II.

Misato knocked back a beer and cheered. "God, it's good to be alive!"

Shinji was in the kitchen finishing dinner. "Are you sure you want to open that now? Dinner won't be ready for another twenty minutes!"

"I had a good day, I can treat myself." Misato said. Her head rolled along her neck to look at Shinji. "You should treat yourself too, Shinji, you did good today."

His eyebrows were chanted up. "It wasn't like I did anything special. My Synch rates just improved on their own."

Misato smiled and brought the beer back to her face. "Maybe your Eva is rewarding you for that heroic volcano leap you did. I admit Shinji, I almost didn't think you had it in you."

Shinji laughed, but just then Asuka came out of the bathroom rubbing her belly uncomfortably.

Misato toasted with her beer. "Ah! There's the ace pilot! Howsit feel to nab your first angel kill?"

Asuka grunted and put her hands on her hips. "Don't patronize me! I'm not an ace yet, still have some way to go before I catch up to third here!"

Shinji offered with a modest smile, "Im sure you will Asuka, I don't have the drive that you do."

Misato's head swung to Asuka. "Yeah… you can say a lot of our early battles were more out of desperation than skill. So!" She toasted Asuka, "With you, we're turning a corner! The next Angel won't be so lucky with you leading the charge."

"Count on it!" Asuka replied as she started off for her room.

Shinji yawned loudly then. Misato side-eyed him. "Tired?"

"Yeah." Shinji said and rubbed an eye while he was coking. "Sorry. It just came on suddenly…"

Misato sipped her beer. "You should turn in early then, catch up on sleep if you need it."

"Yeah," Shinji said, "Maybe I will."

….

….

..

.

Misato, clad in her home pajamas, stared into Shinji's room as she had every,morning since that day. Though forensic investigators had examined the apartment, for now they left everything where it was found a week ago. Shinji's clothes were still bunched in the center of the room where they were dropped.

Misato stared for a while longer at them before she gently closed the door.

Toji Suzuhara considered the dark black garment before he slipped it on and then hit the trigger to condense it. Toji had seen Shinji wearing his plugsuit, and knew that if he wore one, it would be something like this. It didn't seem as tight as he anticipated though, he was able to move freely with it.

He looked at the locker adjacent to his. The one that was supposed to belong to Shinji. "Where did you go, Ikari?" He asked the air.

Toji stepped out of the lockers, though he could hear Kensuke even before he passed the archway out. His friend was wearing an army green colored plugsuit as he interrogated Doctor Akagi. Excitedly the boy asked, "What rank will we technically be? Are we on the pay grade as officers or noncommissioned pilots?"

Doctor Akagi answered him, "You don't need to use rank around here, except when addressing Captain Katsuragi."

"Yes, of course!" Kensuke said and turned around to see Toji approaching. "Hey! Looking sharp there, tough guy!"

Toji winced, finding Kensuke's enthusiasm predictable but also inappropriate. It felt as if they got here by walking on the graves of Ikari and Soryu. "Sorry man," he said, "I don't feel like celebrating."

"Hmmf. Spoilsport." Kensuke grunted.

Toji turned to his friend with pure irritation on his face when Hikari's voice interrupted them. "D-doctor Akagi? Did I do this right?" She asked as she stepped out of the lockers behind Toji. He blinked and turned a little more to face her and take her in. The tight fitting yellow plugsuit stirred something in Toji, who stared at her without thinking.

Ritsuko was speaking, "That looks correct, Miss Horaki."

Hikari's arms were folded in front of her frame, self conscious. "Is it supposed to be this tight?"

Ritsuko replied, "Yes. The point of the plugsuit is to assist in synchronization with your Evas, and for protection from the contact liquid. They are as thin as they are in order to maximize contact."

Hikari asked, "Contact?"

Kensuke smirked. "Doctor Akagi was saying how we're supposed to synchronize with our Evangelions, so that-"

Ritsuko interrupted him, "We can worry about the details later. Today will be your first synchronization test. Please come with me, I'll show you where to go."

Hikari bobbed her head. "Okay." She started following and Toji let her pass him, seeing her from the backside. He caught himself staring at her figure and had to shake himself back into the present, then rushed to catch up with the party.

Misato stood in the control chamber with her arms crossed and face set in a grim expression. The process they were about to undertake was one more admission that Shinji's absence might be permanent, to say nothing of Asuka and Rei. It bothered her still not knowing where they had gone.

She stepped forward. "So who goes where?"

Maya was still working at her console. Hyuga answered her. "Aida has been assigned unit 00. Suzuhara has been assigned unit 02." He looked at her, "Horaki is assigned unit 01."

Misato winced. The genders had flipped between the pilots. "What determined their placements?"

Maya said then, "MAGI completed compatibility simulations and these were the recommended assignments."

Misato stared at the assignment board for a moment, then grunted and looked out the window at the plugs as each of the new kids were entering the tubes.

Hikari couldn't help drawing her knees up in the seat. Without anything to look at but the steel walls of the tube, she hugged her knees.

Suddenly a flat panel with Kensuke's face appeared. "All right!" He cheered, "I got it to work! Hi everyone!"

A panel from Toji appeared. "Kensuke quit clowning around! We're here to do a job!"

"Hey. I'm an actual Eva pilot now! You blame me for being excited?"

A new comm window opened with the face of Misato Katsuragi. "Hey you three. Glad you figured out the comms, that will make this easier."

Both of the boys were happy to see Misato. Kensuke asked, "M-miss Misato? Why are we in these test plugs? Shouldn't we be testing in the actual Evangelions?"

Ritsuko answered, "These plugs are connected directly to the Evangelions by proxy. Rei, Asuka, and Shinji used these during our synchronization tests. Well use them now to test how well you can synch with the Eva unit you were assigned."

Hikari had been watching Misato as doctor Akagi was speaking and saw the woman flinch at Asuka's name. It reminded her that Misato was Shinji and Asuka's guardian.

It must be hard for her, Hikari thought, to see us here in their place.

Outside in the control office, Ritsuko leaned over Maya's station. "Are we ready?"

"Yes?" Maya replied as she still worked.

Ritsuko caught Maya's uncertain tone looked from her to the terminal and back again. "Is there a problem?"

Maya toggled the interface. "There are anomalies in the data integration for each of the cores."

"You purged the data before overwriting?" Ritsuko asked, clinically. Misato, overhearing, turned her head away again. The core data purge was yet another move to signal the original three were not coming back.

"Yes," Mata said, "I followed the procedure with the followup install. But the data isn't displaying as predicted." Maya glanced at Ritsuko. "Can you make sense of this, doctor?"

Ritsuko leaned forward to look at the abstract chart. It looked like orange mud patterns spread over a window. Ritsuko reached forward to manipulate the display before leaning back and saying, "Start a data capture. Well have the MAGI compile its own analysis after we are finished."

Maya asked, "We're proceeding with the test?"

Misato turned. "Problems?"

Ritsuko looked at the Captain. "No, no problems. Besides," she took off her glasses, "This has to work. We can overlook any minor unforeseen issues as long as synchronization reaches activation levels."

Misato's side-eye lingered on Ritsuko for a moment before she turned back to the monitors for the children. "All right kids, prepare for full synchronization. Once you're connected you'll need to relax as much as possible so we can have a strong response from the test. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." All three of them responded.

"Good." Misato said and turned her head. "Begin second stage contact!"

Lights winked further down the plug. Hikari drew her knees in again and grasped the control handles as the lights and display morphed and changed as part of the startup sequence. She tried to stay calm, and managed to keep her cool through the start up procedure.

It ended as the interface projected bars and support of a full cockpit into the walls of the plug. It looked like she was in a large hangar gantry, not the testing cubicle that she saw moments ago.

Kensuke's voice broke over the general comm channels. "Woo! That was awesome! Wait…Where am- am I connected to the Eva now? Is this unit 00?"

Doctor Akagi spoke then, "All of your questions can be answered later Mr. Aida. Right now I need you all to empty your minds and try to relax. The objective of this exercise is to establish baseline synchronization."

Kensuke replied, "Oh okay!"

Hikari tried to do as instructed. She straightened her legs and tried to take deep breaths to relax. Then she closed her eyes and kept breathing. The humm of the entry plug was soothing.

In the office outside, Ritsuko was looking at the charts with a critical eye. "Well," she said, "we knew we werent going to get the same numbers as the original children. They can connect at least, but their numbers are in the same area Rei was last."

Misato asked, "All of them?"

"All of them, within point four or point five of baseline. Horaki has the highest, reading 38.3%."

Misato sighed. "It will have to do."

Hikari kept breathing, trying to stay calm and lose herself in the humm of the plug. Something caught her attention and her eyes peeked open.

Shinji was standing with his back to her just within the corner of the left camera panel of the Eva's vision. He turned.

Hikari breathed in to scream in alarm but in the space of a blink, he was gone. Surprise was replaced with confusion, and she stared at the space where he was. She also began to doubt what she had seen.

"Is everything all right, miss Horaki?" Ritsuko asked.

Hikari hesitated, then answered, "Yes… I'm fine. I… I just thought I saw something."

Ritsuko nodded. "It can be unusual to sync with an Evangelion for the first time. If you experience further optical anomalies, don't hesitate to report it."

"Yes ma'am." Hikari replied.

Misato stared at the monitor showing the three pilots. She winced angrily, and her eyes started to water. She dipped her head, wiped her eyes and sniffed.

Ritsuko glanced at her from across the room, regarded Misato with a look of pity, then returned to her work.

Following the test Toji sat on the bench of the locker room still in his plugsuit, staring at his hand. He had done it. He was now where Shinji was months ago. The same place Shinji was when Toji punched him for arrogantly getting his sister hurt in that careless first battle.

Now it was Toji who had that responsibility. How many little sisters would HE be hurting with his actions?

Kensuke, oblivious to his friend's introspection, was inspecting his plugsuit in front of his open locker. "Man," he said, "I wish I could have brought my video recorder down here, today has been awesome!"

Toji side-eyed Kensuke and wondered how to react. His best friend had every right to be living up his dream… but that he didn't seem to acknowledge how they got here was a little… unsettling. He stared at his locker. "Where do you suppose Shinji went?"

"Huh?" Kensuke stopped.

Toji gestured to the first locker in the room. "Shinji. What do you think happened to him?"

Kensuke stared at Shinji's locker, then his eyes shifted. "I… I don't know. Doctor Akagi said they just disappeared from their rooms… maybe NERV will figure it out."

"...you're not worried about him?"

"Yeah I'm worried but…" he started to strip his plugsuit quickly, "but it doesn't do any good to think about! NERV is on the case they'll find Shinji and the others."

Toji finally noticed Kensuke's growing discomfort. "Hey, you okay?"

Kensuke was powering through dressing up. "It.. It weirds me out, alright? I-i don't want to think about it. So just… shut up about it."

Toji winced, but was too mired in his own feelings to challenge Kensuke for his callousness. "Aright'." He grunted.

Kensuke finished dressing and hurried to the door. He paused there and said, "S-see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yeah, later man." Toji answered. Kensuke left Toji alone then.

Hikari passed through the front door of her house. It was late. "I'm home!"

Nobody answered. Hikari stopped in the entryway to look at the state of the living room and how shabby it had become. She was pretty sure the pillow nest in front of the TV was Nozomi's doing, along with the discarded wrappers. Had Hikari been there she would have given another lecture to Nozomi about cleaning up her messes for the sake of other people. Then she would have cleaned it up herself.

Sighing, she walked into the house and navigated to the kitchen, which was where she usually was on days at home before her NERV employment. This room was empty too, though a bag of rice was on the counter along with a pot full of cold water and some cooking utensils. To Hikari it looked like someone had started to set things out for making lunches, but was called away.

Hikari sighed as she dropped her book bag on the table and opened the cupboard to start looking for things to have for dinner. She supposed she should finish up making lunches for tomorrow too, even though it was late.

She had the started pot boiling for noodles and a cutting board with vegetables when Kodama appeared. Her older sister sighed, "There you are. Dad made me take a call in the middle of making lunch."

"Was it important?"

"It was the bank. They wanted to speak to you, but since I didn't know how long you would take I decided to handle it."

Hikari's eyes bugged a little. "You didn't have to do that!"

Kodama shook her head. "No, I had to because you're too busy to handle it. We talked about this and I was going to take on some of your chores, remember?"

"Yes." Hikari replied as she dipped her head out of guilt.

Her sister went on, "I set up your accounts and had forwarding routed to the general account since I assumed you wanted us all to use it?"

Hikari nodded. That specific bank account was in reach of everyone except Nozomi in order to cover purchases for groceries and similar.

Kodama went on, "Okay. Then starting tomorrow we'll have that cash flow to use." Kodama took a breath then said as a sigh, "And I can think about quitting the cafe. Though I need to tell you, I really wish I didn't have to."

Hikari blinked and looked at her sister. "But… why? You've come home with stories about how much you hate that place!"

"No," Kodama said, "I complain sometimes, but I was earning my own money, and my coworkers made it worth it. This is besides the point though, which is what are we supposed to do if you disappear too, or something worse?"

Hikari bowed her head again. "I'm doing this to protect everyone. They need us to pilot. When the next attack comes-"

"In the next attack we have to live with the knowledge that it's you out there, fighting and maybe getting hurt. It's you who will be responsible if you damage or destroy parts of the city. It's you who is to blame if they win."

Kodama and Hikari looked one another in the eye. Kodama went on, "But you made your choice without consulting the rest of us, and now we have to live with it." She turned and left the kitchen, saying, "I wish more than anything that you had told them to find someone else."

Hikari was left alone as it continued to get dark outside. Her only company then was the bubbling pot of water in the kitchen.

Kensuke Aida passed through the front door to his home and closed it behind him. He walked by the boxes in the hallway that were still loaded from their move here a year and a half ago.

He paused by the entry into the living room to peek inside. More stacked boxes rested in the room, but the TV was on. A large recliner was parked in front of it. Kensuke could see over the side of the chair, his father's arm holding the latest bottle of alcohol. Kensuke regarded the hand sadly and turned to go further into the house.

His father interrupted him, "Out playing soldier again, son?"

"Er… not this time dad I-i was…" he averted his eyes, "...gathering supplies."

"Good…. Good…" Kensuke's father sighed and the bottle retreated from view.

Kensuke regarded his father sadly and then retreated to the kitchen where he took some slices of the pizza his father had ordered. Then he fled to his room and his hobbies. Once there he closed the door, sighed, and dropped his bag. He booted up his computer and prepared for an evening of surfing the net, before doing homework and going to bed.

Toji Suzuhara had a long evening ahead. It was long enough already; going to school, being in school, then heading to NERV for this first sync test. This was done. Now he needed to do his other errands.

In the open air of the Geofront he walked on the open pathway with his head on a swivel, marveling at the vast chasm that NERV HQ was built into. Never in his life before now could he have imagined this was beneath his feet topside.

He walked past a watermelon patch and considered it, wondering why such a thing was here. A man was standing in it, swinging a water can, but his back was facing Toji who just kept walking.

Eventually the boy made it to one of the few buildings rising over the park-like grounds of the base. The medical wing looked restful, even here in the afternoon light, and Toji was relieved to know now that his sister was here. It didn't take long to admit him to visit her. In that time he tried to figure out what he was going to tell her.

The door that opened to her ward revealed a simple white room. Her bed was on the far end of it, support machines beeping softly. She was awake. Sakura Suzuhara turned her head when Toji entered. "Big brother!" She chirped. She tried to lean forward but the restraints clacked to keep her down.

Toji smirked wryly. "Let that be a lesson to you squirt, listen to what the doctors tell you."

Toji approached the bed. In the first battle in the city she and Toji had been trying to find their assigned shelter when something hit the building and buried Sakura. She was alive, but hurt, and required bone reconstruction to help her become whole again.

The best the hospitals could do was keep her immobilized and let her bones heal on their own. It would be a long process and she would require physical therapy, but there was hope. Here at NERV though, the same technology used to engineer the Evangelions could be used to re-fuse her bones. What was to take months would now take weeks. There was hope of Sakura walking again before the end of the year.

It was the price Toji extracted for becoming a pilot and risking his life in the Evangelions.

Sakura smiled at him, then turned her head to the window. "Did you see the view? This place is amazing! Much better than the last place."

Toji glanced out the window at the park-like exterior and nodded. Her previous ward had no windows. "Yeah, much better!"

Sakura looked at him. "The doctors said you moved me here. Is that right?"

Toji's attitude soured and he lowered his eyes to hide his expression. He struggled with what to say. "No… well… in a way, yeah."

"What's wrong big brother?" Sakura asked.

Toji wavered between being honest and trying to protect her. Did she need to know his life was at risk? "I… I accepted a job here at NERV. And part of my pay is making sure they help you to get better."

Sakura gasped, "Wow! You work in the hospital? Can I see you more than once a day?"

Toji smirked and shook his head. "I don't work in the hospital squirt I work… ah… somewhere else. But I'll be a lot closer to you now, and I can probably see you more often."

"I would like that." Sakura said, "I wish dad and grandpa and uncle could see me more often too…"

"They're busier than I am." Toji replied, "But they miss you too, kiddo."

Sakura turned to look out at the gardens. "When I'm better, I would like to go for a walk out there. Do you think they'll let me?"

"Maybe. I don't know if that's off limits or something."

"I hope I can go there. I want to tell that man he's doing a good job." She smiled. "His garden is so green."

It was a long ride back up topside, but Toji breathed with relief. He still didn't know how to break it to his sister that he was a pilot. Maybe… maybe he wouldn't have to.

It was dark when he got home and pushed through the front door. He moved into the kitchen to see if there were any leftovers for dinner. His bowl was already in the microwave when his father found him. "Toji," the man rumbled, "You're back."

Toji straightened up and turned to face his father. Of the three men in Toji's family life, his father was the one he respected and admired the most. He was also the man Toji most feared. "Y-yes sir."

Taro Suzuhara was a construction foreman for NERV. His powerful arms were crossed. "Did you visit your sister? How is she?"

"S-shes fine sir." Toji said and elaborated, "She's on a high floor in the hospital in the geofront. S-shes well cared for. I… I can visit her there every time I'm there."

"Mmm." Taro grunted in the affirmative.

They had not spoken directly about Toji's appointment to be a pilot, though he had told his more easygoing uncle. Toji didn't know how his father would respond to the news… and had been afraid of what that response would be.

Taro un-crossed his arms. "I heard you're an Evangelion pilot now. You did it for Sakura?"

"Y-yes sir… but not just her. For my friends, too. They need me."

Taro didn't say anything at first. Toji felt his father's eyes burrowing into the top of his bowed head.

"I'm worried for you son." Taro rumbled. "Stories go around about what those kids have gone through. Ikari in particular."

Toji swallowed as he waited for where his father would take this.

"But I want you to know," Taro continued, "I am very proud of you, for doing this hard thing. There aren't many who would risk their life like that."

Toji blinked, keeping his head bowed for decorum but surprised to hear his father's admission. He heard his dad turn and walk from the kitchen, saying, "I know your mother would be proud too."

Taro never talked about Tojis mother these days. Toji's uncle and grandfather felt it wasn't their place to disrespect Taro's desires to keep her in the past and move on, so they never mentioned her either.

But Toji remembered her. He saw her in the moments when he visited Sakura. He missed her more than anyone, and wished often he could see her again.

Toji took his meal and sat at the dining table with his back to the door frame. His eyes were wet as he ate.

A/N: This chapter establishes Missing takes place some time after Magma diver. The portrayal of the various families comes from some of my other drafts and stories, both published and unpublished. The Horaki family we know here is remarkably different from when I last featured them in the likes of Burnt Candles and Panacea. I went with this darker take as part of putting pressure on Hikari... and to bring Kodama closer to the kind of person who would ask her sister to look for a girl for a guy she knows.

Though Kensuke is often depicted with a yellow plugsuit, Hikari is only featured in a yellow plugsuit, so I gave the color to her. Kensuke gets the green suit we see in a common classroom pilot trio art where Hikari is also wearing yellow there.