Continued from last chapter…

"AHHHH!" Asuka came running out of the bathroom in a towel. "The bathwater's too hot!" she screamed, "Who used it last?!"

"Um…that was me," said Shinji, "Sorry about that."

"Would you cut that out? You apologize all the time!"

"I haven't really heard him apologizing," said Blake, "…unless he needs too."

"I didn't realize the bathwater was hot, Asuka," said Shinji, "I really am sorry."

"Hmph!" said Asuka, "Well, be careful next time!" With that, she marched back to the bathroom. Suddenly, the phone rang. "Oh, can someone get that?" asked Misato, "I'm kind of busy right now."

"How do you know it's not your precious Kaji?" asked Asuka in spite.

"Asuka, I don't have time for this. I need to have this paperwork filled out for your sync tests today."

"Shouldn't you have done that sooner?" asked Weiss.

Misato sighed, "Yes, but time got away from me. Could someone please get that?!" Ruby took the initiative and answered. An older gentleman responded on the other end. "Hey, Misato?" said Ruby, "It's for you. It's Kaji."

"Oh, thanks," said Misato, quickly grabbing the phone from Ruby's hands. Asuka peeked out from the bathroom in her towel. She quickly retreated back muttering, "Disgusting!" Misato spoke with Kaji for a few minutes, and then hung up. Her face became laden with concern. "What was that about?" asked Ruby.

"Well, it's just that," Misato paused, trying to gather her thoughts, "I…probably shouldn't tell you this, but I recently discovered that Kaji's an agent working with the Japanese government. I don't know exactly what he's up to, but his involvement could seriously compromise NERV."

"What are you going to do about it?" asked Blake.

"I'm not sure. Ideally, I'd like to have him brought in for questioning, but if he resists, then I may have to…"

"Wait, you don't mean you're actually going to kill him, do you?"

"I don't want to!" snapped Misato, "Sometimes, I really hate this job. I'll try to confront him about it discretely. Hopefully, there won't be any incidents."

"How did you find out?" asked Yang.

"Last night, when we were walking home, I noticed a piece of top secret information slip from one of his pockets. I didn't say anything about it then. I didn't really know what to say." Presently, Asuka emerged from the bathroom, all freshened up.

"What was that about?" she asked, "Some illicit rendezvous?"

"No, and that's none of your business," said Misato crossly, "Anyways, you've got a sync test to prepare for, so why don't you focus on that instead?" Asuka sat down in a huff. To be fair, there really wasn't anything she could do at the moment to prepare for the sync test. All the needed prep work would be done at NERV. Misato was clearly on edge, and team RWBY and Shinji both knew why, but Asuka was locked out of the loop due to being busy in the bathroom. After everyone finished their breakfast, Misato helped Shinji and Asuka get ready to head off to NERV. Team RWBY got themselves ready, and soon the whole crew was on their way for Shinji and Asuka's important sync test. Once there, Shinji and Asuka changed into their plugsuits and joined Rei who was already seated in an ejected entry plug. The two pilots each entered their own plug and prepared for further instructions. "OK," said Misato, "I want all three of you to concentrate, OK?" No one said anything more as Ritsuko ran the synchronization test. Both Shinji and Rei kept their composure, seemingly at peace. Asuka, on the other hand, fought desperately not to fidget nervously. After a few minutes, Misato announced the test results. "Shinji, guess what?" she announced with pride, "You're number one!" From inside the plug, Shinji's face brightened. Soon, all three pilots exited their entry plug. All four members of team RWBY quickly rushed to congratulate Shinji. "Thanks everyone," said Shinji, "But…this is going to sound weird. Somehow, it doesn't feel that special."

"Really? Why not?" asked Ruby.

"Well…because all of you are so supportive of me already. You don't always say 'Good job' or 'Well done', but you always want to see me do well. Even if you're scolding me, you're still trying to make me the best I can be. I've said it before, but you're among the first I've met who's treated me this way."

"Think nothing of it," said Ruby. Shinji smiled at all of them. Weiss turned around and noticed that Misato's other EVA pilot ward was seemingly missing. "Where's Asuka?" she asked.

"Probably getting changed," said Misato. Everyone else imagined that somehow Asuka would not be pleased at this recent turn of events. Sure enough, Asuka was practically seething with rage at having been beaten by Shinji. "I can't believe it. That jerk thinks he's some hotshot pilot who can just magically have the highest sync rate. I bet he cheated!"

"It is impossible to cheat," said Rei, who was also changing out of her plugsuit.

"It's not fair! I've been training my whole life for this, and Shinji's barely trained at all! Why does he get the higher sync rate?"

"You're distracted."

"I don't need advice from you, Wondergirl!"

"Fine, I'm leaving." Rei quietly walked out. Asuka clenched her palms into a fist and punched her locker. Her rage was short lived as an alarm sounded. "Scheiss! An angel attack, now?" Sure enough, a large, alien object was floating above the Tokyo-III landscape. This particular angel appeared to be a large sphere with a zebra-esque striped pattern. It was fortunate that Asuka had been brooding as she had neglected to change out of her plugsuit. Shinji was still hanging with team RWBY, and Rei took practically no time to change back into her plugsuit. Soon, the three pilots were in their EVAs and on the surface. All three of them could see the alien object floating aimlessly through the sky. It didn't seem to be causing any trouble. In fact, Ritsuko reported that this…alien thing had an orange blood pattern. Most angels had a blue blood pattern. "It's so odd," said Rei, "Most angels are more aggressive than this."

"Why don't we have our star pilot handle this?" said Asuka sardonically.

"Can I, Misato?" asked Shinji.

"Well…I'd rather have Asuka take point," said Misato, "She's had more experience than you. A high sync rate isn't everything, you know." Shinji conceded Misato's point, but Asuka continued to oppose Misato's orders. "A high sync rate must mean a higher response time, right? Obviously, Shinji can take care of this creature no problem!"

"I'm not sure that's true," said Shinji, "Like Misato said, a high sync rate isn't everything."

"Oh, please; you obviously have more control of the situation than either I or Wondergirl could ever have."

"Stop arguing, you two!" scolded Misato harshly, "You're supposed to be fighting that angel!"

"Well, I'm not going to touch it," said Asuka, "It's a waste of my obviously inferior talents."

Misato sighed, "OK, Shinji, if Asuka's going to be stubborn, you can take point."

"Got it," said Shinji. He aimed unit-01's rifle at the large sphere, firing it at point blank range. The object instantly vanished, and the ground was covered in a mysterious black shadow. "What just happened?" asked Misato. Everyone could see unit-01 on the monitor; it's legs began to disappear into the shadow. "Rei, Asuka, get out of their now!" ordered Misato.

"But…" said Rei.

"Rei, do it now!"

"What about Shinji?" asked Blake.

"Shinji, can you pull yourself out?" asked Misato.

"No!" said Shinji with alarm, "I can't feel my legs anymore. My body's going numb! Somebody please help me!" Everyone watched, horrified as the shadow pulled unit-01 deeper into itself. "Rei, Misato, Asuka, somebody, help me! I can't feel my arms! I'm starting to feel numb everywhere. Somebody, HELP! AUGGHHH!" Unit-01's head slipped beneath the inky black shadow. Ruby covered her mouth, trying to hold back tears. Weiss and Blake both stared at the scene slack jawed. Yang's eyes were wide with fear and anger. Misato quickly reached the other two pilots on the intercom. "Rei, Asuka, are you two alright?"

"I'm fine," said Rei.

"Yeah, I'm OK," said Asuka.

"Report back here immediately." Rei and Asuka both obeyed. Once they got inside, they were greeted by the pain of everyone else who had just witnessed what had transpired.

"You bastard!" yelled Yang.

"Me?" said Asuka, "What did I do?"

"You sacrificed Shinji for your own self worth," replied Rei flatly. Asuka was unable to come up with a response.

"You…wanted him to fall, didn't you?" said Ruby bitterly, "I'm…sorry. I'm sorry that you feel so worthless that you feel that you have to put someone else down just to make yourself feel better!" Then, Ruby did something no one was expecting. She walked up to Asuka and hugged her. Yang's passionate red eyes were replaced by sorrowful blue ones. "Ruby's right," she said, "We need to show Asuka that she's worth more than she thinks. I…may have done the same thing if I had been in her shoes."

"I did do the same thing," said Weiss. Everyone turned to the ice queen. With bitter tears streaming down her face, Weiss continued, "Before I came to Beacon, I was…depressingly lonely. No one wanted to be friends with some snobby rich kid from a family who had a reputation for mistreatment and poor labor practices. I tried to block the emptiness by convincing myself that I was better than everyone else. If people didn't want me, they obviously weren't good enough for me. The problem was that the loneliness didn't go away. It ate at me every single night! I can't tell you the countless times I went to bed crying. I…was actually on the verge of breaking before I met you."

"Weiss, I had no idea," said Ruby.

"It's OK," said Weiss wiping away tears, "No matter what happens, there's no way I'll regret the time I spent with you." Weiss walked up to Asuka, "Look, you may not be as good as you make yourself out to be, but I'm sure that you're better than you think you are."

Asuka turned away bitterly, "You don't understand! EVA piloting is the only thing I'm good at. If I can't do that, then…why am I here?" Team RWBY looked at Asuka pitifully. They all felt sorry for the poor girl. Asuka glared at all of them bitterly, "If I'm really so special, then why did Mama leave me?!" Everyone on team RWBY looked at each other. No one had an answer. The truth was there probably wasn't a good reason why Asuka had lost her mother. It was just another cruel and unfair twist of fate. Asuka turned around a marched off in a huff, leaving team RWBY and Rei alone in their thoughts. "I pity her," said Rei, "She…has even less self worth than I do, and I'm replaceable." For once Ruby didn't quarrel with Rei. She knew the truth now, and she knew that Rei was indeed replaceable. Still, Rei was right. Asuka had no excuse to feel so lowly of herself. Somehow, they had to show her that her life was meaningful, even without EVA piloting. Their thoughts were interrupted by Misato approaching them. "Hey," she said, "We've got a plan to retrieve Shinji."

"What is it?" asked Blake.

"Well…actually it's more of a plan to retrieve unit-01. I don't like it. It's possible Shinji won't survive this operation. "

"What do you mean?" asked Weiss.

"Well, it's…complicated. This angel is…different from the others. That…thing we saw earlier? That's actually the angel's shadow. The actual angel is the black void that's currently covering the city. Well, that's all that we can see of it anyways. To make a long and complicated story short, unit-01 is currently trapped in a pocket dimension that is less than an inch wide. I know it sounds crazy, but Ritsuko did the math. That's what this angel is."

"What is Ritsuko's plan?" asked Ruby.

"We're going to have unit-02 and unit-00 discharge bombs on the angel. If it works, unit-01 and Shinji will both be salvaged. If it doesn't…"

"There's a chance the EVA will be destroyed with Shinji inside," said Yang.

"Like I said before, I don't like it. Ritsuko told me that the EVA's life support system can only function for 16 hours without a power source. After that, Shinji will…"

"…die," Ruby finished, choking back sobs.

"Yeah, so no matter what we do, we need to do it quickly. I'm going to brief Asuka and Rei on what they are to do. I…hope that everything can work out." Misato left them as they all struggled to keep up their morale.

"Shinji…might pull through," said Weiss.

"Yeah, but if he dies then…what was the point of us coming here?" aked Ruby bitterly. The rest of her team all looked at one another.

"This…is going to be a hard pill to swallow," said Yang, "But life; it's not always fair. We…try to do what we can to help, and sometimes it winds up being meaningless. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Our actions do make a difference. I've already seen changes in Shinji and in Rei. With time and patience, I think Asuka will come around too. We shouldn't give up just because one person was taken from us too soon."

"I know," said Ruby, "But it's hard! I hate losing people!"

"I know. So does everyone. It's why we have to make the most of the time we have together." Presently, Asuka returned to the group after having been briefed by Misato on what she would be doing along with Rei.
"Look, I didn't want this to happen," she said, "You're right; I did want him to fall on his face, but not like this. When I heard that he had the highest sync score, I saw myself losing the chance to do the only thing I'm good at. You don't know what it's like; being rejected by everyone you care about! EVA piloting is the only place I'm accepted. If I lost that, then…"

"That's not true!" said Ruby defiantly, "We accept you!"

"Oh yeah? What if I became a thief? What then, huh? Would you still accept me?" Everyone else fell silent. They weren't sure what to say. Asuka lowered her head bitterly. "I thought not." Weiss walked up and gently touched Asuka's shoulder.

"We wouldn't accept your life choices, but we would still accept you as a human being," she said.

"I don't really see the difference," said Asuka coldly. With that, she marched off again. Ruby shook her head.

"I…doubt she'd actually do that," she said, "But I'm glad she told us what she's feeling. I think it's just going to take some time for us to earn her trust."

"Yeah," said Weiss, "She's…more damaged than any of us could have imagined. All of us have had it pretty good, all things considered."

"True," said Blake, "But right now, Asuka's not our main concern. Although, there's not much we can do about that. All we can do is hope…hope that somehow, Shinji will pull through."

To be continued…