Easy For You To Say

By Jintsu

April 28, 2007

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Disclaimer:

All characters, names, and everything else are property of Gainax, Movic, TV Tokyo, NAS, ADV Films, or who ever else I forgot to name. Just so they all know they are getting credit for the characters.

So the hoard of slavering lawyers can go lie down for a century or two. This was written for fun, not for profit. I'm only borrowing the characters for a little while. I promise I'll give them back!

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Doctor Akagi is head of Project E, but right now, she feels like she is the head of a fifth-grade classroom with very obnoxious students. She sighed as she squeezed the bridge of her nose, trying to alleviate the pain of an imminent migraine she just knew was coming.

Number One: It's that time of the month.

Number Two: Gendo is spending more time with HER.

Number Three: Asuka must be having her period also, because she is in grand form, even for her.

Number Four: Because of number three, Shinji is in "Wimpus Maximus" mode for self-protection.

"GOD! ...If he would just stand-up to her once, it would probably shock the shit out of her, and give him some breathing space," she thought angrily, as another cause-and-effect bitch session got underway in the EVA plugs.

"...so the great "Invincible Shinji" can't even joke about it without getting embarrassed." She wrinkles up her nose and pushes her face closer to the monitor to drive home her ultimate comment on the "Housebroken Male".

"Pathetic!"

"Asuka, if you don't stop, you are going to regret what you sow in this world," Ritsuko thinks in a mincing style of thought. Her cadences of thought were starting to run in patterns; always a bad sign. This meant a blow-up is imminent. It was just Murphy's law that gave her no support at this time.

Misato was somewhere, out chasing answers or Kaji. Ritsuko had already blown-up at Maya this morning, driving her off in tears. Maya's last comment of "that's easy for you to say", as she ran out of the Pribnow Box, left Ritsuko feeling angry, bitter, and slightly like a bitch.

"...And another thing, Shinji, you need to learn to swim before you kill yourself or anyone else trying to save your sorry ass!" Asuka scoffs in her superior tone.

Shinji looks down, embarrassed and sullen at the same time. His next words act like an initiator for a fission-fusion weapon:

"That's easy for you to say."

Something in Ritsuko's mind goes"click!". It seems like everything has been building to this point. And not even an hour ago, she heard those same words, in that same tone.

Time slows, thought speeds up. Memory fragments jump from here to there.

EVA cores, mother's souls, abandoned children, loneliness because of uncaring people, dual-sync, rage at Gendo, Maya crying, Asuka bitching...

DUAL-SYNC!

Ritsuko's head whips around to stare at the black and yellow striped switch, lurking behind its safety guard and copper wire, which bind its inactivity.

Again her thoughts speed into different patterns.

Both abandoned, no mothers, no hope, no rest, no happiness, no one to share with, ...

At this point, she stands before the emergency panel, unwitting or uncaring of how she got there. As the corners of her mouth crink-up in a grim smile, and a mad gleam lights in her eyes, she acts.

In one swift movement, she flips the cover open, snaps the safety wire, and rams the switch home.

The reaction is instantaneous. The outlines of Shinji and Asuka glow bright red on the monitors. The children themselves are acting as though electrocuted. Bodies arched like strung bows, eyes rolled up into their sockets, mouths clamped shut like a grinning skull's rictus.

Ritsuko can see none of this; she is still battling her own demons, her thumb still mashing the dual-synchronization enable switch in the closed position.

Both pilots minds have had their protective walls blown apart, their gestalt picked up and frog-marched to face one another. Then they are brutally rammed together and held there by uncaring electronics.

They both experience each others lives, from cradle to now. Both seeing the other; being the other.

Human bodies and minds can take only so much abuse: they either pack-up and leave, or stop altogether.

Still in perfect sync, the pilots...stop.

The shrill squeal of the EKG monitor's flat line tone finally awakens Ritsuko to her impending doom. Before she can do anything, four missing heartbeats later, the plugsuits automatically defibrillate the children.

Their bodies flop back into their seats, limp as corpses.

Ritsuko can hear the concerned voice of Misato, as if from across the room, but she is standing right beside her. Shaking Ritsuko like a rag doll, trying to get an answer out of her, Misato hears a distinct "click", then a loud "kerchunk". Ritsuko's thumb has finally released the sync switch, and the system resets itself.

Misato looks at the panel, eyes going wide as saucers as she realizes what has been done.

"RITSUKO!...WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM? RITSUKO!!...RITSUKO!!!!

Mercifully for the faux-blonde, everything goes blank as she passes-out in Misato's arms.

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An hour later, Ritsuko finds herself in a cell in the NERV detention block. The second worst scenario she imagined has come to pass, the first being Misato being here to make her life a living hell. As it is, she only has to deal with Gendo. Knowing that they were planning to do a dual-synchronization test sometime in the future, she has a small ray of hope that she will get out of this unscathed.

She is sadly mistaken.

That ray of hope flickers and dies as Commander Ikari ruthlessly snatches the doctor by the neck. He then slams her into the cell wall, holding her there with cruel pressure while her toes writhe and reach for the just out -of -reach floor.

Gendo Ikari is beyond angry, he is livid with rage. "WHEN IS IT PERMISSIBLE, DOCTOR, FOR YOU TO MODIFY MY SCENARIO WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!

You do not incapacitate two-thirds of our pilot force because bothersome children are having petty squabbles! It has taken me over four months to instill these mindsets into these two brats. You, in an instant, may have RUINED THE BEST POSSIBLE OPTIONS!"

"Do not interfere with the scenario again, or pilot Soryu will have a passenger when she sorties against the fifteenth Angel."

Ikari then releases Ritsuko, who falls to the floor , gasping for breath. He turns on his heel, and leaves the cell. Pausing at the doorway, with his back to her he says : "Be in First Cranial Nerve Observation room 212E in twenty minutes."

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Thirty minutes later, the children are waking up.

Fuyutski, Misato, and Ritsuko are standing before a one-way mirror looking into room 210E.

Both children wake at the same time, look at each other, and move toward each other. They meet in the middle of the room, embracing each other. Holding on for dear life. Shinji is crying and sobbing at the same time, holding Asuka's head close to his own. Asuka is on the verge of wailing in complete misery, almost crushing Shinji in her fearful hug. They both slow down, start to sniffle, then look in each others eyes. Asuka raises a shaky hand, and carefully caresses Shinji's cheek as she says:

"I'm so sorry for the way I've acted towards you, Shinji. I just had to...

"I know, Asuka. I could see it. I could feel it. I know why you do what you do. We've lost so much...

Both children break into tears again, as they slowly slump to the floor, still holding each other.

Misato stares into the room with tears in her eyes and says: "At least they now understand each other. Maybe they'll finally get along now."

"I would be extremely careful being the guardian of these two now, Major," Fuyutiski warns. "Experiences like these tend to bond the participants together, sometimes permanently. Also, I would not leave them alone in the same room together, unless you want to become a grand-mother."

Fuyutiski and Misato then leave the observation room, heading for the nurses station. Ritsuko is still recovering from the Sub-Commander's speech, when she hears Gendo's voice:

"You will make sure this bonding fails, and the children remain isolated from each other, Doctor."

Commander Ikari then slips out of the room, leaving a troubled Ritsuko. As she shuffles up to the mirror, looking in to see the two broken children, her own tears begin to fall. Hanging her head in misery, she shuts her eyes and sobs: "Easy for you to say."

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A/N:

Just a short little one-shot that had been pecking at the back of my mind. Also giving me a break from CRB 4407.

See, I do like Asuka. I don't always beat on her.

Please read & review

Jintsu