“Asuka?!” Shinji roared and Unit 01 took off into a ferocious run toward Unit 02.

Cirus quickly brought up a vital statistics chart for Unit 02’s pilot and saw that she was alive. “She’s alive, Shinji,” he reported quickly.

That information combined with seeing Unit 02 start to ease itself, or at least its upper body, up made Shinji ease to a stop.

The pain from the impact had brought tears to Asuka’s eyes, but she quickly wiped them away as she started to pull herself back up. “…That really hurt,” she explained in a slightly hoarse voice. Her back was in incredible pain as Unit 02 stood up. Asuka grimaced and Unit 02 reached out to balance itself on a building with its hand.

“Asuka, can you fight?” Misato asked softly over a private channel.

Asuka nodded firmly, gritting her teeth against the thick pain in her back.

“…Asuka…” Misato repeated her name in a more concerned manner.

“I’m fine!” Asuka replied firmly.

Misato sighed and turned her attentions back to the swirling vertical mass of black liquid. It solidified into a pillar of black that stretched up past the clouds and was at least five times the width of an Eva.

Rei’s brow creased as she took aim with Unit 00’s cannon and fired three rounds. The glowing white balls of destructive energy zoomed forward and collided with the black liquid mass. Each explosion made a splash that defied gravity, but each deep wound healed almost instantly as the black liquid rushed back in to fill the void. “…My fire has no effect,” she reported calmly as Unit 00 lowered its cannon.

“Hold back, Rei,” Cirus said over the comm as Unit 14 started to move in with its two swords out and ready. “Shinji, start firing when I say, I need you to distract it.”

“Got it,” Shinji replied quickly.

At the base of the pillar its shadow suddenly started to extend along the ground, pouring out like the liquid it was made of. It was also moving directly toward Unit 00. Rei raised her cannon again and fired at the shadow as she started to step back. The moment her first shot made contact she saw it was the same liquid as the pillar itself. Just as she was about to turn and run, the shadow rushed forward, surging over the ground beneath her Eva’s feet and moving far past it.

“Rei?!” Ikari shouted, surging up from his seat.

Unit 00 started to turn still, but its feet were held fast by the black liquid. Rei raised the cannon and fired at the pillar, still facing it, in an attempt to distract it from her, but again her fire had no effect.

Cirus saw Unit 00 struggling and firing at the pillar. Unit 14 changed course and started to run toward Unit 00. “Shinji, change of plans, help Rei,” he said quickly over the comm.

The two Evas ran toward Unit 00, but were still quite far away. Rei let the cannon loosely hang to the side since it was doing her no good. She looked down at her Eva’s feet and her eyes widened. …Like in my dream… she realized in mild shock. The black liquid had flowed over Unit 00’s feet and held them like thick glue.

A stream of liquid suddenly shot out of the towering pillar and stretched out rapidly toward Unit 00 in a criss-crossing streak through the air.

“Rei, look out!” Cirus warned her urgently as he saw it shoot forward.

Rei’s head shot up just in time for her to see it and raise her cannon again, but before she could fire, the tentacle of liquid bent around the cannon and shot through it from the side before wrenching it from her grip and causing it to explode.

And then tendrils of liquid shot up from the ground, wrapping around Unit 00’s legs and pulling it to its knees.

Shinji opened fire with his rifle at the pillar for lack of a better idea. He had to divert its attention at least. Asuka had picked herself up by then and collected a rifle like Unit 01’s, which it was now using to assist Shinji.

Just as Unit 14 was about to reach Unit 00, a wall of liquid flowed out of the pillar and shot between them, knocking Unit 14 back as another wall on Unit 00’s other side came out and blocked her from the rest of them in her own dark hall. Rei! Cirus shouted in his mind. Unit 14 rose back up and slashed at the liquid wall with its swords. A stream of it rushed out and slammed into Unit 14’s chest before shoving the Eva into a building a few hundred meters behind it with ferocious power, throwing the swords from its grip. Cirus groaned from the impact, but quickly reached down and gripped one of the swords again before swiping it through the tentacle, severing it. The part still attached to the wall rushed back in as the rest fell to the ground like water and splashed apart.

All Rei could see was the pillar before her and blackness all around her. The sensation of the tendrils gripping her legs making her shudder. She braced herself and strained to stand up, her legs straightening out slightly as the Eva tried to obey her commands. The sounds of metal and the muffled sound of the Eva itself straining against the blackness filled Rei’s ears. Suddenly the tendrils extended, spiraling all the way up her legs and then around her torso. The sensation made Rei gasp as the cold blackness shot through her body. She gritted her teeth and tried desperately to stand.

Something drew her attention back to the pillar itself and she looked up. Two glowing red splotches flashed near the top of the pillar, looking down at her.

More tendrils shot out of the liquid on the ground and wrapped around her arms up to her shoulders before yanking them down to her sides. It was so cold even with her Eva suit on that she gasped anew, her arms shivering as she clenched her fists around the controls.

The red eyes flashed again and something inside Rei’s mind flashed powerfully. She gasped quietly in pain as it shot through her head like a spike. Her arms could move and she raised them up to hold her head. Another flash made her groan as images started to flash through her mind. She raised one hand weakly out to the Angel, looking out through the fingers of her other hand. Please stop…

Another flash, more powerful than the last two combined made Rei double over in pain and gasp powerfully as an image clarified in her mind. The pain was still there and she was on her knees in the slightly curled up position, the same as her Eva was. Her breathing quivered even though she was in her mind, with the darkness all around her as it had been in her dream. She sensed something in front of her and looked up through her pain at a half-hidden human face. All she could see was the left side of a young man’s head. He had spiky green hair and red eyes, like her own.

“In pain?” the young man asked calmly.

“…Yes,” Rei answered in a tight voice.

“Why?” he continued.

“…Y-you… are hurting me,” she answered again, realizing who the young man was.

A faint smile played over the half of his lips she could see. “Ah yes, indeed you are like us. Like me.”

Rei shook her head slowly, still in pain. “No. I am not like you.”

The young man stepped closer to her, some unseen light source revealing the rest of his appearance. He was wearing a baggy gray, sleeveless shirt, tucked into dark black pants that led down to his plain shoes. His hands were resting easily in his pockets as he looked down at her, kneeling on the unseen floor, with a calm expression on his face. “Are you certain of that?”

“Yes,” she answered firmly despite her state.

“You are quite strong then. But you also feel alone.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked, her body curling down a bit farther.

“Because I want to understand your kind.”

An image flashed through Rei’s mind, making her wince. The image of all her other bodies, torn to pieces and lying at the bottom of their storage unit.

“A man-made creation that does not want to seek out its own purpose. Yet you found comfort with this one,” as the young man spoke an image of Cirus appeared in her mind. “Why is this one different to you?”

Rei shook her head. She didn’t understand any of this. She was in too much pain to think, and didn’t even understand the question the Angel was asking. And then the pain suddenly faded from her body. She curled her arms around her mid-section to stay warm, but looked up at the Angel calmly. “…Please stop.”

“Stop what?”

“Stay out of my mind.”

The young man leaned down very closer to her face. “Why should I?”

“Because you are hurting me,” she answered.

The pain suddenly shot through her again and she gasped.

The walls surrounding Unit 00 poured back toward the Angel, but it was still held fast by the black liquid.

“Get Rei out of there now!” Misato ordered the moment the walls went down.

Not that she needed to. Unit 14 had started running the moment the walls had started to move. But before it could reach Unit 00 an arm shot out of the pillar and reached out, grabbing Unit 14 and slamming it back into the ground with a violent crash. Cirus gritted his teeth against the pain.

Unit 01 was running toward Unit 00 and shooting at the pillar at the same time. The two glowing red eyes focused on it and energy started to build around them.

“Massive energy influx around the Angel!” Ayobi reported urgently.

“Shinji, dodge!” Misato ordered.

Unit 01 fell back as a massive stream of red energy exploded from the eyes and tore through the air directly through where Unit 01 had been. The air shuddered as the beam passed and Unit 01 stood back up slowly. It became very quiet again as the Evas waited.

“We can’t get any information from Unit 00 or its pilot,” Maya reported worriedly.

Cirus looked on with a deeply pained expression on his face. “…Rei.” A shudder ran down his arms as the thought of losing her like this became a possibility for him. How could this happen to her? Why to her? She was innocent! She wasn’t the one who had caused all this, she wasn’t the one who had brought all this down on them, so why did she have to pay the price?! Anger coiled inside of Cirus’ mind and body like a loaded gun being cocked, the trigger finger resting on a hair-sensitive touch. His grip on his controls tightened as Unit 14’s grip on its swords clenched so tightly the metal creaked. I won’t lose her. Not like this… Not like this… Not like this…

His eyes flared beneath his glasses and he looked up with an angrily furrowed brow. Unit 14 shot forward at a speed so fast the air and dust flew away from it. It charged straight at the black pillar that towered above the city.

“Cirus, fall back! You’ll just get yourself-"

“Let him go, Major,” Ikari cut Misato off calmly. “Order Units 01 and 02 to take advantage of whatever distraction he makes and rescue Unit 00 and its pilot.”

Misato turned back from looking up at the Commander with closed eyes. She was so tired of doing this to them. “Shinji, Asuka, if the Angel gets distracted, rescue Rei, that is your top priority. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Shinji replied firmly.

“Yeah, I got it,” Asuka answered, her focus plainly on the Angel itself. Unit 02 pulled a missile launcher from a convenient weapons storage building and moved into position with Unit 01.

The moment Unit 14 grew close to the Angel it reacted, sending out numerous tentacles ferociously whipping toward the Eva. Unit 14 twirled one blade around, slicing several tentacles apart before blocking another directly stabbing tentacle, slicing lengthwise until it stopped coming. It leapt forward, slashing down at another tentacle as three more came down at it from above. The Eva landed on its haunches before it sprang forward with a flip, holding both swords out straight. With the somersaulting motion it sliced apart the tentacles before landing again, now almost directly against the pillar’s surface. The Eva’s eyes flashed as it tore into the pillar of black liquid with its two swords. It swung with incredible power and speed, but whatever damage it did instantly healed. Finally a powerful tentacle, much larger around than any of the others combined, shot out, forming a hand on the end with three fingers and a thumb. It grabbed Unit 14 about the torso and shoulders while continuing to extend, slamming the Eva into the ground with such sheer force that the ground shattered and flew up into the air around the Eva.

Cirus grunted from the pain of the impact, but ignored it otherwise as he raised the Eva’s swords and stabbed them through the arm, running it through completely in two opposite directions. Then Unit 14 swung its hands across its body, slicing the arm off with the rotation of the blades and allowing the Eva to stand.

But even with all that effort, the Angel was still focused on Unit 00.

“Ugh, this is insane! We can’t even distract it from her!” Shinji shouted in frustration and slammed his fist into the controls.

“So let’s add to the distraction,” Asuka replied coolly, her eyes narrowed to slits as Unit 02 raised its missile launcher one-armed and opened fire, unleashing three missiles rapidly.

Shinji joined her and opened fire with Unit 01’s rifle. As their collective fire flashed toward the pillar tendrils shot out and tore through the air toward the oncoming ammunition. One on the left and one on the right, each one taking a different set of firepower and moving in. The left tentacle ran the first missile through completely and bounced back as it exploded, repeating the process with a zigzag pattern of its shape for each missile. The right tentacle skittered through the air like a mad bird, taking out each bullet individually before rushing out toward the origin. Both tendrils streaked forward toward the Evas. Before Asuka could fire again the tendril struck her missile launcher. The weapon exploded in her Eva’s hand, sending violent waves of synch-pain throughout her right arm and face as it sent Unit 02 flying backward. Unit 01 dodged to the side as its rifle was torn asunder and exploded, only barely escaping the same fate as Unit 02, but still winding up on the ground.

The young, green haired, man looked down at Rei calmly. “And your comrades continue to try and save you. How futile their efforts are.”

“…They will destroy you… one way… or another,” Rei replied firmly, still curled down but with power in her words that denied her pain the satisfaction.

The blackness around the young man and her suddenly changed to an image of the city. Rei could see Unit 00,trapped in the black liquid, directly ahead of her, Units 02 and 01 on the ground far to the right, and Unit 14 slashing violently at something very close to her left. “W…what…?” she didn’t know how to ask the question in her mind.

The young man’s face turned fierce with cold anger. “Witness your species’ failure,” he said vehemently and whipped his hand out toward Unit 14.

Another thick arm shout of the pillar and grabbed Unit 14 before flying back with it. Cirus drove both swords into the arm once more, but this time in-flight as he did so. Just as he was about to slice the arm apart as he had the last time, he saw the two red eyes turn to look at him from within the pillar of darkness. They flared brightly and the arm let go. Unit 14 flew back through the air alone for several hundred meters before a catastrophic cross-explosion surged up from the ground beneath it as it traveled. A vertical pillar of swirling green and red energies engulfed the Eva entirely, only a shadowy figure was left visible within the pillar as it shot up toward the sky within it.

“My G’d…” Misato said in quiet shock and horror. “Can he survive that?” she asked, looking down at Maya.

Maya’s eyes were wide as she looked at her screen. “I can’t tell. There’s so much pain registered on his vitals that I can’t read anything else!” she explained firmly.

The cross-explosion fulfilled its shape and the Eva was let go from its vertical ride as the energy dispersed. It came crashing down to earth limply and did just that upon contact, concrete and metal flying into the air as the pilot lay unconscious.

Rei’s eyes widened. “Cirus?!” she shouted as her mental self. She was too drawn into her own mind by the Angel to do otherwise.

“He’s alive,” Maya answered Misato’s unasked question warily. He was badly hurt.

“Pathetic,” the Angel said calmly as it looked back at Rei.

Rei looked up at him angrily, her eyebrows slanted. “He is not pathetic,” she replied powerfully.

“He flew around like a rag-doll,” the Angel said to her derisively.

“He tried to save me! Save me from you,” Rei persisted firmly.

Unit 00’s eye blazed and its head rose up to look back up at the Angel in reality. The black liquid started to unravel from its arms and it strained to stand up again.

The Angel smiled at Rei in her mind and nodded. “You are powerful, but not enough,” he added in a deeply disturbing tone as his eyes narrowed.

In reality, the Angel’s red eyes started to rise up into the higher part of the pillar.

“The focus of the Angel’s power is moving position,” Hyuga reported. “It’s moving up into the higher part of the liquid mass.”

“Is there energy build up?” Misato asked.

“Yes, ma’am. Highly focused and still being generated,” Ayobi answered.

As the red eyes reached the top of the pillar the swirling clouds parted rapidly, just enough to allow the top of the pillar to be seen as the eyes rose up. Two massive horns slowly rose up from the height of the pillar. They curved out and then back in slowly as they rose, a dirty yellow color with white rings. Finally a head rose up, the horns attached at the temples of the head, wearing a mask with angrily slanted eyes and a fanged smile.

And suddenly the pillar itself expanded out to the sides and lowered down. The clouds closed around once more as the Angel’s body lowered its height. The black liquid had now formed a cloak-like structure for the body the head was attached to. Still much taller and wider than an Eva, it leaned down and leered at Unit 00, its eyes flashing red. The black tendrils around its arms retightened powerfully and extended slightly.

Rei gasped powerfully as the grip around her mid-section tightened forcing the air out of her lungs in a single rush and causing her to double over both in her mind and in the cockpit, her Eva mimicking the motion as much as it could with all its restraints. The Angel leered down at her in her mind with a sick smile. “You wanted to protect him, didn’t you? Like he did for you those times, you wanted to do for him.”

Rei grimaced from the pain and looked back up at the Angel. “Why are you doing this to me?” she asked weakly.

“Because I want to know why you exist in this world and not me!” the Angel roared his answer at her.

A new image flashed through Rei’s mind. She could see herself and Cirus, with Commander Ikari facing the two of them, a gun drawn. Cirus gently pushed her behind him and to the side; just as she was out of range Ikari fired. The bullet tore through Cirus’ chest and flew out his back with a large bloody hole through his coat as he fell. The Rei in the vision fell down with him and grabbed him in her arms as he died, reaching up one last time to caress her face.

Tears ran down Rei’s face before she clenched them shut tightly and turned her head away. “…Stop… please. Don’t make me see these things,” she pleaded softly.

“What’s the matter, is that not to your liking?” the Angel asked her dryly. “Perhaps something more personal?”

Another image appeared. Rei was standing before Cirus, looking up at him with soft concern on her face as he looked down at her soberly. Suddenly his arm shot forward, driving a knife into her stomach. The Rei in the image’s mouth opened in shock, horror, and to let the blood flow out. She gripped Cirus’ shoulders, her eyes quietly begging ‘why’.

Rei almost threw up, her left hand shooting up to her mouth as her eyebrows came together above her tightened eyes. She felt as if the dagger was actually stabbing her, she could feel the sickening sensation of the blade in her body, the cold metal moving slightly because of the hand still gripping it. Rei reached down and saw the blade in her stomach, the splotch of red spreading rapidly. She clasped her hands around the wound and around the blade as she looked up in fear at the Angel.

“Your ‘kind’ Cirus just stabbed you to death,” the Angel told her calmly. “Tell me, why are you in existence now? For what reason?”

Even in reality, Rei was clutching her stomach, as was Unit 00, as if the knife was there. In her mind Rei reached out with one blood-soaked hand toward the Angel. “H-help… please.”

“It’s true too,” the Angel continued, ignoring her plea. “He was sent to kill you, you know?”

Rei’s mouth opened again as the image replayed itself. Tears silently ran down her cheeks. Cirus? Cirus would do this? She asked herself, looking down at her stomach.

Unit 00’s head lulled down and the eye faded back to normal as it slumped down limply.

Cirus’ eyes opened and Unit 14 pushed itself back upright, pulling one of the swords from the ground near it and raising it up.

“How badly injured is he?” Misato asked quickly, looking to Maya again.

“He has at least five ribs damaged, his back is badly hurt, and he’s in immense pain. He shouldn’t even be able to walk,” Maya reported concernedly, looking back at Misato as she finished.

Misato looked back up the screen with tightened eyes. Don’t die…

Unit 14 charged again, the one sword held out the side as it ran. As it finally drew close, the Angel turned its head to look at the Eva.

“Your friend is trying again. He must really want to kill you himself,” the Angel stated to Rei, who was still trying to stop the blood from pouring out of her body even though it wasn’t real.

The Angel’s eyes glowed and just as another cross-explosion erupted, the Eva dodged to the side and leapt forward, throwing itself between the Angel and Unit 00. It raised the sword above its head and prepared for a final swing of the blade, but the Angel looked directly at him, its eyes point blank. An arm shot out from the Angel’s cloak of blackness and slammed into the Eva so powerfully that it knocked the sword free of its hand and threw it back past Unit 00 before dropping it with a powerful crash.

Cirus gritted his teeth against the excruciating pain in his entire body and clenched his eyes shut. “Rei!” he shouted. “… Rei,” he repeated her name softly, realizing he had no strength left with which to fight.

“It is time to let us have some quality time together, you and I,” the Angel told Rei calmly as he stood up straight.

In reality the Angel stood up to its full height and generated two large arms that it reached up to the sky with. The eyes flashed white and a wave of transparent energy rushed throughout Tokyo-3 and down into the Geo-front.

“Massive energy surge approaching!” Ayobi shouted urgently.

“Get down!” Ritsuko shouted as she dived down to the ground.

The energy wave hit almost instantly and passed throughout the city and NERV. Every living being in Tokyo-3, except for Rei and the thirty-third Angel, were unconscious.