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"…so our family have had our lives controlled by SEELE since that early on?"

The truth—as revealed by Kyoko—had Asuka stumbling backwards.

"Mama only got part of her soul absorbed by Unit 02 core during the contact experiment. That wasn't enough for Unit 02 to activate. So SEELE bribed that woman—Mama's doctor at the time—to publicly seduce Dad, all to push what remained of Mama into suicidal depression…all so they could salvage and use the rest of your soul to perfect the core…all so they could make me pilot Unit 02 for them!?"

Jolting at her back hitting the (metaphysical?) wall of the home office, the Second Child let out an involuntary sob…one that made her realize—to her mortified outrage—that she had been reduced to crying.

"…unforGIVABLE!" She slammed a fist against the wall, sending the many framed diplomas/credentials hung upon it rattling. "I, Soryu Asuka, will destroy SEELE if that's the last thing I'd do!"

" Asuka." Eyes on her daughter, Kyoko's expression was one of pained pride. "Powerless all these years, we were as flies in hands of wanton children to SEELE…in life. That's no longer the case now."

"Mama…"

"I am now Unit 02 in the physical realm, and the members of SEELE a still-evolving giant biological colony. If you're willing to pilot again, our mother and daughter team can surely do our part in bringing SEELE to justice."

An electronic buzz cut though the tension-thick air then, drawing Asuka's attention to a video door phone—an item that the girl was certain never did exist back in her "real" childhood home. Designed in the likeness of a cartoon penguin (looking rather like Pen Pen of all things), the small rectangular screen at its "belly" showed a familiar face that girl did not expect seeing at this moment.

/"Let me in? Asuka-chan?"/ urged Kaji, an embittered edge marring his signature rakish smile.

"I know it's really thick-skinned of me—a cowardly and ultimately useless adult—asking to tag along in a quest for vengeance you've rightfully earned…."

Standing on the cage's bridge, Kaji faced the massive Unit 02—now radiating an aura of such intense rage the man felt its heat physically—as he would the Second Child herself.

"Asuka-chan…how you must have longed to feel Keel Lorenz's still-physical body squash under your EVA's crushing fist.

"But, I too want…need to have a direct hand in that man's agonizing destruction.

"My brother…along with my gang of friends, they were only around your age back when they got legally slaughtered by Japanese soldiers…just for stealing canned food from a military camp in those hellish months following Second Impact.

"Those soldiers would not have had the authority to torture and kill children as they saw fit, if not for the National Military suddenly being given a disproportionate amount of additional powers following the catastrophe.

"Years later, I would find out that the additional powers to the Military were authorized by SEELE puppets within the UN, using the Impact that they themselves had engineered as excuse.

"The agent that killed me weeks ago, and the army that invaded NERV just now, they are all from this same SEELE military vanguard, since renamed as the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force. We all died either directly or indirectly by their hand.

"Asuka-chan—"

/"Kaji! The hell you think you're doing?!"/

At Katsuragi's enraged voice coming through the loudspeaker, Kaji did not turn around, but had instead started climbing Unit 02.

/"Give it up! We've locked the cockpit from our end. There's no way for you to get in!"/

Ignoring her words, Kaji reached the entry plug's external hatch, and started straining to turn it open.

/"Kaji!"/ A sound like a palm slamming against the tabletop came through the audio. /"Enough with the stupidity! You're an agent who've already gotten the truth about SEELE out—you're DONE fighting!"/

The hatch started heating up, likely from a keyed-in command courtesy of the pissed-off Major. Kaji held on to the hot metal, pressing on. "…yet Tabris had allowed me to come back to physical form."

/"And you think that means you've got what it takes to pilot Asuka's EVA?!"/

"If Asuka approves then yes. Ultimately it is up to the soul within the EVA that decides pilot eligibility, isn't that how it works? Katsuragi?"

/"…so you're determined to risk dying on me again, just to get your revenge."/

Katuragi's words—the defeated murmured with which they were delivered—had Kaji—straining against the heat and the weight of the hatch—pausing.

/"In the end, you value your personal hatred far more than you do me."/ She laughed then, a dry, hollow sound. /"But I suppose I'm the same in this regard, or the two of us won't find ourselves where we are now, would we? Kaji?"/

"Katsuragi…"

/"Unit 01 has awakened. I've got my hands full with far bigger problems than you needlessly putting your miraculously resurrected life on the line. Fine, you go and beg Asuka to let you land a good punch on Lorenz, I will be actually working to defeat SEELE right here at the Command Center."/

Feeling guilty at having his selfishness called-out, Kaji at last let go of the simmering hatch as he fished for the right words to say. "Katsuragi, I…"

"Losing your conviction at the first sign of girl trouble? Such a man."

The telepathic message—its sardonic womanly tone being distinctively non-Asuka-had Kaji making the connection. "Is this Doctor Soryu!?" He whirled to again face Unit 02…

…and found himself face to face with something resembling a huge tsunami of fluid black and white colors slamming towards him….

"KAGI!"

Misato watched, stunned, as the video from the cage showed Unit 02 new thick blade abruptly losing solid boundaries as it rippled nudibranch-like towards the man's diminutive (in comparison) figure. Swallowing him up in a split second, it then withdrew to "snap" right back into its former shape

"Rits!" Composure shattered, the now frantic woman grabbed onto her tech-savvy friend. "Do something to recover him! Detect his life signs! Get—"

"Major!" snapped the Chief Scientist, reminding the shaken Head Tactician of her current job while physically steering the latter's face towards her terminal's screen. "Will you get yourself together and just look!?"

The screen showed a slow motion replay of what just happened, revealing to Misato's naked eye how, in that millisecond right before Unit 02's blade had completely enveloped Kaji, it had encircled the man as two massive. intertwined. Helices.

"Rits…that thing is…!?"

"Yes. And judging by the A.T. Field readings it had merged so completely with Kaji, they now make up one single living entity in the form of that thick blade."

"I…see," muttered Misato, hanging her head as she resigned herself to an unpleasant realization. "To literally become a living weapon to be wielded against SEELE…just what the jerk has always wanted, huh?" Feeling defeated, she closed her eyes on the video…but for a moment, as an audio alert then forced her to reopen her eyes to see the real-time video of Unit 02 going through the standard pre-activation procedures seemingly all on its own.

"…can we even abort the startup?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Negative," replied Maya from her terminal. "Unit 02 is currently acting independent of the Magi's commands."

Taking in a stealth breath to calm her inner turmoil, the Head Tactician forcefully reorganized her thoughts to deal with the present situation.

"But the Unit is otherwise still online and connected to our operating system, right?"

"Affirmative."

Well, thank God for small mercies, thought Misato, before making the best move as per the given circumstances. "Lock the umbilical cable head to its socket."

Misato's order had heads in the room turning.

"Major." A concerned-looking Makoto cut in then. "You're not trying to keep Unit 02 from launching, are you?"

"Of course not. The Command Center has no way of subjugating an awakened EVA. That cable is for—"

"Unit 01 is in motion!"

Shigeru's exclamation had everyone turning towards the front screen, now showing the freed Unit 01—serpentine tendrils of the Spear/Tree swarming about in it's immediate vicinity—levitating through the LCL and towards the SEELE creature.

"For NERV to help Ikari's son against SEELE, it has to be now," stated Fuyutsuki.

Watchful of the two behemoths on screen, both miles away from the HQ, Misato steered herself before opening the comlink to Unit 02.

"Doctor Soryu? Katsuragi speaking, here to brief you in my tactical proposal in support of your fight against SEELE…."

Shinji-kun, help is on the way. Hang in there!

One moment, he was inside Unit 01's plug.

The next, he was in a forest, but one unlike any he had ever been to before.

The trees looked to be of different species from those in Tokyo-3, or the Japan he knew for that matter. They were also leafless and dry, like those from pre-Second Impact pictures depicting what older folks called the Fall—Autumn, a cooling period of the year back when Japan still had four seasons pre-Impact.

The air around him hung thick with heavy mist.

"Where…am I?" asked Shinji, growing fearful at how strangely cold he currently felt within this alien surrounding. "I can't see anything. I don't know what's what. Hey…where am I supposed to go now?" Uncertainty likewise compounded within his heart, now that he found himself alone and clueless. "Misato-san! Asuka! Ayanami! Toji! Kensuke! Ritsuko-san! Kaji-san! Father! Mother... Someone tell me. Tell me what I'm supposed to do. Where…" Without knowing his way, he found himself moving deeper and deeper into the woods in a steady stride, as though this was somehow well-known territory to him. "What is this déjà vu? Why does this place look so…familiar?"

'Because this is your old haunt.'

"Mother?" Looking around, Shinji could find no visual sign of Yui being around. Yet the telepathic link between them remained, its warm, calming presence surrounding him not unlike the motherly scent within Unit 01. "Mother…what are you talking about?"

'Before Tokyo-3, before your neglected childhood, before I was even your mother…this, here, was where you hailed from…your true origin.'

"My origin?" Yui's enigmatic words only deepened Shinji's current confusion. "Mother, what are you talking about? How could I have even existed before you were my…?"

"…you're just like us, willing to suffer great pains for the warmth of others…"

Another telepathic message, one phrased in German; somehow, he knew it was German and even understood each and every word…no. Not telepathy, but memory. A memory alien to Shinji had somehow found its way into his head—not unlike how a worm drilled into an apple. It was soon to be followed by another, then another—

…underneath the tree shades they gathered. All shadowy grins and lanky limbs, his new comrades now smothered him under their exuberant group hug.

"…so stay on as one of us…"

"…stay, where we can, in unity, help each other to go on living…"

The hugging involved kissing, becoming necking…and more….

"What…is this?" asked Shinji aloud, stunned into dropping an unconscious tear. "How is it that I know this place…these children…this feeling—"

"…even in this hellish cold Reich, we can create our own warm slice of heaven…"

Shadows shifted, revealing wavy hair of brown and red, glinting eyes of gray and green. All fair of skin and rakish of smile, these foreign boys in their disarray of revealing, theatrical-seeming vintage wardrobe now were smothering him against the warmth of their youth-flushed bodies, their calloused hands eager yet gentle against his own exposed flesh.

"…with the sum of us…living as one…"

"You guys…I remember now…you all helped me feel needed back then!" Already, his stride had sped into a full run, as he raced towards the (familiar!) sound of water coming from beyond the late fall trees. "Back before NERV, before Mom…how many years has it been since I had this place, this gang, this life—" A bright, blue clearing was visible up ahead. His own eyes were alit with wild hope. "…back when I had him-"

Beyond the trees, the now familiar shoreline came into full view, a stretch of aqua blue framing the distant silhouette of that special someone he longed to see again. At the sight of him, the boy laughed aloud in wild joy, all the while sprinting forward with open arms and heart.

"—needing me…!"

"…Ikari's son…how is he still sentient?"

Defensive, SEELE faced the approaching Unit 01 with its neck stiff and its vast length drawn backwards—much like a cornered cobra poised to strike.

"The little pawn should've already lost himself to the mechanism of Instrumentality!" hissed Keel, animosity directed against what he perceived to be an unexpected, un-welcomed threat. "How does he manage to muster the will to repel even the Spear of Longinus?"

'Oh, but Shinji-kun isn't just any pawn,' supplied Tabris via telepathy. 'He is, to you, a special someone capable of getting through even your heart of stone...because he'd always has a place in it.'

"Cut the nonsensical rubbish, Tabris!" snapped the SEELE leader, who only got further infuriated by the Angel's ominous words. "You're the one helping him against me, aren't you?! Just wait till I get my hands on yo—" And the threats ceased.

A ray of light—so bright and focused as to look and feel solid—had since speared down from above, hitting Keel's exact spot upon SEELE's grotesque-cluttered surface and pinning the massive beast in place.

"HOLY…!" cried Kensuke, seemingly not knowing what other word to utter. He was not alone.

The gathered masses at the Trial all watched, transfixed, as the aerial Seventeenth Angel—in a display of angelic power—cast an otherworldly beam of light down upon the LCL twister. Upon contact, this light had the effect of visibly squashing the twister, sending orange drops flying to reveal the figure priory obscured beneath.

It was the Keel Lorenz, the very one as was introduced to the common souls during the Theatre of Guf exposition earlier on. But where the people had expected an elderly white-haired Caucasian male, they saw instead a redheaded white teen—one completely naked but for a large visor obscuring much of his upper profile.

"The fucker's young again," snarled Toji, eyeing the enemy with fire in his eyes. "Fitting that someone with such a filthy past would end up pant-less on the Prisoner's Dock." He glanced sideways at the "Top Secret" text file on screen exposing the SEELE leader's shocking origins to the whole world.

"He looks…kind of like that Angel…" murmured Hikari, half turned away to keep from directly facing the naked male form on display.

For the rest of Class 2-A, along with most others present, their current focus was on something that mattered far more to them—the faint tremors wrecking Lorenz's slight frame and betraying his current petrified state.

The Enemy of Mankind, in spite of his prior display of impressive power, had apparently been subdued by the Angel's divine might, and could no longer avoid retribution.

"…hallelujah…" someone let out, his lone voice soon to be joined by those many others gathered. "Hallelujah! HALLELUJAH!" The infectious cry evolved, gaining musicality as it spread over the Gallery's entirety, turning it into a colossal choir stand where Humanity belted out its collective song in triumph. "HALLELUJAAAAAAAAAAH—!"

Humanity—having been so wronged and for so long—was now out for justice.

Engulfed under the sudden brightness, Keel's first thought was that Tabris was attacking him via an A.T. Field projection ala the Fifteen Angel's psychic invasion. Already he could feel his senses shifting back into the world within the Collective Consciousness medium, where the nobodies of Humanity (now singing gospel at the Gallery in anticipation of his "trial", even) again surrounded him. His treacherous creation even had the gall to make him show up naked in front of those many judging eyes…no matter. He was just about to retaliate with SEELE's own A.T. Field, when something he noticed stopped him cold.

Behind the aerial Tabris, at the Judge's Bench, stood Ikari Shinji…or was he? Ikari's son's now had what looked like a specter of sorts superimposed upon his features, rendering his Asian appearance quasi-Caucasian and utterly eerie.

It so happened to be a specter of that special someone he longed to, but thought he never could see again.

'My Kuhl, beau of the shore…' voiced the German-speaking entity right into Keel's mind, in that innocent, wanting tone he once loved; still loved. 'Is this where you've been? Kuhl?'

Stunned, Keel found himself trembling in spite of being in full view of those he knew were only too eager to find weakness in him. "…what is this?"

"Come now, Chairman." Without losing that condescending tone, Tabris now spoke aloud to him here within Instrumentality. "Even you Lilins have the means to salvage specific souls in development of what you call Evangelions." Those angelic red eyes hardened from where they looked down upon him. "I am of Adam."

"No." Keel shook his head so hard, he almost sent his (metaphysical)visor flying off. "Adam's field only ended up engulfing this planet since the Contact Experiment. All who died before the year 2000— "

"Souls never fade," stated Tabris. "Even disintegrated beyond the detection of Lilin science, they drift on as disembodied spirits, or they get reborn into the physical world through birth." He gestured at the masses gathered. "The Lilin' souls of all generations have always existed on this planet in one form or another. None of them eludes my Book of Life, especially not someone of such importance to you."

The implication behind those words impacted Keel like a physical blow. "Tabris…you…!"

"Now you're beginning to understand." Facing Keel's shock and hurt, Tabris' pale face frosted over in cruel harshness. "Sharing in our bond, your mind has always been an open book to me. I am privy to all your past doings. I know about that one and only soul you've ever cared for…loved, and never stopped loving even to this day."

"Y-You… the sheer audacity…"

"Though your beloved was long deceased, I have the power to recover that specific soul from Earth's elements. Thus how I developed the thesis that even an utmost self-centered Lilin like you will still have someone you value more than yourself, and that individual is to be the key to control you."

"Impossible! Back then, you were just a—"

"Even back when you thought of me as but a powerless newborn babe, the me beyond the confines of the A.T. Field—the real, eternal me—have since identified and secured your beloved's spirit. The moment I sensed your growing distrust against your Japanese accomplice's daughter—Project E's brilliant bioengineer, who so happened to be with child at the time—was when I put my thesis to the test."

The LED above the Bench now showed what looked like a video footage of SEELE 02's daughter Ikari Yui, circa 2000-ish post Second Impact. Pregnancy already showing by then, the young scientist was in the privacy of her own bedroom softly whispering the following lullaby to her unborn child:

/"The angel Tabris from heaven came,

/"His might omnipotent, his will as steel.

/"He said: Thy son shall be the Messiah the Scrolls foretold!

/"Most highly favored lady,

/"Gloria…."/

"T-Tabris…you CRUEL—" Hyperventilating from the reveal, Keel pointed an accusing—albeit seriously shaky—finger at the Angel. "You actually contacted Ikari Yui and had her give birth to his reincarnation? To have him born into this post Second Impact hell?!"

"A hell of your making, which now only you can fix," replied Tabris, whose red eyes upon him were clouded with pity…and perhaps also self-pity. "Now you understand my feelings for Shinji-kun, and whom I got them from."

At that, Keel—emotionally overwhelmed for the first time in decades—collapsed to his knees at the Prisoner's Dock, inciting loudening cheers of "hallelujah" from the watchful Humanity joyful at seeing further signs of weakness from their common enemy. Laughter escaped the man's tight throat then, its sound came out like hoarse crying. His tortured gaze, settled upon the specter of the Second Child's former incarnation, soon blurred with stinging tears collecting against the inside of his visor.

"Ikari Shinji…the ultimate sacrifice in my scenario, the powerless child whom I had destroyed like so many others for my own ends. All this time, you…

"…you're really…

"…my love…?"

. . . to be continued?