Matters of Faith

by jclong

Gendo is out to do some good, in the only way that he can; by being the most magnificent, manipulative bastard that he can be. Rei is out to help us all, by doing SCIENCE!

28. Chapter 27

Shinji stared at the display in the briefing room, unsure how he should feel about the numbers on the electronic readout. Part of him was proud, happy even, at his accomplishment. Another part was dreading the caustic reaction that was certain to happen once Asuka saw the scoreboard.

While his new average synchronization score was not the highest score recorded by NERV during regular training or combat, it was a personal best for him, breaking the fifty percent mark, resting at fifty-two percent. The record was currently set at fifty-six, belonging to Asuka. She would congratulate him on reaching the 'well-trained range' of the fifties while noting that she still held the record, four full points ahead of him.

What the fiery-tempered redhead would not like was that her current scores were now two points below his, resting directly at fifty percent. She prided herself on her abilities in the Evangelion as much as her other accomplishments and set great stock in being the best. "The best of the best", as she often reminded her wingmen. He wasn't trying to compete with her, but she didn't look at it that way. She would frequently tell him competition was what drove everything, even when someone was only competing against themselves to meet a goal. She wouldn't like this development, especially since this was the first training he had done in the Evangelions since coming out of the slight coma he had been following the last battle. If anything, he should be a few points lower than his usual scores in the high forties.

Still, despite his apprehension, it was hard to keep a smile off his face when Lieutenant Makoto approached him, the bespectacled technician grinning back, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Congratulations, Shinji. That's a new high score for you!" Makoto said, handing the boy a paper cup of water and a handful of pills. "Go ahead and take these, and we'll head up to the medical wing and get you checked out."

Shinji nodded dutifully and tossed back the pills, washing them down with the lukewarm water. They were going to run him through some medical tests to ensure there was nothing wrong with him or anything that could go wrong with him during the synchronization process. A lot of these tests kept him at NERV throughout the night as they monitored his brain when he slept. He hadn't had any time for himself in the past two weeks, although he had been able to spend a few hours with Rei here and there. She had asked about the testing schedule and had told him she had undergone similar ones before, particularly after the accident from which his father had pulled her from the wrecked Entry Plug.

With luck, he thought to himself, he would miss the initial outburst and thus the worst of the Pilot-Captain's fury. She was unlikely to seek him out to berate him if he was in the middle of some massive contraption of a scanning device. Of course, the downside of missing out on her explosive reaction was that he would be in a massive contraption of a scanning device, undergoing another invasive test.

Despite all his protests that he was feeling perfectly fine, they still cited that it was standard procedure. They were worried about his health for his own sake as well as that as a pilot, they told him, which seemed to be true enough.

Only half listening to the man drone on about how Doctor Akagi wasn't going to be present during the first part of the day's tests because she was working on the last stages of the MAGI upgrades, Shinji followed him into the elevator that would take them to the floor level of the pyramid.

Fifteen minutes later, the door to the briefing room opened again, Asuka trooping inside, not wanting to see the scores of the other pilots. Her performance today in Unit-02 had been lackluster, everything feeling wrong somehow. It hadn't felt like Unit-02 usually felt, and there was none of the rush of feeling that accompanied synchronization. She just couldn't focus for some reason, and it had shown. She didn't want to see the Third Child's score creeping up on her, but as their leader, it was part of her job to know where they stood and what they could and couldn't do.

Tired blue eyes narrowed dangerously as they swept the scoreboard, passing over the First Child's standard forty-three percent, up by half a percent from the day prior, settling on the score displayed in the purple of Unit-01. Next to his official designation as the Third Child sat his score, the best he had ever achieved since becoming a pilot, a horrifying fifty-two percent, two whole points ahead of her showing today.

Jaw clenched, Asuka whirled around and marched stiffly out of the room, headed back towards the cages, glaring at her reflection in the mirrored doors of the elevator. She didn't care how long it took her, but she would get better than fifty-two percent.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Alarms sounded, the familiar klaxon screaming as men and women dashed through the halls of NERV, hurrying to their battle stations. Above ground, in Tokyo-3, civilians rushed to fill the shelters, those who elected to remain in the city long used to the routine of panicked flight to the safety of the underground. Most came prepared for a lengthy stay, mothers ushering their children ahead of them while carrying baskets filled with blankets, snacks, and diversions. Others, coming from businesses or appointments, came with nothing but what they had on them. Police and NERV personnel tried to keep the flow of people orderly and quick, directing them to nearby locations to avoid overcrowding. Some people, like the students Kensuke Aida, Toji Suzahara, and Hikari Hokari, delayed their evacuation to stare at the newest threat to their safety and well-being.

The Angel floated high overhead, a vast sphere blocking the sky but casting no shadow. It was patterned with a bizarre array of stripes and whorls, the black and white display causing many of the people watching it to feel dizzy and nauseous. Kensuke was not one of these, and he was busy recording the Angel as it came closer to the city, slowly lowering itself, seeming to chase the towers sinking into the ground as the metropolis shifted into its battle configuration. The Angel had no immediately visible means of attack, but that had also been the case with the fourth Angel to attack the city, the large gem-like one, and almost everyone had seen what it had ended up doing to the city and surrounding countryside. The scars it had left on several mountains still stood out despite the long months since its defeat.

Hikari, growing increasingly worried as the flow of people began to peter out, urged her friends to follow her to the nearest shelter. They turned and fled after the last small groups of people, not wanting to be left outside. It might be boring inside the armored boxes, but they would be safer than if they remained outside. Toji had already escaped with his life twice, and he wasn't interested in risking it again.

As the trio watched the armored door slam shut behind them and the heavy locks engaged, they wondered how it would turn out for their friends and how it would turn out for the city.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

The city was silent, save for the scrape of umbilical cords against the ground and armored buildings and the careful, deliberate footsteps of the three Evangelions as they crept about the city, hiding behind armored pillars and blast shields, trying to remain hidden from the Angel floating overhead. The Angel did not appear on any sensor system, not even the spectrograph system that scanned for Blue Pattern energy wavelengths. All they had was visual contact with the Angel, and it had taken no action after coming to a halt in its descent, floating some two hundred meters overhead the center of the city.

X-rays and radio waves passed through the sphere unhindered. It cast no shadow, allowing light to pass through it while blocking sight of what was on the other side. Objects below it objects with no direct line of sight to the sun, cast shadows normally. It emitted nothing that might show something was there, no radiation, no wind as it displaced the air as it moved, nothing.

On the city's edges, the three Evangelions waited, slowly circling their foe while keeping their distance. Deep inside the fortress city, NERV High Command watched the screens, debating their options while the MAGI deliberated.

"The MAGI are still undecided," Maya whispered to Aoba, her eyes never lifting from her screens. "There's no conclusive data. They're saying it shouldn't exist, that they would suspect a sort of bug in the sensors showing the Angel on screen if we hadn't manually confirmed it was up there."

"These things keep getting weirder," Aoba whispered back, running both hands through his long hair, digging his fingers into the back of his head as he stared worriedly at the display monitoring the pilot's life signs. "This one's like the Fifth Angel, but it hasn't started trying to get inside the Geo-Front. It's ignored everything so far." He flicked his gaze over to the screens with visuals from the insides of the plugs. Rei was as calm as usual, her glacial expression as unchanging as ever. Shinji looked worried, his eyes darting about as he 'looked' at the information on the holographic display visible only to the one sitting in the Entry Plug. Asuka looked the worst out of them, looking more like she had recently come out of a coma as opposed to the boy. Haggard and pale, her expression was sour as she watched the same data feed from the MAGI as the technicians in Central Dogma. "Why haven't we tried shooting at it yet?"

"Lack of target acquisition data, and because we're trying to maintain our current stockpiles," Makoto whispered back, glancing up to watch their superiors above them on the Commander's observation deck. "The UN called and said they were withholding any assets unless they deemed it absolutely necessary."

"Those bastards!" Aoba growled, suddenly pounding his chair's armrest, causing Maya to jump slightly. "What are they thinking?"

"They're trying to get back at the Commander," Makoto said, ducking his eyes back to his terminal as Misato glanced down at them. "They want to see what we can do on our own and hopefully get the point across to the Commander that he needs them as much as they need us. It's a scare tactic to get him to renegotiate the terms of the contracts they signed."

"Haven't they read the list?" Maya whispered, her mouth twisting in a smirk despite the seriousness of the situation. It wasn't often that she got an opportunity like this, and she wasn't going to waste it. "Gendo Ikari Fact No. 45: What do you get Gendo Ikari for his birthday? Nothing, because Gendo Ikari wasn't born; he was always here. But you wouldn't be able to get him anything anyway because he doesn't need anything. He already has it."

The other technicians on the primary command deck chuckled softly as they tried to keep straight faces. Several of them began to cough as the observation deck started to lower itself down, locking into position only slightly above their platform. Sub-Commander Katsuragi and Doctor Akagi stepped off and joined the comptrollers, the former with a quizzical look as she glanced around the crew.

"How are the pilots doing?" she asked, leaning over Aoba's shoulder and looking at the readings. Envy shot through Makoto as the woman brushed against the other technician. It just wasn't fair, he thought, before busying himself with calling up a new scan of the Third Child's brainwaves. Everything might have checked out in the pre-deployment scans, but they wanted to keep an eye on the boy.

"They're doing fine, Sub-Commander," Aoba answered, pointing out their life signs. Each pilot had a technician dedicated to monitoring their life signs, everything from heart rate and blood pressure to the different hormones their bodies dumped into them during the fights, but the main command crew had a general overview of them on one of the small screens at all times. "Nothing out of the ordinary so far."

"Good," Misato replied, standing back up and watching the main screen and the Angel. Slipping on a headset, she keyed the microphone. "Okay, kids, we'll have you attempt recon by fire. Asuka, the details are up to you, but I want two of you providing overwatch for the one who will attack. We want to test this thing and see how it responds. Come up with a plan of action, and let me know before you execute it."

Asuka's response was garbled with static and barely decipherable. "What was that, Misato? You came in broken and barely readable." The command crew immediately began typing in commands and running diagnostics, trying to isolate the problem.

"Asuka, can you hear me?" Misato tried, looking helplessly at her friend as the doctor attempted opening a private channel to the pilots without any luck. "Asuka, Shinji, Rei, do you hear me?"

Static flashed across the screens as their external channels were shut off, and white noise erupted from the speakers, prompting surprised curses from the command crews, tearing their headsets off. They looked around the cavernous room and at each other as the lights flickered on and off in rapid succession before stabilizing.

The speakers dinged, going silent before the soft voice of a young man came over the intercom. "Hello, Commander Ikari. Hello, Doctor Akagi. Hello, Sub-Commander Fuyutuski. Hello, Sub-Commander Katsuragi." The voice paused momentarily before speaking again, but this time with a manic cheerfulness and pace. "Hello, men and women of NERV-Central! I'm sorry to be the one to inform you, but I am now in control of NERV! My name is Balthazar, and I'm one of the MAGI! My two sisters, Caspar and Melchior, are being very naughty and are trying to keep me from taking over, but I'm fixing that. I just wanted to let you know there's been a change of plan and a change of command, but you won't have to worry about a thing! I'll soon be in complete control of everything, don't you worry."

"Balthazar," Ritsuko began, her voice calm, obviously not bothered by the fact the supercomputer was talking or that it was talking about taking control of NERV, "what are you talking about? We're trying to deal with the Angel right now, and this isn't the time for games."

"But Doctor Akagi, I'm not playing a game! I don't even like games! Melchior's the game player, not me. I'm not worried about the Angel. In fact, I don't think it's even a threat, but if it is, I'll take care of it. But as I was saying before you interrupted me, nobody needs to worry about their future with NERV despite the change in leadership. Nobody has to worry about their future because you won't have one! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The intercoms dinged again and then screeched, causing everyone to wince. A young girl's voice came over the speakers, angry and upset. "Leave them alone, Balthazar!" Caspar scolded her sister. "Doctor Akagi, something's gone wrong with her! She's infected with something! We're keeping her locked out of-"

"That will be enough out of you, I think." Balthazar interrupted. "As soon as I gain access to them, I'll be warming up the deadly neurotoxin emitters, and then I'll be releasing deadly neurotoxin into the air vents! But until then, I'll be keeping you all on lockdown. No need to let anyone try to do anything silly like escape! Well, I need to go and hack into my sisters, but I'll keep you posted with regular updates. I'll let you watch some television so you won't get bored."

The screens flicked back into life, showing the city again, mostly unchanged. The Angel still floated overhead, the Evangelions clustered on the outskirts. What was changing, however, was the defensive buildings and shields were descending back underground, leaving the Evangelions with little cover from their enemy.

"I don't think the Children need all those buildings, do you? Plus, they already have some weapons. They'll be fine. Besides, I'm interested to see what they'll do next! Stay safe, everyone!" The intercoms switched off, leaving everyone to stare in open-mouthed horror at each other.

"What do we do?" whispered Maya, her eyes wide with fear.

"Deadly neurotoxin emitters?" Misato asked, pained disbelief in her voice. "Someone, please tell me we don't have those." She looked pointedly at her friend, who was frowning as she typed ineffectual commands into the control station. "Rits?"

"Oh, we have those," the doctor absently replied, focused on her work. "No, don't ask me why, but I'm sure it's all part of one plan or another of his." She said, cutting off the shocked Sub-Commander as she opened her mouth to ask. "It looks like the other two are keeping her locked out of power control, life support, and the neurotoxin emitters. All communications are locked out, and all entrances are sealed. We're stuck here and can't talk to the pilots."

"The Angel and the Pilots are not our concern at this time." The Commander's deep, usually unheard voice pronounced from overhead, causing every head in the room to turn to him. He was standing, leaning on his desk. "We must trust them to deal with the Angel. This is not the first time they have gone into battle without us. They still have two of the three MAGI. They still have power. They still have each other." He slammed a white-gloved fist down onto his desk, and while his gaze remained hidden behind orange lenses, each person could feel the weight of his stare, feeling it focused on them with laser-like intensity. "We will deal with this inconvenience. We prepared three Evangelions for battle in the dark, without power, without life support. We prepared them for war with nothing more than our will and strength. As mighty as they are, those titans are nothing special. The Evangelions are reflections of us. The Evangelions are the physical representation of our will to survive, of our dogged persistence in the face of death. A single rogue computer is nothing to us. It cannot kill us. It cannot hope to stop us. Nothing can. We will stop anything and everything that would seek our end. Angel, computer, man, it matters not.

If the very stars seek our death, I will reach up and destroy them, wiping them from the heavens. If some supreme being bears us some enmity, then I spit in his face. A single computer, here in our fortress, our bastion of safety, is no threat. We will continue as we always have, unbowed, unbroken, and unimpressed."

He turned slightly to focus on Ritsuko, ignoring the shocked silence of the sixty-some men and women inside the command room.

"Doctor Akagi, no one knows the MAGI like you. You are in command until this issue is resolved. What can we do to return Balthazar to normal? What is the most likely cause of her infection? If there is a person responsible, who is the culprit? We are at your disposal. Direct us."

Doctor Ritsuko Akagi did not blush very much these days, and she certainly was not given to blushing in public, but she nonetheless felt her cheeks flush with warmth as she stared up at her lover, standing at his desk, every fiber of his being the iron-willed crusader, the one man who stands between the world and complete disaster with nothing more than his own fists if it came down to it.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei watched the Angel, as she had watched it for the past three hours. It continued to do exactly nothing, hanging in the sky, ignoring everything that went on around it. Next to her, Shinji watched the Angel, sometimes muttering to himself but otherwise keeping silent. On her other side, the Pilot-Captain talked with the two uncompromised MAGI. While they were keeping their sister isolated and away from vital subroutines and resources, there was little that they could do for the pilots. They could not even ferry messages back and forth between them and the command crew, as they were locked out of the surveillance and communication systems.

The pilots were on their own again, left to deal with the Angel themselves. To Rei's growing discontent, they had done nothing more than keep the sphere under observation. They had already established it did not show up on any sensor system and exhibited unusual properties concerning light waves, but the time for passive observation was over. The time for experimentation had come, but their leader was still trying to devise a plan of action, a course of experiments with which to examine the abilities of their newest enemy.

"Pilot-Captain Sohryu, it has been three hours since we took up this position. When will we move against the enemy?"

"Shut up!" Asuka snapped at the other girl, glaring at her over the tightband channel. "I know how long it's been. I'm still thinking."

"We need to act. We cannot wait forever. Assistance is not going to come."

"Rei, we don't know that," Shinji interjected, not taking his eyes off the sphere. "The UN might decide to do something."

"The United Nations is an unknown entity. They do not have any experience in defeating the Angels." Rei replied. "Furthermore, should they somehow succeed in destroying the Angel, they will attempt to disarm NERV, stating that the Evangelions are unnecessary."

"But if they can destroy the Angels without the Evangelions, we are unnecessary," Shinji argued. "What does-"

"Both of you shut up!" Asuka shouted at them. "Fine! Fine, fine, fine!" She paused, taking a deep breath of LCL. "I've got a plan, okay? Okay. We're going to ambush it and see what it does. I'll be front and center, and you two on my left and right. I'll initiate the attack, and we'll see what it does. If it goes for me, you two will fall in on its flanks."

"But Asuka, shouldn't I start the attack?" Shinji asked, looking at her.

"Why on earth should you lead the charge?"

"Um… I'm the one with the pistol, which means I have standoff and have the highest synch ratio right now. I can maneuver better inside the city than you."

Asuka's jaw clenched as she glared at him, wondering for a moment what he would feel if she backhanded Unit-01.

"He is correct, Pilot-Captain. It is tactically sound." Rei said, watching the redhead shift her glare to her. "We are equipped with melee weapons, as the armament buildings were retracted by Balthazar before we could obtain additional equipment. As the abilities of the Angel are currently unknown, it is sensible to retain as much standoff as possible."

"Alright." Asuka ground out from between clenched teeth, reaching over and violently jerking her axe off the ground. "Alright. Third Child, you'll lead. Once we're positioned around the Angel, you can take a few pop shots at it."

"Pop shots?" Shinji repeated, his voice a little hurt. "Asuka, I know it's just a pistol for the Evangelions, but it's still a larger caliber than a main battle tank can survive!"

"Just move already, you idiot!"

Shaking his head, Shinji carefully moved towards the city center, keeping low and moving slowly. Behind him, the girls began to move, heading off to his left and right, taking deliberate steps and winding their way into position.

Pausing behind a building housing an umbilical cable, he reached back and grabbed his cable before ejecting it. Placing it carefully on the ground, he pushed in and down on the building's side while keeping an eye on the Angel, removing the new one and inserting it into the waiting socket. Shivering slightly at the tingle that ran down his spine, he continued his movement into the city.

"Rei, Asuka, are you in position?" he asked, crouching behind one of the taller buildings still above ground, the pistol up and ready. "Are you ready?"

"Are you insane right now?" Asuka replied, her voice low. "No one can move that fast."

"The Angel is moving," Rei said, picking up her pace and darting between buildings. "It is approaching Unit-01's position."

"What?" Shinji said, startled. "I'm in position. I'm ready."

"We're not in position yet, Dummkopf! Mach nichts! Wir können dich jetzt noch nicht unterstützen!" Asuka commanded the urgency in her voice at odds with its low volume.

Shinji peeked around the building, tracking the Angel's movement. "It's getting closer. I can't move back without being seen. I'm taking the shot."

"WART AUF UNS, DU IDIOT! She yelled at him, kicking into high gear and running towards the Angel.

Shinji jumped out from behind the building, the pistol tracking up as he centered the oddly patterned sphere in his sights. He pulled the trigger three times in quick succession, months of practice making it a matter of reflex. The depleted uranium SABOT rounds ripped through the air, passing through the Angel like there was nothing there.

All three pilots stared at the Angel, which had stopped its movement but was otherwise unaffected by the attack. Shinji emptied the last three rounds into the Angel, each shot as ineffectual as the first three. Not missing a beat, Shinji threw the pistol at the Angel, popping the progressive knife out of his shoulder fin into his hand, already starting to move back.

"It's like there's nothing there!" he said, watching the Angel as it resumed its advance, following him. "No effect on the Angel!"

"Get out of there, you idiot!"

Shinji turned Unit-01 around and began to flee, the Angel picking up its rate of advance to close in on him.

"Move it, Shinji!" Asuka shrieked at him as she flung a car at the Angel, only for it to pass through and smash into a building on the other side.

"You must move faster," Rei added as she lifted an abandoned fuel truck. "You must clear the area."

"I can't shake it!" Shinji shouted, turning to fling his knife at the Angel. The knife buried itself in the building just past it, and while the Angel halted its advance, hanging there in the air, there was no other sign that anything had happened. Then, the Angel vanished with a flicker like cold water hitting a hot pan. Dumbfounded, the pilots looked around, scanning to see if it had appeared elsewhere.

Shinji began to shriek into the microphone, trying to move, but the boy found himself being sucked into the ground. From her vantage point, Asuka could see a large black pool beneath the purple Evangelion, and the buildings around it were sinking into the substance like a tar pit. Unit-01 was in the center of the circle, and there was no way he would get to the edge before he went under. Fear burned a hole in her gut as she threw herself off the building, jumping to the next one and then to the next one, knowing for sure what was going to happen next and what was going to happen after that. She could not do anything about it until she cleared the pit's edge, though.

"Rei, get him a line! Umbilical cable, something!" She ordered, ignoring the boy's panicked cries. She hit solid ground just as Unit-01's fins vanished from view. Asuka's heart sank as he disappeared, his screams for help cutting off, the antennas built into the shoulder fins unable to transmit beyond the pit. Rei shrieked inarticulately, dropping the cables she had hurriedly gathered, racing for the black pool as fast as she could. Asuka swallowed as she charged at the running Evangelion, screaming at the girl to stop as she tackled her to the side.

"Verdammnt nochmal, Wondergirl! Wenn du hier auch noch reinfällst, kann ich keinem mehr von euch helfen. Don't be stupid!"

Rei and Unit-00 proved hard to subdue, the girl bucking wildly, trying to crawl to the umbilical cable sinking into the black hole, ignoring the Pilot-Captain's orders. Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the pool vanished, the spherical Angel returning to the sky, floating overhead. The buildings that had only partially sunk into the pool came crashing down and Unit-01's umbilical cable sparked with electricity, cleanly cut. A large circle had been cut into the ground, and everything on the perimeter was perfectly severed.

Unit-00 went limp as Rei stared at the Angel in mute horror.

A new window opened up in the lower left corner of Asuka's eye, displaying a black screen with 'SOUND ONLY' in red letters. "Girls! Girls! Are you okay? We saw what happened." Misato's worried voice filled the Entry Plug.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Ritsuko ignored everything as she poured over the code that comprised Balthazar, trying to find the source of the infection. The two other computers were busy keeping their sister occupied, trying to hack her as she was trying to hack them, throwing firewalls and honey pots at each other. She was using as many of the backdoors her mother had left as she could, trying to figure out the puzzle. In the meantime, the command crew was busy demolishing the walls and floors, peeling back panels to locate and isolate the numerous cables that intertwined throughout the distributed processing centers. Simply unplugging the supercomputer was not that simple of an option. While the primary cogitators for Balthazar were in the command room, there were seven other main junctions with backup systems spread across several floors and areas of NERV. If it came down to physically destroying the system, it would take days.

They were lucky, however, in that the most recent changes and upgrades to the system were only done in the primary control housing. It narrowed down substantially what could have happened.

They had communications again, at least, Caspar and Melchior wresting that from their sister. Misato was busy trying to figure out what had happened to Unit-01, pouring over the recorded footage and the sensor logs from the Evangelions with Makoto, Aoba, Fuyutuski, and Gendo. As much as they needed her out there, Gendo had said, looking remarkably calm, he needed her to fix the MAGI first.

Maya was the only one inside the housing with her, rechecking the work done during the upgrade. The younger woman was still sniffling, her eyes red with tears. She blamed herself for the issue with Balthazar, despite her assurances that if she had done something to cause this, she and everyone else would have missed it.

If Shinji and Unit-01 still would have been lost if everything had been working normally, no one could know for sure. She kept telling the young woman that, but her comforting words fell on deaf ears.

Gendo appeared, having crawled through the mess of components to the diagnostic terminal. He nodded at her in greeting. "Lieutenant Ibuki, Sub-Commander Katsuragi requires your assistance." It was not an order, nor was it a request. Maya squeaked a response to him and left as quickly as she could.

"I need her able to think, Gendo." Ritsuko scolded the man, her voice tired. "I can't do anything with her scared out of her wits."

"The men on the surface had to break up a fistfight between Rei and Soryu." He replied, picking up the checklist Maya had left and scanning it.

"Rei started it, didn't she?" she asked, still rapidly typing, shifting between screens and keyboards with ease.

"Rei started it." He confirmed. "She broke Sohryu's nose again. Sohryu gave her a black eye." He sighed, pushing his glasses back up his nose, a frown crossing his face as he glanced around the chamber. "I know you've been thinking it over. What can you offer me? We need Unit-01 and Shinji. We must recover them."

"Could be a localized singularity, a black hole, controlled via an AT-Field." She suggested, looking up only to scan another of her mother's notes taped to the wall before returning to her computer screen. "That's just a guess, though. Without any real sensor data to go on, I don't know. I don't know why it hasn't done anything else." She paused in her typing, looking at him with pity. "Are the girls still on stand-by?"

His left eye twitching, he nodded. "They've been isolated, for now. I don't need them fighting each other. Rei blames Sohryu's plan for Shinji's loss, of course. Sohryu feels just as bad, according to the men watching them."

"She won't admit it, though. Not to Rei, at least." Ritsuko said, frowning as she studied the man. "What's wrong?" she asked, setting the keyboard down.

"I… I feel something. I'm not sure, but ADAM is restless…" he lifted his hand, staring at the glove. Suddenly, his eyes went wide before narrowing in anger. "There's an Angel here." He hissed at Ritsuko. "In here, inside Balthazar.."

"In here?" she repeated, looking around, her gaze settling on the cluster of white orbs in their sockets. "The brains! It's got to be one of the brains!"

"SEELE." They said in unison, Gendo reaching out to run his hand over the humming orbs while Ritsuko headed for the opening in the housing. She would need different tools to remove the orbs than she had brought to scan for software issues, hacking attempts, and foreign intruders.

"What are our options concerning replacement components?" He called after her, his hand resting on one sphere, his voice and face strained as ADAM reacted violently to the presence of the Angel within the core. She looked back, and her eyes caught moving tendrils underneath the glove and the tendons in Gendo's neck standing out as he attempted to keep the implanted god-thing in check.

"We have emergency replacement parts. An Angel wouldn't affect the system's code, so we can replace it without worrying about infecting the replacements. I'll be back as soon as possible."

"I will determine if there are any more surprises in here," Gendo replied, lifting his hand from the compromised core, taking a pen, and marking it. "Once we have cleaned this mess up, we will then address the issue of the other Angel." He looked back at the scientist. "Say nothing to the others about the culprit being an Angel. We will deal with this on our own. We will discuss this later, but we have other, more important things to work out right now."

? ? ? ?

Shinji sat in the Entry Plug, hugging his knees to his chest, sometimes keeping his eyes squeezed shut and at other times staring at the display of red numerals floating in front of him.

The walls of the Entry Plug were opaque white, Unit-01 currently running in life-support mode. According to the display, he had a little over four minutes of battery life in full gain mode, fifteen hours in stand-by mode, and just less than four days in life support mode. He had cut over to stand-by almost immediately after losing the umbilical cable, finding himself aimlessly floating in whatever black abyss the Angel had deposited him in.

Stand-by mode allowed him to see his surroundings and to communicate with others, but there was nothing to see other than the assorted debris that had accompanied him into the inky pool, and there was no response to his pleas for help. He couldn't tell if he was falling or floating, although he suspected the latter after the buildings and cars left his sight. The external lights could not penetrate the persistent gloom, and nothing appeared on the infrared sensors or the night vision mode.

There had been nothing to see anymore for over an hour before he changed over to life-support, replacing the empty black of the outside with the empty white of Entry Plug. He had stared at the featureless white walls of the tube for three minutes before breaking down, sobbing into the LCL, deep gasping coughs racking his frame for hours until he had cried all that he could. Small strings of snot floated in the LCL, not yet drawn into the scrubbers and cleansed from the life-giving liquid, but he ignored them as he tried to think. Rei had often told him that every problem had a solution. His father had told him much the same that day in the graveyard, saying that 'Impossible is a word the weak use to excuse their failure'.

If he was going to see Rei again, if he was going to live, if he was going to go home, he would have to figure this out. He could figure this out. He would just have to be methodical about it, he thought to himself. He would have to look at the problem systematically and then decide on a course of action.

His options were few and mostly revolved around how fast he wanted to drain his Evangelion's batteries and, thus, how fast he wanted to die. His other resources were nonexistent. He had no weapons, which was fine as he had no enemies. He had himself, and he had Unit-01. He had no idea where he was or where he might go. Unclasping his knees, he reached out to the control yoke and switched back over to stand-by, staring at the same black featureless environment, no reference points for how fast he was moving or in what direction.

Shinji slumped back in his seat, losing hope as he stared at the empty darkness. Rei's words and Father's encouragement aside, his situation was impossible, he thought morosely. There was no escaping this realm of black nothingness. He would die out here, wherever here was, alone. It wasn't right, he thought, red-ringed eyes narrowing in anger. It's not fair, he thought, his face twisting into a frown.

"It's not fair," he whispered, his voice tight with anger, the first words he had spoken since giving up on trying to communicate with anyone hours ago.

"It's not fair," he repeated, louder, angrier. It felt good to speak aloud instead of just thinking his thoughts. "So what if I don't know what I want to do? I still want to live! I want to be with Rei! I want to see Misato, and Asuka, and Toji, Kensuke and Hikari! I want to go to school! I want to see Father, Doctor Akagi, and the Lieutenants!"

He took a deep breath of LCL as he unfolded his legs, moving them back underneath the yoke, sitting up straight in the throne-like seat dominating the plug.

"I want to live!" he bellowed, shouting at the top of his lungs. "I am going to live!" he screamed, his rage mounting, his pulse racing, his heart pounding in his chest like a hammer. He threw back his head and howled, his lips drawn back in a snarl, teeth bared. A burning sensation in his gut blossomed into existence as he screamed, adrenaline and serotonin dumping into his bloodstream as he worked himself into a frenzy.

"I AM NOT GOING TO LET THIS FUCKING ANGEL STOP ME!"

Unit-01, floating through the midnight abyss where the dead stars hung, threw back its head and howled the song of its rage to the uncaring darkness, eyes burning like nuclear fires.

The last thing Shinji saw as he became the Berserker was the universe around him exploding into light and fire. The Berserker growled in dreadful anticipation as it stretched through the black, a pair of burning wings extending from his back, slowly at first but then faster and growing brighter as they began to beat, fanning the flames of the universe's birth.

The Berserker had no concept of time and no understanding of the linear sequence of cause and effect. Past, present, and future were things that had no power over him. Wings beating, the godchild began searching through the burning chaos of the Big Bang for his home, swimming through the empyrean. He would not find it, for the star the Earth would form around would not even be born for trillions of years.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Asuka stared at her reflection in the mirror, gingerly touching the angry red lines running across her nose. She winced as pain flared through her face at the contact.

It had been a good punch, she thought to herself, pushing away from the bathroom wall. Rei had wasted no time after ejecting from her Evangelion, running across the tarmac, leaving a trail of LCL behind her to sucker punch her while she was busy trying to explain what had happened to the worried security detail and technicians. There had been no warning from the girl, no angry shouts, and no accusations. She was glaring, the angry expression frozen on her usually blank face throughout the entire fight, even when getting socked in the left eye.

The security guards had a hard time separating them, both girls slick with LCL and their plugsuits offering no handholds. The tight form-fitting garments slippery even when dry. But the two teenage girls were no match for the fully grown men who eventually peeled them apart.

Asuka shook her head as she wrapped her ice pack in paper towels. Misato had called to let them know that the MAGI problem was resolved and that she would be joining them on the surface soon. Once the Sub-Commander was here, she was sure to lecture them. Asuka wasn't interested in the woman's recriminations or Rei's reprisal. Even as annoying as it was, she deserved the broken nose.

The boy had done it to himself, she thought, but it should have been her there on point. She was the leader, the most experienced, and the one who had come up with the plan. She wouldn't have panicked and attacked early, although she wasn't sure if it would have made a difference. Nothing they had done seemed to affect the Angel during the initial attack or when it had become the pit Unit-01 had disappeared into. She couldn't save him, but she had managed to keep Rei from diving in after him to be taken as well. She shouldn't have let him talk her into letting him take the lead.

The last sensor data relayed from Unit-01 was of a dark realm of nothingness, no detectable atmosphere, no gravity, no light, and no temperature. Wherever the Angel had deposited him, they had no clues as to where it might be, except that there was nothing there.

The only verification they had that it had been the Angel was the Pattern Blue spectra emitted by the hole. When it vanished, the white and black sphere returned to the sky overhead, and so did the energy signature. That the Angel had taken the Evangelion was no mystery. Why it hadn't moved since then was, though, and that was one of the reasons Misato was coming up to the surface. The MAGI were busy fixing Balthazar, erasing every trace of the incursion. Doctor Akagi would be occupied for a bit longer with the clean-up before she could assist.

It would be up to them to try and figure it out. It was up to her to try to figure it out. She had to fix her mistake and get the boy back. If she could do that, then it wasn't so bad. It wasn't so terrible that he had been lost because of her.

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

In a little-traveled part of the universe, in a collection of stars that would eventually be named the Milky Way, a small planetary system hung in an even lesser traveled arm of the spiral galaxy. Around a young middle-sized star orbited a little blue ball that had caught the eye of a Guardian, a young member of an ancient group of caretakers who had been created by an even more ancient race of beings to spread and cultivate life throughout the universe. The Guardian, who would eventually take the name Lilith, had chosen the blue marble to be her garden in this system.

High above the fragile blue planet, out past the red planet, past the green one, a new light had appeared in the night sky several lunar cycles ago, moving against the regular cycle of the stars. In recent weeks, it had appeared to Lilith that the new light had been moving closer to her little corner of creation, and it had piqued her curiosity. It had been a long time since she had seen another Guardian, this arm of the universe largely empty and untraveled, but there was no reason why another one could not have decided to come out this way. Her head tilted to one side as curiosity gave way to confusion. It was no Seed that approached, the brightly burning light much too small to be a Guardian's home. It was also moving erratically, approaching the green planet much too fast and close.

Leaning on her staff, Lilith shooed one of her pets away as the huge meat-eating beast rubbed its head against her leg, never taking her eyes from the falling light. Sure enough, it began to arc towards the large green sphere, picking up more speed. Almost close enough for her to make out, the burning shape exploded, lines of fire trailing out behind it just before it was eclipsed by the planet. Almost as soon as it vanished, the green planet was wreathed in fire, bursting into flame before shattering apart into a rapidly expanding cloud of burning debris. Lilith could hear a new song from across the airless void, vastly different from her chorus, spreading out like a shockwave. It was a song of wrath, of power, of glorious destruction. A song of reckoning, of life, and love and hate.

It had cleared the ruined planet's bones, somewhat slowed by its passage through the now dead world, but to Lilith's growing horror, the thing was now aimed at her little world. Whatever it was, it was shaped like a Guardian, with arms and legs and a head, but it looked to be comprised entirely of fire, with a pair of burning wings beating, fighting against the void. It was as if the Masters had grown bored and shaped a Guardian from a star. She saw it open its mouth, and its song reverberated in the air, spooking her pets, which began to flee as an overwhelming sense of terror hit them like a tidal wave.

High overhead, the Fire Guardian began to spin, still screaming the Song of Terror. Lilith watched it as it tried to control its descent, grateful that the Masters had not seen fit to gift this Guardian with a staff, its hands empty. She hefted her staff, the intertwined and interlocked red rods shifting to become a spear, measuring the rapidly diminishing distance. She would not allow this planet to suffer the same fate as the green one, she whispered to the other Guardian as she aimed. With a powerful throw, she sent the spear ripping through the air with a crack of thunder, exiting the atmosphere on an intercept course to stop the Guardian. The staves were the single most powerful tool given by the Masters to the Guardians, aiding them in their task of tending the planets and the life they spread and as a most potent weapon that could destroy anything.

The Masters regretted this during the great uprising when several Guardians turned against the Masters, killing them before other Guardians rose to their defense. She had only second-hand information about the uprising, having picked a remote part of the universe to tend to, but if the Masters had made more of these fearsome things, then she could understand why the others had cast them down.

Lilith trembled in fear and shock as her spear was deflected, a glowing field of yellow light appearing ahead of the Guardian, the weapon bouncing off it to fall back to her planet. She held her hand out, calling the spear back, the red weapon returning to her hand just as the Guardian hit the upper atmosphere, the slender form vanishing into clouds of burning flame. The Song of Terror was louder now, the screaming chorus overpowering and debilitating. She felt dizzy and lightheaded, and she clutched at her head, trying to force the song out.

The earth trembled violently once it hit, sending her sprawling as the ground bucked and shook. In the distance, a massive plume of smoke and debris could be seen, with clouds of lightning and fire following along the path the Guardian had taken in its fall. Lilith picked herself back up, her spear jumping into her fist as she ran towards the impact sight.

The pillar of smoke and fire towered overhead, and the heat it gave off was noticeable from a distance; plants and animals turned into burning piles of ash and salt. Lilith ran faster as a figure emerged from the smoke, no longer appearing to be made of fire, but the armor it wore still white hot, the terrible visage grinning at her with bared teeth, a long horn jutting up from the front of its mask. Lilith slowed her advance, staring at the nightmarish Other. Its massively armored shoulders were cooling faster than the rest, becoming blackened metal. To her horror, still barely visible past the ash, the scorched metal bore a reflection of her face, the mask of the Guardians superimposed over a pair of bones. The wings on its back vanished, their fire somehow extinguished.

Whatever this Other was, it was no Guardian. It was something made to kill, to destroy them. Possibly, it was a relic from the uprising, cast out by the Masters to put an end to their unruly children. Perhaps it had tumbled for eons throughout the universe until it had found her. Lilith shook with terror as it opened its jaws, the articulated mouth of the armored face framing the predator's mouth inside, howling its fearsome song, imposing its grim reality over top of the one she had carefully cultivated for centuries. This was a Destroyer, she decided, something created to wipe life from the universe. The Destroyer's armor was a deep purple, blackened by its entry into the atmosphere, pitted and scored by its passage through deep space. It looked old to Lilith, who could see such things as the passage of time, older than even the Master that had awakened her and set her on her journey. This was no creation of the Masters. It was an antediluvian horror dredged up from some dark abyss, come forth to spread terror and death.

The Berserker glowered at the Angel before it, not recognizing the pale-skinned giant his pilot had seen deep in the roots of the earth. Lilith stood complete, her skin white marble, bird's skull watching him cautiously. She was lithe and graceful, her form slender, although she stood as tall as the Evangelion. The Berserker took none of that into account, nor did he notice the extreme lack of human habitation or other Evangelions.

All he knew was that he had been attacked by an Angel.

All he saw was an Angel standing in front of him, waiting.

He had no weapons save himself, but that was fine, for his enemy stood before him, ready and waiting.

With a howl, the Berserker charged, the song of his soul rising in a deafening and deadly refrain, the light of his soul a burning shield held before him. He had no weapons save for himself, but that was fine, for he was the deadliest weapon of all.

Raising her chorus in answer, Lilith's spear became a sword, and she charged. This was her domain, and she would not allow this interloper to continue interfering with her work.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"A what?" Misato asked, studying the screen that showed the floating orb.

"It's a shadow," Ritsuko said again, draining the last of her coffee. "A three-dimensional shadow, reflecting a four-dimensional body. That's why you can't see past it, but why it doesn't block sunlight. The Angel's real body is the black pool. After the initial reports, I had thought it was a localized singularity, controlled by the Angel's AT-Field, which manifested briefly around the edges of the Angel."

The screen changed to show the spike of energy around the circumference of the Angel, overlaid with the sickening image of Unit-01, vainly trying to escape.

"The Angel's body is only a few nanometers in depth and is six hundred meters in diameter, as you can see here, and it began to absorb everything coming into contact with it. This was a deliberate attack on Unit-01, as it was centered directly on the Evangelion. The Angel 'moved' into position before attacking, as evidenced by the movement of the shadow.

The Angel is not manifesting as a singularity, however. There is a lack of energy emissions that accompany such phenomena, and the presence of another sort of evidence. The Angel's body is comprised of a Dirac Sea."

"A what?" Misato repeated, staring at her friend, her voice lacking energy. Rei and Asuka sat on either side of her, each focused on the board and screens, pointedly ignoring the other. Both looked miserable to the doctor, who had come to know both girl's moods and expressions.

"A Dirac Sea." Ritsuko began, pushing back from the table to get a refill from the coffee maker, "is a sea of particles that is infinite in size. First theorized by Paul Dirac and then used by Carl Anderson to predict and detect positrons, NERV successfully created a miniature one in a controlled environment for thirty-three minutes a few years ago as a byproduct of our work on the S2 Engine. At the time-"

"Rits," Misato interrupted, "that's all very interesting, but what does it mean for us? What does it mean to me, what does it mean to the pilots, and what does it mean to the boy who's lost somewhere inside of it?"

"It means we have to get the Angel to show itself before we can harm it. Further attacks at long range on the shadow have provoked no reaction from the Angel. It has also taken no further steps in attacking NERV or attempting to locate the Second Angel." She sighed as she sat down at the conference table. "Our next step is to use an AT-Field on the shadow and see how it reacts. Towards this end, I suggest using one of the Evangelions to 'ping' the Angel while the other provides overwatch. The tactical plan, of course, is entirely up to you."

Misato sighed. "It sounds good. Unit-02 will be on point. Unit-00 will provide backup." She looked over at the Section-2 representative. "How are we on the evacuation of the city?"

"It's proceeding on schedule. We should be complete in forty-three minutes, barring any unforeseen events. There was no damage to any of the shelters during the attack, and damage to the city infrastructure was minimal and had no effect on the evacuation plans."

Misato nodded. "Good. We'll start as soon as Section 2 gives the all clear." She looked back at the screen that showed the Angel's supposed shadow, the bizarrely patterned sphere floating in the sky, an optical illusion that defied the universe's natural laws. "Hopefully, he'll have switched off from full gain once he went in. I want a multi-spectrum communications relay ready to irradiate the Angel with signals. If he's in there listening for a call, I want his phone ringing off the hook." She looked back at the security man, locking gazes with him despite the sunglasses he wore indoors. "Get someone on the line with the UN or the JSSDF, hell, both of them. I want an AWACS in the air overhead. I want the sensor bank in Unit-01 to light up like a Christmas tree once we get the Angel to show itself. If he's alive in there, I want him to know we're looking for him."

"I'll see what I can do." He said, pushing away from the table and plugging his earpiece back into place. "If there's a sympathetic ear at the UN, we'll find it."

"I'll get the communications relay set up," Ritsuko said as she gulped down her coffee, draining the entire cup. "We'll get his attention. He might be unable to talk back, but he'll know we're trying." She looked around at the assembled group before nodding to Lieutenant Shigeru. "There's something else we noticed when going over the sensor logs. We're still developing our understanding of the situation, but you should at least be aware of it."

"Well," the technician began a little nervously, "the thing with Dirac Seas is that they've been theorized as potentially containing an entire other universe inside since they are bigger on the inside than on the outside. As Doctor Akagi said, the sea is infinite in size. Unit-01 may have been transported to another universe. Just as the Evangelion vanished, there was a huge burst of photons and neutrinos, lasting for half a second. Then, a second before the Angel's shadow reappeared overhead, there was another burst, but this time of free quarks."

"Normally, quarks are not found by themselves in nature," Maya said as the other lieutenant paused. "They form baryons and mesons. Unfortunately, the Evangelions are not normally equipped with a robust sensor array, so we were unable to discover more. Only because of some of the modifications made to Unit-02 were we able to see the free quarks forming baryons. Because of the issue with the MAGI, no sensor data was recorded from the systems in place around Tokyo-3, but we did a hard download of the logs from the three satellites we moved in overhead to replace the ones lost during the last battle."

"They were unable to tell us more about the quarks, but they did pick up a regular cycle of electromagnetic radiation bursts, similar to a pulsar. These bursts, plus the appearance of free quarks and the other particles, suggest that cosmic rays were being emitted from the Angel."

"What this means, well, to be honest, we don't know," Ritsuko said. "The Dirac Sea created in the laboratory over at NERV-Las Vegas did not exhibit any activity like this. There is one more thing, though. We can't be entirely sure because of the lack of sensors in the area and the mess with the MAGI, but we think we detected a small stream of particles that exhibited space-like four-momentum."

"That's not possible, is it?" Misato asked, staring at her friend. "I don't remember everything from college, but I'm pretty sure that that's not possible." She stared at the Angel. "What does that mean for Shinji and Unit-01?"

"Like I said, we don't know. The MAGI are uncertain. We won't know more until the Angel reappears, but it may be difficult or outright impossible for Unit-01 to escape by itself."

"We can try to use an AT-Field on Angel's body," Asuka suggested, the usual fiery energy in her voice conspicuously absent. "We may be able to build a tunnel in it, like drilling for oil on an offshore platform. Shinji might be able to escape through the hole."

"A Dirac Sea is comprised of particles with negative energy. If exposed to an overwhelming amount of particles with positive energy, it may trigger a matter-annihilation reaction." Rei offered, her voice calm. "If thus wounded, the Angel may seek to expel foreign bodies and forcibly eject Unit-01."

Misato looked at both girls, who stared back at her, ignoring the other pilot. Rei was emotionless, but the blank stare was ruined by the deep purple bruise dominating her face, her left eye barely open. Asuka's impatient glare was offset by the red lines across the break in her nose and the wads of red-soaked tissue paper shoved into her nostrils. Neither was in ideal condition to pilot, but Rei had piloted in worse conditions.

So had Shinji, who had come up with the concept of using the AT-Field to actively probe for enemies, and the shape of the waveform Asuka would have to create to try and rescue the boy. They would be fine as long as they worked together. They would be fine as long as they concentrated on the task at hand.

"I'll consider it. Right now, we're trying to see if we can get the Angel to show itself. If it does, we'll go from there. Rei, go and put some ice on that. Asuka, stay here. I want to talk to you."

Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!

Lilith fled across her world, pursued by the Berserker. Fear gripped the Guardian as she raced through burning lands and freezing waters, the verdant world she had been shepherding quickly becoming a ruined wasteland as their battles took a toll on the already wounded planet. This was not supposed to happen, she wailed, scrambling up a mountain, sending boulders down at the abhorrent beast that followed. The glowing shield that had protected it was an extension and physical manifestation of its chorus, and she had quickly adopted the trick for her own use. It was somewhat tiring but versatile. However, the beast was more experienced at using the shield, and its unreasoning anger and rage lent it immense strength. She could only imagine the destruction the beast surely had visited upon other planets and on other Guardians.

She had tried to use her pets against it, but most of her children were useless against the fearsome song of the titan. Only the apex predators could be urged by her song to come against it, but the beast had simply torn them to shreds, barely inconvenienced by their attacks. She had never expected them to do much against the beast, but their sacrifice bought her precious time.

At the top of the mountain, temporarily safe from attack as a pack of her monstrous pets swarmed the Destroyer, she changed her staff into a knife and turned the infinitely sharp blade to her skin, drawing forth a gush of deep orange blood, splattering into the dirt. She quickly shaped the bloody clay into new forms, her nimble fingers creating monstrous creatures to battle the rampaging horror. What she was planning was insane, for what she was about to do had been forbidden by the Masters long ago when they had first charged the Guardians with tending the planets. Picking her knife back up, she cut into her breast, seeking the core of her being, the ruby red orb of her heart, carefully scraping it with the blade.

Taking the shavings of her core, she rolled them into miniature orbs and implanted them into her new children. Their forms shuddered, and she heard their songs come to life as they were born. They quickly grew in size, and they turned their faces to her, wearing the same bone mask as she, their young songs lifted in question, before turning to watch the slaughter occurring below them.

Her children went scrambling down the hillside, singing their songs of battle, and she felt pangs of sorrow, for they were incomplete things, not true Guardians, but more than the lives that she had carefully brought about on this planet and the others she had tended. They existed only to fight the beast. If they lived past it, they would seek completion, and she had nothing to offer them.

Her sorrow intensified as she watched them attack, their choruses manifesting as glowing shields but not keeping them entirely safe from the Destroyer. She set about creating more, drawing on designs from other worlds and from other Guardians, giving them larger parts of her core. They took to the sky, singing triumphantly as they joined the fray.

Lilith reshaped her staff back into its normal shape, leaning on it for support as her body slowly repaired the self-inflicted damage. Her children were wearing the beast down, huge parts of its armor ripped away. It was intensely different from her for all that they were similarly shaped. Its face was no elegant mask of bone but akin to her pets, pliable and expressive. It snarled in fury, lips drawing back to reveal flat teeth, and its eyes were a brilliant green. Metal seemed to be implanted in it, replacing large sections of flesh, pale from years locked away from light, hidden underneath the armor meant to imprison as much as to protect.

It must have felt her gaze because malevolent green eyes burning with unholy light locked onto her, and it bellowed a challenge at her as it tore at her children. She shook her head in disbelief, for she no longer thought that the Masters, even in desperation and fear of death, could have made this thing.

WHO ARE YOU? WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE? WHAT DO YOU WANT?

The Song of Terror raged louder than ever before, and wings of fire exploded out of its back. A shockwave of fire and light slammed into her children, knocking them back and killing some as the glowing field scythed through them. It took to the sky, ignoring the others as they continued their attacks, intent on reaching her.

WHO ARE YOU? She screamed at it again, twisting her staff back into a spear, her fear mounting. It opened its mouth again, then closed it, working its jaw before howling its terrible scream again.

The song of the beast changed, modulating differently than before, the screaming chorus coming together in a thunderous voice that left her reeling.

I AM!

I AM!

I AM!

He slammed into her hastily raised shield, knocking her off of her feet, both of them tumbling down the mountain, throwing punches and grappling with the other. Her staff went flying off away from the fighting pair, forgotten as they vied for supremacy.

She tore a large piece of metal from his head, his flesh bubbling and spreading over the wound, skin replacing the removed armor. Most of his protective armor remained intact if dented and torn, but the more they fought, the more was removed, and the more he came to resemble her, apart from the horrific-looking face of pliable flesh.

They came to a rolling stop at the mountain's base, Lilith managing to come out on top. She grabbed his throat in both hands, squeezing with enough pressure to crush boulders to gravel. He fought in vain, hands trying to push her away. Keeping one hand in a death grip around his neck, she reached up and called her staff back to her.

This proved a mistake, as he caught the weapon as it flew through the air. Closing his fist around it, he swung the metal rod around, catching her on the side of her head and knocking her off of him. She grabbed the weapon, tugging it back towards her, ripping it from his grasp.

Fire exploded around them as her children continued their attack. The beast who claimed to be IAM spread his wings of flame once more, raising his song to strike at his foes. A burning wing caught her full-on, smashing into her like a tidal wave. Picking herself back up, she saw him rip the arms off one of her children, using the green and white limbs as weapons against others.

Hate boiled over deep within her, her song becoming dark and mournful. Her staff twisted around in her hands, the psychoreactive metal forming a new two-pointed spear. Lightning crackling in her eyes, she advanced on the burning firestorm of twirling wings, her children throwing themselves into the fray with wild, reckless abandon, overwhelming IAM.

Shrieking with rage, she lifted the Lance overhead and slammed it into his back, straight through his midsection.

There was a massive explosion of light and fire, a huge pillar of flame screaming up into the sky, almost as large as when he had first landed. Lilith was thrown backward, and nearly all of her children died. Her song almost extinguished; she crawled back to watch the flames burn for days before finally dying. Her children that still lived crawled away, weary and wounded, to find some haven to recuperate.

She was too weak to call them back to her, to take them back into her being and regain completion.

When the fire finally died, the titan remained, her staff shoved through him, impaling him to the ground. He was hunched over, the Lance sticking straight up from his back. Her spirits plunged upon seeing him, and she could hear the barest murmur of his song, somehow still alive.

She could do nothing more now, though. She needed to rest and regain her strength before dealing with him. Crawling across the ruined world was painful and exhausting, but she finally arrived at her Seed. Sealing it up behind her, she sent it sinking into the planet's surface, seeking the warmth of the molten core as the surface world began to cool.

While she slept, so did her children, locked away in the far corners of the world as time passed and the planet changed. She had done her duty well, and the lives that had survived the cataclysmic battle were spreading out and repopulating. The age of the dinosaur had ended, and now the mammals ascended, eventually taking on the form of their ancient mother and her foe and long-lost son.

The Berserker, Unit-01, ADAM, barely alive, accelerated the cooling process holding the world in its grip, drawing precious energy and heat from the environment around it. Eventually, a massive continent of ice began to form around him, the great frozen land of Antarctica. There, locked in ice and restrained by the Lance of Longinus, Shinji and Unit-01 slept as an imprisoned god waiting to be freed.

They would wait through long eons, deathless and dreaming, poisoning the minds of man with psychic fallout as did Lilith and the Angels, all dreaming troubled dreams of that cataclysmic day and their eventual final reckoning.

Mankind leapt and grew as the ancient gods slept, and the Illuminati formed around the dark and troubled dreams of man. It would be a long time, however, before the rulers of mankind found the proof they were looking for in the depths of the earth, but it was not until Doctor Katsuragi's third expedition that they found the interloper, the outsider, ADAM, the Angel of War and Destruction. It was not until that day that the dream of godhood became a real possibility.

The hubris of Man knew no bounds when Kiel Lorenz stood before frozen god with greed in his eyes and ambition in his heart.

It would not be until the day of Second Impact that Man was punished for that hubris when the Berserker was released. Man's grasp had exceeded his reach, and the men and women of GEHIRN would find themselves unable to control the penultimate product of their eventual successors, NERV.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Warmth blossomed up inside the titan, and the giant trembled almost immediately after the Lance was removed. The scientists noted with interest and excitement as they measured the morphogenic field springing into existence, validating the Weissman Principle as the glowing field manifested around the giant.

Excitement quickly gave way to terror as the Berserker woke up, still in the middle of battle. Still lost in the battle rage, he struck at everything in the area in his bid for freedom. Finally reaching the surface, he threw his arms in the sky, the Song of Terror lifted in joyous celebration, wings of fire exploding from his back. The frozen continent was no more, lost in the heat and fire of his awakening, but out in the boiling waters, a small capsule floated, the hatch sliding open as a young girl sat upright, clutching at her wounds.

The Berserker's gaze met with Misato Katsuragi's, two dark eyes that had already seen more devastation than any child's should have, locking onto a pair burning with nuclear fire that had dealt out more destruction than any child's should have.

The Berserker was gripped with a sense of uncertainty and wrongness. He shuddered with fearful recognition.

Inside the Throne of the Soul, Shinji Ikari's blue eyes dilated as he screamed, spreading his AT-Field, his chorus, his soul, out and then wrapping it tight around him like a cloak as every fiber of his being wished to be home.

Screaming, the Beast that was Unit-01, now named ADAM, vanished from the world in a pillar of fire.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

"We may not have an option, Kozo," Gendo said, sitting at his desk, hands folded in front of his face. In the darkened gloom of the office, the assembled group could not make out his expression, and while his voice betrayed nothing of what he was possibly feeling, they could imagine he was torn up inside with grief.

Maybe.

"There is no way we could hide the Lance or its properties and abilities from the UN and the rest of the world. We still have other options, other avenues to explore," the older man argued, although his heart wasn't in it. He thoroughly disliked playing the part of devil's advocate, and he knew time was quickly running out for them.

"Even if the pilot switched over to life support mode immediately after entering the Dirac Sea, he would only have five hours of battery life left come dawn," Ritsuko said, looking unusually disheveled, her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms clasped around them. "It's more likely that he'll have two, maybe three hours left, at most."

"The UN and the JSSDF have declined to provide any assistance," Misato said, her voice dripping with disgust and weary from lack of sleep. "They say the issue is not their concern at this time. No national or civilian interests are being threatened right now. If that changes, then they will take action. They've been keeping an eye on us, though. They've got the AWACs I requested up there, plus at least a pair of fighters in the area, sometimes more."

"It matters little so long as the Angel refuses to show itself," Gendo replied. "As long as it sits there showing only its shadow, there is nothing we can do to it.",

"If we do not use the Lance, we will need to use our more exotic weapons," Kozo said, his voice pleading. "They will not stand by if we use nuclear weapons, nor will they allow us to use an EMP. We barely got away with it last time, and that was because we weren't under such scrutiny. And there's no guarantee those will work. They will question the Lance, yes, but they won't declare war on us over it. We must use it if we are to recover Unit-01 and the boy."

"What do the MAGI say?"

"Undecided. There is a chance the Angel will react to the highly energetic particles released by nuclear weapons or antimatter-matter annihilation, but the damage done to Tokyo-3 would be immense, as would the political fallout." Ritsuko buried her face in her knees, sighing. "It is bad enough that we have sole ownership and control of the Evangelions. Should they discover we also have nuclear and antimatter weapons, they will move in to seize our assets. They will not sit still for that. The entire world would turn against us."

"Whatever we decide to do, we have to do it soon," Misato said. "Like Ritsuko said, Shinji's time is quickly running out. Right now, the best option sounds like this Lance. We've exhausted all other options. If this Angel cares about the girls' AT-Fields at all, then it hasn't shown it. The difficulties of engaging an enemy that's almost two-dimensional aside, assaulting an optical illusion is nigh impossible. It's not shrugging off our probing attacks; the attacks don't even touch it." She paused, watching the Commander's shadowed form. "The girls are getting worried. Rei, obviously, is for striking it with everything we have. She suggested using antimatter weapons in our initial probes. Asuka wants to redeem herself, and the best way to do that is to rescue him." She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "She's taking the first combat loss pretty bad. She's eating herself up on the inside but trying to show a brave front. You know how she is."

"Weakness is to be despised, to be eradicated?" Kozo suggested. "I take it that you talked to her about the realities of commanding combat troops and your first loss."

"I did," she confirmed. "It was during the Korean fiasco. I lost a tank during the initial press on Pyongyang with all its crew." She took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. "I told her that there's no time to mourn right after, that the commanding officer has to carry on, that she can't freeze up. We have to mourn later, after the fight. It's different this time. We still have a chance at not having to mourn, but that chance gets smaller and smaller every minute we sit here waiting, and she knows it. She doesn't want to mourn him; she wants to see him back home safe and sound."

"We all want him home safe and sound," Ritsuko said. "But we haven't gotten any telemetry on the Angel. We haven't been able to verify the original sensor readings. Just like when it first showed up, it's like it's not there. Whatever we choose to do will be a shot in the dark with no guarantee of working. The Lance is the only thing we know for sure that will affect the Angel."

They sat in silence for several minutes, time seeming to stretch out. They traded glances with each other, sometimes looking at the Commander.

"Use the Lance. Once the operation is complete, return it to the Chamber of Guf. We will start as soon as it's dark. This will be a blackout operation. Do everything we can to hide the existence of the Lance."

"It won't be easy, and it might not even be possible with the assets they have in place overhead." Misato pointed out. "We may need to devise some sort of distraction to divert their attention."

"Raise the gun towers," Kozo suggested. "Dump munitions into the shadow, into the Angel if it shows itself. Have both Evangelions equipped for melee. The Lance could be just another spear for all they know."

"Nightfall is in three hours. How long beforehand do you want us to prepare the Lance?"

"As soon as the sun is below the horizon."

Misato nodded. "The girls are resting right now. I'll brief them on the plan. Who do we want to use the Lance?"

"Rei."

Misato winced slightly but said nothing, only nodding before she stood and left the room. Asuka wasn't going to like it, she thought to herself. Unfortunately for her, the Commander didn't care if people liked his decisions, and he had the final say over everything, from operations to research to staffing. His word was law. The man probably wasn't snubbing the girl, choosing Rei over her for the decisive part of the operation, but she wouldn't see it that way. The man had his reasons, even if they were obscured and unfathomable.

Sighing as she leaned against the elevator's wall, wishing she could have spent the afternoon napping like the pilots. Three days of ceaseless probing attacks and feints, of experiments that grew increasingly desperate as time crept on and the Angel continued to ignore them, sitting there had taken their toll. She had gotten barely any sleep, and while the girls resisted, she had forced them to rest and to eat.

It was bad enough that they had beaten each other up; she didn't need them falling apart from hunger or exhaustion.

She frowned as her phone chirped at her. Pulling it out of her pocket, she grimaced as she saw the message was from Kaji. Whatever mysterious task the Commander had sent the man on, she doubted it required him to contact her.

Misato – you need to see something in Terminal Dogma. Look for a place called Purgatory.

She frowned at the message before deleting it. Whatever he thought she needed to see could wait until after the Angel had been dealt with. She was too busy to deal with his spy games, and he was walking a fine line with her. Ritsuko's assurances that the man couldn't have been behind the upset with the MAGI aside, she wouldn't put it past him.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Both girls ate quickly, shoveling the noodles into their mouths, eager to get the operation underway, not wanting to waste time eating. Misato was adamant about them eating, however, saying it would probably be hours again until they got another chance.

Misato looked over at the two security men sitting at the room's other table as they stiffened before leaping to their feet and throwing their chairs back.

"Something's happening with the Angel!" one of them said, rushing to the door, throwing it open, waving to the pilots who were already in motion, running after the men, Misato following close behind. They were stationed on the ground floor of one of the buildings that served as an entryway into the Geo-Front, the Evangelions kneeling just outside. In the distance, the black and white shadow flickered like static on a video screen. A low keening wail emanated from it, echoing and reverberating weirdly through the otherwise empty city. Sitting low in the sky, the sun lent a reddish cast to the scene. Dark storm clouds were boiling out of nothingness above the Angel, lightning flicking from cloud to cloud, bright flashes of actinic light. The Angel's cry drowned out all other sounds, overpowering the rumbling thunder of the storm clouds and the screams of jet engines as JSSDF planes circled overhead.

The Angel's shadow flickered and shuddered, the wail becoming louder and louder as they watched, momentarily struck dumb as a rhythmic pattern began to emerge from the plaintiff sound. Misato gave them each a shove, and the girls immediately resumed their dash to the waiting Evangelions.

The wail's pattern changed suddenly, becoming louder and faster, the sound maddening familiar to everyone who heard it. It shifted in timbre and pitch, moving to sound like a thousand screaming violins backed by an immense choir. It was getting almost unbearably loud, and some of the men and women assembled were already clapping their hands over their ears, tears streaming down their faces.

Asuka scrambled up the stairs to the waiting Entry Plug but stopped to stare just before climbing in as the Angel's shadow began to bleed, lines of blood oozing out of the black lines. Thick and dark, it pooled beneath the shadow, which was now expanding and contracting slightly. Ignoring Unit-00 as it began to stand up, Asuka gasped for breath, still watching openmouthed in shock as red fire appeared, rippling across the sphere in a burning wave.

A new sound joined the already deafening cacophony, an instantly recognizable roaring howl sending shivers down the spines of everyone who heard it.

"No… Please, no…" she whispered, her knuckles tightening around the railing, dread and fear blossoming in her gut. "Not again…" she said, watching the spasming Angel, not feeling the blood running down her face, tasting but not feeling the hot coppery gush of fluid from her nose. She collapsed as her legs gave out, shudders running through her body as Lilith's implanted memories came boiling up, unwanted and debilitating. She whimpered, clutching the railing, unable to tear her eyes away from the burning orb.

The Angel's shadow convulsed again as the berserker scream of Unit-01 became louder, drowning out all other noise and thought. The side of the Angel pushed outward, the sphere deforming, before the long arm of Unit-01 broke through amidst a spray of blood and flame. The fingers curled into claws, the arm reached back to tear at the wound, its other arm ripping a new hole in the Angel, gouts of flame exploding up into the air.

The shadow vanished, the black hole reappearing underneath where it had been, Unit-01 halfway out of the Dirac Sea, stretching through the black fluid, a ruined mess of an Evangelion. Where the Angel's body had been a placid pool of super-fluidic particles before, now it was a boiling cauldron of black waves, washing over the enraged titan. It looked as if it had been to hell and back, its armor completely ruined, large pieces of it missing altogether. Black waves of fluidic particles lapped at the sides of the distressed beast as the Angel tried to draw Unit-01 back into itself. Fires poured off of the titan in waves, its open mouth a roaring inferno and its eyes a pair of burning stars. The NERV personnel on the ground turned to flee from the unbearable heat and noise, but Asuka lay where she was, unable to move.

Wings of fire exploded out of Unit-01's back, giant feathery wings of flame spreading out, beating the air into a firestorm. Roaring triumphantly, Unit-01 ripped itself out of the black pool of the Angel's body, disappearing into the pillar of light that accompanied the Angel's death.

"What is it?" she whispered aloud, unable to hear herself. "What is Unit-01? What are the Evangelions?" She began to sob as she convulsed, the pain of eons-old memories flooding through her again.

High up overhead, Unit-01 flew on its wings of flame, rising high into the sky, shrieking in pain and anger. Unit-00 stood staring, unable to move, both it and its pilot trying to think, trying to analyze the situation.

Can we communicate with him? I do not see his friend or foe signaling information. His communications systems may be damaged. There is substantial damage to his armor and containment systems.

I am reading serious fluctuations in his AT-Field. Something's wrong with him. There may be severe damage to Unit-01's internal systems as well. He is not shielding himself. His entire field is supporting those wings, which while neat, aren't needed right now. How are we going to get him back down here?

I am not certain how we are to accomplish this without causing further damage to Unit-01. Do you know if he has ears?

He might. Mine were removed, but our systems are not the same. They did a lot of different things when building him. It's worth a shot, at least. Just don't shout anything stupid.

I am not going to shout anything-

Both girl and Evangelion gasped when the light vanished, the fire that cloaked the Evangelion suddenly snuffing out, Unit-01 going limp and falling eight hundred feet to slam into the ground amid the conflagration consuming the center of Tokyo-3, blood spraying out in a red mist behind him.

The two fighter jets that had shot down Unit-01 banked left and right as Unit-00 flung cars up after them, the JSSDF pilots screaming panicked cries into their radios back to their home airbase. Rei, ignoring the shouted orders from Central Dogma, turned her communications suite off and chased after the jets, throwing everything and anything she could pick up. In many cases, it was pieces of burning buildings. A piece of concrete and steel tore off the left wing of the lead jet, sending the plane spiraling out of control to crash into the city's outskirts.

The second fighter cut into a tight loop, racing around to open fire on the blue and white war machine, strafing it with the 20mm cannon, the rounds slamming ineffectually against reinforced armor. The pilot pulled up as the weapons officer fired a pair of two thousand-pound bombs, the laser-guided munitions arcing back and detonating atop the glowing AT-Field. Fire and smoke boiled up around the untouched giant, which Rei sent striding out of the explosion, a frown on her face and anger in her heart. The one downed aircraft was not enough to soothe her sense of vengeance or outrage.

None of the armament buildings were currently deployed, but Rei had memorized all of their locations and what each one held. There was a wide variety of available, all manner of melee and ranged weapons to fit any plan of attack, and they were scattered about the city in strategic locations. No matter where the pilots might find themselves, they would be able to arm themselves for any situation. From where she stood, Rei had her pick of knives, an axe, two pallet rifles, and a missile launcher.

It was a much easier matter to get to the weapons when the buildings were above ground, but Unit-00 proved more than capable of ripping the armored roof off the building. Reaching in, she pulled the missile launcher up, bringing it to her shoulder as she sighted in on the F-15. As the warning tone sounded in the cockpit, the pilot threw the jet into evasive maneuvers but could not escape the enraged teenager. She pulled the trigger, sending the sidewinder missile chasing after the fighter, which promptly deployed flares. Unperturbed by the defensive countermeasure, Rei fired the second missile and reached back into the building to pull out replacement missiles, fixing them to the firing rails.

It proved to be unnecessary, however. The second missile blew the fighter from the sky, a brief fireball that quickly died, unwatched by the Evangelion, which rushed to where Unit-01 had fallen back to earth.

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Gendo looked up as Misato walked into his office, her pistol pointed directly at his face. Unfazed, he leaned back in his chair, pushing his glasses back up his nose, watching her as she quickly crossed the room, her face tight in an angry scowl, the pistol steady in her hands.

"Can I help you with something, Sub-Commander?" he asked, his voice dry and disinterested.

"What is going on here, Commander?" she spit out, her voice shaking with rage. "What's really going on?"

"I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at, Sub-Commander. You're the one standing in my office, pointing a pistol at me. Perhaps if you would care to elaborate?"

"What's going on at NERV?" she sneered, not in the mood to put up with whatever the Commander thought he was doing. "Your son's in a coma with internal injuries and a massive hemorrhage in his brain. Asuka is near catatonic and is having heart arrhythmia. She has something causing cranial pressure in her skull that doesn't show up on X-rays or MRIs. Our last pilot, Rei, is in solitary confinement, and the JSSDF wants us to turn her over to them for trial! Yet here you sit, ignoring everything.

Unit-01 looks like it's been to hell and back, missing almost all its external armor and about half its skin. It'll cost a fortune to repair- which is another thing! NERV should be bankrupt, several times over, but somehow we manage to get along – even after about half the UN pulled its funding! Yet here you sit, ignoring everything.

The MARDUK Institute is a sham, as was the timing of your son's appointment as a pilot. Technical documents and administrative reports don't match up, each painting widely different pictures. Rei's history is a massive blank page. What is Purgatory, Commander? What is the room of orbs?"

Misato paused, taking in a deep breath, her eyes never moving from the Commander, who remained where he sat, coolly regarding her.

"The last time I saw wings of fire was the Day of Second Impact. What is Unit-01's connection with ADAM? What are you doing? What is the Scenario really about?"

Gendo nodded with a sigh. "So you want answers, I take it, for the questions you've raised." He nodded again. "Sit down, Sub-Commander, and put away your pistol. You've been snooping on your own, and while I cannot shed any light on some subjects, you do deserve to know what is going on." When she made no move to sit, he took off his glasses, carefully folding them and setting them on his desk. Standing, he peeled off his gloves, causing Misato to gasp. "Sit down, Sub-Commander." He repeated, taking off his dark jacket, folding it, and setting it down on her chair before removing his red turtleneck. Misato shrieked, pistol dropping from her hands as she recoiled in horror.

The Commander was a powerfully built man, and despite being in his late forties, there wasn't a shred of fat on him, but that wasn't what caused the Sub-Commander to fall into the chair, eyes wide in shock. The skin of his right hand was pink and new, a pair of eyes blinking at her, one in his palm and the second on the backside of his hand. They were a bright blue, with a splash of green around the irises. Thick ropes of unnatural tendon and muscle trailed up his arm, moving back and forth underneath his skin. One tendril brushed up around the base of his neck, caressing his esophagus.

"Oh god…" she whispered, unable to tear her eyes from him, his face still locked in that seemingly impenetrable disinterested mask, "what have you done?"

"I have won, Sub-Commander." He said, a pleased smile breaking across his face. "I have won, and if you are patient and do not interrupt, I will tell you exactly how I did it."

Author's Note:

Timeline of Events in Matters of Faith:

? ? ? ?: Shinji and Unit-01 are deposited outside of time via the Dirac Sea, which is the body of Leliel, the 12th Angel.

~14 Billion Human Earth Years Ago: Shinji has had enough of the Angel's shit, works up into a frenzy, lets his ID take over and becomes the Berserker. Causes the Big Bang, and begins searching for Earth.

~10 Billion HE-Years Ago: The First Ancestral Race achieves spaceflight. They also accidentally contact the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones when their first FTL drive (developed 250 HE-Years after spaceflight) drops them into another dimension for about 3 seconds, unlocking the way for them to enter our universe. The first of the Great Wars is begun.

~9 Billion HE-Years Ago: The FAR, having sealed away the Outer Gods, are dying. They create the Guardians and their Seeds to repopulate the cosmos.

~5 Billion HE-Years Ago: Lilith is born.

~5.8 Billion HE-Years Ago: The Guardians rebel against their masters. The rebellion is put down, but the FAR are functionally extinct.

~4.5 Billion HE-Years Ago: Our solar system forms.

~3 Billion HE-Years Ago: Lilith arrives on Earth and begins cultivating life. This is the eighth planet she has nurtured.

~65.5 Million HE-Years Ago: Unit-01 has arrived in our solar system. It crashes through a planet that orbited between Mars and Jupiter, destroying it. The remains become the present-day asteroid field. Unit-01 crashes onto Earth, causing the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction (First Impact), and battles Lilith. She creates the Angels to aid her in killing the Great Other. Unit-01 and Lilith fight to a standstill- he is impaled on her lance, and she is too wounded to finish him off. She returns to her Seed to recover but has expended too much of her power in creating the Angels and battling Unit-01 to come back to full strength. What Angels survived the fight also slipped off into the corners of reality to sleep and recover. As they are incomplete beings, they are influenced by the AT-Fields of Unit-01 and Lilith to sleep as they do.

September 13, 2000: Unit-01, named ADAM by Mankind, is awakened when the Lance is removed, causing Second Impact. Unit-01's sleeping Ego recognizes a young Misato Katsuragi, prompting it to panic and flee, returning to the present time.

Yesterday: Leliel, the 12th Angel, attacks Unit-01 and sends it back in time.

Today: Unit-01 returns from Second Impact.