Words from the Author:

I believe this episode will be a bit difficult for me to write. I'm really debating about what to put, although I do have something to start off with. I also have a few ideas that I would like to have in this episode, but I have to see if they fit well enough with the partial image I have. I just need to come up with what this episode will be as a whole. Improvising is pretty much the basis of my creativity, so I guess I'll have to rely on that again. This is seriously going to test me because my mind is coming up with way too many blanks. Wish me, luck. Neon Genesis Evangelion is owned by Gainax and I make no claim of owning it.

Episode 21: Death Is The Only Thing That Can Never Be Avoided In Life

With the battle between Nero and Kaworu concluded, the following day arrives at the new hideout for SEELE. It's early in the morning over there, and at this very moment, there's a meeting between the top five members. They seem to be having a hard time deciding on what to do next. The five members are having their meeting in a room that's illuminated by a glass ceiling that allows the sun to shine into the room while they're sitting at a pretty long, rectangular table. Thanks to the light from the sun, the room is revealed to be quite large while only having one way to exit, which the exit is a large automatic door that's located at a small distance behind Keel. Like always, Keel's at the end of the table while there are two members towards his left and the other two are towards his right.

SEELE 03's attention is towards the left to look at Keel with a serious expression while leaning on the table as he's sitting on the right of SEELE 02. "Keel... You mind telling us why only the five of us are having this meeting? Don't you think the other members have the right to be here to help decide what our next move will be?"

Keel looks at SEELE 03 with no real emotion while currently imitating Gendo's pose until putting his hands down on the table and says with a stern tone after getting a bit serious, "It's not really that. I just saw it as being more convenient for just the five of us to talk over what we'll be doing next instead of having the entire group. Anyway, I'll let them know what we decide in this meeting. It's not like I'm leaving them out of the plan." Keel gives SEELE 03 a slightly devious smirk. "Does that answer your question?"

SEELE 03 nods while maintaining his seriousness to a certain level. "Indeed, now tell us... What do you think should be our next move? After losing a pilot as valuable as Nero and having to abandon the 4th Branch before it was destroyed, we're in a tight situation. Plus, we couldn't stay in America in general since there was no possible way to conceal that incident. That's why we're here, after all."

SEELE 04 gives out a short, arrogant laugh with his arms folded as he's leaning against his chair while gazing at SEELE 03 and says with a blatant tone, "I say good riddance to Nero!" SEELE 04 veers his attention to Keel with a criticizing expression while suddenly punching the table with his right hand. "You were too dependent on him from the beginning. Because of that, we were highly vulnerable when he betrayed us!"

With that said, SEELE 04 smiles in an evil way and says with a harsh tone, "Anyway, he may have been a great pilot, but he wasn't THAT great! He did lose to Tabris, after all!" He starts to laugh in a maniacal manner with his head cocked back while having removed his right fist from the table.

Keel focus on SEELE 04 with no real emotion being displayed. After that, the Chairmen sighs with his eyes closed as his head's lowered a little and says with a plain tone, "You are correct. I was too dependent on Nero." He then slowly looks at SEELE 04 with a serious stare. "But I was dependent on him because it was of great importance to have him on our side for our plan."

SEELE 04 raises his right eyebrow while giving Keel a skeptical look. "Is that for a fact?!" He's then overcome with annoyance, quickly gets up from his seat and slams both hands on the table. "Why is that?! You never once justified us with an explanation of why Nero was so important!"

Keel smirks while lowering his head again and slowly shakes it. "I don't need to explain that. It should be quite obvious why Nero's so important." The Chairmen changes his focus onto SEELE 04 with seriousness returning. "But that doesn't matter now. Nero's no longer part of the equation. Tabris took care of him."

SEELE 02 becomes quite worried after hearing what Keel had said while leaning towards Keel with his left arm resting on the table. "How sure are you about that? Tabris hasn't returned since their confrontation. In Canada's report, there was no sign of Unit 06 being in the area or even Nero's body."

Keel sets his sights onto SEELE 02 with a hint of irritation. "What are you implying? That Tabris will betray us as well? That there's a possibility Nero's still alive?" He lightly shakes his head while keeping his eyes on SEELE 02. "That's impossible. I spoke to Tabris and his alliance with us is too important to him."

SEELE 05 smirks with arrogance brimming as he's leaning on the table with his left arm resting on top of it. "That's because he believes that destiny can't be refused without giving up your life. And even then, he still thinks that it's impossible to go against it!" He laughs with his head cocked back and his eyes closed. "What a fool!"

Keel turns his gaze to SEELE 05 and states with a stern tone, "That's enough!"

That outburst causes SEELE 05 to immediately stop laughing while looking at Keel with surprise on his face.

Then, Keel states without changing his tone, "Destiny is something that shouldn't be changed! A person's destiny has been decided by God, and to ignore your destiny is the same as spitting God in the face! We all have a destiny, and we will obediently follow through with it!"

SEELE 02 rests his back against his seat and calmly responds to Keel's statement. "The Instrumentality Project is the destiny of mankind. We must be one to pay for all of our sins as humans."

Keel glances at SEELE 02, calmly nods and then turns his attention towards the rest of the members while saying with a firm tone, "I don't know where Tabris is, but I assure all of you that he was able to eliminate Nero as a threat."

Some concern can be seen on SEELE 03's expression as he says with his right hand slightly raised, "But what if he decides to go against his destiny? He's done it before."

SEELE 05 looks at SEELE 03 out of the corner of his eyes with curiosity showing as his body is turned towards Keel. "Why would he do that? Keel just said it matters a great deal to Tabris to be on our side."

Keel suddenly cuts in while saying with an emotionless tone as he's looking down at the table, "There's a small possibility he could betray us."

In response to what Keel just said, the others look at him while being a bit surprised as Keel states with a cold tone, "The reason I say that is because of Nero." He looks at all of them with seriousness re-establishing itself on his person. "I could see it when he was little. He had an ability to persuade people and gain their trust with not much effort. It really went to his advantage when he gave out his theories to restore the world to the way it was before 2nd Impact."

SEELE 02's eyes widen out of realization after hearing Keel's words. "That's right..." He quickly regains his composure while being quite serious. "He always had that dream of restoring the world." SEELE 02 then looks up at the ceiling with a bit of confusion arising. "To be honest, I didn't quite understand why he wanted to do that."

Having said that, SEELE 02 returns his attention back to Keel with concern taking over. "He knows that Instrumentality would completely make his efforts go in vain, so why would he go through all that work for nothing?"

Keel's a bit surprised with his eyes locked on SEELE 02 as he thinks, "He's right!" He becomes quite upset while looking downward with his right hand clenched into a fist that's now on the table and thinks, "How could I have not realized it?! He never wanted to help with Instrumentality! That means he had planned on betraying me from the beginning!"

After processing that through his head, Keel tries to calm himself while taking a deep breath. Once he does that, Keel looks up at the others with a calm demeanor and firmly says to them, "Don't worry about such trivial things. Nero's dead. We don't have to worry about him anymore."

SEELE 04 sits back down on his chair with seriousness being noted. "True, but what should we do now? Even though I never liked Nero, we still lost a pilot we didn't expect losing before attempting Instrumentality again. To make things worse, we have no clue where Tabris and Unit 06 are. Not to mention, thanks to that damn Nero, Unit 07 and its pilot are out of play for the time being."

SEELE 02's filled with curiosity while maintaining his focus on Keel. "Come to think about it, what's Evan's current condition?"

Keel calmly looks at SEELE 02. "He hasn't regained consciousness yet, but that does not matter at the moment. It will be a while until Unit 07 is repaired anyway."

SEELE 03 crosses his arms with his body still against the table while being a bit worried. "So, we'll continue as planned. Just this time we won't have Evan, Nero and maybe not even Tabris in our arsenal."

Keel turns his attention towards SEELE 03 while slowly shaking his head. "No. Due to our current situation, we must change our planned date for Instrumentality. I've spoken to our technicians and they're working on more Dummy Plug Evas as we speak."

SEELE 04's briefly in shock due to what he just heard and then gets closer to Keel by leaning forward onto the table while being very upset. "Why?! I thought we were stopping at 20!" His expression then changes to a serious one and continues to say without changing the volume in his voice, "We could end it right now by sending the four we have and by sending Units 08, 09 and 10!"

Keel glares at SEELE 04 with a cold look. "There are too many 'X-Factors' to take into consideration. It's for the best to increase our forces until Unit 07 is repaired." He promptly turns his attention to all of them with seriousness showing. "Anyway, Unit 08's pilot needs some more time to fully awaken. Evan needs to go through more tests with the amplifier as well. We were fortunate enough to learn from Nero and Evan facing each other that Evan can't hope to defeat the 3rd Child, who's capabilities aren't far away from Nero's."

Irritation can be noted on SEELE 04's face while pulling away from Keel and rests his back against his chair with his arms folded. "I can understand that, but in their current condition, NERV will easily fall to us if we launch a full on assault now."

With that said, SEELE 04 gives off a small smirk with a hint of arrogance in it. "Nero did do a couple of things that benefited us greatly. He destroyed that cheap copy of Unit 00, he split Unit 00 in half just like he did with Unit 07 so it'll take NERV a while to repair it, he left Unit 05 with some extensive damage and Unit 01 is in its worst condition to date." He then says with a maniacal tone while smiling, "It'll take NERV forever to repair it!"

SEELE 05 raises his left eyebrow with a hint of curiosity showing. "Is there a specific reason why you left out Unit 04?"

SEELE 04 slightly turns his head towards the left to look at SEELE 05 from behind himself while arrogantly smiling. "Of course! Unit 04's pilot is a joke!" He then turns to face SEELE 05. "He was the first one to be taken out by Nero! It's true that his Eva did receive the least amount of damage, but that doesn't matter! As long as it has that pilot, it could never pose as a threat to us!" SEELE 04 throws his head backwards and laughs in a maniacal manner.

SEELE 02 calmly stares at SEELE 04. "Though I normally hate agreeing with you, you have a point." He shifts his attention to SEELE 05. "The only pilot that was as worthless as Unit 04's pilot was the one that piloted Unit 00's copy. Ikari should have really re-thought appointing those two as pilots."

SEELE 04 looks at SEELE 02 and shouts out while being quite happy, "Not only them, but the guy Nero had replaced! He sucked so much that he couldn't synchronize with Unit 03! It doesn't even matter the fact that it was Bardiel rejecting him that kept him from synchronizing! He still sucked either way!" He starts to laugh again in the same manner as earlier.

Keel cuts in while saying with a commanding tone after having slammed his right fist down on the table, "That's enough! We get your point! But we'll be doing things my way!"

SEELE 04 quickly snap his head towards Keel while being a bit caught off guard by his words. He then makes an upset expression and yells out while leaning towards Keel again, "We've been doing things your way from the very beginning and look what it's gotten us! Make the right decision for once and send all of our working Evas!"

In response to what SEELE 04 just said, Keel becomes furious and then slowly gets up from his seat while still looking at SEELE 04. This sudden action causes SEELE 04 to be overcome with concern while planting his back against his chair once again. "K-Keel?"

Keel gives SEELE 04 a fierce and serious look for a moment. He then quickly reaches behind his back with his right hand and pulls out a pistol. After doing that, Keel quickly points it at SEELE 04 and suddenly shoots him in the forehead without hesitation.

As a result, the other SEELE members are all shocked at what they have just witnessed while SEELE 04's stunned as the momentum of the bullet sends him backwards with his chair to fall onto the ground. Blood then spurts out from his head as he lies motionless on the ground.

After seeing SEELE 04 fall to the ground, Keel puts the hand that he holds the gun with down and then turns his attention towards the other members with seriousness being maintained. "Is there anyone else who has a problem with doing things my way?"

The remaining SEELE members look at him for a moment while still being shocked at what he did. They then glance at each other as each of them composed themselves to be serious and all nod. After doing that, they return their attention to Keel and shake their heads at him.

Keel smirks and then sits back down on his chair while imitating Gendo's famous pose with both hands locked together in front of his mouth. "Good. Now trust me, the next attack will be launched as soon as I have gotten confirmation on the progress of the other Evas. Also, I think it's about time that some of our members get more involved with our efforts."

SEELE 02 makes a worried expression while leaning towards Keel. "What's that suppose to mean?"

Keel gazes at SEELE 02 while smiling to himself since the others can't see through his hands. "You'll soon see." He then looks at the other members. "The next attack we launch won't be our main attack. It's just to experiment something and based on how it goes, I'll make the so-called 'right decision' that our former member was mentioning." Keel chuckles in an evil way.

With those final words stated by Keel, the scene instantly changes to focus on Gendo's office while it's clearly reaching the evening in Japan. At this moment, Gendo and Fuyutsuki are located at Gendo's desk while Misato and Kaji are at a small distance away from Gendo's desk as they face him and Fuyutsuki. There's an intense atmosphere in the room after Gendo had told Misato and Kaji what will be their next course of action pertaining the damaged Evas. After that, everyone's attention is drawn onto Kaji for him to tell them what he found out during his search for SEELE.

Gendo's looking at Kaji with a serious expression while sitting at his desk as he's in his usual pose. "Well, Mr. Kaji? The floor is yours. Give us what you have discovered in your investigation."

Kaji looks at Gendo with a calm demeanor being noted as his hands are in his pockets. "Alright. To start off, I found out where SEELE was hiding."

Misato takes a step towards Kaji, who's towards her left with surprise being displayed while smiling at him. "Really?! That's great! Now we can finally come up with a plan to attack them!"

Kaji turns his head to look at Misato with some sadness showing. "I said that they WERE hiding."

Confusion rapidly takes over Misato's expression as she lightly tilts her head to the left. "Were?" She then gets quite upset while leaning towards Kaji with her arms outstretched towards the sides a little. "So you mean they aren't there anymore?!"

Kaji nods at Misato while maintaining the same level of sadness on his person and then turns his attention towards Gendo. "SEELE was located at the outskirts of Toronto, Canada this entire time. But due to a recent incident, their hideout was destroyed and they had to abandon it."

Fuyutsuki's quite surprised by what he just heard as he's standing to the right of Gendo with his hands behind his back. "Destroyed?! How's that possible?! What happened?!"

Kaji smirks while glancing at Misato and says to her, "You're going to like this part."

Misato's confused again while pulling her head back slightly and thinks, "What does he mean by that?"

Kaji's attention is back towards Gendo and Fuyutsuki while being content. "Apparently from the news report, it was sighted that a giant, black humanoid object... More specifically called by the civilians who were able to see it without being hurt as a 'giant robot' was the cause of not only the destruction of SEELE's hideout, but also caused severe damage to the area." He gazes at Misato out of the corner of his eyes while smiling. "Do you want to make a guess at who did it?"

Misato's eyes widen while very excited as she gets even closer to Kaji. "Was it Unit 03?!"

As a result, Gendo's slightly surprised at the mentioning of Unit 03 while still maintaining his pose.

Kaji nods at Misato with sincerity brimming. "Yeah... And that means only one thing."

Misato yells out of joy while wrapping her arms around Kaji's neck to embrace him with her eyes closed as her right cheek is in contact with his left. "Nero's actually on our side! There's no doubt about it!"

After hearing Misato's outburst, Gendo and Fuyutsuki both share a quick glance with each other while each being quite content. They then turn their attention back towards Kaji and Misato as Kaji smiles again while holding Misato with his arms wrapped around her waist.

Kaji suddenly makes a somber expression while looking towards the floor out of the corner of his right eye. "Yeah... But there's bad news."

Misato instantly opens her eyes while being very concerned. She then pulls her head away from Kaji's cheek to look directly at him while still holding him by the neck and says with a worried tone, "I don't like how you said that all of a sudden. What happened?"

Kaji looks at Misato with sadness in his eyes and then tries to tell her the bad news, but seems to have a hard time saying it at first. As a result, Kaji veers away from the Colonel by turning his head towards the right to help him finally say it with a somber tone, "Unit 03 was reported to have been... Destroyed..."

Gendo's eyes immediately widen while being shocked by the words "Have been destroyed". He then puts his hands down onto the desk while thinking to himself, "Nero..."

Disbelief can be seen on Misato's face as she slowly releases her hold on Kaji's neck and puts her arms down. She then does her best to sustain tears from falling down her face as she leans towards Kaji and passionately yells with a distraught tone, "No! That can't be! He can't be dead!"

Kaji slowly looks at Misato with sadness showing on his face. "I'm sorry, Misato. From the information I was able to gather, it seems like Nero had to fight against a really strong Eva. There was no information on the appearance of the Eva or anything that would help us, but it was noted that the battle between it and Nero created the destruction of the area. It was also hinted that Nero was the one to have lost since what little remained of Unit 03 was the only thing found afterwards."

Having said that, Kaji gazes at the floor and says with the same amount of sadness, "That's pretty much all I was able to get. During the time frame of the destruction of that area, everyone had to evacuate to prevent any casualties. There was no one there to see what happened." He looks at her again. "But when the people of Canada went to check on the area, they found what was left of Unit 03, but Nero's body was nowhere to be found."

Misato's eyes widen again while being quite surprised and then says with an optimistic tone, "Then he could have managed to escape! He could still be alive!"

Fuyutsuki gives Misato a serious look while saying with a cold tone, "You know better than that, Katsuragi."

That statement from Fuyutsuki causes Misato to be stunned after turning her head to the left to look at him. Fuyutsuki then states while displaying a hint of sadness, "If Nero was on the losing end during the battle, that means he had to have given it everything he had. That includes synchronizing with Unit 03 to over 400%, which would result in him losing his ego and becoming one with the Eva. That's most likely the reason why his body wasn't found."

Misato makes a distraught expression while covering her mouth with her right hand as tears slowly fall down her face. She then thinks to herself with sorrow dwelling within her, "No...! If he's dead, then what am I going to tell the others...?! What am I going to tell Shinji and Asuka?!"

Kaji watches Misato while being worried about her, gently places his hands on her shoulders to make her look at him and gives her a caring smile. "I know what you're thinking, Misato. It's going to be hard to tell them, but it has to be done. I'll tell them if it helps."

Misato just looks at Kaji while lowering her hand a little until slowly nodding as she continues to cry and says with her voice cracking up a bit, "T-Thank y-you, K-Kaji."

Kaji nods at Misato while his caring smile changes into a sad smile and turns his head to Gendo with seriousness returning. "That's all I have, sir... And I'm sorry for the lost of Nero. It must be affecting you too, huh?"

Gendo stares down at his desk while his hands are clenched into fists as he doesn't show any response to Kaji's words at first. After that, the Commander slowly nods without looking up at Kaji and says with no real emotion emitting from him, "You and Colonel Katsuragi may leave now."

Kaji politely nods. "Thank you, sir." He grabs onto Misato's left hand with his right and helps her leave the room due to her still being upset by Nero's death.

Fuyutsuki watches them until they leave the room and sets his attention towards Gendo with a slightly concerned expression. "Ikari?"

Gendo quickly responds with a stern tone while his eyes continue to be locked on his desk and doesn't let Fuyutsuki see his face, "Notify Dr. Akagi about what happened. Tell her to have our tech team focus only on Unit 01's repairs for right now. We'll need it fully functional before SEELE decides to launch another attack."

Fuyutsuki nods at him while his face regains its usual serious look. "I'm on it." He walks away from Gendo while thinking to himself with a bit of worry showing, "I've never seen Ikari like that since Yui died. The lost of one of his sons is affecting him more than I thought it would. It seems that there's a change occurring in him that I would have never expected."

With the completion of that thought, Fuyutsuki reaches the exit and gives a quick look at the ceiling before leaving while muttering, "Could it be that he's finally doing what Yui wanted from him...? To be a good father..." He looks in front of himself and exits the room.

After Fuyutsuki leaves, Gendo says to himself with emptiness being displayed. "Keel..." His expression then tenses up as his hands clenched so tightly that they start to bleed as he says under his breath, "I'll make you pay for taking Nero away...! I can't achieve what I want now with him gone!"

Gendo tries to calm himself as he contemplates in his mind, "Though Shinji is now a possible option, he doesn't even need the Lance of Longinus. We can't even retrieve it, anyway." He closes his eyes with irritation being noted as he shouts out, "But what would be the point with Nero dead?! Yui would never accept it!"

With that final outburst, the scene suddenly changes to focus on Misato and Kaji. They have just arrived at the doorstep of the apartment as Misato's hesitant to go inside due to her knowing that Kaji will tell the children about Nero's death and doesn't want that because the moment they find out, not only will the death of Nero will feel real, but also, it will cause the children severe emotional pain. Kaji's then able to convince her that it must be done and that it's better to tell them than to keep it a secret until they end up finding out some other way. Misato reluctantly agrees with him and they then enter the apartment.

Afterwards, they gather the children and have them sit at the kitchen table for Kaji to tell them the bad news. Kaji and Misato are standing at the end of the table that's closest to the living room. Shinji, Mari and Asuka sit on the left side of the table in that order while being to the left of Misato. Asuka being the closest to Misato. Touji, Hikari, Kensuke and Rei sit on the other side of the table that's on the right of Kaji in that order. Rei being the closest to Kaji. Misato stands on Kaji's left while they're both facing towards the children.

In reference to what the children are wearing, it can be noted that Shinji's wearing a sky blue buttoned shirt that ties up at the top of his chest while wearing his school pants. Asuka's wearing cut-off shorts as she has on a red and white tank-top that shows her chest a little. Touji is being lazy by not changing out of his track clothing while Hikari has on an orange blouse and grey sweat pants.

In Kensuke's case, he's wearing a buttoned green, rugby shirt and khaki military style shorts while Rei wears a light brown dress that don't even reach her knees with a black tank-top underneath it. And finally, Mari's wearing a plain, pink shirt with the word "Love" in the middle and pink, silk shorts.

After having gather the children, Kaji takes a deep breath with his head lowered as his eyes are closed. He then looks at the children with sadness showing on his person. "There's something very important that we need to tell all of you."

Kensuke's a bit worried while leaning on the table and yells out, "Does it have to do with my Eva?! How bad is it?! I hope I can still pilot!"

Asuka instantly gets up while slamming her hands on the table and glares at Kensuke with an annoyed expression. "Don't be stupid! Out of all of the Evas that were damaged, yours was the least!" After saying that, Asuka places her hands on her hips while giving Kensuke a smug smirk. "You should be ashamed that you lost so easily with your Eva barely being damaged."

Kensuke gives Asuka an upset look while getting up with his hands planted on the table so that he can lean on it. "It's not my fault! Nero attacked me out of nowhere! There was no way for me to defend myself!"

Asuka crosses her arms while saying in a distasteful tone, "Well if you were a better pilot, then he wouldn't have caught you off guard so easily." She then scoffs at her previous statement while turning her head towards the right and peers up at the ceiling. "Although you still would have lost since you could never reach Nero's level."

Kensuke gets even more upset while grinding his teeth. He then yells out with pure anger arising, "Why the hell do you keep defending that traitor?!"

Due to Kensuke's outburst, the others look at him in shock as Asuka's consumed with rage while gritting her teeth a little. She then grabs him by the collar with both hands from the other side of the table while glaring at him with intensity resonating from her eyes. "What was that?! After what we said about him being our friend, you have the nerve to say that?!"

Kensuke narrows his eyes with seriousness brimming while still being upset. "Yeah!" He then forces Asuka to let go of his collar by slapping her hands away with the back of his right hand. Right after that, he steps away from the table while his chair falls to the ground due to him bumping into it and tightly clenches his hands into fists with his eyes focused on everyone. "Why did we even say that?! There's no way we should ever forgive him! Anyway, he's not coming back!"

Rei immediately gets up from her chair after hearing what Kensuke said, gets in front of her boyfriend and tries to calm him down with her left hand placed on his chest. "Kensuke, please stop. You are going too far with what you are saying."

Touji nods in agreement while still sitting next to Hikari with his arms folded. "She's right, Kensuke. I'm still kinda' mad at him for breaking his promise, but I'm still willin' to give him another chance after what Hikari said 'bout him not wantin' to actually fight us."

Hikari gives Touji a quick glance while smiling and nodding. "That's right." She then turns her attention towards Kensuke. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

Kensuke looks at Touji and Hikari for a moment with an expression of disbelief as he had lightly unclenched his hands. He then re-clenches them and glares at Rei while yelling out, "You guys can't be serious?! After what he did, can we really trust him?!"

With that said, Kensuke turns to everyone with a hint of stress brimming as he swings his right arm towards the side. "Sure he could have killed us, but he probably decided not to because he wanted us to suffer knowing that he could easily beat us at any moment! We need to accept the fact that he's a traitor!"

Asuka grits her teeth while clenching her right hand as she does her best to hold her rage in. Meanwhile, Shinji gives Kensuke an upset look while yelling out, "That's enough, Kensuke! I understand where you're coming from, but we agreed that we would give him a chance to come back to explain himself! If he doesn't, then that means you're right! So just stop because saying all of that is complicating things!"

Mari looks at Shinji with admiration while thinking, "Well put, Shinji. I like it when you stand up for what you believe in."

Kensuke moves towards the right to look at Shinji since Rei was blocking his field of vision with a serious expression. "Why the hell should we wait?! It's obvious he isn't coming back!" He then crosses his arms while looking away from everyone and says with a cold tone, "That bastard deserves to die."

Asuka's eyes widen while being consumed with rage. She then quickly walks around the table from Shinji's side and pulls her right fist back as she's about to throw a punch. "Ficken, Arschloch! (Fucking, asshole!)"

In response, Kensuke had turned to face Asuka, and then flinched with his eyes closed as he's bracing himself for Asuka's punch. After a few seconds go by, he realizes that the punch isn't coming. This causes him to slowly open his eyes while looking at Asuka with concern.

Asuka had made her fist stop short from hitting Kensuke on the none while pure grief can be noted on her face. It's revealed that she's holding back tears as she decides to put her hand down while unclenching it. At the same time, she lowers her head and says with a sad tone, "Stop doubting him... He'll come back... He needs to come back..."

Kensuke has a shocked expression while pulling his head back a little bit as he thinks, "Is it just me or did it look like she was about to cry?!" He's then filled with sadness while looking away from Asuka and the others.

Misato watches Asuka with worry as she thinks, "Asuka..." She then looks at Kaji and whispers to him with a sad tone, "Kaji...?"

Kaji looks at Misato with a hint of concern and whispers back to her, "What is it, Misato?"

Misato states with some confidence, "I'll tell the children about Nero. I have to be the one to say it. Even though I know it's going to hurt a lot afterwards, it would be best for them to hear it from me."

As a result, Kaji's a bit surprised for a moment and then makes a supportive expression while nodding at her. After seeing Kaji's reaction, Misato gives him a sad smile for a moment. Right after that, she turns to the children with sadness overtaking her again. "Kids... I really need to tell you this before things get more out of hand."

The children all look at her with concern being noted. Misato then takes a deep breath with her eyes closed for a moment, and once she exhales, Misato looks at them while saying with a composed tone, "Kaji was able to find out where SEELE was hiding out, but they're no longer there."

Touji's a bit confused as he asks with his right eyebrow slightly raised, "Why ain't they there anymore?"

Misato smiles lightly at Touji and then looks at Asuka while being quite pleased. "You were right to have so much faith in Nero."

Asuka's surprised by what Misato said while taking a step towards her. "Do you mean...?"

Misato nods with sincerity brimming. "Yes. He attacked SEELE's hideout from the inside and even fought with a couple of their Evas."

The children are very surprised by what they just heard while looking at Misato.

Meanwhile, Asuka smiles while being very relieved and then looks at Kensuke with happiness arising. "You see?! He IS on our side! And he's definitely coming back to us!"

Kensuke makes eye contact with Asuka while still being surprised. Shame then consumes his expression as he drops his head downward and says with a sad tone, "I guess, you guys were right to have faith in him... I'm sorry."

Rei lightly places her right hand on Kensuke's left shoulder while standing to his right. At the same time, she gives him a reassuring look while cocking her head slightly towards the left. "It's alright, Kensuke. Everyone makes mistakes."

Misato becomes sad again, closes her eyes and lowers her head. "I wish I could say that Nero's coming back, but sadly I can't."

The children quickly look at Misato again while being a bit confused by what she just said. Asuka then marches up to Misato with worry emitting from her face and stops in front of Misato at a very close distance. "What's that suppose to mean, Misato?!"

Misato slowly looks at Asuka without lifting her head up while tears start to fall down her face. "Asuka... Nero's dead..."

Asuka's jaw lowers slightly from disbelief while being completely stunned. Shinji's also in disbelief and then becomes very upset while yelling out, "How can that be?! There's no way he could have lost!"

Kaji steps in knowing that it was hard enough for Misato to say what she just said and gives Shinji a sympathetic look. "I wish that was true, but it seems that one of the Evas he fought was too strong, even for him." He pauses briefly while sighing lightly with his head tilted back for him to look at the ceiling. "There's no clear information on how he lost, but in the end, Unit 03 was found almost completely destroyed. Nero's body wasn't found, but that's most likely because he had to go over 400% synchronization to try to beat the enemy. He became a part of Unit 03 in the process."

Shinji's in shock for a moment as his eyes are wide open. He's then consumed with sorrow while holding back tears and hesitantly turns to Asuka. At the same time, Asuka drops her head down with her face covered by her hair as her hands are clenched again while irrationally shaking.

Hikari sees how Asuka's reacting to the news and then looks at Kaji. "Where did this happen?"

Kaji calmly looks at Hikari while responding to her question. "It happened in Canada. There was a secret 4th Branch located there that I was able to discover, but I had found that out the same time Nero had attacked it. It was too late for me to do anything since I didn't know for sure that SEELE was located there, however, they were able to evacuate. That much I'm sure of. They're sleazy like that. Our fight with them isn't over."

Mari watches everyone with seriousness being displayed as she thinks to herself, "I was in that Branch before, but that was when I was little. I actually had no idea that place was being kept secret though." She then looks at Shinji with a worried expression while he's still notably upset.

Misato puts her hands on Asuka's shoulders while trying to make her look at her and then says with sympathy in her voice, "I know how much it hurts, Asuka. We're all hurting, and it's alright to cry. Nero meant a lot to us, even after what he did. And now that we know he did care about us after his actions against SEELE, it just hurts so much more that he's gone!"

Asuka slowly looks up at Misato while her face is uncovered by her hair. Tears have been falling down her face the entire time since hearing the words "Nero's dead". She then embraces Misato as she continues to cry with her head buried into Misato's chest.

In the meantime, the others are all surprised to see Asuka's actions and then some of them slouch down on their seat while trying not to cry due to seeing Asuka's display of emotions. In Shinji's case, he openly lets tears fall due to the lost of a brother he spent so much time without even knowing.

Ironically, Kensuke has a tear go down his face due to him feeling guilty for all of the bad things he said about Nero and has accepted that he was wrong. This resulted in Kensuke feeling sorrow for the lost of Nero as Misato also begins to cry while holding onto Asuka with her eyes closed.

Meanwhile, Kaji watches on while sadness gleams in his eyes. He then focuses his attention towards Asuka and thinks, "So she really does care about Nero. Just like she cares about Shinji. No, her feelings for Shinji weren't so easily expressed like this." Kaji makes a sad smile while thinking, "She must have developed feelings for Nero during the course of him being here, and after he left, her feelings started to show themselves. She must have hid them at first since she was with Shinji, but now that they aren't together anymore, it became easier for her to show that Nero was really important to her."

After thinking that, Kaji chuckles a little while closing his eyes and thinks, "The way love works sometimes amazes me." Kaji slowly looks up at the ceiling and mutters, "I wonder how he felt about her..." He then closes his eyes with sadness taking over. "Sadly, we'll never know..."

They all continue to mourn over Nero's death for a while until they decide to go their separate ways, which means that they went to their respective rooms. The scene's focus is now on Asuka as she's still upset that Nero's dead. She's currently listening to his music player while holding it with her left hand as she's on his bed. She's lying on her left side while facing towards the bedroom's door. Also, the doll that once belonged to her mother is lying on the part of the bed that's behind her while facing towards the ceiling. At the same time, Pen-Pen's sleeping at the end of the bed while being turned away from Asuka as he's gently snoring.

As Asuka's lying on the bed with sadness being noted on her face while she's spacing out a bit, multiple flashes of memories go through her mind of the times she spoke to Nero, of when she saw him, and even the time she stood-up for him on his first day of school. While thinking about all of that, Asuka's listening to an instrumental song called, "Stethoscope" by Taproot.

The song causes her to feel an intense amount of emotions while making her miss Nero even more and says to herself with a somber tone, "I can't believe he's gone... I wish I could have thanked him for all his help. I wish, I could have told him how much him being there meant to me when Shinji and I broke up."

Asuka briefly pauses for a moment while faintly smiling. "He was the type of guy that I actually wanted Shinji to be like. He had the type of confidence that I admired, he was so nice to me, and I really liked that I could talk to him in German. He made me feel comfortable with myself instead of having to worry about how I normally act." She then closes her eyes and thinks about a specific memory.

*Flashback: Over 1 week ago: May 7 2016*

The memory takes place on the plane that the children and Kaji were on while returning from the Sea Life Reservation. Asuka is sitting on the right side of the plane while near the aisle with Nero sitting on her left. At the same time, the others are sitting at a bit of a distance away from them as they're currently talking to each other in German out of Asuka's pure desire to speak her native language and so that no one can understand what the two of them are saying. *Side Note: The following conversation will not have my usual German with the translation at the end of each sentence since it isn't really necessary and it will take too long to do that. So just remember, whenever Nero and Asuka talk to each other, they're talking in German.*

Nero gazes at Asuka with a faint smile as both hands are behind his head while his back rests against the seat before looking off towards the left and is promptly surprised a little. Right after that, Nero smirks while saying to Asuka with a mildly amused tone, "Look who's staring at you."

Asuka's currently facing towards Nero until she does what he says, looks behind her by turning her head towards the right with curiosity brimming and sees that it's Shinji who's staring at her via a concerned expression. In the meantime, Mari's on Shinji's right as she's trying to get his attention. It doesn't take Asuka long to be overcome with annoyance and suddenly sticks her tongue out at Shinji with her eyes closed prior to quickly turning back around to face Nero.

Due to Asuka's treatment towards him, Shinji becomes quite depressed and then slowly turns his attention towards Mari. Meanwhile, Asuka maintains a small amount of annoyance on her face while gazing downward as she asks Nero, "Is he still looking?"

Nero casually shakes his head with his eyes locked on Shinji. "Nope." He focuses on Asuka with a light grin. "You really got him with that tongue of yours." Nero then chuckles a little out of amusement.

Asuka smiles proudly while lifting her head enough to make eye contact with Nero. "He deserved it." She then sighs while looking towards her right with sadness consuming her being. "I really don't know what's going to happen between us though."

Nero moves his hands from behind his head and puts them down on top of his lap. After that, the black-haired boy leans towards Asuka, places his face to be very close to hers and says with a reassuring tone while maintaining his grin, "Don't worry about it so much."

Asuka quickly sets her attention onto Nero while pulling her body back a bit since the Japanese boy's so close to her with faint redness brimming on her face. She then becomes quite agitated and turns her head towards the left to veer her concentration away from him as the color of her face reverts to normal. "It's so easy for you to say that! You aren't in my position!"

Sincerity resonates within Nero's eyes as he tilts his head slightly towards the left. "I may not be in your position, but my advice is still sensible. Don't worry about it for now. Just try to have some fun."

Asuka gazes at Nero out of the corner of her eyes while vaguely surprised by what he said until noticing his expression and this causes her to blush again as she thinks in German, "The way he's looking at me... I really like it." Her eyes widen from realizing what she had just thought and then rapidly shakes her head with her eyes closed.

Once she stops shaking her head, Asuka turns her body away from Nero while quite concerned and thinks with her focus towards the floor, "Why did I think that?! I should be more worried about my relationship with Shinji... But for some reason, I actually thought about how I liked the way he was looking at me just now!" She then shuts her eyes again while yelling in her mind, "What the hell's wrong with me?!"

Nero peers in on Asuka while giving her a look of curiosity as he's joyfully smiling. "Is there something wrong, Asuka?"

Asuka slowly opens her eyes with a hint of sadness in them and then quickly turns to face Nero with confidence immediately taking over. "Of course there isn't! I'm the Great Asuka Langley Soryu, after all!" She smiles at him without losing any of her confidence.

Nero smirks after closing his eyes with his head lowering slightly, plants his back against his seat again, puts his left foot on top of his right lap and places his hands behind his head to make himself comfortable. "Liar. Obviously there's something wrong."

Asuka's surprised as her mind jumps with the thought, "Damn it! He figured it out!"

Nero opens his eyes after a few seconds and glances at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes with sincerity resurfacing. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to though. But if you decide that you want to tell me, then you can tell me whenever. I don't mind waiting."

Asuka's momentarely surprised even more as those words weren't the ones she was expecting from Nero, makes a joyful expression while grinning and nods at him. "I'll keep that in mind."

*End of Flashback*

With the completion of her remembrance, Asuka opens her eyes while still smiling. "That day made me realize that I could really be myself with him. And the way he looked at me, made me feel something that I never felt with Shinji, or even when I thought I was in love with Kaji."

Asuka briefly stops talking for a moment while taking a deep breath and then says, "He gave me that same look when he told me to get out of the area so I wouldn't get hurt." Asuka's overcome with sadness as tears start to fall while she closes her eyes again. She then passionately yells to herself in a low volume while clenching the bed's sheet with her right hand, "Why did he have to die?!"

Due to Asuka's cry, Pen-Pen wakes up and slowly gets up while still being tired. He then turns his attention towards Asuka and sees her crying. As a result, it can be seen that there's a sense of sadness coming from Pen-Pen's face while he slouches a little. Afterwards, Pen-Pen slowly waddled towards Asuka and stands in front of her with concern being displayed as his head is slightly cocked to the right. After doing that, the warm-water penguin lets out a gentle squawk to grab Asuka's attention.

Asuka responds to Pen-Pen by slowly opening her eyes while they're filled with tears and looks at him. After looking at Pen-Pen, Asuka loosens her grip on the bed sheet and spreads out her right arm while saying with a strained tone due to her crying, "Come on, Pen-Pen..."

In response to Asuka's request, Pen-Pen gives her a sharp nod and then waddled into her embrace while lying down in front of Asuka. After Pen-Pen lies down, Asuka holds onto him tightly from behind while closing her eyes with tears slowly falling. Although the pain is still swelling within Asuka's chest, having Pen-Pen in her grasp actually helps her go to sleep.

Then, countless days go by as the children had to continue on with life. During that time frame, it was decided that Touji and Hikari can go back home to live with their families since they haven't seen them. Both Touji and Hikari liked the fact that they were going to be with their families, but were quite sad that they weren't going to be living with the others anymore. Either way, they will still be involved with NERV as they have been assigned the position as back-up pilots. So they'll still head to NERV with the other children when there's an attack.

As time continues on, some of the pilots have tried to move on since the fact still remains that Nero's dead, but Asuka has a hard time trying to achieve that. She isn't the only one since Shinji also can't get over Nero's death, even though Mari does everything she can to cheer him up. As the children are busy with school, Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji are having a conversation at NERV's cafeteria due to it being lunch time.

Ritsuko looks at Misato with a serious expression while moving the cafeteria food that's on her plate with chopsticks that she's in her right hand. "So how are the pilots? It's been about two weeks since you told them about Nero's death."

A hint of sadness can be noted on Misato's expression as she's turned away from Ritsuko. She's currently holding her head up with her right hand that's placed on her right cheek as she's staring towards her left while steadily tapping her left hand on the cafeteria table that they're sitting at. "Some of them are doing their best to get over his death, but it's really hard. Shinji and Asuka in specific are being distant from everyone."

Ritsuko calmly glances at her plate as she puts her chopsticks down and places her hand gently on the table. "That's to be expected. Shinji and Nero were brothers after all, and from what you told me, Asuka apparently had feelings for Nero." She looks up at Misato with a bit of skepticism showing. "Which I find odd since she was with Shinji the entire time Nero was here."

Kaji smiles out of a slight feeling of amusement with his right arm resting on the table as he's sitting to the left of Misato while facing Ritsuko. "That's how love works sometimes. A person can fall in love with someone in an instant. Love isn't supposed to be logical." He looks at Misato and then says with a playful tone, "Isn't that right, Misato?" Kaji winks at her while trying to keep himself from laughing.

That action causes Misato to blush a little while moving her right hand away from her cheek a little as she's looking at Kaji. She then nods at him while smiling for a brief moment. Afterwards, she's suddenly filled with sadness as she puts her hand down on the table and looks at her hand with a composed posture.

Kaji notices that and thinks to himself with a bit of concern being displayed, "Misato knows exactly what Asuka's going through. When I died, she must have gone through a serious depression."

After thinking that, Kaji looks up at the ceiling with a vague expression while thinking, "I just hope that Asuka and the others will get it together when the time comes to fight SEELE." Kaji then realizes something and turns his attention towards Ritsuko with curiosity brimming while asking, "By the way, how are the Evas?"

Ritsuko looks at Kaji with a slight smile. "Pretty well. It's fortunate that SEELE hasn't launched an attack, but we could thank Nero for that."

Misato sharply nods at Ritsuko with a serious expression taking over. "You're right. We have to consider that his attack on SEELE threw them off from trying to attack us for a while." Her face fills with sorrow while lowering her head. "We owe him one for that."

Ritsuko nods in agreement while looking at Misato out of the corner of her eyes. "We sure do. Anyway, back to what I was saying. Unit 01 has been completely repaired, but it took us almost two weeks to manage that."

Kaji focuses his attention on Ritsuko with a composed demeanor. "That makes sense since it did receive the most damage. All of its steel armored plates were melted down, after all."

Ritsuko responds to Kaji's statement as she puts her right hand into her lab coat's right pocket. "Indeed, but due to all of our efforts focused on Unit 01, we haven't been able to really repair the other Evas except Unit 04 due to the damage it received being minimal. Also, we completely lost the Extra Eva and Unit 03 was not only stolen by Nero, but after his sacrifice, what remains of it is practically nothing."

Misato returns her attention to Ritsuko with a firm expression. "You have a point. Even though Nero made up for his betrayal by buying us time, he still cost us a heavy lost." She then pauses for a moment as she looks away from both Ritsuko and Kaji. "But the greatest lost was losing him."

Kaji gives Misato a calm look. "Yes." He then locks eyes with Ritsuko. "So, we only have Units 01, 02 and 04 at the moment, right?"

Ritsuko nods while quite disappointed. "At the moment, yes. The tech team is working on Unit 00 as we speak since it was split in half. Unit 05 won't take that long to be repaired as well. They should both be operational in a few days. In the meantime, I've been working on a few things that will really help us against SEELE."

Before she was able to continue, Ritsuko's cellular starts to vibrate, and this surprises her a little due to her normally not receiving calls through her cellular. She then easily pulls it out of her left coat pocket since her left hand was already in there and places it on her right ear with a small amount of seriousness taking over as she's looking downward. "Dr. Akagi speaking."

Gendo's voice comes through Ritsuko's cellular while having a serious tone, "It's me. I need you, Colonel Katsuragi, and Mr. Kaji, who should still be in the facility, in my office immediately."

Concern rapidly appears on Ritsuko's face as she quickly looks at Misato and Kaji. "What's going on? You never call me through my cellular."

Gendo calmly states, "There's someone here that you three need to meet. Get here quickly." He promptly hangs-up on his end, which causes Ritsuko to be very surprised as she stares at the cellular for a moment.

Meanwhile, Misato's quite concerned while leaning towards Ritsuko. "What's wrong, Ritsu?"

Ritsuko looks at Misato with a confused expression. "There's someone at Commander Ikari's office that he wants the three of us to meet."

Kaji's instantly filled with curiosity and tilts his head towards the right. "I wonder who it could be."

With that question from Kaji left in the air, the scene suddenly changes to show Gendo in his office while having Fuyutsuki stand next to him like usual.

Gendo had just hung up the phone that's connected to his desk. Afterwards, he turns his attention towards the front of the room with seriousness brimming. "They're on their way."

Fuyutsuki gives off a stern look while focused on the front part of the room as well. "You better give us answers once they arrive, Tabris."

Kaworu's revealed while emerging from the shadows of the south part of the room. He's contentedly smiling with his hands in his pockets while wearing the same school clothes he wore when he met Shinji, which happen to be the same from the school. Kaworu then says in his usual polite tone, "I prefer that you call me, Kaworu. And there is no need to worry about that. I will tell you everything I have to say, and even make you an offer you will surely accept." He laughs a little while still smiling.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Not going to give anything away. If you have any questions, wait for the next episode because it most likely will answer them. If the question has something to do with Nero's death, then depending on the question, I MIGHT answer it. But it really depends on the question. I hope you all enjoyed how emotional this episode was and the randomness of Keel shooting a member of SEELE. *Laughs* Look forward to the next one.

That's it. Talk to you all later.