Looking back on it, I can definitely say that it was worth the wait.

"Six months ago it did not work," replied Kirishatov. "What
would have been point? 'Oh look! Glorious Soviet sculpture!' Times
have changed - I was not shot - but nevertheless, it did not work."

Russian sense of humor, does it to me every time . . .

The missile, a gleaming metallic object about the size and
shape of a football, shot from the tube with a scream of ion
thrusters, leaving a faint trail of blue radiance in its wake as it
streaked into the factory complex. It headed straight for the back
wall of the factory building -
- jinked left, headed straight for a smokestack -
- jinked right, looped around it, passed straight through the
narrow gap between two vertical stanchions holding up a catwalk
between two buildings -
- streaked down along the rain gutter on the main production
building for a hundred yards -
- jumped up twenty feet to clear an air conditioning unit -
- wheeled in a complex polygonal arc made up of 10 separate
straight lines around a second water tower -
- and plunged straight into the -back- of the Evangelion, just
below the seam of the entry plug docking port's armored cover, where
its one-kilogram Elerium shaped charge went off with the brutally
directed force of a tactical nuclear weapon.
Nothing but net.

Haha. Dude, can't you just SEE it?

"That will be no trouble at all, sir," said Keller with an
ironic grin. "After all," he added modestly, leaning deliberately on
his usually-light German accent, "zis ist meine 'hood."

*shatter, die from lack of air*

"They're mad, absolutely mad."

*realizes this is coming from Gendo Ikari*

*shatters again*

"You're stuck with me until you hear
me out, so you might as well stop running. What I had in mind was us
arming up and going out and doing what I'd be doing -anyway-, if I
weren't nominally an observer."
"And what's that?" Asuka growled.
"Smiting evil!" said Rachael, in the sort of voice a normal
person would use to say, "Let's get ice cream!"
"That's my 'normal' job description," she went on before Asuka
could draw breath to interject, "and when I get frustrated and
generally wound up, I find it's pretty theraputic. And since I'm
taking my aggressions out on things that -deserve- it, I don't end up
getting my friends worried over me - or angry at me - in the process."
Her piece said, Rachael smiled as if to add, "Now doesn't that
all make sense?"
Asuka stopped and glared incredulously at the brown-haired
girl in the drover coat. "'Smiting evil'?" she said, a mixture of
skepticism and derision in her voice. "And what exactly does 'smiting
evil' entail?"
"Well," said Rachael cheerfully, "in the general sense that
ought to be obvious - I go out and find some evil, and then I smite
it."

Need . . . air . . .

"What exactly -am- I, anyway?" Jon asked as Rachael came up
behind the two of them.
"Well," Rachael remarked mock-thoughtfully, "you're definitely
not evil, or I'd have to smite you."
Jon rolled his eyes. "Cute."

Snicker, snicker. One of the best parts of reading EPU is the good amounts of humor in them.

General thoughts about it:

I've always found the concept of redemption a unquely human concept. However, that doesn't diminish my enjoyment of this story--I am willing to suspend my disbelief indefinitely.

Seeing Lucifer redeemed was impressive, yet I notice just how much he had to go through to get it. My personal theory was that even though he regretted his choice, his original sin and Fall sabotaged his first attempt at redemption. Didn't mean he'd never get a chance. But because of what he'd done, it would be a little bit harder for the first sinner himself to be forgiven than, say, Jon Ellison or San Ayanami. But then, I've always been rather immersed in Biblical mythology, and maybe I shouldn't see if there could be a way to make it work legitimately. But it's fun to test theories, and it keeps me busy when bored in school.

I thought it was brilliant to keep DJ Croft as a more behind-the-scenes presence in Apotheosis Now, because it allowed the other characters to really develop. DJ's a wonderful character and provider of many an intentional laugh (Ritsuko-of-the-Ripcord, anyone?), but loss is a powerful tool when used in the right way in a story. And the way DJ became such a part of everyone's lives in NXE, you really captured the loss they must have felt as accurately as fiction can. In a way, the story of AN is what many an EPU reader must have wished could have happened with Rachael--that she had only disappeared for some reason, that she'd come back the first moment she could. I didn't know Rachie, and I feel empty typing these words, because I know I don't deserve to say them. But truly, I don't think there was any better, any nobler eulogy you could have given her or Derek than to include them in what is arguably the finest hour of NXE.

Since I'm beginning to feel long-winded, I'll cut myself off here. But before I go: Thank God for people like EPU. I'm glad I can count myself as part, no matter how small a part it may be.

And NXE:TMP (NXE:AN? What are we calling it) brought a tear to my eye twice. I forget when the first one was, but the second was where Lucifer's armor was described:

The one nearer Natlateth -resembled- EVA-01, but its armor was
simpler. It lacked the shoulder panels, the vambrace strakes, the
knee flanges, the entry plug access hatch, the power coupling, and all
the other fiddly bits that NERV had introduced as part of their
ingenious transformation of dead giant into war machine. More than
any of the EVAs, it gave the impression of being a giant, emaciated
knight in armor. The helmet was the same, though, with its glaring
mask and jutting horn - the battle mask of Lucifer, the Prince of
Darkness.
No.
The armor was the same shape, but it wasn't the purple and
black of Lucifer's ruling house of Hell. It was white, absolutely
pure white, a brilliant white that made the white of the flying-model
AP EVAs seem dull and dingy by comparison. Where it was visible
through the chinks in the armor, the giant's flesh was nearly as white
itself. Only the eyes had any color; through the eyeslots of the
battle mask, they glowed a brilliant, blood-pure scarlet.
This, then, was the battle mask of Lucifer, the Archangel of
Light.

--
Satya.