Earlier.

---

Asuka slowly opened her eyes. She could see a worn ceiling, and hear the constant beating of falling rain. She was feeling groggy. Asuka's hand moved to her neck, were she could feel a tiny, sore mark. What was that? She must have been hit by some kind of dart. As recollection hit her, she gasped and heaved herself into a sitting position, staring around wildly.

A car, pulling up next to her as she walks down the street. The driver-side window is rolled down, and a man looks out at her. She stops, thinking he wants to ask her directions or something. Then, he pulls out a pistol and fires. She instinctively recoils, but too slow. Pain shoots through her neck. The last thing she remembers is the asphalt coming up towards her.

Asuka found herself on a mattress in an otherwise empty room. The man from the car was standing at the single window, looking out at the rain. In his hands was an assault rifle.

"Good morning." he said, not bothering to turn around.

Asuka sat still as a statue, watching him intently for a while. As he kept staring through the window, she got up from the mattress. She stood, still watching him, waiting for something to happen. As it didn't, she quickly went over to the door, and pulled the handle.
It was locked.

Hearing movement behind her, Asuka turned to face the man again. His back was still turned, but his left hand held up a key as if taunting her. Her face darkened, but she said nothing. Then she sat back down on the mattress, crossing her arms over her chest and shooting the man dark looks.

Silence reigned between them for minutes that seemed to drag into infinity. Except for the man shifting position and leaning against the windowsill, nothing happened. The only thing to be heard was the constant beating of the rain. It was literally pouring down outside.

Finally, Asuka had had quite enough of the man and his 'mysterious silence'-act.
"Could you tell me," she said in a quiet tone, and then suddenly raised her voice to a shout, "just what the hell that is going on?!"

For the first time, the man turned his head to look at her. His eyes had a strange green-brownish colour. There seemed to be no emotions whatsoever in his face, but then he suddenly smiled a lopsided grin at Asuka. It did nothing to put her at ease, though.

"Don't worry." he said. "If things work out, you'll be out of here in a short while. Nothing hurt but your pride."

There were several ways to interpret those words, few of them good, but Asuka pushed any worst-case scenarios out of her head for the time being. Better to be irritated than worried.

"So," she said, sarcasm in her voice, "you just like to lock young women into small rooms for a few hours?"

"Yes."

Asuka stared at the man's back, trying to figure out if he was serious or not. "And then what?" she asked.

"Then what?" He glanced at her, then back at the view outside. "Then I wait for the Angel to get killed. Your fellow pilots are being quite slow about it."

"Angel?" Asuka's eyes widened. "There's an Angel? Now?"

"Yes. You slept through the alarm."

Asuka couldn't believe she was hearing this.
"And you got me locked up in here, you bastard?!" she shouted. This wasn't fair! "I'm supposed to be out there, fighting! Why did you do this?! Why now, you creep?!"

The man didn't answer. Frustrated, Asuka leaned back against the wall, glaring angrily at him. One of her last chances to prove herself, to show them who was the real Eva pilot. And here she was, locked up in a room with an armed nutcase.
"You know," she growled "if anyone gets hurt because I'm not out there piloting, I'm holding you responsible." She paused, and then added: "Even if it's only stupid Shinji."

"Shinji won't get hurt." the man said. Asuka clearly heard the unspoken 'but...' at the end.

The silence between them resumed, Asuka fuming in silence and the man obviously not in a talkative mood. This went on for a while. Then, suddenly the man said:
"I think you want to see this."

"What?" Asuka snapped.

"Wondergirl is about to take a beating."

This caught Asuka's attention. Wondergirl was her nickname for Ayanami. No-one else used it. It sounded wrong when someone else used it. Suspicious, she got up and walked over to the window, careful not to get too close to the weird man.

Outside, even through the rain, the blue form of Unit 00 was clearly visible. It was maybe a kilometre or two away from them, but because most of the buildings had been retracted into the Geofront, there was little to obscure the view.

The Eva was standing all alone, aiming towards the sky with a large rifle. The Angel was nowhere to be seen, but neither was Unit 01. Asuka suddenly realised that it was probably still in stasis. Which meant that Ayanami was on her own out there. And the girl had the lowest synch ratio of them all.

The seconds ticked by, and nothing seemed to happen. Then Unit 00 pulled the trigger, sending a volley of shots skyward. The blue Eva started to realign its massive weapon when suddenly a bright beam of light shot down from above.
The Eva staggered, as if coming under a great weight. It struggled to get the rifle to bear on its invisible enemy, but the weapon fell to the ground as the Eva's hands seemed to cramp up. Unit 00 took a trembling step backwards, one hand pressed against the side of its head and the other held up as if to hold the assailant back.

Asuka stared in horror. There was nothing there! Just a bright light. And yet Ayanami seemed to be hurt. Sure, Asuka didn't like Ayanami much, but whatever happened out there must have been painful beyond comparison. As she watched, the Eva doubled over, clutching its head with shaking hands. She felt horrible, only being able to stand here and do nothing.

"What's happening?" Asuka whispered.

"For a lack of a better term, she's being mind-raped."

She looked up at the man. Then she quickly turned back to the Eva, which was writhing in pain. It was a horrible sight, but not as horrible as the calm expression on the man's face, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

She's being mind-raped. Asuka shuddered, and turned away from the window. Mind-raped. The words echoed in her head, and she tasted bile in her mouth. In the darkest corner of her soul, Asuka was glad that it was Ayanami, and not her, out there.

And she hated herself for it.

---

Asuka didn't know how long it lasted. After a while, the man simply handed her the key. She snatched it out of his grip and left as quickly as she could.

It wasn't long until she was picked up by a number of Section Two agents. From what she could discern of their frantic rambling over the com-net, they were in the process of capturing the unknown man who had kidnapped her.

She hoped he would put up a fight, so that they had an excuse to hurt him. Badly.

---

Author's notes:
Well, here's another chapter. My first intentions were actually to only make this a one-shot. But then this "thought-experiment" started to have a life of its own. There's going to be a third chapter around sometime soon.

Oh, and if it isn't already apparent, my SI won't, under any circumstances, be the good guy of this fic. Rather the opposite. And, no, no superpowers. That thing about Mary Sue was just a figure of speech.

-F