Chapter 3
Asuka Langley Sohryu stretched leisurely, working out the kinks in her shoulders, then slumped back, breathing in a lungful of LCL.
"Jeez, how long are they gonna need to do a simple reactivation?" she wondered aloud, shifting in the command chair to find a more comfortable position. When no-one answered, the girl scowled slightly and tapped her finger against the capsule wall.
"I wish you'd stop doing that." Ikari's voice immediately answered, a bit grumpy. Asuka had found out that the direct impacts against the inner capsule walls, no matter how slight, were quite a good way to get back at the male soul. Shinji had tried to explain it to her once, but the best analogy he had come up with was an itch inside your bones, which Asuka had, obviously, never experienced, but nevertheless found hilarious.
"Then don't ignore me, baka. I come here out of the kindness of my heart to keep you company so you'd better appreciate it, got that?"
The blue fireball flashed before her eyes in irritation for a moment, but subsided quickly.
"Sorry." the mental presence mumbled, before falling silent once more, as if insulted. Asuka's scowl deepened.
"Well, how much longer do you think it's gonna take them?" she inquired, tapping her control yoke absently.
"How should I know? It's not like they tell me those things." the voice stilled for a second, before continuing.
"The Magi schedule says two more hours. Jeez."
Asuka scowled as well.
"It's not like we're needed anymore, anyways! Ayanami already reactivated! They're just running her through a standard test! There's no more danger whatsoever anymore!" she ranted, causing the blue fire to appear once again briefly.
"Yes, Asuka, I know." Shinji's mental voice conveyed longsuffering irritation.
"Say," the german asked after a few seconds of silence, "You can get into the Magi, right?"
"Well, a bit. They're not very friendly. Or human. It's difficult to get what you want across to them. Besides, I think Akagi limits my access. Why?"
"Bummer." The redhead slumped a bit, "I wanted you to dig up something on the Eva construction. Oh well."
Once again the two fell silent, watching the orange Eva not far away from them go through the basic motions. Asuka wondered why she found the drab orange of Unit 00 so ugly. It should have been a step up from purple at least, but on the cyclopic Eva it looked incredibly unflattering.
A small window popping up interrupted her musings. In it, Dr. Akagi stood, looking quite pleased with herself.
"Ok, you're done here, we should be fine without you now, Asuka." The doctor informed her, stuffing her hands in the lab coat's pockets.
"Stupid hag." Shinji's voice snidely whispered into Asuka's mind. "Did you know she has a cat fetish?"
The young girl congratulated herself on suppressing the giggle and saluted to Dr. Akagi mockingly instead. The purple Evangelion turned around, obedient to her urging, and marched into the transport platform. On it's right shoulder, along the pylon housing the prog knife, a large graffiti in hot pink, sprayed up by Asuka's own hand, proclaimed that this Eva was female and thus had no penis. Shinji absolutely hated it.
"Well, I see you're settling in nicely." Misato commented, dumping her shoes at the entrance and handing her host the bag with a dozen beer cans, which Asuka eyeballed with mild distaste. Ritsuko simply smirked at the girl, following the purple-haired woman deeper into the flat, studying the décor curiously.
Ever since her things arrived three days ago, Asuka took great delight in decorating her, admittedly, already quite nice flat to suite her own style. Now the walls of the corridor leading to the living room spotted posters of the "Toten Hosen", "Silbermond" and even a "Ramstein" one (Which Asuka got signed after a concert in 2014 and was incredibly proud of), while every doorway had a "Borussia Dortmund" shawl hung over it. Inside the living room the decorations were more sparse, being only an American flag hung over the small cabinet in the corner along with a picture of Asuka in front of the White House on top of it, with a decorative vat of Neu-Dusseldorfer Alt (sadly, Kaji refused to buy her a full one) sitting comfortably on the shelf above the TV.
Following the two women into the room, Asuka dumped the beer bag onto the couch and dropped in front of the low Japanese table, leaning back and utterly refusing to play a proper hostess for her visitors.
"I still don't get why the 'inspection of my living conditions' has to involve so much beer, you know." She commented, only to get an eye roll from Ritsuko and a sheepish smile from Misato.
"Well," the purple-haired woman commented, "you see, to properly inspect how you're coping on your own, I need to be in a relaxed state of mind…" Misato started, only to earn an even more pronounced eye roll and an incredulous cough from Ritsuko.
"She burned down her kitchen two days ago trying to cook," the blonde explained to the suddenly amused girl, while their companion flushed red in the background, "so she's bumming off of pretty much everyone she knows until her flat is fixed up."
"That sounds like Misato." Asuka snickered, finally rising and disappearing into the kitchen, only to reappear with a take-out sushi platter. "Dig in, I'm generous today."
The women obliged greedily, and soon the beer was brought forth, resulting in two mildly smashed grown women and a mildly disgruntled and sober teenager who was denied access to alcohol due to her age.
"Say, Asuka," Misato mused, lighting another cigarette and taking a gulp from her forth can of Yebisu to wash down the smoke, "how're you getting along with Ikari-kun?"
The girl leaned back a bit, contemplating the question.
"He's a bit boring." She finally decided. "I mean, I had the whole impression of him being kinda brave, what with piloting Unit 01 without training, even if he was being blackmailed, but now he turns out to be a run off the mill guy and a perv to boot."
She shrugged, avoiding the other women's eyes, then took a gulp of her soda and continued.
"He's cool enough, I guess, and we're getting along fine so far, but I think he's just so desperate for company he's sucking up to me so I don't ditch him. Not that I can, anyways, but his constant apologizing is getting on my nerves."
"Well, according to his psyche profile, he's a very non confrontational individual," Akagi dismissed, pressing out her own cigarette, "so maybe it's just his way of dealing with the situation."
"Yeah, I got that impression too when I met him." Misato admitted, then burped contently, causing Asuka to grimace in distaste.
"How come you've got a file on him, but didn't train him, anyways?" she inquired, causing Akagi to raise her eyebrows in amusement.
"We've got files on all the candidates for the Eva program, Asuka." The scientist answered, taking her handbag from the couch and starting to dig in it, as if having remembered something, "It's just that we don't have the resources to train them all. It was a long shot that he managed to synch with Unit 01 as it is, and we certainly didn't expect a 43% ratio at his first try. We actually though he would be able to get a 9.7% synch at best with Unit 00, and his chance of getting Unit 01 online were 0,00000009 percent. He only got drafted in since the Angel was detected and Rei wasn't fit to pilot."
Asuka nodded at this while Misato drained another can and swayed slightly in her sit. Finally, Ritsuko finished exploring her bag and pulled out a piece of plastic.
"Oh, here it is." She said, handing it to the redhead. Asuka studied it, finding out that it was Ayanami's Nerv access card.
"Could you bring it by her house tomorrow before the synch test? I forgot all about it today."
"Sure." The girl shrugged, dropping the card onto the table and standing up, "now get outta here, it's almost midnight already. I need my beauty sleep."
"What the hell?"
Asuka stared at the decrepit multi-apartment building which, according to the address on the card, housed one Ayanemi Rei. The redhead walked past the crumbling masonry of the stairwell entrance, which was missing the door, and walked up to the elevator, still very much wide-eyed at the desolation. Holding down the call button and looking around once more, the girl discovered several empty syringes in the dark grimy corner near the stairs and shuddered. Jeez, they had an Eva pilot live here? Were they crazy or something?
Finally, after an almost 5 minutes wait, the rickety old elevator had arrived, greeting the redhead with a huge number of profanity graphitized into it's walls and a very dim light bulb. Resisting the urge to curse, Asuka got out on the fifth floor and walked down the open corridor, counting down doors. Rei's was one with a huge amount of unread mail sticking out of the mail duct and a non-functional ring button. Now Asuka didn't resist the urge to curse and did so with quite a lot of skill for someone her age.
Knocking on the cheap wooden door, she discovered that it was, in fact, missing the lock.
"Scheisse, this is getting ridiculous." The girl muttered, pushing the door open and hoping beyond hope that all this was Ritsuko's idea of a joke and Rei didn't really live here. Her hopes were proven wrong when she discovered a naked albino looking at her in mild surprise, a brown towel over her shoulders.
"Pilot Sohryu." Ayanami greeted softly, making no attempt to cover herself at all. Asuka cursed once more, then marched inside and slammed the door behind her.
"What. The. Hell." She asked, seething, then stormed into the only room of the apartment, Rei trailing behind her in contrite confusion. What she found in the room robbed Asuka of her last restraint. Grimy floor and walls. A cardboard box with soiled bandages. A bed. A fridge. Dirty shades on the only window. A chair. A commode. A light bulb with a strange contraption, which had underwear hung onto it to dry. That was all. Oh, and a dirty kitchenette. Can't forget that.
"Pack up, First." The redhead seethed.
"I… do not…"
"Pack. Up." The girl gritted out, spinning around and jabbing her still naked companion with a finger, "Now. We are not going to NERV today. We are going to get all of your stuff together and get it to my apartment. Then we are going to get an axe and decapitate whoever assigned you to live here. Slowly. Now get going, before I decide to torch the whole place."
Ayanami tilted her head to the right in apparent lack of understanding.
"Why?" she finally inquired, somehow summing up her complete confusion into one short word.
"Are you friggen kidding me?" Asuka almost howled in fury, throwing her hands up, then pointed at the cockroach that lazily crawled from under the fridge.
"That is why! And that!" now the redhead threw her bag into onto the unfinished part of the wall, where the metal support grid poked through, degenerating into an incoherent string of german profanity.
"That's ridiculous! Gott! And they have you live here! How dare they have an Eva pilot set foot into this dump, much less verflucht noch mal live here!"
"But I have no complaints and find my living accommodations provide all the necessities for effective function." Rei interjected, somehow not sensing the almost palpable danger that disagreeing with the redhead at the moment would put her in. Asuka took a deep breath, then another just to be sure, finally calming her rage to manageable proportions.
"Don't disagree with me, First. We're getting you out of here whether you like it or not." Turning around blithely and completely ignoring the mild confused frown that appeared on Rei's face, she pulled out her cell phone and quickly dialed the number of her Section 2 escort.
"Asuka here. Get us a van. We need to get Ayanami's stuff to my apartment. She'll be living with me from now on."
"…werde dich mit einer gottverdamten Axt in den Arsh ficken, du bastard! Wie wagst du es, Sie in diesem Kaff leben zu lassen! Wenn ich dich in die Finger kriege, wirst du den Tag verfluhen an dem dein Grossvater seinen Schwanz aus deiner Oma nicht rausholte! Es war wohl zu wenig dass du deinen Sohn umgebracht hast, du must jetzt auch noch ein unshuldiges Maedchen foltern, du Hundesohn? Sobald ich in meiner Eva bin…"
Fuytsuki clicked a button on the console, turning off the recording on Gendo's videophone and for the first time wished he'd never studied german. The young Sohryu's language was quite descriptive. Smothering an amused grin, he turned to his former protégé, who, in turn, simply stared at the now blank screen in something resembling shock. He, too, spoke german.
"Well," the Sub-Commander noted, taking a seat, "that was an unexpected turn of events. I certainly didn't anticipate her siccing a mad german with an axe fetish at you in retaliation."
Ikari had already recomposed himself and was contemplating the video screen with a blank look.
"It is irrelevant. Have Pilot Sohryu disciplined for this disrespect of authority and her allowance cut for this month. Such insubordination shall not be permitted. I shall be having a conversation with Doctor Akagi in private about this. The First Child's housing arrangements shall be changed and she will now officially live with the Second."
Fuyutsuki nodded mildly, still suppressing an amused grin, and rose from his chair, intent on living the office to have a good laugh.
"Oh, and Fuyutsuki? Have the Second Child's access to any axes monitored."
"Yes sir." The Sub Commander almost chortled, then fled quickly lest he lost it right there.
"I still can't belive this!" the redhead almost roared, trying to strangle the control yokes. The blue ball of flame that she suspected was her mind's way of rationalizing what a soul really looked like danced in front of her in a mild fit of panic.
"Asuka, calm down." Shinji's voice was two parts desperate and one part reluctantly amused, "I can't maintain a proper synch if you're this angry."
"Calm down? Calm down? What the hell, Shinji! She was living in a goddamn hellhole! There were cockroaches! Cockroaches! And probably rats too!" Asuka raged, hitting the command chair in anger and causing the boy's presence to flinch almost visibly.
"Yes, and now you've got her out of there, ok? No need to be so pissed anymore. Deep breathes. Deeeep breeethes." Shinji tried to soothe, causing the girl too actually attempt the uncomplicated breathing exercise. She found it didn't help very much, but at least the urge to force the Eva to crush something subsided considerably.
"And he cut my allowance too." The redhead sulked, throwing herself back in her chair and crossing her arms in front of her. Silence reigned for a few seconds, broken only by quiet sloshing of the LCL filtration system.
"Say, Shinji." The girl finally said, leaning forwards and trying to poke the blue ball of flame but not hitting anything, only causing it shyly dance away from her reach, "You ever tried, like, hacking the MAGI?"
"Well, yeah, a few times, actually. I don't really have much else to do here but try and talk with them when you're not here." The boy answered, his 'voice' acquiring a slightly confused feeling to it.
"Well, and?" the german prompted a bit impatiently when her companion didn't elaborate.
"Well, they're supercomputers for a reason, Asuka. Besides, it's not like trying to crack a password on a laptop. I kinda have to ask them for stuff. And every time I ask them something they think I'm not permitted to know they just throw an 'Access restricted' feeling at me. It's kinda hard to explain." Shinji muttered, sounding a bit pensive, as if searching for a better description.
The redhead sighted loudly, throwing a glance at the command bridge through the Eva's eyes. The synch test wasn't even halfway done, it seemed.
As if sensing the girl's approaching boredom, Shinji's blue fireball flared in mild annoyance.
"Hey, so sorry I'm boring you. It's not like I'm stuck here 24/7 with nothing to look forward to but you dignifying me with a visit or anything…" he muttered sulkily, causing Asuka to scowl in return, secretly glad with a sudden show of backbone.
"Jeez, Third, what got your panties in a twist? The techs not reaching these hard to get spots while washing you?" she teased, trying to keep the banter light and, getting an even brighter flare of annoyance in return. There was no retaliation thought, as the blue flame seemed to dull suddenly, all the fight gone out of it.
"It's the Jet Alone Project." The boy admitted, then continued, obviously sensing Asuka's confusion.
"The JSSDF's building their own robot. The report wasn't confidentional so Melchior let me have a glimpse of it. It's much cheaper then the Evas so they may just decommission the whole Project E if the field tests are any good."
"Eh?" Asuka cried in indignation, "decommission the Evas? B-but what about me? I won't be a pilot anymore!"
"Oh yeah, Asuka, let's forget about the fact that I'll probably spent the rest of my days corroding on some junkyard!" The fireball flared suddenly, illuminating the plug with a fierce blue glow for a second and causing the girl to cringe back guiltily.
"Asuka, everything alright?" Akagi's face popped open in a window immediately, "You synch ration just spiked down for 1.7 seconds."
"Y-yeah, everything's fine." The redhead assured, closing down the window with a thought, then turned back to the blue ball that was seemingly invisible for everyone but her, which was still burning brightly in, admittedly, justified indignation.
"Baka. It's not like they'd throw out the Evas or anything. I mean, you're too expensive to just throw out. All they can do is probably cut Nerv's budget or something. Besides, no-one ever said that the JSSDF robot is better then an Eva. What did the report say anyways?"
Shinji's presence dimmed slightly, as if mollified.
"Well, there was a lot of tech data I couldn't understand, but basically it just said that it was remotely controlled and run on a nuclear reactor, so it had no power limits. They're still trying to figure out how an AT-field works, though."
"Well, see?" the girl grinned, considerably calmed down, "no worries then. How can that bolt bucket of theirs take on an Angel without an AT-field? Your place in the world is ensured."
"Yeah, mock me, will you."
"Thank you, I shall." The redhead nodded calmly, still grinning and causing the ephemerae ball of light to jump up and down as Shinji fumed impotently.
"By the way," the boy finally commented, "did you really threaten to rape my father with an axe?"
The Angel alarm awoke Asuka from her impromptu nap on the school desk, causing her to jerk up suddenly and quickly throw a look on her phone, which had quite a few missed calls, being set on soundless while in school.
Jumping up form her seat, the girl shot a look at the equally sleepy Ayanami Rei, with whom she had had a very tiring day yesterday, which started with trying to teach the girl the basic concepts of human decency, such as not running around the flat in her birthday suit, and somehow degenerated from then.
Ayanami was a very weird girl, Asuka knew that already, but she never figured that the weirdness extended so far as to not knowing what a tampon was. Asuka almost ripped a chunk her own hair out in despair after Rei admitted to just stuffing toilet paper into her panties during these days until now.
Of course, after this discussion, the redhead dragged the feebly protesting First Child on a shopping trip (after informing the Commander's voicemail that she would be billing his credit card that he had left to Rei for emergencies), which took almost all day but left the german girl deeply satisfied with her work and Rei terribly confused about the purpose of such an unholy amount of everything, starting with clothes ('Is my school uniform insufisient?'-'Duh.'), continuing through items of personal hygiene ('A deodorant? Why? I have always thought that not extending the intervals of time between showers past more then two days would be suffic… Pilot Sohryu, are you feeling unwell?') and ending with three bottles of incredibly expensive perfume ('Don't worry, First, just gotta spent as much as possible, hehe.') and covering pretty much all that was in between.
Yet that was not the end, as Asuke then endeavored to bestow her sage wisdom upon a completely clueless Ayanami, teaching her the purpose of each and every artice they had bought, and, finally, introduced Rei to proper vegetarian cuisine in a four star restaurant, where both girls pretty much stuffed themselves, (Rei, because she wished to experience all the sensations her taste buds could apparently produce, and Asuka, because she'd be damned if she didn't hit the card's limit today).
Full, sleepy and completely satisfied with the day, both girls finally slumped in front of the TV at Asuka's apartment, where the redhead proceeded to introduce Rei to the wonders of cinematography till three o'clock in the morning.
And after Ayanami went to sleep in their room, Asuka booted up her PC and proceeded to order the most expensive violin she could find (since Rei had cluelessly admitted that she knew how to play one), along with all the periphery stuff a violinist would ever need. Finally completely wiped out but grinning hugely, the redhead also went to sleep with the sure knowledge that Gendo Ikari became 25.5 million yen poorer then this morning.
Still, now Asuka suffered for such a late night, since she was completely sleep deprived, on a Monday, with an Angel attack currently happening, no less.
Quickly rushing down the stairs, followed by Ayanami and contemplating whether she'd have the time for a stiff cup of coffee before launch, the redhead decided that sometimes, she really hated the Angels. They could ruin a day like nobody else.
"Ok, Asuka, we're unsure of this Angel's capabilities, we only know that it's AT Field is incredibly strong." Misato rattled off through the com, as the girl franticly went through the last steps of synchronization procedure (Shinji was a bit panicky, so the going was a bit more slow then usually).
"We'll be launching you into grid D-11. You've got the armament buildings here, here and here, and a cover catapult here." The markers obediently popped up on the virtual map, following the tactician's keystrokes.
"Since the Magi aren't coming to a conclusion about pretty much anything concerning the Agnel," Misato continued, pausing only to inhale another lungful of cigarette smoke, "I want you to probe it first. We'll send a positron rifle as soon as you reach surface, so duck and cover, circle back to the A28 building here, retrieve the rifle and fire a controlled shot at the target's middle. We think that's where it's core is, but we aren't sure, so be ready retreat if we're wrong or if you can't neutralize the AT field."
"It's almost five kilometers away, Misato," Asuka scowled, still quite cranky from the lack of sleep, "of course I won't be able to neutralize it's field."
"Yes, we know that." Akagi jumped in, "But you should be able to erode the phase variance to some degree and we hope the positron rifle will be able to punch the rest of the way through."
"You know, that whole 'we hope' thing isn't really confidence-inspiring." Asuka commented wryly, gripping the control yokes a bit tighter in anticipation, "But whatever. Pop up, hide, get the rifle, nail it, run away if it doesn't work. Got it. Any other brilliant ideas?"
Akagi scowled at the sarcasm, but didn't respond, turning to her team instead, who were meanwhile apparently trying to brainstorm the problem, while Misato threw away the cigarette butt over her shoulder and lit another one.
"If it doesn't work," the purple-haired woman corrected patiently, "you retreat and take up position here, at the armament building F14, where you'll wait for it to approach to a distance of 1 kilometer, then you'll engage again. We'll deploy the chaingun there, as well as the progressive spear for close quarters. The Angel ignored pretty much everything the JSSDF threw at it and didn't demonstrate any kind of offensive potential, so we think it may just hide behind the AT field and not even react to you at all. That's your chance to get in close and hit it hard. Unit 00 will be on standby in case you need reinforcements."
"Bah. As if I'll need reinforcements." Asuka scowled, shaking off the sudden and very much unwelcome memory of Shamshel slamming his plasma arms through her torso. The feeling hadn't been pleasant.
"Ok, then. We'll launch you in 1 minute, so get ready." Misato nodded, then shut off the com window, leaving the girl alone for the moment.
"Well, Shinji, you with me for this?" the redhead inquired into the LCL.
"Yeah, of course I am." The presence answered, trying to seem confident but failing miserably.
"Oh, come on, Third Child, buck up. It's not like you feel pain when the Eva gets damaged, is it?" Asuka snorted. In fact, the question had bothered her for quite some time now, but for some reason she never asked Shinji about it before, just figuring that since he wasn't reduced to a quivering wreck by the injuries the Eva sustained against Shamshel, he didn't really feel them.
The only answer she received was silence.
"Right?" She tried again.
"Well, not really. I mean, you take the brunt of…" Shiji hesitantly begun, only to be interrupted by Misato's command of "Eva Unit 01 launch!".
As the redhead sped up to the surface, pressed into her seat and very thankful that the LCL dampened the acceleration forces considerably, the chatter over the com suddenly grew more frantic.
"Energy reading detected along the target's equator!"
"It's amassing upon itself and converging at the epicenter!"
"Asuka! Look out!"
Only thanks to her almost full decade of training was the girl able to react to the warning and dodge, but overcoming the G-force and ripping out the shoulder restraints took an almost inhuman effort. The Eva leaned to the right sharply, scuffing it's head and leaving a long trench on the tunnel wall, which made the last second of ascent to the surface decidedly unpleasant, but Asuka didn't mind it at all, since a beam of pure energy five meters in diameter slammed through the spot where the Eva's chest would have been, had it been erect, melting through the catapult wall in less then a nanosecond and leaving a perfectly circular hole behind, at least, until the metal began to flow down freely, superheated by the insane amount of energy Ramiel put into it's attack.
"No offensive potential, my ass!" the girl screamed, ripping out the leg restraints and forcing the Eva to jump and roll to the side, barely avoiding another beam that melted a building behind her. Only now she noticed that her left arm and side were in considerable pain, as if coming in contact with an overheated oven.
If that thing hit me… Shit!
"Another energy reaction!"
Scrambling Unit 01 to it's feet, the young pilot cursed savagely and made a mad dash towards the designated armament building where the positron rifle was waiting for her.
Ramiel didn't let her get there, firing off another beam that bit into the street right in front of her, causing the nearby buildings to warp and begin dripping down into the hole the deathray left behind.
Rushing forwards and then taking a sharp left, Asuka managed to avoid another shot, innerly thanking the old and incredibly stern Russian colonel that instructed her on how to avoid sniper fire in open field when she was eight.
Taking another sharp left, then suddenly changing her heading to the opposite direction, the purple Eva crashed down into a crouch behind the building holding Asuka's positron rifle, only to have it begin melting immediately as the Angel hit it with a continuous beam. Thankfully, the densely armored building yielded much more slowly, giving the redhead the seconds she needed to throw her Eva prone onto the ground and roll to the side, narrowly avoiding the insane flow of accelerated particles that finally chewed through the armament building and lanced past her shoulder, causing her own skin to feel as if she spent all day on the beach without sunscreen.
"Asuka, retreat to G5!" Misato's frantic shout sounded over the com, but a bit too late, since the Angel took the second it needed to line up it's next shot properly, hitting Unit 01 while it was rising to it's feet. The beam's energy was met with a sudden strob of orange hexagon, all that Asuka could manage in the short nanosecond she had left and was reduced considerably, but still tore past the barrier and hit Unit 01 squarely in the chest, throwing it back down onto the street and leaving a gaping burn surrounded with dripping molten pieces of purple armor on it's sternum.
"It's firing again!"
"Energy output has increased by 15%!"
Asuka let out a sharp growl of pain, but didn't loose her focus and rolled to the side yet again, missing the finishing shot by no more then a dozen of meters. Continuing roll until she hit some unfortunate building in the process, the young girl sprang to her feet, this time meeting the shot with her AT field, now completely deployed. All it managed to do was deflect the beam a few degrees to the side, leaving her hands feeling as if she'd stuck them into a fireplace.
Fuck. Where's the nearest retreat catapult?
The answer came to her too late, since Ramiel, as if to show that he was done playing, hit Asuka with another continuous beam that destroyed the thick armor plate disguised as a piece of the street that Misato had shot up in a futile attempt to protect her within a second and met her AT field yet again. This time, whether because the Angel put a lot more power into the shot, or because of it's hit angle, it wasn't deflected even one bit and, thought considerably reduced in strength, dug into Unit 01's stomach, melting the armor and digging into the softer tissue beneath, intent to disembowel the giant mecha.
The pain was so great Asuka couldn't resist a cry, futilely struggling to reinforce the AT field. It was helping, but not much, since Ramiel, having noticed that he had finally hit the elusive target, poured more power into the lance of energy.
Shit. I can't die here. I still haven't told Kaji how I feel about him!
The sudden and out of place thought seemed so ridiculous that Asuka wanted to laugh out, her vision going black on the edges from the pain she was feeling. The energy beam finally punched through the Eva's stomach and hit the street behind her, but Ramiel apparently wasn't done with her, since the energy lance begun moving, shifting higher up and leaving a trail of molten armor in it's wake, until it was centered right in the middle of her chest, as if sensing where the entry plug was.
The continuous shouts on the comm channel took on a much louder pitch, Misato frantically calling out something Asuka couldn't hear. Why couldn't she hear it? Everything was so hot… LCL was almost boiling…
Damn it. Seems that this is it, then.
'ASUKA!'
The blackness swallowed her, for which Asuka was eternally grateful.
Blue eyes snapped open and stared at the white ceiling incomprehensively. The girl just lay there, quietly contemplating what the hell was taking St. Peter so long, until the pain caught up with her and she hissed sharply, raising her hand to her stomach, where the burning originated from. Ah. Synchronization pain. Nothing to worry about, then. Only now Asuka noted that her hand was bandaged.
Waiting a moment until the feeling of her abdomen being stabbed over and over with a rusty knife subsided, the redhead pushed herself up a bit, until she was in a sitting position, then took stock of her injuries.
Her right arm was covered in some kind of thin skintight gauze, but didn't hurt at all. Her left arm was in the same state, and as the girl felt at her face, she discovered that it too was completely concealed behind the thin material. Peeling a bit off her right forearm, where a seam was visible, Asuka risked a peak and saw that her skin was beat red and the spot she uncovered immediately started itching maddeningly. Quickly replacing the strange material and continuing her study, the redhead discovered that she was, in fact, no longer a redhead. Her head was bald, that's why it felt so light. It was bald. Her hair was gone. Resisting the urge to cry (Big girls don't cry over stuff like that they don't cry at all they don't), the young pilot peeled open her hospital gown to find that her whole body was covered in the same mysterious material as her hands. It was so light and snug that she didn't even notice.
What the hell happened?
As if an answer to her question, the door opened to let in Ayanami Rei with a tray of food in her hands and a infinitely small frown of concern on her face.
"Pilot Sohryu." The albino said, managing to convey relief without changing her tone by so much as half a decibel and completely foregoing inflection.
"First, what the hell? What happened? Why am I bald? What happened to the Angel?" the former redhead rushed out, swinging her legs to the side of the bed and putting them onto the floor.
The other girl walk over, putting the tray down onto the bedside table, and took a seat in the conveniently positioned chair.
"You were retrieved from Unit 01 five hours ago, having suffered second and third degree burns all over your body as a result to LCL boiling inside the entry plug due to the energy beam's intensity, after which you were placed into the reanimation capsule, where medical treatment had been administered. Your complete epidermal cover, as well as most of your alveoli had to be regenerated."
That explains the lack of hair then. Was Asuka's first shocked thought. All of her skin had to be regenerated. Shit. She'd been boiled alive. Shit.
Ayanami continued, undeterred.
"The Angel, having suffered no damage, has positioned itself over the geo-front and is attempting to infiltrate it via a drill 17.5 meters in diameter. Estimated time to break through is 4 hours 43 minutes."
Now the albino fell silent, as if giving Asuka time to process the information. So, she had been boiled in her entry plug, that she still remembered, vaguely, then somehow got from being fried alive on the streets of Tokyo 3 down to the geo-front, where they managed to put her back together. Now, the question was…
"How the hell did they retrieve me? I don't remember." The girl muttered in confusion, causing Rei to nod.
"Unit 01 went berserker as soon as you lost consciousness, hurled one of the damaged buildings at the target, then retreated by jumping down the shaft of one of the destroyed armament repositories and thus arriving at the geo front, where it proceeded at a fast run to it's designated cage, ejected the entry plug and shut down, allowing the recovery crew access."
So, now the debt she owed to the Third Child had doubled. Still, Asuka couldn't really be pissed with him, seeing that she didn't find being burned alive very pleasant. She could be pissed with him because he didn't do it sooner, though.
"What of Unit 01?" the german inquired after a second of contemplation.
"It has sustained heavy tissue damage in the abdominal area and has lost 86% of it's front armor. Also, the head armor became dented during your evasive action at the beginning of your deployment." Rei reported, calm as a cucumber, "The hand and leg armor was damaged during the descend to the geo front, but has already been replaced. The Unit will be combat ready within approximately 2 hours, but will not be able to function to it's full capacity."
Asuka nodded at this, then stood up, testing her feet. Everything was functioning normally so far, apart from the fact that she was wrapped up in ugly gauze from head to toe and bald to boot, so the girl tried a few stretches, until she was comfortable again, and turned to Ayanami expectantly.
"So, what's the plan?" she asked, taking a seat on her bed again.
The albino, apparently having waited for this, pulled out a small note book out of her school bag.
"Operation Yashima will begin at midnight and will consist of…"
After the blue-haired girl left, leaving a new red plug suit on Asuka's bed, the young german finally allowed her face to crumble, hidden by the white material as it was.
Gott, I almost died.
Hands shaking slightly, Asuka hugged herself, trying to suppress the shiver, her mind suddenly back in the entry plug as the LCL begun boiling around her, searing her skin off…
Huh? When did I…
Uncurling from the foetal position she found herself in and sitting up, Asuka stared blankly at the wall for a second, then threw a look at the clock on the bedside table. She'd been like that for ten minutes.
Not so glamorous anymore, is it?...
The new entry plug, it's paint and untouched metal still gleaming in the bright light of Unit 01's cage, tilted upwards sharply, then was lowered into the waiting mecha's back, where the heavy armor plates sealed over, leaving Asuka, bald head, face and neck still wrapped in the material Akagi told her was there to dull her sense of touch until the new skin finished adjusting, alone for the moment.
The cacophony of lights flashed before her, revealing the usual display of the Eva's ocular perception and a maddeningly flashing blue ball of fire that almost rushed her, overflowing with a feeling of concern.
'Asuka! Are you alright? They wouldn't tell me anything, I had to burn through Balthazar's circuits to know that you were alive at all! Please tell me you're alright!'
"Jeez, Third," Asuka grinned cockily, leaning back and suddenly feeling much more relaxed then she had in the last hour, "Chill. I'm completely fine, if a little burnt up. It'll take much more to off the Great Asuka Langley Sohryu, you know."
'Oh thank god." The boy sobbed in relief, lacking the eyes to actually cry but still managing nonetheless.
"Hey, come on." the pilot tried, awkwardly, unprepared for the flood of emotion the male soul was displaying, "You're a boy, you know. Hey! Stop crying, damn it!"
'I ca-can't he-help iiit!'
"Damn it, Third, get a grip." The girl scowled, "I'm completely fine, so stop bawling and act like a machine of mass destruction! What the hell took you so long to get me out of there, anyways?"
The quiet mental feeling of someone sobbing into her shoulder started subsiding gradually, but much too slowly, so Asuka took the time to march the cyborg to the catapult and allowed the tech crew to run their last pre-start checks, feeling decidedly awkward all the way there.
"Well, I'm still waiting for an answer. Why the hell didn't you pull that stunt with diving down an open shaft earlier? Could've spared me my hair, you know." The girl inquired again when Shinji finally managed to compose himself.
'S-sorry. I can't take complete control when you're conscious." He whispered meekly, still obviously distraught, causing Asuka to frown in confusion, until she remembered that her entry plug pretty much was stuck into the Eva's equivalent of the spine, thus probably filtering any orders the Evangelion's head was sending to the rest of it's body.
"Oh." Was all she said, since that was pretty much all she could say without making a fool of herself even more, then run her hand over her head, where the hair should have been.
"Damn it. Do you have any idea how long it took to grow my hair that long? I'm gonna friggen massacre that Angel now." The girl glowered darkly, finally finding a target for her ire. Shinji's ball of blue fire stopped all movement and just hung in front of her, as if incredulous.
"Asuka, you've been burned almost to death," the boy finally managed, tone echoing with disbelief and reluctant admiration, "and you worry about your hair?"
"Hey, a girl's gotta have her priorities, you know." The young woman grinned, ruthlessly suppressing the sudden memory of the unbearable heat.
Shinji was silent for a second, as if trying to process his pilot's insane logic.
"I was about to let the Eva absorb you, you know." He quietly admitted, causing the girl to jerk up, suddenly remembering quite a few of her nightmares.
"If you'd died, I would've, too." The boy forged on, either not able to see her scowl or choosing to ignore it, "When you lost consciousness, I was about to…"
"Listen up, Third," Asuka grated out, slow and deliberately cruel, "You don't, I repeat, don't ever try to absorb me, you got that? I had nightmares for weeks after Akagi told me about what really happened to you, so I'd rather die then be stuck inside the friggen thing with a whiny loser like you as the only company, you got that?"
Her only answer was silence, the blue handful of flame hovering in one spot before her, as if slapped, then it too disappeared, causing the entry plug to appear much dimmer then before, despite the bright yellow interior lighting.
Fine.
The boy's voice almost boomed, suppressed rage giving the one word a strange undertone of foreboding.
"Asuka, what happened? Your synch ration just sunk to 74%." Akagi's face appeared on the suddenly much less sharp screen in front of the girl, who only scowled back at the doctor.
"Yeah, give me a minute." The german said, switching off the comm channel and shivering slightly as the LCL temperature unexpectedly plummeted.
"Oh come on, Third." The girl scoffed, waving her hand through the much murkier fluid around her, "It was nothing against you, ok?"
Ikari Shinji didn't answer.
"Look, Ikari, get over yourself, I didn't mean it like that." Asuka tried again, looking around the plug and shifting in her seat, finding herself increasingly uncomfortable in the now almost frigid environment.
Not so much as a peep from the male soul. No increase of LCL temperature. No better view on the optical screen. No comfortable presence around the plug. Only hard metal contours and cold mechanical sound of the LCL filters. Even the control yokes suddenly felt slightly heavier to move around.
"Well, fine then." The girl scowled, "Not like I need you anyways."
Opening the channel to the command bridge, Asuka shrugged nonchalantly.
"Seems that's all you're gonna get today, Dr. Akagi." She commented, "The Eva isn't cooperating."
Misato cursed savagely and lit a cigarette with a jerky movement.
"And just before launch too." She mumbled, then turned to the bandaged face of her charge.
"Well, we'll have to do with what we have. Your synch ratio is still higher then Ayanami's so you're still the shooter. Get into position, eject and wait until 23:15. Ayanami's already waiting for you."
Asuka nodded sharply, closing the com channel, then let out an arrogant huff into the LCL around her and gripped the control yokes tighter.
'Stupid Ikari. As if I'd need him. I'm good enough on my own, anyways.'
The huge JSSDF positron canon hummed loudly with the insane amount of energy being pumped into it from all over Japan, dozens of nuclear power plants running in a barely safe mode to provide humanities' only hope with enough energy for one decisive strike against the alien invader that floated calmly over the blasted streets of Tokyo 3 where not 10 hours ago it tried to kill a 14-year old girl by frying her alive.
Said 14 year old girl was currently sitting in her command chair, within the confines of Unit 01's entry plug, grinning savagely as the Evangelion's targeting interface showed a clear lock on her torturer's middle. The sight of the perfectly symmetrical octahedron in her reticule was almost as sweet as a bar of chocolate, and the only downside was that she had no one to share her elation at the upcoming victory with. Unit 01 had remained silent all the while, Shinji apparently having crawled back into whatever hole inside the Eva's neural net from whence he came before to sulk, refusing to even acknowledge his pilot. Bah, stupid idiot.
Who needed him anyways.
Switching on the com channel to Unit 00, Asuka grinned broadly at the calm albino, who just stared back at her with a small frown of concentration on her face.
"Well, whatcha think first? Think the Angels feel pain? I sure hope so!" Asuka cackled, her still bangaded face splitting into a large grin. Rei slowly raised her perfectly shaped blue eyebrow in confusion.
Well, ok, Asuka admitted, perhaps Shinji had been a better conversationalist then the blue-haired stoic girl, but she'd do with what she got.
"Pilot Sohryu, does causing pain… please you?" Ayanami wondered, somehow making her comment sound like absolutely innocent curiosity and making Asuka's grin fade a little.
"Well, uh, no, not really. Only if it's an angel. Or if it's someone who tried to burn me alive." The young german answered a bit lamely, nevertheless causing Ayanami to nod in understanding.
"I see." The blue-haired girl said, carefully adjusting her Eva's position so the heat-shield from a former space-shuttle was leaning against the ground slightly.
"As our target responds positively to both of your criteria, would I be correct in assuming that you would enjoy it's pain doubly so?"
Damn, Asuka thought, Rei was making her sound like a sadist without even trying.
"Ok, ok, First, I got your point, no need to rub it in."
"I do not understa…"
"Sheesh, give it a rest, already!" Asuka grumbled, making a minor adjustment on her targeting computer. The command channel was currently abuzz with activity, the techs still checking the last connection stage before the operation's begin, so she could allow herself to simply tune out the annoying sound of technicians shouting one over the other.
"So," the former redhead continued, "you got any experience with that thing?"
Rei looked at her heat-shield and nodded calmly, "Yes. I have extensive simulation experience with all of the Evengelion weaponry and equipment. You need not worry, Pilot Sohryu, I will not fail in my duty to protect you."
"Jeez, Rei," Asuka sighted, "It' isn't your 'duty' to protect me! I can manage myself just fine. We've talked about it, didn't we?"
Obidiently Ayanami nodded, reciting from memory, "It was not my failure that caused my injury. I am not responsible for the death of Pilot Ikari. I am also not responsible for providing protection for the Great Asuka Langley Sohryu."
The Great Asuka Langley Sohryu nodded in satisfaction at her work well done, but was stopped short as Rei continued,
"Nevertheless, it is my wish to ensure your safety, for you have shown me something I can only classify as kindness."
"Oh jeez." The german exhaled, more tired then pissed off. Whoever brainwashed Ayanami Rei, did so quite throughtly. Unless…
"You aren't a lesbian, are you?"
"What is a lesbian, Pilot Sohryu?"
"Forget…" Asuka mumbled, putting a hand out in front of her, "I said…. Anything. OK?"
"As you wish, Pilot Sohryu."
"Sorry to interrupt the lovely chat," Misato's snide voice sounded over the com, "but the operation is a go in 90 seconds. Prep the fuse, Asuka."
"Ok, ok, shees." The girl in question mumbled, slightly embarrassed. When she was talking with Shinji, the command staff wasn't able to pick up any sound of the conversation unless she addressed them directly and Asuka had grown used to the fact that whatever was said inside the plug had been private. Now, apparently, it wasn't any longer.
"Fuse inserted, initiating warm up of the plasma chamber." Maya Ibuki reported, diligently typing away on her keyboard, followed by Aoba's "Initiating charge. Ready to fire in 10, 9, 8…"
Asuka concentrated, enforcing her own perception over the Evangelion, making it's eyes her eyes, it's fingers her fingers, it's senses her senses. She was in control damn it, Shinji or no Shinji, and she'd be damned if she had to rely on that whiny loser. So what if her synch ratio was only 78% tops? It was still enough to get the job done.
The charge indicator turned green, followed by a quiet beep from the targeting computer reporting that all factors have been calculated in.
"Ready to fire." She whispered, taking a deep breat, followed immideatley by a loud "Fire!" from Misato.
She squeezed the trigger.
The bright ray consisting only of supercharged positrons, screamed out of the gun's muzzle promising mutual annihilation with a lot of exotic particles as byproducts to any electrons it came in contact with, soared through the night sky, covering the 15-kilometer distance in less then a nanosecond, punched through the Angel's AT-field with impressive ease…
To meet the Angel's answering shot, the magnetic field keeping the positrons from spreading repelling from another magnetic field, changing direction slightly, channeling the particles a few degrees to the side…
"Missed!" Asuka hissed in disappointment, observing as her shot careened up and to the right, missing the Angel completely and continuing onwards through the sky at an angle.
"Cooling the barrel!" Huyga snapped out, his fingers typing on his station with abandon, even as Asuka ordered her Eva to quickly change the fuse and realigned her targeting computer with a thought.
"High energy reaction detected!" Ibuki all but shouted, watching as on her screen, Ramiel unhurriedly turned a few meters until it's corner pointed directly at Asuka's position, then let the light of his upcoming shot play along it's equator, converging into one impossibly bright pinprick of light…
Asuka froze. She wasn't afraid to admit it. The bright light was very much visible at this distance, and she knew it in her bones that it was about to shoot towards her in a lance of pure annihilation, to finally erase the all-too-lucky pray once and for all. She watched as with impossible slowness, the ray of light traveled straight at her, bringing with it the unbearable heat that had already once seared the skin off her…
To be interepted by the dark siluette of another Eva, a large shield raised defiantly in front of it.
Ayanami!
"Ten more seconds!" Aoba's shout jerked her out of her shock and the girl quickly threw a look at her targeting display, where the reticule was slowly moving towards the rectangle in the middle.
"Five!"
Gritting her teeth, the girl concentrated once more, innerly counting down seconds, as before her eyes, Unit 00 was slowly starting to melt…
"Two, One…"
"Fire!"
She squeezed the trigger.
The purple behemoth held it's orange brother up, the former's free hand madly tearing off pieces of molten armor off the later's back, until, finally, the white of the entry plug could be seen. Abandoning a chunk of useless metal and ignoring her own protesting hands that felt like they had blistered from touching the orange giant, Asuka ripped the thin capsule out and clutched it to her Eva's chest as she rushed towards the lake she had admired only an hour ago, where she carefully but quickly deposited it into shallow water and ordered her own entry plug to eject.
"Scheisse, scheisse, scheisse…"
Climbing down from the kneeling Unit 01 proved to be a rather difficult task, but the girl had managed, covering the distance to the white and steaming capsule in less then a minute and wrenching open the hatch despite her plugsuit's plastic melting slightly from the still not completely dispersed heat. Inside, the LCL had already been vented and the pale figure of Ayanami Rei was lying in her command chair, apparently uninjured, but motionless.
Cursing once more, the young german dragged the First Child's dead weight out and dumped the girl into the shallow water of the lake, then dragged it away from the capsule as quickly as possible.
"Come on, First, wake up already!"
"Pilot Sohryu…"
Quickly abandoning the efforts of getting Rei as far away from the still steaming hot entry plug at once and leaning over Ayanami's face, the bald girl discovered that Rei was apparently completely fine and already attempting to rise on her own, thought not very successfully.
Finally having stood up, thought leaning onto Asuka's offered shoulder for support, Ayanami Rei stared out onto Tokyo 3, in the middle of which, the carcass of Ramiel burned cheerfully, emmiting huge plumes of black smoke.
"Pilot Sohryu, I discovered that the pain of a being that attempted to end me through intense amounts of heat does indeed cause a pleasurable feeling." The First Child commented with a completely serious face, starring fixedly at the felled adversary and causing Asuka to almost drop her.
"Well, that's it with the debriefing, for now." Misato closed her paper file and smiling at both pilots, "Go home, relax, rest and so on. You get tomorrow and the day after off from school, and Asuka, you have to drop by the medical ward, to get the epidermal support removed. There's not much we can do about the hair, thought, so you'll have to tough it out. Good job, both of you."
Nodding tiredly, and scowling at the captain for her comment, Asuka bid goodbye to Rei, who went ahead, and started on her way towards the Nerv's geofront hospital, only to run into Dr. Akagi upon leaving the briefing room.
"Ah, Asuka, nice job out there." The blonde smiled tiredly, throwing a glance at her clipboard (Asuka suspected that the woman slept with the damn thing), "Whatever you problem with the synch ratio was, I'm glad that you sorted it out."
The bald girl frowned in confusion.
"Eh?" she finally queried intelligently, causing Akagi's smile to widen.
"Oh, you didn't even notice? You synch ratio was at the usual 150% from the moment you took your first shot."
And suddenly, being bald didn't bother Asuka as much anymore.
Author's Notes:
Thank you everyone for your kind reviews. Hopefully the next update won't take that long. I'm still looking for a beta, so if someone has the time, I'd greatly apreciate it.