'Here it is, Asuka,' the Second Child thought to herself, staring at the white cylinders of the Test Plugs through the observation pane. 'Your last day as an EVA Pilot.'

In what had to be a first occurrence since her arrival in Tokyo-3, Asuka was alone in the synch-test labs. Not even Ayanami had made an appearance yet, despite being the early riser that she was, but there was a very good reason for that. After all, Asuka had arrived at the test laboratories a good half an hour before the appointed time.

Very unlike her, but the occasion warranted a measure of extra professionalism, as far as Asuka was concerned: if this was to be the end of her career, she was going to make damn sure to finish it in as high of a note as she possibly could.

'You always knew this day would come, one way or another. What does it matter if it was because there are no more Angels left to fight or because you're too useless to do it?' the redhead contemplated, her thoughts going to the ups and downs of her stay in Japan. 'I guess... I'll be going back to Germany, huh? No reason to keep me around. Will everyone be alright here?'

"Sohryu," a voice she instantly recognised spoke from behind her. "You're here early."

Doctor Ritsuko Akagi walked past the Second Child and quickly began to prepare the laboratory equipment for the test that would take place in several minutes, paying no heed to the blue eyes that had zeroed in on her back.

"Who'd want to be late for their final test?"

"I can think of someone who did," the doctor chuckled softly. "Repeatedly."

"Hilarious. Why do I have no problem picturing that?" the redhead replied, acid dripping off her words. "But you didn't suddenly decide to strike a conversation just to tell me about Misato's escapades, did you?"

Ritsuko paused in her work, hands hovering over a computer terminal for a moment before the blonde pushed herself off and sighed deeply.

"...No. No, I did not."

"What is it, then?"

"I merely wanted to make you aware of the fact that life doesn't end with EVA," the Doctor elaborated after a few seconds, staring at the Test Plugs in the same manner Asuka had been a few minutes prior. "A door may close, but a brilliant child such as you will have no shortage of windows left to choose for their future. You need but to open them."

"...Is that supposed to be an apology?"

"You may take it as that," Ritsuko admitted, turning to properly regard the younger girl. "I've come to realise that I was out of line during our last talk, and that I didn't act as the adult that I'm supposed to be. The aftermath of a long day and results no one liked."

"It's a good thing that you got the chance to make yourself feel better before canning me, then, huh?" Asuka scoffed in disdain, marching past the doctor. "Whatever. Let's just get this over with."

The Head of Project-E remained silent as she watched the Second Child disappear through the side door leading to the gantry area. She followed the redhead with her eyes as the girl stomped towards her Test Plug and opened it, exuding a haughtiness and self-confidence that the doctor hadn't seen for a good few days by that point, before she climbed inside and positioned herself to await the start of the test.

Never mind the fact that it was still quite a long while before it began and the girl was going to be bored out of her mind until then, just to prove a point. Still, it was then that as the first of the techs started to enter the labs and beeline towards their workstations, Ritsuko allowed herself to close her eyes and sigh deeply.

Although, despite herself, a small smile tugged at the edge of her lips.

"...Insufferable until the very end."

-O]|[O-

"Hey, come on," Shinji Ikari woke from his slumber at the gentle but insistent shaking of two hands. "It's been a while now, how long do you plan on sleeping?"

It was in response to said question that the young man opened his eyes, blearily taking in his immediate surroundings despite the slight pounding in his head. Immediate surroundings that revealed how the person leaning over him possessed a telling combination of red and blue that shook the remaining traces of sleep out of him in an instant.

"Asuka!" Shinji exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing the girl by the shoulders. "I'm sorry I-"

Then slammed back into the mattress when a lightning quick hand slapped his left cheek. Shinji blinked the very last vestiges of sleep out of his system, more shocked than hurt by the sudden strike, and turned back to stare at the redhead that was now guiltily looking at her right hand.

"...Crap, I did it again."

That was also when the Third Child noticed the plugsuit that 'Asuka' was wearing, letting him know that his assumption had been mistaken. Clearly, this was not the Asuka he had been expecting and fixing the mistake of last time would have to wait for another time, much to his chagrin.

"...You alright? I... hadn't planned on doing that."

"Y-Yeah."

"...Good," 'Asuka' let out a relieved sigh, before she crossed her arms and looked away, regaining her usual composure. "Besides, it's not like I was planning on saying I was sorry. I mean, you got in the way of the first one, and scared me shitless for the second one, so both of them are clearly entirely your fault."

"It's fine, Asuka," Shinji replied, finding himself smiling slightly through his disappointment. "You didn't hit me that hard, anyway."

"Oh, really? Do you want me to try and improve my mark?" Asuka let out an exaggerated scoff, getting into the game. "Whatever. By the way, don't call me Asuka."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Why do you think?" the girl raised an eyebrow at Shinji, motioning around her with her arm. "Do I really need to explain?"

"...No. No, it's fine." Shinji assured her, quickly catching on to what she meant. After all, calling every single Asuka that he came across by her given name was going to get confusing fast whenever more than one of them were around. "But what should I call you, then?"

"Umm… Let me think…" 'Asuka' paused for a few seconds, humming to herself while she brought a finger to her lips. "Oh, I know! I'm the best EVA Pilot around, so how about Ace?"

And Shinji had the nagging feeling that, despite her play-acting, the plugsuited redhead had had that nickname in her mind for a while, now.

'Calling her out on that probably isn't the smartest thing to do, though. Besides, it's nice to see an Asuka acting like... well, Asuka.'

"Okay, I guess I can do that," the Third Child agreed. "But what are you doing here, Asu-... Ace? I thought that you were angry with us?"

"Not with you, with her, and it's not like there's anything novel about that. Brat has a real talent for pissing me off." Ace stepped forward once again, intently poking Shinji's chest with her finger. "You only annoy me with how much of a freaking doormat you are. That's not how an EVA Pilot should be, I tell you."

"O-Okay… But you didn't answer my question?"

"Obviously, I'm here to check on you."

"...What?"

"What's with the shocked look?" Ace took a seat at the bed's edge, looking at Shinji as if he was being stupid. Which, as far as she was concerned, he was. "Did you really expect me to trust the brat with an anomaly of your importance? That'd be like, the fastest way to make sure this whole place goes straight down the shitter."

"I think she's been doing a good job so far."

"Which goes to show what you know," Ace deflected Shinji's indignant rebuttal with a grumpy scoff. "You wouldn't think the same if you had seen half the stuff I have, trust me.

"Oh, and by the way, what was with you getting all apologetic before?" Ace's expression did a sudden 180, turning into a sly smile. "Trouble in Paradise? That might go a ways towards explaining why the brat felt like someone had shredded her favourite toy, now that I think about it."

Shinji's face fell, the image of the sorrowful looking Asuka popping up in his mind's eye at the reminder.

"I'm sorry, it was my fault. I said something stupid and upset her."

"Hmm, I see. That sounds like you, yeah. Although she'll bounce back up soon enough, too, so I wouldn't worry too much." Ace reassured him, in a comforting tone that surprised the Third Child enough to bring him out of his funk and throw a wide-eyed stare her way.

Her eyes went even wider when the redhead then grabbed hold of the neck of his shirt and roughly pulled him closer to her.

"But you make sure to treat her right from here on out," Ace elaborated, her words clearly emphasising that there was no room for argument. "She might be a major idiot and drive me up the walls more often than not, but she's still one of us. Mess with her and you mess with me. Capiche?"

"Y-Yeah," Shinji stuttered, nervously looking into the tempestuous pools of blue. "Sorry."

"Good! And stop apologising all the time, it's annoying," Ace relaxed her hold on Shinji slightly to indicate that the chances of a third round of violence had dramatically decreased, but didn't let go completely. "Now why don't we-"

Her proposal was suddenly interrupted by the enthusiastic opening of the room's door, with both occupants quickly turning to look at the entrance. There, smiling broadly and holding a bundle of sunflowers in her arms, stood the Asuka that Shinji had been expecting to see for so long.

"Shinji, Shinji! It's finally stopped raining! And look what I-..." the girl in the yellow sundress cut herself off mid-sentence, her eyes quickly jumping towards Ace. They then slowly traversed towards Shinji, before finally coming to rest on the spot where the redhead's hands were still holding on to the Third Child's collar. "...What are you doing?"

Ace followed her double's eyes to their resting point, briefly looking at her hands for a split second before jumping up to stare at the Third Child's face.

It was then that she noticed exactly how close she had drawn herself to Shinji.

"Nothing!" Ace promptly responded, reacting to the icy question by letting go of Shinji as if he had caught on fire. "J-Just having a little chat! Right, Third?"

Knowing that not doing so would likely mean bad times for his immediate future, Shinji was quick to eagerly nod his head at Ace's meaningful question. Asuka's attention was fully occupied by her plugsuit wearing other, however.

"I thought I told you not to show your face around here."

"You did, so what?" Ace replied, her composure quickly growing under the possibility of conflict. She stood up and stubbornly crossed her arms. "I don't remember taking orders from you."

"Get off my property."

"And if I don't?"

"Keep that up and you'll find out."

"Oh, now the brat's threatening me? That's rich," Ace taunted with a smug smile. "But I'll call your bluff, I was starting to get bored, anyway. You wanna take this outside? I'd so hate to destroy the fruits of your labour."

"Fine. You know what? I've given you enough warnings already." Asuka suddenly turned around and left the room, motioning with her arm for Ace to follow. "This way."

The other redhead, for her part, stood her ground for a moment as she watched Asuka disappear. A slight frown marred her features for all of an instant before she forced it out with a scoff, throwing another meaningful look at the young man that had wordlessly witnessed the entire exchange.

"On your feet, Third," Ace commanded, leaving the room as well. "This should be fun."

-O]|[O-

Shinji did as told and followed the two girls to a wide clearing a fair distance away from the farmstead, all the while trying to dissuade them from engaging in what was for all intents and purposes looking to be a huge conflict. His pleas fell on deaf ears, however, one half of the equation itching for the fight while the other appeared to still be really mad at him.

And so it was with very little successful interruption on his part that the two combatants prepared to face off against one another, the looks that they were giving each other heated enough to start a forest fire, had there been any trees nearby.

Shinji Ikari sighed deeply at his impotence.

"I'm ready," Asuka stated, having changed from her usual sundress at some point and into sports clothing that was more fitting for a workout. "What about you?"

"Anytime. But I've grown tired of fisticuffs for the moment, so what do you say that we make things a little bit different?" Ace turned towards the glum-looking young man, throwing a confident grin his way. "Hey, Shinji! Check this out!"

Ace raised her right arm to the sky and a shape grew out of the ground below her, carrying her up… and up… and up, while Shinji's eyes followed. By the time her ascent finally finished, Ace was looking down on them from the shoulder of a familiar-looking crimson titan.

"Th-That's…" Shinji stuttered, suddenly feeling like he should take a few steps back. Or a hundred. "Unit-02?!"

"Ha! Of course it is!" Ace proudly beat on her chest, before leaning against the giant's neck. "This is Evangelion Unit-02, the most advanced weapon of war ever devised! And I am its chosen Pilot! The only person in the world capable of using it to its full potential!"

"Yes, yes, so impressive…" Asuka calmly snarked in response. "What was that about not wasting your administrative efforts on superfluous bullcrap?"

"S-Shut up!" Ace yelled back at the pinprick down below, angrily stomping her foot. "This is important! It's a symbol of our status as the Elite, as the spearhead of Humanity!"

"I always thought it looked like an oversized shrimp."

"Do- Do you want me to step on you?!"

"Nah, I think I'd rather take you up on your offer and go up to your level," Asuka shrugged while casually deflecting her counterpart's words, much to Ace's surprise. The Pilot's shock only grew when Asuka smirked confidently. "You're doing exactly what I thought you would, anyway."

Asuka then threw her own right arm up and began her own ascent, going up… and up… and up until she was standing on the shoulder of her own black and white titan, her own colossal weapon of mass destruction.

A giant Pen-Pen.

...

Shinji blinked a few times to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him and that he was indeed in the presence of the Katsuragi household's pet avian, something that a brief look at its familiar mannerisms quickly proved true. As it were, the only thing that the giant penguin was missing in order to be a perfect copy of the original was a giant Yebisu in its flipper, but as if any further confirmation was necessary, Pen-Pen let out a shrill and lengthy 'WARK' that blew away any lingering doubts and almost popped Shinji's eardrums in the process.

It also nearly popped Ace's own too, if the way she was desperately covering her ears was any indication. But the Pilot was quick to hide that reaction with a self-assured laugh when she noticed that she had been the last one to recover.

"This is rich! All of that smack-talk and that's the best you can do? Some giant animal that can't even fly?" Ace pointed a mocking finger at her opponent. "I knew this wasn't going to be a challenge, but you're making this so easy that I'm almost going to feel bad about punching and kicking at your toy until it's in pieces. Tell you what, I might stop at just ripping its head off if you properly beg me to stop!" Ace laughed again, a shrill noise that reminded Shinji very much of a cartoon villain. The feral grin on her face didn't help matters, either. "As if a stupid penguin could stand up to my Unit-02!"

"Are you done, now?" Asuka replied from the other side, utterly unimpressed. "I wonder, were you ever taught not to judge a book by its cover? Of course not, punching and kicking is the only thing you know how to do, senseless destruction without any purpose at all. 'Blowing shit up', I think you call it?"

"Hmmm… Did the brat finally grow a spine? You're definitely asking for a spanking, you know?"

"Those were your words, not mine," Asuka shrugged, annoying Ace even further. "And it's a bit sad that you still haven't figured out who is being spanked today."

"Forget growing a spine, you've clearly just gone cuckoo in that stupid farm of yours. But enlighten me, how do you plan on winning this?"

"You still don't get it, knucklebrain. I don't need to fight you. The only thing I'm going to do is prove to you what makes us different. Between you, a destroyer, and me, a creator. But let me make it more clear, so that even you can understand…" Asuka trailed off, gently tapping the side of Pen-Pen's head with the back of her hand, the area she had touched opening up and revealed a big, red button. A big, red button that Asuka gleefully pushed as far back as it would go. "…I've already won."

And responding to the input with another loud 'WARK', Pen-Pen's claws suddenly lengthened and took on a reddish, metallic hue, reminiscent of the active edge on a progressive knife. His feathers started falling in droves, revealing silvery armour beneath and an EVA-like Core in his chest before several compartments on its front and back opened up, releasing thin, mechanical limbs that held on to comically enlarged weaponry.

By the time the transformation finished, Ace's Unit-02 was looking up at a fully robotic penguin and at least two dozen high-powered weapons, the armaments ranging from pallet rifles and progressive glaives to a positron rifle and what looked to be a progressive hammer. To make matters even worse, a pair of small UFO-like aircraft came out of and began to circle the transformed Pen-Pen, piloted by a pair of angry looking chibi-Asukas who wasted no time in peppering their plugsuit wearing original with greenish lasers.

"N-No way!" Ace yelled back, jumping out of the way of a few projectiles while still being hit by several others. "That's cheating! You- You dirty CHEATER!"

"It's not my problem that you don't have any imagination!" Asuka mercilessly shot back, grinning from ear to ear before she pointed a finger at her bewildered target. "BATTLE PENGUIN DELUXE MK.2! ATTACK! OBLITERATE OUR ENEMIES!"

And at the orders of its mistress, the gigantic mecha-flightless bird charged.

-O]|[O-

The short battle, if it even could have been called that, was extremely one-sided, in spite of Ace's remarkable efforts to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat. But when each of her attacks seemed to always be blocked by a third or fourth mechanical flipper appearing out of nowhere, when yet another weapon popped up out of a secret compartment at the most inopportune of times, and when her gargantuan opponent managed to somehow grow a hole in their body for Unit-02's fist to go through and leave the Pilot open for a retaliatory strike...

In short, Ace never really stood a chance. Probably why said redhead was currently busy hiding behind her arms, occasionally peppering the kitchen table with weak, angry strikes.

"I can't believe I lost to a stupid penguin…"

And why the Third Child was agonizing over the best way to handle his current situation, sitting not too far away from a primed bomb. Shinji knew that it probably fell to him to say something that would bring the redheaded Pilot out of her stewing, but he was also painfully aware of how often his best efforts had horribly backfired in the past.

The fact that Ace had also just proven she had the ability to summon a copy of her Evangelion at will also played a bit of a role in his reluctance.

And so, Shinji pinned his hopes on Asuka, who had proved agonizingly clueless about his double meanings regarding Ace, skipping up and down the kitchen while she prepared some tea. At least she didn't seem to be mad anymore, quite the opposite, in fact. Asuka was positively chipper. Maybe the scowl that he had thought was his fault had been a result of her psyching herself up for the battle, or something?

Not that it was going to keep him from apologising at the first opportunity.

"Here comes the tea~!" the aforementioned redhead happily announced, depositing three mugs on the table before she sat down herself. "One for me, one for Shinji, and one for the vanquished!"

"Bah. One time, and you cheated your way to victory," Ace grumbled, emerging far enough to accept the tea and narrow her eyes at her counterpart. "But next time will be different, you can be damn sure of that."

"Yeah, yeah, sure it will," Asuka waved away the Pilot's words, before leaning forward with a grin. "But more importantly, let's talk about what I get for winning."

"Wait, what?"

"Don't look at me like that. Like you weren't going to force me to do anything if you won?" Ace moved to protest the accusation, pushing the tea to one side, but a denouncing finger kept her in her place. "And don't you even try to deny it."

Interrupted into silence, Ace made a brave last stand and glared harshly at her other. But since she was still feeling drained from the previous fight, that was a battle of wills that the Pilot miserably lost.

"Fine, what do I have to do?" Ace resigned herself with a sigh, reaching for the tea once again. "...It better not be anything embarrassing."

"Who do you think I am? You? No, you said that you knew something about what happened to Shinji, right?" Asuka elaborated, motioning with her head towards the Third Child. "Tell him all about it."

"...That's it?" Ace blinked, the mug not reaching her lips. "I was going to do that anyway, you know?"

"And that's okay," Asuka shrugged nonchalantly, the smugness in her words almost palpable. "To be honest, beating you at your own game was reward enough for me."

"Yeah, yeah... Savour it while you can, you damn brat."

Ace mumbled something in German, her irritated expression letting Shinji know that it was probably something that would make sailors blush, before the Pilot turned towards him.

"Okay, long story short, Third: as far as anyone knows, you're in a weird coma after the attack of the Angel and no one has the slightest clue about whether you're going to wake up or not." Ace swiftly explained. "Knowing what we know, though, we can be pretty sure that you're not going to be standing for as long as you're in here and not in your own body."

Shinji remained silent for a few seconds after hearing the explanation, before his head sagged into a tired nod.

"...I see."

Ace raised an eyebrow at him, her annoyance leaving way to some surprise.

"...You're... taking this quite a bit better than I thought you would."

"I've had a lot of time to get used to the idea that something happened to me, and a coma beats a lot of the alternatives. At least it's not like there's an Angel inside of my body now, or something, like it's a bad movie," Shinji shrugged, chuckling tiredly. "Besides, I've been fighting giant monsters for months already, and now I'm stuck inside Asuka's head. I can accept a lot of weird by now, I guess."

The Third Child then sighed in exhaustion, massaging the back of his head.

"Does anyone know how it happened?"

"Just that you getting in the way of the Angel's attack probably had something to do with it, but that's a conclusion most of us here had already reached," Ace provided, leaning back in her chair to look at the ceiling. "The hard part is going to be getting you back to where you belong."

"Right. Stupid question: can you do anything about that?"

"That is a stupid question," the redhead agreed with a smirk. "But obviously, we can't."

"Of course. Can you… let Asuka know, then? That I'm here?" the Third Child continued. "Maybe someone outside can help me get back, somehow? Like Doctor Akagi?"

"That's not such a stupid question, but the answer's still no," Ace shook her head, properly sitting back down to look at Shinji. "We don't control Asuka's actions, nor can we somehow influence her awareness. Our role as administrators is to pursue our agendas and propose ways of dealing with different situations, but that's as far as our influence goes. The actual decision-making is out of our hands..."

Ace paused a second to throw a pointed look at Asuka.

"...So long as we don't break the rules, that is."

And the self-satisfied smile that had been stuck to Asuka's face disappeared in a matter of seconds, being replaced with a forlorn look. The Third Child missed all of that, however, choosing that precise moment to stand up and begin a slow walk around the kitchen, looking down at the floor in thought.

"...So it's back to square one."

Ace refocused on Shinji, following the pacing young man with her eyes.

"Well, not necessarily. I mean, we can't do it but that doesn't mean that-"

"Huh?" Shinji drew to a halt, turning towards the girl that had fallen into silence. "Is something wrong?"

"...The hell is that?"

Shinji followed Ace's pointing finger, quickly finding what it was that had caught her attention: in one of the kitchen's corners now stood a familiar-looking red door.

"Oh, not again!" The Third Child groaned, remembering his last time with the strange object. He then blinked, picking up on what had been different. "...Wait, you can see it?!"

"That door right there? Red with orange trimmings? Emitting a mysterious light? " Ace replied, pointing with a finger towards the object in question. "Of course I can see it, stupid! When did I give you the impression that I was blind?!"

"No, it's just that…" Shinji instinctively swallowed in the face of the redhead's fury, before he turned to regard a confused Asuka. "D-Do you see anything?"

"Uh…" Asuka looked to the point that the young man and Ace had indicated, intently staring at it for a few seconds before she slowly shook her head. "...No?"

"Oh," Ace muttered, looking at the two and quickly catching on to what Shinji had meant. A moment later, the cocky smile that the Third Child was used to seeing came back in full force. "Don't worry Third, that's probably because she isn't important around here anymore."

"Hey!"

"What? You gonna tell me I'm not right?" Ace responded to her other's indignation by smirking even wider and standing up from her seat. She then grabbed Shinji's wrist and dragged him off towards the crimson gate, ignoring his protests. "Let's go! I think I know what's going on."

"Hey! Wait! Wait a minute!" Asuka called out, but her demands were disregarded as well. Then, before she could do anything else to stop her, Ace reached out towards something and, from her perspective, her and Shinji both vanished into thin air. "...And they're gone."

Asuka sank into her chair, pouting.

"...Why does she always have to be so mean? I am important…" she muttered sadly, devoting a small part of her attention to confirming that, wherever her two guests had gone off to, it certainly wasn't anywhere close. "I hope they'll be alright...

"Oh well, I'll get nothing by moping about it," Asuka decided, before giving her face a light, two handed smack and jumping into a flurry of activity. "Gotta stay positive! They'll be back, eventually! Let's prepare some more tea!"

-O]|[O-

"Hey… Is anyone there?"

Asuka's voice was the first sound Shinji heard when he stepped through the door. The 'real' Asuka. She was sitting in the same chair she had been the last time, and a quick look at his surroundings revealed everything else to also be exactly as he remembered, as well.

With an annoyed sigh, the Third Child quickly freed his wrist from the grip of the tyrant that had forced him in here against his will, throwing a dirty look her way.

"So this is within Unit-02, right?" Ace asked him, getting a good picture of the entire area before noticing his stare. "What's with the suspicious look? I knew there was going to be a synch-test a little after I decided to wake you."

Letting out another sigh at having his meaning misunderstood, Shinji quickly decided that calling Ace out on her actions was going to do very little good for him. Humouring her and rolling with the punches was probably the way to go.

He was going to end up doing whatever she wanted one way or another, anyway.

"How come you had the time to come meet us, then?"

"Well... it's not really because I wanted to, but I couldn't do a lot more than what I already have. My own influence has gone down quite a bit over the last few days," Ace explained, her expression darkening for a short moment. "But I gotta say, a hall straight out of a European mansion wasn't what I was expecting to see here. Is that…?"

Ace motioned with her head towards the sitting redhead.

"As far as I know," Shinji replied. "I think Asuka's taking the synch-test now. She was doing that the last time the door appeared, too."

"Really?" Ace muttered under her breath, a smirk growing on her face. "Talk about golden opportunities, then."

"Look, I already feel stupid enough doing this, so is there anyone there?" Asuka angrily cut into the conversation, bringing their attention back to her. Then, to Shinji's shock, the Second Child's tone turned begging. "...Please? I don't want to lose my EVA..."

Puzzled, the Third Child drew closer, Ace following close behind. Asuka kept muttering and pleading when they reached her, eyes shut and hands holding on to the armrests for dear life. By the time Asuka switched to German and Shinji couldn't understand her, the girl's words had stopped being necessary: she looked scared and frustrated in equal measures, but more than anything else the Second Child looked defeated, like she had given up on life.

Shinji didn't like the sight. There was no trace of Asuka's blazing fire at all.

'Is this what the whole mask conversation was all about?' he wondered, his right hand clenching and unclenching to a silent rhythm. 'This is what Asuka is really like?'

Shinji's eyes moved to the front of the room and the two other armchairs there, and he remembered his last stay in the room. He recalled the strange request of the two women, and how adamant they had been about talking to Asuka. About him helping them help Asuka.

He also noted how silent they had been this whole time, despite Asuka doing exactly what they had wanted her to.

It was then that Shinji's hand finally formed into a tight fist and he stepped past Asuka's chair.

"Hey!" he called out to the two women. "Asuka's asking for you!"

"..."

"Hey! I'm talking to the two of you!" Shinji repeated when his first demand went unanswered. "Asuka is reaching out to you! Answer her! Didn't you want this to happen?!"

"...Scared…"

"...What?"

"...I'm scared," the woman to the left elaborated. "It's so sudden..."

"...I'm scared," her opposite continued. "It's so abrupt..."

"She won't listen."

"She will remember."

"She will reject us."

"She will hate us."

"What… What are you talking about?!" Shinji protested. "You're the ones who wanted this! Aren't you going to do anything?!"

"She will hate us," the two women repeated, and Shinji could barely make out two pairs of hands going up to shield their ears. "...Shewillhateusshewillhateusshewillhateus…"

"STOP THAT!"

But Shinji's demand went unanswered again, the repeating mantra continuing to fill the entire hall. A second clenched fist joined the first one, and Shinji felt his temper flare as he took a step forward.

"You're wasting your time, Third," Ace stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "They don't sound like they're going to change their mind."

"Why do you say that?! Do you know them?!"

"Nope, I don't have a clue about who they're supposed to be. Didn't even know there was something inside the EVA, as a matter of fact," Ace shrugged, narrowing her eyes at the two women. "But it doesn't look like you're reaching them like that. And I bet that I can't really do much on that front, either."

Shinji glared back at the two chanting women, thinking about his options for a second or two before deciding that Ace was more than likely correct. Even if he could somehow convince them to synch with Asuka, chances were that with their current mindset it would have the opposite effect of what they wanted.

Shinji let out a deep sigh, his whole body sagging as his anger left him.

"What now, then?"

"Well…" Ace trailed off, her eyes moving back to Asuka. "Why don't you try talking to her?"

"...Eh?" Shinji blinked, the girl's words not fully registering. Until they did. "EH?!"

"What's with the shock? She's asking someone to answer and you're here, aren't you?"

"W-Well… Yeah, but…" Shinji followed Ace's eyes towards the sitting redhead, the many past failed instances in which he had tried to reach out to her quickly filling his mind. He fiercely shook his head. "You do it!"

"I'm a fragment of her personality, doofus, that's not going to work. Our influence is limited, remember?" Ace clicked her tongue and turned Shinji around by his shoulders, forcing him towards the sitting redhead. "Just man up and do it, already! What's the worst that could happen?"

'Yeah, well, finding out is the part I'm scared about…'

"Okay, okay, I get it! Stop pushing!" Shinji ultimately gave up, fully aware of the inevitability of his situation. Satisfied with that, Ace let go of him and backed off a little, quietly watching him with much interest.

Shinji, for his part, took a bracing breath and did his best to settle his nerves, trying to think of the best way to handle the task before him.

It wasn't long before an idea struck him.

"Hey, listen!" Shinji called out to the two women and, against his expectations, the both of them promptly fell silent. "Will the both of you synch with me?"

"...Why?"

"We did it before, right? On the Over the Rainbow. That's why you said you remembered me. Synch with me, then I'll try talking with Asuka," Shinji glanced back at the redhead, his face darkening slightly at her ever-worsening disposition. "Maybe that will be enough for her EVA to work. If it works in the first place."

Silence reigned within the hall for a few, long moments, the women likely debating the merits of his proposal and stretching the Third Child's patience nearly to its breaking point. In the end, however, Shinji felt a probing sensation in the back of his mind.

"...Very well."

It was strikingly different to what he was used to feeling from Unit-01, but not something that the Third Child couldn't adapt to. With practiced ease, he closed his eyes for an instant and allowed the foreign presence to seep into himself, quickly achieving the synchronization he had sought. He then took a deep breath and stepped towards Asuka, leaning forward until he was a handspan away from her face...

...and then, stopped.

"O-Okay…" the young man sputtered, not really having planned that far. "...W-What now?"

"Oh, for the love of-"

And Shinji suddenly felt someone grab the back of his head.

-O]|[O-

"OUCH!"

"Asuka-chan, is everything okay?"

"...Yeah," the Second Child replied, rubbing her forehead. "Just... felt a weird pain in my head for a sec. It's nothing."

"...Alright, then focus back on the test, please." Lieutenant Ibuki calmly instructed, looking relieved. She then hesitated for a second or two before pumping a fist in front of her face. "You… You can do it!"

And any other time, Asuka might have found the tech's awkward cheering dorky enough to make her laugh, but not today.

"...Yeah, sure."

-O]|[O-

"What's the big idea?!"

"What? You just needed a little push, is all," Ace told the angry Third Child, grinning unrepentantly. "But more importantly: did it work?"

Shinji stopped rubbing at his aching forehead long enough to look back at the sitting redhead. As far as he could tell, there had been a definite reaction to his forced contact with the Second Child, but...

"...I don't know," Shinji leaned forward, hesitating a second or two before he brought a shaking hand to the top of the Second Child's head. "Asuka...?"

And all of a sudden a pair of blue eyes rose up to meet his.

"S-Shinji...?"

-O]|[O-

"We've seen enough, end the test," Ritsuko declared, finalising her work on one of the workstations before she stood up. "Classify the Second Child as unfit for duty and configure Unit-02 for a change of Pilot."

At her behest, the gathered scientists complied and began the necessary preparations for the safe termination of the test. Many left the premises to focus on readying the tools that would be necessary for their work on Unit-02, while others forewent their observation tasks in favour of uploading the latest results to the MAGI. Needless to say, the last seconds of the test itself became a point of very little importance for the vast majority of people gathered within the room.

But not for one Maya Ibuki.

"Umm... A-Akagi-senpai?"

"What is it, Maya?" the Head of Project-E replied distractedly.

"It's the readings, Senpai, they're... changing. Asuka's..." Maya let out a sudden gasp. "Asuka's synch-rate is spiking upwards!"

"What?!"

"I-I don't understand it either, Senpai!" Maya continued, showing the graphs on her terminal to the woman that had just flown to her side. "Fifty... Sixty... Seventy... It's... It's holding steady at eighty-seven percent! That's a new record for her!"

"That's... That's impossible!" Ritsuko exclaimed, before she turned to address the other shocked technicians in the testing grounds. "Extend the test! Make sure it's not a fluctuation in the readings or a glitch in the system!"

"A glitch? But Senpai, the MAGI-"

"I know, the MAGI don't glitch," Ritsuko hissed through clenched teeth. "But this doesn't make any sense, either."

Doctor Akagi's commands turned the testing ground into a flurry of activity again, busy hands hurrying to record and try to understand the sudden and unexpected development over the next few minutes. Through her own work, however, Maya Ibuki kept a constant and perplexed watch over the head of Project-E. After all, her senpai looked angry like Maya had seldom ever seen her, and it wasn't difficult for anyone in Doctor Akagi's immediate surroundings to piece together why that was, no matter how little sense it made to the young lieutenant.

Frowning, Maya brought her eyes back to the readings her terminal offered, finding no answer to the day's questions in them. Save for some meaningless and commonplace background noise that could have been attributed to a thousand or more different reasons, the Second Child's results seemed completely normal - or as normal as their sudden change could make them.

"Shouldn't…" Maya whispered to herself. "Shouldn't we be happy for Asuka...?"