+++++ NERV. (Monday, August 30th, +9, Last Quarter 4/4)
"Like someone has pressed their thumbs against the inside of my eyeballs," Shinji replied with a hoarse groan. The medications they had given him had done nothing to reduce the pain and discomfort he was enduring, but it wasn't until Maya asked directly that he'd offered any complaints. "Like someone is lifting my skull up off of my spine. Like my head is an eggshell, and my brain is the yolk hardening in boiling water for too long." Speaking was making it worse, and his patience and tolerance for the situation was being sorely tested.
For her part, Maya had to accept that Shinji simply wasn't someone to bellyache about physical pain. "Any other discomfort?"
"Not since whoever it was that smelled like sandalwood left."
"We're sorry about that, man," one of the Agents remaining in the room to protect people stated with sincerity. "She's actually going to go wash it out with something citrusy instead. We hadn't been told until the commander passed it down that you had…an aversion to that."
Half of his lip curled up into a weak grin. "'An aversion'."
"I get angry whenever Mitsubaki brings piitan in for lunch, man. We've all got those things that make us want to kick someone out of our AO." Patting him on the shoulder, to avoid his head, she kept her voice bright so that her good humor could be 'seen' through the heavy protective gear they were all wearing. "We're posting signs near the showers to help everyone remember. Gotta cooperate with each other, right?"
Reaching up with the hand closest to her, he patted her forearm in gratitude. "Yeah…I'm sorry."
When Maya frowned, trying to put together the reason for his apology, the agent responded for her, "No reason to be, man. Shit happens. I read the reports, seeing as I've been assigned to protecting you, and the shit you've dealt with in your life is more than enough of an explanation as to why you might need to sometimes get out and stretch your legs. You could be punching people, abusing people, or just plain old being a jackass to people. Instead, you try hard to keep a level head and you treat the people around you like they matter to you. That's some good shit, and I can't hold what happened against someone who had no way of knowing it would happen. So you let it rest, and in return I'll spread word around that you're both upset and hurt that people were killed fighting alongside you."
It was likely the best he'd get. "Ok."
Walking into the room without the obscene amounts of protective gear the others were wearing, Naoko Akagi took over the room with her typical style. "All readings are coming back clear, so we can stop playing E.T. with poor Shinji." Urging everyone out of the room to change, she closed the door behind them and turned the lights further down before walking back to his side. Giving him the first skin-to-skin contact that he'd had since leaving Unit-01, she ran her hand up his forehead to push his hair out of his eyes and feel his temperature. "Still in the mood to purchase things you can't afford?"
The odd question only took a fraction of a second to trigger the right memory. "Is there something I can do to help?"
"Perhaps." She knew he could see her in the low light. She also knew that nobody else could, even on the cameras that were observing him. Leaning in, she lowered her voice to a mere whisper. "I would like if you spent some time with me. Helping me with some projects, learning what I can teach you, teaching me what I can learn from you. What I don't want is a servant. I don't want some 'yes man' who does whatever I say whether he wants to or not. I want willing cooperation. I want you to help me because you think I am worth spending time with. Just a few hours a day, unless or until you decide you want more."
He felt something from Naoko that caused a hitch of hesitation in his traditional response. She wanted something else from him that was not included in the short list of things she'd declared.
"Is something…wrong with that?"
Growing worried about what Ritsuko would think about him 'cooperating' with her mother, Shinji floundered around for a way to express his concerns without offending the woman before him.
He was saved from having to handle the situation immediately by the younger Akagi walking into the room and turning the lights all the way up with a hearty, "Dilation check!" While her mother gasped in both irritation and pain, and Shinji groaned in far more serious discomfort, she approached Shinji's bedside and shaded his eyes with one hand to look at his pupillary response. "Yep, you're fine. Light sensitivity isn't the issue so much as overactivity of your brain. C'mon, let's get you out of this shithole and into a real bed." Removing the portions of the I.V.s that were stuck in his arms, capping the shunts to stay in place, she put his arm around her shoulders and moved him towards the door while levelling a stare at her mother that informed the woman in no uncertain terms that she was well aware of what had been happening and that they would be having a discussion very soon about it. "You've got some visitors waiting for you, too," she added in the same bright tone.
Waiting outside the room was Chie and Maya, the former behind a wheelchair and the latter holding a thick blanket to wrap around his nude form to protect his dignity. With a dramatically overwrought sigh, Chie kept the mood light, "I swear, a wife's work is never done. I've been married, what, two days? I've had to pull you out of a forest, sit in liquid goop for you, and now push you in a wheelchair! When do I get pampered, huh?"
The overflowing concern for him that blasted outwards from Chie made it clear that she was not only hamming things up, but was trying to keep people calm, served to help him react in a way that he hoped wouldn't undercut her mission, "Once we're not being attacked by weird alien things, I'll give you a foot massage?"
"Sold!" Once he was in the chair and covered, she moved out at a brisk pace. "I was going to settle for cookies, but you promised foot rubs so no take-backsies."
Keeping up easily, Maya waited until they were out of immediate hearing range before speaking, "Senpai is going to talk with her mother, Shinji. Are you ok? I wouldn't have left if I knew she was going to make you feel like that."
Shinji blinked, trying to understand how Maya might know how he felt. "How…was…huh?"
"I don't care who they are," Chie announced with a growl, "anyone who fucks around with my man is going to find out what happens next."
Realizing that he'd forgotten she could read his emotions and feel his thoughts, Shinji let his head slump forward and immediately regretted the motion as pain lanced through his upper body. "Hrngh," he grunted, "why do I feel like someone's been kneading my brain?"
"Once we have you in your quarters, I'll be giving you a stronger course of analgesics, don't worry." Maya sidestepped the question for the moment. "I've reached an agreement with Sub-Commander Zeppelin, and we're going to be stationing some agents near you to act as a filter. Anyone who wants to access you has to have permission from either her, or your mother."
"Why…is something wrong with Naoko-san?"
+++++ NERV. (Monday, August 30th, +9, Last Quarter 4/4)
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Ritsuko, having stayed behind to 'handle' her mother, stood as a living bulwark between said mother and the exit from the room. "At what point was hitting on him a part of helping him build any sort of foundation?!"
"I'm not entirely sure why you think I was 'hitting on him." The elder Akagi kept both her posture and voice mostly sedate with just a hint of bemusement, "If you'd like," she waggled her tablet, "you can listen to the entire conversation yourself."
"You fucking well know that he doesn't have the emotional foundation to tell the difference between 'teasing' and 'seduction'."
"He is rather immature, true."
"Yes! So what possessed-"
"I'm curious as to why you would feel comfortable, then, seeking to pull him into a threesome with you and your hero-worshipping paramour?" There was a pregnant pause as the question landed hard on Ritsuko. "Is he capable of deciding who he does and does not wish to sleep with, or is he someone who needs to be protected from people that he might enjoy but would complicate your sex life?"
"That is not a binary condition."
"Oh?" Naoko took a firm step towards her daughter. "Today is the ninth day he has been back in Tokyo-3. The ninth day since you first met him as a pseudo-adult. The second day of the second week that he has been a known quantity. Why, pray tell, are you already all comfortable with joining a growing herd of women riding him up and down the promenade? If you're so set on spreading for him, after only nine days, then why is it, exactly, that I apparently don't deserve the right to do the same thing?" When Ritsuko opened her mouth, Naoko raised a finger. "The politics of power differentials don't apply in a situation where there is only one member of the male sex left on the planet."
"That is your nephew!"
"He's your cousin, then."
"I never changed his diapers!"
"No, you did. You don't remember because you were rather young at the time."
Ritsuko's eyes narrowed dangerously, and she too took a step closer to her mother. "What are you up to?"
"Wouldn't you just die to know?" With a knowing smirk, she ignored the toothless threat her daughter posed and left the room to go and win the next argument on her schedule.
+++++ NERV. (Monday, August 30th, +9, Last Quarter 4/4)
It turned out that the visitors Shinji had waiting for him were not Chie and Maya, a fact he discovered as he arrived back at the pair of suites he'd stormed out of the previous day. "Sensei! Ayase-san! Chiaki!" With both confusion and pleasure mixing in his heart, he looked between them and Rise and Yukiko in hopes of some sort of explanation.
"Ok, like…could you not call the girl bound to your soul by her last name?" Yuka stood up and walked over to hug him tight. "That's totally uncool when you do that."
Chie had a thoughtful cast to her features as she agreed, "Definitely better to go with Yuka-chan, or just Yuka."
"Definitely Yuka-chan." The gyaru gave Chie a cautious smile, hoping that the upbeat overture was being genuinely offered. "It's wild how different he is inside, yeah?"
"Completely different person from the one you see just looking at him." Tipping her head over to the corner of the room away from him, Chie decided that it would be better to have a 'Shinji Club' meeting with the other woman tied to him without the others intervening.
Maya kissed the top of his head. "I have to go get my stuff. I hurried to get out of my PPE, but didn't have a chance to grab everything else. You going to be ok here?"
He nodded quickly, wincing in pain once again with the reminder that his head was unhappy. "Y-yeah. Toriumi-sensei and Chiaki are people I trust, and even if they do something weird I have Rise and Yukiko here to protect me." He'd noticed the sour expression on Rise's face, and hoped that by saying what he had that she'd recognize that he was still thinking of her.
"For as long as you'll let us protect you, Shinji-kun," Yukiko intoned. "But I agree that Toriumi-sensei is a really nice person, and Chiaki-san is a sweetheart."
"He'll be safe with us, Ibuki-san," Rise agreed, mollified. "Please hurry back with those medicines, I don't like seeing him suffer."
When Maya left, Isako Toriumi stood up and walked over to crouch down next to Shinji. "How are you doing?" Taking his hand in both of her own, she offered sympathy and strength. "I hear it's been a rough couple of days."
Carefully hefting his free hand over to complete the grasp, he admitted a truth that he felt important. "Better, now that you're here. I…want to talk to you one-on-one, if you don't mind?"
"Absolutely. I think we should wait for Lieutenant Ibuki to come back, though. If she clears it medically, we'll talk for as long as you need."
Feeling Chiaki approach, and sensing her emotional turmoil, Shinji shifted gears to address a woman that had been of huge help herself. "What's wrong? You…you feel like I do every time I speak to anyone."
"I'll give you two a moment," Isako squeezed Shinji's hand and moved over to the door where she spoke quietly to the Section Two agents standing just inside.
"I wish to offer my resignation from your service," Chiaki began with as much professionalism as she could muster. "In helping you free yourself from the lies tying your mind, I created a situation where you came to harm."
Shinji's mouth opened, then closed. His head hurt, but his heart hurt more at the thought that Chiaki felt she'd somehow wronged him. "What happened?"
"Hua Po-san brought to Kirijo-sama's attention that Pixie-me was twisting the truth in an effort to lure you into Tartarus permanently. Kirijo-sama directed me to assist Hua Po-san in removing the threat from both the household and your immediate vicinity."
The puzzle clicked into place. "Whatever you did…I'm not upset at you for doing it. Yes, it made my brain hurt, but so did the fight I just went through. It's a headache, it'll heal. What wouldn't have healed was whatever that bitch wanted me to do." Reaching over with one unsteady hand, he offered that hand to Chiaki. "If you don't want to work with me anymore, I'll respect that decision. If you're asking me for permission to continue working with me, you never lost that permission."
Chiaki took his hand and gently lifted it to her lips. Kissing his knuckles, a smile wavering between joy and relief paired well with the emotions solidifying in her heart. "Shinji-Sama is a dangerous man, using words the way he does." Carefully setting his hand back down on the arm of the wheelchair, she curtsied and regained her poise and professionalism. "Is there anything you require? I have been given leave from my duties at the Manor to see to your needs for the duration of your sabbatical."
"I'm glad. I missed you," he admitted honestly. "I don't know if we have any, but I actually would really like to have some chamomile tea."
"If the larder has none, I will be about acquiring some myself." Curtseying once more, she turned and moved off with renewed vigor towards the kitchenette.
Both Rise and Yukiko came over at that point, a silent agreement between them firmly in place. Yukiko remained standing, lightly running her hand along what she could reach of his back. Rise sat down on the table in front of him and leaned in to ask, "When did you bring Yuka-chan in?"
"After my idiocy cost dozens of women their lives." The statement was not presented for debate, and he made it clear that his view of the situation was the truth in his eyes. "They gave me sedatives to help me sleep, and I woke up…in, I guess, Amara. I don't know what, or who, Amara is other than female. Yuka and I spoke for a while, thinking the other person was a dream of some sort. We both admitted things that we probably wouldn't have if we were awake, and that led to Amara offering Yuka strength the way that Sachiel-san offered it to Chie." His eyes drifted over to the pair, standing in the corner agreeing with one another. "Yuka took her offer just as we were attacked. I woke up to Andreja-san and Maya-san helping me get to Unit-01."
Rise glared at Yukiko. "That's becoming a trend."
"It is," the Innkeeper's daughter agreed calmly. "But I think we might need to keep in mind that Shinji-kun isn't angry that they're bound to him, he's worried that it's going to hurt them. He is opposed to the idea because he doesn't want anyone hurt, not because he doesn't want people to know how he's feeling."
"Actually," Shinji recalled the conversation he'd had with Yuka on that very topic, "it isn't entirely my choice who does and does not do this." When Rise's head whirled over to face him, he motioned for patience. "If it were up to me, and as disgusting as I am for feeling this way, I'd…really like having all of you around. To know how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking. I know it's only been a week, but this week I've spent around all of you has let me know that there are people out there who actually give a shit. Is it too soon for forever? Probably, in a sane world. But I found out recently…I can deny people bonding to me, if I really don't want them. I can even undo the bond, if…if it works like I think it does." Taking a slow breath, he smiled with a slight shrug. "Like I said, I'm disgusting."
Deflating, Rise looked at him with the frustration she felt. "No…I don't really believe you are. You haven't sought out what's happening. You are the recipient of the good fortune to have both me and Yukiko-chan interested in you, sure. You're also a good enough man to recognize that this is not…an ideal situation. You're not a lecher for liking that you can look at both of us as people you want to hug, or kiss, or…even other things. If you keep doing what you're doing, being honest and up front about how you feel, and respect us for how we feel, then I think we can make this work if it's what you want."
"Which I think you're saying it is?" Yukiko leaned to the side a bit to move into his line of sight. "You want to have us with you, you just don't want us to be hurt in doing so?"
"Y-yeah." He looked down, shame still filling him.
"That's fine, then." She joined Rise on the table, hugging the former idol close and smiling at Shinji happily. "Because I'm going to be honest, you're probably the most attractive guy I've ever seen. Not because you're cute, which you are. Not because you're charming, which you are. But because you have enough of everything, and you combine it all with being cute and charming. Sleeping with you holding me was the safest I've ever felt. Waking up knowing that you wanted to be with me, but were brave and honest enough to not start anything that we hadn't talked about, told me that you see me as the treasure I should be. You cradled Rise-chan like she was the most precious person on the planet, never once getting handsy. You see us for what, and who, we are. We see you for who, and what, you are. If we're all clear-eyed, then let's stop beating around the bush and just accept that for whatever time we have left on this planet…we've got each other."
A sudden shift in the feel of the room drew their eyes towards the door. Standing in the doorway, speaking to the guards, was both Maya and Misato. The former pushing a cart with medicines and other medical paraphernalia, the latter holding her hands up to her shoulders and calmly presenting her argument. Shinji's memory shifted what felt to be six meters to the right, prompting him to wince and speak just loud enough to be heard by the ladies before him. "I want to speak to her…please tell them to let her in."
"I'm on it," Yukiko stood, pushing Rise to stay where she was.
Chiaki returned with a tea service and several types of straws. "My apologies, Kujikawa-san, but if I could place this down on the table so that I can serve him?"
"Oh, sure!" Rise too stood up, moving over to take Yukiko's place rubbing Shinji's back. "I know tea always makes me feel better, good thinking Chiaki-san."
"Plain, please," Shinji asked when the maid gestured to the available seasonings. "Right now, I just want to try and drink some calm."
"As you wish." Chiaki poured a generous serving into a cup that would be easily held by unsteady hands, then inserted a straw that faced him as she helped him take hold of the container. "It is undignified, I agree, but with how your hands are shaking I would rather not see you wear what I am giving you."
He accepted the cup and used the straw to the best of his ability. "I would have to have dignity to be undignified," he replied after a healthy swallow.
"We all have dignity, master," Chiaki beat Rise to the punch. "Some simply require that others guard it for them."
Rise gave a look of gratitude to the maid. "She's right. We'll guard your dignity until you realize where it is, don't worry."
"Thanks again, Amagi-chan," Misato announced her arrival while simultaneously vying for Shinji's good graces. "How're you feeling, big guy?"
"Better, with tea." The cup wobbled in his hands as he hoisted it to display his prize.
Maya looked at the service, then at the cup. "Chamomile?"
"Without any additives, Lieutenant," Chiaki gave Maya both deference and respect in tone and body language. "He requested it to calm his nerves."
"That's fine, then. He really shouldn't have any sugar until we can get real food in him. The medicines are going to cause enough problems as it is, I don't want to work his kidneys too hard." Taking hold of one of his arms, using the I.V. shunt as a pathway into his body, she injected something that burned for the first few seconds before resolving into a pleasant warmth.
His relief was instantaneous. As was Chiaki's reaction time in taking the cup away from him as his body went limp. "Oh…that's nice," he muttered.
"Huh…thought so." Maya capped the needle and put it in the red disposal container attached to her cart. "I looked up a few things on my way down in the elevator, turns out his resistance to traditional pain relievers can be worked around by giving him off-label pain relief."
Misato watched Shinji's mouth curl into a small grin as endorphins performed their duty. "What'd you give him?"
"Not telling," she shook her head firmly. "This is only going to be dispensed by qualified medical providers, and only while we can directly monitor him. The side-effects can be lethal, without quick intervention. I'm not giving anyone the information needed to hurt themselves, or him."
"I can respect that," Misato surrendered with dignity. She understood Maya's place in Shinji's hierarchy, and hoped to leverage that to help him. "Why don't the three of us go into one of the rooms, then, and I'll get the debriefing done so that he can rest."
"Behind me," Shinji purred out. "That's…Chie's choice."
"Behind him it is." Gesturing to the chair, she looked at Maya. Maya moved to where she could push her cart, motioning for Misato to take control of Shinji. "I won't take too long, I promise," she spoke to the three women that would be waiting. "Thank you for understanding."
Once they were as alone as they could be, with two women able to see-slash-hear his thoughts, Misato positioned him by the bed and hefted him carefully onto the mattress. Laying nude, under the blanket that he'd been wrapped in on the journey from the medical bay, he took hold of one of her hands as she stood upright. "Thank you for helping me in the fight. I…I think I couldn't risk turning my back on it to make the dash to the power supplies."
"Ok, can you expound on that?" It had been part of her plan to ask him, and it pleased her more that he'd brought it up himself.
"It was faster than me, because it could fly. Even with a broken weapon, it could have severed my spine easily." He wasn't sleepy, but he wasn't fully awake. "I didn't want that to happen…because nobody else could protect you."
Maya stationed her cart on the other side of the bed, sitting down next to him and reattaching the I.V. saline drips. "Are you remembering more of the fight?"
His head flopped, more than rolled naturally, over to face the bundle of sunshine that was his favorite medical professional. "Bits and pieces." Something on the cart, a notebook that toppled out of her bag, caught his eye. "What's…." The odd fragments of lettering danced and swayed in his vision. Grasping for it, unexpectedly, he pleaded for it, "Give?"
"Huh?" She spied the target of his focus. "Oh, that." Holding it so he could see, she scooted over to sit directly against him. "We found these…after some of the recent attacks. I haven't been able to make sense of-"
"Pen?" Shinji looked to Misato for help finding one, giving her a slightly loopy smile when she tugged one out from inside her shirt. "Odd place for one to be kept."
"Skirt doesn't have pockets, and I always keep one on hand," the busty Tactical Commander admitted with a grin and a shrug. "Bra straps are handy, and I've got a reasonable amount of real estate to attach things."
Gaining a grip on the pad to anchor his writing, he nodded slowly. "You make use of the advantages you have, and have every reason to feel confident in your appearance."
Maya noted Misato blush slightly, but was more focused on what Shinji was writing down. "It's…not a language." Her eyes widened in realization. "It is a code!" Each slash, circle, or line framed the missing parts that she'd been struggling with, and it was the white space left unfilled that determined what sound was created. As quickly as her excitement grew, it plummeted back down when she saw Shinji write out the pronunciations for her. "It's not Japanese?"
"It's not in order," he grumbled, writing out another line. "Whoever wrote it down first didn't have it in order."
Misato, well aware of the manner in which the lettering arrived, agreed with Maya that there was no reason to expose Shinji to that information at the moment. "Probably because they didn't know what they were looking at. How is it you know?"
"Unit-01," he replied tersely. After rearranging the words and letting Maya hurry over to a MAGI terminal in the room, he clicked the pen closed and handed it back to Misato. "Thank you."
With a slight shrug and a self-effacing smirk, she set the pen back in place. "Any time you need something from under my shirt, you let me know." His slow blink and then quiet chuckle told her that the joke had landed well enough. "Anything else you want to share about the battle?"
"The rifle worked…but it failed because the bastard could heal. I would have used it more, but with the rounds punching through I was risking hitting something with people in it. Can we…maybe have a bunch of different ammunition?"
"I'll do what I can to get Engineering to give us some stuff to work with," she approved. "All I wanted to tell you was that you did a good job out there. You kept up communication with me, letting me know what you did and did not see. You made decisions when you should have, and you listened to advice where you could. The main criticism I have is that you need to keep an eye on your umbilical. This is two fights now that you've lost the power cable, and that's going to get us killed."
He took a couple of deep breaths, fatigue and the pain medication reminding him of how physically tired he was. "I'm sorry. I will do my best to keep it in mind, next time."
"Good," leaning forward, not bothering to guard her cleavage, she gave him a long kiss on the cheek, "I'll give my number to one of the ladies out there. When you're ready for an awkward dinner date, you give me a call." Standing back upright, she wasn't shocked to see that his eyes hadn't strayed from her own despite the open offer of her uncanny valley. I need to help him. "Get some sleep, you look like hell."
He could feel her concern for him, a blazing inferno in comparison to the rest of the emotional jetsam that she carried with her. "I'll be ok." Reassuring her was the least he could try to do. "Maya is very good at what she does, and Toriumi-sensei is too. I'll be ok." When her concern grew, instead of subsiding, he dredged through his mind for something else to say, and was left confused when Misato gripped his ankle tightly before leaving the room in a hurry.
"This is…amazing," Maya murmured, having completely forgotten about everything else in her rush to use what she'd just been given. "Well, terrifying might be a better word to use, but…it all makes sense if you…oh." Standing quickly, she tossed the notepad she'd used onto the monitor and yanked her credential card from the MAGI-terminal before pulling out her sidearm and putting three holes in both paper and components she knew would remove any potential for further use, she cleared her pistol and set both magazine and weapon down on the table before backing away and holding her hands up. It took less than a handful of heartbeats for Misato to come rushing back in, pistol drawn and clearing the room with a shouted warning. "It was me," Maya stated with a calm that she did not feel. "We're not under attack."
Shouldering their way in, a trio of Section Two agents performed the same check that Misato had, only more thoroughly. When the last portion of the room was declared 'clear', the lead agent glowered at Maya, "Lieutenant, I'm waiting."
"Nobody in this room is cleared for this information." With her hands still held out to her sides, she shook her head. "In accordance with local SOPs I took immediate action to prevent any possible leak of said information, and must request immediate incarceration for myself to secure the last potential leak. Captain," she looked directly at Misato, "I request with due respect that you contact Doctor Zeppelin immediately and inform her that Purple Legion has been compromised." Taking two slow steps towards the Section Two trio, she kept her hands exposed. "Please, we need to move quickly. The sooner the SOPs are followed the sooner I can start helping to stop this from spiraling completely out of control."
Drugged as he was, Shinji had a hard time keeping up with the rapidly devolving situation, but when he saw one of the agents take Maya's arm, he growled out in growing anger, "Don't-"
"Shinji," Maya barked sharply. Looking back over her shoulder at him, she shook her head. "I know what I'm doing. Trust me, ok?"
His tattoos had returned, glowing with an ominous bloody red. "…Hurt her, and I'll kill you."
"Nobody's hurting anyone," Misato had holstered her sidearm, and moved quickly over to Shinji's side to sit down and cuddle him close with an eye towards keeping him calm. "She's doing her job, Shinji. You're doing yours by letting her do what she has to. Trust her, like I do, because I'll be right there beating ass if someone is stupid enough to hurt her without a good damn reason."
"Message received, Pilot," the lead Section Two agent also motioned for calm. "I'm as lost as you are, but I'll find out what I can and share with you what I'm able once I do. You won't be in the dark for long, if I can help it." When the glow became more subdued, she motioned for her team to hurry out. "Katsuragi, use the landline to get ahold of the sub-commander. Do me a favor, stay here until we know what's what?"
"Sounds like a good plan. I'll at least be in this duplex, if he wants to sleep." Running her fingers through Shinji's hair, she used one foot to kick the phone off the wall next to the bed and tug it over to her.
Watching helplessly as Maya was taken away by people that had no choice but or desire to do what they were doing, Shinji closed his eyes and tried to restore calm as he heard Misato start talking to Kyoko. He couldn't imagine what secret they'd uncovered by his knowing whatever language he'd read for her, but it clearly meant that there were more things at play than he knew.