Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide

by Rommel

(Updated chapter 5, should have done that a while back)Three months after the death of Kaworu, NERV and its people struggle to rebuild. The Children face new challenges, but for two of them the worse thing may just be each other. Amidst the pain and despair, outside events quickly spiral out of control. Edit: Fixed the title of the story. Yay. No more duplicates.

10. Sickness

Notes: as always, thanks to all the people who make this possible. Arkiel and Big D for helping pre-read, Nemo for the late-night feedback, Jimmy and some of the guys a Evageeks and the people who take the time to write reviews. This chapter turned to be a little longer than intended but there was a lot of stuff going on, as you can probably tell by reading.

As an aside, the next chapter is already done so the wait between chapters should be short. Chapters 12 and 13 should be easy enough. As of right now I am aiming to have the finale, creatively (yes, that is sarcasm) titled "The End of Genocide" in January. Haven't decided if it will be a single massive update or split into three acts or so. I don't know yet.

---

Evangelion Genocide: Extended

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live" --Norman Cousins.

Genocide 0:10 / Sickness

---

The first salvo from the bullpup rifle sailed wide to the left of the target, as did the second and third ones. Keiko allowed her finger to let go of the trigger and took a deep breath. It was getting frustrating.

"Hold your fire," Maya ordered over the radio. "Let me re-calibrate the system. I think I can compensate for your pull."

Keiko waited. In the pre-simulation briefing she was told that this particular scenario had been recreated from one of the previous engagement and the target was one of the old Angels. The creature looked like a giant torso, no legs, no arms—except for what looked like rolls of toilet paper—and a small head lodged so low between its shoulders that wasn't really a head, just a face.

Furthermore, this Angel, she had been told, had ripped through the Geo-Front, torn Unit 02 apart, forced Unit 00 into a suicidal attack and was ultimately stopped by Unit 01—eaten, as Maya put it. Keiko was horrified; it had taken three Evangelions to destroy it. What was she going to do if they sent her out to fight something like that?

No, she decided. They wouldn't send her out. It would serve no purpose that she could think off; she had barely just learned to walk properly, let alone fight.

The weapon tests were difficult and tiring, but she preferred them to the synchronization ones. Firing the guns, rifles, missile launchers and other assorted weaponry kept her mind busy and prevented the emotions from overwhelming her.

Maybe it was the adrenaline or something else. Whatever it was, she preferred it to quietly sitting on the entry-plug with nothing else to do for hours but recall painful memories of her past. The entry-plug was like a beacon for all the things she wanted to forget, and at the same time it made her long for something. It was a familiar sensation, but it was that one thing which triggered the emotions. She had never felt that way since her mother died.

As painful as it was, admitting how she felt to Asuka had seemed to change their relationship. Where before the redhead had shown open hostility towards her, now she seemed much more willing to tolerate her lack of talent. And she had even complimented her on how good her yellow plugsuit looked on her.

Such a little thing, yet after craving the redhead's approval for so long she thought it was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her.

"All done," Maya's voice informed. "Try again. Aim a little low this time. You seem to have a tendency to raise the barrel unconsciously."

Keiko squeezed her left trigger. The gun ejected a volley of projectiles, creating a thin arch on the screen as the virtualsuperheated, depleted uranium shells traced their trajectory from the gun's sleek barrel to their intended destination. For a second the young pilot thought she had missed again, but when the salvos approached their target, the downward ellipse of the arch became steeper as if the pull of gravity had suddenly increased.

"Nice shot!" Maya called out, her voice full with excitement. "A direct hit!"

Keiko almost smiled, the feeling of accomplishment swelling inside her chest. Maybe she was not so worthless after all.

---

The sounds coming from the bathroom were like no other sounds Shinji had ever heard Asuka make. Everyone got sick every once in a while; she just did it so rarely that it seemed her immune system was made of the same stuff layered as armor over the Evas.

Knowing that he would embarrass her by asking if she needed anything, and weighing that against his desire to help her if he could, he found himself hesitating. She would probably get mad at him for asking anyway.

He felt rather helpless, standing in the kitchen and listening to her throw up. Pen-pen had found a niche between his legs, his rubbery feathers brushing against his bare skin to urge him forward. His beak was turned up expectantly. He might just be a penguin, but Shinji had the same reluctance to meet his eyes as he did anyone else.

Misato was at work so, as it often happened, the two teenagers were alone for the night. Calling her was not a good idea. There was nothing she could do from work, and mostly because she would tell Shinji what he already knew—that if he wanted to do something to help Asuka he needed to get over himself and help her. That it was up to him.

Finally, the brown-haired pilot sighed and knocked on the bathroom door. The sounds stopped, and then the stiff accordion-style door was thrown loudly open.

"What do you want?" Asuka grumbled, her voice harsh and hoarse, wiping the back of her left hand over her mouth. Her other hand was pressed gingerly against her lower stomach. Unlike her usual skimpy house wear, she had on a loose gown that made it to her knees. Her scowl was deep and her eyes bristling, but there was no denying she looked sick.

Sheepish as always, Shinji hesitated. "Um, I was just, you know, wondering if you were alright."

That just seemed to piss her off. "What? Are you stupid? Do I look alright to you? I'm a walking fucking cramp and I can't stop feeling like I have a giant balloon in my stomach! Do you think that's alright?"

"Well," he turned his face away, "maybe you shouldn't eat so much junk food anymore."

Asuka slapped him over the head. "Idiot! It's got nothing to do with what I eat. It's the nausea from my period!" She slammed the door shut again, then yelled from within, "Go enjoy having a penis!"

"Oh," Shinji blinked, dumbfounded. He had assumed it was food related. He hadn't even thought of this. Asuka was a girl, after all, and girls... "Yuck."

But as he turned to leaveher to deal with her more womanly problem, Pen-pen bumped him insistently on the back of his legs.

"What?" Shinji looked down, lifting his foot so as not to step on the penguin. "You heard her. I can't help her with that."

Pen-pen didn't budge. Instead, he pecked at Shinji's foot.

The Third Child stepped back, wondering if somehow Asuka's moodiness had transplanted itself onto him. "Hey! What was that for?"

Pen-pen gave him a firm look that indicated surly frustration, because just asking such a question was obviously an act of stupidity. While Shinji didn't doubt animals could be perceptive, maybe even more than humans, this little guy defied belief. And he lacked the ability to know when to give it up.

"Fine," Shinji sighed, turning again to the bathroom door. "But you are the one who's going to explain to Misato why I have a red hand print on my face." He knocked again. "Asuka?"

The only response was a loud heaving noise.

Shinji swallowed awkwardly. "Asuka, do you want me to fix you something? Maybe some tea? At least it'll help settle your stomach."

"Yeah," she belched, "or you could come in here and hold my hair out of my face while I try not to puke. Up to you."

Her voice was so weird he couldn't tell if she was being serious. He hoped not. "Tea it is then."

So it was; he pulled a teapot out of the cupboard, quickly boiled some water in the microwave as it was faster than using the stove, opened at box of teabags and dipped two of them into the water. With perfect timing, Asuka emerged shuffling wearily from the bathroom, still clutching her lower stomach. Because she was not using her neural connectors, thick locks of her hair stuck to her face; she seemed not to care.

"Here." Shinji poured the steaming hot tea into a cup decorated with the NERV logo as Asuka pulled out a chair and sat. He poured himself a cup as well, figuring it'd make it easier on her if she had someone to drink with.

Asuka took a tentative sip. "Men have no idea how easy they have it" she grumbled. "Every month is the same thing. It's like my body decides it doesn't like me anymore. My mood goes to hell—" she gave him a warning look. "Not a word, Third Child."

Of course he would never say it, but he did think it. He'd be safe as long as she couldn't read his mind. He sat next to her, tea cup in hand, taking a sip.

"Well?" Asuka's voice turned bossy. "What do you have to say for yourself, and for men in general?"

Shinji bowed his head. "We are very sorry."

Her morose expression became peppered by a hint of humor, which made Shinji feel glad he could get such a reaction even when she was clearly not in the mood.

People, wrongly, tended to think she had no sense of humor. She did. It was just hard to make her laugh. But Shinji could, some times completely unintentionally. Strangely, it was one of those things that would seem ordinary in anyone else.

"Listen, Shinji, I need to know something," the redhead began again, without looking at him this time. "If we weren't Eva pilots—I mean, if we were just two normal people with normal problems, would you still put up with me?"

Shinji was confused by the sudden change of topic. Her seriousness seemed to come out of nowhere. "I-I don't understand."

"Naturally," Asuka scoffed. "What I mean is, even if there were nothing to make us special, even if we had nothing else, would you still, you know, be there for me?"

"I think I would," Shinji replied, uncertain.

Asuka narrowed her eyes. "You think?"

Shinji quickly corrected himself. "I know I would."

"Even if there was nothing to make me special?" the redhead pushed the issue. It would have been impossible for Shinji not to notice that she replaced the word us with me.

He was not entirely comfortable with the answer, but it was obvious enough that not saying it would be even worse. "Y-you don't need the Eva to be special," he assured her and attempted a smile. "I think … you are special enough on your own."

"Pervert, pick-up lines don't work with me."

Shinji suddenly panicked, thinking she had misunderstood him. "I was not—I didn't mean to sound like that, Asuka. Sorry," he attempted and apology. "I was … just ..."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Asuka brushed him off. She probably knew him well enough by now to realize Shinji would never intentionally try a line like that with less than honorable purposes. He must have had a momentary mental blackout or something.

Neither of them said anything for a while. They sat and drank tea from their cups in the silent kitchen, Pen-pen watching them both as though they were part of a movie or a play.

Finally, Shinji gave in to the nag of his curiosity. "Asuka?"

"What?" Her cup was on her lips.

The Third Child hesitated. "Why did you ask me that?"

The German redhead seemed to consider his question for an eternity, rolling it in her mind and wondering if she should answer. For the first time in the night, their eyes locked on one another.

"My synch-ratio dropped today," Asuka said at last. "Almost ten points."

She didn't have to say anything else; the last time Asuka's synch-ratio had dropped, her life had become a nightmare. Shinji could sense the dread in her voice, the fear that flashed in those sapphire orbs of hers, and the thought frightened him.

Asuka was the strongest person he knew, maybe that had ever or would ever know. In a sense she was his example of what it was to be strong, the foundation of his own strength. He would stand as long as Asuka stood with him. But if she collapsed he wouldn't be able to keep himself together.

Shinji remembered the words he'd spoken to a comatose Asuka, so long ago it seemed, the pain and desperation. He felt a chill as the image of the redhead in the hospital bed hit him. He didn't want to remember her like that. He didn't want it to happen again.

"Something's wrong with me." Asuka set aside her cup. "That's why they keep doing so many tests. You've been back what, once? Since the last Angel? I spent almost a week doing tests. And then almost every other day. What does that tell you?"

Shinji muttered something, and took another sip of his tea trying to buy himself some time. If anything, this was worse than hearing her talk about her period.

"Idiot, it tells you they know something's wrong but they don't know what. Maybe that's why it doesn't feel like it used to. Maybe that's why my synch-ratio is dropping. Maybe—ow!" She keeled over onto the table, clutching her belly. "Oh, God. This isn't fair!"

Shinji was already getting up from his chair. "I'm calling Misato."

It only took a furious glare and a snarl from her to stop him. And it only took a second, for she immediately rushed back to the bathroom, leaving him standing there and feeling helpless yet again.

---

They sat at the small living room table and ate dinner. Miko had cooked, something she apparently did only once every blue moon, or so she had said.

"I appreciate the dinner, girls," Nakayima said as he set his chopsticks on the edge of the plate. "I can't remember the last time I had something this good."

"It's okay, Agent Nakayima," Miko replied with a beaming smile, though that gesture did very little to alleviate the generally glum mood. "I was not gonna have you over just to offer you cheap booze."

"Well, good food and booze." Nakayima raised his tiny cup of sake. "It's always a good combination."

The trivial exchange seemed only to annoy the younger girl sitting with them because she uttered a huff. It had all been Miko's idea, of course, and she had been rather adamant about it. Keiko did not seem to agree with her in the slightest. The look on her face had first been one of impatience, the sort Nakayima would expect from someone reluctant, but slowly it had turned into a kind of poorly veiled resentment towards him.

Nakayima could hardly blame her. They had never met, and for him to come here, a total stranger, intruding on her their personal lives was the height of impropriety. Miko had done her best to lighten the atmosphere, making small talking, trying to get Keiko talking about being an Eva pilot. The girl refused to take the bait. Most of her answers were yes and nos and very little in between.

Whatever impulse had driven him to accept Miko's invitation now seemed vain. Keiko did not want him here, even if her guardian did. Likely, the only reason she was sitting here with them was because Miko had told her to and she was too accommodating to refuse.

Eventually even Miko realized this and turned her attention to Nakayima, ignoring her completely.

"You're out?" Miko said, eying his empty sake cup. She reached and picked up the bottle, tipping over onto the cup. It too was empty. "Don't worry, there's more in the kitchen.

Unlike Nakayima, who was wearing his black uniform, neither girl had bothered to dress up. So as Miko stood and walked over to the kitchen, he couldn't help notice how tightly her shorts fit. The cotton fabric rode up slightly from the upper parts of her thighs, revealing a little more flesh than intended. His gaze lingered on her just a little too long.

"She likes you, you know," Keiko said gloomily, picking at her food. "It's not like she brings home every guy she meets."

"Sorry, if I had known I'd be so bad for you—"

"Would you have cared?" She brought up her eyes. "You like her too. And people don't just go into other people's homes when they haven't even met them. But you are here, aren't you?"

Before he could chance a reply, Miko returned carrying a fresh bottle of sake and resumed her place at the table.

"So, Keiko-chan," she began, her latest attempt to break the ice between her, Keiko and their guess as she poured the sake. "You haven't told me. What's it like being an Eva pilot?"

"Fine," Keiko replied somewhat grudgingly. "What's it supposed to be like?"

"I don't know. Maintenance crews don't have that much contact with the pilots."

If there was any doubt about Keiko's expression being resentful before, it became perfectly clear now. "Yeah, I've noticed."

Miko turned to Nakayima. "What about you, Agent Nakayima? Ever met any of the pilots?"

"When are you going to stop calling him that?" Keiko pipped up angrily. "He has an actual name, doesn't he? You already brought him home. The only reason you haven't introduced him to your parents is because you can't!"

Miko heaved a heavy sigh and for a moment seemed about to reproach her ward. Then she gave Nakayima an apologetic look. "Please excuse her, Junichi."

Nakayima shook his head. "It's okay. And no, I've never met a pilot before," he admitted, focusing on the younger girl's features. The brunette wore her hair tied in a ponytail, but certain locks still managed to wash delicately across her face. Her eyes were fixed, brimming with anger. "But I have to say I hope they are all as good as you."

Keiko laughed—the sort of high-pitched laugh people made when they really wanted to cry. "Don't be ridiculous."

"She's too modest" Miko patted her on the back, but still looking at Nakayima. "I think it's a good thing, and she should be proud of herself."

"There is nothing to be proud of," Keiko whispered harshly, brushing Miko's hand off her.

She'd had enough. Picking herself up and leaving her dinner unfinished on her table, she headed for her room. Her shoulders were slumped and she dragged her bare feet across the floor with uncertain lethargy.

"Are you going to bed already?" Miko called out, eyes following her.

Keiko shut the door behind her as she entered her room without saying a word.

After a moment of heavy silence, Miko's shoulders sagged visibly as she brought dejected her gaze to Nakayima. "She's not always like this," she offered as a way of excuse, reaching out to her glass. The agent understood the gesture and poured her some sake.

"Well, we all have our good days and bad days," he said.

"It's not like that." Miko moved the glass to her lips and took a short sip. "I think it's this place. It brings out the worse in people. Before we came here, she was such a happy girl. You know how kids can be. She was so full of life, so eager to live on, but now … I think I should have never brought her here."

"You did what you thought was best," Nakayima said, drinking from his own glass. "You talk about her being a kid, but you are not much older yourself, are you?"

"I'm nineteen," she said, sounding like the sorriest nineteen-year-old in the face of the earth.

"I'm twenty-six and I can be pretty childish—well, when I'm not busy getting shot. The point is that you expect too much of yourself. You are young and shouldn't worry too about this kind of thing. If something really bothers her and she wants to talk about it, she'll come to you. If not, then she'll get over it on her own."

"You would make a really bad parent, you know that, right?" Miko said, moving her cup absently in a circle over the table surface. "Children never talk about what bothers them."

Nakayima narrowed his eyes. "I know, which is why I never intend to have any," he said. "I don't need the burden."

"Children are not a burden, Junichi. They are a blessing."

"To each their own, I guess," the agent said, finishing the last of the bottle. "So tell me, how is it that you became her guardian?"

Miko considered his question for a few minutes before replying, as if wondering if she really wanted to open that old vault of memories. "I met Keiko about six years ago when her mother brought her to Germany for the first time. My mom and hers were good friends so naturally we had to get along. I think she was eight at the time. We used to spend a lot of time together, since our mothers were always working. She was—still is like a little sister to me. I once even took her skating in the Winter Garden in Berlin and bought her coffee."

Nakayima could tell she was lightly buzzed. He raised an eyebrow. "Coffee?"

Miko shrugged and ran a hand through her dark blond hair. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, a year later Keiko's mother got transferred to Russia. She died in some weird lab accident. The details were never made public, but it involved the Eva somehow. My mom decided then that we would take her in with us. It was much better than allowing her to be placed with foster parents."

"It's always the children who suffer the most," Nakayima said apologetically. "One more reason not to have any."

"How could anyone be so cute and yet be such a jerk?" Miko said, leaning with her elbows on the table and fiddling the empty glass with her fingers.

He was truly, honestly surprised. "Cute?"

She paid him no attention. "Think what you will, but I should tell you that I enjoyed the time we spent together after that. My own mother was never there, but I had Keiko. I didn't miss her when she was working. She became like a stranger and secluded herself in her job. She died a week after I turned eighteen. I didn't cry at her funeral, though. I ran out of tears long before that."

There was silence after she was done. "So now you know," she spoke again when almost a full minute had passed. "Would it be too much if I asked for your story?"

"I..." Nakayima began, thinking about what he would say. He surely couldn't let her know too much, if he let her know anything at all. She wouldn't understand, he decided. She was too different, too honest. It would be dangerous and painful.

Painful—the thought hit him right there. He had never told anyone because it brought him pain. People knew what was on the files, but he had never willingly given away any of it. Death, war, those things left deep scars, and were still not as bad as knowing that he had broken then heart of the one man who ever believed in him.

The minstrel boy had gone to war, and what he found was far too horrifying to imagine. And by the time he realized it, it was already too late to go back. That single, stupid act of defiance had cost him his whole life, the regard of his father, the love of his family, his future, everything. Lost.

And that was before he became involved with the Ministry of the Interior.

What was he supposed to tell her? Here was someone who actually wanted to be close to him, yet it was such an alien feeling he had long forgotten what to do with it.

From the moment they met in one of NERV's cafeterias he thought she was an odd girl. There was an unrestrained openness, an almost cruel honesty that he couldn't block out. She was not like anyone he had met before.

"Well?" Miko insisted, staring at him.

Something stuck inside his chest, like a lever prying open an lock. And as much as he tried to recall excuses and justifications, in the end he told her the whole sad, complicated story.

---

The rag doll hung on the end of the noose. It swung symmetrically, tracing a slow circle in the air just underneath it. Asuka followed its every movement with the most childish mindlessness, her eyes moving back and forth, looking yet not really seeing. She smiled, a grin of satisfaction, because she hated the doll with every part of her being. It had taken the most precious thing away from her, the person she loved most in all the world. And for that it deserved to hang.

She could still hear her voice, as painfully and clearly as she ever did watching her in that hospital bed, talking to the doll. "Asuka darling, don't look at that girl. She'll yell at you." The doll remained silent, staring with eyes made out of buttons.

Asuka hated it so much. "I am your daughter!" a high-pitched voice cried, full of anger and hurt, and the desperate wish not to be ignored any more.

But the voice did ignore her. "Asuka, you mustn't complain or Mama won't love you anymore."

"I am your daughter!"

"Asuka, you must be a good girl."

Asuka pressed her open palm against her chest, while her eyes filled with rage. "I am your daughter! Not that doll!"

The voice became stern. "Asuka, you must do what Mama says."

"I am not a doll!" Asuka's words echoed through the gloom, as they had so often in that hospital room. But she was no longer the child she had once been, watching helplessly as her mother slipped away from reality. No. Now she was a grown up. She was mature and strong.

"Asuka, you mustn't be mean or people won't like you."

The Second Child squeezed her eyes shut, her hands clenching into fists. "I am not a doll!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "I don't care if people like me! I will do what I want because I can, not because I want them to like me!"

But when she opened her eyes, the hanging doll was gone. Instead, the redhead saw an image of herself in the entry-plug. She was curled into a tight ball, sobbing uncontrollably.

"No … don't make me look. Don't make me see those awful memories," the figure with her form begged. Asuka snarled at herself and couldn't believe that the broken voice had been hers. "Kaji, help me. It's defiling my mind … it's ..."

The redhead felt ill. Like her mother's final days in the hospital, she remembered this all too well. How could that have been her? She had promised never to cry and never to need anyone, but that had all changed that day. If loosing her mother was a wound that would never heal, this invasion—this rape was an infection that had no cure.

She was reduced to her most basic, her most painful. Deep beneath the haughty and harsh exterior, they was how she really was.

The figure kept on crying. Tears of anger, hate and desperation reddened her cheeks.

Then a new voice. "You promised. You promised never to cry. You promised never to need anyone."

The real Asuka shook her head desperately. "No! I don't need anyone!"

"You won't even hold me," her own voice whispered back. The night of their kiss, the first kiss of her young, lonely life, she had wanted so badly for him to hold her. That he hadn't made her sick; made her realize that she was a vile and hateful harridan—it was the only explanation. She was so plainly desperate and hurt and needed him, and yet he had just ...

She couldn't help it. "I don't need …"

"Thank you … for caring." Those words made her stop and gasp. "Promise that you'll never hurt me."

Asuka couldn't take it anymore, burying her face in her hand and struggling with the urge to cry again, her body hunched over. She felt pathetic, sad, sick to her heart. It wasn't like she had asked for him to care. It wasn't like she wanted to care about him. It had just happened, and it wasn't her fault.

The voice began streaming through her mind. "Why won't you look at me?" it called in an angry tone she so often heard coming from herself. "Look at me!"

"Asuka, don't look at that girl," another voice warned.

Overwhelmed, the German girl cried, her face still hidden, "I am your daughter!"

"I hate you, too!" a third voice, horrifyingly like Shinji's, said. "And I hope you die!"

Asuka lifted her eyes and from between her fingers saw the boy standing in front of her. His face was blank and his eyes were empty. "Are you stupid?" her voice said, though his lips were moving.

Although she had used that insult a thousand times, it hit her like a ton of bricks. Did she really sound that cruel? That hateful? "Shinji..."

"I hope you die," the voice repeated.

Then Asuka heard her own voice again. "How does it feel when you pilot your Eva?"

"It's … empty," the redhead mumbled, almost incoherently.

"Mama, look at me!"

Asuka heard a new voice screaming from behind her—the voice of her youth, the voice she had outgrown on her way to becoming a woman. She slowly turned and as soon as her brain processed the image her eyes widened with horror.

And she saw herself hanging from the noose, like the doll had only moments before. Her body was limp as it swung there, her feet slowly oscillating from side to side with a gentle, pendulum-like motion. It was wearing the red plug-suit, which made it look as if she were covered with blood.

"Look at me!" the voice shrieked, even louder than before.

Asuka didn't. She fell on her knees and allowed her head to sink between her shoulders. "No!" she cried, fear and hopelessness seeping into her mind. "No, no, no, no ..."

The hanging girl opened her eyes and was immediately replaced with the doll. "Why won't you look at me?"

It was then that Asuka felt the hands reaching for her. Dozens of them. Grabbing at her body. In a sudden flurry of desperation she did all she could to fight them, but was overwhelmed. They pinned her down, grasping her head, her hair, her arms, her legs, holding her open. They were all around her, like mad ghosts, pulling her downwards so that she couldn't move.

Asuka was terrified. Frantically, she struggled to tear herself free, to run away, but it was useless. She yelled and the words made no sense. She cursed and it did her no good. All her strength, her pride, hopes and dreams—all hopeless.

"Look at me!"

And then Asuka stopped struggling and she just screamed as the noose was wrapped around her neck.

Asuka's eyes flew wide open in an instant. She kicked away her covers and leaped out of bed, quickly reaching for her night lamp and flicked it on. The darkness dissolved immediately, giving way to the familiar surroundings of her bedroom.

The redhead looked frenetically around for any signs of the nightmare. Every shadow made her anxious, appearing to reach out to grab her like the hands had done. Her breathing was badly labored, her heart feeling as though it were about to burst out of her chest. She was covered in sweat. Her clothes stuck to her like wet paper, only adding to her general feeling of discomfort.

Worse, the effects of the ibuprofen she'd taken before going to bed had worn off and she now felt as though someone was punching her low in the stomach. It was this that finally pushed the last remnants on her nightmare out of her head. Nightmares couldn't hurt her, but her period …

It was never this bad. Normally the cramps would go away after a day or so and leave her alone. Not like this. The vomiting was not normal either. Some times she would be nauseous, but nothing this strong.

Grimacing and clutching herself in pain, Asuka laid down on her side, drawing in her legs. "What's wrong with me?"

---

Keiko stumbled out of her room half asleep and clumsily made her way to the bathroom. She knew the way by heart so she had no problem navigating in the darkness. The second she turned the bathroom lights on the flash of light hurt her eyes. She hated having to get up in the middle of the night to use the toilet, but the alternative would be rather unpleasant and embarrassing.

The brunette didn't dwell too much on it, and decided that she might as well accept the fact that it would be nearly impossible to will herself back to sleep anyway.

She took care of her business, washed her hands and shut the light. But as she made her way back to her room, something broke through the mist that clouded her mind and urged her to get back to bed as soon as possible.

She heard voices coming from the kitchen and frowned. Was he still here? What was Miko thinking?

Silently, she moved towards the kitchen and stopped just a few inches away from the door. A sliver of light pierced the darkness at the spot where the wood-like division failed to meet its frame.

Nakayima's voice was the first one she was able to make out. "I think that what bothers you is the fact that she's doesn't look happy," he said. "Maybe she is and just doesn't show it."

Keiko gently slid the door open just another inch, enough to allow her to peer into the kitchen.

"I dunno." Miko's voice trembled as she spoke "What's it matter? I made her do it."

She was drunk, that much Keiko could tell. The blonde girl was sitting up on the kitchen table, with her legs folded underneath her and with a bottle of some kind of liquor on her lap—she had clearly moved on from the sake onto something else. Her face was flushed red, her shoulders wobbly.

"It's not like you forced her," Nakayima, who was standing by the sink with a cup of something on his right hand, said. He might have been drunk as well, but it was harder to tell. "She chose to do it out of her own free will."

"I am responsible for her happiness, aren't I? It's my fault that she is not happy," Miko said, shaking her head. "It's my fault."

Keiko was taken aback by that statement. She had never blamed Miko, nor ever intended to. The decision to pilot the Eva, though very much influenced by her discussion with the older girl, was hers alone. She would stand by it, as any responsible person would.

"Don't say that," Nakayima replied. "It's not your fault."

"How stupid was it of me to think I could take care of a child, when I'm just a child myself? I'm just … I'm just a failure."

"You did a good thing."

Miko closed her eyes, swaying so precariously she might fall off the table. "She could have gone to a nice family. She could have been happy, but.... I was too afraid of being alone. I had to keep her by my side. I had to be selfish."

Keiko felt guilty. She couldn't believe that she was the cause of so much of Miko's pain. She had always been grateful that she decided to take her in and spare her the horrors of foster care. And Miko was someone she was fond of ever since she was a little girl; they practically sisters. But now she was making her suffer. She wanted to slide the door open and speak to her, to say she shouldn't blame herself for anything.

But slowly, a darker feeling began to surface.

What if Miko didn't want to be with her anymore?

Before she became an Eva pilot such a thing would be unthinkable. But people changed—what else could explain her mother leaving her or Asuka's more tolerant attitude lately? Friends fell out of favor; families became estranged. What was to keep Miko from changing her mind about her?

"I should have let her go."

Keiko dropped her head. She stood motionless on that same spot, tears now silently streaming silently down her face. She moved back and closed the door, doing her best to stay hidden.

"Why don't you talk to her?" Nakayima said.

"And say what?" Miko hiccuped. "Sorry, it's not you it's me?"

But the voices from beyond the door were soon muffled by the sound of her own shaky, barely audible whisper. "Please … don't leave me."

---

The Lieutenant fixed her eyes on the image provided by one of the many cameras placed inside the entry-plug. Asuka's face looked troubled on the screen, and Maya wonder what could be bothering her. They had not yet given her any feedback, but the redhead seemed to know.

"Her synch-ratio has dropped three more points in the last hour," Hyuga reported grimly. "That's fifteen in total this week." He checked another of his consoles before carrying on.

"The synchrograph is shaky and I have a great deal of interference on her brain pattern's readouts. The system is picking up a 9.7 percent discrepancy between her current outline and her established parameter."

Maya sighed. She wouldn't tell Asuka about any of the abnormalities, as she had been told. It would prove way too risky and knowing the redhead's emotional condition she was sure that, for once, her orders were for the best. "What are the possible causes?"

She leaned over to Hyuga, looking at his screen. Although protocol dictated the chain of command, she was more than capable of making sense of all the data. Asuka's synchrograph was a mess, a squiggly red line jerking up and down followed by a second blue one that diverged slightly from the first at certain points.

The difference was barely noticeable, but it was there, an indication that something was not as it should be.

"Short of a total contamination of the system, which is impossible," Hyuga said, "we can't find anything wrong."

Maya nodded. Time to think like Dr. Akagi, she told herself. "If there were contamination in the system, what is the most likely cause?"

Hyouga swayed the question in his mind for almost a full minute before answering.

"Given our past experiences, I would think it's the pilot, the Eva itself or a combination of both," he finally said. "It's strange, though. If it were, in fact, some kind of contamination, we should be able to pick something up on our readings. But there is nothing." He placed a finger on the blue line tracing it along the screen. "This shouldn't be here. Interference can't form a pattern like this. It follows her neural pattern and then it diverges."

"Like there's two mind inside the Eva," Maya said, her eyes following the same line. "Thinking the same thing?"

"Which is theoretically possible," Hyuga said. "We did have two pilots inside Unit-02 that one time coming from Germany. But," he checked the screen showing the redhead's face again, "obviously she's all alone in there."

Maya straightened. She remembered it well—on the trip over to deliver Unit-02 the UN convoy had been attacked by a fish-like Angel. Shinji and Asuka had activated Unit-02 and fought together. They both broke their synch records. "And even in that case the thought patterns were distinct. We could match each of them individually to the pilots."

"Right. Two pilots, two minds, two distinct patterns. Nothing like this. Regulations dictate that we classify the divergence as a system error. However, we have overhauled the entire system and the readings are still flawed."

Maya took her eyes off the screen and permitted her gaze to lock on Hyuga. "I hope it's not the pilot," she declared somberly. "What about the components inside the Eva?"

"We switched out the entry-plug," he said. "That should eliminate any hardware problems on that side. Unfortunately we still don't understand how it is that Unit-02 began working again in the first place so no core components can be altered without running the risk of damaging the system."

At the rate that Asuka's synch-ratio was dropping that might not be a problem much longer. Once below the starting indicator there wouldn't be much they could do to make things worse.

But Maya was not willing to let it come to that. "I'll see if I can get Doctor Akagi to let us look at the code."

---

His day had been uneventful, so much so that Shinji had spent most of it waiting for something to happen— for some great catastrophe to fall from the sky or bad news of some sort. He had gone to school by himself, since Asuka had decided that she would sleep in on account of not feeling very well. He also knew she had a synch test scheduled today, which she would be unlike to miss.

Confident that she would at least leave the apartment and thus not be alone all day, he decided to let her be.

Most of the class time he spent wishing he were somewhere else. And later he had shared a nice lunch with Rei, whom he regretted not being able to spend more time with. Rei had not seemed to mind, yet he had still felt obligated to apologize for his distance lately.

Her recovery from the injuries suffered during the attack was nothing short of miraculous, as far as he was concerned. And despite his increasingly closer relationship with Asuka, he was glad they could share a moment by themselves.

The contrast was stunning—with Asuka he was always walking on eggshells, having to watch what he said and worry about her reaction, but he was so much at ease with Rei. She was a good listener. More importantly, she was completely accepting and understanding. It didn't matter the subject, he could talk to Rei. That there was a time when he had actively shunned her seemed to belong to another life.

Being her usual taciturn self, it was a rather one-sided conversation. It wasn't until five minutes in that he realized he'd been talking about Asuka. Other girls might have taken offense, but not Rei. She seemed to understand that the redhead was now a major influence in his life, and in a more positive way than before. But, strangely, it was more comfortable simply because Asuka wasn't there.

Shinji had spent so much time together with her that it felt like they were married. That was not to say Shinji didn't relish the moments they shared with one another, just that some times being apart could be good too. And he looked forward to being back with Asuka, too, an indication—in his mind at least—that he was not seeking to escape the tensions with her through Rei. Asuka, he knew, would have probably had a fit.

Even now Shinji was aware that one day he would have to deal with that. How could someone have two close friends when one of them couldn't stand the other? He doubted whether Asuka truly hated Rei, but she could hardly stand to be around her.

After lunch the rest of the school day had gone by in a flash. Having been exempted from clean-up duty by Hikari, the Third Child had gotten home early and made dinner, which he shared with Asuka as usual. She didn't comment on her test so he decided that he shouldn't ask.

They went their separate ways after dinner. Asuka locked herself in her room and Shinji started on his homework. More than a few times, he felt like asking his redheaded roommate for help on the more complex physics problems, but opted against it. Evidently, Asuka was in a bad mood and likely still sick. It wouldn't do any good to bother her about something as trivial as physics.

They didn't see each other for the rest of the evening. After finishing his homework and watching some TV, Shinji went into his room and turned on his S-DAT.

He had already lost track of time as he lay on his bed, resting on his side. The darkness enveloped him in much the same way as the musical notes from his earphones. Sleep slowly presented itself, and he closed his eyes and immersed his senses into the arpeggios of a cello solo. Slowly, very slowly, he drifted off.

It was a dreamless sleep, and the next thing he remembered was a noise outside his door. By then the music had ran its course. Though awake again he turned on his side and pretended to be snoozing.

Then Shinji heard the door being opened, then muffled footsteps, and the door again as it was slid shut. In the darkness, the footsteps drew closer and he felt the side of the bed sinking.

"Shinji?" Her voice surprised him.

He thought he was dreaming. He had to be for Asuka to have come in his room in the middle of the night. He'd had dreams like this before. The next she would do was was put a hand down the front of his pants and start to … followed by her mouth …

But when he did feel her hand it was on his shoulder. "Hey, Shinji, are you awake?"

There was a part of him that wanted to ignore her, hoping she would do what she always did in his dream, but as he rolled the words in his head he picked up on something that was never in the dream before.

"Y-yes," he replied as he rolled over to Asuka, who indeed sat on the edge of his bed. He could barely see her in the darkness, but the tone of her voice was awkward. Also not like in his dream, her hair was tousled and he thought he could smell sweat.

And then, like a bucket of cold water, it hit him—he was an idiot and this was no dream. She was really there in his room. And here he was, hoping she would— "A-Asuka?" he sat bolt upright, his sheets falling away. "W-what-what are you doing here?"

Asuka sighed heavily. "I … was wondering if I could … spend the night here."

"I ..." Shinji's eyes grew wider. Again he thought he was surely dreaming, but the next words shattered that illusion.

"Don't look at me like that, you pervert," Asuka growled, realizing what he was thinking. "I don't mean sleep like that. I just want to sleep."

Shinji blinked a few times as his brain struggled to fully comprehend what was going on. Was she messing with him? No, not even Asuka would do something like this in the middle of the night for her amusement. "W-what's wrong with your bed?" he asked dumbly.

"Nothing, stupid," Asuka scoffed. "I had a nightmare and … I just want to stay here for a bit, alright?"

Her voice was weird and shaky, both qualities augmented by the fact that he seldom heard them coming from her. Like the echo in a cave, they sounded louder than the words themselves. She was scared—scared enough from whatever had been in her nightmare that it had driven her out of her room and into his.

At no point did Shinji consider sending her away. From his silence Asuka seemed to think that was exactly what he meant to do.

"Fine." She got up. "Forget I asked. In fact, forget this ever happened."

"N-no, don't leave," he said sheepishly and quickly added, "Just don't hog all the covers." He moved over, giving her some room and leaving no doubt as to his intentions. His bed was small, but it should be big enough for the both them. Barely.

"Let me warn you, Third Child, if you try any funny business, you won't live to see daylight," Asuka threatened as she crawled onto the bed and under the covers, which she swiftly pulled away from Shinji. "GIMME!"

"Hey!" he complained.

"Be quiet," Asuka retorted, rolling onto her side so that her back was to him and wrapping the covers around herself. "And turn around. I don't want you staring at me while I sleep. That's so creepy."

Shinji had once heard a joke about how German tourists were the nicest of all, except when they marched into your country with intentions to stay. He thought that was a somewhat amusing analogy, considering the situation. Asuka certainly made her presence felt as soon as she got into bed next to him and his body responded accordingly, stiffening a certain part of his anatomy.

Laying down on his side, he turned his back to her. He hoped she wouldn't notice or he would be nursing a black eye for the next few days.

"Shinji?"

Shinji almost jumped out of the bed, thinking he was caught. "W-what?" he managed to stutter a hesitantly.

"You don't think this is weird, do you?" she asked, her voice low.

Should he lie? Would she be put off by the fact that it was just about the weirdest thing he'd ever had happen in his bedroom? "Um, well, I ..."

"Do you remember that week we spent doing synchronization training?" she said. "You know, when we had to do everything the same and wear those stupid outfits? I know it was a pain, but those were some of the best nights of my life. I guess after all that training I was just that tired. Or just because I'd just moved in and it was a new place and all. But it felt so good, you know."

Shinji agreed, but for different reasons. Freshly moved in from Germany, Asuka had dedicated every waking moment to teasing him mercilessly. Having her go to sleep was great, no matter where or when.

"Yeah, I remember," he muttered vaguely. "I also remember you sleepwalk."

"No I don't," she shifted slightly, her movement carried over to him through the mattress. "You were dreaming."

Shinji felt the pleasant rubble of laughter in his stomach. "Maybe I'm dreaming now."

"Maybe you are. This whole thing could be a dream and you are really stuck in your Eva again. Or maybe you are really just some dull schoolboy dreaming he's an elite pilot with a hot roommate. If that's the case, then could you at least dream me with a bigger rack?"

"You ... really think they are too small?" he asked, strangely without a much reservation.

Asuka shoved an elbow against his back, nudging him, but not hard enough to hurt. Instead of yelling at him, she said, "What do you think?"

Again, the answer came naturally, fearlessly. He felt comfortable talking to her like this. Their relationship so far had been defined by outbursts of emotions, confusing and some times with heart-wrenching consequences. This was a nice change. "I like you just the way you are."

"Idiot. What do you know anyway."

Despite her smarmy reply, his answer seemed to settle something in her head, and she fell silent.

---

It took Asuka a few more minutes to settle down. Although she still felt uncomfortable with this arrangement, she really didn't want to be alone right now. Being next to Shinji, warm and safe in his bed, and their short but sincere conversation had already done a lot to soothe her frayed nerves.

The nightmare had been the worse so far. She had seen herself covered in blood and it made her feel utterly sick. The images had been so vivid, so lifelike that had she not awakened on that instant, the redhead swore she would have lost her mind. She was strong, but there was only so much abuse her subconscious could take.

So she had made the decision to come to Shinji. She was desperate and with all that had happened between them she felt she could trust him for comfort, even if it meant asking him for something when she would rather not. She could imagine the things that must have gone through his head as she told him she wanted to spend the night. He must have thought it was his most perverted fantasy come true.

That bothered her, but it was nothing to worry about. Shinji was not like other men. She could trust him.

As it was, they ended up lying facing away from each other, touching in places despite their best efforts. Shinji was practically shoved into the wall, yet Asuka could feel the small of his back pressing against hers. She controlled most of the cover, squirming and struggling to find her ideal comfort spot.

Asuka had always hated Japanese beds: they were too damn small. And this one, being only designed for one occupant, was particularly uncomfortable for her.

Still, she would rather stay here this than go back to her room.

---

Shinji was not having any luck finding the peaceful rest that came with sleep. He could hear her body rustling against the bed sheets and feel her movements, her shapely bare legs shuffling about, even brushing absently on his, her hips shifting, her body nuzzling against the mattress. But after a while she became motionless.

"Asuka?" The Third Child gently called out, suddenly feeling apprehensive.

There was no reply, only the eerie silence of his room.

"Asuka?" Shinji rolled over and sat up again, letting what few parts of the covers he had somehow kept hold of fall away from him for good. He looked over at Asuka. It was then that the image of the redhead's body fully struck him.

There was hardly any light in the room, but he could clearly distinguish her slender contour under thin sheets that barely managed to cover down to her knees, leaving her exposed from the top of her calves to the tip of her toes. Though she had her back to him, he could still see the profile her sharp features made in contrast to the white pillow on which her head rested, amidst an ocean of red locks.

She looked so peaceful now, so far away from everything, and yet she was lying right here next to him. And so close, in fact, that he could smell the perfumed scent of her hair, along with the clean, familiar essence of her musk. And he could most certainly feel her heat.

Asuka's mouth moved gently, a soft moan escaping her parted lips.

She was already asleep, whatever nightmare had brought her here now forgotten. He was glad he could do that for her, but at the same time not sure what having her on his bed meant for them. Were they still just friends? Did this make them a couple? Or did it mean nothing at all?

He laid down and found himself facing the wall, so close that the slightest movement would send him crashing nose first into it. Groaning, he turned over, only to get a face full of Asuka's hair. It was just everywhere. He couldn't sleep like this. Asuka had already taken most of the bed, he might as well let her have the rest.

Shinji sighed and slowly inched off the mattress so as not to wake her. Taking his pillow with him, he worked his way around the foot of the bed and finally climbed out of it.

Then, looking her over one last time, he lay down on the floor. "Sorry, Asuka."

---

Misato stepped off the small personnel elevator and onto the command deck with a purpose. "What is it?" she demanded, dismissing the worried glances of everyone else in the room.

"I think you can take a guess," Ritsuko replied, waving her hand at the huge tactical display that took up most of the room's forward section. "Bad news."

The display showed an image of the outside world, blue morning sky and mountain slopes. Misato could also see a dark blot, hovering there in the air as if suspended by an invisible string. Though at first she thought it was an image glitch, the feeling on the pit of her stomach told her she already knew what it was.

"Have the MAGI confirmed anything?" the Major asked, unable to tear her eyes away from the Angel's dark image.

"No," came the reply from Hyuga, "The pattern keeps changing, just like the last time. We have forgone the confirmation and have already declared this the 19th Angel."

Misato narrowed her eyes as something odd struck her. "Where's this image from?"

"Sector 8," Ritsuko replied coolly.

Misato gave her a shocked look, though she hoped not a distressed one. "But ... that's inside the defense perimeter."

"Correct," Ritsuko said. "And if it hadn't been for the boys in 10th Mountain getting up so early we wouldn't have even seen it coming until it was right on top of us."

"What do you mean?"

"The IFR sensors didn't pick up anything, the MADs didn't either. Even now, according to radar and sonar, this thing doesn't exist. It's not there. The only confirmation we have is the visual feed."

Misato allowed her eyes to move away from the doctor and back to the Angel's image. She noticed that her first impression had been mistaken; it was not blot, there was simply nothing there. "That's impossible. It's got to be a malfunction."

"On the contrary, it's quite possible," Ritsuko explained. "We saw a similar thing with one of the previous Angels, remember? It still must have a core. When it comes to the Angels, that is an invariable law of our universe. We just need to find somehow."

"The question is, how?"

"There is only one force in our universe capable of creating this kind of phenomena. Gravity," Ritsuko continued. "For it to absorb light like this it must have one a huge gravitational pull. Since gravity requires mass and density, it's quite possible that its total mass, although minuscule, has a super-high density. I took that into consideration and managed to pinpoint a gravity anomaly somewhere inside its spectrum. Aoba?"

Aoba hit a few buttons on his console and a red circle appeared around the blot. There was a tag next to the circle, showing numbers.

"Our sensors and tracking devices are not set up to detect gravity. I've ordered the technicians to re-calibrate them to allow us to track this. There is a very scientific explanation for what we are seeing, though. As you probably know, black holes suck matter towards it because it's a void of such high density that its gravity traps even light. This is a very similar thing. We are seeing a black shadow because the light that comes near it cannot escape it."

Misato thought about that. Astrophysics was one of her worse subjects in college, when she could be bothered to go to class. "Then shouldn't it be sucking everything towards itself? Which it's not."

Ritsuko seemed to have been expecting her question. "It must have a counter-force to keep itself in a state of balance with the universe around it. All CPT symmetry theories dictate that for every particle in the universe there is a counter-particle, and I believe it's using something similar. It's an Angel, so there still has to be a meta-biological element involved, but if it's using gravity it must also be doing something else to keep from collapsing on itself."

There were a few confused faces among the staff. Misato understood what she meant, even though she could have done without the long-winded lecture. "So, is there any way we can tip the balance?"

Ritsuko nodded. "Energy. And lots of it. A sudden burst might upset the balance and disrupt the symmetry, causing a chain reaction."

Misato pondered on that piece of information, but before she could say anything, Hyuga raised his head. "Major," he called. "We have a priority call from Kyoto."

"Put it on the screen," she ordered.

A small box opened on the main screen, on the upper left-hand corner, showing Gendo Ikari's stern face. Misato saluted. "Sir?"

"You may dispense with the pleasantries, Major," Ikari said brusquely. "I have been informed of the situation. Declare a Level One alert. Unfortunately for us, all air traffic has been grounded at this time. It will be a few hours before we can make it back. You will have to act at your discretion and conduct this operation on your own. I look forward to a full report upon my arrival."

"Yes, sir." The Major nodded.

Ikari signed off without another word.

Right, Misato thought. It was up to her now. She turned to Hyuga. "Bring in the children." Then to Ritsuko. "How much energy are we talking about?"

---

The phone pierced the quiet morning air. Shinji slowly opened his eyes, blinking several times to clear his vision and remembering how much he hated the shrieking sound of the the ringer. It always brought bad news.

Sluggishly, he tried to sit but barely managed to get up on his elbows when something stopped him. He felt a strange weight around his waist. At first he thought he'd become entangled on the covers, but then recalled that didn't have any. The familiar morning stiffness was there also. That wasn't it either.

In the half-asleep condition he found himself, the Third Child turned to look down at what the weight was.

The phone kept ringing, louder it seemed to his sleep-logged brain.

Shinji froze as soon as he realized what was holding him down. It was an arm.

He followed the arm to its owner and realized she was lying right next to him on the floor, her head nuzzled against his flank and all he could really see was a mane of golden-red hair shimmering in the morning light.

Golden-red, just like—

Shinji sat up abruptly, causing Asuka's limb to slide down from his waist and onto his lap. Had he not been sure that the German girl was asleep he would have freaked out, since her hand ended up in just the wrong place, right on top of the bulge of his erection.

His heartbeat spiked into a deafening drum in a matter of seconds and stuck in his throat. His body tensed like a board, every muscle suddenly clenched in panic. Asuka's hand wriggled in his lap, fingers grasping unconsciously.

Time seemed to stop. His whole existence shrunk down to this moment, and on how important it was to stay perfectly still. Should Asuka awake to find herself doing this she would find a way to blame him, and then she would proceed to beat the hell out of him. Answering the phone would be the least of his concerns.

His heart was pounding so loudly he could not even hear the phone ringing anymore.

After giving himself a moment to think, Shinji decided to move away very, very slowly. It almost worked, because the second Asuka's lips began to move and her body stirred, he jumped to his feet and went for the phone, hoping that the girl would never know what had just happened.

The Third Child didn't realize it at the time, but he had been holding his breath all along.

---

"You want me to do what?" Asuka's dismay echoed across the briefing room. She looked at her hand, then gave Misato a glare that would have scared the devil. "Are you insane?"

Misato shook her head, but the sympathetic look on her face told Shinji she understood why Asuka would refuse the dangerous assignment she was just given. He wasn't sure he liked it very much either.

"This is the only plan that we can come up with at the moment," Misato explained. She sounded unconvinced. With her arms folded loosely across her chest, she looked defensive. But then, Shinji knew fully that she would be reluctant to place any of them in danger unless she believed it was absolutely necessary.

True to her apparently prominent position in this mission, Asuka stood in the center of the briefing room, flanked by Shinji and Keiko on either side. They were all clad in their plugsuits—a triad of red, blue-white, and yellow.

Though he wasn't the most perceptive sort, even Shinji could sense the air was loaded; tension and fear coming from Keiko, concern from Misato, red-hot outrage from Asuka. Neither the brunette nor himself had said anything as Misato laid out her plan, but the unabashed redhead spoke what they both felt.

Asuka let out an annoyed groan. "A plan?" she protested. "A plan! Smashing myself against that thing carrying and N2 mine is not my idea of a plan! Why don't you just bomb it!"

"We need to get through its AT Field." Ritsuko took a step towards the redhead. "It's a lot safer than it sounds, actually. You will have your AT Field fully deployed in order to neutralize the Angel's so the explosion from the mine won't hurt you."

Asuka set her gloved hands on her hips. "What if the mine hits the AT Field before it goes down? Then what?"

"We have removed the impact detonators from the mine and wired it to a gravity fuse," Ritsuko explained patiently. "Impact will not set the mine off, the Angel's gravitational pull on it will."

"Taking me out in the process!" the redhead retorted.

Ritsuko gave her a frown. "Your AT Field will protect you. I don't see what the big deal is. Rei did something like this once. She was not even ordered to."

Shinji saw the expression on the Asuka's face change at once. Immediately, he resented Ritsuko playing to her overwhelming bravado in such a shameless way. But like it or not, he understood that this had to be done. He would much prefer it if it was him going out there instead. Somehow, the idea that he would only be standing by was as bad as Asuka carrying a bomb with her bare hands.

He fought the urge to step in, to volunteer. Unit-01 was in stasis, but if he said something then maybe Asuka ...

"Fine," Asuka finally agreed, pointing at finger at Misato. "I'll do it, but I want you to remember this the next time I ask for a favor. And I don't want you to nag me about chores again. Ever."

It was then that Shinji spoke. "What about me?"

Misato locked eyes with him, and he saw in them concern and yet determination. "Like I said, you will be inside Unit-01 as back-up. The Commander wants it to stay in stasis for the moment."

Shinji felt a cold lump on his throat. "But," he hesitated, "I want to be out there with Asuka. Please."

"We can't risk it," Ritsuko interjected.

"But..."

"Shinji, no."

Defeated, Shinji looked over to Asuka, to let her know he was sorry he couldn't help her. The thought of her being by herself turned his stomach. But when the redhead looked back at him she flashed a grin that was all confidence, bordering on arrogance. Her eyes shone brightly—she was ready to do what she needed to do.

He admired her. He was proud of her. Nobody could do this like Asuka; he would be a mass of nerves in her place. Yet there she was, smiling, sharing her certainty with him.

Shinji smiled shyly back, convinced she would be fine.

"Keiko," Misato called, causing the brunette's body to stiffen with fear. "You will support Asuka."

Keiko blinked once as her eyes slowly filled with horror. "S-support?" she faltered, her voice a shaky, terrified whisper. "What do you mean?"

"Support," Misato said, not sternly but also not talking down to her. "You'll be out there providing fire support for Asuka. You are not to engage in close-quarters combat unless absolutely necessary."

The brunette's throat quivered as she swallowed with difficulty. "I-I … understand."

Asuka snarled. "This is stupid. The crybaby will probably wet herself as soon as that thing starts coming towards her."

"Asuka!" Misato barked.

"Give me a break! I'm about to do something incredibly stupid that you dare call 'a plan', so get off my back."

Ritsuko agreed, understandably so since she had already gotten what she wanted out of Asuka. She gave Misato a shake of the head, indicating this was not a fight they should get into right now.

Shinji had never liked the way Asuka acted towards Keiko, but the redhead's harsh personality made such treatment a given. Even his relationship with her had only just moved beyond it—not to mention barely survived it. But while Asuka was making fun of her, it was also clear that much of the poison was missing, as though she felt she needed to save face by putting the other girl down in front of others but not really mean it.

The Major gave Asuka a reassuring smile, their uneasy exchange forgotten. "Be careful," she offered and with that she and the doctor made their way out of the briefing room.

Shinji was the first of the three children to speak, turning to the redhead next to him. "Asuka ..."

Asuka cut him short with a swipe of her hand. "I'll be fine," she said. "We've had stupid plans before. And I feel better. Really."

He did his best to agree. "I know. I-I still wish I could go out there with you."

"It's not your fault," Asuka replied. "Someone has to be the back up in case I get blasted."

The Third Child shook his head, unable to even think of that possibility. "Don't say that. You are … you are the best. And besides you ..."

Asuka gave him a cynical look. "Right, I know."

Shinji was about to say something else—to finish that sentence with the words "you are important to me," but Keiko interrupted before he got the chance.

"We are in a lot of trouble, aren't we?" the young brunette said, fear creeping into her words. Her body language was cowed. She fidgeted with her hands, plainly scared.

The Second Child shrugged dismissively. "We always are, now it's just slightly worse."

"It'll be alright," Shinji reassured her, though feeling like he himself could use some reassuring. "Asuka will look after you." He turned his head to the German girl. "Won't you?"

For a second, Asuka looked like she wanted to slap him. "Yeah, because I enjoy being dragged down by dead weight." Then her manner changed, becoming more serious. "Of course I will. I know how things like this upset you."

"Thank you," Shinji said.

"Thank you," Keiko repeated, her fear lifted slightly.

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable."

---

"The target is still holding steady," Hyuga communicated over the main tactical frequency. "No hostile activity detected."

Asuka nodded and moved out from behind one of the buildings on Tokyo-3's south site. She carefully traced the route that would take her behind the Angel. Or, since there was really no telling, at least to the opposite side of where Unit-08 stood as decoy.

It had been Misato's idea to use the crybaby to get the Angel's attention, while Asuka closed in on it from behind—well, from the opposite side. The redhead would have rather taken the vanguard, but she had to admit that this idea made much more sense, tactically speaking. Divide and conquer.

It only took her few minutes to reach her mark. She checked the small map of the city displayed on her main HUD. The Angel was now directly between her and Unit-08, but it did not appear to be going anywhere. It was just sitting there. Asuka cradled the N2 mine she carried, pressing it against her torso, and could not avoid thinking about how stupid this whole thing was.

She tried recalling the mine's specifications in her head—how many tons of explosives? What was the delay? How far was the effective range?

Then she heard someone's voice over the communicator. "Open fire."

The order was immediately followed by a stream of fire from Unit-08's rifle. Asuka peaked around the edge of the building she was using for cover and saw the projectiles tracing a gentle arc in the air as they approached the target. They were all on target butthe projectiles seemed to sail right through it to smash on the ground, leaving deep gashes on the street.

Asuka focused on the dark monstrosity that was the Angel. It looked like nothing she had seen before and its dark spectrum seemed to just suck the light out of the air. She knew it was supposed to have a core somewhere, but from here she couldn't see a thing.

Whatever. N2 mine goes boom. No more core.

A second stream of fire poured from Unit-08's rifle, and again, they sailed through the target without even an AT Field to oppose them.

"I'm in position," Asuka announced. "Tell the crybaby to stop shooting or she'll get me."

"We are ready," Misato replied over the radio. "Begin your countdown."

Asuka tightened her grip on the control sticks and allowed a fierce snarl to form on her features. She held the cylindrical N2 device with one hand now, at arm's length, like a quarterback getting ready to hand off a football. She had gone over the scenario a half-dozen times already. She would rush at the Angel, AT Field fully deployed, and shove the N2 mine as close to the Angel as the gravity trigger would let her before detonation.

What would happen after that was anyone's guess. But she wasn't afraid. This was her duty. And she knew she would see Shinji again. "Screw that, I'm going out there!"

Unit-02 sprung from its static position with a thunderous roar, spreading its AT Field as it went. It pivoted on its right foot and sprinted towards the Angel with long, powerful strides, making the street crack under it, covering most of the distance between itself and the dark entity in seconds.

The red Evangelion held the mine with an arm stretched forward, keeping the explosiveas far away from any vital organ as it could. Asuka could feel the ground shaking under her feet, the adrenaline rushing, the sheer intoxication of the charge. The distance closed awfully fast and Asuka braced herself for the explosion that was soon to follow, but just as she did, something stopped her. Dead in her tracks.

Like a wall, a huge octagonal-shaped AT Field stretched before her, sharp red lines emanating from a luminescent center.

"You bastard!" Asuka cursed and brought all of her strength to bear on the AT Field, while focusing entirely on increasing her own. She could feel the titanic forces around her fighting, rippling in the air. Teeth and muscles clenched, she strained to force the mine through, but still the AT Field held it at bay.

Asuka pushed with all her fury. She pushed and pushed and ...

And then the AT Fields disappeared.

Asuka barely had time to register what happened next. Without the AT Field to oppose her, her strength and momentum sent her and Unit-02 plummeting forward. She managed to catch herself with a stiff-arm maneuver against the ground, and quickly darted back to her feet. She was still moving forward. But as she tried to raise her AT Field, one thought hit her.

When the Angel's AT Field collapsed, it took hers along with it and she lacked the strength to produce another one fast enough. No AT Field meant no defenses.

"Asuka!" Misato yelled over the comm. "Get out!"

The redhead narrowed her eyes and focused on the Angel, only a few dozen yards away now. Its dark spectrum eclipsed the sunlight as it towered over her. "What are you talking about? I'm fine," she said, looking down at the mine on Unit-02's hand.

She gasped. The mine.

Asuka froze and she realized just how close she was to the Angel as she felt something begin tugging at her. She blinked slowly, unbelieving. Then her electric blue eyes began to grow wide. Something was pulling her towards the Angel's dark mass.

Gravity!

Asuka dropped the mine and sprang back. A split second later a bright light enveloped the horizon. Asuka averted her eyes as the ground around her shook. The sound of thunder filled the entry-plug. And then it was as though her left arm were being ripped out of its socket as Unit-02's arm disintegrated.

Clutching her shoulder, Asuka screamed.

Misato screamed with her. "Asuka!"

Another split second and there was no longer any pain as the Second Child's world went dark.

---

Feeling a desperate coldness wrapping around her heart, Misato leaned over Hyuga's station. "What's Asuka's status?" she demanded.

"She's alive," Hyuga replied. "Unconscious. Massive damage to her right arm and right side, but the entry-plug remains undamaged."

Misato nodded with a certain degree of relief. Asuka was hurt, but it wasn't as bad as she'd originally feared. And this time, unlike the previous battle, she had made sure Shinji was locked out of the communications. It had pained her to do it. Now she was glad she had.

Aoba called from his console. "Major, I have a huge gravitational anomaly on my scanners."

Misato glanced up towards the gigantic main screen and saw, horrified, what was going on outside. It was as if someone had opened a hole into the fabric of the universe and now everything within range was being sucked into that hole, making a spiral as it went.

In a matter of seconds, the black spectrum that had made up the Angel condensed into a solid sphere.

A perfect sphere, Misato thought. And as assorted things smashed against it and were assimilated into its crust, she noticed that its diameter increased. It absorbed matter, changing to become part of itself.

"Is this..." Misato couldn't find a way to finish the sentence. All of the bridge was plunged into silence as the images struck home. She could see the fear in their faces.

And then, just as it had started, it stopped and only the sphere was left, hovering calmly and quietly over the cityscape.

"The gravitational anomaly is gone," Aoba reported.

"This is its true form, isn't it?" Misato asked of Ritsuko, who was now standing on Hyuga's other side.

Ritsuko nodded. "Looks like it."

"The bastard knew we would try to intercept it," Misato whispered, finally able to fully grasp the implications of her words. "It baited us."

"Impossible. It doesn't think like that," Ritsuko replied, casting an incredulous glance at the Major. The concern she saw in those dark eyes almost had physical form. "It is not a predator. It doesn't --"

She was interrupted by Keiko's scream.

---

Something burst out of the sphere and shot towards her. Keiko failed to realize what was going on until it was too late. The thing, which looked like some the kind of black tentacle wrapped itself around Unit-08's torso. Her torso.

Frantically, Keiko tried to get it off of her but it held on tight. She felt it squeezing her, pinning her to the plug's command seat. As she struggled, the thing looped around her Eva, catching its right arm at the elbow and trapping in painfully against its body.

Keiko shrieked as the futility of her fight began to sink in. More out of sheer terror than anything else, she kept struggling. "Asuka! Help me!"

A voice came to her but she couldn't recognize it. "Keiko, your unit is equipped with a progressive knife. Use it to cut yourself loose."

But Keiko was beyond rational thought, and her plight was merely fueled by the primitive instinct to survive. She was hurting, her pretty face locked into a grotesque mask of pain. The tentacle, or whatever it was, squeezed with such force that she thought her ribs would crack. Soon, she was desperate for breath, and with a firm tug, Unit-08 was brought to its knees.

"Asuka ..." She was exhausted, gasping desperately for air. She knew she couldn't fight this thing, but the idea that she was about to die seemed childish.

The voice came again. "Keiko, don't panic!"

Where was Asuka? Why wasn't she helping? Why had she left her?

Keiko desperately gasped for air. She shook her head and thrashed about in her seat, as if to force the thing to release her, but it held on even tighter. She planted her feet on her console, and used all the leverage she could muster to tear herself free, but it was in vain.

"Keiko, you can make it!" the voice of encouragement was lost on her.

It was useless.

Asuka wasn't coming.

She was alone.

The girl allowed the tears to run, tickling her cheeks as they went, and shut her eyes. Convinced that she was going to die, she gave herself to the Angel's mercy. Keiko whimpered quietly as she felt Unit-08 being lifted into the air.

---

No one on the Control Room spoke a word. They watched as the Angel's whip-like appendage tossed Unit-08 in the air and yanked it towards its spherical body. It was a surreal scene, almost too incredible to believe. The Angel had overpowered the Eva, and was now playing around with it.

Misato was the first to gather her thoughts. "We need to do something."

"No kidding," Ritsuko replied next to her. "Any ideas?"

The Major shook her head. "You'll be the second one to know." She stared at one the nearest screen as Unit-08 crashed against the Angel again with such force that she wondered if the Evangelion would break in half. She had to do something. The question was, what?

"Major," Hyuga called. "The Angel's energy pattern is changing."

Ritsuko beat Misato to the reply. "It could be that even this is not its final form."

Then, as if on cue to the doctor's words, the sphere's crust began to crack. To Misato it resembled a planet fracturing under the force of a nearby star. The sphere was not big, its diameter was barely wide enough to be equal to the distance between the Evangelion's shoulders, but she didn't know what kind of damage it would do if it exploded. She noticed something on the image.

The Angel's whip was holding the Eva by its torso, pressing its side just under the left clavicle against the sphere's circumference, where she could tell the crack on its crust had originated.

It couldn't be because of the impact, she though. She focused harder, and noticed that there was some kind of liquid escaping from the spot where the cracks had originated.

But Ritsuko already knew then what the Angel was going to do, and she took the words right out of Misato's mouth. "It's going to attempt contact. It wants the pilot."

The image flickered as the zoom was engaged. There, Misato saw it—as the dark liquid came into contact with Unit-08's armor, it began eating through it. It was as if the liquid had a life of its own. The substance expanded over the Eva's armor like a cancer, blackening it as it went.

"It's gone through the armor plates!" Hyuga yelled. "First level contact is imminent!"

"Get her out of there!" the Major ordered. "Eject the entry-plug!"

"We can't," Ritsuko said. "Mass Production units were never meant to have human pilots. Since the Dummy can be overridden by remote. There's simply no need for an ejection system."

Misato stared at her. "God, Ritsuko."

"We have physical contamination in the system!" Aoba reported. "It's going over the safety parameters."

"We have lost all contact with the pilot," Hyuga said. "All telemetry is gone as well. I've got nothing."

With a thunderous roar, the cracks on the sphere's crust began to expand, until they covered all of it, like grotesque coordinates in a map, and from each one of them, more liquid came pouring out. Misato noticed that the whip was actually pushing the Eva inside of the shattered sphere, as if it were trying to devour it.

"Major," Hyuga called again. "The Angel … it's ..." he struggled to find the words. "I don't know."

Misato blinked. "What?"

The sphere came crashing towards the ground, dragging Unit-08 with it. It smashed against the street below and started to melt, as did the whip, which was still wrapped around the besieged Evangelion.

"It's going to take over the Eva!" Ritsuko said, as what had been the Angel turned into a pond of dark fluid, and began adhering itself to Unit-08. Soon, the white Eva unit was engulfed into a blackened heap as every part of its body came into contact with the Angel's blood.

"Massive physical contamination on all circuits!" Aoba reported. "Connections 23 to 745 are gone. The Neural Nodes have been invaded!"

"All systems are collapsing," Hyuga yelled, and displayed Unit-08's diagram on the main screen. It showed a static view of the Evangelion, and divided it section-by-section. The contaminated sections were tainted red and the non-contaminated ones in black, which at this point were only the ones on the right upper body and the section set immediately above the core.

Misato felt a knot forming in her stomach. Eighty percent of the Evangelion had been taken over in a few seconds.

"Sever all physical and logical links between the pilot and the Eva!" Ritsuko ordered. "Isolate the main nervous--"

"Main nervous system has been invaded up to the 3rd vertebrae," Aoba replied. "Isolating lymphatic system. Isolation has failed!"

"Terminate neural links!" that from Ritsuko again. "Keep the physical contamination away from the pilot."

"Neural links have been overridden!" came the frantic reply. "We … we are being locked out of the system!"

Then came the report Misato feared the most. "The entry-plug is being invaded!"

She was somewhat glad that the Angel had severed all communications, both visual and sound, between them and the pilot. She didn't think she would be able to take the image of what must be going on inside the entry-plug.

"The plug is gone," Aoba reported, his voice barely a shocked whisper. "I … am not reading anything. The Neural Link is still in place, but there is not much I can do with that."

Misato swallowed hard. "What about Asuka?"

"Nothing," Hyuga replied. "But Unit-02 still has power so she still technically has a chance. We could try defibrillating the LCL. Low voltage stimulus might--"

"In that condition it's just as likely to stop her heart." Misato turned to Ritsuko. "Get Unit-01 out of stasis."

"You don't have the authority."

The Major snarled. "Screw the authority. Haruna," she said, turning to the female operator. "Where the hell is Maya? Tell her to get Unit-01 ready for combat."

"Ma'am, Lieutenant Ibuki has not reported in this morning."

Ritsuko gave her a harsh look, but before she could say anything Hyuga's alarmed voice echoed from his console. "Major, I have contamination detected on input port three-four-seven."

Misato narrowed her eyes. Information was coming hard and fast, and she was doing her best to keep up. "What's Input port 347?"

"It's part of the communication's array," Ritsuko answered. "It's not a critical system. In fact, it's the port connected to the pilot's output signal from the A-10 frequency, but ..." the doctor caught herself right there, her face turned pale.

Misato felt her eyes widening. She understood. "Terminate the signal!"

"I can't," Hyuga replied. "Contamination in ports 348, 349,350,351 and 352 detected!"

Ritsuko found herself screaming as she began to realize what the Angel was now doing. "It's cramming itself into our network using the pilot's interface with the Eva as a portal. That's why we didn't have communications. It's trying to use Unit-08's communication package to access us!"

---

It started in the small of her back and moved up, burning as it went. Rei cried out in pain, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. She stumbled, suddenly unable to coordinate her movements, and she fell to the floor.

Above her, the two Section 2 bodyguards left behind by Commander Ikari to guard her looked at each other in distress. "Miss Ayanami?" one of them called. "Are you alright?"

They knelt besides her. But Rei could not see them, she could not feel them or hear them. All that existed in the world was this pain. Not her pain.

Somebody else. Somebody else was suffering. Someone she knew and yet didn't know, whose life had been intertwined with her in the deepest way possible.

But Rei had no life—she was a ghost. She went to school, she slept, she ate, but Gendo Ikari had seen to it that she was apart. She barely saw or spoke to anyone. She existed only because he needed her to exist. It was misery, like waiting to die, trapped in a cell. She longed for company; even the Second would be a relief, even to be yelled at.

And then, the day before, Shinji had talked to her again. It was wonderful.

In some way she didn't understand, Rei knew this pain was connected to that feeling. It was human pain, crying for help, agony beyond her ability to describe.

Rei focused inwards. She could feel the sensations washing over her and reached out to touch them. Pain was the dominant one, then fear, regret, shame and the desire to die. They mixed together into something she could not distinguish, but could not ignore either. They tugged at the edge of her consciousness, slowly plunging her deeper into a state of semi-awareness.

And then something else. She had felt it before, when she had come into contact with the 18th Angel. Not human.

But then, before she could dwell on this new, alien sensation, the First Child heard the voice at the back of her mind. It pleaded for help again. She could hear it breaking down, and calling out to someone.

"Who are you?" Rei asked without asking.

"Help me! Please, help me!"

The feelings began to solidify, taking shape, making words in her head: Eva, entry-plug, abandoned, death.

These were the pilot's thoughts, Rei knew. "How can I help you?"

"Please, it hurts!"

---

"All clusters on Sector 178 have fallen!" Haruna cried. "The firewall won't be able to hold this at bay."

Ritsuko nodded, leaning over her shoulder. "Activate all countermeasures in the nearby sectors," she ordered. "I want this thing contained before it can get to MAGI."

"Containment engaged," Hyuga announced. "Terminating all logical links to the corrupted sectors."

"Sector 179 has fallen!" Haruna said.

"Containment engaged for Sector 179!"

"Sector 180 has fallen!"

"Engage containment procedures on all Sectors from 000 to 200!" Ritsuko ordered, turning to Misato. "This is not going to work. It's running over the entire array, so it doesn't matter what we contain, it uses the array to load itself into a different sector. Once it goes past Sector 255, the only thing keeping it out of the MAGI will be the firewall."

"Sector 207 has fallen," Haruna cried.

Misato mulled over that piece of information but couldn't think of anything to do. "You are the computer genius, Ri-chan," she said. "What do we do?"

"When you have a virus running on a network, you isolate all the infected nodes on the network before the virus has a chance to spread. The problem here is that the virus has access to everything in this section that's linked to the communication's array. Viruses are self-replicating entities; this is not. All of its information comes from a single source: the Angel in Unit-08."

"If we could only terminate all the links between the Eva and us," Misato said. "Then it wouldn't be able to go anywhere."

Ritsuko shook her head. "It's overrun all the protocols, so we can't terminate the links."

"There has to be a way," Misato said. "It's using a damn wireless frequency. Half of the time, my cell-phone doesn't even work."

Ritsuko's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "That's it!" she beamed, and shot Misato a smile. "We don't have to terminate the link, all we have to do is interrupt it!"

"And just how do we do that?" Misato gave her a puzzled look.

"Electro magnetic pulse. That interrupts all communication signals, at best, for the length of the pulse. An N2 mine would buy us at least six seconds on which the entire array would be down, meaning that we could use the MAGI to take over the Input ports and close them. We scramble the protocols and lock the Angel out."

Misato blinked once, as all the information was processed in her brain, and nodded. "All right. Hyuga, call the air force."

---

Asuka blinked her eyes open and the first thing she felt was the throbbing pain on the side of her head, followed by nausea. She tried to reach to and rub the sore spot, but her left arm, the one that had carried the N2 mine was numb. One quick look at the outside confirmed that Unit-02 was missing that very same arm. Asuka snarled. She began to feel the blood running down the side of her forehead, from just under her hairline.

Her stomach hurt too. Her lower abdomen felt like a solid brick. She was probably bleeding inside her plugsuit.

Somehow, she pushed the pain away and managed to bring Unit-02 to a sitting position. Solid spikes of agony shot through her. She wanted to vomit. She was groggy, as if she had just woken up from a dream, and every part of her body that she could think of hurt.

"M-Misato?" No reply came. "Hey ... anybody there?"

Before she could start rationalizing any possible scenarios, a sound caught her attention. Asuka looked up, and in the sky she saw a single UN bomber flying a path that took it directly over the fallen Unit-08. The redhead focused her gaze on the darkened heap of metal, armor, flesh and dark stuff that had once being a Mass Produced Eva Unit.

She felt her stomach turn.

And yet it left strangely pleasing. That little bitch had teased her to tears, hadn't her? Taken something close to her and thrown it in her face. In front of everyone. She should hate her.

She did hate her.

The thought surprised and horrified Asuka at the same time. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. She brushed long locks of golden-red hair out of her face with her good hand. Blood was getting into her left eye. She could hardly see. It stung.

Then, in her pain and sickness another feeling began to blossom inside her, in her head. Something coming to life with hatred and anger, and she didn't understand it. It seemed so natural, like hunger or drowsiness. An instinct she was born with. She was the Second Child, wasn't she? Proud. Haughty. Unstoppable. Yet she hated everything about herself. It was time to turn that hate outward, to make someone else feel the way she always felt. Maybe then she could hate herself less.

The words appeared on her mind's eye.

She hurt you. She made Shinji see you cry. She deserves to die.

Asuka felt a gentle tickling sensation running down her left arm, from her shoulder to the tip of her fingers. The numbness disappeared. She bared her teeth and allowed a grin to spread across her features as she realized that Unit-02's severed arm had just regenerated.

And that feeling …

Kill her.

---

"Sector 249 has fallen!" Haruna cried.

There was no reply to that. All of the people present in the room stared at the picture on the main screen. They saw the small cylindrical object falling from the sky, and right on top of the corrupted Unit-08. The device went off, igniting a bright, unnatural sun in the middle of the street. The screens flickered as the EMP shock wave hit them.

As soon as it did, Ritsuko issued her orders. "Go! Engage containment procedures on all sectors. Engage the safety feedback protocol!"

"Sector 250 secured. Sector 249 secured!"

"Input port 352 secured!" Hyuga announced. "Ports 351, 350, 349, 348 secured!"

"Scramble the access protocols for all the ports!" Ritsuko commanded.

"Port 347 secured!" Hyuga yelled, excitement building on his voice.

"All access protocols have been secured!" Aoba cried, cracking a smile. "The Angel is cut off from our system."

The image on the main screen began to clear as the dust and particles lifted by the N2 mine's explosion started to clear. And then they saw it. Unit-08 picked itself up from among the ruins in the crater the bomb had just made. But it wasn't Unit-08 anymore.

It bellowed like an angry god, and spread its wings.

Misato did not hesitate to give the order she knew was her last hope. "Bring Unit-01 out of stasis."

The reply was not what she expected. "Major," Hyuga called. "Unit-02's readings, they … " the operator shook his head, his face aghast. "Everything's off the scale."

And then Misato's eyes flew wide open as she saw Unit-02 smashing itself headlong against Unit-08. "Asuka!"

"But just barely," Hyuga said, looking back at Misato. "Her thought pattern is 78.4% unidentifiable. It must be an error."

"Get me a channel," the Major ordered. "Now!"

"Can't. All the communications are down. We are cut off from her."

At that moment Ritsuko stepped in. "Route it through one of the internal ports and relay it to one of the surveillance stations. Give them the protocols so they can contact her from there."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

---

On Asuka's command, Unit-02 caught the corrupted Unit-08 squarely on its midsection.

The white Evangelion offered little resistance as it was pounded head-first into the ground. The earth shattered and cracked under the force of the impact. It bellowed angrily as Unit-02 wrapped its hands around its neck and, extricating it from the shattered terrain, tossed it through the air in the opposite direction.

Asuka groaned with the physical effort it took to handle the Mass Production Eva in such a way, but her most savage instincts had already taken over. She thought of nothing else. Nothing else mattered. Only the words inside her head.

Kill her.

A fierce grin embraced Asuka's face. She watched in morbid delight as Unit-08 landed hard on its head again, rolling into its back, crushing building into a cloud of powered dust. She wasted no time pressing the attack.

The Second Child engaged the spike gun located on her Eva's shoulder pylons, which split open to reveal the nasty weapon. By the time Unit-08 was bringing itself to its feet, Asuka had positioned herself to the left, a clear shot.

A storm of long, metal spikes rained on Unit-08's body, from its navel to the base of its neck. Blood flowed and splashed through the air like a geyser, gushing from the many deep wounds and the spiked penetrated armor and flesh. It screamed, stumbling backwards. Asuka frowned when she realized that the Eva did not fall.

Not thinking, not feeling, not hurting, she engaged the second set of spikes from the opposite shoulder and fired.

Kill her!

The second wave of hard steel caught Unit-08 between the chest plate and its snout, bursting it as a single spike buried itself through the roof of its mouth. The Eva made a gentle arch backwards as it toppled to the ground, spurting blood as it went in rivers. The spikes protruded from it as if on a porcupine, a surreal sculpture of destruction.

It was still moving. Still attempting to fight. To come after her and crush her unless she acted first.

KILL HER!

Asuka was on top of the downed Eva as soon as it hit the ground. She took hold of one of the spikes from its chest and pulled it loose, sending an arch of blood flying through the air, and used it to stab her prey, viciously, repeatedly. The armor gave way, shattered and broken, the flesh underneath puncturing.

But something deep inside of her called for more.

The Second Child clutched what was left of Unit-08's armor and began tearing it off, like a hungry wolf picking clean a corpse. That was what she was, a red-haired Teutonic wolf. Not a victim. Not a girl who cried, or felt lonely or needed other people. She was a wolf, and wolves were merciless. She had to be as well.

Blood gushed out from the wounds, forming a lake of red on the ground. Bones cracked under the assault. In a moment of absolute rage, Asuka yanked at Unit-08's arm with all her might, tearing it free from the body with the sickening sound of ripping flesh, and stomped on its head, bursting it like a watermelon in a fountain of blood and tissue and gore.

It was still moving, almost pathetically now. Asuka brought down her teeth and bit into its neck and ripped out its throat. Blood bubbled from the gash; it made a noise that sounded like a whimper.

Then it stopped.

And Asuka stopped.

The radio crackled. "Asuka!" Misato yelled. "Stop! The neural link is still enabled! You are ..."

The Second Child looked down at herself, and saw Unit-02 towering atop a bloodied pulp of rendered flesh and armor, and was itself covered in its prey's blood. With eyes opened wide, blue orbs shaking uncontrollably, she stared at her gloved hands, frozen into claws.

Asuka saw her Eva's hands, blood smeared all over them. Blood everywhere.

And the images from her nightmares struck her. But this time it was real. This time she could not escape into her waking life, or into Shinji's room. The nightmare was all around her. It was in her rage, her hatred, her blood, her soul, her mind.

"Oh God ..." Her breathing quickened, becoming shallower and shallower. Her heart beat so fast and so hard it felt like a jackhammer inside her chest. "Oh G—"

She clamped her hands over her mouth and the sickness took over.

---

To be continued...