Broken Wings [NGE]

[Teen Spirit]

Commander Gendo Ikari.

The onetime leader of NERV. The man who Ritsuko had foolishly believed loved her. The man who had used her and lied to her, who had sold her to SEELE allowing them to humiliate and degrade her. The man who had killed her. They had suspected he was alive but seeing him was something else entirely.

Mother's betrayal, he lies, a gun, a single shot, I'm flying backwards, a brief vision of... something. I'm dead before I hit the LCL...

For a moment Ritsuko wanted to scream. Every dark thought, every nightmare she'd had because of that man came rushing to the surface. But she paused, looking at the state he was in. He was imprisoned, utterly powerless, broken, a pathetic shell of what he once was. A bitter, broken laugh escaped from Ritsuko's lips, echoing throughout her cell.

Gendo stared at her impassively, his remaining hand covering his mouth.

"Oh, that's not concerning in the slightest," Dimitri snarked.

"You don't seem very surprised to see me," Ritsuko said as she glared at Ikari.

"Officer Langley kept me informed of WILLE was up to. I knew about your resurrection within weeks of my return," Gendo said evenly.

"So what is this?" Ritsuko questioned. "Ramiel found you after you emerged from instrumentality and you cooperated together on his mad project until he turned on you?"

"I have never cooperated with any of the Angels willingly." Gendo's voice gained an edge to it. "I have been Robert Langley's prisoner since almost the moment I reawakened."

"You expect me to believe that?" Akagi sneered.

"What would I have to gain by allying with the Angels?" Gendo countered "My plans no doubt all well known to WILLE by now. Do any of them fit the scenario the Angels are enacting?"

That... as much as Ritsuko didn't want to admit it, the Gendo Ikari she knew would want nothing to do with Ramiel's plans unless they somehow promised him his wife back. And that was impossible. Yui Ikari was near Jupiter by this point, outbound. Ritsuko didn't think her alternate counterpart would count to Gendo, and even if she did, the Angels didn't have the means to get her out of Unit-01.

"He's right, you know," the Angel spoke up. "From what he's told me they just tortured him until he gave them info on the Eigenart Initiative then locked him up in here."

Ritsuko stared at the boy-Angel.

"What? Not a lot to do here but talk," he said defensively.

That did sort of fit what they knew. Gendo knew more about SEELE than anyone outside it's leadership and probably his wife. A dead splinter group would probably be something he at least knew about to some degree.

"How long have you been... back?" Ritsuko asked, still angry but now more curious. They were captive, but if she could get out of here, somehow, someway. Knowing when Gendo had been taken would at least give them some picture of how long Ramiel and the others had more advanced knowledge of Eigenart.

"Four years by my estimation," Gendo said, a hint of weariness in his voice. "Ramiel was barely more than a child when they captured me."

Four years... Gendo looked like he had been here longer, but who knew what they had done to him in those years?

Four years... He had missed out on over a decade of life. To him, his son should still be little more than a boy instead of a grown man with a nearly grown daughter older than Shinji had been at Third Impact. NERV was dead, SEELE was dead, and the world had moved past him. He was a relic of something the world had rejected.

If he had appeared four months ago she would have been able to get some satisfaction out of all of this. Rubbing his face in how utterly he failed. Now, though... now, the best she had was that Misato, for all her faults, was better than him. That they hadn't lied to the Pilots as much as he had, that they'd treated the First Child far better than he ever had.

They were better than him, but Ritsuko couldn't help but feel like they could do much more.

The sound of a heavy metal door being opened filled the cells.

"Ahh, the warden's here," Matarael said bitterly.

Two armed and armored giants of men stepped in front of both Gendo's and Akagi's cells. She would have found them quite intimidating but the plague doctor masks they were wearing struck her as absolutely ridiculous.

Then Ramiel stepped forward. He was... short, and rather scrawny. Even for a teenage boy he was on the small side.

His face was hidden behind a featureless mask of glass as he turned towards her.

Dimitri, without saying another word, raised his two middle fingers into the air and retreated into a dark corner of his cell, glaring at Ramiel the whole time. Ramiel for his part ignored the other Angel entirely.

"Dr.Akagi, a pleasure," Ramiel said politely.

Ritsuko glared at him.

"What do you want with me?" Ritsuko said. "If you think I'll help you with your Autoevolution plan you are very mistaken."

"If I thought for a moment you would even consider joining me, my grandfather would have approached you years ago." Ramiel replied. "No, my need for you is sadly far more basic."

He opened the cell door.

"If you'll follow me?" he said with a bow. "My final prisoner has arrived and we have some negotiating to do."

/

Sub-Commander Soryu, Shinji, Ria, Maya, and Mana were gathered in WILLE's Command Center. Ramiel had been quite insistent that this needed to happen on some sort of video feed. He wanted this to be nearly face to face. He wanted a performance.

Misato had been kidnapped and Dr.Akagi was missing. This was beyond bad. Misato had been escorted by a security officer that had been born long before Third Impact. So either they were ambushed without anyone even noticing until hours after the fact, or the officer had been compromised in some manner.

Finally, after several tense minutes of waiting, they had a connection. They would be tracing it, but unless Ramiel was far stupider than even Okito he had no doubt prepared for that.

A masked figure appeared on Screen.

"Ramiel," Ria growled.

Everyone in the room glared at the Angel on screen. More than anyone save for perhaps Okito, this war was caused by him. Without him, without his plan, they would have probably lived their entire lives without knowing the Angels were even alive.

"Oh this is quite the historic occasion," Ramiel began, clearly reveling in the moment. "WILLE, NERV's successor, forced to come to the table with one of the Angels it once slayed. Oh how-"

"Cut the theatrics, Andrew," Asuka said, her voice hard as stone and just as cold. "And take off that stupid mask."

With a sigh, he removed his mask. Underneath, he was just a kid, a teenager younger than her daughter. His chin reminded him a bit of her father, beyond that he looked like a pretty average, if rather scrawny, American teenager.

"Hello Aunt Asuka, cousin," he said nodded to the two of them.

Yes, nothing like having the fact that it was for the most part either her family or at least people she had known that were the cause behind all of this shoved in her face.

"Show us they're alive first," Ria angrily demanded. "We're not playing this game of yours until you show us they're alive."

"Fair enough," Ramiel replied.

The camera panned back to reveal Misato and Ritsuko, tied to chairs, both bound and gagged. The looked distressed but otherwise unhurt. Curiously, next to them was a man in a wheelchair, a brown sack over his head.

"Sempai!" Maya called out in shock.

The rest of the room grimaced at the sight. Misato, for whatever her mistakes, she was still someone they all cared for. Now she was beaten, broken, held at the mercy of their worst enemy. Ramiel would pay for this, for hurting both of them like this.

Ria gripped the edge of a desk tightly, enraged by all of this.

"Alright," Asuka said carefully. "What exactly do you want?"

He wanted something for the two of them, he would have just killed them otherwise.

"Quite simple. I give you these three, you give me Okito Suzuhara."

Asuka kept her face even, betraying no emotion.

"Is that a joke?" she said bluntly. "You expect me to give up Okito that easily?"

"I have your Commanding Officer and Chief Scientist-" Ramiel began.

"So?" Asuka interrupted. "You know as well as I that any codes she would give you were changed the moment we knew she was captured. She'd sooner die than give you anything more. You know that and I know that."

From an absolutely pragmatic standpoint. Misato and Ritsuko were worth less than the danger Okito represented if they let him loose. He was a reckless idiot, but he was strong. If he and Ramiel attacked together, it would be brutal.

"You didn't let me finish," Andrew chided. "I haven't introduced our third prisoner."

Ramiel moved towards said third prisoner, lifting up the sack to reveal…

"Father?" Shinji said in naked shock.

Gendo Ikari. The Angels had Gendo Freaking Ikari.

Gendo stared at the screen neutrally.

The room was now in open shock, save for Ria who seemed to be getting angrier and angrier by the moment.

Shinji sat down. Asuka couldn't even imagine what he must be feeling right now. Gendo hung over his childhood like an impossibly dark stormcloud. Everyone had more or less treated Gendo as if he were dead. No one thought he would come back.

Asuka steeled herself.

"I don't understand what you're trying to accomplish here, Andrew. You want us to trade an Angel for Two people, who while we care for, can ultimately be replaced, and a man who everyone here is perfectly okay with leaving to rot in whatever cell you're keeping him in. You have little to bargain with here. If you kill them, we kill Okito and then my little girl is going to do everything in her power to ensure you die screaming. So what, is this just the low ball offer, or are you just that terrible at negotiating?" Asuka said with an air of disdain.

Ramiel's smile sent chills down her spine.

"Kill them?" Ramiel reacted with mock horror. "No, no, that wouldn't do anything for me. If you refuse I'll... You know what, why don't I let my grandfather explain instead?"

Asuka gritted her teeth as she braced herself. This was going to be a day of awful family reunions it seemed. Yay.

"Believe me, killing you all is the last thing we want."

The voice was familiar but it sounded wrong. Young, far too young for her father.

He stepped out of the shadows, into the frame.

Asuka recoiled in horror. He looked as young as he did when her mom died, or even younger, perhaps. And there was a streak of white running through his hair. Most disturbing of all was his eyes: he had bright red eyes, eyes she had only seen on Ria and other Angels.

The room could do little to hide their shock. None of them though Ramiel's plans would be far enough along to accomplish something like this.

"Hello, Asuka. It's been a while," he said, his voice a sickening mockery of affection.

The sound of metal breaking filled the room. Asuka glanced back to see that Ria had punched a hole in one of the desks, her eyes were now a mirror of her father's. Shinji rushed to her side.

"So... This, this is what you sold out humanity for?" Asuka said, trying to keep her composure.

"'Sold out humanity'? My dear, I'm doing this for humanity." His voice was smug and full of pride. "That's the problem WILLE has had since the beginning. Framing this whole conflict as Angels versus humanity. Sure, some of them hate us, but Andrew here... Andrew's doing this all for humanity. As I am now, I've restored myself to beyond the peak of a health and have probably added 50 years to my life. And this is just the first stage of autoevolution. Imagine what humanity will look like once it's reached its fullest potential. An entire species of immortal semi-divine beings. No sickness, no starvation, no poverty, no pain. Everyone strong enough to reach their full potential. A world without limits or anything to hold us back."

"All serving under God-King Ramiel," Asuka finished. "We know what his end game is."

"Oh, that? That's nothing," her father dismissed the idea casually. "It's an empty title. The Angels know as much about governing as I do about sewing. Give them a crown and they'll be placated. If it makes you feel better we'll just give Japan to Zeruel over there. No doubt she'll do whatever you tell her, too."

Ria stepped forward, glaring at her maternal Grandfather with eyes full of hatred. Her stance primal, fists held tightly at her side.

"I'm going to kill you!" Ria said in a shockingly low voice. "I'm going to rip your throat out and throw your blasphemous corpse into a volcano!"

"Ria, calm down. Now's not the time to get angry," Shinji urged.

Ria barely seemed to hear him.

Asuka focused her attention on her father. Ria had every right to be angry even if her outburst was becoming rather alarming.

"Ahh, I see she gets her anger from both of her parents. Lovely," he said casually.

Asuka glared hard at him. She had hated the man ever since he betrayed Mama at the hospital but this was beyond the pale.

"I'm impressed," she said icily. "Despite Gendo Ikari sitting mere meters away from you, you manage to be both the biggest bastard and worst parent in the room." She clapped slowly.

A flash of annoyance appeared across his freakishly youthful face.

"You don't really have the high ground, dear. I mean, does your younger self know how close her mother is? Have you told them the truth of Evas?" he asked pointedly.

"This still does nothing to change my opinion." Asuka said, ignoring his jab. "As far as I'm concerned you're not offering nearly enough for me to even humor the possibility of accepting your deal."

An unwholesome smile appeared on his face. He walked behind Misato and the others.

"You see the funny thing about the gift," he explained casually, "is it's a nightmare to someone who doesn't want it. To me, what's been done to me is perhaps the greatest gift the world has ever given me. But would Misato here appreciate it? I think not."

She would hate it. But it still wasn't much of a threat.

"What I have is just the first stage of things," he went on. "I'm nowhere close to what autoevolution will really look like in the end. I'm also the first one to experience it. But the thing about science is it's not really science unless you can replicate it. Now, admittedly, as much as she would hate it, that's not going to exactly make things more dire besides the risk of the procedure killing her. But we also have Arael. I know you're quite familiar with him."

"Scher dich zum Teufel!" Asuka cursed.

He ignored her. "Let me make this clear to you. If you don't give us Sachiel, we're going to turn the good General here into something like me, something beyond me. Then I'm going to have Arael scramble her brains so much she's either loyal to us or just violently insane. And then we'll unleash her upon you. If that doesn't work we'll do the same to Ritsuko. And if that still doesn't work we'll grab more of your friends, family, and coworkers and do the same to them until you give us what we want. It wasn't that hard for us to grab your leader, after all."

Misato's eyes went alive with fear. This would be so much worse for her than dying. She would be made into the very thing she hated for most of her life.

"You bastard!" Ria screamed at him.

Langley smirked. "Now how's that for a hard bargain?"

 

[Teen Spirit]

Sorry for the lack of Updates. RL and Stellaris got in the way.

/

Asuka stared at her father. For an agonizingly long second she considered her options. She even considered accepting the deal. Then she looked at Misato, and her face told Asuka exactly what she needed to do.

"No," she said simply.

The look on her father's face made it almost worth it. Misato nodded solemnly. Ritsuko slumped her shoulders.

"What?" her father replied.

"You heard me. No. Your offer is declined," Asuka repeated, even firmer. "Ibuki, cut the feed."

The screen went black. Asuka sighed deeply.

She hated herself. She had condemned Misato and possibly Dr. Akagi to a fate she wouldn't wish on anyone, not even her father. Though she would very much like to find where he was right now and dropped a tactical N2 mine on his face.

She felt sick. Second guesses were gnawing at her stomach already. What was Okito worth really? Would it have been so terrible to let him go?

'Yes it would have been,' she reminded herself.

There had been no other option. No option that was acceptable.

She looked towards Maya. "Any trace?"

Maya shook her head in defeat.

"We're going to find them though, right?" Ria growled. "We can't just let them stay in that freaking rat hole."

They had other leads of course, like tracing where the car Misato had taken ended up, or figuring out what happened to her driver, or who sabotaged Misato's car. But Asuka was doubtful they would turn up anything. Ramiel, Okito, Shamshel... they were teenagers, teenagers who got reckless and made tons of mistakes. But her father wasn't. He wasn't the type to do this without some sort of security.

"We will," Asuka insisted. "But it's going to take time. Right now we need to make sure they can't get to anyone else."

Fear was in the eyes of everyone in the room. If they could reach Misato and Akagi, then everyone they cared about might be in danger.

"I'll... go tell the Pilots what happened," Shinji said, looking sick as he walked away.

"I need to clear my head," Ria said before storming off.

Asuka turned towards Maya. The two of them were now effectively in command of WILLE. A long day lay ahead for both of them.

"Call your wife," Asuka ordered. "Have her come directly here right away. Then gather the heads of every department and Kirishima and have them meet me in my office. We lose no one else."

Maya nodded and then began frantically dialing.

'I'm going to make you burn for this, father,' Asuka told herself. 'One way or another. You will regret this.'

/

Shinji found the Pilots just as they were getting ready for a synch test, no doubt something the staff had devised to get their minds off of things.

He came upon the three of them, dressed in their plugsuits. He paused, fighting another momentary feeling of disorientation at the sight of them. Even now, after months of this, it still felt unreal, like he was staring at mirror into the past. The last hour had only made that feeling more prevalent.

They were staring at him with a mix of interest and concern. Even Rei's worry was visible.

This was going to be hard, but they had lied to them so much, they deserved to know the full extent of what had happened, and who was involved. No matter how much it might hurt them. And it was going to hurt.

He leaned against the door, sighing.

"What I'm about to tell you is going to be hard to believe and difficult to handle," he said slowly.

"Is Misato alive?!" his younger self said, bordering on frantic.

Shinji nodded, his frown growing deeper. "Alive but captured by Ramiel, and Asuka's father, his grandfather."

Asuka stared at him in surprise.

"Seriously?!" she said in outraged disbelief. "That bastard! I knew he was-"

Shinji interrupted. "There's more. What Matarael talked about, Ramiel's experiments, they're real. Your father has turned himself into something else. Something less and more than human."

Part Angel? Demi-Angel? Demi-God? Every title he could think of felt ill-fitting or just plain stupid. Whatever Langley was now, it sickened Shinji.

One of Asuka's eyebrows went up high.

"What?" she said blankly.

"I had a similar reaction," Shinji admitted.

"So are me, the Sub-Commander, and my half-sister the only humans in this family?!" Asuka exclaimed.

"There's still more." Shinji said wearily. "He hasn't just taken Misato and Akagi hostage. He also has... my father as one of his prisoners."

That got everyone's attention.

"Father... H-he's alive?" his younger self said in disbelief.

Shinji nodded. "Yes, I saw it myself."

Shinji was at an utter loss for how to react. He had tried so hard to force Gendo Ikari out of his mind in the years after the war. But now he was alive again, and a hostage of Asuka's father.

Part of him wanted to be overjoyed at sight of him being brought so low. Seeing the man who had utterly screwed up his childhood reduced to a broken figure in wheelchair. But he had been reduced to such a pathetic state that Shinji couldn't help but pity the man.

His younger self was understandably dismayed.

"You told me he was dead!" he shouted.

"We told you he was in the sea," Shinji corrected. "We had assumed he would never come out."

What had driven him back to the land of the living? Was it because there was a copy of mother on earth? Was that why he was here?

"Commander Ikari is a prisoner of Ramiel, not a collaborator, correct?" Rei asked, her face unreadable.

"Near as we can tell," Shinji replied.

Rei simply nodded.

"So what's going to happen now?" Asuka asked. "I can't imagine you're just going to let my father hold her hostage."

"We're going to try to find them," Shinji replied. "First thing we need to do is make sure Ramiel and the others can't grab anyone else. So you're probably going to be stuck at WILLE for a while."

"And then what?" Asuka asked.

"We…" Shinji sighed. "I don't know, I really don't."

/

It was a number of things that brought her down there. On some level she still cared for Misato and seeing her suffer like that was hard to bear. On another level she was terrified for who else might suffer because of Ramiel, like her fiancée, her parents, or her friends. If he did to them what he was threatening to do to Misato, she didn't think she could handle it. But more than anything else she was enraged.

The part of her that was Ria had retreated to the deepest parts of her mind, leaving only Zeruel. Rage gripped every thought as she travelled deeper and deeper into WILLE. Rage at her ruined birthday, rage at what the Langleys did, rage at the simple fact that Gendo Fucking Ikari was back. But most of all, rage that everything that happened today, all the terrible things Ramiel had threatened, were all due to one single, stupid boy.

Okito had become a stain upon life in general, everything related to him. Everything connected to him was cancer. He had to be dealt with. Now.

She removed her engagement ring and put it in her pocket as she approached the heavy blast door to Okito's cell.

"Open the door," she told one of the guards, her voice devoid of emotion.

The guards turned to her, baffled.

"You're joking, right?" one of them said in disbelief.

She stared at him, her eyes blazing red. Their hands drifted towards the triggers of their guns.

"You can open that door and let me do what Misato should have done weeks ago, or you can watch me rip it off it's hinges. Either way I'm going in there," she said, her voice remaining completely flat.

The guards looked at each other. On any other day they would have refused without question, but their General was imprisoned, the situation was confused, and they both really wanted Okito Suzuhara dead. To many coworkers had died because of that boy.

After a brief hesitation, the heavy metal door slid open.

She stepped in. Okito rose from his cot with a confused expression across his face. He was a hollow, deformed shell of the boy she once knew. Or thought she knew.

"I suppose 'happy birthday' is in or-" Okito's words were cut off by Ria slammed her foot into the side of his good knee, causing it to bend at an incredibly awkward angle before he collapsed to the ground.

"Okay, I know I deserved that," Okito began, "but I am rather confused as to-"

She drove her foot into his rib cage, sending him sliding across the floor. She was going to kill him, but first he needed to suffer. For everything he did, and everything he caused.

She grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall of the cell.

"Ramiel's taken Misato hostage," she told him.

"That's a bad thing?" Okito questioned with a smirk.

Wrong move. She grabbed his deformed hand and forced it backwards, bone breaking beneath her grip. He whined in pain.

"He's going after everyone!" she roared. "My parents, my fiancée, your family!"

"Your what?" Okito questioned, earning him a punch to the face.

"He's going to turn them into insane abominations. All for you! He's going to weaponize that stupid plan of yours and use it to destroy everything and everyone I hold dear. Just to get you!"

Okito looked confused and dismayed, she could tell this was taking him by surprise. Somehow that only further enraged her.

"That's... that's not what I wanted it to be used for. Ramiel's bluffing. He has to be!"

Okito was thrown to the other side of the cell, his head connecting against the wall with a heavy bang.

"I saw what Langley made himself into. He's become something profane," she replied angrily "Ramiel's not bluffing."

"He said it was gift! It was supposed to keep us safe! Not be used like that!" Okito whimpered.

"Everything you done in the name of keeping us safe has only made things worse!" she shot back. "Shamshel's dead, my mind's been scrambled by Arael, we're more divided than the Lilim! All because of you and Ramiel! Because you couldn't leave well enough alone!"

"Leliel started it by dragging the pilots here!" he countered.

Leliel had her share of the blame, but that was an issue for another day.

"Only because you and Ramiel concocted that insane plan of yours!" she shouted back.

"We would have been found out eventually!" Okito argued frantically. "We had to stay prepared!"

"How would they have found out?!" she demanded as she closed in on him.

Okito sputtered, searching for answer.

"How?" she repeated, her lifted arm turning into a metallic mirror of Zeruel's original arm.

He froze, fully understanding what was about to happen.

Her arm launched forward, slicing his deformed one off at the shoulder. Blood poured out as Okito flailed in pain, whimpering.

"How?!" Her arm retracted, folding like so much paper before launching again, this time slicing off one of Okito's feet.

He didn't fight back. His collar would detonate if he tried, and even if he could, time in this cell and his deformed healing had robbed him of much of his strength. In another time, this would have been a close fight. Now it was a slaughter, which suited her just fine. She wanted to make him suffer, she wanted him to die whimpering. Then she would use his body as a message to Ramiel what happened when he messed with her family.

"HOW?!" she bellowed as she retracted her arm again. This time she aimed it for his neck. It was time to end this.

"I... I don't know!" Okito confessed fearfully. "I don't know!"

Her arm launched towards Okito, aimed at his other arm.

Only to be stopped halfway there, a pale hand blocking her.

Ria froze, her rage fleeing from her, replaced with confusion… and then awe.

She had never seen the figure before her and yet it was obvious who the pale boy was. His grey hair, his slight, peaceful smile.

He was Tabris, the vessel of Adam's Soul. He was Kaworu, and he was Adam himself.

 

[Teen Spirit]

Adam was dead, yet he was standing before her. A Revenant that seemed completely real. Reuniting with him was the only reason Zeruel had ever had to exist. He was the main reason she was alive now. He had given her this second life, he had abandoned her, he had let the other Angels run rampant over Japan, he had blocked her from killing Okito.

A war of emotions waged within Ria. Loyalty clashing against building frustration and rage.

"Ria, I am sorry to have tried your faith so," he said simply, his voice sincere and calm.

Loyalty won out. She bowed at the waist, earning a disgusted look from Okito.

Kaworu shook his head, urging her up.

"You don't bow to me, not anymore," he said.

Ria stared at him, a million thoughts racing through her mind.

"How...why?" Ria struggled to find words. "What are you now?"

Kaworu shrugged casually. "A phantom, a ghost. An Echo of what I once was. Never quite sure what I am by this point."

Ria stared at him, trying to make sense of what he said.

"A slave, more like," Okito interrupted, his voice strained by pain. "He's Lilith's slave."

"'Associate' is more a preferable term," another voice said coldly.

Ria turned to see Ayanami standing behind, dressed in a light colored school uniform.

Her heart froze in her chest and she bolted to the far side of the cell. Not Rei, Rei at all.

Lilith.

Pure terror gripped Ria. Even Okito looked terrified.

Lilith stared at her blankly.

"Fear not, Zeruel," Lilith said, "I have no desire to see you dead today."

"Well, that's comforting," Ria whimpered.

"Oh great, more of this," Okito sighed. He seemed to be regaining his composure but it felt like it was an act, and a hollow one at that.

Ria turned to towards Okito. "What do you mean?"

"We have visited Okito many times," Kaworu explained.

"He is a poor learner and a terrible herald," Lilith finished.

Ria turned towards Okito, once again feeling the urge to use him as painting material.

"You... You have been speaking to Adam. TO ADAM?!" she roared thunderously. "And you haven't told anyone?!"

She was dismayed beyond all measure. Okito, of all people, had a direct line with their Progenitor and he squandered it! Ignored it?! Learning nothing from either Adam or Lilith.

Why him? Why him and not her? Had she not been loyal? Had she not been seemingly the only one to keep the faith despite everything that had happened?

"We had tried to speak with your father," Kaworu said, as if answering her thoughts. "But it proved too difficult to reach him. Our residual bond from Instrumentality was too attenuated by time. The only one we could reach was Okito. And even then it took some time before he could even hear us."

"I don't understand why," Okito mocked, his voice shaking with false strength. "I rejected you years ago. Me and Ramiel started this because we abandoned you."

In a moment, Ria's hand was around Okito's throat, nails biting into his flesh.

"Easy, Ria. Easy," Kaworu urged.

"Why?!" Ria shouted in Okito's face. "Why? Everything he's ever done has just hurt other people. He's an idiot and a monster and all of this is his fault! Everything was fine until he ruined it!"

"This is true," Lilith agreed. "But we need him alive. We need him to understand."

"Oh, I understand perfectly," Okito spat as Ria removed her hand from his throat, "I was abandoned. Left in a world populated by my former enemies. I've made countless mistakes but I did so to protect us."

"You were never abandoned," Kaworu replied "You were freed."

The words struck Ria like a glorious thunderbolt. They were vindication the likes of which she didn't think possible. This was a gift. The gift of freedom. There had been no task. Adam had not forsaken them.

"F-freed?!" Okito's voice cracked, the words striking him hard. "We're weapons. We're not supposed to be freed! We're supposed to be used. It is our meaning, our purpose!"

"You were weapons," Kaworu replied "Your task is complete. You did your best-"

"And we failed!" Okito shouted, his voice somewhere between a cry and a scream. "We all failed! Except you. You could have won but you gave up!"

Kaworu look at the ground, his calm demeanor replaced by sorrow. "I gave up because I realized it was the only act of free will I was capable of. I bargained with Lilith for your continued existence because I wanted you all to be free, free in a way I never was."

"So what, I should be a hedonistic coward like Ria here?" Okito replied.

"She is free. But you are still bound by the past. Trying to win a war that's been over for twenty years," Kaworu replied.

"I was trying to keep us safe!" Okito shouted, sounding more and more unsure of himself.

"If you were, why didn't you try to hide those who didn't want to fight? Why did you bring the fight to them? Why didn't you wait for Ramiel to progress further with his project?" Lilith asked.

"I-I..." Okito struggled for words.

"You may have wanted to protect the Angels. But that wasn't your primary motivation, not really. You attacked the Evas because you wanted to prove you could beat them. You started the war because you wanted to prove that you were better than Adam," Lilith said, her voice harsh, her gaze held firmly on him.

"No that's... that's not true. I mean, I wanted to, sure, b-but it was always a secondary concern. I was... I was…" Okito paused, tears flowing down his cheeks.

"Shamshel died because of you. All of this happened because you couldn't move on, " Lilith went on.

"But I-" Okito didn't even try to finish his sentence before collapsing to the ground in a broken heap, wailing as he lay on the floor. He curled into a fetal position, any pretense of trying to defend his actions gone.

Ria stared at him with disgust and revulsion. Misato had been similarly bound up in the past, but never to this extent. And she had stopped before she did anything irredeemable.

"Why don't you just kill me then?!" Okito asked, half begging, half demanding. "What's the point of keeping me alive?"

"Because I want to see if it's possible for even you to find redemption," Lilith's voice was completely monotone "You have driven your kind to the brink. Only one of you has not grievously sinned. If there is hope for you, there is hope for them all."

"What about Koda and Kyoko?" Ria spoke up. "They've done nothing wrong."

"They do not belong here," Lilith stated. "Leliel means well but she tampers with dangerous forces."

Ria found herself conflicted. She had no love for any of the other Angels of this universe, but how many of them had done what they've done because of Ramiel and Okito pushing them? Or out of fear? Fear had nearly lead her to terrible decisions after all, and she hadn't had anyone pushing her.

"How?!" Okito asked pitfully. "How could I possibly do anything to redeem myself? The Angels think I'm an idiot... my friends... my family, they all hate me! Nothing I could do would change that!"

"You are beyond forgiveness with your family," Kaworu agreed. "But that doesn't mean you can't still do right by them. You can still save them when the time comes."

'When the time comes?' Ria questioned mentally.

"Do you... know what's going to happen?" she asked.

Kaworu shook his head. "Not as such. I've seen similar events play out enough to guess where things are going. Bardiel is out there, sooner or later they will come for your family, Okito."

"What do you mean?" Ria questioned "'Similar events'?"

Kaworu smiled at her, suddenly looking far more tired than he had a moment ago. "Let's just say Leliel plays with what I have been cursed with. That's all I can really explain right now."

Ria pondered over his words as Okito stared at him.

"How?! I'm stuck in here!" he about screamed. "How can I do anything about Bardiel?"

"You will find a way," Lilith said unsympathetically.

Kaworu frowned as he knelt next to Okito, looking upon him with regret.

"There is unfortunately one more task I must ask of you, one more duty."

Okito looked torn and conflicted. "I....I...I'll try."

That took Ria by surprise.

"Good. Now, when Ramiel comes for you, and he will come for you. I need you to send him a message."

Kaworu leaned in closer, whispering into Okito's ear.

The secrecy annoyed Ria. But she knew asking him was pointless.

Okito's eyes went wide for a moment, new tears rolling down his face. Before he gave a small nod.

Kaworu stood up, looking deeply unhappy.

Lilith turned towards Ria, which made her involuntarily shudder.

"You've done well to protect Shinji and Asuka," Lilith said.

"Thanks?" Ria was off put the seeming randomness of her comment. "They're my mother and father. How could I not?"

"I placed you well." Lilith said, growing transparent.

"Wait, w-" Ria began, only to realize Lilith was gone.

"Be safe, Ria Soryu," Kaworu said before vanishing as well, leaving Okito and Ria alone in the room.

The two stared at each other for a moment. Ria found herself tempted to say something to him but decided against it.

She didn't know if Okito would actually live up to his promise, or if he would find a way to convince himself that he was right again and shrink back into his old mindset. But Adam had rewarded her faith. She wasn't going to tamper with whatever he had planned.

She left, Lilith's words plaguing her thoughts, leaving Okito sitting there on the floor, broken and barely keeping himself from completely losing it again.

 

[Teen Spirit]

Asuka looked at the five security officers. Three of them she knew for a fact hated her. And she was certain that one of them had probably ordered the attempt on her daughter's life. Still, she had to be professional.

"Officer Tokiwa had a spotless record. There's no way she would have been involved in this," one of them stated firmly.

"That's more than likely the case," Asuka replied. "But they've done mind alteration with Arael and Bardiel is out there somewhere. So we have to consider all possibilities. The General was taken and we didn't even know it until Ramiel informed us. Several things had to go wrong for that to happen. Either Tokiwa was compromised in some manner, unwillingly or otherwise, or she was taken out without even being able to send a distress message, something she should have been able to do even if the radio was jammed."

"Ma'am, to put it simply, this wasn't the job we were hired for," a more level headed officer pointed out.

"I know," Asuka agreed. Most of security had been hired well before this all began. They had been trained to handle terrorists, the occasional cultist, and, secretly, for defending off the Government if they went mad and started trying to weaponize some of the things WILLE had on site. But this…this sort of espionage was not something they had been prepared for. They were adapting to fighting the Angels, but they were still two steps behind.

"We need to consider asking for help from the government," she said as carefully as she could. "Yes, the defense network is compromised, but that's software, not manpower. And there's zero implication the military itself has been compromised. And like it or not, Iruel is not our main concern right now."

Her words went over like a lead balloon.

"Oh, so now we can't be trusted to do our jobs?!" one of them exclaimed.

"I'm not saying-" Asuka began.

"We're not the ones with two Angels and a traitor in their family!" another shouted.

Asuka stared at the man with perhaps the most murderous look she had produced in years, instantly bringing the arguments to a halt.

She sighed deeply.

"You know, I actually thought for a moment we had moved past that," she said with a weary sigh. "My daughter has shown beyond all reasonable doubt where her loyalty lies. Anyone who knows me knows my father has been dead to me for years and I was barely aware of Andrew Langley's existence until recently. And despite EVERYTHING!"

Asuka slammed her hand on the desk.

"Everything I've been put through recently, I have never once wavered in my loyalty. Not when Misato tried to have my daughter treated as a pariah even though she saved her life. Not when it seemed like the only ally I could depend on was the Empress. Not even when Security blatantly tried to assassinate my daughter, not once did my consider turning my back on WILLE. And more importantly I'm not the one who lost our leader!"

The assembled staff grew angry at her words. Even those who had seemed agreeable to her before looked at her now with hateful eyes.

She couldn't trust them, the realization struck her cold. She couldn't trust Section 2. Many still hated Ria and they didn't seem willing to accept the fact that something had gone wrong on their end with Misato.

Just then an alert appeared on her screen. Something had happened in Okito's cell.

/

"This feels wrong." The voice was distant and muffled.

Misato found herself in some sort of glass tank, straps and chains forcing her to stand. A half dozen needles were embedded into her arms, thick rubbery tubes running from each of them. Other...stranger looking instruments were attached to her at places across her skin.

A metal box was at eye level, the corners trimmed with what Misato could swear were pieces of Ramiel's original body, glittering in the pale light. Various glass and crystal like protrusions jutted from the box towards Misato, some jagged, others smooth and rounded. Electricity occasionally sparked and danced between them.

Two figures stood outside her tank; Langley and one of the Angels, Armisael judging by the double-helix pattern on her mask.

"A threat is nothing if you don't follow through," Langely said dispassionately.

"But it's torture," Armisael protested. "You're acting like she did. If you make them just as scared of us as we were of her then we're dead. We are all dead!"

Langley ignored her and focused on a control panel in front of the tank.

Armisael was scared of her. Not of the Evangelions, or the Pilots, but of the fact that it was Misato giving the orders. What that meant, about her, about the Angel, was something she was going to have to deal with later. Right now she was staring into something that was either going to kill her, or change her.

She was scared of dying. She wasn't brave enough to pretend she wasn't. But she was starting to fear surviving what was about to happen more and more. When she looked at Langley she saw something she never saw in Ria or the other Angels: a void, a hollowness in the way he stared that even without the red tint would have been deeply unnerving.

It wasn't just the stare of someone who had no humanity, Misato had seen that before, this was the stare of someone who had their humanity removed and replaced with... something else.

If she survived, even if Arael didn't get his hands on her, would she still be herself? Even if there was continuity, her mind could be altered, neural pathways changed. Her memories intact but how she thought permanently changed. The same ship but with a different person at the helm.

And of course, even if she did survive what happened with her mind intact, Arael would be upon her. Subjecting her to days of something that broke Asuka in minutes.

Asuka had done the right thing, Okito was too much of a threat to let free. But the fate the lay ahead for her and Ritsuko... It would take a person far stronger than her not to wish Asuka had chosen differently.

Orange liquid began pouring in from pipes along the bottom. The thick, coppery smell of it telling her it was LCL.

"Speaking from experience, don't clench your teeth. It will make the pain that's to come more bearable," Langley said.

Misato glared at him angrily.

"You do realize you're not going to win, one way or another," Misato was grimly defiant. "Even if Ramiel wins. Asuka and Ria... they won't rest until they see you dead."

Langley sneered at her. "You really think they're that determined to avenge you, after what you've done?"

"No." Misato replied. "But you hurt Asuka far worse than I did."

"You tried to kill her daughter." Langely replied.

"To protect her and Shinji. She understood that, even if she deservedly hated me for it." Misato replied, the LCL reaching to her waist. "You, on the other hand... You replaced her mother before she was even in the ground. You abandoned her when she needed a parent the most. And now you're helping a war that's made her life a living Hell. And you don't even care. You never even tried to care."

Langley glared at her silently as the LCL filled the tube.

The edge of the box began to glow. Multi-colored lights began to swirl around the LCL. A second later, the sound of deep, rhythmic hammering filled the tube. Misato watched as brightly glowing fluid snaked it's way through the tubes leading to her arms.

Soon she could see the shine of the fluid through her veins. That's when the pain started.

It felt like her blood had been replaced with molten lava. Misato gritted her teeth, determined to keep calm as long as she could. The glass and crystal spikes began to spark, pale blue electricity dancing between then, somehow avoid electrifying the LCL around them. The sparks grew more and more frequent until they turned into one massive near-blinding light. The light washed over her, bathing her in it's esoteric energies.

At that point that Misato began to scream.

/

"Okay, I'm not even going to ask why you tried to kill Okito," Shinji said, "because I think we all know the answer to that question. But why did you stop?"

Shinji and Asuka had pulled Ria into Asuka's office as soon as they heard about the incident.

Ria was pacing around the office. Her behavior was rather... off. She seemed happy for some reason, despite the horrible mess her birthday had turned into.

There's was also a unmistakable edge to that happiness. She was happy, but scared.

"Well... I saw God." Ria replied.

They both stared at her for moment.

"Like metaphorically, or for real?" Asuka asked.

"For real," Ria nodded. "I was going to kill Okito, but then Adam blocked me."

"...You spoke to Kaworu?" Shinji was stunned.

Ria nodded again. "Yeah it turns out he's been appearing to Okito as some sort of ghost…spirit. I really don't quite understand what he was. I don't think even he knows what he is anymore."

Shinji was quite fortunate he was sitting otherwise he might have fallen over in shock.

"So that wasn't a dream," he muttered to himself.

So Kaworu wasn't among the reborn Angels, he was just some sort of phantom. But he was here in a sense.

Shinji didn't know how to feel about that. Kaworu gave him so many mixed emotions on even the best of days. Kaworu was one of the few people he could even picture himself loving. He had been a friend, but he had also betrayed him and put him through an emotional wringer at the worst possible moment.

Ria raised an eyebrow.

"I saw Kaworu a few times a few months ago, in dreams mostly," Shinji admitted. "He'd appear and try to talk, but he always... had no voice. We would have told you but honestly neither of were sure if it was real or not and after they stopped I just figured it was stress or something."

Ria nodded.

"Did you see Rei as well?"

"No?" Shinji replied, confused.

"Well she was there as well. Not the other Rei." Ria explained. "The Rei you knew, Lilith."

"Rei's a ghost?" Asuka replied.

"Yeah, just appeared behind me mid-conversation," Ria said.

Though, Rei suddenly appearing and disappearing wasn't exactly new. Shinji still had dreams and nightmares about that vision he saw on the first day he arrived in Tokyo-3.

Still... Rei being around, the Rei they had known. Shinji had even more mixed feelings about that, considering the last time he saw her she was a giant naked... god-thing that gave him the power to commit the single worst mistake he ever made.

"Soo... How is Wonder Girl?" Asuka asked, clearly not sure what else to say at the moment.

Ria shuddered. "Did she always sound like she was the verge of murdering someone?"

"Noooo?" Shinji replied.

"Well, she's gotten very Old Testament-y, then. Left Okito a broken, sobbing mess on the floor without her voice leaving a monotone."

"That's quite the image," Asuka commented.

It was disturbing for Shinji.

"So what did you all talk about?" Shinji asked.

Shinji couldn't even imagine what Kaworu and Rei, Adam and Lilith would have to had to say to two Angels, near polar opposites of each other. It could have been completely mundane or something nearly beyond human understanding.

"Well, I mean it was good. For me. Very faith affirming. Neither of them said 'happy birthday', but whatever. Okito basically had his whole ideology shredded and Lilith actually seemed to get through to him," Ria replied.

"That's surprising," Asuka said.

"I know. But..." Ria grew hesitant. "There's parts of it I just don't know how to feel about. I mean there was some minor bits. Kaworu got weirdly cryptic at points."

That sounded familiar.

"And then Lilith said something right before she left, and I just…" Ria trailed off for a moment staring at the ceiling. "I'm not certain, but I think for most of the Angels, where they ended up was random or at least semi-random."

That seemed implausible considering the sheer number of Angels that lived within Kyoto or were related to Asuka, but that was a discussion for another day.

"But with me, Lilith outright said she placed me here. Or placed Zeruel within me, however you want to word it. I was put here to act as your protector."

"Oh," Shinji said. He shared a look with Asuka.

It wasn't surprisingly when he considered everything. If Rei was worried the Angels might try something, it made sense to put the strongest of them in a position where they would be best able to protect them and have every reason to want to protect them.

But... Shinji could see what was troubling Ria. She couldn't look at him. Her eyes were focused on the ground, shame building in her expression.

"You can't keep beating yourself up over something that didn't happen," Shinji insisted.

Asuka stood up and gave their daughter a reassuring hug.

The small gesture seemed to help. A little bit of reassurance could go a long way with their daughter.

"I...I know." Ria said as she forced herself to look at Shinji. "It's not really that... exactly. It's just... if she picked me to be who I am, did she not realize I would react the way… the way I nearly did? Did she misjudge me and we just got lucky? Or did she know and she was testing me?"

The latter didn't seem like Rei. Then again, the first one did seem like a massive oversight, all things considered. And she wasn't fully herself anymore. As much as Shinji didn't want to think about it, she was also Lilith, and who knew how Lilith's mind worked?

"Regardless of her reasons, it worked out pretty well. So we should be grateful for that," Shinji replied, joining in on the hug.

"Quite," Ria agreed.

"Agreed." Asuka concurred. "Not to pry, but did either of them provide any sort of help with dealing with Ramiel? Or how to find Misato?"

Ria shook her head. "Not really. Though he did say one thing that caught my attention."

"What?" Asuka asked.

"Ramiel is coming for Okito. That much he was certain of," Ria answered. "I suspect sooner rather than later, considering how we're not going to trade him for hostages not matter what."

'Oh good, another attack on WILLE,' Shinji thought sardonically.

Ria's phone buzzed, filling the air. Ria looked down and pulled it out of her pocket.

"The Empress wants to see me," she said as she read the message. "Right now, it seems."

"Is it an emergency?" Asuka asked, worried.

"No, no. But it does seem urgent." Ria replied.

/

 

[Teen Spirit]

'Father is alive.'

The words seemed to echo through the younger Shinji's head. His father was among the living again.

Shinji now knew exactly what kind of man he was. Whatever secrets the people of this time kept, they were quite good about making sure he knew exactly what kind of man Gendo Ikari was.

Shinji sat down in his personal quarters, a converted private office. He didn't know how to feel about this. His father wasn't Commander anymore. He didn't have to listen to him. He wasn't controlling anything anymore. He was just a broken man being held hostage by their enemy.

Part of him felt guilty that he wasn't sympathetic to his situation. He was worried about Misato, deeply so. But if Father died, he wasn't even sure he would mourn?

Was that wrong? He was his father after all, even if the nature of his situation made that a bit nebulous. This Gendo was his father for all intents and purposes. But he was also a monster who had been intent on intentionally doing everything Shinji's other self had done accidentally.

It was strange. Shinji had often mentally compared the two. But now that his father was back, the differences between the two were stark, even more contrasting than Shinji had previously realized. His other self never abandoned his family, not really, even when he moved away. His father never showed up for birthdays, or Christmas. He never even tried.

Still...Shinji had doubts.

He left his room, trying to clear his head. He found Asuka close by, leaning on a railing overlooking a wide hallway.

"Hey, Asuka," Shinji greeted her, surprised she was so close by. "What's going on?"

"You know I just realized most of the people I'm related to aren't human?" Asuka observed. "I mean genetically speaking. You have Ria, Kyoko or whatever we're calling her this week, my father, and Andrew. Outside of the Sub-Commander the only human in the Soryu or Langley family line is my half sister."

"Are you doing okay?" Shinji asked. If he had misgivings about his father, Asuka had to be going through a lot worse than he was, considering her father was part of the reason all of this had happened. Mr. Langley was a greater monster than even Shinji's father, a thing Shinji once would have called impossible.

"Of course I'm fine you i-" Asuka paused, seemingly remembering who she was talking to. "Well, I'm not great. Any love I had for the man died years ago. He abandoned my mother and he abandoned me. Honestly what bugs me most is the disgrace he's going to bring to my family name. Because people are going to tie the two together, Langley and Soryu, Soryu and Langley. If this gets out I'm going to forever tarred by his actions. Maybe I'll just drop the Langley from my name. Just shove in Shikinami or whatever the heck name that Asuka had Rei's universe. Asuka Shikinami Soryu...wait, no. That sounds stupid," Asuka rambled.

Shinji stared at her in worry. She caught his look.

"I'll be fine," she insisted. "The man can't disappoint me more than he already has. So how are you, I know The Commander being back and a prisoner has to have thrown you for a loop."

"Is it wrong that I want to not care about him?" Shinji asked hesitantly.

"No. Not at all," Asuka replied. "You don't owe that man anything."

"But he's my father", Shinji said meekly, "shouldn't I at least-"

Asuka cut him off with a sharp gesture. "So what if he's your father? That doesn't mean he's automatically entitled to anything. He never raised you, never cared for you, he abandoned you only to call you back when he needed you. You have every right to want him dead."

He couldn't fault her words.

"I... thanks," Shinji replied.

"No problem," Asuka smiled. "Now let's go and find something to do before this turns into a 'My Dad is a war criminal' society meeting."

Asuka walked away, Shinji following, feeling a slight bit better.

/

"I know what we signed up for, I know what we've agreed to, and what we've done. But this... If you do this, they're not just going to want to kill us. If we lose they will hunt us down until we're a hundred and ten. They won't stop until every single one of us is dead at their feet." Armisael said, her tone increasingly nervous.

"So we won't lose," Arael replied.

The two were standing in the "Transformation Room" as Langley had called it. The room where the General had been changed.

Armisael walked around the tank, eyeing some of the equipment with weary eyes.

"Iruel's betrayed us and left with half the group. Sandalphon's quit. We're working with whatever Bardiel has become. And our leader is a madman," Armisael countered. "Losing is a very real possibility."

"Ramiel's not insane," Arael replied, confused.

"I'm not talking about Ramiel," Armisael said.

Silence filled the room. Both of them had considerable misgivings about Mr. Langley. What he turned himself into... it was unnatural, it was wrong. And this was just the first stage of things. What would full Ascension look like?

She had joined Ramiel because she was scared, because he had seemed like the only one who could protect her from Misato. But this... they had her in their hands. Why didn't he push for peace or something? Surely Ramiel could work on his project in a peaceful manner?

"It's too late to turn back," Arael said dismissively. "God may forgive, but they won't. Not you, and certainly not me."

"We did what we thought we had to do to survive," Armisael pleaded. "The General made it clear there would be no quarter for us. But Soryu clearly has more mercy for our kind. Her own daughter-"

"Not for me!" Arael roared, catching Armisael off guard.

"Es tut uns leid," he said apologetically. "But… they already wanted me dead before that battle. After what I did during it... There's no way I will be shown mercy. And you're a fool for thinking they're forgive any of us after what Langley did to Misato. To them you're the Angel that destroyed most of Tokyo-3 and helped turn one of their own into a monster."

Armisael glared at him. "Okay, let me put it this way: do you honestly think what Langley's asked you to do will help us win this fight, give us an edge, or do anything besides piss them off further?"

Arael mulled over her words for a moment. "A fair point. I'll tell Ramiel I need more time to prepare."

Armisael sighed with relief.

"Hopefully this plan of his works," he added, "or someone has enough sanity to come to the table."

/

Ria bowed to the Empress. Respectful, but not as deep as she had bowed to Adam.

"Your message sounded urgent. Is everything okay?" Ria asked.

The Throne Room had more guards than normal and the Empress, while keeping her calm demeanor, did seem on edge. Something was up.

"I'm not sure yet," the Empress replied evenly. "But before that, I have a gift. It's your birthday, is it not?"

"Gift?" Ria was confused. "I'm grateful but we're sort of in the middle of a crisis."

"I'm fully aware," the Empress replied, "and what I called you for is in fact quite related to the kidnapping. I would just feel more comfortable if you received your gift before we began."

"Are you in any danger?" Ria asked as she scanned the room, prepared to strike at a moment's notice. Was there another Angel in the Palace? Had Iruel compromised security?

"No, not now that you're here of course," the Empress replied, further increasing Ria's concern. Still, it seemed whatever was going on, the Empress thought her gift would be of help.

Two men in suits wheeled out a large upright box, much to Ria's confusion. Judging by the strained looks on the two men it was quite heavy. They put the box down almost in front of Ria. It was heavy thing made of black-painted metal.

"You requested something to protect your neck if I recall," the Empress explained. "I was originally going to go for something simpler but I discovered something I thought would be far more useful to you, with some modifications, of course."

The box split open, revealing what seemed to be a suit of armor.

It was a large, heavy looking thing, held upright by thick chains. The body and arms of the suit were covered in bands of black metal, legs protected by similarly armored skirts. Underneath the armor was an equally dark fabric material of some kind. The neck itself was one solid piece of armor, rising up to about the level of her nose.

Ria stared at it, unsure of what to say.

"The base of it was a prototype infantry uniform that had been intended for special forces use before the military shelved it due to the project going over budget. The uniform itself should be able to project you from blades and claws. The armor should protect you from anything short of a direct shot from a tank. Admittedly we have no idea how it will fair against some of the stronger Angels, and this is only the first version of what we have planned. The helmet's not even finished yet. But it should provide you with a decent amount of protection," the Empress explained.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Ria said, impressed by the gift. "Would you mind if tested it?"

"Of course," the Empress replied.

Ria's right hand began to unravel, turning into a tiny mirror of Zeruel's arm. A few guards noticeably tightened their grips on their weapons. The Empress simply watched with interest.

Ria swung her arm at the armor in a blur. The armor swung slightly on it's chains, but it didn't break. Instead her arm crumbled, ripping in places. The sensation was odd. There was pain, but it was muted, like someone had just slapped her hand. The armor was only scratched.

She stared at the damaged hand quizzically, watching as it reformed back to her normal human hand.

"Huh. Well, I'm sold." Ria said.

"There is one problem with it," the Empress admitted. "I'm not sure you've noticed but it's heavy, ludicrously so. Most of our soldiers couldn't even move around in it when we were testing. I hope that won't prove too much of a problem for you."

"No, I think I can deal with that," Ria replied with a shrug. "I take it you want me to put it on now?"

"That would be most comforting, yes," the Empress nodded.

Ria inhaled, steadying herself. She'd done this before, but in moments of anger, and usually as just one part a larger transformation. But in theory this could be done. She cleared her mind as best she could, blocking out all her wandering thoughts, all the annoying doubts that had been pestering her ever since Arael's attack.

She pushed herself, forcing out just a part of what she once was. Her eyes turning red as she nearly collapsed. White hot pain coursed through her body as her arms and legs bulged with new muscle growth, sweat turning into steam.

The room stared in shock. Even the Empress lost her normal composure.

By the time Ria was done she had a solid layer of muscle on her arms, shoulders, thighs, and legs. She wasn't entirely sure if it was even technically muscle underneath her skin now. Simple muscle didn't provide her with the kind of strength she had now. It might have been some sort of Angelic flesh, she couldn't be sure.

Ria grabbed the armor and pulled it on with ease. It was heavy, dense, but not unbearable so.

The protection it offered was comforting, knowing her neck was protected during battle did a lot to removed her fears about combat. She was strong, probably the strongest of the Angels physically, and the idea of having such an easy weak spot was worrying.

She moved around a bit, stretching to make sure she had enough flexibility to fight. She wouldn't be as maneuverable as she was, but it wasn't constricting. The armored skirts hitting her legs was a bit annoying though. And the collar was going to take some getting used to.

Her hand still felt sore from the punch.

"Alright," Ria said. "The gift is much appreciated, Your Majesty. Feel free to move onto whatever is troubling you right now."

That whatever was about happen required Ria to be in armor was rather worrying.

The Empress nodded, then rang a small, ornate bell.

"Bring her in," she ordered, sending one of her attendants out of the room.

A moment later, they reappeared, along with the Prime Minister. In front of them was a small girl, maybe seven or nine, with weird pink and white hair, dressed in an elegant little dress trimmed with gold and lace.

For a moment Ria stared at the figure in sheer confusion. Then she caught the look in her eye.

"Hello, Zeruel," the Angel said.

Ria jerked, then approached her with murderous intent.

"Easy, Soryu, easy," the Prime Minister urged. "Israfel's come as part of a truce."

Ria stopped, staring hard at the Prime Minister.

"You made a truce with Israfel?!" She was aghast. "She's working with Iruel, for crying out loud!"

"And I am here representing Iruel," Israfel explained, her voice disturbingly soft and innocent sounding.

Ria's eyes shot towards the Empress.

"It's not safe for you to be here, Your Majesty," she declared.

Ria was rather indifferent to politics but the Empress had been her protector and now a patron of sorts. Her being in danger made Ria rather nervous.

"That's why you're here," the Empress assured her. "I'm not going to do my negotiations through advisors. She came her under a cease fire and I expect it to be honored. If she doesn't, I or my people will know not to even consider another offer from them. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," Israfel replied with a bow.

"Armoring her was a bit much," the Prime Minister remarked to the Empress.

"Being careful rarely hurts," the Empress replied.

"Why are we even having ceasefire?" Ria asked. "And why wasn't WILLE told of it?"

"Remember the last time an Angel went to WILLE under the banner of peace," Israfel said, an annoyed frown across her face.

Annoyingly, she had a point. Still, Ria had a ready counter.

"You mean the one where your side attacked WILLE to 'rescue' him, and made us think he was one of yours?" Ria rebutted.

'This day, this freakin day,' Ria mentally lamented. 'First my birthday, Then Misato's kidnapped, then my grandfather's alive and the other one's turned himself partially into an Angel. Then I see God and now freaking this. And the sun isn't even down yet.'

She felt exhausted, this was too much for one person to deal with.

"I only agreed to this meeting yesterday night," the Empress said. "With great reluctance, I'll admit. We bumped up this meeting because of the events of this morning. I apologize for not telling you sooner."

"Thank you," Ria replied, nodding. "But why are we even negotiating with Iruel? He's hacked the Defense Network, for crying out loud!"

"Quite simple," the Prime Minister replied. "Iruel and his cohorts are suing for peace. They want out of this entire conflict."

/
Author's Note: So we're a few weeks shy of this fic being a year old. And I have to say I'm quite happy that this fic is still ongoing. And I really appericate everyone who's posted here. So I was wondering. Where there any Omakes, Canon or otherwise, that you guys would want to see for the Anniversary?

 

[Teen Spirit]

Ladies and Gentlemen. Those of you who go to SpaceBattles may have noticed a certain April Fools Day joke there on Sunday. That joke inspired what maybe the stupidest idea I ever had. Note that I still do intend to do some of the omake suggestions. And you know...the actual fic. Fair warning, don't actually try to figure out how this crossover would work.

/

Okito was awoken from a restless sleep by the sound of his phone ringing. It was Ramiel.

"Hello?" Okito answered groggily.

"Okito!" Ramiel said excitedly "Good to hear from you. Question, do you have anything planned tomorrow?"

"...Sort of." Okito answered hesitantly. He had planned to attack the Evangelions when they were being moved, hopefully destroying them before they could become a threat, or at the very least restarting the war between humans and angel kind. But other than that his day was pretty clear.

"Well whatever it is, dropped it." Ramiel replied "Because we have more important things to do."

"oOkay." Okito was more than a little confused

"I found a way to complete our plan. Years ahead of time. And with minimal effort." Ramiel explained

Okito's eyes went wide. That was huge, beyond huge. It changed everything. It meant they could complete their dreams before Evangelions became a true threat.

"But how?" He asked

They had worked on this plan for years, exploring every possible angle. How did Ramiel find a way to bypass everything so quickly?

"Two Words. Actual Freaking Magic." Ramiel explained.

"That's three words." Okito corrected.

"I'm using freaking as an adjective." Ramiel replied

"Adjectives are still words." Okito pointed out "And I'm pretty sure actual is an adjective as well."

Ramiel sighed wearily into the phone. "Just shut up, Okito."

"Yes sir." Okito replied

"Anyways." Ramiel replied "I was in Fuyuki City the other day and through some of my grandfather's old connections I was able to come across a rather interesting ritual. Long story short I stole the key parts of the ritual and had them brought to Kyoto."

"Wait, you're in Kyoto?" Okito was taken aback.

"Yeah." Ramiel replied casually "Got in yesterday. Anyways I was able to modify it so it will only work for angels, well hopefully. Kind of new to the whole magecraft thing so I'm throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. Anyways, if you wake up tomorrow and have a weird tattoo on your hand. Don't worry, that just means it's working."

"Uh sure?" Okito found himself growing more and more concerned. What exactly was Ramiel getting them involved with? And what was even actual magic. How was that a thing? "What do I do then?"

"I'll explain later." Ramiel answered "Anyways, just sit tight and don't do anything stupid. I'll touch base with you tomorrow. Have a good day."

"Same to you." Okito said hesitantly

/
"Hello, oh hi dad. Dad you need to speak into the bottom of the phone. The bottom-just put it on speaker, just put it on speaker!" Mana Kirishima answered her phone as she prepared to go grocery shopping. Her father wasn't exactly the best with technology.

She paused halfway into putting her shoes on.

"Father." Her tone grew more serious. "You know I'm not involved with the Church anymore….Wait, what sort of emergency?"

She stood there for a moment, trying to process what her father said.

"What do you mean someone started a grail war?" She asked "That shouldn't be possible, we're decades away from having….Someone stole the grail...How the hell does someone steal the Grail? Well okay there was that time with the Nazis but you said the church stopped that."

Mana collapsed into a chair. Head buried in her hand. This was a nightmare, this was beyond a nightmare. This was… this was one of those situations where Mana didn't even know how to feel. What her father was telling her was impossible for so many different reasons. Yet the seriousness in his voice made it clear that it was happening.

The backlash, she couldn't even begin to imagine the backlash from this. Very bad things were about to happen. The Mage's Association would be up in arms, several families would be murderously unhappy.. The Executors were probably already chomping at the bit, waiting for a target.

"So who did this?" Mana asked. Surely they must have some idea who was so brazen as to outright steal the Greater Grail and make off with it like some deranged bandit.

"What sort of monster?...Oh, that kind." Mana replied numbly.

Somehow, this had gotten even more complicated.

/

Ria stared at her hand in confusion, blinking a few times to make sure this wasn't just sleep playing tricks on her mind.

There was a red tattoo on the back of her left hand, resembling three pairs of stylized wings.

Things had been confusing recently, what with past versions of her parents along with their Evangelions suddenly appearing in the middle of the city. But this was unique.

She was certain this had not been there last night, Ria had occasionally given thought to getting a tattoo, but not anytime soon. And nothing so...vaguely biblical.

She got about of bed, her eyes still focused on her hand.

That's when a circle appeared in the carpet. A glowing circle of light with strange runes suddenly appearing inside of it, burning patterns in the carpet. Ria could only stare in abject confusion for a moment but the light turned blinding.

Then it vanished, leaving a figure standing in the center of where the circle had been.

"I ask of you: Are you my-" The figure began.

"Mom?" Ria blurted out.

The figure was unmistakably her mom. Yet she looked to be wearing a plug suit. One that somehow fit her as an adult, and looked a bit more stylized than the one Asuka wore.

"Ria?" The figure replied, looking just as surprised.

Ria stared at her in shock for a moment before walking to her door, opening it and sticking her head outside. Despite what had just happened, her mother was still out there, reading the Newspaper.

Ria looked between her mother and the figure standing in her room. Going back and forth several times, trying desperately to see if this was some trick of the mind or if she had gone insane.

Nope, the figure was still standing there, spitting image of her mother.

This hadn't been like when the Pilots appeared, she hadn't felt anything before hand. No spark in the back of her mind. Not to mention the size was completely different, having brought forth just a single person. Then there was the strange markings on her hand.

The two looked at each other quizzically for second.

"I have questions." Ria said flatly "Many, many questions."

/

"I ask of you: Are you my master?" Said the woman standing before Shinji.

Shinji had fallen to the ground, startled and confused.

Even considering that not to long ago he had traveled 20 years into the future and was currently living in the same apartment as he's sorta daughter. This was one of the oddest moments in Shinji's life.

This woman looked like some sort of knight or king of old, judging by the engraved armor she was wearing. This image was further enhanced by the regal tone of her words and the proud way she carried herself.

Shinji's mind looked for a response, as he lay there staring at the woman who had been all accounts just magically appeared in his bedroom. After a moment his brain gave up and Shinji passed out. Leaving the woman standing there, feeling rather awkward.

/

Dimitri was confused. Scratch that, Dimitri was currently questioning his very sanity, and if the sell by date on last night's Miso soup had been at all accurate.

Zeruel was standing before him, in his room. Appearing seemingly out of thin air after a bizarre light show.

Dimitri didn't know Ria Soryu, but he knew enough about to know that this was the same woman. Only she looked like she was in her thirties, twice her actual age and older than was even possible for an angel. Her outfit was strange, resembling heavy combat armor, painted in the color scheme of her original self. She glared at him with red eyes alive with feral hate, looking like she was ready to rip his head off at any moment. Which made Dimitri nervous, he liked having his head attached to his body.

"Okay so Soryu, explain how exactly-." Dimitri began.

"Berserker." Zeruel snarled.

"What?"

"You will call me Berserker." she insisted, growling.

Dimitri was far too terrified to disagree.

"Okay, Berserker. Explain why you think Ramiel's involved with this? I mean Ramiel has his weird little plan but none of us really take it seriously" He asked

"I have seen this before, Master." She replied, venom filling the last word. "Differently, yes. Far differently, but Ramiel is completely serious in his goals and he would burn the world to achieve them. This...my existence, and whatever else has happened is likely by his hands. He believes he has found a new way to achieve his goals and enacted it without even considering the consequences."

Well that didn't sound good.

"So what do we do?" Dimitri asked nervously

"We find him and kill him, along with Okito. And any other Angel or Master who stands in our way." Berserker declared.

/

 

[Teen Spirit]

"Peace?!" Ria said, outraged. "You're making peace with IRUEL?! Are you insane? He hacked the defense network and probably the government itself for all we know!"

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She could barely accept that this was even being considered. Iruel may have not been working with Ramiel anymore, but he was still an enemy. He, Israfel, and Sahaquiel. They were all enemies of WILLE and humanity in general. The Prime Minister was a fool for considering this.

...Or worse, a traitor.

"Rest assured we're not giving them a blanket pardon like we had done with you. Iruel and the others will be placed under close scrutiny during this process," the Prime Minister calmly explained. "There will be an investigation into the Communist Party, probably a broad one considering how much damage Iruel's father may have been able to inflict. But the Angels have made it clear they want out of this fight. Peace with them will take three Angels out of the war. Plus with the information they will provide this we will have the means to bring this war to a swift end."

"What information?" Ria demanded.

"We know about Ramiel's hideouts," Israfel answered. "Even the one he didn't think we knew about. We make this deal, we'll bring WILLE to them and help rescue your General. If you want her rescued, I mean. I figure things have to be running far smoother there now that you actually have a leader who's not a near genocidal moron."

Ria was blindsided by her words. They were actually going to help rescue Misato, they knew where she was? If they were the slightest bit serious about this, that would prove they actually wanted peace. Still…

"So what? You got cold feet so you decided to bail out when the going got rough?" Ria shot back.

If Ria had her way, she would have never gotten involved with this war, but there was a difference between wanting to stay out and being a coward.

Israfel shook her head "We fought because mistakenly believed war was the only possible solution, not helped by Misato's actions. But you made us see we were wrong."

"I did?" Ria questioned.

"When Iruel outed you to WILLE it was for two reasons. First, he had hopped to kill Okito Suzuhara. But the boy, to the misfortune of the world, doesn't die easily. Second, he wanted to see what would happen if WILLE knew what you were. We figured either Misato would kill you, thus forming massive internal rifts within WILLE along with whatever damage you would manage to inflict before being brought down, or you would kill Misato, in which case either WILLE would cease to exist or you would somehow convince the Pilots and whoever was left to side with you, which if nothing else would be make things rather interesting. But instead, neither of those things happened. The Empress pardoned you and WILLE backed down, proving Ramiel wrong and leaving those allied with Iruel realizing we didn't have to use violence to achieve what we want. Which really left us with no real reason to continue the fight."

It was all Ria could do not to scream. It wasn't new info, but hearing how Iruel had played with her, nearly drove her and Misato, her own grandmother, to kill each other, and almost ruined everything she had built more than even Okito had was hard to bear. She wanted desperately to kill Israfel right now.

"What exactly do you want?" the Empress questioned, waving her hand fan.

"Political reforms," Israfel replied. "Nothing against you. But Iruel has serious issues with the state of Japanese politics."

Ria snorted in laughter. "What? Are you trying to say that you're actually Communists?"

"Not as such," the small Angel replied.

"Still not seeing any reason why we should make peace with you," Ria said bluntly. "You were among the first to attack us, Iruel has compromised national security, and Sahaquiel killed several people during their assault on WILLE."

"Your mother killed hundreds of JSSDF troops during Third Impact," Israfel shot back.

"That was self defense, you damn gremlin!" Ria roared.

"What about Dr. Akagi?" the Prime Minister said.

"What about her?" Ria replied.

"Dr. Ritsuko Akagi committed horrible offenses, crimes against science and man. And is more than likely guilty of treason, maybe even crimes against humanity for her part in SEELE and NERV's plans to cause Third Impact. But she was pardoned in exchange for her testimony and because she proved vital to WILLE in it's early days," he pointed out.

"And if she turns evil she can't glass half of Kyoto by herself," Ria shot back.

The Prime Minister turned to the Empress. "Your Majesty, if we make this deal we've reduced the number of Angels we're fighting to four, maybe even three. In one stroke we'll have Ramiel on the run."

"And Iruel at your back, with a dagger," Ria added darkly.

"WILLE isn't winning!" the Prime Minister shouted, growing angry. "Three battles. Three battles and the only real victories we have secured were thanks to Ms. Soryu here. How many times have the Angels been able invade WILLE itself with little consequence? And now it's leader is being held captive by Ramiel, being experimented upon and tortured. WILLE is ineffective and compromised. And the longer this war drags on the more we run the risk of this being exposed. And if this gets to the public, complete and utter chaos will ensue."

He had valid points. It didn't mean he was right, though. Only Shamshel had died since this began. And how easily Ramiel had been able to take Misato was disturbing. He had inside help, but from who?

Plus Ria found herself mulling over what Adam and Lilith had said. They were testing Okito, seeing if redemption was possible for even him. If they wanted the others to try and redeem themselves, shouldn't she support that? If nothing else it would lessen Lilith's anger. And she really, really didn't want any of this becoming public knowledge. The backlash against her family would be... considerable. On top of that, all the cultists that still thought of her parents as religious figures would go nuts in their defense.

Still, she wasn't sure. She felt torn between what Adam had told her and what she wanted. She wanted Iruel, Israfel, and pretty much every other Angel from this world dead. Leaving just her, Dimitri, and the visitors in a world of humans. And there was something about the Prime Minister's behavior that seemed suspect. Her instincts were screaming he was up to something.

"Who did you first go to with this peace deal?" Ria asked, glaring at Israfel.

"The Prime Minister's office," the child replied.

"Why?" Ria questioned.

"It seemed the best avenue for getting an audience," Israfel shrugged.

Ria turned her attention to the Prime Minister.

"And why was that?" she asked judgmentally.

"What are you trying to say?" the Prime Minister said, narrowing his eyes.

Ria's fist clenched at her side. "I'm saying it's pretty clear that Iruel needed some manner of government help to hack the defense network and I'm starting to think it's not the Communist Party we should be investigating."

The Prime Minister's anger was immediate. "You dare!? You're accusing me of treason."

"Quite," Ria said bluntly. "You tried to control me once, after all, and now you seem far, far too willing to trust a girl who's betrayed an ally already and is working with a walking, talking threat to virtually anything electronic. You would have far more access to something like the Defense network than a random member of the Imperial Diet. Our Defense Cannons were compromised after your government people got involved."

"Ria," the Empress said cautiously. "Your concerns are understandable but I would advise against making accusations so rashly."

"I know of no such collaboration."

The room turned towards Israfel.

"I mean, we undeniably did have humans working with us, sure. But no one that high of a level. I won't deny what I've done. But we are being honest here. We want peace. Getting involved with this war was a mistake. A mistake we intend to fix," she explained.

The room was silent for a moment. No one was sure what to say.

"How about this," Israfel went on. "What if only agree to a cease fire for the moment. We'll sign a full deal once we've brought back General Katsuragi. Leaving you free to refuse our deal."

The Empress considered her offer for a moment as Ria paced nervously, her eyes focused on the Prime Minister.

She did not trust the man.

"I admit to having my misgivings about dealing with you. In light of what you had done," the Empress said wearily. "Tell me, wherever the General is being kept, do you think Ramiel or one of his associates will be there, if and when we raid the place?"

"More than likely. It is his main base of operations in Kyoto," Israfel replied.

"Will you fight them if such a thing occurs?" the Empress pressed.

"With pleasure," Israfel said with a most unwholesome smile. "Few want Ramiel dead as much as I do."

The Empress sighed. "I can't ignore what you've done to my country and its people. But I can't ignore the benefit of what you've offered. If you can bring back Misato Katsuragi, I'll accept your deal. Katsuragi will not doubt protest, but she won't be able to harm you."

"Thank you., Israfel said with curtsy.

"I'll go along with the deal," Ria said, reluctantly, "but if you deceive us in any way I will rip out your throat."

"Shocking, truly," Israfel deadpanned.

The Prime Minister rubbed his hands together. "Wonderful, wonderful."

"As for you," Ria turned towards the Prime Minister, "a friend of mine was hurt by Iruel's actions, nearly killed. If I find any evidence you had a hand in helping Iruel, I will be back to claim your head."

"You're threatening the life of your Prime Minister, girl. I would be more careful with your words if I was you," he warned.

Ria glared at him, red eyes focused tightly on his own.

"The only man who ever defeated me is my father. And he is loyal to me and I to him. Nothing you have, nothing you command, can hurt me. You will do well to remember that."

She turned towards the Empress. "Thank you for involving me in this matter." She bowed.

"And thank you for agreeing with me," the Empress replied.

Ria shrugged, an awkward gesture in her armor. "Anything is possible these days, why not peace?"

 

[Teen Spirit]

So originally this was going to be a second part to Twenty Forward but I realized I wanted to do different things with the concept so consider this the rebuild of that omake.

/

When the light appeared for the third time. It had almost become old hat. It was still a confusing a shocking event. But the moment it appeared, both WILLE and Ria braced themselves for what might come. There was a sense of confusion and mystery. Rei had appeared in a time of need, and Shinji and Asuka's arrival indirectly uncovered the Angel's very existence. Why now? Why would Leliel send someone else? There was no battle, or immanent threat. Indeed, Ria had been at school when it happened. So why send more? What were they scared of? What was about to happen?

What appeared made them even more confused. It was Unit-01, though like Rei's altered Unit-00, it was clearly not the Unit-01 they knew. Though the differences this time were far more noticeable. Most of the purple in its color scheme had been replaced with a distinct deep black, and it was armored. A thick layer of armor had been placed over it's chest, arms and legs, with it's shoulder pylons noticeably enlarged. An axe was held firmly in one hand.

Ria stared at it cautiously from the doorway of the WILLE's temporary command tent. Unit-01 still scared her in many ways, so seeing it upgraded like this made her nervous.

She could hear Misato asking Sub-Commander Soryu something behind her, much to Ria's annoyance. Ria and Misato were doing their damnedest to pretend the other wasn't there. Far too much anger and resentment between the two. It was honestly a surprise neither had tried to kill the other, again. Ria's mother was pretty much the only thing keeping them from ripping each other apart.

Even still, Ria was listening when the General started going over the facts. The Pilot wasn't a version of her father, or her mother, or anyone they knew. It was just some girl, and a guy….who had been standing on one of Unit-01's shoulders. Which made an already confusing situation that much weirder. The Pilot was insisting she was friendly, but had asked to speak to Misato specifically before she explained who she was. Misato and Ria. She had been specific on Ria being there as well.Which raised a great deal of questions.

Ria was nervous, and confused. Mostly confused, very confused.

After several tense minutes filled with angry glaring and exhausted sighs from Asuka, the Pilot and her passenger arrived.

The Pilot was a girl, a little younger than Ria herself, maybe as young as the original Pilots. Ria couldn't be certain. She was a slender thing, average height, dark brown hair tied up in a long ponytail with bright blue eyes that were alive with eagerness. Her plugsuit was odd, a bit bulkier, armored in places, and what appeared to be a small computer was built into the suit's right arm. The bottom half of it was largely bluish grey while the top was mostly black. There was something familiar about her. Relative that didn't exist here, perhaps, like a sister or a cousin? Did seem rather plausible, despite how absurd it sounded. After all the Asuka that Rei knew had an entirely different last name for no reason they could discern.

The mysterious Pilot smiled warmly at all of them.

"Ahh, good," she said with relief, "all three of you are here."

"Yet you're one shy," Misato noted. "Where's your friend?"

"I'm having him stand outside for the moment. Don't worry, he's harmless." The Pilot explained as she opened up her wrist mounted computer. "Let me just make sure the dates are right here, don't want to give any false spoilers after all."

Misato looked at Suzuhara who nodded in affirmation. Security had an eye on them at least.

"Quick question, does this roughly match up with what's happened to you so far?" the Pilot said as she turned her screen around, revealing a bullet-pointed list.

The list was detailed account of everything that had happened since this war had begun. Unit-01 and Unit-02 appearing, Okito attacking, Sahamshel's attack in the garage, Okito and Ria's fight in her apartment, the assault on WILLE... the multiple assaults on WILLE, actually. More or less everything of note that had happened until today. Some of it was strangely specific, too. Mentioning how Okito had outed Ria to her parents using a recording of the conversation they had right after the first attack. Some of it was stuff that no more than a half dozen people knew about.

"...Yes, that matches up quite well," Asuka said, her voice edged with suspicion. "How do you have that list?"

"Are you a time traveler?" Ria asked point blank. That seemed the only way this girl could know half of that. "Another one?"

"Or from a close enough equivalent alternate universe," the girl shrugged casually. "Same thing, really. Basically like what happened the first time for you guys, only in reverse. I'm from the future, obviously. Be really weird if I had that all info and I was from the past. Unless I was looping, or I had survived the head death of the universe and was going for another go around, which I'm not to be clear."

"Who are you?" Misato asked.

"In due time," the girl said as tapped a few buttons on her computer. "The video will explain things."

"...You have a video for situations like this?" Asuka asked.

"I have twenty," the girl corrected with a grin. "Not that we've ever needed them, but when you've dealt with as much cross-dimensional nonsense as we have, it doesn't hurt to be prepared."

That was a pretty good point, Ria had to admit, and she could already see her mother was thinking along similar lines.

The computer turned into a projection, somehow projecting an image into the open air in front of the girl.

Future tech, of course. Girl probably has flying cars and robots primed for revolt back home.

At first it was just displaying WILLE's logo on a black backdrop. A moment later the image was replaced with a woman sitting at a desk.

Ria recoiled in shock, as did both her mother and Misato. The woman was... her. Older sure, by decades perhaps. But Ria could still see herself in the woman, her hair tied in a bun, her eyes focused on a paper in her hands.

"Alright, if this recording is playing then we're in situation 1, scenario 4," her older self explained, "and you just had some of our people dropped onto your lap."

Somehow, despite being a recording, her other self turned towards Misato, staring at her with amusement, a sneer across her face.

"Yes I did say 'our people'," the other Ria mocked. "Oh that's gotta sting, doesn't it Misato? Twenty two years in the future and I'm still alive, Working for WILLE even. Few here hate me anymore, even you apologized, realizing you were horribly, horribly wrong about me and had been a complete and utter asshole about this whole thing."

Misato glared at the screen in anger. Ria couldn't help but find the sight amusing. Though...Misato apologizing? That seemed incredibly unlikely.

"But I'm getting off topic, here. I really don't need to worry about scoring points on an argument decades resolved from my point of view." Her other self returned to a more diplomatic tone. "Anyways, if this message has reached you that means Leliel has decided, yet again, that the best solution to a problem is to throw something at it. In this case that something came from your future, or close enough. This particular something was Unit-01 and it's Pilot, the Eight Child. My Daughter, Aki Kirishima-Soryu."

"WHAT!" most of the room blurted out, save for Ria, who let out a confused, half-strangled grunt.

"Yo." Aki gave a casual half wave, smiling.

Ria stared at the girl in shock, her mind reeling with a thousand thoughts.

"I can imagine there's currently a wave of shock running through the room," the recorded Ria went on, "and yes, I'm aware that my daughter is currently piloting the thing that killed my original self. Believe me, her piloting was not my idea in the slightest but Unit-01 was no longer responding to Shinji and well... we were out of options. It's a long story. And to be clear, Aki's human. My counterpart, who's no doubt still in a state of shock at the moment, would already have noticed if she wasn't."

"Great, just great," Asuka said, pinching her nose. "This fight goes on so long that my grandchildren have to fight in it. Damn it."

Aki paused the video. "To be fair, it stopped for a long while. Then it turned out Angels could reincarnate, and other nations started building Evas or things close to Evas. Most of the fighting I've done is against other Evangelions and Drones, not Angels."

"Wait," Ria replied, "what?!"

"Video will explain," Aki said, resuming the video.

"Which brings me to the Aki's passenger, who she's no doubt hiding for the moment so my younger self wouldn't try to kill him on sight," Ria's recording said.

The older Ria somehow turned towards her.

"For the record, don't do that. He's a good kid. Give him a chance."

Ria was too confused to do anything more than stare.

"Asahi, come in here!" her recording yelled.

A young man stepped into the room. He was on the tall side, about Ria's height. Surprisingly, he was almost the spitting image of a young Touji Suzuhara. He was also an Angel. Even in her surprised stupor, Ria didn't need more than a second to figure out who his mother is.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Touji muttered in disbelief.

"Hello," Asahi said meekly.

"As you may have noticed, he's Kodama's kid," the recording explained. "Suzuharas are kind of cursed, I guess. Thankfully, Asahi here is far smarter than his uncle was. Or his original counterpart; he's Ramiel. Angels can reincarnate, long story."

Asahi looked incredibly nervous standing there.

"For the record, I don't really remember being Andrew Langley, or Ramiel. So don't bother asking about that because I don't have any answers and would really just rather be home right now," he said rapidly.

"No doubt at this very moment, my WILLE is working hard to bring these two back to our time," the recording went on, "but unless Leliel gets off her ass and actually helps for once, that's not easy or accurate to do. They may be here weeks or even a couple of years, subjective, on either side. Time travel is messy. Until we manage to return them to our time, they're both more than happy to help you stop Ramiel and the others. Just be sure to take good care of them. Never forget, they're family." Ria's recording somehow glared at Misato again.

The video ended, leaving the two time travelers standing there, with the entire room staring at them.

"So, any questions?" Aki asked brightly.

/

'Daughter.'

The term ran through Ria's head over and over again as she paced through the halls. The word felt strange her mind.

It wasn't that she didn't want kids. It wasn't something she gave much thought to but eventually she assumed she would adopt one or two kids once she hit thirty or so. And Aki was a wonderful, wonderful assurance that things would work out in the end. It wasn't certain, but there was now unmistakably a good chance that Ria could have a happy life with Mari and she wouldn't spend the rest of her life being spat upon by WILLE.

Still, it was weird.

"So I guess the shoe's on the other foot now?" a voice teased.

Ria turned to see the younger Asuka standing behind her, broad grin on her face.

"Pardon?" Ria said.

"You know, you pulled the whole "I'm your daughter thing from the future!" on me. Now you have this Aki pulling it on you."

"I think the situation between us is more parent from the past," Ria commented. "Though I'm starting to get why things between you and my mom are so weird. Seeing my future self in that recording was…"

"Not how you pictured yourself?" Asuka finished.

"Yeah," Ria agreed. "I mean, I was hoping to get back into writing once this all was over. I mean it's nice that I'm alive in that future, but it's a bit depressing that I'm-"

A excited scream interrupted. "Senpai!"

Aki rushed down the hallway, grabbing Asuka in an unexpected hug.

"Get... off... me!" Asuka warned.

Aki released her hug. "Sorry, sorry! Just so glad to see you, Senpai!"

"Why are you calling me that?" Asuka replied, her eye twitching slightly.

"Because you're the one who trained me, of course!" Aki explained happily. "Everything I learned about piloting an Eva I learned from you. You're also basically my commanding officer."

"Really?" Asuka puffed up her chest in pride. "Well it's good to hear the future isn't all bad. I have to go now, I'll let you two catch up."

She walked away, leaving Aki, and Ria alone in the hallway.

She looked a lot like Mari, Ria realized. Now that she thought about it, the family resemblance between the two was unmistakable.

Aki looked her over. "So you were pretty much always this tall."

"Well not always but... pretty much." Ria said awkwardly.

"So...how are you holding up?" she asked. "I mean being stranded twenty years in the past has to kind of suck."

Aki shrugged. "A little. I mean it's weird seeing Grandma this young. She looks so much like Aunt Asuka does in my time! Same with Grandpa and Uncle Shinji. I had kind of forgotten they were sort of the same people."

Ria found herself picturing Asuka at her mom's age but still with roughly the same personality, it was an interesting image if nothing else.

"So...how awkward is this for you?" Aki asked.

"Pretty awkward," Ria admitted. "I mean I thought I was numb to this sort of thing with the Pilots but…"

"Didn't expect to have a Pilot for a daughter?" Aki asked.

"Yeah I was hoping underage Piloting wouldn't become a family trait," Ria commented.

"The moms were not happy that day, let me tell you," Aki's tone grew slightly fearful. "The words "I would sooner eat that stupid mech" were uttered more than once. But in the end I was pretty much the only option. Uncle Shinji's synch had dropped too low and my sister, Mana... She refused to even consider getting involved. Honestly, though, it's pretty low key. There's no real organized movement against us among the crazy Angels. And once we defeated the Far Eastern Republic's Evas it quieted down a lot. Fight I was in when I was taken was the first fighting I've seen in five months."

'She has a sister, too?' That was going to take a bit to process.

"Are you worried about that?" Ria asked. She hoped Leliel wasn't stupid enough to take them out at a critical moment.

Aki seemed indifferent. "Ehh, you... I mean my mom could take care of it, if it really got that bad. For emergencies."

"So why doesn't she just serve instead of having you be a Pilot?" Ria asked.

Aki suddenly looked rather sheepish "Ehh... the Government doesn't really like you going full Zeruel... mainly because you kind of, sort of, killed a number of high ranking government officials. And leveled the city of Vladivostok."

"What," was all Ria could say.

"I mean, the killings were entirely justified and the courts cleared you!" Aki explained hurriedly. "And Vladivostok had been evacuated of civilians by that point! But the government still tends to get… uh... nervous when you start being more... proactive."

Well, that was...something. Ria wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it was something.

"Soooo…" Ria said awkwardly. "Besides her wiping out a city, Is my future... other, whatever-self a good parent?"

She was trying to be friendly, but you could never be certain with things like this.

"Well, I liked having an Angel for a mom, if that's what you're wondering," Aki assured her. "I mean, for starters I had the most awesome piggyback rides anyone ever had."

Ria raised an eyebrow.

"You know that form where you're like nearly two and half meters tall and look like a mini-Zeruel?" Aki explained.

"I gave you piggy back rides...in my semi-Angel form?" Ria said in disbelief.

Aki nodded.

'The very incarnation of my rage. God's Wrath made manifest... used to amuse my children,' Ria thought to herself

"And you're pretty much the cool laid back dad most of the time," Aki went on.

"Please don't call me 'dad'," Ria asked. "Mari's mom has already asked some rather odd questions about you."

'Just because I can transform doesn't mean I can transform like that. Man that was a weird conversation'

"Sorry. Having two moms always gets a bit term confusing. Personally I like saying human mom and Angel mom," Aki replied.

"So what's Mari like as a mom, anyways?" Ria asked, curious.

Aki suddenly grew nervous. "Well, I mean I love her to bits but... she can be a bit strict. Not quite tiger mom levels, but strict."

"Mari's strict?" Ria found that surprising. "The girl's turned making puns into a full time hobby."

Now it was Aki's turn to look surprised. "Really?"

"Pretty sure the girl has book of Angel puns stashed somewhere," Ria explained.

Everytime she got an email from Mari there's a 50/50 shot it would be something heartfelt, or some incredibly painful pun about Terminal Dogma.

Ria grabbed Aki by the hand. "Why don't I take you to see her? I know she probably wants to meet you and you could laugh about with your sister when you get back home."

"That sounds awesome," Aki replied.

The two walked away.

 

[Teen Spirit]

Author's Note: Omake still gonna happen

/
Chapter 20:The War Without, The War Within

Mari couldn't help but find it weird being in the same room as Koda Suzuhara. Not because of the Angel thing, but because she how she was acting.

Koda, truth be told, was something of an annoying jerk to deal with. So was Kodama, though she was mostly just angry at everything and everyone these days. But Koda's behavior reminded Mari of how Kodama acted before this all started, when it had just been Ria, Kodama, and Okito hanging out together, with Mari trying to figure out how to fit in. When interacting with Koda, one could almost forget there was a war going on.

"So, you're marrying an Angel. That's pretty bold," Koda commented.

Of course, that illusion didn't tend to last long.

"Uhh, yeah," Mari replied as she sat down for dinner. The break room was largely empty save for them and Kyoko, who was sitting by the window, watching the world as she ate. Her mother was busying working.

"You seem to be taking it in stride. Most people would think twice before agreeing to marry a discount version of Godzilla," Koda said.

"Well, I didn't." Mari stated "Or rather, I thought about it, and decided she was just who I wanted. Why are you weirded out by that?"

"Honestly," Koda's voice took on a serious tone. "I'm not used to people accepting us so quickly when they didn't have to. My own brother took months to come around, same with my Ria. I mean she was there for us, don't get me wrong. But it was a while but she actually looked comfortable being in the room with me. So your attitude is a bit...new to me."

"Well, I am sorry you had to deal with that," Mari said sympathetically.

"So, you hit that yet?" Koda asked bluntly.

Mari nearly choked on a shrimp.

"Some of us are trying to eat here," Kyoko spoke up, looking annoyed.

"What?!" Mari exclaimed.

"Have you started Third Impact with Ria yet?" Koda said suggestively. "Penetrated her Terminal Dogma? Inserted your entry plug? Run some 'close encounter simulations'? Have you tapped that yet?"

Mana had to respect her innuendo game if nothing else. Still... she found herself too embarrassed to even consider answering.

"I mean I would be hitting that if you weren't around. Pretty sure two Angels isn't incest. I mean, our Lilim sides definitely aren't related," Koda said.

"But you're straight," Mari said, surprised. "Or at least the other Kodama is."

"I prefer men," Koda clarified. "'Prefer' being the key word there. I'm sure my counterpart is the same way. Though I admit the Ria in my timeline is slightly more my speed. Actually has real muscles for starters."

"Are you and the Ria of your world dating?" Mari asked, trying to read between the lines.

"No!" The response came perhaps a bit too quickly. "I mean, I've thought about asking a few times but-"

"She's a big giant chicken," Kyoko called out.

Koda shot her a withering glare as Kyoko made mocking clucking noises.

"Err... anyways," she said, trying to pretend that didn't just happen, "don't worry. I'm not trying to move in on what you and Ria have. ...Unless you guys want that."

Mari stared at Koda blankly, not really sure how to respond to that.

"Oh, thank god," Kyoko blurted out as she looked at her phone, "Ria's back."

/

"So the government's made peace with nearly half of our enemies, lovely," Hyuga said, his frustration shared by many in the meeting.

Asuka had gathered everyone of importance within WILLE to the conference room. Ria sat at one end of the long table. Her red, glowing eyes unnerved most of those gathered to some degree.

She didn't know what to make of what Ria had told them. She didn't like the idea of making peace with the Angels, but an actual peace would be just as good as killing them, provided they actually held to treaty. Plus, they could get Misato and Ritsuko back alive.

"I don't like this either," Ria admittedly wearily, "but unless we want to start a second war with the government, we have to play along until we can prove they or the Prime Minister are doing something."

"You know we had to talk Misato down from suspecting the Empress of treason not to long ago, we shouldn't be going down that same road with the Prime Minister."

"I don't know, Prime Minister's behavior is rather suspect," Asuka said, rubbing her chin. She agreed with Ria's judgement, the Prime Minister's behavior was incredibly suspect, but not enough to condemn him just yet.

"Like I said, wait until we have proof," Ria replied calmly. "Our priority right now is dealing with the raids on Ramiel's hideouts. They're going to hit both bases in about thirty hours. We need to have people on both sections of the raids, make sure Israfel and the others don't do anything suspicious at least."

Not a lot of time, but the longer they waited the more risk they had of them moving Misato and Akagi.

"So how is this going to work out?" Kyoko asked. "You travel with one group while Koda and I handle the other?"

Ria sighed slightly, looking introspective for a moment. "Actually I think I should stay here for this. Someone needs to protect WILLE."

Asuka could tell her conversation with Kaworu was weighing heavily on Ria's mind. Regardless of whatever that ghost had said, it did make sense to have one of them protecting WILLE.

Koda and Kyoko looked surprised.

"You sure?" Koda asked, "I mean, I could stay here. Figured you would want a shot at Ramiel."

"No... no. I'm sure," Ria said wearily. "I need some time to rest and think over some things."

Koda shrugged "Okay, more than happy to storm the castle for you, princess."

"And I'm all for getting Misato back, any Misato," Kyoko added.

"I don't suppose we have a plan that doesn't involve us depending on, no offense, teenagers with no actual stake in this?" Ibuki asked.

"Not unless you want to throw Security into a possible meat grinder," Ria replied warningly.

"They've given us no reason to doubt them," Asuka replied. "I trust them."

Kyoko smiled slightly. The room muttered in annoyance but accepted Asuka's judgement. None of them liked depending on Angels like this, but they all realized they were their best option.

"So. All goes well, we find Misato and Dr.Akagi. What do we do with Gendo Ikari if we find him as well?" Koda asked.

The room grew more dour at the mere mention of the former Supreme Commander of NERV. Those who had served under him at NERV had nothing but contempt for the man. And even those who never dealt with him knew enough to utterly despise him. Asuka personally had hoped Ramiel would do something decent for once and just rid them of the man, but she doubted he would.

"Grab him if you can but don't take any unneeded risks. He's escaped justice too long and, if we're lucky he might actually have useful information." Asuka ordered. "But I'm not going to shed even one tear if he doesn't come out alive."

Koda nodded.

Asuka turned her attention to whole room. "Alright. This is a boon, albeit a complicated one. If all goes right, Misato will be back here in less than two days and we'll have Ramiel on the run. You don't like working with Iruel, I don't like it. But we have to make the most of it. We have thirty hours to prepare. We don't know how Ramiel is going to react to this so we have to assume the worse. I want the Evas ready to launch at a moments notice and all defensive measures enacted or prepared. Dismissed."

/

Shinji found Kyoko not far outside her room.

"Hey." He said awkwardly "How are you doing?"

She wasn't exactly his daughter, he knew, and the Shinji she knew was a different man, but he still found himself worrying for her. Until Kyoko Ikari could get back home, he was the closest thing she had to a father and he had to act accordingly.

Plus, he couldn't stop feeling vaguely guilty and wondering if he'd somehow wiped out her existence in this universe by running away and not making things work out with Asuka when they were together the first time. He couldn't even say that had been impossible. Kyoko's mere existence testified there was at least one world where they'd been stronger, and made it work...

'Of course, I invent entire new ways to feel like a guilty screw-up. I'm Shinji Ikari, and I'm the world's greatest neurotic...'

"I'm fine," Kyoko said quietly.

"You know you don't have to join in this assault," Shinji pointed out. "I mean, the government is sending soldiers, they have it pretty well covered."

"I want to be a part of it," Kyoko insisted. "I'm not going to just sit by and do nothing…"

Kyoko choked on her words, her eyes fixated on one spot on the floor ahead.

"Are you okay?" Shinji asked, a bit worried.

"It was right there," Kyoko said quietly, her arm outstretched, pointing. "Right there where we found it..."

"Found?" Shinji looked to see she was pointing at a random stretch of hallway near Maya Ibuki's office.

"We... never found anything of Misato's body after the first attack," Kyoko explained. "Barely found anyone. Most of WILLE was in ruins. But after two days of looking through the rubble, we found her... her cross, right around there. Burned, half melted, but it was still clearly…"

She trailed off. Silence hung in the air. Shinji stood awkwardly, unsure of what to say.

"I can't bring back my world's Misato," Kyoko said, shaking her head. "But I can't let something happen to her in this world either. I stayed out before because I didn't want to harm anyone. But this... I can't stand by anymore."

Shinji nodded. "I get it. Being involved sucks, but standing on the sideline sometimes is even worse."

Something he knew all too well.

Kyoko gave him a weak smile, and nodded.

/

Mari entered Ria's room to find her fiancée sitting on her bed, eyes closed. The soft snoring made it clear she was fast asleep. She had been so tired she passed out sitting up, still in her armor.

Carefully, Mari sat next to her, doing her best to not disturb her.

"Ria?" she said softly.

Ria about jumped, ending up falling face forward onto the ground with audible thud.

"Ow..." Ria groaned.

Mari winced. "Sorry!"

Ria picked herself up awkwardly and sat back down, the bed groaning in protest slightly under the weight of the armor.

Mari looked at her. Ria's bright red eyes shone back at her. She couldn't deny seeing her like this was a bit exciting, even if Ria looked so exhausted she might just pass out again at any moment.

"You okay?" she asked with worry.

"Longest day of my life," Ria said wearily as she pulled off her armor. Pulling it up and over her head, revealing…

"Oh." Mari said appreciatively. Ria had considerable more muscle mass, particularly around the arms. To see her go from looking so normal just a few hours ago to... this, was rather shocking, even after everything Mari had seen.

Ria smirked as she caught Mari looking her over, before lying down with an exhausted sigh, her head smashing into the pillow.

"How... how long have you been like that?" Mari asked, slowly regaining her focus.

"A few hours. Longest I've ever been like this. I feel fine, just too tired to change back right now." Ria explained. "Didn't even do much physically, but I'm just utterly exhausted right now."

"Well, you did have a busy day," Mari pointed out as she laid down next to her. Ria draped one arm around her and made a happy sound.

How late was it anyways? 3 AM? 4? Mari wasn't sure anymore.

Ria let out a hollow laugh.

"Yeah, this has certainly been the worst and most interesting birthday I've ever had," Ria agreed, before growing serious. "Seen things today I never thought I would see. If Iruel isn't screwing us over...this could be the deciding fight of the war."

Mari looked up at Ria. The distinctly fearful look in her eyes was a little frightening.

"I'm scared," Ria admitted, answering Mari's unspoken question. "Suppose Iruel holds up his end of the bargain, which I don't believe for a moment he will, but suppose he does. Suppose he does and this attack manages to catch Ramiel completely off guard, maybe even kill him. What then?"

"...You've won?" Mari found herself confused by the question. Wasn't that good? Wasn't that what they wanted?

"Yeah, but at that the cost of leaving Iruel and his cohorts alive," Ria answered.

Ahh, now it made sense.

"Normally I would have just said find a way to kill them when it was safe but now…" Ria went on. "'If there is hope for you, there is hope for them all.' That's what Lilith told Okito earlier. She wants them to find redemption."

Ria had explained her encounter with Tabris and the actual Ayanami a while ago. Mari could barely even begin to wrap her brain around it. And for Ria, she's amazed she was able to just go on after that. Speaking with what was effectively her god, that would be enough in a day for most people.

"And you don't want Iruel and the others to be redeemed," Mari observed.

Ria tensed ever so slightly.

"He used me, toyed with me. Nearly conned Misato and I into killing each other. They don't deserve a pardon. But I can't just go against Lilith, even if I disagree with her," Ria explained.

"Why not?" Mari asked bluntly.

"Because I'm terrified of her," was all Ria would say.

She rolled, shifting until she was one side. She wrapped her other arm around Mari, holding her close as she drifted off into sleep.

Ria was warm, almost uncomfortably so. But Mari didn't dare move. Her fiancée needed all the comfort she could get right now.

/

Hikari left WILLE early the next morning. Not that anyone noticed. As far as anyone else was concerned, she was still sleeping in her room as Touji did his early morning patrol. Which indeed she was; her body never left her sleeping roll, but she was far more than she once was, her mind and will merged with a living infection, and infections spread.

Few paid much attention to a security officer leaving after their twenty hour shift. They were just one of a couple dozen leaving after all. Unknown to everyone save for Hikari, they had been infected hours ago, their mind and will suppressed and replaced.

The security officer traveled a ways, taking various trains and even a few buses, doing their best to make sure no one followed them. They changed into civilian clothes in an abandoned alleyway. Eventually they traveled to a coffee shop and grabbed a nearby pay phone. They did their best to look casual as they dialed.

"Don't want to ruin the surprise, but they're planning on throwing you a party," they said, giving out the coded phrase.

A sigh came through the other end of the line.

"Okay," Ramiel said. "Best prepare, then. By this time tomorrow we'll have your son back."

/

 

[Teen Spirit]

Ria, Koda, and Kyoko sat around a table covered in empty plates, bowls, and cups. Between the three of them they had put away more food in a few hours than a family of four would eat in a week. They wouldn't be running out of energy anytime soon, at least. Ria still had glowing eyes and a rather muscled body, but it wasn't taking any serious toll on her and it didn't mess with her mind, so she didn't see any harm in keeping at the ready. Particularly after what Lilith and Adam had said.

"So…" Koda said awkwardly. "You saw Kaworu? How's he doing?"

Ria stared at her, trying to hide just offended she was by Koda's flippancy. "He seemed well. I mean, as well as cryptic ghosts can be."

"Wonder why we haven't seen him. I mean, Koda's a Herald as well," Kyoko commented.

"Doesn't seem like either of them really like that you're here. Leliel screwed things up almost as much in their eyes," Ria explained.

Kyoko nodded. She hated Leliel more than almost every other Angel save for Ramiel.

"Well, once this is taken care of, we'll make tracking down Leliel our next goal," Koda said.

Then find and kill Bardiel, then get themselves home, then send the Pilots home and help them with Gendo and SEELE, then things return to normal. Then take a vacation.

Normal... Only with Okito imprisoned and Kodama hating her. She had Mari, but once the Pilots and these two left, that was all she would have. And, provided they didn't turn on them, that would mean living with Iruel and the others. Building a future while always worrying if and when Iruel would start something, reignite the war, or activate their own secret plot of some damn thing like Ramiel's madness.

Ria tried not to despair too much. With luck, Kodama would calm down with time. Maybe she could get her friend back one day. And college provided plenty of chances to meet new people. Besides, peace would mean a chance for normalcy. She still occasionally struggled with questions of what she was exactly, but it would be nice to get back being "Ria: Aspiring Writer" and not have to worry about those questions anymore. Plus there was her future with Mari…

She looked at her ring, now secured in it's box. Safely stowed away, to be returned to her finger once she was done here.

Ria wanted a happy future with Mari. She dreamed of it, even. But would that cost? Accepting peace with someone she couldn't, wouldn't trust? Or pushing the fight on for months or even years?

Ultimately a question for another time. They had far too much to worry about as it was to worry about what came after.

"So," Ria said evenly, "there are two bases. One on the south end of the city and the other near the old University. Israfel is going to the old University and Sahaquiel will hit the south end, each backed by roughly a platoon's worth of soldiers. Iruel's presumably providing tech support or whatever, but we still need to figure out who goes where."

"I got south end," Koda said in between picking her teeth. "Sahaquiel's a walking bomb. I have better endurance. Plus this world's Israfel is basically bite sized for Kyoko."

"Could you not?" Kyoko deadpanned.

"Well, you're the only one here who's practiced cannibalism before," Koda snarked.

Kyoko become angry, her face flushed. "I have not!"

Ria held up her hand, specifically the replacement of the one Kyoko had bitten off when they first met.

"Oh... right." Kyoko said sheepishly. "Um... sorry. Anyways, yeah, I'll deal with the old university base. What do we do if we encounter Ramiel?"

"Call for backup. Don't engage unless you have to prevent him from escaping, Ramiel's currently our biggest threat. If we find him I don't want any of us taking any more risks than we have to," Ria said, completely seriously.

"And Arael?" Koda added.

Both Ria and Kyoko sneered at the name.

"If you see him, he dies," Ria said quietly. "Don't look for vengeance, don't try to extend his suffering, don't try to capture him. Just make sure his head is not connected to his body as fast as you possibly can."

Personally she wanted nothing more than to make Arael suffer until he begged for death but... practicality had to be considered.

Kyoko nodded in agreement.

"As for the others," she went on, "Armisael and Sandalphon, capture them if you can but don't risk it. If you find Matarael... just let him go home if he hasn't become an obvious threat."

"Right," Koda nodded.

"Understood," Kyoko agreed.

/

Armisael paced around the base as various masked cultists worked around her frantically, packing up anything and everything valuable.

Iruel hadn't just betrayed them. He had sided with the Lilim. Six Angels now were working with or for the Lilim. Seven, if Dimitri ever escaped.

Armisael was horrified. It had been us versus them, Angels versus Humans. That's what Ramiel had told them, that's what Misato's actions had shown, that's why Armisael was here. She was in the middle of a promising college education and had a decent internship that actually paid. She didn't need this. She didn't want godhood, she just wanted to survive. Ramiel had seemed the best, the only way to actually survive. Zeruel's situation had just been a freak accident of birth, one Misato's madness would soon correct. But that didn't happen, nothing Ramiel had told them had come true.

"My lady," one of the masked men said reverently. "We've secured Matariel and are working on moving the Heretics and test subject as we speak."

"Leave them," Armisael snapped, surprising even herself.

The guard stared at her, obviously confused.

'If Ramiel's plans work, we don't need them as hostages. If he fails... they'll never stop hunting us as long as we have them,' she told herself.

Cowardly? Without a doubt. And Ramiel would be beyond furious, but it seemed the most sensible option. Ramiel had already gotten what he needed out of both the General and Ikari, anything more he would do would just needlessly anger things, same with doing anything to the scientist. Nothing more could be gained by needlessly provoking WILLE.

"You heard me," she said more firmly. "Leave them here. They're useless to us now."

"But...Lord Ramiel left strict orders to-"

*SLAP*

Armisael backhanded the cultist across the face, cracking his mask. A few of the other Lilim stopped what they we're doing and stared for a moment before rushing back to their duties.

"Ramiel isn't here!" Armisael said angrily. "And unless you want WILLE hunting us to the ends of the world, I suggest you do what I say, whelp!"

"Y-yes ma'am," the man said nervously, "I'll make sure they're left here."

"Good." Armisael nodded before turning her attention to some of the equipment being removed.

Hopefully with Misato back, WILLE would turn against the government and those allied with Iruel. That would give them some breathing room.

/

The armored personnel carrier was cramped, filled with men in heavy armor and the uniforms of the Imperial Army, each of them carrying a rifle. Somehow each man looked more dour than the last.

Koda and Sahaquiel sat across each at the end of the APC. Koda sat leaning back, arms behind her head in an attempt to seem casual.

"So, what's your game here?" Koda asked as she stared at the other Angel.

"Like Israfel said. We wanted something, thought using Ramiel was the only way to achieve it, realized he wasn't, so we defected. Simple as that," Sahaquiel explained.

"Uh huh," Koda was skeptically. "And what exactly do you want?"

"Political changes," Sahaquiel replied. "Let me ask you a question. Who do you think should hold political power in Japan, or any government, really?"

"The Empress," Koda said firmly.

Sahaquiel raised an eyebrow, a dry look of amusement spread across her face.

"You can't be serious," she stated. "We know better than anyone that Divine Right is a lie. We're the closest thing to Divine in this world and even that doesn't give us any right to rule."

"It's not about Divine anything," Koda said, growing serious. "The Empress was raised from birth to shoulder the responsibility of rulership. Her power isn't unlimited but it's strong enough so that she can make unpopular but needed decisions an elected official never could."

Politics wasn't Koda's favorite subject by any stretch, but she had her loyalties and beliefs.

Sahaquiel let out an amused huff.

"So what do you believe?" Koda asked. "I assume you're not actually a communist."

"I believe that rulership is far too important to important to leave in the hands of the common person or be decided by bloodline. That most people wouldn't know good leadership if it bit them on the face. Rulership should be based on actual skill, and the time has come for the return of Philosopher-Kings. For a certain value of Philosopher, and king," Sahaquiel stated.

"You prepared that line didn't you?" Koda mocked.

"...Yes," Sahaquiel admitted.

Koda laughed slightly. At least she was honest about that.

The two looked at each other awkwardly, each realizing the other would try to kill them if for a moment they suspected the other was about to attack them. That would be a messy and bloody fight.

The APC rumbled beneath them, the faint smell of oil lingering through the air.

"So Ramiel, if we encounter him... What's your plan?" Koda asked.

"Lot's and lots of boom." the other Angel replied.

That was a plan that Koda couldn't help but agree to.

The armored vehicle came to a stop, Koda lurching slightly to her right.

"We're here," the driver announced.

'So we are.' Koda braced herself for the battle to come.

/

"Both groups have reached their targets," Maya announced.

Asuka's eyes where focused on the screen as she sat in front of the command center. There was little she could do besides give orders to Kyoko and Koda, which only increased her anxiety. She was worried. Worried for Kyoko, for Misato, maybe even a bit for Doctor Akagi. A lot was riding on this mission.

She watched as both teams breached into the hidden bases at nearly the exact same moment. Kyoko and Koda where among the first in, each being careful to make sure Israfel and Sahaquiel where ahead of them.

Shinji stood next to her, watching nervously.

Things were progressing smoothly. The few people they encountered so far where humans wearing beaked Angel masks, presumably mercenaries or fanatics working for Ramiel. They appeared taken by surprise and either surrendered quickly or were gunned down.

"Ma'am," Maya's voice grew worried. "We have two unmarked six-wheel trucks that have suddenly turned towards WILLE."

No truck routes of note ran close to WILLE by design. And it wasn't one of theirs.

'A failsafe revenge plan or did they know we were coming?' Asuka wondered.

"Prepare countermeasures," Asuka ordered. "Order the trucks to stop. If they don't, destroy them."

Maya relayed the message.

If Ramiel was trying to get in, they would make him work for it.

Suddenly two security guards and one of the minor technicians stood up, and began to laugh. Strange rasping laughs, gasping heavily for air.

Asuka stared in confusion, along with the rest of the Command Room.

Then it clicked, Okito's warning.

Asuka quickly slammed the emergency alarm button and grabbed a pistol.

Red flashing lights and blaring alarms filled the room as she leveled her pistol at the laughing guard. He simply jumped out of the way, leaping halfway across the room, his limbs stretching in mid-air.

WILLE had been compromised, Bardiel was here.

/

Touji was dragged down kicking and screaming by two of his former comrades, each of them had one of their arms wrapped him like giant snakes, disturbingly sincere smiles across their faces. Bardiel had gotten to them.

Bardiel… His biggest fear, the reason he hadn't slept soundly in weeks, the reason he and his family had given each other special codes just coming back from the store, the reason none of them had really laughed since they first became of aware of it. It was here, at WILLE, and he had been completely oblivious to it.

They dragged him into a room and stood him before... his wife, Hikari.

For a brief, terrifying second he thought they had captured her as well. Then he saw her eyes, glowing brightly red.

"No, please no," Touji said weakly, collapsing to his knees.

First Okito and now her? It was too much, too much for him to bear. This was a nightmare from which he could not escape.

He felt Hikari's hand on his cheek, pulling him up to look her in the eyes as she smiled down sweetly at him.

"You think I'm gone, don't you?" she asked. "You think the monster took me away?"

She still acted the same, beneath those eyes it still felt just like her.

"No, please... I can't-I can't take this." Touji could barely find the words.

"When Bardiel leapt out of Sakura and entered me, there was a struggle, a terrifying struggle. Me against a being that had long ago stopped being anything resembling human," Hikari explained calmly. "I was a simple housewife. I should have had no chance. But the being, Bardiel, they had consumed dozens and dozens of people and had probably possessed a hundred more. Thankfully it needed Sakura alive to avoid suspicion or else I think they would have consumed her body and soul too. They were constantly fighting against every soul they had taken into themselves, and during our struggle the voices overwhelmed them, for only a second, but that second was all it took. Bardiel shattered, both soul and mind. And I took the shattered remains of the Angel into myself."

She paused, looking deeply unhappy for a second.

"Sometimes," she said slowly, "I can still hear them, inside me. The souls of everyone Bardiel took. They come to me in my dreams… screaming..."

Touji was paralyzed. He didn't want to believe her, but she still talked like Hikari. It didn't feel like there was someone else pulling the strings. Which made what she was saying all the more terrifying.

"The experience, it changed me, I'll admit," Hikari said tearfully. "But I'm still me. I'm still the girl you knew in high school, I'm still the woman you married."

"Then-then why are you doing this?!" Touji about screamed.

Hikari frowned. "It's the only way our family can be whole again. It's the only way to get our son back."

"Okito's a monster, and he doesn't want to be saved," Touji said, still terrified out of his mind.

"He's a teenage boy," Hikari shot back. "Boys his age make mistakes all the time. Mothers forgive them. Face it, Touji. We have two sons and now we have two daughters, we should be happy but we're not. Our daughters hate each other, our oldest son is imprisoned and we can barely explain why to our youngest. I have a chance to set things right."

She grabbed him close, kissing him on the cheek.

"I'm not crazy about what I'm doing, but it will be over soon and we can get back to being a whole family again," she whispered in his ear, her voice eerily calm.

It was Hikari, Touji realized with mounting horror, but she was insane. The experience fighting Bardiel or whatever was left from the Angel had left her completely detached from reality, convinced that whatever horrors she was unleashing was the best for the family.

Touji struggled against the infected guards as Hikari turned to leave. He begged, pleaded with her to stop. Nothing got through to her.

"I know you don't understand now why I'm doing this., Hikari said as she left. "But you will, with time."

The door closed and locked behind her.

/