February 18, 2027 - Unit-00 Containment Paddock, Observation Deck, Evangelion Center, Tokyo-3
It was certainly a friendlier looking beast, that was for sure.
"I like this one, the best," Rei said. "I don't know why. I think it's because it's blue."
A klaxon sounded through the thick-plated glass as LCL began pouring in rivers around the massive entity. It didn't have the same Gorgon-visage of Unit-02, instead being streamlined, cyclopean, and almost passive in its appearance. It looked less threatening, Asuka decided. She wondered if maybe that, too, was a reason why Rei liked it.
"I'm surprised they let you up here, the way they acted last time," Asuka noted. Men with guns had become a more common sight, as they relied less and less on Magi to define their security drills. Following the fiasco of a week ago, Misato had decreed that Magi would no longer set scheduling for key areas and tasks, forcing human oversight back into the equation.
Not that Asuka knew anything about that; all she saw was more men with guns.
"Yeah," Rei noted, "Well, I'm an Ikari, so they don't stop me too much. My security pass let's me go everywhere!" She held up the card cheerfully. "That is, unless there's a keypad, but I know most of the codes, anyway."
"Yeah, we saw that," Asuka sniffed. She pressed against the glass, watching the motion of the workers far below. Some of them were still monkeying around Unit-00 as the LCL slowly rose and encompassed the creature, rising with it and making spot checks, or disappearing beneath its surface. She had to squint to see that those individuals were wearing wetsuits, or some sort of SCUBA system. "What are they doing? The ones that stay under?"
"Them? They're making sure the LCL seeps in the armor."
"Huh?"
"Normally, the armor is supposed to be one, solid contained piece, with no cracks," Rei explained, as if reciting from memory. "There are certain areas with built in leaks, though, that can be opened or closed at will. When the Evas are sitting in their tanks, the leaks are opened to flood the interior with LCL. It's like a spa-treatment for the Evas."
"A spa treatment?"
"That's how Dr. Akagi describes it," Rei hissed defensively. "The Evas need LCL when they're resting. It keeps them upright, and from falling in on themselves. They have AT-Fields, but they're only instinctive, so it just keeps them from caving in on themselves, or crushing their organs and spines and stuff."
"…I have no clue what you just said," Asuka murmured, turning a withering gaze towards Rei."
"Look, an AT-Field is…have you ever heard of an 'Absolute Terror Field'?" Asuka gave her an expression that read 'Of course not, dummy!' Rei sighed. "It's like a special field living things have. It keeps us from turning into goop."
"…Right."
"Stop that! The Others can do things with their AT-Fields we can't," Rei said. "And the Evas are supposed to do the same things. Only they aren't awake, so the AT-Fields are just…sort of like ours. Only for them."
"What was all that about organs crushing and stuff?"
"Evas are too big," Rei said. "They're way too big to exist on their own. Gravity starts to make them fall apart," Rei explained. "It's why we soak them in the LCL, so we can take some of the weight off. That's not the only thing happening, though: their AT-Field also does something. We think that's the way it is, at least."
"Huh." Asuka turned back to the Eva. "You know a lot about this stuff, Rei."
"I listen to the adults all the time," Rei explained. "I like to know what Mama and Daddy are doing. It's important." For a moment, she smiled sadly. "Hey," she said, but then closed her mouth.
"What?" Asuka asked.
"Eh…nothing," Rei mumbled. Asuka was curious, now, and turned completely towards Rei, her hands on her hips.
"What?" Asuka asked again, "What's the matter?" Rei's smile left, and she felt put on the spot. She was an awful liar, and she really wished she hadn't said anything else. She had been caught up in the moment.
"I don't think I'm supposed to say," she pleaded, but that only intrigued Asuka even more. She got an evil look, and she crouched slightly. Rei blanched a bit. "What are you doing?"
"I might not have blackmail material on you," Asuka said, "But I bet I can figure out how to torture you. Are you ticklish? Is there anything you can't stand at all, like dead legs? I'll figure it out."
"Wait a minute!" Rei said, backing up. "I really don't think I should tell you!"
Asuka relaxed, looking serious. "Then why say 'hey' and be like that?"
"I…" Rei turned back towards the Eva. Why did she? Because she didn't like having a secret all to herself? Probably. "I know why they sent Shinji away." She closed her eyes, and smiled that sad little smile again. "They would have sent me away, too, if they weren't scared about me." Asuka's eyes widened.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, leaning against the glass.
"They don't think I hear everything, but…" Rei hugged herself. "They don't think that Unit-01 will work without Shinji."
"It…won't work?" Asuka gasped. "You mean, like, piloting it?" Rei nodded.
"They were talking, once. It was in Daddy's office at home…I was sleeping under his desk."
"Why were you under his desk?"
"It's a big desk, you've seen it." Rei replied, her voice strained a bit. "And Daddy has his library in there, so I'll grab one of his books, and get under the desk. I was reading, and fell asleep…when I woke up, my parents were in there. I heard them talking."
"What were you reading?" Asuka asked.
"Why does that matter?" Rei snapped. Asuka continued to stare at her, and Rei made a face. "A Brief History of the Universe, by Stephen Hawking."
"You are such a weirdo," Asuka said.
"Stop that!" Rei snapped. "Anyway, they were talking about a whole lot of things. And then they started talking about Pilot candidates for Unit-01…and Daddy said it might be a problem, since Unit-01 still wanted Shinji. Mama got upset. She said some mean things and left."
"When was that?"
"…A year and a half ago?"
"Rei!" Asuka gasped. "You mean you've had that all this time and you never told me?"
"I can't! No one else knows!" Rei said. "I'm not supposed to know!"
"Oh, man," Asuka mumbled, sliding down the glass and sitting. She hugged her knees. "You want to tell Shinji."
"Yes, I do," Rei said, sitting next to Asuka. "I don't like keeping secrets."
"This must suck for you," Asuka murmured.
"It does," Rei said. "I guess that's why I told you…I don't want to be the only one keeping it."
"Well…I won't tell anyone, you know that." Asuka leaned against her friend, bumping shoulders together. "Thanks for telling me."
"You might not like why I did," Rei said. "It got me thinking about the other Units."
"…Wait a minute." Asuka squirmed off of the glass and turned to face Rei, kneeling and leaning close to the girl. "You don't…Unit-02 wants me?"
For a brief moment, Rei just stared at Asuka. "You picked that up really fast," Rei said, amazed.
"Don't say that like you're surprised!" the red-haired girl sneered, leaning back. "I'm smart, you've said it yourself!"
"Well, it wasn't like I outright said it!" Rei whined. "How did you figure that out so fast?"
"Shinji's mom activated Unit-01. My mom activated Unit-02." Asuka crossed her arms. "It makes sense."
"…Okay, fine," Rei mumbled. "I guess it wasn't that hard to figure out."
"Not if you think about it," Asuka retorted. Suddenly, she blanched. "Oh, man…is that why they wanted me to come here?" She pushed into Rei's face, grabbing her shoulders. "Are they going to put me in that thing!?"
"Whoa, wait a minute!" Rei squeaked, throwing her hands up defensively. "I don't know that! Do you really think my parents would do something like that?"
"I don't know!" Asuka whined. "I just found out that they keep secrets and make plots and stuff, how am I supposed to react?"
"That was one secret, and it sounds like they aren't happy about it!" Rei protested. "How can you assume they're bad people off of that?"
"Everything I know is a lie!" Asuka wailed, shaking Rei. The other girl didn't know what to do or how to respond. It was often that hysterical people grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. It was outside of her normal range of experience. So, she did the first thing that crossed her mind: she grabbed Asuka's cheeks with both hands and squeezed, pulling the other girl's face into a surprised and ridiculous grin. Asuka made a sound of protest, and let go of Rei to bat away the hands. "What was that!?"
"I don't know!" Rei said. "I panicked!…Are you okay?"
"Don't do that! It's weird."
"Don't shake me."
"…Okay, I'm sorry." Asuka rubbed her cheeks, not meeting Rei's gaze. "…They wouldn't do that, right? Put me in that…thing?"
"No way," Rei said. "They like you a lot. They always want to hear about you…and Mama…wasn't excited about you guys coming back. I think that means she wants you to stay far away from Unit-02, like she does with Shinji and 01."
"I guess," Asuka said, but she felt a strange sense of unease and distrust seeping up around her and the elder Ikaris. They were supposed to return in three days from the United States…without Shinji, of course. That thought filled her with a curious melange of misery and trepidation. She would be unhappy to see them without the boy, but she would also be unhappy to see them…knowing all of this. In the end, though, it was just guessing. She didn't know what Rei's parents wanted, but Rei was vouching for them. She trusted Rei.
Rei had kept this secret for a long time, too, though. And yet, she had just shared it with Asuka. It was confusing. Asuka glared at Rei for a moment, but the girl was looking at her own hands, lost in misery. It had been hard to share that secret. It had been hard to keep it in the first place. That meant it was hard to learn it. Rei had been sitting on this for a while. Asuka was still too happy to be with her friend to let that sour the mood. In fact, her feelings of confusion began to dissipate and transmute into curiosity. She perked up, staring past Rei.
"Who does Unit-00 want?"
"Huh?"
"That one," Asuka asked, pointing at the glass. "Who does that Eva want?"
"…I don't know," Rei said, turning around to look at the Eva. "I've tried to figure that out, but I can't. I don't know how they activated it, but I know that Dr. Akagi was involved."
"Do you think it wants Ritsuko?"
"Dr. Akagi's daughter? Probably not."
"Probably not? What makes you say that?"
"…A feeling, I guess?" Rei shrugged. "I would think Ritsuko would be excited by it. She would have tried to pilot by now."
"What's she like?" Asuka asked. "I see her around every now and then."
"Really smart. Kind of snarky. She makes me feel shy whenever I talk to her. She seems to like that…she'll smile a lot when we see each other, but it's sort of a…sneaky smile."
"She sounds kind of…mean, I guess?"
"She's not," Rei said, "She's just…whenever she hangs out with Misato, they argue a lot, but it doesn't feel like they're mad at each other. Just sniping and stuff. I asked Misato why she hangs out with Ritsuko if they don't like her, and she gave me this weird look. She said Ritsuko was her best and dearest friend." She shrugged. "I guess that's just how she is, you know?"
"Adults are weird," Asuka said. "I guess we'll be weird when we're adults, too." She sat up, gasping. "Ooh! Rei! What if Unit-00 wants you to pilot it?" Rei whipped her head around, her expression dismayed.
"What!?" she gasped. "What would make you say that?"
"Well, Shinji and me seem to have Evas, so why not you?" Asuka asked, peevishly. Rei did not find the joke amusing. Asuka sighed. "You and you're sisters…you were cloned from your mom, right?"
"…yes." The blue-haired girl gave Asuka a sidelong gaze.
"But you were also cloned from something else, right?"
"They called her Lilith. She was what the Evas were grown from," Rei noted.
"Unit-00 was the first one grown, right?"
"Yeah."
"What if there's a link between you and Unit-00 in that way?" Asuka asked.
"That doesn't make any sense," Rei said. "Besides, why not 01? That one has Mama's DNA in it. Unit-00 has Dr. Akagi's."
"Oh, yeah, that's right," Asuka mumbled, sitting back. She knew certain things about the Evas, by virtue of her father and what Rei had been allowed to talk about with her. A lot of the details were still fuzzy, but she knew enough. That being said, she had no reason at all to assume that Rei was the one that Unit-00 wanted as a pilot. Now that she had said it, however, Asuka was convinced that it was true. She didn't know why, or how, but she just knew. "I still think that you and 00 are connected somehow. I mean, look at the way you fawn over it."
"Just because I like it doesn't mean I'm supposed to pilot it!" Rei protested. "Do you like 02?"
"No…well…I don't know," Asuka mumbled. "It scares me…I don't know if that means I don't like it. It was something my mother made." She lowered her eyes. "Really, it kind of is all that's left of Mom now. It has her DNA in it, right? So, it sort of is Mom."
"Yeah," Rei admitted.
"But it has yours too," Asuka realized, "Just like 01 and 00."
"What?"
"Rei, you're part of Lilith, and all of those things are, as well." She leaned forward. "Maybe you can pilot all of them!"
"Why are saying things that are just gonna freak me out?" Rei whimpered.
"Look, I think there's something between you and 00. I don't think it's bad, either. Do you feel scared of it?"
"No," Rei mumbled.
"Maybe we aren't supposed to be scared of them," Asuka said, gazing at 00. "They're supposed to help us, right?"
"That's what we assume," Rei said. "But we aren't always right on what we assume."
"True," Asuka mumbled. "Still…still…." The girl stopped speaking, no longer sure what to say. She glanced up at Rei, and was surprised to realize she had planted a seed. Rei was gazing a bit more forlornly at Unit-00. Asuka knew that Rei was considering what was said, and was starting to believe it.
Strangely, that comforted Asuka. It seemed, now, that there was a thread between the children. Something unique, and terrible, but something that was all theirs. It seemed to justify why she had looked down on other children, and clung so tightly to the friendships of childhood. She smiled, and Rei gave her a quizzical look.
"What? Why are you happy, all of a sudden?"
"Not happy, just…I think I feel relieved."
"Relieved?"
"I don't know why, I just do," Asuka said. "I don't know how to say it in a way that makes sense. Just…that I'm here and so are you and there's a reason for it. And we're the same for that."
"I don't understand what you mean," Rei said, "But I'm glad you're taking it better than I thought you would. I thought you'd be angry, or mad at me."
"I should be angry, shouldn't I?" Asuka thought. "That's funny…I don't feel angry, or even upset. Scared, maybe…but relieved. Yeah, that's what I feel. Relieved." Her smile became genuine, and Rei's had one to match. Asuka's smile became impish, and she leaned over, conspiratorial. "So," she said. "What do we have to do to see if we can get you in Unit-oo?"
"You're going to get fat eating all that," Ristuko said in a somewhat snide tone. Misato made a point to snag one of Ritsuko's immaculate tofu-wraps with her fork right out of the other woman's bento box. Ritsuko scoffed, but made no motion to stop the theft. "Do you know how much time it takes to make one of these?" she whined. "At least use chopsticks, instead of stabbing it with your fork. All the flavor gets lost that way." Misato had stuffed the wrap into her mouth, and was greedily chewing it as she carefully arranged her three plates of food, in a way that would optimize her eating time.
"It tastes good to me," Misato said through a full mouth. "See? Looks tasty." She popped her mouth open in Ritsuko's direction. Her friend made a sneering face.
"I refuse to let you ruin my lunch, you barbaric mutant," Ritstuko said, nabbing the cherry off of Misato's cafeteria three-chocolate cake. Misato watched forlornly as the piece of fruit vanished. Ritsuko chewed it with relish, pausing just long enough to open her mouth and reveal the mashed cherry. Misato laughed at the expression.
"God, if you weren't so stuffy, it would be just like college," she giggled.
"I am not stuff-well, okay I am stuffy," Ristuko admitted, going from indignant to apologetic in barely a single breath. "But I was kind of stuffy in college, too."
"Where did that come from, anyway?" Misato asked. "I've always been dying to ask you. You were, like, this wallflower in high school, and then in college, you're all…this." Misato gestured at Ristusko. "It's not like I'm criticizing, mind you. You're awesome anyway you put it, but it was just such a difference."
"Someday, after I've had a couple of drinks, I'll tell you the whole story," Ritsuko said.
"Fruity drinks, right? Little fancy ones in glasses that you have to hold carefully," Misato teased.
"And straight whiskey for you. Or motor oil, or whatever. Did you take your pills?"
"At my desk, yes, Mom," Misato said. She had a slew of medication she had to take, part of the new normal. She had long been on a regimen of sterility pills, part of the basic military allotment to decrease or halt the menstrual cycle for women on deployment. She had preferred the pills to the implant, simply because it gave her a sense of control over the whole process. She felt lucky for that: most Western nations didn't make it an option for their troops. She continued to take them simply because of her workload, though she had probably grown a little over-reliant on them. She really should see about starting the process of weaning off of them.
Ever since the injury, however, she had to be on a steady diet of anti-rejection medication, vitamin boosters, nutrient enhancers, all of the things necessary for a partial cyborg to take in order to maintain their body's balance with their artificial components. It was the new normal. Ritsuko tended to be very insistent on making sure Misato was up-to-date on all of her pills.
"I just worry about you," Ritsuko said. "I know I was a pill when you were in the hospital, but it scared the hell out of me when I heard what happened."
"It's just…you know, it's one of those things you deal with, in the military," Misato said. "No worries, right?" She glanced up from her plate and quailed under Ritsuko's gaze. She really was a mom just waiting to happen. She always had that talent for calling Misato on her bull, and making her feel young. Funny thing how that never seemed to irritate Misato. If anything, it was endearing. It was nice to know people cared about her enough to give her disapproving looks.
"No worries? Misa, I would die if anything like that happened again."
"Don't be melodramatic."
"I'm not! That was one of the worst things I had ever gone through. Any of us, really. The only one that didn't seem tore up about it was Hunter, from I hear from Shinji. All he said was, 'Dumbass should have ducked.'"
Misato snorted with a quick chortle, but stopped when Ritsuko glared at her. "Ritz, don't worry about that. Me and Hunter…we have this thing, okay? We kind of understand each other the way you and me understand each other, and no one else does. Does that make sense?"
"Are you replacing me as 'best friend?'" Ritsuko asked, her eyes welling as she clasped her hands in front of her. Misato reached out and grasped the hands within her own.
"I would never dream of it," she said in a serious, overly-dramatic tone.
"Damn straight you aren't," Ritsuko agreed, returning to her bento box. "You wouldn't be able to button your own pants up if it weren't for me."
"So harsh," Misato moped, laying a hand against her forehead and grasping at her wounded heart.
"Speaking of Hunter, is that a…thing? Or…a thing?" Ritsuko placed a different emphasis on each phrase, and seesawed her hands as she spoke.
"Us? No, not really. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I had been talking to Kaji recently-" Ritsuko flinched and glanced up as a loud clatter issued from across the table. Misato's expression was still one of curious indifference, but her fork and the food on it lay messily scattered on the table. "…and he was…asking about you," Ritsuko continued, cautiously. "Sore subject?"
"Sore? What's there to be sore about? Nothing sore here!" Misato said too-quickly.
"…You know, you never did tell me the details about how that went down," Ritsuko asked.
"You still talk to Kaji, huh? What's that like, how…how is that? With the talking?"
"…Misato, start breathing before you pass out. Yes, I do. He was a mutual friend…well, he was a friend of mine, maybe a bit more for you. You didn't know I was still talking to him."
"Does this look like the expression of someone who knew that?" Misato asked a bit too loudly.
"Okay, I have been corrected. Reign it in, tiger," Risuko said, throwing her hands up in defense. "Maybe when I tell you about my little college story, you can tell me yours."
"Kaji didn't tell you already?" Misato asked.
"Kaji told me nothing. He said that if anybody was going to tell me, it would be you. It sounds like he still has a thing for you." Misato's mouth popped open. She leaned forward to say something about that when a klaxon blared. Everyone eating in the cafeteria glanced up in shock. Misato's phone chimed a warning. She glanced at it, and shook her head in shock.
"It's…a Code Blue…" she murmured.
"What…what is that?" Ritsuko asked.
"There's an anomaly opening near Tokyo-3," Misato murmured. "The Others are coming."
Notes from GobHobblin:…..I hear that there was supposed to be an Eva battle around here…somewhere…but I can't find it. I'm not trying to stretch it out, guys, really! It will be here soon!
