Disclaimer: I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion or anything associated with it. Gainax created this world, I just play in it.

Transposed

Chapter 25

The entirety of Kiel's estate was vast, taking up hundreds of acres of both forest and working farmland. Isolated within it, well away from the farming operations and surrounded by thick forest was the estate's manor, a huge mansion built with the enormous wealth Kiel had amassed through various means over the years. It was a grand, old, and beautiful structure befitting of the money spent on it and it didn't deserve to be owned by the scheming old bastard who had paid for its creation. Sadly, the place was also looking a little rough around the edges at the moment.

The grounds leading up to the structure were torn up in several places from the passage of vehicles and the exploding of several grenades. A couple of outbuildings were smouldering ruins and several of the doors and windows on the manor house itself were smashed and broken. The worst of the damage was to the newer annex at the back of the original manor house, an addition that had likely been made when Kiel had to start relying on a wheelchair to get around. While there had been battle damage to many parts of the house, this section had seen the heaviest fighting.

Pretty much every window was gone. The exterior and several interior doors were destroyed and the walls holed and shattered from bullets and grenade explosions. Burn marks marred the carpets and hardwood floors and the blood of the dead and wounded stained those surfaces as well. The defenders had outnumbered their attackers by at least two to one and had put up a decent fight but it was clear they weren't the best guns Kiel had in his employ. Most were now dead but several had either surrendered or been captured as wounded and were being tended to outside.

One of the victorious attackers, Matt Riker, strode down the main second floor hallway that cut through the annex and eventually ended up at Kiel's expansive office. The Benelli M4 shotgun canted over his right shoulder was ready for business just in case but the fight had been declared done well over an hour ago. He had just returned from the helicopter pad and maintenance barn that sat a couple of hundred yards back of the house. Some of the household staff had taken refuge back there when the fighting started. He was on his way back to Kiel's office where his partner had taken up residence, joining the search through Kiel's office while one of their techs took a crack at the computer on the huge oak desk.

Tugging at the neck of the tactical vest he was currently sweating under, he recalled the whirlwind that the last twenty four hours had been for them. As soon as word had reached Colonel McKinnley that the location of Kiel's private estate had been found and that he might be there, they had hopped on a UN transport and hightailed it for Germany, helping to plan the raid along the way by satellite feed and arriving just in time to take part in the final briefing before launching the attack. Unfortunately they had missed Kiel himself. He had left the estate that morning.

One would think that it would be reasonably common knowledge that the huge estate belonged to Kiel, but that wasn't the case. His name wasn't actually associated with the place, at least not publicly, and you had to dig very deeply through several layers of holding companies to find that he did indeed own it. In Germany and most of Europe for that matter Lorenz Kiel was known as a retired businessman and philanthropist who donated huge sums of money to the arts, education, and the medical community. Digging for information on him was regarded with disdain and suspicion and often resulted in a heads up being forwarded to the man or his staff.

Intel gathered from the hunt for the members of the Instrumentality Committee had eventually pointed them in the right direction and a great deal of digging went into determining that he had been spending a lot of time here recently and not in his more public residence near the NERV base in Berlin. Apparently even though Kiel held absolute control over them some members of the Committee hadn't been above trying to quietly dig for information on him themselves and they had proven to be a somewhat useful source of information. Those that were left at least. Kiel, the member for Russia and the member for China were still at large. Four others were dead and the rest were in custody and were singing like canaries after various levels and varieties of persuasion were applied, and certain facts were made known to them.

As he arrived at the double doors that led into Kiel's office, which were now missing their locks and handles courtesy of his shotgun from their room entry over an hour ago, he could see his partner perched on the edge of the desk and talking into their secure satellite phone and making her report to the Colonel. Her weapon for the raid, an HK 416A5 carbine was leaning against the desk, well within her reach. Two other raiders were looking through bookshelves and files while another was busy at the computer. He plopped himself down in one of the big overstuffed leather chairs in front of the desk, setting his shotgun in the other one to his right.

"Yes sir," she said into the phone. "We'll head back as soon as they get here. It's Miller's team anyway and he's more than capable of working with them. We'll just make introductions before we go to get things started." There was a pause as she listened for a moment. "We appreciate that sir, thank you." She hung up and set the unit down on the desk.

"We expecting company?" he asked.

"The Colonel said the Chancellor is sending a team from GSG-9 to take over the site and the prisoners," she told him. "Ehrlich's team by the way. She would have given us help on this raid if all of the teams hadn't been tied up elsewhere. Ehrlich's group is just coming back off a security op and will be diverting here instead of going back to base. We'll be leaving as soon as they get here. The Colonel has lined up a UN executive jet to get us back faster. We can grab a bite and a nap on the way back. Beats a cold cargo plane."

"Amen to that," he agreed. "Ehrlich will be pissed that he missed all the fun. And that bastard still owes us a round of beers but it looks like he'll be getting off the hook again."

She smirked. "You're just pissed that you won't get to flirt with his second and stare at her tits all night while we all get hammered."

"I wasn't staring at Mina's tits," he said, defending himself. "She's like five foot four and I have to look down all the time just to make sure I don't step on her. I can't help it if the view happens to be spectacular."

She rolled her eyes. "Too bad they weren't here for this. We could have used the Monkey to make clearing this floor a little easier. Would have distracted the defenders and split them up a little."

The second floor of the annex had been better defended than the rest of the house. Kiel's office was the prime target of the place so they reacted accordingly even though the old fart hadn't even been here. Mina 'Monkey' Krauss was a hand to hand combat expert and an infiltration specialist, a prodigy really. There wasn't anything that she couldn't climb and was invaluable when it came to getting into places and causing havoc. Extreme parkour and climbing anything in sight was how she relaxed and had fun. Martin Ehrlich was glad to have her on his team and as his second in command.

"It wasn't that bad, just time consuming," he said. "They had quantity but we had quality. I expected better personnel to be guarding Kiel than what we saw here."

"You think he took the better one's with him when he left?" she asked.

"If he did have better personnel then they must have already been gone," he answered. "The house staff wasn't very cooperative but they did say that Kiel and three other men left early this morning on his private helicopter. They either wouldn't tell me or didn't know where they were going, but I did manage to drag names out of them. One was Dr. Gerhard Holzer."

"That's NERV Germany's version of Dr. Akagi isn't it?" she asked.

"One in the same," he confirmed. "The names of the other two were Richard Schmidt and Conrad Dyson."

"Dyson!" she exclaimed. "I thought he was dead. It was reported that he and his entire mercenary group bought it somewhere in Africa."

"Wouldn't be the first time a supposedly dead merc resurfaced somewhere," he said. "Him especially. He's been listed as dead before."

"Wait a sec," the man at the computer said. "Did you say one guy's name was Richard Schmidt?"

"That ring a bell for you Miles?" he asked.

"Yeah," the tech answered. "When we were fishing around for info about Kiel we found a list of organizations that he donates money to. One was an outfit that helps reintegrate military personnel into civilian life. They offer medical and psychological services, help with job searches and living accommodations. Schmidt is one of the directors, it's called the Bittrich Foundation."

Riker looked at his partner. "Son of a bitch," he swore. "Underneath its shiny outer shell the Bittrich Foundation is a mercenary search and job placement service. They recruit and screen mercs for whoever is willing to pay their fee to find them. No one has ever been able or willing to go after them for it because the government itself has been known to hire mercs for jobs out of country that they don't want to be linked to. It's a dirty little secret that no one wants to bring into the open because it would bring way too many skeletons out of the closet."

"The records we found show that Kiel made two very large donations in the last month," Miles added.

"He's hiring himself a private army," Lake concluded.

Riker shrugged. "Pretty much has to since his access and ability to use the JSDF was taken away from him after we nabbed Matsuzaka and the Colonel met with the Prime Minister and the Secretary General."

"I wonder if they're in Japan yet?" she mused. "There's supposed to be one more Angel to come, would he want to risk the possibility of his assault force getting killed before that?"

"Unless he has control of the Seventeenth like one of Ikari's scenarios suggested, we have no idea when or if it might show up, especially since there is nothing there now to call to it and lure it in." He sighed. "We have no idea if it will show up a month from now, five seconds from now, or if it will appear at all."

"Fuck!" she swore viciously. "We're gonna have to go to a full alert status indefinitely and we're nowhere near ready yet to try and mount any kind of a meaningful defence of the base. This is going to turn into a complete cluster fuck, I just know it."

"There you go with that negative attitude again," he smirked, looking to stop her before she got too tightly wound. "No wonder no one likes you."

"Fuck off!" She threw the closest thing she could grab at him, which happened to be the satellite phone. He caught it easily.

"Tokyo 3 is nearly abandoned so it isn't going to be too hard to spot a bunch of outsiders if they come sniffing around," he said calmly. "We have more help coming from the UN and the Colonel is working with a couple of his contacts at the JSSDF to pull in some trustworthy help. Let the locals carry the bulk of the outside work, we'll concentrate on things inside the base. And even if it does turn into a cluster fuck..." he shrugged. "There's not much we can do about it. We've been there and done that so it won't be anything new. Seems to be our specialty."

"I know," she groused. "But it would be nice for once if things at least came close to staying on the rails."

"No fun in that," he deadpanned. "But if it was an easy job we wouldn't be the ones taking it on. We're literally going to save the entire world even if hardly anyone knows it. The outcome isn't in doubt, we will do it. The rest is just details."

"No wonder I like working with you," she smirked. "You're an optimist and usually right too. Besides, its not like we could do anything less when three fourteen year old kids have been killing monsters and saving the world for months. It's our turn I'd say."

The sound of multiple helicopters approaching caught their attention. She stood and picked up her rifle. "Time to go." She looked back at Miles. "Let us know if you find anything interesting."

"Will do Captain," he responded.

Riker stood, dropping the shotgun over his shoulder again. As they walked out of the room he handed her back the satellite phone. "Think we could smuggle Ehrlich and Krauss back with us," he joked. "We could use the help."

"You wouldn't get an objection from them," she smiled. "Or me but I don't think even the Colonel could get us out of that mess if we did. The German Chancellor would be screaming for our heads."

He shrugged. "Oh well, after we take care of business we can collar Ehrlich for those beers and brag about how we saved the world without him."

"And you can stare at Mina's tits," she teased.

He shrugged and grinned. "Hey if there's a better reward for saving the world than beer and tits I don't know what it is."

NERV Tokyo-3, Eva Test Chamber

Sitting in the entry plug was no more comfortable than the walk to it had been for Rei, possibly less so because she was also now experiencing a return of the overall achy feeling she had had during and after her little growth spurt. She was not a happy Eva pilot right now and was experiencing a level of annoyance she had not known before. Perhaps it was partly due to the lower levels of mood levelling drugs in her system as they slowly weaned her off of them that was making her feel as such. It did make her wonder what she was going to be like in the future as the dosage kept getting lower to the point where she would finally be free of the drug's influence. She had been warned of the possible side effects and she was dreading the possibilities. Wild mood swings did not sound enjoyable.

"I'm sorry Rei," Dr. Akagi apologized, her face suddenly appearing on the cockpit video monitor. "The thought that you would need a new plug suit completely slipped my mind. We can always delay this until we get a new one made for you."

"I will manage," she answered. She had put up with far more discomfort in her life, though she couldn't remember being this irritated by any of it. "I wish to take care of this issue with Unit 00 as soon as possible."

"If you're sure then we'll begin the start up sequence," the Doctor said.

"I am sure," she confirmed.

Another video window opened, showing her Shinji from inside Unit 01. He was on standby in case her Eva went berserk and needed to be subdued. She felt some of her annoyance and discomfort ease a little when she saw him.

"Good luck Rei," he said. "I hope everything goes okay."

She smiled slightly which got her a smile back from him. "Thank you," she said quietly.

In his smile and his eyes however she could still sense the raggedness in him that had been present since the attack of the Fifteenth Angel. For the most part he seemed to be alright. Certainly he had become a little bit different than what she had known him to be since his mother returned, but there was something about him that had changed beyond that. Perhaps it was just the manner in which he was coping with the damage done to him and the agony he had felt. He may return to his usual self or it may remain with him for a long time...she did not know but seeing him changed because of it made her all the more determined to address her Eva's unacceptable refusal to help her come to his aid when he had needed her.

She put the chatter of the control room out of her mind as they went through the start up sequence and concentrated solely on the impending contact with whatever or whoever made up the soul of her Evangelion. Instead of waiting for it to make its presence known she sought it out. Even when the Eva was not powered up she could always feel whatever was within it and she could feel it a little more clearly now with the recent changes she had undergone.

She felt the surge as the Eva powered up but instead of the usual pull on her mind of contact being made it was as if the mind of the beast's inner soul lunged at her. The sensation was like being lunged at by a large animal with its teeth snapping at your face. Reflexively she jerked away breaking the contact but not before she felt the disdainful, mocking sneer within that contact. She hadn't even realized that she had let out a startled gasp until she heard Shinji's frantic, worry filled voice calling to her.

"The Eva's reaction startled me," she said by way of an answer.

"Are you alright Rei?" Dr. Ikari asked calmly.

"I am unharmed," she said. "I wish to try again."

Yui smirked slightly, detecting a little steel in the quiet girl's tone. It seems the Eva was making her angry and in this case that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. "Make it understand who is in control Rei," she advised her, reminding her of their earlier conversation with Lilith. "Like two wolves fighting for the position of Alpha, you have to show it that you are a bigger threat to it than it is to you. Show it your fangs Rei. You can do it."

"Yes," was her quiet, yet steely response.

Once again she shut out everything else and concentrated on the link. Even before the power came up she could feel the beast's savage amusement at her trying again, but she didn't give it time to act. This time and with the intent and the image in her mind to match as their souls collided, she went for its throat, ripping and tearing at the beast as she forced and imposed her will upon it. Her presence grew and she loomed large over it, dwarfing it within its own domain. Within the plug she leaned up and over the control yokes as wings of orange light sprouted from her back and her red eyes glowed.

The beast tried to fight back, the Eva twitched and strained in the mounts that kept it anchored to the testing room wall but it could not escape. Panic began to bleed to fear as Rei bore down ever harder and loomed ever larger before it. Something had awakened within the girl as she met its savagery with her own. The beast found itself backed into a corner with nowhere to run, no way to escape and with bared fangs at its throat and sharp claws at its heart.

"You have defied me for the last time," Rei all but growled. "You have broken my body and hurt me before but that pain was nothing compared to what I felt when you denied me the chance to help Shinji. You prolonged his suffering and you mocked my attempts to aid him. Such a thing will never happen again."

The soul of the Eva cringed in renewed fear as the claws at its heart began to slowly sink into its metaphysical flesh and the fangs at its throat came closer and seemed to grow longer and sharper. Rei's presence, her aura, continued to grow around it and push ever harder against it, threatening to crush it in a wave of pure will. No matter how hard it tried to push back it was being overwhelmed.

"You still seek to resist me?" Rei snarled. The Eva howled in pain and terror as the clawed fingers sank into its soul and seized its 'heart', the very core and essence of its being. "There are only two choices," she hissed coldly. "Yield or die."

Waiting inside Unit 01, Shinji couldn't help but feel worried for Rei. The battle she was fighting wasn't one that anyone could help her with. If she couldn't subjugate the soul of her Eva on her own it would never obey her. Even more worrisome was the nature of the battle. It wasn't physical and it wasn't even a clash of soul bodies within the Eva's inner world. It was a battle fought through the clash of consciousnesses during synchronization. It was a battle of thought and will.

He had been part of the conversation Rei had with his mother and Lilith, both so that he would know what was going on and so that he wouldn't worry so much as he stood by in case Unit 00 needed to be subdued. It hadn't really worked, he certainly was worried and while he had a great deal of trouble picturing Rei acting like an Alpha wolf to subdue her rogue Eva he certainly hoped that she could do just that. If she couldn't he would have to stop it when it went berserk. That wasn't something he'd be able to do without damaging it and hurting Rei in the process and that was the last thing he wanted to do. From her recent injuries to those she had the first time he met her, the images of her hurt and in pain were too vivid and he didn't want to be the cause of more.

'Have faith in her Shinji,' Lilith told him.

He wanted to, more than anything, but the straining, jerking, and growling of Unit 00 as it fought against its restraints increased his worry with every minute that passed. When it raised its head and let out a long, room shaking bellow his heart leaped into his throat. When it went silent and slumped against its restraints he couldn't take the silence that followed it.

"Rei!" he called out. "Rei are you alright?!" He only knew the comm channel was open because he could hear the sound of her breathing heavily over the link. "Rei?"

"I am alright," she finally answered. "There will be no further problems with Unit 00's behaviour."

"Well done Rei," Yui congratulated her.

"Yes, good job Rei," Ritsuko chimed in. "And thank you for all of the fascinating data you generated for us. You've given us some interesting things to study. Catch your breath then we'll get you out of there. After a quick debrief you can go get cleaned up. We'll do a sync test after we get a new plug suit made for you."

"We're all done now Shinji so you can get out and go shower up," Yui said.

"Okay," he answered, his eyes still on Unit 00.

'Relax Shinji,' Lilith told him. 'Rei really is fine, she's just tired.'

'I'm sorry,' he apologized. 'I was afraid I would have to fight it with Rei trapped inside.' He didn't need anything close to a repeat of the incident with the 13th Angel. He had enough things he felt guilt over and more than enough things to give him nightmares now as it was.

'There is nothing to be sorry about Shinji,' she softly assured him as Unit 01 began to shut down. 'It is understandable that you would feel that way but it is done now and Rei has regained mastery of her Eva. Go and have a nice long hot shower and let yourself unwind."

'Just wash your troubles down the drain Shinji!' Misato cheerfully called out to him.

He couldn't help but chuckle a little at her infectious tone. 'Okay Misato. I'll talk to both of you next time.'

'You can talk to us now whenever you like Shinji,' Lilith reminded him. 'You have the same connection with me now that I have with your Mother. I can even be a bridge for you to speak to Rei this way as well.'

He had forgotten about that, or more accurately he hadn't really taken the time to think about it after Lilith had spoken to him during the incident with his Mother down in Terminal Dogma. He smiled. Lilith was proving to be another important person in his life just like his mother, Misato, and Rei were and he was glad that he could talk to her at other times now without having to be inside the entry plug.

'Thank you,' he thought happily as the LCL began to drain from the plug.

'Don't do anything naughty in the shower now,' Misato teased in a sing song voice.

'Misato!'

It was almost a half hour later when Rei was making her way to the locker rooms, thankful that the debrief had indeed been short. Her patience at being shrink wrapped in her ill fitting plug suit had pretty much reached its end and she also felt rather drained both physically and mentally from her confrontation with Unit 00. Using her AT field as she had and pushing her mental presence upon the Eva's inner spirit as much as she needed to was very taxing. Even so, she felt a great sense of relief that the ordeal was over. She had asserted her dominance over the beast and there should be no further issue. Thus, a nice hot shower and then getting into some much looser clothes and getting some sleep sounded very pleasing to her right now.

Upon entering the locker room she pressed the button on her wrist to expand her plug suit, coming to a sudden halt when nothing happened. Frowning slightly she tried again with still no results. The frown turned to a scowl and she stabbed harshly at the button several times to no avail. She closed her eyes and took a calming breath to quell her frustration. If she could not get the suit to loosen, then she would just have to unzip it, there was little point in getting upset about it. Either her fatigue or the lessened effects of the mood altering drugs were affecting her rational thought. It was rather disconcerting.

She pulled on the zipper's small tab and it didn't move. She raised her chin and with her free hand she pulled up on the suit's collar to make sure it was straight and pulled again. It still would not budge. She tried several more times, up and down, side to side, twisting and pulling but it still would not move. She hung her head in frustration and defeat. Apparently she was not going to be able to escape the accursed garment without help. It was then that she noticed the sound of the shower running on the other side of the curtain that separated the male and female designated sides of the locker room.

Shinji-kun was still here. He would help her.

Without hesitation she pushed aside the curtain and crossed the threshold, following the sound of the water and heading for the plume of steam rising out of the third stall in line from the end. Upon reaching the end of the open shower stall she found Shinji standing under the heated spray, eyes closed and a slight relaxed smile on his face as the water pelted the back of his head, neck, and shoulders. Something that she herself was looking forward to doing...if she could escape her malfunctioning plug suit. She didn't really want to disturb the peace he seemed to be enjoying but she needed his help.

"Shinji," she called.

His eyes shot open. "Yeaaahh!" He stumbled back under the water, luckily regaining his balance and not falling. He stepped back forward again, wiping water from his face. "R-Rei...what are you doing here?" A moment later his face turned red as he realized the situation and covered his young manhood with both hands.

'Little late for that doncha think Shin-chan?' Misato's voice sang in his head, clearly amused. 'She's seen you naked already before this.' It didn't help that he could also hear Lilith snickering in the background.

"I require your assistance," she said simply. She noticed that he moved his hands away and for some reason she found that to be quite acceptable though she was entirely sure why. She chalked it up as just another of the odd mix of things she had been thinking and feeling lately. She poked at the controls on her wrist. "My plug suit is malfunctioning and will not loosen. The zipper also seems to be stuck and will not move."

"I...um...okay," he stammered. "L-let me have a look." He stepped up closer to her, though not too close. Rei raised her chin and he grasped the tab on the zipper and moved it around. "It looks like some of the teeth are bent and a couple of them have come out of the clasp."

"Can you undo it?" she asked, the tone of her voice sounding as much like pleading, something he had never heard in her usually even and inflection-less manner of speaking. "It is very uncomfortable."

"I-I'll try." Grasping the clasp with his right hand, he used the thumb and forefinger of his left to pinch as much of the material as he could get a hold of and tried to work the exposed teeth back into the clasp and hopefully get the zipper to work. Unfortunately the device was not going to cooperate. The teeth of the zipper began to separate and given the tension on it from how tight the suit was, it kept on separating until it reached the bottom, coming completely undone except for the half an inch or so at the top where the clasp still held it together. As the garment spread open Shinji got an eyeful of smooth, pale white flesh from Rei's now partially exposed breasts all the way down to the little tuft of blue hair peeking out just above the bottom of the zipper. Needless to say his face went bright red despite having seen more than this of her before. There was just something about the sight of her partially clothed in the skin tight suit that got to him.

Despite still being stuck in the suit Rei felt a measure of relief. It was easier to breathe now but from the waist down she was still very uncomfortable. She looked to Shinji who had taken a step back. It was obvious that he was nervous and his face was very red, yet his eyes still seemed to be fixed upon her bared flesh and it seemed that a certain part of his anatomy was responding to the stimuli. She thought it odd that he had not turned so red or had stared so fixedly at her when she was fully naked. She found that she did not mind him looking at her like this nor did she mind the obvious physical reaction he was having.

Apparently it was yet another effect of the lessened amount of mood altering compounds in her system. There was a tingling sensation going through her body as she gazed upon him and thought of how the current site of her was affecting him. Was this how physical attraction felt? She knew that she was already attracted to him emotionally with what little free emotion she was able to feel now. With previous and ongoing mood and emotional swings, as mild as they had been thus far and with her current fatigue, she was feeling a little frazzled.

"Shinji-kun," she called as she grasped the still stuck clasp.

His head shot up and his eyes went wide. "I-I 'm sorry Rei!" he blurted out. "I d-didn't mean for that to happen and I didn't mean to stare at you. I'm sorry!"

"It is fine,"she assured him. "I do not mind," she added much more quietly. "However, I am still stuck in this suit. You will have to pull the clasp apart or else I still will not be able to take it off."

Hesitantly he went to step forward but stopped when he suddenly realized that he had gotten hard while staring at her. With a look of shame on his face he covered himself once again and lowered his head. "I'm sorry," he croaked pitifully, sure that she would think him a disgusting beast now.

She stepped toward him. "Shinji." Her voice was firm but she did manage to keep the frustration and the tiny bit of stiff annoyance out of her tone. Even so he still flinched. He was not the object of her displeasure but she was at her limit with how things had been going today. Still, it did not make her feel good that she had made him react like that.

"You have done nothing wrong," she assured him. "And I am not upset that you were looking at me nor am I upset that you had the reaction that you did."

"Are...are you sure?" he asked uncertainly, slowly raising his head to look at her.

"Yes," she answered simply.

Swallowing the large lump in his throat he raised his shaking hands to the collar of her suit. The light touch of his fingers left warm traces on her skin as he curled his fingers into the fabric. She could tell that he seemed worried about the contact but at least he didn't stutter out another apology. Taking a firm grasp on the material he began to pull to either side. She raised her chin again to avoid a possible hit when the stubborn clasp finally let go. It took a couple of moments and some wiggling around but finally the remaining teeth came free of the clasp. The force of his pulling caused him to pull the top of the suit wide open rather abruptly, even pulling it off her shoulders and partway down her arms.

'Oh my, so forceful Shinji-kun,' Misato gushed. 'Just tearing her suit open like that to expose her lush and firm young breasts!'

"Misato!" he exclaimed out loud.

Rei had heard her words as well and could feel her cheeks warming. Truthfully, she had felt a slight trill of something...excitement?...flash though her when he pulled the suit open so abruptly. "Major Katsuragi is very strange," she deadpanned.

"You can say that again," Shinji muttered. Misato's response was a giggle.

Rei began to try and pull her arms out of the sleeves but the suit was still too tight. She grasped the glove on the left with her right hand and tried to pull her hand out of it but made little progress. She sighed.

"It seems that I still require your assistance Shinji." She turned so her back was to him. "You will have to pull downwards."

He swallowed again, seeing the problem. He was literally going to have to peel the suit off of her, more or less turning it inside out as it came off. Grasping the top of the suit he began to pull downward, slowly revealing her arms and her back, all the while trying to ignore the fact that he was quite literally undressing her.

When the suit got down to her hips he had to go to his knees to be able to pull it any further and blushed furiously as he found himself up close and pretty much at eye level with that cute rear end he had shamefully admired numerous time while it was squeezed into the plug suit. The suit stopped moving at the top of her thighs and he immediately saw why. The sleeves had pulled tight, stopping his progress. Her hands were still caught in the gloves, the reason being the collar around the wrists that held the controls for the suit. There was no way to pull her hand back through it without the suit being expanded.

She did something he had never seen her do before. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed in something akin to defeat...before lashing out and smashing the collar around her left wrist against the end of the rigid shower stall. Twice. The arm fell back loosely at her side and he could practically feel the aura of defeat and resignation coming off of her, it was something he knew all too well after all. He wanted to say something but exactly what that was escaped him, making him feel just as useless as he ever had. After a moment of silence but for the continuing sound of the water from the shower, there was a sputtering, strangled hissing sound and slowly the suit finally loosened up.

She wasted no time bending over and shoving the suit the rest of the way down her legs, leaving him with a face full of the most intimate part of her. Either Lilith or Misato said something at that point, but he completely missed it. Coming to his senses he stood and stepped back, his face burning as if it had caught fire. He watched as Rei, finally now free of the suit just stood staring at it for a moment, before shocking him again and kicking it several feet away. She turned and stalked toward him. Automatically, sadly, he stepped back, finding himself passing under the running shower head but that was where Rei stopped. He heard a barely audible sound of contentment pass her lips as the hot water came down on her head, neck, and shoulders. He became ashamed of himself when his eyes seemed to fixate on the sight of rivulets of water running down her chest and over the peaks of her breasts.

"I-I'll let you have the shower to yourself Rei," he stuttered in his self recrimination. She did not need to be stuck in here with him when he was unable to keep from ogling her or having his body react like he was some pervert. Before he could even try to get past her and exit the stall though, her hands landed on his shoulders and gently held him in place. He reluctantly met her gaze, sure that she must be upset with him but he was surprised to see that she was actually smiling slightly and her pretty red eyes were looking directly into his.

"Thank you for helping me Shinji," she said softly.

"Oh...um...sure..."

She surprised him again for the third time in the last few minutes when she slid her arms under his and wrapped them around him, gently pulling him flush against her. His whole body went rigid as he felt her soft breasts pressed against his chest and his hard member pressed against her lower abdomen.

"I have heard that a hug can make one feel better," she said quietly in his ear. "I wished to find out if this was true."

He could attest to the power of a hug. Nothing could chase away his angst and uncertainty more than a hug from his Mom or even Misato. It occurred to him that Rei had never had anyone in her life who would ever even try to comfort her in such a way and he knew enough now about how she had been feeling in recent weeks that she could probably use some comforting. He wasn't sure if he was the right choice for that but he found himself feeling like this was another of those things he could not run away from. So, he gently wrapped his arms around her and held her in return.

"Yeah, hugs are good," he said.

After a moment they both relaxed.

"Yes, they are," she agreed.

He didn't have to see the smile on her face to know it was there.

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