Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Chapter Seventeen: The Final Battle of Tokyo-03

"Any last words?" the Section Two agent asked, pointing his pistol down at Ritsuko Akagi.

Looking up at him from her place on the floor, the blonde couldn't help but be struck by how it had all come down to this. All the years of scheming and counter-scheming by Gendo and Keel, her own desperate efforts to throw those plans off course…the final act of all that was playing out now, and this thug in a suit could radically change the outcome with the pull of a single trigger. One man who had little to no real idea of what was really going on could alter the fate of the world.

"Yeah, I have some last words," she replied, clearing her throat.

"Well, get on with it, then," the agent growled.

Ritsuko couldn't quite conceal her smile.

"Kaji Da!" she screamed.

The vessel containing the scarab suddenly shattered, sending broken glass flying in all directions. Then the scarab was flying through the air toward Ritsuko, a little blue missile soaring across the lab. Doctor Oshiro let out a strangled cry of surprise and fear, jumping away from it.

If the agent had pulled the trigger just then, he might've killed Ritsuko right there and made it all for naught, assuming he got her right in the head. That wouldn't have been hard to do, considering how close to her he was.

However, the abruptly shattering glass distracted him.

"Argh!" Ritsuko cried out in pain as the scarab crashed into her, rapidly burrowing its way into its previous place in her back. "That really hurt scarab!"

(Oh, sorry. Next time I'll be slow and gentle about it, and give the guy pointing a gun at you plenty of time to gather his wits.) The scarab replied, its words dripping with sarcasm, even as it hastily caused the blue and black armor to appear on Ritsuko's body.

"I don't know how, but in the short time we were apart, I almost managed to forget how much of a smartass you can be," Blue Beetle retorted.

(Well, that's hardly my fault.) The scarab pointed out.

By this point, the Section Two agent was firing his pistol at her repeatedly, but the rounds were bouncing harmlessly off the armor. They stung, but after everything she'd been through recently, they hardly seemed agonizing; the sapphire superwoman barely paid him any mind.

"And I still don't get why the hell you wanted your name to be 'Kaji Da'," she added.

(It's only a little different from my serial number, which is what I was going to use originally.) The scarab replied, even as it worked on patching up its host's abused back. (And I like Kaji. He's cool 'cuz he drives so many of the ladies wild.)

"Great," Blue Beetle grumbled, even as she absently blasted the Section Two agent with the Suppression Rifle as he reloaded, sending him collapsing to the floor. "I have a chauvinist piece of alien hardware inside of me."

(Don't pretend that you didn't miss me.) The scarab replied.

Blue Beetle ignored that, turning to look at Oshiro. Her former underling was standing there, mouth agape.

"It might be wise to get out of here, Doctor," she advised him. "The JSSDF soldiers are probably on their way, and I doubt they're taking prisoners. Try to get to the lower levels of the base, preferably someplace out of the way. It'll take them longer to make their way there."

She didn't wait to see if he'd take her advice or just remain in a state of shock. Instead, she phased out of reality, appearing to vanish before the other scientist's eyes.

Blue Beetle decided she was very glad that the scarab had so quickly repaired all the damage to her back as she flew through the base, passing through walls and floors like a ghost.

"Thanks for the save," she told the scarab quietly.

If it had had a human face, it would've smiled. (No problem. Now, what do we need to do?)

"About three or four things at once, if we don't want this day to end in total catastrophe," Blue Beetle answered grimly.

Flexing and relaxing Unit Two's massive hands without thinking about it, Asuka eyed the Blue Behemoth warily. Despite her arrogant words earlier, she wasn't foolhardy enough to treat the thing like a complete joke, even though she suspected it almost certainly was.

The Jet Alone, from everything she'd heard about it, had been as much of a laughingstock as a walking nuclear reactor could possibly be. It had never proven it could do anything except move in a straight line, go out of control, and come terrifyingly close to a catastrophic explosion.

The vehicles and weapons that the Blue Beetle had helped the JSSDF design, incorporating some of her own tech, had actually been a lot more potent than standard military equipment. However, the idea that a taskforce equipped with it could replace the Evangelions had been utterly ridiculous.

Put the two together and they should still be pathetic, but a lot of things that should have been had never come to pass. Her string of glorious victories had never happened. Her putting the Third Child in place by proving herself a better pilot had never happened.

Don't think about that now! She told herself sternly. Focus on the battle!

The Blue Behemoth had assumed what looked like a defensive posture, though it was difficult to tell with the big robot. Either its onboard computer was slow or it had decided to let her make the first move.

Either way, that was fine with her.

Drawing the pallet rifle attached to Unit Two's back, the Second Child depressed the trigger, sending a hail of shells sailing toward the blue robot. It staggered back a step from the force of the impacts, and for a moment Asuka thought it was about to fall over. However, it planted one foot, bracing itself with its leg. Stabilized, it weathered the storm of pallet gun fire surprisingly well. The shells weren't penetrating its armor, Asuka noted with a scowl.

We really need something more high caliber for our standard firearms, she decided as the gun clicked empty.

The Blue Behemoth didn't take long to act once the barrage ended. The raised its arm, and the Second Child quickly noted the large gun mounted there. Blue light soon began to glow from deep inside of the barrel of the weapon.

Discarding her empty and useless rifle, the Second Child threw her Evangelion into action, vacating her current position just as a lance of sky blue energy shot out of the Behemoth. The shot hit the ground, sending an enormous amount of dirt flying in all directions, creating a long trench that looked like it could've been formed by a meteor.

Asuka didn't stop to admire the power of her enemy's weapons. She kept Unit Two in constant motion, and it was a good thing she did, too, because the Blue Behemoth just kept firing, unleashing the wrath of its main weapon again and again. It took every ounce of agility she could force out of her Evangelion to stay one step ahead of the barrage of fire.

And this is the problem with piloting a giant robot! Asuka thought as she held the controls in a death grip. Finding cover could be just impossible for something as large as an Evangelion. Tokyo-3 had been designed to offer them many places to hunker down, but in the Geofront the NERV pyramid was the only thing that came close to being large enough to offer an EVA shelter.

If she put it between herself and the Blue Behemoth, most of the NERV personnel would be dead in a flash, so that wasn't an option.

At least it's not going after my power cord, she thought.

Then one of the Behemoth's shots grazed Unit Two's side, instantly reducing the armor there to molten slag and badly burning the flesh beneath. Asuka inhaled sharply through gritted teeth as her Evangelion's pain was transferred to her through the neural links.

"I could really use some help here, Misato!" she growled. "I can't get in close to this thing without getting fried!"

"We're sending up a weapons cache for you now!" the major replied.

Asuka was about to ask how the hell they were going to do that quickly enough to matter when the sole EVA lift that let out in the Geofront pulsed and crackled with electrical energy, and a metal box the size of a shipping container went sailing into the air. It crashed down to the ground a good distance away from both Unit Two and the Blue Behemoth, breaking open and spilling its contents all over the ground.

The redhead was too relieved to make a complaint about NERV's aim.

One thing you have to give Misato, she always finds a way to get the job done, no matter how crazy, Asuka thought to herself as she sent Unit Two running toward the cache, moving in a crazy zigzag pattern to dodge the Blue Behemoth's fire.

Despite herself, she was becoming impressed by the thing. She knew that NERV didn't have any energy weapons that could fire again and again like that without overheating.

"Argh!" she cried as it finally landed a solid hit on her, striking Unit Two's right thigh. The scarlet titan she piloted collapsed face first, impacting hard enough to shake the ground.

"Asuka!" Misato shouted.

The Second Child thought that if she grit her teeth any harder, she'd shatter them.

The Blue Behemoth fired again.

Unit Two abruptly rolled over, just avoiding the shot, which hit the earth instead. Ignoring the dirt that was sent spraying onto the red EVA, Asuka reached out and snatched up a rocket launcher that was laying on the ground nearby.

She aimed and fired.

BOOM!

The rocket struck the Blue Behemoth right in the center of its chest, a ball of flame and smoke erupting into being at the point of impact. The robot went staggering backwards.

With a grunt, Asuka forced Unit Two to haul itself to its feet, ignoring the throbbing pain coming from the damaged thigh. She grabbed a progressive spear that had fallen out of the cache.

"Hey! Blue Bozo! Eat this!" she screamed, hurling the weapon just as the Behemoth regained its footing.

If the robot realized what was about to happen to it, it couldn't react quickly enough. Even its tough armor was no match for the spear's progressive tip. The weapon easily penetrated it, running right through the giant robot. Several yards of the spear was jutting out from the robot's back by the time it stopped.

The Blue Behemoth wavered on its feet like a drunk man, staggered forward one step, then two. Then it collapsed to the ground, its internal machinery going quiet and still.

She nodded with satisfaction and grabbed an Evangelion scale machine gun from the cache. "So, who's next?" she asked, turning to look at the JSSDF forces.

Meanwhile, as war and carnage played out above, the interior of Terminal Dogma's deepest chamber was silent and calm.

It should be. At the moment, there was only one person in the vast room, and she was known for being quiet, among other things.

Rei Ayanami stood on the little island of concrete in the center of the great room, looking up at the huge form of the crucified Second Angel upon its red cross. Lilith had regenerated somewhat since the Lance had been removed from her body, regrowing her legs, but she remained as docile as ever.

The massive, armored door at the far end of the room opened, allowing light to stream in through the dim chamber. One man's form was silhouetted against this illumination.

"Rei," Commander Ikari spoke as he strode across the bridge that spanned the gap between the doorway and Lilith's perch. "You came. I knew you would." He smiled.

On any other day, at any other time, he would've taken note of the expression on her face in response to that. It wasn't the subtly affectionate gaze she had shown him many a time. It wasn't a look of relief at the prospect of finally getting to end her existence.

It wasn't a look of loathing, either. Gendo Ikari never would have failed to notice Rei regarding him with such an expression.

However, to one who knew her well, the unease and lack of enthusiasm on the First Child's face was quite plain.

Yet with the years of planning and all the sacrifices coming so close to fruition, with what he had wanted and longed for so near, Gendo was too excited to give Rei more than a glance.

"We don't have much time," he said. "We must begin immediately."

"…yes," Rei said softly.

Then, without another word, she began to undress.

"That's it. We have lost." SEELE 07 spoke grimly into the virtual meeting chamber.

A live video feed of the battle raging around NERV headquarters was displayed in the center of the circle formed by the council members' holographic avatars. The destruction of the Blue Behemoth at the hands of Unit Two, which had made it through the fight without even losing its power cord, had caused all the members of SEELE to fall silent for several long seconds.

"We…we always knew that the loss of the EVA Series made the odds against us worse," SEELE 11 muttered. "But to see our backup so soundly defeated…"

"None of us expected this," SEELE 02 finished for him.

"Unit Two will drive off the JSSDF, even if Units One and Zero fail to join it," SEELE 12 added. "Instrumentality will serve Ikari, not us."

The council again lapsed into silence, their imminent defeat too great a thing to bear. For so many years they had schemed and plotted, risked and gambled, knowing the eventual reward would be worth it. They would be immortal. Not only that, they would be as gods to a reborn and remade humanity.

Now a man they had called an ally but had maneuvered against for months, one they had finally declared open hostilities against, would have the power they had so doggedly sought.

"Oh, ye of little faith," SEELE 01 spoke into the dour silence.

Despite everyone's visage being hidden behind a holographic monolith, it was somehow obvious that all heads turned to look at the avatar belonging to the leader of the SEELE council.

"You have some ace hidden up your sleeve?" SEELE 02 demanded.

"Suffice to say that it's too early for Ikari to claim ultimate victory just yet," SEELE 01 responded as his monolith faded away to reveal the image of Chairman Keel himself.

Before the other members of the council could ask for further explanation, Keel terminated the virtual meeting with the push of a button, causing the other members' avatars to wink out of existence.

Another button caused a new hologram to appear before Keel next.

"It is time," he said. "The final push."

"So it seems," the Negotiator agreed. "You still have my little present?"

Keel held up a small box. "Indeed," he said. "Soon, humanity will die and be reborn into something much greater…and you will have your crude stuff."

The Negotiator smirked. "Crude stuff is what the Reach is all about. I don't care about your opinion on it," he said bluntly. "I'll see what I can do to aid your forces. I suggest you get a move on. You don't have much time."

With that, the Negotiator's image vanished.

Truly alone now, Keel opened the box, revealing the ebony scarab inside. The old man, kept alive only by his extensive cybernetic implants, wasn't remotely flexible enough to place the thing on the small of his back. Instead he perched it on its shoulder, and it came to life with a jerk, quickly scurrying to where it needed to be.

Keel pursed his lips together and forced himself not squirm at the feel of it crawling beneath his clothes and over its body.

Then there was pain.

Crying out in agony, the wizened cyborg practically collapsed onto his desk, his body twitching with random spasms.

(Mission started. Altering host life form to conform to acceptable parameters.) A very cold and alien voice spoke into his mind.

"So how did your little chat with the Earthman go?" Dawur asked as the Negotiator strode onto the bridge of the Reach cruiser.

The Negotiator regarded the commander of the military forces at his disposal with a grin. "He's heading out," he said. "It really is amazing how badly he wants to transform his whole species, and leave the Earth effectively deserted and available to anyone who should happen to come by."

"Are you sure it was wise to give him a scarab?" Dawur asked, clearly not sharing in his superior's excitement or enthusiasm. "Remember, there is a Green Lantern who calls this planet home. If she discovers it and contacts the Guardians…"

"She'd have to prove we actually gave the thing to the human first," the Negotiator said.

"How else would he get the thing? No one would believe we lost two scarabs here," Dawur scoffed.

"You worry too much," the Negotiator said. "In any case, the Guardians and their Green Lanterns still have their hands full with Sinestro. They will not be eager to renew their ancient war with us."

"Not now, perhaps. What if they defeat Sinestro and then come after us?" Dawur pressed.

"Your concerns are built upon a tower of 'what-ifs', my friend," the Negotiator said dismissively. "Besides, I doubt even a Green Lantern ring will shield a person from what that human intends to unleash. So long as the faction we've backed wins, it won't matter if the Green Lantern briefly has reason to suspect we were involved. Speaking of which, is there anything we can do to covertly aid SEELE's forces?" he asked, turning to one of the many diminutive worker drones on the bridge.

"Yes, Negotiator. Forces aligned with SEELE deployed units made with Reach tech provided by the Blue Beetle," the drone answered. "It should be possible for us to write and upload a patch that will fix the humans' deficient software and make the true power of the hardware available. At least for some of the units."

"Then do it," the Negotiator ordered.

"At once," the drone agreed.

"…this is an usually risky path you've charted," Dawur remarked, his eyes narrowing.

"I'm aware, but extraordinary situations call for extraordinary measures," the Negotiator replied. "The profit that can be made from this world is spectacular, but it is an anomaly. None of the hundreds of plans contained within the Writ are suitable."

"Blessed be the Writ," Dawur said automatically.

"Therefore, it is necessary to improvise and accept higher than normal levels of risk," the Negotiator finished.

"Software patch completed," the drone reported. "We can upload at your command."

"Do it," the Negotiator said.

"You can't beat me!" Asuka screamed, her voice booming out through Unit Two's external speakers as the red colossus sent a line of tanks flying like toys with a single kick. "Quit coming forward to die and run the hell away!"

Since the fall of the Blue Behemoth, the battle in the Geofront had become little more than a slaughter. Even the JSSDF's Reach-tech vehicles were completely ineffective against the might of an Evangelion; they hadn't even managed to damage her power cable. They'd made numerous attempts at it, but so far the Second Child had managed to fend them all off easily enough.

Yet they still refused to retreat!

Of course, Asuka had no real moral qualms about defending herself against people who'd come to kill her, along with the rest of NERV, unlike a certain bleeding heart EVA pilot she could name who still hadn't deigned to show his face on the battlefield.

However, just because she didn't expect to hate herself forever for it didn't mean that she enjoyed it. The German girl would've been only too happy if the JSSDF had decided to go into full retreat, and not just because it meant the infantry wouldn't be rampaging through the interior of NERV headquarters anymore.

"Don't you idiots ever know when to quit and go home?!" she yelled, plucking a BUG out of the air and tossing it into a cluster of JSSDF artillery pieces toward the back of the battlefield.

The explosion was spectacular.

"Don't think I won't take you all out if I have to!" she roared.

Unbeknownst to the Second Child, the Reach were transmitting a software upgrade to all the JSSDF units and equipment that had their technology incorporated into it. Functions that had lain dormant while the machines had muddled through with the relatively primitive human programming came to life.

Included in that list of functions were the self repair capabilities of the Blue Behemoth. Over a period of several seconds, Reach nanomachines came to life, billions of them acting in concert as they rapidly fixed the giant robot's destroyed joints, servomotors, and a host of other things that Unit Two had destroyed.

Mere moments after the self repair protocols had come to live, the Blue Behemoth began to rise.

Of course, something so enormous could hardly get its feet very quietly. Even over the noise of the JSSDF's tank guns and missiles, the Second Child was able to hear something moving behind her.

She turned Unit Two around just as it finished the process of standing up.

"What does it take to make you stay down, you pathetic hunk of junk?!" she demanded, releasing a burst from her pallet rifle at it.

The Blue Behemoth dodged the blast of gunfire, darting to the right with incredible agility, far more than it displayed before. Not pausing for an instant, it charged forward, its movements as graceful as those of the Evangelion it fought.

Caught by surprise, Asuka reflexively squeezed the trigger again, sending a second shower of huge metal slugs at her foe until the weapon clicked empty. The Blue Behemoth responded with a massive jump that took it well above the path of the Second Child's shots.

The formerly clunky robot somersaulted in midair, landing onto the crimson giant's back and grabbing it in a death grip. Asuka released a cry of surprise and anger, Unit Two's knees buckling at the sudden and unexpected weight. However, the production model Evangelion did not collapse, its pilot outright refusing to fall.

"Get…" Asuka growled through gritted teeth, "…off!"

Using a judo throw, Unit Two pulled the Blue Behemoth off her back and sent it flying. However, in the second that she was dislodging the huge robot, the Second Child just managed to spy a brief burst of electric blue light.

A quick glance behind Unit Two confirmed her suspicions; the Blue Behemoth had managed to sever her Evangelion's umbilical cable. Inside her entry plug, a timer came to life, counting down from five minutes.

She turned her gaze back to the Blue Behemoth in time to see it land on its feet almost halfway across the Geofront, reducing trees to splinters beneath its weight.

With a growl, Asuka tossed her spent rifle to the side and drew her progressive knife. The weapon soon began to emit its low, deadly hum.

"Let's go, then," she snarled.

At almost the exact same instant, the blue and red giants charged toward one another.

While battle continued to rage above them, a naked Rei Ayanami stood before Lilith's enormous red cross, facing Gendo Ikari.

"It is time, Rei," the Commander of NERV said, removing his right glove and revealing the embryonic form of Adam embedded in his hand. "Merge all souls into one, and then bring me to Yui."

The First Child didn't respond at all to his instructions, and her expression was, if possible, even more blank than usual. However, Gendo didn't allow that to deter him. After years and years of careful planning, sacrifice, and seemingly endless waiting, it was finally time for him to get what he wanted. So long as she wasn't actively protesting, he was going to push forward.

He reached toward the First Child with the Angel embedded in his hand.

Only to jump a step back when a bolt of electric blue energy crashed into the floor between himself and Rei, sending bits of concrete flying.

"Step away from her, Gendo!" Blue Beetle ordered. "I won't let you set off Third Impact!"

Rather than waste time on a retort, Gendo quickly reached into his jacket pockets and withdrew a small remote control, pressing one of the few buttons on the thing.

Previously hidden panels in the walls all around them slid open, revealing more the emitters he'd used when he'd tried to ambush her before.

Lilith's chamber could fit far more of them than the room where he'd first tried this.

A lesser man than Gendo Ikari might've glanced at the Blue Beetle, wanting to see her respond with fear. The Commander of NERV didn't waste his time on something so petty. Instead, he just stabbed the button to fire the weapons.

Tongues of electricity crackled around the emitters, then as one, they lanced out toward the armored woman.

The Blue Beetle vanished a second before the onslaught could touch her. The jagged bolts of energy that should've killed her, or at the very least incapacitated her for the few seconds that Gendo needed, passed right through the spot where she'd been and simply kept going, eventually raking across the walls of the massive chamber, leaving great black scorch marks upon the walls.

Despite his surprise at her sudden disappearing act, Gendo reacted quickly, drawing a pistol with his free hand. Holding the weapon at the ready he looked about, waiting for her to reappear.

However, he could hardly see 360 degrees around himself. Blue Beetle rematerialized behind him, the weapon on her arm firing again.

"Argh!" he hissed in pain as another blast of blue light knocked the pistol he held from his hand.

Fortunately for him, he still had the remote. Gendo again pressed the button, and the emitters began to hum once more, but they still needed a few more seconds before they could fire again.

It was time they didn't have. The armor on both the Blue Beetle's arms morphed into guns, and with blazing, inhuman speed, she released a barrage of weapons fire, striking one emitter after another, never hesitating and never missing a single one of her targets. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, every last one of them had been reduced to half melted slag.

Then the sapphire superwoman turned her gaze on the Commander. Their eyes met, and in spite of the helmet she wore, Gendo could easily see the fury in her stare. The Blue Beetle brought up both her guns and blue light began to shine from deep within the barrels.

The Commander of NERV raised the hand containing Adam just as the armored superwoman's weapons discharged, and the blasts of electric blue slammed into a hexagonal shield of orange light.

"That won't save you, Ikari!" Blue Beetle screamed as she kept up her assault.

Gendo didn't bother with a witty response. Instead, the Commander grit his teeth, grabbing hold of his wrist with his free hand. Beads of sweat were rolling down his face; the heat generated by the attack was nothing short of stifling.

Even more worrisome, he could feel himself being pushed backwards, slowly but surely, by the force of the blast. Despite his best efforts to stand his ground, he could feel himself slowly sliding.

He didn't want to think about what the Blue Beetle would do after she sent him tumbling into the lake of LCL in Lilith's chamber. However, unless he came up with an idea to prevent that from happening, and fast, it looked like he was about to find out.

He slid back a little further and felt that his heels were leaning over the edge of the concrete island he stood upon…

"Arg!" Blue Beetle abruptly cried out in pain and surprise as something collided with her, causing her shot to go completely wild, blasting the walls and then the ceiling before she could cease firing.

Panting with exertion, Gendo took a few steps forward to get himself back on solid ground, looking up to see what new development had unfolded.

What he saw shocked even him.

A figure was hovering in the air within Lilith's chamber, hovering a short distance away from the Blue Beetle. He wore armor very similar to that of the sapphire superwoman, except that his was almost entirely black.

"So, we meet at last, Blue Beetle," he said. "Sorry for interrupting you. I must admit I've wanted to blow Ikari away myself often enough, but so long as he has Adam on him, I'm afraid I can't allow you to vaporize him."

Gendo's eyes widened, not at the words of this "Black Beetle" but at his voice. It was stronger and less gravelly than it should be, yet there was no mistaking it.

Lorenz Keel.

The Commander suddenly had to suppress an absurd urge to chuckle, thinking that Reach technology was very impressive indeed if it had managed to get the ancient cyborg into fighting shape.

"I won't let you or anyone else trigger Third Impact today!" Blue Beetle screamed, opening fire on Keel, which he nimbly dodged.

The two proceeded to engage in a ferocious dogfight within Lilith's chamber, blasts of blue laser fire lightning up the room the way bolts of lightning would illuminate a dim evening. Chunks of concrete rained down into the lake of LCL as the two repeatedly blasted the walls and ceiling rather than each other.

Gendo cared little about the destruction they were unleashing upon the room. What he did care about was that the both of them were ignoring him. He once more reached toward Rei, who had impassively watched the whole unexpected series of events unfold.

"Don't think I forgot about you, Ikari!" Keel shouted, bringing one of his weapons to bear.

Gendo didn't even have time to think about making a reply before the concrete beneath him exploded. The Commander was flung off his feet and went splashing into the lake of LCL with a strangled yelp, instantly sinking beneath the surface.

Frantically, Gendo tried to make his way back to the surface, but LCL was thinner than water; even the best swimmers would've had some difficulty traversing it without getting used to it first, and Gendo had never tried to swim in LCL before. He also was not the best swimmer.

The Commander hit the bottom, the LCL slowing him down just enough to make the impact painful but otherwise harmless. Pushing off the artificial lake's concrete bottom, he struggled to find the proper rhythm to get himself moving upwards.

Before he could achieve this, he spied several large, dark objects above him. They seemed to be growing larger by the second.

Gendo realized immediately what they were and threw himself into motion, abandoning his attempts to swim upwards and trying to run along the bottom of the artificial lake. He managed to avoid the largest chunks of concrete and other debris, but there was just too much to dodge entirely.

A burst of bubbles emerged from his mouth as Gendo let out a watery cry of pain. Something large had hit him in the back, sending him collapsing to the ground.

The next thing he knew, he was pinned down against the bottom of the artificial lake. He struggled to free himself, but the chunk of concrete or whatever it was that had fallen on top of him was simply too heavy.

Primal terror shot through him for a second; he was running out of air. Then he remembered that LCL was breathable and reluctantly inhaled.

The taste was terrible—he was surprised the Third Child had managed to bear it—but it dispelled the burning sensation in his lungs.

That issue dealt with, he turned his attention back to the task of getting himself free, but to no avail. The weight pressing down on him was just short of crushing, but he still couldn't move.

Irritably, he wondered if either Akagi or Keel had done this deliberately, or if his luck was just that poor.

Above him, the burst of sound and light that the two beetles were unleashing as they fought seemed to be growing distant, as though the fight was moving away from Lilith's chamber. Gendo could hardly say he was sorry if that was the case.

Several seconds later, a new form began to approach him through the LCL. Even through the tinted liquid, he could make out Rei's blue mop of hair. The First Child drew near him, grabbing hold of the chunk of concrete he was trapped under. The two worked together to try to liberate him…

…and failed miserably. Even their combined strength was nowhere near enough for the task. He might've tried to set off Third Impact from where he was anyway, but even though Rei was right by his side, his hand was firmly trapped. He couldn't bring Adam into contact with the First Child.

There was nothing he could do but wait for someone to free him, and fervently hope it wouldn't be someone more interested in killing him.

"Gott damn you, Gott damn you, Gott damn you!" Asuka snarled through gritted teeth, glaring at the image of the Blue Behemoth on her HUD.

She had no idea how, but the JSSDF's not so little toy had somehow managed to become much stronger, faster, and tougher than it had been when it had first entered combat. It was taking everything she had just to hold her own in this fight.

Case in point, the Blue Behemoth and Unit Two were both on the ground, grappling fiercely. The Blue Behemoth was on top of the Evangelion, and it was trying to bring the energy weapon mounted on its forearm to bear on Unit Two's head. The crimson Evangelion had a death grip on both its wrists. Asuka was keeping the left arm at bay, but the right, the one with the energy cannon, was slowly overpowering the Evangelion's efforts to impede it.

Even as she fought, the Blue Behemoth finally got the weapon into position. Electric blue light glowed from the far end of the barrel.

"Oh no you don't!" Asuka roared.

With a mental command, she switched her Evangelion to maximum gain mode, and forced the Blue Behemoth's arm away. The second she did, a beam of blue light erupted forth from the weapon it, streaking through the air and eventually slamming into the Geofront roof, causing debris to come raining down onto the already battered forest of the underground cave.

Another silent order from its pilot caused Unit Two's right shoulder to open up, revealing the needle thrower hidden inside. Before the Blue Behemoth could react, it fired, and suddenly the azure robot's head and chest was filled with wicked spikes, each larger than a sedan.

"Now get the hell off of me!" Asuka yelled, kicking out with both of Unit Two's legs at once and sending the robot flying.

Even as she got Unit Two back to its feet, Asuka quickly shifted her Evangelion back into normal mode. The countdown timer in the plug went crazy for a second as the war machine's internal computer rapidly recalculated how much time she had left.

The redhead wince when she saw the new number. She'd had Unit Two in high gear for maybe fifteen seconds, but that had used up enough power to knock forty seconds from her available time. She had less than two and a half minutes left to win this now.

Across the Geofront, the Blue Behemoth quickly rose, the spikes that had impaled its body slowly being pushed out, falling to the ground one by one. Just as quickly, the holes that the spikes had punched into the robot's body sealed up, as though they had never been there at all.

The Second Child grit her teeth, trying not to let her frustration overwhelm her, even as she quickly made her way to the weapons cache NERV had sent out at the very start of the battle and grabbed a progressive spear.

That was why she'd been having such a hard time ending the damned Blue Behemoth. Sure, it was fast, and it was armed to the teeth, but she could deal with that. What she could not deal with so easily was an enemy who recovered from everything she could throw at it in a couple of seconds.

The Blue Behemoth fired a cluster of missiles at her from a launcher embedded in its back, and Unit Two nimbly dodged. Asuka could feel the force and the heat of the explosions wash over her through her neural link with her Evangelion, but she paid it no mind.

Her eyes flicked over to the countdown timer. Just a little over two minutes now.

Throwing Unit Two into a sprint, she charged the Blue Behemoth, dodging another blast of its energy weapon as it went.

"Take this!" the Second Child roared, swinging the prog spear like she would an axe, hoping that the damned robot wouldn't be able to self repair if she could chop the damn thing in two.

The weapon made it almost halfway through the Behemoth's body before it finally stopped.

With a growl, Asuka pulled out the weapon and swung again. And again. And again.

She couldn't hit the Blue Behemoth in the same place twice, no matter how hard she tried; the damned robot just kept moving too quickly. And at the rate its "wounds" were healing themselves, she didn't even have a very big window of opportunity in which to try.

It tried to bring its energy weapon to bear again, and Asuka batted away its arm with her spear. The weapon discharged, leaving another long scar on the Geofront walls, but Asuka barely noticed, all her attention on the Blue Behemoth.

She was down to about a minute and a half's worth of battery power now. The JSSDF's conventional forces wouldn't be able to harm even an inactive Evangelion, at least not without specialized equipment and several hours to work unimpeded. If they were all she had to worry about when Unit Two ran out of power, she could just vent the LCL and wait it out for someone to come for her.

If the Blue Behemoth was still standing when her batteries ran dry, Asuka had no doubt it would quickly slice her Unit Two into ribbons.

"So just die already!" she yelled, swinging her spear once more.

This time the giant robot managed to grab hold of the weapon's shaft, stopping it cold. It reached for Unit Two's neck with its free hand.

Asuka responded automatically, launching a fierce kick at the Blue Behemoth that sent it flying once more, reducing dozens of trees to splinters and pulp as it landed.

The Second Child launched her spear at it the moment it got up, impaling it through the torso and sending it staggering backwards. Still, that wasn't enough to end it; the Blue Behemoth regained its balance, and damned if Asuka couldn't see the spear being slowly pushed out of the thing's body.

She looked at the timer again. Exactly one minute. She'd just have to charge, try to rip the damn thing's head off, and—

A sphere of blue-white light whizzed by Unit Two and slammed right into the chest of the Blue Behemoth, resulting in a massive explosion, fire and smoke completely obscuring the hostile robot. Her Evangelion's HUD automatically lowered its brightness settings, for which Asuka was grateful; she would've been blinded otherwise.

Looking behind herself, she saw Unit One approaching, a positron rifle in one hand and an extra umbilical cable in the other.

The redhead honestly couldn't decide if she was more relieved or annoyed to see Shinji riding to the rescue.

"Well, took you long enough to get here," she said, opening a communications channel to Unit One.

Shinji chuckled nervously as he plugged the extra power cable into Unit Two's back, causing the countdown timer to vanish. "Well, you know me," he said. "Always riding in at the last second to steal all the credit."

Asuka's eyes narrowed slightly at that. It was unusual for the Third Child to use humor, especially in the middle of a battle.

Shinji was hiding something.

Before she could say anything to him, they both spotted something moving within the smoke from the explosion.

The Blue Behemoth stepped forward out of the cloud. A large portion of its torso was molten or outright missing, but it was cooling down and self repairing right in front of the two pilots' eyes.

Asuka decided she could press Shinji about whatever he was keeping a secret later.

Insane. That was the only word to describe her battle with the scarab-enhanced Keel, Blue Beetle decided. Combat with Green Lantern had been chaotic, but it simply did not compare to fighting someone who had the same abilities as she did.

Grappling fiercely, the two of them flew though NERV headquarters, both of them with jet boots firing, sending them on a wild, loopy course.

None of the NERV personnel scurrying through the hallways or the JSSDF soldiers hunting them down were aware of them, and the two were passing through walls, floors, and everything else as intangibly as ghosts.

Head butting Keel and leaving the man in the black armor dazed, Blue Beetle transformed the armor covering her forearm into the annihilator rifle and pointed the weapon at her enemy's face.

Keel instantly went back into phase with the rest of the universe, leaving the sapphire superwoman's attack to pass harmlessly through him.

Blue Beetle quickly followed Keel, phasing back into step with reality as well and tried to renew her attack. However, the second the maneuver had bought him was all that her foe had needed to regain the offensive.

"Ack!" Blue Beetle exclaimed as she brought up a shield to stop Keel's own annihilator beam.

The tough material of her shield deflected her enemy's attack, sending it crashing into the ceiling, cutting through who knew how many floors. The sounds of screams came from nearby as NERV techs were exposed to the destruction, most of them probably with no idea what was causing it.

Their whole battle had been like this so far. One minute they were unseen phantoms, doing harm to nothing and no one but themselves. The next they were avatars of destruction, rampaging through the base, leaving fire and rubble in their wake.

Insane.

The sapphire superwoman surged forward, holding her beetle wing-shaped shields before her, and slammed into Keel, sending the both of them crashing into and then through a nearby wall. Bits of concrete and drywall rained down on them as they fell to the floor in the next room, whatever it was. Blue Beetle ordered her armor to reabsorb the shield and threw a punch at Keel's jaw. It connected with a satisfying crack.

At the back of her mind, she could feel the scarab's exasperation. So much high tech at her fingertips and she used her fists. She probably would've agreed with it if she'd had time to think about it.

Rather than trying to hit her back or blast her, Keel's response was more, unexpected. A pair of…things sprouted on his shoulders, and quickly spat out a half a dozen metal spheres, which bounced off in all directions.

Then he was gone again, phased out.

(Ritsuko!) The scarab exclaimed, bringing the relevant information to the front of her mind.

The spheres that Keel had just launched were bombs, of course.

Blue Beetle phased out just before they exploded with an amazing amount of force, consuming the whole area with fire and smoke and causing a portion of the base to collapse.

The armored superwoman switched to infrared vision, quickly finding Keel, and letting loose with her annihilator beams, her teeth clenched. There was no way he hadn't just killed people with that explosion. Some of them might've been technicians and scientists who had once worked under her.

Her foe responded by phasing out again. Scowling, Blue Beetle followed suit.

Only to have Keel knee her in the stomach the second she did. Letting out a grunt of pain, the woman in the blue armor doubled over.

The next thing she knew, her world was nothing but bright blue light and pain.

"…okay, ow," she groaned some indeterminate amount of time later, finding herself laying in a pile of debris.

She realized dimly that she must've phased back into step with reality at some point, because otherwise couldn't be laying on anything, but she had no memory of doing it.

Do I phase back automatically if I'm hit hard enough? She wondered stupidly.

Before she could shake out the cobwebs, she felt the now familiar but still disconcerting sensation of the scarab seizing control of her body. The Blue Beetle leapt into the air, just barely missing the energy blast Keel had fired at her previous position.

A rocket launcher sprouted on Blue Beetle's arm, firing its payload at the man in the black armor. The rocket shot through the air, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake, racing toward Keel.

Only to have him deftly grip the object, spin himself around, along with the rocket, and send it soaring back toward the Blue Beetle.

"Ah!" the sapphire superwoman exclaimed in surprise.

Crackling blue energy erupted from her fingertips, streaking toward the rocket, but it was already too close to her. Blue Beetle cried out as the force of the explosion sent her flying.

"Ohh," she groaned, finding herself once more laying in a pile of debris.

(We are getting our ass handed to us by a ninety-something year old man.) The scarab remarked, sounding appropriately disgruntled.

He's better at using his powers than I am, Blue Beetle silently agreed. How the hell can that be? He can't have had them for more than a couple of days, if that!

(The Reach's programming. We don't have it because I was damaged, but his scarab sure wasn't.) The scarab answered. (Ritsuko, this is bad. I know you don't want to, but we might need to use our last resort here.)

Agreed, she decided reluctantly. Do it.

This conversation had happened between Ritsuko and the scarab at the speed of thought, taking only a fraction of the time it would've to carry out verbally. However, it was still enough time for Keel to draw close to them again.

Blue Beetle managed to dodge the energy bolt he fired at her, responding with another blast of azure energy from her fingertips. The assault wasn't powerful enough to really harm him, but it did stagger her foe. Blue Beetle used the precious couple of seconds she'd bought herself to bring the annihilator beam to bear again.

Keel avoided the attack by phasing out again, and Blue Beetle quickly followed him.

"Not this time!" she yelled, blocking the vicious kick he'd tried to deliver the moment she phased out.

With amazing speed, Keel grabbed the forearm she'd used to deflect his previous blow. Blue Beetle let out a cry as her world spun crazily, her stomach lurching.

Keel released her, and she went careening upwards, passing harmlessly through floor after floor until she eventually burst out of the NERV pyramid and into the Geofront, where not one but two battles were raging. Units One and Two were facing off against the Blue Behemoth, having trouble despite outnumbering their foe. Meanwhile, the JSSDF was mopping up what remained of NERV's pathetic, conventional defenses that had been stationed outside.

Blue Beetle couldn't help but wince at the sight of all the Reach-tech vehicles and weapons she saw, which made up the vast bulk of the hardware that the JSSDF had brought to the attack. She knew that they still could've steamrolled their way into NERV headquarters even with conventional arms, but the more advanced weaponry at their disposal might've cost the defenders precious time.

She didn't have any more time to ponder the issue, however, as Keel emerged from the pyramid in hot pursuit of her, the armor covering his forearms already morphed into energy cannons. The sapphire superwoman was only barely able to get her shield up in time.

"Scarab, we need to hit back!" she said through gritted teeth. The metal of her shield was rapidly starting to glow orange again.

(On it!) The scarab replied.

Several missile tubes sprouted from the armor on Blue Beetle's back, launching their deadly payload. Half a dozen rockets went streaking through the air toward Keel, trailing smoke as they went.

"Now, scarab!" Ritsuko barked.

The command was ambiguous, but with their mental link, the scarab had no difficulty comprehending what she wanted it to do.

Understanding why she wanted that, however, was another matter, one that would've required a few seconds of searching Ritsuko's thoughts. Seconds they didn't have. The scarab decided to trust the blonde's instructions.

The missiles detonated a moment before they would've impacted Keel. A moment before he would've phased again and avoided the attack completely. The man in the dark armor let out a cry of rage and pain as the shockwave from the explosions washed over him, sending him careening crazily through the air.

Allowing an almost feral grin to play across her features at finally getting a good hit in, Blue Beetle was quick to follow up with a blast of the annihilator beam. Unfortunately, Keel had the presence of mind to phase again only a second or two after the blast from the missiles hit him, syncing himself with the rest of reality once more.

Blue Beetle wasted no time following and unleashing another withering assault of electric blue light, fiercely intent on holding onto the offensive. To her delight, Keel had no clever trick to turn the battle around this time. Instead, he created his own shield from his armor, bracing himself as he tried to weather the storm of attacks.

I can't believe it, we're winning! She thought, even as she focused on pouring it on, not giving Keel a single chance to escape.

(Almost sorry you decided to play your trump card?) The scarab asked.

Blue Beetle chuckled slightly, even as she continued her relentless assault. "Well, in hindsight I guess it wasn't—"

The woman in the blue armor never got to finish. Something struck her right in the back, and she went tumbling downwards, her world consumed by nothing but pain. She was only vaguely aware of the impact when she hit the ground.

"Ugh," she groaned some indeterminate period of time later, when thinking became possible again. "What was that?" she muttered.

She knew it couldn't have been Keel. She had made very sure he hadn't had a chance to escape. Yet she could feel the cool outside air on her back; part of the armor had been completely blasted away, exposing her skin even as the scarab automatically went about the task of regenerating the missing armor.

Her dazed mind whirled as she tried to figure out what could've done that, even as she lay face down on the ground, unmoving. No conventional weapon could've just destroyed a section of her armor like that in one hit, at least not without doing a lot more collateral damage. It had to have been Reach tech, but she knew it hadn't been Keel. That left…

Shit! She thought, a sudden spike of terror instantly driving the cobwebs from her mind.

Ignoring the way her whole body screamed in protest, Blue Beetle rapidly turned herself over and opened fire with the annihilator beam. The bolt of blue energy crashed straight through one of the JSSDF's Reach-tech aircraft, causing it to erupt into a spectacular fireball. In seconds, nothing was left of the BUG but a bunch of flaming debris falling toward the ground.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the only one that had decided to focus its attention on her. Getting to her feet, Blue Beetle blasted two more out of the sky, only to watch as four more took their places. Sparing a glance at the rest of the Geofront, she spotted the JSSDF's land bound vehicles, all of which were also making a beeline for her.

"What the hell?!" she hissed, frantically blowing away the new attackers as quickly as she could, forcing herself not to think about the pilots inside. "Why has the JSSDF suddenly decided to focus all its attention on me?"

She meant it as a rhetorical question, but the scarab responded anyway. (They haven't!) It responded. (Keel's scarab hacked into the Reach-tech equipment and seized control of all of it!)

"So that's why he didn't do anything but play defense a minute ago! He wasn't out of ideas, he was executing a new one! Damn, I'm so stupid!" she growled. "Scarab, can you take control of them? Or at least give it back to the JSSDF?"

(No. He's completely locked out the system. I can't get in.) The scarab answered grimly.

By the now, the number of approaching vehicles was growing too quickly for Blue Beetle to destroy them before they could get close enough to attack. She raised her shield just in time to stop the first blast of blue energy that streaked toward her. A second later, the air was full of them, as brilliantly bright as any fireworks display.

"Then in looks like we're in real trouble," she said softly, glancing in Keel's direction.

The man in the dark armor was hovering in the air nearby, a look of intense concentration on his face as he directed his hijacked army to attack his lone foe.

"I don't suppose you have any ideas?" she asked the scarab. "A new trick up your nonexistent sleeve?"

(No. At least, nothing that wouldn't cause enough destruction to completely collapse the Geofront.) The scarab replied.

Blue Beetle considered that for a moment, really considered it. Unleashing something like that would be horrible…but it might be preferable to what would happen if she didn't. Everyone she cared about would die, but they were doomed anyway if Gendo or SEELE was able to initiate Third Impact. At least the rest of the world would have a chance.

Except…except they wouldn't, she realized. Keel would probably manage to escape the destruction, and with his scarab having transformed his body, the once feeble old man would have all the time he needed to eventually pick up the pieces and bring his mad scheme to fruition. And even if he did die, even if the rest of the SEELE council proved harmless without him, the Reach's fleet was still in orbit above Earth. With no one to stop them, they would get what they wanted, sooner or later, one way or another.

Better to die an inglorious death here and hope someone else could produce a world saving miracle later than to take out the Geofront in a suicidal last attack.

"Scarab," she whispered, knowing she had only seconds before her shield was reduced to molten slag. "Kaji Da, I mean. It's been a honor. Thank you for being my friend."

(…you're welcome. The same to you, Ritsuko.) It replied.

She looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry," she breathed, not sure if she was apologizing to the scarab, Shinji, or to the whole damn world.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the end.

"YEEEEE-HAAAAAW!"

And her eyes popped open again at the gleeful, completely out of place whoop coming from above her.

She looked up just in time to see a flying Renault Alpine made entirely of green light go crashing into the formation of BUGs that was attacking her. Though the car was significantly smaller than they were, it had no trouble knocking them out of the sky while keeping on a more or less straight course itself.

(Awesome!) The scarab exclaimed as Blue Beetle watched the air above them transform into a crazy demolition derby, with JSSDF aircraft falling like rain.

Eventually, all of the BUGs that the JSSDF had brought to the attack had fallen. The emerald Renault disappearing, leaving nothing but its driver behind.

Green Lantern, of course.

Asking her for help had been the sapphire superwoman's last resort, her final trump card.

Blue Beetle didn't immediately bother to say anything to her friend. Instead, she dismissed her shield, opening fire on the Reach-tech tanks. The emerald superwoman above her did the same thing, raining green death down onto them, and in seconds the land vehicles were reduced to ruins as well.

The woman in the blue armor flew upwards to join her friend, squelching the impulse to ask what had taken her so long.

"Thanks for the save," she said instead. "I know it couldn't have been easy to slip away from the command center."

"No, it wasn't," Green Lantern agreed. "I'm going to have some explaining to do later, but I promised you I'd come if you needed me."

"Thanks," Blue Beetle said again. "I owe you a round later."

"I'd say you owe me several rounds," Green Lantern replied, her tone unusually harsh and serious. Then she turned away, not meeting the other superwoman's eyes. "There wasn't a whole lot I could do on the command center by that point. NERV really has no significant forces left to command by then, and I probably did a lot more good sealing the entrances to the command center as Green Lantern than I would've otherwise, but…"

Despite the mask Green Lantern wore, despite the green halo around her, despite the way she was looking in another direction, Blue Beetle could still see a look of shame flash across her features. She winced, knowing it couldn't have been easy for her friend to abandon her post, despite any and all justification for it.

"Come on, let's handle Keel here and then chase the rest of the JSSDF away," Blue Beetle said.

"Wait, that's Chairman Keel?" Green Lantern asked, gesturing to the man in the black armor, who seemed to be coming back to himself now that the vehicles he'd seized control of were destroyed.

"The scarabs are really quite remarkable," Blue Beetle replied, even as fired her annihilator beam at Keel.

The man dodged, responding with a barrage of missiles similar to the one she'd launched at him earlier.

"Nice try!" Green Lantern yelled, forming a wall of emerald light, completely blocking the assault.

The moment the jade barrier vanished, Blue Beetle unleashed another annihilator beam, and this time she managed to clip Keel's shoulder, melting the armor there and burning the flesh beneath it. The man in the dark armor hissed in pain, then raised an arm, firing a yellow laser straight at Green Lantern.

Unsurprised by the tactic, which she'd used herself once against the emerald superwoman, Blue Beetle was ready, blocking the attack with her shield.

Wow, we're working really well together here, Blue Beetle thought, amazed.

(Why is that so surprising? The two of you are friends.) The scarab pointed out.

Yeah, but we've never fought together before, Blue Beetle replied.

(Eh, it's probably just because you've fought against each other before.) The scarab replied with the mental equivalent of a shrug.

Whatever the reason, Blue Beetle and Green Lantern continued to work together like the parts of a well oiled machine as they battled Keel, compensating for the other's weaknesses and utilizing one another's strengths as they drove their foe back. It wasn't long before the man in the dark armor was nearly pressed against the Geofront wall.

"It's over, Keel," Blue Beetle said, keeping her weapon trained on him. "Surrender already."

"Never," he spat.

Then he disappeared, phasing out again.

"Where…?" Green Lantern began, but Blue Beetle was already phasing out as well.

She cursed when she saw Keel flying away from the two superwomen and realized where he was heading. Phasing back, she grabbed Green Lantern's arm.

"Come on!" she yelled and began dragging her friend across the Geofront.

Toward the Blue Behemoth.

They were only a few hundred meters away from the azure giant, which was still locked in combat with an increasingly battered looking pair of Evangelions, when Keel phased back into reality right on top of it.

"Damn it!" Blue Beetle cursed, opening fire at Keel, only to have her shot blocked by one of the Behemoth's massive hands.

As she watched, the man in the black armor spread his body out across the top of the robot's "head", his armor seeming to fuse with its metallic body.

(Oh, no, he isn't!) The scarab exclaimed in disbelief and consternation. (He's insane! What he's doing is crazy!)

Even by our standards? Blue Beetle asked with a flash of dark humor.

(Yes!) The scarab answered, without irony. (To link that deeply with that machine…!)

The Blue Behemoth let out a loud growl, as guttural and as menacing as any Evangelion had ever been. New weapons seemed to sprout up all over its body, growing like pustules from the metal.

Units One and Two both took defensive stances, prog knives in hand and humming. The air around them shimmered, a product of their AT fields. Green Lantern's ring of power glowed with an intense light, which the emerald superwoman was no doubt ready to unleash at any second. Blue Beetle generated the largest gun she dared to use, training it on the Reach-tech monstrosity before her.

Then…the Blue Behemoth vanished.

"What?" Green Lantern gasped out, the abrupt end to the tense standoff catching her by surprise.

"He…he phased out again," Blue Beetle said, bewildered.

She couldn't see the point of doing that; given the bulk of the Blue Behemoth, there was little room to maneuver around in the Geofront, and Keel had had them outgunned anyway. Unleashing a massive bombardment probably would've been more effective than trying to be tricky.

"Why?" Green Lantern demanded. "Where would he go?"

The second question immediately caused it to click in Blue Beetle's mind. She cursed.

"Come with me!" she said, grabbing hold of her friend's forearm again, this time phasing them both.

She only hoped they wouldn't be too late.

This situation was extremely…troublesome, Rei decided.

For the past several minutes, she had been struggling to free Commander Ikari from the debris which had fallen upon him when the Blue Beetle and the mysterious figure in the black armor had damaged the chamber. However, it had long ago become clear that she simply wasn't strong enough to achieve this goal.

She might've gone to get help, despite the Commander's standing order that no one aside from himself, Fuyutski, Rei herself, and, until recently Doctor Akagi be allowed access to Lilith's chamber, because these were clearly extraordinary circumstances.

However, even from the inside, opening the door required the use of her NERV ID card. She had left the card in her pocket when she'd undressed, and her clothes had been lost in the same chaos that had left the Commander in his current predicament. So far, her searches for them had turned up no trace.

Rei was pondering what to do when the ground beneath her suddenly began to tremble. Her red eyes widened, if only by a few millimeters.

An earthquake?

Then the concrete around the First Child and the Commander began to crumble around them, forcing Rei to grab onto the chunk of debris pinning the Commander to the ground in order to keep her feet. A moment later, both of them were being lifted upwards, and Rei realized they were in the palm of an enormous blue hand.

She briefly thought it was Unit Zero, despite the impossibility of that, but what she saw when she and the Commander broke the surface of the LCL lake disabused her of that notion.

"Ikari!" the voice of Chairman Keel growled forth from the Blue Behemoth. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this!"

Then the massive hand that cradled her and the Commander slowly began to close.

Rei reacted immediately, unfolding her AT field, putting as much power into it as she could. The Blue Behemoth's huge fingers halted.

"You're only delaying the inevitable!" Keel roared, increasing the pressure.

Silently, Rei admitted that he was right. With such close proximity to Lilith, her AT field should've been immensely powerful, capable of withstanding the blast of an N2 bomb and more. Unfortunately, the embryonic form of Adam implanted in the Commander's hand seemed to be…disrupting it somehow. Try as she might, she couldn't bring her field's full power to bear.

The Blue Behemoth squeezed harder. She could feel her field starting to buckle. Sweat ran down her face as she struggled to maintain the barrier. Rei sank to her knees, the effort taking a physical toll on her.

She almost didn't notice the green and blue light shining from above.

"Let them go, you creep!" Green Lantern roared, her ring flashing as a bolt of energy shot forth from it, quickly severing the Blue Behemoth's wrist.

Rei suppressed a sigh of exasperation as she and the Commander went tumbling back toward the lake of LCL.

"I should've known from the start that you'd come here," Blue Beetle growled as she peppered the Blue Behemoth with energy blasts, having very little effect. "Everything you need to start Third Impact is right in this room…but I won't let you do it!"

"You mean 'we won't let you!'" Green Lantern corrected her, even as she launched an emerald boxing glove right the Blue Behemoth's gut.

"Er, right," Blue Beetle agreed.

"You will try," Keel growled, opening fire with the array of weapons on the Blue Behemoth.

Both Blue Beetle and Green Lantern easily dodged the barrage—trying to kill them with the Blue Behemoth's arsenal was like trying to kill a housefly with a hand grenade—but the storm of missiles and energy bolts slammed into the far wall, creating an avalanche of falling concrete, twisted metal, and dust. The ceiling near that side of the chamber began to sag alarmingly.

He'll bring this whole place down around us in no time if he keeps this up! And anything we do that can take him down quickly will get the same result, she thought, noting how quickly the massive machine was regenerating the damage she and Green Lantern had done to it. The Blue Behemoth even seemed to be growing a new hand.

Brute force clearly wasn't an option.

Avoiding the Blue Behemoth's attacks, she flew toward it, landing next to the spot where Keel was embedded within the machine. Grabbing hold of him, she tried to pull him out, applying every ounce of her superhuman strength to the task.

He didn't budge an inch.

"Damn it, how the hell can he be so completely stuck there?" she growled through clenched teeth.

(He's completely fused himself with this machine! It's like he's a part of it now!) The scarab piped up. (You can't just pull him out!)

"Fine!" Blue Beetle snapped, shifting the armor on her forearm into the Annihilator Beam again.

The thought of killing in cold blood like this was surprisingly horrifying, considering everything else that she'd done, but it looked like she had little choice. She told herself she'd already killed people far more deserving of life than Lorenz Keel and fired.

Only for an energy barrier to spring up, deflecting her attack.

"Oh, come on!" she yelled, unleashing a continuous stream of energy at her foe that the shield block it all, seemingly with ease. She was aware of the barrel of her weapon starting to heat up too much.

(He's drawing on the power of his own scarab and that giant robot to generate that shield! You won't be able to pierce it like that!) The scarab said.

Blue Beetle ceased her attack. "Fine, if you're so smart, how the hell do we beat this guy?" she demanded, unleashing her frustration on the scarab.

(I…I'm not sure.) It confessed.

The sapphire superwoman narrowly managed to suppress the urge to scream. "Can we link with the Blue Behemoth ourselves? Try to take control away from Keel?"

(…we could try, but it would be dangerous. Very dangerous. Our minds could be destroyed if it doesn't work properly.) The scarab said.

"All of us will be destroyed if we don't try," Blue Beetle said, as long, thin spikes sprouted from the tips of her fingers.

The scarab's resolve hardened. (Let's do it then)

Blue Beetle speared her long fingertips into the metal of the Behemoth next to Keel, and the scarab quickly initiated the interface.

The woman in the metal suit thought she knew more or less what to expect from this. After all, she'd done something like it twice before, having linked with both the MAGI and that alternate version of herself in a similar fashion. Both times, she'd found herself transported into very strange mental universes. She thought something like that would happen again.

Except it didn't. For all its sophistication and advanced technology, the Blue Behemoth didn't have the same glimmer of life and true intelligence that even the MAGI possessed. There was no mental plane to be found within it.

Simply put, there was no "there" there. The whole of its mind was just one vast stream of code, one that could be altered to suit the purpose of whatever user managed to properly manipulate it, just like any other computer program.

The only difference was that there was already another user whose mind was also plugged directly into the system, and he didn't like her.

GET OUT!

Keel's furious roar was almost enough to make her disconnect immediately, but Blue Beetle resisted the urge, fighting him for admin rights to the Behemoth's systems.

It was a silent, unseen battle, a contest not of computer programming prowess (unfortunately) but of everything they both were.

Ritsuko could feel Keel's insatiable desire for absolute power, along with his obsession with Third Impact. It was the kind of obsession that could lead a person to create great works but ruin his life in the process, except it had been paired with utterly selfish desires. Not just unlimited power but eternal life as well, and as the years had passed by, desperation had joined the mixture.

The potent mixture of undeniable greed and fear nearly overwhelmed Ritsuko at first, but she marshaled herself, fighting back with all of her needs and goals. The need to atone for her past sins. The need to protect the people she cared about. Misato, Shinji, Maya, the scarab. She would not fail them, and no pathetic old man was going to change that!

For several seconds, their wills warred against each other, neither willing to relent.

After what felt like an eternity, Keel's mind gave out. With a final burst of mental effort, Ritsuko broke his connect to the machine.

"Ah!" Blue Beetle gasped as she disconnected from the Blue Behemoth, which had suddenly gone motionless.

Next to her, Keel's body came free of the huge robot and began to slide down. Blue Beetle grabbed him before he could fall off, then hoisted him to a flatter part of the robot where he wouldn't go tumbling. He made no effort to get up or fight her at all.

"What happened to him?" she asked.

(He integrated himself too deeply with the Blue Behemoth. Having his connection to it terminated so abruptly has left him a vegetable.) The scarab answered grimly.

Blue Beetle blinked. "Oh," she softly.

Part of her thought she should feel bad about that, but she found she couldn't muster up any guilt over what she'd just done.

"What happened?" Green Lantern asked, coming down for a landing next to her.

"I kind of fried Keel's brain," Blue Beetle said, "and I guess the Blue Behemoth can't act without him now."

"So…we won?" Green Lantern asked.

"Looks like it," Blue Beetle nodded.

"Good," the emerald superwoman replied. "Now, let's get back up there and chase off whatever's left of the JSSDF task force."

"Sure," Blue Beetle said. "Oh, wait, there is one more thing."

To Green Lantern's surprise, she abruptly turned and fired a single shot downwards. An instant later, she heard Commander Ikari scream in pain.

"What the hell?!" the emerald superwoman exclaimed, taking to the air to see what exactly had just happened.

Rei and the Commander had managed to make it back to the concrete island where the crucified Angel was. The First Child was naked, for whatever reason, and Ikari was missing his right hand, an expression of agony on his face. The stump was smoking.

"What did you do that for?!" Green Lantern demanded.

"The Commander had what was left of the First Angel embedded into his hand. He was about to start Third Impact," Blue Beetle said, as if she was discussing the weather.

Then the sapphire superwoman fired a new weapon, one that spat out a great mass of cords. Gendo realized they were coming toward him too late to even try to dodge, and they quickly wrapped themselves around him, completely immobilizing him.

"We're going up to deal with the JSSDF, Rei," Blue Beetle called down. "I'd suggest you don't try to get him out of here while we're gone."

"And…put some clothes on," Green Lantern added.

Meanwhile, high above the Earth, all but forgotten by all the humans below, the Reach's fleet maintained its steady orbit over the planet, unseen.

"Negotiator, I'm afraid I've got some bad news."

On the flagship, one very unlucky drone had somehow wound up with the task of informing their leader about the latest news.

"What is it?" the Negotiator demanded.

The drone swallowed nervously. "Ah…brain scans of the scarab we recently deployed and its host have both gone flat. Also, the native forces we're allied with are in full retreat from the area known as Tokyo-3. It appears that we've lost."

"No!" the Negotiator hissed. "The plan! The odds! The odds were—"

"Not on our side, for once," interrupted the deep voice of Dawur, as the fleet's hulking master of defenses entered the flagship's bridge. "I told you we should've just passed on this planet. The scarab you gave Keel may be brain dead, now, but all the information should still be in there. It can be used to prove we interfered for our own gain. You may have plunged the Reach into a war."

Gritting his teeth, the Negotiator turned back to the drone. "What's the status of the rogue scarab and its host?" he demanded.

The drone resisted the urge to run away. "Both still fully functional, sir."

"And the Green Lantern?" the Negotiator demanded. "Has the rogue had any contact with her since we dispatched the new scarab?"

"Y-Yes, Negotiator," the drone stammered. "According to our readings, the rogue scarab and the Green Lantern fought together in Tokyo-3."

"That's it, then," Dawur said grimly. "The truce between the Reach and the Green Lantern Corps is broken. Once she reports back to the Guardians of the Universe, it will be war."

"Then we'll just have to prevent her from reporting back to the Guardians, now won't we?" the Negotiator snarled. He turned to the drone. "Bring the ship's weapons systems online. Order the rest of the fleet to prepare to fire as well."

"Right away," the drone agreed at once.

"What are you planning on doing?" Dawur demanded.

"I'm going to destroy the Green Lantern and the rogue," the Negotiator answered. "By destroying the island of Nippon and everything on it."

"And how does that avoid a war?" Dawur asked.

"We'll make it look like a barrage of meteors," the Negotiator said. Then he chuckled darkly. "The humans will get their Third Impact, after all a fashion. We won't get the planet's resources, but there will be no new war with Oa today."

"Negotiator," one of the other drones called from one of the bridge's many control stations. "The flagship's weapons are ready and primed. However, I feel I must warn you that broadcasting a call to battle stations for the rest of the fleet runs the risk of informing the rogue scarab of our plans. It may pick up the signal, sir."

"Send the broadcast anyway," the Negotiator ordered. "What can one rogue scarab and its host possibly do to stop us?"

Meanwhile, in the Geofront, Blue Beetle and Green Lantern were finishing up with what remained of the JSSDF's attack force.

"Not much left of them now," the emerald superwoman informed her friend. "And my ring's not picking up any attack planes or bombers coming to drop an N2 bomb on us. Once the mop up's completely done, I think it'll be safe to say we won."

"Finally," Blue Beetle breathed a sigh of relief. She let out a small chuckle. "You know, I can hardly believe that we managed to—"

(Uh, Ritsuko?) the scarab chimed in suddenly.

Normally, Blue Beetle would've scolded the scarab for interrupting her like that, but she could tell just from the tone of its "voice" that something was very wrong.

"What is it scarab?" she asked softly.

The scarab quickly informed her of the transmission it had just intercepted.

"What?" Green Lantern asked. "What is it?"

Blue Beetle held up a hand to silence her friend. "How long do we have?" she asked the scarab.

(It should take the ships of the fleet approximately three minutes to power up their weapons and get into position.) the scarab answered. (Once that happens, they just need the Negotiator's order to fire.)

"That's not a lot of time," Blue Beetle said quietly.

"What?" Green Lantern demanded impatiently. "What's going on?"

"The Reach are going to bombard Japan in about three minutes to cover up their involvement in the battle," Blue Beetle answered.

The emerald superwoman's eyes widened. "We have to stop them!" she exclaimed. "Let's go!"

"You think we're going to destroy a fleet of alien warships in three minutes?" Blue Beetle asked. "Misato, we're good, but we're not that good."

"Then what do you want to do?" Green Lantern snapped. "Just stay here and wait to die?"

"Of course not," Blue Beetle scoffed. "I think I have a plan."

"Rits, I really hope whatever that plan is lives up to your brilliant reputation," Green Lantern said.

"Only one way to find out," Blue Beetle replied. "Scarab, first we need to see if Deathstoke and his crew decided to wreck my toys or not. Check to see if the hardware in my hideout is still working."

(Pinging the computer.) The scarab replied, sending out a wireless signal to the cave where Ritsuko had hidden after Gendo had revealed her as the Blue Beetle to the world. (Yes. Everything's still operational.)

"Including my teleporter?" Blue Beetle asked.

"You have a teleporter?" Green Lantern blinked.

Both the armored superwoman and the scarab ignored her. (Including the teleporter.) it said. (Ritsuko, what are you planning? I can't quite see the whole plan in your mind…)

"You'll find out," she said. "Now, does the equipment have the coordinates of our friend on Mercury?"

Comprehension finally dawned on the scarab. (Yes, we do. By the way, have I said recently that I really, really like you?)

"You could stand to say it more," Blue Beetle grinned. "Now, I think you've figured out where I'm going with this."

(Oh, yes.) the scarab practically purred. (Locking on the coordinates of our 'friend' and the coordinates of the Reach flagship, specifically the bridge. Though you do realize transporting this much mass will probably burn out the teleporter.)

"I can live with that," Blue Beetle said.

(Just figured you should know.) the scarab said. (Ready. Just give the word.)

"Energize," Blue Beetle ordered with a smirk.

"The final ship is moving into firing position, sir," one of the drones on the flagship's bridge ordered. "Ready in less than one minute."

"Fire as soon as everything's set," the Negotiator ordered. "I don't want to give them a second more of life than necessary."

"Yes, sir," the drone said.

"I never knew you to be this bloodthirsty," Dawur remarked.

The Negotiator scoffed. "Nonsense. I'm merely doing what is necessary to prevent—agh!"

His sentence transformed into a scream as a massive thing suddenly appeared in the center of the ship's huge bridge. The hulking monstrosity barely fit inside. One wrong move on its part could easily pierce the hull and expose them all to the vacuum of space.

Not that it seemed to care. The second it appeared it lashed out, destroying consoles by the dozen and killing upwards of a dozen drones. Screams filled the bridge.

"Get security in here, now!" the Negotiator roared. "What the hell is this?"

"What the humans deemed necessary, I assume," Dawur said coolly, even as he fired his weapons at the creature, to utterly no effect.

The Negotiator was about to snarl a retort when he saw the creature's "eyes" starting to glow.

Then there was a blindingly bright flash…

"What the hell is that?" Green Lantern asked, pointing upwards.

Even in the bright midday sky, the explosion happening up in Earth's orbit was plainly visible, a bright blossom of orange and yellow against the endless expanse of blue.

"The Reach's flagship," Blue Beetle replied with a smirk.

Green Lantern blinked. "How…?"

"You remember the Fourteenth Angel," Blue Beetle asked, her smirk widening. "And how I took care of it?"

Green Lantern nodded, her brow creasing ever so slightly. "Yeah," she said. "After you had trouble destroying it outright, you…took it away. Transported it somewhere."

"To the surface of the planet Mercury, where there was nothing for it to hurt," Blue Beetle nodded. "I'd planned to kill it then, but I just didn't have the strength at that moment, so I simply withdrew. Of course, it seemed like a bad idea to just forget about an Angel, even if it was so far away. Later on, I couldn't find the thing at first, so I eventually tracked it down. However, other things came up, and I never got around to going back to Mercury and finishing it off."

"And what does all this have to do with anything?" Green Lantern asked.

"Well, you see, while I was on the lamb and living in a cave, I decided to finish building this teleporter I'd been working on…"

Green Lantern's eyes widened. "You…teleported the Fourteenth Angel onto the Reach flagship?"

"That's right," Blue Beetle said. "Now, let's get up there."

She took off, heading skyward, and Green Lantern quickly followed. In only moments, they had traveled from the robin's egg blue of the sky to the speckled ebony of outer space.

Wow, Blue Beetle thought as she drew close enough to the Reach fleet to see what was happening.

The Fourteenth Angel floated in space amongst the remains of the Reach flagship, roughly in the center of the fleet. As the two superwomen watched, it lashed out with its thin arms and energy attack both, destroying two more of the ships around it.

Of course, despite having lost the flagship, the Reach fleet wasn't just sitting there doing nothing. Several of them were shooting at the Angel, but they were using relatively weak, secondary weapons that failed to harm the beast in their midst. All the ships had pointed their main guns at the planet below, and it would take them time to come about and bring the heavy weapons to bear on the Angel.

Time they probably didn't have, Blue Beetle realized.

A few moments later, it seemed that someone in the fleet reached the same conclusion, as one by one the ships began to abruptly vanish from view.

"Scarab," Blue Beetle spoke, "are the phasing, or…?"

(They're not phasing out. They're going to faster than light speeds.) the scarab answered. (It looks like whoever took command of the fleet ordered a withdrawal.)

In another few seconds, the last Reach ship was gone.

"Well, that takes care of the Reach," Blue Beetle told her friend, opening a connection between her scarab and Green Lantern's ring to communicate across the vacuum of space. "Which just leaves the Angel. Care to join me?"

Green Lantern's emerald halo glowed brighter. "Oh, you couldn't keep me away if you tried," she said, cracking her knuckles.

"Do you think that's it? Did we get them all?" Shinji asked.

Glowering at the communications window on Unit Two's HUD, Asuka was sorely tempted to demand to know what he meant with all this "we" stuff. Since the bizarre disappearance of the Blue Behemoth, Shinji had been almost absurdly timid about dealing with what remained of the JSSDF assault force. Even when it came to an army that intended to slaughter them all, Shinji's fear of killing someone had rendered him all but useless.

He might as well have just left, if he planned on being so little help, she thought with irritation.

Aloud, she said, "It looks like some flag office pulled his head from his ass long enough to order a retreat. I think we're pretty much done, unless that giant robot comes back, of course."

Shinji opened his mouth to speak but didn't manage to utter a single sound before the sky above them erupted, causing both pilots to look upward, gawking at the display that was clearly visible through the gaping hole in the Geofront ceiling.

Flashes of blue and green light were bursting in the heavens, so bright they were easily to see even in the middle of the day.

"Fireworks?" Shinji muttered.

"I don't think those are fireworks, dummy," Asuka replied.

One Day Later

Laying on his bed and staring up at a familiar ceiling, Shinji could barely believe that he and the rest of NERV had been engaged in a life and death struggle a mere 24 hours ago. Though much of the city had been badly damaged in the battle, the apartment building he called home had emerged unscathed, so his world appeared remarkably unchanged by the events of yesterday.

It only looks the same, though, he thought, swinging his legs over the side over his bed and getting up with a stretch.

Things had been nothing short of chaotic since it became clear that NERV had won the day in what was being called the Last Battle of Tokyo-3, a name that the Third Child fervently hoped would prove accurate.

In the aftermath of the battle, the media had eventually shown up to report upon what had happened, and scandal had consumed the government when it came out that the Prime Minister had authorized an all out attack on a Japanese city. That there was no evidence of a plot to use the Evangelions to conquer the nation—and that the Commander's actual plan had been covered up and suppressed—only made things worse. All the political pundits on TV were saying it was only a matter of time before the Prime Minister, if not the majority of the government, stepped down.

Of course, Shinji didn't care all that much about that, except in as much as it meant the JSSDF wouldn't be launching a second offensive against the city.

Father…

The former Commander of NERV and his second in command had quietly surrendered themselves to agents of INTERPOL after the international law enforcement agency had "mysteriously" managed to obtain some very secret files from the MAGI. Most of the things they were guilty of would be kept tightly under wraps, Shinji understood, but it was still safe to assume they'd be finding themselves behind bars very shortly.

He honestly didn't know how to feel about that. Mostly he'd just felt numb since learning…so many secrets, all at once.

Walking out into the kitchen, he found Misato sitting at the kitchen table. His guardian held an unopened can of beer in her hands, seemingly contemplating it.

She looked up as he approached. "Hey," she said, giving him a weak smile.

"Hey," he replied. He looked around. "Where's Asuka?"

"Out visiting Hikari," Misato answered.

"Do we know yet…?"

"If she's staying here or going back to Germany?" the purple haired woman finished for him. "No, not yet."

"I see," Shinji replied quietly.

It was strange, he mused. Living with Asuka was often anything but peaceful. Yet in spite how obnoxious the redhead could be, he didn't want her to leave. He'd miss her if she did.

Misato chuckled softly. "It's crazy how up in the air everything is, right?" she asked. "We don't even know if NERV will exist by this time next week…"

Shinji shrugged. While several members of NERV had become important to him since he'd arrived in the city, he was indifferent to the fate of the organization itself.

"What about you?" he asked.

"Well, it looks like I'm not going to be dealing with a dishonorable discharge. That much seems pretty certain, at least. I mean, nobody from the command center's decided to blab about how I abandoned my post," she said, a look of shame flitting across her features as she said that.

Shinji didn't quite understand that guilt. Given the circumstances, it had been the right decision.

He supposed it was something you had to be an officer to understand, and thankfully he'd never found himself with that responsibility.

"Of course, among the command center staff, it's now an open secret that I'm, well, Green Lantern," Misato said, toying with the jade colored ring she wore. "But so far they're keeping quiet about that, too."

Shinji shook his head slightly. Misato was Green Lantern. It was another huge revelation he couldn't quite seem to digest or figure out how to react to.

"And what about Ritsuko?" he asked.

Misato looked down at the table. "I still haven't heard from her," she muttered. Her grip on the can tightened until Shinji feared it might slip from her hands. "Damn it, after we finished dealing with that Angel she said goodbye to me and just vanished before I even realized what she was planning to do. Did her little ghosting, phasing trick, or whatever she called it." She heaved a sigh. "Though I guess if I were her, I might not want to stick around here, either. She's still a wanted woman."

She looked like she was about to say something else when her cell phone rang, startling both of them.

"Katsuragi here," she answered, the paused briefly as the person on the other end of the line spoke. "Is it really necessary? No, I…oh, all right. I'll be there as soon as I can. Bye."

She sighed gustily as she ended the call. "It looks like they need me at what's left at headquarters," she told Shinji. "I'll try to be home on time for dinner."

Shinji nodded. "Right."

Opening and quickly gulping down her beer, Misato tossed the now empty can into the trash and grabbed her jacket. A moment later she was gone.

Now alone, Shinji lingered in the kitchen for a few moments. It wasn't long after that, however, that he heaved a sigh and decided to do some laundry.

He hated how everything felt like it was in limbo right now. Doing chores would at least give him something to keep his mind occupied.

He had managed to gather up all the dirty laundry in the apartment when he heard someone moving around the kitchen.

"Forget something, Misato?" he asked, carrying the laundry basket with him as he headed toward the source of the noise.

Honestly, how many times could a person fail to grab their keys before stepping out the door?

"I'm not Misato, Shinji."

He dropped the laundry basket.

Ritsuko stood in the kitchen. She was clad in her Blue Beetle armor, but only from the neck down, leaving her head uncovered. She smiled at him as he gaped dumbly at her.

"Hello, Shinji."

"Ritsuko," he finally managed to speak. "How…? What…? Why?" he stammered.

She shrugged. "It didn't seem right to leave without coming to see you and say goodbye before I really leave," she said.

"Why do you have to leave at all?" he asked, even though Misato had told him not five minutes.

"I'm still technically a criminal around here," she said, giving him the very same reason his guardian had. "It would only cause trouble if I stayed here. The authorities would be after me in a second if I showed my face in public. The army probably wouldn't be too far behind."

"I…I guess I understand, but…"

He trailed off, not sure what to say. Shinji couldn't dispute the logic of what she'd just said, but he still hated the thought of her leaving. She'd been a good friend to him. He knew what his mother's voice sounded like because of the tapes she'd given him. He hated the thought of losing her.

"And," she continued, "I can't just hide out. You have to understand, Shinji, I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of in my life. Even after everything I've done here, I don't feel like I've truly balanced the scales. I need to go somewhere else. Someplace that isn't hostile to me, so I can help and do good there without causing problems."

Shinji hesitated for a moment. "If you feel that way, I guess I understand," he said. "Will I see you again?"

She smiled at him. "I wouldn't call it impossible," she said. "Now, I really should go, or I'll linger here until Misato gets back."

"Ritsuko, wait," the Third Child said abruptly.

She looked at him expectantly.

"I…" Shinji stammered, clearly not sure what to say. Finally, he seemed to gather himself. "Good luck. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too," she said softly. "Goodbye."

With that, her armor extended, covering her head like usual. Then, she vanished right before Shinji's eyes.

Unbeknownst to the Third Child, however, she didn't immediately leave. Instead she just stood in Misato's kitchen, as invisible and undetectable as a ghost.

(You don't need to leave, you know.) The scarab piped up.

"Hmm?"

(You don't have to leave Japan, if you don't want to.) The scarab elaborated. (I can change your physical appearance, and the appearance of the armor, so no one will recognize you. Between your computer skills and my abilities, setting up a new identity for you will be a snap.)

"I know," she said. "But I think it's best if I put some distance between myself and Tokyo-3 for a while. There are people I care about here, but there's also a lot of bad memories. Besides, I meant what I said about not feeling like I've balanced the scales yet, and I can do more good elsewhere. Tokyo-3 will be fine, and it has Green Lantern to look after it."

(But you are going to come back someday?) The scarab asked.

She nodded. "Definitely. My best friend lives here. And Shinji," she added, looking at the Third Child. "I want him in my life. I'm not sure in exactly what capacity. But I've come to care about him."

With a small nod to herself, Blue Beetle took off. In only a moment, she was out of the apartment, flying through the skies.

(So where exactly are we going, anyway?) The scarab asked.

"Wherever we can do the most good," Blue Beetle answered.

(With violence?) It asked hopefully.

She rolled her eyes. "Sure, why not?"

(Yes! Off to new adventures!)

Blue Beetle couldn't help but laugh as she flew off into the sunset.

Author's Notes: Apologies for the extremely late update. Various things in my life have been gobbling up my free time for the last few months. But I'm not dead and I'm not about to quit writing this series now.

Anyway, here we have the conclusion of another story. I think I may have packed too much into this finale, but there were a lot of villains that needed to be taken care of, more than usual, in fact. Nevertheless, the day is saved, and Blue Beetle flies off into the sunset.

Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers.