Chapter 21: Promises

I pick myself up off the floor of Nerv Headquarters. Kaworu's performance in his Eva horrified me and I had fallen to my hands and knees in shock. But even though the battle with Zeruel was over that didn't mean that the threat was over. Touji and Asuka were about to fight Bardiel, who hijacked Kensuke's Unit 04.

I didn't want to look, I truly didn't. But this is all my fault. If I hadn't practically forced Kensuke and Touji to become pilots then things would have been different. My hands curl into fists and my body starts shaking in anger at the thought of what a fuck up I am. I force my head, which previously had been looking at the ground, to look up as the screen switches to Bardiel. I may not be able to help them from here but I atleast owe it to them to see my decision through to the end.

The white Eva stomps it's way towards Tokyo-3, though luckily it was nowhere near here. "Are Units 02 and 03 ready to be deployed yet?" Gendo's voice booms throughout headquarters. "Almost sir, we just need to fine tune a few things." comes Aoba's voice.

"Asuka's synch ratio is plummeting!" Maya yells.

Asuka's POV

"You have no reason to feel superior, we Eva pilots are replaceable. You weren't chosen because of your skills, you were chosen because your mom participated in an experiment." the know-it-all's words echoed in my head. I gripped the induction levers so hard my knuckles were probably going white underneath my plug suit.

He's lying, he's just saying that because he was replaced. He was just lashing out at me because of his own inadequacy.

'But what if he's right?' another part of my mind questions. 'What if the reason mother-'

"SHUT UP!" I yell out loud while closing my eyes and covering my ears with my hands, acting as if that would silence my inner monologue. 'I don't need to think about her anymore, all I need is myself and Unit 02. He's nothing but a failure of an Eva pilot, he has no idea what he's talking about.' I think to myself.

I slowly open my eyes and weakly grab the induction levers again, not even noticing the tears running down my cheeks.

Brandyn's POV

"We don't have time to deal with Unit 02, pilot Suzuhara will have to deal with the angel on his own. Begin the operation!" Gendo announces.

I watch as Unit 03 rushes Bardiel, progressive knives at the ready. Touji immediatly goes to slice off the right arm and seems to do so. I begin to smile, realizing what Touji's doing. He's cutting off the limbs so that the Eva isn't a threat anymore and they can extract Kensuke. My smile begins to fade when Bardiel kicks Unit 03 in the chest, knocking it back quite a ways. The white angel controlled Eva then leans down and grabs the missing appendage. The core of the Eva begins to glow and Bardiel shoves the arm back into place, the wound seeming sews itself back up. My eyes widen and not being able to control my shock I spin around and yell up at Gendo. "What is that?!"

"That...is Unit 04. The greatest of all the Eva models built so far. After studying the Angel's biology more we were able to get the Eva's to imitate their regeneration abilities." Gendo explains.

"Just our luck." I mumble as I turn back around to the screen to watch the battle.

By this point Unit 03 had gotten back up and went to slash one of Bardiel's legs. Bardiel jumps over Unit 03 and lands behind it. Unit 03 quickly turns around. Bardiel extends it's arms out and tries to strangel Bardiel. Bardiel's hands slam into an A.T. Field. Finding an opening Unit 03 slashes at Bardiel's chest. Unfortunately due to Unit 04's healing factor the wound seals itself up as fast as Unit 03 made it. Bardiel's hands suddenly wrap around Unit 03's neck. Unit 03 slowly lifts it's right arm up and stabs downward with it's progressive knife. Bardiel's hands let go of Unit 03's neck as it attempts to get the knife out of it's arm.

Unit 03 suddenly tackles Bardiel to the ground. "I could fight you all day and I wouldn't make any progress, I need to destroy all of you at once and there's only one way to do that!" Touji says. Suddenly the camera switches to a view of the inside of the Eva. We can see Touji messing with something. What Touji was about to do hit me like a ton of bricks. He's going to blow himself up. It took all of my willpower to continue watching the screen.

'All my fault, it's all my fault!" I kept repeating that over and over in my head. No one said anything, because they all knew that he was right. The self destruct feature in the Eva's is very powerful, easily enough to get the job done. But the price is too high.

After typing in some codes a lever appeared in the Eva. Touji grips the lever. "Sorry buddy." Touji says, his voice melancholy. "Damnit Touji, what about Sakura?" I say, nearly choking on my words while my eyes begin to water. I was really talking to myself more than anything. I wanted to look away, but I'm not going to turn a blind eye to the consequences of my actions. Not anymore. Touji throws down the lever and the camera goes static.

"We have visual." Aoba announces. The screen switches back to the view of Matsushiro. All that's left is a massive crater, the two Eva units were completely disinegrated in the explosion.

"Mission complete." Maya says, her gaze downcast. There was a feeling of hollow victory that surronded the room.

'Touji, Kensuke, I swear to you that I will not let your death's be in vain." I think bitterly to myself.