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 am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.


Chapter Ten: Willpower

The interior of the Kiyoharu Innovations building felt familiar, Shiro Tokita decided as he walked down its halls with his new boss. Not because he knew it so well—he'd only visited twice before for interviews—but because it was so similar to the Hokkaido Heavy Industries building.

The man who'd been the public face of the Jet Alone project felt his jaw tighten as he thought of that.

"I have to admit, Tanesada-san, I was quite surprised by your offer," he said. "Pleasantly so, of course, but very surprised."

Haru Tanesada, a pleasantly plump, bespectacled man in an immaculately tailored suit smiled at his newest employee. "And why do you say that, Tokita-san?" he asked.

Tokita shrugged; he was sure that Tanesada knew. The man would have to be a complete fool to not know, but he'd apparently felt that politeness mandated that he downplay the debacle at Hokkaido Heavy Industries.

As a result, politeness now also mandated that Tokita explain something his one man audience already knew. He struggled for a few moments, trying to figure out the most politic way to put it into words.

"I was dismissed from my previous job under…less than auspicious circumstances," was what he finally settled on.

It was a rather massive understatement, of course. The board of directors at Hokkaido Heavy Industries had decided to pin all the blame for the Jet Alone prototype's spectacular failure on him, and they had been all too quick to fire him accordingly.

Of course, getting terminated from HHI—which had ultimately gone bankrupt after seeing the massive investment it had made in the JA project go up in smoke—had been rather like getting thrown over the side of a sinking ship. He would've ended up unemployed either way, but being fired rather than laid off certainly hadn't helped him in his quest to find a new job. He'd been living off his savings and severance package until just recently.

"Ah, yes, the Jet Alone demonstration, sorry business, that," Tanesada said, as though it had been a minor thing, not a massive embarrassment that had sounded the death knell of a major corporation. "Well, here at Kiyoharu Innovations we try and focus on the future, not the past. And we think that your particular expertise, Tokita-san, makes you the perfect leader for our next big project."

"Yes, about that," Tokita said with a slight frown, "I'm afraid that I'm still not very clear on what exactly you want me to do. What is this project?"

Tanesada had been maddeningly evasive about that through the entire interview process. Indeed, Tokita might've considered the lack of information to be a deal breaker if he'd had any other potential prospects on the horizon.

"Ah, yes, I suppose it's high time we let you in our secret here," Tanesada said, clearly in good humor.

Tokita nodded and followed his new boss until they reached a large room filled with bustling workers. At the center of the whole thing was the wreck of some kind of bullet shaped…thing. Tokita could only assume it had been some kind of vehicle.

"Sir?" he asked, frowning.

"Not long ago, the JSSDF dug this thing up in a remote part of Kanagawa Prefecture," Tanesada explained. "They have reason to believe that it, and its now deceased pilot, are not from this world."

Tokita blinked. "Extraterrestrials?"

"Exactly," Tanesada nodded, a smile on his face. "Anyway, they've hired us to take it apart and see if we can salvage anything interesting from the craft. They're hoping we'll develop some very useful technology."

Tokita arched an eyebrow, easily reading between the lines. The JSSDF was a branch of the military, and as such, they were doubtlessly interested in weapons. Not just any weapons, either; there was only one reason why Kiyoharu Innovations would specifically want him for this job.

They want something so powerful that it could be an alternative to the Evangelions, he thought.

After a brief moment of consideration, Tokita found that he was okay with this. More than okay with it, in fact. He had always suspected that NERV had had a hand in the Jet Alone's bizarre but ultimately harmless malfunction, but Ikari had pulled strings to kill the investigation into the matter before it could uncover anything substantive. In a very real way, the massive blow to his reputation, as well as his prolonged period of unemployment, had been the fault of NERV.

Tokita hadn't dared to entertain any hope that he'd be able to strike back at the organization for what they'd done to him, but now that he had an opportunity to do just that before him, he certainly wasn't going to walk away.

He turned to Tanesada. "Can I start today?"


Misato Katsuragi was not feeling well.

The former Operations Director of NERV Central had forced herself to shower, get dressed, and get to headquarters as soon as she was sober enough to walk a straight line, despite the considerable protests her whole body had offered. Even now, her head was pounding and she felt nauseous; she wasn't sure if she was still hung over or if she was suffering from symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

Of course, the physical ailments she was dealing with weren't the worst part of her day. Not even close.

"Oh my god," she breathed, her eyes glued to a recording of the last Angel battle.

"You don't have to watch this, Major," Makoto said, looking very uncomfortable. "I can give you a run down on the whole thing."

"No," Misato murmured softly, "I need to see this with my own eyes. You can leave if you'd like, though."

The bespectacled tech who'd been good enough to set up the replay for her looked very much like he wanted to retreat from the tactical analysis room. However, he must've felt obligated to remain, because he just shook his head.

"No, that's all right," he said.

Misato barely heard him. The battle had reached the point where the possessed Unit Three was strangling Unit One. The Commander was yelling at him to fight, but Shinji was refusing to even defend himself.

She knew what was coming next; she had gotten somebody to give her the basic rundown of the battle the moment she'd gotten to headquarters. However, that didn't make the prospect of seeing it any easier.

On the screen, EVA Unit One's eyes turned bright red as the Dummy System took over the job of piloting. Misato swallowed, feeling her stomach lurch unpleasantly at the sight.

No, she thought as the test type Evangelion put its hands around Unit Three's neck. The designs of the two EVA's were so similar that they were almost mirror images aside from the color of the armor. It was like watching two brothers fight to death.

Then Unit Three's neck snapped with a sickening crack.

Shinji's accompanying scream of horror brought tears to her eyes. She refused to let them fall only because Makoto was still there, and she didn't want one of her subordinates to see her crying.

"God," she breathed.

"Yeah," Makoto agreed silently.

Yet the battle wasn't over yet. The Commander refused to let it be over yet, despite his son begging him to deactivate the Dummy System. Gendo Ikari met all those pleas with stony silence, and Unit One continued to mercilessly destroy its foe, ripping Unit Three limb from limb and painting the surrounding countryside red with its blood.

Finally, all that was left was its entry plug. Unit One removed it from the remains of its enemy and held the metal cylinder tightly in its fist. Shinji's cries for his father to show mercy and end the battle reached a crescendo.

CRACK!

Shinji screamed more loudly than ever.

"Enough. Turn it off," Misato said, and Hyuga rushed to comply.

She had already heard about how Shinji had snapped after discovering that the pilot of Unit Three was Toji, his best friend. She didn't need to see him threatening to destroy NERV headquarters in his pain and grief, only for him to be shut down by his father like he was throwing a simple temper tantrum.

If she saw that, she probably would start crying, no matter how hard she tried to stop herself.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm herself. "Where's Toji?" she asked.

"He's in the Medical Ward," Makoto answered. "He's still unconscious. He'll live, but his leg was totally crushed. They had to amputate it." He answered her unspoken question in a soft voice.

She nodded. "Thank you, Hyuga," she said. "I'll let you get back to your other duties. I'm sure you've got a lot to do."

"Ma'am," Makoto nodded, recognizing the dismissal for what it was. He quickly retreated from the room, leaving her alone.

Once he was gone, Misato made her way to a nearby chair and collapsed into it, covering her face with her hands. She could feel the warm metal of her currently invisible power ring against her forehead.

It didn't have to be this way, was the only thing she could think. I could have stopped it, if only I was in any shape to do anything at the time.

But that was the problem: she had been almost blind drunk when the Thirteenth Angel had made its presence known. She had been on one continuous bender for weeks…and it was all because she'd given into her fear.

It would almost have been laughable if it wasn't so tragic. After she'd made such a bold speech to the Twelfth Angel's avatars—how she'd asserted that she did have the ability to overcome great fear—she'd let her terror of the nightmare it had shown her paralyze her. She had let it drive her more deeply into the bottle than she'd ever ventured before.

"Maybe I have the ability to overcome great fear," she mumbled to herself, "but I sure as hell haven't been using it lately."

Unfortunately, the result of her trying to run away from her fear by getting drunk all the time had been a disaster almost as great as the one she'd been afraid of in the first place.

"Damn it," she hissed, her hands balling into fists.

She had two choices in front of her now. She could go back to her apartment and get thoroughly soused again. If she was lucky, that would get her a few hours of sweet oblivion, time in which her guilt at having failed to prevent this disaster wasn't clawing at her.

Or, she could get up and confront this, try to mitigate the damage that had been done as best she could.

It wasn't an easy decision. Misato knew what the right thing to do was; it didn't take a genius to figure out that much. However, the thought of looking into Shinji's eyes while feeling the weight of her failure pressing down on her, the idea of going to see Toji and seeing the stump of his amputated leg…just thinking about it made her stomach churn unpleasantly.

The possibility of escaping everything, if only for a little while, was extremely tempting.

Oh, for god's sakes, haven't you learned anything? A voice that sounded strangely like Abin Sur piped up inside her mind.

Of course, that was what made it impossible for her to just go home to her apartment and get soused again; she had learned something. If there was one thing her experiences within the Twelfth Angel (as well as this recent catastrophe) made exceedingly clear, it was that only bad things happened when she failed to stand up to her fears.

Which, she decided, meant one thing.

"Time to prove this damn ring right," she said as she got to her feet.


Shinji Ikari's world was dark, both literally and figuratively.

After his father had brought his hysterical attempt at destroying headquarters to an abrupt end, the Third Child had woken up in a pitch black room. He'd explored it as best he could, feeling his way around the place, and had discovered that it was smaller than some closets and had nothing besides a hard cot and a locked door.

Obviously, he was in some kind of holding cell.

He didn't care about that too much. Even he was appalled at what he'd tried to do to NERV headquarters, though he would've felt a lot better about the world in general if he'd thought his father was also stewing a cell somewhere.

He snorted. "As if," he grumbled to himself.

No, there was no question in his mind that the Commander was currently sitting in his mammoth office doing…whatever the hell it was he did in there, like it was a perfectly normal day.

When Shinji Ikari got frightened and did something cowardly, he paid the price for it. When Shinji Ikari snapped and did something crazy, he was taken to task for it.

When Gendo Ikari did something horrible—like abandoning his only child, getting a fourteen-year-old girl horribly injured, blackmailing a minor into fighting a damn war, or damn near killing one pilot with another pilot's hands—nothing happened to him.

That was one of the things that was really getting to him. Shinji would never forget the feeling of Unit Three's neck snapping in "his" hands; he was absolutely certain that the memory would haunt him for the rest of his days. Meanwhile, his father probably wouldn't even lose a wink of sleep over the whole affair.

"I can't believe that I was starting to think he might not be so bad after all," he muttered into the darkness.

Before he could continue down this depressing line of thought even further, Shinji heard the heavy locks in his cell door opening. A moment later, the door to the tiny room swung inwards, and Shinji held his hands up before his face, groaning as the light hurt his eyes.

What now? He wondered.

"Shinji?"

That was a voice he hadn't expected to hear anytime soon. Given how heavily the former Ops Director had been drinking lately, he would've thought she'd still be sleeping it off back home, at best. Yet here she was, and she sounded perfectly lucid, too.

"Misato?" he asked.

"Yes, it's me," she replied, entering and pushing the door until it was open only a crack. The minimal amount of light that streamed inside didn't dazzle his eyes, but it was just enough for them to see each other.

She sat down next to him on the cell's sorry excuse for a cot. It was so small that they had to press up against one another to stay on the thing. The feel of Misato's hips touching his probably would've caused the pilot to blush under normal circumstances, but these weren't exactly normal circumstances. Even so, he couldn't help but enjoy her warmth; the cell was several degrees colder than anyone could call comfortable.

"Have you come to take me out of here?" he asked.

She shook her head sadly. "No. In fact, I'm not even supposed to be in here," she confessed. "The Commander left orders that you aren't allowed any visitors. I actually had to slip the guard a few thousand yen to get him to let me in." She added with a bitter laugh.

A wink and a jiggle had also been necessary to persuade the man, who was a member of Section Two. However, she didn't feel that Shinji needed to know that at the moment.

"I see," was the only thing he said.

"Shinji-kun…I'm sorry," she said. "I should have been there."

He looked up, surprised. He wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Misato, though he'd have guessed it would either be sympathy or a lecture about obeying orders in a combat situation. He certainly hadn't anticipated an apology.

"It's all right," he said awkwardly, "it's not like you could have done anything."

This was apparently the wrong thing to say, because his words caused Misato to cringe. It was readily noticeable even in the dim light.

There was a long, tense pause. "How is Toji? Is he…?" Shinji couldn't quite bring himself to finish that sentence.

"He's alive," Misato said at once. "But…he lost his leg, Shinji-kun."

"Damn," the Third Child breathed. Now he had crippled two members of the Suzuhara family.

"Look, Shinji," Misato began again, "I want you to know that I'll do everything I can to make this right. If NERV tries to skip out on the medical bills for Toji or his sister, I won't let them."

"Thank you, Misato."

"Shinji-kun, c'mon, talk to me. Please," she said, just a hint of desperation creeping into her voice.

"What's there to talk about?" he asked.

"Well…what are you going to do?" she replied. "I realize that your father was an absolute ass, but they're not going to let you back into Unit One unless—"

"I'm not going to get back into EVA," Shinji interrupted her in a quiet voice.

"What?"

"I'm never going to pilot an Evangelion again," he said simply.

Misato's eyes widened. "But—"

"How am I supposed to get into the entry plug, knowing that at any second, my father can throw a switch and use my hands to attack an innocent person again?" he demanded, his voice slowly rising. "I never wanted to pilot to begin with, and it seems like all I ever do is hurt people when I do."

"Shinji, that's not true," she said sharply. "You've saved a whole lot of people by piloting."

"It doesn't feel that way," he replied petulantly. "Nobody's ever said to me 'Thank you, you saved my life.' Instead, I get got punched in the face for injuring Toji's sister, and now I've crippled him, too."

"Don't do this, Shinji," she pleaded with him. "Please. You can't run away now."

"I'm not strong like you, Misato. I can't stay here. I can't," he said emphatically. "I'm so tired of hurting people, and being afraid that I'm going to die, and being disappointed by my father." He added in a whisper.

There was a long pause, and Shinji was just waiting for the former Ops Director to leave his little cell. He knew that nothing she'd say could convince him to change his mind.

So he was extremely surprised when she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Misato…?"

"I'm sorry, Shinji. I'm so sorry about what happened," she said in a watery voice. "I should have been there, not sitting at home, drunk off my ass."

"Misato, I already told, it's not—"

"I should've been there," she insisted.

Shinji didn't reply. He didn't know what to say to that, so he just sat there, allowing Misato to hold him. Much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, the warmth and touch of another person were extremely welcome after spending so long down in the cold, miserable holding cell.

"Listen, Shinji, nobody can stop you if you want to go back to your old home and leave EVA behind. God knows you don't owe NERV anything," she said. "But…I don't want you to go. I need you, Shinji."

"Huh?" He blinked, startled. Those were four words he'd never expected to hear, least of all from Misato.

"I never admitted it to you, but I didn't take you in because I felt sorry for you," she said. "I took you in because I was lonely."

Shinji was shocked by this revelation. He never would have guessed that she'd become his guardian for any reason other than pity.

"But, you have Asuka now," he pointed out. "You don't…you don't need me."

"I care about Asuka a lot, Shinji, but not the same way I care about you," she said. "It's not about just having someone—anyone—at home to welcome me back anymore. I've gotten attached to you, specifically. You're like my…my…" She trailed off frowning.

"Like your what?" he eventually prompted her.

She shook her head, not quite knowing how to put a label on what he was to her. She didn't regard him as her son, or as her little brother. He was more than a friend, like family but not. There didn't seem to be a word that accurately described all that.

"You're my Shinji," she answered finally, deciding that was the best way she could put it. "You're my Shinji, and I'd hate it if you left Tokyo-3 and just stopped being a part of my life. It would be like there was a hole there."

"Misato, I…" he began, then trailed off.

He had no idea what to say. Mere minutes ago, his conviction to leave NERV and Tokyo-3 had been absolute, but against all his expectations, Misato's words had definitely shaken that conviction. He had never imagined that she cared about him so much.

"I can't make this decision for you," she said, finally releasing him from her tight embrace but maintaining contact by placing her hands on his shoulders. "You have to do that. And if you still want to leave, I'll…I'll understand." Her voice hitched as she spoke that last part, though.

"Misato…" he tried again, but again found himself trailing off. He had no idea how he could express just how much learning she cared about him like that meant to him.

She didn't seem to mind; instead of trying to cajole him into saying something other than her name, she decided to do the last thing Shinji ever would have expected.

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

Despite how chaste the gesture was, fireworks seemed to go off inside his mind, and he blushed so ferociously that he was certain it was plainly visible, even in the dim light. He slowly placed a hand over where she'd kissed him. The skin there seemed to pulse pleasantly.

"M-Misato?" he stammered, having no idea what had motivated her to do that.

"It's a pretty lame payment for everything you'd done and gone through here," she said, though Shinji wasn't at all sure that he agreed with that statement, "but I wanted to do it anyway. I should tell you, too, that I'm sure there were a lot of times the Angels would've won if you hadn't fought them. I'd be dead if you hadn't been there. So you saved my life, Shinji. Thank you."

With that, she got up and left his cell. A moment later, someone closed the door behind her, and Shinji was alone in total darkness again. With a small sigh, he leaned against the wall; he had a lot to think about now.

Yet even as he tried to decide what he should do, one thing nagged at him.

Why had Misato been acting like she could have prevented the whole disaster from happening if she'd just been sober at the time?


"Give me good news, people." Tokita said as he entered the large lab where his team was working on the extraterrestrial's space ship.

It was a technique he'd used frequently at his last job to push the group of engineers and technicians who'd worked on creating the Jet Alone for Hokkaido Heavy Industries, and it had worked quite well back then. Everyone had worked hard to have something positive to tell their boss when he asked that question, and Tokita had made it a point to properly reward everyone for their efforts.

Here, it was…not quite as effective. Mostly because nobody had any good news to give him. The crew of white coats looked at him silently, awkwardly shuffling their feet.

Finally, one of the more senior scientists coughed into his fist and approached Tokita. "Here are the daily reports, Tokita-san," he said, handing over a clipboard.

"Thank you, Doctor," Tokita said, forcing himself to keep his sunny expression in place, rather than give into the grimace that wanted to form on his face. "Keep up the good work, everyone! Let's do Kiyoharu Innovations proud!"

There were a few unenthusiastic murmurs of agreement. Tokita ignored this underwhelming response and announced that he was going to his office. Once he was finally alone in the little room, he allowed himself to heave a heavy sigh, collapsing into his office chair.

This is not going nearly as well as I'd hoped, he thought, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

The problem wasn't his underlings. The members of his team were all clever people, no doubt about that; they were the finest minds at Kiyoharu Innovations, bar none. Also, Tokita privately felt that he'd done a very good job of getting his staff organized so they functioned in an efficient and productive manner.

The problem wasn't the budget, either, amazingly enough. The board of directors clearly felt that they had potentially hit the mother lode, and they were making sure he had the resources necessary to mine it for the company.

No, the problem was that damn ship!

Honestly, you'd think an interstellar, alien space craft would have more useful technology inside it! He thought with a scowl as he read over the report he'd just been handed. It contained no new or encouraging information.

Of course, he hadn't expected to have a new super weapon ready so soon after the project had commenced, but the news he'd been getting had been one big disappointment after another.

The engines? Melted to slag by reentry. The computers? Shattered by the crash. The weapons? Nonexistent. Artificial gravity? If it had ever been there, his people couldn't even identify the systems that had created it. Sensors? Same fate as the engines.

With each day that passed, it was looking more and more like the space ship might be good for little other than scrap, despite its out-of-this-world origins.

His grim musing were interrupted by a knock at his office door.

"Come in," Tokita called.

Tanesada entered, smiling pleasantly as usual. "Shiro," he greeted the other man, his tone just a bit too jovial, "I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time."

"Not at all, Tanesada-san," Tokita replied, forcing the smile back onto his face. "What can I do for you?"

Tanesada sat down in Tokita's guest chair and crossed his legs. He had the blackest, shiniest shoes that Tokita had ever seen. "Oh, I was just interested in knowing how things are proceeding with your little project," he said.

Tokita resisted the urge to wince. He wasn't surprised by the request, of course, but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

"We're finding a number of very interesting things," he said carefully. "It could potentially bring in a great deal of money for Kiyoharu Innovations."

This was true enough. The team's metallurgists had all but thrown a party once they'd started to analyze the ship's armor, and the study of the alien himself was revealing some fascinating things. The scientists had run his DNA through the company's super computer and found that his species had an extremely high rate of cellular regeneration. If they could figure out how to duplicate the trait in humans, it could revolutionize modern medicine.

However, Tanesada clearly wasn't interested in that sort of thing; he frowned at Tokita's tepid response. "Now, Shiro, you know that's not exactly what I wanted to hear."

No, you wanted to hear that we found something you could make into a gun, Tokita thought.

"I hope you'll forgive me for asking, sir, but why the great rush?" he asked. "This project is very new, and we are trying to figure out alien technology. All of it is completely foreign to us. Surely you had to know this would take time."

"Oh, I don't expect a working prototype by next week, but I was hoping you had some good prospect on the horizon," Tanesada said. "We've discovered that we have something of a window of opportunity, you see."

Tokita frowned in confusion. "Window of opportunity?" he echoed. "I'm sorry, Tanesada-san, but I don't understand."

"The last Angel battle apparently went poorly," his boss elaborated.

"What happened?" Tokita asked, leaning forward in anticipation.

Tanesada shrugged. "NERV is being extremely secretive about it, even by their standards. The details aren't exactly public knowledge, to say the least," he said. "What we do know is that a little village near Mount Nobe—the site of the last battle—was reduced to a complete ruin, and there are rumors that NERV doesn't have Unit Three any longer."

"I see," Tokita said, surprised. He hadn't heard about any of this.

"As I said, we don't know the details, but it seems pretty clear that NERV stumbled somehow," Tanesada continued. "There are probably quite a few generals in the JSDF and JSSDF who are starting to doubt NERV again, and I want to be able to take advantage of that. In order to do that, though, I at least need to be able to tell them that we're working on something promising."

"I understand, sir," Tokita said. "I'll have something for you soon."

"Good man," Tanesada said, rising from his chair. "I'll let you get back to work, Shiro. I'm sure isn't easy, fulfilling the demands we put upon you."

You don't know the half of it, he thought gloomily as he watched Tanesada leave his office. He didn't feel at all certain that he could keep the promise he'd just made.

Fortunately, there was one bright spot, one single thing they'd salvaged from the craft that might be able to meet his new company's needs.

Tokita left his office and headed for the small lab where they were keeping the alien vessel's fuel tank. The center of the room was dominated by a structure that was composed solely out of huge, lead blocks. The scientists were clearly taking no chances with the exotic radiation the fuel was emitting.

"Dr. Maeda," he called to a scientist who was hunched over a computer nearby.

He looked up, appearing to be mildly annoyed at the interruption. However, when he spoke, it was in a pleasant enough voice. "Good day, Tokita-san," he said. "What can I do for you?"

"I need an update on your progress here," he said. "You happen to have the most interesting part of the space ship, Doctor."

Maeda smiled. "I can believe that," he said. "Anyway, to answer your question, we've determined that the radiation being emitted has some of the characteristics of alpha particles, but is most definitely not composed of alpha particles. Quite fascinating really."

"I see. Have you performed your experiment with the mice, yet?" Tokita asked.

"Take a look," Maeda replied, gesturing to his computer monitor.

Tokita peered at the screen, which was currently displaying a streaming feed from a camera inside the lead fortification. It showed a cage full of little white mice, all of which looked perfectly healthy. One was running around on the little hamster wheel inside the cage.

"They seem fine," he said. "How long have they been in there?"

"Several hours," Maeda replied.

"So we can assume it's safe enough for someone to go in and take a sample of the fuel for more in depth study?" Tokita asked.

It would be an understatement to say he was eager to accelerate the research into the contents of the ship's fuel tank. Tokita might not have a clue what exactly was in there, but he did know that it would take an enormous amount of energy to propel a ship from one solar system to another. If they could figure out how to unleash the energy contained in that substance, it could very well serve as the fuel for fifty warheads, all of which would make an N2 mine look like a firecracker in comparison.

"We can assume nothing, Tokita-san," Maeda said sharply. "Not when it comes to alien technology, exotic radiation, and a fuel source that could've come from anywhere in the universe. No, we must proceed with the utmost caution."

"Of course, Dr. Maeda, forgive my excitement," Tokita said. "I'll let you get back to work."

Maeda said goodbye, but Tokita barely noticed. He was too busy thinking of how best to force the issue.


"Insubordination, damaging NERV property, threatening violence against a superior officer. These are all serious offenses," Gendo Ikari said, his hands folded in front of his face. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Several choice responses immediately jumped into Shinji's mind. After spending several days in his holding cell, Section Two had finally come for him, clapped him in a pair of ridiculously thick handcuffs, and then marched him up to his father's office.

"Well?" Gendo demanded after the Third Child had been silent for a few seconds.

Shinji wanted to tell his father to go to hell. He wanted to ask why he had to explain his offenses, when Gendo never had to justify his own sins. He wanted to yell and scream at his father for using his hands to nearly murder his best friend.

Yet he knew that nothing would come of any of it. Something he had finally realized was that his father would never give him an inch, never allow his son to see a crack in his armor. Before that first battle, the Commander had made certain to avoid giving the impression that he actually needed his son, despite how desperate the situation had been. More recently, after the last battle, his father hadn't been willing to even try and reason with him out his state of nearly hysterical fury; he had simply ordered that the pressure of the LCL in his entry plug be raised until it knocked Shinji out.

After years and years of knowing it, Shinji had finally accepted it.

His father literally would not even give him the time of day.

Unfortunately, if Shinji was to get what he wanted, he had to play ball with his father.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have done that."

They were the hardest words to speak that he'd ever uttered, despite his considerable practice at apologizing. It wasn't even a lie, either; Shinji was, in retrospect, horrified at what he'd almost done. He knew he could've murdered countless innocents if he'd managed to destroy half of NERV headquarters, as he'd threatened to do.

Yet apologizing for his fury that day was something he still hated to do. It made it seem like his father had nothing to be sorry for.

"That's all you have to say?" Gendo asked, looking almost bored.

Shinji almost told the Commander to go to hell right then; he had to clamp his mouth shut to keep the words from escaping.

"I thought my best friend was dead," he said, once he'd cooled enough to trust himself to speak. "I lost control of myself. It won't happen again."

Gendo regarded him silently for several seconds. In the dim light of the office, the lenses in his glasses were transparent enough that Shinji could see his eyes. They looked as warm and caring as the average glacier.

"Under ordinary circumstances, an adult soldier who did the things you did would receive a court martial, and then probably spend many years in prison," the Commander said coldly. "However, these are not ordinary circumstances. NERV cannot afford to lose EVA Unit One at this time, simply because its pilot displays conduct unbecoming. You will not receive your salary from NERV for the next three months. Now, you are free to go. Someone will remove the shackles."

Shinji blinked. "That's it?" he asked.

"Yes, but if you ever disobey like that again, the consequences will be far more severe," Gendo vowed.

The Third Child swallowed. Something in the way his father had said that made him feel quite certain that the punishment for a second such offense would easily fit into the "cruel and unusual" category. In fact, it might redefine the term.

Shinji thought he noticed his father's eyes change from dark brown to yellow for a moment, but he chalked it up to a trick of the light and the man's colored lenses, just as he had last time.

"Unit One or no, NERV cannot afford to utilize a pilot who displays a pattern of insubordination and direct rebellion," Gendo continued. "Keep that in mind."

"Yes, sir," Shinji said in a quiet voice.

He turned and headed for the door of the office, barely able to believe how lightly he'd gotten off. The loss of three month's salary meant nothing to him; most of his pay went to a trust fund he didn't really expect to ever collect on, anyway.

I guess what Asuka's always said about EVA pilots being indispensable is actually true, he thought.

"Pilot Ikari," the Commander spoke just before he made it to the door.

"What is it?" Shinji asked, turning.

"I did not expect that you'd be able to admit your wrongdoing, or that you'd wish to stay where you are," Gendo said in an even tone. "You surprised me."

That was a compliment, Shinji supposed, and hearing it made him want to sprint back across the room and punch the Commander in the nose.

"I don't want your praise," he said instead, and left the office.

There was a small reception area outside his father's lair, and there Shinji found a Section Two man waiting to remove his shackles. The member of NERV's secret police force did this without a word, and the Third Child was perfectly happy not to have a conversation with the man. Once freed, he stepped outside into the hallway.

And found himself face to face with Misato.

He was surprised to find her waiting for him, but not nearly as much as he would've been if not for their talk down in his holding cell.

"So?" she asked softly.

He managed a weak smile. "I've been docked three months' pay for what I did."

She laughed, a relieved, giddy sounding thing, and then hugged him with all her strength, crushing him against her.

Of course, unlike when she had embraced him in his holding cell, they were standing. Since there was still a considerable height difference between the two of them, the result was that Shinji suddenly found his face completely smothered by Misato's always impressive feminine attributes.

"Misato!" he exclaimed, attempting to push away from her.

Or at least, he tried to shout her name. The noise he actually produced was a lot more like "Mmph!"

However, she must've gotten the message anyway, because she released him before he suffocated, throwing an arm over his shoulder. "Come on, Shinji, let's go home."

"Right," he agreed eagerly. After spending so much time down in the dungeon, the idea of home was especially appealing.

They made their way out of the base without incident, and Misato drove them back to the apartment building, maintaining a constant level of comfortable small talk the whole time.

Shinji was grateful for that; he didn't really want to talk about his recent experiences with anyone, not even her. Maybe that would change in time, but for right then, all he wanted to do was go home and pretend for a while that everything was normal.

"Asuka is spending some time with Hikari tonight, so we've got the place to ourselves," Misato said as she unlocked the door to the apartment.

Shinji just nodded, silently bracing himself for the sight of the place. He shuddered to think of the state it was in after he'd been gone for so long.

"Well, welcome home, again," Misato said as she opened the door.

Shinji blinked as he looked inside. It wasn't exactly what he'd call clean—he could see that the floor needed a vacuum, there were dirty dishes in the sink, and the place could use some general tidying up—but it wasn't the disaster area he'd feared it would be.

"Well, I guess I better get started on dinner," Shinji said, noting the time as he entered the apartment.

"You don't have to cook, Shinji," Misato said. "We can order out."

"No, I'd prefer to, actually," he insisted. "After what I've been eating the past couple of days, I really want something homemade."

Misato shrugged. "If that's what you want, Shinji. I certainly won't complain; I've gotten spoiled to your cooking."

With a small smile, he went over to the fridge and opened it, fervently hoping that there were enough ingredients in the apartment for him to make a respectable dinner.

Shinji was shocked at what he saw inside the fridge.

Or, more accurately, he was shocked at what he didn't see inside the fridge.

"What happened to all the beer?" he blurted out, turning to give Misato a shocked look.

"Oh, that. I poured it all down the drain," Misato said, as though there wasn't anything remotely remarkable about this. "I decided I didn't ever want to be too drunk to do anything ever again."

Shinji gaped at her, stunned. He almost asked her just what had brought this unbelievable development about, but he stopped himself at the last moment. Something about the expression on her face told him that she wanted to talk about that about as much as he wanted to discuss the last battle.

Which was to say, not at all.

"So…is ramen good?" he asked instead.

"Ramen would be great," Misato replied enthusiastically.

Nodding, Shinji got to work preparing a meal for the two of them, trying to get lost in the welcome task. However, one question just wouldn't stop nagging at him.

Why is Misato acting so much like she's responsible for what happened?


The next day found NERV restored to something that resembled normalcy. Dr. Akagi called in all the pilots for a synch test, at least, and so far as the Children were concerned, there was nothing more mundane than one of those.

However, despite how routine everything might have seemed on the surface, Misato knew that things were still far from normal.

Everybody's treating Shinji like he's some sort of pariah, she thought as she headed toward a bank of vending machines.

She guessed it shouldn't have come as a huge surprise; it was only natural that most of the staff be spooked by Shinji after he'd gone berserk and threatened to destroy headquarters. However, even Asuka didn't quite know how to act around him anymore; though Misato knew that the redhead would never admit it, Asuka had been awkward and uncertain around Shinji since his return to the apartment the previous day.

Really, the only people in NERV who have been treating him normally are me and Rei, Misato thought as she inserted a few coins into one of the machines, getting it to spit out a can of coffee. And Rei is…Rei.

She would definitely have to see about doing something nice for him, she decided. After all, it was obvious that he had chosen to remain in the city purely because of her.

It was a thought that made her feel warm inside when she contemplated it, but it also made her feel guilty about every bit of crap that was being thrown in Shinji's direction. She hadn't truly been cognizant of it while she'd been pleading with him to stay, but it occurred to her that she was now at least partially responsible for everything Shinji had to endure in Tokyo-3.

"So I guess I'll have to help him through everything as best as I can," she said to herself, before cracking her can open and taking a sip.

She hoped that "as best as she could" would be a lot better than it had been before, now that she'd stopped drinking.

For that matter, she also hoped that she wouldn't fall off the wagon. Misato had utterly no desire to start drinking again, but she wasn't sure how she'd feel in a month.

She shook her head, trying to clear it of all the grim thoughts. She should get back to the test plug control room. Even though the synch tests were run entirely by Technical Division One, who needed no assistance from her, she felt it was her duty to be there.

After all, if we're going to bore the pilots stiff with these stupid tests, it's the least I can do to be bored with them, she thought, taking another long drink.

She almost choked when the base's alarms all abruptly went off, filling the entire NERV pyramid with the shrieking of klaxons. Misato quickly threw her can away, and after glancing around to make sure she wasn't in plain view of any nearby security cameras, she held her right hand up close to her face.

"Ring," she said quietly, "what's happening? Is an Angel approaching?"

"Affirmative," it answered, just loudly enough for her to hear it.

Misato knew she should've been dismayed to hear that; Unit Zero was nowhere near being battle ready again after the damage it had taken while fighting the Thirteenth Angel, and NERV still didn't know if the recent, traumatic experiences the pilots had endured had affected their ability to sync with their Evangelions. Of course, it also meant that her charges would be going into combat once again.

Yet despite all this, a rather feral smile made its way onto her face. After what the last Angel had done, it was time for payback.


"All personnel, go to first stage alert," Makoto ordered. "Prepare for surface to air interception!"

"Target status?" Fuyutski demanded.

"It's broken through our perimeter!" Aoba reported. "The Komagatake Defense line has been shattered!"

Outside, the bulky form of the Fourteenth Angel floated slowly into view. The instant it was in range of the city's intercept system, every available artillery battery opened up, unleashing trillions of yen worth of ballistics at the hostile.

It was all for naught. The Angel shrugged off all the state-of-the-art missiles and shells as though they were no more than mere gnats. Then its eyes in its skull like face flashed, and suddenly a cross shaped explosion erupted in Tokyo-3.

"The first eighteen layers of armor have been breached!" Makoto reported. "Unbelievable! Eighteen layers in one shot!"

"Well, that's not good," Kaji commented as he strode into the command center.

"You're late," Ritsuko snapped at him.

"Even the Operations Director has to go to use the restroom every now and then," he replied. "This Angel caught me with my pants down."

The scientist rolled her eyes, unable to believe anyone could be making jokes at a time like this.

"If the Angel keeps up this pace, it'll breach the Geofront in under two minutes," Makoto warned.

"Status of the EVA's?" Kaji asked, finally getting serious.

"Units One and Two are currently battle ready," Aoba answered. "However, Unit Zero is still missing its left arm."

"Where are the pilots?" Kaji asked.

"We got lucky with them having a synch test. They're getting into their entry plugs now. We should be reach to launch the Evangelions in 90 seconds," Aoba reported.

"So, a thirty second window," Kaji said. "Not enough. Deploy the Units One and Two inside the Geofront. We'll fight this Angel there. Somebody get some weapons out there for them. It looks like they're going to need all the heavy artillery they can get." He added grimly.

"On it," Maya said.

"Launching Units One and Two now." Aoba added.

Inside the cages, the electromagnetic lifts activated, propelling the pair of Evangelions upward. This time, though, they didn't go as far as they normally did, emerging inside the massive cave of the Geofront rather than on the surface of the city. Moments later, another lift brought up a cache of weapons that the NERV support staff had frantically thrown together. The pilots chose their weapons, preparing themselves for the attack of what looked like the strongest Angel yet. Now all they had to do was wait.

Or at least, so it seemed.

"Uh, sir," Aoba spoke up, "we're picking up something else in the city."

"Not something else, someone else," Makoto corrected him, changing the image on one of the command center's smaller screens with a few keystrokes. "It's the Green Lantern."

"Does she think she can take the Angel on all by herself?" Ritsuko wondered aloud.

Both the jade heroine and the Angel could be seen on the main monitor now, and the superwomen looked like little more than a pinprick of green light. She was a tiny and insignificant firefly trying to take on a rampaging elephant.

"Damn it," Kaji hissed. "Prepare to redeploy the Evangelions to the surface!"

"Belay that," Gendo ordered, and all eyes in the command center went to him. He leaned his face on his folded hands. "Let's see how she does, first."

The new Operations Director turned to the Commander, ready to protest that Green Lantern alone clearly had no chance against the obviously massive power of this Angel. One look at the man stopped him, though; one look was all he needed to realize that Ikari had the same expectation.

With a scowl, he turned back to look at the main monitor.


The Angel was enormous. It was intensely aggressive. It had come from seemingly nowhere. It ignored every single shell and missile that the city had to throw at it. It had, in fact, devastated most of Tokyo-3's major defensive batteries and turrets with only a few energy blasts, and it had seemed to do this as an afterthought.

Yet the Green Lantern of Sector 2814 did not need to overcome her fears in order to face this colossal beast, and for one very simple reason.

Green Lantern was not afraid.

"Ring, power check," she ordered.

"Power levels 99.4 percent," it answered.

"That should just about do it," she decided.

Taking a deep breath, Green Lantern channeled more of her willpower into the ring than she ever had before. None of her old hatred of the Angels went into the band of green metal, much as she might have liked to funnel all her old animosity and lust for revenge into it. She had already learned that it didn't work that way.

Instead, she poured her determination to protect the Children and keep them alive into her power ring. She poured her vow to never drink again into it. She poured her desire to make the rest of Shinji's time in city as tolerable as possible into it. She poured her will to be as good as the people who depended on her needed her to be into it.

In response, the most powerful construct she had generated yet burst forth, starting around her body but very quickly growing until it was hundreds of time larger than she was. It took on a roughly humanoid shape, but it was almost immediately clear that the thing she was making wasn't a human. It was lankier than any real human and had a nigh demonic looking head with a single, great horn.

Soon, the construct was complete.

Evangelion Unit One's emerald twin had taken to the field of battle.

The Fourteenth Angel, which had been completely ignoring her up until that point, ceased in its efforts to penetrate the Geofront and turned its bony face in her direction, apparently looking at her.

"That's right, big boy," Green Lantern said softly. The jade warrior was sitting in a green reproduction of the real Evangelion pilots' entry plugs. A luminescent plug suit covered her Corps uniform, and she even wore glowing A10 connector clips in her dark hair. "Come get some."

The Angel obliged her; its eyes flared with an unholy light, and a cross-shaped blast of energy soon streaked through the air toward Unit One's doppelganger, leaving the smell of burnt ozone in its wake.

Green Lantern was ready for the attack; the faux Evangelion rolled to the right, tearing up the street and anything else unlucky enough to be crushed by the maneuver just as surely as a real EVA would have. Then, before the Angel could regroup, it got back to its feet and charged at the Angel, a forest green progressive knife materializing in its right hand.

"Too slow!" Green Lantern shouted.

The Angel's AT field flared to life just before the green EVA could touch the beast; its progressive knife construct halted mere meters away from the Angel's eye socket, stopped by the barrier of orange light. Green Lantern grit her teeth, and the Unit One duplicate applied every bit of strength it could to the task of piercing the shield.

Then the Angel began to expand the field. Several "layers" of hexagonal barriers became clearly visible, and they became more and more spread out as the beast countered Green Lantern's assault. The emerald Unit One found itself being propelled through the air on the furthest one out. Momentum kept it pressed against the wall of shimmering light, but once the barrier stopped moving outwards, inertia would keep carrying the ring construct along.

"Oh, no, I am not going to be stopped by some damn light show!" Green Lantern yelled, focusing her mind once more.

The progressive knife melted away and was replaced by a construct of an Evangelion-scale power ring. As the jade Unit One pressed it against the surface of the Angel's AT field, Green Lantern clenched her jaw.

A beam of jade light as thick as a tree trunk exploded forth, shattering the first layer of the Angel's AT field like it was no more resilient than glass. Then it crashed through the next layer, and the next, the brute force of the attack breaching the nearly indestructible barriers with seeming ease.

At least, they did at first. Every layer of the AT field proved more resilient than the last, withstanding the brunt of the assault for just a bit longer than its predecessor had. At first, it was barely noticeable, but by the time the beam reached the second to last layer, it was taking several seconds to break through.

Yet break through it did. The beam of emerald light finally crashed into the last layer of the Angel's AT field, the unstoppable force meeting its immovable object.

It was a truly awesome sight. The luminous duplicate Unit One hovering in the air above Tokyo-3, its light leaving the city awash in otherworldly emerald glow. A column of pulsing green light streamed forth from the ring on its finger, while the Angel stood near the ground as the attack washed over it like an unending tide.

"Come on! Come on!" Green Lantern ground out through gritted teeth, beads of sweat running down her brow. She knew she couldn't keep up the mental effort necessary to sustain the attack for much longer.

The final layer of the Angel's AT field abruptly shattered, and the beam struck the beast with the force of skyscraper-sized battering ram. Yet amazingly, the Angel was not killed by the attack.

Indeed, the Angel wasn't even knocked down by the attack. It staggered backwards, and for a second, it looked like it might fall, but then it managed to right itself. Smoke was rising from a gaping wound in its body, beneath its face but above its core, yet the Angel of Might didn't even appear to notice.

Green Lantern was undeterred by its resilience. The Unit One duplicate crashed to the ground at last, its feet leaving deep craters in one of the major streets of Tokyo-3.

"Let's try that again without the AT field, shall we?" the jade superwoman snarled, throwing her massive ring construct into a sprint.

In response, the Angel unfurled the stubby appendages at its sides, and they became long, thin arms. Green Lantern barely had time to wonder what they might be for before the Angel used them to lash out at her. Its arms streaked toward the faux Unit One's shoulders with blazing speed, apparently intending to sever both of its arms clean off.

It might well have worked, too, if Green Lantern hadn't preempted it. The instant before its attack could connect, the emerald Unit One's arms simply winked out of existence. The Angel's papery appendages hit nothing but empty air.

Coming within a few paces of the Angel, the Evangelion duplicate leapt into the air, and its arms sprang back into existence as abruptly as they had vanished.

"Take this!" Green Lantern shouted, bringing her faux Evangelion's fist down in the Angel's face.

This time it did fall, landing flat on its back with enough force to set off tremors all throughout the city. In Tokyo-3's numerous shelters, everyone shuddered and clutched more tightly onto their loved one as the lights flickered and the floor shook.

Yet the Angel still lived.

Therefore, Green Lantern did not relent. An Evangelion-scale mini-gun materialized in her construct's hands. The weapon was so massive that it could have easily given the standard pallet rifles feelings of inadequacy.

"How do you like my little friend here?" she demanded of the Angel. "I call her Olga!"

Not waiting for a response, the green Unit One depressed the trigger, and the cylinders of its weapon began to spin. Bullets made from jade light erupted from the multiple barrels, colliding with the Angel's skull-like at point blank range.

Even the Angel of Might couldn't withstand such an assault. Chunks of its ossified face were blown away by the luminous slugs smashing into at such an obscenely high speed, and after a few moments, the plate of bone was entirely gone, exposing a patch of pink flesh beneath.

The mini-gun vanished from the faux Unit One's grip. For this, Green Lantern preferred a hands on approach.

"Rauugh!" she screamed wordlessly, bringing her Evangelion construct's fist down on that exposed patch of flesh. It sank into the soft tissue all the way to the wrist.

The Angel somehow managed to let out a high pitched shriek of rage and agony, despite not having anything that even resembled a mouth any longer. It writhed wildly, trying to free itself, but Green Lantern would have none of it. She held it down with her faux Evangelion's free hand, while raining a series of devastating blows onto its weak spot.

"No more death! No more pain!" she shouted. "Your kind will never hurt anyone ever again! Not while I have anything to say about it!"

The Angel had nothing to say to this, which was good, because Green Lantern wasn't in the mood to hear it. However, at that very moment, Evangelion Units One and Two emerged at the surface of the city, NERV having finally decided to redeploy them. The test type Evangelion hesitated, its pilot uncertain about what to do.

The pilot of Unit Two, on the other hand, had no such problems.

"All right, Greenie, we'll take it from here!" Asuka announced over her EVA's external speakers. "Get lost! Go stop somebody from jaywalking or something!"

To say that Green Lantern ignored the Second Child wouldn't have been completely accurate, largely because the emerald superwoman was so absorbed in her current task—attempting to beat the Fourteenth Angel to death—that she completely failed to notice the presence of the real Evangelions.

"Hey! Did you hear me?" Asuka demanded, pointing her rifle at Unit One's emerald double threateningly. "I told you to clear out!"

Green Lantern still didn't realize Units One and Two were even there, but the question of whether or not Asuka would have actually fired on her that day was one that would never be answered.

The faux Evangelion delivered one more mighty blow to the Angel's face, and the street beneath it could finally take no more of the impacts. It collapsed, and both the Angel and Unit One's twin went tumbling down into the Geofront.

"You have got to be kidding me," Asuka grumbled as she watched the two combatants fall into the very area she and Shinji had so recently scrambled to depart.

The Fourteenth Angel and the Unit One duplicate crashed to the floor of the Geofront, reducing a small forest worth of trees to so much pulp beneath them and creating a very substantial crater.

Dazed by the fall, Green Lantern allowed her construct to waver. The edges blurred like those in a photograph taken by a camera that was out of focus. She looked around, trying to get her bearings.

Unfortunately, that brief moment was all the Angel needed. It lashed out with one of its thin arms, the end of it striking the faux Unit One's chin from below with a devastating uppercut that sent even the giant ring construct reeling. It other arm quickly wrapped itself around the green Unit One's waist, easily lifting the thing into the air. Before Green Lantern could respond, its free arm began to rain blows down on her, seemingly striking from all angles. Under the brunt of such an all out assault, it was all the jade heroine could do to maintain the integrity of her construct.

Then, a truly horrifying thing happened. The Fourteenth Angel somehow managed to grow a new face, much as the Third Angel had done before it. The eyes lit up, and all Green Lantern could do was brace herself for the pain.

Which never came.

"This is my fight, damn it, and I won't let you take it away from me!"

Instead, the size 200 foot of EVA Unit Two crashed into the Angel, sending it sprawling and causing it to release Green Lantern's construct. Even though she was still seeing stars, it only took the jade heroine a moment to realize that Asuka had decided to ditch her power cable and jump down through the hole in the Geofront roof, rather than take the time to ride the EVA lift down again.

A small smile appeared on Green Lantern's face. Whatever else you say about Asuka, you have to admit that the girl knows how to make an entrance!

Of course, the Second Child wasn't done yet. Unit Two's left shoulder pylon opened, revealing the progressive knife hidden there, and the crimson titan quickly grabbed hold of the weapon. The blade came to life with a deadly hum, and Asuka wasted no time in using it.

"Die!" She roared at the Angel, thrusting the blade directly at its core.

Armor snapped shut like an eyelid over the ruby sphere, but it was either weak against piercing weapons, or the damage it had already taken had left the Fourteenth Angel too winded to truly defend itself. The knife easily penetrated both armor and core, sinking in right up to the hilt. Intense white light began to stream out of the wound, and the Angel roared in pain.

Yet just as Green Lantern thought that the Angel of Might was finally done for, she saw it readying itself for one final attack. The eyes in its skull-like face lit up ominously, and they were pointed directly at Unit Two.

There was no time to warn the Second Child to back off, even if the redhead had been willing to risk losing the kill. There was only one way she could make sure that another one of her charges wasn't hurt by an Angel.

Unit One's luminous twin pressed its hands over the Angel's eye sockets the instant before it fired its energy attack.

The results were incredible, to say the least. Green Lantern's construct of EVA Unit One seemed to explode from the inside with bright white light, and the emerald superwoman screamed as her whole world became blinding light and pain. An instant later, she was vaguely aware that she was hurtling through the air, but she didn't have the faintest idea which direction she was actually going in.

The Angel, however, managed to fare even worse. Not enough of the energy was able to escape, and it had nowhere to go but backwards. The entire upper half of its torso-like body simply exploded, showering the inside of the Geofront with pieces of its flesh. One particularly large chunk made it all the way to the NERV pyramid and crashed straight through the thick concrete of the outer wall, missing a low ranking technician who just happened to be passing through the hall by mere centimeters.

Several seconds later, Green Lantern finally hit the ground, bouncing across the grassy field of the Geofront like a rock skipping across the surface of a lake. Eventually coming to a stop, she allowed herself to simply lie prone for a long moment. The grass beneath her was rough, and the ground it grew from was as hard as iron, but she didn't care. At the moment, it was surprisingly comfortable.

Don't you dare go to sleep! A voice inside her mind hollered, and she reluctantly opened her eyes. If you pass out here, the Commander will send Section Two out to grab you!

The thought was enough to get her moving, albeit reluctantly, and she sat up, still blinking spots out of her eyes. It was a wonder she wasn't blind, she decided.

Then she heard Asuka laughing triumphantly and turned to look at Unit Two, standing over the ruin of the Fourteenth Angel's body. The Second Child did not appear to be very concerned about the emerald superwoman and was clearly enjoying her moment.

"Congratulations, you got one," Green Lantern grumbled sarcastically as she forced herself to her feet.

Now that the immediate danger had passed, the jade warrior had time to be annoyed with Asuka for forcing her to perform such an insane stunt.

"I'll definitely have to have a talk with her about that later," Green Lantern muttered.

Still, she mused, the Angel was dead, none of the pilots were hurt, and while she was probably going to be sore everywhere come morning, she wasn't injured.

"Guess I can put today into the win column," she decided as she took to air.


Author's Notes: All right, we're back. And so is Misato, by the looks of it. The ring construct of an Eva is something I'd planned to do almost from the beginning, but I needed to wait until the proper moment to have Misato do it. The Fourteenth Angel seemed about right.

And just what is Tokia planning? Looks like you'll have to wait until next chapter to find out.

As always, thanks a lot to all of my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

Now for some fun!


Omakes

I'm Sorry, I Couldn't Not Do This One…

Instead, she poured her determination to protect the Children and keep them alive into her power ring. She poured her vow to never drink again into it. She poured her desire to make the rest of Shinji's time in city as tolerable as possible into it. She poured her will to be as good as the people who depended on her needed her to be into it.

In response, the most powerful construct she had generated yet burst forth, starting around her body but very quickly growing until it was hundreds of time larger than she was. It took on the shape of a bipedal being, but it was almost immediately clear that the thing she was making wasn't a human. It was bulkier than any human and had a nigh demonic looking visage

Soon, the construct was complete.


On the command center, everyone gasped as Green Lantern's latest creation took shook.

"Oh my," Maya breathed.

"It is Godzilla!" Makoto exclaimed.


Official Request

"There, it's done," Mike said, looking frazzled. "Your glorious 'rise above your personal demons' chapter is finally written."

The young writer was currently sitting at his desk. Both he and it were currently trapped inside a large cage made of emerald green light. Next to him sat the remains of his ultimately useless bunker.

"Well, it took you long enough," Green Lantern said, apparently channeling her inner Asuka.

The author just sighed wearily. "You know, it would've gone like this even if you hadn't locked me in here," he commented. "By the way, can I get out now?"

"Not just yet, Mister," Green Lantern said.

"What?" the writer asked, taken aback. "But I did what you wanted. What more could you possibly want out of this chapter?"

"Oh, the chapter's great," Green Lantern said. "But there's a little side project I want you to work on."

She handed him a piece of paper through the bars, and the writer took it with some trepidation. His eyes widened incredulously at what he saw. " 'Magical Girl Misato Totally Saves the Day from the Evil Dark Angels'? You can't be serious!"

"Get writing, Bucko," Green Lantern ordered smugly.

The writer sighed and turned back to his computer. "This is not going to end well."