So, I just figured I'd get this out of the way first thing. I'm working on changing up a part of my story that will probably be coming up soon. I was originally going to do one thing... but I don't think people would be satisfied with it, and now that I think about it, I'm not entirely satisfied with it either. So, I'm probably gonna be working on coming up with a bit of a new... lets say "transition" that I think everyone would be more happy with. I'll try not to let this get too much in the way of my writing schedule. But, if I can't come up with a new plot before I actually get to that point, I may slightly delay any new chapters until I've sorted out exactly what I want to do with this piece of writing from the future. Right now, I'm just not happy with it though, and I don't think anyone else would be either.

Now! REVIEW RESPONSES!

rtdeal: LMAO, yeah. HAHA, had to stick Florida man in there somehow! If he's on the FBI's most wanted, he could very well be on NERV's most unwanted. And, I sorta just wanted to make Asuka seem a bit worldy so to speak.

StratosOmega: Always happy when someone sees my references. Pretty sure most of them are too obscure and go unnoticed though, haha. But, I'm happy you got those two.

origamishisou: What was that!? Did I hear something about... something possibly going wrong in this chapter!? OR MAYBE THE NEXT!? But don't worry! The fluff will return very soon!

.

Text Guide

Standard Wording

"Spoken Dialogue/Speech"

'Internal Dialogue/Thoughts'

(Flashbacks)

/

[Slash denotes scene transition for the moment; this may be changed in the future so as to become more visible.]

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Disclaimer: I do not own or profit off of Neon Genesis Evangelion, End Of Evangelion, or the Rebuilds of Evangelion. I do not own Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley Sohryu, or any of the other characters/ideas from the Evangelion intellectual property collective. All licenses remain with the proper license holders. If asked to, I will formally remove this story from the hosting website.

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*Cruel Angel's Thesis and Eva intro starts playing*


Neon Genesis Evangelion

A Journey of Hate, Power, and Love

Chapter 33

An Enigmatic Problem for Inquiring Minds

.

"So," Asuka mumbled as she stepped off the train.

"So..." Shinji said in reply.

The three Eva pilots were, as Ritsuko had ordered the day before, once again on their way to NERV HQ so they could participate in the sync tests Ritsuko had set up for them in an attempt to figure out how the Evangelions might be activating on their own whenever the children had… whatever kind of attack or episode they'd been suffering from recently.

"I guess Doctor Akagi is gonna have to call us outta school since Misato slept in."

"Yeah, I guess so. I still feel bad about not waking her up."

"Don't. She needs to be responsible for herself. Besides, she probably needed the sleep."

"Yeah, maybe," Shinji sighed.

Rei, despite not being very talkative, made herself known by occasionally giving Shinji's hand a loving squeeze as they walked.

"Ooh! Look! My favorite coffee shop!" Asuka squealed as she pointed at a neon sign hanging above the sidewalk, its red kanji illuminated against the dark, cloudy, grey skies above.

The signed read Ishikawa's Coffee and Cookies.

Shinji had been dragged into the place a few times before by Asuka. He'd never ordered anything from it though. The food and drinks were expensive, but Asuka swore up and down it was the best coffee she'd ever had.

"Asuka, if we're late, Doctor Akagi is probably gonna be angry. She sounded like she really wanted us there today," Shinji said, trying to deter the girl from making any detours.

"Well, she can stuff it! She keeps us in those damnable test plugs all day! No food! No drinks! No entertainment! She usually doesn't even let us talk over the coms! So, I'm gonna get something to satiate myself! I don't care if it makes us late! She's gonna keep us in those plugs all damn day! She can wait five minutes for me to get something warm to drink. You two want anything?"

"Uuh," Shinji questioned as he glanced at Rei looking for an answer.

"No, I am fine. Unless Shinji would like something," Rei answered.

Shinji blushed

"Oh, no, uh, I'm okay!"

Asuka eyed them suspiciously before she spoke next.

"You two wait here. It's rude to go into a shop and not buy anything. I'll be right back."

And so, Shini and Rei leaned against the dull, red, clay bricks that made up the outside wall of the shop, waiting for Asuka to return. Sure, they could have left her behind and went on their way. But, on top of upsetting Asuka, neither Shinji or Rei were ones to disobey instructions willy-nilly. And it would only be a few minutes anyways.

True to Asuka's word, she came back out about three minutes later with a cup of warm sweetened coffee of some kind. Though, despite Shinji's skills as a cook, he couldn't exactly pin down what it was. A cappuccino? Or affogato maybe? He couldn't get a good whiff of it in the stormy wind.

The cup of coffee wasn't the only thing the redhead was carrying though.

Upon locating where Shinji and Rei were, she quickly shoved a soft, creamy brown, paper bag into Shinji's hand.

"Huh? What's this?"

"Yours is what it is," Asuka said in a way that almost sounded smarmy.

"Well, yours and Rei's. I got it for both of you," Asuka spoke again, though this time, sounding a bit more sincere as she glanced away from the couple, possibly trying to hide a blush.

"Well, uh… Okay. But… what is it?" Shinji asked again.

"Well, geez. I dunno! Open the bag maybe!?" Asuka said sarcastically, shaking her bangs in front of her eyes, seemingly still trying to hide herself.

Shinji did just that and found a piece of warm bread with some kind of sausage inside of it and he also found a chocolate chip cookie sandwich with cinnamon ice cream.

"I know Wondergirl doesn't like meat, so I just got her the ice cream cookie thing. ...So hurry up and eat it before it melts, huh!?"

Shinji reached into the bag and gave the ice cream cookie to Rei and then pulled out the soft bread that was wrapped around the sausage. Shinji looked at it inquisitivly, assuming it was some European or American food.

"It's just a kolbasnik! It's not like I'm trying to poison you. Geez. You don't gotta look at it so strange like..."

"Oh, no! It's not that! It's just that I've never seen something like it before. Is it… German? The name sounds sorta German."

"It's Czech. And Czechoslovakia- Excuse me, The Czech Republic is right next to Germany."

"The… Czech Republic?" Shinji asked.

"Yeah. Though, they're planning on changing the official name to Czechia soon. My mother… my biological mother always used to call it Czechoslovakia. She was alive before they separated into Czechia and Slovakia and she had friends that lived there. I guess she never got around to changing her ways before she… Well… Anyways, you think Doctor Akagi would let us listen to creepypastas during the sync test today?"

"What's a.. creepy… pasta?" Shinji asked with a very confused look.

"You really don't spend enough time on the internet, huh? Or maybe you just call them by something different here in Japan. It's just like a scary story. I have some I've been meaning to listen too, but I haven't had time. I figured the sync test would be a good time to listen to them, but I don't think I want to know what would happen if I brought my phone into the LCL. So, I'd have to get Doctor Akagi to play it from the observation room but she's probably not gonna let me," Asuka whined.

"Uh… yeah, I wouldn't expect her to let us do that," Shinji said as he scratched his arm bashfully, sort of thankful that Doctor Akagi probably wouldn't let that slide. He wasn't one for horror.

"Guess it's going to be another boring day today then," Asuka hissed, "Even being at school would be better than this. I mean, honestly! Hasn't she considered the psychological effects keeping us locked up and secluded could have on us!? What's gonna happen if my sync rate starts dropping because I associate the entry plug with a prison or boredom!? And then guess who's gonna get shit on for having a dropping sync rate!? Not Doctor Akagi, that's for sure!"

Shinji wasn't entirely sure about that. To him, it seemed like a lot of responsibility was lumped upon Ritsuko and everyone expected her to fix their problems. But, even so, Shinji didn't try to fight the girl on it. Asuka was at least partially right. People would chew her out too.

"We should probably talk," Rei said abruptly.

"Oh… yeah, we did say we'd talk about that before meeting with Doctor Akagi..." Asuka grumbled.

"I can start with my dream," Rei said as a suggestion.

No one said anything in response to her though. Shinji and Asuka were both seemingly trying to find the nerve to talk about their dreams.

Seeing that the other two required more time to think, Rei began trying to come up with words adequate enough to describe her dream.

"My… first dream… it was different from the last one. I was in our classroom at school… at night. And Commander Ikari was there… He… talked about things. Things that made me question myself… or others. I was… looking out the window of our classroom and… I was… was going to… jump out of it."

Shinji and Asuka both glanced at Rei, their eyes wide. They weren't exactly sure what to say. But, they certainly weren't expecting to here this.

"But, before I could," Rei continued, "Commander Ikari… shot me and I fell out of it instead."

"Ugh, what the hell?!" Asuka choked as she put her free hand on her face and clawed at her cheek in exasperation.

"Is... everything okay, Rei? My father… He's not hurting you, is he?" Shinji asked, becoming very concerned.

Rei looked at Shinji for a moment, considering her words.

"...No. I am fine," Rei said.

"Are you sure? If he's hurting you, you can tell me," Shinji said reassuringly.

"I am fine. I promise." Rei confirmed again.

Shinji wasn't entirely convinced. Especially not with his own history with the man. But… it was just a dream. And, at the very least, his father seemed to like Rei more than he liked him. So, Shinji let the topic drop for now.

The boy then turned to look at Asuka to find the girl already staring at him. They both were seemingly trying to figure out who should say their piece next.

"Well… I guess I can go next," Shinji said.

The boy cleared his throat nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"So… uh… in my first dream… uh… I was also in the our school classroom and uh… my father was also there."

Asuka squinted her eyes at this, noting the similarity between Rei and Shinji's dreams immediately.

"He didn't shoot me or anything though… He just… uh… he was lecturing me… like he was a teacher at the school or something. And, he was just talking about all this stuff. I don't remember all of it very clearly. It was stuff about just… uh… responsibility… and… motivation… uh… it was really weird," Shinji said in a dismissive manner, still rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, that's weird. Mine was nothing like your dreams," Asuka sighed depressingly.

Shinji and Rei perked up and began paying attention to Asuka.

Asuka almost choked on her coffee at the sudden gazes that were now focused on her.

"I mean, it wasn't in our classroom for one. And Commander Ikari wasn't there either. I hardly know the guy to be honest," Asuka said dismissively before taking a sip of her coffee.

Shinji and Rei were both staring at her. And, Asuka noticed, though she was sorta hoping they'd drop it. It became obvious soon enough though that they were expecting more out of her story. So, the redhead acquiesced and tried to act casual as she told them about her dream.

"Uh… well… I was in a forest… it was burnt down though," Asuka said before chuckling nervously, "It was… pretty creepy because my mother was there and… she was just being all weird and crap. And she looked off, like she was dead sorta. She smelled and… tasted dead at least."

Asuka shivered, which also caused Shinji to shiver.

"Yeah… uh, well, I'd rather not get into the tasting part. But, anyways. Umm… well… I mean, the whole thing was just… she was angry at me I guess. And, then there was like a copy of me… and… uh… Ugh, god, this is so fucking weird."

"It's okay, Asuka," Shinji said, trying to put the girl at ease.

Asuka shivered again.

"Uh… well…. um.. the other me… seemed angry at me too… but then she started kissing me. Ugh, I mean, I was kissing myself, but um… Uh… I can't explain it. She… Uh.. I … we were happy… I guess… after… Look, the whole thing is just stupid, okay! I can't believe I'm gonna have to say that to Doctor Akagi when she asks us about it later. Ew! It's just so weird and embarrassing!"

Shinji sighed.

"I get the feeling the stuff that's happening to us isn't normal," Shinji mumbled.

"You think?" Asuka whined, "I don't even wanna talk about it! It's so weird. And I don't think it's gonna help Doctor Akagi solve anything."

"Even so," Rei said, "We should still tell the Doctor. If it could help her at all, she should know."

Asuka groaned and tried to hide her blush behind her red bangs

"I don't like it either, Asuka, but I think Rei is right. Doctor Akagi needs to know everything. What if our eyes start glowing and we start acting up when an angel attacks. We'd be defenseless. It could kill us. Doctor Akagi, needs to find a way to stop this soon."

/

-A Silence in Three Parts-

/

"B-but Doctor Akagi!" Asuka whined.

"No, ma'am, Pilot Sohryu! You are not going to be listening to horror stories or anything else during the test. It would invalidate this set of test results!" the faux blonde said, scolding the redhead.

"But, they're already invalidated!" Asuka protested, "It's not like sitting in the Eva doing nothing is an accurate representation of what our usual syncing circumstances are. And its certainly not representative of what happened when we went all crazy. We weren't even inside them when that happened."

"You're only partially right. It is true that I cannot replicate at will the circumstances that caused the Evas to activate without you inside them. And that's exactly why I'm not testing for that. For lack of a better course of action, I am instead simply testing for general abnormalities that may or may not be linked to your sordid episodes and the Evas activating on their own. So, no, the testing is not invalidated. I don't have a way to safely or reliably recreate the original environment, so I'm not going to try. Screening this way, while likely not as revealing, is our safest, and really, our only alternative right now. I can't say if it will present any valuable results, but it's all we've got and we have to try."

"Ugh! But it's just entertainment! I hate sitting in that plug doing nothing all day!" Asuka shouted.

"Asuka, come on! It'll be okay," Shinji pleaded with the girl.

"And I, like you, Pilot Sohryu, hate being in this observation room all day. Especially on the days you feel inclined to argue with me," Ritsuko retorted.

"Asuka, please. This is for your own safety," Maya begged.

"No! I hate it! And I'm hungry and you don't let us out for food breaks! And surely this isn't healthy for us. Keeping us locked up all day! Surely there's some law that protects about this kind of indecency! What kind of effect will this have on our mental health!?" Asuka protested even further.

Ritsuko glared at Asuka, though Asuka usually went unphased by such things.

"Would you just get in the damn plug already, Sohryu!? I have other shit to deal with," Ritsuko said, her temper finally starting to slip loose of its leash.

"Oh, so you aren't gonna be in here all day, huh!?" Asuka said in an accusing manner.

"That's doesn't matter at all! I have another mess to clean up surrounding you three and the Commander is probably gonna chew my ass off because that's what he always does in these situations! So, it's not like I'm going to be enjoying myself either!"

"Wait, what mess?" Shinji asked.

"Yeah! What mess!?" Asuka asked.

"I'll tell you about it later. I don't want it interfering with the sync test. So, just hurry up and get into your plug suits and go start the damn test already, would you?"

Asuka cursed under her breath and started making her way to the changing room, Shinji following behind her with Rei's hands clamped around his wrist.

"Finally," Ritsuko sighed, "Maya, can I trust you to keep an eye on things here. Just… talk to them every now and then. But don't say anything that'll make them excited or get them riled up."

Maya frowned a little, though she tried to hide it. She was hoping for more alone time with Ritsuko.

"Oh, of course, but… where are you going, angel?"

Ritsuko sighed yet again and straightened her glasses.

"You didn't see the news this morning, did you?" Ritsuko asked before taking a drag from her cigarette

"No ma'am. Should I have?"

"Someone let slip about the pilots' condition. Their glowing eyes and all that."

"Let slip, ma'am? They were in NERV hospital right? Its open to the public," Maya asked in confusion.

"Parts of it are, yes. But, they were admitted through the private VIP entrance which isn't open to the public. Their ward of the hospital also wasn't open to the public. So, it was in all likelihood someone from NERV who told the public about their episodes, though we don't have a great idea who exactly would have done it. Security already checked the surveillance footage and saw no one with a camera enter the room. The pictures have been all over the news since three in the morning either way though. So someone definitely was able to get them somehow."

"Oh… so… it's a PR problem? That's not that big of a deal, right?"

"Admittedly, it makes us look pretty sketchy. A bunch of kids catatonic in bed with glowing eyes. Makes it look like we're running all kinds of shady experiments down here, especially when there's no context to the pictures that are being shared all over Japan and the rest of the world right now. But, that's only half the problem."

"Oh? What's the other part of the problem?" Maya asked, not sure where else the threads from the problem could lead.

Ritsuko inhaled another lungful of smoke from her cigarette and adjusted her glasses.

"Shiro Tokita," Ritsuko spat.

"Shiro who now?"

"The president of Japan Heavy Chemical Industries. And a rival of mine from back when I was still in college."

"I'm still not seeing exactly where this is going, ma'am?" Maya said, hoping for further elaboration.

"Well… lets just say that… he's a competitor to us. He hasn't exactly gone up against us directly in the past. But, he popped up on NERV's radar after he filed a few patents; one among them for something called Jet Alone and several others for the technology it probably employs and carries on board. He hadn't made the project officially known until early this morning through social media though. It would seem that, in the wake of our most recent leak, on top of all the other information that occasionally gets out, he's hoping to sway the public and official opinion away from the Evangelions and towards whatever this project is he's working on. ...Needless to say, we can't have that happening. I'm not sure how Commander Ikari intends to respond, but I'm sure it won't be pretty… or easy."

"Ooooh, okay. I think I see now."

"Yeah, it's… not what I would have hoped for," Ritsuko said as she puffed out a cloud of smoke, "It costs a lot to maintain the Evangelions. And, we'd be screwed if the Japanese government decided to withdraw their funding from NERV and start handing money over to Japan Heavy Chemical Industries. We're doing more here than just building Evangelions. It would be a tragedy for us to get downsized or shut down after all we've accomplished. We're out here trying to save the world and Shiro is just trying to barge his way into our economic niche. He's just in it for the money, I'm sure of that much."

"Aren't all of us just in it for the money though?" Maya asked, chuckling a bit.

"Nah. If I was in it for the money, I wouldn't be working here. And I don't think you would either. I've seen your passion, Maya. You care about your work."

"Aww, thanks. I was just joking. I know you care about what we're doing here. Even if it does seem to stress you out a lot of the time."

Ritsuko smiled at Maya sweetly.

"Well, I need to get on out of here. I'm sure Commander Ikari is deliberating a response even as we speak. And, he's probably none too happy about that fact. If I'm not back by the time their sync test is finished, make sure to keep them here unless it's like midnight or something. I still have some things I need to talk to them about.

/

-Testing the Waters-

/

There was a knock on Gendo's office door and he pressed a button under his desk that would open the imposing door without requiring him to move from his seat.

"Doctor Akagi," Gendo said calmly as the door quickly slid open and revealed the woman.

Fuyutsuki nodded at Ritsuko kindly.

"So kind of you to join us, Ritsu!" Kaji said enthusiastically as he stood next to Gendo's desk.

"Yeah, no problem. So, this is about the leak… or JHCI I take it?"

"Yes," Gendo replied concisely.

"We're only waiting on Colonel Katsuragi now," Fuyutsuki sighed in exasperation.

"Ah, would that she could wake up at a reasonable time," Kaji said half jokingly.

Gendo pick up his phone and dialed Misato's number.

"Third time today," Fuyutsuki groaned.

"Colonel Katsuragi!" Gendo spat at the phone in a mildly infuriated voice.

That was probably the angriest Ritsuko had heard him in awhile.

"Ah! What!? I'm sorry! Who what now, Sir!?" Ritsuko could hear Misato panicking over the phone.

"Stupid lazy ass. She never should have been promoted to colonel." Ritsuko huffed.

Kaji patted Ritsuko on her shoulder.

"It's okay, Ritsu. Someday, you'll be promoted too. Who knows? According to Commander Ikari, it may be your time to shine today."

"Yeugch," Ritsuko cringed, making an unintelligible noise as she did, "I don't need to be promoted. I already hold a leading position, I'll have you know! I'm the head scientist!"

"Oh, congratulations! I never would have noticed!" Kaji said sarcastically.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're just trying to cut Kat some slack. Neither of you would ever admit it, but I know you two are still into each other."

"I might be trying to cut her a little slack… but it's not going to get her very much leeway," Kaji smirked as he glanced at Gendo shouting at Misato over the phone.

"I do not care, Colonel Katsuragi," Gendo growled, "You are needed in my office right now. I expect you to be here in the next twenty minutes. We do not have time to waste."

/

There was a light and frantic knocking on Gendo's office door. As always, he pressed the button under his desk and the door swept open.

"I'm so sorry!" Misato wailed as she swung her purse in front of her and pulled out some perfume, "I had to feed my car and my penguin wouldn't start! I mean- I mean! Ugh!"

"Man, you didn't even have time to put on your perfume. Just admit it, Kat. You slept in, as is your wont," Kaji chuckled.

The purple haired woman glared at Kaji as she spritzed herself with the scented spray and put it back in her purse.

"Don't call me that!" Misato snarled as she swung her purse back over her shoulder.

"Enough, both of you! We have a potential crisis on our hands," Fuyutsuki shouted before mumbling to himself, "Like a bunch of children."

Kaji held his hands up in mock surrender and Ritsuko closed her eyes while sighing out a cloud of smoke.

After all was silent, Gendo began briefing Kaji, Misato, and Ritsuko.

"As I'm sure you're all already aware, sometime either yesterday or the day before, someone released pictures of the pilots in their their hospital beds with their eyes still glowing."

"Wait, what!? How did this happen!?" Misato interjected.

Fuyutsuki glared at her, silently telling her to be quiet, as time was of the essence. After another few moments of silence, Gendo spoke again.

"This has caused minor concern in the public eye. As there were only a handful of people permitted entry to their room during the duration of their stay, we have narrowed down our list of suspects and will be looking into it at a later time. But, that is not our concern right now. What's more deserving of our attention, is the fact that, due to this deplorable act, a competitor to us has used this opportunity in an attempt to wrestle away both financial and public support so that they can field and demonstrate a technology to supplant the Evangelions. It is imperative that we find a way to end this… quietly and without arousing suspicion."

"Wait, you want us to… What are you telling us to do?" Misato asked.

Gendo sighed, as many people had also done this morning.

"Japan Heavy Chemical Industries announced over social media platforms early this morning that they would be holding a tech demo for a new prototype they've cobbled together that they've named Jet Alone. I need you three to come up with some way of sabotaging this demonstration."

"Wait, you want us to just… what, walk in there and start..." Misato asked in disbelief.

"Oh boy, I figured this would be some conspiracy type shit, but I didn't think it would be this bad," Ritsuko groaned, blowing out another billowing puff of smoke.

"Well, I'm sure I'll be handy in a situation like this," Kaji shrugged nonchalantly.

"Wait, both of you are just gonna go along with this!?" Misato asked, obviously appalled.

"What choice do we have," Kaji asked, "We can't just let them steal our spotlight. And the man himself is the one giving the order," he finished as he gestured his head in Gendo's direction.

Ritsuko tapped her finger on her cheek, causing a few flakes of ash to fall off her cigarette as she jostled it between her fingers.

"I might have a bit of an idea… But, I'd need some input from you, Kaji."

"I'm at your disposal," Kaji said as he bowed jokingly.

"Would it be possible for you to get on board the thing and maybe see if you could copy some data for me assuming there is a computer on board… There must be. It's unmanned according to our information."

"I'd need to get a look at the machine itself, map out security at the demonstration, and come up with some kind of infiltration plan. That would be difficult to do without a blueprint of whatever this Jet Alone thing is even supposed to be. But, I think it could possibly be done."

Gendo spoke next, before anyone else could.

"Based on the patents we were able to get a hold of, it's powered by a pressurized water-cooled nuclear reactor. ...It would be prudent to come prepared with a hazardous materials suit or to… appropriate one at the demonstration itself. Also, keep in mind, we mustn't raise suspicion. No killing. No incapacitating. We must remain entirely unseen. I will obtain a copy of the patents later. They might have some kind of basic blueprint to help navigate the interior of the machine."

"Well, that certainly helps a lot. Though, to truly gauge how difficult this will be, we'll need to wait until the day of the showing. And perhaps Katsuragi could help me scout out any patrols I miss."

"I- What!?" Misato questioned, completely caught off guard by Kaji's suggestion.

"Indeed," Ritsuko mumbled, still tapping her cheek, "I'm not even skilled in infiltration, but I know that this will be difficult to pull off cleanly. We'll probably need some way to destroy any black box on board; and you can be sure there will be one. That will be difficult to do stealthily and without bring suspicion of foul play. But… mayhap it doesn't need to be done stealthily."

"What do you suggest, Doctor? We will give it fair hearing," Gendo asked, almost sounding relieved that his head scientist was able to come up with a response so quickly.

"If… the machine is truly autonomous, as the patents suggest, I… may… be able to change the AI and compel it to… cause a threat to public safety so to speak. Not that I would actually give it the prerogative to kill anyone. But, if it appeared to be haywire, the ministry of defense wouldn't wait for it to kill anyone."

"Ah, I see where this is going, Ritsu. You may get that promotion yet," Kaji said, his praise causing the woman to blush ever so slightly out of pride.

"I… I'm sorry, but I still don't see where this is going," Misato chimed in.

Ritsuko sighed yet again.

"After the machine appears to be out of control, we use the Evangelions to destroy the blackbox and anything else that could suggest tampering. The question then being… do we let the pilots in on this. I don't see much other option if I'm being frank. We could perhaps tell them to focus their attacks on a certain part of the automaton… though that would be less sure to destroy the intended target."

Gendo nodded in approval. The plan was starting to come together rather nicely. He could only assume that Ritsuko had been thinking about how to neutralize the competition while driving into work today. Or maybe the woman was just so brilliant that she could come up with genius plans on the fly.

"Very well. I will let Pilot Ayanami know her instructions," Gendo said.

"W-wait!? Just like that!? And… why Rei!?"

"Rei has always been a loyal asset and is generally good at following instructions. Should she fail though, I expect you to relay the target information to Pilot Sohryu, Colonel Katsuragi. But, this will be strictly on a need to know basis. You are not to tell her unless it is absolutely necessary," Gendo said firmly.

Misato sighed and shrugged.

"I guess I don't have much say in the matter. I imagine I'm only here because I'm in the group that needs to know. I'm still not sure why I'm even here really."

"You need to know because you are the operations director. It falls to you to make sure the pilots are successful in their task, so it is important that you have access to the information that is required," Gendo said as though it should have been obvious.

"Well, I do believe that covers everything for our basic outline of a plan. Nothing for it now but to wait until the big guy is revealed at the exhibition. How long will it be on show? Does anyone know?" Kaji said rather cheerfully.

"It should be on display for two days according to their social media," Fuyutsuki retorted.

"Grand! That gives us one more day of freedom for planning and ironing out details than we would have had otherwise and then the second day of the show can be the deadline to put our plan to the proof."

/

"Oh god, she's back! Finally, we can get this over with and go home!" Asuka sighed as Ritsuko walked back into the observation room.

The girl and her companion all looked rather tired. Even Maya seemed exhausted from keeping them entertained.

"Yeah, you might wanna hold you horses for a minute. I'll try to be brief, but we have stuff to talk about," Ritsuko groaned.

"Oh, god, just hurry up and spit it out, please. I can't take being locked up in here anymore! I want to go home and eat!"

"Okay, then, how about you go ahead and tell me about your dreams then."

Asuka froze and gulped nervously.

"Ach, fuckin' geez! I'd hoped you'd forgotten about that!" Asuka groaned.

"Aw, what's wrong, Pilot Sohryu? I thought you wanted to get out of here in a timely manner."

Asuka huffed, but she eventually submitted to the woman's demands after Shinji and Rei had explained their dreams.

/

"Well… as before, I…. don't see any concrete evidence that can be determined from your other dreams," Ritsuko groaned, worrying she'd wasted even more of her time, "Not that I really expected any differently… Well, anyways… it was important to go over anyways… hopefully."

Asuka blushed, still embarrassed about being forced to unceremoniously reveal her dream about her kissing herself. Shinji didn't seem very comfortable either. But, Asuka didn't think his was anywhere near as embarrassing as hers. Nevertheless though, all of them seemed ill at ease; even Rei.

"Before you go however," Ritsuko began again, "I feel I should let you know that someone might have revealed some slightly compromising pictures of you three-"

"OH NO! MISATO SHOWED EVERYONE AT NERV A PICTURE OF US ALL SLEEPING TOGETHER!?" Asuka shrieked!

Ritsuko unplugged her fingers from her now ringing ears.

"Jesus!" Ritsuko hissed, "No! No, it was a picture of you while you were in the hospital and your eyes were glowing from your episodes. Someone released it to the public the other day. I just figured I'd let you know that people are going to be curious. Don't be surprised if someone from the local news stations shows up at Misato's apartment or at school to interview you for statements. It'll blow over eventually, just like all worthless and excessively overblown fanatical news does. But, until then… please don't say anything that would draw unwanted attention towards us or give me headaches; Commander Ikari's orders. He's worried people may become worried that we're being unethical in our practices."

"Oh, that… that's actually not that bad. Sure. We won't cause any problems. We'll just tell them that's it's not NERV's fault." Asuka said, happy that the subject had finally been changed.

"Unfortunately, I'd recommended you don't even say that. There's probably going to be all kinds of questions. And saying that it's not our fault makes it sound suspiciously like it would be our fault and that we're coercing you into silence…. Which, I guess we sort of are doing right this very moment. But, the point stands, we don't want to look bad right now. And… that's were we come to our next problem."

"Oh? What would that be?" Shinji questioned.

"Uh… let's just say someone may be using our current predicament against us and that it would be better that we do not look guilty of anything under any circumstances. It would potentially mean the end of your careers as Evangelion pilots. The people taking advantage of this turmoil are people who are currently working on technology that could possibly try to take the place of the Evangelions."

Asuka suddenly came to full attention. She certainly didn't want to lose the prestige that came with her being an Eva pilot.

"Well, what if we just lied about it and said someone edited the photo or something?" Asuka offered.

"Maybe after this has blown over, Asuka. But, right now, we just need to keep our heads low. It's important you don't give the reporters anything to work with. They're dishonest people and will lie out of their teeth, spinning all kinds of false narratives and outrage bait culture topics to get traffic on their websites. And we don't need any clout chasing twitter lynch mobs showing up on our doorstep. It's best that you just keep quiet for now."

Asuka groaned.

"What is this technology these people are working on?" Rei asked.

"We don't know yet exactly. I mean, we have an idea. But, we don't know all the details." Ritsuko said as she scratched the back of her head, "All we know is that it's similar to the Evangelions. It runs on nuclear energy. And, its autonomous. That's about all we know right now. But, we'll probably know more in a few days, as the company making the thing is going to be hosting a public tech demo. They'll probably have a conference and reveal some of it's statistics too."

"God, that just fucking sucks!" Asuka groaned! "I can't believe they're gonna try to one up us like that! I hope they don't overtake us. I still wanna be an Eva pilot."

"Oh, I don't think you need to worry about that, Sohryu," Ritsuko said, smiling wryly the whole time.

/

"Ugh, would you look at it!? It's all over the news channels," Asuka groaned to Shinji, finally back home.

Rei sat on the couch next to Asuka, seemingly unphased as she ate a bag of marshmallows Shinji brought the girls while he made dinner.

"What're they saying?" Shinji asked over the sound of sizzling beef.

"Lots of stuff. It's just like Doctor Akagi said. Lots of the talking heads are thinking that maybe NERV is running some stupid sketchy experiments on us or some crap. So stupid… And this guy… Shiro Tokita. I don't like him. He's talking all kinds of shit about us and the Evas but he won't say shit about what makes this Jet Alone of his so good. Hmph! What would he know!?"

Rei leaned her head on Asuka's shoulder before plucking a marshmallow out of the bag and feeding it to Asuka.

"Do not worry, Asuka. I am sure we will be okay," the blue haired girl said in an airy voice.

"We better be. Otherwise, I'm gonna take Unit-02 and go kick Jet Alone's ass myself! We're all alive because of the Evangelions. And I'm not gonna let some hunk of junk show us up."

"Asuka, we can't just steal a weapon of war and destroy someone else's work," Shinji said, trying to calm the girl down.

"Like hell we can't! I sure as hell will! I'm not gonna let this guy get in the way of my life's work!"

Shinji sighed. The girl had certainly convinced her ego that it was in danger of being smothered and she was obviously worked up over it. But, there's wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. The best he could do is finish his cooking quickly and try to take the girl's mind off of it before bed.

The front door suddenly opened and everyone could hear Misato's heels clicking on the tile floor.

"I'm home!" Misato called out.

She walked into the kitchen and smelled the air, savoring the delightful aroma of Shinji's cooking.

"What's cookin', good lookin'?" Misato cooed, trying to keep herself from drooling.

"Mongolian beef," Shinji answered with a slight blush.

"Misato, this is ridiculous! Me!? Unseated!? No, no, no, no, no! It's preposterous! Absurd! I am a great and skilled eva pilot! Greatest and most skilled! I destroy the angels from on high! And this guy thinks he can come in and steal my glory with his fucking Jet Alone!? What a stupid name too! It doesn't sound nearly as cool as Evangelion!"

"The name kinda reminds me of Jet Jaguar. You kids might be too young to know what that is though. But, yeah. I've been hearing about it all day. It is a bit off putting. But… don't worry. I'm sure NERV has a plan. We haven't lost to the angels and we're not about to loose to some robot that's twenty years behind ours."

Misato tried to keep a cheery smile on her face. But the weight of her words was all too real.

"Well, I've had a stressful day. So, I'm gonna go take a bath," Misato said as she set her purse on the counter.

"That's fine," Asuka shouted from the couch, "But, hey! Don't use up all the hot water, okay? We still need to shower too!"

Misato almost could have smiled if she didn't feel she herself was about to step into hot water.

.


*Eva credits roll and Fly Me to the Moon plays*

.

"Fly me to Jet Alone, Let me kill it's fucking ass! It's time for some Asuka and Misato sass!"

"Asuka, no cussing in the chapter preview!"

"Well, why the hell not!? It went along with the tune of Fly my to the Moon!"

*Misato puffs her cheeks in embarrassment*

"I don't make the rules, Asuka!"

"Whatever, I'm pretty sure you've cussed in the chapter preview before!"

"That's different! Kaji makes me irritated!"

"Yeah, well, Jet Alone pisses me off!"

*Asuka spins around on random swivel chair*

*Misato groans*

"Well, in the next chapter, we... uh.. well, it should be pretty self explanatory, but we go after that... filthy Jet Alone! I wasn't about to say fucking. I'm obviously worried in the next chapter being that espionage and political intrigue really aren't my thing. That's really more of Kaji's area of expertise. I much prefer to see shit blow up."

"Hell yeah, girl! -wait a minute! You just cussed again after telling me not too!"

"Sh-shut up! You did too!"

"Why is no cussing that even a rule? Who came up with such a retarded rule. It's just words."

*Fuyutsuki knocks on door*

"Quit fooling around, ladies!"

*Asuka squeals*

*Misato gasps*

"Well, yeah! It'll all be in the next chapter of Neon Genesis Evangelion: A Journey of Hate, Power, and Love; The Setup"

"Don't you ever get tired of saying that exact same line at the end of every chapter?"

"Nah, not really. I like to see it as a buildup to the name reveal! OH! And I almost forget! Remember everyone, Jeffery Epstein didn't kill himself! Ha! And you all thought I was gonna say something about fanservice!"