I do not own the rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion, or any of the characters, equipment, or locations written in this fanfiction. The purpose of this fanfiction is merely for the non-profit enjoyment of other readers. If requested by Gainax, Hideki Anno, or other parties which represent aforementioned objects in this story, I will remove it promptly.

Chapter VII:

Asuka was not impressed. The bruises on my face and arms were obvious, and the stiffness in my movements did not help my first meeting with the Second Child. "This is the person who you want to replace me?" the redhead screeched. "Earth to Misato, you're out of your mind!"

Katsuragi had only introduced me about 30 seconds beforehand as "Unit-02's stand-by pilot, the Fifth Child" as she helped drag Ritsuko into her bedroom. I stood patiently in the living room of the apartment, amazed how clean Shinji kept it. The boy in question stared at me, and when I glanced at him, just turned his head away nervously. "Just what the hell happened?" the major yelled while stomping into the room.

I threw the identification cards of the Section Two agents on to the coffee table near the sofa. "Three Section Two agents busted in to Ritsuko's apartment, and... raped her." Asuka stared, her eyes squinting, studying every detail. Shinji didn't understand what I was saying, but given the nature of Ritsuko's and my arrival, he seemed to understand well enough. Misato just ground her teeth and tensed up.

"It's all your fault!" the major snarled. "If you hadn't attacked the commander-!" In an instant, I was at Misato's throat, pushing the barrel of one of the confiscated Jericho pistols into her jaw. Both Children jumped, Shinji scrambling into the kitchen, and Asuka darting back to the opposite wall. While Shinji insisted on running for safety, however, Asuka was in a defensive stance, planning a counterattack.

"You listen, and understand you stupid wench!" I ground out, my jaw locked tightly as I spoke, head tilting back and forth. The latter mannerism, I have to admit, I picked up a year or two before from watching Escape from New York. "I will say this one last time. The commander threatened ME. He tried to kill ME. He's planning on raping and molesting ME. You got that, retard?"

"Then what the hell is Rits-?"

"This was 'discipline', to make sure Ritsuko stays loyal," I spat back. "Do you ever wonder why Ritsuko and Ritsuko's mother stuck with the commander in the first place? He's been using both mother and daughter as his playthings for years!" Misato began to shrank back, even more so when I began to twist the barrel against her skin and pulled the hammer back. I had never truly put the fear of God into someone before, but as they say, practice makes perfect. "Did you ever wonder why Rei is so loyal, too? Gendo is manipulating her as well, but only emotionally."

I heard Asuka take a step or two back, her knees beginning to quake. "What kind of freak show organization did you people get me into?" she screamed. Shinji was mumbling and screaming in Japanese, but apparently he had gotten the picture as the redhead started translating for him. I knew the Third Child understood when he punched the wall, leaving a fist-shaped crater in the sheet rock.

"You and Shinji are only involved because your mothers are trapped inside the Evas," I growled. Everyone's eyes went wide, though the reactions differed. Shinji didn't understand much, but he clearly understood "mother", "Eva", and put the two together in some logical form. "You had to have figured that out by now, Misato, after the whole incident with the Fourteenth? What about all the times Unit-01 tried to protect Shinji?"

For a moment, just a moment, I thought Misato would try to disarm me. Her body twitched and her eyes went wild, but it lasted for maybe a second or two. Then the cell phones of all the room's occupants rang at once. The air raid sirens followed, and looking out the window, I saw dark storm clouds rolling over the city. "Asuka," I growled. "I'm riding with you in Unit-02 on this one. Ask Shinji if his S-DAT player is waterproof. If the Angel is the one I think it is, you'll need music or some form of focus to block the Angel's mental attacks."

"H-how are you doing this?" Katsuragi whimpered. "You were proven wrong before! We can't just blindly trust your plan!"

I pulled the gun away from the major, slipped it back in the shoulder holster, and walked away. "No, you can't," I snarled. "That's why you're still the operations director."

Knocking on the bedroom door, I stepped inside to visit Ritsuko. She twitched and stared at me like a wild animal. Misato let her borrow a pair of jean shorts and one of the few clean t-shirts lying on the floor. "What... happens now?" she asked.

I had never had to deal with a situation like this before. However, I had a fair idea of what should be done. "You should stay here and be as invisible as possible," I said. Then an ingenious, yet very destructive thought raced through my mind. "Out of curiosity, what kind of life insurance policy do you have?"

•••••••••••••

I could hear the shouting over the tac-net on the entry plug's internal speakers. Though I couldn't understand what was being said, Asuka grudgingly served as my translator. "The commander doesn't want you anywhere near my Eva," she snickered. "He says you're too dangerous." I nodded, then tried to readjust my position.

Fitting two people in the entry plug is not as comfortable as is shown in "Asuka Strikes!" Neither, for that matter, is the plugsuit comfortable. The best way to describe it is like wearing a neoprene wetsuit crossed with an inflatable raft. Because I was just an inch or two taller and a few pounds heavier, Soryu had to sit in my lap, while my back and shoulders were jammed into the steel reinforced inclined plane of a seat.

Fortunately for me, my plugsuit had been injection molded and assembled the day after my measurements were taken with Maya. I was also glad, because the plugsuit had been made entirely black. While Asuka kept babbling how black is such an annoying color, I was quite pleased. Not only was it one of my favorite colors, but it distorted or hid most of my figure, much like camouflage breaking up the human form.

The one terrifying experience I had, though, was breathing L.C.L. The series doesn't give the challenge justice. Shinji simply starts breathing as though nothing is wrong on the first attempt. I suppose that is due to his apologetic, helpful nature. He lives to please others. However, I find the only fictional portrayal similar to the real struggle of breathing L.C.L. is in the movie The Abyss.

It was thirty seconds after the entire plug was filled that I nudged Asuka's shoulder. It was a struggle just to open my eyes at first, as I've never been able to defeat the instinctive reaction to close them under water. Asuka turned and glared at me in frustration. "What is your problem!" she grumbled.

This shocked me beyond all comprehension. Normally the voice is distorted in water, but in L.C.L., voices and radio traffic sounded very similar to it's frequency range in air. If I hadn't known the origins of L.C.L. deep within Terminal Dogma, I would have sworn this was another perfect example of brilliant engineering.

"Can-not... breathe!" I tried speaking. Soryu's eyes went wide. I heard it myself. With my lungs still full of air, my voice was distorted. The visual display in front of the redhead flickered to life, and I recognized Maya's voice, though she was speaking in Japanese again. Asuka shot me a look of worry, then an evil smirk as I felt something hard and solid drive into my gut. Apparently, the Second Child intended for me to breathe by knocking the wind out of me with an elbow strike.

I toppled over in the seat, and as much as I tried to prevent it, the sickening fluid entered my lungs. However, I ended up drinking more L.C.L. than I intended. Later when I exited the plug, the fluid no longer purified with an electric field, I wretched and spat all over the recovery catwalk. The first three or four breaths were the most difficult, but as I told myself Asuka was breathing just fine, and I wasn't drowning, it slowly came easier. "Are you ready yet, Fifth?" the German grumbled.

"Sorry," I answered. "How did you learn how to overcome the panic?"

Asuka simply broke eye contact, and focused on the primary display, nudging me in the shoulder with her offending elbow to sit up straight. Just as I was moving into position, she barked out something in Japanese, and I crumpled into the seat under the acceleration of the catapult.

•••••••••••••

The very moment the jarring impact of reaching the end of the catapult echoed through my spine, Asuka was already at the controls, pulling the heavy positron rifle into Unit-02's shoulder. I tried to stay focused, and for a few seconds, I did feel a hint of sensory input in my arms and legs, but then it vanished. A quick chirping and motorized hum alerted me to the targeting visor slipping over Asuka's head. "You're in the way, Fifth!" she grumbled. "You're not even registering a synch ratio! Don't tell me you're nervous!"

"Yes, I am," I answered.

"First time?" the girl asked teasingly with a feral smile.

I knew what she meant, and she was right. This was my first time ever near an Eva. Somehow I knew the Gundam universe would have been far more forgiving. I've had enough time behind the wheel of various cars, trucks, and even bulldozers to give me at least a minor advantage learning a wholly mechanical mech. An organic creature, however, like the Eva, depended on building a psychological bond. I realized now I was entirely screwed.

"No, I've been nervous lots of times."

Asuka growled and would have complained further had she not been busy trying to acquire a target lock. "Stupid Angel! Why doesn't it come down and fight?"

"It doesn't need to," I replied. "We're easily within it's attack range." As if on cue, the alarms began blaring, and a brilliant white light filled the entry plug. I didn't feel it until a few seconds afterward, the throbbing pain starting as a simple headache in the front of my skull. Then a sensation like wriggling tendrils crawling over my brain stung again and again. Random thoughts began to jump wildly in my mind's eye, like misaligned film in an old movie projector. Then I both heard and felt the screams.

Asuka rocked back and forth, her hands clinging to her scalp, knuckles turning white under the tension of her grip. "Asuka!" I shouted. The pain stung again, and for a moment I could have sworn I saw a body dangling limp from a noose. I had hoped I would be spared the pain, as I had such a low synch ratio. I was wrong.

"NO!" the redhead screamed. "No, I don't want to remember!"

"Asuka, what's Unit-02's status?" I shouted, easing the girl as best I could out of the pilot's seat. The girl resisted, and I felt the Eva rock back under the recoil of the positron weapon. Slowly, I wrapped my hands around the control yokes, and shoved them forward. The Eva simply shook and twitched as if it were having a seizure. "You have to tell me what to do!" I shouted again. "I don't know how to pilot yet!"

I knew what had to be done. Someone had to move Unit-02 back to the catapult for recovery. My brain felt like it was going to explode, and the thoughts from the Second Child's mind wouldn't stop. As much as I knew it was selfish of me, I hoped to God, or whatever the Angels call themselves, that my limited synch ratio kept my thoughts sealed from Asuka.

There is nothing good about what happened to Asuka, but to a degree, I felt like I had received a raw deal by being insulated from most of the Angel's effects. It sounds stupid, but I didn't want any special treatment, and that's precisely what this Angel was dishing out. I was spared while this girl, who out of the both of us deserved to enjoy the rest of her life more than I, was put through hell. I remember having one of those "parental sacrifice" kind of thoughts. I was the older one in the plug, and if I were my true gender, would be the most expendable of the two.

I started to get angry.

Asuka screamed again, and I remember tasting impure L.C.L., thinking about the taste. It tasted like a fresh kill, the reward of the successful predator. I thought about Ritsuko, and remembered my plan. For a moment, just a moment, I felt something click between myself and what I can only describe as the feeling of a presence in the plug. Again, watching the series was the only reason I could have lived as long and recklessly as I did in that alternate reality. I knew what that presence was, and if it was giving me the option to use the Eva, that's what I would do. Gripping the controls, I squeezed the right trigger wildly as the positron rifle kicked hard against the Eva. It took three shots until the rifle's "ammunition" was depleted, but with the scatter of those three shots, I managed to vaporize Ritsuko's apartment.

It seemed a stupid idea, but for all the commander and Section Two knew, those three agents had left Ritsuko in the apartment. The way she was acting after I brought her back to Misato's, I wouldn't be surprised if she would simply lie there and wait for the Angel to kill her. More importantly, with Gendo's personal experience with the doctor, he wouldn't be surprised of that, either. There was no evidence left behind to identify the casualties, and if I took the time after the attack to conveniently leave the black van to be stripped in a bad neighborhood, it would be next to impossible for NERV to ever discover the whereabouts of the three men.

"W-what... are you doing, baka?" Soryu grunted, still gripping the sides of her head.

"Are you going to tell me how to pilot this thing or not?" I snarled. "We can retreat, and-"

"NEVER!" the redhead screamed. "I will never retreat!" I had to admire Asuka's courage, but courage would only get her so far.

"Then help me!" I snapped. There was a moment's hesitation, and then I felt the girl's hands wrap around my own, shoving the control yokes forward. I let out a sharp gasp as her fingers dug into my hands, but at least we were moving. "How do I talk to Misato?"

Once we reached a steady run, the sensory inputs began to flood my arms and legs. "Here," Asuka pointed with her right hand, leaving me to steer the mammoth construct. The small keypad built into the right control yoke had six buttons, all illuminated in an orange glow. For a few moments, the Angel's hold of our minds eased, but once it started tracking the Eva's movement, the full effects of it's attack continued. Asuka and I screamed out again in pain, this time simultaneously. The Second Child writhed, smacking her head against mine during her spasms. The flashes of memory came back, and the Eva ground to a halt.

Pressing the keypad randomly, I eventually hit the proper controls to call someone. Unfortunately, my luck hadn't gotten any better in the Eva universe. A visual display of Shinji appeared, and while he shouted and screamed, he didn't do much more than that. "RELAY... WORDS!" I shouted slowly and clearly. The young Ikari paused for a moment, his eyes blinking. It took a moment or two for him to grasp what I was saying, and realize what I wanted him to do. Of the entire time during the battle with the Fifteenth, those seconds which passed felt like an eternity. The Angel was simply an obstacle that had to be overcome, but Shinji, as any other human, was just a pathetic, stubborn animal who would actively tune out anything you said, and do exactly the opposite of what you wanted.

"REI... USE LANCE OF LONGINUS!"

Shinji blinked, but understood well enough to transmit the order. I waited impatiently as I heard grumbling, shouting, and arguing as the tac-net's responses flooded the entry plug. The first voice I heard was Misato's, then the commander's, followed by Fuyutsuki. "What are you talking about?" I heard Misato shriek.

"Use the lance!" I shot back. "The commander knows it's the only way to stop the Angel!"

I heard a few protests, then the booming voice of the Rokubungi. "Alright," Misato growled. "Now get out of there!"

"NO!" Asuka screamed, the girl throwing her arms back at the control yokes. But the Eva did not move. For some reason, however, when I put a slight pressure on the controls, the creature responded immediately.

"Asuka, we don't have time for this!" I snapped. Fortunately, Maya had helped me climb into the Eva a few minutes before the redhead. While I wasn't given enough of a briefing on the various subsystems, Ibuki did at least teach me some basic emergency procedures. This included, to Asuka's disgust, the codes to jettison the entry plug.

"Can Maya cut the neural connections yet?" I asked. Misato shook her head. We were still exposed to the Angel's mental probing, and while I didn't offer much resistance, the mental stress began to overtake my ability to reason. My temper started to flare again, which blocked any form of rational thought. I smacked the control yokes hard, sending the Eva dashing head-first into a nearby skyscraper. Both Soryu and I gripped our heads from the trauma as the Eva fell to it's back.

My head throbbed, but it was from the sensory input from the Eva, not the Angel. The impact must have stunned the orbiting being into releasing it's mental hold on us to avoid more injury. There were only a few seconds left. "It's done!" the major shouted. "Your connections are cut! Get out of there!"

"With pleasure!" I replied, gripping the red emergency handle above my head. The arming switches for the entry plug's explosive bolts were all engaged. I had made sure of that before Unit-02 launched, as I was told by Maya was standard operating procedure. Asuka, as the lieutenant told me, however, had a habit of ignoring these protocols. I didn't believe it at first, but after living through the Fifteenth Angel, I knew I was wrong. Asuka truly was willing to sacrifice herself for her pride, and it scared me.

The handle required a significant amount of force. Once it swung down at a ninety degree angle, I was rewarded with the sound of explosive concussions and the roar of solid fuel rockets as my vision faded to red, then black.

End of Chapter VII

•••••••••••••

Finally! It was about time to get to this part of the story. Believe it or not, I'm considering branching out to Naruto fanfics next. Maybe I'll get back to working on "Remission", but this and the latest project are becoming addicting.

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