Words from the Author:

No wasting time! Neon Genesis Evangelion is copyrighted and incarceration will be the punishment to anyone who doesn't actually own NGE while claiming they do. With that said, I don't claim that at all and I give all respect to the owners of such an amazing anime/manga. Enough said.

Episode 32: Being Honest With Oneself

Shinji's right hand twitches a little after barely hearing Nero's voice echo from afar as the 3rd Child aimlessly floats within a space of darkness contrary to the white that his brother resided while finally stirring from his trance-like state he was in the entire time. The brown-haired boy at first has a difficult time understanding where he is or even gets what had happened to him.

Then, a bright, white light shines down onto Shinji from ahead of him as he barely makes out a body of a woman, who places both hands on his cheeks and gently whispers to the 3rd Child, "The time has come, my dear Shinji." He's a bit confused by the woman's words as he still can't tell who it is, however, feels a very familiar presence and faintly asks, "Time for what?"

A warm grin can vaguely be seen on the woman's person while caressing her right hand on Shinji's left cheek before replying. "Time for you to awaken from this horrible nightmare."

Shinji smiles with content establishing itself while remembering where the familiar presence is from, shuts his eyes and utters out, "Mother..."

Suddenly, Shinji's drench with water coming out of nowhere from above him as he frantically wakes up after sitting up onto a bed within a room that looks very much like the one he slept in Misato's old apartment while wearing a dark blue t-shirt and white shorts that are covered up with the bed's blanket. A couple of seconds after that, another familiar voice is heard by the brown-haired boy from his left as he says with a slightly irritated tone, "It's about time you woke up, idiot."

Hearing those words causes Shinji's eyes to widen, rapidly snaps his head to the left and sees that Nero's standing there while having a soft grip on the medium-sized bucket that held the water Shinji's currently soaked with. In addition, it can be noted that the black-haired boy's wearing the school uniform with his left hand inside the pants' pocket since the other hand is holding the bucket while lowered to Nero's side as Shinji shouts out with an exasperated tone, "Nero?!"

Nero responds with a skeptical demeanor while tilting his head back a bit. "Who else would dump a bucket of water on you after specifically warning you the next time you wake up late, I would do it." He then leans towards Shinji to get up on his face with annoyance radiating. "Did you forget?!"

Shinji's quite startled by Nero's threatening stature while trying to back away with his left arm lifted in front of himself in a sideways position. "W-What are you talking about?!" He checks out his surroundings with worry. "Where am I? This kind of looks like my old room at Misato's place."

A dumbfounded look arises onto Nero's person as he gawked at his brother. "Huh?" The 7th Child then pulls out his left hand to reach towards Shinji and places it onto the brown-haired boy's forehead. "Are you sick or something? And since when do you refer Mrs. Katsuragi by her first name?"

Shinji reverts his attention to Nero with shock taking over. "Misses?!"

Nero narrows his eyes at Shinji while pulling his left hand away from the 3rd Child and straightens his posture with his head briefly cocked to the right. "I get what happened. You had one of your crazy dreams again about piloting giant robots and fighting monsters." The black-haired boy turns to his right to face the door leading out of the room while maintaining his eyes on Shinji. "You really need to relax on watching anime so much before you end up believing you actually live in a fantasy world." Nero then sets his sights to the door while walking towards it and exits the room after opening it with his right hand. "Now get dressed or we'll get even more late for school." He closes the door behind him with the same hand.

All Shinji could do was watch Nero leave with his mouth slightly open until analyzing the room again and softly says to himself, "What's going on?" He then gets out of the bed, puts on his school uniform prior to exiting his room and finds himself in a dinning room/kitchen.

It doesn't take Shinji long to see that Nero's waiting at the dining table with his chin resting on top of both arms folded together while over the table and sits to the right of a man, who's reading the newspaper. It's then revealed that the man is Gendo after turning a page on the newspaper without any glasses on while wearing a uniform similar to what he normally has on as the commander, but represents him being a governmental official instead. Witnessing his father in the same room profoundly surprises Shinji, however, fails in comparison when the 3rd Child realizes that a short, brown-haired woman's standing at the stove with an apron over her white and brown dress hidden underneath.

Shinji hesitantly decides to say something after remaining quiet for a while as he stands at the entrance of his room. "Mother."

Yui shifts her body sideways to focus her attention onto Shinji with a hint of curiosity while holding the handle of both the pot and ladle in her hands without taking them off the stove. "Yes, Shinji? Would you like some breakfast before going to school?"

The brown-haired boy's unable to answer his mother's question due to Nero cutting him off after quickly rising to his feet with both hands planted on the table while watching Yui for a few seconds. "Sorry, mom..." He then deviates his gaze to Shinji with some irritation returning. "But we're already late thanks to someone over-sleeping."

Gendo joins into the conversation while still looking at the newspaper with a calm composure. "Did you pour the bucket of water on him, like you said you would?" He shortly receives his answer from Nero as the black-haired boy sharply nods at him with a light smirk, which forces a small chuckles from Gendo, and says with a firm tone, "At least you kept your word."

Yui isn't amused at all as she mildly scolds Nero with disapproval showing. "That wasn't right, Nero. You should be nicer to your little brother."

Nero resets his attention to Yui with an apologetic expression while crossing his arms. "I know, mom. I was just having a little fun..." He then diverts his gaze to Shinji with aggravation overtaking his being. "Anyway, he needs to stop sleeping in. It's terrible when our sister is the one who gets ready before he even wakes up. After all, she does take a LONG time."

Surprise resurfaces as Shinji pulls his head back a bit. "Sister?"

At that very moment, Rei unexpectedly appears out of the blue while wearing her uniform, jumps onto Nero's back with both arms wrapped around the 7th Child's neck so that she doesn't fall off and happily responds as her head's positioned next to Nero's right cheek. "Yup! I've been done for already fifteen minutes! You're such a sleepyhead, Shinji!" She then closes her eyes while playfully giggling.

Shinji's caught off guard by both Rei's sudden appearance and the way she's acting while Nero glances at the blue-haired girl still on his back. "You sure are hyper today, Rei. Are you finally going to tell Kaworu how you feel?"

Rei turns bright red and blurts out with nervousness after setting her sights onto Nero, "What?! I'm not going to do that!" She looks away from Nero with a shy demeanor and mutters, "I don't even know if he likes me..."

Yui inserts herself after letting go of the ladle and pots to clasp both hands together while facing towards them with a joyful grin. "My baby girl's in love! I'm so happy!"

Rei retorts at Yui while becoming more red and moving her head to be next to Nero's left cheek so that the 1st Child can make eye contact with the brown-haired woman. "Mom! Don't say such embarrassing things!"

Soon after that, Gendo lets out a soft grunt of disapproval to Yui's statement while maintaining his attention on the newspaper, which gets three out of four of them to softly laugh since they know why he did that, however, Shinji couldn't because of how lost the 3rd Child is in the situation he has found himself without being able to determine if what's happening is even real. After that, Nero locks eyes with Shinji while seeming to be quite laid back and asks in a caring way, "So should we go, Shinji? Or do you want to waste the day away with mom and dad?"

Shinji just stares at Nero as the second question was one that the brown-haired boy never imagined being asked, but knew it would be best not to stay there for too long due to having many of his own questions he wants to ask in a better setting and politely says while his eyes gleam with confidence, "Let's go."

The three siblings soon left the apartment after saying good-bye to their parents while casually on their way to school due to Nero carrying Rei on his back because apparently its become a habit the two developed over the years, which kind of seems odd to Shinji since he doesn't recall at all the so-called life he supposed to have lived there. Although, the brown-haired boy's starting to have a hard time remembering the life of piloting the Evangelion and fighting Angels along side the people who matter a lot to him.

All three of them soon reach the school as Shinji discovers they're all in the same classroom like usual and is immediately greeted by Mari, who runs up to the 3rd Child from her seat that's towards the middle of the classroom before giving him a loving embrace with her eyes shut. "Hey, Shinji!" She then separates herself from Shinji with a cheerful demeanor while keeping her arms wrapped around his neck. "You got lucky. Mrs. Katsuragi's late like always. You overslept again, didn't you?"

Nero answers Mari's question for Shinji with a half-hearted smile after letting Rei off his back so she can rush over to Kaworu, who's sitting at a desk towards the back of the class room while in front of Touji's desk, and puts both hands into his pockets. "You guessed it."

Mari glances at Nero while restraining herself from giggling and then focuses back onto Shinji with mild amusement showing. "Typical."

Shinji just looks at Mari with a stunned expression while thinking, "I-I don't know what to say to her. I feel like me and Mari are together here, but I'm not sure..." He gazes at Nero out of the corner of his eyes and thinks, "I need to find out what's what."

The instant that thought was finished, Shinji sees Asuka run up to Nero as the two converse with one another in a delighted manner, which causes Shinji to think with a hint of sadness, "They look so happy." He shifts his attention to the left and sees how all his friends are joyfully interacting without a care in the world before looking at the floor and thinks, "Wouldn't it be better this way?"

While Shinji dwells on that thought, Unit 05 continues to lie on the ground after receiving the full brunt of the point-blank attack from Unit 09. The pink Eva now has its back turned to the fallen, military-styled Eva as Vanessa contemplates what should be her next move while knowing real well that if she wants to head towards the ever-growing, multi-colored orb that's nearly blotting the sun, the SEELE Child would have to turn her Eva back around and pass Unit 05.

Once she makes up her mind about what to do, Vanessa commandeers Unit 09 to once again face the presumably downed Unit 05, however, the light, brown-haired girl's overwhelmed with astonishment as Mari's Eva painstakingly rises to its feet. At the same time, the 6th Child heavily pants while very tired as she uncontrollably trembles with her posture bent forward and hands barely holding onto the controls.

After witnessing that, Vanessa grits her teeth while enraged by Mari's resiliency and then swings her right arm out to the side. "How are you still alive, you cunt?!"

Mari faintly laughs before slowly lifting her head up to give Unit 09 a confident look while catching her breath. "Because... I can't lose to a skank like you."

Vanessa's eyes widen with her rage spiking and hurriedly aims Unit 09's bow at Mari's Eva as a large A.T. Arrow forms. "You really don't know when to shut the fuck up!" The pink Eva then lets go of the thread with the arrow heading towards Unit 05 with impeccable speed.

While watching the A.T. Arrow make its way to her Eva, Mari slightly grins until whispering to herself prior to tightening her grip on the controls, "A.T. Field to maximum power."

Due to Mari's fairly quick reaction, the biggest A.T. Arrow to be launched was effortlessly neutralized and absorbed into the green Eva's A.T. Field, which baffles the SEELE Child with her back slamming against the entry plug's seat as she shouts out in disbelief, "What?!"

Seeing that Vanessa's caught up in the moment, Mari takes this as the perfect opportunity to do something that's well advised for her not to do, however, can't see any other way in winning while resting her back onto the seat. Afterwards, the glasses-wearing beauty peers at the ceiling and gently says with a peaceful demeanor, "I know you'll go through a lot more agony than Unit 02 did, but please... Let me at least be this selfish for the sake of the boy I love."

Having finished her request, Mari becomes silent while shutting her eyes for several seconds until uttering out, "Unit 05... Trident-Buster Mode." The 6th Child's eyes promptly open up while glowing green just like they did when unlocking the Beast within Unit 02 and the orbs on her plugsuit start to shine with Mari's normally brown hair gaining a violet tint that overruns most of it.

Meanwhile, Unit 05's body begins to change form with the two front legs raised up to the air so the wheels underneath both of the green-colored Eva's feet can transform into a sharp spike before Unit 05 plants them into the ground for stability. After doing that, the military-styled Eva does the same thing with the two back feet while both javelins rapidly open from the middle to reveal a thin barrel embedded in each one as the majority of Unit 05's body starts to reform itself to mobilize a giant, green/light brown barrel that extends over the Eva's head from its lower back. This leaves a giant gap in Unit 05's torso since that's were all the technology was transferred to create the immense barrel as all three are directly aimed at Unit 09.

As all of that occurs, within Unit 05's entry plug, the seat went through an appropriate change involving it being leveled while two hatches open inside of the seat so Mari can get onto her knees with the hatches clamping onto both legs for equal stability and resumes holding onto the controls. It can be clearly noted that Mari's doing what she can to persevere through the pain consuming her body since this procedure's very much like Unit 02's Beast Mode and talks to herself with every display screen going haywire except the one in front of the now violet-haired beauty while desperately trying to keep some sort of composure. "I think I'm doing pretty well if I do say so myself. I just got one shot though, so I better make it count."

At the moment that was stated, all three barrels commence generating a violet-colored energy while Vanessa's overcome with panic and leans forward. "You aren't serious! You know that could easily backfire on you! Problem Child, you have to be the craziest person I've ever met!"

Mari lightly smiles with excitement radiating. "That's really funny! I take that more as a compliment than anything else!" She then simultaneously presses both buttons on the controls to released the gathered energy with a powerful shockwave backlashing at Unit 05, which rips a big chunk of the green Eva's armor, as both the clips and headband holding the brain-wave transmitters on Mari's head break off. This causes the 6th Child's hair to flutter before settling down while trying to maintain her grip on the controls as an enormous, violet blast hastily makes contact with Unit 09 since it was too fast for Vanessa to even act.

With her person engulfed by unimaginable agony, both Vanessa and Unit 09 begin to be obliterated as the SEELE Child's expression becomes vacant before muttering while bent-over backwards, "Oh, Nero..."

Right after that, there's nothing left of either the pilot or Eva while a violet explosion is made that almost completely eliminated the west part of Tokyo-03. Lucky for her, Mari managed to survive both the aftershock of the explosion and the shockwave that nearly split her Eva in a vertical angle with the entry plug just barely not receiving any damage since it was shielded by most of Unit 05's armor having been positioned in the explosion's path.

Then, Mari drops onto her stomach from pure exhaustion and rests on the seat with her right cheek pressed up against it while gasping for air. "That was... Seriously close." She looks up out of the corner of her left eye and faintly smiles. "Thank you so much for helping me when I needed you most, my dear Eva." Mari closes eyes with a peaceful smirk displayed.

Attention quickly deviates from that concluded battle to focus onto Unit 10, who awaits the result of the continuous attack it was launching down onto the very vulnerable Unit 02 with all of the hatches on its body shut. After waiting for the smoke to clear, Casey arrogantly relaxes herself while placing both hands behind her head and says with a stuck-up attitude after shrugging without looking towards the smoke due to having closed her eyes, "This was a total waste of time!" She then changes her voice's tone and sounds like she's whining. "I keep thinking over and over why Nero would possibly choose this loser instead of me, but I just can't wrap my head around it!"

Suddenly, Asuka's voice comes out of nowhere with Unit 02 still hidden in the smoke while sounding fairly annoyed. "How about you stop crying about it, Blodmann!? (Dumb-ass)"

Since she wasn't expecting Asuka's outburst, Casey's eyes snap open and frantically torques her body forward after moving both hands onto the seat with disbelief brimming. "What the hell?!"

Not much after that, Asuka quietly debates with herself about what she's contemplating of doing while her Eva hasn't been revealed yet, however, it can be noted that Unit 02 has received excessive damage all over its body due to the shower of missiles from Unit 10. "Nero asked me to do whatever I could to beat this Dummkopf, and I know what'll happen to you, mama..." She takes a deep breath before cocking her head up with determination overflowing while mildly bending forward. "But you won't have to deal with it alone! Let's fly together, mama! Backdoor code; The Beast!"

In response to its pilot's orders, Unit 02 doesn't take anywhere near as long to change into its Beast Mode when Mari had made the red Eva while the rest of the smoke's blown away by the transformation with the Eva fiercely glaring at Unit 10 in a menacing manner and lets out a soft, growling sound due to its mouth being opened to a crazy extent. After seeing that, Casey's profoundly surprised with traces of concern showing until shaking it off and tries to act tough while leaning forward even more. "Go ahead and use that shitty Beast Mode! I still have the advantage, remember?!"

Asuka smiles as the red-head's right eye brilliantly shines green with the other eye shining too, but without changing colors to display a type of difference between her and Mari unleashing the Beast Mode. Meanwhile, the 2nd Child does every single thing in her disposal to not succumb to the high-level of pain coursing through her entire being with confidence in her voice when declaring, "That's what you think!" Unit 02 then crouches down before launching itself into the air with outstanding agility and reaches Unit 10 within a couple of seconds, which caught Casey off guard.

After doing that, the red Eva ferociously grabs onto Unit 10's head with both hands, hurriedly wraps its legs around the beige Eva's torso to ensure that the enemy won't get away while applying a lot of pressure to both the head and body, which freaks Casey out as she frantically jerks the controls around. "Let go, you useless piece of shit!"

Asuka scoffs at Casey's statement as Unit 02 continues to add more and more pressure. "Keep insulting me! You're just digging your own grave, Arschloch! (Asshole)"

Casey's anger greatly increases as she makes up her mind on what to do while every hatch on Unit 10 reopens before sending out another barrage of N2 Missiles. "Then how about this?!"

Asuka immediately gasps with a bit of stress taking form. "She's nuts!" She promptly smirks with confidence returning. "But as if that would do anything!" Unit 02 then unwraps its legs from Unit 10's torso, and by kicking the larger than average Eva in the stomach, catapults itself above the enemy without releasing its grip on the beige Eva's head while doing a hand-stand. This allows the red Eva to evade the missiles that had just been launch a moment prior to achieving the hand-stand as Asuka shows content from her successfully dodging the swarm of missiles that hurriedly blow-up onto the ground.

At the same time, Casey's engulfed with large sums of rage after failing to finish off Unit 02 and peers at it before shouting out, "Just die already!" Unit 10 then deploys multiple A.T. Fields one after the other right at Unit 02, which combined sends the 2nd Child's Eva up about half a mile into the sky with minor control of itself due to the red Eva slowly spinning. Having been able to create separation between her Eva and Asuka's Eva, Casey hastily positions Unit 10 to face towards the sky that's just been plagued by the continuously growing sphere and yells out before launching another flurry of missiles with a sinister smile appearing. "This is the end, bitch!"

On cue with Casey's outburst, Unit 10's N2 Missiles fly into the air, however, this doesn't inflict any concern onto Asuka as her shining eyes glisten with determination. Then, right as one of the missiles got close to the red Eva, Unit 02 manages to grip onto the side of the missile with its left hand since the weapon was mainly accelerating from that direction, and while deflecting the missile to the side before it exploded from the quick contact of the red Eva's hand, Asuka's Eva uses the projectile to push itself down onto the following missiles.

Asuka continues to swiftly maneuver her Eva like that each time a missile drew near by using both of the red Eva's hands while doing a few corkscrew spins to evade the projectiles that were too close with the use of the momentum Unit 02 gained from the deflected missiles. As a result, Casey's overwhelmed with shock while the red Eva's descent doesn't stop after finally dodging the last N2 Missile that was launched and is mere seconds away from coming into contact with Unit 10, but Casey has no intention of letting Unit 02 achieve that without a struggle.

The beige Eva quickly deploys several A.T. Fields again to cease Unit 02's advancement, which indeed does with a huge chiming sound echoing throughout the area due to the red Eva's entire body crashing down onto Unit 10 while its right hand's pressing against the first A.T. Field layer. After seeing that, Casey proudly smirks until stating with a cynical tone, "All of that was nothing, Ms. Prodigy! You can't touch me when I have my Eva's seven A.T. Fields working together."

Unfortunately for the SEELE Child, Unit 02's right hand suddenly shatters the first A.T Field and hastily slams its left hand onto the next A.T. Field that immediately breaks. At the sight of this, Casey leans in with disbelief returning while keeping her hold on the controls. "No way!"

Not long after that, Unit 02 succeeds in eliminating two A.T. Fields after using both hands to rip through the third and tearing away the fourth one with the use of its teeth while harshly dropping onto the next A.T. Field. This entire act terrifies Casey as her mind begins to race until anger takes form once again and screams out after gritting her teeth a little, "What makes you keep coming at me?! You should be dead by now!" She then shuts her eyes with deep hatred dwelling within her before screaming out, "Why don't you die?!"

Asuka passionately replies as Unit 02 makes an attempt in destroying the fifth A.T. Field with both hands and teeth. "Because I love him!" That answer causes Casey to be taken back quite a bit without being able to retort in any way as Asuka continues to express her feelings while her Eva took out another A.T. Field. "And he loves me! I want to be with Nero as long as I can! That's why I can't lose to a Dumm (Idiot) like you!"

While Asuka had expressed herself, the 2nd Child manipulated her Eva to pull its right arm back, curls it into a fist and throws such a massive punch that shatters the last two A.T. Fields while going straight at Unit 10's chest. Meanwhile, Casey tries to have the beige Eva release another round of missiles, however, finds herself with no more and gasps with a distraught demeanor. "I'm out?!"

Asuka smiles moments prior to Unit 02's fist hitting the enemy while happily shouting, "I knew it! That Eva doesn't have an endless supply! And just like an idiot, you ran out 'cause of you firing like crazy!" She then gives one final push to the right control with both hands and heroically yells while Unit 02's right fist penetrates Unit 10's chest cavity. After that, Unit 10 rapidly descends down with Unit 02 on top until crashing its back onto the ground, which causes some smoke to be created after the earth beneath the beige Eva breaks off from the impact and forms a small crater.

Then, within Unit 10's entry plug while the smoke starts to clear, it's revealed that Unit 02's fist had punch through the plug with Casey's lower body being impaled by it. The braided-haired girl is still alive though as she aimlessly stares up with a spaced out look while both arms are extended to opposing sides of her person and lies on the seat within the mildly darkened room due to Unit 10 having shutdown. After a few seconds of silence pass by, Casey strains herself to utter out a single word with a faint tone before shutting her eyes and dropping her head to the left to signify her life ending, "Nero..."

With Casey dying, Unit 02 gently removes its right hand from Unit 10's chest while straightening its posture and lets out a victorious roar. While doing that, Asuka rests her back while trying to catch her breath and mutters with a pleased grin, "Told you I wasn't going to lose."

Misato's voice promptly resounds within Unit 02's entry plug while obviously sounding worried. "You okay, Asuka?! Rei and Kaworu just finished over here with those black Evas! Mari's done too, but all three of their Evas are in no condition to fight and there's still one enemy Eva where that orb blocking the sky originated!""

Asuka sharply nods with confidence overflowing. "Then that means I'm gonna' have to buy more time for Shinji and Nero to come back, right?" She greatly tightens her grip on the controls while lowering her posture. "I'm on it!" Unit 02 then dashes towards the center of Tokyo-03 while remaining in its Beast Mode.

The scene veers away from that point while going several minutes back in time to resume the confrontation between the continually levitating gold Eva with Keel embedded into its chest and the two men in front of it. Both Kaji and Gendo are still greatly surprised to see the Chairmen infused with Unit 08 and how he now looks more machine than man from the operation Keel went through to be able to become one with the so-called True Evangelion.

Keel continues to give Gendo a devilish grin while maniacally shifting his head without taking his eyes off the Commander. "I'm SO glad to see you again, Ikari. The last time we spoke didn't end too well, did it?"

Gendo narrows his eyes, however, this can't be seen too well do to his glasses with disgust appearing. "No, it did not. And I would've rather avoided this reunion."

Keel chuckles in a malicious manner while leaning forward as much as he can. "Now, now... That isn't a nice thing to say, Ikari." A fierce glare then takes over with Keel lightly gritting his teeth. "Don't make me kill you sooner than I intend to!"

Kaji intervenes while taking a step forward with a stern demeanor. "Enough! Tell me, Keel! What happened out there?! It's one thing getting passed NERV's security system, but getting passed the pilots is a different story!"

Zahn softly laughs out of amusement with both hands placed on his waist while lightly tilting his head back. "You really need to relax, Mr. Kaji." He bends his posture forward and quickly licks his lips before continuing to talk. "But if you must know, I'll tell you that your pilots are in a peculiar predicament after losing the service of Nero and Shinji."

Distress promptly overruns Kaji's expression while shouting out with urgency in his voice, "What do you mean?! What happened to them?!"

Keel answers Kaji's question in place of Zahn while just looking at the former double-agent out of the corner of his eyes with a cold gaze. "To make a long story short... Because of Nero's interference, we lost the opportunity to head Instrumentality by using the 3rd Child. On the bright side of that, we were able to have such a massive influence on the 3rd Child before Nero getting in the way that it's impossible for what had started to abruptly end. Due to that and a selfless act on Nero's part, both he and Shinji Ikari became the Door Of Guf in a form of a sphere. Somewhat an equivalence to the Black Moon. We now await the results of this world's fate based on the decision of the 4th Impact's Catalyst."

Right when Kaji was about to ask who's the Catalyst, as if reading his mind, Gendo states with an emotionless tone after composing himself quite a bit, "It surely will be Shinji. His psychological state of mind in comparison to Nero indeed is weaker... But considering Shinji's not alone, there may be hope."

Keel scoffs at Gendo's words after reverting his attention to him. "You've become fairly optimistic in these past several months. Leaving it in the hands of others and actually believing in hope. Sadly, it is a false hope you are praying for. Instrumentality in itself desires for a better world and it won't let go of the 3rd Child so easily just because Nero's there."

Gendo seriously retorts with both hands in his pockets. "Even so, Shinji's regaining what he lost a bit at the time. Soon he'll become whole and truly be the Chosen Child."

Confusion arises from within Keel as he maintains the cold look on his face. "Become whole?"

Kaji hurriedly sets his attention onto Gendo with distress still being present. "Does that mean...?!"

Gendo nods his head without diverting his focus from Keel. "What separated Nero from Shinji was clearly something of a higher power... That would implicate that something like the 4th Impact, which can unite all the humans in the world, would finally allow Shinji to be complete." He turns his head to Kaji. "For this to happen, both Shinji and Nero needed to be at the epicenter of it. That is why Shinji did not become whole during the 3rd Impact. Nero was more than likely the only human who wasn't a part of Instrumentality. After all, there's no need for two of the same person to be one with the rest of the humanity."

Having heard Gendo's words, Keel's consumed with anguish due to discovering the truth about Nero while angrily shouting out, "No! This cannot be! Are you telling me that they're one and the same?! Nero and the 3rd Child?!"

Gendo resets his gaze to Keel with no change to his composure. "Correct. Furthermore, if they do rejoin prior to the completion of Instrumentality, all your effort in becoming a God will be in vain." He then lowers his head to stare at the floor with a hint of sadness appearing. "Now, if I know Nero like I do, he won't let Shinji suffer through the pain that will be brought on him during 4th Impact. Nero would rather take that onto himself after considering how weak Shinji is without him and knows he won't be able to bear it."

Kaji's speechless while letting everything that had been just said sink in until large sums of courage come forth from deep inside the former double-agent and faces Gendo. "You're wrong, Ikari. Shinji isn't as weak as you believe."

Gendo simply looks at Kaji with mild surprise showing while the man before him continues to speak. "I recall you saying Nero had gone through more hardship than Shinji, but now that I know the truth, it's actually the other way around." He smirks with confidence adding in after putting his left hand into his pocket. "Just think about it. To have lived his entire life without what you call his natural born strength, with all the agony he had to go through, and to be able to survive it all... That's incredible beyond words."

The Commander can't help but think over every single thing that Kaji stated, however, doesn't get a chance to respond properly because of Keel suddenly yelling out with anger increasing, "Enough of this! There is no use in listening to you two speak about such trivial matters when both of you will soon meet your end!" He then peers at Unit 08 form behind himself by slanting his head backwards. "It is time, Zahn!"

Zahn cheerfully replies after removing both hands from his hips and lightly gesturing them to the side. "Thank, heaven! I was starting to fall asleep on my feet!" Unit 08 then expands out its arms to opposing sides of itself while letting out a small grunt as it's about to advance forward.

Kaji quickly veers his attention to Keel while bracing himself for whatever's coming, however, Gendo interrupts with seriousness brimming after setting his sights onto the Chairmen. "Wait!"

Unit 08 instantly stops its advancement with both Keel and Zahn overcome by curiosity due to the Commander's unexpected outburst. Afterwards, Gendo tightly clenches both hands into fists while saying with an emotionless tone, "I am willing to give you my life, Keel. The wrath you wish to administer should solely fall upon me and I will graciously accept it without resistance. All I ask in return is you allow Mr. Kaji to go and not attack Central Dogma."

Kaji's baffled by Gendo's request to Keel while giving him a look of astonishment and thinks, "Ikari..."

Keel contemplates about what Gendo has asked from him with an icy stare directed at the Commander until a mischievous grin takes form. "I will take that as your last request. After all, we have been through many ordeals together. Even if many of them we did not see eye to eye."

That answer catches Kaji off guard while Gendo's fairly pleased as he relaxes himself. "I indeed appreciate it."

Kaji promptly reverts his focus to Gendo with concern radiating. "But Ikari!"

Gendo sincerely smiles at Kaji after gradually turning his head to the right. "Do not fret too much over it, Mr. Kaji. Just be sure all of the Children are safe in the end. That's all I can ask for."

Kaji gives Gendo a mournful look before nodding with determination showing and then shifts his gaze away from the Commander to make a quick-sprint towards the direction of the Gold Eva since that's the only way to Central Dogma. Suddenly, just as he passed Unit 08's left side, Kaji stops while feeling a bit disgruntled about the whole thing until turning to face Gendo one last time with a firm demeanor. "Just know, Ikari... They will miss you."

Gendo continues to smile with a nonchalant demeanor. "Thank you. Now, go."

Kaji presses his lips together and swiftly resets his focus back to the south of Terminal Dogma as he resumes his advancement to Central Dogma. At the same time, Gendo watches Kaji leave for a few seconds until locking eyes with Keel while losing his smile.

Keel's disgusted by what occurred before him mildly gesturing with his head to motion to Unit 08. "Do it, Zahn."

Within an instant, Unit 08 drew extremely close to Gendo and snatched him up into the gold Eva's grasp by using its right hand while bringing the Commander face to face with Keel. A pain-filled expression can be noted on Gendo's face because of how tight a grip Unit 08 has on him as Keel maliciously smirks. "Any regrets you wish to express before I kill you, Ikari? I am a reasonable man, after all."

Gendo scoffs at Keel's words while cocking his head back and stares at the ceiling. "The only regret I feel is I won't see you meet your end, Keel." He reverts his attention back to Keel without moving his head and gives the Chairmen an arrogant grin.

That action sets Keel off as he shouts out with a harsh tone, "Again, Ikari?! Again you dare to make a mockery out of me!"

Then, without receiving any command from Keel, Unit 08 ferociously squashes the life out of Gendo before even having the chance to let out any agonized screaming with large amounts of blood expelling out from the Commander's body. Seeing this profoundly pleases Keel with Zahn feeling very proud by what he just did while his own right arm's extended out like his Eva's.

Several moments prior to his death, Gendo could only manage to think of Shinji, Nero and Rei with his glasses gradually slipping off his face. "My real regret is... Is never being... The father... You deserved..." His eyes close while the Commander's glasses drop with Gendo dying at the exact instance his glasses touch the floor beneath him.

After witnessing that, Unit 08 releases its hold on the now lifeless corpse, which lands right next to the glasses on the floor, while Keel peers at the gold Eva with content. "Well done, my son. Let us be on our way."

Zahn replies with curiosity in his voice after lowering his right hand to plant it on his waist. "Where to, Lord Keel?"

Keel chuckles without taking his eyes off Unit 08. "I am a man of my word, so let us see how our subordinates are doing. If there's any issue, we'll just have to take care of it ourselves." He submerges back into the gold Eva's chest as Unit 08 doesn't waste much time flying up into the air and going through the giant hole in the ceiling that it had made when entering Terminal Dogma.

After that, Shinji becomes the main focus after going through half a school day in what has been deemed his fantasy world as most of the day had been desperately trying to grasp the many differences of this world, especially when he finds out that Misato's both his teacher and is seven months pregnant with Kaji's child, which completely left him for a lost of words for quite a while until lunch-time arrives. The brown-haired boy's now on the roof with Nero and are back to back while sitting in the center of the roof. The two brothers are calmly relaxing after finishing their lunch, however, Shinji seems to be having some difficulties since throughout the day his memories of the real world were replaced by things that supposedly happened to him in the world he currently resides in.

Shinji can only dwell on his thoughts at this point in time while staring at the countless clouds slowly moving above him with the earphones to his SDAT on and thinks, "I don't know what to believe. Is this world fake or was everything with Eva fake?" He then lowers his head with some stress appearing and watches both hands tightly clenching onto each other while placed over the 3rd Child's crossed legs.

Nero notices how Shinji's behaving with his head turned to the left to look at the brown-haired boy while resting his right arm onto his right knee without displaying much emotion. "Okay, tell me what's wrong. You have that same troubled expression you tend to always get when something's bothering you."

Shinji hurriedly shifts his attention to Nero as he's a bit surprised by the 7th Child's words while unclenching his hands. "I just..." He slowly pulls his gaze away from Nero with uncertainty arising. "I don't know what's going on, Nero... I feel like this is all too good to be true." Shinji cocks his head back to resume watching the clouds. "Everyone's happy and there's no angels or Evas attacking." The 3rd Child closes his eyes before continuing to speak. "I've been wishing for something like this for a long time."

Nero momentarily stares at Shinji without saying anything at all until turning his head away, rises to his feet with very little effort needed while putting both hands into his pockets and gives his brother a laid back smirk after facing towards him. "You really are stressing out too much about that ridiculous dream of yours. Nothing that came out of your mouth made any sense at all."

Having said that, Nero bends his posture forward to draw close to Shinji, who's now making eye contact with the black-haired boy while displaying a hint of surprise on his person. "Anyway, even if none of this was real, why would you debate about living here over some place with monsters and everyone we care about at risk of dying?" He then composes his posture to be upright again with mild concern taking over. "Asuka's right... You really can be an idiot."

Shinji becomes fairly depressed while pouting a little and drops his head down. "I'm sorry..."

Nero mildly groans while rolling his eyes to the left as he turns towards the roof's fence. "Just stop over thinking things and be happy that things are this way, okay?" The 7th Child starts walking towards the fence with a casual demeanor after closing his eyes. "By the way, stop apologizing so much. It really gets annoying."

A small amount of confusion instantly appears on Shinji's face as he peers at Nero with his eyes narrowed a bit and thinks, "That sounds like something Asuka would say. I don't think Nero would ever..."

Nero reaches the fence before facing towards Shinji with his back to the fence, folds his arms together and gives the brown-haired boy a slightly irritated glare. "What's with that look?"

Shinji's quite flustered by Nero's question and quickly rises to his feet while waving his right hand at his brother with nervousness showing. "I-It's nothing!" He then lowers his right hand, heads towards the fence as well and stands to Nero's left while some concern emits from his person after turning his head to the left to not make eye contact with Nero. "I just feel like something's off. All of this feels too unreal."

Seriousness overtakes Nero's expression while watching Shinji and thinks, "As if it matters... Very soon you'll forget everything involving that world and you'll be completely locked in here." He then cocks his head back with a devilish grin brimming while thinking, "Once that happens, those filthy Lilin's will be rightfully punished for their sins." Nero quietly chuckles to himself in a sinister way and thinks, "That is what they deserve for trying to aim for the power only God should ever wield."

Then, as Shinji continues to be entrapped in that fantasy, the real Nero within Unit 06 keeps searching for the brown-haired boy until the indigo Eva suddenly runs its head into what appears to be a white all, however, can't really be depicted as a wall due to it being the same color as the rest of the area surrounding Nero. Immediately after hitting the wall, the black-haired boy briefly staggers backwards a little while trying to maintain his composure with an aggravated look forming. "Do you actually think I'm going to let something so insignificant get in my way?! Maximum Synchronization output!"

A few seconds after shouting that out, Nero hurriedly extends out both hands forward after pulling them back for a moment, which Unit 06 mimics, and plants them onto the wall in the attempt to go through it while a ripple effect occurs as if the wall was made out of water. The indigo Eva's hands then unexpectedly pass through the wall with no real effort before Unit 06's entire body is sucked into the wall. On the other end of the wall, Nero finds himself no longer inside Unit 06 as he now resides within an endless view of darkness, checks out what's around him with uncertainty and mutters, "First white and now black... That doesn't seem good at all."

Not much after saying that, Nero notices something out of the corner of his left eye that causes the black-haired boy to snap his head back in front of himself with terror showing before shouting out while torquing his body forward, "Shinji!"

It's soon revealed that Shinji isn't too far away from the 7th Child while held up onto a human-sized, silver crucifix with numerous, glowing, white arms holding the brown-haired boy's body and plugsuit so he can stay attached to the cross as he's clearly unconscious. This forces Nero to not waste much time after letting out that outburst and begins running towards Shinji while calling out to him with desperation in his voice. "Hang on, Shinji! I'm on my way!"

Unfortunately for Nero, an immense A.T. Field blocks his path just as the black-haired boy was a mere three seconds from reaching the 3rd Child and is overwhelmed with surprise for a moment. Right after that, the 7th Child starts to pound onto the A.T. Field with the bottom of his right hand, which makes a light thudding sounds come from the A.T. Field, while resting his left hand on it as he's greatly angered by the new obstacle in front of him. "God, damn it! Stop screwing with me already!" He suddenly stops hitting the A.T. Field with both hands planted onto it while despair slowly eats away Nero's being after dropping his head down. "I... I have to save him!"

Afterwards, Nero shuts his eyes, places his forehead against the A.T. Field while both hands tremble due to the black-haired boy feeling so useless and thinks with his teeth gritted, "What's the point in being so smart if I can't even find a way to protect a single person...? I don't even care if I won't be anymore. I just want to bring him back to them." He then throws his head back with his back bent backwards as much as possible before swinging his body forward while yelling out, "That's all I want!"

Having expressed himself, Nero promptly headbutts the A.T. Field, which instantaneously results in it falling apart, while the brown-eyed teen doesn't hesitate to continue his advancement without paying any mind to the pain he's suffering through after hitting an A.T. Field with his forehead as there's a slight bruise in the center of that area. Sadly, once again Nero's unable to get to Shinji as multiple, glowing arms rise from the black below the 7th Child and tightly grab onto him just when his right hand is literally fingertips away from touching Shinji's face.

That fact alone profoundly enrages Nero, however, doesn't wish to waste words on the limbs that are holding him back and keeps trying to make contact with Shinji while solely focusing on the 3rd Child. "Shinji! Wake up! Can you hear me?! You have to wake up!" He then closes his eyes and passionately screams out with his head slightly tilted back, "WAKE UP, SHINJI!"

At the same time, the Nero within Shinji's fantasy world grimaces out of a sudden irritation resonating from his head, which causes him to place his left hand over the teen's forehead to alleviate what bothers him, and thinks after turning his head to the right so that Shinji can't see his expression while clenching onto the fence with the other hand that's lowered to the side, "What was that just now?! It sounded like-"

Shinji interrupts the fake's train of thought with curiosity on his person. "Hey, Nero. Did you just call me?"

Nero's eyes promptly widen with a large amount of distress brimming and then rushes to face Shinji after putting his left hand down. "W-What?"

Shinji slants his head to the left with a hint of confusion taking over. "I could've sworn I heard you say my name..." He pulls his gaze away from the black-haired boy while resting his back against the fence and lowers his head a little with uncertainty dwelling. "But your voice sounded very far... And worried."

Nero doesn't utter a word as his distress is joined by panic while thinking, "No! He mustn't be able to intervene!" The fake then deviates his attention to the floor while tightly clenching both hands and thinks with his panic increasing, "The Chosen Child is so close to giving in!"

After that, the Nero imitation is overcome with a lot of pain that forces him to unexpectedly fall to his knees while grasping onto his head. Having seen this, Shinji hurriedly goes to the fake's aid while crouching down to be on one knee and lightly extends his arms towards the impersonator with concern overflowing. "Nero! Are you alright?!"

The fake has a hard time responding to the 3rd Child's question while thinking with his teeth gritted so that he wouldn't scream out from the sharp pain applied to his head, "This is impossible! Is he trying to enter this world through me?!" He quickly shuts his eyes before lying his head onto the roof's floor and lets out a low groan as his body ferociously shakes.

In the meantime, Shinji lowers his posture a bit while leaning towards the 7th Child that's in front of him with no change to his composure. "Should I go get help?!"

The impostor responds without making eye contact with Shinji while sounding quite exhausted. "First, answer this question... Do you prefer this or that world you've lived in your entire life and continually wished for death?"

Shinji's immediately taken back by Nero's words and straightens his posture without taking his eyes off the black-haired boy. "What world...?" He then plants both hands onto his head after realizing something with a terrified look now on his face. "W-Wait... I-I can't remember!" Shinji drops his head down with his eyes wide open while overrun by fear. "There isn't any other world than here, right?! Not that terrible place I've been dreaming of!" The 3rd Child frantically shakes his head with his eyes shut while shouting out, "I don't want to live in such a place!"

As a result of that statement escaping Shinji's mouth, the fake Nero's overtaken with content while snapping his head up to look at Shinji and thinks, "Finally! He's ours!" He quickly gets to his feet while seemingly freed from the agony he was experiencing just seconds earlier and gets close to Shinji before saying with a happy tone, "You don't have to!" The teen then extends out his left hand to Shinji with a welcoming smile while planting his right hand on the 7th Child's waist. "Come on... You won't ever have to worry about dying or having a hard time connecting with others again. I'll give you a better-"

Suddenly, a blank look plagues the impersonator's being while dropping his left arm to the side, which momentarily dumbfounded Shinji before slowly removing both hands from his head and gently asks, "Nero?"

The black-haired boy closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and gives Shinji a skeptical expression after resuming his focus onto the brown-haired boy. "Here's a better question for you, little brother. Are you really going to be fooled by this?" He then shuts his eyes again while releasing a disappointed sigh until reverting his attention to Shinji.

Not long after that, Shinji mumbles to himself with a stunned demeanor, "Little brother...?" The 3rd Child promptly regains his senses with some aggravation taking form while closing his right eye after tilting his head to the right. "Is it really you, Nero? The real you?"

Nero chuckles out of mild amusement. "Of course, it's me. That fake didn't once call you little brother 'cause it's probably something you aren't used to yet. If he had, you wouldn't have forgotten what's real."

Shinji's opens up his right eye and gives off a pitiful expression while shifting his gaze from Nero. "I'm sorry. I almost..."

Nero casually waves off Shinji's apology with his right hand while closing his eyes. "It's fine." He lowers his hand with a caring look taking over. "I just don't get why you were so close to losing yourself when you have so many people waiting for you. Is it that you're still afraid of being hurt by others?"

Shinji hesitates a bit while setting his sights onto Nero and nods. "Yeah."

Nero instantaneously replies with determination showing while raising his right fist in front of himself. "Well, you shouldn't!" The 7th Child then puts his right hand down again with sincerity displayed. "Even though people can't help but to hurt each other... Just like hedgehogs who also want to be close to another hedgehog and end up hurting each other due to their prickles..." Nero lowers his focus to briefly stare at the floor with a hint of sadness surfacing until returning his attention to Shinji with dull eyes. "We still want to be close to others despite that. It's something that can't be avoided..." He then gives Shinji a pure smile. "And must be embraced if we really wish to achieve that."

Shinji simply watches Nero while awestruck by his brother's words and wishes to say something, but doesn't get the opportunity due to a sudden decision from the black-haired boy as a serious look takes form before saying with a firm tone, "Now, enough wasting time! You have to wake up! Wake up, Shinji!"

That command from Nero catches Shinji off guard while not sure what to do until anger can be noted on the 7th Child's person as he tightly clenches his right hand into a fist. Afterwards, Nero torques his body back to briefly stand sideways and then thrusts his closed fist towards Shinji while screaming out with his eyes shut, "WAKE UP, ALREADY!"

A second after that outburst, Shinji was punched in the left cheek by Nero, who had actually punched him within the sphere as that tears the 3rd Child away from the fantasy world while still held up onto the crucifix. The fact that the brown-haired boy's now awake fills Nero with joy as he peers at Shinji while bent forward after throwing that fierce punch, however, is still within the numerous arms' grasp. "It's about time!"

Shinji gives Nero a baffled look while thinking, "Was that all... Just a dream?" He then notices that he's bounded to a crucifix via white, glowing hands and starts to panic while frantically moving around. "Huh?! Where am I?!"

Nero hurriedly grabs onto Shinji's pinned arms with both hands, plants his right foot onto the cross, which fortunately has enough space to the brown-haired boy's left side for the 7th Child to even put his foot, and desperately tries to pry Shinji from the crucifix while shouting out with a ragged voice, "Doesn't matter! All that matters is that I'll get you out." He shuts his eyes while cocking his head back and applies more strength to pulling. "I promise!"

Then, multiple, feminine voices echo out from all over the darkness surrounding the two children with lack of emotion present as they speak in unison, "It is pointless."

Hearing those voices startles both Nero and Shinji while a lot more arms extend from the ground in the attempt to rip the black-haired boy from the 3rd Child, which forces even more desperation from Nero to maintain his grip with his eyes locked onto Shinji. After that, the female voices continue to talk with no change to their tone as Shinji's snapping his head around to see if there's a source to the voices. "You will not take him away from this. The world must change for its own survival. For that, we need him."

Nero promptly throws his head back while peering up and shouts out with intensity, "Then use me!"

Shinji cuts in with distress overflowing while leaning forward as far as possible due to the arms connected to the cross restricting him. "No, Nero! I don't want you to give up your life for me!"

Nero glares at Shinji without moving his head and yells with anger noted, "Don't say that! I'm only alive to make sure you're safe! Can't you imagine all the pain everyone will go through if not even you make it out?!"

Confusion adds to Shinji's expression with depression showing also as he utters out with a faint tone, "What are you saying, Nero?"

Nero gulps since he isn't prepared yet to tell Shinji the truth, so he decides to ignore the brown-haired boy's question and shuts his eyes while resuming his valiant effort to free the 3rd Child before passionately shouting out, "Don't you want to be with them, Shinji?! Don't you want to be happy?!"

Shinji's eyes greatly widen from astonishment brimming as silence overcomes him until finally responding with sincerity resonating in his eyes. "Yes... I do."

Nero immediately opens his eyes while keeping the intensity from several moments ago and says towards the unknown voices, "You hear that?! If you use him, your plan will fail! There won't be anything different with him in control! It's better if you take me instead! So please let Shinji go!"

The multiple voices answer Nero's plea. "However, your will is stronger. It wouldn't benefit us at all unless... You were to experience something that'll force you to submit to our whim."

Nero doesn't even waste an instance in replying with his eyes closed again. "I'll do it!"

At the moment those words were spoken, all of the arms holding Shinji swiftly released him as his entire being's removed from the crucifix because of the 7th Child still pulling onto the brown-haired boy's arms with all his might. As a result, the two switch places in positioning after Shinji's swung around Nero's right and face each other with the black-haired boy's back to the cross. Not long after that, Nero gives Shinji a half-hearted smirk prior to both the arms already gripping onto the brown-eyed boy and the arms attached to the crucifix that had just shot out from it to grab Nero, begin to bring the 7th Child into contact with the cross.

Shinji quickly lunges forward and tries to reach out to Nero with a distraught demeanor, but is rejected by the black-haired boy, who had landed a harsh kick to his brother's gut to keep him away. After stumbling backwards because of the kick, the 3rd Child feels a fierce force gradually taking him up into the air and screams out with despair radiating while continuing to reach out to the brown-eyed boy, "NERO!"

Nero just keeps smirking as Shinji's sent backwards again with incredible speed and disappears in the darkness. Having witnessed that, the 7th Child drops his head down with a satisfied look displayed and mutters, "I did it, mother... I finally did what I was meant to do. No matter how much it sucked doing."

Meanwhile, back outside of the multi-colored sphere that throughout everything hasn't yet stopped growing at a small pace while starting to cause mild shockwaves due to it now slowly descending for an unknown reason, Unit 01, in its original form, is unexpectedly expelled from the right side of the orb with Shinji having returned to the purple Eva's entry plug, rapidly falls down and ferociously crashes down onto the ground below. At the mear sight of Unit 01 coming out of the sphere causes Unit 07 to fly beneath the multi-colored, huge orb as Evan coldly gazes down onto the small amount of smoke that was made from the impact of the purple Eva hitting the ground with both hands tightly gripping the controls while maintaining his back against the seat.

While that had transpired, Misato's briefly amazed by the sight of Unit 01 forcefully exited from the sphere until yelling out with both hands placed onto the platform's railing that's to Hyuga's left, "It's Unit 01!" She veers her attention to Maya with concern emitting. "Is Shinji in it?!"

Maya rapidly types onto the keys with a hint of determination while her eyes are glued to her monitor and receives an answer that brings a smile to her face before directing her gaze to Misato. "Yes! And there appears to be no abnormalities hindering him!"

Misato's about to allow a sigh of relief to escape her breath, however, takes notice of something and reverts her attention to the main screen with concern returning. "Wait a minute! What about Nero?!"

Ritsuko sadly responds to Misato's question while analyzing the information on Maya's monitor from the Lieutenant's right with her posture bent forward and right hand planted on the platform the monitor resides in. "There are no signs of him within Unit 01's entry plug, so he must be inside Unit 06." The doctor then sets her sights onto her dear friend with mild depression showing. "I'm sorry, Misato."

Misato's instantly overcome by both the concern that was already shadowing her and horror that had just join as she momentarily makes eye contact with Ritsuko. After that, the Colonel stares at the giant screen again with her eyes focused on the ever-growing sphere and vaguely mutters, "That means Nero's still in that thing..."

At the same time, Asuka managed to see Unit 01 fall as her eyes continue to shine two different colors, promptly forces her Eva to a halt while continuing to be in its Beast Mode and is momentarily filled with joy at the purple Eva's return until realizing that it's only one released from the large orb, which causes the 2nd Child to be consumed by sadness. "Why isn't Nero back too?" Unit 02 then resumes its advancement with reaching the area Unit 01 had crashed as its main objective while intensity can be noted on Asuka's person.

Not even a second after, Shinji painstakingly regains his composure while manipulating Unit 01 to stand up just when the smoke had cleared, sets his attention onto the sphere and shouts out with horror displayed, "Nero!"

Annoyance can be seen on Evan's face as he lightly grits his teeth out of frustration and says to himself with disgust in his voice, "I can't believe it. How in the hell is that weakling out, but not Nero?" He groans a little with his right eye mildly narrowed.

As Evan deals with his disappointment of the 3rd Child being the one freed from the ominous sphere, Shinji appears onto Central Dogma's grand screen with an urgent demeanor while leaning towards his left side screen since it's the one displaying the Colonel. "Misato! Is there anyway I can get up there?! I have to get Nero!"

Misato's a bit caught off guard, however, refocuses her attention to Ritsuko with a serious look. "Is there, Ritsu?"

Surprise appears on Ritsuko's person until depression once again takes form and shakes her head. "We don't have anything so advanced." She directs her gaze to the giant screen. "It's still unbelievable that SEELE even pulled off something so crazy as flying Evas."

Misato resets her attention onto Shinji with a helpless expression while straightening her posture. "There's nothing, Shinji."

Shinji becomes very upset and is about to let out a retort until a powerful shockwave unexpectedly collides onto Unit 01 from above. This forces the purple Eva's knees to buckle from the immense pressure as the 3rd Child does all he can to hold out with his head lowered and eyes shut while the entire entry plug uncontrollably shakes. After several moments, the shockwave ceases as Unit 01 barely stays on its feet while bent forward due to the severe weight that was brought down onto it. The brown-haired boy then strains himself to regain some composure while peering at the direction the shockwave originated and mumbles, "What was that?"

Just when that question was uttered, Misato desperately yells out after getting a notification from Maya with her right hand raised up to her person while clenched into a fist, "Incoming, Shinji!"

Shinji hesitates while giving Misato's image a stress-induced look prior to hastily pulling the controls to have Unit 01 jump backwards and narrowly dodges another shockwave that impaled the ground Shinji's Eva stood a second earlier. Having successfully evaded that second shockwave and landed a small distance away from it, the 3rd Child cocks his head back to resume looking up at the sphere as Unit 01's crouched forward while planting its right hand onto the ground. Soon enough, Shinji finally sees Unit 07, who's the culprit of the two shockwaves that were sent out by the use of both Crusher Systems within its arms, and is overwhelmed with anxiety. "It's you!"

Evan continues to show disgust on his being while stating with irritation in his voice. "I'm really pissed off right now. I wanted to pay Nero back for last time and got stuck with you instead... I have such a horrible feeling now because of you..." He then shouts with anger radiating as he torques his body forward while pulling the controls close to himself, "So the best way for me to get over this horrible feeling is to obliterate you!"

Shinji braces himself in preparation for what's to come as the scene swiftly changes to the 1st Branch and its personnel. Everyone that makes up the remaining members of the 1st Branch had gathered together at HQ and watched everything that transpired since pretty much the beginning of the battle with the use of the American Satellite, which displayed every single detail of the confrontation to this point on headquarter's enormous screen.

Among them is the Chief, who's standing at the center of the room with his arms crossed, and intently stares at Unit 01 while stating to no one in particular, "Shinji's out, but not Nero." He lightly chuckles in a somber way. "He must've taken Shinji's place." The Chief drops his head down while faintly sighing. "I shouldn't be surprised. Of course, he would do that. Kid would rather die... Which is probably what he plans on doing."

Sgt Johnson takes notice of the Chief's demeanor with his head turned to the left while sitting at his post and gives off a skeptical look. "What's up with you, Chief? That's a little too negative." He smirks out of amusement.

Hearing those words from Sgt Johnson dumbfounded the Chief, makes eye contact with the African-American and is about to respond until Sgt Falcon calls out from the elderly man's left in a carefree manner. "Yeah, that isn't like you, Chief! You should be screaming at the top of your lungs for Nero to keep his promise."

The Chief quickly shifts his attention to Sgt Falcon, who's nonchalantly facing towards his commanding officer with both hands behind his head and left leg placed over his right lap while resting his back against the seat of his post. After that, the Chief tries to defend himself, but to no avail as Sgt. Mitchell casually walks up to the Chief and stands right in front of him with a sincere grin while both hands in his pockets. "You know better than anyone that Nero hates breaking promises." He slightly slants his head to the left while tilting it a bit back. "Don't be jinxing things and have faith."

With that said, the sergeant straightens his head while turning to stand sideways so he can lock his attention onto Unit 01 without losing his grin and says with a confident tone, "Plus, I believe that brother of his wouldn't just give up on him very easily. He'll be sure to allow us to see Nero again."

The Chief's bewildered by everything that his sergeants said to him while gradually realizing that the other staff members have their focus directed towards him as they firmly nod in agreement. Having seen all of this eases the 62 year old man while reverting his gaze to the main screen. "I must be going senile to be so quick to accepting a loss." Determination then overcomes the Chief as he unfolds his arms to plant them on his waist. "Even if Nero loses himself, Shinji wouldn't let him go! That's for sure!"

The scene fades back onto Unit 07 as it's staring down Unit 01 just moments after Evan's outburst until unexpectedly accelerating towards the purple Eva. At the sight of that action, Shinji's a bit startled, however, manages to keep his composure and maneuvers his Eva to the right mere seconds prior to the enemy plants its feet onto the ground, which causes it to break apart due to the impact. Not long after that, Shinji directs Unit 01 to face towards Unit 07, who's now standing sideways, and soon regrets making that decision as the purple Eva's met with a fierce shockwave produced by the enemy's right, extended arm. This forces a mild scream from the 3rd Child with his head down and eyes tightly closed as the entire entry plug greatly shakes while doing all he can for Unit 01 not to lose its balance.

Unit 07 briefly continues the shockwave as both disgust and irritation still lingers on Evan's person until making his Eva join its left hand to add more power to the shockwave while completely facing the NERV Eva. At the same time, Misato shouts out with worry brimming as she slammed both hands onto the platform that's in front of her, "Move, Shinji!"

In response, Shinji snaps his eyes open and forcefully pulls the controls to the left without looking up since he knows pretty well that he wouldn't be able to dodge in time if he did. As a result, Unit 01 rolls to its left while escaping the shockwave's path, quickly gets to its feet and dashes towards Unit 07 with Shinji's eyes now locked on the enemy. While watching Unit 01 advance towards him, Evan arrogantly scoffs without changing his expression of disgust before cocking his head back a little and simply aims both arms towards the purple Eva again to release another shockwave.

Surprisingly enough, the combined shockwave from both Crusher Systems are repelled by Unit 01's A.T. Field as the purple Eva grabs a hold of Unit 07's left arm with its right hand. Shock immediately overwhelms the SEELE Child as his Eva's face quickly receives a left punch to its right cheek from Unit 01. It doesn't end there though as a flurry of punches begin to unfold from Unit 01's left fist that lands on multiple areas of the enemy's body while the brown-haired boy displays large sums of aggression.

In the meantime, astonishment appears on everyone in Central Dogma's being because of how unpredictable things have started off when considering the clear disadvantage Unit 01 has with Unit 07 and how Shinji could barely hold his own in their first meeting. The reason to this sudden change of superiority became obvious to Maya as she shifts her attention to Misato from her monitor and states with amazement in her voice, "Shinji's sync ratio suddenly spiked to 300% without going Berserker!"

Having the question in her mind answered even before getting the chance to ask it, Misato does a quick double-take to Maya prior to setting her sights on the continually attacking purple Eva while softly saying to herself with a dumbfounded demeanor, "Shinji..."

After that, Unit 07 took a few more hits while Evan's overwhelmed by pain running throughout his person until regaining himself long enough so his Eva can clench onto Unit 01's face with the use of its free hand. Unit 01 hurriedly acts on this as the purple Eva grabs onto the enemy's right wrist with its left hand in the attempt to break Unit 07's grip. Unfortunately, the red/brown Eva finds an opening to Shinji's decision while letting out a shockwave onto Unit 01's face and causes some facial armor to tear away.

Severe pain overcomes Shinji as he grabs onto his face with both hands, which turned out to be a mistake since Unit 01 subconsciously released its hold on Unit 07. Not even a second afterwards, Unit 07 took advantage by firmly grabbing onto Unit 01's right arm with its left hand and swiftly pulled so hard that the purple Eva's shoulder dislocates. With that, the brown-haired boy's pain immensely increases, bends his posture forward while tightly holding his right shoulder without removing the other hand from his face and screams in agony.

Hearing Shinji scream profoundly makes Evan fairly happy as he says in a stuck-up way after Unit 07 takes a couple of steps backwards to really enjoy the sight of Unit 01's current condition, "How pitiful. And here I was, actually starting to get worried." He then plants his back against the seat and crosses his arms. "I must have been out of my mind to even think that."

Shinji heavily pants out of exhaustion with his head lowered until moving his left hand out of the way so he can glare at Unit 07 in a fierce manner and mutters, "You're... In my way..."

Confusion takes form on Evan's face until the SEELE Child's eyes become cold as he asks with a suspicious tone, "What was that?"

Then, back in Central Dogma, Ritsuko sees a notification on Maya's monitor before taking it upon herself to let Misato know what she just saw since the Lieutenant to her left is so immersed with what's happening on the main screen while straightening herself to stand upright and says in a stern voice, "Shinji's synchronization is escalating! He's almost at 400%!"

Misato frantically directs her attention to Ritsuko with her eyes wide open and then reverts her gaze to Shinji's image as it can be noted that something's beginning to happen within the confines of Unit 01's entry plug. "Oh my God... Is it happening again...?"

Simultaneously, Shinji feels anger dwell within him while taking deep breaths in order to restrain himself until seeing a vision of a helpless Nero being held against his will by the same crucifix that the 3rd Child was forced on. This allowed Shinji to give up on restraining himself and ignore all consequences that may come as he swiftly grabs onto both controls. After doing that, the purple Eva's entry plug's filled with a radiance of colors while both arms instantly become engulfed by an A.T. Field-like essence just like when it fought Unit 03, which helped regenerate Unit 01's dislocated shoulder. In addition to that, Unit 01's back expands four A.T. Wings again while its eyes have turned red as Unit 01's mouth had opened up to reveal the same color emitting from the inside .

Seeing that baffles Misato as she moves away from the platform with an upright posture and shouts in panic, "Even the wings?!"

Fuyutsuki joins in from the Commander's post while awestruck by what he's witnessing. "Is it going to start up another Instrumentality?" He then reconsiders what he just asked after noticing Shinji's state of being while composing himself and thinks, "No, that's not it. Shinji doesn't seem like he's losing himself in any way." The Sub-Commander diverts his attention to the giant screen and softly says to himself, "It's Lilith's rebirth. Unit 01 has gained a power equal to Lilith's and taken the 2nd Angel's place."

Evan promptly yells out without acknowledging the change Unit 01 recently went through, "What did you say, you pathetic wimp?!"

Just seconds after those words were spoken, determination appears on Shinji's face as he lightly pulls his body forward with his eyes also red like Unit 01. "I said, you're in my way!"

As Shinji made that outburst, Nero somehow heard it, which forced a sad smile on the 7th Child's face, as he's vacantly staring down at the dark, nothingness beneath him with his person still held to the cross by the numerous arms, closes his eyes and faintly says, "You shouldn't be getting my hopes up like that, Shinji." He peers up with a skeptical look taking over after opening his eyes. "So, what's taking so long? Weren't you going to do something to me so I can become the Medium?"

The feminine voices reply to Nero's question without even a hint of emotion. "Indeed, however, we shall first warn you what you will be experiencing."

Nero rolls his eyes to the left while struggling a little on the crucifix due to some discomfort. "Fine... What is it?"

The feminine voices answer as all of the black surrounding him is overrun with countless images while saying in a malicious way, "You will experience the pain of all other worlds and know the real truth about yourself."

After that was said, Nero starts screaming with his head greatly pulled back while suffering through unimaginable agony by seemingly endless sums of images and information pouring into his mind. The feminine voices then continues to speak while the images around Nero specify on occurrences involving everyone close to the 7th Child and rapidly change each second that goes by. "To be more precise, you will see the fate of those you love from different possibilities that had transpired in what Lilin call other universes... And notice one key fact."

Nero continues to see different images of the other children going through terrible circumstances until looking up while shutting his right eye and asks with a strained tone after mildly grimacing, "Is it that I don't exist anywhere else?"

The feminine voices waste no time in responding. "Correct. For this reason alone, we believe your sole purpose is to help create a better world. If not, there would be very little meaning in God giving you a separate life and your own human form."

Nero wants to utter out a retort, but sadly, succumbs to the huge amount of pain while one of the images going through the black-haired boy's mind shows Asuka taking the place of Touji as Unit 03's pilot and falling victim to the end result instead. This dealt the most excessive blow to the 7th Child's psyche as he slowly begins to lose consciousness with his body slouching down while thinking, "Damn... So this is it, huh?" His eyes then start to close as his head dangles forward and barely manages to mumble out with a hint of sadness, "Please, don't lose... Shinji."

With those words from Nero, Unit 07 becomes the main focus as it flies off the ground while rapidly maneuvering around in the air and heads straight at the Transcended Unit 01 with both arms pulled back to be ready when its close enough to send out another shockwave. While doing that, Evan confidently declares with both hands tightly holding onto the controls while pushing them forward, "You think I'm afraid of that stupid transformation, you weakling?!"

Unit 01 quickly reacts to Unit 07's advancement by releasing a giant flap with all four of its A.T. Wings that creates an immense force of wind going towards the enemy's direction right when the red/brown Eva thrusted both arms forward to use the Crusher System. This resulted in a head-on collision of two shockwaves that completely tore apart the ground both underneath and around Unit 01 while small debris flies up as the two Evas are pelted by a few, which made Unit 07 cease its advancement not that far away from the purple Eva with an upright posture.

Having seen that, Misato's demeanor relaxes with her head slanted to the right and mutters, "Why do I feel like there's nothing to worry about? That Shinji has everything under control."

Evan couldn't help but to let out his discontent at the fact Unit 01 countered his Eva's attack and yells with an enraged tone, "Ah! Amplifier, full output!" The mechanism attached to the SEELE Child's face then produces a slight surge of electricity as the "X" on Unit 07's face changes from red to black with a dark aura gradually emitting from the Eva's body. Not long after that, the enemy Eva swiftly resumes its course towards Unit 01 and finds itself right in front of Shinji's Eva. A few moment later, Unit 07 points both arms at Unit 01 again as Evan states while still enraged, "Now, let's see you handle my full powered Crusher System!"

Unfortunately for Evan, before Unit 07 even got the chance to release what was supposed to be a very powerful shockwave, Unit 01 promptly pierces through the red/brown Eva's abdomen with its A.T. Wings. This forces Evan to immediately cough out blood with his eyes tightly shut while lowering his head to the level of the controls without removing his grip on them as his posture continues to be bent forward. With that done, Unit 01 lifts the enemy Eva off the ground to be above its head until harshly planting Unit 07's back onto the ground with an extraordinary impact shattering most of the red/brown Eva's back armor.

Some smoke starts to form due to Unit 07 crashing onto the ground as Evan was flung backwards and slammed his back against the seat. Once that occurred, the dirty-blonde boy regains his barring as he radiates with disdain. "Y-You...! I... I can't... Lose... To you...!" He then torques his body forward to make Unit 07 extend out both arms that were resting on the ground at Unit 01 with all of the antenna's of the Crusher System rapidly conducting electricity while ferociously screaming, "I WON'T LOSE!"

The Crusher System is soon released and blast off several pieces of Unit 01's torso armor, however, the Transcended Eva doesn't falter as Shinji tightly gritted his teeth to deal with the sheer pain engulfing the 3rd Child's being until passionately yelling while lunging his forward. After that, Unit 01 hastily pulls away its A.T. Wings, points both arms at Unit 07 prior to them shape-shifting and impaled the red/brown Eva with an A.T. Blast, which creates an enormous crater.

Because of that, Evan's back is driven into the seat yet again with the Amplifier blowing-up from a massive overload due to Unit 07 being abruptly taken down as the dark aura that overtook the Eva disappeared. Meanwhile, a vague expression shows itself on Evan's person while numerous alarms go off within Unit 07's entry plug after being overcome by darkness as he thinks, "How did this happen?"

With that question asked to himself, Evan lies motionless on the seat with his hair fairly messy from what just happened while heavily breathing and utters to himself, "It's bad enough I lost to Nero, but to lose to his pathetic, worthless brother... Even when I'm using the Amplifier..." A tear begins to form under his right eye before falling down Evan's face as the teenage boy remembers all the times he spent with the other SEELE Children, including Nero. "It's sad... We spent so much time obsessing over what we wanted that we couldn't appreciate what we had... Maybe that's why you'll live longer than all of us, Nero."

While saying that last part, Evan slowly reaches out in front of himself with his right hand, gently grabs onto one of the controls as Unit 07 raises its own right arm to again aim at Unit 01 and resumes to use the Crusher System. After seeing that, Shinji lets out a depressed sigh as his eyes become somber without reverting back to their original color and politely says through the open channel, "Don't do it. I don't want to kill you."

Evan chuckles while staring at the black screen before him since it had turned off from the severe damage Unit 07 took and states with an amused tone, "You really are weak... In this world, you have to do some terrible things sometimes in order to protect what you believe in and what you care for." He pauses while deviating his gaze to his right and says with a smile, "Your brother knows that all too well and you should too." The dirty-blonde boy lightly scoffs at himself while shutting his eyes. "Listen to me... I'm actually quoting that, jerk."

Shinji's about to reply to what Evan said, however, is interrupted by the sight of the Crusher System being mere seconds away from launching another shockwave, which leaves the brown-haired boy with no other choice as he shakes his head after closing his eyes. After doing that, determination resurfaces on Shinji's person as Unit 01 lowers both arm while its glowing, red eyes quickly releases an Angel Beam that effortlessly obliterates Unit 07's right arm prior to striking dead at where the entry plug's located.

Miraculously, the red/brown Eva didn't explode with the exception of the entry plug, however, this didn't mean the survival of its pilot as Shinji gets a little choked-up from the entire thing since Evan's the second person he's ever killed and that sadly reminded him about what transpired involving Kaworu. The 3rd Child doesn't dwell on that thought for too long as he urgently resets his sights on the giant sphere with a concerned look and softly says to himself, "Nero." Shinji then becomes serious before Unit 01 mildly crouches down with all of its wings fully extended and promptly launches itself off the ground to fly towards the enormous sphere that's still descending at a slow pace as it grows.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Ending Statement:

Yup, it had to happen. Another episode has to be added, but oh well... At least it'll be the last episode without a doubt and that actually makes me pretty excited to finally be at this point. I just hope I don't screw up, or at least, I don't screw up too bad. Now, for probably the thousandth time *Yes, I know I'm exaggerating.*, look forward to the last episode, everyone.

That's it. Talk to you all later.