"Did you hear that?! Eighty-seven percent! That's awesome!"

Ace cheered loudly, running up and down the kitchen and almost bouncing off the walls in a surprising outburst of sheer enthusiasm, while Shinji followed her with his eyes. He was more than a bit surprised to see the Aspect that he had pegged as the grumpy and sarcastic side of Asuka gleefully let loose like that.

"Someone's happy."

"Hell yeah I am! I mean, sure, I'd have preferred it to be a solo effort but it's way better than the alternative. From here, it's only a matter of time before we get Asuka back into top shape!" Ace stepped forward and playfully thumped Shinji in the chest, making the young man take a step back. "And you were pretty cool back there, Third! Way to take control of the situation. You really showed those two who's boss."

"You…" Shinji scratched the back of his head, a light blush growing on his cheeks. "You think so...?"

"Yeah! Now we only need you to do that a hell of a lot more often! We might yet make an EVA Pilot out of you!" Ace grinned widely, but then her spirits seemed to dampen a little. "It's too bad that you couldn't talk to Asuka, though. That might have sped up the recovery process quite a bit.

"Oh well, there will be plenty more time for that," the girl shrugged, before she turned around and disappeared through one of the doors out of the kitchen. "Now where the heck did the brat go? I've gotta brag to her about this!"

Shinji watched her go, Ace's words bringing his mind back to the last moments they had spent within the hall, shortly after Asuka had seemed to notice him. Shinji still remembered the beat his heart had skipped when Asuka had looked up at him, whispering his name, and the pang of disappointment that had followed when the young man had realised that his teammate wasn't actually seeing him. At least, the way in which Asuka had brought a hand up to pat the part of her hair that he had touched proved that their communicative efforts had not been completely in vain, either.

'But still, why did Asuka look so… hopeful? Is that even the right word for it?' Shinji wondered, trying to put a name for the look that had flown by the redhead's face. '...Was she happy to hear me?'

The Third Child considered the idea for a fleeting second before remembering how the real Asuka had made the fact that she didn't need him or his help clear enough more than a few times in the past.

'But then, why does she keep mentioning me? What's with all the Shinjis that Ace and 'Asuka' talked about? Why did the two women in that room say that Asuka 'thinks about me'? Should I take that at face value?' Shinji rolled the latest thought around his head for a few moments before he slowly shook his head. '...Yeah, right.'

"...Why must that girl be so damn confusing?" Shinji ultimately muttered with a deep sigh. He then sat on one of the kitchen's chairs, suddenly feeling completely drained for some inscrutable reason.

Still, one thing was clear to Shinji through the exhaustion the confusing contradictions had brought: being useful felt... nice. Knowing that he had managed to do something good for Asuka without screwing it up was a fair prize in its own right. And maybe he could take it even further during the next synch test!

'...Maybe you'll even get her to actually notice you.'

"...Weird, brat's not around. I was sure that she would jump us the moment we came back." Ace slowed to a halt when she re-entered the kitchen, regarding the pensive young man with curiosity. "What's up, Third?"

"...I want to help."

"Huh?"

"I want to help Asuka." Shinji repeated, turning towards Ace with a serious look in his eyes.

"...Oookay," Ace blinked a pair of times, before finally shifting into gear. "Colour me surprised on that one, too."

"What?"

"Nothing. Just the shell-shock of seeing you be proactive for once, Third," the redhead smirked, taking a seat herself. "I thought that you just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible?"

"Well, yeah..." Shinji shrugged awkwardly, feeling slightly on the spot. "But it just felt good being able to help her, and I guess I... want to keep doing it? Besides, Asuka is still the best chance I have of going back to my own body, right?"

"I see," Asuka responded with a dark tone. "So it is just for your own selfish reasons again. Typical Shinji Ikari."

"Huh?"

The Third Child's eyes quickly rose up towards Ace, stunned at the criticism that had come out of nowhere. But, much to his surprise, the plugsuit-wearing redhead wasn't looking at him, but at a spot over and behind his head.

Swiftly, Shinji turned around. And just as swiftly, his chair clattered to the floor.

"W-Who are you...?"

There was another Asuka before him. One clad in a simple, red woolen dress that went down to her knees, and one that was offering him a real nasty glare.

But the detail that caught Shinji's eyes was neither in the girl's simple dressing or the sheer enmity that she was radiating. No, the Third Child's full attention was taken by the right half of this Asuka Langley-Sohryu: for it was made of cloth and yarn, from top to bottom. Where one hemisphere of her head was home to Asuka's fiery mane, the other was made of red fleece. The opposite of the vibrant blue eye was a painted facsimile, which still seemed to somehow, and eerily, fill its function. Her right arm and hand, as well as her leg, were entirely fake too, the fabric not allowing for even the fingers to move individually.

But the most unnerving part of it all was how the two halves of Asuka's face were stitched together, the sewing going down her neck and into her clothing.

'She looks like a… like a doll?'

"Oh, great. If it isn't my co-worker and royal pain in the ass," Ace scoffed, the familiar sound of her usual character not enough to bring Shinji back to his senses. "I guess you're the one who sent the brat on her way?"

"The oblivious child would only have gotten in the way of our conversation."

"Well... can't really argue with that. Did you force her to walk all the way back, too?"

"Certainly. Sending her away would have been pointless, otherwise."

"I guess," Ace shrugged, relaxing into her seat. "It's going to be a while until we see her here again, then? Good! Nice to have some peace and quiet.

"Now why are you here? Is it about the synch results?" the redhead continued with a knowing tone. "It is, right? Now whose influence is going to be on the rise again, huh?"

"The fact that you believe our Pilot status to change anything proves just how naïve you are, as well. This is but a small bump on the downward slope."

"Bah, always the nihilist. Whatever, you'll eat those words eventually," Ace brought up a hand and motioned the other Asuka away with it. "But anyway, if you are done being your cryptic and gloomy self, isn't it about time that you left? We're celebrating here, so shoo!"

But the doll-like Asuka ignored her, turning her attention back to Shinji.

"I have no intention of leaving without first hearing what this wuss has to say."

"A-About what...?" the Third Child replied, gulping loudly.

"You claimed that you wanted to 'help Asuka', didn't you?" Asuka elaborated, boring holes into Shinji. "But words are simple. Promises fickle. Asuka certainly has had her share of both. Why would yours be any different?"

Shinji opened his mouth to respond, but no words would come out of it, his eyes still gaping while his mind tried to accept the wrongness of the Asuka before him.

"I await an answer, Shinji Ikari."

"Stop giving the kid a scare," Ace cut in reproachfully, easing some of Shinji's pressure off. "You're not the prettiest thing to look at, remember?"

"I am what I am because of Asuka," the Doll shot back, mirroring her tone. "If he proves unable to accept that much I fail to see why you would support him."

"I didn't say I supported him. But I am curious about what his plans are, yeah," Ace smirked, leaning forward and resting her arms on the desk. "So, Third?"

"H-Huh?"

"Out with it. You can tell gorgeous me if the ugly puppet is too intimidating."

Ace's words were met with a narrowed glance from the Doll, but she refrained from saying anything in response. She shifted her attention towards Shinji, instead.

"I-I…" Shinji began, still more than aware of the latest Asuka's intimidating presence. "I-I was thinking about f-finding… about finding a way of talking to her. T-Trying to cheer Asuka up."

"And then?"

"A-And then…" the young man struggled to continue. "...And then…"

But Shinji soon found that it wasn't just the nerves that kept him from speaking up, he simply had no answer to offer. Slowly but surely, his eyes found their way to the tiled floor.

"...So that's it?" 'Asuka' eventually spoke, clearly unimpressed. "Lofty words with no actual substance?"

"...I'm sorry."

A small, wooden chip suddenly struck the side of Shinji's head and, with a startled yelp, he turned towards the source to find Ace giving him a disapproving look.

"What did I tell you about apologising?"

Shinji glared back at the plugsuit-wearing redhead as he rubbed his fingers against his aching temple. A stare that the proud girl didn't care much for, despite the young man's unspoken thoughts being more than evident.

With a sigh, Ace leant further forward and rested her chin on her palms.

"But I've gotta say, I was honestly hoping for a bit more myself, Third. I mean, she has a point, you know? If everything could be fixed with a smile and a hug there would be no problems in the world," Ace scoffed as she supported the argument against Shinji. "Her insistence on that absurd and unfounded optimism is one of the many reasons why the brat pisses me off."

"Indeed. Unlike you, however, his empty words were all I expected," 'Asuka' agreed, a victorious smile spreading across her face. "But it is better like that. After all, the fact that you would just abandon her before long is a foregone conclusion."

"What?! She's my friend!" Shinji protested, a hint of steel coming back to his eyes. "I wouldn't do that!"

"Is that so?" the Doll's words dripped with sarcasm and disbelief in equal measures. "You certainly are good at faking sincerity, Shinji Ikari."

"But I'm not lying!"

"Then what happened before the Fourteenth's attack, Third?" Ace cut in bitingly all of a sudden, catching Shinji off-guard. "Didn't you leave Asuka behind when things didn't go your way with the Suzuhara fiasco? Or wasn't she your 'friend' back then?"

"I-... I didn't-... But I came back!"

"Only due to sheer coincidence," 'Asuka' countered, her lips and eyes curling into a scowl. "Would you have really returned if an Angel hadn't happened to attack that very same day? Or would you have gone somewhere far away, instead, to continue your selfish and meaningless existence?"

Shinji made to respond, but quickly found himself having nothing that he could offer as a rebuttal. As justified as he still believed his past actions to have been, it was undeniable that there were multiple ways to read the situation.

'...They are right, aren't they? I did almost abandon Asuka, Rei, Misato and everyone else,' Shinji's hands balled into tight fists. 'But what was I supposed to do?! Just smile and let it go when Toji was almost killed?! Because of Father and NERV?!'

"...Such blatant lies, and such uncertainty," the Doll spoke at last after a period of bitter silence, her voice somehow managing to sound even more condemning. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that this... schlappschwanz could bring about a positive change?"

"I don't expect anything to get through that thick skull of yours. And I didn't say I supported him, remember?" Ace let out a deep sigh, relaxing against the back of her chair once more. "But give the kid a break. He doesn't have a clue, but he's only just decided what he wanted to do. Besides, he's stupid Shinji Ikari, you can't expect him to have everything planned out from the get-go."

The Doll raised a curious eyebrow at her other.

"How amusing it is that you continue to defend him. Did you need so little time to forget about how much that same 'kid' irked you?"

"He's gotten a bit better since then," Ace shrugged nonchalantly. "I just didn't like how he reminded me of the Shinjis that couldn't do anything other than cook and be doormats."

"Of course. You would prefer them hot-blooded and with conflict resolving skills that don't stray from 'break as many things as possible'."

"Hey, as I say: blowing shit up is cool."

The Doll sighed and shook her head, implying that it wasn't the first time exchanges like that one had transpired. She then threw one last, withering look at the pensive form of Shinji Ikari, before she turned and prepared to make her exit.

"This is a waste of time."

"So you're finally leaving?" Ace taunted, shooing her away with her hand once more. "Don't let the door hit you on your way-"

"W-Wait!"

The Pilot blinked, looking back at Shinji. The Third Child had stood up and decided to rejoin the conversation, much to her surprise.

"What is it, Shinji Ikari?" 'Asuka' slowly turned back around as well, glaring at the young man. "Are you aiming for some dramatic, last second reveal?"

"N-No, it's just…" Shinji swallowed heavily, clearly forcing himself to look at her. "W-What should I c-call you...?"

'Asuka' blinked in surprise for an instant, probably the only moment in which Shinji had not seen her be furious, or hateful or any other synonyms of the word 'angry'. As with everything Asuka-related, though, it wasn't long before the Third Child found himself sweating under a nasty glare.

"...Excuse me?"

And then, as if it had been perfectly planned to defuse the situation, Ace began to laugh her ass off.

"Good one, Third, didn't see that coming!" Ace kept going for a good ten seconds before she managed to bring a hand up, still snickering from time to time. "L-Let me explain: I told him to call me Ace because of how confusing things were going to get if he kept calling all of us Asuka, and… well, it looks like he decided to pick it up from there."

The Doll stared long and hard at Ace, then looked long and hard at the both of them. A second later, she groaned in disgust.

"What a silly notion."

"Oh, come on! Don't be a stick in the mud!" Ace urged her with a roll of her eyes. "...Don't be a bigger one, anyway."

The Doll scowled at her other's quip, but Ace remained completely unaffected. Ultimately, 'Asuka' relented with a shake of head.

"...Fine," she replied, directed at Shinji. "You can call me Maisie."

"'Little Red Riding Hood'? Really?" the Pilot scoffed. "I get that Mom read us that story a lot when we were little but… wow. You're almost as bad as the brat."

"I didn't ask for your-"

The sound of a ringing abruptly broke into Maisie's comeback, and the two redheads looked at each other for a split second before they both took out matching cellphones. Under Shinji's mute scrutiny, the both of them brought the devices to their ears and attentively listened to the report, the line promptly going dead the second it ended.

Without a word, Maisie tucked her phone into a fold of her dress and sent Ace a meaningful stare, vanishing from sight shortly after.

"What?" the young man nervously questioned, turning towards the only person that was left. "What's going on?"

"Sorry Third, gotta go," Ace briefly replied, grinning confidently. "My invaluable input is needed over at HQ."

"But why? Did something bad happen?"

"Bad? No, not really. Not anymore, anyway," Ace elaborated, her smirk growing even wider. "I'm looking forward to it, actually."

"Then what?"

"Well, if you must know…" the Pilot continued, stretching her last word as much as the Third Child's patience would allow. "A new face just showed up at NERV."

-O]|[O-

Asuka walked briskly through the hospital wing of NERV HQ, the only thing keeping her from outright running through it being the succession of miffed nurses that always seemed to appear out of nowhere and get in her way the very moment she started to jog. Despite the irritating nuisances, however, getting to room 303 as quickly as possible remained her clear objective, a goal that she had even stood up Doctor Akagi for.

'Your best sync score ever and you decide to come here instead of going to the debriefing, all while fully knowing that Doctor McBitchFace won't be happy about any of the above,' the Second Child mentally chastised herself. She kept on moving forward, nonetheless. 'Watch yourself get kicked out of the program because you just had to come see for yourself, Asuka. You really live up to your genius, sometimes.'

Only a few moments after that last bit of self-criticism and Asuka rounded a corner into a familiar hallway, identifying her destination just a few doors down the way. Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, the redhead stomped until she stood before room 303 and, perhaps with a fair amount more force than was entirely necessary, threw the room's door open and charged inside.

Only to freeze in place an instant later.

"Pilot Sohryu." The much taller man inside stated rather than asked, not turning around from his vigil over the sleeping Third Child.

It was then that Asuka found herself in one of those rare situations she couldn't figure out how to deal with. After all, the sight before her handily topped all the weirdness records that Ayanami had managed to set up just the day before.

"C-Commander… Ikari? What are you-?" Asuka stuttered, the moment she finally found her voice. She then quickly kept herself from putting her foot in her mouth and scrambled to get into something barely resembling proper military respect. "I-I mean…"

"At ease, Second Child," the Commander gravely cut her off, turning his head to regard her over his left shoulder. "What are you doing here? I received the initial report on the testing results not that long ago. I expected you to be present at the debriefing at this time."

"Well, y-yes, but… " Asuka trailed off and swallowed tightly, wondering just how big of a mess she had managed to land herself in.

'But what? But I skipped it and rushed to see Shinji because I heard his voice inside my head?' the Second Child inwardly groaned, kicking herself one more time for not holding out for an hour or two before coming. 'Sure, Asuka. Tell the Commander you're going freaking schizo! That will be good for you!'

"I-I... forgot something!" Asuka quickly made up. "I forgot something... important! Yeah, that's it!"

"Important enough to forego your obligations?"

"Y-Yeah...?"

Asuka looked away, hiding a slight cringe. The Second Child then scrambled for ways of improving on her lie, preferably ones that didn't dig a deeper hole for herself, but the ideas were not forthcoming. Not the exact situation that she wanted to be in when she had the Supreme Commander of NERV right in front of her.

"...I see." The taller man eventually responded when it became obvious no further explanation would reach his ears, even though his narrowed eyes left it clear that he didn't believe a word Asuka had said. Gendo then turned and walked past the redhead and towards the door, pausing just as he was about to open it. "No matter, good work on today's test. Keep the effort up."

"Y-Yes, sir!" Asuka followed him with her eyes, more than a bit shocked at the development. "Th-Thank you, sir!"

The door slid closed with no further words, and the Second Child's entire body sagged forward the moment that it did, letting out a deep, drawn out sigh. That exchange had been much too close for comfort, as far as she was concerned.

"Was he… visiting Shinji?" Asuka wondered to herself when she regained some presence of mind. She then blinked and turned towards the door again when yet another impossibility crossed her mind. "...And did he just encourage me?"

'Of all the people to validate your efforts, huh? Not Misato, not that fake doctor, not... Kaji. It had to be freaking Commander Ikari,' Asuka shook her head, feeling torn between amusement and disappointment before she shifted her gaze towards Shinji. '...And that's without going into why he was here in the first place.'

"Wow, never thought he gave a damn," the redhead scoffed, moving to the edge of the bed. "Looks like you've got me beat at shitty fathers, too, Third.

"And speaking of, you're still sleeping, huh?" Asuka glanced at the different instruments strapped to the slumbering young man, quickly confirming that that was indeed the case. A disappointed sigh soon escaped her. "...Of course you are. What? Did you really expect him to be up and about, Asuka?"

With a frustrated groan, the Second Child grabbed a nearby chair and sat on it, idly going through the events that had ended up bringing her back to room 303. There was the conversation with Akagi and the synch-test, of course, and how she had decided to trust Ayanami's word and try to 'reach out' to the EVA, no matter how stupid it had made her feel for the next hour or so.

And then, for a moment, she could have sworn she heard Shinji's voice, shortly after that brief stab of pain in her forehead that had startled Ibuki.

But that couldn't be... right?

"...It must have been my imagination. Probably lack of proper sleep or something like that," Asuka concluded, leaning a bit closer. "...But it seriously felt as if-"

"Hmm… He's kinda cute," a second voice suddenly cut in from behind her. "Is he your boyfriend?"

Asuka quickly turned around, the uncomfortable hospital plastic chair clattering to the floor...

...only to find another face a hair's breadth away from hers.

"W-W-Who the hell are you?!" Asuka exclaimed, shoving the invader of her personal space away and successfully driving them back with a satisfying yelp.

The Second Child then narrowed her eyes and took a good look at them: the one that had managed to sneak up on her was another girl around her age, with long, maroon-coloured hair styled into twin-tails and wearing red glasses, as well as a... garish bubble-gum pink plugsuit.

The latter detail alone gave Asuka all the information her genius needed to know.

"Hm?" the intruding girl blinked in surprise at the rough treatment, before a carefree smile spread across her face. A stark contrast to the scowl she was now receiving. "Oh, sorry, sorry! Did I scare you?"

She then threw her hand forward, offering it for a handshake.

"I'm the Fifth Child, Mari Makinami! Nice to meetcha!"