"Thank God for the light!"

Maya Ibuki blinked twice, hard, as the electricity flickered on throughout the GeoFront, as did most of the other doctors and Nerv personnel that gathered to help operate on Asuka Soryuu Langley. The electrical hum of generators and systems starting up again could literally be heard through the walls, and though it was a pronounced difference from the darkness and silence they lived in for the last week after the Third Impact, she welcomed it.

"Remind me to kiss Makoto when I see him," she said, taking a moment to wipe perspiration from her eyes with the back of her scrubs.

Beside her, Shigeru said, "Me, too." That earned a small round of chuckles and grins behind facemasks from the assembled group. "I wonder what all the commotion is, though," he added as he peered over his shoulder. Maya nodded; they had commandeered a side room from the Terminal Dogma in which to operate on the bullet-ridden adolescent girl, but even through the thick metal-panelled walls, and a long stretch of corridors between them, the muffled murmurs of the voices from the main hall were pronounced.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Maya said. "They're probably just congratulating themselves and what not. At least things should return to normal fairly soon after this."

"Normal?" Shigeru laughed. "It'll be a long time before things recover back to a 'normal' state," he said, making quote-marks in the air. "I seem to recall it took us a decade, and then some, to finally achieve what we'd call 'normalcy' pre-Second Impact."

Maya stared at him hard, in the eyes, since most of the doctors wouldn't dare meet his gaze. How dare he, she thought, especially when we've ALL lost someone. Can we truly call ourselves the lucky ones, she thought angrily. After a long moment, she turned her eyes back to the work before her.

Shigeru placed a scalpel in her waiting, open hand. "I'm sorry, everyone," he said, after a moment. He felt the heat rising in his own cheeks, felt his shame.

"Forget it. Let's focus back on saving the Second Child's life. Only two more to go," she said. Maya made a small but deep incision into Asuka's forearm, and then, with forceps, pulled out a small metal slug, slightly crushed at one end as it was driven into her flesh. She stared at it for a moment, and then placed it into a metal pan alongside its brothers. She began to quote her old medical textbooks.

"'Proper management of bullet wounds requires a working knowledge of physical factors involved in the creation of such injuries, and the way in which they interact,'" she said. "Spray that down, please." A technician leaned in and, using a small squeeze bottle with a directional straw, washed away blood that had pooled in the cavity.

"Thank you," she said, returning to her work. "'The creation of a ballistic missle wound is a very complex phenomenon that results from the action of the missle and the reaction of the tissue. Thus, the surgeon must know the wound-creating capabilities of the firearms and ammunition available and in general use in his area. He must also be aware of the energy potential of each cartridge and the types, composition, construction, and ballistic properties of the projectiles loaded into these cartridges.'"

Maya paused and held up another bullet slug. "This one, for instance, comes from a .45-automatic handgun. Its original weight is 230 grams, and has a range of 305 to 370 pounds of force per pound, depending on distance between the muzzle and the target." She looked at it with disdain, and placed it along with the others. It fell to the metal pan with a loud clink.

"We're finished. Thank goodness," she breathed, dipping her gloved hands into a metallic bowl filled with a clear aseptic solution. She moved to untie her facemask behind her head.

"You did great, Maya." Shigeru nodded to everyone gathered around the makeshift operating table. "She's by no means in the clear, but we've at least given her a fighting chance."

"That should be it, Dr. Ibuki," said one of the personnel. A woman in the technical division, judging by the white jumpsuit she wore underneath her gowns. But then again, it was so hard to tell who was in what division anymore; survivors usually grabbed whatever was available to clothe themselves after they discovered themselves inexplicably naked after the Third Impact.

"Excellent work, ma'am," the woman said again, taking her place at the table. "We'll take care of things from here, and close her up."

Maya nodded and removed her gloves, placing them in a plastic bag they found, to gather bio-waste to be disposed of properly later. "As soon as you're done, bring her to the medical department one floor up from here. That's the closest one, and even if the life-support resuscitator machines are still off-line, at least we can treat her better than we could here."

"Yes, ma'am," the woman said, then turned to take over Asuka's operation. Maya looked upon Asuka's too-pale face, and turned away.

Shigeru stared at the six collected bullet shells on the tray, as washed off his own gloves and removed his surgical gown.

"That was amazing, Maya," he said as he jogged a little to catch up to her. "I thought you didn't know anything about guns."

"I told you before; I've done all the same shooting and training you had at the academy. And I'm a doctor in bio-computational sciences, but I'm also medically-trained. I just don't like shooting at people." Maya looked straight ahead as she walked briskly down the hallway that would take them to the Terminal Dogma. "That reminds me. Is the team you took to the surface- the ones that shot Asuka," she said, not noticing Shigeru's slight wince, "Where are they now?"

Shigeru Aoba thought for a moment. "Possibly with the professor we found with the Children," he replied. He stared down the hallway at the approaching figure running towards them.

"Remind me to visit them- the team and the professor. Even in this…chaos, we should still hold them accountable. If we've lost that, we may as well admit we've lost civilization," Maya said sternly. "But later.

"The operation seems to be a success," Maya called to the technician running towards them. She read the concern and urgency in his face. "What seems to be the matter?"

The technician stopped and doubled over, coughing as he fought to catch his breath. "It's the Angels!" he said. As one, Maya and Shigeru's brows furrowed as they immediately took off, dashing down the hall towards Terminal Dogma at a full run.

"Lieutenant Hyuuga needs you on the bridge, stat!" he called after them, still wheezing, but they were already long gone.