3B: Cosmic Fusion

Misato took a deep breath to calm herself as she rode the moving walkway. She was resigned to going through with the test, but was far from eager for it. Deep down, she could not help but hope that she would be unusable. A million things could go wrong, even if she cooperated perfectly.

Rei had led her farther down into the facility than Misato had ever been. The corridors on these levels were narrower, dimmer, and even more industrial in appearance than the facility above. A layer of dust lay across everything. Misato wondered if this part of headquarters had been used any time in the last ten years. Her suspicions were confirmed when the logos on the doors changed from the standard NERV logo of a half maple leaf and four capital letters, to one of a grey serpent coiled around a red tree and the word "GEHIRN" spelled in all capital letters across its roots. She remembered Dr. Akagi and Kaji mention that name before. Gehirn. NERV's predecessor. Had this section not been updated since that time?

The moving walkway finally deposited them in front of a green steel door marked AR-56. There was a spot to its right for a keypad or card reader, but it was now simply an open socket with a button crudely wired into it.

Rei turned to look at her. "The doctor and lieutenant commander are waiting for you inside. I must go. Good luck."

"Thanks," Misato said.

Without any further reply, Rei stepped onto the walkway which moved back in the direction they had come from. Misato was alone in the hall, without even security cameras to watch her. So close to piloting, her fear returned. She could always turn around now. There was no one watching her, so there was nothing to stop her from simply following Rei back down the corridor, out of the geofront and away from everything.

A small voice which sounded like Shinji spoke inside her mind. She could not run away. Commander Ikari, Dr. Akagi, uncle Kaji, all of them were counting on her to get in the cockpit. If she just turned around and walked away, she could not go home again, could not go back to school, could never go anywhere associated with NERV. If she did, they would just force her back to this door sooner or later. Shinji was brave enough to climb into the Eva. If he could pilot without knowing the first thing about the angels, then Misato did not deserve to do anything less.

Misato took a deep breath, then released it. She tried to fix her cheerful personality back into place. When she felt calm, she pressed the button beside the door.

The doors slid open to reveal a dusty and poorly-lit control room. Four fluorescent bulbs, badly in need of replacement, cast flickering light over rows of consoles. Like the hallway outside, this room looked as if it had not been used in ten years. The computers in the room were older models, mostly pre-impact business machines. It was surprisingly comforting to see something so familiar, almost like Misato had stepped back in time to before second impact and the drifting. In fact, the entire room reminded her of the labs she had spent time in as a child. She half expected to see her father step out from one of the other doorways.

Four NERV technicians were seated at various consoles, largely ignoring everyone and everything around them as they worked on unnamed tasks. Uncle Kaji and Dr. Akagi stood at the center of the room, staring out a set of large windows into the darkened void of a room beyond.

"Hey," she called to them, "I'm here."

Kaji turned around, and smiled when he saw her. "Well now, glad you could make it."

"Of course!" She exclaimed. "You can always count on me!"

"We'll be ready in another few minutes," Dr. Akagi told her. She called over to one of the technicians. "Maya, how is the reactivation going?"

A cute, brown-haired young woman responded. "So far so good. The Eva's core temperature is up to 270 kelvin, and there's no sign of fractures in its organic components. We'll have it above freezing in another few minutes."

Dr. Akagi nodded in satisfaction. "Alright people, you know the drill here. Just like with unit 01 earlier today: a quick activation, synch, and control test, no mistakes."

"How's Shinji doing?" Misato asked.

"Our tests with him are done for the day," Dr. Akagi explained, "and he's studying the Eva's technical specifications. His synch ratio is really impressive, for a new pilot. 40 percent in the first battle and 35 in the test."

Misato blinked. She had heard the doctor mention synch ratios before, but did not understand what it meant. "That's good, right?"

"The higher the pilot's synch ratio with their unit, the better they're able to command it," Kaji explained. "There's a little danger from having a ratio that's too high, but it's a worthwhile tradeoff for combat effectiveness."

Misato was not sure if she liked the sound of that.

Dr. Akagi handed her a folded jumpsuit and a pair of hairclips. "Here, we'll need you to put this on. The plugsuit helps reduce signal noise and the interface headset—the clips—boost the connection. Just slip the suit on, zip it closed and press the button on the wrist cuff. Keep in mind that anything you wear underneath it will chafe immediately, so it's best to just go without."

"Right," she agreed. She glanced around at the room full of technicians. "Don't tell me you're expecting me to change right here."

Uncle Kaji jabbed a thumb over his shoulder toward a door on the other end of the room. "There's a locker room over that way. I don't think it's been used in years, but it should be private. Once you're done, take the lift there down into the bay."

"Okay then! See you in a few minutes!" She smiled, waved, and rushed through the door.

The locker room was more of a closet with a bench, mirror and a metal footlocker. The single dim, flickering light revealed the door to a lift at the far end. As soon as the door closed behind her, she stripped down and began putting on the suit she had been given.

The plugsuit was as loose and baggy as an old t-shirt. She wondered how she was supposed to do anything in it, let alone pilot an Eva. As soon as she pressed the button on the wrist cuff, however, the suit shrank to skintight, perfectly hugging the contours of her body. It was constricting, yet surprisingly comfortable, almost like a thick second skin.

Misato examined herself in the locker room's wall room mirror, taking in the effect. The suit was a deep indigo, with a red chest, shoulders, elbows, and forearms. Red stripes ran across the thighs. Several plugs rose from points along the arms, providing ports for something Misato could not even begin to imagine. The interface headset pieces, which simply clipped into her hair like barrettes, were red as well. She had to admit, she did look good in it, and it made her feel like a hero.

The lift was as old and disused as the rest of this area. The GEHIRN logo was emblazoned along its back, the paint cracked and beginning to flake away. Its motor whined and groaned as it descended. It seemed to take forever to reach the lower level, and then even longer for the doors to grind their way open.

The bay beyond was as lightless as it had seemed through the windows of the control room. The air around her was frigid, so cold she could see her breath. In the glint of the light spilling from the door and control room windows, she could just barely make out the outline of a large, angled, humanoid shape. Here it was then.

She glanced up to the lighted windows of the control room, where uncle Kaji and dr. Akagi stood. Misato waved to them, not certain if they could see her. "Okay," she called out, "I'm ready!" or as ready as I'll ever be, she added to herself.

The voice of the technician from before, Maya, echoed from speakers in the bay. "Evangelion core temperature at 274 kelvin, no sign of stress fracturing. Beginning rapid warming to optimal range. Draining cryonic pool and activating docking bay main power."

Lights snapped on in the dark bay, instantly revealing what was inside. A large suit of armor stood at attention surrounded by a steel scaffold. It was immersed up to its neck in a bath of viscous orange liquid. As she watched, the liquid drained away, revealing the rest of it.

It did not look like the other Eva. The armor was thicker, chunkier, less articulated than that of Unit 01. It lacked the shoulder pylons, knee fins, and general curves of the more advanced unit, instead favoring harder angles and rigid plates. Two slits on either side of the face took the place of eyes. Her plugsuit matched its general color scheme: dark indigo with red accents. She could almost imagine it was just a robot, like the ones from classic anime which had broadcast when she was younger. That helped a little.

"Is this an Eva?" she asked.

"This is Eva unit A," the doctor explained, "one of the two testbeds we used to develop the Evangelions. Your Eva is still being built and won't be here for a while, so we're pulling this one out of mothball for the time being."

Misato looked back to the Eva with new interest. So it was a relic from the past, something stored down here and forgotten for years until it was needed. She imagined it waiting there, cold and alone, not certain whether it would ever see the light again. She felt a strange kindred with it; it reminded her of the drifting feeling she had experienced.

She was still terrified of the angels, and was not sure she could look at any other Evangelion without shuddering. But for whatever reason, she was not afraid this particular Eva. maybe, just maybe, she could actually do this.

Maya looked up from her console. "280 kelvin. We're up to the minimum operational temperature range."

"Excellent!" Ritsuko gently nudged Maya's hands aside. "Mind if I take the helm here? Startup might be a little finnicky with a unit this old."

Maya blushed as she gently slid aside. "Oh, I, um, sure thing!"

Ritsuko favored her with a smile before beginning to type rapidly, entering strings of commands without hesitation.

Kaji leaned over the console next to Ritsuko, staring at the crude industrial look of the Eva. As crude as it looked, it was hard to believe that NERV had kept an entire working Eva unit in cryogenic storage for so long.

"Why was this Eva abandoned?"

Ritsuko continued typing, not even looking up. "Primitive cybernetics. The entry plug can't be ejected, and it can only use the obsolete A-type equipment. Retrofitting it into a full prototype would have been more expensive than just creating a new one."

"If it's so primitive, why does the commander even want it brought up?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," she replied. "Maybe he thinks it can still be useful, even if it won't be much use in combat."

There was that feeling again, the feeling that Ritsuko was lying. She knew something more about this unit, something that she and the higherups did not want anyone knowing. There had been talk about performing a contact experiment with Misato as soon as NERV had taken her into their custody. Her connection to the events of second impact was, after all, unique, they might be able to use that fact to their advantage. But why only now? And why this Eva in particular? Something about this situation did not seem right. Everything seemed to tie back to Misato in some way.

With a final command, there was an electronic whine, and several more monitors lit up around the room.

"Main startup achieved," Ritsuko announced. "Time to drain the bay and begin testing."

Kaji smirked. "Well now, aren't you miss magic fingers?"

Ritsuko chuckled. "You would know."

The entry plug was a cramped, lightless tube, which was remarkably claustrophobic. If possible, its inside was even more crude and industrial than the Eva's exterior had been. The console in the center was something right out of a mad scientist's diseased nightmares. What resembled a barber's chair was bolted atop a maze of wires, tubes, and braces attached to a pair of rails. Three flat-panel monitors were mounted in an arc around it. A pair of pistol grip joysticks were wired to braces which extended from the armrests of the chair, clearly repurposed controllers from old computers. There was an odd charm to all of it.

Not sure what was supposed to happen, she sat down in the chair and waited. After a few seconds the hatch slid closed behind her, leaving her in total darkness.

Kaji's voice emerged from a speaker on her headrest. "We're filling the entry plug with LCL. Just remain calm."

Liquid flooded into the dark space. Misato gagged as the cold LCL washed over her, filling her lungs. For a moment, she panicked, wondering why they were trying to drown her. As she took an involuntary breath, however, she realized that she was not in fact drowning. The first few lungfuls were icy and viscous, like breathing tar. The plugsuit helped a little, its material insulating her from the worst of the cold, but it could do little for her lungs. There was a faint whirr as a pump behind her activated, and in a matter of moments the liquid began to warm to a tolerable temperature. The liquid had a harsh coppery smell, at once sickening and yet somehow comfortingly familiar.

The doctor spoke over the comm. "Energizing LCL and activating interface."

The orange liquid around her glowed in rainbow colors briefly before fading to darkness once again. The quality of the LCL changed, becoming thinner, more like air. The monitors in front of her switched on, showing a panoramic view of the bay. Their light just barely illuminated the inside of the entry plug. Dozens of cables suddenly shot out of the console, connecting to the plugs on Misato's suit. She felt like a marionette, held in place by strings.

Dr. Akagi spoke over the comm once again. "Now that the auxiliary cables are connected, you should have full control of the Eva. We'll be releasing the docking clamps in a few moments, so you'll have to focus on staying standing."

"What should I do?" Misato asked.

"Nothing elaborate right now," Kaji explained. "We're just going to walk you through some basic maneuvers to test your Synch ratio and ability to handle the Eva. Just relax."

Easy for him to say. He was not the one in a cramped and darkened entry plug. To her surprise, she was no longer scared of the Eva. Perhaps it was the link working properly, or perhaps it was just her imagination, but she felt connected to it in a fundamental way. Yes, it was crude, yes it was primitive, but it was hers now. Here, in the dark, cold tank, she felt safe. The Eva would never let anything bad happen to her. It was a part of her, or, more accurately, she was a part of it.

"Her synch ratio is low," Kaji commented. "Barely 16 percent"

"It's higher than anyone else has ever achieved with this unit." Ritsuko replied. She looked up, examining the proto-Evangelion with a clinical eye. "One of the early problems we ran into was creating a way for the pilot to interface with the EVA. Even in the LCL environment, the early systems suffered from an enormous amount of signal noise. We tried supplementing with hardline cables from the pilot's suit, but that led to problems of its own."

Kaji shrugged. "I guess as long as it works."

Ritsuko pressed the button for the comm. "Releasing clamps. Try extending the Eva's arm."

In the bay, the Eva stumbled, then slowly raised its right arm.

Ritsuko nodded in satisfaction. "Now take a step forward."

The Eva lurched forward, arms swinging, leg extended. Just as Kaji thought the unit would fall, it caught itself and straightened.

"How's she handling?" Kaji asked.

"Sluggish," Misato responded, "Like I just woke up on a weekend."

"You're doing very well," he told her. "Take a few minutes and just get used to the feel of the unit. If you're feeling confident, you can walk around a bit."

As the Eva began taking shaky steps around the bay, the technicians relaxed. One of them left the room, and returned with a large pot of coffee. He began to fill mugs and pass them out to the other technicians. Another of the group withdrew a Walkman and began to play air guitar as he listened. Maya remained at her station, but withdrew a notebook with a rabbit on the cover and began to doodle.

Ritsuko leaned back in her chair and casually watched Misato's Eva. She smiled as she shot a sidelong glance to Kaji. "No problems after twelve years in storage, and a useable pilot on top of it. I'd call that a minor victory for us."

Kaji smiled back and shook his head. "No, it's a minor victory for her."

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow. "what do you mean?"

"She got in. Willingly."

The sun was already on the horizon by the time Misato passed through the chain-link fence and into the junkyard. It had taken her half an hour to reach the yard from NERV headquarters. Located on the edge of Tokyo-3's residential district, it was bordered on two sides by a steep, wooded hill. A fat, hairy man in overalls sat in front of a small shed, disinterestedly tossing rocks toward a line of tin cans.

"Hey there," Misato said, "Mind if I look around for a bit? There's some things I want to pick up for a project my uncle's working on."

The man shrugged and tossed another rock, striking one of the cans. "Just bring it to the front when you're ready. I'll set the price then."

With a smile and a curt bow, Misato skipped her way into the junkyard. Ever since her brief joyride with Shinji, Misato had realized how badly she wanted a bike. Riding along at 240 kilometers per hour was exhilarating, and she hated that they had taken the motorcycle away from her. But if anything, Misato was creative. If she could not have that bike or buy one like it, then she would just have to make one herself. For that, the junkyard was definitely the right place to start. Lined up in tight rows, stretching off for a full hundred meters, were countless rusted frames of motorcycles. Any of them would do, technically, but she was looking for something particular, something which she could turn into the bike of her dreams. Finally, after twenty minutes of searching, she found it.

Lying on its side in a pile of discarded parts was a low-riding BMW motorcycle frame. It was not much to look at, little more than the skeleton of a bike. Even with salvaging everything she could from the junkyard, it would take a week or more before the thing would run at all. But to Misato's eyes it was beautiful. She saw the potential in the steel skeleton, what it could be rather than what it was.

Already she was mentally planning the parts she wanted to add. Reinforced shock absorbers were a definite must, her experience while picking up Shinji had shown her that much. Electric power was also a high priority, as gas stations would be harder to find in the countryside. The body needed to be sleek, probably painted indigo or red, with memory foam cushioning on the seat. If this bike was going to be her private escape, then it needed to be comfortable to ride.

Yes, uncle Kaji was going to regret he had ever taught her about motorcycles.