oooooooo boi are you ready for this?

Are you ready?...

Because It's time...

... for a PREFACE! (Dramatic musics starts playing)

Hem... Anyway

Hey everyone, it's me Corbak! I'm the guy/bird that decided one day to write a story about its favourite movie and favourite waifu, and ads a chapter whoever he feels like it (generally once every two months)! I'm releasing the third chapter today, which may seem small but is actually a nice achievement to me. That fanfic started as a personal challenge, I wanted to see if I could write something as long as a story in English, which is not my native language but one I feel really comfortable speaking, and want to practice even more. I'll be using this fanfiction as a reference in the future, so once again don't hesitate to notify me for any grammar mistake, it helps me a lot.

This chapter is more focused on world-building, as I'm trying to expose my vision of the events between 2.22 and 3.33. That content may get destroyed by official canon in the future, but hey I DON'T CARE WRITING IS FUN! (please Anno, don't fuck up my story with 3.0+1.0) I hope you will enjoy reading it, and I'll probably do a more action-oriented chapter next time.

Have a nice read and take care of your self!


"So, are you satisfied with your results?"

Ritsuko was the first to break the silence between the two women, obviously more disapproving than angry.

"What do you mean?" answered back Misato with a worn look.

"She is in top shape, she accepted to pilot her Eva, she killed the Angel…" She enumerated with her finger "You must be proud of your self, isn't it?"

"I sense disapproval in your voice, my dear old friend" returned Misato with a pinch of irony "Could it be that you are you worried about our elite pilot?"

"I'm worried about her mental health, that's all!" responded the blonde scientist with offense."And I'm worried about yours too. I'm not just an expert in biomechanic and computer-engineering. I'm also a doctor, and I know enough about the human psyche to be worried. Your precious child-soldier, she is not going well."

Misato couldn't repress the laugh which rose to her lips.

"Do you think I'm joking you? This isn't a game, Misato! She is damaged and unstable. She lived a trauma, she is not the same as before. Have you seen what happened today? She lost her confidence in the worst situation, and we had to push her continuously for her to keep fighting. We can no longer let her take the burden of piloting all by herself! If we allow it, sooner or later, she will snap on us and lost all her abilities in combat. Or worst!"

"Damn Ritsu" interrupted Misato with amusement "You really are the worst psychologist on hearth. And you pretend yourself to be a doctor?"

"Misato, I don't think you realize!" Ritsuko shouted back with a wounded look. She could take hours of intense work on her, but she wasn't used to be called a "bad" scientist.

"No, I think YOU don't realize." Returned Misato harshly.

Ritsuko stopped with shock. The look of misato had turned hard. It was the look she knew, the one she feared and also was attracted to. A hard, cutting look.

Just like the commander she thought to herself.

"This girl, Asuka…" she paused, and added with confidence "OUR girl. She's not just a simple traumatized children. She is not the kind that will die on itself, or…" she added with disgust "run away and hide."

Is it really what you think Misato? Is it what you always thought?

"Do you know how Hyenas reacts when they are forced out of their burrows? When they feel threatened or simply intimidated? They take out the fangs, they take out the claws, they attacks recklessly and fight and struggle until their opponents ,or themselves, lies dead on the ground."

You became a twisted person.

"My girl, Asuka. She's a hyena. She attacks, she bites, she eviscerate until her opponent finds his death. That's what she always did in all her encounters with angels. That's what she did today, that's why she is still alive. That's why she is the best pilot."

But she is so afraid…

"Oh, she is terrorized, I accord that to you. She is traumatized, at the verge of tears. Secretly, she wishes she would never have to climb again inside her personal monster. But even if we push her in the pit of hell, she will never die on us. She will climb her way out of it with her nails and teeth! No matter how strong her opponents become, no matter who or what they are, she will unleash her rage on them and crush them without any doubt or sorrow. That girl is a fist of fury, she is a beast made for combat. She is OUR personal beast and our best chance to win this war!"

"You think you can use her fear to fight angels? That's crazy Misato!"

"Her fear is a fuel for her rage. If she is afraid, she is unstoppable."

Ritsuko felt a sense of disgust spread in her consciousness. Disgust of her friend of course, for being so cold and logic. But also disgust of herself, for being so weak against her will. For not daring to stand against her logic. For following her orders. For accepting the plan.

"Now go get her. We still need to control her physical health."Ordered Misato. "You are still a doctor, aren't you?"

I'm listening to her like a dog following its master. Since the commander, nothing changed. She was my friend, now she is my master.

"Ritsuko, you heard me? Go now or it will take hours to find her."

"As you wish, Commander" dropped Ritsuko with a gloomy look before exciting the room.

I feel sick.


"Well well well, what have we here?"

"Wh... WHa?!"

Half sobbing, Asuka raised her head out of her teary arms with surprise. A mysterious voice had emerged from nowhere, rudely interrupting her mournings.

Asuka hated being watched by others when she was feeling weak. For this reason, after the burst of despair that had gained her lungs on the bridge, she had ran away from everything and sought a place to hide. A quiet and isolated place to feel safe and calm herself, where she could cry her despair without anyone watching her. Or worst; judging her.

This Eldorado of comfort finally presented itself to her, as the empty seat of a 12 millimeter turret gun located at the back of the ship, a few levels under the bridge. While being rather uncomfortable, the place was entirely surrounded by thick steel plates and emanating a feeling of much needed security. Reassured, she had sat against one of the walls, and cried everything she could, hoping nobody would find her for a long long time.

Of course, she ended up being proven wrong when a mocking voice materialized from somewhere around her, its owner apparently being a woman with a taste for teasing and being generally annoying.

"It looks like someone left a pile of nervousness mopping on the floor, Ha Ha! Who could it be? I wonder..."

Half-sobbing, Asuka felt her fists clenching and her teeths grinding once again. She reassembled her mind into a shield and mentally prepared herself for the battle to come. No matter who this stranger was, he had obviously come here to watch her cry. Such behavior couldn't be left unpunished. She had no other choice but to kick his ass.

It's going to be a miracle if I end this day without murdering anyone. Sweared Asuka internally. Seriously, what was wrong with this boat? Couldn't she have a bit of privacy after all she had faced? Was asking for a small break too much? Some teeth are going to fly...

Looking around her, she attempted to locate the intruder.

"Hey, you! Show yourself now! Or run for your life while you still can! But don't upset me 'cause I'm on a really bad mood!"

Seriously, what was wrong with this ship? Wasn't it a basic behavior to let peoples alone when they needed calm? This is so fucking twisted...

"Oh wow! Would you look at that... It's a girl! And not half bad on top of that, a true beauty! This must be my lucky day, Nya!"

This time the voice came from closer. Asuka instinctively spun on herself to face her interlocutor, and... Almost died from a heart attack when she fell almost nose-to-nose with a young brunette of her age, dressed in a curious mix of clothes. A pink sweater covered her upper body, while the lower part was dressed with a plaid skirt and black stockings. Some red glasses covered her eyes, and a simple blue headband held her brown hair.

"Wha!" Asuka jerked her body backward and almost fell in her butt in the process. "Who... Who are you? Who the hell are you?!"

"Wait a minute..." continued the brunette without a trace of bother. "I feel like I know you... Have we met before?"

Asuka shook her head in disbelief. "N... no... I don't think so. We never..." But managed to regain enough composure to return the conversation. "Hold on! WHO are you and WHY are you sneaking up on me?"

"Aah, sorry, sorry" Answered the mysterious girl with a mischievous tone. "You see, I was only passing by when I heard the sound of someone crying. I got curious, so I went to investigate... And tadaam, here I am!"

Asuka had never seen such grotesque before.

"Are you six?" She responded crudely.

Apparently the girl wasn't taking anything as an offense and kept going in her lullaby. "So mean, you highness! Rude words addressed to someone you don't even know. No wonder you were sobbing all alone, you probably never made any friends acting that way, Nya."

Asuka swore internally. It really is my lucky day. Comatose, I almost died, and now I'm discussing with an idiotic teenager.

She decided to resist provocation.

"And so you are...?" She said with a cold judging look.

"Mari Makinami, at your service! I was about to introduce myself, of course! I just wanted to tease you a little. Glad to make your acquaintance."

Never heard of. Thought Asuka. Maybe she is the daughter of some high-ranked officer? Yet, something in this girl felt oddly familiar.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm glad too." She muttered. "I suppose you won't leave me until I give you my name, eh? Fine... My name is As..."

"Hold on!" Interrupted the girl with a sudden burst of seriousness. "I think I'm starting to understand."

"What?" Said Asuka with a puzzled look. The longer she talked to the girl, the weirder things seemed to get.

"You can smell it, too?" Pointed the girl with a smile. "I was wondering why something so familiar entered my nostril. I'm surprised I didn't figured it out sooner knowing how obvious it is."

"Smell it?"

For the first time, Asuka felt curious. Apparently she wasn't the only one to feel a connection between her and the girl. It was very subtle, indeed, almost unnoticeable. But something about her was oddly familiar, a sensation of deja vu. Something as simple as...

Smell it?...

An odor, of course! She had never considered it, but now that the fact was exposed, she instantly realized it too. The evidence was here, right inside her nose!

The smell! The smell of LCL!

"You must be the great Asuka Shikinami Langley, isn't it? The pilot that destroyed this gigantic white swimming bird. Quite a nice piece of work you did back then, I'm impressed."

That smell so characteristic of Eva pilots, staining the scent of Rei, staining the scent of Shinji, and staining my own scent. I wasn't paying attention until now, but I can smell it, everywhere on this girl's body!

"Of course it would have been better to destroy the core before this Angel had any chance to attack at close range... But we ran out of time to prepare anything serious and we ended up only gaining some time for you to recover. Still, I'm convinced that with a well-placed shot from a positron rifle..."

"You are an Eva pilot."

The girl interrupted herself and took a look at the visibly angry redhead that was facing her.

"Well yes, but actually no." She responded with a humorous tone.

"What do you mean?" Asuka asked with furor, ready to jump to the neck of that mocking girl. "Where were you when the Angel attacked? Why was I the only one in the front line?"

The brunette regained a sense of serious. "So that's why you were so hostile, I see... I mean, I can understand how it felt..."

"So?" pushed Asuka."Where were you?"

"To be honest, I wish I was at your place," She stated with a saddened look. "Sending such a cute girl in the front line only minutes after her awakening, how cruel can this Commander be? Seriously... It's a miracle you managed to kill that monster considering your state."

"Answer... My... Questions." Interrupted Asuka with murderous intents in her eye.

This seemed to work, as the four-eyed girl turned serious once again. "I wasn't allowed to pilot your unit. The commander... wouldn't let me. She doesn't trust me since the day I joined them..."

This time Asuka could almost feel a touch of regret in the voice of the young girl. Almost like she was confessing some kind of secret loneliness. In a way, this reminded her of the third child, and she felt troubled.

"... Which is a shame considering how skilled I am at piloting Evas!" Said the brunette with a sudden joy in the voice." Especially Unit-02! You know it well, don't you? It truly is a wonderful unit! So much power, and yet so much fragility! It really feels like you are playing with a sharp razor in your hands, don't you think?

Asuka froze.

"I'm sorry what?"

"...By the way I have to apologize, the last time I used it I lost two arms and half of its face. It was all for good, naturally, and we ended up stopping the Angel, but I always felt lightly guilty about it considering it's not supposed to be my Eva and..."

"You piloted... my unit?!"

That girl... that annoying kid... piloted MY Eva?! She damaged it?! MY PERSONAL EVA?!

"Yeah, but look, it's all fixed by now. As good as new! So... no reasons to be angry, eh?"

The next thing happened in a flash, so quick that both of the girls didn't had a time to realize it. Asuka had throwed her fist in the direction of the brunette's head. A perfectly aimed punch filled with the obvious intention to destroy her glasses, her nose and her jaw at the same time.

... Which could have succeeded if the girl didn't had what seemed to be the reflex of a Sayan. She dodged the fist who ended up hitting the wall with a loud "KLONG!" and used the element of surprise to softly escape the room.

"Sorry about that, princess!" She shouted back while running through one of the numerous corridors of the ship. "See you the next time for another chat, Nya!"

Silence fell back.

"Damn this four-eyed bitch!" Exploded Asuka in anger. "Who do you think you are?! Stealing my Eva!"

She had moved with her instinct, like always. Her fist had impacted the hard metal of the wall without any restraint, expecting to meet a face instead. As strong as she was, Asuka had never heard of a fist that can punch through steel.

Ouch that hurts...

She examined her wrist. It was hard to get an idea because of her suit, but something was, without doubt, broken or at least not where it was supposed to be. Waves of pain were emanating from her phalanges and she felt like something liquid was dripping from her fingers. Probably not LCL...

Feeling resigned, she excited the turret to take the same directions the weird girl had taken while escaping. Can't escape the medical examination this time, I guess. And so she oriented herself towards the bridge. Still in her mind, the unnerving figure of that mysterious girl.

Asuka didn't knew what to think of her. She had appeared from nowhere, she was utterly unnerving and kiddy. But, surprisingly, she had managed to slip under all her mental barriers like they were made of paper, and despite her best efforts at leading the conversation, Asuka had felt like she had been bamboozled from the start.

Was that girl just a mocking bird, or a hidden genius? After all, she was an Eva pilot just like her. She couldn't be anybody, she had to be exceptional too.

Mari Makinami, uh? Imaged Asuka, while remembering the curious discussion she just had with the crazy girl. Mari Makinami, an Eva pilot, just like me...

Suddenly, Asuka couldn't repress the tiny smile that invited itself on her lips. No matter who that girl was, no matter if she was friendly or not. Because Asuka had came to a simple but comforting conclusion.

She wasn't alone anymore. There were still other pilots out there.

She was no longer the last of a kind.

Mari Makinami... I'm sure we will met each other again. I'm looking forward to this... And this time I won't let you pick on me so easily!

And so she went through the corridors, without realizing that all traces of sadness had vanished miraculously from her heart.


(July 13th 2018, 19h39; USS Over-the-Rainbow, Dr Akagi's personal laboratory)

"...And... Here it goes... ...Just a little bit of bandage here and there, and we will be done... ...No, don't move it now, it needs to... No, wait!... Come on, it's only a matter of seconds. Can't you have a bit of patience?... (Sigh)... ...Alright. It's done. How are you feeling?"

Only two hours had elapsed since the brutal conversation between the two women and their angry pilot. Two hours during which Ritsuko had had to search the entire ship from bow to stern, asking every person she met if, for the sake of God, someone had any idea where that kid had gone. She had asked every living soul, from the lowest member of the cleaning team to some strategic officers. She had even asked the monitoring section to track the girl's escape, and was now considering the possibility of making a public announcement through the ship's loudspeaker network. All these efforts turned to be wasteful as after two hours of active tracking, she had returned to her post at the lab, and found the redhead at the front door, apparently waiting for her and complaining about her being late.

One short moment of mutual exasperation later, they had both entered the lab, and Ritsuko had started working on her multiple wounds.

"You can consider yourself lucky," Said Ritsuko while completing the splint she was applying on the redhead's arm. "Nothing broke inside your fist, you only got two dislodged phalanges and a light crack around your knuckles. It should recover fully in about two weeks... If you keep it immobilized and resists your urges to punch walls, of course."

Too tired or too apathetic to defend herself, Asuka simply grunted in return. The girl had decided to exit her hideout, but it was clear that if for anything, she wasn't here by pleasure. She was acting hostile, defiant and only talked the bare minimum. Feeling like she was turning crazy just by looking at that gloomy teenager, Ritsuko broke her attempt on face-to-face lecturing and turned her attention back to her computer.

"Seriously... Kids these days... It wasn't worth regenerating you from your toes if the first thing you do out of your coma is break your fist on a steel panel. What passed through your mind? Were you trying to sink the ship? Because if that's the case it wasn't very successful..."

Silence again. Despite her mockery, Asuka was silent and still as a rock. Ritsuko gave up. After all the girl had just returned from a dangerous battle and was probably still too shaken to behave normally. The best thing was to provide her what she needed without too much invasive questionings.

"Does it hurts?" Asked Ritsuko in an attempt to comfort the young girl. After all that poor child had been through, maybe she deserved some compassion.

"Are you really interested?" Retorted Asuka, finally breaking her silence.

Ritsuko lifted an eyebrow, surprised by the sudden answer and the cynic tone of the girl.

"Well of course I'm interested Asuka." She answered with a compassionate voice. "I'm a doctor. It's my duty to be informed on the state of my patients. And I will do everything in my power to help you with any potential sufferings..."

"Any potential sufferings?" Mocked Asuka with poison.

"Is something the matter?" stated Ritsuko calmly.

Asuka stood silent.

"Well?"

"Forget it." Answered Asuka. "I've had much worst pains in the battlefield or during training. A broken fist is nothing to me. And I don't need your help."

"As you wish..." Sighed Ritsuko while returning to her computer."

The silence fell back, only troubled by the mechanical rhythm of the key caps and the occasional squeak of the hull.

A few minutes passed in this awkward silence.

"So..." Asked Asuka, feeling suddenly unwanted. "We are done with my wounds... Can I go now? "

"No, you stay here."Commanded Ritsuko while leaving her computer to grab a sheet of paper. "Before you go, I have something important to check on you."

"What? But we already did the entire medical check up!" Complained Asuka. "I'm getting hungry..."

Without listening, Ritsuko went to a cabinet drawer located at the other side of the room, and exhumed a large envelope made of paper. From this enveloppe she extracted what seemed to be a series of pictures of different colors, shapes and sizes, some only filled with black, others seemingly made from a thick slice of plastic. Using some adhesive tape, she proceeded to stick the pictures on the wall, and finally turned her attention back to the redhead.

"This is a visual test I perfected during your coma." Presented Ritsuko. "It consists of a series of pictures with unique visual properties. I planned to test you directly after our discussion, of course. But with how things turned out..."

Asuka warned the blonde not to go any further with a menacing look.

"...Anyway. It's really simple, I just need you to tell me what you see on those pictures. Once we are done, you can leave. Are you ready?"

Asuka nodded, resigned.

"Let's start with this one. Do you see the cat?" Asked Ritsuko while pointing her finger to the first picture, representing a cat.

"Did you choose the subject yourself?" Mocked Asuka.

"Just answer my question" Said Ritsuko with seriousness.

"Er... Sure, I see the cat. Whatever..."

"What color is it?"

"The color? Well, it's black, with a red collar and a green sticker on it... And it has a white spot around the eye. Kinda cute..."

"Great. Now what about this one?" Said Ritsuko while pointing to another picture.

That picture appeared to be the same, but its color pattern was changed.

"Same cat, but everything is in reddish tint... Kinda like a filter. I don't know how to explain it..."

"But you see the cat?

"I see the cat."

"Great. And this one..."

"Same picture. This time everything has a purplish tint... ...I see the cat.

"Great. Let's move on. This one?..."

And so the test went on. Ritsuko showed picture after picture, every picture representing the same cat, but never in the same way. Sometimes some colors were lacking, or it was all in black-and-White, or the picture was blurry, or abusively sharpened, or simplified to the point there were only some abstract shapes left. Every time Ritsuko asked if she could see the cat, and every time Asuka saw the cat. And they switched to another picture.

"Perfect... And now, " Ritsuko inspired and pointed at a thick picture entirely covered in black. "tell me what you see here."

Confused, Asuka hesitated. There was obviously nothing to see on the picture.

"It's... all black?"

"Try to really focus your attention." Insisted Ritsuko. "Look cautiously and tell me what you see."

Puzzled, Asuka returned her eyes to the picture and tried to intensify her glare. This is stupid... it's just a black sheet.

But then something changed.

"I don't... ...Wait... I think I see a thing. let me a moment..."

In a slow evolution, Asuka felt as if the world around her was getting covered by an odd color filter. Everything quietly faded into a fogy red while surrounding objects began to show white lines flashing on their outline. White flashes began streaking her vision, and soon she saw a scheme forming on the black surface of the picture.

"I see... It's the cat! The same cat!"

In the blink of an eye, Ritsuko witnessed as a blue light began rising behind the eye patch of the redhead, creating an electric aura at the exact place where the pupil was supposed to be. The air trembled and a smell of ozone spread in her nostrils.

"I see it!" Said Asuka with excitation, as a shiver of adrenaline spread through her lungs."I..."

"That will be enough!" Interrupted Ritsuko, fearing the consequences to come!

Following the voice, Asuka dropped her attention out of the picture, and everything around her turned back to normal.

Ritsuko felt a drop of sweat running down her back. She had just witnessed some really abnormal event. She had had some solid doubts before, but now she was reaching a conclusion she wasn't sure to like. Whatever had been left inside that eye was alive, and active.

"Wow... did you see that?" Said Asuka with an excited voice. "Was that an illusion or something? I can swear everything turned red just now, and I was able to see a cat, and..."

"...and you couldn't see any color, but you could see every detail on its fur, and its internal skeleton, and maybe even you saw a thing that looked just like a force field around it. Am I right?"

"You are right..." Admitted Asuka, surprised by the accuracy of that description. "how is that even possible? An optical illusion, maybe? "

"There is no illusions in this picture," Explained Ritsuko. "Your eyes aren't fooled, everything you saw is real. You just stopped seeing between the boundaries of the human optical spectrum."

"You mean what I saw wasn't part of the field of perception of a human eye?"

Ritsuko nodded. This wasn't surprising to see Asuka playing with notions of physics. The girl had graduated at fourteen.

"Tell me, Asuka. What do you think of that new eye patch we installed on you before your awakening?" Ventured Ritsuko.

An eye patch?

Oh yes that's tight, she was wearing an eye patch! Between the fight against the Angel and her runaway across the ship, she had never paid attention to it. In fact, she remembered noticing it when she awakened and thinking it was weird, but since then it had suited on her like a natural thing, like it wasn't even there.

Thinking of it, it was shockingly weird. That eye patch was supposed to cut her from half of her vision. How could she just... forget about something that big?

"I'm as surprised as you are." Said Ritsuko in answer to her puzzled look. "When we sealed that thing inside your orbital cavity, I was expecting it to become inactive and you ending up with a vision cut in half. But it appears that this little prankster has decided to fuse with your optical nerves instead, and replaced your missing eye. Not only that, but it also adapted to your vision and provided you with additional features. A true gift from mother nature... I'm talking about your covered eye, of course."

Interrogated, Asuka raised her hand to grasp the surface of the eye patch. "What do you mean it replaced...?"

"No, don't take it off." Ritsuko stopped her. "The steal stabilizes it, but we don't know how active this thing can get without its restraints."

"...I don't understand. What is inside my eye?"

Ritsuko went back to her office and turned the screen of her computer towards Asuka. From there, she displayed a series of pictures, the first one being a ravaged entry plug leaking a red liquid. With a shiver, Asuka recognized the marking on it. Don't tell me it's the entry plug of...

"... Evangelion unit-03's entry plug, or what was left of it." Confirmed Ritsuko. "When we recovered your body out of that thing, we found that a large chunk of angel contamination had made its way through its barriers and had began fusing with you." She showed another picture displaying what seemed to be a shredded body covered with blue gel. Asuka felt like puking when she realized that body was hers.

"To preserve your integrity, we had no other choice but to extract every contaminated bit we could and regenerate the rest from untouched parts. That's what we did with your arms, legs and a large portion of your chest. But the small piece that embedded itself in your eye... We had no other choice but to leave it in place. Too dangerous to remove.

"So... I have a piece of that Angel inside my eye?" Said Asuka, in shock.

"In the end it payed!" Reassured Ritsuko. "The fusion with your vision is so perfect that you didn't even noticed it was here. And if I refer to the test we just completed, you are now gifted with a vision way more efficient than one of a normal human.

"You mean I can see things others can't see?"

Ritsuko acquiesced.

"I tested your vision between the boundaries of the human spectrum." Exposed the blonde woman while displaying the set of test pictures. "From infrared to ultraviolet, your vision is fully operational. Your eyes have an easy 10/10 each, and your brain is perfectly able to interpret the visual input. This, on itself, is admirable. But not impossible to achieve for a mere human so I wouldn't count it as exceptional. But then we have this picture" She showed her the picture covered in black. "where no human can see anything. Which is purely logic, as it has been captured with extremely advanced measuring instruments to be a composition of different sub-infrared energetic waves. It displays X rays, Gamma rays, and of course..."

"AT-fields..."

"Exactly, AT-fields. As you know, those are naturally part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The extremely high frequency in the wave pattern of an AT-field makes it almost impossible to observe without the most precise equipment, that's why it went undetected by scientists for so long. When I think that only fifteen years ago the entire scientific community discarded its very existence... What a tremendous period of scientific history we are living..."

Ritsuko whispered her last words in a state of irrepressible grace. Asuka shook her head in consternation. Scientist to the bone and completely exhaled...

"...Yet, here we are nowadays! with cosmic entities using the technology of AT-Fields to destroy our civilization, and everyone is desperately trying to master it. It took us a decade to build a sensor precise enough to detect it, and another decade to make it stand inside a box the size of a car. Then we expected to hit a wall of technical limitations. But now, the AT-Field has revealed itself to the human eye! Do you realize what that means? You eye is a marvel that goes way beyond the field of comprehension of modern science!"

Ritsuko seemed thrilled by these conclusions. That was comprehensible of course, she had witnessed an event that would be written in scholar manuals for hundreds of centuries. In normal times, maybe Asuka would have been excited too, as a former student in quantum physics, even she could realize the miracle of her vision. But she doubted anyone would really have a chance of appreciating this event in the next centuries, considering how the world was doing at her time. Also what she understood was that a tiny bit of that horrible thing who almost killed her was now living, and potentially unstable, inside her eye, a few centimeters from her brain. Thrilling.

"Is it dangerous?" Asked Asuka with apprehension. "I mean... It's an angel after all, and an invasive type."

"We can't know it yet." confessed Ritsuko. "Maybe it's neutralized and completely harmless, maybe it's just weak and trying to regain some power. There is also a probability for it being completely alert and only playing passive to fool us."

"Great..."

"The risk is extremely low" reassured Ritsuko. "We placed some very effective protections to prevent this case of scenario. As long as you keep your eye patch on and avoid using its power at maximum, you should be fine. We learned enough about those seals to efficiently contain an Angel."

Asuka felt half-comforted by this confession. Nerv had a habit of over trusting its technology, and for some obscure reasons many information were kept secret. For all she knew, this seal could very well be a simple cross sewed on the fabric.

"...However, Asuka, It's my responsibility to warn you: if anything. And I mean it, ANYTHING happens with that eye, no matter what it is, either a burn or some headaches or even just bad dreams, I want you to come right to me and inform me. Even if you think it's unrelated, even if you don't want to see me. I beg you to do it, for the sake of every person living on this ship and for your own sake. Am I clear?"

"... Yes, ma'am..."

"Good" Said Ritsuko with relief. "I'm done with you, then. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Asuka quickly reviewed her current interrogations. There was that crazy girl she had met on the bridge, but it didn't seemed relevant. Plus, she didn't wanted to report everything about that event, it felt too... personal. There was also what happened during that battle, inside the Angel. She had confused memories of the event and felt like something important had occurred, but she couldn't stick the pieces together. Yet again, she wasn't feeling like passing a new examination. All she needed right now was a hot shower, a hot meal, a bed and some time to think for herself.

"No... There is nothing." She mumbled

"In that case, this session is complete" Said Ritsuko with satisfaction."Thank you for your cooperation. After you exit the room, I suggest you to go to the stewardship where you will be provided with a personal cabin and a change of clothes. If you want to eat, go to the mess and ask for a meal."

"Understood... thank you." Said Asuka with gratefulness, realizing how hungry and dirty she was.

And with that last sentence, she excited the room.

.