A/N: Part 3 of Evangelion 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo
Reborn:
On the damaged AAA Wunder, time has been brought back to where it has only been 20 minutes after Shinji and Eva01 have been taken by the two hostile Evangelion units and left behind a dangerous threat that began to grow and hack it's way into it's wired network. Misato was trying to have the three main technicians get a lead on the Angel's status into the network's hard drives as one of the newer technicians chewed on his nails in a bit of anxiety, with Makoto wiping some sweat off his face from how hot the room seems to getting. "Any progress?" Misato asked with a serious expression on her face as she sounded slightly concerned, standing on the tall platform while placing a hand on the rail. "No ma'am. The Angel seems to be locking us out. It's keeping us from gaining access into the system's mainframes." Shigeru with slightly longer hair and appearing in his early 30's, responded.
"And it's behavior is acting like a computer virus. It's disabling most of our activity and surveillance on the ship. We can't be able to do anything, aside from making contact with the other ships in our fleet." A slightly older Makoto adds as he types up several key commands to reveal screenshots of the system he sees, which showed every section he tried to get into, turn red and unable to click on. With all of them slowly being taken over in each new screenshot. Misato frowned at this. This definitely wasn't looking good.
And what's worse, they still couldn't receive any communications or notifications from their satellite feed, other parts of the fleet in several parts of the world, they couldn't even tell if Shinji was currently in an Eva and his collar wirelessly sending a transmission signal to reveal his current location. But it's not like that didn't matter anymore anyway.... She already knew where he might've been taken if Eva01 would be captured as well. All she could hope was that they hurry this up and get him back before it's too late.
She asks for Maya to call Ritsuko immediately, to which she does and asks the Scientist how she's doing, using the speaker intercom.
"No good. I'm only able to identify what kind of Angel we're looking at. I'll need a lot of time in order to calculate for any possible weaknesses. It's a nano-scale entity and it indeed, mimics the behavior of a computer virus. I don't know how NERV was able to contain an Angel like this in order to use it as an intentional weapon, but as of this moment...." Ritsuko answered while chilling within the insides of one of the three Magi systems as the giant Entry Plug was still pierced into the reactor room and attached to the large platform, the red ooze having long dried and spread everywhere with the Angel having long abandoned the reactor in order to adapt to the outside of the reactor's surroundings. She puts in a quick combo of commands to hack into the system and see tons of surveillance footage revealing millions of colonies of red glowing dots spreading in the ship's interiors and infrastructure.
"It's spreading. And at an extremely rapid rate in cellular level." Ritsuko said. "What would you have us do right now?" Misato asked for directions, wanting to retaliate as soon as possible. Ritsuko makes several inferences that since the Angel can be seen spreading and not completely invisible to only being seen with microscopic devices, it can probably be contained and isolated while having some systems shut off as soon as possible, wherever the Angel spreads in a direction closest to nearby electronics and stations.
"Understood." Misato glanced down at the technicians. "Shut down all inner doors, vents and electric currents! Deactivate the network branch in the Central Complex except the ship's Magi System and have everyone in that area evacuate to that area! We're closing everything off down there to quarantine the Angel."
"Understood ma'am." Shigeru and Makoto proceeded to type in the commands while some other personnel member turned in the speakers across the ship and warned all refugee citizens, they rescued from Europe several weeks ago, to evacuate to their assigned rooms and move hastily in an orderly fashion. With another member warning only the personnel and guards in the Central Area of the Wunder to evacuate to the center of the ship, that being the Magi System below the N2 reactor.
As citizens rushed to their apartments with soldiers guiding the way and workers in the central area, calmly making their way to the Heart of the Ship, which was a giant ball-like room with only a few platforms that led to the center. A giant liquid-bubbly like core with the N2 reactor inside shedding bright pink light in the room, with the Magi System placed right beneath it on another floor.
That was when the Angel, seen spreading in some halls where the personnel are running, suddenly shut the doors between both halls for a small group of soldiers and engineers. Before the air shafts opened wide, releasing a green gas into the room and forcing them to inhale it. They violently coughed while some did their best to hold their breath, but eventually were forced to breathe it in and died instantly from the mustard gas.
"We lost 6 people in Hall 66A, 1B!"
"They were murdered from our bioweapon defenses hacked from the Angel within the ventilations!"
"Dammit!" Misato slammed her fist on a metal board. "People are already dying because of this thing! Ritsuko! Have you figured out how to beat this thing or what!?"
"I don't have an answer yet! It's only spreading and taking over everything it touches as fast as it can. Whatever happens next, just send in a reaction and close down whatever it tries to control next. I'll get back to you with an answer as soon as I can." Ritsuko cuts off her call short with Misato, leaving her slightly furious.
"Damn her, we don't have time for her shenanigans right now!" Misato expressed her frustrations towards Ritsuko, trying to contain her anger and take the loss of lives calmly while they're in a dangerous battle with an Angel stowed away on board. She decided to call out the next order and had the ventilations in that area shut down immediately as well, anything that connects the Central Complex to the entire ship to be shut down and locked tight as soon as possible.
"But Commander! They would only have 7 minutes left before they run out of air! They'll suffocate if we don't stop it in time!" Maya warned the commander.
"Do we have access to the ventilation system?" Misato asked.
"Yes ma'am. But only for 2 minutes and 20 seconds before it reaches the primary vent tunnels."
"Then get more air in there. We're closing all of the air shafts to prevent it from spreading in 20 seconds."
Inside several halls, door after door slid shut together and were tightly sealed. Air shafts slammed downward to close up any air, fans being shut down as they began to slow their spins in some areas outside of the N2 Reactor room. But the Angel continued to spread, moving to other areas after failing to penetrate into the closed air shafts and doors.
When some soldiers successfully led the personnel into the reactor room, they spotted the Angel's nano armies swarming after them as red or purple lights lit up into hundreds as every second passes. Their noises emitting a strange buzzing sound repeatedly by many of them like a swarm of flying insects. They tried to fire at some of it on the floor, only for them to activate a small rectangular shields that deflected their bullets and lasers. The bullets only bouncing off and ricocheting into the halls beyond.
"What the hell!?" A guard asked as another one quickly slammed a hand on the manual override button on the side, the large hatch closing in front of them before the Angel nano-cells could get in. He then puts a finger to his ear and reported, "Security to bridge! The Angel swarms have miniature AT Fields! They can't be affected by our firearms!"
"Well there goes our idea of taking them down physically." Shigeru says in a stressed manner, still rapidly typing up to search up all of the systems connected to the Central area. "All air shafts connected to the central core are sealed! The Angel is now completely isolated in the quarantine zone!" Maya reported.
"Let's hope nothing happens next. What's the status on the Eva pilots?" Misato asked, Makoto quickly turning to say. "I last checked on them 10 seconds ago. They're both currently residing in their Evangelion Units' chambers, still waiting for orders."
"Get them the go to activate their Evas. We're having them move out of the Wunder, including their Units. The priority is every citizen's safety! We need to get everyone off this ship, including our main line of defense away from making contact with the Angel as soon as-"
"Commander! The Central exterior has been breached! The Angel is escaping!" Shigeru exclaimed, leaving her to quickly glance down at him. "Show me!" She was shown screenshots of the surveillance cameras catching pictures of the walls opposite of the central section, having large gaping holes with melted edges as the Angel was seen spreading out into the now infected halls before the cameras malfunctioned after getting infected. "Damn..... They're turning into literal acid now. This thing couldn't be any more desperate, could it?" She asked herself, discovering it's new ability to turn some of its own into corrosive material to eat their way out of their prison and penetrate into outer parts of the Wunder.
She quickly ordered a full evacuation to be carried out immediately, including the evacuation of Unit 04 and her pilot. While Unit 02 is to be sent out to a docking bay nearest to the Angel's breakout. In which a short scene reveals everyone being taken to advanced helicopters and hover ships in every docking bay by the guards. Including every pilot for the Trident mechs, since there wasn't much they could do on their part against an Angel that can spread to anywhere and everywhere while still retaining some abilities of an average Angel that seems too powerful for conventional weaponry to defeat.
That was when the Angel quickly infiltrated the docking bay in the back parts of the Wunder, the red particles spreading across the walls and surfaces, including vehicles such as tower cranes and machine arms with hydraulic grab claws. While the doors automatically locked a worker inside an infected tower crane and the worker was brutally melted to death as his bones and flesh underneath the clothes and skin were revealed when the Angel's nano particles had the roof melt on top of the unfortunate soul, the tower crane moved on it's own and dropped a heavy metal crate on top of several personnel and civilians, crushing them alive.
While a hydraulic claw, belonging to a machine arm that is now colored in red buzzing lights, grabs an unsuspecting guard by the wait and lifts her up in the air, crushing her spine with full strength and brutally murdering her as she cried out for help until she went limp the moment her back broke.
Meanwhile, both Mari and Asuka are quickly informed of the situation via intercom and enter their Evas. While Asuka succeeds in her synchronizing with the Eva, Mari somehow fails in her own chamber containing Unit 04.
(Imagine this to be Unit 04, but white)
"Come on, damn you. I don't have all fucking day with this Barmy crap." The Brit mutters to herself as she tries to focus, but even that didn't work. Her Eva just wouldn't work and here she thought she would finally get along with it after activating it for the first time, hours ago. She calls in the Bridge and reports that her synchronization with her Eva is a failure again, just like dozens of times when her tests always failed with piloting the Unit for some reason.
She is then ordered to get out and join the rest of the evacuation parties, while Asuka's Unit is submerged into LCL and transported through a large vent to be taken out into the Main East Harbor, just one mile away from the smaller, assaulted docking bay. The Red Eva, attached with an umbilical cable from the open container full of LCL, walks on the uninhabited floors across the harbor full of escapees and makes haste in saving the crowds of people from the Angel. Asuka was much more serious this time, knowing she shouldn't get cocky when there's innocent lives around and exposing potential risks of causing casualties.
Ritsuko would soon report via text message to Bridge, that the Angel is vulnerable to ozone and so Misato had large amounts of it pumped into the major areas of infection, mostly at Central in order to reduce the source of it's contagion. The tactic temporarily stopped the Angel's spread, but after only a few seconds, it adapted to the ozone, and even absorbed it to increase its strength before suddenly mutating into a form resembling electronic circuitry.
The Angel has already escaped out of the Central area and moved into another direction from another part, making it's way towards the Evangelion chamber for Unit 04. Mari would be about to run out the chamber, but quickly stopped to see the red glowing lights spreading in each hall that involved the one exit she chose. Leaving her to quickly close the hatch with a manual override button and bolt to the other exit, only for personnel to run out and close the hatch. "There's too many of them!" A pregnant woman would yell out in fear as they could hear buzzing noises at the other side of the door.
"What happened?! Why aren't you at your ships!?" Mari ran to the group of refugees, demanding to know why they came here. A Fighter jet repairman would respond that when they tried to make their way to their nearest harbor, the creatures were already there and blocked their only entrance to the harbor. So they had to come here, as it was their only place left to hide from them. That was when the buzzing noises began to grow louder, the group backing away unlike Mari, who watched in shock as the Angel slowly melted it's way through the door. Devouring the steel like it was nothing. "Everyone get into the Eva! It's the safest place in here!" Mari pointed at her White Unit, which was still half submerged in the LCL by it's upper half hanging in the air due to not being moved back into it's LCL pool yet. It's entry plug was still open, so the group wasted no time in hopping in after Mari assured them that there's oxygen in it and they can trust her to hide inside.
The Angel would be seen spreading on the ceiling, in the LCL pools, all over the walls and soon surrounding Unit 04. While one of the citizens get pushed off the platform by accident and fell into the LCL pool before instantly melting to death, Mari quickly had to help an old man hasten towards the Entry Plug after she had to get everyone else despite the pregnant woman being horrified and at fault for the victim's death. But the ceiling began to melt as well, the Angel melting large ceiling lights and causing it to fall off. Just as they both were about to be crushed alive, Unit 04 sprung out one of it's arms from it's shackles hanging in the air and raised it's hand over them, shielding them from the debris in the process.
Both Mari and the old man were surprised by this, leaving the British girl to glance at the still dormant Eva, wondering if it was only trying to save her or anyone but it just couldn't synchronize yet. She had to put it aside and would help the old man enter the Entry Plug, get in herself and close the hatch before it drilled back into Unit 04's back to hide away into it's body. And while they were safe and Mari couldn't pilot it, she still felt the pain when the Angel tried melting into the Eva's armor using the infected LCL, ceiling debris and shackles.
Back at the Central Core, the Angel has already infiltrated the core and we're currently spreading only on the massive wires below the floor housing the Magi System and the wires linked above the N2 Reactor Core.
Linked into the Pribnow Box computer systems, the Angel electronically hacked into the MAGI computer systems, protecting the hard connections with an AT field on the cables to prevent it from being cut off (as proven when one of the guards tried cutting off the cables and ended up getting his blade snapped right off the moment it clashed against the small AT Fields. While inside, it read many critical files as explained by Ritsuko, after she called Misato again and believed it either attempted to initiate a self-destruct sequence or take over the Wunder.
She managed to spend enough time in one of the Magi mainframes to program the Angel's infected sources and slow it down long enough for her to focus into striking at the heart of it's lack of focus in it's biological inner self defense. (In other words, she's hacking into it).
Misato and the bridge watched on the screen as the Angel has already taken over one of the Magi boxes next to the other two, and then slowly assimilating a second Magi into it's control. They could only stand there and watch, each of them mentally praying that Ritsuko puts an end to this before it's too late.
Meanwhile, in the docking bay, Unit 02 has already cut off a Trident's head the moment it went berserk after being activated by the Angel and tried to attack her. Since everyone has already evacuated, she was given the opportunity to fight without any issues to hinder her full focus in battle. She proceeded to endure the barrages of missiles and gunfire, which only aggravated Asuka and caused her to bash her fists against the Mech and tear it apart before kicking it down and piercing through it's fuel tanks, blowing it up before the Angel's cells could make contact with Unit 02 and infect her. Then she proceeded to knock away a Third Trident Mech before it could tackle onto her, using her AT Field to constrain the Mech, crush it within the AT Field while shrinking, and cause it to blow it up.
This short advantage of an Eva's power wouldn't last long, as the Angel reached Unit 02 by finding her chamber and infecting her umbilical cable to reach all the way to her Unit uninterrupted. After entering her Eva, Asuka could feel stabbing into her back and lost control as the Eva was slowly losing control. It clutches it's head as it growled, before slamming one of her fists into a metal wall and angrily roared. Unleashed into it's forced Berserk State. As it's eyes turned red with red dots glowing all over the Unit, it proceeded to smash everything on sight and try to tear through the walls. Just for the sake of tearing random interiors and ripping structures into pieces.
Before the Angel could spread into her Entry Plug, she quickly ejects herself out of the Eva and her Entry Plug flying right out of the ship via blown up hole from one of the Trident's missiles.
Back at the bridge, the Angel was getting closer to infecting the entire Magi System after stealing the second one into it's control.
The last Magi was near a half away from being completely assimilated as well, Ritsuko typing and placing in the commands for her final program as fast as she could. A minute has passed and the every blue pixel was instantly turned red on contact in a faster pace.
Three pixels left.
Misato sweated at the sight of this, including Maya and Makoto while Shigeru was only paused at the sight of this.
Two pixels left.
"Come on, Ritsuko. Hurry!" Misato mumbled.
One pixel left.
They closed their eyes at this, not wanting to see this and then.....
BEEP!
Everyone opened their eyes and looked up, seeing only one blue pixel left in the last Magi. They stared for a moment, wondering if it was really over or the computer had just glitched out at the last image before the Angel won. Suddenly, all red pixels were blown away in the screen and the Magi were restored to blue, all three shifting to green.
Throughout the ship, the red particles vanished from left to right, disappeared in Unit 04's chamber and no longer could Mari feel anything harm her Unit. Making her come to a relief, as she knew they won or else they would be dead. In the Docking Bay, all of the Angel's swarms disappear as well as in Unit 02 and the Umbilical Cable. Without anything or anyone else to control it, it shuts down abruptly and slouches before it could smash it's fist through a wall.
The staff sighs in extreme relief on the bridge, with some people clapping in celebration while Misato looks down and wiped some sweat off her forehead. "That was close....... Too close..."
At the Central Core, Ritsuko would come out, looking slightly sweaty herself and congratulate herself from her achievement. By stalling the Angel's progress, the results allowed her in turn to initiate the Angel's destruction by using the last uninfected MAGI to set the Angel on a path to its own annihilation. Since she discovered it's one ability was to continuously evolve, absorb and adapt to it's obstacles, she decided to submit a program into the Angel and trick it into absorbing it as if it was another obstacle sent as a weapon against it. But when it absorbed it, it would only adapt to some fake programmings and end up adapting and absorbing each other. Practically evolving into it's own extinction.
Back to the present, it has been hours in WILLE' perspective since they were able to at least repair all of the major damages that needed to be repaired immediately before things could go worse, as well as removing the entry plug weapon from the reactor room and cleaning up the dry liquids that came from the Angel's originating chambers within. Although they were lucky to survive the onslaught, they still lost many casualties. Meaning even more discouragement for the fleet to carry on with their mission to retrieve Unit 01, their only last hope of defense besides the other two pilots in defeating NERV for the world's sake. And even more time required to repair all of the other damages they suffered.
As Misato and Ritsuko stood alone in a slightly damaged hall with a large window showing some parts being taken from cruiser support ships to repair the outer hull of the Wunder, Misato would be asking Ritsuko about how many hours it would take to repair all of the damages, just so they could continue their wild goose chase on Shinji. "I'd say about..... 32 hours, at best. Maybe 22 if we encourage everyone to work harder. But then again, after what everyone has went through... I'm not so sure if we'll still have support from our own staff as much as we used to, this morning." Ritsuko responded, tapping her cigarette over the edge and putting the opposite tip back between her lips.
Misato would sigh at this, rubbing her temples from all the stress built up within. "It's all the same like every other year, isn't it? People die, we lose more resources, we get more complaints from the people we're sheltering, and we get more anxious in whether we're finally getting close to ending this war for good or we're just digging our own craves."
"It all sounds like it's just politics for you, but I hope you realize there's so many times we can still do this before we run out of people to complain to us or take shelter with us. Before we're all that's left of h-"
"I know, Ritsuko! No need to remind me!" Misato jerked her head to her, Ritsuko blowing smoke out to the side and held the cigarette in the air as she crossed her arms. "I'm just saying. We can't keep doing the same thing forever. People still need to rebuild their lives. We still need somewhere we can hide, somewhere to live, somewhere to grow our own food and construct machines that can help us harvest water out of the LCL oceans so we can have something to drink. And not only that, most of the refugees we have camped up at some shelters up in the Northern Hemisphere have only repopulated to a small amount, most of them just being fourteen year old kids or younger. We need to head back and recover together as a whole, or else we screw up again and the people we left behind? They won't have any more defenses and humanity is done for."
Misato raises an eyebrow. "Are you saying we should just give up Shinji and everything we fought for?" She asked, leaving Ritsuko to finally glance back at her. "No. I'm saying you should quit this nonsensical madness you're causing over one child's safety and put aside this personal crusade of yours before you get everyone else who's still on your side, killed."
"That "one child's" safety is not just about his safety. It's about everyone's and if we give up now, we lose everything. We'll love all of our chances in surviving on this planet and by the time that happens, NERV has already won!"
"I doubt that will ever happen now. Otherwise, it would've happened fourteen years ago when Eva01 was in their hands. But instead, they left it drifting off into space. Haven't you ever considered that the organization, hell, Gendo, might've just needed something with the Eva and not his own son?" Ritsuko replied to her, but Misato asks in return, "I don't quite know, Ritsuko. But shouldn't you be asking yourself that question? You're the one who knew more about him than I did."
Ritsuko hesitated to answer, taking a moment to think about this and would glance back at the red crosses in the sky above the blood oceans. She was actually wondering that herself. What exactly would Gendo be planning this time?
She explains to Misato that she did know more about him than anyone else at the time, but it was hard to say if she would be relied on for how Gendo works anymore. He's been ambitious and stubborn to where he would do anything he could to achieve his own goals. But at times, his behavior would be..... Arbitrary, especially when she found it hard to read his mind ever since the Third Angel assaulted Tokyo-3.
Maybe something might've gone wrong ounce at Tokyo-3 during these last fourteen years and now Gendo wants Eva01 to replace whatever experiment has failed him in his quest for Instrumentality. Something might've been destroyed when his base was attacked by an Angel, perhaps the one that was injected into their ship that halted his progress. There's a hundred possibilities to why Gendo might've taken Eva01, as well as Shinji. Either way, Misato proves a point in only one thing in their conversation: They need to retrieve both Unit 01 and the Third Child. And they need to do it quickly if they are to prevent even a possible Fourth Impact.
Misato would get a ring in her pocket and takes her phone out to see Makoto's contact. "Looks like we finished repairing the corroded halls in our ship. Thankfully, it didn't do too much damage to our ship." She deadpanned, sighing at the harder challenge for repairs. "Besides Unit 02 losing control and Unit 04's chamber getting contaminated from the Angel's acidic properties, that is."
"Speaking of which, if we decide to send Unit 02 alone to infiltrate Tokyo-3, assuming that place truly is still being held as NERV's headquarters, do you think we'll ever be able to help Mari synchronize with her Unit again?" Ritsuko asked, wanting to hear her opinion about their issue with Unit 04 refusing to accept Mari again.
Misato turns around while saying, "As long as Mari is still struggling to find whatever makes Unit 04 activate willingly like Unit 01, no. We spent fourteen years trying to successfully complete Unit 04's synchronization. It wouldn't accept Asuka, it wouldn't accept any of our volunteers. Just Mari. Even if it only happened a few times, we're making progress."
"Makes sense." The blonde scientist would go back to smoking her cigarette, deciding to spend her time to herself since Misato had other things to do. The leader of WILLE was about to do just that, but she stopped for a moment. A thought appeared in the back of her mind. She really was at fault in some situations that they got themselves into and she would admit them but..... Was it really a bad decision to focus on bringing back Shinji? Would choosing his safety over their goal, really create consequences for everyone she is trying to lead?...
"Ritsuko, do you..... Think Kaji would've wanted this?... Do you think he would've wanted me to search for Shinji?...." She asked, slowly glancing over her shoulder with an skeptical look on her face. Her expression alone showed obvious doubt in the decisions she made over the years for their second most important goal. Ritsuko would glance at her, staring at her with a slightly compassionate but serious look in return.
"He would've only wanted one thing." She responded. Misato would be silent, slowly glancing back to her front and soon walked away. Ritsuko would look back at the horizon, before leaning her arms on the rail with a silent sigh.
Somewhere in the damaged pyramid of Tokyo-3, Shinji and Kaworu were currently training. But in an unorthodox form in Shinji's eyes.
Shinji asks why they needed to do this, as wearing some clothes that used to belong to Mari's, just girl clothes in general. Kaworu apologized if he felt embarrassed wearing them and explained he couldn't find anything else that matched both of their uniforms, as they needed to do almost everything in sync. He explained that since they both need to prove Gendo wrong and defeat the Fifteenth Angel, they had to fight fire with fire.
They needed to eat the same food, dance together to memorize and perform tactics together before they tried it out in their Units, wear the same clothes, and even sleep in the same room and bed if they are to master synchronization as a whole. And defeat the Angels by beating the Angel twins together as their own Army of Two.
Unfortunately, Shinji saw this as an even harder challenge as his race blushed red as a tomato. Sleep together in the same bed? Eat the same food? Dance together? Just to be in sync with one another to defeat the Angels with their own strategy? It felt ridiculous.... At least it feels ridiculous like what Asuka or Misato would say.
Kaworu promised him that this would be worth the hard work, especially if they only had one day to prepare before the Angels recover. Leaving Shinji to think about it. If Kaworu was ok with it... Then he'll be ok with it too. They both placed their headphones on and Kaworu started the music, then they proceeded to dance with the grey haired teenager helping Shinji by having him follow his every move.
Gendo and Fuyutsuki observed Kaworu and Shinji attently using the surveillance systems, calling the former "SEELE's Boy."
A montage would be spent in their training, where they hung out at a slightly rusty cafeteria while eating the same food from their trays on a clean but dusty table. They would jog around the halls together while maintaining the same space, practiced their dancing without the music to memorize their movements, beat up their own dummies to practice their karate at the same time, played the piano while playing their own keys to perfectly play only one song together, spent an entire hour dancing and feeling the rhythm of the music they're playing as they performed their slightly different moves at the same time, practiced cartwheels, lifted dumbbells of the same weight together.
In the beginning of the montage, Shinji was struggling most of the time. But as the montage went on, he learned quicker than before with Kaworu's encouragement and would gradually get better to eventually match Kaworu's own speed, agility and feel of the beat from their music and exercises. When Shinji was so focused with the music when they danced again on the twister plastic floors, Kaworu noticed this while easily dancing in sync without paying attention. He would smile at this and shift his focus back in the game.
By the time their training has finally ended, Shinji was laying back against the tree in sweat and heavy breathing. He tried to pull his shirt collar out a bit and wave it back and forth to fan some air on himself for cooldown. Kaworu would be turning off the music players and walks over to say, "I'm impressed, Shinji. You have done quite the workout all day."
Shinji would blush at this, stuttering for a second while saying, "Y-Yeah, I guess I was.... Wasn't I?"
Kaworu only smiled at him, causing Shinji to give up with his red face while glancing down for a moment. "You got me..... I did a great job." He spoke in a humiliated tone.
"No need to feel embarrassed for your accomplishments. You have pride, or a reason to drive so far in your labors. That fact, alone is what makes you happy. I'm envious of this gift you hold."
"You really mean it?" Shinj asked as Kaworu stuffs his hands in his pockets. "I wish to talk to you for a little longer. Do you mind if I spend time with you alone tonight?"
Shinji widened his eyes a bit. "I mean the shower. That is where you're going, right?" Kaworu asked, pointing at the fresh sweat on Shinji's body. So much so, that his own choker looked like it was drenched in it. "Y-Yeah...."
"You mean 'no?'"
"No! That's not what I meant! Sorry, I meant yes...."
Later, they're both sitting in relaxation in a hot tub after washing themselves in the shower room. They needed something to relax their bodies for the day, no need to worry about what they have at stake tomorrow, no need to worry about the Angels, anything. Kaworu only sat, enjoying the relaxing, soothing water as the hot vapor spreads in the air. As Shinji awkwardly glances at his friend.
"I read your files a while back, Shinji. I found nothing wrong with your history and your relationship with this place, nor the Lilin you worked alongside with. What I noticed was your tendency when you socialize with others." Kaworu says, "You avoid contact of the first kind at all costs. Do you fear to feel about people? If you don't get close to others, you won't be betrayed or hurt.
However, neither of you will forget what loneliness is. A person can't erase sadness forever. Everyone is alone. However, people can forget, and so they are able to live." Kaworu puts his hand over Shinji's, making the shy boy widen his eyes at this with a silent gasp and look at his friend with his surprised glance.
Both would be silent for a while, until the lights in the shower turn off and it has only turned slightly dark in the shower room. "Time's up." Shinji spoke.
"You mean our time is now over?"
"Yeah, we need to get some sleep. There's no telling when the Angel might wake up tomorrow...."
"With me?"
Shinji nearly choked on air, blushing hard as he struggled to answer. He remembered Kaworu's encouragements from earlier and sighed, taking a deep breath to muster up the courage to speak. "I would say no but.... You told me we have to do everything together for now on if we are to be one against that Angel. Fight fire with fire, just like you said..."
"Well...." Kaworu rises from the tub and stood as he glanced at the screen in front of them with a serious expression on his face. "Man always feel pain in his heart." He spoke, leaving Shinji to widen his eyes with his fresh blush before the grey haired teenager looks down at him with a generous smile. "The heart is so easy to wound, it's the only reason why he experiences life as pain. In particular, your heart is fragile like glass."
"Me?" Shinji asked.
"Yes, worthy of love."
"Love?...."
"It means, I love you."
Later, the two of them would be laying on their own beds in Kaworu's room. As Shinji's room was a bit musky to sleep in, and Kaworu's was much cleaner and taken care of over the years.
They both lied on their beds in darkness, having accumulated to the room's level of shade. "Really, I should be on the floor." Kaworu advised, wanting Shinji to sleep comfortably and have this part be an exception to their duty in doing everything in sync. "No, I'm the one who asked you to let me stay here. It's ok if I just sleep on just this mattress." Shinji told him. He doesn't answer after that, leaving Shinji to figure if that meant he was ok with his decision then.
"What do you want to talk about?" He asked, leaving Shinji surprised for a moment with a confused sound, "Hm?"
"You have something that you want me to hear."
Shinji would look up at the ceiling, taking a moment to process this and proceeded to explain that he experienced a lot of things since he first came to NERV. Back then, he just used to live with his uncle. Who his father left him with to live in the basement for more than 5 years until he was needed to fight Angels. He expressed his past life was only silent and calm, which seemed peaceful to him because no one was around to bother him.
"Do you ever dislike people, Shinji?" Kaworu asked out of curiosity. "Not really, I don't care much about people... If I had to be honest." He responded, "Except my father. I hate him.... He's the only one I hate with a burning passion."
As flashbacks appeared in his mind, revealing the events where Gendo attempted to have an injured Rei climb out of the bed to enter Unit 01 again, another showing how he had his own Unit go berserk and brutally destroy Unit 03, as well as nearly Asuka in her cockpit.
He would wonder why he's being so honest with Kaworu, before he glances to him and noticed him smiling at him the whole time. He was surprised oh me again and Kaworu said nothing but, "I might have been born to meet you. Just for your happiness alone."
The next day at 7:00 AM, the Angels would finally complete the regenerations and be restored in their newly grown bodies again. Both would fuse together into the much larger Israfel, which then floated towards the crater to assault the base of NERV. Inside Central Dogma, the alarms would go off and Fuyutsuki would be in a second command center to comment how the Angels recovered, with Gendo ordering him to proceed in sending out Mark 06 and 09.
"That is not possible." They both turned around to see Rei, who stared at them with an emotionless look on her face while wearing her black plug suit. "Commander Ikari, I came to tell you that I was replaced from my mission to defeat the Fifteenth Angel with the pilot of Unit 06."
"What? That's impossible." Fuyutsuki responded.
"I didn't get Shinji Ikari any orders to pilot Unit 01. He should be resigned from-" Gendo was interrupted when they hear a beeping noise from their second, massive computer screen.
They both turned around to see as Rei looked up to spot the computer screen revealing footage of two Units being launched up from underground, shooting up towards the surface. "Good morning, Commander Ikari. Beautiful day, isn't it?" Kaworu asked.
"I'm aware of the orders specifically assigned to me yesterday, but I believed the Third Child should have another chance at-"
"If I give out orders, you follow them. No questions or refusals returned. You either follow these orders or you'll face the consequences. I made it clear to have Shinji forbidden from piloting Unit 01."
"NO! I'm not following orders just so you can have me feel small and weak again! And I'm not running away either! If I can't even pilot my own Eva, what good am I to just pilot an Eva you think is so important!?" Shinji exclaimed, before he looks down in his cockpit. Finding it completely unbelievable from what he's saying. "It's like I said before.... All those years ago that day the last Angel came here. I'm the pilot of Unit 01, and it's my duty to pilot this Eva and only this Eva!"
Gendo stayed silent, with no emotion on his face while staring up at the screen as did Rei. Fuyutsuki was a bit surprised at this, as he never expected Shinji to ever talk back before. "The least you can do is just let me have another go at fighting this thing. If I can't win against it, then do what you want. Jail me, kick me out, whatever. It wouldn't matter at that point to begin with." The last words he said before hanging up by pressing a button on his earplug. Shinji would sigh to himself in relief, feeling accomplished for finally saying something he wanted to do for a long time.
"Shinji, if you may." Kaworu reminds him on their private intercom, leaving Shinji to blush slightly. "O-Oh! Right, my bad." He presses another button on his control panel, starting the music they have trained with all day yesterday.
The blood floors opened in front of the Angel, shooting out metal railing spikes and the Evas launching into the air like jets.
Both Mark 06 and Unit 01 glanced down at the Angel, before throwing their staffs. The Angel dodged them, only to get sliced in half when the two staffs shot a laser wall to connect between the Angel. Forcing them to split into their twins.
The Evas would land at opposite sides of the Angel twins, taking Pallet rifles out of the ground and running to the sides while firing at their own chosen Angel. The two Angels' eyes flashed and fired lasers at them. Leaving the Evas to end up joining together side by and side and back flipped repeatedly, still following the song's rhythm and beat.
They both landed in their crouching positions, Mark 06 summoning it's At Field to shield themselves from the laser barrage. Then the Evas fired back in retaliation, forcing the Angels to jump over the bullet fire and float towards them. The Units dashed to their opposite horizontal sides, leaving the Angels miss and slash through the unfocused AT Field instead.
Mark 06 would stun them by summoning another AT Field, shifting it into a rainbow sphere in front of it's palm as it aimed at the Angel, firing a barrage of At bullets to create violent explosions while injuring the Angels. Then both Kaworu and Shinji posed at the same time, acting as one.
They dashed at the Angels together, punching them into the air and spun to kick them both far away. The Angels ended up fusing together again, trying to recover from it's sudden loss of tide in battle. Both pilots smiled and had their Units jump high into the air, then dash straight down together with their feet aimed as only Fuyutsuki would smile in awe at their teamwork.
They slammed their feet into the Angel's Two Red Cores, forcing it sliding back all the way into a gigantic pile full of red crystallized Eva figures and bloody building remains. Their cores cracked, shining in bright flashes before a violent explosion occurs. Destroying the entire hill, as well as themselves in the process.
At first, the Evas seemed to have suffered the fate as well. But ounce the fires began to die down, the two Evas were revealed standing together. Unscathed and standing tall like champions. Shinji couldn't help but feel glad and shout to Kaworu in excitement that they've done it. While Kaworu would congratulate him for this, saying he couldn't have done it without him.
Inside the pyramid of Central Dogma, Fuyutsuki would glance down at Gendo to ask, "Not bad for a little runt, huh?"
Gendo wouldn't answer yet. He would stare pensively at the screen, before slowly looking down at his right gloved hand. "Everything is according to plan. The Third Child has successfully completed his training for Unit 13. Proceed to prep the Evangelion."
"We begin the Final phase of our Human Instrumentality Project in 29 hours."