Disclaimer: Same as Chapter 1.
Chapter 18: Esther
Shinji and Rei, after taking the elevator to the fifth floor, ran all the way to Room 303. Actually, it was more that Shinji ran, and Rei only made an effort to catch up with him. There they found Misato standing outside the door, talking to one of a handful of white-coated doctors and nurses. She turned at the sound of the pair's footsteps.
"There you guys are. What kept you?"
"...Well...It's...not...like...we...could...take...a train," Shinji said in between breaths. He then leaned on the wall, trying to relieve the stitch in his side.
"...Is Pilot Sorhyu here?" Rei asked, her breathing steady; it almost seemed like she hadn't run at all.
"Yes...The doctors are still talking to her right now, to make sure she hasn't suffered any brain damage or behavioral changes, but--"
She was cut off as Shinji went straight past her and entered the room. Rei hesitated, then followed him.
"Hey!-- Wait, you two! There's something else..."
Both children ignored her, forcing their way through the doctors to the bed of the firery-haired girl. Sure enough, there she was-- sitting up in bed, a doctor taking her blood pressure while talking to her. It was clear he was doing his best to be patient with the young girl, but Asuka was quickly losing hers.
"...And can you tell me what your name is again?"
"Damnit, I've told you this a million times, it's 'Asuka Langley Sorhyu'! My god! Are you people all retarded?"
"Miss Sorhyu, these exercises are necessary to ensure that you..."
"...THAT WHAT! I KNOW MY OWN FREAKIN' NAME? I'M SICK OF ALL THIS 'PROCEDURE' BULLSHIT!"
"Uh...Hi, Asuka."
She quickly stopped berating the medical practitioner in front of her, then raised her head to see a pair of familiar faces she had mixed feelings about seeing.
"Shinji? 'Wondergirl?' ...What the hell are you two doing here?"
Before they could answer, Asuka stuck up her nose in a familiar display of pride.
"Hmph...Well, I at least someone I know besides Misato is here. You can tell this quack" --she pointed an accusing finger at the doctor on the foot of her bed-- "...that I'm ready to go home now."
"Uhh...well, Asuka..." Shinji suddenly remembered why the redhead had frustrated him so much. He still considered her a friend, but her complete and utter tactlessness made her a tough person to get along with, to say the least. The feeling was beyond mutual, however-- Asuka lost patience with Shinji just as quickly. She let out an exasperated groan.
"Goddamnit, Shinji--I would have thought that after that last Angel, you would have grown a pair already!"
He ignored her embarrasing comment, but suddenly realized something peculiar about what she had said.
"Asuka, what do you mean?"
She stared at him as though he had told her a very bad joke.
"...Are you stupid! The fight with the 9th Angel-- You were the big hero after all, I would think you would know what I'm talking about!" She looked a little resentful with herself for bringing the topic up, but it disappeared, replaced by more frustration. Shinji only stared at her.
"...The Ninth? But..."
Before he could finish speaking, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Misato. She gently squeezed it, indicating that she wanted to speak to him. She grabbed Rei as well, leaving Asuka to continue accusing the medical staff in her room of incompetence or worse.
"...Misato, what's wrong with her? Doesn't she know what happened?"
She had taken the two a short ways down the hall, behind a corner out of sight of Asuka's room. They stood close to the wall so as to permit hospital gurneys and orderlies to pass them by unimpeded. Rei stood right beside Shinji, while Misato was hovering a few feet away from both of them.
"Well, there's nothing physically wrong with her...No long-term mental damage... the only abnormality is that there's a gap in her memory."
"...What do you mean, Misato?" Rei had suddenly spoken up, much to both Shinji and Misato's surprise. When the red-eyed girl continued to stare at her guardian expectantly, Misato found her voice.
"...I mean that all her memories are completely intact, but the only thing she doesn't remember is the fight with the 10th Angel."
"...What? I don't get it-- that doesn't answer why she's better now."
"Actually, Shinji, it might have everything to do with it. If she can't remember it, it's like it never happened."
"Well, I guess that makes sense...but why did it happen now?"
Misato sighed.
"...I don't know, Shinji. The whole thing's very strange. The only things we know for sure right now is that there was a blackout in the hospital for approximately 6.2 seconds, during which we detected a Blue pattern along with an AT Field. Then when the power came back on, she was better and the Field had disappeared."
Shinji paled at Misato's words.
"...You mean that an Angel was here?"
"That's what I think."
"But...then why didn't it attack? Why did it come after Asuka? And shouldn't we have heard the alarms if there was an AT Field?"
Misato was fighting down the urge to scream her lungs out in frustration at all the questions she couldn't answer.
"...Like I said, the whole thing's beyond abnormal, Shinji. As for the Angel alarms... the AT Field was gone before we even had a chance to press the button." She sighed and began to walk down one of the hallways. "All right, you two, I'm going to have to check the security cameras, so I'll be here late."
"Wait, Misato--!"
The woman turned her head when Shinji spoke.
"...Thanks for letting us know about Asuka, but... what should we do now?"
"Well, I have to admit I had an ulterior motive in asking you guys to come," she said with a bit of an uncomfortable smile. "...Do you think you can take Asuka home?"
Shinji's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"WHAT! But..."
"...It's not too much trouble, is it?" she asked with a bit of annoyance in her voice. "Don't worry about her, Shinji-- I've filled out all the paperwork already, and besides, I'm sure the doctors want her out of her as much as she does." With that, she turned around and kept walking until she turned down another corridor and was out of sight. Shinji sighed, turning his eyes over to Rei, anxious about how the half-German would react to their new roommate.
It's not Asuka I'm worried about, Misato...
Misato poured herself another cup of coffee from the pot brewing nearby. The stuff was terrible, even by her standards, and there was no creamer or sugar to balance out the awful flavor. Then again, hospital security guards didn't have much to do anyway, so they'd probably gotten used to it from sitting around all day.
At least it's caffeine, she thought to herself wryly. God, I need a drink.
She was finding it hard to keep her eyes focused on the wall of TV screens in the small room. The guard had insisted on going through footage of up to the last 12 hours, to make a thurough check of any possible events that could have lead to the recent security anomaly.
"...1725 Hours, no abnormalities detected...1730 Hours, no abnormalities...1735 Hours, no--"
He was interrupted by the sound of a styrofoam cup being crushed behind him, followed by an annoyed-sounding female voice.
"Enough of this crap! just fast-forward to 5 minutes before the blackout!"
"But Major, I'm only following procedure..."
Misato then indicated the metal pips on her coat collar.
"...As your superior officer, I ORDER you to stop boring the hell out of me and hurry up!"
The guard gulped in fear, then swiftly obeyed. Misato sighed to herself; she didn't enjoy calling attention to her rank, but if that's what it took to get these two-bit chumps to be efficient, then so be it. Suddenly something caught her eye in one of the screens, and it was gone before she could react.
"Stop!"
The guard paused the playback.
"I saw something just now...put feed #15 on full screen."
The camera footage from the fifteenth video screen suddenly filled up the entire wall, pushing the other images out of its way.
"Now go back-- slowly."
He turned the Rewind speed dial slowly to the left, making everythin slowly move backwards. She motioned for him to stop as she saw a person stop in front of the directory desk in the video footage. A someone who had what looked like silver hair...
"...Kaworu?"
What was the Fifth doing here? She watched the boy ask the receptionist something, then saw the woman point off as though giving him directions. He waved in response as he walked in the indicated direction, beyond the camera's line of sight.
"...Turn off all camera playbacks except the ones that include that boy."
"Uh...Yes, ma'am."
He pressed a few switches and by eyesight alone, located any footage that included Kaworu. There was one of him walking past the elevators... Another climbing the flight of stairs that led to the second floor... The third floor... The fourth...
"...Ma'am, the subject isn't doing anythi--"
"Shh!" Misato silenced him with a single utterance, her attention focused entirely on the boy as he reached the fifth floor and, leaving the stairwell, proceeded down the hallway. She didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but she suddenly realized she'd had a strange, gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach about Kaworu Nagisa...ever since the first sync test he'd taken nearly a month ago when he'd had such a high score without the core being fitted for him... No, before that even, back to when she'd first gotten word about his arrival. A boy with no past...Just like Rei...she shook her head as an impossible thought entered it.
No. No matter how similar they are, there can't be a connection like that...
She came back to reality just as the video Kaworu came to a stop outside Asuka's room.
"Find the camera for Room 303-- do it now!"
Without a word, the guard found it and put it on full screen just as Kaworu walked up to Asuka's bed. He then leaned over her, saying something that Misato couldn't make out...
And then suddenly the feed stopped. The tech switched the screens over to individual camera feedback, but all of them were black, flashing the message "POWER OUTAGE--CAMERA RECORDING DISABLED." After exactly 6.2 seconds, they came back on as if nothing had happened. The images they now displayed suggested otherwise, however.
The hospital was in a state of utter chaos. Doctors ran back and forth in the hallways, patients had fallen over on IV's or were trying to get up, and nurses were rushing to the rooms of people on life support to ensure that the lack of power, however brief, had not resulted in death. Misato managed to pull her eyes away from the disarray and found her eyes on the feed for Room 303.
"...He's gone!"
The guard turned his head to the Major.
"...Ma'am?"
"The Fifth Child-- he's not in the room!" And sure enough, Kaworu had disappeared. There was no sign of him in the outer hallway, or on the stairwells. Misato continued to furiously inspect each screen until she noticed him--or what looked like him, walking calmly away in the outer parking lot.
"Zoom in on Parking Lot camera #1!"
Within seconds, Misato was staring at a much larger image of Kaworu continuing to walk across the lot. But then he did something that confirmed every nagging worry and suspicion that had gone through her head in the past few minutes.
He looked straight at the camera--even though it was about 35 feet above his head-- and smiled. As though he knew he was being watched. Misato stared at the now-paused image on the screen of the pale, red-eyed boy. It took her a moment to find her voice.
"...I want all footage regarding the subject recorded to another tape and delivered directly to me."
The guard nodded as Misato took out her cell phone and contacted NERV headquarters.
"...Hello, Maya? It's Misato...Listen, I want the Fifth Child found at once."
"...Never mind why, just do it as quickly as you can...And have him sent to the Interrogation Room as soon as he's in custody. There are some questions I'd like to ask him."
"...Thanks, Maya. Goodbye."
As she turned to leave, she took one last look at the boy frozen in time on the screen.
He's always smiling...but I never noticed before now...just how cold those smiles are.