For the next 16 hours, trapped in the dirac sea with no way out, Shinji and Asuka both plunge into the murky depths of the subconscious.

Misato was speaking. "One of you will take point while the rest provide cover. Got it?"

Asuka blinked. In that instant she had two choices. The first was to goad Shinji. If the boy thought he was so great, fine, prove it. He's everbody's favorite after all.

The other was to give in to her Anger. Third wasn't going to take the top dog spot from her- what did he know? She wasn't going to let him walk over her. "Misato, im taking point." She gripped the handles harder, "I'm gonna prove that a higher synch ratio is nothing compared to skill!"

Shinji blinked with disbelief. "What? That's nonsense! A higher sync ratio means better control, isn't that what you kept telling me? Besides, I have more battle experience than you. I should be-"

Asuka interrupted. "No time! Evangelion 02 advancing!"

Asuka started her move, closing with the hovering black and white sphere that levitated over the city. With Shinji and Rei in ranged support it made even more sense for Asuka to be the closer with her combat axe.

Her anger helped her focus. Weaving between buildings she avoided potential snag points while staying hidden. But it also meant she had outstripped Shinji and Rei in positioning. Her frown grew larger as she waited with increasing impatience.

The huge sphere was within striking distance. All she needed to do was parkour between two highrises to gain altitude, then strike. It would be simple, but she would have to engage while the sphere was in range.

And like her first battle, she was going to seize the initiative. "Target in close range, engaging!"

Ignoring Misato and breaking cover she acted as she imagined, running and jumping against one building. Pushing off that one to bounce off another, leaping at the black and white sphere with axe swinging high. She screamed as she brought in the fatal-

The sphere vanished.

The next she knew she had landed, and was already ankle deep in an oily darkness beneath her. "What? What is this-!?"

Ice cold was crawling up from her ankles into her legs as she sank. It was like dipping into an ice pool, her limbs tingled with no sensation. She swung the axe into the shadow but that too disappeared and sank in. "I'm sinking!"

"Asuka hang on!" Shinji called to her. Evangelion 01 dropped the pistol and picked up the pace. Shinji repeated Asuka's signature ship-jumping move, landing on skyscrapers until he reached a building beside her and shot an arm down. Unit 02 grabbed the arm of unit 01 with both hands.

"Shinji!" Asuka screamed, "get me out of here, it's cold!"

"I'm trying!" Shinji called back.

There was no use. Asuka wasn't just falling, her Eva was being sucked in. As the cold went up to her chest she blurted, "save yourself Idiot! Forget me!"

"No!" Shinji's comm window screamed back, "I'm not letting you go!"

"Idiot! You idiot!" Asuka screamed as her neck and shoulders descended into the cold.

Shinji's last chance to escape was slipping away. He had that moment to listen to Misato's commands and find a way out.

His superior sync numbers. Sharing a cockpit. The tandem training. The volcano.

In one last heave he tried to pull Asuka out, but instead the suction forces pulled Unit 01 off the building. On his back, Shinji toppled into the darkness within unit 01.

Voyage to the bottom of the sea

Norsehound

White.

Shinji checked the sonar and radar sensors. He was getting some kind of return out there, but there was no definition of the signal. Asuka was somewhere here, but he couldn't reach her.

He tried the omnidirectional radio again. "Asuka! Can you hear me? It.. It's Shinji!"

Faint static sang back at him through the SOUND ONLY plate.

"I-i don't know if you can hear me at all… but… I'm here."

Nothing.

He looked out the windows of the plug again as he tried to see anything. With the cable long gone he had no frame of reference in this place. Asuka was out there, somewhere, but he didn't know where to begin looking or even have an idea of how to get to her.

"I-im… I'm sorry I couldn't save…." He grunted and signed off before he finished a comment that she wouldn't even hear. Irritated, he leaned back in the cockpit and stewed on how they were even in here in the first place.

"Why does she have to be so reckless all the time?" He wondered aloud. "She talks about how I'm a deadweight with a low sync ratio, then when I catch up, now it's skill that matters? She never makes any sense."

The plug only hummed passively in response.

Shinji sighed as the wave of indignation passed. Replacing it were feelings of melancholia as he thought of her other aspects. Her hair, her girlishness, that burning tenacity to never be defeated.

And the kiss.

He curled inward as he returned to that moment. It came and went without any lead up, and Shinji still recalled being locked up with indecision on what it meant when she actually carried through with it. And with someone as volatile as her, one wrong misstep could spell disaster with hurt feelings and recrimination…to say nothing of destroying the tenuous relationship he had with her. Though he had accepted this as Asuka's way, a small part of him still wished things could have been better between them.

"But… how?" He uttered aloud.

Realizing he was talking to himself he sighed again and checked the chronometer. It was just over an hour that they had entered this void, and nothing had changed.

He tried the radio again. "Asuka… are you out there?"

Silence.

Glaring at the SOUND ONLY panel he sighed and curled up on the crash couch to catch a nap.

Asuka chomped the food ration pack angrily. After devouring the tasteless protein bar she wadded up the wrapper and tried throwing it down the plug. Fluid dynamics being what they were in the LCL, the flimsy plastic wheeled at a disappointing distance. It rolled off the console and tumbled down to the footwell of the chair.

She growled as she kicked the thing off. Her rage propelled her upward in the seat, almost standing in the cramped plug as she drove a fist angrily against the wall. Then she pressed her fist against it, trying to break the projected window if the false world beyond her cockpit.

Stupid Shinji.

Stupid Asuka.

Stupid, "Stupid, Stupid….!" She clutched her head and screamed through her teeth with frustration.

She was trapped. There was nothing she could do. Her reckless charge, insistence on the point position, and determination to prove herself had netted her failure once again. Maybe she should have goaded The Great Shinji into the point position, then she wouldn't be stuck in this damned void. Then she could gloat about what an idiot Shinji was, letting his swollen head get in the way of sound tactical thinking for the sake of proving how superior he was.

Blame him for the same mistakes she just made.

But…what kind of teammates throws her co-pilots under the bus?

She responded to the urge to cry by punching the plug wall again. It was the only thing she could take her frustrations out on. It helped a little… at least sustaining her fury until the wave of anger rode its course to expose the shame beneath. Sapping her anger it drove her to sit back down on the chair, put her knees up, and hug them as she tried to suppress the humiliation taking hold of her.

She didn't land a hit on the angel. Worst of all, Shinji felt compelled to come save her ass. Again.

…It would have been one thing if she meant something to Shinji. But him saving her from the volcano, then going about his day as if nothing happened, told her she wasn't special to him. She was a nuissance, getting in his way and just being too polite to shoot her down.

The last test had been the kiss. If there was anything to him trying to kiss her that night, long ago, this should have clinched it. Instead he indulged her, but gave nothing but embarrassment.

Remembering that humiliation she opened the comms. "Are you out there, idiot? This is a fine mess you've gotten us into. Whats your plan to rescue us now, oh magnificent Shinji!?"

Nothing returned over the SOUND ONLY panel except quiet, unsettling static. If she listened closely her ears constructed garbled speech, but she quickly turned it off. It was too late to suppress the shiver, and in a further reflex she shut the plug off. She had the uneasy feeling she was being watched.

She curled up in the plug and closed her eyes. They were moist by the time she fell asleep, an hour and a half after descending into the dirac sea.

…………………..

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……………

……….

……

…

..

.

A park.

The sun has just dipped below the horizon. The sky is painted in deep reds and browns. A solitary light shines from a pole above, but it is washed out by the evening light.

Shinji, a boy, sits beside the sandbox. Hands within the grains, he tries to decide what to make.

He decides on a pyramid. His hands move only an inch before he looks up. He's not alone.

She is standing on the opposite side of the sandbox, a serious looking girl with large red ribbons tied in her shiny red hair. The two stare at one another as if judging if the other was real or not.

Finally, Shinji asks, "Do you want to play?"

"No." The girl answers.

Shinji blinked in confusion. "Then… what do you want to do?"

The redhead hesitated, caught in a contradiction. "I don't know."

Shinji stared at the girl who wasn't making sense. He decided to bring his next question to a more basic level. "Is it okay for me to be here?"

"Yes." She answers.

Shinji looked at the sand, then at the girl. "Do you want to do something… together?"

"Why are you asking me?"

Shinji hesitated, "Because I want to be friends." Looking at her, he asked, "Do you want to be f-friends?"

Asuka stared at him, and for the first fraction of a second she leaned forward to approach him, but stopped herself. She did not know him, or did she? "Who are you?"

Her tone gave the boy hesitance, and he stepped back. "I… I'm Shinji. What's… what's your name?"

"Asuka Langley Soryu."

Shinji blinks.

They are home. Moving in unison. As Misato, Rei, and their friends smiled and watched, They danced.

They tapped the buttons and circles in rhythm, both of them moved as the music beats in their ears… until the error.

Asuka yanked off her earphones. "You're doing it wrong third! You always do it wrong!"

"Sorry."

"That stupid shallow excuse! You don't mean anything by it, it's a hollow conciliation!"

a/n: this is based out of another unpublished idea where the same event occurs, though here this event is the primary focus of the story. it is also an expansion of the mechanics of the finale of Splint.

paused because I haven't mapped out the progression of the plots struggles.