Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is Owned by Gainax. Buy the DVD's of
the Series and the Movies from them. I did, and it was worth every dime.
I don't own anything except my DVD's, and this is done for my own
satisfaction.
Episode 2:15 Open Wounds
Takes place after 1st season, and the End of Evangelion Movie.
Presumed date is April 7th, 2017
Asuka rode Liebchen through the gates of the small farm, and drew up to the house. The sound of her horse drew the elderly man out of the house, and onto the front porch. He smiled and greeted Asuka as she jumped down from the horse, and gave him a hug.
"Langley, my dear, it is good to see you," he said.
"Good morning Doctor Ivanovich, how are you this morning?"
"Quite well. Have you come for the eggs, or are you simply here to light up my day?" he smiled.
"Yes, Sophia sent me out here to pick up the eggs, but I wouldn't' mind keeping you company if you'd have me," Asuka answered.
"Certainly girl, but come, let us gather the eggs first, and then we make take our leisure."
They walked out behind the house and approached the first of two long buildings. Asuka could smell the chickens before she was too close. Their droppings reeked.
"You wouldn't think that something that smells that bad could taste so good," she commented.
"Ha, true. I have to have someone come out here to clean the pens every day or two. All that chicken manure is good for the crops, but it has to decompose some, or it will burn them."
"I didn't know that. Does it really burn?" Asuka asked.
"Well, it's a chemical burn. Too alkali or too acid, I honestly do not know," he laughed.
"But you are the keeper of all these chickens you must know very much about them."
"No my dear, I keep chickens because I don't like people," the old man said with a laugh.
Asuka laughed too, and they opened the doors and walked into the first building. There were maybe one hundred chickens here, each in its' own cage. The old man handed Asuka a large bucket filled with crushed dried corn and seeds. He took one himself, and, as they walked down the line of cages, they deposited a small amount of the feed in each little tin on the front. The seed spilled into a catch basin within the cage, and the chicken inside began to peck at the food. They had to repeat this several times until all the chickens had been fed.
They returned their buckets, and picked up a couple baskets. As they traveled down the row, they would open a little door in the front of the cage, reach in, and remove the eggs within. Usually there was a single egg within, set on top of the small nest, but there were also some that were empty. It took only a few minutes, and they had four baskets filled. Three by Asuka, in the time it took the old man to fill his.
"You are so speedy, you make me feel old," he said.
She grinned at him, as she gathered the eggs, and set them outside the door. They left this building and entered the next one, repeating the same process there. When they came out, Asuka escorted the old man back to his house, then returned to gather up all the egg baskets. She carefully carried them back to the house where she removed two large saddle bags from Liebchen, and opened them to reveal two cloth lined carriers for the eggs. The sides of them were padded, so that they would absorb most shocks. She loaded the eggs into the carriers and was happy to note that there were about half a dozen left over.
She put the carriers back in the saddle bags, and hung them on the rail of the front porch, she let Liebchen off his reins, to wonder in the yard, where he was soon cropping the grass, which was tender and green.
She stepped into the house, and found Doctor Ivanovich heating some water up in a ceramic pot on his small woodburning stove.
"Would you like coffee or tea?" he asked her.
"Coffee," she said, setting the eggs in a small bowl on his table.
He nodded and pushed a strange glass apparatus with a bowl on top and a spout on the bottom onto the ceramic pot.
"What is that?" she asked.
"My coffee maker. I dislike the weak filtered coffee that is so popular these days. Give me good strong coffee."
"How does it work," she asked.
"This rubber ring here forms a seal between the glass and the ceramic. When the water boils the gas expands, and pushes the water up the tube and into the chamber. We put our coffee in here, and the water bubbles, extracting the acids and flavors from the coffee. When the ceramic cools, the air inside condenses and forms a vacuum. It sucks the water back into the pitcher through the small holes, leaving the grounds behind. Perfect coffee, nice and strong the way I like it."
Asuka had never heard of such a thing, used to electric coffee pots, and watched the pot heat up, fill the top chamber, bubble vigorously, and, after it was removed from the heat, suck the now brewed coffee back down.
"That's amazing," she said.
"Nah, not even a small wonder. Merely simple physics, brewing coffee with the help of the principle of Thermal Expansion."
Asuka's expression darkened, and she turned away from him.
"Child what is wrong, did I say something to disturb you?"
"No, it's just a memory, nothing more," she said, sniffling.
"Come child. I have been a Doctor for longer than you've been alive," he said.
"It is nothing really," she answered.
The old man, nodded quietly to himself and prepared two cups of coffee. He put them on a tray with a small bowl of sugar and fresh cream.
"Come, child, let us go into the sitting room," he said, carrying the tray.
They went into the other room where he set the tray down on the small table. He motioned her to take a seat, and she wiped a hand over her eyes and composed herself.
He mixed the sugar and cream generously in one cup and handed it to her. For himself, he merely added sugar, and stirred his cup thoughtfully.
"Child, do you know what kind of Doctor I was?"
"No, tell me," she said.
"I was a doctor of psychology," he said.
"I had a psychology class in college," she said.
"Truly. You went to University? But you are so young. Ah. I see. You are not the simple girl you have been pretending to be. Some kind of prodigy I expect?"
"Yes, I was very special," she said.
"Was? But you are special my dear."
Asuka looked at her cup, and took a sip, before looking up at him with a weak smile.
"That life is over for me Doctor. I belong here now," she said.
"No my child, I sense that there is a greatness within you, even though it is buried by some tragedy."
She said nothing.
"You're body language, when you are reminded of something speaks volumes child. I noticed it the first time I saw you at the hotel. Will you allow me to help you?" he asked gently.
"I don't deserve your help," she said.
This was not the answer he'd expected. A yes or no, but not justification for him to ignore her. There was hope for the child yet.
He drank some of his coffee, and thought about what little he'd learned about this girl. There must be a way to approach this.
"So you think an old man like me is worthless do you?" he said.
"No it's not that."
"Then you are too ignorant to take the advice of an old man."
"Now listen here, I..." she started, but then cut it off.
'Ah,' he thought, 'this one had a lot of pride, but has suffered a blow to it. An insult can bring it to the surface, but she quickly suppresses it.'
"Alright," she said, "what would you like to know?"
"First, how is it that you came to be here?"
"I was traveling from the east," she started.
"Yes, yes, child, I know the vagaries of what you told everyone else. I want the truth."
She hesitated, finally deciding on a course of action.
"I was returning home to Germany from Japan," she said.
"A long journey indeed," he observed.
"I'd have been there soon enough, but my plane ran out of fuel over Novosibirsk, and I was forced to land. The fuel was jelled, and useless to me, so I set out on foot."
He noticed that at this point she was breathing fast, and seemed to become tense.
"Two weeks later, I rode into town here, and you know the rest."
"Hardly, how did you happen to be flying a plane, as one so young, I would not expect you to know how?" he said.
"I've had some training. It was part of my job."
"So," he said, "you've had pilot training. Quite unusual. Why were you flying to Germany?"
"My home is in Berlin. I was returning there."
"I see. Did you not tell Sophia that you had been one of the first to Awaken?"
"Well, yes," she shrugged.
"Then you have been in Japan for approximately five months. Did you have to build the plane you were flying or salvage a wreck?"
"No. I took one from an airfield," she said
"So you spent five months looking for the perfect plane, before leaving Japan," he said, cocking his head at her.
She didn't answer.
"Why did you leave Japan?"
"It's stupid. There was this... misunderstanding. And I left," she said, ending abruptly.
"What happened to make you leave?" he asked.
She stopped then and fiddled with her cup. She was not sure she could tell him, but maybe she could trust him. Just a little. Just enough.
"A stupid thing really," she began to tear up, "A kiss. From a boy I knew."
"Here child, was it that terrible a thing?"
"No. That's just it. It was only the second kiss I'd ever had. Both of them with him."
"Ah. And?" he asked gently.
"It was wonderful. But his friends, our friends, saw us, and it was humiliating."
"How. A kiss humiliating? The lilt in your voice tells the memory of that kiss fills you with joy."
"I have no right to enjoy the memory, and I wish I could forget."
"Why? What was this boy to you?"
She paused again to look at him.
"Doctor Ivanovich, promise me you'll never share what I'm going to tell you with another soul," she sniffed.
"You have my word child," he nodded, giving her permission to release this secret.
"Shinji was a good friend. He had saved my life on many occasions, and I'd never once said a kind thing to him. I might have whispered it to him once or twice, but I don't know if he ever heard me. We were... how to explain... we were roommates and teammates, and I treated him like crap. We awoke on the beach the day after Third Impact, and spent quite a bit of time together, and I realized that I cared for him. More than I had a right to. And I knew he cared for me. I knew it, and all he wanted was a kind word, and I couldn't bring myself to do it."
She gave a big sob.
"And then, at a friends wedding he kissed me, and I knew that I didn't deserve him. He was giving himself to me, and I wasn't worthy. And then one of our friends said something to spoil the mood, and instead of staying, I ran away. He chased after me, and caught me at the airfield. I was taking off, and he just stood there. And for the first time since my mother killed herself, someone said they loved me, and I knew they did. He did. He loved me, and I killed him." She broke into tears now, and he offered her what comfort he could.
"The boy died?" he said softly.
"As I took off, he was hit by my plane, and thrown into a bog. There's no way he could have survived the impact, and all he was trying to do was tell me he loved me," she said. "So I ran away," she said, "Our friends would never forgive me, so I couldn't go back. So I decided to go to Germany. No one there knows what I've done."
"Ah. But instead you landed in Novosibirsk. What then?" he asked.
"I found Liebchen," she said too fast.
"They keep horses at the airfield?"
"Well no, I had to look around before I found him outside of town," she said.
"What happened after you landed?"
"I went looking for signs of life in the city," She let out a loud sigh.
"You were discovered by the gang," he guessed.
She nodded.
"And they assaulted you."
She sobbed and shrugged her shoulders.
He looked at her carefully.
"Langley, dear, I think I can help you, but I would like to try something."
"What?" she asked softly.
"Hypnotic regression. I would like to take you back to the assault, and walk you through it, allowing you to face what happened, and to move beyond it."
"I don't know if I can," she said.
"Come, we will try. I want to you look at my spoon, and listen to the sound of my voice," he droned on, asking her to focus on the spoon, and droning on and on, until her eyes grew heavy and she slid into the trance.
"Now, child, I want you to go back to the time you landed in Novosibirsk. Can you see it?"
"Yes, she said dully."
"You see people here, what are they doing?"
She began to breath faster, and her voice took on a brittle edge.
"They don't look friendly. One of them has a knife. The other one is grabbing my hair. Oh god, they're..." she was becoming excited.
"Hush child, stop there, hush, this is a memory, the pain is long gone, there is nothing here that can hurt you. Nothing. Your body feels no pain, and remembers no pain. You are at peace. Now, continue."
A subdued Asuka continued, "The tell me that they're going to take me. I can't do anything to stop them. I didn't want my first time to be like this. They knock me down and they're kicking me. I hurt. One of them has steel toed boots. He's really hurting me when he kicks me. He's a bad man. He's forcing my legs apart and kicking me. It hurts badly," she stopped.
"What is it child?"
"I... I don't know. I'm flying through the air, over the fields, and into the forest. I fall asleep. This. This is the same forest that I woke up in. It wasn't them who dumped me here."
"Where are they, Langley?"
"They're dead. They wanted to hurt me, they wanted to REALLY hurt me, so I killed them before they could hurt me. I hurt them permanently."
"Did they sexually assault you?"
"No. I stopped them."
"Do you know how you stopped them?"
"No. I just did."
"Okay child. That is enough. I want you to begin to come out of your trance, you're body is beginning to get heavy, and you're eyelids are lighter. The things we have talked about here are just memories, and they can't hurt you, but you will no longer associate the pain with the event. It will feel as if it happened on a movie screen. It will concern you, but not twist you. You will remember that you stopped them, and that you are still the same person you were before they beat you. The person you are now is the person you wish to be, not the thing they would have made you. You are truly heavy now, and you can feel your whole body. This is a pleasurable sensation coursing through you. When I snap my fingers, you will awaken and remember all I have said. Do you understand?"
She nodded.
"One. Two. Three," he snapped his fingers.
Asuka's eyes snapped open, and she looked around, startled. Then memory of what had happened, and what she'd talked to the old doctor about came vividly to her.
A broad grin split her face.
"Oh, Doctor Ivanovich, thank you," she said, throwing her arms about him.
"I did nothing child, the work was all yours," he smiled.
"But. It's just so wonderful. I have felt so... so... unclean, I guess, and now the weight is lifted," she marveled.
"And the boy?"
She suddenly darkened again.
"Shinji," she said simply.
"Do you regret Shinji's death?"
"More than anything. I can never tell him how sorry I am."
"Or how you really feel about him?"
She bowed her head.
"Well, I hope that you will continue to make your home with us, now that you have relieved your heart of this burden," he said.
"Oh, I certainly will. I love it here. It's so different from anything I've known before," she said.
"And Piotr will tell you that you are more than welcome. But I fear you will leave us, one day," he said. "But come child, you must get the eggs back, the hour is growing late, Sophia will already be starting dinner soon, and she will need your help."
She started, and looked outside, the sun had marched across the sky, and hours more time had passed than she'd thought.
"Goodbye, Doctor, and thank you again. I promise I'll come back again," she said, running out to grab the eggs and, mounting Liebchen, she began the short ride back into town
The old man walked to the door.
"Yes my child, you will come back, but when you finally come to terms with the feelings for your young man, the feelings you still can't admit, I think you will need to leave us. To settle this once and for all, and, to gain peace, you will have too," he murmured as she rode away.
Next on Episode 2:16 of Neon Genesis Evangelion A year and a half since Shinji began his battles, and unbeknownst to all but a few people in Japan, a special day arrives for a certain young woman, and Shinji has disappeared. Misato is the only one who figures out where he is, and tries to comfort him, on this special day. After an exhausting day, Shinji and Ritsuko have one last surprise in store for the NERV commander.
It's Evangelion Episode 2:16 Birthday blues
Episode 2:15 Open Wounds
Takes place after 1st season, and the End of Evangelion Movie.
Presumed date is April 7th, 2017
Asuka rode Liebchen through the gates of the small farm, and drew up to the house. The sound of her horse drew the elderly man out of the house, and onto the front porch. He smiled and greeted Asuka as she jumped down from the horse, and gave him a hug.
"Langley, my dear, it is good to see you," he said.
"Good morning Doctor Ivanovich, how are you this morning?"
"Quite well. Have you come for the eggs, or are you simply here to light up my day?" he smiled.
"Yes, Sophia sent me out here to pick up the eggs, but I wouldn't' mind keeping you company if you'd have me," Asuka answered.
"Certainly girl, but come, let us gather the eggs first, and then we make take our leisure."
They walked out behind the house and approached the first of two long buildings. Asuka could smell the chickens before she was too close. Their droppings reeked.
"You wouldn't think that something that smells that bad could taste so good," she commented.
"Ha, true. I have to have someone come out here to clean the pens every day or two. All that chicken manure is good for the crops, but it has to decompose some, or it will burn them."
"I didn't know that. Does it really burn?" Asuka asked.
"Well, it's a chemical burn. Too alkali or too acid, I honestly do not know," he laughed.
"But you are the keeper of all these chickens you must know very much about them."
"No my dear, I keep chickens because I don't like people," the old man said with a laugh.
Asuka laughed too, and they opened the doors and walked into the first building. There were maybe one hundred chickens here, each in its' own cage. The old man handed Asuka a large bucket filled with crushed dried corn and seeds. He took one himself, and, as they walked down the line of cages, they deposited a small amount of the feed in each little tin on the front. The seed spilled into a catch basin within the cage, and the chicken inside began to peck at the food. They had to repeat this several times until all the chickens had been fed.
They returned their buckets, and picked up a couple baskets. As they traveled down the row, they would open a little door in the front of the cage, reach in, and remove the eggs within. Usually there was a single egg within, set on top of the small nest, but there were also some that were empty. It took only a few minutes, and they had four baskets filled. Three by Asuka, in the time it took the old man to fill his.
"You are so speedy, you make me feel old," he said.
She grinned at him, as she gathered the eggs, and set them outside the door. They left this building and entered the next one, repeating the same process there. When they came out, Asuka escorted the old man back to his house, then returned to gather up all the egg baskets. She carefully carried them back to the house where she removed two large saddle bags from Liebchen, and opened them to reveal two cloth lined carriers for the eggs. The sides of them were padded, so that they would absorb most shocks. She loaded the eggs into the carriers and was happy to note that there were about half a dozen left over.
She put the carriers back in the saddle bags, and hung them on the rail of the front porch, she let Liebchen off his reins, to wonder in the yard, where he was soon cropping the grass, which was tender and green.
She stepped into the house, and found Doctor Ivanovich heating some water up in a ceramic pot on his small woodburning stove.
"Would you like coffee or tea?" he asked her.
"Coffee," she said, setting the eggs in a small bowl on his table.
He nodded and pushed a strange glass apparatus with a bowl on top and a spout on the bottom onto the ceramic pot.
"What is that?" she asked.
"My coffee maker. I dislike the weak filtered coffee that is so popular these days. Give me good strong coffee."
"How does it work," she asked.
"This rubber ring here forms a seal between the glass and the ceramic. When the water boils the gas expands, and pushes the water up the tube and into the chamber. We put our coffee in here, and the water bubbles, extracting the acids and flavors from the coffee. When the ceramic cools, the air inside condenses and forms a vacuum. It sucks the water back into the pitcher through the small holes, leaving the grounds behind. Perfect coffee, nice and strong the way I like it."
Asuka had never heard of such a thing, used to electric coffee pots, and watched the pot heat up, fill the top chamber, bubble vigorously, and, after it was removed from the heat, suck the now brewed coffee back down.
"That's amazing," she said.
"Nah, not even a small wonder. Merely simple physics, brewing coffee with the help of the principle of Thermal Expansion."
Asuka's expression darkened, and she turned away from him.
"Child what is wrong, did I say something to disturb you?"
"No, it's just a memory, nothing more," she said, sniffling.
"Come child. I have been a Doctor for longer than you've been alive," he said.
"It is nothing really," she answered.
The old man, nodded quietly to himself and prepared two cups of coffee. He put them on a tray with a small bowl of sugar and fresh cream.
"Come, child, let us go into the sitting room," he said, carrying the tray.
They went into the other room where he set the tray down on the small table. He motioned her to take a seat, and she wiped a hand over her eyes and composed herself.
He mixed the sugar and cream generously in one cup and handed it to her. For himself, he merely added sugar, and stirred his cup thoughtfully.
"Child, do you know what kind of Doctor I was?"
"No, tell me," she said.
"I was a doctor of psychology," he said.
"I had a psychology class in college," she said.
"Truly. You went to University? But you are so young. Ah. I see. You are not the simple girl you have been pretending to be. Some kind of prodigy I expect?"
"Yes, I was very special," she said.
"Was? But you are special my dear."
Asuka looked at her cup, and took a sip, before looking up at him with a weak smile.
"That life is over for me Doctor. I belong here now," she said.
"No my child, I sense that there is a greatness within you, even though it is buried by some tragedy."
She said nothing.
"You're body language, when you are reminded of something speaks volumes child. I noticed it the first time I saw you at the hotel. Will you allow me to help you?" he asked gently.
"I don't deserve your help," she said.
This was not the answer he'd expected. A yes or no, but not justification for him to ignore her. There was hope for the child yet.
He drank some of his coffee, and thought about what little he'd learned about this girl. There must be a way to approach this.
"So you think an old man like me is worthless do you?" he said.
"No it's not that."
"Then you are too ignorant to take the advice of an old man."
"Now listen here, I..." she started, but then cut it off.
'Ah,' he thought, 'this one had a lot of pride, but has suffered a blow to it. An insult can bring it to the surface, but she quickly suppresses it.'
"Alright," she said, "what would you like to know?"
"First, how is it that you came to be here?"
"I was traveling from the east," she started.
"Yes, yes, child, I know the vagaries of what you told everyone else. I want the truth."
She hesitated, finally deciding on a course of action.
"I was returning home to Germany from Japan," she said.
"A long journey indeed," he observed.
"I'd have been there soon enough, but my plane ran out of fuel over Novosibirsk, and I was forced to land. The fuel was jelled, and useless to me, so I set out on foot."
He noticed that at this point she was breathing fast, and seemed to become tense.
"Two weeks later, I rode into town here, and you know the rest."
"Hardly, how did you happen to be flying a plane, as one so young, I would not expect you to know how?" he said.
"I've had some training. It was part of my job."
"So," he said, "you've had pilot training. Quite unusual. Why were you flying to Germany?"
"My home is in Berlin. I was returning there."
"I see. Did you not tell Sophia that you had been one of the first to Awaken?"
"Well, yes," she shrugged.
"Then you have been in Japan for approximately five months. Did you have to build the plane you were flying or salvage a wreck?"
"No. I took one from an airfield," she said
"So you spent five months looking for the perfect plane, before leaving Japan," he said, cocking his head at her.
She didn't answer.
"Why did you leave Japan?"
"It's stupid. There was this... misunderstanding. And I left," she said, ending abruptly.
"What happened to make you leave?" he asked.
She stopped then and fiddled with her cup. She was not sure she could tell him, but maybe she could trust him. Just a little. Just enough.
"A stupid thing really," she began to tear up, "A kiss. From a boy I knew."
"Here child, was it that terrible a thing?"
"No. That's just it. It was only the second kiss I'd ever had. Both of them with him."
"Ah. And?" he asked gently.
"It was wonderful. But his friends, our friends, saw us, and it was humiliating."
"How. A kiss humiliating? The lilt in your voice tells the memory of that kiss fills you with joy."
"I have no right to enjoy the memory, and I wish I could forget."
"Why? What was this boy to you?"
She paused again to look at him.
"Doctor Ivanovich, promise me you'll never share what I'm going to tell you with another soul," she sniffed.
"You have my word child," he nodded, giving her permission to release this secret.
"Shinji was a good friend. He had saved my life on many occasions, and I'd never once said a kind thing to him. I might have whispered it to him once or twice, but I don't know if he ever heard me. We were... how to explain... we were roommates and teammates, and I treated him like crap. We awoke on the beach the day after Third Impact, and spent quite a bit of time together, and I realized that I cared for him. More than I had a right to. And I knew he cared for me. I knew it, and all he wanted was a kind word, and I couldn't bring myself to do it."
She gave a big sob.
"And then, at a friends wedding he kissed me, and I knew that I didn't deserve him. He was giving himself to me, and I wasn't worthy. And then one of our friends said something to spoil the mood, and instead of staying, I ran away. He chased after me, and caught me at the airfield. I was taking off, and he just stood there. And for the first time since my mother killed herself, someone said they loved me, and I knew they did. He did. He loved me, and I killed him." She broke into tears now, and he offered her what comfort he could.
"The boy died?" he said softly.
"As I took off, he was hit by my plane, and thrown into a bog. There's no way he could have survived the impact, and all he was trying to do was tell me he loved me," she said. "So I ran away," she said, "Our friends would never forgive me, so I couldn't go back. So I decided to go to Germany. No one there knows what I've done."
"Ah. But instead you landed in Novosibirsk. What then?" he asked.
"I found Liebchen," she said too fast.
"They keep horses at the airfield?"
"Well no, I had to look around before I found him outside of town," she said.
"What happened after you landed?"
"I went looking for signs of life in the city," She let out a loud sigh.
"You were discovered by the gang," he guessed.
She nodded.
"And they assaulted you."
She sobbed and shrugged her shoulders.
He looked at her carefully.
"Langley, dear, I think I can help you, but I would like to try something."
"What?" she asked softly.
"Hypnotic regression. I would like to take you back to the assault, and walk you through it, allowing you to face what happened, and to move beyond it."
"I don't know if I can," she said.
"Come, we will try. I want to you look at my spoon, and listen to the sound of my voice," he droned on, asking her to focus on the spoon, and droning on and on, until her eyes grew heavy and she slid into the trance.
"Now, child, I want you to go back to the time you landed in Novosibirsk. Can you see it?"
"Yes, she said dully."
"You see people here, what are they doing?"
She began to breath faster, and her voice took on a brittle edge.
"They don't look friendly. One of them has a knife. The other one is grabbing my hair. Oh god, they're..." she was becoming excited.
"Hush child, stop there, hush, this is a memory, the pain is long gone, there is nothing here that can hurt you. Nothing. Your body feels no pain, and remembers no pain. You are at peace. Now, continue."
A subdued Asuka continued, "The tell me that they're going to take me. I can't do anything to stop them. I didn't want my first time to be like this. They knock me down and they're kicking me. I hurt. One of them has steel toed boots. He's really hurting me when he kicks me. He's a bad man. He's forcing my legs apart and kicking me. It hurts badly," she stopped.
"What is it child?"
"I... I don't know. I'm flying through the air, over the fields, and into the forest. I fall asleep. This. This is the same forest that I woke up in. It wasn't them who dumped me here."
"Where are they, Langley?"
"They're dead. They wanted to hurt me, they wanted to REALLY hurt me, so I killed them before they could hurt me. I hurt them permanently."
"Did they sexually assault you?"
"No. I stopped them."
"Do you know how you stopped them?"
"No. I just did."
"Okay child. That is enough. I want you to begin to come out of your trance, you're body is beginning to get heavy, and you're eyelids are lighter. The things we have talked about here are just memories, and they can't hurt you, but you will no longer associate the pain with the event. It will feel as if it happened on a movie screen. It will concern you, but not twist you. You will remember that you stopped them, and that you are still the same person you were before they beat you. The person you are now is the person you wish to be, not the thing they would have made you. You are truly heavy now, and you can feel your whole body. This is a pleasurable sensation coursing through you. When I snap my fingers, you will awaken and remember all I have said. Do you understand?"
She nodded.
"One. Two. Three," he snapped his fingers.
Asuka's eyes snapped open, and she looked around, startled. Then memory of what had happened, and what she'd talked to the old doctor about came vividly to her.
A broad grin split her face.
"Oh, Doctor Ivanovich, thank you," she said, throwing her arms about him.
"I did nothing child, the work was all yours," he smiled.
"But. It's just so wonderful. I have felt so... so... unclean, I guess, and now the weight is lifted," she marveled.
"And the boy?"
She suddenly darkened again.
"Shinji," she said simply.
"Do you regret Shinji's death?"
"More than anything. I can never tell him how sorry I am."
"Or how you really feel about him?"
She bowed her head.
"Well, I hope that you will continue to make your home with us, now that you have relieved your heart of this burden," he said.
"Oh, I certainly will. I love it here. It's so different from anything I've known before," she said.
"And Piotr will tell you that you are more than welcome. But I fear you will leave us, one day," he said. "But come child, you must get the eggs back, the hour is growing late, Sophia will already be starting dinner soon, and she will need your help."
She started, and looked outside, the sun had marched across the sky, and hours more time had passed than she'd thought.
"Goodbye, Doctor, and thank you again. I promise I'll come back again," she said, running out to grab the eggs and, mounting Liebchen, she began the short ride back into town
The old man walked to the door.
"Yes my child, you will come back, but when you finally come to terms with the feelings for your young man, the feelings you still can't admit, I think you will need to leave us. To settle this once and for all, and, to gain peace, you will have too," he murmured as she rode away.
Next on Episode 2:16 of Neon Genesis Evangelion A year and a half since Shinji began his battles, and unbeknownst to all but a few people in Japan, a special day arrives for a certain young woman, and Shinji has disappeared. Misato is the only one who figures out where he is, and tries to comfort him, on this special day. After an exhausting day, Shinji and Ritsuko have one last surprise in store for the NERV commander.
It's Evangelion Episode 2:16 Birthday blues