it over in her mind, the better everything seemed to be.

The ring was de-aging her so gradually that not even she had noticed it until now, so there was no immediate need for her to change herself back. Indeed, ordering the ring to immediately revert her to the way she'd been before her encounter with Abin Sur was by far the most risky course of action. If she abruptly looked almost thirty again, people would no doubt notice.

Maybe I don't even have to reverse it at all, she thought. It probably counts as using the ring for personal gain, but I didn't even know I was doing it until now. Besides, it's not like those Guardians of the Universe that Abin mentioned have shown up to yell at me. Hell, they haven't tugged on my leash at all yet.

"Ring, physically, how old am I?" she asked.

"Twenty-three terrestrial years old," the ring answered. "Should this ring cease your physical regression?"

Twenty-three. She was already six years younger. Back in her early twenties.

"…no, not quite yet," Misato said.

She couldn't make herself Shinji's age, even though part of her was tempted to do just that. People would notice if she started getting shorter no matter how slowly it happened, and besides, she didn't want to be a teenager again.

Her adolescent years had been less than pleasant.

Still, a little more, and the age gap between herself and Shinji would become decidedly less than insurmountable. She could deal with being older than him, so long as she wasn't that much older than him.

Smiling, Misato put her pajamas back on, rinsed the remaining toothpaste from her mouth with some water, and left to begin her day.


Shinji Ikari didn't like sync tests much. Of course, it was really impossible to enjoy sync tests, considering that they tended to consist of sitting in a breathable liquid that smelled like blood and thinking at the machine for two hours.

Of course, Asuka was generally pretty enthusiastic about them, if only because the tests afforded her the opportunity to flaunt her superior scores. And Rei was always completely stoic about the unpleasant duty. So, in the end, Shinji often felt like he was the only one who was dragging his feet as he went into the big metal tube.

Yet that day, the test was proceeding so smoothly that he almost didn't mind it. He didn't know why that was; perhaps he was just having a good day, or maybe it was because he felt less pressured to do well in EVA ever since Green Lantern had slain the Tenth Angel all by herself. Whatever the reason, it was like something had clicked into place, making the process of synching feel almost effortless.

So when the test was concluding, Shinji couldn't resist asking how his scores were.

"You did great today, Shinji-kun!" Misato answered brightly, before any of the technicians or Dr. Akagi could chime in. "In fact, you're number one this week!"

"Really?" he asked, barely daring to believe it.

"Yup!"

Over in her entry plug, Asuka was releasing a string of invectives and unpleasant oaths, but with Misato beaming at him and looking especially appealing that fine morning for some reason, he found that for once he simply didn't care that he'd invoked the wrath of the redheaded pilot.

Dr. Akagi and the techs retook control of the proceedings at that point and professionally ran through the few, mercifully brief post-test protocols. A few minutes later, the pilots were released, and the Third Child cheerfully made his way to his locker room, where he quickly showered and changed back into his regular clothes.

He was pleasantly surprised to find Misato waiting outside for him when he emerged.

"Oh, hi, Misato," he said.

"Hi, yourself, Mr. Number One," his guardian greeted him.

She was still wearing that bright, proud grin, which made him feel simultaneously embarrassed and pleased with himself even as it also caused his heartbeat to rapidly accelerate.

"Um, hi," he said again, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Misato's smile morphed into an amused smirk, which was something of a relief to Shinji; it was suddenly easier for him to think straight.

Slightly.

"So, uh, what brings you here, Misato?" he asked. "Don't you have work to do, or something?"

Misato's smirk widened. "Well, since I've become just a lowly tactical consultant, my workload's decreased a lot," she said. "I can even knock off work early every now and again if I want to. So I was thinking that I could take the new number one pilot out to an early dinner somewhere."

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure! Come on!" Misato said, gesturing for Shinji to accompany her.

The Third Child happily fell in step next to her, and the two of them headed for the exit to the base.


Meanwhile, in the female pilots' locker room, Asuka had heard the entire exchange thanks to her superhuman hearing. The Second Child felt resentment building up inside of her.

She had been at the top of the syncho charts for months—years, if you counted the period before the war had started, before the arrival of the Third Angel and the Third Child. And nobody had ever made a fuss like this over her. The injustice made her seethe with rage.

Not fair, she thought petulantly.

The redhead's mind was still in turmoil; she had ventured to Germany not long ago to investigate the reason behind her superhuman abilities. The trip had been illuminating, to say the least, and Asuka was no longer sure what she should do with her unique abilities.

She felt an irrational but nevertheless potent bitterness toward Misato for fawning over the Third Child and pissing her off like this when she already had so much crap to deal with.

Damn it, the only reason that idiot scored higher than me was because I was distracted! She thought, still fuming.

Next to her, the First Child had finished changing. She regarded Asuka, who hadn't even started removing her plug suit. The redhead was just standing before her locker and glaring at it angrily.

"Pilot Soryu," Rei spoke up.

Asuka's response was immediate and wordless. The Second Child suddenly let out an angry cry and punched her locker. She nearly hit it with every bit of strength she had but restrained herself at the last moment, the impact "only" leaving a very large dent in her locker door instead.

With a "hmph" Asuka very quickly changed clothes then stormed out of the locker room, leaving Rei standing there with a blank expression.

The First Child blinked a few times at the door Asuka had just used to depart. The Second had always been rather… volatile, but that was definitely a new level of intensity.

Finally, the blue haired girl decided that Asuka wasn't her responsibility. Walking over to the severely damaged locker, she carefully bent the door back into shape. It wasn't exactly pristine when she was done, but it would at least close again.

With a tiny nod of satisfaction, Rei turned and departed from the locker room.


"Sorry we can't do anything nicer, Shinji-kun," Misato said, "but my pay's just as pathetic as ever."

Looking up from his bowl, Shinji smiled. The noodle house where he and his guardian had ended up seemed perfectly nice to him. Of course, he had rarely gone out to restaurants; his old guardian had preferred to stay home and get his ward to cook for him. And while Shinji sometimes went to grab something to eat with Toji and Kensuke, they naturally frequented cheap places, being teenagers with little money.

Still, there was nothing wrong with where they were, and he told Misato as much.

She smiled. "I would have liked to take you out for steaks to celebrate."

He blinked. "Oh, it's really not that big of a deal," he said.

"Not that big of a deal?" she repeated, deliberately sounding more incredulous than she felt at Shinji's modesty. "Shinji-kun, I don't think you realize just how far you've come." She said with a coy smile.

"What?" he asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it," she said. "When you first came here, we pretty much had to force you into EVA. If your father hadn't brought out Rei, you wouldn't have fought, and the Angel would have rampaged all over the city."

"Yeah," Shinji said in a low voice, looking down into his bowl of noodles.

"But since then you've really grown up," Misato continued quickly. "I've watched you come into yourself and become someone we can depend on when the Angels come calling."

He blinked and looked up at her. "Really?"

"Of course," Misato said. "Shinji-kun, not only do you have the highest sync ratio now, but you've also got the highest number of kills. That's especially remarkable, considering that you didn't have years of training like Asuka or Rei."

Shinji blushed and turned away, embarrassed by the praise, but also taking an undeniable level of pleasure in it. "Stop," he said weakly. "You're… exaggerating."

"I am not," Misato replied. "Really, Shinji, you're turning out to be the big hero of the EVA pilots."

The Third Child couldn't think of any possible response to this, and he probably wouldn't have been able to deliver it even if he had, so he simply remained quiet. Fortunately, they had both just about finished, so the silence was not allowed to stretch out long enough to become awkward.

Once Misato had paid the bill, the two of them strode out onto the street. The sun was starting to set, but it was still pleasantly warm outside, and the whole city was awash in orange-gold light.

In a display that went against Japanese cultural norms, Misato latched onto Shinji's arm once they were on the sidewalk. The position was a little awkward due to her greater height, and the unexpected closeness caused the EVA pilot to briefly tense up. However, Misato managed well enough, and he quickly relaxed, accepting the position. The two began to walk toward their home at a leisurely pace.

The purple haired woman blithely ignored the disapproving looks given to them by the people they passed by. Shinji, however, quickly began to wither beneath their gazes.

He might have broken away from her if Misato's next words hadn't thoroughly distracted him.

"Shinji-kun, have you been working out?" she asked, giving his arm a gentle squeeze.

"Huh?" he asked, then blushed as the words registered in his head. "Oh, um, a little, I guess. Asuka's been going to the gym at the base a lot lately, and sometimes she makes me come along to spot her. Since I'm there anyway, it just seems silly not to work out myself between her sets."

"Hmm, you know, normally I don't like it when she bosses you around, but I think I might have to make an exception with this one," Misato cooed, again squeezing his biceps, which, Shinji felt completely sure, had not significantly increased in size as a result of his workouts.

"You know, you're unusually…" Shinji paused, trying to come up with the right word. "Cheerful."

An older, more experienced man would have said "flirtatious" but that term never crossed Shinji's mind, despite being rather apt.

"I guess I've just been in a good mood since I left the Ops Director post," Misato said. "Besides, why shouldn't I be cheerful? I'm on the big hero's arm."

Shinji blushed fiercely at this. "Um, it's nice out today," he blurted out in a rather lame attempt at changing the topic of the conversation.

Misato smirked, seeing right through the painfully obvious ploy, but let herself be directed away from the present topic. "Yeah," she agreed. "It's too bad we can't see the sunset with all these buildings in the way. I'll bet it's really beautiful. Just like the day I took you to that observation platform. Remember that?"

"How could I forget?"

Misato smiled. "We should go up there again sometime."

"I could pack lunch," Shinji offered, warming to the idea immediately. "We could have a picnic."

"I'd like that," Misato said.

And so they walked home, blissfully unaware of the events that were just around the corner.


For all her workaholic tendencies, Ritsuko Akagi was a woman who sometimes put off things that she knew she probably should have handled as soon as possible. While she had never shied away from hard labor, confrontations and emotional situations were another matter entirely.

Which was why she'd made a point of avoiding Misato ever since the whole 'Legion' incident, and why she felt like a deer caught in the headlights upon bumping into her old friend in the halls of the base one day.

"Hello, Ritsuko," Misato greeted the bottle blonde, her tone cheerful but a dangerous glint shining in her eyes.

Ritsuko resisted the urge to swallow. "Hi, Misato."

"It's good to see you," Misato said, approaching her friend. "I haven't even gotten to exchange a 'hello' with you for days."

The scientist backed up as the tactical consultant pushed into her personal space. However, this somehow resulted in her getting caught between the wall and the purple haired woman.

"So, tell me about 'Legion', Rits," Misato asked.

"What's to tell?" Ritsuko asked, trying to sound innocent. "I thought the Commander covered everything pretty well at the press conference."

Misato snorted. "Don't give me that," she said. "We both know he wasn't telling the whole truth. If that thing was really meant just for the Angels, it wouldn't have been such a secret that almost nobody here knew about it until it started tearing through the base."

Now Ritsuko did swallow, her eyes darting to the left and right as she searched in vain for some means of escape.

"That thing was meant to fight the superwomen, wasn't it?" Misato demanded.

The scientist's eyes widened. Not drastically, but Ritsuko felt sure that the former Ops Director had noticed. "Yes," she confessed.

"Why?" Misato asked. "I get that NERV was a little ticked off about being shown up with the Tenth Angel, but isn't this taking it too far?"

"Misato, think about this for a second," Ritsuko pleaded. "The superwomen have an inordinate amount of power and answer to no one but themselves. We can't let people like that run around in Tokyo-3 without having some kind of contingency to deal with them in case they turn on us."

"But all they've done so far is help!" Misato hissed. "NERV is hard up enough for money as it is. Hell, we can't install half the upgrades that we want into the Evangelions because of lack of funds, and now we're expending resources on anti-superwomen weapons?"

"Misato," Ritsuko said, "did you know that when Legion started tearing through the base, everybody thought that it was either an Angel or a rogue superwoman, because nothing else would be able to pull that off?"

Misato was taken aback by this knowledge, much to Ritsuko's relief. However, the purple haired woman quickly seemed to rally and opened her mouth to speak again.

The Angel alarm cut her off, much to Ritsuko's relief.

Saved by the bell, the scientist thought.

Kaji burst into the hallway a moment later, in too much of a rush to notice that Misato had Ritsuko pinned between herself and the wall.

"Come on, you two," he said as he continued toward the command center.

They complied, Misato only reluctantly.


A shadow had fallen over the city of Tokyo-3, a shadow that wasn't natural, accompanied by a huge, floating sphere of black and white that was equally unnatural.

What was really strange was that the shadow had, bizarrely, preceded the sphere. However, it had done so by only a few small slivers of a second; they had appeared closely enough together that no human eye could have realized the dissidence.

The MAGI noticed, of course, but for all their processing power, at the end of the day, they were still computers. The trio of artificial intelligences merely filed the information away, unable to draw a conclusion from it. They did not bother to inform their human co-workers about the scrap of data.

"All personnel, go to first-stage alert," Kaji commanded. "Launch all three Evangelions!"

Deep inside NERV, a trio of electromagnetic catapults all activated, sending the organization's three Evangelion Units rocketing toward the surface, where they emerged at three separate locations.

Observing the battle from the command center, Misato bit her lower lip nervously. This new "zebra ball" Angel looked harmless enough, but so had the Fifth, and that one had damn near killed Shinji the moment Unit One had arrived on the field of battle.

This time, however, the Angel gave no sign that it was aware of the presence of the Evangelions on the surface; it just continued to float lazily through the city.

Misato released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, then cursed silently.

Damn it. I should be out there as Green Lantern, not watching this in here. If only he hadn't caught me speaking with Ritsuko and ordered me to follow him, she thought, turning her gaze to glare at Kaji's back.

With him being her superior officer now, it wasn't exactly like she could refuse the command. All she could do was hope that the Children could handle this Angel on their own.

"Kaji," Ritsuko spoke up, "the MAGI are detecting an orange pattern, not a blue one. They won't officially designate this phenomenon as the Twelfth Angel yet."

"Ritsuko, what else besides an Angel could it be?" Kaji asked, turning to look at her.

Recognizing the question as a rhetorical one, the scientist kept silent. The new Operations Director turned back to the main viewer. "All right," he addressed the pilots. "It doesn't look like the Angel's realized you're there yet, so approach with as much stealth as possible but be ready to engage at a moment's notice."

Under other circumstances, Misato might have been amused with how gung ho Kaji was about this battle, clearly eager to atone for his failure against the Tenth Angel. As things stood, however, she could only hope that the way she'd been needling him about his failure wouldn't come around to bite Shinji, or either of the other two pilots, in the ass.

"Captain Kaji," Rei spoke up, "which one of us do you wish to take point?"

"Asuka, you take point," Kaji said.

"Oh, but shouldn't the brave, new number one pilot do it?" Asuka asked in an all-too-innocent tone, shocking everyone in the command center into silence.

"Huh?" Shinji replied.

"Well, you are the top scoring pilot right now, so far as sync ratio is concerned," Asuka said. "So you should be the one to take point. Unless, of course, you're too scared to lead. Then I guess I could take point like usual."

Inside his entry plug, Shinji clenched his fists, his usually dormant ego suddenly waking up and taking the bait, hook, line, and sinker. He couldn't fail to rise to Asuka's challenge like some pathetic coward! Especially not so soon after Misato had called him the big hero of the pilots!

"Fine!" he snapped. "I'll take point! And I'll kill the Angel faster than you could!"

"What?" Asuka screeched, unable to believe that her ploy to get the usually meek Third Child to admit she was still the best pilot had backfired in such a dramatic fashion.

Meanwhile, in the command center, Misato and Kaji traded a look. They both knew that they should say something; the pilots couldn't be allowed to decide their course of action by committee; that would only invite chaos onto the battlefield. However, both of them were too stunned at what was happening to speak up.

On the main screen they watched as the trio of Evangelions approached the Angel as stealthily as such huge weapons of war possibly could. Unit One had been deployed closest to the Angel and was shortly within firing range. Units Zero and Two, however, had started further off, and they had to trade umbilical cables several times as they advanced.

Misato's gaze flicked over to the small monitor where the pilots' life signs were displayed. She was unsurprised to see that Shinji's heart rate and blood pressure were elevated. Lying in wait to ambush an enemy was always nerve wracking, even when that enemy wasn't an Angel with capabilities that could still only be guessed at.

"Asuka, Ayanami, are you in position yet?" Shinji asked.

"No," Rei answered succulently.

"Baka, you know an EVA can't move that fast," Asuka grumbled.

A few more horrendously tense seconds passed in silence. Then, Shinji finally snapped.

Oh forget it, I'll kill it myself! The Third Child thought.

Evangelion Unit One broke from cover, raising the EVA scale pistol it held in its hands. On Shinji's command, the purple colossus squeezed off several shots, easily striking the giant sphere that floated nearby.

The black and white ball responded by winking out of existence.

"Blue pattern detected!" Makoto suddenly exclaimed. "Angel confirmed!"

The sphere returned to visibility a second after Shinji had shot at it, but it still made no motion to attack. However, the shadow on the ground was another story entirely. It darkened to pitch black until it wasn't so much a shadow as it was a gaping maw that had formed beneath Unit One's feet.

Shinji screamed and pointed his pistol down at the abyss, pulling the trigger again and again until the weapon clicked empty. The gaping hole in the world easily absorbed the huge shells, showing no sign of damage.

"Of course!" Ritsuko exclaimed from the bridge. "I've been so stupid! The sphere isn't the real Angel! The shadow is!"

"What?" Kaji asked. "Then what's the sphere?"

"The sphere is a shadow!" Ritsuko said. "You see—"

"You can give us the technical details later, Rits," Misato cut the scientist off.

"All of you, get out of there!" Kaji ordered the pilots, even though Units Two and Zero were already seeking higher ground.

"I can't!" Shinji exclaimed, panicking as Unit One sank up to its waist in the blackness.

"Asuka, Rei, can you reach him?" Kaji asked.

The two of them were certainly willing to try, and both the red and blue Evangelions began to make their way toward his location. However, Unit One was caught almost dead center in the middle of the Angel, while the two of them had been on the periphery. And the only way to proceed was to go hopping from building to building, using the skyscrapers as stepping stones. This was made even more difficult because the great towers of metal and concrete were starting to sink into the Angel as well, making them less than the most stable of places for the Evangelions to tread.

All this meant that the other two Evangelions had a large amount of distance to cover, in a small amount of time, and they had to move carefully, lest they fall into the void as well.

"Help me!" Shinji yelled, all machismo long forgotten. "Help!"

"Idiot," Asuka grumbled under her breath. "What good is doing well on a test if you fail in real life?"

Yet for her harsh words, the Second Child was frightened. This would be her damn fault if Shinji died, and despite his infuriating tendency to show her up where EVA was concerned, she now discovered that she really didn't want the Third Child to bite it. Seeing that Unit One was sinking at ever greater speeds, she increased her pace, exercising less caution than she knew she should have as she made her way to him.

Almost there, she thought. Almost there.

With one last, flying leap, Unit Two landed hard on a skyscraper that was just out of Unit One's reach. The crimson titan wobbled alarmingly, and Asuka grit her teeth as she strove to regain her balance. She and everyone watching in the command center breathed a collective sigh of relief when Unit Two managed to get its footing.

Asuka immediately commanded her EVA to squat down, being careful not to unbalance the sinking building as she did so. The production-model Evangelion reached out one enormous hand toward the test-type.

"Take my hand, baka," Asuka commanded.

Unit One immediately reached up, its pilot desperate for salvation. The fingers of the purple destroyer's hands brushed Unit Two's hand.

And then it was as if something inside the blackness had grabbed hold of Unit One's ankle and pulled fiercely. The test type Evangelion was abruptly pulled into the dark maw of the Angel entirely, leaving Shinji's final, terrified cry echoing in everyone's ears.

There was dead silence in both the command center and the battlefield for almost a solid minute after Unit One disappeared. Neither Asuka nor Rei moved their Evangelions at all, despite both of them being on less-than-stable perches.

Finally, Kaji broke the quiet. "Withdraw."

"But…Ikari-kun…" Rei spoke up, in what was possibly the closest she'd ever come to refusing a command from a superior officer.

"Withdraw," Kaji repeated, with a very weary sounding sigh. "That's an order."


"You plan to do what?" Misato screeched at Ritsuko less than two hours later.

The Angel had mercifully ceased all movement once Unit One had been consumed (possibly to digest, Aoba had foolishly speculated out loud), and NERV had hastily erected a small outpost a safe distance from its perimeter. Ritsuko and the other big shots among NERV's various scientific and technical departments had all but demanded this, but Misato wasn't at all sure why; their proximity to the Angel didn't seem to be helping them make any significant progress.

"The plan is to use 992 N2 mines to attempt to destroy the Angel," Ritsuko said.

"And you call that a plan?" Misato demanded angrily. "You could very well kill Shinji! Not even an EVA can withstand that much destructive force, especially if its AT field isn't raised!"

"What do you suggest, Misato?" Ritsuko asked shortly, her patience obviously running out. "And keep in mind that Unit One's life support system can only operate for sixteen hours, about two of which have already been expended. And that's assuming that Shinji had the sense to power down, rather than wasting time panicking in the dark. If we don't do something, he's dead, anyway."

"So you're just going to chuck a whole bunch of explosives into the Angel and hope that it's enough to give the damn thing indigestion?" Misato snapped.

"You make it sound like we haven't thought this over as much as the time constraints have let us," Ritsuko said with a frown. "Our preliminary calculations clearly show—"

"Oh, please! You have no idea how to beat this thing, so you decided to throw as much boom into the Angel as you can, and dress the whole thing up with a bunch of techno-babble," Misato growled.

Ritsuko sighed. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Misato," she said, then turned to walk away.

"What? That's it?" Misato asked.

"I just came to tell you what we're doing as a courtesy," Ritsuko said. "I don't need your approval for this, just Kaji's, which I already have."

"He didn't," Misato said.

"He did," Ritsuko confirmed. "If you'd look at this situation objectively, you'd see that this is the only sensible course of action."

Oh, go to hell, you bitch, Misato thought but just managed to keep herself from saying.

Damn Kaji. He kept making decisions by the numbers and screwing everything up.

"Ritsuko!" she called.

The scientist stopped and turned. "Yes?"

"When is the bomb drop scheduled for?" Misato asked.

"It'll take a while to prepare. We're going to try and do it just before Unit One's battery is expected to run out of power," Ritsuko said.

"Right," Misato said.

About fourteen hours, Misato thought as Ritsuko disappeared. That should be plenty of time.

Turning on her heel, Misato made a big show of stomping away. After her fight with Ritsuko, everyone would just think that she had stormed off in a rage. It wasn't exactly an act, either.

Misato kept going until she was a good distance away from the impromptu NERV outpost, then looked around. The city was evacuated, of course, but it wasn't entirely impossible that some member of NERV had also wandered out here, or that someone who'd failed to heed the evacuation order was around.

Eventually becoming satisfied that she was alone, Misato closed her right hand into a fist and allowed the power ring there to shimmer into visibility. A moment later, there was a flare of emerald light from around her, and Misato Katsuragi was replaced by Green Lantern.

Taking to the air, the luminous superwoman flew back toward the Angel, her protective aura of green light leaving a trail behind her like the tail of a comet. Several of the personnel at the NERV outpost stopped what they were doing to look up at her. Many of them pointed and murmured, relieved to see one of the city's protectors at the scene of the debacle but too afraid of invoking the wrath of the organization's brass to openly cheer.

If only I'd been here before, this wouldn't have happened, the emerald superwoman thought guiltily. And I wouldn't have to do this.

Green Lantern stared down into the black maw. She felt a great anxiety take hold of her as she looked at it. The Angel was a darkness too deep to be natural. Even on moonless night, one could still hope to see the pale, frozen points of light created by distant star pierce the darkness. But the blackness of the Angel was perfect and total. It wasn't hard to believe that it would, like black hole, swallow up any light that dared to venture within it.

Even the light of a Green Lantern like herself.

The luminous superwoman then shook her head, dispelling the cowardly though. Gritting her teeth, she steeled her will and gave the ring a mental command. It obeyed, and she immediately went plummeting toward the Angel.

Several of the onlookers gasped as they realized what she was about to do. But there was no stopping her, even if they had wanted to.

Green Lantern plunged into the darkness, in search of Evangelion Unit One, and, more importantly, its pilot.


Author's Notes: This one was actually supposed to cover Misato's excursion inside the Twelfth Angel, but my muse just gave out on me. Apparently, it's becoming increasingly fond of cliffhangers.

Anyway, several of you, dear reviewers, predicted that Misato would make herself younger with the ring from pretty much square one, much as Arisia made herself older so she could be with Hal. Well, congrats, you called it. I was actually planning this from the start, which is why I made of point of having Abin tell Misato that the ring would make her wishes, as well as her thoughts, a reality. And why I had her constantly wishing she wasn't too old for Shinji. However, she really won't be making herself his age. As much fun as writing "Altered Destinies" was, I have no desire to turn this fic into that one.

And yes, it probably should count as using the ring for personal gain, but though the Guardians are often jerks, so far as I know, they tend to be pretty lenient when it comes to that. The only times I remember them penalizing a Lantern over breaking that rule was when Sinestro made himself dictator of his sector, and when Hal "recreated" Coast City.

Other than that, there's not much for me to say. So thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


Omake

Unintended Crossover

Several of the onlookers gasped as they realized what she was about to do. But there was no stopping her, even if they had wanted to.

Green Lantern plunged into the darkness, in search of Evangelion Unit One, and, more importantly, its pilot.

Once inside the profound blackness, Green Lantern looked around anxiously, finding no sign of Unit One, or anything at all, save for herself, a miniscule pinprick of light in an ocean of blackness.

"In blackest night, indeed," she commented to herself.

Picking a random direction, she flew off.

KLONK

"Ow!" Green Lantern exclaimed, surprised at having actually collided with something in the emptiness.

The rather epic migraine that had suddenly assaulted her wasn't exactly pleasant, either.

"Misato! What are you doing here?" a familiar voice exclaimed. "I thought we agreed that you'd stay out of the Angel and cover for me while I got Shinji and the others!"

"Huh? What?" she muttered, looking at the figure before her.

She didn't recognize the sight of the woman in the blue and black armor at all, but the voice had been unmistakable. "Ritsuko?" she asked. "Are you Ritsuko?"

"Of course it's me!" Blue Beetle exclaimed indignantly. "Didn't you figure that out that time you beat the crap out of me until my helmet broke?"

"What are you talking about?" Green Lantern demanded. "You're not a superwoman!"

Blue Beetle opened her mouth to protest, then stopped herself, suddenly looking thoughtful. "Crap," she said.

"What?" Green Lantern asked.

"I think I just figured out what happened," she said.

"Do tell," Misato said.

"Our respective fics just happen to be at about the exact same place in the Eva timeline right now," Blue Beetle said, cheerfully breaching the fourth wall. "Combined with the strange properties of the Dirac Sea we're in, and the fact that this is an omake, it appears that our respective universes are fusing together."

"So, is there one Shinji in here, or two?"

"I suspect only one."

"Then I'm going to save him!" Green Lantern exclaimed.

"No way! I am!" Blue Beetle retorted.

"No, I will!"

"No, me!"

A shaft of light burst from Green Lantern's ring and quickly took shape. "This giant green boxing glove says different!"

The armor covering Blue Beetle's arms suddenly shifting into a pair of wicked looking energy weapons. "Bring it on!"


Meanwhile, a surprisingly short distance away, Shinji watched the whole scene playing out from Unit One's entry plug.

He knew that he should really call out to the two ladies, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Getting a front row seat to a clash of superwomen was just too damn cool.

He reached out to a small hatch labeled "Open in case of super powered catfight" and turned the knob. Inside he found a small carton of popcorn that had been specially made to not get soggy in LCL.

Commanding the view screen before him to zoom in on the fight nearby, Shinji took a handful of popcorn and sat back in his seat to enjoy the show.

"Awesome," he commented.