Chapter 08 - 21 days
The first day, EVA-hangar:
Maya and Ritsuko are marching through the hangar, inspecting one of the EVA units after
the other.
"Units zero, two and four beyond Henflick limitation." Mayas eyes seemed chained to her
laptop.
"It may take a long time for everything to return to its former state."
"Fortunately, MAGI system can be transplanted. We can begin to work tomorrow, say."
"Well. For the present, we can only use the reserve Control Center-02 with main control
center that damaged."
"Without the MAGI?"
"Yes. We'll be at work this morning after brushing dust off."
Misato stood on the catwalk in front of unit one, whose limbs had been chained to the cage.
"It has been binded in the cage. Is it all right?"
"Neither heat, eletrons, electromagnetic wave nor other chemical energy are detected within
it. The S2 organ is completely suspended."
"Nevertheless, unit one moved three times."
Maya looked up.
"But it´s still hopeless, it ignored the signal to evakuate the plug."
"What about the backup and the dummy-system?"
"They are also ignored, even the direct links are broken."
They climbed the stairs to the testcenter´s control room.
Makoto Hyuga was already there, directing the scientists.
"We´ve managed to get a the video-link working, look at the main screen."
The entryplug was empty with the exception of the LCL-fluid. Shinji Ikari was nowhere to
be found within.
"What..." Misato whispered.
"That´s what happens at a synchrate of 400%", Akagi said bitterly.
"I can´t believe it... What happened to Shinji-kun?"
"EVA-01 did absorb him."
"What are you trying to tell me, Ritsuko? What is EVA?"
"A being similiar to human, made by human´s hand."
"Made by human...? It had been told that EVA was made in the image of the angel found
at the antarctis..."
"That´s not just a copy, a human will controls EVA."
"Does that mean, Shinji´s state of being had been planned?"
"Maybe by EVA itself."
"Damned, Ritsuko, do something! You created this... thing, didn´t you?"
***
The second day, NERV infirmary:
Rei stared at her bandaged hands.
"I am still alive..." she whispered.
"Yes." her visitor answered. Wolf Larsen had an arm in a sling, his face has bruised and
one of his eyes swollen shut.
"We all are still alive. Asuka´s in the next room."
"I know."
"Yes?"
"I´ve heard her cursing."
Larsen smiled.
"Yes, she´s quite a repertoire. But she looks better than both of us."
"What did happen?"
"Shinji did happen. He stopped the angel and saved our lifes."
"Yes."
Shinji... so he did come...
"How... how is he?"
"Well, he seems to be imprisoned inside of EVA-01, the entryplug can´t be removed."
"Oh."
"But Akagi will put things right."
"Yes."
But she couldn´t suppress her bad feeling of foreshadowing.
Shinji...
***
NERV, Gendo Ikari´s bureau:
Ikari sat in front of a lot of calculations, records and translations of ancient writings.
Like a man possessed he wrote notes, turned over dusty books, crumpled his notes
desparately and threw them across the room just to start anew.
The pictures Yui showed him inside of the dream were still resurfacing before his mind´s
eyes.
"Could I have been that wrong...?"
***
The third day, EVA-testing center:
"Shinji-salvaging-project?" Misato repeated what Akagi had just told her.
"Yes. That what is to be called Shinji's life still exists. Losing it is out of the question
now."
"I don't know. What NERV wants isn't his life but unit one as their tool.
"I can only repeat commander Ikari´s words."
"Really?"
Misato looked through the large window into the hangar, saw Gendo Ikari standing in front
of unit one, hands behind his back.
Could it truely be that he is... concerned?
"Shinji's body is supposed to be drifting in the entry plug in the quantum form because it
lost its ego-border."
"You mean that Shinji has transformed into something which we can't identify visibly?"
"Yes. The LCL ingredients in the plug at the moment very like the seawater of the primitive
earth."
"Life soup..."
"All of the materials which formed Shinji-kun are kept in the plug. What should be called his
soul exits there. Salvaging means making his body reconstructed and his soul fixed in it."
"Is it possible, Ritsuko?"
"With the MAGIs´ supports."
"You're saying about the theory, aren't you? Nobody knows the results without doing..."
***
The thirdteenth day, EVA-testing center:
"At present, the temperature is kept at 36. Electromagnetic radiation pulse is normal. Wave
pattern is B. Every instrumentation unit is working normally."
Maya stood next to Ritsuko who was reading the records for the fifth time.
"Making the outline of salvaging project in just one month. Only Senpai could do it."
***
The fifteenth day, Gendo Ikari´s quarters:
Exhaustion finally had caught up with him and Gendo was fallen asleep, for the first time
in the last two weeks he slept for more than three, four hours.
The dream again, he stood at the shore of the LCL-ocean. Yui was with him.
"Our son, Shinji... he is still inside of unit one..."
"He was with me..." Yui whispered.
"Was?"
"Was, is, will be... it´s all the same here at this place."
"Ritsuko is doing everything to save him."
"And you? Do you want him to be saved?"
"Yes. Yui, please, come back to me, too."
"I can´t. I was... am able to protect Shinji, but I have been inside of the EVA for too
long now. It wouldn´t give my soul free. And you know, that unit one will... would...
even survive Third Impact..."
She pointed at the unmoving purple-green giant in the distance
"Yui, what shall I do?"
"You do already know the answer..."
***
The twentieth day, EVA-hangar:
Rei stood in front of EVANGELION-01 that been submerged in LCL up to the chest, it´s
entryplug connected to the instruments within the testing area via several cables.
"Come back to us... to me... please..." she whispered.
Then her gaze met Gendo´s who stood on the catwalk next to the plug area.
***
The twentyfirst day, EVA-testing center:
"All search needles were driven in. Electromagnetic wave pattern is fixed at 0, -3."
"Ego-border pulse was connected." Maya reported.
"Roger. Begin to salvage him."
"Roger. Signal-1 is sent and received the signal. Now, signal-2 and signal-3 are sent.
No resistance!"
"Begin stage 2!"
Aside from the working scientist Misato Katsuragi stood alone and preyed for Ritsuko´s
plan to succeed. She wasn´t the only one preying.
Within the hangar Gendo Ikari stood on one of the catwalks with reddened eyes and silently
watched.
"His ego border is fixed in a loop", Maya suddenly reported.
"Try to irradiate to all wave patterns from all directions." Ritsuko ordered.
"No. The irradiated signals are captured in Clein space."
Misato hurried to Akagi´s side.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, a failure."
"What?"
"Stop the interference. Reverse the tangent graph. Set the addition value to 0."
She made some inputs.
"As for the core pulse, some changes are detected. Plus 3 is confirmed."
"The water temperature is getting higher. 36, 38, 41, 58,76, 97, 106..."
"Maintaining the present condition is the top priority issue!" Ritsuko ordered.
"It's going into the dangerous area. Plus 0,5, 0,8. It's strange. I can't stop it."
"What does it mean?" Akagi looked through the window. "Don't you want to come back, Shinji?"
"EVA resists all signals! His ego formation in LCL is breaking up. The pressure is increasing
within the plug!"
"Stop all operations. Cut the power supply!"
"No. The plug is exited."
Misato ran to the window, staring at the hissing entryplug looking out of EVA-01´s neck.
She didn´t see the man in the shadows whose scarred hands were cramping around the railing.
The video link showed a still empty plug.
"What´s the value of a science, that can´t even save one life?!"
The plug started to move.
"The plug is evacuated!"
Misato ran down the stair, ran into the hangar, climbed the ladder leading to the catwalk.
The entryplug lost it´s balance, hit the catwalk, opened.
Hot LCL poured onto the floor.
Misato slowed down, nearly stumbled into the growing puddle.
"No..."
She went down on her knees, touched the LCL with her hands.
"No! Shinji-kun...!"
The fluid started to move, to drag itself together, she didn´t notice. Tears rolled down
her cheeks.
She turned the head around, stared at unit one.
"Give me back my Shinji-kun!"
Now she noticed that her hands were touching the blank metal floor of the catwalk.
Next to the entryplug a naked boy laid, Shinji Ikari.
Misato croutched to him, embraced him, let her tears roll down.
Two medics appeared, one bowed to lift Shinji up, was stopped by the hand on his shoulder.
"I´ll take him."
"Yes, commander."
Gendo went into the knees.
"Major Katsuragi, Shinji has to be brought to the infirmary." he whispered with unsuspected
softness.
Misato let the boy go, allowed Ikari to lift up his son and place him carefully on the
medics´ stretcher.
The medics carried Shinji away.
"He has come back, Major." Ikari turned to Misato again, looked over to Ritsuko who just
had entered the hangar.
"Doctor Akagi, look after the major."
He did not wait for an answer but followed the medics.
***
NERV-infirmary:
Gendo stood by his still sleeping son´s bed.
In his back the door was opened and closed.
"Commander?"
He turned around at the sound of the voice.
"Rei..."
"He´s come back..."
"Yes."
"You look tired. May I stay here?"
Gendo hesitated first, then he nodded
"Yes, it will be a good thing for him to see a familiar face when he wakes up... someboy
he likes..."
He left the room.
The first day, EVA-hangar:
Maya and Ritsuko are marching through the hangar, inspecting one of the EVA units after
the other.
"Units zero, two and four beyond Henflick limitation." Mayas eyes seemed chained to her
laptop.
"It may take a long time for everything to return to its former state."
"Fortunately, MAGI system can be transplanted. We can begin to work tomorrow, say."
"Well. For the present, we can only use the reserve Control Center-02 with main control
center that damaged."
"Without the MAGI?"
"Yes. We'll be at work this morning after brushing dust off."
Misato stood on the catwalk in front of unit one, whose limbs had been chained to the cage.
"It has been binded in the cage. Is it all right?"
"Neither heat, eletrons, electromagnetic wave nor other chemical energy are detected within
it. The S2 organ is completely suspended."
"Nevertheless, unit one moved three times."
Maya looked up.
"But it´s still hopeless, it ignored the signal to evakuate the plug."
"What about the backup and the dummy-system?"
"They are also ignored, even the direct links are broken."
They climbed the stairs to the testcenter´s control room.
Makoto Hyuga was already there, directing the scientists.
"We´ve managed to get a the video-link working, look at the main screen."
The entryplug was empty with the exception of the LCL-fluid. Shinji Ikari was nowhere to
be found within.
"What..." Misato whispered.
"That´s what happens at a synchrate of 400%", Akagi said bitterly.
"I can´t believe it... What happened to Shinji-kun?"
"EVA-01 did absorb him."
"What are you trying to tell me, Ritsuko? What is EVA?"
"A being similiar to human, made by human´s hand."
"Made by human...? It had been told that EVA was made in the image of the angel found
at the antarctis..."
"That´s not just a copy, a human will controls EVA."
"Does that mean, Shinji´s state of being had been planned?"
"Maybe by EVA itself."
"Damned, Ritsuko, do something! You created this... thing, didn´t you?"
***
The second day, NERV infirmary:
Rei stared at her bandaged hands.
"I am still alive..." she whispered.
"Yes." her visitor answered. Wolf Larsen had an arm in a sling, his face has bruised and
one of his eyes swollen shut.
"We all are still alive. Asuka´s in the next room."
"I know."
"Yes?"
"I´ve heard her cursing."
Larsen smiled.
"Yes, she´s quite a repertoire. But she looks better than both of us."
"What did happen?"
"Shinji did happen. He stopped the angel and saved our lifes."
"Yes."
Shinji... so he did come...
"How... how is he?"
"Well, he seems to be imprisoned inside of EVA-01, the entryplug can´t be removed."
"Oh."
"But Akagi will put things right."
"Yes."
But she couldn´t suppress her bad feeling of foreshadowing.
Shinji...
***
NERV, Gendo Ikari´s bureau:
Ikari sat in front of a lot of calculations, records and translations of ancient writings.
Like a man possessed he wrote notes, turned over dusty books, crumpled his notes
desparately and threw them across the room just to start anew.
The pictures Yui showed him inside of the dream were still resurfacing before his mind´s
eyes.
"Could I have been that wrong...?"
***
The third day, EVA-testing center:
"Shinji-salvaging-project?" Misato repeated what Akagi had just told her.
"Yes. That what is to be called Shinji's life still exists. Losing it is out of the question
now."
"I don't know. What NERV wants isn't his life but unit one as their tool.
"I can only repeat commander Ikari´s words."
"Really?"
Misato looked through the large window into the hangar, saw Gendo Ikari standing in front
of unit one, hands behind his back.
Could it truely be that he is... concerned?
"Shinji's body is supposed to be drifting in the entry plug in the quantum form because it
lost its ego-border."
"You mean that Shinji has transformed into something which we can't identify visibly?"
"Yes. The LCL ingredients in the plug at the moment very like the seawater of the primitive
earth."
"Life soup..."
"All of the materials which formed Shinji-kun are kept in the plug. What should be called his
soul exits there. Salvaging means making his body reconstructed and his soul fixed in it."
"Is it possible, Ritsuko?"
"With the MAGIs´ supports."
"You're saying about the theory, aren't you? Nobody knows the results without doing..."
***
The thirdteenth day, EVA-testing center:
"At present, the temperature is kept at 36. Electromagnetic radiation pulse is normal. Wave
pattern is B. Every instrumentation unit is working normally."
Maya stood next to Ritsuko who was reading the records for the fifth time.
"Making the outline of salvaging project in just one month. Only Senpai could do it."
***
The fifteenth day, Gendo Ikari´s quarters:
Exhaustion finally had caught up with him and Gendo was fallen asleep, for the first time
in the last two weeks he slept for more than three, four hours.
The dream again, he stood at the shore of the LCL-ocean. Yui was with him.
"Our son, Shinji... he is still inside of unit one..."
"He was with me..." Yui whispered.
"Was?"
"Was, is, will be... it´s all the same here at this place."
"Ritsuko is doing everything to save him."
"And you? Do you want him to be saved?"
"Yes. Yui, please, come back to me, too."
"I can´t. I was... am able to protect Shinji, but I have been inside of the EVA for too
long now. It wouldn´t give my soul free. And you know, that unit one will... would...
even survive Third Impact..."
She pointed at the unmoving purple-green giant in the distance
"Yui, what shall I do?"
"You do already know the answer..."
***
The twentieth day, EVA-hangar:
Rei stood in front of EVANGELION-01 that been submerged in LCL up to the chest, it´s
entryplug connected to the instruments within the testing area via several cables.
"Come back to us... to me... please..." she whispered.
Then her gaze met Gendo´s who stood on the catwalk next to the plug area.
***
The twentyfirst day, EVA-testing center:
"All search needles were driven in. Electromagnetic wave pattern is fixed at 0, -3."
"Ego-border pulse was connected." Maya reported.
"Roger. Begin to salvage him."
"Roger. Signal-1 is sent and received the signal. Now, signal-2 and signal-3 are sent.
No resistance!"
"Begin stage 2!"
Aside from the working scientist Misato Katsuragi stood alone and preyed for Ritsuko´s
plan to succeed. She wasn´t the only one preying.
Within the hangar Gendo Ikari stood on one of the catwalks with reddened eyes and silently
watched.
"His ego border is fixed in a loop", Maya suddenly reported.
"Try to irradiate to all wave patterns from all directions." Ritsuko ordered.
"No. The irradiated signals are captured in Clein space."
Misato hurried to Akagi´s side.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, a failure."
"What?"
"Stop the interference. Reverse the tangent graph. Set the addition value to 0."
She made some inputs.
"As for the core pulse, some changes are detected. Plus 3 is confirmed."
"The water temperature is getting higher. 36, 38, 41, 58,76, 97, 106..."
"Maintaining the present condition is the top priority issue!" Ritsuko ordered.
"It's going into the dangerous area. Plus 0,5, 0,8. It's strange. I can't stop it."
"What does it mean?" Akagi looked through the window. "Don't you want to come back, Shinji?"
"EVA resists all signals! His ego formation in LCL is breaking up. The pressure is increasing
within the plug!"
"Stop all operations. Cut the power supply!"
"No. The plug is exited."
Misato ran to the window, staring at the hissing entryplug looking out of EVA-01´s neck.
She didn´t see the man in the shadows whose scarred hands were cramping around the railing.
The video link showed a still empty plug.
"What´s the value of a science, that can´t even save one life?!"
The plug started to move.
"The plug is evacuated!"
Misato ran down the stair, ran into the hangar, climbed the ladder leading to the catwalk.
The entryplug lost it´s balance, hit the catwalk, opened.
Hot LCL poured onto the floor.
Misato slowed down, nearly stumbled into the growing puddle.
"No..."
She went down on her knees, touched the LCL with her hands.
"No! Shinji-kun...!"
The fluid started to move, to drag itself together, she didn´t notice. Tears rolled down
her cheeks.
She turned the head around, stared at unit one.
"Give me back my Shinji-kun!"
Now she noticed that her hands were touching the blank metal floor of the catwalk.
Next to the entryplug a naked boy laid, Shinji Ikari.
Misato croutched to him, embraced him, let her tears roll down.
Two medics appeared, one bowed to lift Shinji up, was stopped by the hand on his shoulder.
"I´ll take him."
"Yes, commander."
Gendo went into the knees.
"Major Katsuragi, Shinji has to be brought to the infirmary." he whispered with unsuspected
softness.
Misato let the boy go, allowed Ikari to lift up his son and place him carefully on the
medics´ stretcher.
The medics carried Shinji away.
"He has come back, Major." Ikari turned to Misato again, looked over to Ritsuko who just
had entered the hangar.
"Doctor Akagi, look after the major."
He did not wait for an answer but followed the medics.
***
NERV-infirmary:
Gendo stood by his still sleeping son´s bed.
In his back the door was opened and closed.
"Commander?"
He turned around at the sound of the voice.
"Rei..."
"He´s come back..."
"Yes."
"You look tired. May I stay here?"
Gendo hesitated first, then he nodded
"Yes, it will be a good thing for him to see a familiar face when he wakes up... someboy
he likes..."
He left the room.