Asuka was enjoying her time. Even if she still felt bad about how she treated others, she still talked to her therapist about it. Her lowest point on the boat - the first night, she had... some pretty awful thoughts. Akin to Shinji, she thought briefly that maybe... Rei should've been the one to live. Such a former prick like her didn't deserve a second chance. Though, eventually, her therapist helped out. Rei didn't deserve her fate (if she was actually dead), but that didn't mean that she deserved it instead; her actions weren't excusable, but there's always the ability to be better and forgive yourself. She still had those thoughts from time to time though.

On the final day, Asuka rose from her bed, quickly hopping out and walking into the bathroom. She stared into the mirror, closing her eyes and trying to expunge her mind of all external thoughts- for now. She needed to focus on piloting fully. She deeply sighed, managing to do so successfully, filling her mind with the thought of piloting. Eventually, after a few minutes of mediation, she brushes her hair, cleans her teeth and puts on her Plugsuit and Interface Headset. She walks out of the bathroom and over to Shinji and Danya, shaking them both awake and telling them that today was the day as she did. She eventually walked out of the living quarters and onto the main deck of the ship, hands on her hips. If Shinji and Danya were with her, she would look at both of them.

"You two ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." He said as Danya felt woke up by Asuka. He and Shinji went to the bathroom to freshen up, wash themselves and brush their teeth. The fact that today was the day made each seemingly mundane task all the more impactful.

Taking note of Asuka's meditation. Danya went to the recreation room and grabbed his bible from next to the box full of VHS tapes. In the rush, he accidentally knocked them to the ground, and the tapes spilled on the floor. As he spoke to himself of his clumsy nature, one tape in particular caught his eye. He looked at it carefully. The numbers on it said, 02-26-09. He shivered.

Shinji couldn't help but notice Danya's sudden change in emotion and grew worried. "Something wrong Danya?"

"I don't recognize this tape...but the date...written on the side..." He uttered. The reason why this was so disturbing, was because that was the exact date his little brother took his own life. More unsettling still was the fact the rest of the tape was unmarked, as if out of place. Curious, he inserted it into the tape player and watched.

The screen revealed a bunch of letters in the Russian alphabet before switching over to someone dressed in a lab coat, who spoke of a subject, serial number 0001-237-42, of whom they've done several experiments on to try and conform him to their standards. Danya was unsure who the people in the tape were, but some of them seemed familiar.

"Wait a minute...that's my headmistress!" Danya said as he pointed. "That bitch made my life in the orphanage a living hell! Why is she dressed up like a scientist?"

As for Asuka, she was doing some last minute training. She didn't think she had enough time to do any kind of recreation, but eventually, she finished up just as Danya inserted the tape. She slowly peeked into the recreation room before walking in, standing behind Danya and watching the television. Well, this certainly wasn't any kind of movie. She looked at Danya- confused. Headmistress? She didn't exactly know what was going on, so she quickly decided to ask- eyes still glued to the screen.

"Danya-? What's... going on?"

She looked at the screen. The speech seemed to be in Russian, so she wasn't able to understand any of it. The only context she had was that the person on the screen was apparently Danya's headmistress, who'd made his life a living hell... she was confused. How did that tape even get here? The rest were unlabeled movies...

As the tape went on, the video became more unsettling as it showed more of the supposed "orphanage" which seemed to be void of any color, as if it was something worse. All around were familiar faces, which made Danya all the more tense. Just then...

"That's...my little brother Nikolai! He's...alive? How is that even possible?" He said, as he saw that his little brother was still wearing the noose around his neck, and even more unsettling still, was the fact he had a pair of suspenders around his shirt where he usually wore his jacket, as if...to fake the suicide. Nikolai told the headmistress that the...test was successful...

Then, the unthinkable. The camera slowly showed up to reveal a younger Danya, curled up in a fetal position, having a complete mental breakdown; a slobbering gibbering wreck.

"No...fucking...way..."

In an instant, Danya snapped out of his trance and paused the tape before taking it out and marching to the Captain's office, barging in, slamming the door open.

"From what I remember you usually knock." He said, unsuspecting.

"Captain." He said as he placed the tape down on his desk and placed both hands sternly on the wood. "We need to talk."

The Captain looked confused. "Remind me where you got this?"

"In a VHS bin I knocked over in the recreation room."

The Captain froze, and then sighed. "Damn this memory loss..." He uttered.

"Captain...what is the meaning of this...what are you hiding from me?!"

Asuka watched in shock and anger. So Danya's brother had... faked a suicide? She continued watching. Was his brother's supposed 'suicide' a ploy to make Danya snap...? It infuriated her- to see someone faking their suicide for a 'test'. Her own mother committed suicide- it still hurt like hell to even remember, and that had deeply affected her. It shaped her into the egotistical prick she used to be, and it shaped how obsessed Danya was with Shinji sometimes. To see that all that trauma was caused intentionally - it made her enraged and disgusted. She uttered something- specifically, the word 'disgusting' in German.

"Ekelhaft."

She said. She stormed in after Danya, teeth gritted in anger as she stared at the captain. She had heard Danya ask what the meaning of that tape was- what Battlehorne was hiding. She stood to the side of Danya, infuriated.

"Danya...when our Russian allies rendezvoused with us in Vancouver, they...made a discovery after an excursion in Khabarovsk. They never found the orphanage. But what they did find...was these."

"And how was I even recorded in that video when I have no recollection of it whatsoever?"

"Son-"

"Don't call me son."

"….you saw the video tape, haven't you? I'm afraid your life has been like that ever since you were abducted as a baby. You were force-fed psychotropic medications and implanted with false memories by ex Soviet Scientists under the command of SEELE. There's a reason why you were never allowed outside the orphanage; it was a testing facility located under Khabarovsk. They wanted to make you into the perfect specimen for war. Your bullies were all paid actors, as was your little brother. He never died, his suicide was staged to traumatize you into submission."

Danya felt his heart sink deep into his chest...his life...was all a lie? And it all happened right under his nose...?"

"How in the fucking….fucking…fuck…? And…they...?" He gasped and sputtered over his own words. "...my parents...where...?"

Captain Battlehorne revealed to Danya a dossier of him collected from the fake orphanage. "Your parents were never killed in the Moscow Blackout. They were summoned to NERV-U to partake in the Evangelion project. Your mother's body and soul was given to power the core of Unit 3.14. Your father was executed for treason when he tried to expose the truth to the Kremlin. The riots were sparked when the intel was leaked by him."

As Danya flipped through the dossier...his breath shortened considerably. "….you're telling me…I've been piloting my mother's corpse…this whole fucking time?!"

He threw the dossier aside in a rage and slammed his fist on the desk, making a dent, yelling in hysteria. "How many other lies have I been told in my life!?"

Asuka listened in horror. Nothing in his life was genuine- he was just living in a facade designed to torment him. And of course, it was puppeteered by those sick fucks at SEELE. Like Unit 1 and 2, the soul of Danya's mother was inside his respective Unit- Unit 3.14. Then, his father was killed. Asuka blinked, horrified by Danya's past- even if her own father was an ass... he had someone. Asuka simply blinked, watching the situation unfold. This was like her revelation, but in reverse- when she had learned that her mother was in Unit 2, she was in a state of euphoria, but when Danya learned about what had happened to him and that his mother was in Unit 3.14, he was a mess.. which, she didn't blame him for doing. Asuka could only mutter something under her breath, in German.

"Heilige Scheiße..."

Shinji, much like Asuka, couldn't help but stare, completely awestruck at this revelation...just like him, or Asuka for that matter, his parents were taken from him, albeit involuntarily in this case for the both of them. Never in all his life could he have pictured something so...ungodly twisted schemed against a mere child like Danya...and coming from a pilot like him...that's saying something. His anxiety turned into growing concern.

Battlehorn hesitated. "Do you really wish to know...?" Danya nodded before he pulled out from his safe within his desk, another dossier, this time...one of Adeline... "We recovered this from ALCOM's vaults..."

Danya read through it...and within the dossier, Adeline...his girlfriend...was a ...double agent...from SEELE?

"Sir...this can't be right."

"Sailor, I know this must be hard for you to recognize-"

"Adeline and I stood and fought against Angels side by side! We shed our blood, sweat, and tears together! How can she even be a double agent?!"

"Son-"

"CALL ME SON ONE MORE TIME!" He yelled. He was getting hysterical.

"Danya, I need you to remember; remember the day you and Adeline snuck into the Command Center and she hacked into the JEHOVAH Computer Mainframe to find the truth about the Instrumentality Project." He said in as soft a voice he could possibly muster. "Did she ever tell you how she was able to do so, or how she was able to pilot her Unit without any prior training at NERV-U? Can you think of any other logical explanation?"

Shinji shuddered...this...this was like Kaworu all over again, someone being sent to let his guard down...only to betray him...and moment's before their death...leave an emotionally traumatic reminder, scarred into their minds.

"She wasn't hacking into it at all. She was giving the kill order to ALCOM, right under our noses. She was using you...I'm so sorry..."

With each moment, Danya's breath became shallower, and his heart rate increased. His disbelief had skyrocketed. In his state of panic he virtually became completely numb. He scarcely blinked as he felt his eyes roll to the back of his head, and the world began to spin. With this horrifying revelation he began to relive each traumatic memory in his head in completely different detail, flashing in an epileptical manner before his mind's eye, each memory hitting him like a psychic battering ram. His legs failed him, and he fainted, neither comically or gracefully, but in a disturbing and sudden manner as his head collided with the edge of the Captain's desk, causing it to bleed.

"Take him to the doctor, now!" The Captain ordered as sailors rushed in to carry him.

Asuka watched. So... his girlfriend was a double agent the entire time. He'd been betrayed. This... was just like what had happened when she faced the Angel Arael- all of her memories were brutally shown to her again, twisted and contorted. She'd never felt so much emotional agony in her life- and she was so shocked that she literally nearly died. She had to be put into a coma and even then, she wasn't stable.

Asuka took a step back, simply mortified from the entire situation. Eventually, a few minutes after everything was all said and done, Asuka looked to Battlehorne, still trying to process everything. She spoke like she hadn't just been shown everything that had happened to Danya- how he was forcefully traumatized to make some sort of super soldier.

". . ."

"...How long do we have until we need to pilot?"

She asked, still processing everything. Slowly, she turned around, placing her hand on her forehead and running her fingers through her hair, clearly stressed and dazed. She eventually took a hold of things; putting Danya in Unit 3.14 would be the same as torturing him! It would be like her situation- when she was placed in Unit 2 after being sent into a coma- except, Danya would come to the same revelation that she did. She turned around, worriedly asking Battlehorne something.

"Will... Danya still have to pilot?"

Captain Battlehorne...he turned his face outside the porthole of his office and looked at the current position of the moon, which was now starting to crest over the horizon, and the sun was beginning to begin its descent. "We don't have much time...hours left..."

Shinji stood there...why did he feel so useless? Again he felt like he could've done something...but all he did was do nothing...just like before the Third Impact...

He shook his head. "No more running away..." He said to himself as he clenched his fist. This time however, he knew well then he'd have to make things right...he had to...but how?

Danya's Bible...maybe...was it worth a try? Would it even work? Why should he even? The last time he tried anything the world came to an end...or so he still saw it. But this time had to be different...was it?

"We can't just leave him..." He said before he made his way to the recreation room to grab the Bible which Danya cherished before searching for the med bay…

—

EVANGELION: WESTSIDE STORY

Episode 7:

"Memories (Someone We'll Never Know)"

—

There...on a simple med bed...Danya lay...unresponsive...catatonic...crestfallen...traumatized...despondent...insignificant...

He couldn't feel anything...he was afraid...deathly afraid...of anything and everything...

His brother, his family, the orphanage, his girlfriend, his life...all of it...a lie...

What was the point in trying to live when you're but an empty husk?

When everything you've been taught in your life was wrong? When you've been set up to fail in your life by those you trusted? When all your efforts culminated into...nothing...

Where was God when he needed him?

Where was anyone? Anywhere? Time became meaningless...as it seemed every second that passed felt like a minute, every minute, an hour, and with each that passed, he felt his life slipping away...

Asuka walked into Danya's medical room, staring at him. Those eyes... there wasn't life behind them. It was like she was just staring into light voids... those eyes, they reminded her of her own- when she was found nearly dead in an abandoned house.

She'd bet that he felt the same way she did- when she tried to take her own life, it was because she thought she was truly alone. She wasn't the Second Children anymore, her ego had been shattered, and... nobody knew her. Nobody loved her- nobody would validate her. And so, she thought she had no reason to live.

Maybe Danya felt the same way. And so, she crouched down, wrapping her arms around Danya and pulling him into a semi-tight hug. She knew that the revelations he had stumbled upon were life-shattering, but.. she felt as if this would help. Maybe Danya felt that he wasn't loved- that he never was- it was all a fabrication in an attempt to mold him into what SEELE wanted.

They say the dissolution of the ego is the beginning of happiness. But at the cost of their own sanity, the path of enlightenment turns into a descent into madness. What happens when your ego becomes the only thing retaining your sanity?

Shinji stood there and did…nothing. Just as before, and before, and before…why couldn't he make himself useful for once in his life? He knew he didn't have to pursue happiness at the sake of pleasing others, but…this was different, someone was in dire need of help and…

Danya did nothing. He felt limp in Asuka's arms. He needed someone…his ego was completely decimated as was his will to live…he needed…his life had turned out to be a mere fabrication…who…who could he trust…who could he even rely on?

Shinji then had an idea. Danya said he reminded him of someone. But who? That's right…his little brother Nikolai, who turned out to be a fraud the entire time. Shinji himself felt like a fraud as well. But…was there a chance that…for once…he could act like the little brother Danya never had? He had to try. After everything they've been through, he couldn't make the same mistake twice,

Shinji remained silent. How could he get through to him? How would he be able to break the barrier? Kickstart his heart?

"Brother…where are you…?" Danya uttered as Asuka continued to hug him.

It was now or never. Shinji reached out and just as before, caressed Danya's cheek.

Just then, Danya felt petrified…his eyes widened and he slowly turned his head to Shinji. Unlike his breakdown when they first met at the Second Hand store, he didn't hallucinate. He just saw Shinji, attempting to smile. It was incredible, in spite of everything he was forced to endure how he could somehow smile again. Danya never thought that he'd be glad to see someone who wasn't Nikolai, but someone who was real, someone who…was willing to be there.

The tears started to well up in his eyes before he virtually threw himself out of Asuka's arms and into Shinji, who this time…decided to return the favor.

Asuka quickly stepped back, letting Danya basically sling himself into Shinji's arms. She watched- seeing how hard Danya was grasping onto Shinji - it... would probably be how hard Asuka would grab onto her mother if she were ever to return. She simply lets the moment occur, not feeling like interrupting it with words. Slowly, she walked out of the room, nodding at Shinji approvingly. As she walked outside of the medical ward, she collapsed onto one of the walls, leaning on it for support. All of this... it'd been so stressful- for herself, for Danya, for Shinji...

But it was almost over. Just one more battle, and she'd be free of having to pilot: she'd be allowed to finally, try and seek out what was most important to her- everybody that she knew from back in Tokyo-3, Japan. She didn't know how exactly she would get there, but she knew... that was what she wanted. Maybe she could drag Shinji and Danya along, too.

She slowly began to smile- remembering that photo she saw during Instrumentality. Where Shinji, Asuka, and the rest of everyone she knew were together- were happy, for once. That... was what she wanted. She put her hands against the wall behind her, using them to spring off of it, remembering Yui Ikari's words- anywhere could be a paradise if once simply had the will to live- to continue on.

She didn't know exactly how much time they had left, so she hoped that things would wrap up at least slightly quickly. She quickly walked back into Danya's medical ward, looking at the two hugging. She waited for the two to separate, so she could speak.

One last battle, one final chance to make things right. If they failed...who knew what fate would await them? Shinji and Danya were afraid for themselves. They were already trying to cope with the outcome of the Third Impact, and...

No, they couldn't focus on that. Even with the weight of the world on their shoulders, all that mattered was that they tried their best. Of course, that was the case with The Third Impact, and it still wasn't enough to prevent it. It was Asuka's case against the MPE's, and it wasn't enough to prevent her from an agonizing fate. But it wasn't their fault, none of it was. They just were the victims subjected to a war that was doomed from the beginning. All they could do was make peace that they tried their best.

Captain Battlehorne walked into the scene. "It's time. Let's go." He said. Soon enough, they were on a boat headed from the USS Fairbanks to the Yamantau, whose technology was similar to Japanese carriers, with a much different color scheme, and aesthetic.