Rebuild of Third Genesis
Chapter 21
Unit-02 stood in the hangar bay. There were still segments of flesh-like material visible where the armor was waiting to be mounted, but it nearly looked complete. The eyes gazed outward towards the gantry way they stood on, and it was easy to wonder what it might be thinking.
"I still feel mildly creeped out knowing that Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu is in there," Misato noted dryly, her hands in her jacket pockets.
"Or a piece of her psyche anyway," Ritsuko corrected. She looked over at her lover and the head of the rebuilding efforts, "You do good work, Maya."
Maya Ibuki blushed, the shorter woman looking embarrassed a bit by the praise. "It would have been faster, but regrowing the tissue was hard." She looked over at Misato, "Just for your information, we're going to take even longer to build new models. Without samples from Lilith, it takes us much longer," she said.
"We're hopefully not going to have to have more than two... MAYBE three Evangelions," Misato sighed.
"Asuka, Rei... Mari?" Ritsuko guessed.
"With Mana possibly as an alternate," Misato agreed.
Both Ritsuko and Maya were aware that Mari and Mana were clones of Asuka, with some tweaks added. In theory that meant both could synch with Unit-02, but that hadn't been confirmed yet. Plus there was the question if Rei could use it too.
"We've started cultures for the next unit, as well as working on the designs," Maya said. She looked at Misato curiously. "Unit-02 was meant to be the mass production model... should we use that design for Rei's new Evangelion?"
"Makes sense," Misato agreed, but looked at Ritsuko, "Rits?"
"I don't see Rei having an issue, so lets go with that," Ritsuko agreed. "When will the last armor pieces be added?" she asked Maya, more for Misato's benefit. Ritsuko was up to date on the work schedule, as usual.
"By Friday, barring anything going wrong," Maya hedged her bets.
Misato nodded, "All right, get it done by Friday and I'll take you, Rits and the crew chiefs out to dinner and drinks."
"And not at a noodle stand," Ritsuko quickly added.
"I do that the one time and no one ever forgets," Misato sighed dramatically.
Maya just chuckled warmly.
"Okay, I'm off to yet another meeting," Misato announced then added teasingly, "so you two go off and ravage each other in a closet or something."
Ritsuko smirked as she put an arm around Maya as she teased, "We came out of the closet MONTHS ago."
"Ritsuko!" Maya laughed as Misato left.
The labs and construction assemblies were at the bottom of NERV, partially underground for safety. You took a elevator up to the main facility, then continued on to the top of the pyramid. The executive offices where near where Gendo had his old one, all roughly the same size and design. Misato had pretty much ordered several rooms on the same level emptied and refurbished, reasoning that they needed the rooms and it'd be convenient having everybody available.
Misato stopped at her office, once again very glad she'd had decent lighting installed. And put carpet down over the floor, blocking the design Gendo had put down. She tossed her jacket on the couch then went over to her desk, checking her mail and messages.
Not long after a knock came on the door. "Afternoon," Satoko Shinden looked in with a smile, the UN Representative standing in the open doorway.
"I lost track of time, sorry," Misato smiled as she closed her files and got up.
"S'okay," Satoko smiled as they fell into step together. "What's the plan?" she asked curiously. "I know we planned lunch..."
"And not at the cafeteria," Misato chuckled. "There's a couple of nice local restaurants that reopened, so I was thinking a sit down lunch with all the trimmings."
"Oooh. Bad news you need to butter me up for?" Satoko teased.
"Good, actually," Misato answered but refused to elaborate.
The drive was a short one, moving through Tokyo-3. Traffic was finally coming back to normal as the population returned, along with new residents. Which was also giving security fits, something Misato was well aware of.
"Welcome!" the tall, dark brown girl smiled as she greeted the two women entering the family style restaurant.
'Kodama Horaki?' Misato blinked as she read the name tag. "Are you related to Hikari?" she asked curiously as she lead then to a seat.
"She's my sister." Kodama admitted. "You know her?" she asked as she passed the two women their menus.
"She takes classes with my ward," Misato said.
"Asuka-chan?" Kodama grinned. "Hikari was glad to hear from her, once we came back to the city." She bowed slightly, "Let me know when you're ready to order."
"Small world," Misato remarked once she hurried off.
"Came back?" Satoko wondered.
"We evacuated a lot of civilians shortly before things went all to hell," Misato explained. "Even at that point we knew SOMETHING was coming."
Hearing the echoes of regret in her voice Satoko reached out and gently squeezed Misato's hand. "I'm sure you did everything you could," she said.
"Sometimes I wonder," Misato shrugged.
They ordered, the plates of food were delivered, and both began to eat. "So what's the news?" Satoko asked as she sipped her drink.
"Unit-02, baring unforeseen hiccups, will be completed by Friday," Misato informed her, "and we'll start synchronization testing next week."
"Oh that IS good news," Satoko beamed.
"And that should keep the bosses at the UN happier too," Misato noted wryly.
Satoko looked sheepish, "We haven't pushed you THAT hard have we?"
Misato sipped her drink, "Well, it was for our benefit too. I'll be very happy once we have a Evangelion up and running for our defence."
Satoko nodded. "I understand you're completely scrapping some of the old defensive lines too?" she asked as she ate.
Misato shrugged and munched a bit of food. "Their effectiveness against the Angels was pretty much zero. At best they slowed them down a bit, and I'd rather put the money towards rebuilding Evangelions," she admitted.
"How are the pilots doing back in school?" Satoko changed the subject slightly.
Misato snickered softly. "Well, we've had teachers send three notices home on Mari so far," she said cheerfully.
"You don't seem all that bothered," Satoko noted wryly.
"She got in shit when someone tried picking on Rei," Misato shrugged. "Mind you, no one is dumb enough to do that twice."
"Her and Asuksa as Rei's defenders? That's oddly sweet for Mari, from what I've seen of her," Satoko observed.
"I think Mari just likes brawling, but whatever works," Misato conceded willingly.
They ate and talked, then Misato paid the bill over Satoko's objections.
"Thank you for coming!" Kodama beamed as she finished ringing them up.
"You're welcome, we'll come again soon," Misato smiled at her.
Satoko smiled as they walked off together. "I STILL think you should have let me pay," she noted, "I AM the big time UN representative with an expense account, you know."
Misato snorted. "I asked you, remember?" she pointed out. She smiled as she added, "Besides, next time you can pay."
"So you're promising a next time?" Satoko teased. She blushed slightly as she admitted, "I'd like that, actually."
Misato also blushed slightly. She got a sense where Satoko was going, and was tempted to say she didn't swing that way. Though there WAS that drunken university night with Ritsuko...
Satoko noted the blush with amusement. "We'll talk about it later," she backed off a bit.
"I'd like that," Misato decided.
"Are you free Saturday?" Satoko wondered as the walked back to the car.
To be continued...
Notes: Trying to move forward Satoko/Misato a bit. Yup, it's been twenty or so chapters and we FINALLY get a actual Evangelion in the Evangelion fic. Ha. Rei's Eva will take less time, tho I'll need to figure out the numbering.
Kodama is an actual canon character, tho she only gets mentions in Evangelion.
