Words from the Author:

Hey, guys. Here's the continuation from where I left off in the last episode. It can be consider as a part two, although I have no intention of labeling it that. Get ready for an intense battle. Neon Genesis Evangelion is the property of Gainax and I do NOT claim that I own any part of it.

Episode 15: The Ace's Confirmation

The scene starts off by focusing on Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 14 as they're currently staring each other down. Rei, Kensuke and Hikari are still in their respective Evas at a safe distance from Unit 03. This is so they don't get caught up in the fight that's about to commence, taking place during the same time frame that Shinji, Asuka and Mari were contending with the other two enemy Evas. Because of that, no one in Central Dogma is paying attention to what's happening or what's going to occur between Nero and Lucas due to them concentrating on the other battle being held.

Lucas' steadily breathing while calmly staring at Unit 03 and thinks, "It's been almost four years... Four years since I last saw him." He momentarily pauses as he closes his eyes amidst lowering his head. After several seconds go by, Lucas lifts his head to look at Unit 03 again with determination residing within his eyes and mutters to himself, "I'm going to show him...! I'm going to show him how much I've improved!" Dummy Eva 14 then points its right arm towards Unit 03 prior to quickly gathering energy that's the color black at the end of the barrel.

Nero narrows his eyes, tighten his grip on the controls until smiling with faint excitement displayed and states to himself, "Here we go." Unit 03 promptly disconnects its Umbilical Cable as the timer on the right side screen suddenly beginning at five minutes and counting.

Lucas notes that as the signal to start while sharply nodding. Afterwards, Dummy Eva 14 fires its positron cannon, releasing a powerful black blast, and with amazing speed, heads straight for Unit 03.

In response, Nero swiftly leans forward, determination brimming, while pushing the controls. This makes Unit 03 dash towards the blast with just as much velocity as the oncoming assault.

Seeing Nero's action, Hikari yells in horror, "Nero, what are you doing?!"

Without any retort from Nero, Unit 03 ducks its head and maintains its rapid advancement towards the adversary. Thanks to Nero's action, the black behemoth's able to elude the blast as that results in the beam crashing down onto the area behind Unit 03. This creates a large, black explosion while the spectating pilots are astonished at the fact that Unit 03 evaded the attack so easily.

Lucas grits his teeth out of annoyance before exclaiming, "As straight forward as ever, I see!" He then lunges forth a little. "You really haven't changed at all!" Dummy Eva 14 instantly directs the same positron cannon that it fired a bit lower, ultimately issuing another black blast as it reaches Unit 03 a lot faster due to the Nero's Eva journeying towards Dummy Eva 14.

Kensuke becomes concerned, shouting in a distraught voice, "Nero, heads up!"

Unit 03 abruptly jumps into the air as if Nero had taken notice of Kensuke's cry and avoids the blast. After doing that, the mech does a cork-screw spin with multiple rotations while upside down as it's right above Dummy Eva 14.

Lucas slightly panics, snapping his head skyward to depict Unit 03. "Shit!" He rushes to aim the right positron cannon at Unit 03 and strives to fire it again.

Nero smirks after witnessing that while gingerly remarking, "Way too slow..." Unit 03 pulls out a Prog Knife from its right pylon and holds it in its left hand. Then, the black Eva stops spinning, observing Dummy Eva 14 in the process, and throws the Prog Knife into the barrel of the positron cannon that was pointing at it.

Lucas' in shock and peers at his Eva's right arm, registering that some electricity has started expelling from the positron cannon. Not much after, the redhead yells while quite upset as Lucas' contorted towards the screen he's watching, "Damn it! He short-circuited it!" Lucas immediately realizes a detail as he hastily gazes upward at Unit 03 while significantly worried.

At the instant Lucas set his sights upon the opponent, Unit 03 descends as this concludes with it landing atop Dummy Eva 14. Following that, the machine wraps its left arm around Dummy Eva 14's right cannon while placing its right appendage on the tool to have a better grip. Once that's accomplished, Unit 03 yanks at the arm in the attempt of ripping it off, bending backwards via both feet pushing against Dummy Eva 14's chest.

That pisses Lucas off while gritting his teeth and eventually exclaims in rage, "Oh no you don't!" With that defiant cry, Dummy Eva 14 navigates its other positron cannon at Unit 03 and commences to accumulate white-colored energy.

Nero hurriedly steers his head to view that weapon, his eyes widen from concern as he thinks, "That's not good!" The black-haired boy strongly tugs on the controls to have Unit 03 let go of the right positron cannon and quickly leaps off Dummy Eva 14, which at that exact moment, a white blast is released.

Fortunately, Unit 03 manages to evade by going right over where the blast went via doing three back-flips. The blast soon dissipates into the sky as Unit 03 descends to the terrain, landing on all fours, and stares at Dummy Eva 14 with an intense glare.

Kensuke exhibits surprise during his observation of Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 14 while resting his back against his seat. "That was insane! How did he dodge that?!"

Simultaneously, Rei thinks while fairly amazed as she's bent onward a tad, "His ability as a pilot is extraordinary. To maneuver his Eva like that is simply incredible." She temporarily pauses with mild curiosity dwelling within her and mumbles, "I wonder what else he is capable of."

Lucas radiates agitation as he refrains from relinquishing his vision from Unit 03 and says to himself in his normal volume, "I can't believe it! He's fast with operating an Eva! Same as when he fences!" The lad then starts to remember a specific memory of something that transpired not too long after he first me Nero.

*Flashback: March 29 2012*

The recollection promptly displays Nero and Lucas, around the ages of ten/eleven. They're facing each other at a bit of a distance away from one another and are about to begin their fencing session. Lucas is wearing the fencing clothing, and this time, has the mask on to protect his face. In contrast, Nero's dressed in street clothing with no form of protection other than his sword.

While the pair are on the verge of commencing, Vanessa and Casey are poised at the left side, watching, with Evan to the right sector as he's playing the role of the referee. Vanessa, Casey and Evan are currently endowed in their own fencing attire as well, meaning they have the intention of fencing too at some point. *Side Note: They're all in the same gym-like room they were in during Nero's flashback. This suggests that this is where they commonly practice.*

Lucas shows determination as he points his fencing sword at Nero with his left hand, standing in a left, sideways position, and confidently declares, "I'm going to beat you this time for sure!"

Nero grins, holding his weapon via his right hand and has it resting upon his shoulder in a horizontal angle. "Then let's do this."

Evan calmly does a double-take between males. "If you're both ready, you can start whenever."

Lucas sternly nods at Evan's words while lowering his stance a little prior to passionately exclaiming, "Alright!" He quickly advances towards Nero with a good amount of speed, retaining his stance. The moment he felt that he was close enough to Nero, the crimson-haired boy begins to thrust his sword in the attempt to strike his opponent's stomach.

Nero responds by hastily dismounting his sword from his shoulder as he steps back with his left leg. Following that, the fellow pulls back the blade of his sword to be next to his left rib region and then swiftly swings it eastward, blocking Lucas' effort. They're immediately placed into a stand-off while Nero gives Lucas a tenacious smirk.

That causes Lucas to grit his teeth out of irritation, thinking, "Damn it!" He forcefully pushes Nero's weapon towards Lucas' right, resulting in making Nero turn around. As Nero rotates, Lucas keys onto Nero's posterior and smiles as he thinks with excitement, "There's the opening!" The individual hurriedly draws his sword back into position and thrusts it to strike near Nero's rear.

Nero's eyes widen amidst witnessing what Lucas is going for out of the corner of his left eye, compelling him to rapidly dodge through placing his left hand on the floor. This concludes with the Japanese character performing a single-handed, cart-wheel flip towards his left.

Lucas is shocked by how Nero evaded, gawking at the spot that the black-haired kid previously stood. He eventually instills his concentration upon Nero and is even more surprised while retracting his sword somewhat.

The reason for that is because Nero's situated in a right sideways angle with his stance low. At the same time, the participant's holding his practice tool upside down with the tip aimed towards Lucas while brimming confidence.

Registering that, Lucas exhibits a worried expression and tries to distance himself from Nero.

Unfortunately for Lucas, Nero steps in at that exact second while swiftly hitting Lucas' left rib region three times in a row via the tip of his sword. Once that's done, the brown-eyed lad joyfully comments, "Tough break."

Lucas immediately backs away as he grabs onto his struck section with his right appendage while attentive of it. "Damn it!" He soon realizes something while peering towards the ceiling briefly until snapping his head westward to view Evan with concern portrayed. "Was that-?!"

Nero cuts Lucas off by nodding with a grin etched on, getting out of his positioning in the process. "Yes it was. That was three hits."

Evan focuses on Nero with a moderately baffled expression before clearing his throat, his right hand closed in front his mouth amidst having his eyes shut. Ultimately, the kid puts his hand down while calmly looking at Lucas. "If that's the case, that means Nero wins."

Hearing Evan's verdict, Lucas instantly becomes depressed prior to cocking his head rearward, planting both hands on his head while still holding the fencing sword in his left limb and yells with his eyes closed, "Crap! I lost again!" He drop his hands beside their corresponding sectors, clenches his hands with anger arising and glares at Nero. "I hate that! Not only you use acrobatics when you fence, but you can move so fast!" Lucas points at Nero via his weapon. "It's not even fair that you're that fast!"

Casey sighs due to Lucas complaining with her head hanging and her arms crossed. She's currently carrying her protective mask via her left hand while possessing a fencing sword in her right. Not much after, the girl observes Lucas with exasperation presented. "I don't know why you whine about Nero's speed. He's always been that way since we met him over a year ago." Casey mildly tilts her head eastward while delivering a look of pity. "Plus his acrobatics is part of his style, so if you can't beat him while he's using it, then there's no meaning in you two sparring anymore."

Vanessa nods, standing to Casey's left as she's temporarily watching her until diverting her attention towards Lucas with minor sympathy displayed. "She's right, Lucas. If you're going to keep complaining over Nero's speed and acrobatics, you should just give up on fighting him." The female giggles while slanting her head slightly to the left. "Anyway, you can never come close to beating him. He's plainly better than you, even if he chose not to use his acrobatics. It'd be best if you simply quit."

Lucas grits his teeth yet again, momentarily wielding his sword downward and concentrates on Vanessa with annoyance. Afterwards, the boy implements his vision onto Nero as he hoists his left arm to aim his sword at Nero once more while uttering in determination, "I'm not going to give up! I'm going to beat you, Nero!" Lucas veers himself around while returning his arm southward and commences walking away.

Nero tilts his head eastward with a curious expression, seeing Lucas' mobility. "Where are you going?"

Lucas suddenly stops prior to navigating his head westward to depict Nero with partial confusion surfacing. "You won already."

Nero chuckles while entering a sideways stance via his right foot forward and points his sword at Lucas. "If you're so hell-bent on beating me, then from this day forward we'll face off in a best two out of three match. That way you have more of a chance of victory. And if you can defeat me even once, that signifies your tenacity was sufficient to take down somebody who's apparently better."

Lucas is astonished at the suggestion as his mouth dropped a little. An instance later, the lad contentedly smirks while getting excited as he clenches his right hand into a fist. "Sounds good to me! And don't you dare hold back on me. I want no excuses from you when I win!"

Nero smiles and nods. "I promise that I'll give you everything I got."

Lucas nods back at Nero with happiness overflowing. "I'm glad to hear that."

*End of Flashback*

Lucas finishes his remembrance of that time with his eyes continually locked on Unit 03 before grinning while tightening his grip of the controls, leans a bit onward and shouts in determination, "It's time to kick things up a notch!"

Unit 03 retains itself on all fours amidst staring at Dummy Eva 14 as Nero smirks, compliments of hearing Lucas' statement. "You just read my mind." The black-haired boy glances at the timer as he sees that there's over 3 minutes remaining, leading to him thinking, "And I won't have to worry about you running out of power after I let you go berserk." Nero returns his attention to Dummy Eva 14 with Unit 03 suddenly lunging towards the enemy shortly after, and as it's in mid-air, the machine pulls out its second Prog Knife in its left shoulder pylon with its right hand while persisting its soaring through the air.

Dummy Eva 14 quickly points its left positron cannon at Unit 03 to fire out a white blast, not a shred of hesitation given whatsoever.

At that exact moment, Nero exclaims with a confident expression shown, "Berserker, over 100%!" Unit 03's A.T. Field promptly appears as its eyes glow bright orange. With that, the A.T. Field barely shields the mechanical behemoth from the projectile without ceasing its travel towards Dummy Eva 14.

Lucas is shocked, although Dummy Eva 14's positron cannon maintains its firing of the attack that was blocked. "How the hell is that possible?!"

Dummy Eva 14's blast slowly dissipates with Nero proudly grinning, his Eva eventually colliding into Dummy Eva 14 in the meantime. Then, Unit 03 swiftly grabs a hold of Dummy Eva 14 via its left appendage while sort of on top of it. After that, the Nero's Eva attempts to stab the adversary's left shoulder through possessing the Prog Knife upside down.

Witnessing Unit 03's intention causes Lucas to be momentarily stunned until snapping out of it and rapidly commandeers Dummy Eva 14 to aim its left arm upward while aiming for Unit 03's right arm, which is the limb that has the Prog Knife in its hand. Ultimately, it expels a white blast again, completely surprising Nero as he is unable to move out of the way in time.

Unit 03's right arm is obliterated by the blast, forcing Nero to grimace in pain due to his synchronization with the Eva while briefly screaming out. He then drops his head and firmly clutches his right arm via his left hand.

Hikari desperately shouts while greatly frightened, "Nero!" She strives to make her Eva rush towards Unit 03's aid, but is halted when she registers Unit 00 lifting its left arm in front of the Extra Eva.

Hikari gawks at Unit 00 with confusion emitted. "Why are you stopping me, Rei?! Nero needs our help! He lost an arm!"

Rei continues to have her Eva confronting the direction of Unit 03 and the foe while observing them intently, however, speaks in a calm manner. "He said to leave it to him. We must have faith in him and not interfere." Her hands begin to shake a little while gripping the controls as she views them. After a few seconds pass by, Rei mumbles to herself with a hint of sadness demonstrated, "No matter how much we may wish to assist him..."

Meanwhile, Lucas watches Unit 03 in disbelief, whispering to himself, "I actually got him..." He abruptly smiles and nods with confidence increasing. "Alright! I finally got you, Nero!"

Nero smirks as he gazes at Dummy Eva 14 while grabbing the controls again with both hands. "Congratulation. Here's your price." He then contorts his body forth, navigating Unit 03 to hastily bring its right leg back and swings it upward. As a result, the black Eva knees Dummy Eva 14 right in the face and sends it flying rearward a bit, putting some distance between them.

Afterwards, Unit 03 embedded its feet on the ground as Lucas is stunned from the unprecedented kick. Then, Dummy Eva 14 crashes onto the terrain while rolling backwards a tad until it stops, lying down with its face planted on the landscape.

Having witnessed that, Nero exhibits substantial seriousness prior to glimpsing at Unit 03's right arm and learns the full extent of the damage. Once that's done, Nero grins as he veers his concentration back to Dummy Eva 14 and utters to himself, "I'm very impressed. Lucas is one hell of a pilot."

Lucas chuckles while steadily manipulating Dummy Eva 14 to rise before happily yelling, "I heard that!" He breathes heavily while finishing his progression to properly face Unit 03. "You actually complimented me and admitted that I'm a good pilot."

Nero faintly cracks his neck. "I never once declared that you weren't. In fact, you're an amazing pilot. That's why I was delighted to discover you were piloting that Eva." He haphazardly alters his demeanor to reflect barely any emotion, remarking in a somber voice, "It's unfortunate that it has to end though. I was really having a lot of fun."

Lucas gets a bit nervous as he mutters, "The way he just said that was really scary. I never heard him talk like that since he'd always try to convey a positive attitude. I guess he sort of changed after he left." Curiosity immediately envelopes the lad as he looks towards his left. "Could it have something to do with what Keel mentioned about him betraying us for some girl, and then losing her...?"

Nero closes his eyes while lowering his head, breathes deeply and eventually whispers, "Let's go... Unit 03." He instantly administers his vision towards Dummy Eva 14, shouting, "Over 200%!" Unit 03's mouth abruptly opens up and releases a loud, horrific roar amidst tilting its body backwards a tad.

Lucas' body commences to shake in reaction, thinking, "He's not holding back, just like he promised." He smirks as Dummy Eva 14 point its working weapon at Unit 03 prior to Lucas exclaiming out of excitement, "This is what I've been waiting for!" Dummy Eva 14's positron cannon then starts to gather white energy and quickly fires at Unit 03.

Unit 03 bends towards the ground, spreading out its legs and extending its left arm towards the side. Suddenly, a giant shock-wave expels from its constitution thanks to the Eva's A.T. Field and hits the part of the terrain under it. This hurls Unit 03 into the air within an instant while also doing multiple, different flips. Because of that, the black machine was able to avoid the recent assault as it journeys towards Dummy Eva 14 from above it, still doing a few flips.

Lucas swiftly peers at Unit 03, profoundly astonished. "What the hell?!" He hurriedly regains his composure with determination overcoming him as Unit 03 starts to descend upon his Eva. "Not this time!" Dummy Eva 14 then jumps rearward, eluding Unit 03, and promptly crashes its arm and legs into the landscape, the momentum invoking a pretty big crater to form.

Simultaneously, Nero's briefly attentive of the ground as he experiences a mild shock from the impact of the crash. Following that, the 7th Child focuses on Dummy Eva 14 with an impressed behavior. "Good one! I didn't think you would've been able to dodge that!"

Lucas commandeers his Eva to stand at a decent range from Unit 03 while fairly cautious and mumbles, "To be honest, I wasn't too sure... Nero's ridiculously fast and agile. The only way I can beat him is by overpowering him with my cannon, but it's hard as hell to get him."

Kensuke's temporarily dumbfounded, continually watching the battle between Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 14, as he comments in total astonishment, "What the hell is this?! Nero's amazing! Even with a missing arm, he's still making that Lucas guy back away! Plus, he blocked the blast with his A.T. Field while moving his Eva like that! I could never dream of being able to do that!"

Rei calmly looks at Unit 04 as she thinks, "Kensuke is right about Nero's skill." She reverts her concentration to Unit 03 without detaining her thought process. "However, it is troubling how he's capable of maintaining such control of Unit 03 with his sync ratio over 200%. It may be even superior to Shinji's."

Misato's voice randomly comes through the intercom, conversing in a worried tone, "Hey, guys! What's going on?!"

Hikari peers upward while resting her posterior against the seat as she's surprised. "Misato, you're back! How are Asuka and the others?!"

Misato firmly responds. "They're fine. They were able to defeat their enemies." She momentarily pauses until urgently stating, "Now tell me what's going on with Nero! His synchronization is over 200%!"

Rei sternly replies to Misato's question. "He made his synchronization to be that high so he can fight Lucas more seriously."

Misato's image is instantly displayed on Rei's upper screen with concern notable. "What?!" She then turns herself westward to confront Ritsuko. "How's that possible?!"

Ritsuko witnesses the main monitor that shows Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 14 facing off, an expression of disbelief etchet onto her. Soon enough, the doctor focuses upon Misato out of the corner of her eyes. "I don't know... To have complete control of the Berserker Mode is something I believed couldn't be attained."

Kaji gazes at Misato, standing on her right as he remarks, "From what we saw earlier, even Shinji has a hard time doing that with Unit 01."

Touji locks his sight onto the two adults, who are to his right, while quite baffled. "Does that mean Nero's better than Shinji?! But I thought Shinji had a higher sync ratio than him!"

Misato switches her attention to Touji with her eyes widening amidst thinking, "He's right! If Nero has better control during Berserker Mode than Shinji, Nero has to..." The Colonel haphazardly snaps her head back to the giant screen, bewildered, and thinks, "Wait, if that's the case, Nero's been hiding his true capabilities then!" Her eyes narrow with suspicion portrayed while thinking, "Why would he do that though...?"

Concurrently, Unit 03 dashes towards Dummy Eva 14 with incredible speed, bent forward a bit and has its left arm extended rearward. As that transpires, Nero brims determination while poised similarly to his Eva and mutters, "Let's see what you got up your sleeve, Lucas."

Dummy Eva 14 quickly directs its positron cannon at Unit 03, ready to deliver a blast while Lucas gingerly speaks to himself, "Not yet... If I fire too soon, he'll dodge it. The only way to get him is to attack at point-blank range with no possible way of him slipping by."

Unit 03 persists its course as the machine's about to come into contact with Dummy Eva 14.

Lucas grits his teeth at that instance and thinks, refraining from altering his Eva's positioning whatsoever, "It's now or never!" The energy of the positron cannon builds up to maximum capacity and promptly releases the assault.

Nero confidently smiles while Unit 03 unexpectedly swings its left arm to grab the cannon and covers the end of the barrel where the blast would exit from.

That action shocks Lucas as he pulls his head back a little and yells in horror, "What are you doing?!"

Nero whispers to himself, a slightly demented expression exhibited, "300%..." Then, the white stripes on Unit 03 suddenly start to glow while the end of the cannon's barrel is slowly engulfed by a sapphire-like colored essence, followed by veins developing upon it. This rapidly spreads all the way to the shoulder of Dummy Eva 14.

With that occurring to the Eva, the same thing blankets Lucas' left arm and causes him to exclaim as he brings his arm towards his face to look at it, visibly terrified. "What the hell is this?!" He shifts his concentration to Unit 03 with a distraught attitude while moving his hand away. "What are you doing to me, Nero?!"

While that transpires, Rei's substantially stunned as she steadily says to herself, "That is... the same as..." She then has an abrupt flashback of Unit 03 during its classification as the 13th Angel and that ultimately invokes a chill to go down her spine.

After also seeing what Unit 03's doing, Misato's overcome with worry as she navigates her body towards Maya and Ritsuko to view them. "What the hell's happening?!"

Maya's frantically typing, her eyes glued to her screen. "I can't believe this! Unit 03 is contaminating the enemy Eva!" She snaps her vision towards Misato with concern presented. "It's exactly as the times with the 13th and the 16th Angels!"

Misato immediately thinks with seriousness displayed, biting her left thumb's nail amidst having that hand clenched into a fist, "I wasn't here for when the 13th Angel attacked, but I was informed about it producing a type of acid that was trying to infect Unit 00. The 16th Angel had targeted Unit 00 with the same ability as well and got a lot farther. Coming into contact was all it needed to infect the Eva." Misato turns to depict the primary monitor once more while dropping her hand and thinks out of minor irritation, "For some reason, Nero's able to make Unit 03 do that again, even though I have no clue how he's achieving it!"

In the meantime, Lucas commences to panic, double-taking between Dummy Eva 14's arm and his arm. Not long after, the lad grits his teeth as he grabs onto the left control via both hands, eventually attempting to fire the cannon while yelling at Unit 03, "Cut it out!"

Without warning, Unit 03 crushes the end of the barrel while swiftly lets go of it amidst jumping backwards to get away from Dummy Eva 14. This is because, after crushing the weapon right when it was on the verge of firing, the barrel hurriedly began cracking and expel light. Following tha, the combat tool blows up due to the blast being unable to properly come out of the cannon. As a result, Lucas screams in agony, holding his left arm via his right appendage, and has his head tilted rearward with his eyes closed.

Nero doesn't give Lucas any chance to regain his composure as Unit 03 runs towards Dummy Eva 14 while exclaiming with an amused demeanor, "No time to rest, Lucas!"

Lucas instantly administers his focus upon Unit 03, stationed in front of his Eva, and is consumed by shock. "Fuck!" He desperately turns his attention to his controls, leans forward while grabbing the right control with both hands and then commandeers Dummy Eva 14 to swing its eastern limb towards Unit 03's head since it can't fire that cannon.

Nero's somewhat surprised, registering out of the corner of his eyes that the right arm is heading towards him. Soon after, the Japanese boy grins while Unit 03 stops its mobility and ducks its head to dodge the oncoming strike. Accomplishing that, Nero gingerly remarks as he peers at Dummy Eva 14, "Still too slow, Lucas."

An astonished expression encompasses Lucas while gazing down at Unit 03 and thinks, "Damn it! Why does he have to be THAT fast?!"

Unit 03 hastily pull its arm back to then thrust it towards Dummy Eva 14's stomach, provoking Lucas' machine in quickly deploying its A.T. Field to defend itself from Unit 03's effort. Unfortunately for the crimson-haired male, the black behemoth easily breaks through the A.T. Field as its hand penetrates Dummy Eva 14's stomach. In conclusion, Lucas releases a pained scream as he grips his stomach with both hands while bent forth.

At the same time, determination resonates from Nero's eyes as he's contorted forward a tad with Unit 03 maintaining its appendage inside Dummy Eva 14's midsection while the 7th Child calmly mutters, "The suffering doesn't stop here, Lucas."

Lucas gradually applies his sight to Unit 03, containing his right eye shut, with him breathing heavily. "Fuck...! That shit really hurt...!" He then suddenly feels a weird sensation generating from his stomach, startling him, and opens his closed eye as both widen. After that, Lucas lowers his head to mount his vision on the recently struck area and yells out of bewilderment, "No!" It's promptly revealed that the teen's stomach region is exhibiting multiple veins through the plugsuit with the same sapphire-like color leading them and engulfing Lucas' torso. This signifies that both he and Dummy Eva 14 are being contaminated by Unit 03 again.

Everyone in Central Dogma is baffled, watching the adversary's constitution continue to be infected.

Simultaneously, Lucas slams his posterior against the seat and leans backwards, resulting in him facing towards the ceiling while starting to feel an intense pain surging from the afflicted sector. The contamination steadily spreads to pilot's chest as Lucas is holding tightly onto each side of the seat, veins persisting their demonstration, until screaming again with his eyes shut.

Despite hearing that, Nero's personality is unchanged as Dummy Eva 14's body shows where the contamination is traveling. Afterwards, Nero briefly closes his eyes while calming his conduct, takes another deep breath, observes Lucas one more time with an intense glare portrayed and shouts in an annoyed tone, "What are you going to do, Lucas?! Are you losing to me again?!"

Lucas' eyes instantly open, dumbfounded, while gawking at the ceiling prior to slowly concentrating onto Unit 03 and is profoundly enraged. "No...! Not this time!" Lucas swiftly clutches the right control via both hands. Then, Dummy Eva 14 swings its right arm eastward, considering it had remained towards the left after missing the previous attempt and tries to hit Unit 03 while the young fellow passionately yells.

Unit 03 nonchalantly blocks the strike via its A.T. Field and retains its grasp of Dummy Eva 14's stomach while Nero smirks. "That's not good enough, Lucas."

Lucas is now suddenly on his knees, still atop the seat, as he's facing away from the front screen while his eyes are focused onto his backrest with exhaustion notable. It's soon revealed that there happens to be a lever installed into the seat where he was sitting the entire time. He then grips it with a serious look established and pulls the object up. After that, Lucas mumbles to himself with a cylinder-shape mechanism coming out, "I can't believe I have to do this, but there's no other choice." The teen turns the mechanism 180 degrees westward while grunting a little. Upon doing that, Lucas forcefully pushes the contraption back into the seat, and at that moment, all the lights in the entry plug go off. This is followed by the lad steering his head eastward to depict Unit 03 as he calmly comments with a smile, "Heads up, Nero."

During that process, Dummy Eva 14 had dropped its right arm while contamination persisted.

Due to seeing the haphazard descent of the enemy's arm, Nero becomes quite curious amidst tilting his head slightly westward. "What just happened?" His question is immediately answered as the entry plug of Dummy Eva 14 abruptly shoots out.

Nero witnesses that, worry consuming him, and fervently exclaims, "Crap! That means...!"

Before Nero's able to finish that sentence, Dummy Eva 14 self-destructs as the blast instantly hits Unit 03 while creating a huge explosion.

Central Dogma's personnel are quickly stunned, seeing the eruption spread to a large distance.

At the same time, Hikari has a distraught expression as she observes the destructive force and mumbles to herself, "Nero..."

Kensuke observes the explosion too, unable to say anything with disbelief presented. In Rei's case, her head's lowered as she tightens her grip on her controls and thinks with concern noted, "Please... Be alright..." She then steadily peers at the devastation and whispers, "Nero..."

Afterwards, Dummy Eva 14's entry plug crashes onto the ground, barely being at a safe distance from the explosion. Then, the entry plug opens up prior to Lucas slowly standing up atop his seat while revealing that the contamination on his body had ceased spreading, although still infected. He's now gazing towards the eruption as a giant gust of wind rapidly strikes him from it. The crimson-haired boy does his best not to let that bother him and is very focused on the destruction while his hair flutters around because of the mighty gale.

Meanwhile, all of those within Central Dogma and the three pilots sustain their sights onto the explosion for a bit longer until it gradually commenced its dissipation as smoke is made, which extends to a decent extent. After a few seconds, the blotted vicinity clears up while the others intently stare at the fog, hoping that Nero isn't badly injured or worse. They're all eventually surprised in a good way when a shadowy figure's revealed before it's shown that Unit 03 not only surviving the destructive force, but didn't even receive any real damage from it. This causes everyone in Central Dogma to generate a sigh of relief as Rei, Kensuke and Hikari are equally delighted to discover that Unit 03's in one piece.

Lucas, on the other hand, is awestruck while contorting himself forward a tad as he yells, "How the hell did that not kill him?!" Realization swiftly sets in as the male pulls back a little. "Did Unit 03's A.T. Field protect him from the blast...?!" Lucas bends forth again, clenching his hands into fists. "But how does it not even have a dent?!"

Unit 03 starts to slowly advance towards Lucas, its constitution slouched onward, as it makes a low, growling sound. As the black Eva does that, Nero's grinning while gingerly stating with his head down, "That was a good try, Lucas... But I win this round..."

Lucas brims stress amidst keeping his eyes locked onto Unit 03, his tone weakening. "I'm screwed... I tried the cheapest way to beat him and I failed." The teenager hangs his head as his person begins shaking prior to shutting his eyes, significantly upset while shouting, "Damn it, I lost!"

Unit 03 unexpectedly halts its journey with a minor gap separating it from Lucas as the mechanical beast stopped growling, currently viewing Lucas in an intense way while still slumped forward.

Lucas hears the black behemoth's immobility and opens his eyes while profoundly astonished. Ultimately, the boy hurriedly raises his head as he's substantially confused. "He stopped?!"

Nero's Eva steadily gets down on one knee, descending its head to be fairly close to the landscape. After that, Unit 03's entry plug ejects, but remains attached to the Eva while eventually opening up as a rush of LCL pours out. Once the LCL detained its flow, the Japanese pilot casually exits the plug as he's poised atop Unit 03's head and looks at Lucas.

Misato's shocked while taking a step forth. "What the heck is he doing?!"

Lucas' quite surprised, staring back at Nero as he thinks, "Nero."

After Nero takes a few moments watching Lucas, he deviates his gaze to the terrain so he can jump off Unit 03. A second later, the lad lands on his feet and instills his attention upon Lucas again as he starts walking towards him.

Lucas promptly displays some irritation amidst remarking, "You could've ended it. I'm already beaten."

Nero ceases his travel not too far from Lucas, nonchalantly maintaining his focus on him.

Lucas' annoyance increases, compliments of Nero not responding, and then exclaims out of ferocity, "Don't think you sparing me is doing me any favors!" He places his right hand onto the middle of his chest. "I'm prepared to die for what I believe in!"

Listening to Lucas' declaration compels Nero to faintly cock his head westward with callousness demonstrated. "And what's that, exactly?"

Lucas yells while clenching his right hand, determination showing, as his limb is still perched over his chest. "That if I can at least defeat you, I won't be overlooked anymore!" He stretches his right arm out to the side. "People will see me for who I truly am and know that I'm special!"

Nero smirks as he lowers his head to mount his vision upon the ground with a sad expression. "If you need to beat me to prove that, then let's do it."

Lucas' immediately bewildered, pulling his head back a tad. "But...!"

Nero peers at Lucas while retaining his head southward. "Remember... Best two out of three." He chuckles while lifting his head to properly face Lucas.

Lucas continues to be baffled for a temporary period, however, soon smiles and tenaciously nods at Nero. "In that case, it was a good thing I brought them!"

Confusion partially envelopes Nero, slanting his head slightly eastward with his right eyebrow raised. "Them?"

Lucas refrains from replying as he turns to the right while concentrating on the entry plug's confines. Not long after, the crimson-haired individual bends down to grab a hold of something. This then leads to Lucas straightening his posture and confronts Nero again while possessing a fencing sword in each hand, neither containing a sheath to cover their blade, as these are used with the intent to kill. The ones that had been used in the remembrance were practice swords as the blade was a lot thinner than those that Lucas is carrying for safety reasons.

Nero straightening his head while clenching his hands, excitement exhibited by the male's grin. "Who would've thought that it'd come to this?"

Lucas steadily gets out of the entry plug and situates himself in front of it, no alteration to his demeanor whatsoever. After accomplishing that, the young character suddenly tosses the fencing sword inside his right hand at Nero and hastily reaches the 7th Child as he catches it by the handle via his eastern appendage.

Nero holds it up, examining it with serious eyes. "Professional swords." The black-haired person gazes at Lucas while resting the sword's blade onto his shoulder and has it pointing in a diagonal angle behind his head. "I guess this will be to the death, huh?"

Lucas confidently nods. "I told you I'm willing to die for what I believe in." He aims his fencing sword at Nero, staying in his left hand's grasp, and fiercely shouts, "So don't hold back! Your life is on the line, Nero!"

Nero nods back at Lucas, wholeheartedly smiling. "Don't worry, I won't."

Lucas smirks as anticipation surfaces. "Alright. By the way, there's a message that Chairmen Keel wants me to give you, although only if you can defeat me." He lowers his sword. "So let's get started! Here are the rules!"

Nero thinks while a bit concerned, "What could possibly be the message?" He hurriedly rids himself of that thought as he moves the fencing sword from his shoulder and directs it towards the landscape, verbally inquiring, "Fine, what are the rules?"

Lucas somberly states, "It won't be a best two out of three since this will be to the death. That's the sole way I'd accept losing. There won't be any points because that's obviously meaningless in this situation, and we'll be free-styling the way we fight. Any form of swordsmanship is allowed. This time, I won't complain about your acrobatics." He softly laughs.

Nero's grins and thinks, "He won't have to worry about that much, anyway. I haven't practiced acrobatics in a long while. If I'm not confident that I can pull it off, I won't even contemplate it." He soon says out loud with determination established, "I'm okay with those stipulations, if that's all of them."

Lucas nods as he's extremely excited until a random drop of water falls from the sky and hits the ground. Both males register this while the piercing-wearing fellow suddenly acts on it by dashing towards Nero while passionately yelling, "Then let's begin already!" Lucas then swings his sword upward when he gets close enough to Nero.

In response, Nero quickly blocks the strike via pulling up his sword to ultimately drive it downward for the two blades to collide. They're immediately placed in a stand-off as more raindrops gradually descend while the brown-eyed teen stares at Lucas with immense focus.

Lucas smiles while reciprocating Nero's behavior. "Although you always won our matches, I always had a handicap over you!"

A hint of intrigue etches onto Nero with rain commencing to pour. "And that'd be?"

Lucas chuckles. "That right is weak against left!" He slides his sword's blade across the bottom of Nero's weapon and pulls it skyward to move pass the opposing sword from the inside. This concludes with Lucas navigating his sword upward in the form of a thrust while aiming at Nero's chin.

That somewhat shocks Nero as he depicts the sword going towards his face before quickly leaning backwards to narrowly dodge the strike while thinking with his eyes glued onto Lucas' weapon, "That was way too close for comfort!" Nero gleefully smirks amidst looking at Lucas while thinking, "He may have a point about left-handed people having the advantage, but..."

Lucas grows a little agitated and thinks while glaring at Nero, "I should've known from his performance with his Eva! He's still as fast as he was four years ago!"

After regaining his base, Nero hastily pulls his sword back so he can garner sufficient strength when thrusting it towards Lucas' gut.

That causes Lucas to worry while frantically commandeering his sword southward, deflecting Nero's strike right before it connected, and thinks with aggravation radiating, "Shit, that was close!"

With the completion of that thought, it starts to rain harder as Lucas maneuvers his sword towards his right and does a back-hand, sideways slash that targets Nero's left ribs.

Simultaneously, Nero's sword had collided into the terrain thanks to it being repelled and glances to where Lucas' combat tool is coming from with a tensed attitude shown. Luckily, the 7th Child retracts his sword from the ground while switching his hand positioning so that he carries it in an upside down angling and blocks the swing.

Lucas grits his teeth out of disapproval prior to pulling back a bit too issue an intense glare at Nero again, commenting, "You always seem to have an answer for my attacks."

Nero puts his arm down while facing Lucas with a crooked smile. "And you've obviously improved. Though, I think we ought to let loose. Our lives are on the line after all." He chuckles out of amusement.

Lucas briefly laughs while tilting his head back with his eyes closed, shouting, "I couldn't agree more!" He administers his vision towards Nero, tenacity overflowing, and then dashes onward.

Nero contorts himself forward a tad as he waits to come into contact with Lucas.

Once that transgresses, Lucas begins swinging wildly, trying to land a blow upon Nero, while releasing small grunting noises with each action.

Nero eludes the majority of the attacks while fending off the ones he couldn't dodge in time with a few attempts made to strike Lucas, changing the angling of his sword depending on which one would be better to utilize.

In his case, Lucas would mostly block Nero's assault and strive to take advantage. Unfortunately for him, due to Nero's speed, he's unable to connect any of his strikes as this upsets him while thinking, "Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! I'm doing a whole lot better than I normally would since I haven't gotten hit yet, but I bet it's because he hasn't been practicing fencing! Either way, he's not slowing down!"

Nero continues his effort to hit Lucas as he sustains his focus and mentally mentions, "Lucas must've worked really hard to have improved so much. I got to switch-up if I want to beat him."

Lucas evades Nero's strikes and keeps swinging back when he has the opportunity while thinking, "I need a way to break the equilibrium of this!" His eyes then widen from realization as he smiles and happily yells, "I got it!"

Nero's moderately startled by Lucas' outburst as his sword collides with Lucas' weapon, entering another stand-off while shoving his combat tool against Lucas' composition via both hands.

Lucas holds his ground while nodding to himself, thinking, "There it is." He then pushes Nero and his sword off to his right side before elbowing him in the face with his left limb while putting a lot of force into the hit.

Nero's head snaps towards the left after the assault landed on his right cheek, forcing him to stagger amidst taking several steps backwards and is fairly daze. Despite that, the black-haired individual refuses to plummet to the landscape as he mutters while slowly shifting his attention towards Lucas, "What the hell...?"

With the success of hitting Nero, Lucas rushes towards Nero as he navigates his sword in a left, diagonal position while contentedly thinking, "Although it was a cheap move, it still set me up for my first strike on Nero!"

Nero's eyes widen, continuing to be a bit shaky, while gritting his teeth in an upset manner. After that, the Japanese character abruptly hurls his sword to his left hand and blocks Lucas' attack by swinging the weapon sideways.

That compels Lucas to pull his head back a little, amazed by how quickly Nero recovered from the hit to the face while having stopped running. "What?!"

Nero smirks out of amusement, both swords remaining connected in the process. "Are you surprised?"

Lucas promptly exclaims from disbelief as he's leaning towards Nero, "There's no way! You're multi-handed?!"

Nero nods, his entire body dripping wet from the constant downpour of the rain. "Yeah, and I have you to thank. If I had never met you, I wouldn't have thought of learning how to use my left hand like I use my right."

Lucas suddenly takes a step forward with his right hand extended to the side and is equally as soaked as Nero. "You mean, you actually did that because of me?!"

Nero nods again while swiftly backing away from Lucas quite a bit, resulting in their swords no longer interacting. Following that, the teenager lowers his left arm, maintaining a firm grip on his fencing sword. "Exactly. I already knew you being left-handed would be trouble for me. So to be on equal terms, I decided to spend a lot of time practicing with my left hand." Nero chuckles as he tilts his head westward a tad. "Want to see how well I can use it? And don't worry; I'm not mad that you elbowed me. We DID agree on free style for this."

Lucas scoffs as he vaguely bends forward with both arms dropped before confidently shouting while glaring at Nero, "If you say so! Show me what you got!" He dashes towards Nero.

Nero promptly runs towards Lucas, and as he meets with him, does a 270 degree spin by pivoting via his right foot while swinging his sword in a backhand motion from Lucas' left.

Lucas hastily stops himself to block the swing as he's immediately surprised at the sheer strength it wields, considering it's Nero's left-handed style. He then grits his teeth and pushes Nero's sword away.

Nero reacts through spinning back around amidst directing his sword at Lucas's right this time.

Lucas' substantially startled, but quickly regains his composure while fending off the sword with his own, pulls his right fist back shortly after and throws a punch at Nero's face.

Nero sees the assault coming and smiles as he mutters, "Predictable." He unexpectedly positions his head towards the fist, taking the blow right onto his forehead.

Surprise overtakes Lucas' expression again as he thinks, "Why did he do that?!" The male then feels an intense pain originating from his stomach and looks down at it.

What happened was that Nero had abruptly pulled his sword southward during Lucas' distraction to stab his adversary's gut with the blade dug into it a few inches.

Lucas grinds his teeth while pulling away, making Nero's weapon come out of his body. As he staggers backwards, the boy holds onto his stomach via both hands, retaining his focus on the afflicted area and sees blood steadily oozing.

Lucas soon mounts his sight upon Nero with a pissed off behavior, exclaiming, "Nero!" He swiftly removes his hands from his stomach and runs towards Nero, getting ready to strike.

Nero watches Lucas with a bruise on his forehead, compliments of Lucas' punch, until tightening his grip onto his sword amidst emanating a solemn personality. Concurrently, the 7th Child takes a step forward via his right foot and slightly lowers his stance prior to swinging his weapon in a downward, left, diagonal angle with as much force as possible just when Lucas gets close enough to him.

Lucas responds by doing the exact same thing Nero did and performs a slash with all his strength. Their swords then collide with each other, and suddenly, Nero's combat tool snaps in half on impact while the blade flies high up above them.

Nero's shocked, gazing at the blade of the sword ascending towards the still raining sky, as he thinks, "Crap!"

Lucas is temporarily stunned, observing the airborne fragment too, before his eyes widen while thinking, "This is my chance!" The individual reverts his attention to Nero and pulls his sword back towards his torso. This allows Lucas to thrusts the combat tool towards Nero's stomach as he happily thinks, "I finally got him!"

Misato haphazardly yells out of concern, concentrating on Nero's circumstance and is moments away from being stabbed, "Nero!"

Nero registers Lucas' effort out of the corner of his eyes as he's moderately surprised and instantly catches Lucas' blade with his right hand. Shortly after, some blood can be seen trailing down the blade due to it cutting Nero's appendage after tearing through the plugsuit. Even though this caused Nero to feel significant pain, at least he was able to detain Lucas' strike.

Lucas flinches at the fact that Nero caught his sword while totally in disbelief until shouting as he contorts himself towards Nero, "No freaking way!"

After having blocked Lucas' sword, Nero returns his vision to the sky as he depicts that the broken blade is descending right beside him. Because of that, the teen releases the handle of his weapon and hastily catches the severed object via his left hand. Immediately following that, Nero turns to Lucas while relentlessly piercing his collarbone.

Hikari covers her mouth, baffled by Nero's assault, and thinks while panicking, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!"

Rei and Kensuke witness that as well while astonishment can be noted. At the same time, everyone within Central Dogma is equally stunned while many like Maya have deviated their attention, unable to keep on watching.

Lucas retracts his head with his eyes shut, screams out in pain while letting go of his sword, hurriedly backs away from Nero and grabs the blade via his left hand. Once that's done, the piercing-wearing character views the blade and forcefully pulls it out. At that exact second, blood starts to slowly pour out from the sector that was stabbed as Lucas drops the blade and clutches the wound with his left limb. Then, the North American collapses to the ground, continuing to scream with his eyes closed again.

Nero stares at Lucas, relinquishing his grasp of his opponent's sword since he still had a hold of it after Lucas let it go. He then gradually walks up to Lucas as exhaustion is portrayed.

Meanwhile, Lucas' agony doesn't falter and grits his teeth prior to straining himself to administer his focus onto Nero. "What are you waiting for?! End it!"

Nero shakes his head with no real emotion showing. "I don't need to. Those two wounds by themselves will kill you. I hit vital spots, so you'll die within the next few minutes."

Lucas is briefly stunned until diverting his concentration from Nero without turning his head as sadness consumes him. "Oh... So I guess, I lose..."

Sorrow quickly arises from within Nero, lightly gritting his teeth, while sharply nodding. "Yeah..."

Lucas smiles amidst slowly drawing his gaze back towards Nero. "Things haven't really changed between us, huh? But I'm fine. At least I went down swinging." He releases a soft laugh.

Nero shuts his eyes, hangs his head and shakes his head with an amused smirk presented. After that, the 7th Child lifts his head to set his sights onto Lucas before getting down onto his knees while placing his hands on his lap. "So you're happy, even though you didn't achieve what you wanted?"

Lucas coughs a little after nodding as the blood from both of his wounds persist their flowing and says while breathing heavily, "I am... Because I got to fight you again. I didn't really... Expect me winning, but I... Still hoped for it." He temporarily pauses while observing the sky and utters with a spaced out expression, "Nero..."

Nero slants his head westward a tad with a hint of curiosity displayed. "What is it?"

Lucas chuckles while straining his voice a bit and then applies his vision upon Nero out of the corner of his eyes. "Do you think that... If it wasn't for my obsession of beating you... That we could've been friends?"

Nero briefly becomes quiet, peering at the sky as his eyes reflect it. Not long after, the black-haired guy smirks while looking back down at Lucas with sincerity. "I already considered us as friends since we met."

Lucas' eyes rapidly widen from bewilderment. "Really?! Even though all I was interested in was defeating you...?!" He coughs a little with his eyes closed thanks to putting too much pressure on his voice for talking.

Nero earnestly nods. "Of course. Our friendship was the very first one I ever had. I really appreciated having you in my life, and I enjoyed all the times we fenced together. You're my best friend, Lucas."

Lucas' momentarily dumbfounded before suddenly grinning with tears commencing to go down his face. "Thank you, Nero. That means a lot to me." He becomes silent for a few seconds while wiping his face with his left hand, rests it onto his stomach once he's finished and regains some of his composure as he's still lying on the terrain with a serious expression taking over. "Now listen, because here's the message from Keel."

Concern instantly replaces Nero's attitude until Lucas says something to him, and upon hearing his words, the lad froze as he's been rendered speechless.

Lucas gives Nero a sad smile, steadily shutting his eyes afterwards while whispering, "Goodbye... Nero..." His head promptly drops towards the right as he stops breathing.

Just when that transpired, the rain started to let up as it ultimately ceased falling while Nero's immobile with his eyes locked onto Lucas' corpse. After several seconds pass by, the pilot closes his eyes, inhales deeply and stands up. Accomplishing that, Nero gradually instills his gaze upon Lucas again with dull eyes and sorrowfully comments, "Bye, Lucas. Say 'Hi' to God for me." He veers himself from Lucas and slowly walks to his Eva with both hands clenched as the blood from his right hand drips somewhat.

During Nero's progression, there's an intense atmosphere at first inside Central Dogma, considering everybody recently saw the death of a teenage boy. Eventually, some members begin to celebrate, looking at the positive side of the situation while others can't utter a word.

Misato keeps watching the main screen with sadness resonating and thinks, "How did it turn out like this?"

Kaji becomes attentive of Misato with worry brimming while stating in a reassuring tone, "I know what you're thinking. Even though he was with SEELE, a person so young didn't have to die."

Misato shifts her attention to the floor, clenching her hands as she strives not to cry. "I didn't know what to do, Kaji... I couldn't think of what to say to Nero. I could've told him to try to capture the pilot instead of killing him, or even persuade him in joining us. Anything would've been better than letting it get to this..."

Kaji's demeanor changes to reflect sadness amidst thinking, "Misato..."

In the meantime, Nero had climbed back into Unit 03 and has made the entry plug retract into the Eva. He promptly reactivates the black Eva as LCL quickly commences to refill the plug for some reason. As this occurs, Nero's eyes are fixed onto the controls while manipulating them in a sophisticated manner with his posterior against the seat and whispers, "Confirmation time, huh?"

Then, Unit 04 advances to the left of Unit 03 while Kensuke enthusiastically remarks through the intercom, "Great job, Nero! You got that SEELE guy real good!"

Hikari's Eva is at a substantial distance from the two of them as she's surprised by Kensuke's conduct, eventually yelling in an upset tone, "Kensuke! What's wrong with you?! He had to kill someone who was our age and you make it sound like it isn't a big deal!"

Kensuke commandeers his attention towards Hikari's Eva while smirking and declares with a hint of sympathy, "It couldn't be helped, Hikari. Nero did it to protect everyone. That guy was the enemy anyway. How else are we going to beat SEELE if we can't do what he did? It's like the military, Hikari."

Nero gingerly laughs before sighing with his eyes closed. Afterwards, the 7th Child gazes at Unit 04 with a malicious smile. "You're right, Kensuke. It was unavoidable."

Kensuke turns his sight back to Unit 03 and nods while exclaiming, "Exactly!"

Nero's eyes grow dull again, emotion visibly lacking from his expression, as he mutters, "And here's something else that can't be helped." Unit 03 unexpectedly extends out its arm and fiercely grabs onto Unit 04's face. 

That profoundly baffles Kensuke while yelling out of horror and concern, "What are you doing, Nero?!"

Misato's also awestruck, depicting that sudden development, and travels onward a little. "Nero! What's the meaning of this?!"

Maya gasps as she gawks at her screen until viewing Misato with horror exhibited. "Colonel! Nero's synchronization has gone back over 300%!"

Misato snaps her concentration towards Maya while consumed with fear. "What did you say?!"

Unit 03 retains its grip of Unit 04's face with Nero leaning forth, his hands firmly holding the controls, and now possesses his head lowered. "If he wants confirmation, then I have no choice..." He peers at his main screen with a cold stare. "But to give it to him."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Ending Statement:

I don't have much to say. If any of you want answers for what just happened in the end of the episode, I ask you to simply wait for the next one. Things are going to get insane.

That's it. Talk to you all later.