Episode: 4 (part 2)
"Fly Me to the Moon"
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Thousands of feet in the air, a plane with the United Nations logo on its tailfin continues its journey from Japan to the United States. The sun gleams off its metal hull as it streaks across land, water, and time zones. Pilot and co-pilot sit stoically at the controls while two brooding boys occupy the small but luxurious cabin.
One boy, however, has now finished his menacing reflections. Kaagi enjoys the dramatic clink of his glasses as he sets them down on a table by his seat. It's the only sound the cabin has heard in hours, besides the omnipresent roar of the engines. Shinji doesn't hear it, though, because of his Walkman's earphones. And his ambivalence, however unintentional, fuels Kaagi's already simmering anger.
"Let's finish it," Kaagi says, loud enough for Shinji to hear over his music. With unconcealed contempt, he looks up at Kaagi standing over him. Putting his music-player aside, he also stands. Kaagi has to back up to accommodate this motion, which Shinji savors childishly.
"Finish what?" he asks with an annoyed air that suggests he already knows, even though he doesn't.
"Our fight," Kaagi explains patronizingly. "Or are you afraid to, since Daddy's not here to do your fighting for you?"
Come on, give me an excuse…, Kaagi thinks. All I need is a nice, fresh excuse to beat the hell out of you.
"I don't know what you mean," Shinji says, making sure to convey that he doesn't care either.
"You snotty little shit," Kaagi says. "Screw you! I've hated you practically my whole life, but I was willing to try to be your friend. Not you, though. You had to make being your friend just as hard as you could. So frigging standoffish all the time… you think you're so much better, you can't even barely talk to me?"
"Standoffish"? Shinji thinks, outraged. Maybe I just don't like running my mouth like you! And just because I'm not like you, doesn't mean I think I'm better. I don't think I'm better than anyone. Why would I want to be friends with someone so stupid that he can't see that?
"I'm sick of your attitude," Kaagi continues. "You yelled at Rei, for God-knows-why. You walked out on your date with Asuka. But then you mope around like the whole world's against you.
"You just don't know how good you have it, Shinji. You're the big hero who's killed most of the Angels! Asuka liked you enough that she asked you out… and Rei still likes you!" Remembering that fact turns Kaagi from angry to almost hysterical.
"You're just pissing away the life that I could've had, if you weren't around!" he screams. "Maybe if your damned mother had died in Second Impact!"
And Kaagi gets the excuse to fight he's been hoping for, as Shinji punches him squarely in the face.
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Warning sirens blare in the Command Center as everyone rushes to their battle-stations. The three members of the bridge crew hover diligently over their controls, while Misato stands pensively behind them.
"Fuyutsuki's coming down here personally," Aoba whispers to Maya. "Commander Ikari is in Tokyo-2 today, hand-picking the airmen who are following Shinji and Kaagi to the States to help with their mission."
"Vice-Commander on the bridge," announces Misato, standing at attention. Aoba, Hyuga, and Maya quickly follow their leader's example.
"As you were," says Fuyutsuki. He looks up at the main view screen, and sighs in awe.
The 19th Angel floats well above the tallest of the city's towers, casting a sizable shadow. It looks like a Manta Ray without a tail, all wings and torso. Sunlight shines through the Angel's translucent body, refracting into rainbows on the streets below.
"Why are there no Evas in the Cage?" asks the Vice-Commander, observing the empty room on a secondary screen.
"Unit-02 should be there," says Misato, but decides to gloss over that fact for now. "Unit-05's pilot… was incapacitated. And Maya's plugging Rei into Unit-06 right now, as per your orders." Lieutenant Ibuki nods to both her superiors, and begins stage-one activation. Almost immediately, a warning buzzer sounds.
"Unit-06 is rejecting the pilot!" Maya tells Fuyutsuki.
"That can't be," he says with quiet disbelief. "It has the same soul as Unit-00…."
"We could try putting her in Unit-05," suggests Misato. But the Vice-Commander shakes his head.
"That one's meant for the Fourth Child," he says, he voice growing more sullen. "We'll have to put her in Unit-01."
"But Unit-01 rejected her the last two times she tried to activate it!" Misato argues. The Vice-Commander leans close to her ear.
"The activation tests were sabotaged," he whispers to her. "Rei's always been able to synch with Unit-01." Backing away from her, he orders, "Lieutenant Ibuki, transfer the entry-plug to Eva Unit-01."
"Why did you tell me that?" Misato whispers back.
"I think I've carried my secrets around too long, Major. It's time I shared some of the burden."
"Oh, too bad, Wonder Girl," comes Asuka's sarcastic voice. "Having trouble getting your engines going? Well, you can sit back and leave this one to me!"
"Where are you Asuka?" asks Misato. "Why isn't Unit-02 on the catapult?"
"I had to get something!" comes Asuka's voice over the com. Misato looks to a monitor showing the Cage and Unit-02 bounds into view, holding a progressive spear.
"Asuka, the Angel isn't in close-combat range," Misato tells her.
"That's what you think," Asuka says, maneuvering her Eva into position. "Unit-02, launch!" The Evangelion goes rocketing up the exit shaft, holding the spear close to its chest like a soldier presenting arms.
"She's disengaged the locking clamps on the catapult!" shouts Hyuga.
The blast-doors on the surface open and Unit-02 shoots into the air like a missile, its umbilical flapping in the wind behind it like the tail of a kite. Asuka watches as the glistening underbelly of the Angel draws nearer. The second that she's close enough, she thrusts the spear upward, with all her momentum behind the strike.
The spear slips through the A.T. Field and pierces the Angel with a wet, sucking sound. The force of the impact brings Unit-02 to a jarring halt, and after dangling in the air a moment, the spear rips free and Asuka plummets back to the ground.
"Got you, you bastard!" Asuka declares while enjoying the freefall. Her Eva lands hard but elegantly, bending its knees to absorb the shock and sending pavement flying in all directions.
As the debris from her landing settles, Asuka feels drops of water falling on her armor. Looking up, she sees a torrent of rain pouring from the wound in the Angel. In the Command Center, the scene looks like an old-time cartoon where a tiny rain-cloud sits above a single character.
The droplets fall all around her, slithering down Unit-02's red body and pooling at its feet. Asuka watches the puddle grow, feeling less and less confident as the water gets deeper. Eventually her Eva is ankle-deep, the downpour has stopped, and nothing of the Angel remains in the sky.
"This doesn't feel right," Asuka says of the liquid all around her. As she does, the water begins to roll back up her legs until Unit-02 is incased in a rippling shell. The shell then contracts, squeezing out any air and conforming to the contours of the Eva's body.
"Get it off!" Asuka hollers as the Angel squeezes her tighter. Two of her four optic lenses crack, followed by several plates of armor. Her Eva claws at the Angel surrounding it, trying urgently to pull off this unwanted second skin.
Unit-01 emerges from an exit shaft nearby, holding a palette-gun, and Rei quickly assesses the situation. Without a word, she shoulders her weapon and fires at Unit-02. The bullets hit with tiny splashes on the Angel, impacting the red armor of the Eva beneath.
"Bitch! I felt that!" cries Asuka angrily, but the squeezing has stopped. A long second passes, and the Angel releases her, stepping threateningly toward Rei. It's now become a carbon copy of Unit-02, but made entirely of water. The Angel takes a pair of clumsy swings with its arms at Unit-01, apparently unused to its new form. Rei rolls her Eva under the wild punches easily, rising to her feet again beside Asuka.
"Give me that!" Asuka yells, grabbing at Unit-01's gun. Rei refuses to relinquish her weapon, and the two Evas struggle for possession. Asuka plants her spear in the ground to get another hand on the gun, accidentally severing Rei's umbilical in the process. "Good! Now I only have to deal with you for another five minutes."
"I don't believe this," cries Misato helplessly. "This isn't a game! If you two don't stop fighting, you're going to die!"
The two girls continue to tug the gun back and forth, while the Water-Eva/Angel turns slowly around to face them. It cocks its head back and forth, as if studying them. Rei watches her time tick down as her fight with Asuka carries on. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Rei sees the Angel tense and, somehow, she knows what's coming.
She lets go of the gun, sending Asuka reeling backward, and then gives Unit-02 a firm kick for good measure. As the red Eva is flung away, the Angel shoots a powerful blast of water through the space where it stood, tearing up the street instead.
Now, Rei finds herself dodging the blasts as the Angel turns its attention to her. She's fast, but the Angel eventually matches her timing and manages to clip her with one jet of liquid. Stumbling from the first, she's hit solidly with another blast, and Unit-01 flies limply through the air, knocking the top off one tower before skidding across the ground into another.
The rubble from the second building has barely settled when the Angel leaps onto Unit-01. It uses one hand to bash the purple Eva's skull against the street repeatedly, while tearing off its chest-plate with the other. Watching from the bridge, Misato can't suppress a gasp as the Angel's arm turns into an icy spear, ready to impale Unit-01's exposed heart.
Suddenly, a thunderous staccato rhythm echoes through the city, and the Angel's ice-arm is ripped to pieces. Its head turns like a cresting wave, pointing toward the source of the sound. The battered shell of Unit-02 stands, unsteadily, holding the palette-gun. The barrel smokes, and the last of the shell-casings crash to ground.
"She doesn't die until I'm finished with her!" Asuka snarls. Her target snarls back with a sound like a whirlpool.
Another arm flows out from the Angel's main body, replacing the shattered one. Then, both arms extend straight at Unit-02, solidifying into spikes. Asuka can only bring the gun to bear on the spike aimed for her heart, blasting it away. The other arm skewers her right shoulder and then splits into two, replacing the one lost to the latest hail of gunfire. With both of its hands now imbedded in Unit-02, the Angel pushes them apart, tearing the Eva's arm from its socket.
"Hyuga," Misato asks, "are these attacks causing the Angel to lose any appreciable mass?" The young Lieutenant shrugs, shaking his head hopelessly as he searches the sensor array for any answer.
Rei lies in the twisted wreckage of Unit-01, bleeding from her head. In the harsh, red emergency lighting, she can see the battery clock flash 00:00:00 mockingly. Asuka's screams tear sporadically through the com speakers, but Rei can't see anything.
"What's the status of the pilots?" asks the Vice-Commander.
"Asuka's taken a pounding, but her vitals are still strong," says Maya. "It's Rei who's weakening."
I feel myself slipping away, Rei thinks. I can't tell what's "me" anymore. I'm not human …(?) I'm not an Angel…(?) but what am I? "How can he set his synch ratio at any level he chooses?" Misato wondered about Kaworu. Did I hear her say that? I don't even know what thoughts are my own. But I know what I have to do.
"Rei!" calls Fuyutsuki. "Are you all right? Please respond."
"I'm sorry, Professor," Rei says softly. Fuyutsuki feels his heart drop. "Tell everyone that I'm sorry…."
"No, don't!" he yells. Desperately, he turns to Maya. "Can we disable the auto-destruct from here?"
"She's not engaging the A-drive," Maya says. "She's… oh my god…." Maya points a shaking finger at the read-out for Rei's synch ratio. It's already above two-hundred percent and climbing higher.
"Sever the neural links now!" cries the Vice-Commander.
"I can't! The ratio's climbing too fast!"
Unit-01's eyes flash, its maw opens, and an inhuman howl resounds through the Command Center.
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"Break it up!" yells the co-pilot. "Break it up now!"
He has to force himself between the two boys, shoving each of them backward in opposite directions, just to get them to stop hitting each other. Their faces are red, bloodied, and will surely have a few bruises formed before the plane lands. Kaagi looks far worse, having already been beaten once before. But neither boy is strong enough to have done serious damage to the other.
"I don't know what this is all about, but it's stopping right now!" the co-pilot continues. "I can have you two thrown in the brig when we land. Am I going to have to do that?"
The two boys crawl into chairs on opposite sides of the cabin. The co-pilot looks to each, and they shake their heads in turn. He nods, satisfied. Before returning to the cockpit, he gets Shinji and Kaagi some ice from the mini-bar for their wounds. They sit for a long time, too exhausted and aching to move. They also find that they're too tired to hate.
"I'm sorry," Kaagi says quietly. "For what I said about your mother…."
"Thanks," Shinji says.
Worn out from their fighting, they settle into a sleep that lasts the remainder of the flight.
While still a long way from becoming friends, they're perhaps a little further away from being enemies.
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Great. I'm in the hospital again, Asuka thinks sourly, upon waking. There's an I.V. running into the back of her hand, but at least she's not hooked up to any machines, like the last time. The place reeks of sterility, however there is a faint fragrance present that she finds familiar. Looking over, she sees Misato sitting in a chair by the wall.
"I'm glad you're finally awake," she says, standing and walking to Asuka's bedside.
"Yeah," Asuka says. "And, since I'm alive, too, I guess Wonder Girl saved the day again."
"That's right," says Misato quietly, remembering the horror of the berserk Eva. "We're still analyzing all the data, but somehow she was able to physically damage the Angel." She remembers watching Unit-01 clawing and biting into the watery Angel. Blood had poured out of its wounds in both directions, spilling over Unit-01's armor as well as seeping into the Angel's body. By the time it was defeated, it had turned from translucent to a muddy red.
"Good for her," Asuka says bitterly.
"No, not good," says Misato with a touch of anger. "Rei was absorbed into Unit-01, just like Shinji was when he fought the 14th Angel. No one really knows what the odds are that she'll be coming out, either. And before you say one more thing, I have two things to say to you.
"First… if you ever bring a personal problem into battle with you again, and risk all our lives with it, including your own, you're done. And second… if you hadn't saved Rei from the Angel, none of us may have survived. This victory is yours as much as it is hers. Do you understand both things I've just said?"
Asuka looks up at Misato for a while, then turns her eyes downward and nods.
"Good," says Misato, relieved. She does her best to put aside worrying about Rei and stay optimistic, for her own sake as well as Asuka's. Brightening, she continues, "So let's celebrate that victory, okay? The boys are gone through the weekend at least. I thought that after school on Friday, we could rent some movies, load up on candy, and just get all girly. Just you and me, how's that sound?"
"That sounds…," Asuka starts. (Lame? she thinks. Or maybe stupid? Or maybe… or maybe I don't really feel that way at all….) "That sounds good," she finishes. And though it's only very small, she smiles.
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Shinji sits in an observation room, watching out the window as the space shuttle is prepared for launch. The sky is still the deep, navy blue of early morning with no sun yet to be seen. But the work lights on the crews' vehicles, and on the launch gantry, let him see the all the workers scrambling to make ready for the mission.
A few days of slap-dash training and fitness tests are now behind him, and he'll be leaving the planet in a matter of hours. It's a difficult prospect for even an Eva pilot to grasp, though. He's seen old footage and pictures of the Americans' astronauts and shuttles certainly, but the ship in front of him bears only a passing resemblance to those pre-Impact forays into space. He'd been told it was the largest ever built, and it would have to be to hold an Eva.
"It's quite an achievement," says a man, following Shinji's gaze out the window. Shinji turns to see the man taking a seat next to him. He's an elderly man, with white hair, but he wears a futuristic-looking visor, perhaps to aid failing eyesight. He turns to Shinji and smiles down at him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Shinji Ikari," the man says. "My name is Lorenz Kiel. I'm the chairman of a U.N. advisory committee. Specifically, we advise on… shall we say, the "situations" you have to deal with."
"It's… good to meet you, too," Shinji says lamely. The old man's warm smile quells his nervousness somewhat, and he gives a tiny smile of his own.
"You seem nervous, but you needn't be," Kiel tells him. "There's no safer place to be than within an Evangelion."
"Major Katsuragi told me that once," Shinji says. "But I've never piloted Unit-07 before."
"Well, only Unit-07 can survive the vacuum of space. It has the D-Type equipment, for operation in extreme environmental conditions. Of course, the shoulder pylons had to be removed just to fit it in the shuttle's cargo bay. I can't say why, but it amuses me that it's packed in there in the fetal position."
A call over the intercom requests mission personnel to assemble at the launch gantry. Shinji shuffles uncomfortably, makes an apologetic face, and then rises to go.
"I know you're leaving soon, but I've something to ask of you first," Kiel says. Shinji's small smile disappears as he's reminded of the talk he had with his father.
"Yes, sir?" he asks respectfully.
"I wanted to ask you to forgive me," Kiel says. Shinji blinks, dumbstruck. "I know that working on this project has taken a tremendous toll on you and your family. You didn't choose to make the concessions that you have, they were forced upon you. And I accept my responsibility for that. But your forgiveness would mean a great deal to me."
"I…," Shinji stammers. "I don't know what to say." Kiel frowns. It's a despondent frown that cuts deep into his wizened face.
"I should have known it wouldn't be that easy," he says resignedly. He stands, and his warm smile returns, but Shinji can see the artificiality in it, now. "We'll meet again, Shinji Ikari. Until then, have a safe journey."
It seems like hours of preparation, suiting up, checking, and re-checking, before Shinji is finally waiting with the crew in the cockpit of the shuttle, minutes away from countdown. Kaagi sits next to him, trying to see the view out the window. They've only had time to sleep and train since arriving here, days ago. Not that either boy was terribly anxious to socialize with the other.
"Only a few days back home in the States, now I'm leaving again," Kaagi says to himself. Shinji recognizes his next breath as preparation for singing. "So, bye-bye, Miss American Pie. Drove my Chevy to the levy, but the levy was dry. And good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singin' this'll be the day that I die… this'll be the day that I die…."
"God, that's depressing, kid," one of the astronauts radios back. "Don't you know "Rocket Man" or something?"
"I do," Kaagi replies thoughtfully. "I wonder why I picked the song I did…?"
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"Where's the food?" Ritsuko asks innocently as Gendo Ikari enters her cell. He stops only a step or two inside the doorway. As usual, a spotlight and the NERV logo are the only lights within.
"This is your last opportunity to answer my questions," he threatens ambiguously. "There appears to be some merit to Katsuragi's theories that the old men are moving against me. If you know anything about SEELE's agenda, or their plans, you must tell me now."
"Sorry, Gendo," she whispers, "but the price of information has gone up. Dinner won't be enough to satisfy me, now." He turns his head a fraction, showing guarded curiosity.
"I need you to touch me," she says. She's not pleading with him. She's facing him down. "Come on! Touch me like you've longed to, every time you come in here. Touch me like you used to. I know you still want me."
"You're wrong," he tells her.
"Too bad," she says airily. "You might have figured it out sooner, if you did."
And with that, she vanishes.
Gendo Ikari bolts from the room, jamming his hand against the lighting controls. Returning to the fully illuminated cell, he finds only an empty chair. A holographic projector sits in the unused food dispenser on the far wall. Gendo angrily knocks it off its perch, and an afterimage of Ritsuko flickers in the air before the battered machine gives out.
"Commander Ikari to Security," he radios. "The prisoner from Isolation 4 has escaped. I have no doubt she was aided by one of the bridge crew. I want the accomplice arrested, or dead, if you encounter resistance."
"Who is the accomplice, sir?" comes the reply.
Damn it, thinks Ikari. What was the girl's name?
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Like a forgotten toy left by a careless child, the Lance of Longinus lays, dust-covered, on the surface of the moon. Shinji had expected to see it speared into the ground, with all the expectant drama of Excalibur. Disappointed to find it like discarded refuse, he pilots Unit-07 toward it with all the fanfare of a janitor tidying up.
Kaagi stands beside him in the plug. Though never stated explicitly, one of the two pilots was always intended as a superfluous backup, just in case. Neither boy wanted to be labeled as such, though, so both insisted on seeing the mission through to the end. One of the Japanese crew took the initiative to decide who would actually be at the controls.
The Lance feels alive in Shinji's hand as he grips it. Not alive like having consciousness, but organic, as if he's holding a living thing's appendage. Its twin spires braid together into a single spike and its body contracts, growing thinner and longer. It's somehow responding to what Shinji intends to do. He lifts it up, over Unit-07's shoulder, and sights a distant star. But he hesitates.
"What are you doing?" asks a confused Kaagi.
What am I doing? Shinji asks himself. Just doing as I'm told, like I always have. Why? It's because I want others to respect me. If I had quit, all those times before, I would have lost everyone's respect. But I want my father to respect me, too. Why? I don't know! I hate my father! I always have!
After he made me attack Toji, I tried to fight back, but he shut Unit-01 down. (I have to make a decision….) I told him I wouldn't throw away the Lance for him, but I'm still going to do it? (I have to make a decision….) He's never respected me. I do what he says, I keep coming back, but it's never good enough! (I have to make a decision….) I hate you, Father! I hate you! I HAVE to make a CHOICE!
Shinji realizes that if he ever hopes to earn his father's respect… or at least be seen as more than just a child… mere token acts of defiance would no longer suffice.
Lowering the Lance, he sends Unit-07 trudging back to the landing site. In his hand, the Lance telescopes in on itself, becoming thicker but much smaller, about the relative size of a relay-race baton. It gives Shinji a thrilling feeling of control.
"What was that about?" Kaagi asks him.
"I think…," Shinji says hesitantly, "I think I'm growing up."
From one of the shuttle's windows, a Japanese airman that the Commander had sent watches as Unit-07 returns with the Lance. The hum of the umbilical rewinding onto the Eva's generator is all he hears as he reads the sealed orders the Commander had given him. Turning white, he drops the paper, and it floats slowly to the deck.
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Kouzou Fuyutsuki takes a deep breath before stepping from the antechamber into Gendo Ikari's office. He looks down at the envelope in his hand, studying the fibers of the paper from which it's made. He's been holding it for a while. Stalling outside this very door, he's paced back and forth while his hands began to sweat. His sweat now mars the crisp, white exterior of the envelope. But the time has come for his stalling to end.
"What is this?" Ikari asks, taking the envelope from the Vice-Commander as it's offered. He doesn't look at it while opening it, instead choosing to glare up at Fuyutsuki.
"That's my resignation," Fuyutsuki says calmly. Ikari stops in the midst of opening the letter, and places it down on the desk. The Commander stands to look the other man in the eye. Fuyutsuki glances down at the desk between them. It looks larger than it used to.
"There's no coming back from this," Ikari tells him. "You know that."
"I know… but I can't be a part of this anymore. There's too much blood on both our hands. I used to think how lucky it was for my conscience that Akagi stopped Jet-Alone's meltdown to save Katsuragi. All those people in Atsugi that would have died when the robot went critical were saved, too. But that was a lifetime ago, before the sabotage at Second Branch. And now the space shuttle…."
"Tragic accidents all," states Ikari. "Your accusations of sabotage are… disquieting."
"Don't act the fool with me, Gendo!" the older man growls. "I know you better than anyone. I know what we've sacrificed!"
"Then you also know that the Lance could destroy everything we've worked for. Everything Yui worked for. Preventing its return is worth any sacrifice."
"We just lost Rei! We're lucky her four-hundred percent ratio didn't cause Third Impact! Shinji was the last remnant of Yui you had. The Lance wasn't worth it!"
"The point is academic," Gendo says, returning to his seat. "Shinji made his choice."
Fuyutsuki wonders sadly what ever became of the man that Yui Ikari had loved. Had he only been an illusion all along? Or had years of grief buried him under their weight? Either way, all Fuyutsuki can remember is this monster that he's known for eleven years, driven to succeed at any cost and devoid of compassion. And he knows he has to go, now, before he sees that same monster the mirror.
"My last official act before I leave will be to tell Major Katsuragi the news," says Fuyutsuki. "She should hear it from someone who gives a damn."
"As you wish."
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Misato wakes with a pounding headache. She doesn't feel like she has the strength to lift her head from the table, but she doesn't have any inkling to do so, either. As she tries to focus, her first thoughts are questions.
What time is it…? her hazy mind asks. Did I fall asleep…? Where's Asuka…? But the memories come soon after. And she remembers what drove her to this state in the first place.
"I'm very sorry, Major…", she remembers Fuyutsuki's voice on the phone. And her own, six days before… "No, I'm sure they'd like to get out of Tokyo-3 for a change…. The trip might do them good." And Yoshi's…"It's your call…. You're their guardian… you're their guardian… you're their guardian… you're their guardian…"
Asuka walks into the quiet apartment, carrying rented movies. She finds Misato slumped over the kitchen table, a nearly empty bottle of vodka within arm's reach. Carefully, she puts down her packages and walks over to her guardian. Misato slowly raises her head to look at Asuka with red, haunted eyes.
"If you've been crying for Rei, I wouldn't waste the time," the girl says, so blasé it makes Misato sick. "She'll come back, just like Shinji did… whether anyone wants her to or not."
"Shut up!" Misato screams. She jumps up from her seat, grabbing Asuka by the shoulders and shaking her violently. "Shut up, you selfish little bitch!"
Asuka hardly feels the tears run down her cheeks. She's terrified. Misato's beautiful face has become a twisted mask of fury. As she stares down at Asuka with bloodshot eyes, Asuka smells the alcohol on her breath. She tries to shrink away, but Misato still holds her shoulders painfully.
"Oh, Asuka…," she says, seeing what she's done. The fury melts away, replaced by unfathomable grief. She kneels down and hugs the stunned girl, sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry…!"
Asuka keeps standing rigidly, frozen with fear. Misato holds her tightly, afraid to loosen her grip even a little. She runs a hand through Asuka's long, red hair, trying to calm her. It does no good, because Misato herself is shaking too hard.
"Oh, Asuka, I'm sorry," she repeats as she cries. "I'm so sorry…. Please don't go. Please don't leave me…."
"I… I won't," Asuka says, finding her voice. This seems to bring Misato to her senses at last.
"I'm so sorry, please let me explain," she begs. "The Vice-Commander called… and there was an accident… some kind of explosion on the space shuttle…"
Asuka can see it coming. As much as she'd like to pretend she doesn't care, she would give anything for Misato to stop. But the words keep crashing down on her like an avalanche.
"Shinji and Kaagi are dead…."
To Be Continued…
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Next Episode Preview:
In death, Shinji finds the peace that eluded him in life. Within Unit-01, Rei finds only torment. When tragedy dashes our hopes for the future, we invariably look to the past for the strength to carry on. But the past holds tragedies of its own… as well as secrets. Next: "Remember the Fallen".