Words from the Author:

Time to finish this! I've made you all wait long enough for this last episode and I do apologize for that. It's now or never. NGE, all its movies and manga, is owned by the great Hideaki Anno. I take no claim of anything other than my original characters, who's considered not so original, but are the best I could come up with. Thank you all for reading. I won't be leaving an ending statement at the end of this episode so this will be the last time you have to read my rambles... Or at least for now... Enjoy!

Final Episode: Forever Intertwined

Unit 01 soon arrives at the sphere's right side, which is the exact side Shinji's Eva was expelled from earlier, and plants both hands onto the ever-growing orb in the attempt to penetrate it. Unfortunately, the purple Eva's efforts seem to do very little other than cause the outer-layer of the sphere to vaguely fluctuate as everyone in Central Dogma observe Unit 01 with all feeling anxious. In the meantime, Unit 08 emerges from the hole it made to descend into Dogma without anyone from NERV or even Shinji realizing it as the gold Eva flies forward enough to land on the ground that's in front of the hole.

After doing that, Zahn takes a brief scan of his surrounding and notices the defeated Unit 07 from a fair distance towards his left, which forces the white-haired boy to shut his eyes while shaking his head in disapproval with a small smirk on his face before establishing his gaze towards the gigantic sphere. "I guess you were right to come back here, Lord Keel. If that overzealous Evan couldn't even hold out, it is more than likely none of the others did. That includes your SEELE members." He then shifts his gaze to the right until his eyes narrow at the sight of Unit 01 trying to enter the multi-colored sphere and cocks his head to the left with a hint of curiosity. "Hmmm... Unit 01 is no longer trapped in that Moon."

Keel's voice calmly resounds within Unit 08's entry plug. "Indeed. That must mean Nero succeeded in saving the 3rd Child, however..."

Zahn straightens his head and nods with a sinister smile taking form. "I know. Nero's still in there. That explains why Unit 01 looks so eager to get back in." He chuckles in a menacing manner. "Too bad for him, I don't plan on letting that happen." Unit 08's then about to launch itself off the floor, but is interrupted by a sudden feminine cry as a large shadow plagues the gold Eva. This forces Zahn to maneuver his Eva to fly to the right while barely avoiding a red mass of metal that smashed all four of its limbs onto the ground as Unit 08 resets its attention towards the direction the gold Eva was standing.

Soon enough, Zahn finds himself facing Unit 02, who has still not reverted back to its original form, as the yellow-eyed boy's a bit astonished by the red Eva's appearance with his posture slightly slouching forward. "Now that was unexpected."

Asuka responds to Zahn's statement through the open channel with confidence brimming while firmly holding on the controls. "I bet! I'm a master in surprise attacks!" She grins while maintaining her confidence.

Due to Asuka's loud statement, everyone in Central Dogma and Shinji finally took notice of Unit 08 as the purple Eva stopped trying to penetrate the sphere. After that, both Shinji and Misato show up on opposing sides of the 2nd Child while the brown-haired boy asks with concern displayed, "Asuka?! When did you-?!"

Asuka swiftly turns her head to the left since that's where Shinji's image located while ignoring the fact that the 3rd Child's overwhelmed with a radiance of different colors and harshly cuts him off. "Never mind that, you idiot! You have to go get Nero, so stop wasting time!"

Shinji's quite dumbfounded by Asuka's words, and just when he's about to say something, Zahn starts laughing out of nowhere. Hearing this causes Misato to direct her focus to the gold Eva with some distress emitting and thinks, "What in the hell? Why is he laughing?"

Zahn continues to laugh with his right hand placed over the white-haired boy's face while cocking his head back and says in an amazed voice, "This is so hilarious! I can't believe you're so willing to go retrieve something as pointless as a missing link!" He then turns his head to the left without lowering it. "Even if you did, it wouldn't save you all from the impending doom you're all destined." Zahn removes his hand from his face to plant it on his right hip and locks his attention onto Unit 02. "Not only that, he'll most likely fall victim again and be unsuccessful in even saving Nero."

Irritation overtakes Asuka's person as she sharply retorts while leaning forward. "Go to hell!"

With that outburst from Asuka, Misato gives off a scrutinizing glare towards Unit 08's image while returning her hands onto the platform of Hyuga's station and asks to no one in specific, "What did he say? Missing link? What does he mean by that?"

Then, Kaji suddenly walks up next to Misato's left with both hands in his pockets and a stern demeanor while watching the huge screen. "I'll tell you what he meant."

Misato hurriedly snap her head to look at Kaji while shocked by the former double-agent's unexpected arrival. "Kaji!"

That outburst causes all of the others in Central Dogma to instantaneously set their sights onto Kaji while quite baffled as both Shinji and Asuka join them with equal shock. After that, the brown-haired man takes a deep breath to gather up the courage to tell everyone what he knows and then makes eye contact with Misato as his eyes emit sadness. "Zahn was referring Nero as Shinji's missing link."

Misato gives Kaji a confused look while facing towards him with only her right hand still on the platform. "I don't get what you're saying."

Kaji returns his attention to the main screen. "Commander Ikari lied to us again, Misato. Nero isn't Shinji's brother..."

Disbelief engulfs everybody in Central Dogma, Asuka and Shinji as Misato takes a step closer to Kaji with anger joining her disbelief. "What was that?!"

Kaji answers while gazing at Misato out of the corner of his eyes. "He's a severed part of Shinji, Misato. Without Shinji, Nero wouldn't exist." He diverts his focus away from Misato to once again stare at the giant screen. "That's why Nero's willing to sacrifice himself for Shinji."

Misato's disgusted by what she just heard while deviating her eyes to the left with her posture slightly bent forward and softly says, "That bastard... He keeps lying to us." Her eyes narrow with a hint of anger returning. "I'll kill him."

Kaji lets out a depressed sigh with his eyes closed and head lowered. "A little too late for that." The former double-agent reopens his eyes while lifting his head back up. "He's already dead. He gave up his life to make sure that the gold Eva wouldn't attack Central Dogma."

Misato quickly reverts her attention to Kaji with horror on her face. "H-He's dead?"

Simultaneously, Ritsuko stares at Kaji while greatly stunned by what he said and thinks, "That cold-hearted man... Actually gave his life for us...?"

Fuyutsuki's overcome with intense sorrow resonating as his legs buckle a little and lowers his head while thinking, "So you finally did something for the sake of others, huh..." He shuts his eyes to take a deep breath and then veers his head to the enormous screen as he mumbles with a sad grin, "Yui would be proud, Gendo... She would be proud without a doubt."

Shinji's eyes greatly widen after hearing the news about Gendo's death and thinks, "Father..." The brown-haired boy then recalls something that Nero had said to him prior to being released from the sphere and mutters, "So that's why he said he's only alive to protect me. Nero's a part of me... And he would probably die if I..." Tears begin to fall down Shinji's face as he drops his head down with his entire being starting to shake.

Suddenly, Asuka can be heard yelling as Unit 02 charges at Unit 08 while on all fours until reaching the enemy and lunges with both arms extended forward. In response, Unit 08 swiftly backs away from the red Eva while still in the air as Zahn's fairly annoyed by the attempted attack. "Did you not hear Mr. Kaji? It's pointless to try to save Nero."

The red-head replies with an enraged tone while making Unit 02 pursue Unit 08. "He didn't say that! All he did was tell us something that doesn't change anything! No matter what anyone says about Nero, I'll still love him!"

Shinji stares down at Unit 02 chasing after Unit 08 with the use of his left side screen that's faintly covered by the different colors radiating inside the entry plug while quite bewildered. After that, Unit 02 manages to get close enough to Unit 08 so it can begin trying to land blows on the gold Eva, however, Zahn elegantly commandeers his Eva to evade and even parry every attack thrown with a carefree demeanor. As all of this occurred, Misato faces the main screen again while momentarily gawking at what she's seeing until whole-heartedly smiling and shouts out in encouragement, "That a girl, Asuka! Show that bastard what you're made of!"

Kaji lightly grins at the sight of Misato playing cheerleader and joins in with his eyes on the large screen. "Yeah! Nothing's worst than a woman's fury, right?!"

Asuka giggles out of amusement while constantly pushing and pulling the controls to continue her attack with her posture completely bent forward. "Definitely!" She peers up at Unit 01. "Hey, Shinji! Didn't I tell you to stop wasting time?! I'll take care of things here!" The 2nd Child then resumes her focus onto Unit 08 and says in a teasing way, "After all, if you don't bring Nero back, then I'll be stuck with you. I don't want to be fighting over you with Mari again." She softly laughs to herself before asking with a kind tone, "So promise me, Shinji... That you'll bring him back to me, okay?"

Having heard Asuka's request, Shinji's stunned for a few seconds until firmly nodding, reverts his attention to the sphere and quickly wipes away the tears away from his face with the back of his right hand. After that, the brown-haired boy swings his right arm to the side and then declares with determination overflowing, "I will! I promise!"

Meanwhile, Kaworu and Rei patiently watch the gigantic sphere while not knowing how the others are doing with the exception of Unit 01 since it isn't too far off for them to see as they continue to sit on Unit 04's entry plug. Then, just a couple of seconds after Shinji made his declaration, the Lance of Longinus unexpectedly shoots out from the ground it was planted on while sending some pieces of earth into the air and heads towards the multi-colored sphere with impeccable agility.

After seeing that, Rei shifts her attention onto Kaworu with curiosity brimming. "The lance... Is it...?"

Kaworu contentedly smirks. "Indeed, Ayanami." He tightly squeezes Rei's left hand since his own hand is still over it and stares at Unit 01. "It is going to help grant Shinji's desire."

Rei happily smiles at Kaworu while not minding the fact that the grey-haired boy's hand continues to rest on hers and then resets her gaze towards the sphere. "I am glad. I do wish to live a full life with both of my brothers."

Kaworu slants his head to the left without losing any of his content. "I agree."

That said, Unit 01 becomes the focal point of the episode again just moments prior to the Lance of Longinus reaching the purple Eva and subconsciously catches the weapon with its right. At the same time, Shinji briefly glances at the lance with a small amount of surprise, however, shakes it off while giving the sphere a fierce look as the Lance of Longinus rapidly shape-shifts to regain its new form that the lance first acquired in the possession of Unit 06. Afterwards, Unit 01 promptly lowers its right arm and ascends to the sky with all four wings tucked back after letting out an intense flap so the Transcended Eva could hastily rise up.

Soon after that, the purple Eva profoundly surpasses the sphere's height, and after taking a sharp, corkscrew turn, descends down onto the enormous orb while pulling the Lance of Longinus over its right shoulder with both hands tightly holding the now arrow-bladed weapon. Just when Unit 01 drew near to the sphere, Shinji pulls back onto the controls with everything he's got as his Eva completely faces the huge, dark-colored mass and then thrusts the lance onto it. This results in the sphere to furiously fluctuate prior to Unit 01 slipping into the orb, which causes a massive sense of relief and hope overtake every single person in Central Dogma.

As this all transpired, Nero had lost conciousness within the countless images that appear one after the other while the human-sized crucifix that was keeping him captive vanishes, which allowed the 7th Child to drop to his knees before falling onto his face. Having witnessed the black-haired boy succumbing to the unimaginable pain that's left him broken, the feminine voices speak without even a hint of emotion, "He has finally given in. We shall now commence with the unification of all sinners of this world. We shall begin with those who have lost their lives in recent events. Then, we will take the foolish Lilin who continue to pollute this world with their existence. Now... Let this world live as it should!"

Just when those last words were uttered, the corpses of people, not only those who died in Japan but all who have died throughout the entire world, begin to emit a white essence from wherever they're located and slowly go to the giant orb. In addition, Gendo's lifeless body that's lying on its left side has a white essence expel from his body while the deceased Commander's glasses gradually dissipates into nothing not too far away from him.

Even though that's happening, Asuka pays no mind to the nearly invisible essence that's heading towards the sphere as the red-head maintains her concentration on the enemy before her while Unit 02 still can't land a hit on Unit 08. This forces the 2nd Child to switch things up by adding low, roundhouse and reverse kicks to her Eva's assault in between the strikes made with the red Eva's fists.

Unfortunately, Unit 02 remains to land a blow due to the gold Eva's continued elegance in each movement as it backs away while doing several different flips when Zahn felt they were needed without using his Eva's A.T. Field so far. While this game of cat and mouse drags on, Keel intervenes to the enjoyment Zahn's having since he finds it amusing that Unit 02 can't lay a hand on him as the white-haired boy playfully maneuvers within Unit 08's entry plug as the Chairmen talks with a cold tone, "Enough messing around, my son. End this meaningless scuffle."

Zahn replies with a nonchalant tone while still moving around in place to keep evading Unit 02. "I was getting to it, Lord Keel. I just wanted to stretch out my legs before dispatching of this little pest."

With that stated, Unit 08 immediately stops backing away, advances forward to be face to face with Unit 02 in a blink of an eye and extends out its right arm in the attempt to grab the red Eva by the neck. Asuka's greatly startled by this sudden action from the gold Eva while desperately manipulating her Eva to create enough separation to dodge the enemy's hand with her teeth gritted after muttering to herself in German, "Scheiße! (Shit)"

At first, it actually seemed like Unit 02 would manage to avoid Unit 08's reach, but sadly, the gold Eva unexpectedly hits its left foot off the ground and floats over to the NERV Eva's left before deciding to firmly clench onto the red Eva's neck with its other hand. After that, Unit 02's lifted off the ground while Unit 08 keeps levitating in the air after turning around to switch positions with Asuka's Eva, who's frantically fidgeting in the enemy Eva's grasp, and begins to add pressure. This leaves a hand print on the German girl's neck as she momentarily grimaces out of pain with her right eye closed until taking notice of Unit 08 being within striking distance as one of its hands' occupied.

Considering this isn't a chance she would want to pass up, Asuka opens up her right eye and urgently commanders both Unit 02's hands to try to impale the gold Eva's head from opposing sides. Unlucky Asuka, the gold Eva chooses now to expand its A.T. Field in the form of two separate ones to effortlessly block the attack prior to Zahn chuckling with skepticism showing while tilting his head to the right. "Did you actually think I would put myself in such a vulnerable position? There's nothing you can throw at me that I have not already formulated a counter strategy."

Not long after that, Unit 08 tightens its grip onto Unit 02's neck, which forces a distressful gasp from the red-haired beauty while cocking her head back with her eyes shut. Then, a malicious smile surfaces as Zahn says with arrogance in his voice, "Just envision you were fighting Nero, however, a much superior entity that outclasses him in every way."

Asuka scoffs at Zahn's words while straining to open her eyes again as the imprint on her neck gets deeper. "Yeah, right. Do you have someone as hot as me for a girlfriend? I doubt it. You automatically lose just because of that, hands down."

An aggravated scowl instantly overtakes Zahn's face as he slightly grinds his teeth and then states in a menacing growl, "It's time for you to die..." Unit 08 suddenly shines the same brilliant gold from earlier and quickly places its other hand onto Unit 02's left cheek as it rapidly starts to disintegrate within mere seconds.

Asuka's immediately plagued by agony, grabs onto her face with both hands and hysterically whips her body around while screaming as the entire entry plug's overrun by warning alarms, which causes Unit 02's arms to drop down. At the sight of Asuka's predicament, Misato snaps her head towards all of the Lieutenant and shouts out in panic, "Tell me what's going on?!"

Kaji answers Misato's question with a stern demeanor. "That Eva seems to have the power to dematerialize anything it touches when in that form. That's how it went down to Terminal Dogma." He sets his sights onto Misato. "We need to get Asuka out of there."

Ritusko interrupts her two best friends with large sums of stress displayed while walking up to Kaji as she gestures both hands in front of them. "That's impossible in Unit 02's Bestial Form! We were disconnected the moment it transformed!"

Both Kaji and Misato direct their attention towards Ritsuko with horror radiating as Asuka valiantly tries to break free from Unit 08's clutches after painstakingly grabbing onto the controls. This doesn't have any real success as the red-head's neck begins to feel an intense, burning sensation as well that forces the 2nd Child to cough multiple times with exhaustion showing. Afterwards, Asuka falters quite a bit as her eyes return to their natural blue color and randomly scoffs at herself before softly saying, "It just dawned on me... I'm pretty much still in love with that Stupid Shinji since Nero's practically him..." She then lightly grins while letting her head drop forward with her eyes now closed. "But I'm gonna stick by what I said earlier... Because Nero isn't just a part of that idiot... He's himself... And that's who I'm in love with."

The German girl finally gives into everything she's suffered through the day and passes out while bent forward with Unit 02 completely shutting down at the same time. Taking note of Unit 02 no longer active, Zahn gives off a displeased expression and mutters with his right eye twitching a little, "How pathetic. You couldn't even last this much. It would be SO easy to kill you right now..." He then veers his attention to the left while not looking at Unit 02 anymore prior to tossing the red Eva to Unit 08's opposing side in an uncaring way. "But I've lost all interest in killing such an inferior being."

Unit 02 soon hits the ground and lies on its right side without moving an inch as Zahn manipulates Unit 08 to direct its focus on the huge sphere with both hands on the gold Eva's waist in imitation to the SEELE Child's action. It's instantly noted by the yellow-eyed boy, that for some odd reason, the incredulous orb has stopped growing after blotting the entire sky above Tokyo-03, however, continues to descend towards the earth at a slow pace and asks with faint curiosity arising, "Is that supposed to happen?"

Keel answers with uncertainty being heard from the Chairmen's voice. "I am not sure... Things are occurring fairly different from the 3rd Impact if my memory serves correctly. And we are unable to verify what's happening since we cannot enter without the use of a Catalyst."

Zahn's eyes narrow with suspicion while thinking, "Could it be...?" Unit 08 then removes both hands from its waist to lower them prior to doing a quick squat, swiftly flies up into the air with immense speed and reaches the sphere's right side, which happens to place the gold Eva above the bloody lake that contains the gigantic Rei's head. After that, Zahn folds his arms together while cocking his head back as he intently watches the multi-colored orb with a devilish smile creeping on his face and softly says, "If that's the case, I hope it's you... Nero."

While the final SEELE Child awaits by the sphere, back where the downed Unit 02's located, Mari suddenly appears not too far away as she's staring at the red Eva with her eyes having gone back to their normal color while slouched forward due to being fairly tired from both her battle involving Vanessa and running. Once she catches her breath, the now violet-haired girl straightens herself while glancing at the giant sphere for an instance until returning her attention to Unit 02. "There's no time for sleep, Princess." She then smiles out of amusement prior to rushing towards Unit 02.

In the meantime, Nero lies within the giant orb's confines while showing no signs of movement until footsteps are heard from a small distance away and head towards the 7th Child, who's gradually regaining conciousness with his eyes slightly open as a vacant look resonates in them. After that, the brown-eyed boy strains himself to look up without lifting his head up and is baffled to see who's before him while muttering, "Are... You two real?"

It's immediately revealed that the two people in front of Nero are his parents as they gently smile at the black-haired boy while standing next to one another. Then, Gendo answers Nero's question after glancing to his left to make eye contact with Yui, which can be done since he isn't wearing his glasses, as the Commander's clearly happy to have his wife next to him. "Indeed, Nero. We are both here for you."

Having received that answer, Nero slowly positions both hands to help him rise to his feet and faces the two individuals while having a hard time expressing what's dwelling within him. Taking notice of the 7th Child's difficulty in speaking, Yui can't help but let out a soft laugh prior to walking towards Nero, unexpectedly embraces him with her chin resting on the teenage boy's head and says in a caring voice, "I only got to hold you like this a few times. I'm really sorry for that, my strong Nero."

Nero's momentarily stunned with his eyes wide open as all he can do is peer at Yui until gaining the courage to hug his mother back while desperately trying to hold back tears from coming out after lowering his attention. Several seconds afterwards, the feminine voices echo from above the three of them with a hint of anger taking form. "How are you here?! You are interfering with the world's salvation!"

Gendo slants his head back and puts both hands into his pockets with confidence emitting. "The world cannot be saved by the likes of you." He shifts his attention towards Yui and Nero with an honest demeanor. "It can only revert to the way it was and be saved by those who desire to actually live through the horrors that comes from existing in such a world."

No retort's heard from the feminine voices as Nero creates a bit of separation from his mother to set his sights onto Gendo with surprise brimming while Yui briefly gives the Commander a content smirk.

Not long after that, the brown-haired women directs her attention back to Nero with equal honesty. "You are one of those who can accomplish that, Nero. Not because I believe you are meant to... It's because that has always been your dream. A goal you made for yourself, and not one that I implemented on you."

With that said, Yui shuts her eyes for a second while taking a deep breath until giving out an apologetic expression to the 7th Child. "I'm truly sorry I made you feel that you had no other purpose than securing Shinji's survival. Whether you really are our son or not, doesn't take away from how much you matter to us."

Nero's greatly dumbfounded by Yui's words as he processes everything she said with his eyes deviated from her and then notices Gendo walking towards him. Once the two are a few inches away from each other, Gendo pulls out his left hand from his pocket, extends it towards Nero while holding something and states with a smile. "So continue being yourself, Nero."

After hearing Gendo's request, Nero reaches out with his right hand and is promptly given what was within his father's hand, which after pulling his hand back to himself while lifted to his face, the black-haired boy finds out that the Commander just gave him his tinted glasses. The brown-eyed teen then snaps his head up while lowering his right hand a bit with mild disbelief presented and asks with a faint tone, "You..."

Gendo interrupts Nero with his left hand back into the Commander's pocket as Yui once again stands next to her husband. "It'll be one of the only things I've ever really given to you and Shinji. Be sure to tell him..."

Yui finishes what Gendo's saying with a wholehearted look. "That we love him."

Nero's silent for a moment while a pure grin arises and then sharply nods with joy showing. "Got it!"

Both Gendo and Yui are very pleased by Nero's response while slowly fading away into nothing. After seeing the two no longer in front of him, sadness resurfaces as an intense feeling bothers Nero while planting his left hand over the black plugsuit's cross and veers his gaze up. "You're awfully quiet. Did you actually give up?"

The feminine voices reply without any remnant of emotion while gradually fading away. "Unfortunately... However, neither us or you have much time left anyway."

Concern appears on Nero's person while narrowing his eyes and softly utters, "What?"

At the same time that question was asked, Unit 01 rapidly descends down what used to be the endless void of white where Nero fought the Rivka imposter, but had been overtaken by countless images of universes as well, however, Shinji can't really tell what they are due to how fast each image appears after the other. The brown-haired boy quickly brushes off the curiosity that was brought by the images, refocuses his attention down the path his Eva's going and soon collides into a white wall that's keeping Unit 01 from advancing any further.

In response, Shinji manipulates Unit 01 to pull the Lance of Longinus over its head again with determination overflowing while letting out a battle cry and forcefully stabs the wall. Even though the lances blade managed to penetrate the wall, it wasn't enough for Unit 01 to pass through as Shinji puts every bit of strength he has into pushing the controls forward and states without displaying an ounce of uncertainty, "I'm almost there, Nero! Just hang on!" The lance then commences to make its way through the wall a little at the time, however, both the Lance of Longinus and every image surrounding the Transcended Eva are starting to crack from excessive pressure applied to the wall.

That doesn't keep Shinji from continually adding everything he's got as his red eyes seem to be glowing brighter than before while saying with his teeth gritted, "I'm not going to give up...! I mustn't run away! I mustn't run away! I mustn't run away!" He then lunges forward and passionately screams out while giving out one final push, "I'LL NEVER RUN AWAY!"

With that outburst, the entire white wall, Lance of Longinus and the images of multiple universes above the NERV Eva abruptly shatter as Shinji breaks through with Unit 01 no longer present just like when Nero had penetrated the other white wall to reach the 3rd Child. As a result, Shinji descends while the Earth's sky is now displayed behind the brown-haired boy due to his successful effort in getting passed the white wall causing the sphere's ceiling to dissipate.

Nero witnessed Shinji's accomplishment with an awestruck demeanor while keeping his left hand over his chest. "Shinji?!"

Soon enough, Shinji sees Nero while still falling and happily shouts out with both arms outstretched to opposing sides of his body, "Nero!" He then lands on his feet at a short distance away, and although stumbles a little to maintain his balance, the brown-haired boy hurriedly runs towards the 7th Child.

Nero tilts his head to the left with a slight smile while consumed by disbelief and watches Shinji head his way. "You seriously can't be for real."

As Shinji continues towards Nero, the sphere's walls also begin crumbling and disappearing with every depiction of alternate universes meeting the same fate. Outside of the sphere, Zahn's overwhelmed by shock due to not expecting the sphere to gradually fall apart like it's doing. The white-haired boy isn't the only one who's left speechless by what's transpiring as Central Dogma's personnel stare at the sphere and suddenly sees the sky again overruned with the Door of Guf.

In Mari's case, she takes a quick glance above herself as the 6th Child made her way to the left side of Unit 02's neck so she can position herself to eject the red Eva's entry plug with the use of its emergency lever that's installed there. Right after that, Mari returns her attention to the task at hand, forces the NERV Eva's entry plug to partly eject, swiftly advancing to the doorway, opens it up with both hands and soon enters the entry plug's darkness. Having done all of that, Mari carelessly shakes Asuka's unconscious body with her right hand placed on the 2nd Child's left shoulder and says in a pleading tone, "Hey, Princess! Get up!" She then states sarcastically while including left hand in the effort to awaken Asuka, "You sure picked a perfect time to take a nap!"

Asuka soon starts moving after Mari's constant attempts in awakening her while letting out a soft groan, however, seems to have difficulty with removing herself from the controls since she's still lying on them. At the mere hearing of Asuka making a sound, Mari decides to help the red-haired beauty, lies her back onto the seat while placing her face several inches away from Asuka's and shouts with agitation appearing, "Princess, I swear to God, if you don't wake up right now I'm going to slap you until your face matches your hair!"

That outburst finally gets the 2nd Child's attention with her eyes locked onto Mari's while displaying a profound amount of discontent and responds in a threatening manner. "If you even lay a finger on my face, I'm going to kick yours into oblivion."

Mari cheerfully smiles. "That's what I want to hear! Now, come on! It looks like Shinji and Nero beat whatever it was keeping them in that huge orb!"

Surprise and joy immediately overtakes Asuka's expression as she leans towards Mari to the point of their noses almost touching with both hands planted on the seat for leverage. "Really?!"

Meanwhile, Shinji has reached Nero as they're just a few feet away from each other and quickly regains his breath from him running before uttering out with relief showing, "Nero."

Nero sheepishly shakes his head in disapproval. "What are you doing? You shouldn't have come back."

Shinji becomes a bit upset with his eyes returning to their dull, blue color while mildly gesturing both arms forward. "What are you talking about, Nero? Of course I would come back." He lowers both arms with a depressed look taking over. "You're my-"

Nero harshly interrupts Shinji while pulling his right arm towards himself and swings it to the side. "I'm not! I'm not your brother, Shinji!" The black-haired boy drops his right arm while diverting his head to the right with his eyes shut. "I'm just a detached piece that stole away your strength!" He then positions his head to be lowered in front of the 3rd Child while fidgeting a little and says with guilt weighing down on him, "I've done nothing but make your life terrible! If I never existed, you would've been spared from all the pain you suffered through!"

Shinji takes a step forward and declares with both eyes beginning to water, "I don't care!"

Nero's instantly dumbfounded after snapping his eyes open and then lifts his head up to look at Shinji. Not much later, the 3rd Child keeps talking with sincerity brimming as he slowly closes onto the black-haired boy. "It doesn't matter if you're a part of me. You ARE my brother, Nero." He stops just mere inches away from the black-haired boy. "I don't know what would've happened if we didn't meet that day. If you didn't exist, then I might have never lived long enough to hear something anywhere near those words you told me."

Brief silence plagues Nero until remembering what he had said and softly states, "That you are never alone."

Shinji gives Nero a kind grin with his eyes glistening a little. "Because?"

Nero finishes what Shinji's implying to him after momentarily smirking and cocks his head to the right . "Because you have a twin brother watching over you."

Shinji hurriedly nods with pure glee emitted before his eyes can't hold on any longer and tears fall down his face. "Exactly!" He then unexpectedly lunges towards Nero while closing his eyes and wraps both arms around the 7th Child's neck in a heartwarming embrace with his chin barely touching his brother's left shoulder as he openly cries without a single shred of hesitation.

That sort of startles Nero, however, ends up being a comforter so that the brown-eyed boy can join Shinji in crying while returning the embrace by placing both hands onto the brown-haired boy's back with his eyes also shut. Then, every bit of the gigantic sphere finally vanishes and reveals that the two brothers are now standing on an Eva-sized A.T. Field, which actually happens to be theirs. Simultaneously, everyone in NERV witnessed the sphere no longer being present while seeing both Shinji and Nero in the middle of the A.T. Field due to the main screen zooming onto their image. Misato's the first to emit joy from her person at the sight of both children hugging one another while ignoring the fact they're crying and thinks, "Thank, God... They're both okay."

Contrary to Misato neglecting the siblings' crying, Fuyutsuki watches on with his posture upright and puts both hands into his pockets while thinking, "This is probably the first time those two have ever cried together since they were infants." He faintly grins while his eyes glisten and mutters, "It's something they desperately needed to experience."

After countless seconds of crying together, Nero feels an odd sensation consuming his body, slowly peers at his right hand since its the closest one to the 7th Child's face while maintaining a hold on Gendo's glasses and is instantly stunned to witness his hand starting to glow in a transparent manner. It doesn't take Nero long to figure out what's happening to him, compelling a sorrowful expression to surface and then gently rests his right hand on Shinji's back again while warmly whispering, "Hey, Shinji. Thank you for accepting me as your brother. That really means a lot."

Shinji nods without separating himself from Nero while keeping his eyes closed. "You don't need to thank me because you ARE my brother."

Nero smirks, slanting his head to the right. "That's right. I'm so happy to know that." He then shifts his gaze to the right with a peaceful look on his face until witnessing Asuka and Mari from a far distance away as the two girls just managed to get out of Unit 02's entry plug.

Soon enough, Asuka and Nero's eyes meet as the red-head's promptly overcome with content while standing on Unit 02's left shoulder and mutters, "Nero."

While that occurs, Mari watches Asuka from behind her and cheerfully grins with her eyes closed as she puts both hands behind her back. Simultaneously, Nero continues to feel the odd sensation while most of his body starts glowing a faint, white color, which forces the 2nd Child to become concern, and then the brown-eyed boy silently saying something towards Asuka with his eyes greatly gleaming.

Asuka's eyes narrow as she quickly takes notice that Nero's saying something in a different language and ask to herself, "German?" She then figures out what Nero's trying to tell her and states in German to herself, "Ich Liebe Dich. (I Love You)"

Afterwards, Nero silently declares something else with a somber demeanor adding in that causes Asuka's eyes to widen while immensely distraught before muttering also in German, "Auf Wiedersehen. (Goodbye)"

In the meantime, Zahn watches what's happening to Nero's body since the two brothers are up ahead of the SEELE Child without moving Unit 08 from where it's located and grits his teeth out of realization with frustration showing while thinking, "No... I can't accept what I'm seeing! You can't do this to me, Nero!"

With that, Shinji slowly opens his eyes with his tears mildly drying up until horror appears while frantically unwrapping his arms from Nero's neck and pulls away far enough to focus his attention onto the black-haired boy. "W-What's happening to you, Nero?!"

Sadness can be noted on Nero's person, however, this doesn't keep him from smiling at Shinji as he lightly brushes his hair's bangs with his left hand. "I guess my time's up."

Shinji begins to panic while lightly leaning towards Nero. "What?! What are you talking about?!"

Nero lowers his gaze after putting his left hand down and says with a somber tone, "I had a feeling this would happen. It was just a matter of time before you became whole and I stopped being me."

Shinji's unable to utter a retort due to realizing what Nero's implying as his horror highly spikes while shaking his head with tears resuming.

Meanwhile, Nero reverts his attention onto Shinji and sees his brother holding back tears, which forces him to briefly be surprised. After that, the 7th Child kindly plants his left hand on top of Shinji's head before bringing his face so close to the brown-haired boy that the two can look into the other's eyes and says in a supportive way, "Don't cry, little brother... You don't need to feel bad. After all, I'm glad for the time I was able to live. Especially, with you and the others."

In response, Shinji's eyes overflow with tears going down his face while having difficulty talking. "B-But... I don't w-want you... To go, Nero!" He then digs his face into Nero's left shoulder while tightly holding him with both arms and speaks in a muffled voice due to his head's positioning. "Please, don't go!"

Nero lightly scoffs without taking his left hand off Shinji's hair while peering at the Door of Guf. "I'm not going anywhere, Shinji. I'm actually going to be as close to you as ever."

Shinji shakes his head while still on Nero's shoulder. "No! I don't want that! Then, you really will just be a part of me and not my brother!"

Nero replies in a faint voice as his body commence to disperse into small, white particles after diverting his attention to Shinji. "Even if you feel that way, it won't change the simple fact that I'll always be with you and protect you. We'll forever be intertwined."

Shinji removes his head from Nero's shoulder while quite upset. "What about Asuka?! Don't you think she needs you?!" He drops his head down with his eyes closed, both hands clenched while now on Nero's shoulders and screams out in anger, "Stop worrying about protecting me and be with her!"

Having received Shinji's outburst, Nero lifts his left hand, grabs onto the 3rd Child's right arm to pull it off his left shoulder and brings it down to open his brother's hand. "If I had to choose, then of course I would be with her. It sucks though... I finally made up my mind to be happy, and yet, I was too late in deciding." He then puts Gendo's glasses in Shinji's opened hand with the use of his right hand and shamefully grins at the brown-haired boy. "I can be really stupid, can't I?"

Shinji doesn't answer Nero's question because of how distracted he is by what the 7th Child handed to him while bringing it to his face a bit. Not much after that, the blue-eyed boy locks his focus onto Nero with astonishment while tears keep flowing. "Is this...?"

Nero sharply nods. "Yeah. He wanted us to have it." The teenage boy suddenly recalls something while momentarily glancing up and then sets his sights back onto Shinji. "Oh, that reminds me. Mother and father wanted me to tell you that they love you."

Those words immediately dumbfounded Shinji as Nero utters with a vague demeanor established, "And one more thing I forgot to say to you..." He pauses for a second while shutting his eyes and giving Shinji a sincere smile. "Happy Birthday, Shinji."

Shinji takes in a deep breath with disbelief radiating since he wasn't expecting Nero saying that until seeing his brother almost gone, and as he extends his left arm in front of himself, the 3rd Child lunges forward in the attempt to reach the 7th Child. "Nero!" Unfortunately for Shinji, Nero completely vanishes while leaving numerous white particles that the brown-haired boy runs through as the majority of them blends into his person with his mouth open due to the immeasurable amount of shock plaguing his person.

At the same time, Zahn's consumed with anger as he violently bites his tongue while letting out a low, fierce growl. Then, Asuka carelessly drops to her knees after watching Nero disappear with a baffled look until breaking-down and plants her face into the palms of her hands while beginning to cry. As Asuka cries, Mari stares at the 2nd Child while losing all happiness she had emitted earlier and is now overtaken by sadness at witnessing Asuka's reaction to Nero being no more.

During that, Misato's beyond confused by what had happen while desperately searching for Nero as if he had gone somewhere instead of disappearing until placing her attention onto Kaji, who's giving the Colonel a mournful expression. Because of that, Misato knows the truth of what transpired while directing her focus to the main members of Central Dogma, sees that they've realized what happened and are filled with equal sorrow. Afterwards, the Colonel relocates her attention to the huge screen while watching Shinji as the 3rd Child's frozen in the position he was in when passing through the white particles and softly says with a profound amount of worry displayed, "Oh, Shinji..."

Concurrently, although she couldn't see Nero vanish, Rei abruptly pulled her left hand that's under Kaworu's hand and puts both hands over the middle of her chest with one over the other while lightly gasping for air. Having taken notice of Rei's actions, Kaworu brings his right hand towards himself while looking at the blue-haired girl with concern taking form. "Ayanami? What is wrong?"

Rei lowers her head to gaze at her chest and responds with a strained voice while a single tear goes down the 1st Child's face from her left eye. "I do not know." She returns her attention towards where the sphere was once located while feeling uneasy. "I believe something terrible has happened to my brothers, however. It is like one is no longer existing... As the other is in immeasurable agony." The blue-haired beauty's posture then slouches with a depressed demeanor appearing. "It saddens me to a point I cannot properly express."

Kaworu's quite amazed by Rei's words while placing his hand back down onto the entry plug and then thinks with some seriousness arising, "She is displaying a strong connection with Shinji and Nero. An ability left behind from being the vessel of Lilith." He resets his focus towards in front of himself with concern resurfacing while thinking, "That would mean, what Ayanami said indeed occurred..."

After that thought from Kaworu, the scene shortly goes to the 1st Branch as all members within the facility's HQ silently watch due to either being too upset from seeing Nero become nothing but dust-like particles or just overwhelmed by the reality that he's gone and can't properly express themselves. In terms of how the Chief's taking Nero's disappearance, the elderly man shows no emotion so that he doesn't let any of the other members see how much anguish is tearing away at his heart and soul.

While everyone else had their reaction to Nero vanishing, Shinji's posture didn't change much because of the shock that still weighed on him until the 3rd Child's body begins to slightly shake as he mumbles with his eyes drench by tears, "How could you say that...?" He quickly recalls Nero's final words, causing disbelief to arise, and gradually pulls both arms towards his chest with the brown-haired boy's hands shut while staring at them. "How is this a Happy Birthday, Nero?" Shinji lightly bends forward and faintly sobs to himself a bit. "Just because you said I'm going to be whole again, you think I'm going to be happy? Did you really think I wanted this...?"

That being said, Shinji sobs more while covering his face with his right hand's palm after letting Gendo's glasses drop onto the A.T. Field as they rest in front of the brown-haired boy's feet. "This isn't what I wanted... I wanted for all of us to..." The 3rd Child trails off as he feels himself losing control from all the thoughts now running through his mind involving everyone that matters to the blue-eyed boy.

Oddly enough, Zahn notices something peculiar about Shinji as his anger's been replaced by curiosity while leaning forward with narrowed eyes to get a better look of the brown-haired boy. "Hmm..."

Keel's voice resounds within Unit 08's entry plug with a hint of concern noted. "What is wrong, my son?"

Zahn momentarily hesitates before answering Keel's question. "I-I don't know..." He tightly clenches his right hand without lifting it. "This feeling I'm getting... It's just like..."

Before Zahn got the chance to finish his sentence, Shinji mildly moves his right hand away from his face, slowly turns his head to look behind himself and intently glares at Unit 08 out of the corner of his eyes while softly saying with malice, "You...! This is all your fault!"

The Door of Guf suddenly fluctuates above Tokyo-03 as if responding to Shinji's steadily growing rage, which gains the attention of everyone watching, while Asuka pulled herself enough together to also witness the multi-colored sky's swift movement. Not much after that, Shinji straightens himself while directing his person towards the gold Eva without taking his eyes off it, lowers both arms to his sides as the tears immediately dried up and speaks between shallow breaths. "It's because of you... That our birthday was ruined...! It's because of you... I broke my promise to Asuka...!" He maniacally opens and closes both hands as he keeps them lowered while stating with a louder voice, "You caused all of this to happen!"

Zahn unexpectedly gets a chilling sensation running up his spine, which causes the white-haired boy to be taken back quite a bit since he isn't accustomed to feeling that, and mutters in a concern tone, "What is this?"

Several seconds following that question, the Door of Guf fluctuates again, however, this time it was more intense as Shinji firmly digs his right foot into the A.T. Field and makes it slightly crack where the brown-haired boy's standing while continuing to talk from where he left off. "If it wasn't for you, Nero wouldn't have...!" He promptly drops his head with the 3rd Child's eyes shadowed by his bangs, greatly clenches his hands into fists and then says in a low, menacing manner, "I'll make you pay... I'll..." Shinji then takes a deep breath while pulling himself backwards, closes his eyes and shouts with everything he's got towards the Door of Guf, "Mother! Father!"

That outburst from Shinji instantly causes two separate beams of light, one indigo-colored while the other purple, blast through the Door of Guf's opening that's placed in the center and rapidly descends towards the 3rd Child in a spiral formation until colliding onto him. As a result, an intense, purple/indigo light radiates from where Shinji was standing on the A.T. Field and hurriedly engulfs everything in Tokyo-03 while blinding anyone watching. In the midst of that, Misato shields her eyes with both arms while quite disgruntled by the light's brightness and yells out in worry, "Now what's happening?!"

Being the only one determined enough to see through the bright light, Fuyutsuki deeply stares at where Shinji's supposed to be located with his person greatly leaning over the Commander's station again as he waits for any signs of the pilot and says to no one in specific, "If Nero's indeed a missing link from Shinji... What he has been lacking ever since he was born... Then Nero has returned to Shinji to open the path for his brother to become whole."

After hearing Fuyutsuki's brief explanation, Kaji glances at the Sub-Commander prior to setting his sights onto Misato with a stern expression. "He's right, Misato."

Misato snaps her attention to Kaji with distress showing while keeping her arms up. "Whole?! In what way will Shinji be whole?! Does that mean he won't be Shinji anymore?!"

Fuyutsuki maintains his gaze at the huge screen while some concern arises as he thinks, "That's an excellent question, Katsuragi. We have no actual idea to why Nero was separated from Shinji in the-" His eyes instantly widen out of realization after ceasing his train of thought while hastily pulling himself off the platform with an upright posture and then thinks, "Wait... Is that it?! Is Shinji...?!"

As Fuyutsuki dwells into his thoughts, the purple/indigo light starts retracting back into where it originated and takes the shape of a levitating Evangelion completely overcome by the two, shinning colors running all over the Eva's body. It doesn't take Zahn long to be awestruck by what's before him as he closes onto the display while cocking his head to the right and utters out in a whisper, "What is that?"

Immediately after that question was asked, the two colors disperse from the Eva's being while revealing it's armor to be mainly purple with indigo where Unit 01 would normally have green and two pylons just like any of the NERV Evas. In addition, the Eva's head looks like a combination of Unit 01's head when it comes to the lower half and Unit 06's head in terms of the upper half with an indigo visor covering the eyes instead of red while having both horns the two NERV Evas normally present on their forehead jointed together on this Eva's own head. It's then noticed that the newly created Eva has a slowly rotating, white halo wrapped around each wrist without coming into contact with one another and a fairly big halo floating above the Eva's head.

In the meantime, within that Eva's entry plug, Shinji stands on the same platform that belonged to Unit 06 with his vacant, blue eyes locked onto Unit 08 and hair gently fluttering as the 3rd Child's plugsuit has been replaced by Nero's, however, it's no longer black. Instead, the plugsuit Shinji's now wearing has the same white color his would usually contain while almost entirely covering the plugsuit with some blue blended onto the limbs and torso region in contrast to being separated. At the same time, all three of the cross-shaped gems that had shattered when Nero Transcended Unit 06 are repaired while shifting between indigo and purple colors as they brilliantly shine with the number "04" that was originally on Nero's pluguit having changed to the Japanese Kanji meaning "True" in black lettering.

After staring at Unit 08 for a bit, Shinji suddenly peers down to see his father's glasses lying in front of his feet, gradually bends forward to pick it up with his left hand and gazes at it after straightening himself while talking to himself without emitting any real emotion. "This isn't only a present from father, is it? Nero, this was your farewell present too." He shuts his eyes while lowering his head and mildly tightens his grip on the glasses. "Not if I have anything to say about it."

Meanwhile, Zahn displays immense curiosity while fixing his head and body's positioning. "Lord Keel... Is what I'm seeing actually transpiring? Did two Evas really become one?" He awaits a reply from the Chairman, but doesn't get one, which causes the yellow-eyed boy to direct his attention upward with faint concern joining. "Lord Keel?"

A few seconds pass by prior to Keel finally responding with both a firm and urgent tone. "Listen to me, my son! Be rid of that Eva immediately! That's the True Evangelion!"

Zahn's baffled by Keel's words while stiffening his posture. "What was that?! But I thought my Eva was-!"

Then, without any warning at all, the purple/indigo Eva appears in front of Unit 08 and effortlessly backhand the enemy Eva's face with its left hand. This causes the gold Eva to be sent flying towards its right as Zahn desperately tries to maintain his balance with both hands planted onto the entry plug's right side for leverage. Just when it seemed Zahn was about to regain control of his Eva, the True Evangelion trespasses by Unit 08 with blinding speed that makes it look like the Eva had vanish until reappearing behind Zahn's Eva and does a reverse roundhouse kick with the purple/indigo Eva's left foot to the gold Eva's back.

That results in Unit 08 being sent back the same direction it was coming from as Zahn grimaces out of slight pain after his person's rammed on to the opposite side of the entry plug. Not long afterwards, the white-haired boy finally regains control of his Eva while stopping near the center of the bloody lake. Right after that, Zahn swings his person towards the NERV Eva while greatly enraged by the sudden attack. "H-How d-did you...?"

Astonishment promptly plagues Zahn as he sees the True Evangelion with its right arm raised as the modified Lance of Longinus suddenly hovers right above the purple/indigo Eva's opened hand while pointing towards Unit 08. Concurrently, Shinji's right arm is also raised while coldly watching the gold Eva until his demeanor changes and becomes very intense as the True Evangelion swiftly brings its arm forward with the lance instantaneously accelerating towards Unit 08.

Zahn reacts by expanding his Eva's A.T. Field due to him thinking that Unit 08 can block it after taking quick consideration of when his Eva was battling Unit 06 and managed to repel most of the attacks. Unfortunately for the SEELE Child, that plan doesn't work too well since only after a second of the lance coming into contact with Unit 08's A.T. Field it shatters as the weapon narrowly misses the gold Eva's head while leaving a gash on its right cheek. After that, Zahn looks at his own right cheek out of the corner of his eyes because of him feeling the light pain surging from that region while clearly pissed off by what just happened and thinks, "What in the world?!"

Keel cuts into Zahn's thought process with fear being noted in his voice. "Zahn, behind you!"

Zahn's eyes profoundly widen, glances behind himself and sees the Lance of Longinus making a round trip with no loss of speed while blurting out in distress, "Can he manipulate the lance out of his own will?! No way!"

Before Unit 08 got any opportunity to avoid the lance, the True Evangelion once again appears before the gold Eva while ready to strike the enemy with its right arm pulled back behind itself. Luckly, Zahn's reflexes were quick enough for both incoming attacks and decides to quickly ascend Unit 08 so that the purple/indigo Eva becomes the lance's new target while the white-haired boy grins in a sinister way as he's looking down onto his opponent. "Nice try! But you're nothing in comparison to-" He's then taken by surprised after seeing the True Evangelion redirect its arm to aim towards Zahn's Eva, which apparently commandeered the Lance of Longinus to re-establish Unit 08 as its target before reaching Shinji's Eva.

That forces Zahn to panic as the SEELE Child has no other choice, but to make his Eva catch the lance with both hands right before its blade had almost hit Unit 08's chest. Having achieved that, Zahn calms himself with a confident smile appearing while resetting his attention onto the True Evangelion. "What are you going to do now?" Unit 08 then slowly descends while creating a good amount of distance between his and the True Evangelion with both arms down as it holds the Lance of Longinus in the Eva's right hand. "Now I got the lance... And now, you don't even have a shred of hope in standing a chance."

Shinji simply retorts through the open channel with a lack of emotion displayed. "Then, I'll just make more."

Zahn hurriedly takes a step forward with disbelief overtaking his expression. "Come again?!"

Shinji doesn't waste time indulging Zahn's outburst, and instead, nonchalantly lifts his left hand in front of himself without letting go of Gendo's glasses and sharply swings it to the left, which the purple/indigo Eva perfectly imitates. Once the True Evangelion does that, seven, original-version Lances of Longinus instantly materialize around Shinji's Eva at a fairly close distance to it as the sight of that baffles Zahn beyond words.

The SEELE Child isn't alone though as everyone of the pilots and NERV personnel have their eyes glued to everything that's occurring. Keel, on the other hand, doesn't allow himself to be thrown off by what the True Evangelion just did and says with a reassuring tone, "Do not fret, my son. Those are nothing but cheap copies. Just like the ones we had created for the Mass Production Series. They couldn't possibly penetrate the massive power of your A.T. Field."

After hearing Keel's words while gazing up, Zahn sharply nods with confidence returning and sets his attention back to the purple/indigo Eva. "That's right! Those pointless replicas won't do anything at all to my A.T. Field!"

Shinji rebutted without an ounce of hesitation while keeping his left arm raised to the side. "Are you sure about that? You shouldn't be too quick to assume such a thing."

Both Zahn and Keel simultaneously yell out in response, "What?!"

Shinji ignores the question while abruptly bringing his left hand down as a signal for all seven lances to swiftly spread out and advance towards Unit 08 with remarkable agility. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to react in time, Zahn solely relies on Unit 08's A.T. Field due to thinking exactly what Keel told him, however, is greatly proven wrong when one after the other breaks through the gold Eva's A.T. Field and either pierces into the enemy's body or cuts through armor plating on different regions.

While that transpires, Unit 08 flung around a bit because of the lances' excessive momentum as Zahn's writhing in pain. "This... Is outrageous! How can mere imitations get by my Eva's A.T. Field?!"

Shinji sternly states after hearing Zahn's complaint, "I told you not to assume. Those aren't copies. I created legitimate Lances of Longinus just like the first one I threw at you, which I had to recreate after I shattered it trying to save Nero."

Unit 08 finally manages to dodge a lance that came in from its left and narrowly missed the gold Eva's neck. After that, Zahn's Eva uses that chance to deflect away three Lances of Longinus incoming from around Unit 08 with the Lance in its right hand while two already had stabbed into opposing sides of the Eva's torso and one on the gold Eva's back. Having achieved that, the white-haired boy leans forward and disputes with what Shinji had said while clearly upset. "That's insane! That would mean you would have to-"

Then, it finally dawns on Zahn why exactly Keel had dubbed the Eva before him as the True Evangelion while straightening his posture. "You would have to be the Chosen Child. The one who can unite Adam and Lilith to become the ultimate being... And gain a power on par to God's."

Shinji nods with sadness emitting in his eyes. "That's right. And because of who I am, Nero was created so that both him and I could try to live a normal life. There's no need for someone with this kind of power. I was happy with what I had." The brown-haired boy's eyes narrow with intensity taking over. "I'm going to make you pay for taking that AND my brother away!"

Zahn feels insulted by Shinji's words while lightly tilting his head back with a demented look as he keeps his attention onto the True Evangelion. "How dare you?! As if you have the right to be upset!" Unit 08 starts glowing again and then suddenly flies towards the True Evangelion with amazing speed. "I wanted to fight Nero! Not an inferior being like you who's NOTHING without him!"

Just when Zahn's Eva reaches the purple/indigo Eva, the gold Eva's path is blotted by three Lances of Longinus joining together at the weapons' tip, which is exactly what stopped Unit 08's advancement in terms of the Eva ramming its head into them and that lets out a great, chiming sound because of the impact while forcing Zahn to shout out in disbelief, "You used them to shield you?! But Why?! You could've just used your A.T. Field!" He then smiles in an arrogant manner. "Unless you knew it wouldn't hold up."

Shinji responds with a blank expression. "That's not it. The reason I didn't use it is simple... I no longer have an A.T. Field to even use."

Hearing that bewilders Zahn as Shinji continues to speak after thrusting his right hand forward to harshly make the three lances push Unit 08 away while dispersing to different directions. "I have accepted everyone into my heart and don't need to be afraid of being close to people anymore." The True Evangelion then follows up its previous action by creating an indigo-colored A.T. Sphere in each hand that's currently lowered via the halos on its wrists generating several, thin streams of purple electricity towards the hand's palms while Shinji's eyes resonate the sincerity he's about to wholeheartedly express. "For that very reason, I'll win! Because unlike you, I have people that I want to spend the rest of my life with!"

That declaration reminds Zahn of what Nero told him about living his own life, however, the white-haired boy brushes that thought off as being unnecessary after shaking his head with both eyes shut and then resets his gaze onto the True Evangelion just as the two A.T. Sphere fully form. Afterwards, the purple/indigo Eva pulls its left arm back and swiftly throws the first A.T. Sphere at Unit 08 with blinding speed. Fortunately for the gold Eva, Zahn quickly responds to the attack by quickly using the modified lance in Unit 08's right hand and the Lance of Longinus stabbed into the Eva's left side to block the A.T. Sphere after joining them in a form of an "X" with a tight grip on both weapons.

A couple of seconds later, the True Evangelion launches the other A.T. Sphere as it hastily merges with the first and adds a lot more pressure onto the two lances after tripling in size. This forces Zahn's legs to buckle as he strains himself to maintain his ground with both arms mildly shaking while raised forward like his Eva. Not much after that, a small smirk creeps its way on the white-haired boy's face as he says with arrogance resuming, "I hate to admit it, but I am quite impressed by the improvement you obviously attained from Nero..." His eyes then narrow with determination joining. "Though, that doesn't change how weak you are in comparison to me. Especially, when I have these lances that you pretty much granted to be at my disposal."

Shinji stands sideways with his right foot forward while tilting his head to the right as he keeps his eyes on the still shining, gold Eva. "You really haven't realized it yet, have you, Zahn?"

Zahn's head lightly pulls back as the SEELE Child's left eyebrow raised with confusion overtaking his expression and asks in a hesitant voice, "H-Haven't realized what?!"

Shinji lifts his right arm enough to bring his hand next to the 3rd Child's right cheek with the thumb and middle finger together before faintly replying. "That if I can create Lances of Longinus out of my own freewill, then that means... I can destroy them just as easily." He promptly snaps his fingers, and at that very moment, both lances Unit 08 was using to shield itself dematerialized in an instance, which left Zahn completely speechless with a distraught look appearing, as the A.T. Sphere blasts the gold Eva in the form of an indigo-colored explosion.

As a result, Zahn's Eva stops shining while slowly floating backwards out of the explosion's smoke due to the strong force of the blast as it can be noted that most of Unit 08's body armor has been obliterated. At the same time, Zahn's overcome by excruciating pain with his right eye shut as he's beginning to fall backwards too while trying to maintain his focus on the True Evangelion and thinks, "Impossible..." His right eye immediately reopens with fear resonating in both eyes due to seeing the purple/indigo Eva rising through the smoke while having recreated the modified Lance of Longinus again, firmly holds the bottom edge in both Eva's hands as the blade's pointed towards the Door of Guf and has the weapon pulled over the True Evangelion's head.

No more than a second later, the True Evangelion descends enough to slash down onto the center of Unit 08's body starting from the left shoulder, breaks off the last piece of armor on the chest region and forcefully reveals Keel, who's gradually straightening his posture with horror showing on his person after looking at the purple/indigo Eva. Having taken notice of Keel's location, a fierce glare emits from Shinji that's clearly directed towards the Chairmen as his posture is greatly lowered and states in a low, fierce growl that doesn't hide any of the immense amount of disdain he's feeling, "There you are...! You too are mostly at fault for all of this! No..."

After that, the brown-haired boy quickly recalls every memory Nero has involving Keel, which enrages him to no end as he's shouting, "You ARE the one at fault! You kept us apart! You stole so much time and happiness away from us!" The purple/indigo Eva then swiftly turns to its left and does a 180 degree spin in mid-air while removing its left hand from the modified Lance of Longinus so it can create an original-versioned lance within that hand in a backwards position so it's aimed at Unit 08. After getting a good grip onto the Lance of Longinus, the helix-shaped weapon's swung right towards Unit 08's chest as Shinji passionately declares in the middle of also spinning, while for a split second, both eyes had turned light brown, "And I'll kill you for that!"

Keel lets out a gasp of despair right when the True Evangelion stabs the lance into Unit 08's upper chest after transforming into its Piercing Form within a split second, impaled the Chairmen with all of the Eva's might and completely penetrates through the gold Eva to the extent where the infused blade barely missed Zahn's left side, which profoundly baffles the yellow-eyed boy as most of the entry plug's monitors were destroyed or severely damaged. In addition, countless warning alarms begin to sound with the inside of the entry plug mostly plagued by darkness since the frontal screen is the only one kind of working even after having some intense cracks made from the lance.

Unfortunately, the white-haired boy isn't saved as the True Evangelion follows up with the modified Lance of Longinus via a single-handed slash similar to the previous one right on the same spot and manages to cut Unit 08 in half this time. Concurrently, that slash leaves an astonish expression on Zahn's face while the SEELE Child isn't certain if the pain that's now engulfing him is from the synchronization or if he's been cut in half as well. This doesn't take away from the fact that Unit 08 has started falling towards the bloody lake in two separate sections because of Shinji's Eva releasing its hold on the original-versioned lance before landing the purple/indigo Eva's final strike.

In the meantime, Zahn momentarily stares at the True Evangelion, who has just lowered both arms without letting go of the modified Lance of Longinus, and then gently says, "Is this happening? Did I really lose? Am I... Going to die?" A hopeless smile takes form on the white-haired boy's person with sincerity brimming in his yellow eyes. "I don't want to die... Without actually living first."

With that, both severed halves of Unit 08's body hit the blood-filled lake while not too far away from its beach and makes a fairly big splash prior to settling as everyone who had witnessed the entire confrontation, including the 1st Branch's members, are stunned due to not having coming to the realization that the battle with SEELE had just ended. In the brown-haired boy's case, Shinji knows very well that the war with SEELE is over, however, couldn't help himself but shed a single tear in each one of his dull, blue eyes with his head down and mutters in a vague tone, "I won... Now what? I really don't know what to do next."

Then, the 3rd Child peers to where Asuka's located without moving his head and sees the red-head as she's still on her knees while giving the True Evangelion a sorrowful look, which deepens the guilt that's more or less choking Shinji. Not long after that, the brown-haired boy suddenly hears two familiar voices, one male and the other female, as they simultaneously speak in a caring voice, "Make a wish. Anything your heart desires. Just as you did before during 3rd Impact."

Having received those words, Shinji snaps his head up with disbelief after recognizing the two voices and thinks, "Father? Mother?" He then takes into consideration about what they said while bringing his head down again and softly asks, "I can wish for anything?"

Yui and Gendo continue to talk in unison with a firmer tone. "Indeed, but please keep this in mind, Shinji."

Shinji veers his attention back up with curiosity displayed. "What is it?"

Yui and Gendo sharply answer. "Just be sure not to regret any decision you make. Live with that decision and stand by it. That is another gift from us to you."

Shinji becomes quiet for several moments until cheerfully smiling and nods with determination. "Alright." He lowers his focus enough to analyze the surroundings after losing his smile out of uncertainty since he doesn't like how the world around him has been affected by the battle and then drops his head again with his eyes closed. "Make a wish... Anything I want and don't regret it..." The brown-haired boy gradually opens his eyes and gazes at the platform. "I just want what Nero wanted... That's my wish."

Almost instantaneously after those words were spoken, the True Evangelion's three halos brightly shine as the Door of Guf relentlessly begins to fluctuate inward while shrinking in size. Meanwhile, the remaining Evas that had managed to survive total destruction, begin to glow before slowly decomposing into white particles that ascend towards the True Evangelion. This causes brief panic within Central Dogma from some of its members since they don't know what's exactly going on while Misato, Kaji, Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki maintain their cool after rationalizing to themselves that whatever's happening is for the best.

Soon enough, all other Evas are no more with the pilots who were on top of them safely standing on the ground while quietly watching the True Evangelion attaining the last bit of the white particles that once made up an Eva within its halos. After that, the Door of Guf is the next to be absorbed into the purple/indigo Eva's halos in a rapid manner, and not long after, the sky can be seen again as the True Evangelion now starts to dissipate from both ends of its body.

While that happens, without anyone in Tokyo-03 knowing, the Earth's ocean regains its blue color little by little, which is witnessed by the 1st Branch thanks to the American Satellite showing them and leaves an overjoyed grin on the Chief's face as the other staff members begin to celebrate and thinks, "Are you seeing this wherever you are, Nero? Your dream... It finally came true."

At the same time, right before the True Evangelion's being was completely lost, it flies up to Asuka and Mari so that Shinji can get off via the gap created in front of him due to how much the purple/indigo Eva had vanished. Having done that, Shinji faces towards the True Evangelion while his hair stops gently fluttering, keeps a good hold on his father's glasses that's within the 3rd Child's left hand and states with an honest expression, "Goodbye... Mother... Father..." The True Evangelion then disappears without a trace as tiny bits of white particles are seen blown away towards the left because of a sudden gust of wind.

After seeing that, Shinji shifts his attention towards Asuka and notices that the 2nd Child's face is covered by her hair with head turned to the right so their eyes wouldn't meet while Mari silently looks at the two of them in concern. The 3rd Child's saddened by the sight of Asuka's quick reaction to his return, but takes proper responsibility, hurriedly bows to the red-haired beauty after shutting his eyes and yells out with an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry, Asuka! I broke my promise! You have every right to hate me forever! I'm sorry! I'm SO sorry! I'm really, really, really-"

Unexpectedly, Asuka marches up to Shinji and swiftly swipes the brown-haired boy off his feet with the use of her right foot, which causes the 3rd Child to yelp out of surprised prior to hitting the ground, face first and Mari to take a step forward out of worry. After eating dirt for a few seconds, Shinji manages to sit up while facing Asuka with his head lowered and left hand massaging his face until setting his gaze onto the red-head. That right there being a bit of a mistake on Shinji's part since he was quickly met with the 2nd Child's right middle finger flicking his forehead and pulls up his right hand up to protect it after letting out another agitated cry while slightly turning himself away from Asuka. "Ow! W-Why did you do that?! I said I was sorry!"

Asuka plants her face near Shinji's with both hands on her hips and posture bent forward. "That's why! You were apologizing too much again! If you need to do it, just say it once and that's it, idiot!"

Shinji removes both hands from his face while glancing at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes and asks with a smile, "So I'm allowed to say it once at least?"

Asuka straightens herself and sternly nods. "That's right. Every time you break a promise or screw up, which you probably will a lot but..." She warmly grins at Shinji with her head cocked to the right. "I'll let you say your sorry one time and that'll be enough for me to forgive you. Just try your best for that not to happen too much or I'll kick your ass. Got it?"

Shinji simply nods as Mari giggles with the back of her left arm raised in front of her mouth and thinks, "I think she'll do that whether Shinji screws up or not."

A moment of silence soon follows that thought's completion as Asuka softly says with a somber tone while dropping her head, "Hey, Shinji... Is he really gone for good?"

Shinji gets to his feet and gives Asuka a bewildered look until being overcome by depression while deviating his attention away from the 2nd Child. "I..." He suddenly takes in a deep breath and reverts his gaze to Asuka with confidence radiating. "No! Because the world doesn't need me to be complete!"

Asuka frantically returns her attention to Shinji while awestruck by his words and sees how much confidence is showing on the brown-haired boy's face, which forces a smirk from the red-haired beauty. "I don't either."

That being said, Zahn becomes the main focus as he's washed up onto the beach of what used to be the blood-filled lake, however, has also been purified just like the world's ocean. The white haired-boy lies there motionless for a while and can only stare at the blue sky with all four limbs outstretched to opposite sides of his person. Miraculously enough, Zahn's not really physically injured, which draws up confusion within the yellow-eyed boy's mind as he momentarily glances at himself until locking his attention onto the sky again while asking without any signs of emotion, "How am I still alive? Why am I still alive?"

With no one to answer his questions, Zahn takes it upon himself to deeply contemplate about everything that's happened drawing up to this point and becomes quite displeased while muttering, "I know why. Even after you ceased to exist, you continuously try to teach me a lesson and help me anyway you can... Isn't that right, Nero?" He promptly sits up without much effort, gets to his feet while examining the lake in front of him and slightly grins with his right hand on his waist. "I can confidently bet you had something to do with my survival in some way..."

Zahn briefly pauses to close his eyes while turning away from the lake and starts walking. "I might as well take that advice you gave me so long ago..." The white-haired boy opens his left eye while peering behind himself from the same side. "After all, there really might be some shred of hope in me finding happiness somewhere... Just like you." He redirects his attention in front of himself and keeps walking.

From that point, exactly six months come and go after the conclusion of the final battle as the world notably begins to change back to the way it was before the 2nd Impact. This is because for the first time, the winter's snow has returned to not only Japan, but to every country that normally would experience it. Although, the snow came back in a fairly small amount since the Earth still needs some more time to fully revert back and isn't as cold as normal. In addition, the world had been freed from the dependency of Eva considering there are no more Angels to fight and SEELE has fallen. With that, NERV became more like a high-end defense mechanism for both the newly repaired Tokyo-03 and Japan in case there are any countries seeking any kind of conflict with them.

Now, even though there wasn't much snow, Asuka still hated having to wake up in the morning and going outside to experience the cold air of Tokyo-03 that she isn't anywhere near accustomed to, but had no choice this particular day so she can register into Myoujyou High School. This will be the high school all former pilots will be registering to after having taken their entrance exams even though they still have a couple of months left of middle school. As all the other children had gone to the school when they had originally agreed on, Asuka being stubborn to get out of bed, decided to go a bit later while keeping in mind that the former pilots, Misato, Kaji and PenPen were going to spend the afternoon to commemorate the passing of six months since SEELE's defeat.

Several hours had passed and Asuka's currently in a train heading to her destination after sleeping for far too long than she had intended with agitation showing due to the blunder she had committed. At the same time, it could be noted that she's wearing a red coat that's entirely buttoned to reflect how cold it is for the German girl, matching boots that cover about half of her shins, red gloves, black leggings and a black scarf in remembrance of Nero since it was his favorite color. Meanwhile, the former 2nd Child stands at the opposing side of the train as her back's resting against the glass behind her, holds onto the metal pole that's next to her with her right hand while carrying a red handbag in her left hand and watches the mountains behind her out of the

While doing all of that, the German beauty can't help but think about all the nights she spent alone in what used to be Nero's room with Pen-Pen being so kind to sleep in her arms to minimize the solitude and seeing the other children in their relationships. This obviously didn't include Kaworu, who made the honorable sacrifice in allowing Rei to continue her own relationship with Kensuke without interfering, which Asuka greatly respected, especially after he had to watch the blue-haired girl finally receive her first kiss from the military Otaku when the two were reunited at NERV, but what has been really weighing down on the German girl's mind is that soon she will be celebrating her birthday without Nero.

Luckily Misato, Kaji and all of Asuka's friends stood by her side while easing the red-head's pain as Shinji told her everyday not to worry with a confidence she still isn't used to seeing from the brown-haired boy and that he's sure Nero will return one day soon. Because of that, the former 2nd Child hopes for that day, even if it were to be very unlikely to actually happen, and gives her reflection a smirk after looking at it for about a minute. Suddenly, Asuka's thrown a bit off balance due to the train abruptly stopping while letting out a mild yell and almost ramming her body onto the bench that's to the teen's right.

As a result, Asuka desperately tries not to lose her grip on the metal pole she's been holding onto, since if she does, Asuka will fall on the passengers that are sitting there. Afterwards, the German girl regains her balance, composes herself with her left hand over her chest as she's trying to catch her breath while watching the floor. "Damn it..." She hastily pulls her head up and shouts out in irritation, "What the hell?! A little bit of a warning, Arschloch! (Asshole)"

Having expressed her complaint, Asuka quickly realizes that she's reached her stopped, forcing the red-head's eyes to widen, and attempts to leave the train as fast as possible after lowering her left hand. Unfortunately, a flood of people rushed into the train while not giving Asuka any opportunity to exit due to the pressing themselves onto the former 2nd Child and is profoundly annoyed by all of this as she blurts out with her right arm outstretched forward, "H-Hey! I'm trying to get out! Move!"

Then, out of nowhere, someone swiftly grabs onto the back of Asuka's right hand since it was sticking out through the large sums of people who are still entering with their bare left hand, and without much effort, pulls the red-haired beauty pass the mob as she's swung around onto the train station's platform. The German girl's quite out of it due to not expecting such an action from anyone and then checks her surroundings to be sure she actually made it out of that mess while exclaiming with faint annoyance showing, "Geez...! Those idiots! Hey, thanks a lot. I swear I would've died if you..." She trails off after realizing the person continues to hold her hand and stares at it with curiosity arising.

Soon after that, Asuka's saviour says out of amusement while scratching his right cheek with his other hand and standing in front of the train's doorway, "You don't change, do you, Asuka? Always saying what's on your mind when you're pissed." He nonchalantly sighs before letting out a soft chuckle. "Oh, well..."

Asuka's eyes immediately widen as her right hand trembles a little and thinks, "That voice... Nero...?" She hesitantly brings her vision up while seeing that the person in front of her is a boy wearing black pants and a fairly big, navy blue coat that's completely covering the white-collared shirt he's wearing underneath with a hoodie over his head. After that, Asuka's eyes meet the dull blue eyes of who's in front of her and seems a bit disappointed once she realizes that it's Shinji who's before her. "Oh, it's you, Shinji."

Shinji gives Asuka a sad smile while removing his hoodie with his right hand as he also takes off the SDAT's right earphone without taking it out of his right pocket and cocks his head to the left. "Yeah... You thought I was him, didn't you?"

Asuka slowly deviates her eyes down and slowly pulls her hand away from Shinji's grip while lowering it to her side. "What are you doing here?"

Shinji replies while peering up with one final person entering the train behind him and promptly closes. "You were taking too long, so I volunteered to go get you and make sure you registered." He resets his attention on Asuka. "Everybody's waiting. Misato and Kaji already got out of work."

Asuka makes eye contact with Shinji while giving him a mildly apologetic expression. "My bad." She then lets out a depressed sigh while turning her gaze away from Shinji again to look towards her right. "You know, for a moment, you sounded like Nero and even said something I would've expected him to say."

Shinji's face is overtaken by sorrow as he drops his head a little. "Sorry."

Asuka glares at Shinji with a disgruntled demeanor due to the former 3rd Child's simple response, however, recalls her promise to him and quickly gets over it while shutting her eyes. "Don't worry about it."

The red-haired beauty begins to turn away from Shinji with her left foot pulled back while saying in a bland tone, "Let's just get me registered and join the others." Then, in the middle of turning, Asuka opens her eyes an unexpectedly sees at a short distance in front of her a black cat with brilliant blue eyes sitting on the floor, which causes the German girl to get into a bit of a trance-like state while staring at it.

Taking notice of this after pulling his head up, Shinji leans towards Asuka a bit with confusion brimming. "Is there something wrong, Asuka?"

Asuka continues to stare at the cat for several seconds until regaining her senses and finishes turning around while shaking her head. "No, there's nothing wrong. I just felt like I was forgetting something, but I guess it's nothing." She starts walking away from Shinji. "Come on."

Shinji watches Asuka walk ahead for a moment and then turns his head to the right to see what the red-head was staring at earlier. After doing that, the brown-haired boy sees the same cat as it stood up and slowly veers away from Shinji. While witnessing the cat's actions, Shinji notices that the feline has a red stain on its body and feels that he's seen that cat somewhere before, but can't place the location without removing his gaze on it.

Not even ten seconds later, Asuka's voice echoes out from a distance while sounding a bit annoyed. "Hey, Stupid Shinji! Hurry it up!"

Shinji hurriedly looks towards Asuka's direction while seeing her impatiently tapping her right foot with both arms crossed and rebuttals in a fearful tone, "U-Uh, I'm coming!" He then rushes towards the German girl, who had resumed walking, and head into a huge crowd of people with the exit of the train station in their sights.

Meanwhile, an old man in a black-tethered suit appears in front of the black cat as it was turning around and says with a content tone, "There you are, Lucas!"

Lucas immediately meows in a delighted manner at the man while its revealed that the man is the 1st Branch's Chief as he bends down to pick up the black cat and cradles it in both arms. "You know we've been looking all over for you." He starts walking towards where Shinji and Asuka once stood while seeing both children going towards the exit and thinks with a cheerful smile, "You sure have grown, Shinji. I do hope the three of us can be together someday... Or I should say four, including Rei."

Having said that, the Chief looks back at Lucas while realizing something. "Oops... Can't forget about you. That will be five then, but unfortunately now is not the time." Lucas closes his eyes while pleasantly purring within the Chief's grasp as the man continues to speak with his smile returning. "Come on. Let's get back to your owner. He's been waiting for us to head back to the United States. He's going to be really happy to see you're okay." The blue-eyed cat contentedly meows as the Japanese man turns back to the direction he came from and walks out of sight in a carefree manner.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

The End.