Advice and Trust

Chapter 6

The Storm Breaks

"Is the patient in Room 12 ready? Her guests are here."

"You mean that young girl from the first Angel attack? She's been here quite a while, hasn't she?"

"Well, she did have a rather complex injury. Quite a difficult case."

"Hard for a girl that young. She's still just an elementary school student!"

"That boy's come again to see her, and he's brought along a girl this time."

"He never misses a visit. Twice a week, like clockwork. He's a very good brother, to be thinking of his sister so much."

"You're right. Responsible young men like that are so rare these days. And he and that girl make such a cute couple."

The nurses' voices were only minor background noise to Touji. He wasn't really paying attention. Most of his focus was on the petite brunette with him. He and Hikari were in public. As a couple! He was trying not to blush again. The entire trip here from their neighborhood he'd gone red every time he looked at the girl standing next to him on the train. "Thanks for comin' with me again, Hikari. It means a lot to me."

Hikari smiled. She was already cheerful from her first triumph of the day; getting Touji to call her by first name. She'd thrown on her Class Rep persona and confidently declared it was silly for them to be so formal, still calling each other 'Suzuhara-san' and 'Horaki-san' when they'd literally known each other for years and were now dating. She'd needed her forceful in-school persona for that; when she'd first tried it in the mirror at home the night before, she'd dissolved into mumbles and flushes at the audacity of such an intimate request. "It's nothing, T- t- Touji! She's a sweet girl, and I'm glad to visit her with you."

"She likes you too, I think." He scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure what she meant by 'you have my blessing', though. Blessing what?"

Hikari went incandescent. "I... I'm... I'm sure it was nothing!" she squeaked. "Hahaha! That Sakura, such a joker! Talking like she's the head of the family or something!"

"Well, dad and I usually let her run rings around us anyhow,so she might as well be in charge. She's totally got dad wrapped around her finger. I can't say 'no' to her either. She's just too cute." He smiled at her. "I bet you've got your dad under your control, too, you and your sisters."

"Well, maybe a little. I just do all the cooking because I'm the best at it. It's not like I've taken over the house. I'm just playing mom."

Touji looked a little sad at the reminder. "I wish I could have met your mom. She sounds like she was really nice."

"Yours too," Hikari replied. Their hands sought each other out and they intertwined their fingers. Finding out they had that in common had been an emotional date. They'd ended up closer than ever, though, so Touji couldn't feel totally bad about it

Hikari impulsively pulled him into a hug. "I'm glad we're here, Touji. I've wanted to date you for months."

He awkwardly returned the hug, still embarrassed about doing it in public. "Me too. Good thing Shinji and the others asked us to help fend off all his admirers interfering with their training, huh?" He laughed. "And we're doing better than Shinji and Asuka are! Man, those two really need to stop pretending they can't stand each other and just go out or somethin'. The whole class can see Asuka's declared him her property."

Hikari giggled. "I know! When I asked her about Ikari-kun a few weeks ago, she called him a 'baka' every other sentence, but I can still tell she thinks he's cute. We should talk to them, try to get Ikari-kun to ask her out. I bet she'd go for it, and I know they'd be so cute together!"

Touji snorted. "The Red Demon has poor Shin-man too scared of her. Those two are about as likely to hook up as Kensuke and Ayanami-san. He came up to me last week babbling something about how she'd just run up and hugged him, then run off again. And something about her flashing him earlier, too. Crazy, huh?"

Hikari laughed. "Really? He says Ayanami-san is the Hugging Bandit now? What's next, he's going to tell everyone he's an Eva Pilot too?"

.

The endless air shafts of Central Dogma crawled slowly past as the conveyor belt transported Commander Ikari and Rei across the huge pit. Rei stared blandly at his back with the ease of long practice. Eventually, he broke the silence, but still didn't bother to turn and look at her. "Rei, are things satisfactory?"

Rei pondered the question briefly. It was not uncommon for Commander Ikari to ask her about her condition in general terms. It was something he asked semi-regularly, and Rei had always answered in the affirmative with hardly any thought in the past. She had never felt the need to complain about it before. Indeed, she'd felt very little at all.

But not this time. In the immediate sense, she was fine. She was not hungry, tired, thirsty, or in any other minor physical need. She could feel the nausea, dizziness, headaches, and general malaise that her weaning off the drugs was still plaguing her with, but knew that was not what Commander Ikari was asking about, and very much not what she should tell him, particularly if she wanted to keep going on said weaning, which she still did.

"Yes, sir. Everything is fine."

No, it was not. She had never felt the need to conceal her reaction before. Not from Commander Ikari. But for the first time, Rei was glad she was behind him, and he had not bothered looking her in the face since he had ordered her to fall in after him as he walked.

Things were not fine. She was feeling sick, uncertain, confused, and adrift. She was very, very much missing her friends, and wanted more hugs. A lot more. Her experiment yesterday with her friends had been far more powerful than she'd even been able to articulate to them at the time. Pilot So-... Asuka had seemed to be totally distracted by her disclosure that she was aware of the clandestine relationship between her fellow Pilots, with Shinji little better. They'd separated for the night slightly early, all of them to consider how the evening's revelations.

The conclusions Rei had reached in the solitude of her new apartment was that she had really, really enjoyed the hugs and did not like being alone anymore. The need to be near her friends was like an acute hunger now. When Gendo had summoned her to the depths of the Geofront this time for her regular monthly neural scan and upload, the fact she'd have to spend the next day and a half down here had caused something not unlike a small panic attack. So no, everything was very much not fine.

"I will be with Doctor Akagi tomorrow, and back to school the day after that," she continued.

The quarterly upload-scan of her mind, done to ensure if she was killed in action before the end of the Commander's Scenario that she could be replaced with a new clone with her memories written in to it. She used to mildly enjoy the floating sensation of being in the LCL-filled tube for hours, and getting plenty of attention from the Commander. Now... she had so many questions for him, questions she somehow knew were dangerous to even pose lest they give away her changes.

'Why have you had Doctor Akagi drugging my so heavily? Why did it take the accidental intervention of someone who hated me as a 'doll' before that changed? Why does the Scenario require the erasure of the happiness of my friends? Is there no other way? I do not want to hurt them.'

' Why have you never hugged me? Why did I have to discover what that felt like by myself, with my friends? Why did I live in a hovel? Do you not care?'

"I see. And how is school?" Gendo continued, unaware of Rei's unusually intent stare.

'Where I see my friends. Where I learn through my own experiments. Where I wish to be right now.'

"No problems, sir."

"Very good."

.

"Oh, Ayanami is absent again, as usual? Hmm... Aida too? Noted," their elderly sensei mumbled into the class roll book.

Asuka shook her head in disbelief. They'd noted Rei's absence as soon as they left this morning, unaccompanied by the bluenette for the first time in weeks. Now that Rei had revealed she knew about their relationship, Asuka had been only too happy to have the chance to walk to school holding Shinji's hand again. But it had been odd that Rei hadn't mentioned she'd be gone the night before. And now Aida was out too? Try as she might, the idea of Rei and Kensuke ditching school together to do... who knows what was too strange yet possible for Asuka to dismiss as casually as she would have two months ago. Asuka shot Shinji a look. "You don't suppose..." she whispered to him.

Shinji had a matching look of incredulous confusion. "I... no way. That's just too... hang on." He turned in his seat to look back at Touji a few rows behind him. "Hey, Touji. What's up with Kensuke?"

"New Yokosuka, I think. Following battleships or stuff, as usual. I think he said the 'Myoko' is in port or somethin', and he wanted to go see it."

"Suzuhara!" the sensei barked at the lounging teen.

Touji snapped upright. "S-sir!"

"Take these printouts to Ayanami's house later. Now, Koike-sensei is absent, so Modern Japanese will be self-study..." He droned on as always.

Touji frowned. "'Ey, Shinji, can you take them, since she lives next door to you now?"

"Sure." Shinji met Asuka's look again. If Rei wasn't sneaking off to 'experiment' with Kensuke some more, where was she?

.

Everyone stared at the huge screen built into the floor of the conference area. A direct overhead satellite shot of NERV-02 in Nevada filled the screen, the field of view extending more than a dozen kilometers on either side of the desert compound's perimeter. Lieutenant Ibuki's voice counted down on a precise rhythm. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... contact."

NERV-02 became a glowing red hotspot, then white, then the display dissolved into static as the flare from the event burned out the satellite's sensor.

Misato touched the cross pendant she wore around her neck. "Terrible. Total losses?"

Maya consulted her clipboard. "Evangelion Unit-04, and all the installations within 89 kilometers perfectly vanished."

"Including several thousand people," Ritsuko added.

Lieutenant Aoba spoke up. "According to the MAGI schedule, this matches up with the installation and test activation of the salvaged S2 Engine repaired in Germany."

"Possible causes of the explosion range from a flaw in the preliminary design to material quality failure to unpredicted high-energy fluctuations in the activation procedure. Total possibilities; 32, 768."

"Sabotage?" Misato asked.

"It wasn't an explosion, it was a vanishing," Lieutenant Hygua pointed out.

"Probably swallowed in a Dirac Sea, just like Unit-02 was," Ritsuko opined.

Misato grimaced. "Then the S2 Engine they just repaired..."

"Vanished, along with our dream of freeing the Evas from their batteries and cables," Ritsuko finished.

Misato looked at the three Lieutenants. "Continue monitoring. I want a full summary report ready by the end of the day. Doctor Akagi, follow me please."

Ristuko fell in behind her, but Misato said nothing further until they were well out of the room and descending one of Central Dogma's seemingly endless escalators. "What are the Americans doing with Unit-03, then?"

"They're sending it to us," Ritsuko said. "The US administration doesn't want to risk losing First Branch in Boston, too."

Misato harrumphed unhappily. "They obstinately insisted on the right to build Units -03 and -04, and now they can't get rid of them fast enough?"

"After a tragedy like that, anyone would get nervous," Ritsuko shrugged.

"Then who do we use for the activation test? The Dummy Plug system?"

Ritsuko shivered. "I'll pick someone."

.

Ritsuko stared at her latest technological achievement and suppressed a shudder. The ten meter long outer casing of the prototype Dummy Plug had not been made blood red by accident, she decided. It was a warning.

"This is the prototype Dummy Plug, Commander. Rei's personality has been replicated in its programming as closely as the MAGI and I could manage, but... the human mind, the human spirit is not truly digitizable. This nothing but a fake, a false copy that imitates the Pilot's thinking. I... have have concerns about how the Evas might act if this is all that is controlling them."

Gendo stared at the prototype as coldly and impassively as he did at everything. "This transmits a signal pattern to the Eva. The Eva considers it like a Pilot is in it and synchronizes with this. As long as the Eva activates, that's all we need." HE gave her the briefest glance. "Install the data on Units-01 and -02."

"This still has a number of problems. The behavior models are too unpredictable..."

"I don't care. As long as the Eva moves, it will be fine."

'Watch the footage of Unit-02 tearing its way out of Leliel, screaming and covered in blood, howling to Unit-01 and Unit-01 answering, and tell me everything will be fine. Those things scare the Hell out of me, Gendo! And you want to put them on a leash as loose as the Dummy Plugs? Are we really in control of the Evas?' "Understood, sir."

.

"The UN is handling the transportation of Unit-03. It will arrive this weekend. You will have everything ready for receiving it and the activation test by then?" Commander Ikari said, his eyes forward. He stared fixedly at the LCL-filled tube containing an unclothed Rei Ayanami. Ritsuko again, for what had to be the one thousandth time, tried to tell herself Gendo was staring at the clone, the tool, and not at the naked girl. She knew the jealousy was irrational, and unfitting of a rational woman of science like herself.

"Yes. The final adjustment and activation test will be done at Matsushiro."

"Who is the test Pilot?"

"The Dummy Plug is too dangerous for a test." Ritsuko briefly looked at her notes. "Rei's Synch Rate is up 6% overall, 3% since the last test alone. Shinji is up 4.2%. Asuka is up 4.5%. Given these results, I think we should proceed according to the selection template we discussed last week. The top one out of our present candidate pool under that criteria will be..." she began.

"Selected as the Fourth Child?"

"Yes. There are a couple top candidates whose Cores we can prepare immediately."

Gendo nodded minutely. "I leave the final selection to you. The Fourth is a useful addition, but not critical."

"Understood."

Gendo smiled, a small and odd thing on his perpetually stony face. "Rei, we are done now."

Rei opened her eyes in the tube and smiled faintly back. "Yes."

"Let's go eat."

"Yes."

Neither of them noticed the way Ritsuko's eye narrowed dangerously at the back of Gendo's head.

.

Misato knocked on the doorframe of Ritsuko's office. "I'm here. You were looking for me?"

Ritsuko did not even look up from the computer screen, fingers flying over the keyboard, typing faster than Misato could even read. "Yes. I've cancelled the order requiring Rei spend all her time in the company of the Second and Third Children. I'm concerned she's getting too comfortable with only working as a group. Despite the Synch Rate rises, I don't want her to become so adjusted to the idea of a group action that she can't act independently anymore."

'Since when have you ever cared about Rei acting independently, Rits? I saw that apartment you stuck her in. What the Hell, woman?' Misato forced a chuckle. "You can cancel the order, but I think she'll keep doing it anyhow. She, Shinji, and Asuka have all become pretty close. Well, close for Rei being her usual self, and Shinji and Asuka constantly sniping at each other, anyway."

Ritsuko quietly ground her teeth. She pressed on with more important matters. "We'll be doing the activation test for Unit-03 at the Matsushiro facility on Sunday. You'll be escorting the Pilot, so you'll have to come overnight with the crew and leave your two behind for the evening."

"I suppose I can trust Shinji and Asuka to look after themselves for one night," Misato said.

Ritsuko gave her a droll look. "You are aware Asuka has that contraceptive implant now, yes? You're going to leave a teenage boy and girl along together, their hormones firing at full power? You're amazingly trusting, Major Katsuragi."

Misato snorted. "Those two? They're still butting heads, refusing to admit they like each other. IT's like watching the first half of a romantic comedy. They won't even kiss, much less do anything that requires that implant do its duty."

"Sounds like another couple I remember. Then they spent a week doing nothing but 'admit they like each other', " Ritsuko said with a small smirk.

Misato stuck her tongue out at her. "Fine, I suppose I can ask Kaji to stay over and keep an eye on them. I've been looking for excuses to get him to come over."

Ritsuko eyed her again. "What happened to 'I'm totally done with him and over it!', hmm?"

Misato rolled her eyes. "It's just a bit of flirting and some free drinks on his tab. Watching Shinji and Asuka dance around each other reminded me of the good parts of the old days, too, you know. Plus, watching Kaji try to fend of Asuka's attempts to 'woo' him is hilarious. Hey, if you're not going to need Shinji and Asuka, who's the Pilot for the activation test? Rei?"

"We'll use the Fourth Child as the test Pilot."

Misato blinked and straightened up from the filing cabinet she'd been leaning against. "The... Fourth? The Fourth Child has been found?"

"Yesterday."

Misato raised an eyebrow. "I haven't received any report from the Marduk Institute."

"The official paperwork will arrive tomorrow," Ritsuko continued smoothly.

Misato's eyes narrowed at her friend's casual tone. "Doctor Akagi, are you keeping secrets from me again?"

"No, not at all." Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

Misato visibly decided not to press the issue. "Fine. Who is it?"

Ritsuko clicked a few times on her mouse and pointed at the screen.

Misato blinked. "What? Really? This is the Fourth Child?"

Ritsuko shrugged. "Couldn't be helped. All the candidates were collected in one place and are being protected that way."

"Wait, so... all the kids in their class are potential Pilots?" Misato rubbed at her head. "This is going to be hard to tell the others. Rei will accept whatever we tell her, I guess. Nothing about Evas or NERV matters ever seems to bother her. But Asuka... Shinji... I don't want this to upset them anymore."

Ritsuko coolly went back to her typing. "We need Children like this, in order for us all to survive. They'll deal with it or they won't."

Misato half-glared at her. "Your compassion is heartwarming, Doctor! I'm the one who has to tell them about this!"

.

"Attention: The transformation of the Third Area and the prototype weapons test will begin as scheduled," the PA system announced to the occupants of the vending machine lounge. "Doctor Nishizawa of the 3rd Engineering Section, Doctor Nishizawa, please contact the 2nd Development Section immediately."

Kaji glanced at the speaker in the ceiling and sighed. "The complete armed intercept system is finally finished, and no celebration part is planned? NERV is such a strict and serious place!"

"Because Commander Ikari is a very serious man," Lieutenant Ibuki reminded him.

Kaji gave the slender young tech a cocky smile. "How about you? Do you like to go out for a few drinks and have a party now and then?" She slid up next to her on the bench, getting in quite close.

"Lieutenant Ibuki leaned away and blushed at the attention. "Are you sure you should be asking me that, Kaji-san? I'll tell Major Katsuragi and Akagi-sempai!"

"Not if your mouth is covered..." Kaji winked.

"Taking care of 'business', Inspector?" Misato asked archly, suddenly entering the room.

Lieutenant Ibuki squeaked and leapt off the bench. "I... I have work to do! Excuse me!" she sidled out as quickly as she could, her clipboard held protectively against her chest.

Misato's glare never left Kajis easy smile. "Not to get into your 'affairs', but could you try not seducing everything in a skirt around here while there's a war going on? And weren't you supposed to be taking me out of drinks Thursday night? I don't know if I should let you have the privilege now..."

He stretched lazily and stood up. "Not really your jurisdiction as Director of Operations, is it? That was just checking on MAGI security, really. Why, if someone seduced her, they might end up with sysadmin access to the system." He gave her his best sloppy grin. "And I thought we were going out together. IS it alright if I try seducing you, Katsuragi?"

Misato leaned her back against one of the coffee vending machines and coolly stared at him. "Gonna make you work for it, Kaji. And you're now taking me out. That means you're paying for everything." Her voice got more serious. "And it depends on how you answer my next question: what do you know about secrets like Adam down in Terminal Dogma and the Marduk Institute?"

Kaji casually swept his eyes around the vicinity, making sure they were alone. "Oh? What do I know?"

"Don't play dumb. Tell me."

Kaji faced her, his expression still light, though his voice matched her tone. "It's not your way to ask for help, usually."

"I don't care about 'my way'. I don't have the luxury of staying ignorant. They've oh-so-conveniently found the Fourth Child, right as we are being handed a new Eva. What's going on here?"

"I'll tell you one thing." Kaji abruptly moved in closer, placing one hand on the vending machine next to Misato's head and leaning in like he was going for a kiss. Misato let herself feel a pang of diapointment on that front when he halted inches away, but focused on her mission.

Kaji's expression was entirely serious now. "The Marduk Institute does not exist. It's nothing but NERV pulling the strings in a puppet show."

Misato narrowed her eyes. "Nothing but NERV? Commander Ikari?"

"Code 707. Investigate that."

"707? That... that's the address of Shinji's school!" She leaned forward herself, getting close enough she could feel his breath on her lips. "You are going to tell me a whole lot more Thursday night, Inspector..."

Kaji let his smile return. Misato had been letting him closer again, but this was a new step... "Oh dear. Are you going to force me to give up all my secrets, Katsuragi? Use your wiles on me until I'm putty in your hands?"

"In my hands, nothing turns to putty," Misato replied levelly. Her control almost cracked as she watched Kaji's eyebrows rise, intrigued. He leaned in...

"Misato-san? Are you in here?" Shinji asked, coming around the corner from the back hallway, Asuka right behind him.

"Ahem. Yes, what is it, Shinji-kun?"Misato asked from her seat on the bench. Kaji calmly took a long drink from his can of tea as he leaned against a vending machine a couple of meters away from Misato.

"Ritsuko-san was looking for you. She said you're supposed to be at the meeting for tomorrow's business trip?"

"Right, thank you." Misato gave Kaji a look that said they'd continue all of this later. "See you later, Inspector."

He gave her a barely perceptible nod. "Roger, roger."

Misato left without another look. Kaji put another easy smile on his face and looked at the two young Pilots. They way they stood together... His gaze focused. They were standing together. Their body language was totally different towards each other. They were moving in synch, like they were totally aware of each other's presence and moves without even looking. 'Looks like that synchronization training sure left a mark. But I wonder... Asuka's not all over me like usual. Let's test the waters.' "How about you, Shinji-kun? Want to go out with me for a cup of tea?"

Asuka gave him a shocked and amused look before exploding into laughter. Shinji gave him a flat look at the well-worn pickup line. "I'm a boy, Kaji-san." His eyes flickered to his side for an instant and a faint smile crossed his face. "And I prefer coffee."

Kaji laughed, but filed the reaction away for later consideration. "What are you two doing here together? Are you so fond of his company now, Asuka? Or did that synchronization training have more of an effect on you than I heard?"

Asuka stopped laughing and glared at Shinji for a moment before returning a bright-eyed and winsome look to him. "Not at all, Kaji-san! I'm not here because I like watching baka-Shinji wander around NERV headquarters. I'm only here because of official duties as an Eva Pilot! Wondergirl didn't come to class today or yesterday, and we're supposed to all be together as part of that team-building thing Doctor Akagi ordered. There's a Synch Test later, and we came in early to look for her ahead of it."

"And then he asks me out to tea," Shinji muttered, still looking a bit put out. "When I'm right here with... I mean, I thought you were a more serious adult, Kaji-san."

"My my, you sure don't hold back once you've gotten to know someone, do you, Shinji-kun?"

"Sorry," Shinji mumbled. Asuka lightly smacked the back of his head. "Hey!"

Asuka met his glare with one of her own. I'm supposed to remind you not to apologize for everything, remember?"

Kaji chuckled again. "I'm not upset, Shinji. I didn't mean to sound sarcastic. And since you've been so honest with me, I'll be honest with you. Let me show you both something nice." He walked towards the hallway Shinji had come down, gesturing for them to follow.

Shinji and Asuka looked at each other, shrugged in unison, and followed him.

.

"Kaji-san~! Why didn't you ever tell me you were a gardener? We could have been planting and growing things together in Germany!" Asuka whined as cutely as she could.

The tall inspector grinned, waving the watering can he held back and forth over the row of plants. "Don't you think it's cute? This is my hobby. Keep it a secret. It's my little escape. Making or growing something, raising it, is a wonderful thing. We see and learn many things through that, like what we enjoy."\

Shinji stood up from his examination of the watermelon vine at his feet. He looked around, slightly amazed that Kaji had somehow planted an entire garden plot next to this secluded small cabin, tucked away in a corner of the Geofront. "Does Misato-san know about this place, Kaji-san?"

Kaji shook his head. "No, it's still my little secret. I might bring her here for a romantic little picnic sometime soon, though. Doesn't that sound like a nice idea, Shinji-kun?"

A look something like wistfulness passed across Shinji's face. "Yes, it does." His expression clouded a bit. "It's... sad when you want to do something like that, but can't. Not being able to do something you'd like."

"Oh?" Kaji raised an eyebrow. "Have you found something you like, but can't have?"

"Not exactly," Shinji said.

"What about you, Asuka-chan? Have you found something that makes you happy?"

The redhead had studiously kept her back to them so far. She turned her head enough to give the boys a sparkling smile over her shoulder. "Oh, any time I get to spend with my darling Kaij-san is a pleasure!"

"You should bring Misat-san here and show her what you've been doing, Kaji-san," Shinji said unexpectedly. Kaji gave him a curious look. "You should never miss a chance to do something together with someone you care about. Missed chances like that are things you can never get back."

Kaji's eyebrows went higher. "Wise words from someone so young. Been on your mind, Shinji-kun?"

Shinji shrugged, digging his foot in the dirt. "I want Misato-san to be happy too. She's been very kind to me ever since I moved here, more than almost anyone else. And she talks about you, so..."

'Does she now? That's heartening.' Kaji's cell phone rang in his pocket before he could reply. He plucked it out and looked at the caller ID. "Speak of the beautiful devil, and she will call." He hit the accept call button. "Hello!"

"I left the Pilots with you, Kaji. Where did you put them?" Misato's voice asked.

"I've got them right here with me."

"Well, shuffle them up to the test area. Their Synch Test starts as soon as they get here."

"Roger, I'll have them on the way in a moment." He hung up and looked at the Pilots. "Time to test, Children."

Asuka shot a smug look at Shinji. "Time for me to beat your score once again, Third Child."

Shinji smirked right back at her. "Sure you will, Second Child. Bring it on."

'Well, at least Shinji's acting a bit more confident. Looks like having Asuka as a rival is good for him.' "Let's go, then." Kaji placed the watering can by the cabin and led the way back towards the NERV pyramid.

.

The test observation room was warm and humid as always. Misato plucked at her shirt, trying to fan cooler air into her sweaty skin. "This is supposed to be the most technologically advanced facility in the world. Can't we get decent air conditioning in here?"

Ritsuko tapped a few more commands into the console next to Lieutenant Ibuki, briefly resting her hand on her assistant's shoulder in approval of the smooth way she integrated the changed settings into the test records. "There's 800 million liters of LCL on the other side of that glass at 37C, Misato. You're not beating that kind of heat imbalance. And we have more important things to do than worry about making you comfy."

"Plug depth fixed at 3.2. LCL concentration nominal. Harmonics level is minus 1.2, 1.5, 1.6, 1.8... Present reading is 0.2. Level 3 data deleted, all others saved to Melchior," Maya recited without pause, though a smile worked its way onto her face at her sempai's approval.

Ritsuko pointed at the screen showing the three Children and their Synch Rates. "Look at this. All three of them up again. Shinji's caught up to Asuka again. Rei's gains have slowed since last month, but she's still up over 7.2% since we ordered the Children to work together. "

"So why are you lifting that order?" Misato asked.

Ritsuko kept her face calm. "I believe we are reaching the limits of what we can expect from that approach. All three of them have shown impressive gains over the last two months, but the rate of increase has slowed."

Misato cocked her head. Ritsuko was acting a little odd about it, too stiff. "It's still increasing pretty much every Test, though."

"Not Rei's. Her results have been an increase overall, yes, but the Test-to-Test readings are erratic. Less so lately, but six weeks ago she was up 8% one Test, down 7% the next, and so on. I want to change the approach now, and see if we get different results."

Misato shrugged. "Fine, you're the supposed scientific genius. They get along well enough I think they'll still hang out anyway." Misato's expression grew pensive. "It's not making it any easier to tell them about the Fourth Child. I don't want this news to disrupt things when they're going so well. This is their friend! How are they going to take it?"

Ritsuko shrugged this time. "They're going to send the official notification tomorrow, and the activation test cycle begins this weekend. One way or the other, they're going to learn soon."

Misato looked at the monitor again. Rei's expression was as blank as ever, but both Shinji and Asuka wore faint smiles. 'They look happy, Rits. How can I drop something like this on them and not have it bring them down?' Her face tightened. 'And just how long were you going to keep it from me that all their classmates are high-level Pilot candidates? From what Kaji's lead showed me, that's not an accident. Why would NERV hide that? "For their protection" sounds fake. Section 2 isn't even watching the students outside of the school itself, and they're only doing even that much because our active Pilots are there. Why the gigantic faรงade of the Marduk Institute? If the Marduk Institute isn't searching for the Pilots on some criteria, who does select the Pilots? The Second and Third Children just 'happening' to be the children of two of the designers is way too coincidental to have happened naturally. I know you're lying to me, Rits, and that tells me you know more than you're saying. There's just Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and Commander Ikari above you, so you've got to know things... And don't give me that 'need to know' bullshit. I'm the 4th ranking officer of NERV. What possible reason is there to conceal this kind of stuff from me?

Misato shook her head slightly. 'Who am I even talking to anymore? My old college friend I used to get hammered with, or the Director of Project E who never told me about the Angel she's keeping in the basement?'

.

Shinji spotted Kensuke sitting against the fence ringing the roof of the school as he stepped out onto the roof himself. He waved. "Hey, Kensuke! How was your trip to New Yokosuka?"

The spectacled teen waved back and hoisted his camera. "Absolutely great! I got some sweet shots of the new JMSSDF cruiser!" He looked around behind Shinji as his friend took a seat next to him and began to set out his lunch and a pair of others. "Hey, where are your two shadows? I haven't seen you without the Red Demon and Ayanami-san in tow for weeks."

Shinji smiled a little. "We aren't under orders to stick together at all times anymore. Rei and Asuka are downstairs trying to round up Touji and the Class Rep for lunch. I got sent up here ahead to grab us a nice spot and get things ready. Those two have been absent from class all morning. Any idea why?"

Kensuke shook his head. "Maybe he and the Class Rep decided to skip school together and elope?" he asked, only half joking. He'd never stopped moaning over how lovey-dovey the pair acted.

Shinji laughed. "Sure, that sounds likely. Next we'll hear Rei is going to headline the next school talent show with a cabaret act."

Kensuke looked nervous. "Um... actually, Shinji..."

"What?"

Checking if her underwear was attractive. Hugging. Holding his hand. And a few days ago, dragging him into an unused classroom for five minutes of 'cuddling baselines'.

Shinji stared at his friend. "Wut."

"I'm not joking!" Kensuke exclaimed. "And... and... and... I have no freaking idea what's going on! She never explains anything! She just 'requests my assistance in another experiment'! What is she doing? Are we... dating? Friends with 'experimental' benefits?" He looked at Shinji in utter confusion.

"I... I honestly have no idea, Kensuke. We may have been spending a lot of time with her in the last two months, but she is still as mysterious to me as how to build an Eva Unit."

Kensuke's eyes lit up at the mention. "Oh yeah! I heard a rumor about that I wanted to ask you about! Eva Unit-03!"

Shinji blinked at the abrupt swerve in the conversation, but his friend was obviously more comfortable talking about military hardware than the beautiful yet confusing Pilot Ayanami. "Eva Unit-03?"

"That's right! The Eva Unit that was under construction in the United States is now completed, and they're shipping it here to Japan!"

"I haven't heard anything like that. Anything at all, really."

Kensuke inched closer, his eyes shining. "I know you've got to keep it secret, but please tell me! Didn't you know the rumor that the activation test will be held at NERV-2 in Matsushiro?"

"Nope."

"You haven't heard that they haven't named a Pilot for it yet?"

"Kensuke, they never tell me anything. It's not like Misato-san spends her off-duty hours telling me all of NERV's inner plans."

Kensuke's eyes went far away. "She could let me Pilot it! Shinji, could you ask her for me? I really want to be an Eva Pilot!"

Shinji frowned. "You really don't. It's not what you seem to think."

"Hey, did you hear that Unit-04 was lost?"

Shinji suddenly felt his apprehension increase. "What?!"

"You didn't know that either? NERV-02 in the US was blown up. My dad's section was in an uproar over it. That's why they're shipping Unit-03 here, because of that explosion."

"Misato-san never mentioned it."

Kensuke deflated. "Well, I guess the Pilot is just the guy at the bottom of the chain, even in NERV. I guess they think you don't have 'need to know'. Sorry for asking so many questions."

His head jerked up and he gestured with his chin. "Hey, look out behind you..."

Shinji turned to look. Tanaka and a couple of the other girls who were still eyeing him in class had emerged onto the roof for their own lunches, and spotted him and Kensuke. Their gazes noticeably sharpened as they noted the absence of any of the usual protective screen of girls who had guarded Shinji from them for the last several weeks. "Uh oh... I hope Asuka and Rei get back here soon with the Class Rep and Touji..."

Kensuke looked at his watch. "Yeah, where is Touji? What's keeping him?"

.

"Seen them yet?"

"No, Asuka, I have not. Otherwise, I would have informed you." Rei's voice lacked even the smallest hint of sarcasm any other teen would have included.

Asuka shook her head. Teaching Rei to act normal was still a work in progress. Still, just the fact that she didn't mind walking around with her, searching for Hikari and her boy-Stooge was a sea change from when she'd first arrived. Rei had gone from a 'stuck-up, irritating, and unsettling rival' to a peer, someone Asuka could honestly call a friend.

Case in point now: she felt almost comfortable being away from Shinji and searching empty classrooms with her, doing her best as they went to keep Rei talking and even making attempts at banter. While still quiet, Rei was worlds better than the near-robotic doll she'd begun the autumn as. A subtle humor was even beginning to sneak into her remarks now and then.

Asuka opened another classroom door. "Ah ha! Rei! Found 'em! Hikari, aren't you and Jock-Stooge going to join us for... what's wrong?"

Hikari and Touji were sitting facing each other in the emptied classroom. Though they'd both looked up to note Asuka's entrance, they'd immediately returned to glumly looking at each other in silence.

Asuka walked over to stand right next to them. "What's wrong?" she repeated, a little more insistently.

Touji looked up at her, his mouth working...