Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Mari sat in front of a projector displaying the results of their battle. Construction crews were busy dredging up the remains of all the units.

"At 10:15 this morning, an N2 mine was deployed against the target. It succeeded in eliminating 24% of its mass," Ritsuko said.

"We'll need the revise the maps again," Fuyutsuki muttered.

"Was it killed?" Shinji asked.

"No," Ritsuko replied. "It has been stopped temporarily, though. We judge it will resume its advance in 7 days."

"The four of you will need to work together to fight it," Misato said.

Asuka grumbled. "I had it handled, those three just got in my way!" she said.

"Hey now, princess, you went in without orders!" Mari responded, fed up with her attitude.

"At least it didn't just sit there staring at it! What were you people thinking!" she shot back.

"Enough," Misato said. "Your actions were reckless, Asuka. You four are a team, and you need to act like it. We can't risk losing again. Already we've been humiliated by this defeat."

Asuka huffed and sat down in her chair. Why did she get singled out now? Whenever they had Syncro tests, Shinji was always praised even though she was number one! It made no sense.

"Captain Katsuragi," Fuyutsuki said coolly. "I trust you will handle this." With that, he left the room. Misato sighed and buried her face in her hands. 'How are we gonna fight this thing?'

-

Ritsuko walked into Misato's cluttered office. On her desk were stacks and stacks of paper.

"Complaints and damage assessments from all relevant agencies," Ritsuko said. She held up a small piece of paper. "And this is the bill from the UN. Complaint from the public affairs agency, too."

Misato looked at her and sighed.

"Make sure you go through them all," Ritsuko said.

"I already know what they're gonna say. 'If you're going to fight, do it in Tokyo-3'" Misato replied.

"Very perceptive," Ritsuko responded.

"They don't need to tell me that. Once that wreck is cleared, we'll fight in the city." Misato said. She rested her chin behind her folded hands in an imitation of the commander. "I'll defeat that Angel, no matter what."

"The deputy commander is furious. If you make him look bad again, he'll demote you. Mark my words," Ritsuko said.

"I guess the silver lining is that the Commander isn't here," Misato said.

"If he saw this pile, he would fire you on the spot," Ritsuko said.

"So, you've come bearing ideas that will save my ass, right?" Misato asked.

"Just the one," Ritsuko said, holding up a small floppy disk with a sticky note attached to it.

"That's my Ri-chan!" Misato said, reaching for the disk. Ritsuko pulled it away before she could grab it.

"Uh-uh, I'm flattered, but it wasn't my plan," Ritsuko said. "This was Kaji's idea." She held the disk up to Misato. On the sticky note was the message "To my honey." Misato scowled when she saw it before smiling a little.

-

Shinji walked home from NERV Headquarters. He had been held back by Ritsuko for some more testing, and it was beginning to get dark. A line of moving vans passed by, gravel crunching under their tires. Shinji took the elevator up to his floor and reached the apartment. He opened the door and walked in. 'Misato should be home by now,' he thought.

"I'm home," he called, passing by some boxes in the hallway. He didn't think much of it. He walked into the living room-

"W-what?!"

Sitting in the living room were Misato, Asuka, Rei, and Mari.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked, seeing even more boxes surrounding everything in the room. He looked over and saw the door to his room wide open. More boxes littered the interior.

"You've been demoted," Asuka said, smirking. "We'll be taking over from here."

"Oh no, Shin-chan will be staying here too!" Misato said.

"WHAT?!" Asuka yelled. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

Mari giggled. "Because you would never agree to it otherwise, princess," she said.

"Yeah, because I don't wanna live with a stupid pervert!" she yelled. Mari rolled her eyes.

"Oh, don't worry about that, Shinji would never do something like that," Misato said, waving her hand.

"He doesn't have the guts," Asuka muttered.

Misato continued. "Now, we have seven days to train before the Angel will advance. We will need you four to launch a perfectly coordinated attack to take it down. To that end, you will all live, eat, sleep, and do everything else together.

"Eeh?" Asuka cried, "Misato, you can't! Boys and girls aren't supposed to sleep in the same room after age seven!"

"Now now, Asuka. This is to defeat the Angels. You don't want to be left out, do you?" Misato asked. Asuka huffed and sat down, crossing her arms.

"Alright, then. As step one of this exercise, you are all going to have to wear matching clothes. Shinji tried to speak up but Misato shot him down. "It increases coordination, and there's no room for debate," she finished, glaring at Shinji. His shoulders dropped.

Misato opened a pack of clothing. It was 4 matching leotards and a short shirt to go with each, two pink and two blue. Shinji and Rei took the blue shirts, and Asuka and Mari took the pink ones. They all had two identical musical notes printed on the front of the shirt.

-

Once they had all changed, Misato had them set up the training mats. A simple metal stand held up a digital counter, and in front of each stand laid a large mat with a grid of red dots. Nearly the entire living room was taken up by the equipment, and Misato put the two couches together against one of the walls.

Misato clapped her hands together. "Let's get started," she said, grabbing herself a beer.

"Um, Misato-san, what are we supposed to do?" Shinji said.

Misato pulled out a cassette tape and inserted it into a player. A classical song began to play, and the dots on the mats began to light up in sync with the song.

"You all have to learn this dance and perform it in unison. Good luck," Misato said, grabbing a beer and sitting on the couch.

Shinji groaned. 'I have to wear this stupid outfit and dance in it?' he thought.

"Well, let's get to it!" Asuka said, sitting down on her mat and getting into position. Mari did the same next to her, then Rei, and finally Shinji. The song came to an end and repeated, and the lights on the mat began to light up. Shinji reached out to touch it but was too late. An alarm rang, and the song stopped.

"You idiot, how do you mess up on the first note!" Asuka cried, standing up.

"I-I didn't mean t-"

"Argh! You're useless!" she said. "Again!"

The song played again, and this time Shinji acted quicker. He got the first note right, then the second, then the third. He noticed Rei was in unison with him, and he saw Mari and Asuka both working together as well. In his distraction, he missed a note, and the buzzer rang again. After another scolding from Asuka, they started anew. Late into the night they finally gave up, not making much progress.

"This is impossible!" Asuka said. "You guys are all too slow!"

"It is not a matter of speed, second, it is a matter of coordination," Rei replied.

"Then learn to coordinate with me!" Asuka shot back.

"Your reasoning is flawed. There is no need to attack the Angel with haste, only with unison. It would be easier for you to slow down than for us to catch up, and it would have no impact on the battle," Rei stated.

"Are you saying I'm not a team player?" Asuka snarled, walking towards Rei.

"You seem to have difficulty listening to others," Rei replied.

"What's that supposed to mean? You got a problem with me, pet?" she asked.

"I have no objections to your presence, secon-"

Rei was interrupted before she could finish, "You're so condescending! I'm done with this!" Asuka yelled, storming out of the living room and through the front door.

"..."

Mari followed her, leaving Rei and Shinji alone in the living room. Misato had gone to take a bath.

"What's her problem?" Shinji wondered aloud.

"I do not know," Rei said. "She does not seem to take well to my presence, though."

"Um, did Misato-san say where we would all be sleeping?" Shinji asked. Asuka and Mari had filled his room with boxes and Rei was given the small closet. Shinji barely had anything to his name so he didn't care too much, but they only had so many rooms.

"For the duration of the training, we will all be sleeping in the living room," Rei said. "After that, I will take the closet, Mari and the second will take your former room, and you will have to sleep on the couch," she said. Shinji grimaced at that.

"Is there a problem?" Rei asked bluntly.

"No, it's okay, I just wasn't told about any of this," he said.

"If it will help, you can take my room. I am fine sleeping on the couc-"

"N-no, it's fine!" Shinji said. "I wouldn't want to do that to you," he added.

A few seconds passed in silence as they both looked at the floor.

"Um, why did NERV make you live in that apartment?" Shinji asked.

"What do you mean?" Rei asked.

"It was a deserted building, and there was trash everywhere, and you barely had any furniture. Why did they make you live there?" he repeated.

"It was all I required," Rei said simply.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shinji asked.

"I did not need anything more," she said. "It had everything I need to fulfill my purpose. This area is… overwhelming," she said.

"...I get that," Shinji said, "I felt that way too when I first came here. There were so many things I didn't understand, and I was given no time to learn about them. I felt lost."

Rei listened to him intently.

"I think that's why I ran away. It was too much, I needed to leave. I thought that would make things better. But it didn't. I just felt alone." he said.

Shinji noticed Rei staring at him and blushed.

"Um, I guess what I'm saying is I'm fine sleeping out here because I like having the company. I think you'll learn to like it too," he said.

Misato waltzed into the room fresh out of the bath and spotted the two of them sitting on the couch. She grinned.

"What's going on?" she teased.

"N-nothing," Shinji said, "we're just talking!"

Misato winked before grabbing a beer. She noticed the lack of Asuka and Mari.

"Where are the two of them?" she asked.

-

Asuka rushed out the front door and headed to the elevator. She stabbed the button for the first floor and clenched her fists as the door closed.

'That bitch,' she thought. 'She acts like she's better than everyone! She won't even say my name. So what if I'm not coordinating, its their job to keep up with me!'

She exited the elevator and headed for the local grocery store. She squatted down in front of the drinks, looking for something to buy to distract her from her thoughts.

'I'm the best pilot! Why is stupid Shinji always being praised instead of me! Why do the three of them get to set the pace when they were the ones who were messing up! At least Four Eyes is doing better than the other two. And Misato, she just stands there and praises Shinji whenever he does anything! They're all so stupid and annoying, why won't they just leave me alone!'

"Princess?" Mari said.

'Great,' she thought. 'Just my luck.'

"What do you want?" she snapped.

Mari walked forward slowly as if approaching a cornered wolf.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"No," Asuka replied quickly. Mari stopped.

'I'm the best, and if that means I have to stoop to their level, I guess that's just part of the deal,' she thought. Satisfied with her flawed logic, she stood up.

"I'll go back," she said. Mari nodded.

"Let's get some food then, princess," she said.

-

Ritsuko absently typed away at her computer, analyzing more of Rei's brain scans. Ritsuko could not understand it. Her brain activity was becoming more… human. The effects of the mood stabilizers were becoming less effective. Rei was developing the ability to emote, and form friendships. Well, one friendship. She had a long way to go, but the trend was not reversing.

What options did they have? Could they replace her? They had only managed one successful replacement, and even that left her in her current state, taking a cocktail of pills every morning just to stay alive. It was risky to do it over something that was so minor currently.

Ritsuko felt bile in her throat as she thought casually about killing a child. As much as her conscious mind denied it, she knew the truth. Rei was a person, like her. Even with the drugs they pumped into her, she was still undeniably a human. Ritsuko felt sick. Her go-to tactic of hatred was beginning to work less. She thought about why she was doing this. Why was she torturing a child for a man she knew full well didn't give a shit about her?

She quickly suppressed these thoughts before they could make her do something she would regret.

-

Fuyutsuki sat in Ikari's office. He was currently absent, leaving him in charge. Fuyutsuki absently read from a book, thinking to himself. 'What are you planning, Ikari?' he thought. He had been strung along in Ikari's game for a decade now. He told himself it was what Yui wanted, but recent events had been shaking that foundation.

The suffering these children were going through was too severe, their punishment too heavy. What had they done to deserve this? And Ikari, he sat back watching it, free to judge his own son as weak when none of them understood the pain he went through. He never truly cared for Yui, only the happiness she represented. Yui would never want her only child treated this way.

But the scenario was set. All Fuyutsuki could do was play along with SEELE's little game.