One time, after training, Shinji had asked Misato a question. "Hey Misato, I'm the Third Child, right?"
"That's right Shinji," she said, as they boarded the elevator to their apartment.
"That means there were two pilots before me. I know that Rei's the first one, but.. well.. what happened to the Second Child?" Shinji expected that there'd been some sort of unsightly accident, or that the pilot had quit. Why else would NERV choose him to protect Tokyo-3 instead of the next person on the list?
"Oh, you mean Asuka?" Misato answered, "She's still training in Germany."
"Wait what?" Shinji readjusted himself, "Still training? After Rei and I have been risking our lives out in the field all this time? How long's this been going on?"
"Well…" she trailed off, "A long time. Your father's been trying hard to get Unit-02 transferred over here. But the German government doesn't want to give us that much power, even if we're using it to save the world. A transfer to Japan has been authorized, but the next step still has a lot of politics behind it. I'm sure you'll get to meet her eventually though."
That was two months ago. At the end of this day, Shinji will come to the conclusion that back then had been a better time.
The Second Child came up on deck to meet them once Misato and Shinji's plane had landed on the carrier. She wore blue jeans, a jacket, and a smile full of thrill and excitement. "Hi, I'm Asuka Langley Soryuu, nice to meet you!" It almost reminded Shinji of his first time meeting Dr. Akagi. Yet something was different this time. It made him want to introduce himself.
"Hey, I'm-"
"Yeah I know," she cut him off, "you're Shinji Ikari, Third Child, Rookie of the Year. I've seen the tapes of your battles, I'm so glad I can finally join in and show you how it's done." She turned away from him, to Misato, "But I want to talk to you! Major Misato Katsuragi. It's such an honor. Your work in keeping NERV sustained throughout the years is amazing. Hearing about you on the field in that last battle was a thrill."
"Oh, wow." Misato smiled, "That's a bit too much credit to me I'd think."
"To think that once you knew the Angel was dead, you'd check to make sure the Eva Unit was okay.. pilots like me are blessed to have the best of NERV's staff available to us. And I have to admire anyone who had to look after this bozo."
"Now by this bozo, do you mean Shinji or me?" asked the gentleman who was accompanying her. He looked to be about Misato's age. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ryoji Kaji." he said, shaking Shinji's hand. "I already know all about what Misato does. By Asuka's standards, that means I should be introducing myself to you first."
"Oh, well, I'm Shinji. Well, you know that already. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Kaji."
"Oh yes it is. Say, does Major Katsuragi still toss and turn when she's asleep?"
"Wow," said Misato, "You like to get straight to the point."
"Just like you used to."
"Oh shut up." she gave him a shove, "Where's Unit-02? I'm sure Shinji would like to see it."
"I'll bring you two to where it is." said Asuka.
Misato and Shinji followed her to the other side of the deck, the site of a large tarp. The Second Child lifted the tarp. Under it, tied to the ship and floating in the water, was a three-eyed red Eva, similar yet unlike Units 01 and 00.
"Wow," said Shinji, "It's.. red."
"Red? Red!? It's not just red! It's the first true Evolved Evangelion unit! Unit-00 was only the first working prototype. Unit-01 is called the Test Type Eva. This, though, is the Eva that all future models will be based on!"
She seemed pretty full of herself there, thought Shinji. "I mean, considering that without Units 00 and 01, NERV wouldn't know how to make Unit-02, then.. If what you're saying is right, this isn't the Eva that future Evas will be based on. It's just the last Eva that all future Evas will be based on."
She glared at him, "You're annoying."
So of course, thought Shinji. How could he not expect an Angel to attack today? And, to what he had to admit was the world's good fortune, it showed up exactly where he was instead of at the NERV base. Unless whatever they were protecting at home flew with them, the Angel seemed far from its target.
But let's go back to the bad news, he thought. Shinji was moving 90 miles per hour underwater, in the cockpit of a machine he'd never seen before today. The Eva wasn't wearing underwater gear, and was riding on the fin of a creature much larger than it. Being stuck in a small tube with Asuka sucked, even if he needed to do it to survive.
"Shinji, are you even concentrating here? The Eva's not gonna work as well if you're distracting it with your thoughts!"
"Right, sorry Asuka." Looking ahead, Shinji saw a jet heading towards the mainland. The Angel seemed to have some sort of attraction to it, because it was swimming its way.
Meanwhile on the carrier, Misato had taken control of the communications system. "What does Kaji think, just getting into a jet and flying away? Anyhow, Jesuka. If you can keep yourselves from letting go until it reaches land, you should have an advantage. While it's too fast for missiles right now, on land the Angel might be slower, and we can engage it then."
Shinji wished he were in Unit-01. There he could actually get something done. As they washed up, Unit-02 detached from the Angel. Asuka made for a charged slash at the Angel, splitting it in half. "Booyah! Now where's the core?"
They couldn't make anymore progress though. The two halves of the angel morphed into more humanoid Angels with visible cores. Unit 02 struggled to fight off the Angels, but was being damaged.
"Asuka-"
"Shinji I'm kinda busy."
"Asuka I-"
"Shut up and let me do this!"
"Asuka I want to actually do something!" There was a shattering noise. The armor on Evangelion Unit-02 broke open from the sides, and two new arms came out from the opening.
"Oh my god, what's happening?" Asuka shrieked, "My beautiful Evangelion Unit! Broken!"
"It's a bit too gross for my tastes too, but thanks to this, we have an opening." said Shinji. This was a small surprise after becoming an Eva pilot. For now, he just hoped two things: To beat the Angel, and that this didn't mean he had to stay in Unit-02.
Eva-02 grabbed the Angel to its left with its new arms, while the regular arms grabbed the Angel to the right. Shinji squeezed until the left Angel's head came off. He beat down on its core while Asuka stabbed the Angel on the right with a progressive knife. Angel blood poured all over the sand, and all over the new lower arms of the Eva Unit. The bloodied arms then retreated into its body.
"Well…" said Misato, radioing to base, "The Angel's been taken down, in some.. unexpected circumstances."
"I can see the mission went as planned, Mr. Kaji." said Commander Ikari at Ryoji's arrival.
"Yes," he said, handing a box to Gendo, "Here's Adam. The Angel almost got to it."
"But the Eva Unit took care of everything." the commander smiled, "Welcome to Tokyo-3, Mr. Kaji. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend."
Kaji left the room, and Commander Ikari turned the lights off. At his conference table, he flipped a switch The projecter turned on and a set of monoliths stood in front of him.
"Ikari," said the female voice at the head of the table. "Evangelion Unit-02 has exhibited the chimera effect, just as the prophecies claimed."
"Now that the Mother of all Angels has been delivered to your base, you will be the main target of the Angels."
"It's safer this way, of course." said Gendo, "Especially with Unit-02 here. Data from today shows that both our pilots achieved record synch ratios today. And as we speak, NERV continues development of the dummy system. If we let it work along with the pilots, we can trigger the chimera effect artificially. This is another step on the path to godhood."
"Fabulous, Ikari. Let's see to it that the HIP advances without a hitch."
The moon hung over the NERV base, rotating around the Earth like a lost sibling. Kaji was working in Japan, Asuka was moving in with Misato, and the cargo had been delivered. Things were bound to be a mess. The path to godhood was being paved, and all that remained was the question of who would take it.