Three hours after the defeat of the Sixteenth Angel
Two women worked tirelessly within the bowels of Terminal Dogma, not because they were feeling fresh and active following NERV's latest victory but rather because they didn't have a choice in the matter. Ritsuko Akagi and Maya Ibuki both would have gladly passed out on any surface vaguely resembling of a bed, but while the inner chamber that they currently staffed did possess a side room specifically designed for that kind of break, the idea of rest was very far from their minds at the moment. They were on a timer, after all.
Maya also doubted that she could ever fall asleep in such a creepy atmosphere. The LCL filled tank that the First Child was floating in didn't help matters, either. It brought to mind several disturbing scenarios from sci-fi books she had read over the years. Clones, androids or genetically enhanced humans and the like, all born from tubes such as this and rarely created with good intentions in mind.
'And yet, that wouldn't be the strangest thing you've heard today.'
Maya shook her head and focused back on her patient: the infection's spread had completely halted and even began to die off and recede at certain ends, but all the vital functions within Rei's body remained compromised and were expected to remain like that. The LCL treatment that Ritsuko had hastily put together was doing some good work, both at fighting the infection and keeping Rei alive, but it was clear in Maya's mind that it would fall well short of actually healing the First Child.
"…Senpai, is this really going to help Rei-chan?"
Maya hated doubting her Senpai, she really did. But recent events and her mounting exhaustion made the question slip out of her lips before she had the opportunity to think better of it.
"The process won't save her life, as I'm sure you already guessed," if Ritsuko was offended by her slight, however, she didn't show it. The doctor kept on working at her terminal as if speaking about the weather. "It is only meant to buy us time until night falls."
"Why do we need to wait until night-time?"
"Because the EVA gantries will be understaffed at that time. Beyond that… it will be simpler for you to wait and see."
Maya frowned, a non-answer was not what she had wanted to hear at that moment, but it was clear that no elaboration would be forthcoming. The young woman let out a heavy sigh and went back to poring through the constantly updating reports of Rei's condition which, thankfully, were repetitive in nature. As the minutes passed, however, Maya noticed that she would lose focus and need to start reading all over again irritatingly often.
She couldn't help it. Time and time again, her mind kept on going back to the conversation she'd had with her Senpai less than two hours ago. To say that Maya Ibuki struggled with the revelations would have been putting it lightly.
"And all those things that the machine, the… AI mentioned. Are they true, Senpai?" She finally asked, putting aside the reports for the moment.
"Yes. As I said, everything pertaining to NERV is, at the very least."
"…It's just so hard to believe," Maya continued, struggling to find the right words. "That our work here was taken advantage of in such a way, that we would have… doomed mankind without even realising it. It still sounds like the plot of a movie to me. I still can't believe that the commanders were involved in such a thing, either...
"…Or that you helped them."
The accusation rolled out of Maya's tongue with ease, but left a horrid aftertaste in the young tech's mouth. The conflict between her sense of loyalty and the feeling of deep betrayal was raging inside her like a typhoon, one that perhaps Maya could have calmed if her Senpai's own admissions made any sense to her.
The woman she looked up to had been plotting to end the human race? What for? Power? A sense of nihilism? A yearning for some sort of infinite knowledge? None of those had ever been factors to drive Ritsuko Akagi. In fact, Maya couldn't think of any motivation that would make Ritsuko go down such a dark road, and she knew her Senpai like no other person in the world, outside of Major Katsuragi.
…Or at least, she thought she knew her. Perhaps the image of the driven and brilliant woman, harsh but patient at the same time, was just a front that Maya never managed to see through. Perhaps even one that Maya had built by herself.
"Why?" Maya half asked, half begged, hoping to allay the worst of her inner turmoil.
"…Why, indeed."
But that, too, received no proper answer. Whatever the true reason for Ritsuko's choices was, however, Maya could infer that her Senpai didn't like it, that much she could tell from her face alone. Knowing that much would have to do, for now.
"…What about Asuka-chan?" Maya continued, changing the topic.
"Sohryu fled HQ seconds after confirming the Third Child's condition. She's likely outside with a token escort, putting her thoughts in order, no doubt," Ritsuko elaborated, working her keyboard so quickly and so hard that the plastic might have given out at any moment. "I don't envy her current predicament."
Maya didn't either. She couldn't really understand the meaning behind the broken bits of communication that had reached HQ after the death of the Sixteenth Angel, but the fact alone that it had involved the comatose Third Child and that Major Katsuragi had been forced to raise the LCL pressure in Unit-02 to calm down a hysterical Asuka spoke volumes.
Asuka's reaction was another thing that didn't make sense to Maya, because Shinji-kun was exactly as he had last been, as far as Senpai and the rest of the doctors could tell. There had been no changes whatsoever to his condition. But then again, Asuka clearly knew something they didn't, judging from her response. The girl wasn't faking anything, that was for certain.
Shinji-kun, Asuka-chan, Rei-chan… even Makinami-san, to a certain extent. Those children just couldn't catch a break. It was as if the world enjoyed kicking them while they were down.
"This is all so awful…"
"It is, yes. But we must continue moving forward," Ritsuko half-agreed with her protégé's assessment before she pushed a final key and began to head forward, earning herself a covert glare in the process. "The preparations here are finished. Let's go to the next room."
With a small sigh, Maya followed her Senpai to the gateway and waited for it to open, only to find that it wasn't budging after a few seconds of waiting. Maya looked to the side and noticed that the security key card had yet to be passed through the reader, Ritsuko's hand motionlessly hovering right above it.
"Senpai? What's wrong?"
The doctor closed her eyes and let out a deep breath, turning to look at her protégé through the corner of her eye. The look in the older woman's eye was unlike anything Maya had ever seen on her before, full of shame and guilt.
"…I should warn you. The moment we step through this door your opinion of me will likely plummet," Ritsuko spoke with a wry smile. "Even further, that is."
The doctor swiped the key card through the reader and the doors began to part, Maya heeding her Senpai's advice and swallowing tightly, trying to make herself ready for anything. But the truth was that nothing could have prepared her for what she saw the moment she stepped into the following chamber, no matter how hard she tried.
A tablet that had once been tightly held loudly crashed against the floor.
"W-What…?" Maya mouthed as she slowly stared around her, expression caught in a look of sheer horror and a shaky finger extended outwards. "W-What… is t-this, Senpai…?"
The two of them were not alone in that circular room. Countless pale naked girls floated gleefully in a massive tank of LCL that surrounded the entire chamber. They looked at the two women curiously with eerie, toothy smiles and vacant red eyes, and giggled like babies looking for attention.
And they were all Rei Ayanami.
"This is the core of the Dummy Plug system," Ritsuko replied, walking to one section of the tank with an unconcerned gait. "And also the First Child's cradle."
"The D-Dummy…! S-She's…" Maya sputtered, recognizing the damnable name. Her hands clenched into tight fists as the young tech continued to look around her, her anger beginning to flare. She didn't know the details, she didn't care for the details, but it was clear that what she was witnessing was worse than anything Maya could have possibly imagined. "Senpai, why…?!"
"Maya. I know this is shocking, but if you want to save the First Child's life, I need you to stay focused," Ritsuko calmly and collectedly ordered, and just like that, Maya felt all of her boiling fury simmer down into a warm distaste. The young tech squared herself for instructions before she could even think better of it, old habits taking over. "Check that console and find the body with the best integrity available, the date when it was initiated shouldn't matter. Find the one we need and flush it out of the tank, so I can take over from there."
There it was, that sharp yet comforting tone of voice that was so familiar to her, but mixed with a new hint of resolve. Maya wondered why that could be for a second, before she realised that the answer was obvious: despite what Ritsuko's statement claimed, she wasn't the only one who wanted to save Rei. Her Senpai wanted to save her, too.
Maya took solace in that one positive fact among the tragedies of the day and did her best to block out all the other events of the afternoon from her mind, including the very present. She would be working on auto-pilot through the rest of the process.
-O]|[O-
Misato Katsuragi and Mari Makinami walked side by side among the ruined buildings on the outskirts of Tokyo-3. No words had been exchanged between the two of them since their meet-up, the company of one another born out of coincidence and a shared destination, and nothing more. They were both following the marker that Asuka's security detail had left for them, indicating the spot were the Second Child had finally stopped after her flight from HQ. As they neared the location the two agents waved at them and fanned out in different directions, preparing for the possibility of Asuka running off again. Neither of the two women gave them any attention, however, their focus on the person some meters down the road, clad in a yellow jacket and a random assortment of other clothes that had been quickly thrown together without any care for fashion.
The road abruptly ended in the spot where the N2 blasts had gouged a massive crater into the ground. Asuka's efforts had kept most of the city intact, but NERV's offensive strategy against the Angel still meant that in a few weeks Tokyo-3 would likely have a new lake to build around, if the city council decided to keep it anyway. It could probably look natural enough with a few trees and some decorations, and God knew that the city could use some more green in it. That was Misato's opinion, anyway.
But the Major knew that it was also not the time for that kind of idle thoughts. In silent agreement, both Misato and Mari stepped closer to the Second Child, near enough to let Asuka know they were there but also trying not to intrude.
"I'm not going to pilot Unit-02 anymore." Asuka said when they approached, inching a bit further away from the crimson titan, which had still not been recovered. "I'm tired of it. I've only lost important things since I started to pilot EVA, and it's never given me anything back."
Misato closed her eyes and exhaled, long and deep, at the Second Child's words. Owing to her prior experiences with Shinji and how closely Asuka had been mirroring a lot of his actions, Misato honestly could claim that she had expected this outcome, but she still didn't like it. If Asuka refused to pilot, that left NERV with just Makinami in the active roster, and Misato didn't need to go into detail as to why she didn't find that state of affairs appealing.
But worrying about the future battles could wait for the time being. Misato had come to speak with Asuka, not with the Second Child.
"I take it Ikari is gone?" Mari began before Misato could think of a line of her own, the girl's words making Asuka visibly tense up and the Major raise an eyebrow. "Sorry, I should rephrase that: I guess what I meant is that… you can't talk to him anymore?"
"You're here, too." Asuka stated, looking over her shoulder and sending a nasty glare Mari's way. "…Since when have you known?"
"Since a while ago. Akagi found some noise in your mental patterns that was pretty similar to that of the Third Child and the possibility came up, even if we didn't really take it too seriously at the time. I've been paying special attention since then to confirm our suspicions," Mari smiled a little, hoping that it would calm down the Second Child's rising anger. She wasn't successful. "I'm sure Bluebird figured it out, too. You weren't very subtle."
"And you didn't say anything?!"
"It wasn't my call to make. Besides, what would it have changed?" Mari replied, sounding somewhat apologetic despite her words, to her credit. "Akagi has been looking into the situation ever since we thought of the possibility, but as you can tell she hasn't managed any breakthroughs that would help.
"What makes you think that he's hurt, though?" she continued, curious. "His body at the hospital was fine, wasn't it? And this can't be the first time that you've lost contact, right?"
"Because it's not the same! Sure, we weren't connected 24/7 but from the moment I realised what was going on I could always tell that he was there, faintly, in the back of my mind! It's not like that now! He's just… gone!" Asuka ranted as she stood up, flailing wildly and putting a finger to her temple. "And nothing happened to me when the Angel struck, either! I wasn't infected the way Rei was."
"So you think that it went for Ikari, instead?"
"I don't think so, I'm sure of it!"
"Okay, hold up," Misato cut between the two girls, thinking that she had been patient for long enough. "You two clearly know what you're talking about, but I think it's time I got some more details on what's going on with Shinji."
"What, you're still in the dark, Katsuragi?" Mari smirked knowingly at the older woman. "Even after all those hints I gave you?"
"Shut up. I wasn't asking you." Misato swiftly cut the Fifth Child off, before turning to her ex-ward with the need to know written in her eyes. "What's going on, Asuka? Do you know where Shinji is?"
"…Was." Asuka replied, staring at the ground. She remained in silence for a few moments before she brought her eyes back to look at Misato, and tapped the side of her head again with the same finger as before. "Shinji was here, inside my head. He's been there ever since he went comatose, as far as I know. The bastard Angel that got into my head mixed him in there when he got in the way of its attack, somehow."
To her credit, Misato's show of surprise was limited to a tightening of her features.
"…Excuse me?"
Misato's expression would have made Asuka laugh at any other time, but it didn't prove enough at that moment. Instead, the Second Child explained the weird feelings she'd had during her early synch attempts with Unit-02, how she thought it was her imagination or guilty conscience playing tricks on her until the day that she woke up and Shinji straight up spoke to her. How they had been working together since then, awkwardly at first, but like a well-oiled machine before long. How hearing Shinji provide live commentary and useful input on her actions had slowly become a normal everyday occurrence.
By the end of Asuka's explanation, Misato's expression had lost all traces of bewilderment and returned to her usual composure.
"…That's some story. Crazy enough that I would have brought you to a doctor by now if we didn't work at NERV, and seen half the stuff we already have. But it does explain a few things, like the sudden climb in your synch-rate and all those times that you were lost in thought.
"But Asuka, if this has been going on for a while already…" Misato trailed off, taking a moment to think of how to continue. "Why didn't you say anything?"
'Why didn't you tell me?' was the actual question Misato was asking, and Asuka didn't miss it. It made the feeling of guilt that she had felt when first deciding to conceal the truth from Misato return with a vengeance. The girl hugged herself without really meaning to and went back to her previous sitting spot, mournfully staring at the crater.
"I was going to… after the battle. I promised Shinji we would talk to Akagi and find a way out of this mess," Asuka chuckled, a dark and hollow thing. "…But you can see how that turned out."
"Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound like an accusation."
"I know. I know." Asuka waved away Misato's concern before she continued holding herself. "It's just… I feel so alone all of a sudden. Rei is hospitalised, that bitch next to you is not who she claimed to be and now Shinji is… gone. I… I just don't know what I should do."
For a single second after hearing Asuka's admission, sounding so vulnerable and on the verge of tears, Misato hesitated. She knew that she wanted to help her ward, that she wanted to comfort her, but Misato also knew that she had failed horribly at doing that sort of thing in the past, and the fear of failure, of saying the wrong thing, rooted her to the spot.
But that fear did not last. Misato quickly decided that doing something, anything, no matter how clumsy, would be better than doing nothing at all. She had just taken a single step forward, however, when a cell phone rang out. It took the Second Child a moment to recognise the stock tune as her own, fishing the device from the pocket of her jacket and putting it to her ear without even checking the call ID.
"Yeah?"
"Ohmygosh Asuka! I'm so glad you're alright!" Hikari Horaki's voice came from the phone, making Asuka smile a bit. Up until she noticed that her friend sounded both relieved and panicked at the same time. "I was afraid something could have happened to you, too!"
"Hey, Hikari, I'm glad to hear you. But calm down, what's going on?"
"It's Toji! He just… He just-" Hikari continued, flustered and tripping over her own words. "He just vanished without a trace!"
"What…?" Asuka stood up, flipping the phone in her hand and activating speaker mode. This caught the attention of the other two women. "Hikari, did you already speak with the doctors? Maybe he was moved to another wing?"
"Yes! And they don't know where he is, either! They told me that… that some people came by after the battle and that they took Toji with them! That they were… transferring him to another medical institution!"
Asuka turned to give Mari her full attention. And if her eyes had been able to shoot flames, the Fifth Child would have been burnt to cinders right then and there.
"What. Did you do. To Suzuhara."
"The Fourth? He's gone?" Mari echoed, soundly genuinely surprised. "Sorry, I'm not in the loop about that."
Two pairs of inquisitive eyes clearly let Mari know that they didn't believe her.
"Look, I'm aware of my track record but I'm serious this time," the Fifth Child insisted. "That's already not the sort of thing that I would be usually told about, not in depth anyway, but to make matters worse I sort of pissed off my handler and made him doubt my focus just the teensiest little bit a short while ago. Keeping me in the dark is probably just his way of playing it safe."
Better, but not good enough. Not good enough by a long shot.
"She can hear me, right?" Mari sighed, pointing at the cell phone in Asuka's hand. At the Second Child's tight nod, she continued. "Look, Horaki, I sort of know the people that took the Fourth Child. I don't know where they took him or why they took him, though, but I can assure you that they didn't force this Suzuhara boy into anything. Whatever they did, they did with his consent."
"What makes you so sure?" Misato demanded from the side.
"The fact that he's not an active EVA Pilot anymore. Suzuhara is a civilian as far as we are concerned, and we've got very clear and strict directives about civilian involvement that Arthur would never think about breaking. Remember when we made a point of making our takeover as bloodless as possible?"
"I remember, alright. But probably not for the same reasons you do." Misato grunted, eyeing the Second Child out of the corner of her eye. "What do you think, Asuka?"
Misato's ex-ward was meaningfully eyeing the Fifth Child, her mouth set in a grim line as she inspected her former teammate for any tells.
"She's not lying. Not this time." Asuka eventually decided, then spun around and brought the phone back to her ear. "Give me a few."
The Second Child stepped a few paces away and resumed her conversation with Hikari, a few heated glances back at Mari hinting at how the class representative had not failed to recognise the voice and how the supposed Fifth Child's involvement had given her more questions than answers. In the end, however, Asuka succeeded at calming down her friend and ended the call with a deep sigh, sitting back down and staring down the crater like she had been when Misato and Mari first had arrived.
Both women stared at the Second Child's back, recalling why they had come there but getting second thoughts now that additional worries had surfaced. This time, however, Mari was the first to push through that blockade.
"Hey, Katsuragi. Mind giving me a moment here?"
"What for?"
"I just want a word in private, that's all," Mari deflected Misato's suspicions by motioning with her head to the back of the street. "But you can look from over there if you get a kick out of that."
Misato stared at the Fifth Child long and hard, wondering to herself why she should humour her. Makinami was a foreign agent who didn't like her at best, and a possible danger to her Pilots at worst; Misato had had little reason to trust her even before she had shown her true colours.
Then again, that same agent had been willing to defy her superiors in order to help Asuka fight the Angel. That didn't make Makinami any more trustworthy, but the Major could tell that the girl's feelings at the time had been genuine. Misato herself had been in that same position not that long ago, after all.
"You have five minutes," Misato finally granted, imitating the angry tone of voice Makinami had threatened her with just a few hours prior, during the battle. "I'm coming to get you after that no matter what."
She then turned around and walked back a few steps, uncaring of the dirty look Mari sent her way.
"Smartass."
Mari spat the word out then walked closer to Asuka, knowing full well that Misato was certain to enforce her time limit. She sat next to the bitter Second Child, just a small step apart, and let out a small sigh of relief when Asuka didn't immediately move away. However, Mari also noticed that her presence was currently being tolerated, not welcomed. The Fifth Child took a few moments to think of what her opening words should be, her eyes slowly scanning the new crater during that time.
"You know, you did some great work out here, Asuka."
Asuka bristled at the praise, almost growling as she looked at Mari from the corner of her eye. "Get to the point."
"…Some welcome."
"You don't deserve any better," Asuka continued in no uncertain terms. "You helped save Ayanami. That's the only reason I'm even letting you get close, so get on with it."
'Excuse me for doing my job, Princess,' Mari thought to herself, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. 'You really stop reminding me of her when you're like this.'
"Okay, I'll get on with it," Mari continued with a deep sigh, trying her best to sound earnest. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I always knew that I would have to come clean eventually, but I didn't want it to be like that."
Mari looked at the Second Child and tried to gauge her response, but Asuka didn't say anything. She didn't move at all. She just kept scowling and looking at the bottom of the crater.
"I mean it. I had fun. These past few weeks with you and Bluebird have been a blast," Mari continued. "I know that the circumstances probably don't make me sound honest at all, but it's the truth. I enjoyed the little bit of 'normal' that we had going, the three of us."
"You were lying to us the entire time," Asuka growled back. "You don't get to say that."
"Why not? I mean, I enjoyed my role so much that most of the time I forgot I was supposed to be acting. It came so naturally that I almost slipped that time when you and Ayanami started to tickle me, remember? Who'd have thought that going back to being an angsty teenager could be fun?"
"That's exactly why. To us it was important, but to you it was all just some... role. Something you've probably done a lot of times already," Asuka finally looked to her right, piercing the other girl with her stare. "And what do you mean 'go back to being a teenager'? Something to do with why you look like some Robocop reject?"
"Ouch. Harsh." Mari recoiled a bit, then brought her arm up and silently stared at it for a few seconds. "…I never asked for this, you know? But sometimes life gives you shit and you've got to learn to live with it."
Mari then brought that same arm up to her head and ran a hand through her hair, sighing in exasperation.
"And I told you already, it wasn't all just for the sake of the mission. I do really like you guys! I honestly thought that I wouldn't be able to stand you and your attitude after that first day in the hospital, but you and Ayanami have really grown on me since then. Is that really so hard to believe?"
The Fifth Child's voice had turned almost pleading during her question, asking Asuka to look at the situation from her angle. She had a duty and assorted obligations to fulfil, and yes, those had required her to be undercover and hide the truth from Asuka and Ayanami, but that had been that, and these were her own personal thoughts and feelings on the matter. To Mari, it was a very simple distinction to make.
But Asuka would have none of it. She was decisively cutting in her decision.
"You can bet it is."
And Mari decided that enough was enough.
"Why won't you stop that already?! Nothing has changed, dammit!" the Fifth Child angrily rose to her feet, putting a hand to her chest. "I'm still the Mari Makinami that fought with you! The same one that bled with you! And I will be until the time when my assignment is complete! Sure, I'll have to go away after that, but what's so different between that and two friends who drift apart after graduation?!"
"Don't call yourself that!" Asuka stood up too, just as furious. "You're not Mari Makinami. You're not the Fifth Child. You're not my friend! You're just some liar who has been using her face all this damn time!"
"I didn't have a choice! And I already said I was sorry! What more do you want me to do?!"
"I want you to get the hell out of my sight!"
"For what?! So that you can go back to stewing in your misery?! Maybe bite Katsuragi's head off too for shit that's not her fault?!"
"Stop talking like you know me! You don't know anything about me!"
"I know all about you!" Mari roared back. "I know all about your past and your present! I've read every single report, watched every interview and debriefing and tried to personally figure you out for the last month! Hell, at this point I probably know you a lot better than the boy inside your head you're so hung-up on!"
Asuka took a small step back, shocked into silence. Her pause was momentary, however, her expression going from shock to anger in the blink of an eye and, before she could even think twice about what she was doing, Asuka threw a punch at Mari's face.
But the Second Child's fist was stopped before she struck her target, Mari gently grabbing her by the wrist.
"…So that's how you want this to be, huh? What is it, Sohryu? You think you're the only one who's had a screw up of a life?" Mari pushed the hand away and shoved her artificial arm right in front of Asuka's face. "Think again! I've been stuck at sixteen for the past fourteen years! I've been forced to watch the world around me change without me in it! I've had my entire life taken from me in a way you couldn't even begin to imagine! And through most of it, I was alone!" she then grabbed Asuka by the shoulders, almost bringing their heads together. "But go ahead, you damn brat! Why don't you tell me more about how bad you have it?! About how I'm a terrible person for being here, and trying to make sure that you're not going through this on your own right now!"
"I said that I don't want your damn help!" the Second Child yelled back, shoving the other girl backwards and putting some distance between them. A short deadlock ensued, both girls looking into each other's eyes for a few moments: Asuka's, wide and furious. Mari's, narrowed and scrutinising.
"…Fine, then. You've made your point clear." The Fifth Child finally spoke, her face inscrutable. She then raised a finger to the left side of her face. "But have a word of advice: the next time you try to punch me you should go for the cheek. Anywhere else and you'll just hurt your hand."
Asuka bristled at the reminder and let out a frustrated huff, balling her fist and taking a step forward under Mari's judging, almost daring stare. But the Second Child walked no closer than that single step, noticing that, under the front, her former teammate looked not angry or disappointed, but hurt. Hurt that she was denied the chance to make things right after all their time together.
It made Asuka's own conviction waver, but not crumble. The Second Child turned around without a word and walked away into the distance. She disappeared behind a pair of dilapidated buildings soon after, a short report from the Second Child's security detachment reaching Mari's ears not even a second later. The Fifth Child barely paid it any heed, however, briefly acknowledging it with half a mind as she sighed deeply and took her seat besides the crater one more time.
It wasn't even half a minute before she heard Katsuragi's steps coming closer from behind.
"You're a real people person when you're not in character, you know that?"
"…Shut up."
-O]|[O-
Maya Ibuki slowly awoke from a dreamless sleep. She rubbed at her eyelids, struggling to remember when she had succumbed to exhaustion and checked her watch, which read 3:37AM. The last time Maya had checked the time it had been nearing 11PM, about the time when she had decided that she needed to rest her feet in a chair for five minutes. Clearly, she had fallen asleep along the way and those five minutes had almost become five hours.
"You're awake." Ritsuko stated from her place at the main terminal. Maya quickly realised that it was very likely her Senpai had not moved an inch from her workstation in all this time.
"I… Yes," she meekly replied, embarrassed. "Sorry for leaving all the work to you, Senpai."
"Don't be. It's natural to rest when you need to, and you couldn't have helped me any more than you have, anyway."
"I still feel bad abo…" Maya's voice trailed off, the young woman noticing an extra garment over her NERV uniform as she stood up from the chair. It was her Senpai's lab coat, which had no doubt been draped over her shoulders when Ritsuko had found her out like a light. Her Senpai's familiar scent came out of it, and a faint blush grew on Maya's cheeks when she had to stop herself from bringing the coat closer to her nose.
"Is something wrong?"
"No! Nothing!" Maya quickly replied, offering the coat back to its owner as if it was on fire. "H-Here's your coat back, Senpai!"
Ritsuko raised a quizzical eyebrow but didn't question her junior's antics, grabbing her coat and putting it on again before she focused back on her work. Maya found herself both relieved and frustrated by this, her Senpai's laser focus on the task at hand proving a blessing and a curse at the same time, as usual.
But it was at that time that Maya remembered what their current task was and where she was standing, reality dawning back on her like a ton of bricks when she saw the clones floating in the tank again, even if the blue haired copies didn't disturb her nearly as much as they once had. She had even interacted with one of the girls to a certain extent during her downtime, the clone trying to touch her hand through the tank's glass pane. Its vacant stare had creeped Maya out a lot at the time, but she had also noticed a glimmer of something in the clone's eyes while she played with her.
Maya wasn't certain what to make of that. She wasn't certain if she even wanted to make something of it, considering what the clones represented: one of the dark shadows smothering the idealised view of her Senpai she had built.
Of course, the girls had no fault in that whatsoever, which made the entire dilemma even harder for Maya to figure out. Perhaps repeated visits to this room would help make up her mind in that regard.
"You woke up at just the right time, Maya," Ritsuko broke into her junior's train of thought. "I've finished uploading all the necessary data into the Ayanami clone. Bring the wheelchair here, please."
With a brisk nod, Maya hurried towards the wheelchair and brought it back to the central tank. Her Senpai had already drained it of LCL and opened it, holding the unconscious clone in a sitting position until Maya could help sit her in the wheelchair.
"There we go, properly secure it to the chair," Ritsuko instructed, strapping the clone by her legs and torso to make sure she wouldn't fall. She then turned towards the circular tank, taking a remote out of her lab coat. "Good work, we have all we needed to take from here. Now I only need to dispose of the surplus bodies."
"'Dispose'? What do you…?" Maya echoed, stopping her physical checks on the clone to look up at Ritsuko. It didn't take Maya long to make the connection between the remote and her Senpai's dispassionate eyes. "Senpai! No!"
Ritsuko blinked, turning to her junior with some surprise. "Maya?"
"Don't tell me you're thinking of destroying them?!"
Maya's anger gave Ritsuko pause, her tired mind struggling to piece together why the usually meek woman was so furious. The process of decoding the message took two seconds too long, the doctor lowering the remote and grabbing the bridge of her nose with a sigh afterwards.
"Oh, that's right. I should have expected this.
"You're working from faulty assumptions, Maya. They're not human. They may look like it, but they have no souls," Ritsuko elaborated, motioning at the floating clones with her free hand first, and the one in the wheelchair second. "Unlike this one, they're nothing but meat puppets without any strings to guide them, abominations that should never have existed to begin with."
"Why?! What's so different about her?!"
"Like I said, she has a soul. The First Child's, to be precise."
"But that can't be!" Maya argued. "Rei-chan is at the hospital, isn't she?"
"Incorrect. That body was euthanized two hours ago," Ritsuko calmly replied, pointing at a body bag in a corner of the room that Maya had missed until then. The young woman was unnerved at the sight of the bag itself, but the fact that Ritsuko seemed completely unfazed by what she was saying unnerved her even more. "Rei Ayanami is sitting in this wheelchair now. Or will be, when we finish the process."
"But they're alive, too, aren't they?! We can't just… kill them like that!" Maya continued, pushing past the cold pit in her stomach. "Think for a second about what you're proposing, Senpai!"
"I thought about this plenty, believe me. I'm doing the world a favour. Mankind, let alone NERV, has no business playing God like this. Can you imagine the potential consequences if our development process for the Ayanami series leaked out?"
"Yes, I can. Easily. But why do they have to be punished for that? They did nothing wrong!"
"Stop talking as if they are human, Maya! They are lab materials, nothing more!" Ritsuko snapped, starting to lose her patience. "There is no reason to treat them any better than you would a biological sample!"
"The kind of biological samples you're talking about don't react to stimuli." Maya shot back, pointing at the clone she had interacted with while her Senpai looked between the two of them with a serious expression on her face. She had clearly missed that exchange and didn't know what to make of it, and Maya decided to press that advantage for all it was worth. "What makes a human, human, anyway? Why are we more real than any of them?"
"Maya, this is not the time for philoso-"
"ANSWER ME!"
The sight of her junior not only being angry, but yelling at her, gave Ritsuko pause for a second time. Enough to calm herself and think of a rational answer.
"The fact that without a soul, they lack drive, reason, feelings, human nature itself," Ritsuko elaborated, hoping that she would finally get through to Maya. "They are not alive. They are merely existing."
"But so does a baby, doesn't it? No human is born with all the qualities you just described, they grow into them!" Maya candidly replied, undeterred. "And there's nothing stopping us from doing the same with them! We can raise them! We can teach them!"
'This is ridiculous. Nurturing an organism without a soul? Just how naïve are you, girl?'
"Please, Senpai! Don't do this!" Maya insisted, unaware of her Senpai's cynical thoughts. "They don't deserve to die! They are our responsibility!"
Ritsuko narrowed her eyes at her junior and contemplated her options one more time. The doctor still believed her original course of action perfectly reasonable and thought Maya's proposed enterprise utterly pointless, but it was clear that Maya thought otherwise. More importantly, she had made her disgust with the idea of disposing of the leftover clones perfectly clear.
The unspoken message of the discussion was abundantly clear: it would be a point of no return for their relationship, if crossed. And that knowledge made Ritsuko Akagi doubt her actions far more effectively than any argument ever could.
"…Fine, you win for now. I'm too damn tired to argue." Ritsuko's thumb finally moved away from the button, and she quickly left the remote on top of the console. "Come, Maya. The EVA gantries are our next destination."
With those last words, Ritsuko draped a blanket over the Ayanami clone's unconscious body and wheeled her away without waiting for her assistant, who was far too busy being shocked at the fact that she had successfully managed to get to her. Her momentary stupor overcome, however, Maya hurried to catch up to her Senpai at the elevator.
They made the trip in silence, the occasional hiccups of the military checkpoints easily sidestepped with a simple mention of Ritsuko Akagi's name before her Senpai continued to purposefully stride forward, threatening to leave Maya in the dust. Not because the young tech couldn't physically keep up with her senior, but rather because she was struggling to read the situation to her satisfaction.
Her Senpai looked exhausted, as she had before, but if there was anger behind her actions Maya did not see it. That didn't exactly fill Maya with relief, however, because a focused Ritsuko Akagi was difficult to read at the best of times. There was no guarantee that she wasn't absolutely furious with her and the encroaching void in their conversation did little to assuage that fear, causing Maya to want to say something, anything that would make the silence go away.
But what was she supposed to say? Her Senpai had been a hair's breadth away from becoming a multiple murderer to some degree; the last straw in a long list of revelations that Maya was still struggling to accept, that she wasn't certain if she even wanted to accept.
'Did I do the right thing by stopping Senpai?' Maya continued to brood to herself. 'It's true that she has done many bad things, but what if she was right and those secrets are leaked, and we have clone armies fighting each other all over the world ten years from now, and she blames me for that because she was right and-'
"Maya, I know you must still be tired but sleeping on your feet is something you have to avoid, right now."
"AH!" Maya snapped back to attention, noticing with surprise that they had made it to the EVA gantries at some point during her ruminations. She squared her shoulders and quickly tried to hide her worries. "Y-Yes!"
"Good," her Senpai acknowledged, none the wiser and checking the Ayanami clone for any problems. "Head to the control room and start the baseline activation process for Unit-01."
"We're activating Unit-01? Why?"
"It's part of the process." Ritsuko briefly stated, intending to leave it at that. But a sigh escaped her when Maya didn't move, silently demanding elaboration. "I backed up Ayanami's memories before the body switch, but our timeline forced me to rush the process. They were siphoned in without order or reason and will likely prove detrimental in their current state."
"How so?"
"It is difficult to say. The aftereffects of us tampering with the clone's recently awoken mind without strictly following the guidelines could range from a major headache to knocking her out for several days. Overload and damage to the hippocampus would also be dangerously likely, and is what we're looking to avoid," Ritsuko further explained, tapping the side of her head. "To combat that, the information we embedded needs an anchoring point around which it can organise itself: second or third-hand accounts that the brain can use to contextualise and create a timeline for those events. Sohryu's or Makinami's own memories of said experiences would work best, for example."
"…I think I understand, Senpai. But neither Asuka-chan or Makinami-san are here, are they?" Maya narrowed her eyes at the purple titan. It was as intimidating as ever. "Why are we in front of Unit-01 instead of looking for them?"
"Because we don't actually need them. I mentioned third-hand accounts before, didn't I? And we have those right here." Maya turned a quizzical eye towards her Senpai, likely doubting that she had heard correctly. Ritsuko, in turn, couldn't help a wry smile at the last shock she would be giving her junior before the sun rose. "I know you have questions, but they will have to wait, Maya. First we work, and then I'll tell you another story about the EVAs."
"And what does this work you mean to carry out entail, Doctor?" an affably neutral male voice suddenly questioned from thin air, startling Maya and directing the girl's attention to the gantry's speaker system. Ritsuko rolled her eyes, instead.
"I was wondering when you'd show up. Been hoping you wouldn't, actually."
"Forgive me for intruding on your conversation, Doctor, but I simply had to speak up when I noticed you and your assistant sneaking towards the Evangelions at this time of night," Arthur continued, oblivious or unconcerned with the verbal jab. "And with the First Child in tow, too."
"Sneaking wasn't our intent. We simply chose this timeframe as the one that would prove less of a logistical and intelligence hassle," Ritsuko eyed her assistant for an instant before she continued. "I am sure that you will agree with my assessment, considering that the true nature of the First Child or the Evangelions weren't part of the revelations disclosed during your reveal of the MAGI's secrets."
"I am indeed in agreement with your choice of timeframe, Doctor. But the same might not be true of your actions. Would you care to explain why you seek to put the First Child inside Unit-01?"
"Is such an explanation truly necessary? I am sure you overheard me talking to Maya, already, and that you can put the rest together."
"Don't play coy, Doctor," Arthur calmly replied, but Ritsuko was certain that he would have sounded annoyed or impatient at that time if he had the ability to do so. "Why does the First Child look so healthy since the last time I saw her? Why do you seek to restore all of her memories? I don't recall you being instructed to do so."
"I don't recall being forbidden from doing so, either," the doctor crossed her arms, undeterred. "You were there when I lied to Sohryu about the First Child's condition and could have easily acted upon my words, in one way or another. The fact that you didn't showcases your agreement, I believe."
Arthur went silent for a few, long seconds, and in that time Ritsuko become painfully aware of the nerve-wracking effect the tense conversation was having on her assistant. Ritsuko wanted nothing more than to reassure Maya, but she needed to keep her mask of indifference and cede no ground. She knew perfectly well that she was treading on thin ice by reinstating Ikari's trump card, instructions or not, and acting submissive would avail her little in this exchange.
"…Indeed it does," Arthur finally agreed, but was as hard to read as ever, otherwise. "Your independent actions will be overlooked this time, Ritsuko Akagi, for we do agree with the potential benefits they bring towards the stability of the Second Child. Nevertheless…" the hiss of an automatic door opening made Ritsuko and Maya turn around to find a soldier in full combat gear aiming their rifle at them. The soldier activated the laser sight of their weapon and aimed the bright, red dot at Ritsuko's heart before Arthur continued. "…I would implore you to refrain from taking any further such actions that could prove detrimental to our ongoing cooperation, Doctor."
Ritsuko heard Maya yelp in fright at the soldier but didn't even bother looking down at the dot on her chest. Instead, she looked back at the grunt with the same intensity with which she had stared down Commander Ikari weeks ago.
"Your words are duly noted."
"I am glad to hear that." Arthur applauded, a second before the soldier lowered their weapon and disappeared back into the hallway as silently as they had come. Arthur continued the moment the door hissed close. "I will see you tomorrow, then, and hope that you rest well."
A short tone came out of the speakers and they fell completely silent a moment later, likely signifying that Arthur had left the gantries. Or that he was trying to fool them into thinking he had, anyway, because it was more than likely that the AI now had a 24/7 surveillance net over all of NERV HQ with its link to the MAGI. Nevertheless, Ritsuko still allowed herself to relax and let go of the breath she had been holding. Altogether, the exchange had been a harsher warning than she had been hoping for, but the physical threat still fell well within expectations.
Ritsuko was quick to notice that Maya had gone as pale as a ghost, though. And the fact that Arthur had decided to do his show of force in front of the girl actually angered Ritsuko more than the threat itself.
'Nothing good will come out of calling that box of bolts out on its actions, though. Hell, it might not even realise what it did.' The doctor wondered to herself with a sigh before she put a hand on Maya's shoulder.
"Maya. Work first, worries second," Ritsuko gently reminded her, managing to bring her assistant out of her shock. "Go to the control room and activate Unit-01. We're behind schedule."
"Y-Yes, Senpai."
-O]|[O-
"Remind me, why am I here with you in NERV's cafeteria instead of looking for Asuka?"
Misato Katsuragi posed the question to the woman sitting beside her in the otherwise empty room. She dared not peek at her watch for fear of finding out just how few hours of sleep she was going to get that night, but it was late enough that the employees at the bar had long since finished with their shifts for the day. That had not stopped Makinami from forcing the locked doors open with some device in her hand and claiming a seat at the bar for herself, however. Misato's legs had bid her to follow suit, not really certain as to why.
That had been… some time ago. And no real words had been shared between them since.
"…Because there is no need to look for her," the Fifth Child grumbled back to change that, her voice almost throaty. "Sohryu is spending the night at her friend's place, and her security detachment has the place surrounded on all sides. Nothing gets in without us knowing."
"That's great to know, but it doesn't answer the first half of my question," Misato continued, throwing a pointed look at the can of beer Mari was nursing between her hands. "Should you be drinking alcohol, while we're at it?"
Mari glared back, shifting her body almost protectively around the aluminium cylinder.
"Get off my case, I'm older than you. Besides, my body filters this stuff out about as quickly as it goes in, so I'll say that's grounds enough to keep me out of the way of any drinking laws." The Fifth Child stressed her point by taking a long swig of the drink and slamming the can on the bar, in a way that felt very familiar to Misato. She then looked at the empty thing with accusing eyes. "…Hell, I could drink a large bottle of absinthe and only get a light buzz out of it. You have no idea how frustrating that can be sometimes."
For the first time that day, Misato found herself staring at the Fifth Child with some sympathy. After all, a good drink, or many good drinks, rather, had always been convenient outlets for her frustrations in the past. Drinking was a simple universal coping mechanism if not at all constructive, and being denied such a useful tool made Misato feel bad for Mari for just the briefest of moments.
"Almost as frustrating as your little stunts during the takeover. You gave our guys a run for their money," Mari continued, smirking back at Misato. "So many preparations without sharing even a little bit of info… makes you wonder what team you were playing for, right?"
"Non-interference, remember? I was under no obligation to tell you anything."
"That's true, I guess," the Fifth Child shrugged, reaching for another beer. "Oh well. It made things more fun, in a way."
Misato felt her sympathy for the Fifth Child leave as quickly as it had arrived, wondering one more time just what she was doing sitting in NERV's cafeteria with her. Extricating herself from Makinami's grasp was more than doable, after all, and even if Asuka needed some space right now to get her thoughts in order (in no small part, because of the Fifth Child herself), that didn't mean that Misato couldn't march to Horaki's house and lie in wait for the chance to speak to the Second Child as soon as possible.
'So why don't you just leave, already?' Misato asked herself for the hundredth time, and ended up at the same answer. 'Maybe because you haven't addressed the elephant in the room, and because you think it could help you learn something useful about this wild card.'
Misato had been wondering how to broach the topic of the Fifth Child's discussion with Asuka for some time now, and initially meant to do her questioning as soon as possible. She had put that on hold when she saw Makinami start drinking alcohol, however, hoping that inebriation would leave her with a looser tongue before long. But it was clear now that her impromptu plan wasn't to be.
'Might as well get it over with, then,' the Major decided. 'The worst thing that can happen is that she refuses to speak and you get a free pass to do whatever you want.'
"So…" Misato finally began, turning around towards the other woman. "Want to talk about that stuff you were going to tell Asuka?"
"With you?" Mari almost scoffed. "Why would I?"
"You're the one who dragged me here, you tell me," Misato shot back, deadpan. She then put her hands on the counter with a sigh, and made to stand up. "But if that's the case, I'll just head back to my-"
"No, wait!" A hand on her elbow stopped Misato from rising. She looked back at Mari with a raised eyebrow, the Fifth Child hesitating before she put her hand back around the beer can with a drawn out sigh. "I… Maybe you're right. Maybe it will help me get some sleep today, if nothing else."
Misato stared at the other woman, long and hard. She was plenty familiar with the Fifth Child's outgoing and social Pilot mask and her less agreeable agent persona, but this exhausted and somewhat vulnerable side was a new addition. It was a big change of pace, more relatable and human than any of the previous two roles, and unusual enough to hold Misato's attention for the time being.
She took her seat back at the bar and saw Mari's shoulders relax just a tiny bit. The Fifth Child then stood from her seat and walked to the bar's refrigerator, raiding a few more beer cans and showing one to Misato.
"Want some? It's going to take a while."
"No, thanks. A soda will do." Mari paused for a second at the refusal, sending a quizzical look at Misato before she shrugged and handed the Major a lemon soda. She then sat back at her seat with three more beer cans in hand. "And I hope you're a decent storyteller. I'm going to sleep the moment I get bored."
"I'll try my best, then," Mari grumbled back, popping a can and taking another, long swig. The beer can slammed against the counter a second time, but the Fifth Child's eyes weren't drawn to the beverage like they had been before. Instead, they stared at the many liquors at the back of the bar, looking past them and at something that only Mari herself could see.
"I don't remember a lot of the details, but I was in the middle of a school trip in high school when Second Impact happened," she began, still looking in the distance. "Or maybe it was a training camp for my club, or some competition or something along those lines, I don't know. What I do know was that I wasn't alone when I closed my eyes for a quick nap.
"And just like that, I went from being in a plane bound for Kyushu one instant, to standing next to a crashed aircraft in the ruins of Tosashimizu the next. I don't remember what happened in between those two moments, but I know that I was the only survivor of the crash." Mari paused long enough for a dry chuckle. "And an extremely lucky one at that, as it turns out! Just one or two kilometres south and we would have crashed right into the sea.
"Not that I cared at the time. I just stood there for the longest time, staring at the wreck. One by one, the fires around the plane slowly died out, so I stood there for hours, maybe even days. My entire world had ended in less than a minute and my brain struggled to come to terms with it."
Misato frowned at Mari's words, her right hand moving to hold the white cross around her neck. She could more than relate with the idea of coping with a life-altering experience.
"At some point, I heard a girl's voice behind me, asking if I was alright," Mari continued, unaware of Misato. "Some more people were with her, too, but they didn't matter. I ignored them all, kept looking at the crash. Then I heard the voices argue behind me for a bit, before the girl stepped closer to me.
"She put a hand on my shoulder, and gently convinced me to turn around from the remains of the plane, from the remains of my life. And at the end of the world and surrounded by death and destruction, she just… smiled at me. Comforting… encouraging… trusting. Just… happy that I was alive, that I still existed. Some random girl from halfway across the country that she had never even met before.
"I remember thinking how little sense that made, at the time. And that was enough for my brain to stop focusing on the accident, on Second Impact, and for it to start working again. I answered some simple questions, maybe even introduced myself. Don't really remember.
"I only remember that smile and the girl that it belonged to. The one thing that kept me going for the next four months.
"Her name was Saya Makinami."