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 Nine: Liquid "Courage"

The Angel was huge, perhaps the largest one that the world had yet to see, but Green Lantern wasn't afraid.

She had the most powerful weapon in the universe on her finger, after all.

"Take this!" she shouted, firing a blast of jade light at her enemy.

The energy beam hit the Angel right in the eye (or something that looked like one, anyway), sending it staggering backwards with a thunderous roar of pain. She was about to capitalize on its moment of weakness, but Unit Two sprinted forward, its pilot clearly intent on winning her fair share of the glory. She nearly ran right over Green Lantern in her haste, in fact.

"That girl will be the death of me one day…" the jade superwoman muttered to herself as she watched Asuka go to work.

Unit Two's armored fists crashed into the Angel's face, sending broken chunks of its exoskeleton flying in all directions, and Green Lantern couldn't help but smile despite herself.

A victory will do Asuka good, she mused.

The moment she had this thought was precisely the moment when everything went wrong.

There was an explosion of light and sound, and most of Evangelion Unit Two's right arm simply ceased to exist. One moment, it had been there, and the next it was completely gone. All that remained was a bloody stump.

Asuka shrieked at the top of her lungs, Unit Two's external speakers transmitting the sound for kilometers in all directions, but the Angel was a pitiless enemy.

Just like all its siblings.

It lashed out, striking Unit Two hard enough to send it tumbling to the ground.

"No!" Green Lantern cried, finally getting over her shock and surprise.

The emerald superwoman streaked forward, leaving a trail of green light in her wake as her power ring glowed with deadly energy.

The Angel attacked again before she could even get close, its eyes flashing as it unleashed a blast of cross-shaped energy.

Yellow cross-shaped energy.

Releasing a yelp, Green Lantern turned sharply, but she couldn't dodge the attack, not completely. The golden light clipped her in the shoulder with enough force to send her into an uncontrolled spiral.

Green Lantern was flipped crazily through the air as she fell, becoming completely disoriented. Even if she had been able to tell which way was up, regaining control of her flight was nigh-impossible due to the all-consuming pain from her injury.

She hit the ground, and the protective field her ring gave her was the only thing that prevented Green Lantern from suffering bone-shattering injuries. As it was, she was severely dazed and allowed herself to just lie on the ground for a few seconds, recovering.

Then she heard the crunch.

Green Lantern's head snapped up, and a moment later, she felt like her heart had stopped.

The Angel had brought its gargantuan foot down on Unit Two's torso—right where the entry plug was—and crushed it like a soda can.

"No!" Green Lantern shouted, instantly taking to the air again and heading toward the Angel, intent on avenging the Second Child.

However, she wasn't the only one. The air rumbled with the deep roar of Evangelion Unit One as it thundered across the landscape, progressive knife drawn. The test type EVA leapt at the Angel…

Only to be thrown away by a tremendous blast of energy. Unit One soared through the air for several seconds before crashing to the ground, landing face down. It didn't move once it came to a stop.

It didn't even so much as twitch.

"No…" Green Lantern breathed.

Ignoring the Angel, she flew over to Unit One, trying not to notice just how grievous the damage to it was. The armor on its front appeared to have been entirely melted; a puddle of molten metal was rapidly forming beneath it. She could also see badly burnt flesh on its sides.

The jade superwoman focused her willpower, and a beam of light came from her ring, quickly taking on the form of a massive crowbar. She used it to tear off the armor on Unit One's back before quickly extracting the entry plug.

Please be okay please be okay please be okay please be okay…

She opened up the entry plug and pulled out the pilot, only to feel her stomach plunge into her shoes.

Shinji Ikari was dead.


"NO!" Misato shouted, abrutply sitting bolt upright in her futon.

She looked around her cluttered bedroom wildly, confused and terrified. Then she realized that what she'd just seen had been a nightmare, and she allowed herself to lie back down with a groan.

"Least I didn't wake Asuka up this time," she muttered to herself, knowing that she'd be hearing the German's angry footsteps approaching her door by now if she'd disturbed the girl's sleep again.

She'd been having dreams like this ever since her experience inside the Twelfth Angel. Sometimes it was the Third Angel, which took out Shinji and Unit One with its final, suicidal attack. Sometimes the Fifth roasted him alive inside his entry plug. Other times, both Shinji and Asuka sank to the bottom of the sea while fighting the Sixth Angel, or the Seventh Angel tore them apart. On certain occasions, her mind would create some bizarre gestalt of the previous Angels to slay Shinji. That was what she'd seen in her latest nightmare.

The only things that remained constant was that she was always part of the fight as the Green Lantern, and Shinji always died despite her best efforts. At the end, she was always treated to the same sight: the image of the dead Shinji Ikari that the Twelfth Angel had tried to trick her with.

Misato placed a hand over her chest. Her heart was still hammering like crazy. It was a wonder these dreams hadn't given her a heart attack yet.

She turned her head to look at her alarm clock and groaned. It read 1:47 AM.

There was no way she was getting back to sleep now, at least not without a lot of help. Fortunately, she had that.

Misato grabbed the neck of a large bottle of sake she had recently made a habit of keeping next to her bed. Opening it up, she took a very long pull, grimacing at the taste.

"Bleh," she muttered, wiping her mouth with her forearm once she'd finished. "Sake that cheap should really be heated before you drink you it."

Still, the alcohol content was acceptably high. It had a bigger kick to it than Yebisu did, which was what she needed.

Though it didn't have enough of a kick that one swig would do the job. Misato closed her eyes, and she wasn't surprised when that awful image of a dead Shinji Ikari appeared behind her eyelids.

"Kampai," she muttered, bringing the mouth of the bottle to her lips again.


"Misato? Misato, are you awake?" Shinji asked, tapping lightly on the door to her bedroom the next morning.

No response came from within.

"Misato?" Shinji called, slightly louder. "Misato, I'm coming in."

He slowly opened the door, waiting for any sign from his guardian that he wasn't welcome inside her bedroom. When that didn't come, however, he slowly crept inside, wrinkling his nose at the multiple piles of refuse that dotted the floor.

"Misato?" he said softly as he tiptoed toward her futon.

His guardian was completely hidden beneath the covers, and she didn't move as he drew near. The room stank of cheap sake, and a nearly empty bottle of the stuff sat next to her bed. Though Misato probably didn't know it, Shinji had been keeping track of how much of the liquor she'd been going through lately.

It was a disturbingly large amount.

"Misato?" he said, kneeling next to her bed and timidly placing a hand on the large lump in the blankets. He gave her a little shake. "Misato, are you okay?"

His guardian released a wordless groan by way of response.

Shinji was relieved; it was the first sign of life Misato had shown so far.

"Misato, you have to get up," he urged. "They're going to be expecting you at NERV in two hours."

She groaned again and finally poked her head out from beneath the covers.

Misato had definitely looked better, he decided. Her eyes were badly bloodshot, and there were dark bags underneath them. In addition, her skin had a chalky, unhealthy sort of look to it, along with just a tinge of green.

"Shinji?" she mumbled, barely comprehensible.

The Third Child had to force himself not to recoil; Misato's breath made the stench of the room seem absolutely mild in comparison. There was no doubt that she'd been hitting that sake bottle pretty heavily the previous night.

Not that this had been the first time he'd had to wake her up in this manner.

"They're going to be expecting you at NERV in two hours, Misato," he repeated. "You need to get up. I've made some coffee." He added hopefully.

"I don't feel well," she muttered, her words heavily slurred.

Gee, I wonder why? Shinji couldn't help but think, glancing at the sake bottle.

"Should I call the doctor's office and make you an appointment?" he asked.

Misato shook her head. "No. Be fine," she mumbled, her eyelids already drooping downwards. "Just need to…" she yawned, "sleep it off."

Before he could try and protest, his guardian was back off to dreamland. Within seconds, she was emitting a series of very unladylike snores.

Sighing gustily, Shinji got back to his feet and left the room, sliding the screen shut behind him. He went to the kitchen to find Asuka there waiting for him, holding her bento box in her hands and tapping her foot impatiently.

"Well?" she asked. "What's the story with Sleeping Beauty in there?"

"She's not getting up, at least not any time soon," Shinji admitted. "We might as well go."

"Finally!" Asuka said. "If we hang around here any longer, then we're going to be late, too."

"You could've left without me," Shinji pointed out as they left the apartment. "You know that, right?"

"Of course I do, stupid," Asuka grumbled.

"Then why didn't you?" he asked. "Are you worried about Misato, too?"

"No," Asuka growled, her tone making it clear that she wouldn't take it kindly if he tried to push this particular issue.

Which, even he realized, probably meant she was lying.

Shinji smiled, turning his head away so the redhead couldn't see it. However, his thoughts soon went back to Misato, and his expression grew dour again.

"Honestly, I don't know why she hasn't gotten into trouble at NERV yet," he mused. "I mean, she hasn't been showing up on time lately, if she even shows up at all."

"Baka, are you stupid?" Asuka snapped. "She hasn't been getting reprimanded because Kaji's been covering for her. He's been telling the Commanders that he's sending her on errands outside the base. Meeting with officers in the JSSDF and stuff like that."

"Oh," was all Shinji could say in response. He hadn't known that.

Asuka scowled. "He'll get into a whole lot of trouble if the Commanders find out that Misato's really just been going on a series of benders, too," she said. "Honestly, I don't know what he sees in her. A man like him deserves so much better."

Shinji frowned. He didn't like Asuka expressing such a low opinion of their guardian.

On the other hand, it was pretty hard to deny that it was very nice of Kaji to stick his neck out for Misato. Shinji knew that she hadn't exactly been very nice to him lately.

He resisted the urge to sigh, knowing that Asuka would have something to say about his downcast mood. Instead, he turned back to look at the window of Misato's apartment.

Why did she start drinking so much lately? He wondered. What happened to you, Misato?


"Hello, sirs," Kaji said. "Would it be too forward of me to say that you're all looking extremely well today?"

This cheerfully delivered attempt at brown-nosing was met with nothing but stony silence, which really didn't surprise the new Operations Director. Indeed, within the dimly lit holographic meeting chamber of the Human Instrumentality Committee, any display of cheer was more an act of rebellion than anything else.

The old men apparently weren't in a mood to tolerate rebellion.

"Please dispense with the pleasantries, Kaji," Keel said, his tone frosty. "This is a public meeting, and you will act in a professional manner."

Kaji resisted the urge to smirk at the Chairman's not-so-subtle reminder that the meeting was being recorded.

When he'd reported to these people in the past, it had been strictly off the record.

Just another thing that's changed since Ikari managed to saddle me with the Ops Director job, he thought, now resisting the urge to grimace.

"Of course, sirs," he addressed the committee. "May I ask why you called me here?"

"This is in regards to Pilot Ikari's experiences inside the Twelfth Angel," the French member said.

"We believe it's possible that he was contacted by the Angel itself," the Russian member added. "That the Angel, in fact, attempted to communicate with him. If this is so, then he could possess knowledge which is vital to the war effort."

"Knowing how the minds of the Angels work could prove invaluable," the American member chimed in. "Yet in order to obtain that knowledge, we need to personally debrief the Third Child."

Kaji immediately bit down on what he wanted to say, instead choosing his next words very carefully.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that Pilot Ikari was contacted by the Angel while he was in the Dirac Sea," he said. "However, neither can he. I've debriefed him myself. He has told me that when he wasn't unconscious, he experienced a number of incomprehensible images and sounds. In my professional opinion, these were almost certainly the product of his own mind, generated from the immense fear and stress of the situation Pilot Ikari was in at the time."

"We feel we would be better judges of that," the Frenchman said. "We wish to debrief the Third Child ourselves."

"I'm afraid I must recommend strongly against that," Kaji said. "The whole experience has left Pilot Ikari badly shaken. Respectfully, I don't think he would respond well to kind of vigorous debriefing you'd perform."

Of course, in this case, "vigorous debriefing" was just code for "merciless interrogation."

And I'll be damned if I let these old bastards abuse Shinji further, the long-haired man thought, somehow managing to keep a relaxed posture. At least this crappy new job lets me do that much.

Keel normally wouldn't have tolerated being blocked by someone as lowly as Kaji, but everyone present knew that Commander Ikari would back his Ops Director in this instance. Gendo didn't want SEELE to have the potentially useful knowledge of how the Angels ticked if he could avoid it.

Unlike Kaji, Gendo had a number of options at his disposal if he wanted to thwart Keel's will.

"Very well," Keel said. "The mental health of the pilots is, of course, paramount."

Kaji didn't think he'd ever seen anyone lie quite so boldly before, and he worked in the intelligence business; it was often the job of both his allies and his enemies to lie.

"I'm glad you feel that way," Kaji said. "Will there be anything else?"

"No, that will be all," Keel said.

Kaji made a slight bow before his image vanished from the virtual meeting room.

"Clever of Ikari to leash that one by making him the Operations Director," the Russian commented.

"Too clever," Keel said darkly.


Shinji's mood hadn't improved much since he'd arrived at school. If anything, he'd grown even more grim as he continued to contemplate Misato's abrupt downturn.

If there was one positive thing, it was that Asuka's attention was mostly off of him once they had arrived at school. As a result, Shinji no longer had to keep his somber mood hidden, for fear of getting snapped at for being "gloomy."

I just don't get why she started doing this all of a sudden. It's not like anything particularly terrible happened recently, he mused. I mean, the Twelfth Angel was scary, sure, and I'm sure it couldn't have been any fun just waiting around outside. But next to everything else that's happened so far, it's not like it was that bad.

He supposed that there just a came a point when everything a person had witnessed and endured collectively became too much, but he didn't really believe Misato had hit that tipping point just yet. Frankly, he just couldn't swallow the notion that the purple-haired woman would crack before he did, even if he ignored the fact that he was the one who went into battle while she remained in the relative safety of the NERV base.

"Hey, you okay, Shin-man?" Toji asked him, speaking quietly so as not to draw the attention of the teacher or the class rep.

"Huh?" he asked, caught by surprise.

"You look pretty down in the dumps," Kensuke observed in a whisper. "Well, more so than usual, anyway."

Shinji rolled his eyes. "I've been worried about Misato lately."

As always, the mention of his guardian got the immediate and complete attention of his two friends.

"Why?" Toji asked. "Has something happened at NERV?"

"Did an Angel attack her or something?" Kensuke asked in a voice barely quiet enough to escape the class rep's notice and received a dirty look from the jock.

Shinji shook his head. "Nothing like that," he said. "She's…she's been drinking a lot. More than usual."

The relief on his friends' faces was clearly visible.

"Oh, is that it?" Kensuke asked. "You had us worried for a second there, Shinji."

"Misato likes to knock back a few beers on her off time," Toji added. "She's a party girl. It's part of what makes her so cool. If she's drinking a little more, it's no big deal."

Shinji briefly considered informing Toji that she'd been drinking a lot more recently, and what she was drinking these days tended to be significantly stronger than beer. However, he quickly decided against it and instead just mumbled something noncommittal in response, ending the conversation.

Toji and Kensuke didn't understand, and honestly, Shinji couldn't blame them; they didn't know Misato nearly as well as he did. They'd only ever seen his guardian when she was being social and cheerful, or at least putting up a front to look that way.

They'd never seen Misato while she was doing her duty and being the completely serious Operations Director.

They hadn't been present when she'd told him about how she'd been right there when Second Impact had happened, and thus they'd never gotten to see how sad and haunted she had looked when going over those old memories.

They hadn't seen Misato after one of her recent, over-the-top benders, which usually left her half-conscious and barely coherent.

There are…so many sides of her that they haven't seen, he mused. They don't know her like I do.

Of course, now that he thought about it, it wouldn't have done much good even if his friends had taken his concerns seriously.

Really, what are they supposed to do? He thought. If I'm going to help Misato get through whatever's making her drink so much lately, I need to do it myself…or find someone who can help me.


The desert was an inferno.

The Nevada desert had always been hot, of course, but it had grown even more scorching since Second Impact had altered the world's climate. Many of the species that had once managed to eke out an existence in the area had been driven to extinction by the even greater temperatures and increased scarcity of water. As a result, the dessert was quieter than it had been; for the most part, only the occasional hot, dry wind created any sound.

Well, the occasional wind and the rather sizable NERV base which was smack dab in the middle of the arid, dusty nowhere.

That day, the American NERV base, also known as the Second Branch, was bustling with activity. The reason for all of it was simple.

After months of work studying the S2 organ that NERV Central had retrieved from the Fourth Angel, and even more months of work to get it installed into Unit Four, the time had finally come to activate the damn thing and see if it worked.

If the test was successful, it would mark a major milestone in the understanding of Angelic biology, as well as open up scores of opportunities for new tactics in fighting the war. If the Evangelions no longer needed power cords in order to be able to function for more than five minutes at a time, it would allow NERV to completely rewrite their playbook for the better.

So, with all these thoughts in his mind, along with visions of personal glory, the Commander of the Second Branch ordered one of his underlings to flip the switch.

Exactly 1.278 seconds later, the world of every soldier, scientist, and salary man in the base turned red.


Meanwhile, things were peaceful in Tokyo-3, or at least as peaceful as they ever got.

Above the Geofront, construction crews were still working busily to rebuild the portion of the city that had been swallowed by the Twelfth Angel, creating a great bustle of noise. As usual, several citizens would write to the city council to complain about the racket. The elected members of the council, having no real power, would input the letters into the MAGI. The supercomputer, in turn, would dutifully read the complaints, calculate that the reconstruction of the city was necessary, and order that the letters be shredded.

In NERV headquarters, however, things were quiet and sedate. The few repairs that the Evangelions required in the wake of the Twelfth Angel's attack had long since been completed, leaving the small army of technicians that the organization employed with little to do besides perform routine maintenance. Indeed, many of the people who earned their living at NERV didn't have much work to worry about that day.

Operations Director Kaji was a glaring exception; his inbox had long ago overflowed and the stacks of paperwork on his desk were nearly at the ceiling.

I swear to god, this crap breeds when I'm not looking, the long-haired man thought as he affixed his signature to yet another official document.

If not for the teetering towers of paperwork that surrounded him, Kaji might've laughed at the idea.

Of course, he knew that his work wasn't really breeding, easy as it might be to imagine it. He did, however, suspect that the Commander was deliberately piling it on; so far as he knew, Misato had only faced this amount of paper after a particularly disastrous battle. The first time Shinji and Asuka had confronted the Seventh Angel immediately sprang to mind.

Ikari's a clever bastard, I'll certainly give him that, Kaji mused dourly. He had been practically chained to his desk for months now, which meant he'd had very little time to try and gather intelligence.

Of course, Misato's recent string of absences from work wasn't helping his situation, as he couldn't even hand some of the burden off to her any longer.

The long-haired man finally allowed his dour thoughts to drive a sigh out of him. Misato…

Something was clearly wrong in his ex's life. That much was abundantly clear, especially to someone like Kaji, who knew her.

Misato often didn't come off as the most responsible person in the world, but he knew that she didn't tend to simply skip work for days. She never would've risen as high in the ranks as she had if that was the case.

And she'd probably have gotten fired already if I hadn't lied to Commander Ikari about where she's been, Kaji mused.

Free time or no free time, he had to investigate the cause of her recent strange behavior. Despite how sour their relationship had become ever since he'd decided to evacuate Tokyo-3 in the face of the Tenth Angel's impending attack, he was worried about her.

That, and he really needed someone to help him with all this damn paperwork!

The spy was just starting to consider the ways in which he might achieve his objective when the alarms started to blare.

"Damn," he cursed, immediately getting out of his chair and rushing toward the command center.

I should have known that it had been quiet for too long, he thought as he ran through the halls. We were overdue for another Angel.

"Status report," he demanded the moment he arrived.

"It's the Second Branch, sir," Makoto answered at once.

Kaji frowned. "The Second Branch?" he asked, bewildered. "Why would an Angel attack the States?"

"It wasn't an attack," Aoba said. "Or at least, we don't think it was. The Second Branch just…vanished."

Kaji frowned. "Vanished?" he asked.

"I think you might have to see this for yourself, sir," Makoto said quietly. "Let me playback the satellite footage."

The tech quickly typed a command into his keyboard, and a recording that had been taken from space appeared on the main screen. Kaji's eyes widened as it progressed.

"Dear god…" he breathed.


Ryoji Kaji thought he had seen raw, barely restrained chaos on the day he'd ordered the evacuation of Tokyo-3.

But the truth of the matter was…well, the truth was that he had seen raw, barely restrained chaos on the day he'd ordered the evacuation of Tokyo-3; he'd been correct about that, actually.

What he'd been wrong about was his unconscious belief that he'd never have to confront such a maelstrom again.

Less than fifteen minutes after the alarms had gone off, the calls had started pouring in from every corner of the world. The UN, every nation that contributed to NERV, most of the world's militaries…everyone had called to demand to know what the hell was going on.

Of course, all those calls somehow get transferred up to my office, Kaji thought with a sigh. Honestly, did the Secretary of Defense actually have to call me that?

He shook his head to clear these thoughts from it. The Yanks were confused and angry about the event; it was understandable. Besides, he'd finally decided that enough was enough and had declared that he wasn't accepting any more calls that day.

My voicemail's probably overflowing already, he thought, reaching into his pocket and taking out a pack of cigarettes.

A junior technician gave the Ops Director a dirty look as they passed one another in the halls. Already in a foul mood, Kaji just glared the young man, who quickly broke eye contact and retreated away from him.

Kaji pulled out a lighter and lit up as he walked into the small lab where Ritsuko and Maya were working. On the far wall, a large viewer was playing the satellite imagery of the Second Branch's abrupt destruction in a continuous loop.

"Can you turn that off?" he asked, visibly startling both ladies.

"Of course, sir," Ibuki answered after she had recovered, surprisingly not waiting for the go ahead from Ritsuko first.

Then again, perhaps it wasn't that shocking. It was hard to tell for certain in the dim light of the room, but Kaji thought that the cute brunette was looking rather pale. Maybe she disliked watching the footage as much as he did.

"Ah, Kaji, I was wondering when you'd show up," Ritsuko said.

He smiled, but he knew it probably looked as forced as it felt. "Well, whoever had between 7:00 and 7:30 just won the pool," he quipped, before allowing himself to become serious again. "So, what do you have, Rits?"

The bottle blonde sighed. "A whole lot of possibilities, but no firm answers, I'm afraid."

"How many is 'a lot'?" Kaji asked.

"The MAGI have been able to determine 32,768 possible reasons for the event that happened in Nevada, including sabotage," Maya chimed in.

"Sorry I asked," Kaji said. "Sabotage?"

"Unlikely," Ritsuko said. "Can I have one of those?" she pointed to the cigarette Kaji had clenched between his teeth.

"Be my guest," he said, fishing the pack out of his pocket again and shaking out a cancer stick for his old friend. "After today, I think we could all use a little nicotine fix. Speaking of which, want one, Lieutenant?"

"No, thank you, sir," Maya replied, with an expression of poorly concealed disgust.

He shrugged and lit Ritsuko's cigarette with his trusty Zippo. "So, probably not sabotage, then?" he asked.

Ritsuko shook her head, waving a dismissive hand. "It's just one of over 30,000 possibilities, and we have no evidence for it. It's just not impossible," she said. "It's far more likely that somebody screwed something up when they were hooking the S2 organ to Unit Four, and it caused a Dirac Sea to form just long enough to swallow the base."

"I see," Kaji said. "So what happens now?"

Ritsuko hesitated for a moment, glancing quickly at Maya before turning back to the new Ops Director. "You look like you could use a coffee, Kaji, and I know I can," she said. "Take a trip to the commissary with me?"

Kaji had been running off of caffeine for the past several hours and frankly thought he might explode if he put any more into his system. However, it was obvious that Ritsuko wanted to speak to him in relative privacy.

"Sure," he agreed.

Grinning roguishly, he offered the bottle blonde his arm. She smirked at him and ignored the gesture.

"I have a few…tasks that I have to see to after my little coffee break. You may have to continue without me for an hour or so, Maya," Ritsuko warned her protégé.

"I understand, sempai," the brunette said.

"After you," Kaji said, gesturing toward the door.

Rolling her eyes, Ritsuko left the small room, followed by Kaji. The two soon found themselves on one of NERV headquarters' trademark giant elevators.

"So, have you heard what the Americans have decided?" Ritsuko asked as they waited for the moving staircase to take them to their destination.

"I had to stop taking calls in order to stay sane," Kaji sighed. "All I got from them was a lot of yelling."

"Ah," Ritsuko said. "Well, they've basically decided that they don't want much of anything to do with NERV anymore."

Kaji's eyebrows went up. "They're not withdrawing from it, are they? If they do, and an Angel attacks the States, then NERV's under no obligation to help them," he pointed out.

Not that there was any reason to believe that any of the Angels would attack America, not when Adam was inside NERV Central. However, the Americans didn't know that.

"No," Ritsuko shook her head. "They'll still provide their share of the funding for Project-E, and the First Branch will stay open. However, they want to get Unit Three off their soil as soon as possible."

"So they're sending it here," Kaji said. It wasn't a question.

"Bingo," Ritsuko said. "They're going to send it by air, probably because of what happened when we transported Unit Two by sea. It should arrive in two weeks. Maybe less. They really want to get rid of the thing."

"I guess it's understandable," Kaji said. "So, I assume we'll be finding a pilot for it."

"That's up to the Marduk Institute," Ritsuko replied.

Which, of course, doesn't really exist, Kaji thought.

They reached the end of the escalator a minute or two later and then finished their trek to the NERV commissary. Once there, they quickly obtained two cups of the dark-colored swill that the organization tried to pass off as coffee.

"Let's have a seat," Ritsuko said quietly.

"Right," he agreed at once.

They picked a table in a dim corner and sat down, neither one saying anything at first. The dinner hour had passed, so the commissary was quiet, and the peace was a welcome respite for both of them.

Kaji took a sip of his drink and grimaced. Somehow, the decaf was even worse than the regular.

"So, what's on your mind, Rits?" he asked eventually.

This was what he was really interested in; the things she wanted to tell him that she hadn't want to speak about in front of Maya. He knew it couldn't be something incredibly secret—she would've taken him outside, away from the base's elaborate surveillance systems if that was the case—but that didn't mean it couldn't be interesting.

"I'm worried about Misato," Ritsuko said quietly, holding her Styrofoam cup in both hands and gazing down at the mud-colored liquid inside it. "She hasn't been returning my calls lately, I haven't seen her around lately, and I know that…"

Her gaze flicked toward one of the cameras in the room.

"I just know," Ritsuko finished, which would've been extremely cryptic if Kaji hadn't realized what she was talking about.

Of course she'd know that those assignments I've been giving Misato to explain her absences are all bunk, he thought.

"Do you know why she's been like this?" Ritsuko asked.

"No, I don't," Kaji confessed. "She's not as…fond of me as she used to be, you know."

Ritsuko smiled at him, and the expression held equal parts sympathy and amusement. "I realize that, but I still thought you might know something," she said. "So, you really have no idea."

Kaji shook his head. "None," he said. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's some form of PTSD."

Ritsuko quirked an eyebrow. "Do you really think so?" she asked.

A small, rueful smile appeared on Kaji's face. "She really doesn't seem like to type suffer from that, does she?" he asked. "Still, I understand it can happen to anyone who's endured too many violent or traumatizing experiences, and Misato's certainly had her share of those."

The scientist nodded gravely. "Second Impact when she was still just a teenager," she said, "and I know she saw some pretty intense fighting when she worked in special ops for the UN armed forces."

"And until recently she's been commanding battles that decide the fate of the entire human species," Kaji said. "She obviously felt the pressure, since she decided to step down. Even now, though, she has to watch as a couple of teenagers she's gotten close to—maybe too close to—risk their lives every time an Angel shows up. The waiting game with the Twelfth Angel might've just been the tipping point."

"I suppose," Ritsuko said, though she still looked dubious. Then she checked her watch and frowned. "Ugh, I have to go. The Commander wants to see me about something in ten minutes."

"Right," Kaji said. "We can figure out a way to help Misato later."

Ritsuko nodded absently and got up, stopping only to throw away her half-consumed cup of coffee before she left the room, entering the winding hallways of the base.

Secretly, she didn't hold out a whole lot of hope for getting Misato out of her funk. Their friendship demanded she try, of course, but the former Ops Director had always been incredibly willful. When Misato Katsuragi decided to do something (or refuse to do something, like come in to work), nobody but Misato Katsuragi could make her stop. That was the way it had always been, ever since Ritsuko had met her friend in college.

Besides, even if she's amenable to our help, I don't know when Kaji or I will even have the time to confront her, Ritsuko thought with a grimace as she approached the elevator that went to Terminal Dogma. Things are going to be pretty damn busy here, and I know the Commanders are throwing every scrap of paper at Kaji that they can find.

She slid her ID card through a reader next to elevator, and the doors obediently opened for her. The scientist stepped inside, and she soon began her descent into the deepest, most secret location within NERV.

She was unsurprised to find the Commander waiting for her the moment the doors slid open again.

"Dr. Akagi," was Gendo's curt greeting.

The bottle blonde resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Here she was, alone in the dark with her lover, and the man couldn't even call her by her given name. She realized that Gendo detested mixing business with pleasure, but that was a little much.

Not that he's so damn affectionate when we're off duty, she thought, before ruthlessly suppressing all of her silly, illogical emotions.

"Commander," she said.

"I need a status update on the progress of the Dummy System," he said.

Ritsuko nodded, having been fully aware that this was coming. With this unexpected event leaving both SEELE and the States twitchy, the Commander would need every ace up his sleeve that he could possibly get.

"Of course, sir," she said. "Follow me, please."

She led Gendo to a very large, very dark room and flipped a heavy switch with a grunt of effort. Lights mounted on the high ceiling began to come on, one row at a time, but even these couldn't completely dispel the darkness in the now dim room. The lights did, however, manage to illuminate a large metal cylinder which was suspended above the floor by a pair of huge clamps. The thing looked exactly like the standard entry plug from the outside, except that it had been painted entirely red.

"This is the Dummy Plug prototype, Commander," Ritsuko said, gesturing up at it. "Rei's personal pilot data has been downloaded into it, but we can't truly digitize a human mind. In the end, this is nothing but a pale duplication that crudely emulates the pilot's thinking process. It's still only a machine."

"It transmits a signal to EVA. If the Evangelion believes that it's a real pilot and synchs with it, then that's enough," Gendo said simply. "Load the data into Units One and Two."

"But, sir, we still haven't worked all the bugs out," Ritsuko protested.

"I said do it," Gendo said in a low growl.

Ritsuko couldn't help but flinch back, marveling at how damn terrifying the Commander could be with just a few quiet words. She didn't think anyone else she knew could sound quite so threatening.

"Y-Yes, sir."

Gendo nodded. "I've delegated the task of transporting Unit Three to the UN. They, in turn, will likely delegate the matter to the US," he said. "You will take care of it."

"Of course," Ritsuko said. "We'll perform the modifications and activation in Matsushiro."

"And the test pilot?" Gendo asked.

"Use of the Dummy System is not recommended," Ritsuko warned at once. "One of our pilot candidates…"

"Will be chosen as the Fourth," Gendo said. "Very well. See to it, Dr. Akagi."

"Yes, sir," Ritsuko replied. "There's one candidate whose core can be prepared immediately."

"Good," was Gendo's only response.


Corporal Inaba really, really hated his job.

Admittedly, it wasn't the worse position in the entire JSSDF, and he would never pretend otherwise. No, the VTOL pilots and ground pounders who had the dubious honor of backing up NERV (and, by extension, that arrogant bastard Gendo Ikari), held that title these days, so far as he was concerned.

Of course, I wouldn't have wanted to be one of poor slobs that the brass sent into the meat grinder against the Third Angel, either, he decided.

No, Inaba's job didn't entail providing support to the regular military's rival NERV, or throwing himself at an enemy who would kill him without even noticing he'd been there in the first place. He was thankful for that, but it still didn't mean he had to like his job.

Inaba was a member of a team called the Stargazers.

Awesome name. Really lame job, he thought, poking at nearby bush with his rifle.

Ever since an asteroid had slammed into the South Pole and royally messed up the world, people had become a lot more concerned about death from above crashing down on them. As a result, the military had started paying more attention to skies.

"Just in case any more deathrocks come barreling toward us," Inaba muttered aloud.

The story didn't end there, however. If it had, Inaba probably wouldn't have been out in the middle of nowhere, utterly hating his job.

Nobody really knew where the Angels had come from, but the general consensus among both the military brass and the general populace was that they were probably extraterrestrials.

"So, of course, the only sane thing to do is get super, crazy paranoid about anything bigger than a basketball that falls out of the sky," he grumbled sarcastically.

The Stargazers' job was to track any and all objects that fell to Japan from outer space and make sure that an Angel hadn't hatched out of it or something. Usually, it was a simple, if pretty dull task. The tech people were usually very good at calculating where a meteorite would land, and all Inaba and his colleagues had to do was go out and get it.

Usually.

Some time ago, the Stargazers had picked up an object that was bigger than a Volkswagen careening toward Japan. The lab boys had punched the numbers and calculated where it would land, as always, and everything had seemed normal.

At least it did, until we went there and found squat, Inaba thought.

At that point, the corporal would've frankly called it quits. Every other bit of space debris they'd found had been just a rock, not the larval sack of some alien horror. He'd been willing to bet that this one was equally mundane.

The brass, however, had felt differently. Unfortunately, they really didn't have any Plan B for finding extraterrestrial objects once the big, expensive computers totally failed to accurately project their landing sites.

Which means that poor slobs like me have to just fart around in the middle of nowhere all day, Inaba thought, wiping some sweat from his brow.

Having grown up in the countryside, Inaba had no enmity toward the great outdoors. Unfortunately, some idiot had decided that he and his fellow Martian rock hunters should conduct these searches while in full combat gear, just in case they encountered an unfriendly alien. Which meant wearing over fifty pounds of gear all day…while tromping around in 90+ degree weather.

"Not my idea of a pleasant—whoa!" his gripe to no one in particular was cut off as he tripped and very nearly went sprawling.

Regaining his balance, Inaba frowned and looked behind himself, wondering what he'd tripped on. He only grew more puzzled when he saw that there appeared to be a slight hump in the ground.

"The hell…?" he muttered to himself, frowning as he looked at the odd shape of the land.

Then, the answer hit him. It was a trench. A long trench that had probably been created when something big had crash landed here and slid across the ground. He just hadn't realized at first because the grass had grown back over the bit of scarred earth.

"Damn, it's here? The boys at the lab were really off this time," he said to himself as he started to follow the trench. "Well, at least this stupid hunt is finally over with."

He soon reached the end of the trench, but he didn't find a big chunk of rock at the termination point. Instead, he found what appeared to be the remains of a much larger trench, which was roughly perpendicular to the first one. This one, however, had been filled in by someone or something. The ground was visibly raised.

Inaba grabbed his walkie-talkie and twisted the knob to turn it on. "This is Corporal Inaba," he spoke into it. "Headquarters, do you copy?"

"Reading you loud and clear, Corporal."

"I think I've found something out here," Inaba said, "and it's not…the usual. It might be big. Very big."


Shinji usually didn't go to NERV unless there was an Angel attack or a synch test. There was just no need for him to, otherwise. In fact, he was realizing that he usually didn't even go to the parts of the base that weren't near the cages.

Nevertheless, he was easily able to navigate the place; the layout of Central Dogma was actually quite simple once you got used to it.

I can't believe that Misato used to get lost here just about every other day, he thought, then winced. Thinking about his guardian was actually rather painful these days, especially when he ended up comparing what she'd been to what she was like lately.

He arrived outside his destination, Kaji's office, and took a deep breath. He knocked on the door.

"Come in," the new Ops Director's tired sounding voice answered.

"Kaji?" Shinji asked as he entered.

The man's head popped out from behind the massive stack of paperwork that sat on his desk, and he smiled. "Ah, Shinji, just the man I was hoping to see," he said.

"I need to talk to you," the Third Child said.

Picking up on the seriousness in Shinji's voice, Kaji became a bit less cheery. "I had wanted to have a chat with you, too, actually," he said. "Tell you what, let's get ourselves something to drink, then go outside to talk. I could use some fresh air."

"All right," Shinji agreed.

The two took a trip to a nearby group of vending machines, then headed outside the base. They soon ended up at a bench that sat near the edge of the Geofront lake.

It's very pretty here, Shinji mused as he looked out at the water. I wonder why people don't come here often. Probably too busy.

"So what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" the pilot asked.

Kaji cracked open his can of coffee and took a long drink before answering. "Shinji, you've heard about what happened to the Second Branch, right?" he asked.

"Just that it was destroyed in some kind of disaster," he replied. "A disaster that involved Unit Four somehow."

Kaji nodded. "That's about the long and short of it," he said. "Because of that, the Americans have decided to unload Unit Three on us, in case something happens with that one, too."

"I see," Shinji replied. "So…they're going to find a pilot for it?"

"They already found one," Kaji said grimly. "Shinji…they selected your friend Toji for the job. He's agreed to be the Fourth Child."

Shinji's eyes widened. "What? Why…why would he do that?" he sputtered.

He could've seen Kensuke leaping at the chance to pilot an Evangelion, but not Toji. The jock had already been hurt by EVA, and he had no delusions that being a pilot was in any way glorious.

"NERV offered to transfer his sister to a top of the line hospital, all expenses paid," Kaji said quietly. "I'm told he immediately accepted once that was on the table."

Shinji leaned back in the bench, suddenly feeling sick. The unopened can of tea in his hands seemed to have transformed into a block of ice, and even the sunshine didn't appear as bright as it had a moment ago.

Toji's putting himself in danger so his sister can get better, he thought. He could get killed trying to fix something that's my fault.

"I'm sorry," Kaji said. "If I had any control over the selection process, I would've vetoed your friend, but that's above my pay grade."

Shinji said nothing, still caught in the grip of shock.

"I know that this is some very unpleasant news for you, to put it mildly," Kaji added. "I felt that you deserved to know though, especially since it would've been an even more unpleasant surprise if nobody told you."

"I…thank you," Shinji said, and even though he was still stunned, he had to admit that the long-haired man definitely had a point there.

They fell silent for several moments after that. Eventually, Shinji opened his can of tea and took several sips without really tasting it. His whole mind was occupied with what he'd just learned. He kept trying to figure out some way to get Toji out of having to pilot without getting his little sister kicked out of the hospital in the process. Unfortunately, his ideas kept hitting dead ends before they were even fully formed.

It's not fair, Shinji thought. Toji doesn't deserve this. He shouldn't have to suffer to get his sister's injuries treated properly. If anyone should, it should be me.

"So, you had something you wanted to speak me about, too?" Kaji asked after several minutes.

"Oh, yes," Shinji said, realizing to his further shame that he'd forgotten all about his guardian for a moment. "It's about Misato."

"Ah," Kaji replied. It was only one syllable, but even Shinji, who was not the most adept individual when it came to reading people, could hear many layers of meaning in it.

"First, I wanted to thank you for covering for her," he said. "I know things have been a little…rocky between you two lately."

Kaji smiled wistfully. "Well, we had some very good times together, back in college," he said. "Very good times. I guess I'll always have some affection for Misato, because of that."

Shinji felt a brief but intense stab of envy. Even though he had ultimately lost it and didn't seem likely to reclaim it, Kaji had still shared something with Misato that the EVA pilot knew he never would.

Then the moment passed, and concern quickly replaced jealousy.

"I'm worried about Misato," he confessed. "She's been drinking a lot lately. Much more than usual. She always liked her beer, of course, but she's drunk more often than not these days. And when she's not drunk, she's usually sleeping it off. I don't even know why she's been like this lately. She just…she just has!"

Shinji realized that he'd said all this very quickly, and he flushed and looked at his feet. He knew that this was necessary, but airing Misato's dirty laundry to someone she didn't seem all that fond of these days still felt like betrayal.

Kaji shook his head. "I was afraid it was something like that," he said.

"I don't know what to do," Shinji said miserably. "By this point, I think Misato might need an intervention or something. I know it sounds weird, but-"

"You're probably right," Kaji interrupted. "Okay, we'll get her to sober up long enough to have a talk with her. Rits is worried, too, so I know she'll be willing to help. I'm sure Asuka would also participate, if I asked her."

Shinji couldn't help but smirk slightly. Yeah, I'm sure she would. "When?" he asked. "When can we do this?"

Kaji sighed, and suddenly he looked very tired. "Unfortunately, both Rits and I are stuck pulling overtime until the Unit Three activation test is finished," he said. "As soon as that's done with, though, I'll rally the troops. You just watch over Misato until then as best you can."

"Okay," Shinji agreed at once. "After the test, then."

Kaji nodded, then got off the bench. "Well, much as I hate to leave you and this lovely weather behind, my work won't do itself, unfortunately," he said.

"Right," Shinji said. "Thanks, Kaji."

"No thanks necessary, Shinji," he said. "After all, we're both just trying to look after someone we care about, right?"

The Third Child nodded, and the two went their separate ways. Shinji headed toward the tram that would take him back to Tokyo-3 with a sense of hope that he hadn't felt for a long time.

All I need to do is wait until the activation test is finished with, he thought.

Of course, though he had no idea of it, 'after the test' would be far too late.


A few days had passed since Inaba had made his discovery in the middle of nowhere, and that location had officially become somewhere as a result. However, that "somewhere" was highly classified and, in fact, didn't officially exist.

Some locales just can't catch a break, Corporal Inaba decided as he looked at the site.

It was very different from when he'd first found it.

The entire area had been quarantined, with the public having been fed some story about a chemical spill. Several large pieces of equipment were now scattered around, along with dozens of people in hazmat suits.

Perhaps most significantly, the large trench, the one that someone had filled in, had been dug up once again. This had exposed the ruined space ship that had been hidden under ground.

Found an alien space ship. I still don't freaking believe it, Inaba thought. And the worst part is, I can't tell anybody about it! My parents will still think all I ever do is go looking for Moon rocks!

Shaking his head, he trudged toward one of the scientists the military had called in to work at the site. Like everyone else present, the man was wearing a bulky hazmat suit, but Inaba was able to identify him as one of the eggheads by the clipboard in his hand.

"So, what's the story, doc?" he asked. "Any chance we'll be able to ditch the plastic clothes soon?"

"Doubtful," the scientist replied, scribbling a few notes down. "We've taken some readings, and that ship is leaking a small but detectable amount of radiation from somewhere. Probably the reactor or fuel tank."

"Reactor?" Inaba asked nervously. "Doc, there isn't some kind of, I don't know, antimatter or something inside this tub, is there?"

"Most definitely not," the scientist replied, sounding mildly annoyed at the distraction by this point. "With the ship clearly non-operational as it is, any antimatter inside it would've escaped containment and caused a very large explosion a long time ago. More likely there's something in there that human science simply isn't familiar with yet."

"Ah," Inaba replied, not sure if that response reassured him or not.

He didn't have much more time to ponder the matter, though. A few seconds later, the colonel in charge of the whole operation (Inaba still couldn't believe a full colonel of the JSSDF had shown up to supervise a bunch of soldiers while they basically dug a ditch), shouted an order. A man sitting behind the controls of a small crane pulled a lever, and the broken, dirty space ship was lifted out of the hole in the ground with some very heavy chains.

"God damn," he muttered to himself as he finally saw the entire thing, his tone almost reverent.

Then he smirked. Small wonder now that the Stargazers had had so much trouble finding this thing. Unlike all the space rocks, this thing had once had the ability to change its trajectory through the air, even as it came in for a crash landing.

Of course, what remained to be seen was how much it would change the trajectory of humanity and the war that humanity was currently fighting. Inaba wasn't an idiot; he knew that the brass back at JSSDF Central Command had to be fantasizing about finding advanced technology inside the ship and making super weapons that would give the regular military the ability to kill the Angels.

Inaba liked the idea of rendering NERV obsolete and showing up that smug bastard Ikari as much as anybody in the JSSDF, but he really hoped that nothing nasty came from messing around with the alien ship.

He shook his head. Not like it's any concern of mine, he thought. Pretty soon, they'll take this thing away to some top secret lab somewhere, and I'll be under strict orders to never so much as think about it ever again.

Much like with the scientist's dismissal of the possibility of antimatter, Inaba wasn't sure if that comforted or terrified him.


The day had finally arrived.

Unit Three had finally arrived in Japan from the United States, and the auxiliary NERV base in Matsushiro was bustling with activity as they prepared to turn the thing on for the first time.

In the midst of so many feverishly working individuals, Kaji found himself feeling exceptionally pointless.

"Why did they even need me to be here?" he wondered aloud to Ritsuko. "There's no battle to command. They need you and your people to work this thing, not me."

"You're here to provide pseudo-paternal support to our greenhorn pilot. Now stop pestering me so I can do my job," Ritsuko said, not even bothering to peel her eyes away from her computer monitor as she spoke.

Kaji rolled his eyes, but he then pushed the button to open up a radio link with the entry plug. "Suzuhara, can you hear me?" he asked.

"Loud and clear, um, sir," the voice of the jock replied.

The long-haired man smiled. "You can just call me Kaji, kid. I don't run a particularly formal operation," he said. "So, how are you holding up?"

"Me? I'm fine. Just fine," he said. "After all, if Shinji can do this, it should be no problem for me, right?"

That last part sounded more like Toji was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince Kaji, and the new Ops Director couldn't help but smirk slightly. The Fourth Child was a real macho man all right.

That bravado might actually help him when he has to grit his teeth and bear this, at least in the beginning, he thought. I'd better watch to make sure it doesn't get out of control, though.

"Glad to hear you're okay," Kaji said. "Listen, Suzuhara. In a couple of minutes, Ritsuko and her science buddies are going to start spouting all kinds of crazy techno-jargon. Don't let it intimidate you. Just stay calm, and the activation should go smoothly. Once Unit Three's turned on, we'll run a couple of tests. After that, you're done for the day."

"Okay, sounds good," Toji said.

A sly grin formed on Kaji's face. "Of course, after that, your training officially begins," he said. "We're going to need to bring you up to speed fast. I may have to put Asuka in charge of your instruction."

"Oh, dear God, no!" Toji exclaimed, looking horrified.

Kaji had to resist the urge the laugh. He knew only too well of the animosity that existed between Asuka and Toji, though he usually only heard the redhead's side of the stories concerning their disagreements. The Second Child had been utterly horrified to discover that the jock had been named the Fourth.

"Well, perhaps Shinji and I will be able to show you the ropes properly," the new Ops Director said. "If you learn quickly enough."

"Oh, I can do that," Toji said earnestly. "I can learn fast when I need to, especially when the subject doesn't come out of a book."

"Glad to hear it," Kaji said. "Ah, I think they're starting."

He glanced over at Ritsuko, who had indeed begun to receive multiple status reports in the techno-jargon Kaji had spoken about moments earlier.

The new Ops Director couldn't understand half of it, but he didn't really need to. A mixture of tension and expectation was building in the air, like an electric charge. Everyone knew that probably nothing would happen. However, with Evangelion, there was always a small but still significant chance that it would go nuts the moment it was activated, because they simply didn't understand the damn things as well as they should.

As if what happened in Nevada wasn't proof enough of that, Kaji thought.

"Proceeding to third stage neural links," a nearby tech announced. "The pilot should clear the absolute borderline in there…two…one…"

If the woman ever said "zero", nobody got the chance to hear it, because alarms started blaring inside the control room at that very moment. Yet, even over that ruckus, Kaji could still hear the groaning of metal bending and the sound of heavy machinery being trashed.

And it was coming from the direction of the cage.

"What's going on?" Kaji bellowed over the noise.

"Unit Three has begun to move!" one of the techs shouted back.

"Berserker?" the Ops Director demanded.

"No, something's different this time!" Ritsuko said, practically pushing one of the techs out of his chair and to the floor in her effort to get to his station. Her fingers flew across the poor man's keyboard. "We're detecting a blue pattern! It's an Angel!"

"Shit," Kaji cursed. "Deactivate Unit Three! Cut the nerve connections!"

The techs sprang into action, but those horrible sounds coming from the cage didn't stop. "Unit Three is rejecting the signal!"

"Just shut the damn thing down!" Kaji yelled. "I don't care how you do it, just turn it off!"

The tech crew immediately went to the task, if they hadn't already been trying to do what he'd ordered. Unfortunately, they seemed to be having very little success.

"There's an energy buildup inside the cage!" Ritsuko warned.

"What does that mean?" Kaji asked.

Unit Three itself answered the question before the scientist could. An explosion tore through the Matsushiro base, and for several hours, Kaji knew no more.


Misato returned to the waking world slowly, and only with great reluctance. She opened her bleary eyes and looked at her surroundings dumbly. It took her a second to realize that she was in her kitchen, seated by the table.

When did I come here? She wondered, since her last memory placed her inside her bedroom. And what the heck woke me up?

The first question would remain forever a mystery, but the second was answered a moment later by the ringing of her phone. The purple-haired woman winced at the sound and covered her ears.

"Ow," she groaned.

The phone rang a few times before the answering machine picked up. She heard a cheerful recording of her own voice telling the caller to wait until after the beep, and she sighed in relief. Taking her hands away from her ears, Misato lay her head down on the table, making sure to avoid the small puddle of drool she'd left there. She should still be drunk enough to catch a few more Z's without suffering through any nightmares.

I'm sure it's not that important anyway, she thought.

Then she heard the beep, and the voice of Hyuga Makoto filled her kitchen.

"Major Katsuragi? Are you there?" he asked tentatively. "I tried your cell, but you didn't answer. Please pick up if you're there, there's an emergency. The Matsushiro base attempted the Unit Three activation test with Pilot Suzuhara earlier, and it looks like something went terribly wrong. We don't have the details yet, but the MAGI have picked up a blue pattern, and the base has gone silent. Kaji was at Matsushiro. We could really use your help right now, Major."

Misato, of course, didn't just remain sitting at the kitchen table the whole time the tech was recording this message. She was on her feet the moment Hyuga said the words "Pilot Suzuhara."

Unfortunately, she had crashed to the kitchen floor by the time he got to the part about the blue pattern.

"Oh…I'm more drunk than I thought," she said. Then she noticed her loyal penguin companion standing right outside the door to his fridge. "Pen-Pen, when did I stop drinking last night?" she demanded.

The water fowl gave her an inscrutable look and remained completely silent. Then he reached out and hit the button that opened the door to his small room. A moment later, he was gone. Misato threw a dirty look in his direction.

Then she got up, having to hold onto her kitchen table as she stood to keep herself from falling over again.

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "Time to move out."

She had to go and help, but not as Misato Katsuragi. Even if she was in any state to report for duty in her role as NERV's tactical consultant, she could do far more good as the Green Lantern.

Emerald light flared around her form, and when it dimmed, Misato had vanished, replaced by the city's jade superwoman. She turned toward the door to her veranda, her feet rose off the ground…

…and suddenly she found herself sprawled out on her living room floor, her face buried in the carpet. She honestly had no idea how that had happened; it seemed as though she had gone from hovering in her kitchen to this undignified position with no time passing in between.

"Ring!" she barked. "What the hell is wrong?"

"Your current inebriated state is handicapping your ability to focus your mind and your willpower," it answered. "As a result, your ability to utilize this ring has been sharply reduced."

"Are you saying I'm too drunk to use you properly?" she demanded, her eyes widening in horror.

"Yes."

"Damn it," she swore, softly, but with great vehemence. "I can't help."


Author's Notes: I warned you that the Thirteenth Angel was right around the corner last time, didn't I?

I had originally planned to end the previous chapter with Misato's nightmare, in order to foreshadow this turn of events, but I just couldn't see how to do it. Going straight from "Shinji's saved!" to "Misato needs booze to sleep now, lots of booze" in the same chapter would've been far too abrupt, so I moved it to the start of this chapter.

Anyway, tune in next time to see the aftermath from this mess, and remember, now it's the Fourteenth Angel that's just around the corner. Hopefully, that goes better for our heroine.

Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well. Now for a little fun to counteract that downer of a chapter.


Omake

Official Protest

"There, done with that chapter," a certain writer of Evangelion fan fiction commented as he made the final tweaks to his latest bit of work.

The young was pleased with himself for getting that done; it felt like he hadn't updated one of his regular fics for a long time. His loyal (and smart, and charming, and very good-looking) reviewers deserved better than that.

He was just getting ready to post the chapter when the door behind him was thrown open with some much force that it smacked the wall loudly. He winced, hoping the doorknob hadn't broken the plaster.

"What the hell, Mike?"

Even before the shout, the writer didn't need to turn around to know who had just barged in. He did turn around, though. Keeping his back to "guest" would've been just rude, after all.

"You know, Misato, you really shouldn't be here," he commented. "I mean, Green Lantern doesn't have the same fourth-wall breaching powers that She-Hulk—"

The woman in green never gave him the chance to finish, instead grabbing his shoulders and shaking him roughly.

"Never mind that!" she demanded. "What were you thinking with this chapter?"

"I take it you don't like it?" Mike asked innocently.

"To put it mildly!" Misato barked. "Last chapter I was kicking Angel ass, taking names, overcoming my personal demons, and saving Shinji! And now the story suddenly got all dark! What's that about?"

"Uh, Misato, you have seen canon Evangelion, right?" Mike asked. "It's not exactly new for things to abruptly go downhill around the time the Thirteenth Angel shows up."

"Well, that's true, but—"

"Also, let's face, you usually get a pass for, you know, having a drinking problem," Mike continued. "Come to think of it, in the fics I've read, I've seen Asuka get crap for simply cluttering up the apartment with her junk a lot more often than I've seen you face consequences for your barely controlled alcohol consumption."

"Never mind Asuka and her stupid boxes! You—"

"Plus, things need to get grim at least every now and then, so you can, you know, rise from the ashes and stuff," Mike pointed out. "It's the job of superheroes to salvage seemingly unsalvageable situations."

"So do I salvage this one?" Misato demanded.

"Well…"

"I knew it!" Misato snapped. "You rewrite this damn chapter right now, Mister!"

"No," Mike replied.

"Let me rephrase that," Misato rose her fist, and her power ring glowed menacingly. "Rewrite the damn chapter right now!"

There was a tense pause.

"LOOK!" Mike yelled, pointing behind Misato. "It's Sinestro!"

"What? Where?" Misato squawked, spinning around.

Of course, the renegade from the Green Lantern Corps was nowhere to be found. Mike used the moment he'd gained to bolt into his "safe room," which had received a generous coat of daffodil colored paint.

"Hey!" Misato shouted, running over to the door and pounding on it with her fists. "Open up!"

"Hell no!"

"Fine!" Misato growled. "Then I'll just have Asuka break the door down for me!"

Mike laughed. "I doubt Asuka will be willing to pick a fight with the author over this chapter," he said. "Besides, even if she does, I have kryptonite in here!"

Misato's hands balled into fists. "I'll get Rits to do it, then!"

"You think that with all the quirks that scarab of hers has, I haven't got a way to stop it from attacking me?" Mike asked.

"Maya?" Misato suggested.

"Magic talisman," Mike answered smugly.

Misato thought for a moment, then a sly smile appeared on her face. "What about Rei?" she asked.

"Oh, well, uh…"

"Ha! Thought so! I'll be right back!"

"Crap," the writer muttered to himself. "I knew I forgot about something when I made this little bunker…"