Recovery
Almost two weeks after the pair had been sent into orbit, Kaji's phone would buzz, it was a message from NERV.
"We have found and located Unit 00 and Unit 02"
When he arrived at the hospital where the pair had been taken, he would find the pair in a room together. Unit 00's pilot, designated "Rei" was laid unconscious on her bed, tubes and wires stuck to her body, she was covered in red welts and sore spots; the tape over her eyes showed she was comatose.
Asuka was not as lucky, but even more luckier than Rei at the same time. She was not comatose but she'd taken more damage on her body than Rei.
She was asleep right now and covered head to toe in bandages, even her head was completely covered; her red hair tied up and sticking out the bandages in a crazy cat lady style of random tiny ponytails.
As her guardian and as a favour from the higher ups, Kaji was given access to the footage and audio files.
The first set of video and audio was the fight itself, the pair fighting the large eye like angel, with Asuka and Rei both slapping N2 warheads into it, de-orbiting the Angel and letting the atmosphere kill it; which it did perfectly.
The pair were cut off from comms thanks to the N2 mines EM shock wave and their planned re-entry missed. Their EVA's had been running on a battery pack located in their space vehicular equipment powered by a mini-nuclear reactor. It gave them three hours at full power however when they realised they missed their re-entry, Asuka told Rei to shut down power to minimum life support only. The EVA's flew close and grasped together, locking their bodies into one and shut themselves down.
For two weeks NERV tried to locate them but the nuclear blast and the death of the Angel threw up a lot of interference in orbit. They orbited the earth for a whole two weeks; Asuka had worked the math out and found a satellite they could intercept; she was a genius after all.
Living inside the small pod for two weeks was hell, their EVA's were protected against some radiation but not all, and the LCL in the tanks would feed and supply them for a while but even after a few days it was getting rancid.
Two weeks meant the LCL was stale, filthy and not safe, the pair had small check-ins but had to remain with power off for two weeks. Solitary in a black womb for two weeks.
Connecting with the satellite, they'd rode it down right into the pacific ocean. Being rushed into hospital, the pair had been given the best care the world had.
Opening her eyes slowly, Asuka's eyes caught Kaji's face and her body wheezed under the bandages and tubes down her throat. Her eyes were tearing up not just for the affection of seeing him but the pain of her body. She was dosed to hell with morphine but still it hurt.
"Kah...Jeee..." her voice wheezed with the tube down her throat, she couldn't speak properly and it couldn't be removed for another week at least, they were to be kept here for checkups and healing.
Rei was shipped out after Asuka woke up to her own private room where she got two visitors, a young boy and the head of NERV.
~ TWO WEEKS EARLIER ~
"Reentry? I did not know the Evangelion's even had the equipment to survive such a thing. The friction would burn them up?" Kaji was confused on the refusal to send up one of the American space shuttles to recover the pilots.
It was not like the Evangelion Units where top secret information that the Former N.A.S.A did not already have access to with the working on the American Evangelion Project.
"They will survive but if for some reason the Eva's where to berserk during reentry the pilots would surely die from the shock of feeling the unit burning up; that is if the units themselves do not melt from the friction."
"You will just have to trust me. Commander Ikari wants it this way." Ritsuko replied with her usual calm tone. "Have faith in the Evangelion's"
Kaji then shook his head and stepped out unto the flight deck of the NATO Air craft carrier, 'USS Over the Rainbow'. His gaze upon the red pacific ocean in which if the Evangelion's survive will crash land in.
The smell of blood and dead sea life was something he did not want to remember but it was the world since second impact. As if a punishment upon the whole world and the life forms upon it.
A few minutes later the Sirens of the fleet begun to sound as all the ships turned to face the impact area of the Eva's. No doubt they would kick up a large splash upon impact.
"Mr. Ryoji we need to get you off the flight deck. We will be using the deck to pull the damaged units aboard. It is not safe here." The Navy Ensign escorting Kaji back into the command tower of the ship.
A few minutes later the impact of the Eva's with the ocean rocked the entire fleet and sending a red mist into the air. HAZMAT and Recovery teams went to quick work. Kaji ran back out upon the flight deck with a mask over his face ignoring the safety protocol as the Eva Unit 2 was pulled upon the ship heavily damaged but intact as much as it was before it was launched into space.
Working with the Recovery crew Kaji aided in the releasing of the pilots from the plug suits. The smell of death filled the air as the hatches opened after the emergency LCL drain. One by one the pilots where evacuated to the ships medical facility. The fleet was heading back to Japan and repairs begun almost instantly the pilots where removed. Did N.E.R.V. think they would be attacked again so soon?
The next week or two was the worst for Kaji. He had limited access to Asuka even when they arrived in Tokyo-3 and she was moved to N.E.R.V. Headquarters Primary Hospital.
Short visits and only when she was sleeping and he had to stand so far from her. During the day he was doing the request of N.E.R.V. checking into resources he had built over his lifetime to gain information the commander wanted. His nights where him sleeping in the waiting room of the hospital awaiting on more information.
It was amazing watching the footage back again and again from the camera's on the EVA's and the satellite, the people in the command room were watching the two Eva's latched to the satellite and its reentry. There was one reason why EVA's had been left to come back to Earth on their own but it wouldn't be revealed just yet.
The EVA's themselves were badly damaged, the heat of reentry had indeed damaged them severe and it would take almost three months to repair just one of the EVA's. They concentrated on Unit 02; she was the full model after all.
Asuka was put through medical care and fast tracked back to health, she came out in the wheelchair; demanding to see Kaji or she'd not do anything. She had been able to see him in the distance, always at a distance; she'd known why, their bodies had to have been dangerously contaminated by the LCL and radiation of space. She had not seen a mirror yet but looking down at her body she knew her face had to be bad.
"Ka..ji.." she struggled to speak properly, her voice course and rough as the nurse wheeled her over to him. She was still covered in bandages and had laid for over an hour while the nurse had applied a fresh layer of foul smelling cream and fresh bandages to her entire body.
Her hair was still pulled out in several places where they were keeping her hair out of the way of her head, there were even spots where the hair had been pulled out but no one asked why just yet. They knew why and were watching her just in case.
Her face was covered in bandages but her lips and eyes were visible, her lips were cracked and broken but her eyes were full of happiness; she was so glad to see Kaji again.
"I thought..." she began as they were left alone. "I thought... I... was a gonner..." she admitted quietly. "You... kept me going.." she added quietly.
"You said to not give up... I.. I didn't give up... " she grinned, it hurt to smile, even touching her hand brought a wince of pain from her and even through the bandages he could feel heat coming off her; she must have had really bad burns under those bandages from the foul LCL and radiation.
"You kept telling me... 'Asuka... my love... dont give up,' You… you did" she told him words he'd never said, "You gave me the... the idea... you.. called me your star... so.. I became a shooting star... I.. fell from Heaven... an Angel fallen from Heaven" she chuckled softly, wincing at her laugh; her voice sounded like a 80 year old smoker with how rough it was
The doctors had at least told him she would be out of hospital in two months, and back to active service, if her psychological tests came back green, in three months from now.
They even predicted the radiation dosage she'd taken and it wasn't good, but who expected the chosen children to live for long or pass on their genes?
She turned her head for a moment, listening as if to a voice on the wind then nodded to herself.
"Yea..." she sighed almost to herself. "Can... I get a kiss?" she asked innocently.
The mental trauma of being the pilot of Evangelion Unit Two shown as clear as day as Kaji listened to Asuka speak of him and her time in space. The things he was to have said that he did not speak of. He was worried about her safety and hopes for her return to the surface where evident once he finished his mission and delivered the package to Commander Ikari of N.E.R.V. Even now with her right in front of him he worries about her mental state. Giving Asuka a soft kiss to her lips Kaji finally spoke.
"There you go, Asuka." Standing tall with his hands behind him as if in parade rest he looked to Asuka and continued to speak.
"Continue to work with the doctors and you will be able to pilot again in two or three months...or live a close to normal life... If that is your wish." Leaning forward some.
"Either way I am counting on you, my dear. You have suffered so much these last few months. You must remain strong. Do not worry I will not be very far away."
Asuka smiled as he kissed her, listening to him as he told her that she was counted on. "I did it for you Kaji" she groaned in her croaky voice. "I did it to show you that I am the best, if the Angel hit the earth, you would have died" she nodded "I told you this many times when we were drifting together" she added.
Shortly before his meeting with Asuka he had another meeting with the Commander of N.E.R.V. in Japan, Gendo Ikari. Kaji was told of the vital role of the Evangelion's to the protection of mankind and the role of the pilots. Kaji was not to shocked at the almost heartless approach Gendo took when it come to the pilot and his series of back up plans in case one should be lost, die or resign from N.E.R.V.
They had already had the surviving pilot on her way from America to replace Asuka if need be. The dummy plug system was also gaining quick traction since the arrival of the package.
Kaji begun to wonder why so many back ups if every attack was already planned to play out like a large play for the souls of humanity. There was something more to this meeting. Kaji had to find out but this is when he was released to meet with the pilot of Eva Unit 02.
Over the time of her recovery in the hospital, her skin healed as good as it would ever get, the redness was slowly going away and would soon disappear completely by a few months; although it did give her a similar look to her bodysuit and EVA which Misato chuckled at when she had spoken about Asuka to Kaji.
Her mental state was also discussed and she had doctors and psychiatric help. They spent long hours with her, listening to her talk about things she did to keep herself entertained in the plug during her time in orbit.
She spoke of conversations Kaji and her had; about his proposal of marriage to her when she'd been on the point of suicide, about to kill herself with the knife placed in all suits.
The talks of the wedding ceremony, of their future house, their children and two dogs they would have together. She had gone into a lot of detail about it to the doctors who relayed it to Kaji.
"We have given her drugs to help combat the schizophrenia's effects on her. They stated she'd probably have these for a long time and that they had made a report to NERV to pull Asuka from service due to the stress it would put her under and continue to worsen until breaking point; however a simple: "No" had been sent from the very top. It seemed Gendo did not want to lose Asuka even if it meant a deteriorating mental state.
During her time in the hospital, Misato had found out Kaji was around and wasn't happy although she tried to avoid him. One time Asuka saw them together and when Kaji came over, she was glaring hard. The bandages had been removed from her and her hair was back to normal, although she'd lost a few strands to the radiation it was well hidden.
"Who is THAT woman" she hissed quietly, trying not to bring any attention from anyone around them.
"And why is she looking at you like she is trying to get into bed with you" she asked very angrily. It would be something he would have to deal with until she lost the delusion that they were married.
She was going to be released today and the EVA UNIT 02 had been finished and was waiting for Asuka to be ready; although they had told Kaji to try and get her into the EVA.
What she did not know was that she wasn't going to be living with Kaji anymore and that she was to move in with 'THAT woman' and the other Unit pilot, Shinji.
Asuka was broken but not lost in the void of darkness that N.E.R.V. left her inside for so long in space. Her mind broken and fragmented by the solitude of space for so long.
Kaji had kept his focus on helping Asuka recover from this mental shielding her mind put up. Her illusions of him stopping her from taking her life. As much as he would try to keep her from taking her own life he was not there. Her romantic ideals of them together where not all to bad either but he was not there once again.
Her mental state was being held together with self delusion and fragments of him. False memories of a time they did not get to share together. His attempt to pull her from the current roster for mental safety was denied. Asuka was to be pulled from him and placed under the protection of Misato Katsuragi. Defeated Kaji knew there was nothing he could do about the situation.
Still he could work to recover Asuka's sanity. This cruel path she was placed upon by fate. Still he had to endure if she was going to make it. When confronted about the woman Kaji smiled and placed the reality. "Misato was an old flame and now she is your guardian. You will have to live with her and Shinji Ikari for the time being." Placing his right hand upon her shoulder he squeezed firmly. "I am going no where until we have you back and going. I would not abandon my girl still wounded."
Her things have all been gathered and already on the move. Kaji had to oversea the operation. He knew the cage around him was also coming to a close. He knew none of them knew that they had been dealing with a dead man walking. Still he had to push forward. A few nights before he had to kill a former friend who tried to take his life. Kaji had found the truth about the human instrumentality project, Rei and the Eva's.
This would be the last night of Asuka at Kaji's apartment in Japan even if her stay was short due to her time in the hospital. Knowing she might be angry about his news earlier he made one of her professed favourite meals and had a set of ice skates near the door. He wanted to see if she was ready to skate once more.
"Welcome home, Tomorrow is a big day but we can enjoy tonight. My dear Asuka."