(MUSIC: "Dance of the Soviet Sailors", from Reinhold Glière's The Red Poppy.)

(BLACK SCREEN. LOGO appears at center with thunder SFX.)

EYRIE PRODUCTIONS, UNLIMITED

(fade out; fade in)

presents...

(crossfade to choppily edited footage of EVAs in combat against familiar ANGELs from the NXE television series; VOICEOVER by PATRICK STEWART)

VO: In 2015, the special combat agency NERV confronted a series of threats from beyond the mortal world. They thought they were fighting a war to save humanity from a menace born beyond the stars.

The truth, as it turned out, was much more sinister.

(INTERIOR: A cramped, smoky office crowded with people, three men and two women, all haggard, two smoking. The man at the desk is hanging up a telephone.)

SHORTER WOMAN: They're sending us to Canada?

MAN AT DESK (nodding): Us, our equipment, our support team, anything else we reqire - and the prototype.

(INTERIOR: A darkened bedroom. A figure can dimly be seen tossing restlessly on the bed.)

DJ CROFT (VO): I only caught about every fourth word of that. You know my German's still not very good.

(DISSOLVE to ASUKA SORYU-LANGLEY kneeling on what looks like a catwalk, her hands still gripping a metal railing above her head)

ASUKA (sobbing): I don't need you... I don't need you.

(INTERIOR: A conference room. ASUKA, JON ELLISON and REI AYANAMI are seated at the table, facing JEFF "YAK" MINTER and RITSUKO AKAGI, who stand by the display screen.)

YAK (dismayed): Christ, the world press under SEELE is already having a field day with the fact that we're still using you kids as pilots! If it ever got out that we'd performed invasive cerebro-cybersurgery on fifteen-year-olds...

(DISSOLVE to BEDROOM. ASUKA is staring at the ceiling, an expression of horror on her face.)

ASUKA (in German, subtitled): Oh, my God... I -am- going mad.

(DISSOLVE to a computer room. JONATHAN, snarling, lashes out with a black-taloned hand at something offscreen which explodes, sending a curl of smoke toward the ceiling and scattering glass in front of him.)

JON (looking at his hand, whispering): That could just as easily have been somebody's face...

(EXTERIOR NIGHT: a quiet residental street. REI leans against a brick wall, with tears on her face.)

REI (singing softly): Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel... like I've been tied, to the whipping post... tied, to the whipping post... tied, to the whipping post... good Lord, I feel like I'm dying.

(INTERIOR. The briefing room. JOHN TRUSSELL stands before a group of TECHNICAL DIVISION personnel.)

TRUSS: It's a 25-megaton thermonuclear cruise missile, approximate range 150 miles.

MAKOTO HYUUGA: But my God, the collateral damage!

(FADE to GENDOU IKARI standing in a CORRIDOR under a sign reading CENTRAL DOGMA SECTION H)

GENDOU (imperiously): Quickly, man! Don't just stand there gawping at me, come here! I have important information for Commander Natla.

(EXTERIOR NIGHT: a dark-winged form flies silently away from a radio tower)

(INTERIOR NIGHT: REI and ASUKA standing at window.)

REI: It sounds... It sounds like...

ASUKA: What?

REI: Death.

ASUKA: Rei, you're scaring me.

(EXTERIOR DAY: A body of water larger than the frame explodes in a blast of light and heat, and a deafening shriek of fury rends the air.)

(INTERIOR NIGHT: REI by the window again.)

REI: Whatever it is, we're not going to like it.

(INTERIOR: NERV Ready Room. Most of the NERV cast are assembled, being addressed by BRIGADIER MISATO KATSURAGI.)

MISATO: The death toll is currently estimated at 9.75 million. It may go higher.

(EXTERIOR NIGHT: Two men run toward a chain link fence. Behind them is a compound, alight with warning beacons and searchlights as sirens howl.)

OTTO KELLER: AT Field! They've got the perimeter sealed off!

KEN STANFIELD: Aw, hell. If that's true, it means -

(MONTAGE. Quick, fleeting images of white, dark blue, and flame-red Evangelion-like giants, the ARCHANGELIONS, in battle against grey EVAs; a group of what appear to be white EVAs with wings mobbing the red ARC, obscuring it entirely; Jet Alone blazing away with its autocannon; AMY ANDERSON and a VERY LARGE MAN WITH A MOHAWK gweeping furiously at a console resembling the one displaying the MAGI status during EXODUS 2:3; the dark-blue ARC chopping a grey EVA clean in half with a progressive axe; an eyeblink clip of the white ARC engaging a hideous giant... THING with a sword; SHINJI IKARI compressing a plug suit he's just put on; ASUKA in an EVA cockpit, lunging forward against the controls and screaming a challenge, her face a mask of battle-lust; a conventional naval/air battle, seen from several miles away; a tremendously bright beam of energy streaking out over the ocean, boiling the water beneath it as it passes; more fast-cut EVA combat.)

(JUMP to a black screen filled with speeding white streaks, like a starfield at a VERY high warp speed, eventually washing out into pure white.)

ASUKA (VO): Mein Gott... it -is- full of stars.

(BLACK. MUSIC pauses.)

GIRL'S VOICE (hesitant, shaky, quiet): Is... is it over?

MAN'S VOICE (grim): No.

(MUSIC resumes. VERY FAST-PACED MONTAGE of quick-edit battle footage, interspersed with four one-second BLACK SCREENS, each cut in and out with thunder SFX and each bearing one of the following four words:

THE

WAR

NEVER

ENDS

(MUSIC ends. BLACK two seconds; LOGO fades in at center.)

MAY 16, 2003
18:00 EDT
http://www.eyrie-productions.com/NXE/TMP/

(END)

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