Chapter VIII

Settling In

'Activate.'

Rei braced herself. Hands on the controls, sit still. Just like Commander Ikari and Dr. Akagi told her. Stay perfectly still.

'Connect the main power supply and all circuits together.'

Control breathing. Don't breathe too hard. Remain very calm.

'Main power supply connected. Start on the activation system. Voltage increasing to the critical point: 0.5, 0.2...rising!'

'Start the second phase of the activation system.'

This was it.

'The pilot has commenced the joining.'

'Start System Phase II.'

Concentrate. That's what they said. Concentrate. Think of nothing else. What else was there to think about? Just concentrate.

Commander Gendo Ikari, Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki and Dr. Ritsuko Akagi all stood in the control room with several technicians.

'Synapses inserted. Junction started,' Lieutenant Shigeru Aoba called out.

'Pulses transmitted,' Lieutenant Maya Ibuki confirmed.

'All circuits are operational.'

'The initial contact has no problems.'

'Power has been transmitted up to the brachial muscle in both arms. There are no problems with the nerve links.'

'Checked. Up to 2550 on the list satisfied.'

Ritsuko nervously cracked her knuckles. At times like these, she could really go for a cigarette. This was it. Unit-00's activation test. It was all about to happen right now. Come on. The graph began building up...all green...approaching the borderline...

'Up to 2580 satisfied. Until the absolute borderline, 0.9, 0.7, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, pulses are beginning to flow back!'

The graph began beeping loudly.

'Problems encountered on the third stage. Rejection is setting in on the nerve center elements.

'Stop the contacts. Break the circuits up to 6th.'

'Negative! The signal's not being received!'

'Unit-00 is out of control!'

The huge armour-plated humanoid tore its shoulders away from the wall. Rei did not panic. Her eyes widened. She was certain this was not correct. Sit still. That's what they told her. So she would comply.

'Stop the experiment,' Commander Ikari said. 'Cut off the power supply.'

'Yes, sir.'

Ritsuko smashed the glass on the emergency switch, and pulled the handle inside. The umbilical cable quickly released from Unit-00's back.

'Unit-00's power supply has been switched to standby.'

The leviathan lurched forward, muffled roars coming from under its helmet.

'35 seconds until complete standstill!' Shigeru yelled.

A colossal fist smashed into the window, leaving dents in the walls.

'Sir—it's dangerous! Step back!' Ritsuko shouted. Gendo was standing right in front of the glass.

'Auto-ejection system engaging!' Maya shouted.

'Damn it!' Gendo shouted.

'Time until the complete standstill: Ten, nine, eight, seven...'

The Entry Plug, containing Rei, shot out of the Evangelion's neck, sparking against the ceiling and wall, before finally stopping on the ground.

'Special Bakelite release! Now! Hurry!' Ritsuko ordered.

'Rei!' Gendo cried, real worry in his voice, something that was not heard often.

'Six, five, four, three, two, one...zero. Complete standstill confirmed.'

Gendo ran down the steps and into the experimentation room. The entry plug lay there, steaming. He grabbed the door handles, and jumped back. His glasses fell to the ground and melted. The handles were super-heated. Gendo felt his palms blister and bubble, instantly becoming irreparably damaged. He frantically pulled on the handles. A lot of steam blew up in to his face.

The door was finally open. Orange liquid drained on to the floor. It had the stench of coagulating blood.

'Rei! Are you all right? Rei?'

Rei's eyes opened. Gendo stared into her crimson irises with relief. She bled a little from her forehead.

'Okay,' Gendo said, with a smile.

'Demolition of Block-D3 has finished. Please submit all data to the analysis group of the 1st Division of Engineering Bureau.'

'Ah, this is the Angel, isn't it?' the Doctor asked. 'Look at that. It's actually quite beautiful.'

'Yes, but it's our enemy, Doctor,' Ritsuko replied. 'Don't get carried away.'

'I never was one for dissection, myself,' the Doctor said. 'So. You've been looking at Angel guts all week.'

'If you wish to summarise it, then yes,' Ritsuko said. 'Oh dear. Here comes trouble.'

The Doctor turned. Misato was coming towards him. 'Captain Katsuragi! I haven't seen you in a few days!'

'Ritsuko? What's going on? He's not supposed to be here.'

'The Commander just let him join.'

'Like that? I've never heard Commander Ikari to be so...so...'

'Amenable?' Ritsuko asked, playfully.

'Yes, thank you, Ms. Walking Thesaurus.'

'Well, I'm very persuasive,' the Doctor added. 'He also allowed my friend, Amy, to join.'

'Oh. Did he, now?'

'Yes! So we're your new members. She's not here at the moment, she's in the Command Center.'

'Good.'

There was an awkward pause.

'Well, anyway, I have some good news,' Ritsuko said, trying to break the ice. 'Unit-00 is working again, and Rei is pretty much up and walking, so we're ready to test it again.'

'Ah, that's good,' Misato said. 'What caused the last incident, anyway?'

'We still don't know. The primary cause is believed to be mental instability in the pilot.'

'Mental instability? In Rei?'

'Yes. We believe she was much more disturbed than we could expect.'

'What happened?'

'I don't know, but she might have...'

'Do have an idea?'

'No...that can't be...'

Shinji suddenly came up behind Misato wearing a hard hat. 'Hey, Misato,' he said. 'Ritsuko, Doctor.'

'Hi, Shinji,' Misato replied. 'Doctor, have you met Shinji? He's one of our pilots.'

'Yes, we have met before,' the Doctor replied. 'He's the only person to have shaken my hand so far.'

'So, is this the Angel?' he asked, peering up at the purple creature.

'We're lucky, actually,' Ritsuko said. 'We have a mostly-intact core and body. I'm very grateful for it.'

'Well, do you know anything new?' Misato asked. Ritsuko took the three into a room with a computer. She tapped on the keyboard. The number '601' flashed up.

'What does that mean?' the Doctor asked, intrigued.

'That means "inanalysable",' Ritsuko replied. 'Our computers can't read the substance the Angel is composed of.'

'So you know nothing new at all?'

'Only that they're composed of matter with the properties of both particles and waves, like light.'

'You did find its power source, didn't you?'

Ritsuko sighed. 'Nothing on its working mechanism, unfortunately.'

'We've finally found something that stumps even you,' Misato said, half-jokingly.

'We do have the Angel's inherent wave pattern,' Ritsuko said, showing the three others.

'Hang on a moment,' the Doctor said, looking at it.

'What?' Misato asked.

'Well, it looks to me as if the constituent elements of it are the same, but the coordinates of these signals are quite similar to that human control group. Angel genes are 99.89% similar to human genes?'

'Well done, Doctor,' Ritsuko said. 'And we can't figure out why.'

Misato suddenly turned to see Shinji peering round a corner. 'Shinji, what's wrong?'

'Ah...no, nothing. Nothing's wrong.'

'Well, you say that, but what you also seem to be saying is, "Ah, please take care of me. Worry about me, please."'

'Well, it's Father. He seems to have burned his hands on something.'

'Burned?'

'I was wondering what happened.'

'Do you know, Ritsuko?'

Ritsuko sighed. 'Before you came here, Shinji, Unit-00 went out of control during the activation experiment. You've heard about that, right?'

'Yes.'

'The pilot was trapped inside.'

'It was Ayanami, wasn't it?'

'Yes. Your father pulled open the super-heated hatch to save her.'

'Father did that...?'

'Your father sounds like a brave man,' the Doctor said.

'Yeah,' Shinji replied. 'I guess.'

'Who is this "Ayanami"?' the Doctor asked, intrigued.

'Another of our pilots, Doctor.' Misato said. 'She was a pilot before Shinji.'

'Ah! That reminds me!' Ritsuko cried, grabbing an envelope from inside the desk. 'I forgot to give Rei her new card. Would you mind taking it to her, Shinji?'

'Certainly,' Shinji replied.

'Good boy,' she said, handing him the envelope.

The speck in the distance sat still. It was too early. When the time was right, it would move a little bit further towards the shore. But now was not the time. Patience.

Not yet.

All characters, settings, and boxes of a blue time-travelling nature are owned by Studio GAINAX and the British Broadcasting Corporation, and other affiliates. I own none of these things. Please don't sue me. I don't like being sued.

Author's note: I apologise if this chapter seems rather mediocre. I decided to experiment by using lines from the script. It didn't come out too well. Sorry about that. See you for Chapter IX!