Words from the Author:

Greetings, people. Not much to say here other than the disclaimer that Gainax/Anno owns Neon Genesis Evangelion and this is just for entertainment. So, enjoy.

Episode 19: True Desire

The scene starts off with Kaji appearing in front of a small, brick house situated in the middle of a forest. It's around 4 PM as the gentleman rests his posterior against the wall that's next to the house's main entrance. The door then opens up enough to reveal a man in his late 40s, looking pretty worn out. This fellow is represented as one of Kaji's sources, although nobody would have guessed from his appearance.

The individual plainly gazes at Kaji as he utters with a mildly agitated tone, "What is it now, Ryoji? I gave you all the information I had on NERV the last time you came here. Why don't you ask my sister for what you need? She usually knows about the same intel I do."

Kaji looks at the man out of the corner of his eyes, smirking. "It isn't about NERV this time. Anyway, I already spoke to her. She gave me everything she could scrounge up. She suggested to ask you for more, if anything."

The man raises his left eyebrow while curiosity arises. "Who's on the docket then?"

Kaji turns his attention away from the man to focus in front of himself and says in a serious tone, "SEELE."

The man conduct maintains itself. "SEELE, huh?" He smiles, completely opens the door and steps outside. Following that, the guy sits upon the doorstep amidst eyeing the ground. "That's an interesting topic. What do you want to know?"

Kaji resets his concentration onto the male. "I need their location. I already ruled out Antarctica as an obvious one, which confirms four out of six Continents not hiding them. I can thank your sister for that intel." He grins.

The middle-aged character navigates his head to Kaji with piercing brown eyes. "What options do you have left?"

Kaji pulls out a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket via his left hand, refraining from deviating his sight. Once he places a cigarette in his mouth and lights it up with a silver lighter by the use of his left hand, the former double agent nonchalantly answers amidst expelling some smoke. "The last two Continents are North America and Asia. I just finished searching through South America and found no leads."

The man smirks before turning his attention towards the terrain as his eyes become a bit dull. "Then let me help you out. Don't bother searching through Russia. They no longer have any ties with SEELE since they were always left in the dark by them. That seriously pissed them off."

Kaji smiles while nodding as he's looking in front of himself. "If you say so. It sure helps that they aren't going to be a factor. It would've been a pain searching for SEELE in Russia."

The man calmly comments, "Start with China if you intend on going to Asia. They're likely connected with SEELE. They always were their biggest supporters."

Kaji grows concerned, steering his body accordingly to confront the informant. "What makes you think that?"

The middle-aged guy replies with no change to his focus. "Keel, in specific, has a solid relationship with them. I doubt they would ever reject him." He smirks, glancing at Kaji in the process.

Kaji emits confidence, gently planting his left side against the wall, and interlocks his arms. "Then I know where to go next."

The man quips in a slightly teasing tone, "Don't get too ahead of yourself. There's still North America you have to consider."

Curiosity dwells within Kaji. "I wouldn't think North America would be involved anymore. They even abandoned the 1st Branch to show they don't want to stick their nose in the battle between Japan and SEELE."

The source solemnly states, "It's true that the 1st Branch was abandoned, but... By only those who weren't aligned with SEELE."

Kaji's a tad confused amidst mildly pulling his head back. "What are you talking about?!"

The man smiles after viewing the ground again as a small, brown/white, persian kitten with green eyes walks up to him. He then softly pets the animal via his left hand, simply saying, "I'm not surprised you weren't aware. It was top-secret information."

Kaji demonstrates irritation while narrowing his eyes a little, removes the cigarette from his mouth with his right hand and unfolds his arms. "Just tell me already. Don't beat around the bush so much."

The man chuckles as he briefly closes his eyes. While doing that, he stops petting the kitten as it casually leaves. Afterwards, the older adult opens his eyes to implement a serious conduct towards Kaji. "Alright, here it is. SEELE never actually trusted America's 1st Branch. To be more specific, Keel wasn't too certain if they were on his side. Even though America did take part in attacking NERV's MAGI, there was always some trust issues. As a result, SEELE stationed some of their own personal men to work with them while also making sure there was no treachery."

Kaji cocks his head eastward a bit with curiosity resurfacing. "You think they're still there? Those who are aligned with SEELE."

The man sheepishly responds. "Possibly, but I doubt SEELE would take such a huge risk in going to the 1st Branch to use as any form of a hideout."

Kaji stoically utters, "Which means China is pretty much the only option for them. The other places I haven't checked yet wouldn't be smart. After all, they don't have any real connections with them anymore."

The informant adds with a nonchalant tone as he peers up at the sky, "Except the 4th Branch."

Confusion envelopes Kaji while faintly leaning towards the man. "The 4th Branch? Isn't that located in China?"

The man properly depicts Kaji, slowly shaking his head. "That's what they wanted you to think. The Branch in China is only known as NERV-China, not as the 4th Branch. The 5th Branch, in an ironic contradiction, isn't actually supposed to be called by a number. It's the Bethany Branch, but some people just like to call it that out of preference. In the case of a '4th Branch', the one which fits the bill for that title is the Branch located in Canada."

Kaji pulls back a bit with bewilderment noted. "I never heard of that branch before."

The middle-aged male portrays an air of arrogance. "I'm not surprised about that either." His voice hurriedly becomes serious. "It's a top-secret branch. There's not much information on it. This info I'm giving you is mostly based on speculation actually, but if I were you, I would check it out next. Better safe than sorry, right?" The man smiles.

Kaji nods, a determined expression presented. "Thanks. Now, there's something else I need to know about. It still pertains to SEELE."

In response, the fellow's behavior reflects intrigue as he tilts his head westward.

Kaji emanates a solemn attitude while sternly asking, "Do you know anything about a 14-year-old boy by the name of Nero Akaya?" *Side Note: Shinji and Nero's birthday is June 6, 2001. Based on the time frame I'm using, they will be 15 in about a few weeks*

The man raises his eyebrows, partially dumbfounded until composing himself sufficiently to bluntly speak. "I've heard of him. He's supposed to be ranked among the brightest minds currently alive. Though the specifics are highly kept secret. Probably somebody wants him all to himself and refuses to let many know about his existence."

Kaji contorts his constitution toward the gentleman, urgency included. "Anything else? Like something involving SEELE?"

The source lowers his head with both eyes shut and shakes his head. "Sadly, I don't." He reopens his eyes to see the ground again. "But what I do know is that Nero Akaya is quite famous, aside from some countries not knowing about him."

Kaji faintly squints his eyes, straightening his posture. "Really? What's he famous for?"

The man smirks amidst steering his head to Kaji. "He came up with multiple theories to restore the world to the way it was."

Kaji's instantly astonished. "He did?!" The brown-haired individual suddenly feels a burning sensation on his fingers and yelps in agony when he realizes that his cigarette is burning him, dropping it. After doing that, Kaji frantically blows on his hand while holding it via his other limb as he strives to calm himself.

The informant throws his head back with his eyes closed once more and starts laughing. "You should keep a better eye on your cigarette, Ryoji!"

Kaji glares at the man with a hint of annoyance, retaining his grasp of his burnt appendage. Ultimately, the former double agent gathers his bearings and puts his hands down. "So... You're telling me Nero Akaya actually came up with different ways to return Earth to the way it was?"

The older character snobbishly rebuttals. "That's what I said." Curiosity is then displayed. "So tell me, why do you think he would be connected to SEELE? If SEELE achieves 4th Impact, the whole world would be torn apart. I can't imagine somebody who's worked so hard to restore the oceans is going to be involved with SEELE."

Kaji gazes southward, thinking, "Why doesn't that sound right? Nero said he wanted to destroy mankind. Initiating 4th Impact would leave the world in a state that's worse than it was after 3rd Impact. There wouldn't be anyone to do a thing afterwards. It doesn't make sense." The male promptly realizes something, causing his eyes to widen slightly, and then draws his attention to the man with seriousness brimming. "One more question."

The man nods at Kaji, lackadaisically commenting, "Go for it."

Kaji inquires in a somber voice, "Did you know that Gendo Ikari has two sons?"

Disbelief and shock encompass the seated adult. "He has what?!"

Kaji sighs after moderately dropping his head, his eyes shut temporarily shut. "Never mind." He reverts his focus onto the man again. "With that reaction, you obviously had no idea."

The man momentarily continues to be surprised until grinning at Kaji with an apologetic expression exhibited. "Sorry. That was too much of a shock for me. There's no information on Ikari having more than one son."

Kaji nods. "I know." The brown-haired gentleman reaches into his pants' pocket with his left hand while veering his vision southward, pulls out a roll of a hundred-dollar bills, hands it to the man and gives him a kind smirk. "The usual payment, right?"

The fellow nods while warmly smiling. "That's fine." He takes the money from Kaji via his right hand and holds onto it, putting his appendage down next to his right leg. "Good doing business with you."

Kaji displays a cheerful conduct. "Likewise." He diverts his gaze onward and starts to walk away.

The man contentedly watches Kaji at first prior to remembering a certain detail as he glances at the sky, quickly regains his composure and views Kaji again. "Hold on, Ryoji. There's something I think you ought to know."

Kaji detains himself and faces the man with curiosity showing. "What is it?"

The older person grins. "This is hearsay so I won't charge you, but I suspect it's for the best I tell you instead of keeping you in the dark about it."

Kaji slowly travels towards the man with slight concern now present. "If that's the case, go on."

The man calmly declares, "Apparently, from the information I gathered earlier today, there are a lot of people in Canada reporting a giant, unidentified object heading towards the sky. It even exited the Earth's orbit."

Kaji raises his eyebrows a little, fairly surprised. "A giant, unidentified object?"

The middle-aged male sharly nods. "This is why I said it would be best for you to check out Canada first. Although the people who saw the object aren't being taken seriously, it seemed too much of a coincidence that something like that was claimed to be seen by anybody in an area where it supposedly has a secret branch base not many people know about."

Kaji gives the man a stern look while firmly nodding. "I really do appreciate the free info."

The man smirks and yells out with his head thrown back while closing his eyes, "Of course you do! It's FREE, after all!" He laughs.

Kaji grins, shaking his head a little out of disapproval. "You haven't changed one bit." He turns around, commencing to walk away after putting boths hands in his pockets. "I'll be seeing you."

The man sets his sights onto Kaji amidst waving. "Alright. Farewell, Ryoji."

As Kaji persists his departure, he stares at the ground while thinking with some seriousness emitted, "I need to head to Canada as soon as possible. If I can confirm that SEELE's hiding out there, we can finally bring the fight to them." He adjusts his gaze forth, determination brimming.

The scene promptly alters to where Nero's located, currently inside the room the black-haired boy was in when he called Gendo before joining NERV. Additionally, the lad's lying on his bed amidst facing towards the ceiling as the room is pretty dark. The only things giving any light to the area are a clock that shows the time is 6:21 PM, stationed upon a dresser at the end of Nero's bed, and a table on the teenager's right side which possesses his laptop while connected to two medium-size speakers. From there, "Partita 3 fur Violin Solo in E No 3" is playing at a decent volume. The reason Nero's listening to music off his laptop is because he had to leave his music player and all of his other stuff he had taken with him when he joined NERV, obviously due to the fact that Nero had no time to retrieve his stuff when he betrayed NERV.

Nero silently watches the ceiling with both hands behind his head until softly saying in a somber tone, "The repairs on Unit 03 have been completed." He keys onto his laptop, listening to the music for a moment prior to uttering with sadness portrayed, "SEELE will launch their next attack some time tomorrow. They'll want me to be involved since I did come really close to annihilating NERV."

Suddenly, an image of Shinji and the others go through Nero's mind, surprising him a little. Seriousness then overtakes his expression as the lad steadily sits up, maintaining his focus on the laptop via a sideways position and ultimately smiles from sincerity. "I guess it's time... To stop lying to myself..." He tilts his head back a tad, turning his attention towards the ceiling. "And to finally try to be happy. Just like I had promised Rivka I would."

A few moments pass by and for no apparent reason, the emergency alarm of the 4th Branch *SEELE's Hideout* goes off. All of its personnel are caught off guard as it's promptly revealed that the cause of the noise is because Unit 03 had activated without permission. The black Eva's now wreaking havoc inside the facility's cage, where it was held.

Nero's within Unit 03's entry plug, endowed by his plugsuit, while leaning forward quite a bit to firmly grip the controls as the mechanical behemoth destroys anything in its path. Throughout the rampage, determination overflows from Nero's demeanor, his vision jetting about to inspect his surroundings. "If you guys don't want to die, then get the hell out of my way! Thanks to all of you, Unit 03 now has an S2 Engine and I'm not afraid to use it!" He chuckles after joyfully grinning.

In the meantime, Evan dashes to a railing near Unit 03, disbelief encompassing him. Following that, blonde switches his concentration towards the lower level of the cage's room and sees a male technician running away. "Hey! What's going on with Unit 03?!"

The male technician immediately stops and turns to look at Evan, panicking due to the destruction that's being created by Unit 03. "I don't really know! The Eva just suddenly activated for no reason!"

Evan places his hands on the railing while leaning on it to look down on the technician. "Did it activate by itself?! Are there any signs of a pilot?!"

The male technician responds with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "I'm not sure, but I know that it's being investigated!" Suddenly, there's a giant explosion and this causes the man to quickly snap his head towards his right, which is the direction where Unit 03 is at, while panicking even more.

Evan turns his attention towards the left to look at the source of the explosion as well. He's then shocked to see that Unit 03 had broken through one of the cage's walls and went through it to exit the room. Afterwards, he yells out in a commanding tone as he turns his attention back to the technician, "I want someone to find out and tell me what the hell's happening!"

Keel suddenly appears in the form of his Monolith while being right behind Evan and says with a stern tone, "There's no need, Evan."

Evan's caught off guard due to hearing Keel's voice all of a sudden and then quickly turns around to face the Monolith with concern showing. "What do you mean?!"

Keel firmly answers. "It's Nero. He's the only one who can pilot that Eva and do that without anyone noticing that he even got inside of it."

Evan's surprised by what he just heard. "But why?! I thought he was on our side! What does he expect to gain from doing this?! Does he want to be enemies with both NERV and us?!"

Keel responds calmly. "I don't know. This is what I've been worrying about. Even though it seemed he was siding with us after he betrayed NERV, Nero could have done all of that to trick us."

Evan gets really irritated while gesturing with his right hand in front of him. "That doesn't make any sense! He won't have any allies after this stunt he's pulling! What could he possibly be thinking?!"

Keel thinks to himself while being a bit concerned, "That's something I wish I could figure out. After finally thinking I have complete control over him, he proves me wrong in the worse possible way." He then says out loud with a commanding tone, "Evan! You must intercept him with Unit 07!"

Evan's quite stunned by Keel's command as he puts his right arm down and takes a step back for a moment. He then gestures with both hands in front of him with worry rising. "Wait a minute! You don't mean for me to face him in my current state, do you?!" With that said, Evan lowers his right hand and extends out his left arm towards his side. "For me to be on par with Nero, I need the amplifier and that takes a long time to hook up!"

Keel says with a stern tone in response to Evan's concern, "All you need to do is stall him until I contact Unit 06's pilot and have him return immediately. He should have retrieved what he needed by now. It's apparent that without the amplifier, you wouldn't last long against Nero."

Evan gets a bit irritated due to Keel's statement being true and then nods with determination. "Alright! I'll do everything I can to stall him!" Evan turns away from the Monolith and runs off towards the opposite direction that Unit 03 went while thinking with an upset expression, "Nero...!"

Keel's Monolith disappears from the cage's room and appears in the room where the other members of SEELE's Monoliths are located. After that, Keel says to them with a serious tone, "I already gave Evan the order to intercept Nero. He will keep him preoccupied until Unit 06 returns."

SEELE 06 says with a worried tone, "Are you sure he can handle Nero without the amplifier? In comparison, Nero won't even break much of a sweat against Evan if he makes Unit 03 go Berserk."

Keel plainly retorts. "I know that, however, Evan can hold his ground long enough for Unit 06 to come back. It's about time those two met anyway." He chuckles in a sinister way.

SEELE 02 says with a stern tone, "That maybe true, but I never thought it would be under these circumstances. Why is Nero betraying us? I thought he wanted the same thing that we do."

SEELE 08 gives out a fake laugh and then says with an arrogant tone, "Apparently you thought wrong, just like the rest of us! But it is our own fault to think he would be so obedient after what happened with the 2nd Branch!"

Keel responds to what SEELE 08 said. "You're correct. I take full responsibility of foolishly trusting him. I should have know better that he could act heartless and make-believe that he's on our side. Then, out of nowhere, cause us so much complications." He then yells out with an upset tone, "But he won't get away with it! If he's going to betray us, then he'll have to pay the consequences for his actions, and he'll pay with his life!"

The scene changes after that outburst from Keel and focuses on the outside of the 4th Branch's facility, which is located in the outskirts of Toronto, Canada, as it's now night-time. There's a sudden explosion that produces a large amount of smoke that causes numerous, different sounding alarms to go off. Afterwards, Unit 03 emerges from the smoke and quickly marches outside while putting some distance between it and the 4th Branch.

Unit 03 suddenly stops moving while turning to face the 4th Branch. Nero then smiles with a hint of sadness showing as he stares at the facility. "I'm sorry, Vanessa... Casey... But this is the only way if I want to be with them. From now on, we're enemies."

After saying that, Nero notices out of the corner of his right eye that a fierce shock-wave is heading towards him. In response, Unit 03 jumps backwards while barely dodging the shock-wave as it passed right in front of the black Eva. Unit 03 then lands on its feet while turning to face towards where the shock-wave originated from as some concern can be seen on Nero's person. After that, Nero lightly smiles as he sees who had launched the attack. "Well look who it is. It's Unit 07."

Unit 07 appears in the form of a dark red and brown colored Eva while its body structure is like most Evas. The shaping of its head is like most Evas while having sharp edges sticking towards the back of the head\/ The only thing on its face is a "X" that lights up with a red color similar to the eyes of Unit 01 when it transcended to its truest form. At the same time, Evan's wearing a red and brown plugsuit, which matches Unit 07, while having an "X" on the back of the plugsuit where the number would be as the plugsuit still has the number "07" on the front where the number is normally located.

Evan stares Unit 03 down with a serious glare as his body's bent forward and says with an enraged tone, "You son of a bitch! I can't believe how much of a traitor you are! I swear you were born just to be a liar and deceiver!"

Nero chuckles and says with a skeptical tone while raising his right eyebrow, "Oh really? It's interesting that you say that. You should know that I wouldn't lie or deceive anyone without a good reason."

Evan yells out while being very upset, "Shut the hell up! You know, I'm glad you're stupid enough to betray us. Now I can show SEELE that we don't need you!"

Nero cheerfully smiles, leans forward a bit and says to himself, "I had a feeling you would say that. After you finally told me what you desire, I knew we would fight."

Evan suddenly yells out with a demented expression, "But answer me something, Nero! Why the hell did you betray us?! I want to know so I can tell Vanessa and Casey, the two girls that are madly in love with you, the reason why you turn your back on them!" He then slightly lowers his head as he makes an evil-like smile. "I really could care less on the other hand. I always planned on killing you to gain my spot as the True Evangelion's pilot. But just for their benefit, tell me what are you going to get from doing this?"

Nero's a little surprised by Evan's question for a small moment. He then closes his eyes while lowering his head and gives out a soft laugh. "It's actually quite funny. The reason I'm doing this..."

Evan leans his back against his seat and cocks his head to the right with confusion overtaking his person.

Nero promptly says with no change to his tone, "First off, I never expected fighting any of you. I thought it would be enough that Shinji would find a way to kill me, although I really doubted that he could. But if he could do that, I knew SEELE's chances in succeeding would be cut in half. I would have been fine with dying as long as I knew that."

With that said, Nero slowly opens his eyes while happily saying, "But thanks to Asuka, I remembered that I need to live so I could be happy." He slowly lifts up his head to look directly at Unit 07. "And the only place I can be happy right now is with my brother and the friends I made in Tokyo-03."

Evan promptly gives out a fake laugh in response to what Nero said while bending forward again. "As if they would want you back! You tried to kill them! If you go back, they'll think that you're going to betray them again! They'll just lock you up until they decide when to kill you! You know your father well enough! He would definitely do that!"

Nero smirks while slightly being surprised. "I forgot that you guys always knew about who I really am." Confidence then arises while planting his back against the seat. "That just proved that you guys meant a lot to me and I wasn't worried about you knowing that I'm an Ikari."

Evan gets very irritated while saying with a hint of doubt in his voice, "Really? Well if we meant so much to you, then why betray us for people who most likely hate you now for what you did to them?"

Nero replies with sadness showing due to what he's about to say. "The reason why I'm leaving is because all of you can't accept the world the way it is. Casey and Vanessa want to see the world destroyed because they've only seen pain in this world. Lucas fought for recognition and didn't care if he would annihilate mankind for that. You pretty much want to be like God and don't care if you cause the destruction of the world in the process." Fierceness then takes over while Nero tightens his grip on the controls. "There's no way I can let that happen."

Evan gets pissed off by Nero's words and yells out, "What the hell are you talking about?! You don't like the way the world is either!"

Nero chuckles lightly. "True, but I don't want to destroy it. I only said I wanted to destroy it along with mankind to Shinji and the others so they wouldn't hold back against me. You, Lucas, Vanessa and Casey already knew what I want to do for the world."

Evan says with a somber tone as sadness fills his chest, "You want to restore it..."

Nero nods while happily smiling. "That's my dream. That, and to be happy. To be happy became my dream when I met Rivka. She showed me that even as the world is now, it's still beautiful. That someone like me deserves to be happy and feel love. I want to bring back the world's natural beauty and I want to be in love again because that's where happiness lies for me." He sees a sudden image of Asuka go through his mind, which surprises him a little, and then smiles while thinking, "And she's the one I need to be with to achieve that happiness."

Evan's stunned for a moment as he thinks, "Love...? He never once spoke of love, and now, it's the most important thing to him?" He's then overcome with rage again. "You have to be kidding me! That's the dumbest thing I ever heard come out of your mouth!"

Nero sighs while lowering his head with his eyes closed and then looks at Unit 07 without any emotion showing. "I'm really sorry you feel that way." Determination fills Nero's person as he smiles. "But I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you! You make your own choices in life and you have to stand by what you believe in! Just like what Lucas did!"

Evan gets even more angry. "Don't mention that retard's name! He's a loser and a freaking retard for fighting for something as stupid as recognition! That's why SEELE gave me his spot to pilot this great Eva!" With that said, Unit 07 points its right arm towards Unit 03 as four antennas stick out from it.

Nero's eyes widen while being a bit surprised. "The Crusher System? So that's what he attacked me with? But that shouldn't be able to reach this far." Evan then makes Unit 07 release a shock-wave and it quickly heads towards Unit 03 with amazing speed. In response, seriousness overtakes Nero's expression while having Unit 03's A.T. Field deploy right before the shock-wave was going to come into contact with Unit 03.

Unfortunately, Unit 03's A.T. Field suddenly shatters and this surprises Nero as he yells out, "No way! It actually broke my A.T. Field!" He then feels a slight pain to his body since some of the Crusher System's shock-wave was able to maintain itself after breaking through Unit 03's A.T. Field and had hit Nero's Eva in the face.

Evan smirks with arrogance being noted. "Surprised, Nero?! Did you actually think that my Crusher System would be as weak as that Dummy Eva that you faced?! Don't make me laugh!"

Nero laughs a little while rubbing his left cheek with the back of his right hand to show where he felt the pain from his synchronization. "I may have thought that at first, but you taught me the valuable lesson of not assuming." He then grabs onto the controls with seriousness taking over while thinking, "That means all information on the Crusher System is pretty useless. Obviously it can extend out to long-range now, it's strong enough to break through my A.T. Field while I'm just under 100% synchronization, and I bet it doesn't have the six shot limit anymore."

Evan smiles with skepticism being displayed. "What are you going to do, Nero?! Are you going to give up and beg for your life?!" He chuckles a little. "As if that would do you any good! Keel's really pissed off at your little stunt! There's no more chances for you! You're going to die and it's your own fault for believing you can be happy with those idiots at NERV!"

Nero makes a slightly annoyed expression due to the last thing Evan said. He then takes a deep breath to calm himself down with his head lowered. Afterwards, he looks at Unit 07 with determination arising and makes Unit 03 dash towards it. Evan smirks at the sight of Unit 03's advancement while Unit 07 dashes towards the black Eva as well. As both Evas get close to each other, Unit 07 lets out another shock-wave by thrusting its right arm towards Unit 03.

Unit 03 responds by ducking to dodge the shock-wave and then thrusts its left hand towards Unit 07's head. Evan sees this and makes Unit 07 dodge by having it move its head to the left. Afterwards, Unit 07 lifts its arm up a bit and swings it downward towards Unit 03.

A hint of annoyance can be seen on Nero's face as he watches Unit 07's hand descend towards him. Unit 03 then deploy its A.T. Field and successfully blocks the strike. After having his attack blocked, Evan gives out a loud, short laugh while showing a profound amount of confidence. "You think that pathetic A.T. Field will hold up?! You have to be on crack or something!" Unit 07 then uses its Crusher System and easily breaks through Unit 03's A.T. Field.

Nero's a bit startled due to Unit 03's A.T. Field being destroyed so easily. He then quickly regains his focus and makes Unit 03 jump backwards while barely dodging the shock-wave. As Unit 03 gains some distance from Unit 07 while still facing towards it, Nero contentedly says with his head down, "I have to hand it to you, Evan. You're better than I thought." He then lifts his head up to look at Unit 07 with a joyous smile.

Evan gets very irritated by Nero's comment as he stares at Unit 03 and says with an arrogant tone, "Of course! I can't say that about you though! Keel must be getting senile if he thought you're needed. Especially considering that he forgave you for not following the orders he gave when you were in the 2nd Branch!"

With that said, Evan realizes something while his eyes widen. He then smiles with curiosity brimming and tilts his head slightly to the left. "That reminds me, didn't you disobeyed SEELE because you fell in love with some stupid slut that died protecting you?"

Nero is immediately in shock after hearing what Evan had said. He then tightens his grip on the controls while glaring at Unit 07 with rage resonating in his eyes. "Do you mind... Repeating that...?"

Evan cocks his head back, leans against his seat and arrogantly laughs while looking towards Unit 03. "What are you, deaf?! I said that STUPID SLUT died protecting you!" He promptly leans forward. "And she deserved to die if she was that stupid AND slutty! I bet you anything she was cheating on you when the two of you were together, but you didn't think that even for a moment because you're so full of yourself!" Evan then says in a mocking way, "No one can ever outsmart you, right?!"

Having said that, Evan laughs with his head cocked back again for a moment and then looks at Unit 03 again. "But she probably did and felt bad, so she threw her life away so you would never find out! That's how STUPID she is!" He chuckles a little. "How does it feel to have fallen in love with such a SLUT?!" Evan laughs again while tilting his head back against the seat with his eyes closed.

Nero grits his teeth while still glaring at Unit 07 and then calms himself down by taking a deep breath with his head down. After doing that, Nero whispers to himself with a hint of disappointment in his voice, "You idiot..."

Without even hearing what Nero just said, curiosity shows itself on Evan's expression as he's leaning forward again. "What is it? Aren't you going to argue with me about how it isn't true? Or maybe..." He then smiles arrogantly while shouting out, "You know that it IS true! That's why you aren't arguing with me!" He gives out a short laugh. "Let's just hope that new girl who matters so much to you isn't as slutty as her, but I wouldn't be surprised if she is!" Evan then starts to laugh again.

Nero says with a somber tone with his head still down, "Berserker..." He then snaps his head up to look at Unit 07 with intensity and screams out, "Over 300%!" With Nero's cry, Unit 03 suddenly tilts its head back while its mouth opens as its stripes glow. Its A.T. Field then expands and causes the ground under it to break off.

Evan's stunned as he sees Unit 03 go through its change and then grins with arrogance brimming. "Did I hit a nerve? You're just as sensitive as that retard." Unit 03 then suddenly glares at Unit 07 and quickly dashes towards it with incredible speed while letting out grunting sounds.

In response, Unit 07 points both of its arms towards Unit 03 while the left arm has antennas come out of it just like the right arm as Evan laughs in a sinister way. "Let's see how you handle two Crusher Systems!" The brown and red Eva then releases a large shock-wave that's created by the combined efforts of both Crusher Systems and heads directly towards Unit 03.

Without any hesitation, Nero lets Unit 03 take the shock-wave head on and effortlessly passes through it while reaching Unit 07. This causes Evan to let out a gasp while trying to make Unit 07 dodge backwards. Nero then smirks while Unit 03 grabs onto both of Unit 07's arms with both hands. After that, the black Eva pulls on the arms while leaning backwards. As a result, Unit 07's lifted off the ground and thrown into the air.

Meanwhile, Evan screams as Unit 07 is frantically spinning in the air due to the force that was put into the throw by Unit 03. Right after that, Unit 03 bends forward and creates a shock-wave with the use of its A.T. Field to hit the ground. This launches Unit 03 into the air while doing multiple back-flips and quickly gets above Unit 07. It then instantly stops doing flips while descending down towards Unit 07 and crashes its feet into its back. The momentum sends both Evas towards the ground while making Unit 07 crash into it, face first.

Evan tries to regain his composure with pain showing on his face as his eyes are closed. After that, he slowly opens his eyes while turning his head towards the right and looks at Unit 03 with irritation brimming. "You son of a bitch. I can't believe how strong you are." He then tries to make Unit 07 get up, but Unit 03 doesn't give him a break.

Unit 03 swiftly thrusts its right arm onto the back of Unit 07's head to keep it from getting up and pins it down. Nero then smiles while Unit 03 tightens its grip on Unit 07. "Remember how I said that Lucas is better than you?"

Evan maintains his focus on Unit 03 with annoyance overflowing. "Yeah... By the way, why the hell do you keep mentioning that retard's name?"

Nero mildly chuckles, closes his eyes while slowly shaking his head in disapproval and then looks at Unit 07 again with a calm demeanor. "It's quite simple, really. I want you to always remember how weak you are. Think about it. Lucas took out one of my Eva's arms while you've barely gotten any real damage on it. That's really pathetic especially when you kept going on about how much better you are than him and me." He then smiles.

Evan's eyes widen as he's completely consumed with rage. He then looks at his controls and forcefully pulls on them while screaming, "SHUT THE HELL UP!"

As a result of Evan pulling the controls, Unit 07 quickly gets up while Unit 03 jumps off of it. The brown and red Eva then turns to face Unit 03 as the black Eva had landed at a small distance away. Afterwards, Unit 07 dashes towards Unit 03 while its arms conduct electricity to display that it's about to use the Crusher System. In response to seeing Unit 07's advancement, Nero grins out of amusement while bracing himself and thinks, "I guess all three of us are sensitive."

As soon as Unit 07 reaches Unit 03, it thrust both of its arms towards Unit 03 while making a growling sound. At the same time, Evan yells out while being enraged, "Die, you bastard!"

Unit 03 promptly responds by deploying its A.T. Field and effortlessly blocks both of Unit 07's strikes. Both of Unit 07's arms had also released their shock-wave from the Crusher System and the impact makes a loud, chiming sound. After having his Eva's attack blocked, Evan's quite baffled while resting his back against the seat and yells out, "What the hell?! There's no way he's THIS strong!"

After hearing Evan's outburst, Nero smiles while tilting his head to the left. "That's where you made your second mistake. You underestimated me when you know you shouldn't." Unit 03 then pulls its left arm back and thrusts it right at Unit 07 while extending out a bit. The black Eva swiftly grabs Unit 07 by the neck and this causes Evan to gasp with his eyes wide open. He then grabs onto his neck with both of his hands with his head thrown back and his focus now on the ceiling.

Pain quickly fills Evan's entire being as he's groaning quite a bit due to Unit 03 gradually tightening its grip on Unit 07's neck. Nero then laughs a little and says with a composed tone, "Did you notice that I said underestimating me was your second mistake? Do you want to know what your first mistake was?"

Evan turns his gaze towards Unit 03 with pain still being displayed and says with a strained tone, "Like I give a fuck!"

Nero makes a confident smile. "Well you should because it's what set me off. When you called Rivka a stupid slut and even insulted Asuka... That's when you dug your own grave." He extends out Unit 03's right arm and grabs a hold of Unit 07's neck as well while applying more pressure.

Evan desperately gasps for air with his head tilted upward while starting to panic quite a bit. Then, with determination rising, Evan looks at Unit 03 and screams out, "You can't kill me! No one can kill me! I'm invincible! You aren't better than me! I'm better than you!" He viciously grabs onto the controls after that and makes Unit 07 grab onto Unit 03's hand while trying to make it loosen its grip.

Nero looks at Unit 07 with no emotion being displayed. He then sighs with his eyes closed as he dropped his head down and says underneath his breath, "This entire time I thought you were better than this, Evan. I never thought you would be this bad, but after everything you said, there's no way I could ever forgive you." Nero smiles while lifting up his head to look at Unit 07 with determination gleaming in his eyes. "That's why I'm going to end this!" Unit 03 then lets go of Unit 07's neck while quickly pulling its arms behind itself.

Evan's surprised as he continues to look at Unit 03. He then glares at Unit 03 with annoyance being noted and yells out while making Unit 07 thrust both of its hands towards Unit 03's face, "Try it if you can!"

Unit 03 ducks its head down and successfully dodges Unit 07's strike. After that, the black Eva swiftly thrust both of its hands into Unit 07's stomach with a lot of power behind it while Unit 03 stands up straight. As a result, Unit 07 is suddenly lifted off the ground as Unit 03 holds Unit 07 up above it. Evan then gags while coughing out some blood as he feels intense pain from his synchronization. At the same time, he's bent forward while holding onto his stomach.

Evan grits his teeth with his eyes closed while still holding onto his stomach and says to himself with a strained voice, "Damn... It...! He's... He's too... Strong...!" Evan peers at Unit 03 as anger completely consumes his being. "If only I had the... Damn amplifier...! I so... Would have... Been able to kill him...!"

Nero gives Unit 07 an intense look and then makes Unit 03 forcefully pull its arms in opposite sideways directions. Unit 07 is then split in half, which causes Evan to scream out in pain as both halves of Unit 07 fall to the ground. The lower half ends up crashing in front of Unit 03 while the upper half crashes behind it. After both halves hit the ground, Evan tries his best to maintain consciousness while saying softly as he's faintly looking at Unit 03 from behind, "I... Hate you... Nero..." As he said Nero's name, his eyes become vacant as he then passes out while dropping his head back.

Right after that, Unit 03 turns around to face Unit 07's upper half as Nero looks down at it while proudly smiling. "That's what you get, Evan. You should have never said those terrible things about them." Sympathy then overtakes Nero a little. "You only have yourself to blame for how things turned out." Nero suddenly stops smiling with seriousness showing in his eyes. "Now knowing you, you're probably still alive, but no longer conscious." He then takes a deep breath, shuts his eyes for a moment, re-opens his eyes and says with a sad tone, "I have to finish you off."

Suddenly, Nero's eyes widen as he hears a high pitch sound and then quickly looks around with concern arising. "What the hell is that?" After saying that, he realizes something and instantly looks up above him. He immediately sees something head straight towards him with incredible speed and this causes him to give out a small gasp. Unit 03 then promptly jumps towards its right while barely dodging the object.

As a result, the object crashes into the ground while creating a loud impact that causes a lot of smoke to be formed. Simultaneously, the tremendous force sends both halves of Unit 07 flying at a small distance away while Evan continues to be unconscious, ultimately crashing onto the ground again.

Unit 03 stands at a small distance away from the smoke with Nero watching the cloud of smoke clear, concern notable on him. He's then shocked by what he sees while driving his body forward as much as possible. "Is that...! The Lance of Longinus?! But it's suppose to be lost in space!" Nero suddenly hears a weird humming sound, startling him a little, and looks up with worry returning. The lad soon registers that an Eva is slowly descending from the sky while both in front of the moon's path and right above Unit 03. After several moments pass of observation, Nero faintly grins with his focus undeterred. "So, we finally meet, Unit 06. It's a pleasure to meet you. Or to be more precise, it's a pleasure to meet you... Kaworu Nagisa."

While Unit 06 persists its decent, Kaworu gazes down on Unit 03 without any emotion exhibited as he's wearing an Indigo plugsuit that has a light tint of grey on the upper part of the suit. He then suddenly smirks and says with a calm tone with his head tilted back a little, "Likewise, Nero Ikari. How is Shinji doing?" *Side Note: Unit 06's appearance is the same as the Mark 06 from the Rebuild of Eva movie*

Nero chuckles a little while still focused on Unit 06. "He's alright, I guess. I did give him a hard time before I left, but I know I didn't kill him or anything too severe."

Kaworu smiles out of content as he stops Unit 06 from descending towards Unit 03. "That is good. I would like to see Shinji before making him initiate 4th Impact. However first, I must take care of you. You were originally supposed to be an asset for 4th impact, but now, your existence will only jeopardize what must be done to the Lilin of this world."

Nero raises his left eyebrow while cocking his head slightly to the right with a skeptical expression. "Is that so?"

Kaworu nods and says with a somber tone, "Yes... It is indeed so."

Nero smirks with confidence and straightens his head. "We'll see about that, Kaworu."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Ending Statement:

Things are starting to get intense. Seriously, look forward to the next episode. I'm going to do everything I can to make it amazing, and thank you all for reading every episode so far. You guys are just plain awesome.

That's it. Talk to you all later.