CHAPTER 5

NOTE: Because I have the same mental capacity than a retarded fish, I hadn't checked my mail before posting the another version, therefore missing that the revised version was already there… I'm a dumbass.

Additionally, I had forgot the acknowledgements. Thanks to Steve Vader and Inanis Machina for their help with the fic. If you're a woman, blonde, sexy and single, they are very good boys ;-)

Shinji finished putting on his plugsuit and looked idly at the mirror while he pressed the button on his wrist. The suit conformed to the shape of his body, tightly wrapped around him, as he sighed. He had spent all the weekend trying not to think about it, but Monday had come nonetheless. He wasn't sure if he wanted it to work or not: on one hand, he didn't want to cause trouble, and Evas were needed to fight the Angels, weren't they? On the other hand, he would be most grateful if he did not need to pilot again.

It was something that wasn't up to him anymore, he decided shrugging, so he'd better stop thinking about it. He slowly walked out of the dressing room almost stumbling into Rei. The blue haired pilot, also dressed in her own white plugsuit, looked at him curiously. She had to know he would be at NERV for the test, but perhaps she didn't expect him to be this early, a good hour and half before the commencement of the test.

Shinji usually didn't arrive so early for anything related to NERV -unlike Rei- but this morning, Misato had to come in early to catch up on some details about the test with Ritsuko, since she had been out at what remained of Matsushiro Laboratories all the weekend.) Misato was one of Shinji's minor concerns of the moment. She had been acting a bit strange recently he thought idly. Perhaps the word 'acting' was more correct than he knew. In recent times, it was as if she didn't truly feel the emotions she showed. Now, when she laughed or teased him, it always sounded a little bit forced. Moreover, she wasn't drinking beer, but plain tea. Shinji wasn't sure what had happened to her, nor what he should do about it.

He turned his attention to Rei.

"Hi, Ayanami," he mumbled vaguely.

"Hello" she replied, still staring at him in her usual unnerving way. "It is early."

"I know, but Misato had work so she brought me in with her. What are you doing here?"

"I am your backup," she said simply.

"Oh, I see," he nodded. "What are you going to do?"

"I am going to have breakfast," she pointed. "And you?"

"Me? Uh... Would you mind if I join you?" he asked, hearing the rumble of his stomach as he spoke. Breakfast would be welcomed at this hour in the morning, he was sure.

To his surprise, Rei blushed. Just a tiny bit, the slightest shadow of pink in her pale cheeks, but she was blushing nonetheless. It was something she did only from time to time, as long as Shinji had known her, (and always for the oddest things. She didn't blush when he stumbled upon her naked, but she did when he cleaned her room a bit. The pilot of Unit Zero was definitely an unusual girl, Shinji thought. Not that he minded, though. She was always somewhat nicer to him in her cold, quiet way than many other people.

"No, I do not mind," she said finally, regaining her usual paleness.

Both walked quietly towards the small dinner room that was reserved to officers -and pilots-, a tiny and clean cafeteria that was usually almost empty. While Rei was sitting down, Shinji got their breakfasts, remembering that she disliked meat. Shinji wondered if she was vegan or if she merely disliked the taste of meat. Yet another thing he did not know about her, but it was not as if he knew many things about her in the first place.

Rei nodded when he gave her the lunch box, and she began to eat quietly. Shrugging mentally, Shinji did the same.

"I thought that you would be with your... mother," she said softly.

"No," he shook her head. "Doctor Akagi wants her to pass through some kind of test. She won't be here this morning," he said, saddened by the thought. "And Asuka went to school, so I am alone today."

"You are not alone. I am here," Rei stated simply, looking down at her bowl.

Definitely, Rei was acting oddly that morning. Shinji found himself without words at that simple statement.

"I know," finally said Shinji, very slowly. "I... Thank you."

"Why?" she asked curiously, looking again at him.

"For being here. Being alone gives me too much time to think," he shrugged. "And that's not agreeable, before a test."

"Are you scared?"

He nodded softly. "After what happened, how could I not be scared?"

"You still do not trust your father," Rei said quietly, assessing him.

"Are you going to slap me, if I say yes?"

"What?" Rei murmured puzzled.

"The last time you asked me that," Shinji smiled, "you slapped me."

"Oh. No, I will not," she assured him.

"No, I don't trust him. Now less than ever," he said. "Since my mother... returned, he's been acting very strange. I don't know if she's changed him, or if he's merely putting a mask in front of her."

"How it's like?" Rei asked softly.

"What?"

"To be with your mother."

"It's... I don't know. Comforting, very comforting..., and a bit embarrassing, at the same time," Shinji said dreamily. "Why do you ask?"

"I never..." Rei tried to find the words, but she could not. She really wished to talk to him, but found herself unable to find the words necessary.

***

Maya looked uncertainly at the screen of her computer.  For the third time, she studied the data and the program of the test of that morning, in which they would try to reactivate Unit One. Ritsuko had decided to follow an old sequence that was stored in the Magi under layers and layers of security protocols without giving her -or anyone else- any explanation. Under the name of 'Activation Event', the program detailed a very complex sequence that, theoretically, would put Unit One again on duty.

Still, she wasn't at ease. Something vaguely wrong about the whole thing kept evading her, and the cold, distant attitude of Ritsuko didn't help matters. Something strange was going on here, she thought. On the other hand, she realized that the fact that Shinji was the test's pilot was clouding her reasoning somewhat. Perhaps it was that: since Shinji didn't want to do the test, she was trying to find any reason to prevent him from having to do it.

Maya sighed as Ritsuko entered the Command Center, whistling a little tune.

"What is going on, Maya?" she said playfully. 

She stared at the blonde scientist a bit dumbfounded. She seemed to be in a very good mood this morning, a radical change from her demeanour on Saturday. Maya had no idea what had caused the shift in her behaviour.

"Ah, nothing, nothing..." she waved away. "You seem to be in a good mood today, Doctor."

"I am," Ritsuko nodded happily, letting herself fall into a chair next to Maya's. "It's going to be a wonderful day. I can feel it."

"Oh."

"Why were you sighing before, Maya? Any problem with the test?"

"Uh? No, it's all right, I guess," Maya shrugged, taking a sip of tea.

"Are we feeling a bit lovesick?" Ritsuko asked teasingly, letting her chin rest on her palms.

Maya choked in her mug and blushed heavily, trying in vain to reply while she coughed.

"Ah... I see... Then who's the lucky man?"

"That isn't it at all!" Maya said quickly, her face red as a tomato.

"Come on, you can tell me..."

"Doctor!"

"Deny it if you want," Ritsuko giggled, but you've got "I'm in love" written all over your face. By the way, how did you do at Katsuragi's, yesterday?"

"Ah... Well, very well," Maya said very quickly, blushing even more. "It was a very nice afternoon."

"I was surprised when you asked me if you could go instead."

"I... me... I thought that you were tired, and..."

"Oh, don't think that I'm not grateful. It's only that I was curious, mind you. Is Shinji still cooking?"

"Yes..." Maya stuttered, looking down. "He's very good."

"I see," Ritsuko said meaningfully.

Maya nodded and returned her attention to the station she was working at. Ritsuko got up and stretched lazily.

"I'm leaving," she said. "I've got to supervise Yui Ikari's medical test."

" How is she?" Maya asked distractedly, not looking at her.

"I fear a worsening," she replied, grinning morbidly. "By the way, I might arrive late to the activation. You can begin without me."

Maya's back was to her, so she couldn't see the shadow darkening Ritsuko's face as she walked out of the room. As she arrived to the doorframe, she stopped and turned around, casting a very long glance to Maya. she fiddled with her fingers on her coat and bit her lip. Finally, she spoke softly.

"Maya, I... It's still very early. Take a break ... I think that the Children are having breakfast. Why don't you join them?"

"Oh, are they?" Maya said uneasily. "Perhaps I will," she murmured softly.

" Good," Ritsuko nodded quietly, before walking out and forgetting to close the door behind her as if she was deep in thought.

Maya kept working for a few minutes, then she checked her watch and kept working for another ten seconds. The brunette technician began to tap randomly on the keyboard. She let out a deep sigh and got up, leaving the Command Center empty. It really was rather early. A good time for breakfast.

***

Yui gazed at the guard that Gendo has designated to go with her to the infirmary. Gendo had claimed to have 'something to do' and had told her that he would pick her up once Shinji's test began. The young guard, while honest and gentle, with a slow way of talking that showed that he chose his few words very carefully, seemed of the kind of person that could stand on his feet for hours without getting bored, a perfect match for guarding duty.

The infirmary was painted of an aseptic white that Yui had learned to associate with nights. In recent times, she only came here to sleep, as she was gradually better. At night, with all the lights reduced to pale glows, the corridors shone slightly with an eerie brightness that comforted her. Now however it was just a blinding white light bathing them in a searing glow.

She sighed and stopped in front of the room where her medical test was supposed to take place. She knocked softly and waited. She knocked again and tried the doorknob, but it was locked. Nobody was there. She turned to the guard to ask him if this was the right place.

"Mrs. Ikari!"

She turned to find a running, slightly panting doctor running down the corridor. The man slowed his pace and Yui waited patiently for his arrival.

"I'm Doctor Inagawa," he said, introducing him and bowing.  "I'll be conducting this morning's medical examination."

"Pleased to meet you," she replied politely, bowing slightly.

"Shall we go in?"

"Of course."

Yui followed him to the interior of the room, where a scanner and several more pieces of medical equipment whose names she didn't know - despite having passed through them several times- filled the room.

"If you'd be so kind...," the fat man said, pointing to a screen and a hospital gown neatly folded.

When Yui got out from behind the screen, she found that the doctor was working at the scanner's station, while the guard was standing next to the door, with the same staid face that the man -named Kanzaki, as the nametag hanging from his jacket announced- had portrayed all the day. He was probably just trying to appear disciplined and tough in front of the Commander's wife.

She was starting to get the impression that everybody was afraid of Gendo. No one No one ever teased him, nor had he spoken with any of his subordinates in a friendly manner. He had been always a closed and difficult person, always seeing the dark side of things. Except, of course, when he was talking to her.

While she lay upon the scanner's table, she wondered how Gendo had felt while she was gone. It was something that she had not yet asked him about, but Yui decided that it was time to do so. In addition, she needed to talk to Shinji, as well. She wasn't so dense as to not notice that Shinji and Gendo were carefully avoiding each other.

Her line of thoughts went broken when Ritsuko entered the hospital room, wearing her usual white coat. The blonde scientist greeted the doctor with a grim and exaggerated smile. That woman, Yui thought, was more than a bit weird. When she leaned over the fat doctor's shoulder to check what he was doing, the security guard stepped forward and grabbed her kindly but firmly by the arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked surprised, looking at the man as if he were a particularly loathsome kind of bug.

"The Commander," he whispered slowly, obviously thinking that Yui couldn't hear nor see him (she was able to see them, however, through a reflection of one of the scanner's crystal panels), "does not wish you to supervise Mrs. Ikari's medical test."

"What?" she hissed back with rage, breaking the placid mask she'd been wearing all the day. "All right," she said, calm again. "I'm not doing anything. Besides..."

The rest of her reasoning didn't fall within Yui's hearing range. Yui was scared; something was wrong, very wrong with that woman, and with the activation test she had scheduled for that Monday. Something that Yui couldn't quite discern, in despite of having studied the sequence all the day prior. While before she had been a bit worried, she was now bordering panic.

The bright light of the scanner blinded her as it passed several times over her head. When it ended, Yui got up and forced herself to act as if she hadn't heard anything. She walked slowly to the screen, barely acknowledging with a tiny nod Ritsuko's weak smile; it seemed that the blonde scientist hadn't quite managed to control her emotions. Yui quietly gathered her clothes, trying to put her thoughts in order. She was not sure how to act.

"So, if I'm not needed there, I'm going back to the Command Center," Ritsuko said, speaking loudly so Yui might hear her. "Goodbye, Doctor Inagawa."

She only slammed the door a bit stronger than she needed to.

***

"Are you an orphan?" Shinji asked very gently.

"I never had parents," she nodded. It wasn't exactly the truth, but she couldn't explain it better, not knowing all the truth herself.

"Did my father raise you?"

"Yes," she said softly. "Does that bother you?"

"Of course," Shinji nodded. "It's not like I am jealous of you, but... You know what I mean."

"I don't know," Rei said, looking down. "There are a lot of things I don't understand."

"Like everybody else, I suppose."

"Yes?"

He nodded slightly. "My father told me once, when I tried to talk to him, that humans are always trying to understand each other, but that they never will achieve it. Still, people keep trying."

"Why?"

"Why not?" Shinji smiled. "That's how life is, I suppose."

"It's something strange for me. I do not understand other people."

"I guess that you don't need to understand them."

"No?"

Shinji nodded. "You know..." he began awkwardly, looking himself in her large, crimson eyes. "I've always been scared. Everybody scared me. It's something that I never will be able to avoid, perhaps. I thought that all that mattered was to avoid pain and suffering, until I came to New Tokyo III. My father used you to force me to pilot... And perhaps it was the first time that I did something painful only to avoid suffering to others. It helps me to remember why I'm still piloting."

"You are a good pilot," she said softly. "And the Angels must be destroyed to save humankind. Isn't that enough?"

"Not for me," Shinji said, somberly. "I don't care about the rest of the world. It's something that surpasses me; I cannot bear the weight of the world upon my shoulders."

"Then?"

"I can bear a smaller weight," Shinji said thoughtfully. "I fight for the people who care for me."

"Not for the people you care for?"

"Isn't that the same?"

"I don't know," Rei mumbled.

"Call me selfish, if you want, but..."

"I will not."

"What?"

"Call you selfish. You are not."

"Oh," Shinji blushed. "I'm not sure myself."

"You are not," she assured him. "I didn't know you when you piloted Eva for the first time. If you were selfish, you wouldn't do such things."

"That was different," Shinji said. "You were hurt and I... Oh."

"See?"

"Thank you, Re... Ayanami."

"Call me Rei."

"Yes? I mean..."

"I prefer Rei to Ayanami," she nodded.

She didn't know why, but the thought of the Third Child calling her Rei instead of the more formal 'Ayanami' was pleasant in a way that she'd felt very few times before, and only in events related with Shinji or Commander Ikari. She wondered what this would mean, but she couldn't help but add it to the long list of confusing things in her life.

"Then don't call me Ikari," he smiled.

"Shinji?"

"What?"

"Lieutenant Ibuki has been watching you for two or three minutes, now. I think that she wants to talk to you," she pointed.

Shinji turned to surprise the attractive and young assistant looking straight at him, which made her blush heavily. He waved at Maya, and she approached the table slowly, watching her feet.

"Um…), hello," she mumbled awkwardly.

"Hello, Lieutenant Ibuki," Rei replied calmly.

"Hi," Shinji added. "Is already the time?"

"Ah, no... It's still a bit early. I came here... to have a snack," she said, feeling very stupid.

"Ah, well. Eh..." Shinji murmured, unsure of what he should say next. Talking to Rei was easy; she was another Child, and Shinji could usually put himself in her place. Maya -and the rest of adults, saving Misato- was an entirely different thing. She was a very attractive girl and she was very nice with him, two things that were enough to turn Shinji's brain in something with a passable resemblance to Jell-O.

"I wouldn't want to interrupt Rei and you," she sighed, smiling. "I was wondering how you feel this morning. Yesterday you seemed a bit taken aback."

"Ah, I'm fine," Shinji lied. "Just a bit nervous."

"Oh. Well, I'm going to..." The rest of Maya's speech became an awkward murmur in which Shinji only could discern the word 'breakfast'. She turned away very quickly and walked away, so Shinji couldn't see the deep red shade of her face, nor hear the lengthy and vivid chain of curses that Maya threw at herself.

Purposefully or not, Maya had indeed broken the flow of Shinji and Rei's conversation, and both of them found themselves without knowing how to regain it. They were eating silently, casting shy glances to each other when Ritsuko stormed into the cafeteria.

"Maya!" she called loudly. "And both of you. The activation is going to begin. Let's go."

"But Doctor," Maya swallowing her food as fast as she could, "it's not time yet."

"Who's in charge here, my dear?" she said sharply. "Come on! I do not have all the day."

"Yes, Doctor," Maya mumbled, looking apologetically at Shinji and getting up.

The two Children followed Maya and the angry scientist to the Evangelion cages, where each one climbed up to their respective units. Rei didn't say anything to him as farewell, but she did look at him with a placid, calm face before Shinji turned into the corridor that headed to his unit. Calm, as opposite to the blank look she usually portrayed to people. Shinji wondered, amused, if that was Rei's way to smile reassuringly.

Once in the Entry Plug, and after the LCL had risen above his head, the Command Center opened a channel to speak with him. While he was expecting the sweet, slightly awkward voice of Maya or the more serious, dry voice of Ritsuko he was surprised by the following one.

"Hi, baka. Try to not get it fried this time, will you?"

"Asuka!" he said delighted. "What are you doing here?"

"You spent all weekend rambling and ranting about how much you didn't want to do this. Did you think that I was going to miss it?"

"I'm glad you're here," he smiled.

"You'd better be. Hikari wanted to skin me alive for skipping the classes without a reason, but she finally agreed to cover me. When she will understand that a College graduate doesn't need to attend Japanese school?"

"Asuka, give me that," Ritsuko cut her off abruptly, something that the German redhead didn't like a single bit. Shinji still heard her grumbling in the background for a while until Ritsuko silenced her. "We're about to begin. This time, the synchronization might be different to other times, so don't worry if you feel strange."

"Yes."

"Let's start."

***

Meanwhile, Yui was panicking slightly. She was more or less trapped in the infirmary, with the guard acting as a human barrier in front of the door.

"I cannot let you go, Mrs. Ikari," he said, shrugging apologetically. "The Commander instructed me very carefully. We should wait here until he arrives."

"Gendo said that?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"That's nice, but I'm not waiting here for him," Yui said firmly. "Let's go to the Command Center."

"But ma'am, I cannot leave the infirmary until the Commander arrives." he said, with the same panic face that all the guards and soldiers tend to portray when something goes beyond of their control. He couldn't let her leave the infirmary, as the Commander himself had given his orders, but, on the other hand, she was the Commander's wife. Yui pitied him for a second.

"Well, then. I'm not leaving," Yui said. "But you are going to find someone to accompany me to the Command Center."

"But I cannot leave..."

Yui breathed deeply and closed her eyes, a sign that would have made any person that knew her to disappear from her sight as soon as possible. The guard didn't know Yui, so he just looked at her curiously.

"Let me get out of here right now!" she yelled, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "Or I will turn your life into hell on Earth! I swear!"

The security guard openly began to panic, trying to decide whom he feared more. His survival instinct told him that the Commander wasn't right here to do anything to him, while the small, green-eyed woman in front of him seemed furious enough to rip his head off.

"Tell him where I am when he arrives," she said menacingly, her voice suggesting that any further opposition would be crushed without mercy. "Now I'm leaving."

"But..."

"Bye!" she said, slamming the door.

***

Maya bit her lower lip so much that it hurt. The answer to what was wrong in the activation sequence that Ritsuko had retrieved was there, just in front of her eyes, but she wasn't able to see it.

While Hyuga conducted the preliminary part of the sequence -a rather long series of analysis of Shinji's mental wave pattern- she opened a small access to Melchior, the less utilized of the three supercomputers. Melchior was said to be rather voluble, if such a term could be applied to a computer. Still, Maya preferred it; Melchior's internal logic sometimes was a bit veiled, enough to break security barriers slightly if you knew how to ask.

She tried.

**User: 1st. Lt. Ibuki, 32142354-324224/Saint Katharine 1802**

ACCESS GRANTED, SEC. L. 2

**Estimated end of the Activation Event sequence?**

18'32'' FROM THE PRESENT TIME.

**Estimated possibilities of failure?**

1,065%

No. She shook her head. Something was wrong, and it was very obvious, but she couldn't see it.

**Unit One's final status?**

100% OPERATIVE. VERY PROBABLE APPEARANCE OF BERSERK REACTIONS.

Well, Ritsuko had already warned them all about that, so it wasn't a surprise. That wasn't the problem, anyway. Shinji would be perfectly safe in the plug even in a berserk reaction.

**Final synchronization ratio between Third Child and Unit One?**

101%

What? That was impossible. Krupmann's Limit was theoretically the highest synchronization ratio possible, but... Shinji had already surpassed it once, Maya remembered. The memory sent a chill down her spine. It couldn't be that.

**Pilot's final status?**

CLASSIFIED.

There it was, the obstruction. Maya felt a tightening in her stomach. Something was going to happen to Shinji, but she needed to know more. She looked around cautiously; Ritsuko was standing near the window, watching Unit One with an unreadable expression, while Misato was staring at an empty space, with her hands looped in front of her face.

**Pilot survival chances?**

The answer appeared in an angry red into her screen.

0%

***

Yui walked quickly along the corridor, trying to cool down her temper to think. Shinji was in danger, she was now sure. While the nature of the danger wasn't something she was sure about, Akagi's behaviour left her few doubts about it. That woman, Yui thought, was deeply disturbed, and she clearly wasn't able to work at Nerv.

Why Gendo seemed to have not realized this was something that Yui definitely wanted to discover later. At that moment, Shinji was the most important thing.

She breathed deeply and looked around, slowing her pace to try to regain her breath. As her panting slowed, she realized two things.

First, that she didn't know where she was.

And second, and more importantly, that she was alone.

Completely, utterly, alone.

Yui began to hyperventilate, as she felt panic begin to fill her mind. An icy sweat damped her back. Yui looked around desperately, trying to remember where she was and how to arrive from here to the Command Center. It shouldn't be too much difficult: she had been working there for five years, but the memories of that stage - and pretty much of the events prior to the activation event that had swallowed her were clumsy and shadowed.

Yui froze. That was. The Activation Event sequence. That was what Akagi had scheduled. The name had been nagging insistently in the backyards of her mind all the weekend, but only then she had connected both things. She let out a low, deep moan. She needed to arrive to the Command Center.

However, when she tried to run, her legs didn't obey her. She let herself slid down the wall. During all these weeks, Yui had managed to stay in close visual range to other people, as close as she could without being impolite; the mere thought of being alone in a room sent chills down her spine. She had been alone for ten years, alone with her thoughts in an endless void, blind, deaf and mute. Enough loneliness to fill anyone's life several times over, and every time she was alone, she remembered it with painful intensity.

Shinji needed her, and she wasn't able to help him.

Ashamed of her own weakness, she cried softly, with her hands covering her face so she wouldn't see that she was alone, and scared.

***

Gendo looked idly at the telephone, carefully ignoring the screams of guilt from the remains of his conscience. He was perfectly aware of what he was doing, but he had forgotten a long time ago how to understand the feelings of others.

He wasn't feeling guilty because of Shinji's more than possible death. He was worried because Yui would be sad, but he didn't see another way. Shinji would end splitting them apart, that was something he was sure about, and it was too much late to reconciliation with him, not after what had been done and said from both sides.

The fact that something was wrong with not feeling any grief about sending his own son to die never happened to cross through his mind. Gendo had left the docks of sanity a long time ago, and he had been sailing alone in a sea of madness for the most part of the last ten years, well hidden under an icy mask of ruthless precision.

He impatiently tapped his fingers on the desk and decided that it was time to go to the infirmary and pick Yui up. The alarm would catch them both in their way to the Command Center, and then he would have to decide what to do with Ritsuko Akagi, from that moment forever out of his control. He couldn't keep playing the game of loose hopes and broken promises with her.

He scratched his face, slightly unsure without his beard. Yui didn't like the beard, so shaving it had been out of the question. Still, he missed it a bit. He arrived to the infirmary and, saluting a nurse, headed for the scanning room, where Yui was supposed to be waiting for him.

When he opened the door, he frowned deeply.

"What does this mean?" he asked to the empty air.

Nobody was there. He had very clearly told the security guard that they should wait there until he had arrived, but they were gone nonetheless.

*** 

"Mrs Ikari?"

Yui looked up from the dark abyss she was submerged in and found the honest, scared gaze of the security guard that had been escorting her (all day. She let out a deep sigh, awash in relief.

"Are you okay?" he asked concerned, helping helping her to her feet. "I remembered that you shouldn't be left alone, ma'am, so..."

"Thank you," she cut him off abruptly. "I need to arrive to the Command Center, right now."

"Are you sure? You seem unwell, ma'am..."

"Right now!" she exploded. Now that she was no longer alone, the panic for Shinji's fate was returning.

"Yes, ma'am!" he said, obviously impressed by the small woman's yells. "Come with me."

While both were in an elevator that, according to the man, would lead them straight to the command center, all Hell broke loose. The bright, yellow light of the elevator shifted to a blinking red, while a recorded voice reminded all personnel, through the speakers, to head to their emergency posts.

Yui panicked and grabbed the guard's forearm until the man left out a tiny yelp. The numbers in the elevator decreased at a painfully slow rate, while time seemed to pass in a sudden whistle. She wouldn't arrive on time. She was late.

She whimpered slightly, damning everything under the Heavens.

Finally, the doors opened, and Yui stormed out, rushing to the Command Center. The technicians stared at her like a ghost, but Akagi wasn't there.

"Where?!" she asked a scared technician, who pointed with a trembling hand to the path that leaded to Unit One cage.

Yui ran as she never had run in all her life. She ran across the metallic corridors until she opened the cage's door. There she saw her worst nightmare.

Unit One had fallen in the cage, with (the jaw restraints broken and surrounded with pieces of broken metal fallen from the walls damaged by the Eva's berserk rampage. Below, at the bottom of the cage was the massive white cylinder of the Entry Plug, surrounded by several people.

The guard descended to the Cage's floor before her. When he reached the floor, he pulled out his gun instantly. Yui soon found out why.

Misato was pointing with her weapon to the head of Ritsuko, were on their knees near of a fallen body, dressed in a blue and white plugsuit, whose head Maya was hugging tightly.

Yui almost fell next to them, and she felt concern gripping her heart when he saw Shinji's face. The boy, his hair messed with LCL, had his eyes closed and all his face damped with sweat. Maya was brushing his bangs out of his forehead, caressing it gently.

Yui fell to her knees. Maya looked at her.

And smiled. "He's fine," she whispered, letting her hug him. "Just dismayed, but fine."

Yui hugged Shinji fiercely, crying on his hair and laughing at the same time, as she felt his heart beat softly against her chest and his breath, even and warm, on her neck.

Misato, after a brief discussion, convinced the guard to help her, and the young man put a pair of handcuffs on Ritsuko and the three walked away. Ritsuko never stopped smiling maniacally all the time, looking at Yui with eyes clouded with hatred.

Maya got to her feet, looking as if she was a bit envious of Yui, and stood next to Rei and Asuka. While Asuka was looking worriedly at Misato, Rei wasn't paying attention to anything else besides Shinji.

Yui looked up at Maya. "What happened?" she inquired.

To her surprise, the bluehaired girl answered her.

"Lieutenant Ibuki interrupted the Activation Event sequence when Shin... Ikari's pattern began to oscillate. Doctor Akagi tried to continue, and then the Eva went berserk," she said softly, still looking at the sleeping boy. "Then Lieutenant Ibuki triggered the emergency ejection of the Entry Plug, and we came here. Doctor Akagi tried to hurt Ikari, but Major Katsuragi prevented her from doing so." She paused. "I hope that Ikari is well," she finished quietly.

"Me too, Wondergirl," muttered Asuka slowly. "Me too."

"Thank you," Yui cried, hugging Shinji against her chest. "Thank you..."

Gendo looked down from the high catwalk at the top of the Eva Cage, and frowned, removing his glasses. For the first time in many, many years, Gendo Ikari was deeply scared.

***

Author's Notes

I know that I've left Asuka a bit apart in this fic, but I wanted to focus a little bit on Rei. In addition, things are starting to fall apart for Gendo. How Yui will react and what Maya will do once she admitted to herself that she loves Shinji is something… that you will find in the next chapter, I hope.

Anyway, if you're reading this, the review button is a little bit down to the left. If you don't mind… Any comments or whatever are welcomed in chobits@hotpop.com.

See you!

Athos

In loving memory to the 200 death victims of the 11-03-2004 attacks in Madrid, Spain. May them rest in peace.