No: 5 - Synchronization

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or any of the characters they are the property of their respective creators. Please be aware that no profit is being made from this work of fan fiction.

When he got back to class he felt eyes upon him, he turned to see Asuka looking at him intently. There was something different in her gaze, almost as if she was asking a question of him but without words, it seemed that her question would remain unanswered as that instant his cell phone came to life shattering the moment…

"Hello…Misato?"

"Shinji, you and Asuka are needed at Nerv right away, Section 2 are coming to collect you. Get to the front of the school immediately."

"Misato, what's going on?"

"No time to explain, just do it."

With that, she was gone. He put his phone away and quickly turned to Asuka.

"That was Misato, we're needed at Nerv. Section 2 is going to meet us outside."

She simply nodded and the both of them made their way to the front of the classroom.

"Sensei, please excuse us but we have been called in."

The old man grumbled a little before giving his approval. Without another word, the two of them ran to the front of the school where a black Section 2 van awaited them.

Asuka said nothing on the journey, she was instantly worried about what was happening.

Why is it happening so soon? It's too early for the Angel to be attacking…

Her thoughts were cut short when the van skidded to a halt and they were rushed inside. Immediately they were escorted to the locker rooms to change before being taken to their Eva's. Once both pilot were onboard the Eva's were loaded into transport planes for remote deployment. As they went, Misato gave the two pilots a short briefing, indicating that they would be expected to perform a series of coordinated attacks against the Angel. Asuka ignored this as she could still remember it from the first time she had faced this Angel, she knew that no matter what, they wouldn't be able to beat it like this. Yet she was reluctant to attack in the same reckless manner she had before. The humiliation the first time had been sufficient, she had no wish to repeat the incident…

"Beginning attack!"

Those words signalled them to begin. Both Eva's moved forwards, the Angel showing no reaction to their presence. Once they came within two hundred meters, however something strange happened…the Angel split down the middle, dividing in half and forming into two separate Angels. Asuka had been expecting it, but had never believed that it could perform such a split of its own accord.

"What is this crap!"

In the command centre, Misato couldn't believe what she was seeing; somehow the Angel had divided into two separate Angels. The mission parameters had not accounted for anything like this, more time was needed to figure out this latest development.

"Asuka! Shinji! Get out of there!"

"But Misato!"

"No buts Shinji, that's an order!"

Reluctantly, Unit-01 began to follow Unit-02 further up the beach away from the Angels. The creature made no move to follow them, seemingly content to remain where it was. Once both Eva's were clear, an N2 mine was detonated in hopes of at least delaying the Angels sufficiently so that a better plan could be formed.

Following their return to Nerv, Shinji, Asuka and Misato had been summoned to one of the briefing rooms. Already waiting there for them were Sub Commander Fuyutski, Dr Akagi and Ryoji Kaji. Once the two children were seated, Misato took her place in front of the Sub Commander.

"Captain Katsuragi, I hope you are aware of the consequences of your actions. Following your order, we were forced to hand over control to the UN who subsequently detonated an N2 mine. Once again, we have been forced to redraw the map and at the same time, Nerv has been further humiliated. I hope you have a suitable explanation captain."

"Yes sir. I believed that following the Angel's separation; Unit-01 and Unit-02 were not suitably equipped to handle this new development. Rather than risk sustaining damage to both units, I recalled them so that further analysis could be made. I will take full responsibility for what happened."

"Very well…we will discuss this later. Consider yourself lucky, captain, that Commander Ikari is absent at this time, he would have been far less lenient than with you than I am."

"Yes sir."

"Now, let us get to the business of sorting out how to deal with the Angel. Dr Akagi, your report?"

The blond scientist moved to the front of the room as an image was displayed on the screen.

"It seems that the N2 mine deployed by the UN succeeded in causing a 28 destruction of the target. However there is no doubt that it is already regenerating. From what we have been able to ascertain the target has two cores, both of which will need to be destroyed simultaneously to ensure its destruction. Even the slightest error between the attacks and they will both fail."

There was a brief few moments of silence as everyone digested this latest piece of information. It was broken when Kaji stood up and turned to speak to the Sub Commander.

"Sir, if I may be excused a moment I wish to discuss something with Captain Katsuragi."

"Very well, you have five minutes."

Kaji led a struggling Misato from the room and the door slid closed behind them. When the two of them returned the captain seemed to have regained her composure while Kaji seemed little worse for wear.

"Sir, we believe we have formulated a plan."

"Very well. You have five days, dismissed."

With that, he stood and left the room, Dr Akagi following shortly after.

Misato turned to the two pilots.

"Ok you two, I want you to come with us."

Sharing a nervous glance the two did as they were told and followed the two adults deeper into the depths of Nerv.

They finally arrived at a rather non descript looking door. Kaji reached over and pressed a button and it swept aside to reveal an open room with two beds in the middle of it.

"Welcome to your new quarters, you two will be living here for the next five days."

Shinji was too shocked to speak while Asuka was once again confused by the most recent change in events.

"Our goal is to have the both of you in perfect sync in five days before the Angel can recover. To this end, you will eat and sleep together as well as performing daily synchronization drills. There is no room for mistakes, all of our hopes are resting on you two."

As Misato allowed this to sink in Kaji turned to grin at Shinji.

"Oh and Shinji, don't get any ideas about trying to seduce Asuka while you two are alone together, ok?"

Shinji blushed crimson as he nodded profusely. At that moment, Asuka chose to interject.

"Shinji's too much of a baka to try. I guess I'll just have to seduce him instead…"

The two adults shared a nervous glance at Asuka's comment, for a moment wondering if leaving the two alone together was really such a good idea. Kaji decided to try to ease the tension.

"Don't worry, she's probably kidding, right?"

Asuka nodded although the predatory grin remained plastered across her face. Both adults breathed a sigh of relief before exiting and locking the door behind them. As Shinji heard the sound of the lock clicking back into place, he began to worry. His thoughts drifted back to before and despite Kaji's assurances Shinji was still unsure that Asuka had really meant it as a joke…

An hour past and Asuka decided to take a shower. This now left Shinji alone in the bedroom, lost in his thoughts. Unfortunately, he had not been able to bring his SDAT player with him so he simply waited in silence wondering what kind of synchronization drills they would under go. He didn't even notice when the sound of running water ceased and the door to the bathroom slid open.

"Shinji?"

Asuka calling his name brought him from his musings, he turned to look at her…and then wished he hadn't. Asuka had just come out of the shower and as such, her hair was still a little damp and now hung loosely down below her shoulders, presently free of the neural interface clips she seemingly always wore. She was clad only in a pink fluffy towel, the bottom edge reaching halfway down her thighs while the upper part barely covering the upper curve of her breasts. He wanted to turn away from her, to spare himself both the embarrassment and then the pain when she inevitably slapped him for being a pervert. Despite this he found he could not turn his head, his body would not respond, his eyes unwilling to look anywhere but at the vision of beauty before him.

"You like what you see, hmm?"

His heart skipped a beat, not in his wildest dreams would he have ever expected such a response.

"Maybe I should take of my towel, yes?"

Was she serious? There was no way!

'She's got to be messing with me. She's got to be wearing something underneath, this is just her teasing me again.'

Feeling confident in his conclusion Shinji steeled himself slightly. He raised his gaze to meet her own in a silent form of challenge, daring her to go ahead. Asuka simply smiled at him and never broke her gaze as she allowed the towel to fall silently to the ground…

"Oh my god…"

He sat there in shock. The discarded towel now lay on the floor at the feet of a completely naked Asuka. He closed his eyes but even then, the image of her naked form was burned into his memory, hovering tantalisingly in his mind's eye. Desperate to free himself of the image he snapped his eyes open once more only to find him self eye to eye with twin blue orbs.

"Shinji."

Her voice was barely above a whisper as she slowly leaned forwards, her eyes sliding closed. In the next instant their faces met as she captured his lips with her own…

One of the maintenance crewmembers happened to be in the Eva cages at that exact moment. He was there to perform a routine maintenance check on Unit-01's restraints systems, ever since the incident when Unit-01 had broken free on the day Shinji had arrived the checks had been switched to twice daily. For whatever reason it seemed the Commander did not wish for a repeat of that incident and so the maintenance crews had been put on extra shifts to make sure.

As he was walking along the umbilical bridge in front of the Eva's face, he suddenly felt as if something was watching him. He turned to look up at the face of the purple behemoth; finding it silent as ever, he began to turn his attention back to what he had been doing. It was as it moved into his peripheral vision that something happened…without warning its eye flared into life. The poor man was so afraid that he stumbled and fell, landing heavily on his behind. A few feet further and he would have fallen from the platform, only to meet his death hundreds of feet below. Thankful for his good fortune, he turned to look up at the Eva once again, now its eyes were silent once more and he began to wonder if he had imagined it all. He finished his checks completing his shift and departing the geofront in search of a drink.

It's not as if anyone would believe me anyway…

In the meantime, back in the Eva cages Unit-01's eyes flickered on once again…

He could feel the soft pressure of her lips against his, her tongue rubbing against his lower lip, questing for entry. He did not know how to react, this was the second time she had passionately kissed him yet this one was different to the first…when she had kissed him before on the 'Over the Rainbow' it had been one of joy and relief, almost as if a great weight had been lifted from upon her. This time however was a different story; this kiss was fuelled by desire. He could almost taste her hunger for him as she nipped at his bottom lip with her teeth. Gently he began to open his mouth as his eyes slid closed, fully intent on returning the kiss…

It was in that instant that the images came. The same visions of a nightmare world, a naked Asuka lying on top of him, crying out his name over and over as she moved up and down. A single word kept echoing through his mind, over and over he heard it repeating in something in a voice that almost sounded like his own…

"No!"

He pulled away from her, his body shaking. His hands clawed at the fabric of the carpet as his feet tried scrambled against it. The images continued to haunt him as he moved away, never noticing the tears that streamed down Asuka's face.

Asuka was caught off guard by his sudden movement. They had been so close, she had felt him begin to reciprocate her kiss, but then all of a sudden it had gone terribly wrong…

"No!"

Her blood near froze at the sound of that word issuing from his lips. When she had last heard it that word had been the herald of his untimely death, the last thing he had spoken before his other self had pulled the trigger and ended his life. She looked over at his face and was chilled to the bone by the look of pure horror etched there, she looked into his eyes and saw that they were not looking at her but rather through, off at some terrible nightmare that only he could see…

Fear gripped her heart, once already she had been left alone in the world, now she feared he would be taken away from her once more. Unable to accept that she may well have lost her only other chance she fled the room in tears. When she finally returned he was already in asleep on his futon, facing away from her. She moved silently to the second futon and slipped inside, as she lay there gazing at his back, the tear came anew and she cried herself to sleep.

Shinji awoke with a start, he did not remember falling asleep, after he had finally recovered from the nightmares he had resolved himself to speak with Asuka and to apologise. He had gone to lie on the futon to wait for her; obviously, he had fallen asleep without realising. He heard a soft cry from behind him and turned over, Asuka was shifting about on her futon and crying out incoherently. His concern overrode his fear and he lifted him self up before carefully advancing towards her.

"Asuka? Are you ok? Asuka?"

He placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently. Her movements slowed and she opened her eyes to look up at him.

"Shinji?"

Her voice was no more than a whisper.

"Asuka, are you alright? You kept shifting about and crying out in your sleep."

"I was having nightmares."

Shinji took note of the haunted look in her eyes and the tearstains that marked her cheeks and wondered what could possibly have upset her so much. He nodded to her softly before starting to return to his own bed…suddenly she reached out and grasped his hand.

"Don't go."

"Asuka I…"

"Please! Only for a little while…till the nightmares go away."

Hearing the fear and uncertainty in her voice he made a decision. He moved back before kneeling beside her. She shifted slightly and let go of his hand to move the covers out of the way so he could lie down. He settled himself beside her; at once, she shifted so her head lay upon his chest before pulling the covers over them both. As she did this, he repeated his mantra over and over in his head.

I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away.

With that thought in mind he did not flinch when her arm snaked around his waist and pulled her closer too him. He looked down at the girl lying against his chest only to find she was asleep once again.

"Goodnight Asuka."

He whispered these words to her before he too entered the land of nod.

Chapter preread by That Other Guy