#Finally some actual events! The main story actually advances, and even more of the twisted backstory is revealed! How extremely relevant to the plot and/or characters... Enjoy.#

There is such a thing as an acceptable loss. 500 casualties in a battle involving ten thousand men is one example, a three percent mortality rate in a population of millions is another. The amount of human beings one is willing to risk, or kill outright, is generally proportional to the desirability of the outcome one wishes to achieve. What does that say, then, about the men who caused the annihilation of three-and-a-quarter billion people, and could very well have destroyed the rest?

Second Impact was hell. The years following it were worse. So many suffered and died for the wrongs of a few misguided old fools, and what good did such sacrifice bring them? Did the unknowing atonement of hundreds of thousands of starving, fleeing people bring back those who took the full face of Adam's fury? No. Was the entire ordeal, stretching from the White Moon's destruction to the current state of reconstruction, worth it? Yes. Seele was convinced of it. Only through Impact could they have gained the knowledge they required, to ensure humanity's final destination. Instrumentality, the only word worth every human life.

Their faith in themselves was disturbing. Their complete and utter trust in their own judgment, in the prophecies, in the outrageous lie that they were all on the right path, and Impact was unavoidable. It was almost sickening, at least to those that still retained their sanity. The truth, the horrible, buried truth was: They were wrong. Their experiment in Antarctica, which claimed the lives of an entire expedition, save for a single little girl, was an avoidable failure. It might have worked, or at least been not quite so destructive, if they had recognized one simple detail.

The Lance of Longinus, the key instrument of Seele's atrocities, was not, as they would later claim, the only one of its kind. Each of the two Moons contained a Lance, along with the two unique, grotesque beings that were later named Angels, messengers of God. The Lances were far from identical, paired exclusively with their respective masters, Adam and Lilith. They were checks for the enormous power of those beings, meant to supervise and restrain those they were subservient to, and prevent any abuse of their incredible abilities. The question of how a Lance belonging to one Angel would affect another was never meant to be answered.

Katsuragi's contact experiment answered it. Unwittingly thrusting Lilith's Lance into Adam's chest with a gigantic scaffold, the men and women on Seele's payroll began the greatest catastrophe to befall the planet since the Moons first fell all those millions of years ago. Without adequate provisions for defense, control, or containment, the expedition had no hope of arresting the cascade they had set off. Adam, enraged and vengeful, exacted payment from the foolish humans for his premature awakening, his inbuilt restraints removed by Lilith's Lance.

There was an otherworldly scream, and an explosion so immense it moved the very Earth itself, shifting its axis until the tilt that once produced seasons was reduced to nothing. The light alone was enough to melt the frozen continent at once, leaving only a few scattered icebergs adrift in a sea of Adam's blood. The White Moon and its dimensionless core, the Chamber of Gaf, were disintegrated instantly, leaving a handful of surviving Angel souls to wander the environment without purpose or, for the moment, form. In retrospect it was a miracle Katsuragi's daughter escaped alive, as there were many others, much farther away, who did not.

Second Impact, the greatest travesty mankind has ever inflicted upon itself, was not the end. Through no small effort the resilient, ever-resourceful humans rebuilt their world, their nations, and their lives, though their population was diminished significantly. Despite the staggering scale of their failure, Seele was undeterred, and perhaps encouraged by the return of Earth to a fraction of its former glory, and so plans for Third Impact have been moving forward since the very moment Antarctica was reduced to vapor. If Seele were to succeed in this final mission, the result might not be so bad, as long as the right person was at the helm when it all went down. On the other hand, if Seele failed again, humanity would be able to make no further attempts. It was all or nothing this time. Bases loaded, two outs, and a pitcher with a penchant for curveballs. Swing, batter. Swing hard.

"To err is human, to forgive is divine," Ryoji Kaji muttered to himself. "What a load of bullshit." As the elevator doors opened at long last, he abandoned his reflections to the wind, preferring instead to embrace a little ignorance and be much the happier for it. He grinned. "If life gives you lemons, trade em' for kool aid."

"What?" Maya glanced at the unshaven man, a confused look on her face.

Kaji shrugged. "Just another worthless saying. Come, Central Dogma awaits." With a quick, twisting step, he took off in the general direction of the Command Center, giving the young Lieutenant no choice but to follow or be left behind.

Far from the Operations Director and his quiet, mousy companion, two keycards were swiped, a blast door was opened, and three persons entered the NERV pyramid. The first, Commander Ikari, stepped across the threshold carefully, placing his gloved hands in his pockets. The second, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, followed closely, a rather indignant look on his face. The third, a plain girl named Asuka, tagged along almost like an afterthought at the end of a sentence, feeling out-of-place and slightly nauseated. The ride down had not been pleasant.

Polished dress shoes tapped out an atypical rhythm on the hard white floor as the two higher-ups led their guest onward. Every hallway seemed identical to the next, differing only in the labels beside the myriad steel doors. It was only when the group reached the Shaft that things actually began to get interesting.

Asuka breathed a quiet sigh and tightened her grip on her bag, staring ahead with rapt attention as two gigantic titanium plates slid back into the wall, revealing an enormous bridge that seemed to stretch out forever. The two men in front of her led on, traversing the great metal causeway without difficulty, and so she followed, reluctantly. The view was staggering.

Above and below, a great shaft extended through the pyramid, from a point just below the offices to the plummeting depths of Terminal Dogma. At every level, girders, bridges, tubes, and escalators criss-crossed and interconnected, forming a network that offered access to nearly every part of NERV. It was near the top of this network, at GeoFront ground level, that Ikari, Fuyutsuki, and Rokubungi had entered. The great bridge they were walking on was actually part of the superstructure of the base, serving (along with others like it) to keep the hollow shaft from collapsing on itself. That such crucial parts of NERV were out in the open, exposed to anyone with the security clearance of a hot dog, was a little bit odd.

Asuka walked on, keeping her free hand pressed to the railing at all times. At one point she looked down, and regretted it immediately. It was like staring into the center of the Earth, interesting yet extremely disconcerting. She almost got up the nerve to ask where they were going.

At an inconspicuous, hard-to-notice marker, the two superior officers paused, turned, and faced the bridge railing, staring out at the wall of the shaft. Asuka, having no real choice, stopped and mimicked them, standing about shoulder width from Fuyutsuki. Neither of the men looked at her or said anything at all. After a few seconds of this silence, the brown-haired girl noticed the wires. There were four of them, long, thin, silver cables that blended in to the background of the solid metal walls that composed the shaft. They seemed to be retracting into several boxes up above, affixed to the bottom of another bridge.

"Of course," she was tempted to say. It was painfully obvious, an open-air lift system that ran straight through NERV, presumably providing a more direct route to wherever they were going. The Commander's daughter had noticed a few elevators as they passed, so she knew that they must go somewhere, just not exactly where. Having nothing else to do, she tried to think about how big the pyramid really was, to be able to accommodate the shaft, a separate elevator system, and god knows how many other methods of transportation. One thing was for sure, it was bigger than any other building she had seen. Maybe not as tall, but definitely wider.

What could NERV possibly contain that needed so much space?

"Stand back," the Sub-Commander warned. He and Gendo had stepped several paces away while Asuka was deep in thought, leaving her staring blankly over the side of the bridge. She joined them quickly, unsure of what was about to happen. Her surmising was interrupted when an entire section of railing promptly dropped away, swinging over the side to clear a path for the approaching platform's passengers. Had the brown-haired introvert still been hanging on to the railing, she would have gone over the edge. She shuddered at the thought.

The silver wires slowed as the cargo they were supporting approached its destination. It was an unremarkable flat piece of metal, enclosed in a partial cage of plastic rods. The rods on the side that faced the bridge lowered through holes in the flooring, leaving a large space through which several dozen people could pass. Before the platform even came to a halt, the two men were boarding it. Fuyutsuki motioned for Asuka to follow.

With an inaudible gulp, she did, tensing as the lift swayed slightly. Off to the side, Gendo pressed several buttons on a small control panel, and the platform began to descend. Sensing Asuka's discomfort, the older man moved forward and began to speak, hoping to keep her attention off the current situation.

"This shaft, and several others like it, run through the center of this building," he said, slipping into lecture mode. During his time as a Professor he had become very good at speaking informatively. "They extend through every underground level, whereas the elevators do not, so traveling via one of these lifts," he gestured to the floor, "Is a faster way to get where we're going than taking the more common route."

Asuka looked up at the Sub-Commander inquisitively. "Where exactly are we going?" she asked pointedly, prompting an eyebrow raise from Gendo.

Fuyutsuki smiled. "The heart of this organization," he said cryptically. "I'm afraid it's very difficult to explain in words. It is best to simply see it for yourself." At this Asuka frowned with dissatisfaction, but nodded anyway, showing that she understood.

The question she had really wanted to ask was "Why am I here?", but the answer to that would probably only go so far as a "Because I requested your presence," from her father. In fact, that's exactly what he would say.

"Up there," Fuyutsuki stated, pointing straight up, "Is our command center, which houses the most powerful single computer system in the world. It is a full artificial intelligence, which we call the Magi," he grinned. "You should challenge it to a game of chess, at least once. It's astoundingly good." At Asuka's blank look he added, "But perhaps you would prefer something a little more useful than a chess match. I'm sure the Magi would be happy to help if your homework ever troubles you..." he trailed off. The Professor had meant it half-jokingly, but Gendo gave him a questioning glance anyway. The Magi were not tutors.

Asuka shifted. Her bag, a business case of some inferior imitation leather, was beginning to get heavy. How far down did the shaft really go, anyway? She glanced to her right, where the old man was standing, encased in his brown NERV coat. Why not ask him?

"How far does this thing go?"

Fuyutsuki looked off to the side. "Several hundred meters," he replied knowingly. "We won't be going that far, though. Our destination is only a few more meters down, where that extension is." He leaned close to the edge, motioning towards a small pillar that jutted out of the wall, supporting what looked like a giant microwave. "That's a seismometer," the old man explained, "It monitors shockwaves in the GeoFront. Like an earthquake detector."

"What's the window for?" Asuka asked, referring to the little shiny panel that adorned the front of the detector.

"Terminal readout," the Professor said. "It's not really accessible down here, but it's a self contained unit, so it has one for diagnostics. If one of them ever went dead and the Magi couldn't do anything about it, we'd have to send a technician down on a window-washing scaffold." He laughed at the thought of it. NERV, with all of its advanced technology, dropping some poor guy down through the Earth to check screens.

Asuka giggled softly. That someone who worked so closely with her father actually had a sense of humor was pleasantly surprising.

The lift began to slow down, prompting the Professor to remark, "We're almost there."

The brown-haired girl planted her feet, bracing for a hard stop. It wasn't quite as if she expected the worst, but her life had been such that preparing for bad situations was instinctual to her now. Put another way, avoiding pain was second nature.

Red lights blinked on the control panel as the lift passed close by a large box marked Fire Suppression, and continued just below it, to where a section of floor extended out from an open hallway attached to the shaft. It was a simple arrangement, just like the long bridges above and below except much smaller, and enclosed. The lift stopped just in front of an opening that led to a recessed door. Large block letters identified it as Maintenance Access 44 – Cage.

The lift stopped, abruptly, providing justification for Asuka's position. Once the large platform had finally stopped wobbling, the rods at the front slid down, making way for the disembarking passengers. Ikari went first, followed by the Sub-Commander and the girl. A security code was entered, quickly, into the keypad beside the access door, and the way was cleared once again. The three entered the passageway noiselessly, turning left and heading outside the confines of the shaft.

Soon, Asuka found herself in an area not unlike the sameness-afflicted hallways at ground level, though the walls were decidedly less white. Technicians and Mechanics in orange jumpsuits were everywhere, congregating at various points along the way, discussing things in unintelligible technobabble. The blue-eyed girl figured that they were near something important, or some work was being done, because that amount of people couldn't be in the same place for no reason.

They were in crowds, everywhere, going every-which way with their tool belts and laptop cases, opening panels in the middle of the hall and peering inside, spooling wires and making cuts with sharp pliers, calling for assistance with heavy, complex-looking equipment. And though they all obviously had a job to do, each and every one nearly jumped to attention at the sight of her father, stumbling all over each other to get out of his way. It was baffling, the way he commanded such... What was it? Fear?

Asuka glanced at their faces as she moved, now struggling even more with her increasingly heavy bag. The orange-suited men and women averted their eyes as the bearded leader passed, probably afraid to even make eye contact, lest Satan himself rip out of Gendo's skull and drag them down to hell. To provoke such a reaction, the man must have done something extraordinary, or, no. No, Asuka realized with a jolt, all he had to do was be himself. All the power of NERV, a UN-sanctioned paramilitary, in the hands of Gendo Ikari. Who could be stupid enough not to fear him?

The girl grimaced. All she had needed to know was in the paperwork, in the files the Section Two man had handed to her three days ago, and the signature-requiring set of documents he had given, and taken, yesterday. She was bound by the strictest law, now, facing charges of treason if any classified information escaped with her. If there was a way for her father to force her to sign away her Geneva Convention rights, it would have been in those papers. Then again, he probably needed no such legal assurance to torture someone. Had he not left her alone and crying at that train station, to be picked up by relatives he no doubt bribed? Feh. He did what he liked and answered to no one for it. That was why they feared him.

Only a few minutes after the ride down to the cage level had ended, the group passed through another blast door, and arrived at the "heart of the organization," as Fuyutsuki had eloquently put it. Despite being behind several layers of glass, Asuka felt rather unsafe, gazing at the heart of NERV.

"This is what words cannot describe," the Sub-Commander said, his eyes glittering with mirth. "Quarantine protocol is in place at the moment, so we can't actually go down there, but I for one think you're close enough right here." Before truly beginning their journey, the three had stopped for a moment as Ikari made a call from his cell phone. He had mentioned something about quarantine, as well as EVA, though Asuka did not quite understand what he was talking about. Now she did.

The brown-haired girl gaped, barely keeping a grip on her bag as the purple Unit 01 leered menacingly at her. It was forty meters away and heavily restrained, but just looking at its face made the Commander's daughter think that it could get to her easily if it so wished. Lions can be caged because they cannot bite through steel bars. This thing was not a lion. It was a monster.

"The Synthetic Lifeform Evangelion, Unit 01," the Commander recited. "Our greatest accomplishment as a species."

Asuka twisted to return her father's unflinching stare. The fluorescent lights reflected off his glasses, making it impossible to see his eyes. He looked nearly as menacing as Unit 01. "Why are you showing me this?" she asked, feeling ridiculous for posing such a query to the bearded man. The answer was going to be absurdly obvious.

The Commander did not disappoint. "Because you have been chosen as its pilot," he replied coolly. He left no room for surprise or shock, only confusion.

"But- Why?" Asuka sputtered, stepping back from the glass wall. Fuyutsuki retreated to the corner of the room containing the door. At the moment, he was a third wheel. The conversation was between father and daughter, no one else.

Gendo pushed his glasses up his nose. "You have been under observation for quite some time. Every indication declares you to be a match for this Unit. There is no one else."

The man's daughter turned to look back at the purple Evangelion, then glanced back at her father. It had to be a dream. "How," she began, trying to find the words, "How can that be?"

"The Marduk Institute is very thorough," Gendo said. He shifted slightly, so that he almost seemed to be looming over his cringing offspring. "They have designated you the Third Child. That title is irreproachable. Only you can pilot this Unit with the efficiency it requires," he repressed the urge to grin. Lying to someone's face was always enjoyable, but deliberately deceiving his own daughter was on a whole different level. "No one else can utilize the Evangelion to its full ability. Others may try, but all would ultimately fail." The endearing strategy the Commander was using was potent, but might not work too well on the daughter he had shamelessly abandoned. He was prepared to switch to guilt or anger motivation at a moment's notice. As Fuyutsuki had once observed, he was too good for his own good.

"Then why am I the Third Child?" Asuka asked, making a rather astute observation that Gendo did not think she would. It was rather trivial, but still, he had thought it beyond her mental faculties. Underestimating his own daughter was a task he did not want to repeat, lest it undermine his scenario.

The Commander's glasses glinted. "There are two others, each with their own respective Units. The First was chosen nine years ago, and the Second seven. You are merely the latest, hence the number." Behind the eye-obscuring implements, Gendo squinted. He could have stopped right at two others, but he went on, for some reason. He was not usually that verbose in his explanations. Perhaps his subconscious had decided to alter the strategy.

Asuka's dark blue eyes drifted back to the Evangelion, which held the same expression as before, and maybe always. "You want me to pilot this," she said, adding quietly, "For you?"

Gendo smirked, sensing imminent confrontation. "Correct."

The girl's eyes flitted back to their previous position, seeming to observe her father's face behind the defense of his unnecessary lenses. Again, Fuyutsuki saw the fire he had observed the first time he had seen her since that day so long ago. What was lurking in that quiet soul?

"You abandoned me, father," she nearly spat out, saying the last word with particular distaste. Her nausea had come back in full force, but she was too angry to worry. All fears had been discarded for the sake of unabashed hate and the contemplation of violence.

Gendo continued to smirk. Now, more than ever, he saw his own self in his child's eyes. It was sickeningly beautiful.

"You left me back there," Asuka was shaking now, "And now, after all this time, you summon me," she laughed derisively. "Not ask me, but summon me, to this place, to pilot that..." she trailed off as she gestured angrily toward the purple EVA sitting outside. It's look was sympathetic now, though it couldn't possibly be. Its face was made of solid armor, but even so, it was telling her that it understood, with an expression that spoke of pain unequaled on the Earth. A living God... Imprisoned, given life when it should never have had it, and imprisoned. Abomination of all abominations. An Angel with a human soul. And it was not alone.

Yet Asuka did not understand. She felt something for the beast, but she did not know what. She knew not the story of its creation, of its mind, its core, but that didn't matter. It looked at her, and into her, and comforted her. The Unit had a mother's loving face behind its armor.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" the girl whispered through bared teeth, clenching her jaw tightly shut. "You can't be serious."

Gendo let his arms fall to his sides. He had expected blind fury, and was prepared to deal with it. But in some unspeakable way, this was different. How, then, to deal with it in the best way? "There is an enemy greater than any we have ever known. NERV is the only defense against them. The Evangelions are our only weapon."

Asuka closed her eyes, trying to restrain herself. "Find someone else," she muttered.

The Commander's eyebrow furrowed ever-so-slightly. "There can be no one else. Unit 01 would be useless in any other hands." He almost meant that. "The others are insufficient. You are a necessary-"

"What?" Asuka cut him off. Her eyes flew open, releasing a few watery tears. She turned, slowly, to face her father again, feeling something she had never felt before. "You need me? Now? So what? So you can use me until I'm nothing? Or are you just looking forward to making up for lost time?" she paused, as if trying to collect herself, and failing. "Would it have killed you to show up for my birthday, or for Christmas, or for anything at all, just on some pointless day... A visit, for a moment, to let me know that you still knew I existed..." there was no sadness in her voice, only a hurt so immense that it could have crushed the Angels themselves.

Fuyutsuki covered his face. After Second Impact he could never cry again, but that girl could make him want to very badly. Her pain was moving. It was too intense to be contained in words.

"I thought you didn't want me anymore," she continued, still watching her father intently. It was not malice per se, but rather a wish to be heard. To be listened to. And now that she was needed, for whatever reason, she had the bastard on the ropes. "After mom died, I didn't have anyone else but you. Only you," she laughed again. "And now it's the other way around. Now you don't have anyone else but me."

Gendo's smirk had vanished. His child was being troublesome.

Asuka wiped her eyes. They burned and stung, but she didn't care. She had to go on. "Well you know what? I don't care what the hell you want. You want me to pilot a goddamn giant robot and save humanity?" she stole a quick glance at Unit 01. Righteous anger graced its face. "Go to hell. If you started apologizing right now you wouldn't finish until the end of time."

The Commander shot her a look that said "Are you finished", which was answered only by a blank stare. He took that to mean that it was his turn.

"Fuyutsuki," he snapped, shaking the old man from his reverie. "Wake the First."

The Professor complied, stepping to a nearby terminal and typing in a few commands. A solid black replaced the view of the EVA cages as the crystals embedded in the display glass realigned. Several seconds later, a face blinked into being, right in front of Asuka. She gasped in surprise. Gendo smirked again.

A white-haired boy with bandages wrapped around his head and his right eye smiled at the brown-haired newcomer. His other eye was colored a deep, imposing red, which made a frightening first impression. His expression, however, more than made up for it. Were Asuka in a better mood, she might even find him cute.

Gendo straightened his glasses. The scenario would progress according to his plans. There was no room for deviations. Everything would work without fail.

The white-haired boy sat up in his hospital bed with some difficulty, raising his head to the hastily-erected camera. His smile grew even wider as he surveyed the plain girl displayed on the screen at his end. With nary a hesitation, he opened his mouth, and said, "I'm Kaworu. Kaworu Nagisa. Pleased to meet you."