Note: Updated as per dead_wife_enthusiast AO3's kind encouragement.

NGE characters belong to their respective owners.

"…even though I've let you down, you've still chosen to come back to me by your own free will…"

What greeted the girl was, in a way, far easier to stomach than what she had initially expected.

It was indeed her mother's room at their old house, the very spot where she had discovered the woman's suicide by hanging. But the décor was different than how she remembered it to be; like, less bedroom-y and more…home-office-lite. There were bookshelves surrounding a workstation with laptop and desktop computers, framed by paper documents in stacks and binders…in short, a classic professional researcher's room.

"This is how the room used to look like, back when I was still working for Gehirn," explained Kyoko, half-turning to face Asuka from her seat. "That was before the Contact Experiment with Unit 02 severed my soul, leaving you with the insane mess that you remembered as a child." The woman was now even dressed differently from how the girl remembered her as a child, donning a lab coat over a ready-for-office get up vaguely resembling Dr. Akagi's attire.

"Mama's well again," noted Asuka, choked up from emotions. "I'm glad." At last, in "death", she got to see a side of her mother she was seldom privy to in life: as a sane, competent woman of science.

Kyoko's eyes upon Asuka were tender, pained. "It's a miracle how we can even have this reunion. I want so much to make up for how I've have left you such horrific memories both before and during this Impact…and tell you, at length, how much I've missed you…loved you throughout the years…" Those soft maternal eyes then hardened with dark shadows brewing within. "But there is a more pressing matter we must first attend to."

Asuka could not help but back away slightly at her mother's abrupt change of expression. "Mama…?"

"The Last Judgment is underway." Face drawing tight, Kyoko switched on the laptop screen, now showing a streaming video of that end all of all trials involving all Humanity, with her classmates no doubt still present among the gathered masses. "I need to reveal the full scope of atrocities SEELE has committed against our family in their making you an Evangelion pilot…that heinous, convoluted ploy involving even your father and his mistress. This is so you may be well-prepared to exact vengeance upon those monsters at this promised hour."

"A-Atrocities that made me an EVA Pilot?" stuttered Asuka, grappling to understand a sentence that combined the word "atrocities" with the prestigious role she had so cherished throughout the last decade. "…involving Dad and that woman…" A horrifying possibility occurred to her then, forcing her gaze towards the screen showing the SEELE trial; the camera was currently zoomed in on the Witness Stand, showing the anguished faces of her (likewise) motherless classmates from Class 2-A.…

"No way…"

Gathered around Shigeru's terminal, the NERV staff gawked at what their Vice Commander had pulled up on the screen. Two separate windows were on display: one showing a video capture of the HQ's EVA Cage now holding the impossibly present, undamaged-seeming Unit 02, and the other a text file documenting another matter entirely.

It was the text—with the text "TOP SECRET" in its title—that now held everyone's rapt attention.

"…how…how is something like this even possible?!" snapped Misato, baffled. "What's written here…"

"But it is possible," stated Ritsuko with absolute certainty. "Even NERV can do something similar via science, albeit on a lesser scale."

"Much like the First Child's…'transfers'," muttered Maya, making the connection by way of what she had learned through her prior bout within the Collective Consciousness. Beside her, Makoto and Shigeru exchanged a grim look between themselves, saying nothing.

"…how dare you!" Livid, Misato turned on Fuyutsuki with much heat, in blatant disregard of their rank differences. "You'd wait until now to reveal this to us?!" accused the Major. "Had we known earlier…"

"Because only now, when SEELE and NERV are finally separated upon different levels of consciousness, that Tabris can ascertain what is revealed here will be safe from their vast scope of prying intelligence," replied Fuyutsuki, his voice matter-of-fact. "Certainly everyone can see the necessity of keeping this info secret from Keel Lorenz up till the right moment?"

High on rage, Misato tried to snap out some kind of harsh rebuke…only to find that she had none ready. "You…"

Ritsuko, watching the back and forth all along, exhaled soundly before cutting in. "Being at the heart of this 'top secret', Shinji-kun is certainly the best candidate to crush Lorenz's very spirit, and force that monster into reimbursing both Earth and Humanity." Her already grim expression darkened further. "But…"

"…it will be at the cost of Shinji-kun's spirit being crushed alongside that monster's!" snapped Misato, pointing at the text on the terminal's small screen. "With this kind of past connection between Shinji-kun and Lorenz, he—" Multiple resigned gazes met her heated glare. "…dammit!"

"…all to undo Keel Lorenz, huh?" murmured Kaji, the only one present whose eyes was on the video feed of the resurrected Unit 02. "The supposedly torn to bits Unit 02, now miraculously present, whole and back in its cage…is it's current physical form also composed of the LCL that now surrounds us?"

"Flesh and armory both," supplied Ritsuko, having since pulled up the 3D diagram detailing Unit 02's current constitution onto a side screen. "It's mechanical components, much like the HQ's …" Her glance fell meaningfully upon that functional escalator Fuyutsuki had just materialized in the Command Center. "…current upgrades—are kept physical by AT Field." She highlighted the set of numbers flashing over the real-time schematics of the EVA's core. "The AT Field that currently defines Unit 02's physical borders originates from its regenerated core, where an active soul still reigns."

"Doctor Soryu Zeppelin Kyoko," ruminated Kaji. "A mother willingly giving up even her own humanity for the sake of supporting her daughter through her upcoming task."

Even with her blood boiling rage focused on Fuyutsuki, Misato noted Kaji's statement with alert. "…Asuka's upcoming task?"

"The same task as ours," stated Fuyutsuki from where he stood calmly facing Misato's wrath. "With a regenerated and repaired Unit 02 at the cage, we have an additional unit on our side in case Unit 01 needs backup in handling SEELE's current form. The only thing left is for us to restore the Second Child to physical form."

"The Second Child's consciousness is detectable inside the Entry Plug's LCL," reported Shigeru. "This confirms how she is present inside her EVA in quantum form…just like how Shinji-kun was from before."

"Asuka-chan could be having a reunion of sorts with her mother's consciousness right now," pondered Maya. "She had been looking for Doctor Soryu earlier on…"

"Both Unit 02 and this HQ are now more powerful and user-friendly than ever," mused Makoto. "Too bad the Second Child can't pilot in her current state."

"…or can she?"

Kaji's low whisper, coupled with that look in his eyes that she knew only too well, alarmed Misato. Before she could get a better handle on what kind of (no doubt reckless) new ploy the rogue agent was plotting in his overconfident head, something she just noticed in the EVA Cage video feed diverted her attention.

"What's that new thing Unit 02 is now equipped with?"

The "new thing" Misato referred to was a large, double-sided thick blade. Colored in black on one side, white the other, with thin stripes of red, silver and yellow streaking though its curved edges, the weapon was not in visual harmony with Unit 02's fiery appearance.

Ritsuko frowned at Misato as though chiding her for asking such an obvious question. "It's An LCL-based upgrade, just like Unit 02's new armor. It could be anything that Doctor Soryu imagines in her heart…" Trailing off, her eyes widened at some number on screen. "Though…the energy reading coming from this thing is a bit high…"

Misato, now finding the weapon increasingly peculiar, suddenly noticed what looked like a factory code number printed along its metallic-looking, familiar-looking silver stripe.

"…BX293A…?"

Just then, a buzz sounded off drawing her attention back onto the front screen, now showing an X Ray video within the Tree of Life.

Unit 01's humanoid form could be seen straining against the inner layers of the Tree of Life's inner wrappings, which appeared bursting at the seams.

"Here it comes," said Fuyutsuki.

All eyes in the Command Room were now on Misato, who now had little choice but to take her too-secretive superior's prompt.

"…fine," muttered NERV's Head Tactician. Gathering her wits about, she was about to prep the HQ for the final Angel battle, before freezing up at something she then noticed.

Kaji was no longer in the Control Room.

"...having perished so long before Adam's Awakening, you and the rest of the old gang can only live on in memories.

"But I can now live on forever, together with you all who dwell within my memories.

"Long as I live on, remembering you all, I can be the eternal proof that us Children have once existed in this universe.

"…in this way, I shall be eternal proof that you once existed—"

'As I thought, he is the one who would occupy your thoughts at the crux of this moment.'

"Tabris?!" gasped Keel Lorenz, jolting at the abrupt telepathic message from his wayward creation. Shrewd mind snapped back to the present, the SEELE leader hurried to reassess his surroundings via the eyes and ears of those numerous followers since conjoined with him. Tabris' physical form was nowhere in sight, meaning that the Angel had fused himself with the surrounding LCL….

It was then that he noticed.

"What…?"

Under Keel's disbelieving gaze, the Tree of Life was gradually unraveling into a swarm of organic mobile tendrils, revealing from beyond their twisting lengths the armored Beast within.

The giant Beast, priory hunched-over, was straightening up to its full, imposing height, before glaring down upon him with eyes alit.

"The Shin-Man…rises!"

The exclamation from Kensuke—aiming his (metaphysical?) camcorder at the storm-obscured judge's bench in the distance— had the children from Class 2-A all pressing forward staring ahead, rapt.

Up above the Judge's Bench, a large overhead LED seemingly hanging on air lit up to show a close up view of the mentioned youth. Back on his feet, Ikari Shinji took a step up to the edge, and stared down upon the LCL twister below—upon SEELE—with a dawning glow burning within his widened eyes.

"…it's finally about to begin," hissed Toji, tanned faced flushed with what appeared to be an inter-battling combination of fear, rage and also grief. "The time for justice…!" Hikari, who understood everything her boyfriend felt at this frightening moment, leaned closer against him in a gesture of solidarity.

Hovering beyond the bench, situated over thewhole chaotic scene, was the Angel orchestrating this current apocalypse.

"Behold, the tyrannical Ruler's ultimate weakness—the foreordained Messiah," proclaimed Nagisa Kaworu to the petrified masses gathered. "That which could not be revealed until now: the connection between the protagonist and antagonist of this grand Lilin drama!"

Behind him, a block of text flashed onto the LED, headed by the following title:

TOP SECRET—BEHIND THE CASE OF KEEL LORENZ

. . . to be continued?