"Have you noticed anything...different about Unit 00?" Misato asked Ritsuko. The harried scientist looked at her and sighed, "No, why do you ask?"

"I dunno, something looks...off about it."

"If something was wrong, I would be the first to know. I am the scientist here after all, knowing what's what is practically my job."

"Yeah, but I really think something is wrong here."

"Alright, fine," Ritsuko said, pushing herself away from the desk in her wheelie chair. Shrugging on her coat, she left. A few moments later, she reappeared. "Yes...there is definitely something wrong. Happy now?"

Misato would have taken the scientist's remark for sarcasm had she not swiftly reclaimed her seat and began typing furiously on the computer she usually worked at. It didn't take her long to bring up all sorts of analytics and diagrams-all of which made no sense at all to the captain.

"What is it, contamination?" She couldn't stop herself from asking. The inquiry seemed almost to be a trademark of hers, with almost everything negative and eva-related ending up as contamination of some sort.

"Potentially."

Silence and awkwardness consumed the conversation, causing the room to lapse into silence save for the almost rhythmic sound of Ritsuko's legendary typing. Misato's curiosity failed to be sated by her colleague's curt responses, and she found herself shifting her weight from foot to foot as she struggled for something to say.

"It kind of...looked...bloated?" Her words began as a statement and finished as a question, only adding to the overwhelming sense of embarrassment that only she seemed to feel. All the techno babble that went on in this field of work certainly had a way of knocking people down a peg or ten, she thought.

"Yes, there is bloating in the abdominal region," Ritsuko said almost idly, most of her attention still being on her computer.

"Is it bad?"

She sighed, "No."

"So why are you taking all those notes?"

"Documentation."

"Why?"

"Oh my god, Misato." The blonde screwed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's standard procedure, that's all. Something looks funny, record it. Everything's normal? Record it anyway."

Misato looked back at the Eva and muttered, after a brief moment of quietness, "You know what's kind of funny?"

Ritsuko rolled her eyes in response, "What is?"

"It looks pregnant," Misato said, giggling. Ritsuko fixed her with a look, suppressing the millionth sigh that fought to escape her. "I honestly hope that you've taken into consideration the fact that Evangelions cannot reproduce. That would be completely and utterly disturbing."

"Yeah, I know, but NERV hasn't banned jokes yet so I'm taking advantage of every chance I get."

Ritsuko's failure to respond prompted Misato to wander away from the observation deck and over to the metal catwalk within Unit 00's cage, which was a, though quite lengthy, floor down. Regardless of the effort spent, she could not find it within herself to stare too long into the unblinking eye of the blue-armored behemoth. It was unnerving to think about the raw power an Evangelion possessed; power they exploited and suppressed when they felt fit.

The captain seemed to have forgotten about her nails, which she'd spent some of her off-time making pretty, when she ran her fingers through her hair. Her musings were more important, more worthy of her attention, she rationalized. As she looked her eyes were at level with its torso. The abdominal region seemed to suddenly bulge.

Ritsuko, naturally, jumped when Misato came running back into the observation room shouting, "THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE EVA!"

She looked over at the Captain and sighed, "Are you still drunk? You know you do need to cut down on the drinking at night...and day. You're really starting to succumb to the nastier effects of excessive alcohol consumption."

Her statement served only to make the captain go red in the face, due to the fact that she both found it difficult to come up with a retort, and that any available one she had ready consisted mostly of incoherent vulgarities. "No, it actually did! It...did! Seriously, Rits!"

"Ah...alright," Ritsuko sighed and rose. Not a moment after, Misato had her by the arm and the two women made headed all the way back down to the platform bridging across the coolant.

They stood before Unit 00. "See?!" Misato shouted, pointing. Ritsuko stood, her expression part indifference and part exasperation. "I am failing to see what you're pointing at. It's still just mildly bloated."

She yawned while she stretched out. "JUST WATCH IT!" Misato barked again, prompting Ritsuko-though against her better judgement-to continue staring at the Eva. This is getting ridiculous, she thought to herself.

And then she saw it. The unit's body appeared to shift and bulge.

Slowly, she turned around and sedately walked back to her office. She sat down and stared at her computer's monitor. "Misato…" she muttered after a time, "Please tell me you have beer or something vile stashed away. I need to steel myself a bit." She continued staring and felt an aluminum can pushed into her hand with rather unsurprising quickness. Ritsuko took a grateful swig of the weak beer. "Actually, wait, this will be better," Misato said, pouring coffee and what appeared to be whiskey into the same cup. She grabbed the can from Ritsuko and replaced it with the spiked coffee.

"You're sure dedicated to the cause, huh."

"You know it. So, what is our next course of action?"

"We have to see inside of it somehow. It's like it's got a tumor or something, and it is growing fast."

"And when are we going to let Gendo know about this?" Misato asked, taking a swig of her drink. Ritsuko sighed, "Part of me feels like we should not tell Gendo-at least not right away. We have to get rid of him somehow so we don't have him breathing down the back of our necks. I mean I know he can understand when something is delicate, but this...this may require him to not be around, especially if we have to cut it open. Or, he may just want to watch and see what happens. But if we watch and wait it could be potentially devastating for the Unit."

"So how do we even intend on getting him out of here? I mean nothing is going to make that man leave short of an act of whatever god he believes in."

Ritsuko sat in deep thought, sipping her laced coffee. "We definitely have to bring more people in on this...Fuyutsuki, he'll understand. He'll be able to convince Gendo to stay put, and-or leave for a while."

"Are you completely confident of this?"

"No, but it is worth a shot...after I finish this coffee."

"Welcome to the dark side."

Silently, they drank their respective drinks. Ritsuko downed her coffee in a few deep draughts, which was something of a new behavior coming from her. Finishing first, she slapped the mug down and announced, "Let's get Gendo out of here, and then...we operate."