Fourth Movement.
At the NERV camp scientists and tech staff fought the clock to invent a way to pull the Evangelion from the angel's grasp. Night had drawn on and though the lights had been turned up to full power the space beyond the camp was still bathed in darkness.
Misato stopped Ritsuko as she left her discussion of the angel's metaphysics, holding her back by the shoulder.
"Let me get this straight," she said fiercely, staring the woman down, "we don't know what that thing is, we don't know what it's doing to Shinji, and we don't have any plan for getting him out of there."
"That's correct," Ritsuko said matter-of-factly, unfazed by Misato's intense glare. "We have one idea, though." Misato remained silent, and Ritsuko went on. "There are currently nine-hundred-and-ninety-two N2 mines in existence. If we can use the remaining Evas' AT fields to contain the power of the blast, we believe that we could use every last one of them in a simultaneous strike. Enough force concentrated into the same instant may cause the Sea of Dirac to reverse and spit up its contents."
"But what the hell would nine-hundred-and-ninety-two N2 mines do to a human being, even one inside a heavily-armored robot?"
"There's no telling," Ritsuko said dispassionately. "But either way, our priority is the extraction of Unit-01, not its pilot."
Misato slapped Ritsuko as hard as she could across the face. The woman's glasses skittered across the pavement, hairline fractures appearing all across the lenses.
"What the hell is wrong with you!? Why do you and Commander Ikari want Unit-01 so badly? What in God's name would make you sacrifice a little boy for your damned robot!?"
Ritsuko did not seem at all perturbed by Misato's outburst. Calmly she bent down and collected her glasses, sliding them into the pocket of her lab coat.
"I'm afraid that's the plan," Ritsuko said, not sounding concerned at all. "You should know that I am hereby assuming command of this entire operation." She walked off without another word to Misato, calling out orders in preparation for the extraction. Misato stood, glaring with all her fury and hatred at Ritusko's departing back.
Far enough away that they were out of sight but not earshot, two forms leaned against one of the stacks of crates that had been transported with the essentials of the base. Asuka and Rei stood nearby each other, cast in sharp relief by the unnatural light of the floodlamps.
"Did you hear that?" Asuka said, casting her eyes to the ground. "They're going to kill him trying to get the Eva out."
Rei betrayed no emotion: nor shock, nor sadness. "It is possible."
Asuka's eyes narrowed. "'It's possible'? Possible!?" Her voice rose as she turned to confront the girl. "They're going to drop nine hundred mines on him! He'll be blown apart!"
"That would be a shame," Rei said calmly.
Asuka brought her face barely an inch away from Rei's. "You heartless bitch!" she shouted. "He's worried about you and looked out for you and this is how you act when they've sentenced him to death!?" Her voice lowered into a tone of terrible contempt. "You disgust me."
Misato appeared seemingly from nowhere, and Asuka drew back, a look of hatred still painted on her face. Misato looked incredibly tired, as though she might simply collapse at any moment.
"Go get some sleep, kids," she said, her voice mirroring her features. "It's late…" She did not seem to have detected any of the girls' heated conversation. Asuka turned and stalked off, and Rei waited behind for a moment before also departing the scene. Misato noticed that Asuka appeared even angrier than usual but was in no mood to investigate.
If I didn't have to supervise this whole thing I'd be headed to the sleeping tents, too, she thought. Her mind wandered to Shinji, trapped in the belly of the beast. Not that I'd get any sleep.
Asuka found her own sleeping tent, determined not to be anywhere near Ayanami so long as she could help it, and collapsed into bed without even bothering to change out of her plug suit. Rei crawled into one of the tiny lodgings, looking down the row at where Asuka had gone to bed, and lay down herself, uncertainly pulling the covers around her body.
Known only to her, Ayanami Rei fell asleep with a prayer for Shinji on her lips.
****
Asuka sat alone in the darkness, knowing in her heart she had been abandoned. She clutched her knees to her chest, staring into the pitch and straining for any sign of life.
A form began to emerge from the blackness. It was Asuka, clothed in the yellow sundress she so favored in happier days. She carried a little woven basket and was even smiling.
"Hello Asuka," she said. Asuka stared at herself, incredulous. She pulled herself to her feet and stepped closer to her other self, as if afraid the girl might attack her. She reached out and touched the girl in the sundress.
"I'm real, if that's what you're wondering," Asuka said: not angrily, not unhappily.
The first Asuka stepped back and sat down again, looking away from the other girl.
"Don't worry," Asuka said to the girl in the plug suit, "he'll be fine."
"Who says I'm worrying about Shinji?" Asuka said, immediately becoming defensive.
"You are worrying about him," the other Asuka replied.
"No!" she retorted. "No, I don't need him! I don't need anyone!"
"Don't be ashamed to speak your heart, Asuka," the other girl said. "Needing others does not make you weak. Not needing others would make you inhuman."
"I'm not weak…" Asuka said, tears brimming in her eyes. "I'm not weak…I'm not weak…"
"Of course you're not," the girl in the sundress said, stepping forward and placing her hand on Asuka's shoulder. Asuka looked up, trying but failing to hold back her tears.
The girl in the sundress smiled softly and faded away, even though Asuka could still feel her touch.
Sohryu Asuka Langley cried out in her sleep, but there was no one to hear.
****
The next day dawned clear as the last two, and as the morning before Asuka rose with first light, to find that the camp itself had never really slept. At first she was surprised to see herself in her plug suit, but all too quickly the events of the previous day came rushing back to her.
When she dragged herself out of her tent she saw that Rei was already up and Misato was issuing orders to various passerby. She seemed to have gotten at least a nap during the night, but it had not done a great deal for her appearance. Ritsuko did not appear to have slept at all, but it also did not seem to bother her. She was still busy coordinating the mine drop, and Asuka realized with a sick feeling in her gut that they were really going to go through with this.
She walked to where Misato and Rei were standing, looking no better than either of them.
"Morning," Misato said wearily, and Asuka nodded. "Here's the plan," Misato told her, not sounding at all enthused. "The Evas are going to activate their AT fields at the very edge of the shadow. There will then be a—" she choked on the words. "A mine drop of unprecedented magnitude…" She seemed unable to go on.
Asuka showed no reaction, having drained herself of emotion the previous night. Misato did not seem to notice—or, at any rate, care—about Asuka's weary lack of acknowledgment. Her face showed that she had had more than enough experience with it herself.
Misato forced herself to speak the final words. "You will be in your Evas at ten hundred hours. Needless to say, you won't be in school today." Nobody laughed. "The operation will proceed at ten-thirty. You're dismissed until the boarding call." She focused her eyes on Asuka in particular. "See if you can get a little rest before then."
****
Asuka returned to her tent but knew that any attempt at sleep would be a futile endeavor. Instead she sat up in the bed, clutching her knees to her chest. Through the open flaps of the tent she watched the camp bustle, men and women rushing about, carrying bits of machinery and preparing for the extraction.
Asuka thought about the coming operation and felt sick, resisting the urge to vomit from fear and apprehension. Time passed far too quickly for her liking and soon in was oh-nine-thirty. She pulled herself from the bed for the second time that morning, heading toward the makeshift boarding bays that had been set up near the Evas.
She met Rei and Misato not far from the huge constructs' presence, their forms looming over the gathering like terrible guardians. "It's time," Misato said gravely, and the two remaining children climbed onto the lifts.
Asuka got a distinct sense of vertigo, riding the platform upwards, high into the air. Below her she could see the entire base in one glance, the people reduced to half, then a quarter, of their original size.
At long last the lift arrived at the side of the entry plug. Asuka tore open the hatch, hating the tube with all her heart. She climbed inside and pulled it shut again, basking in the total darkness for a brief moment. The plug slid smoothly into the Evangelion, and Asuka was compelled to activate the machine.
Outside, Asuka could see the base, the people still unnaturally small. A wild thought crossed her mind, that she could destroy at least half the camp before they could do anything to even attempt to stop her. It was altogether possible she could mangle the entire place in less time than it would take her Eva's internal batteries to expire.
But she knew that even a blind rampage would not stop the bombs from dropping, for she could already see the planes approaching on the horizon, bearing their deadly payload. Her Eva's small clock read ten-twenty. Her feeling of dread intensified, watching the bombers draw ever nearer.
Over her radio Asuka could hear final commands being issued as the pilots primed their weaponry. "Alright," Ritsuko's voice said.
"Wait!" Aoba's voice rang across the com channel. Ritsuko gave an audibly angry grunt. "We're receiving activity readings from inside the target!" the tech said. Asuka's eyes grew, and for the first time since the conversation last night she dared to have a sliver of hope.
In the sky the orb began to quiver, then shake visibly. "My God!" Aoba was unbelieving. "What the hell is going on!?" Comments of a similar nature flooded the radio until Ritsuko demanded, "People! Get ahold of yourselves! Bombers, delay the strike."
"If the strike is delayed then we'll miss our pass," a mechanically-filtered voice said.
"Then we'll make another one," Ritsuko said.
Suddenly the ground beneath the shadow shattered as though Hell had opened its maw. A thin stream of red began to spray from the side of the orb in sky, then the spray became larger and larger until a huge, blood-covered purple hand tore its way through.
A terrible roar echoed across the base. "Unit-01 is active!" Aoba shouted, as the ground quaked violently and the angel soaked the surrounding area in red. The hand clawed at the angel's carapace, pulling the wound wider and wider, blood pouring out by gallons a second.
Asuka held her hand to her mouth, once again fighting the bile that rose in her throat. "What the hell…" she said. "What's happening…?" Her eyes had gone completely wide, staring in incredulity and horror and the emerging beast.
Eva-01 pushed with all its might, and angel split into pieces, raining blood upon the city. The giant machine, its purple hide now tinted an awful crimson, stood upon what remained of its enemy. It opened its mouth and loosed a triumphant roar, worse than any creature of God's making.
Asuka forced her mouth closed. Is…is my Eva…like that?
Ritsuko's mild voice sounded over the radio. "Twelfth Angel Leliel, eliminated at ten-thirty-two by Evangelion Unit-01."
