Finally, the reply arrived: "Emotion is a complex trait bestowed upon humanity by the Emperor during their creation; it is both the source of strength and the root of vulnerability. I understand its existence, but find it difficult to fully empathize. Since you have undertaken this 'responsibility' and believe it necessary for maintaining unit stability, then proceed as you see fit..."
The sunlight slanted across the edge of the cake's cream, melting into a golden glaze. Asuka licked the strawberry jam from her fingertip and squinted toward the sea. The water shimmered as if sprinkled with a layer of broken silver. She suddenly felt that the world wasn't so terrible after all.
"Do you think... we really won?" she asked softly.
Rei poked a small remnant of cake on her plate with her fork, her movements slow as if pondering a distant question. "Won? I don't know. But at least, we didn't run."
Asuka smiled but said nothing. Her fingers unconsciously brushed the six-winged pattern on her hairpin—those unfurled metal wings glinted weakly but firmly in the sun. It was no longer just a relic of Osiris, nor merely a symbol of battle. Now, it was something softer: an anchor for a promise.
The breeze blew in from the sea, ruffling a few strands of Rei's blue hair. She brushed them away—a movement both awkward and natural. For the first time in three years, she didn't have to be bound by a life-support pod or obey any command sequence. She was free, though it was a freedom marked by scars.
"I want to go to Germany," Asuka said suddenly.
Rei turned her head. "Why?"
"My mother is buried there." Her voice was calm, no longer suppressed by anger or grief. "I never dared to go back. I always felt that as long as I didn't look, touch, or think about it, she was still alive... but now I know that running solves nothing. Just like you told me—only by facing it can you step out of the cycle."
Rei watched her quietly, then nodded. "I'll go with you."
Asuka blinked. "What did you say?"
"I said, I'll go with you," Rei repeated, her tone still light but her gaze undeniably serious. "If you'll have me."
Asuka opened her mouth to speak but eventually just lowered her head, pretending to focus on wiping the corner of her mouth. "...Whatever. It's not like the plane tickets are expensive anyway."
They sat in silence for a while, listening to the waves hitting the shore. Children in the distance began flying kites, a long red dragon swaying in the blue sky. A little girl tripped and scraped her knee, but she didn't cry; she picked herself up, brushed off the sand, and kept running.
Rei whispered, "She's a lot like you."
"Huh?" Asuka nearly choked. "I wasn't that naive!"
"You were." Rei looked at the child. "When you were little, you must have run like that too."
Asuka froze. From the depths of her memory, a snowy field emerged. A little girl in a red coat was building a snowman in a yard. Her mother stood by the window smiling, holding hot cocoa. The world then had no EVA, no sync rates, no Angels or wars. There was only the wind, the snow, and a gentle call: "Asuka—it's time to come home for dinner."
Tears welled up without warning. She jerked her face away, pretending to look elsewhere.
"Don't cry," Rei said.
"Who's crying!" Asuka snapped back, her voice trembling violently. "It's just... the wind got in my eyes!"
Rei didn't speak further, only quietly pushed a tissue toward her.
The afternoon sun began to dip. The cafe owner brought over two cups of hot chocolate, saying with a smile, "You ladies have had so many sweets; you need something warm to balance it out." He glanced at Rei. "The little girl is still a bit pale; she needs to nourish herself more."
Rei nodded slightly in thanks, while Asuka rolled her eyes. "We aren't 'little girls' anymore, okay? We're practically adults!"
The owner chuckled and walked away. The air was thick with the scent of coffee and sea salt, mixed with the sweetness of the cake, making one drowsy. Asuka leaned against the back of her chair and closed her eyes, letting the warm wind brush her cheeks.
"Tell me... what will Osiris do with the wreckage of the asteroid base?" she asked suddenly.
"Destroy it," Rei answered bluntly. "He has already ordered the self-destruct sequence. All data cores will be incinerated within seventy-two hours, including all files of the 'EVE Project'."
"Not even a backup?"
"Not one." Rei opened her eyes, her gaze clear. "Some knowledge shouldn't exist. Humanity shouldn't try to play God anymore."
Asuka nodded. "Right. But I still wonder... was that old man really the last of SEELE?"
"Perhaps not." Rei's voice dropped. "SEELE was never an organization; it was a mindset—the fear of change, the craving for control, the denial of connection. As long as that thought exists, it will keep being reborn."
Asuka opened her eyes and frowned. "So... we only defeated a shadow?"
"But we severed its chains." Rei looked at her. "Most importantly, we proved another possibility: that two existences meant to repel each other can coexist, even symbiosis. That is the true way to break the AT Field."
Asuka was stunned for a moment, then suddenly laughed. "You've become quite the talker, Rei."
Rei took a sip of hot chocolate, the corner of her mouth curling up. "You taught me."
They shared a smile, as if the whole world had gone quiet in that moment.
Before nightfall, they walked along the coast. Two parallel lines of footprints were left in the sand, sometimes drawing close, sometimes drifting apart, eventually merging into one. The tide rose, slowly erasing those marks, but they knew—some things would never be washed away.
Back at the base, Osiris was waiting for them in the command center.
"The results of your status monitoring are in." He handed over a report. "Neural coupling stability has reached 98.7%, far exceeding the safety threshold. Furthermore... your brain activity has shown unprecedented synergistic waveforms, resonating perfectly with the base frequency of the Sea of LCL."
Asuka scanned the report and shrugged. "So what? Are we demigods now?"
"More accurately," Osiris stared at them, "you have become 'Bridges'—living interfaces connecting individual and collective consciousness. Theoretically, you now have the ability to intervene in the spread of emotions at the human subconscious level—such as mass panic, collective delusions, or even... the sprouting of the next 'Angel's birth'."
Rei frowned. "You mean we can stop fear from manifesting?"
"Provided you detect it in time." Osiris nodded. "I have authorized you to access the deep protocols of the global monitoring network. Once a cluster of abnormal psychological fluctuations is detected, the system will automatically alert."
Asuka sneered. "Responsibility again..."
"But this time, it's a responsibility you chose for yourselves." Osiris looked at her. "No one forced you to accept the synchronization pod mission. You went in because you wanted to protect this world—even if it never treated you kindly."
Asuka fell silent for a long time before finally uttering: "...So annoying. Can't I just be a normal high school student?"
"You can." Osiris smiled. "If you are willing to let all this go. Tomorrow, I can arrange transfer papers and send you to a school far from the battlefield. No EVA, no Angels, and no old man like me nagging you."
Asuka glared at him, then looked at Rei. Rei simply shook her head. "You won't leave."
"Duh!" Asuka slammed her fist on the table. "If I ran away, who would look after a cold fish like you? Besides..." She paused, her voice softening. "There are still so many people who haven't been saved."
Osiris laughed, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes smoothing out. "Welcome back, pilots."
Three days later, Antarctica.
The mechanical flower had completely gone dark, and the tombstone returned to silence. The wind and sand buried the traces of the holographic map as if nothing had ever happened. But deep within Sector 13, a Star Core fragment was still slowly pulsing, like the last trace of warmth from a sleeping heart.
In an unrecorded corner of a database, an encrypted log was quietly generated:
Event ID: X-13
Observation Objects: Shikinami Asuka Langley / Rei Ayanami
Conclusion Update: AT Field is breakable—not by force, but by empathy.
A prototype of a new human form has emerged: dual consciousnesses coexisting stably, capable of cross-dimensional information interaction.
Recommended Code Name Change: 'Gate of Eden' opening conditions reached 50%.
Remarks: Continue observing the diffusion trend of the 'Bridge of Hearts' effect.
Simultaneously, in the cellar of a derelict church in Europe, an old terminal suddenly glowed with green light. A line of characters popped up on the screen:
[Synchronized pulse from signal beacon received]
[Coordinates Locked: Neo-Tokyo 3]
[Initiating Awakening Protocol...]
Dust fell as the iron door creaked open. A thin figure slowly walked out, wearing tattered priest's robes with a rusted cross hanging from his chest. His eyes were as hollow as an abyss, yet they shimmered with the eerie light of data streams.
"They... found the key," he murmured. "Then let me see what lies behind this door—salvation, or... the true end."
Meanwhile, on a stretch of Gobi desert in inland Asia, beside the wreckage of a crashed VTOL, a mechanical arm slowly extended from the sand. Small words were engraved on the fingertips:
"Legio Astartes - Hammer of Crimson Lotus - Relic No. 04"
At the same time, in the shadowed region of the far side of the moon, a stealth space station quietly adjusted its orbit. In the control room, a masked man watched the Earth, holding a six-winged badge almost identical to Asuka's hairpin.
"The time draws near," he whispered. "The Twin Cocoon is about to complete its metamorphosis. This time, we will ensure... that no one can sever the connection."
On the other side of the planet, in an ordinary high school classroom, today's schedule was written on the blackboard. The last class was "Basics of Psychology." The teacher walked in, opened the textbook, and said:
"Today we talk about 'The Power of Empathy.' Have you ever wondered why humans fear intimacy? Because the closer you get to others, the more likely you are to be hurt. But conversely, it is only through understanding and acceptance that we can truly complete ourselves..."
A girl in the back row raised her head—short blue hair, a cold expression. She stared at the sky outside the window as if hearing some distant call.
At the same instant, Asuka woke with a start from a dream.
Cold sweat soaked her pajamas. She sat up gasping, her heart racing. The room was pitch black, save for the hairpin on the nightstand reflecting the moonlight, slightly warm to the touch.
The dream was terrifyingly clear: she stood in the center of a burning city, surrounded by mirror images of herself—child Asuka, EVA-berserk Asuka, Asuka kneeling and crying at her mother's grave, and... an Asuka covered in black armor with glowing red eyes.
"You will eventually become us," the images said in unison. "Loneliness is your essence. Love is an illusion, trust is a weakness, fusion is the only destination."
"Shut up!" she roared in her dream. "I am not you! I am Asuka Langley! I choose my own path!"
Then, a hand caught hers. A familiar warmth, a quiet strength.
Rei's voice sounded in her ear: "You are not alone."
She snapped her eyes open and found her hand tightly clutching her communicator—the private channel terminal Rei had given her. The screen showed an unread message from ten minutes ago:
[I had a dream. I dreamed you were calling me. Do you want to... come see me?]
Asuka grit her teeth, grabbed her coat, and rushed out.
The medical sector at 2:00 AM was silent. Rei was still awake, sitting by the window reading. Seeing her enter, she simply said, "I knew you'd come."
"Don't get cocky!" Asuka tossed her coat onto a chair. "I just... had a disgusting dream! It has nothing to do with you!"
Rei closed her book, walked over, and took her hand. The touch was warm and real. "Your body temperature has risen by 1.2 degrees; your heart rate is fast," she said. "You are afraid."
"Who's afraid!" Asuka struggled for a moment but was held firmly.
"Then stay," Rei looked at her. "Until you are sure you are safe."
Asuka glared at her, her lips moving, finally sitting down dejectedly. "...Whatever."
They sat side-by-side by the window, watching the dawn slowly redden the horizon. The city lights went out one by one as a new day was about to begin.
"Do you think... we'll always be like this?" Asuka asked softly.
"Always like what?"
"Fighting side-by-side, supporting each other, occasionally eating cake... living like normal people."
Rei thought for a moment and said, "I don't know what the future holds. There may be new enemies, new crises, new choices. But as long as we can still call to each other, we will never truly be alone."
Asuka turned her head to look at her, then suddenly reached out and ruffled Rei's hair. "Hey, dummy, don't have nightmares by yourself anymore. I'm here."
Rei froze for a moment, then gently leaned her head on Asuka's shoulder.
The morning light spilled over them, merging their shadows into one. And deep in the universe, the extinguished signal beacon flickered once, quietly.
Like a heartbeat reviving.