Rebuild of Third Genesis

Chapter 24

The fallout of the revealing of SEELE continued, even months after the event.

Several major political leaders had been revealed as owned by SEELE. Some resigned willingly, some were forced out. The President of the United States had also been revealed as a SEELE plant, and he was both refusing to resign and fighting removal efforts. The senate and congress were trying to impeach him, but he was calling in a lot of political favors. And apparently knew where a lot of bodies were buried. So it was dragging on...

Even in the UN, there was fallout. Many diplomats were recalled to face questions of whom they were really loyal to. Many had been ones that Gerry Cornelius had suspected of SEELE influence, but a few had surprised him. Indeed, one was a trusted friend whom released documents showed were on the take.

Gerry sighed as he sat back. At least there was some good news. NERV had a Evangelion running, finally. And they were begining building a new Unit. They just had to hope no new threats came up before they were done.

A knock on his office door made Gerry sit up. His two o'clock meeting was here. "Come in," he called, and got back to work...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Commander," Catherine Iowa smiled warmly as she sat down across from Misato.

"Miss Iowa," Misato nodded. The attractive American had been there a few days so far, and had had sessions with all the pilots. "How are things progressing?" she asked.

"It's still fairly early in the process to say," Catherine admitted. "If you like, I can give you my first impressions?" she offered.

"Please," Misato nodded as she sipped her coffee.

"I'm also going to keep it in layman's terms, as I find getting into psychiatric terminology tends to make things less clear," Catherine added. "As a side note, I was surprised how complete the files were on the children."

"Most of that went public when SEELE was revealed," Misato noted. "I didn't see the point of holding info back."

"I see," Catherine nodded. She continued, "Mana is probably the most well adjusted of the pilots. She's highly intelligent, and is interested in applying that to working at NERV."

Misato nodded.

"She's also aware that she's a clone of Asuka," Catherine continued.

"What." Misato blinked.

"She IS very smart," Cartherine reminded her. "I think she did a blood test, covertly."

"Fuck," Misato muttered, wondering if she and Ritsuko were going to have to talk to her about it later... "How did you get that out of her?" she wondered.

"I AM a professional," Catherine reminded her.

"Huh," Misato nodded.

"Rei is extremely reserved," Catherine continued, "though she shows almost child-like delight at certain things. Asuka, specifically." Curiously she asked, "Rei is theoretically amnesiac, correct? Other than basic social skills."

"That's what we found in the records," Misato agreed.

"But she's far more functional than that," Catherine noted. "I think she must retain at least SOME memory from her previous incarnations. At least subconsciously."

"Huh," Misato nodded. "Is there any way to access it? Hypnotic regression therapy or something?" she asked.

"Regression therapy is notoriously unreliable, so no," Catherine shook her head.

"Okay. I'll put Ritsuko on it," Misato said.

"Asuka, as you're probably aware, is quite traumatized," Catherine said coolly. "Her mother's death, the Angel's psychic attack, and then her Evangelion being dismembered by the Mass Production models," she listed them.

"Which is why we've brought you in," Misato noted dryly.

"Conceded. In our conversations, she pretty much waves all of it off," Catherine says, "and is very reluctant to talk about it. At all. She appears to have mentally shoved it all into a box and refuses to deal with it."

"That's bad, right?" Misato prompted.

Catherine frowned at her joking tone, "Yes, it is. If she doesn't deal with it, she'll have issues going into adulthood."

Misato raised her hands in surrender. "In our defense, up until recently we were more concerned with short term survival than their growing up to be functional adults. Psychological care was not really a priority under Commander Ikari," she said. Leaning forward she asked the other woman, "What can we do now?"

"I'm going to continue to work with her," Catherine said. "Try not to pressure her too much as a pilot... one of her coping mechanisms is to over-compensate. She wants to win at everything, no matter the personal costs."

"I'll keep that in mind," Misato agreed.

"Mari likes to present herself in a sociopathic mode, as if she only cares about herself. I suspect it may be an act, though," Catherine continued. Flatly she added, "She also appears to act out in a sexually aggressive manner."

"She hit on you?" Misato asked.

"Oh yeah," Catherine shook her head ruefully.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Satsuki Ooi was monitoring Rei as she practiced in Unit-02. She didn't pilot like Asuka did, instead handling her Evangelion calmly, with very controlled movements.

"Pilot status?" Satsuki asked quietly.

"All vital signs normal, synchronization rate holding steady at 25," Aoi noted. "Bit on the low side, but still functional."

"Evangelion?" Satsuki requested.

Kaede checked her board a moment to make sure there were no changes. "All systems green," she reported, "no alerts."

"All right Rei," Satsuki said briskly, "we had Asuka run drills to test the gross motion abilities of the Evangelion. We've set up a series of tests for you to test the fine motor skills."

"Understood," Rei nodded.

"Needle and threat type stuff, right? And hand eye coordination," Aoi noted. "Makes sense for Rei, I guess."

"Do we know what Mari is going to be testing?" Kaede asked curiously.

Satsuki laughed softly. "Couldn't you guess?" she asked impishly, "Weapons, of course."

"Ha," Aoi chuckled.

Rei finished all of the tests, some of which were harder than others. The Evangelion was designed for combat, not precision activities. And yes, one literally involved threading a (scaled up) needle. Which was on the same level of difficulty as doing that with an excavator.

"Well done," Satsuki congradulated her.

Rei finished up, then climbed out of the Evangelion and threw up the LCL. "Easy," Asuka was there with a towel, holding her by the shoulder comfortingly. "I know this sucks," she added.

She smiled up at Asuka as Rei said, "Thank you."

"Come on, time to go see the Doc," Asuka made a face. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked.

"Mildly headache from concentrating so much," Rei admitted.

"Then let's get you some asprin," Asuka said firmly.

Suema Kazuko was faintly amused as Asuka hovered like a worried boyfriend. "I think it's a stress headache," she agreed as she finished up the physical.

"No, really?" Asuka muttered.

Suema just ignored that. "If you feel stressed from piloting, tell us," she reminded Rei firmly. "Instruments don't tell us everything," she added.

"Yes, ma'am," Rei conceded.

"Did things go well otherwise?" Suema asked curiously.

"I think so. At least Satsuki seemed pleased with the fine motor skills tests," Rei agreed.

"I will say, I probably couldn't have done that," Asuka noted. "Punch things, yes. Tower building, no."

They two young women left together, and headed up to check in at the Commander's office. "Hey," Misato looked up, smiling.

"Busy as usual?" Asuka asked teasingly.

"Yeah. I should be home after six or so... barring UN phone calls or similar," Misato admitted.

"Which reminds me... your date with Satoko is this friday?" Asuka teased.

"It's not a DATE date...," Misato protested. Though she wasn't actually all that certain of that, really. They both liked to flirt when they chatted.

"I would treat it like a date," Asuka replied with the firmness of a teenager that hasn't dated in her whole life.

Curiously Rei asked, "Have you decided what to wear?"

"I'm thinking my little black dress," Misato admitted.

To be continued...

Notes: Mostly just setting up the psychiatrist character. I also (mostly) had her avoid using a LOT of official terminology as I don't bullshit well. May edit that later. Re: trauma, it should be noted that some of that might actually improve synch scores. So likely Gendo didn't care.