Gendo Ikari adjusted his position in the chair, "I see, I suppose I should thank you then."

"There's no need, and about the other document they were demanding under the Freedom of Information Act... I gave them some declassified false junk."

"I see..."

"So I'll get started then."

Gendo didn't bother to clarify, he simply hung up the phone. He leaned forward on his desk and let out a sigh, once again perusing his son's dossier. Ayanami had been acting strange lately, even going so far as to disobey a direct order and open the communication channel when she was mentally under duress. Her behavior started not too long ago, and he was certain that the boy was involved in some way.

It wasn't a spanner in the works by any means, but rather a splinter.

Better safe than sorry, however.

It didn't help that he couldn't afford to be rid of either of them. Rei was essential, and probably the only thing of Yui he had left in a physical sense, and the boy was what he needed to drive things forward.

Still...

He was proving more difficult than anticipated.

Gendo expected the boy to be a broken shell, but he was far from it.

Things would become... interesting.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Empathy

Episode 7: Suspicion

"Isn't that like... your fifth beer?"

"Shadup..." grumbled Misato, sending a glare my way, "You don't tell me what to do, you're the kid here. I make sure you're the one that does things right."

I laughed, "Sometimes I wonder."

"Wazzat?"

"Nothing, nothing at all Misato. I'll be getting ready for school now," I said with a smirk tracing my lips.

She tossed me a smile as I made my way back to my room. By the time I came back out with all my stuff gathered up in a bag she was asleep on the table. Luckily she didn't have to go into work until later in the afternoon. I laughed under my breath and pried the half empty beer can from her hands before setting it on the kitchen counter.

I didn't bother to call out that I was leaving, not wanting to wake her up.

By the time I got to class it was already full, this surprised me, what surprised me even more was that everyone was abuzz about the latest Evangelion battle.

When I entered the classroom it took a second for everyone to notice me, and when the heads started to turn and the gossip died down I let out a sigh.

"Yo!" Kensuke shouted, "Top o' the mornin' to ya!"

My eyes narrowed, "Kensuke... what did you do?"

He scratched the back of his head and let out an awkward laugh, "I kinda... invited half the class and we all went to watch you fight the angel."

"YOU WHAT?"

Kensuke flinched, "Look, I'm sorry man, I just had to see it. Great job by the way, you and Ayanami were SO awesome out there."

"Where were you?"

"We were camped out on the edge of the dam next to a hotbox, you went running right past us when the positron cannon got destroyed."

"You still wanna watch me fight after what happened last time?"

"Dude, giant robots! I knew I was risking my life by going out there, and sure enough you come crashing down above us, missing by inches."

"I almost crushed you."

"It wasn't your fault Shinji, it was mine. Like I said, I know what I'm getting into, and I warned everyone who wanted to come along that they'd probably be hurt or killed." He bowed slightly to me, mumbling out a light apology.

I sighed and shook my head, letting my gaze fall on Hikari, "And where was the class rep during all this?"

She blushed and turned away from me, mumbling something about keeping an eye out for the nerd.

My jaw tightened and I tossed my arms up in the air, "You must be joking, EVERYONE was in on this?"

The entire class was silent.

I rolled my eyes, "Right, of course they were." I didn't bother to say anything further, it was too much trouble as it was. I set my bag on my desk and made my way towards the window where Rei sat, "Yo," I said, waving my hand.

She turned her gaze from the window to me, "Good morning," she said softly.

"You were pretty awesome last night, a real heartbreaker." God even I heard the crickets after that lame joke, "Anyways," I continued before she could say anything, "I just wanted to say thanks. I guess we'll be working together from now on. You wanna go grab a bite to eat after we synch test this afternoon?"

Mutters erupted in the class.

"Did he just ask Ayanami on a date?"

"Omygod I have to post this on my blog."

"What a brazen kid."

Rei looked confused for a second. "My treat," I said, "We're friends now and you went with my lame plan, so I figure I owe you."

"Friends..." she said the word like it was foreign to her. After a moment of the most uncomfortable silence in my life she gave a small nod, "Yes, I will accompany you."

The class exploded.

It wasn't until the home room teacher came in that it died down.


It was a fast food place and we ate outside, nothing too fancy. I couldn't spend too much cash at that moment in time. Not only because my allowance wasn't that staggering, but also because I was throwing a little something together. Rei sat there, staring at the burger in front of her, "It's not gonna bite you," I said with a smile.

Rei nodded softly, reaching out and grasping it with both hands. She brought it to her mouth gently and took a small bite.

When I first met Rei she didn't seem like a cute person, but I couldn't help but think so with the way she was cautiously eating fast food. It was almost as if she had no social graces whatsoever, but it also made me feel kind of bad. "Rei, what do you know about the Evas?"

She set the burger down a quarter of the way through and looked straight at me, her gaze unflinching, "Would you like the technical aspects?"

"Layman's terms please," I said with a laugh.

"The Evagelions are developed using a string of biological DNA combined with advanced technology."

"Wait, so they're biological?"

"In the most basic sense of the word, they bleed, they have a nervous system..."

I tried not to think about what that entailed, but it's not like I had a choice. "I guess even a machine can feel pain if it's wired to. Why were they built this way?"

"It was the most viable way to interface and control such a war machine. Other methods have been tried, but the programming is too convoluted. Too much machinery, too many lines of programming conflicting with each other."

This new bit of information bothered me, maybe that voice I heard in the plug...

"I'm not supposed to know any of this am I?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"Rei, how do you know my father?"

"I was raised to be a pilot."

"I see."

The rest of the meal was silent until we said our goodbyes. I didn't walk her back to her apartment, I had to get home and think.


"I'm home."

"Welcome home!"

I walked in and let out a sigh, shuffling out of my shoes and cracking my neck, "What's wrong?" asked Misato, "You look like you've had a rough day. The synching test went well didn't it?"

"Sixty seven percent," I said with a yawn. "I've been fine."

"Holy crap is that even possible?"

I shrugged, "That's what it was."

"Where'd you go?"

"Went out to eat with Rei."

Misato raised an eyebrow and grinned at me, Pen Pen let out a squawk from underneath her chair, "Oh reeeaaaaly?" She stood up and walked over to me, leaning on the wall and eying me with a mischievous look, "I didn't know Rei was your type."

I felt the heat rise to my face, "Look, it's not what you think. I only took her out to let her know that we were friends now, and if it wasn't for what she did last night we all would've been toast."

She leered at me.

"What the hell do you want from me? Okay, maybe I think she's cute, but that doesn't..."

She grinned even wider.

"Ugh, fine..." I held up my right hand, spacing my index finger and my thumb about half an inch apart, "Maybe I have a LITTLE crush on her, but that has nothing to do with it at all. I mean, we're both Eva pilots right? We should get along."

She ruffled my hair, "Good boy. There's no use lying to me Shinji, I can tell when love is in the air."

I rolled my eyes with a laugh, "I already ate so I'll just cook for you. Out with it, what do you want?"

"Something simple is fine."

I nodded.


The morning air was fresh, and I had plenty of sleep, so I wasn't particularly tired when I crawled out of bed. As I sat down to eat Misato's door slid open. I looked up and was surprised to see her decked out in full uniform, "What's going on?" I asked.

Instead of yawning as I expected her to she simply sighed, "We've got some big powwow with the JSSDF and their new prototype, I didn't really want to go but Ritsuko is making me."

"A prototype eh?" I leaned forward, readjusting the toast on my plate but not really in the mood to eat.

She nodded and walked to the door, "I'll see you when I get back."


The gathering was half meeting and half party. It was on the outside edge of Tokyo 3 in a tall corporate looking building. The floor they were actually on resembled a hotel party room. Five white sheeted tables were set up, four of them surrounding one in the center, which housed NERV's sole attendants, Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi.

All the other tables were crowded with varying people, from corporate bigshots and lead scientists to high ranking officials with the JSSDF and the US Military.

Misato was not in her element. She didn't don her uniform or fancy dresses to go to parties and meetings like this...

Not to mention that she always found NERV's official uniform extremely uncomfortable, especially those sad excuses for high heels.

A stage was set up just in front of the group of tables with a large red banner over it declaring, 'JA Activation Party'.

This annoyed Ritsuko, she knew for a fact that this was their first real test environment with the Jet Alone, and putting that banner up was like declaring they were already done. It didn't help that the guy in the suit on stage about to speak looked like he ate stuck up and smartass for breakfast, "Hello," he said, "And welcome. It's good to see such a turnout for our prototype Jet Alone. It's been a few years but I'm happy to announce that Jet Alone is officially ready to go, and once we get it past testing it can be used as well as any Evangelion."

Ritsuko stood in waht Misato could almost define as a challange to the man on stage. She picked up the small microphone from their lonely table and raised her hand.

"It appears the NERV employee's have a question, yes Dr. Akagi?"

Misato had to give Ritsuko credit, if she had to talk to someone like that she would probably just end up charging the stage and strangling him. "Isn't there a certain amount of risk in using a nuclear reactor to power a bipedal war machine?"

The man gave her what was possibly the most smug look she had ever seen, "Yes, there is some amount of risk, but not without safety measures. The Jet Alone is equipped with a set of cooling rods, just like a standard reactor."

"What if it overloads, wouldn't there be a risk of meltdown?"

The man shook his head, "Oh no, there are countermeasures included in case of such a scenario, including a manual override system. Besides, if I'm not mistaken..." The man produced a small black pad computer from a subordinate, who had rushed up on stage to hand it to him as if on cue. He turned it on...

Displayed on the computer's screen was a picture of Unit One going berserk against the third angel, roaring at the sky in fury.

The man smirked, "I'm sure it's much less risky than a combat unit that could let loose on its own at any time and cause mental damage and stress to its pilots."

Ritsuko's eye twitched just slightly...


The locker room was quiet save for one thing...

"OH I'll show that asshole, I'll grab his smug face and... and..." Misato kicked the locker again, causing yet another dent, "Shove it into the locker and kick it and kick it and KICK IT! Who the hell does he think he is talking to us like we don't know what we're doing? Shinji could wipe the floor with anyone they put in that thing no problem!"

"Calm down Misato."

"I am calm!"

Ritsuko smiled, "You're throwing a tantrum."

"He insulted Unit One, that means he insulted Shinji, I wanna break that thick head of his!"


"Ready for activation."

"First step, left foot, short forward."

"Yes sir, first step, left foot, short forward."

The warehouse turned command room of the JSSDF forward base was thick with the tension. This was it, this was the test that would decide everything, whether or not their budget was worth it.

A few hundred meters away Jet Alone stood in its docking station, a white monstrosity with a red top towering over the ground. It had no eyes and a limp form, black pipes strutting out of its back. Its head was small and square, and a line of in-stations for the cockpit made it look like it was giving a disturbing grin.

Misato crossed her arms and glared.

Ritsuko smirked.

"It's walking..."

Jet Alone moved forward with the grace of a slow bull, thrusting its entire body like a monkey. Compared to the Evas... this thing looked dead.

"Alright, stop it and we'll continue with running and weapons testing, after that we'll be able to put in a pilot and she'll really shine," the man from the stage smirked. He gave Misato a look, oh yeah, that just happened.

Misato grumbled something about overpriced junk that was hard to control and frowned.

"S... sir... I can't stop it!"

"What!"

"The controls aren't responding, the reactor core is overheating."

"Shut it down, override now!"

"The override isn't working!"

Misato glared at the man who had given the speech earlier, "Well I hope you're happy now!" she snapped.

"It's coming right for us!"

Misato ran to the side and ducked just as the massive foot of Jet Alone entrenched itself in the command center, shattering the viewing glass and breaking almost every computer and work station in the entire vacinity.

When the initial chaos had passed Misato stood and turned to him, "How do we shut it down?"

"It needs to be manually overridden from inside the cooling rod chamber on its back, you'd need a radiation suit to go in there, and the code for the override as well."

"NERV has radiation suits, and you better get me that fuckin' code right NOW!"

"I can't just give it to you, we need to go through the proper channels and get the papers done."

Misato stormed him, grabbed his collar, and shoved him down to the ground, "That thing is rampaging its way towards Tokyo 3 and there's little to no time to evacuate, so I suggest you take your red tape and SHOVE IT!" Misato planted a foot on his chest and leaned down, "What. is. the code?"

"H... Hope..."

She smiled, "Good, now was that so hard?"


I got the call during the start of afternoon classes.

The teacher glared at me when my cell phone went off, but the only person who would call me while class was in session was Misato. I excused myself and exited the class as it resumed, taking out the phone and flipping it open, "Hello?"

"Shinji, it's Misato, get to NERV, get in Unit One, and meet me at the coordinates that I text you, there will be a cargo plane there ready to attach the Eva."

"What's the situation?"

"Runaway killer nuclear robot."

With that she hung up.

"N... nuclear?"

Shit...


The cargo plane was indeed massive enough to maintain course while carrying an Eva. Misato gave me a better rundown after the plane took off. She was dressed in a NERV issue radiation suit, thicker than a regular issued biohazard and heavier than a fireman's garb. We sat across from each other on the uncomfortable benches of the plane. "So you want me to plant you in that thing's back?"

She nodded, "Yes, it's the only way to deactivate it without outside control once it gets going."

"Will the radiation suit be enough?"

"I'm only going into the cooling rod chamber, so I should be alright."

"This plan is crazy, even for you. What if you get hurt?"

"Shinji, there's a reason that I'm the tactical officer remember? Besides, we don't have a choice."

I leaned back and narrowed my eyes, "Don't you DARE die on me Misato Katsuragi."

She smiled, "Yes Sir."


I took a deep breath...

"Alright One, let's do this... locks detaching!"

I tightened my grip on the control handles as I plummeted to the Earth. Misato let out a little yelp, but was holding steady in my left hand, "It's just like skydiving it's just like skydiving it's just like skydivingit'sjustlikeskydiving!"

I landed, creating an indent in the ground where my feet hit. About a few miles straight ahead was Jet Alone, the JSSDF prototype bipedal combat vehicle, rampaging towards Tokyo 3. "Go Shinji!"

I took off left foot first.

It took me a moment to catch up with him.

"What the hell is this thing, a speedwalking robot?" I grumbled.

There was even a handle on the back that looked like it was easily fit with a crane, but an Eva hand would grip it just as well. I wrapped my right hand around it and pulled.

"Damn this is one tough bastard!"

He was still going.

I dug my heels into the ground, grunting as I felt the heat and friction of the dirt, rock, and aged concrete that scraped against them. "Stop you son of a bitch!"

I took a deep breath when I finally managed to make it somewhat still.

"Alright, great job Shinji! There's a small panel entry next to the handle you just grabbed, drop me off there and make sure this stupid thing doesn't take another step!"

"Got it."

I brought my left hand towards the panel she was talking about, pulling as hard as I could with my right.

She stepped off carefully and gripped on the small handle, prying the panel open and disappearing inside.

I made my move, wheeling around the Jet Alone and pushing it from the front with both hands, "I'm in position Misato, if this thing has a meltdown in my face I'll never forgive you!"


The heat from the radiation hit her hard despite the suit, luckily it promised to protect her aginst the bulk of it, plus the cancer causing effects, so she was more worried about sweating herself out than anything else.

The panel gave way to what appeared to be a small corridor with stairs leading down. Misato covered them quickly, knowing there was no time to waste. She stumbled upon the cooling rod chamber soon enough, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the computer near the entrance. She was on it immidiately typing command line after command line furiously.

-Cooling Rod Controls

She hit Enter.

-Password

-Hope

-[ERROR]

Her eyes widened, "Wh... what..."


Steam sprouted from the things left shoulder like a gyser, I clamped my left hand on it, "Misato, you might wanna hurry it up!"


"I'm trying, the password won't work!"

"What?"

-Hope

-[ERROR]

"I said the password won't work."

"Shit..."

"I'm going to try to manually insert the cooling rods!"

She rushed to the rods sticking out of the wall and took a deep breath before shoving her shoulder and hands against a random one in the top row. She put all her strength behind it, the coolant rod moved slowly, centimeter by centimeter, "NNNNGH C'mon, budge you stupid thing!"


Jet Alone spasmed and steam blew from several points in the head of the rampaging monster, "God dammit!"

I closed my eyes, waiting for the worst to happen...

After a moment I opened my eyes...

The Jet Alone shuddered and stood still, the black pipes retreating into its back and pushing out the excess steam, I took a deep breath, "Oh thank God, you did it..."

"No I didn't."

"What?"

"The cooling rods... they just slid into place. The computer activated itself like it was on a timer. Someone set this up."

My eyes narrowed, and something grew in the pit of my stomach...

I told myself not to jump to conclusions.

'I'll talk to Misato when we get home...'

"Misato, let's get back to them, they'll be wanting to know that their prototype has been subdued."

"... Right."


"So..." Gendo leaned forward onto his desk and crossed his hands in front of his mouth, "I trust there were no issues then?"

Ritsuko nodded, "Yes, the plan went off without a hitch, minus Misato's interference."

"I see... was the boy with her?"

"Shinji? Yes, he was piloting Unit One."

"What does he know?"

"Nothing, Misato called him from school and he left immediately for the operation."

"I see..."

"Why?"

Gendo's hands tightened around each other, "Dismissed," he said.