Shinji stood stark naked in his apartment, reading a note left by Section 2. Another synch test. Wait, cross-synchronization experiment? Hmm, two hours from now. Maybe they have something on what Asuka's up to by now. He dressed and headed out.

He paused at the main intersection area within the pyramid. "Huh, this is where I realized I was lost. Maya was here. Reluctantly helpful."

Someone stopped their movement behind him with a stomp. "Ikari. I hope you're not lost again."

Shinji spun around with a smirk, "No, Ibuki. Just... plenty of time left before the test."

"Right. Another hour and a half, yet. Sempai will be pleased you're early. Not that she'll start the test earlier, of course." Maya checked the watch on her right wrist. "Well, I have to get going. Prep for these things takes significantly longer than the test itself, including the analysis afterward."

Wonder Boy wandered on into the complex. He swung by the mess hall; it was devoid of life. He obtained some sort of drink, pausing to look at the can: 'Southern Style Sweet Tea'. "Sure, because real home made tea has high fructose corn syrup." Popping the top of the can, he tried it anyway. Surprisingly not terrible. Shinji checked his cell phone. Only used up ten minutes. Oh well. He finally proceeded toward the bridge.

"You're not required for another one and a quarter hours, Shinji." Ritsuko didn't look up from her terminal; writing a million lines of code is one thing, doing that one-handed while sipping coffee AND reading a book was on a level Shinji had never dreamed possible.

"That's not why I came by early." He straightened his face and turned toward Misato, "Any word on ..."

Hyuga interrupted, "No. All communications with the battle group are still being actively blocked. No indication where it's coming from, either."

Misato hummed, "Isn't there a Hubble-class satellite in high orbit over the South Pole?"

Shinji grabbed a spare chair and slid to the console beside Hyuga; who was rattling away on his keyboard, "Records say we've got one there, but I can't ping it with radio transmissions."

Misato drifted over behind the two, Shinji now joining Hyuga's typing madness.

Wonder Boy had pulled up the specifications on the satellite in question, "Somebody was either crazy or a genius when they designed that series. Do we have a communications laser that can reach that area of space?"

Hyuga changed over his display to that of all active satellite traffic in Earth orbit, "Uh, yeah. Tons of them. That series has an omnidirectional receiver?"

"Apparently."

"Then all I need are the codes."

"Trans...fering to your station... now."

"Ah, got it. Okay. And..." Hyuga trailed off. Shinji and Misato leaned in towards Hyuga's screen.

With a cheer, he surprised the entire bridge, even Ritsuko was a little startled, "Please keep it down, we still have three million lines of code that won't write itself."

Misato turned her head toward Ritsuko, but didn't say anything; Shinji saw Huyga looking over his left shoulder toward Riktuko's position, but the poor man only saw the Major's chest. Shinji tapped a few keys at Hyuga's terminal, bringing up the video data from the satellite, "There, we have a visual."

Turning back to Hyuga's terminal, Misato requested, "Please, put it on the main screen." Shinji hit his enter key, completing the order.

The carrier group, outlined with a blue rectangle, was steadily headed towards what remained of the continent Antarctica. They were crossing a termination point of normal blue ocean into a sea of a red liquid.

Shinji wondered aloud, "Why is that water red?"

"That's the point of no return. If a person were to fall into that, they would die." Misato kept staring at the screen.

The boy leaned back in his chair, "But what is it, algae?"

He was surprised to hear Ritsuko answering, "We don't really know, Shinji. But algae would cycle back to green, eventually."

"Whatever that stuff is, it does not like humans." Misato shifted her feet, "Hyuga, keep monitoring the feed. I want to know if anything's going on with that fleet." She wandered over to a table beside Ritsuko's desk.

Still watching the satellite data, Shinji pointed at the screen, "Hey, what's that ripple a ways off to their east?"

Asuka stood on the deck outside the bridge of the destroyer carrying Liebkind. A gust of wind kicked up, fluttering her skirt and jacket. Mein gott, even Germany isn't as cold as this near-frozen hell. Her eyes widened as she felt her body tense, but not from the cold."Something's really off about all this..."

Every ship in the fleet started up a klaxon, signaling orders to prepare for a fight. "General quarters! This is not a drill! General quarters! All hands to battle stations!"

The redhead pulled a hand radio from her pocket and turned it on. 'Huge submerged object detected at zero niner zero. Target's velocity and course match the fleet's. Target has not displayed intent to intercept, but being submerged, we can't make contact.' The male voice was very calm and practiced.

'What is its estimated depth and size?' Gendo's voice was calm, but he still sounded colder than absolute zero.

'One hundred fifty meters down, and about... that can't be right... instruments indicate over a thousand meters long.'

'Fleet, protect the carrier at all costs. Do not, for any reason, enter the water. You will be killed if it contacts exposed skin.'

Ducking back into the ship, she headed down to the destroyer's main deck. She found a door to the stern of the ship that read 'Eva 02 - Emergency Use Only'. Asuka opened the door and walked through, grinning widely.

From the bridge of the carrier, Gendo and Kozo silently observed a battleship on the eastern edge of the battle group break in two, taking a hit from a spray-shrouded form from below. Next time, Ikari, tell them to only have skeleton crews aboard these ships. We really can't afford to lose everyone willing to fight to this hellish sea at the bottom of the world.

The Admiral picked up a radio microphone and pressed the large button on its side, "All ships, fire at will!"

Several ships launched torpedoes, missiles, and other ordinance at the dark form below the waves.

Kozo walked over to the Admiral's table, "Show the fleet's distribution and a sonar map." He turned to Gendo, "We'll need Unit 02, but there may be a way to succeed."

'This is Gepard Three, torpedoes ineffective. Will stray behind fleet to provide rescue.'

The Commander stepped over, joining the group looking over the battle on the table, "What do you have in mind, Professor?"

"I've never gone fishing with live bait before."

Asuka sat down on the chair inside the entry plug.

As she did, her radio barked to life with Gendo's voice, "Pilot Sohryu. Your services are required." Without sparing time to answer, she closed the plug and began the connection sequence.

Back on the bridge of the Nimitz-class carrier Gold Eagle, a radio operator called out, "Evangelion activating. HMS Illustrious is requesting to move closer to us, so the Eva can disembark to us easier."

"Admiral, what is the status of the umbilical system?" Gendo unflinchingly gazed at the Admiral.

The man swiped his finger across the tablet before him, "Installation is complete. If the Eva is the bait for your fishing expedition, what will be your net?"

Gendo turned to Kozo with a curious look on his face. Kozo answered them both, "This will require two battleships, scuttled along the path to the Angel. They will need to be rigged to fire remotely. Of course, we'll have to evacuate them too."

Liebkind lifted from the British carrier's deck clad in a light brown tarpaulin. Asuka turned off her personal radio, now having full use of her Eva. A dark box with the text 'Audio Only' popped up on her screen and a male voice said, "Eva Unit 02, we're going to move closer to the main carrier. Hold position."

If I wait here much longer, there won't be a carrier left. "Roger." She could only watch as two more ships burst apart from below, one after the other. The heads up display indicated distance marks to the various ships in the fleet. Gah! Another? That's it! "We don't have enough ships left to lazily drift me over to the carrier. Commander, I need to play hopscotch."

"The cable is attached and waiting, Pilot Sohryu. At your leisure." I think I can hear him grinning and pushing those glasses up his nose... Asuka couldn't help ginning herself, as she made Liebkind crouch in preparation.

"Gold Eagle, Red Rose, Yi Yang, and Peter Vilikiy, brace for impact. I repeat, brace for impact of landing by Evangelion. Evacuate forward sections of smaller craft. Gold Eagle will evac flight deck and the deck below."

She flipped around the fleet on her screen to an overhead view, simultaneously checking her peripheral camera feed. "Alright. One, two, three... and home." You can do this Asuka. "Come on!" With a yell, she started the game.

Landing upon the third vessel, Asuka paused Liebkind when she heard someone cry out over the radio, "This is Illustrious, requesting resc;" it ended in static. Stealing a split-second to peek at the peripheral view screen, Asuka saw the aircraft carrier's bow being forcibly separated from the rest of the vessel. Kaji's voice brought her back to the task at hand, "Asuka, I understand Alaska's nice this time of year." "What?! I'm not going anywhere -cold- for a long time, Kaji!" Liebkind made the final leap, just after the cruiser Red Rose was rammed mid-ship and began breaking in two. Landing on Gold Eagle's flight deck, the Red Giant's immense weight shifted the carrier nearly a hundred yards west, pitching the entire vessel past thirty degrees. Inside the carrier, anything not bolted down was sent flying; several aircraft flung out of the hanger below the flight deck to a blood-colored grave.

Kaji was the first to find his feet on the bridge and to survey the remains of the flight deck. He turned and grabbed the mic, "They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one."

She didn't respond, focusing on getting the cable plugged into her Evangelion, instead.

Kozo tapped Kaji's shoulder, then left an open hand waiting; the former spy glimpsed around behind himself and placed the mic
in the waiting hand. Kozo pressed the button, "Pil... Asuka. You're going to play fishing. Only this time, you're the bait."

"Eh? Uh, understood."

Capitulation, that'll work for now. Kozo lifted the mic near his face this time, "The cable will hold. Your job will be to get the Angel's mouth open and hold on tight. Don't lose it, we won't have enough ships left for a second try."

Asuka could see the Angel as a dark spot below the waves, it circled the remaining fleet like a shark after bloodied prey. "How the ficken-. Bait hangs on a hook. Wunderbar." She grumpily hopped off the flight deck, down into the blood-like sea. The redhead pushed another button on the side of the left yoke; responsively, the screen turned black and green, the words 'visual sonar' were displayed at the top. "Even with this thing, I can barely see." A box popped up with the text 'Audio Only', "Do you see the target yet? It should be coming around your left in five, four..." She looked at that peripheral screen again, "Yeah, I see it. It's ... headed right for me..." Her fear turned to horror as the Angel went right for her with a mouth full of large teeth.

Misato and Ritsuko looked over the main screen as Shinji and Rei occupied one another's Evangelion entry plugs. "Both psycographs are normal. Standing by to initiate cross-synchronization test." Maya kept her gaze on the terminal before her.

"Let's start with him first. Engage connection sequence." Ritsuko emotionlessly observed the different screens all at once.

Maya's terminal displayed Shinji's psychograph and the nerve connection board. As the connection past a marked halfway point, she stated, "Connections continue without error, nearing absolute border line."

Shinji watched the inside of the plug go through the connection sequence. He couldn't help scrunching his nose as he breathed in the scent within the plug. It smells like her. That is so weird. Mine just smells like blood... The screen changes stopped at a white noise. He lifted his eyebrows in curiosity.

Maya tilted her head at the data she was seeing, "Connection sequence appears to be interrupted." Her eyes drifted to the other part of her screen, "Graph indicates nominal from pilot."

Ritsuko leaned back in her chair, "It won't accept him, but no flat-out rejection?" She looked over other data from the Eva itself, "It looks like he won't be able to pilot Unit 00."

"Rejection occurring! Disconnect primary interlinks!" Maya and Ritsuko punched instructions into their terminals. The subordinate sighed in relief, "That was close."

Misato rested her hand on Ritsuko's shoulder, "What would happen if you didn't manually disconnect him?"

"Rejection leads to ejection of the plug... but in the form of the auto-ejection system." The scientist changed her screen data to that of Rei and Unit 01.

The Major closed her eyes briefly, "Right, like last time."

"Mhmm." Ritsuko turned toward Maya with a hopeful gaze, "Maybe Rei's attempt will succeed."

"Reversing cable! Pilot Sohryu, brace for impact!"

Asuka felt teeth clamped onto and into herself. Jarring from the cable tension extruded a grunt from her, "Just how much longer do i have to put up with this!?"

"Kamikaze One and Two open Kingston valves. Get to your life rafts!"

She stared into the belly of the beast that clung to her. That's definitely the S2 engine. How is it something so useful is condemned to destruction?

"Asuka, get that mouth open for the battleships. We have everything prepped and headed your way. Sixty-eight seconds to arrival. Godspeed." The blackened box labeled 'Audio Only' winked out of her display.

It was hard to relax with knives digging into your body. Knowing what was coming for the Angel trying to devour her... Asuka only barely saw something floating in the LCL in front of her face as her eyes and nose seemed irritated. Wait, I'm cry... What a waste. But I don't want to die and everyone above is counting on me. "Let's get this sheize over with, Liebkind."

The redhead focused on the task at hand and tried to move her Eva, but to no avail. "Temperamental at a time like this? Nein!" Asuka shoved the control yokes back and forth, "Come on! Of course I don't wanna die, dummkompf!" A computerized voice unobtrusively beeped into existence, "Fifteen seconds to weapon release."

Asuka turned Liebkind's head so she could see. Sure enough, the screen outlined the two battleships that were headed right for the Angel she was attached to. She snapped back to the core just out of reach. Asuka yelled as loud as she could, "Fine! Alright! I do want to see Wonder Boy when I get back!"

Liebkind's helmet split apart at the eyes, all four of which lit up like a sunrise. The Eva nearly ripped the Angel in half, but enough was left for the two ships to crash into. Their automatic fire control systems touched off every last bit of ordinance, putting Asuka out cold and sending Liebkind away toward the surface.