Evangelion: New Testament
Episode: 7
"Perspectives"
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"You want my opinion… I think it's aliens."
Two businessmen stand on a windy street in downtown Tokyo-3.
"No, no," says the other. "It has to be terrorists."
"Well I don't know about that," says the first. "Where would terrorists get the kind of firepower that could stand against our robots?"
"Who knows where terrorists get their bombs and things? If we have robots, and they want to attack us, then they know that they need something comparable."
"But terrorists attack without warning. We always know when the enemy is coming. Aliens would have to come from far away, where we could see--"
"Gentlemen," the voice of an unseen female cuts in, "I'd like your opinion… not so much about the enemy, but rather about those who have appointed themselves our defenders."
"Who, NERV?" one asks. He shrugs. "I'm sure they do their best. City's back in one piece, finally."
"Oh, they're great," says the other. "My brother is a contractor, and he's put in bids on dozens of--"
Nanako Asakawa clicks the mouse on her laptop and the men's faces disappear.
I can't use any of this, she thinks despairingly.
Nanako looks over at her paper notepad, too scant on information for her liking. She taps her pencil on the page anxiously. It alights on the words "Tokyo-3 Middle School". Her eyes narrow in thought. She circles those words, and then traces a line across the page until she reaches the word "NERV" which she also circles, then follows with a large question mark.
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The same word graces the cover of a light-blue handbook, currently clutched at the side of a young woman standing on the bridge in the Command Center. Gendo Ikari examines her from the command deck above. She's smiling and nodding, running her free hand occasionally over the top of her corn-rowed hair. If she'd look up, she would catch him staring, but her attention is on Hyuga talking animatedly in front of her.
"Her name is Cassandra Burnham-Wood," Ritsuko says over Gendo's shoulder. He doesn't take his eyes off the woman below, but the one behind him knows that he's listening. "She officially starts tomorrow. Today's her orientation day… uniform fitting, tour of the base, that sort of thing. She's Maya's replacement as liaison from the bridge crew to the Tech Department, and her qualifications are stellar. For one thing, Lieutenant Burnham-Wood assisted in the programming and installation of the London Magi system."
"NERV doesn't have any operations in London."
"She's not an in-house transfer, Gendo." The Commander glares at Ritsuko for her use of his familiar name. She shrugs it off and continues, "She previously served at the London branch of the U.N. Intelligence Taskforce."
"And you approved her appointment here?"
"Dr. Kaiu trusts my judgment in decisions that affect his Department," she answers, "seeing as how I used to run it…." After everything that had passed between them, trust is a sore subject to say the least. "It certainly pleased the U.N. to have one of their operatives brought into the NERV "family". But don't worry, Kaji's had her checked. She's not a spy for SEELE."
"Our new lieutenant would not be my first suspect," Gendo retorts.
They also know that they no longer have the luxury of choosing whether or not to trust each other. If they don't, NERV will fall apart. And neither of them wants that.
"Are those new glasses?" Ritsuko asks. She walks very close to him, examining his face. "They are! The frames are just slightly different than your last pair." She moves within inches of his ear and whispers, "I'm not SEELE's spy, Gendo. When you sent me to them, they raped every secret from me that I had…. Now, I'm just doing what I have to in order to survive."
She clenches her teeth and swallows, successfully fighting back a tear. Pulling away, she raises her head look at the Commander. Her eyes are bone-dry, and she wants him to see that. His eyes are hidden behind the light that's reflecting off his glasses.
"But you didn't call me up here to banter or to ogle the new recruit," Ritsuko says as if her composure was never in jeopardy. "Did you want to know how Kaagi's getting along? He and Shinji have told everyone that they're brothers, you know. It's cute, really…. They've even concocted a cover-story to protect their dear father from being seen as a philanderer."
"What I want to know is why Rei has yet to be synch-tested," the Commander snaps.
Ritsuko takes a deep breath before answering.
"Because I think she'll fail, Gendo," she tells him bluntly. "The changes she's undergone are more than cosmetic. Going into the preliminary testing, I expected her genetic makeup to have a lower percentage of Adam's DNA than before, just based on how she looks. I was even afraid there was an outside chance that she'd have less than the other pilots. But I've taken sample after sample from her… two weeks worth and always with the same results. Bottom line is, as far as I can tell, she's now completely human."
"That doesn't make any sense," Gendo says, his jaw tightening. "Even Yui wasn't completely human… at the end."
"Well, the evidence is all there. Rei's started her menstrual cycle, too. I've put her on some orthotricyclin to keep it regular. Don't you think it's odd, though, that it only just started after Unit-01 released her? We had to suppress regular bodily functions like that on the spares while they were in the tank, but she'd been out for over two months. At what age did her predecessor--?"
"Rei will have her synchronization test tomorrow," interrupts Gendo. His sensitivity to her inquiry surprises even Ritsuko. "No more guesses or speculation; either she can still pilot her Evangelion or she can't. After that… we'll deal with the question of her soul…."
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At a table in the Tokyo-3 middle-school's courtyard, Rei Ayanami is eating lunch across from Class Rep Hikari Horaki. For the past week and a half, they've been joined regularly by Asuka Langley Soryu, but not today. Though she and Rei are not exactly friends, they'd eaten together ever since Kensuke's gesture at the theatre had cemented a kind of truce between the six other teens in attendance that night. And despite their lack of friendship, Asuka's absence does not go unnoticed by Rei.
"Is there a reason that Asuka is not joining us today," she asks, "besides the fact that she dislikes me?" Hikari laughs a little, until she realizes that Rei isn't joking.
"Oh," she answers, "Asuka's eating lunch with her boyfriend."
"I thought Fukuyama preferred to eat with his male friends."
"He does," says Hikari wistfully. "I think that's one of the reasons she dumped him. She's seeing Saotome now. He's a little possessive."
Rei scans the assembled students, mostly engaged in eating and boisterous conversation. She easily spies the glint of red metal atop flowing red hair. There's a boy next to Asuka, stealing kisses almost as often as he takes a bite of food. Rei notices that his arm never leaves her shoulders and even draws her closer if she tries to scoot away. Hikari's assessment was quite obviously correct.
"I can't believe they're doing that," Hikari says as the boy kisses her again.
"You and Suzuhara have kissed…," Rei starts, a question forming.
"Sure, we've had some make-out sessions… but not in front of the whole school."
"Has Suzuhara attempted to touch your breasts during these sessions?" Rei asks. Hikari jumps in surprise, banging her knee against the underside of the table. At times, she isn't sure if she prefers the formerly quiet Rei to this new, inquisitive one, with no idea of which questions are too personal.
"Toji is always a perfect gentleman!" Hikari says as she rubs her knee. And it was true. On several occasions he had, very politely and patiently, asked Hikari's permission to engage in the activity that Rei had just described. Hikari knows that her response was misleading, but modesty wouldn't let her admit that she'd actually been fending Toji off second base for the last several days.
She almost succumbed to his persistence, one afternoon at his house before his father or grandfather had returned from work. But a fit of nervous giggling on her part had decidedly killed the mood. The memory brings a redness to her cheeks that she tries to hide by taking a large drink of water.
"Kaagi wishes to touch mine, but I have not allowed it," Rei continues on the subject. "I found it unpleasant the time that Shinji gripped one."
Inadvertently, Hikari spits a mouthful of water all over her. With only the slightest look of surprise, Rei begins to wipe herself off.
"I… oh, gosh… sorry," Hikari stammers in an embarrassed whisper, once others nearby had stopped gawking. "But… you and Shinji were fooling around? When was that?" The two introverted Eva pilots having had a relationship strikes Hikari as too obvious and clichéd to actually be true… sort of like discovering that "the butler did it".
"We were not fooling around," Rei says. Her ability to decipher idiom has been increasing exponentially since her regular lunches with the girls. "Once, he accidentally fell upon me after I had emerged from the shower. Kaagi is the only person I have… dated."
Yeah, Hikari thinks, that sounds more like Shinji. Secret Casanova? Please!
"Oh, that reminds me!" she says excitedly. "What do you think Kaagi's going to get you for your anniversary? I've been dropping all kinds of hints to Toji."
"To what anniversary are you referring?" Rei asks. Hikari looks at her as if she just asked what "New Year's Day" was.
"A week from tomorrow," Hikari explains slowly, like one would to a child. Anyone but Rei might have been insulted by such a tone, and anyone but Hikari might have been condescending intentionally. "You and Kaagi will have been dating for exactly one month. Me and Toji, too. It's kind of a big deal."
"Oh," Rei says.
"I guess you two haven't been on as many dates as Toji and I have. Not that visiting his sister in the hospital is exactly what you'd call a date… but we're spending time together, so I'd say it counts. I can't decide if you and Kaagi having to sneak around behind your guardian's back is wildly romantic or if it's just an inconvenience."
At times, Rei isn't sure if she prefers the formerly professional and brief Hikari to this new one who tends to babble, rapt in the giddy throws of her first love.
"The latter," Rei says. She dislikes deceiving the Commander, but doesn't know how else to protect Kaagi from his wrath. Fortunately, Gendo Ikari is not overly inquisitive about her private life, as he's accustomed to her not having one. And she and Kaagi intentionally avoid each other at NERV, where he might notice their closeness. Thus, she can get by with lies of omission, which helps appease her troubled conscience.
"Are you seeing each other tonight after school?" Hikari asks.
"Possibly later," Rei replies. "But directly after school, he will be at his apartment studying kanji with Asuka. They are both very behind."
"And you're okay with that?"
"I do not wish for him to neglect his studies."
"No… I mean you're okay with him spending time with Asuka?" Rei stares blankly at Hikari as she tries to explain her concern. "It's just… you know… they kissed each other. If it were Toji, I wouldn't want him studying with any other girl, let alone one he'd kissed before. I probably wouldn't have trusted you spending time alone with him, either, before I got to know you better."
"Have you not "gotten to know" Asuka sufficiently?"
"Oh, I have…," says Hikari. "That's why I wouldn't trust her." The slightly catty joke is lost on Rei.
"But she is your friend."
"Well, there are all different types of friends, Ayanami," Hikari says vaguely.
Some distance away, Hikari's statement is being boldly illustrated by four boys, seated together for lunch. They're still known as "stooges" by the majority of their peers, even though there are four of them now, and even though the Class Rep has gone from calling them that to dating one of them. Toji had delighted in calling Kaagi "Shemp" for a few days, before the novelty wore off. That had, coincidentally, been just about the time that Shinji and Kaagi had decided to divulge to everyone that they were brothers.
Thanks to surviving a week of surprised stares and prying questions, they can now both say the words "artificial insemination by an anonymous donor who turned out to be Gendo Ikari" in their sleep. After that false but shocking statement, their classmates tended to fill in the gaps with assumptions, all very reasonable, innocuous, and incorrect. Toji and Kensuke, of course, took the news in stride.
At this precise moment, a girl with her hair tied up in a single pony-tail is just finishing a journey toward the four boys from across the schoolyard. Toji, Kensuke, and Kaagi had noticed her walking in their direction minutes ago, when she'd begun. They'd seen every pause, every self-conscious straightening of her uniform, and every aborted decision to turn back and rejoin her group of friends. Only Shinji was oblivious to her odyssey, ironically being the person that she ended up in front of when she came to a halt. She stands there, silently, until he notices her and looks up.
"Uh…," the girl starts. She looks over her shoulder at her friends, and then back at Shinji. "I'm sorry… I mean, I was sorry to hear… um, no…. I mean, I just heard that you and Asuka broke up…."
"Wh-wha-what?" Shinji stumbles over his words in his confusion. "We didn't… did you say "break up"?" The girl glances furtively over at the red-head several yards away. She's laughing mechanically at the jokes of the boy on the bench next to her.
"Oh…!" she says, crestfallen. "It's just, with all these other boys she's been hanging around…."
"No…," Shinji mumbles. "I mean we were never dating."
"Oh…. Well, everybody thought, the way she was always yelling at you, that you two had to be going out."
"Well, we weren't," Shinji says, perhaps more curtly than necessary. He looks down as he returns to eating, and the girl who'd spoken to him slinks away. When he looks up again, his three friends are staring at him as if an alien had just burst through his chest cavity.
"Uh, Shinji," Toji begins delicately, "I think that girl was trying to ask you out."
The Third Child stares incredulously at the girl's retreating form. He'd have sooner believed Toji if the Fourth Child had said that an alien actually had burst through his chest cavity. Silence reigns while the three boys wait for Shinji to pursue the girl. When he returns once more to eating, they all sigh with disappointment.
"So what are you getting Rei for your anniversary?" Toji asks Kaagi in order to change the subject. He receives a look from the Sixth Child similar to the one they'd all just given Shinji. "Oh boy, are you ever lucky I said something! It must run in the family… you and Shinji are hopeless."
Granted, the anniversary would have escaped Toji's notice, too, if Hikari hadn't been mentioning it repeatedly for the last few days. He sees no reason to reveal this to Kaagi, however.
The girl who'd approached Shinji is back sitting with her friends, staring at her lunch but not eating it. She's making a poor attempt to hide her disappointment, but she's proud of herself for not out-and-out crying. Another girl scoots closer to her on the bench. Most of her other friends are politely ignoring her humiliation, but this one has decided to offer something in the way of comfort.
"I told you," Kachiko Naguchi says to her downtrodden friend, "don't waste your time. There're plenty of other guys at this school who will actually give you the time of day."
The pony-tailed girl is about to protest when the group as a whole is startled by the appearance of a man with a television camera. They aren't immediately frightened, for he's clearly wearing a visitor's pass. Quickly, a woman with a microphone interposes herself between the cameraman and the girls. They don't recognize her, but she's prettier than average and carries herself as confidently as they'd expect from a TV personality. Her friendly smile and demeanor put them at ease.
"Hello, ladies," says Nanako brightly. "I'm sorry if we startled you. I was hoping you could spare me a moment while you're having lunch here. It might get you on TV…. See, I'm doing a human-interest story about the real lives of the people who work at NERV. I was wondering if any of your parents or any of your classmates' parents work there. Or… even better… do you know of any of your classmates themselves that might work there…?"
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Later in the afternoon, Kachiko and her friends' faces fill the tiny screen of Nanako's laptop as she sits in her hotel room. Nanako manipulates the footage as she eats what remains of the cold Chinese take-out that she'd had for breakfast, which had also been her dinner the previous night. A cell phone is squeezed uncomfortably between her shoulder and cheek.
"I'm editing the last of it right now…," she says through a mouthful of rice. Swallowing, she continues, "I'll have it ready for air tomorrow morning, even if I have to stay up all night. A live simulcast from here at 11am will have it hitting the U.S. West Coast at 6pm and the East at 9pm, right in prime time…. Oh, don't worry! They'll be plenty more where this came from. After this piece airs, I guarantee that NERV will be begging to talk to me…."
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"Kaagi, go get me something to drink," Asuka demands off-handedly. He glares at her as he puts down his pencil and rises very slowly, giving her ample time to add the word "please". Giving up, he heads to the kitchen with an extended sigh.
As Rei had predicted, he and Asuka had come directly from school to Ritsuko's apartment. And this despite Saotome's numerous protests. Upon arrival, they'd set up their textbooks on the coffee table in the living room and gotten immediately down to studying. They'd been at it for some time, so the Second Child's request for a beverage had come out of the clear blue as far as the Sixth could tell. He didn't notice that it had coincided with Ritsuko's entrance into the room.
"So you're his half-sister?" Asuka asks her once Kaagi is gone. Ritsuko takes a seat near her and raises her eyebrows.
"That's right," she answers slowly. Her suspicion is piqued. "You're not interested in him, are you?"
"I am not interested in him!" Asuka replies. She worries Ritsuko with the vehemence of her denial. Too much, she fears, could be an indicator of underlying truth.
"Well, he told me that you kissed him… and that you've kissed Shinji, too," the older woman says. Asuka can't deny it. When she doesn't, Ritsuko continues, "Something about those Ikari men really does it for you, huh? Maybe I should tell the Commander to be on the lookout for you."
Asuka smirks a little at the thought of Rei and Shinji buzzing about, obeying her every whim with a dutiful "Yes, Stepmother". Her tiny bubble of fantasy is quickly burst by the imagined edifice of a naked, forty-year-old man.
"Don't look at me like you're going to vomit!" says Ritsuko, more personally affronted than Asuka can realize. "I was only teasing."
"Well, I was trying to be serious," Asuka huffs. Ritsuko barely catches Asuka mumbling, "I just wanted to ask you about your mother…."
"What about my mother?"
"She was Kaagi's mother, too, right? He told me," Asuka says. Ritsuko nods. "Kaagi said… he said that she killed herself." Ritsuko opens her mouth to speak, trying to find the words.
At that moment, Kaagi reappears in the living room with a cup of hot tea, fresh from the microwave.
"I wanted something cold!" Asuka states while waving him away. He never stops walking, only circuiting around the table to head back from where he'd come. The delay hasn't helped Ritsuko much in coming up with a reply.
"My mother…," she starts. "My mother and yours were actually very good friends." She hates how lame and off-topic the statement is, regardless of its truth. Still, it seems to be what the Second Child may have needed to hear. Asuka closes her eyes and smiles.
"I've been thinking about my mother a lot since…," Asuka trails off. Her smile turns swiftly into a frown. Ritsuko thinks she can see a physical reaction in the girl, just from the pain of the memory.
"Have you been taking your prescribed antidepressants?" Ritsuko asks. Before the sentence is even done, she knows she's taken a grave misstep in her conversational dance with the temperamental German.
"Is that all that matters to you, Doctor?" Asuka asks angrily, emphasizing the last word with mock-importance. "Just want to make sure that I'm fit to pilot, right? Hell, I can get up in the stirrups while I'm here, too, if you want!"
"I'll throw in a "yes" vote for that," Kaagi jokes bawdily, entering from the kitchen. He'd only heard the last thing Asuka said and didn't grasp the seriousness that had preceded it. He might have been forced to, had the doorbell not rung and interrupted her impulse to throw a textbook at him. She doesn't even take the new drink that he offers.
"Ice?" she asks.
"You wanted ice in it?"
"I said I wanted it cold, didn't I?" she snaps. In German, she adds, "Idiot!"
"Do you know that word is exactly the same in English as it is in German?" Kaagi asks before leaving. Asuka only growls, causing him to beat a hastier retreat.
When Ritsuko answers the door, Asuka looks up. It's fortunate that she is already seated on the floor, because she certainly would have fallen in shock. She does lose the ability to speak, which is no small occurrence given who she is. All she can do is sit gaping at the man in the doorway.
Ryoji Kaji doesn't see her at first, more fixated on the blonde directly in front of him. When he steps over the threshold, however, the slack-jawed redhead comes easily into his view. Her hair is the color of flames; just as his three weeks of meticulously avoiding her is crashing and burning before his eyes.
This is awkward, thinks Kaji, who quickly reconsiders. No… "awkward" was when my high-school girlfriend came to visit me at college and found me in bed with Katsuragi. Somehow, this is worse.
"Hey, Asuka," says Kaji coolly. "It's been a while." He wonders if he shouldn't have come to see her as soon as he'd come out of hiding. But he'd been busy organizing Section 2 and had half-hoped that Misato might have mentioned his return to Asuka.
"Yeah, it has," she says. Over three months, by her count.
You were gone when I needed you the most, and now you're back, just like that? she thinks. My heart and my mind were both broken, and did you even hear about it? Did you even care? She stares down at the kanji in her text, pretending to return to her studies. None of the words on the page can take root in her mind, because it's racing too fast.
Kaji guiltily finds his ego missing her advances, though he'd rebuffed them countless times in the past. He'd never dreamed of reciprocating, of course. Her neediness was as off-putting to him as her age. It's the independent women, the ones that don't need him or anyone, to which he's attracted. As much as this is due to his progressive attitudes toward equality, he also takes a certain amount of delight in trying to conquer them.
"Are you ready to go, Ritsuko?" he asks the current case in point.
"Some friend you are," Asuka says, lashing out at the two people who'd most recently hurt her.
"So," Ritsuko replies, "you're Misato's watchdog as well as her ward? Well, Kaji and I aren't going on a date, Miss Soryu, anymore than you're on a date right now with my brother."
"And I'm not Misato's property," adds Kaji, only to be ignored.
"Well, you two have fun studying your kanji," Asuka grumbles sarcastically. The two adults leave just as the Sixth Child makes his second return trip from the kitchen.
"Where's Ritsu going?" Kaagi asks.
"Don't know, don't care," Asuka replies.
She watches as Kaagi's usual smirk spreads into an ear-to-ear grin. He puts the drink down and edges close to her. His eyes, his body language, and his smile all scream that he has something on his mind. And Asuka knows boys well enough to lay odds on what that "something" is.
If there is a God, she thinks, and You're listening, please don't let Wondergirl's boyfriend start coming on me! After I humiliated myself trying to steal him on their first date a month ago, now he's interested? I hate boys!
"So, Asuka…," Kaagi begins, still grinning. "I think we've done enough studying for tonight, don't you?" She can see in his eyes that he's preoccupied, thinking about what he'd like to do instead of studying.
"Well, I've got this stuff down," she says brusquely. "If you think that you do too, I guess we're done." She gathers her books hurriedly and makes for the door.
I should probably just go, she thinks, before he makes a real ass out of himself. Hikari would never believe that I didn't lead him on somehow…. Still, I really want to savor that delicious look of disappointment on his horny little face!
Though Asuka had accurately read his transparent thoughts, there was one tiny detail of his lust that had escaped her. When she looks back, he's on his cell phone.
"Hi, Rei…?" he says. "Yeah, Asuka and I are all done studying, if you want to come over…. Okay, well… I want you to come over…. No, Ritsuko's gone; it'll be just the two of us…."
Oh yeah, thinks Asuka. I really hate boys. She wishes that Ritsuko's door wasn't an automatic slider like Misato's, so that she could slam it to mark her exit. It wouldn't have consoled her to know that Kaagi probably wouldn't have noticed, even if she could.
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A mustached man in a lab-coat stands before the desk of Chairman Lorenz Kiel. He hugs a stack of paperwork to his chest, leaving no free hand to adjust his glasses. They've fallen askew as he's fidgeted, nervously waiting for the Chairman to address him. Finally, Kiel raises his head to look at his visitor. The man squirms a little more under the cold scrutiny of the older man's visor.
"Thank you for responding so promptly to my summons, Dr. DeMille," Kiel says. "I'm very enthused to hear how your project is coming along."
"I'm sure you are, sir," DeMille answers, trying to muster his own enthusiasm. He moves his head in an attempt see the top paper of his stack through his off-kilter glasses.
"Leave the paperwork, Doctor," says Kiel, rising. He grabs a hand-held control pad off his desk as DeMille sets the papers down. "I'll see to it all later. In the meanwhile, let me walk you to the elevator, and you can give me an oral progress report on the way." The older man takes the lead as the two of them exit his office.
"Well, sadly, our new artificial S2 Engine is not quite ready for a test-run, sir," DeMille explains. "I'm hopeful that it will be by the time China delivers Unit-08… but we want to be certain that we won't repeat the tragedy of Second Branch. We have made great strides in replicating the conditions and functions present within an actual Angel's core. The outside data on that subject that you've provided has helped immeasurably. I'm very curious about where it's been coming from…."
"Never so blatant as when you're pumping me for information, Doctor," Kiel says.
"I'm sorry, sir?" DeMille asks blankly. "I don't speak Japanese."
"Forgive me," Kiel says, reverting to English once more. "Just absent mutterings from an old man…. If you must know, it's Dr. Ritsuko Akagi at NERV Central HQ who's been assisting with your S2 research." DeMille's mouth opens and shuts, but no words come out. The information itself is just as surprising as having plied it so easily from such a guarded man as Kiel.
"Well…," says DeMille once he recovers, "as helpful as her data has been, it just seems that after every breakthrough we make, we run into another wall. Currently, we're stalled."
"That is most unfortunate news," Kiel says sadly. In Japanese, he adds, "And I'm sure progress will continue to be stalled for as long as Ikari pays you to stall it."
"Sir, the Japanese again… I can't understand--"
"Did you think it would escape my notice?" Kiel continues, interrupting. He taps away at the control pad in his hand. "Your departure from Second Branch came exactly one day before the "tragedy". And with you came all your notes and findings, even the ones which should have logically stayed behind…. You emulate your benefactor too closely, my dear Doctor. But, unlike Ikari, your treachery has outweighed your value."
"Sir, are you even still speaking to me?" asks a confused Demille. The Chairman doesn't look up from his pad. With frustration, DeMille pushes past Kiel to press the button to call the elevator. He hears his superior sigh behind him as he waits.
"Dr. DeMille?" Kiel calls. The doctor turns to face him just as the elevator doors open. The Chairman places his hand on the doctor's chest, and then shoves him backward with surprising force. DeMille stumbles through the open doors, only to plummet down an empty shaft. Kiel casually walks to the nearest intra-office wall phone, picks it up, and dials.
"I need paramedics and maintenance at the North Elevator!" Kiel says. His voice cracks with desperate emotion, but his face is as still as stone. "Please hurry! There's been a horrible accident!" Slowly, he replaces the receiver.
He doesn't even spare the gaping shaft a second look before returning to his office.
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At 8 a.m. sharp, Cassandra Burnham-Wood prepares to enter NERV HQ through Gate-7 for her first day at work. She uses her hands to smooth the front of her uniform. The khaki and red of it feel gaudy to her, compared to the olive and camouflage greens that she's used to wearing. But her new rank of lieutenant more than makes up for that.
Stopping at the card-reader by the gate, she pulls out her I.D. badge and looks it over before swiping. Her practical sensibilities have also decided that the NERV logo is too ostentatious, with its fig-leaf and brazen motto. But what draws her gaze is the stern-faced, black woman staring back at her from the picture on the card. She looks so sure and confident about her assignment, when, in truth, she's anything but.
Come on, Cassie, she tells herself. It's just another job. No sweat.
She turns around at the sound of approaching footsteps from behind her. Two Japanese teens, a boy and a red-headed girl, are walking at a leisurely pace toward the gate. The new lieutenant smiles helpfully, trying to cover her contempt for the children's impudence.
"Are you kids lost?" she asks. The girl looks at her with derision while the boy ignores her entirely. She finds her smile quickly fading. "The public entrance to the Geo-front is Gate-4…. Tours don't begin until nine, I think."
The boy glances at Cassie but then shyly looks away. The girl sighs and rolls her eyes, walking up to an adjacent card-reader. She pulls out her own I.D. and is about to swipe it when Cassie snatches it out of her hand.
"Where'd you get that?" she asks the girl. Then she looks at the picture. It's the spitting image of the irate teenager in front of her. "Well, bloody hell," she says in her native English.
"You're new, aren't you?" asks the girl as she grabs her badge. She gives no indication that she cares what the answer is, swiping her I.D. and proceeding through the gate before Cassie can muster a reply.
"Sorry about that," says the boy.
The Vice-Commander is on the other side of the gate, waiting for Cassie when she enters. The new lieutenant beams at the sight of her superior. She salutes and waits to be put at ease, smiling all the time. Ritsuko doesn't let her stew too long.
"Dr. Akagi," Cassandra says, bowing. "I've been really looking forward to meeting you. I've admired your mother's work in bio-computer technology since I took my first programming classes back at boarding school. She really pioneered the field."
"Around here, it's Vice-Commander Akagi," Ritsuko says. She rebuffs the compliment, but adopts a jovial tone. "I'll forgive you since it's your first day." If possible, Cassie's smile gets bigger. She looks at the receding forms of Asuka and Shinji as they traipse down the corridor ahead of her.
"So, what are those kids doing here?" Cassie asks in a whisper. It's Ritsuko's turn to smile.
"They pilot the Evangelions."
"Pull the other," says Cassie, "it's got bells on." Ritsuko gives her a bemused look, and Cassie realizes that she'd slipped into English again. "Sorry, Vice-Commander. But you can't be serious."
"As a heart-attack, Lieutenant," Ritsuko says. "You'll start your training with the Tech Department today. Hopefully, Dr. Kaiu can bring you up to speed."
"I got the penny-tour yesterday. Those battle-mechs are really something else. Nothing in the handbook about them, though."
"They were a secret, up until August of last year. We haven't printed a new handbook since then…. See what I mean about getting you up to speed?"
"I'm up to the challenge," Cassie says confidently.
Ritsuko raises her eyebrows and smiles her thin, wistful smile. She does not reply.
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After a busy morning, and with noon fast approaching, Misato Katsuragi is herself fast approaching Gate-7 on her way to lunch. Turning a corner, her pace slows to a crawl when she spies the Vice-Commander waiting for her. It would be too far, and she's too hungry, to turn back and leave via a different route. Her stomach drags the rest of her body forward, on a collision-course with an unwanted conversation.
"I was told that you wanted to see me," Misato announces. "And I figured that you wouldn't let me dodge a meeting with you… but I thought you'd be waiting for me by my car in the parking garage."
"If you wanted to avoid me," Ritsuko answers, "you should've avoided the security cameras as well."
So much for that stealth training, Misato thinks.
"If you wanted to apologize," she says, "you're about two weeks too late."
"Oh, come on!" Ritsuko says, keeping pace with her. "I've been busy… you've been busy…. And we both know what a pair of stubborn old cows we are." Misato's mouth twitches, but she refuses to let it smile. "I am sorry, Misato. It was wrong to use you like I did, and it was just plain childish to gloat. But look what I've accomplished! Besides being Vice-Commander, I've got inroads to the U.N. and SEELE. Maya's career is getting just the boost that it needs, and Kaji is finally out of danger! This wasn't about burning bridges, Misato, it was about building them."
"Well, speaking as one of those bridges, I still feel pretty burnt."
Ritsuko's cell phone rings as they walk together to the gate. The Vice-Commander hangs back but the Major continues on. Misato isn't eager to forgive and forget, no matter how strained that will make their working relationship. She'll just as happily exit the gate with or without company. Still, she looks back and sees Ritsuko's face twist in confounded frustration.
"What…?" she screams into the phone. "How long has the program been on…? Shit! Why am I only hearing about this now…? Does the Commander know? Has someone called P.R.…? Conference Room C in an hour. Of course I'll be there…! Misato!" Now at the gate, quite far away from Ritsuko, Misato chooses to ignore her friend's shout.
Don't confuse me with Kaji, Ritsu, Misato thinks indignantly as she gets out her I.D. card. I don't owe you my career. Unless there's an Angel attack, I won't just come running whenever you call like I'm your lap-dog! If you've got a problem, deal with it yourself.
"Whatever your little emergency is, it can wait until after my lunch break," Misato calls back as she swipes her card. Heedless of further shouting on Ritsuko's part, she steps through the open gate to the outside. She's momentarily distracted with putting her card away, but she soon looks up, only to gasp in shock.
Oh shit.
The gate slams closed behind her, alerting the few of them who hadn't noticed her arrival to her presence. A mass of people pack the exit corridor, all of them wielding video cameras, still cameras, tape-recorders, and microphones. They flow like milk from an overturned glass, bearing down on the helpless Misato.
"How does NERV answer Miss Asakawa's allegations?""Does NERV actually employ children?""Who are you, ma'am? What is your rank and duty here?""Does NERV accept full responsibility for the Sri Lankan incident?""What are NERV's ties to Marduk?""Is that your natural hair-color?""Can you confirm that your robots contain organic components?""Is NERV preparing to release a formal statement?""How many more people do you expect to come forward?""Can you comment on the disappearance of Kouzou Fuyutsuki?"
Pride goeth-- Misato can't even finish her thought as she becomes completely surrounded.
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Episode Midpoint