"What good is your goddamn science if it can't save one little life!" Misato Katsuragi said, clutching the blue and silver plugsuit. Nearly a month of work had led up to this moment. "Give him back!"

One month ago, the most serious event in NERV's history had occurred. The 14th Angel, Zeruel, had breached the GeoFront, the giant underground cavern that housed NERV's headquarters. After disarming Unit-02 and a kamikaze attack by Unit-00, the Angel had barged into the main headquarters of NERV itself, coming only feet from the control bridge, and staring down the command crew. However, they were saved at the last minute by Shinji Ikari, a boy who only days before had quit working for NERV, and only minutes before, had started working there again.

In a fury, he fought the Angel out of headquarters, but as he was about to land the finishing blow, the Evangelion unit's power died. In horror, the crew, which had evacuated to the surface, watched as the Angel picked itself up, and blew a hole in the Evangelion's chest armor. Then, surprisingly, the Evangelion reactivated, and proceeded to devour the Angel.

However, the victory had come at a cost. NERV's only usable Evangelion had broken free of all restraints, devoured an S2 organ, capable of powering the unit in another berserker state, and taken the pilot into itself.

A month later, the rescue operation for Shinji was underway, but the effort failed. It didn't seem like Shinji would be coming back. And so, that is why Misato was on the catwalk, clutching the blue and silver plugsuit.. Her young charge, the boy she had gotten to know so well over the last 10 months, was gone, taken from her life as suddenly as he was thrust into it. She looked up from the plugsuit she was crying into and glared up at the giant purple monstrosity. She closed her eyes, recalling all the memories of the boy, but opened them again after hearing a sound that was hard to describe, and even harder to explain. There, on the cold steel catwalk, lay a naked, unconscious Shinji Ikari.

"Shinji!" Misato dropped the plugsuit and ran over to the boy. "Ritsuko! Get the Section 3 medical squad over here! Shinji's back!"

Ritsuko ran over to the platform overlooking the catwalk. She turned around and started barking orders. "Get Section 3 down here immediately! Maya, look over the data in the last thirty seconds, let's try to figure out what just happened. Shigeru, Hygua, help Maya out. I'm going down to the cage."

The entire area was a hotbed of activity. Sirens were going off, loudspeakers were roaring out orders to personnel. Ritsuko arrived on the catwalk. "Misato, how is he?"

"I don't know. He has a pulse, but he's not responding."

"Splash some LCL on his face, see if that wakes him up." Misato splashed him in the face. "No response…hmm…he may be in a coma. Don't worry Misato. We'll figure this out when we get him into the emergency room."

A stetcher with a blanket ran out onto the catwalk. The two attendants lifted the boy onto the stretcher, then wrapped him in a towel. Ritsuko talked with a third attendant that had come along, then ran off with the group as they scrambled back towards the emergency medical section.

-

Misato walked into the room. Ritsuko stood on the other side of the bed, where Shinji lay, hooked up to a staggering number of tubes and wires.

"He's in a moderately deep coma. The psychograph is registering some response to stimuli, but it doesn't look good. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he can understand what we're saying here at the moment." Ritsuko explained

"What are you saying? He can understand, but he won't wake up?" Misato walked over to Shinji and started shaking him. "Come on, don't you want to come back?"

"I'm afraid its not that easy. The mind, it's a complicated instrument. There could be a variety of things that are keeping him from awakening. Considering the recent stress, his psychology could be in complete disarray. Or we could be talking something more clinical, where some parts of his brain have shut themselves off. He may not be able to awaken even if he wants to."

"So Shinji won't be coming back?"

"I wouldn't say that. In all its complexity, the brain is still a miraculous object. He may be able to fix it himself. I've also been talking to the commander about this, we may have to resort to psychoactive drugs in order to get him functioning again."

"That seems to be against the commander's personal attitude about his son. Do you think he may be changing as well?"

"I doubt it. From a personal standpoint, he still does not think highly of his son. However, from a practical standpoint, he has no other choice. Remember, Units 00 and 02 were pretty much totaled."

"Yes, but aren't the repairs supposed to be completed next month?"

"Yes, but what if an angel were to attack tomorrow, we would have no pilot. It is a very precarious situation."

"But couldn't he use Rei in Unit-01 if need be?"

"Perhaps, but remember, the Eva wouldn't accept Rei into the cockpit during the 14ths attack. We would be stuck relying on something that wouldn't necessarily work. Besides, the Commander feels it would be a bad idea to use Rei in Unit-01, not after the Eva took the S2 organ into itself."

"Why not?"

Ritsuko stumbled, realizing she had said a bit more than she wanted to. "I'm not exactly sure myself." She lied. "However, you must remember that Rei is more of a daughter to him, perhaps he regards it as too dangerous."

Misato let it slip, but realized Ritsuko was lying to her again. Ritsuko's phone rang, and she picked it up. "Ritsuko here, what do you want?" There was a pause, then a "Yes, yes" She finished the call, then folded up her cell phone. "Sorry, business calls. I'll see you later, perhaps we could go bar hopping tonight."

"Yeah, I guess." Ritsuko started walking out the door. "Ritsuko?"

"Yes?"

"What do the Magi say the odds of Shinji waking up on his own are?"

"About three percent. Don't worry. We're working on it. We may be able to get the odds up to 5 percent by tomorrow, though!"

Misato frowned, then turned back to face Shinji. She walked to the corner, then grabbed a chair, and dragged it up beside the bed. It was going to be a long night.