Chapter 13
Misato stared across the table at the fidgeting girl in front of her. Despite the extreme lateness of the hour, and how incredibly tired she felt, this had to be done now.
"I'm not actually upset with you at all, Asuka," she said. "But while I can certainly understand that you want to do everything possible for him, I don't know what you expected to accomplish by... that."
Asuka nodded but kept her face downcast, trying to hide her embarrassment. "It... it wasn't just for him, Misato," the girl mumbled, not daring to lift her gaze from the table. "I did it for... myself as well."
Misato drew back slightly, then narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. She rested her elbows on the table and, without even thinking about it, dropped into the exact pose of her predecessor. The effect it had on Asuka was unnerving to say the least when she raised her head, and only served to make her stutter and stammer as she tried to get her explanation out. A tiny smirk broke out on Misato's face once she noticed what she had done.
"Calm down. Take your time and think carefully about what you are going to say." Misato watched Asuka take several deep breaths, before finally looking into her guardian's eyes. "Proceed."
It all started reasonably enough. A couple of weeks ago, another nightmare had forced Asuka from her bed and into the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face. The return to her bed had been halted by the sound of mumbling originating from Shinji's room.
The boy was once again tossing and turning on his bed, the bedclothes thrown almost completely off of him. She rushed to his side and grasped one of his feebly waving hands, placing one of hers on his forehead to try and soothe him. The physical contact worked once more, and Shinji finally calmed down.
The reason why Asuka didn't return to her own bed that night began with the death grip Shinji maintained on her hand. She certainly didn't want to wake him up after helping to finally drive away whatever was currently tormenting him, so she replaced his blankets as best as she could and sat down next to the bed, hoping that his hand would relax as his sleep became less terror-filled.
Before she knew it, it was suddenly morning. Despite the physical aches from such an awkward sleeping position, it had been one of the most restful nights Asuka ever had. While there had been no dreams that she could recall, there had been no nightmares either. Misato was awake, preparing... something for her breakfast, but didn't notice Asuka sneaking back into her room.
The next week would see the redhead occasionally return to Shinji's bedside and repeat her actions. While she considered the cricks in her neck a small price to pay for a guaranteed night of peaceful slumber, her body didn't see it that way, and began to loudly complain about her new and uncomfortable sleeping arrangement.
A thought then occurred one night as she sat down beside the bed, once that turned Asuka's face the same colour as her hair. It was a rather simple solution to both the problem of her aches, and that of combating the nightmares for both of them. Her mind went to war with itself for a few minutes, trying to both justify the idea and condemn it.
'Just being close to him is enough to banish our nightmares, and we have the same effect on him.'
'I can't do this! I can't sleep in the same bed as him!'
'Why not? It's not like he'll notice.'
'But it's... I'd be taking advantage of him! I felt bad enough just considering telling him to hold my shopping!'
'All you're doing is sharing his bed. You're not ordering him to do anything, and it will ensure that you both can sleep well.'
'What if Misato comes in and sees us?'
'Yeah right. She's always either asleep before us, or coming home late at night. Work keeps her so busy, she'll never notice.'
Asuka mentally stumbled for a moment, but rallied quickly. 'He's a boy, I'm a girl. It's just not right for us to sleep in the same room, let alone the same bed.'
'That's a terrible excuse and you know it. You've fallen asleep next to him how many times now?'
'But...'
'And don't try to pretend you haven't thought about it before. You wanted him to hold you that time in the kitchen, but he didn't. What was the first thing you thought of when you went to bed that night after you pretended to clean your mouth out?'
That was a low blow. 'Damnit... don't make me remember that night...'
'Just admit it, you're curious. What would it feel like to wake up to the warmth of someone else? To wake up and no longer feel lonely? To wake up and not be drenched in sweat again after yet another bad night?'
Asuka could not find a suitable retort. She was so incredibly sick of the nightmares, that she had once declared to herself that she would do anything to get them to stop. But... could she do this?
'Just try it once. What have you got to lose, besides the nightmares?'
"...Fine," Asuka softly whispered. She pulled back the blankets on Shinji's bed and gently, very gently, pushed the boy towards the other side of the bed to give herself some space. She then climbed into bed next to him, turning to put her back to Shinji before pulling the blankets back up.
There was barely enough space on the bed for one person, let alone two. Asuka felt like she would fall off during the night, and the sensation of Shinji's arm poking into her back made her feel strange. It was a struggle to banish the thought of that arm wrapped around her, but she eventually managed it shortly before drifting off.
While she had woken up with a mop of brown hair almost directly in her face, her brain turned on right before she could let out a surprised shriek that would likely have woken the entire floor.
All in all, it was the best goddamn night of sleep she had gotten in a decade, and she wanted more.
It was just too bad that the next night would see Misato come home and look in on Shinji.
Her guardian's intense stare bored into Asuka's head as she told her tale. She left out the fight she had lost -or had she won?- against herself, however.
Misato lowered her hands to the table. "I see. Asuka, why did you never think to speak to someone, to get help with your nightmares?"
"Because I thought I could deal with them myself!" Asuka angrily replied. "I've had them for ten years, Misato, and they haven't broken me yet!"
"No, they haven't," Misato said, reaching across the table to place a gentle hand over Asuka's trembling fists. "You're a strong girl, Asuka, but even the strong need support sometimes. I will still be there for you if you ever need a hand. Ignore the fact that I'm now the Commander of NERV-" A gasp of shock escaped from Asuka, to which Misato shook her head. "That doesn't matter here. Remember that I am your friend and guardian first, before being your superior officer."
Asuka bowed her head slightly. "So what are you going to do? I know I shouldn't be sleeping in his bed, but..." she trailed off, trying not to think of returning to her room and her loneliness.
Misato yawned loudly, before standing up. "Like it or not, you two kids obviously need each other. I'm not going to pretend I understand why your nightmares stop when you're together, but you still can't just share a bed." Asuka opened her mouth to protest, but Misato raised a hand to silence her. "Especially not that cot in Shinji's room. So how does this sound?"
The girl's first instinct was to shout down the idea but the other part of her mind, the one that she had gone to war with, shoved a mental picture in front of her face. Herself, sitting up in a sweat-soaked bed and shivering violently in the moonlight. That was enough for her to agree.
Her bed was shoved against the exit to the balcony -she never used that door anyway- and two spare futons were laid out in her room. Asuka recognised them as the same ones all three of them had used during the week of synchronisation training. While Asuka got herself comfortable in one of them, Misato brought Shinji in to lay him out in the other.
Just as Misato was about to turn the light out and leave, she snapped her fingers as she remembered something.
"Oh right, with everything that just happened I almost forgot to ask," Misato said as she knelt down beside the girl. "The Evangelions are, hah, safe now, and Ritsuko would like to know if you'd be willing to get back into Unit-02, to find out if your mother is still in there. She wants to get Shinji into his as well. Something about how the neural connection might work better than the medical scanners, but she wants another Eva on standby just in case..." She struggled to find a suitable answer.
Asuka sat up. "In case Unit-01 goes berserk," she quietly finished for Misato.
The tired woman gave a slow nod and a deep sigh. "Yeah. Don't feel like you have to do this though. I made it perfectly clear that I will never force someone to pilot if they don't want to. I'm the Commander of NERV now, so what I say goes. Just say the word and you'll never have to see the inside of an entry plug again."
The girl looked to her right, where Shinji was still fast asleep. "Ask me again in the morning."
"You have some time to decide. Ritsuko still doesn't trust the Evangelions, so she's testing the hell out of them. I told her to let someone else do it and get some rest, but she insisted that she had to see the results herself."
To Asuka's surprise, Misato leant down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before standing up. She repeated the gesture on Shinji before leaving the room, turning off the light and closing the door on her way out.
Asuka laid back down and stared at the ceiling for a while. Her right hand gently snaked out of her futon, curling itself around the left hand of the boy next to her.
"Mama," she whispered to herself. "Will I see you again?"
A couple of days later, when the call came in that the Evangelions were ready, Asuka dropped onto the couch beside Misato one morning after breakfast. "Why does that bottle-blonde think the Evas will succeed where the medical scanners failed?"
"Um, she's stopped dying her hair now, Asuka," Misato replied.
"Wait, what? When?"
Misato admitted she wasn't quite sure when it had started. Right now her friend's hair was an odd mix of blonde and brunette, but Ritsuko did not seem to care at all how it looked.
When Misato had summoned the nerve to ask her friend about it, Ritsuko had said, "Maya convinced me. I came back from Instrumentality with blonde hair because that was how I saw myself. Just like how that Suzuhara boy returned with both arms. When my hair started to grow in brown again, Maya stopped me when I reached for the dye and said that she wanted to see me with my natural colour."
"Great," Asuka sarcastically commented after Misato finished the explanation. "Now I can't use that insult anymore."
Misato simply shook her head in disbelief. "Anyway when I asked Rits to explain about the Evas, she got excited and started babbling science at me," she replied. "I think she said something about how they're far more sensitive, but would obviously only work on you pilots. She just wasn't even going to consider that option until the Evas have their armour back on."
"Makes sense I suppose. Last thing we need is an out-of-control Eva bringing NERV down around our heads. Especially Unit-01 with it's S2 Organ."
A shudder rippled through Misato's body at the thought of a raging Evangelion, without the major weakness of a limited operating time. The only thing that could stand a chance of stopping it would be another Eva.
"That's why you would be going first. You'll get to see if your mother came back with Unit-02, and then help us restrain Unit-01 if necessary."
Asuka sighed and leaned back against the couch, rubbing her face with both hands. "Alright, let's just go and get this over with," she declared as she jumped to her feet.
Shinji was collected and the trio made their way down the stairs to the parking lot. Asuka got in the back with Shinji and buckled him in. Misato's insane driving habits had not been deterred in the slightest by the state of Tokyo-3's roads. Her tongue was sticking out of her mouth in concentration as she ducked and weaved around what little traffic there was. Only when the Renault was locked into the car train and descending into the Geofront did Misato relax and speak up.
"I thought you would have been more enthusiastic about getting to pilot again," she said.
"I was," replied Asuka, grabbing hold of the front seats and pulling herself forward. "When you told me about how the Evas mysterious reappeared in the cages, I was ecstatic for a moment. But then I remembered my mother speaking to me in Instrumentality. I started questioning whether or not she could possibly be in Unit-02 as well. That... kind of blunted my enthusiasm. I stopped thinking about it for a while because the Evas needed to be checked over. Last night when you broke the news to me, that same question came back."
"What do you hope the answer will be?"
Asuka slumped back into her seat. "I still don't know..."
The girl's melancholy expression copied itself to Misato's face, and the car was silent as she drove off the train when it docked and proceeded at a sedate pace into NERV HQ.
Misato took Shinji's hand when the trio were out of the car. "I'll take him with me while you go change into your plugsuit.
"Fine, I don't need him peeking in on me anyway."
The new Commander of NERV halted in her tracks and sighed as she turned back to face the girl. "Asuka, you know he would never do that, even if he were lucid."
Asuka didn't feel like arguing, and simply waved her hand in dismissal as she trotted off to the changing room. She had originally believed that Shinji was just like his stooge friends when first arriving in Japan, but the only time she could have rightfully called him a pervert was when Pen-Pen had startled her into running out of the bathroom naked.
The look on his incredibly red face had driven Asuka to reflexively deliver a kick that had obviously told the boy what to expect if he ever tried to sneak a peek. Since then, Shinji apparently did not even so much as think of it, to Asuka's very well hidden disappointment.
Around her, NERV's hallways were busy. Almost every employee had been accounted for by this point. Asuka stood and stared at the sign above the door leading into the female changing rooms for a moment, as people walked past her carrying documents and tools. Someone soon bumped into her, and she scurried into the room with an apology directed at her back. Her locker was yanked open, and Asuka stared at its contents. Inside, just like every other time, a fresh plugsuit in a sealed bag awaited her.
The feeling of the red suit on her bare skin felt strange after several months spent entirely in normal clothing. She shivered slightly as the cold plastic started to leech the heat from her body. Asuka almost jumped into the shower to warm back up, but a knock at the door interrupted her.
"Asuka, we're waiting for you," came a shy voice from the other side. "Is everything alright?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine," Asuka called back. The shower would have to wait. She opened the door and almost walked into Lieutenant Ibuki, who apologised and stepped aside.
"Doctor Akagi's busy setting everything up, and Maj- Commander Katsuragi is attending to a phone call, but said she would be there when we begin the activation test."
Asuka said nothing, and merely nodded at the woman before striding off to the cages. Perhaps it was her gait, or maybe it was the bright red of her plugsuit, but whereas before the NERV employees seemed to pay her little attention, now they stood well aside as she passed. Some even nodded at her as they passed.
Cage Three, the resting place of Unit-02, was a hive of activity. Work crews swarmed all over the Evangelion and the catwalks surrounding it, performing last-minute checks on the behemoth. An entry plug was open, ready to receive the pilot. Asuka spent a couple of minutes staring into the giant green eyes of Unit-02 before climbing into the plug.
"Did I miss anything?" Misato asked as she stepped off the elevator and walked towards the balcony overlooking the lower level of the command centre. Ritsuko and the bridge officers were busy at their consoles, while Shinji sat in a chair nearby facing the holographic screen.
Shigeru answered without looking up from his terminal. "Negative, Commander. Pilot Soryu has just entered the plug and we're beginning activation."
"Good. Open a channel." Makoto tapped some buttons on his console, and then turned to nod at Misato. "Asuka, how are you feeling?"
A giant communication window appeared on the holographic display before them. "I'm fine, Mis- Commander."
Misato smiled wryly. "Just stick with calling me by my name. Hearing you call me 'Commander' makes me feel old. Begin activation test." She looked down as the officers below her jumped to action, before muttering to herself, "Screw this..."
Ritsuko looked up to see Misato walking away. "Commander?" she called out
"Just a second!"
Misato walked out onto the same level as the scientist. At a raised eye from Ritsuko, she explained, "That stupid desk up there might have been fine for Ikari, but I don't have an ego problem like his." Misato then walked over to where Shinji sat and rested a hand on his shoulder.
On the screen, Asuka quietly sat with her eyes closed as the LCL filled her plug. The orange liquid flowed over her head, and an explosion of bubbles appeared as she breathed out before sucking in a lungful of the oxygenated fluid. Misato tuned out the technicians as they went through the activation process and focused on the girl in front of her.
The giant red machine rumbled to life for the first time in several months, and Asuka once more found herself feeling like her limbs were too long for a moment as the cage appeared in her vision upon opening her eyes.
"Evangelion Unit-02 is activated. Synchronisation holding at... 37%?" the surprised voice of Ritsuko broke in. "Considering everything that's happened, you're doing very well, Asuka."
"Of course I am," Asuka muttered. The low synchronisation percentage didn't bother her as much as it would have last year. She was a bit out of practice after all, and this was an activation test, not a sync test or a combat scenario. As such, she didn't feel like expending unnecessary effort until she had to. "Now please be quiet while I try to see if my mother is in here."
Asuka switched off the comm window and leaned back in the command couch. She already felt like she knew what the answer would be. Despite the warmth of the LCL surrounding her, the entry plug still felt cold and lifeless. With the benefit of hindsight, Asuka now knew exactly what she had felt every other time.
The warmth of a mother's embrace.
Deciding that there was no harm in trying anyway, Asuka closed her eyes again and started to concentrate, conjuring up old thoughts of her mother's face.
"Mama," she whispered. "Are you in here?"
"Sync ratio is slowly climbing," reported Makoto. "39%. 42%. Holding steady at 45%"
"Did she do it?" Misato asked.
Ritsuko shook her head. "It's unknown at this time. The Evangelions are supposed to require a soul to connect with their pilots. If Asuka truly did see her mother in Instrumentality, though, then that would mean that Kyoko Zeppelin-Soryu is no longer in Unit-02. But if that's the case, how did it activate and synchronise so easily?" She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Despite her position as the single living woman who knew the most about the Evangelions, they never failed to give her headaches. "I would open the comm, but I have a suspicion that all I'd get is some angry German words from her before she closed it again."
Misato nodded in agreement. "Let's just wait for her to call us, then."
Thirty long, pensive minutes passed. During that time, Asuka's sync ratio continued to slowly climb, and eventually stabilised at 50%. A warning chime sounded on Maya's console, and she took a moment to digest the information.
"Commander, The MAGI have just detected an anomaly out in the ocean near Tokyo-3," she announced.
Misato turned to look at the lieutenant. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure. It was only there for a second, not long enough to get a useful reading."
"Keep a close eye on it. It may just be a glitch in our systems, but let's not take chances."
Five minutes afterwards, the comm window opened, and Misato's heart sank as she took in the defeated expression on Asuka's tired face.
"She's... gone. Mama's not in here anymore..."
"Damnit," Misato swore. "Alright, I'm sorry to hear that, Asuka. It's not much consolation, but your sync ratio has increased to 50%. I knew you wouldn't take long to boost it. I'll take Shinji to the change rooms and we can get started on Unit-01."
"Wait," Asuka said. "Let me take him. I need a few minutes to clear my head before I start guarding him anyway."
A sidelong glance at Ritsuko was returning with a grudging nod, and the scientist ordered the shutdown sequence to commence. "We'll take half an hour to look over the data we collected during this test and prepare Unit-01. That will also give us a bit of time to charge Unit-02's battery." Ritsuko said. As a precaution, Unit-02 had been running entirely on umbilical power, with no power in reserve. "You may as well go get some lunch while you're at it."
Nearby, ignored during the proceedings, nobody noticed the convulsing of Shinji's right hand as his blank stare remained locked on the redhead in front of him. By the time Asuka exited the Evangelion and arrived in the command centre, the twitching had stopped.
When Asuka reached the command centre, an LCL-stained towel thrown over one shoulder, Shinji was already standing up and moving towards her, as if he knew what was coming.
Placing a hand on his chest to stop him, Asuka examined his eyes for a moment. At first glance they appeared as empty as ever, but she could swear that there was now the faintest glimmer of life. He still didn't react to her close proximity however, and Asuka sighed in disappointment before taking him to the cafeteria.
A quick lunch of hot soup was consumed. Asuka knew from long experience that it was not a very good idea to have a large meal before stepping into an Evangelion. The taste of LCL in her mouth still sometimes made her stomach lurch, even more so now that she knew where exactly the LCL had originated from.
As the pair were about to leave, a doctor walked into the cafeteria and called out to someone, joining them at their table. The sight of a stethoscope around his neck made Asuka remember the results of surgery on Shinji's hand as she proceeded to the change rooms again.
The day after most of the medical personnel had returned, Misato had requested an expert to come in and reset the bones in Shinji's hand. The procedure had been quick and efficient, although the doctor did express some concern at the boy's utter lack of reaction to what was happening.
When asked what could have caused the injury, the man remarked that he had seen many injuries like this before, and the most common cause was a punch delivered to something unyielding, like a tree or wall. He had then asked whether Shinji was known to have anger problems, and Ritsuko had to hurriedly step in to change the subject, not wishing to reveal the boy's mental issues.
The thought of what could have caused Shinji to lash out and hurt himself occasionally popped up in both Asuka and Misato's minds, as it did now. However, Asuka's sudden arrival at the pilot changing rooms broke her out of her musing.
Getting Shinji into his plugsuit turned out to be depressingly easy, as without waiting for instruction he walked into the male side. Asuka almost followed him in, but she had to turn away with a red face as Shinji began unceremoniously disrobing in the middle of the room.
That didn't stop her from peeking through the almost-closed door with a sense of morbid curiosity.
'Good thing Misato isn't here,' she thought. 'I don't need her telling me off for what I always accused Shinji of. She would be cackling for- oh mein Gott...'
Shinji's shirt dropped to the floor, and Asuka got a full view of just how badly his physique had changed ever since the time all three pilots had to do a simulation test naked. Back then, Shinji had at least looked somewhat athletic, if a bit on the skinny side. Now he looked like someone recovering from anorexia. The regular meals and walks had begun to fill him out again, but there was no muscle definition anywhere on his body.
Turning away from the door, Asuka made a mental note to speak with Suzuhara about getting Shinji some more exercise. The sound of a clearing throat made her look up into the serious-looking face of Misato. Cursing her premature relief at the woman's absence, she began to explain what she had been doing, but Misato spoke first.
"Don't worry, Asuka. I know what you saw," she said, sitting on a bench on the other side of the hallway and patting the seat next to her. "That unhappy expression told me everything."
Asuka remembered that it was Misato who was the one that occasionally bathed Shinji, and snapped her mouth shut. She sat down next to the woman and the two of them waited patiently for the boy to exit.
"It breaks my heart every time I see how much of a twig my boy has become," Misato said. "But we can only do so much for someone in his state."
"I was just thinking that we should get Suzuhara to help out," replied Asuka.
"He's the tall one, right?"
"Yeah, the one who's always holding hands with my best friend."
"Hmm. I suppose we could try that, but..." Misato trailed off.
Asuka had a good idea of what her guardian was trying to say. "But you don't feel right ordering Shinji around like that," she finished for Misato, who nodded while staring at the changing room door. "I know, I have the same feeling sometimes."
"You know why that is, don't you?" Misato asked, glancing at Asuka. At the girl's confused look, Misato threw an arm around her shoulder. "It's because we both care about him too much."
Asuka grumbled incoherently, but otherwise declined to comment.
A moment later, the door opened and Shinji stepped out in his blue and white plugsuit. The skintight uniform did absolutely nothing to disguise the boy's depleted frame. Misato sighed and let go of Asuka.
"Well, let's go," she said as she stood up. "We've got Unit-01 in the test chamber, so take him there while I head to the observation room."
Once again, Shinji seemed to know exactly what he was expected to do. Asuka stood on the catwalk in front of Unit-01's face and watched Shinji climb into the entry plug.
The mood in the test chamber was much less lively than in her own Evangelion's cage. The work crew assigned to Unit-01 barely spoke to each other, quietly getting everything ready. Asuka idly noted that the restraints holding the purple machine to the wall were almost twice as thick as the ones in the cages.
'Makes sense, I suppose,' she thought. 'The Evas don't always seem to... like being tested.'
As soon as the hatch closed on Shinji's entry plug and the catwalks began retracting, Asuka ran to her own entry plug and got in. Unit-02 came to life once more, and when the clamps released she walked the behemoth over to the entrance to the test chamber.
"Unit-02 in position," she reported as she brought the machine to a halt.
"Acknowledged, Pilot Soryu," answered a male voice over her comm. "Bakelite injectors are prepped and ready, but Doctor Akagi isn't confident of their ability to keep Unit-01 from breaking out."
"I'll try to keep the Third from breaking anything if his outdated piece of junk goes mental." Asuka couldn't help but let a bit of her old self through as she spoke. She decided it must have been the returning sensation of power she could feel in the machine.
Ritsuko's voice came through. "We'll be counting on you, Asuka, but be careful. Your battery still isn't fully charged, so you won't have the full five minutes if something happens to your cable."
"Understood, I'll make it quick."
In the observation room, Ritsuko looked over Maya's shoulder at the young woman's screen. "Let us hope you can. We don't know if we can reliably shut down the S2 Organ Unit-01 consumed, so don't let it turn into an endurance fight. Weapons are free, and you're clear to forcibly remove Shinji's entry plug if you feel that you won't be able to subdue Unit-01 itself."
"You just do what you can, and I'll do what I do best," Asuka curtly replied, closing the communication channel. Ritsuko shot a despairing look at Misato, who simply shook her head. The scientist stood up straight and gave the order for the test to begin.
Nothing happened.
"Is something wrong?" Ritsuko demanded.
"The signal was sent, ma'am," Shigeru reported. "But Unit-01 rejected it."
"Try again."
The nothingness repeated itself.
While the two male technicians worked to find the problem, with Ritsuko leaning over them, Maya spun around in her chair. "Commander, that strange reading has returned," she reported. "Closer to shore this time too."
"Any indication of what it is yet? A stray submarine or something?"
"Negative. It disappeared again. I'm running scans on the area though. Hopefully next time the MAGI will be able to get a solid reading."
Misato folded her arms. "Whatever it is, I don't like it. Let me know the second you get something."
"Aye, Commander." Maya turned back to her console, and Misato looked back up at the holographic screen which showed Shinji in his entry plug. Nearby, Ritsuko stood upright and once again gave the order for the activation to begin.
For a moment, it seemed as if the third attempt had been a failure as well, but then...
"Evangelion Unit-01 is active!" came the voice of Makoto.
"Sync ratio is climbing. 60%. 75%." A gasp of alarm exited Shigeru's mouth. "92! Unit-01 has passed 100% sync!"
"What?!" yelled Ritsuko. "Is Unit-01 trying to absorb Shinji again?!"
Shigeru stared at his screen for a moment, then sighed in relief. "Negative. Unit-01's sync ratio has halted at 160%. It's now slowly falling."
Misato let out the breath she had been unaware she was holding. "How is Shinji?" she asked. On the screen, the boy in question had his eyes closed and appeared to have been unaffected by the sudden event.
"Everything seems normal now, Commander," answered Ritsuko, looking between the technician's screens. "We're finally getting information on Shinji's brain patterns too. I'm going to have to take some time to analyse all this data with the MAGI, but it looks like my plan worked!"
"Well that's one piece of good news at least," Misato remarked. "That's enough, let's shut it down for now." Before her friend could voice a protest, she continued. "I don't want to push Shinji too hard. If you need more data, we can perform another test later."
Ritsuko sighed, but acquiesced. "Very well. The data we've collected today should be enough for now. Begin shutdown sequence."
The frown on Makoto's face as he turned around told the scientist what was happening before he even spoke. "Unit-01 rejected the signal, ma'am," he said, confirming her fears.
Asuka was about to re-open the channel and ask what was happening. It had been close to five minutes since the activation started, and from her perspective Unit-01 had simply remained still. Just as her finger was about to press the comm button, a jolt of movement from the purple behemoth in front of her drew her attention.
Unit-01's head shot up from where it had been laying against its chest. It began twitching up and down slightly, almost as if it were sniffing the air. The giant slowly scanned the room, stopping for a moment upon noticing the observation window before continuing. When it saw Unit-02, something akin to a low growl emanated from its sealed mouth.
Asuka leaned into a fighting stance, moments before Unit-01 threw itself against the restraints securing it to the back wall of the test chamber. The sound of stressed metal was loud enough to reach into Asuka's entry plug, and the girl winced at the noise.
"Misato," she called, opening the comm channel. "Is Shinji alright?"
"Ritsuko says that he's fine," Misato answered over the noise in the background after a few seconds. "But his sync ratio is fluctuating wildly and Unit-01's refusing to acknowledge our commands, so get ready. Those restraints aren't going to last long."
"Let me talk to him. Maybe I can calm him down."
"You can try, but we lost visual as soon as his Eva started tearing itself free."
A second video screen opened, showing nothing but static. In front of her, one of Unit-01's leg restraints finally gave way, separating from the wall. The purple Evangelion paused for a moment and growled again at Unit-02, shaking the broken clamp off its leg.
With the pause, Asuka finally detected something on the very edge of her hearing coming from the static-filled comm window. She closed the channel to the observation chamber to remove one distraction, and turned up the volume on the other as far as she could.
"Zzzzzzopzzzzzzzstopzzzzz."
"Shinji?" Asuka hesitantly called out. "Can you hear me?"
The static diminished slightly, and Shinji's trembling voice came in slightly clearer, as did the image of his entry plug. "No... stop... stop it..."
Asuka took a slow step towards Unit-01. As soon as her foot contacted the floor, the growling of the purple Evangelion grew louder. It reminded Asuka of a guard dog giving a warning to an intruder. For now it appeared to be struggling with the remaining restraints.
"Shinji, please calm down."
The static cleared. The boy was now growling through clenched teeth, his eyes squeezed shut. "Stop it... leave me alone..."
Through the comm window, Asuka could hear the sound of creaking plastic. Shinji was gripping the controls so tightly that the handles were beginning to warp in his hands. Deciding to play it safe, she moved back a pace, putting her back at the entryway to the chamber. However, her slow retreat was not enough to stop Unit-01 ripping its other leg free.
'Scheiße,' Asuka thought. Out loud she said, "What's the matter, Shinji? Don't you recognise my voice?"
Shinji's shot open. His eyes were like pinpricks as he glared through the comm window at her. "You're not Asuka!" he screamed, and Unit-01's jaw locks shattered as it roared with him.
Later, Asuka would have to watch a recording to see what happened. One moment the two Evangelions were separated by the width of the testing chamber as well as the restraints on Unit-01's arms, then Unit-02 was suddenly laying on its back with the purple robot sitting atop its chest. The ruined clamps dangled on its arms for a few seconds before slipping off and falling to the ground with two loud clangs on either side of Unit-02's head
"Stop! Using! Her! Face!" Each word was punctuated by a wild punch directed at Unit-02's face. Fortunately for Asuka her Evangelion's hands were free, and she easily brought them up to catch each hit on her armoured forearms. She was surprised at just how little force there was behind each hit. They were not so much punches as they were swings of the arm. It was as if Unit-01 was simply throwing a tantrum, rather than trying to kill her.
With that realisation, Asuka relaxed slightly and conserved her energy, watching and waiting for the right moment. That moment came after a dozen more hits. Unit-01 drew its right hand back a little too far, and Asuka sprang up.
While Shinji could be considered proficient at hand-to-hand combat, he simply didn't have the years of experience that Asuka possessed, despite her occasional attempts at improving his ability. That combined with his emotional state made it easy for her to grab both of his Evangelion's arms, and in one quick move managed to reverse their positions. Now Unit-02 was sitting on top of Unit-01, holding the purple robot's arms out to the side against the ground, with their metal faces a few scant meters apart.
The comm window was still open, and Asuka could see Shinji breathing heavily while glaring at her. She herself was barely even winded. They maintained eye contact for a few seconds, before Shinji broke away and looked down as he started to tremble.
"D-damnit... why won't you leave me alone?" he cried. "Don't I already suffer enough?!"
Screwing up her face in confusion, Asuka replied, "What the hell are you talking about, dummkopf?!"
"Don't pretend you don't know!" Shinji let go of his controls, throwing his hands up into the air, and turned to the side, curling up in the command couch. Outside, Unit-01 ceased straining against Unit-02 and went limp. "Whatever you are, just... please... stop using her face to torment me!"
Things suddenly began to come together in Asuka's mind, and she looked away from the screen, deep in thought. The words he had mumbled while she carried him home which he was now repeating, the broken hand from where he must have tried to punch a hallucination and hit something solid, and his sudden unprovoked attack on Asuka just a moment ago.
However, before she could begin to explain the situation, a strangled gasp came through the comm. She looked back up and saw Shinji writhing for a moment before laying still, too still.
"Shinji?" she hesitantly called out. There was no response. "Shinji?!"
Another comm window opened, with a frantic-looking Ritsuko on the other end. Alarms were ringing in the background. Familiar ones. "Asuka, get onto a lift and head up to the surface!"
Unit-02 stood up and turned around to face the test chamber window. "What happened to Shinji?!" Asuka angrily yelled.
The scientist was apparently more concerned with whatever was on her screen than the abrupt appearance of Unit-02's face in the window. "He's just unconscious. That's not important right now. Please make your way to the Eva lift, we have little time!"
Asuka glared at the scientist, both through the comm and with her Evangelion's four green eyes, who alternated between looking looking off to the side, presumably at another screen, and directing a worried look at Asuka. Finally, Ritsuko sighed and said, "We have a Pattern Orange detected in the bay area. We need you topside just in case... in case it's another Angel."
Understanding dawned, and Asuka quickly propelled Unit-02 out of the test chamber, carefully stepping over the recumbent Unit-01 as she did so.
Ritsuko moved away from the comm window, and Maya took her place, giving Asuka a thumbs up and a hopeful grin. "We only have a couple of usable exits, one armoury, and one power station you can connect to near your deployment zone," she reported as Asuka discarded her power cable and locked her Evangelion into the lift. "Unit-02 is only about half-charged, so if it is an Angel you will need to protect your cable at all costs. Unfortunately, our surveillance network on the surface hasn't been repaired yet, what with all our effort directed towards rebuilding the city. We're scrambling air units but you will still get there first."
"Right." The lift shot upwards, and Asuka felt the g-forces push her into her seat. "Well, we have a moment. Is the idiot alright?"
"He should be okay, thanks to you. We finally managed to get through to Unit-01 when you had it pinned, and we knocked him out by increasing the LCL pressure in his plug."
Looking around suspiciously at the liquid surrounding her, Asuka asked, "You can do that?"
A sound of affirmation came through the comm window "It's an emergency procedure to be used in case of a rebellious pilot. We... had to use it on Shinji before, after the Thirteenth Angel."
Turning her gaze upward at the rapidly approaching exit, Asuka closed her eyes and prepared herself for the sudden stop. The lift slammed into place on the surface, slightly harder than usual. The clamps released, and Unit-02 took its first steps on the surface in 2016.
Asuka moved first to the power station, plugging herself in and removing the countdown timer. Her next stop was the armoury building, where she grabbed two Pallet Rifles. There was little useful cover nearby, so she crouched behind the armoury building and reported in.
"Pattern Orange will be coming ashore in thirty seconds, and will be in Unit-02's visible range in ninety seconds," Makoto announced.
The five officers had practically sprinted back to the command centre as soon as Unit-01 had been subdued. A giant map of the bay area now hung in the air ahead of them, with the locations of Unit-02 and the anomalous reading vividly marked. Misato thanked whatever deity still existed that NERV's satellites had apparently emerged from Third Impact unscathed. At least they had some way of viewing the surface, even if it was from cameras in orbit.
"The target is now on land. It's changed course and is heading for Unit-02's position."
Misato frowned. "Are you sure? It's not heading for the Geofront?"
"Not unless it's taking the scenic route, ma'am."
Ritsuko stepped up next to her friend. "We don't have Lilith in Terminal Dogma anymore. There's no longer a reason for it to try and break in. That is, if it is an Angel."
Not taking her eyes off the map, Misato asked, "You believe it's something else?"
"It's only a theory at the moment. The Twelfth and Sixteenth were only orange until they fully revealed themselves, and the Thirteenth was orange because it was a contaminated Eva. There have been no Angels with a true orange pattern."
Makoto's voice interrupted their talk. "Thirty seconds until visual contact."
Everyone's eyes were locked on the map as the seconds seemed to crawl by. Misato began to unconsciously bite her lower lip as the gap between the two dots slowly decreased.
She was so focused on the map that the sudden shout from Makoto almost made her jump. "Target is in range!"
"What do you see, Asuka?" Misato asked.
The only response from Unit-02 was a gasp, followed by shallow breathing and a strangled "No..."
"Asuka, report!"
"It... can't be..."
"Damn," Ritsuko breathed. "Her sync ratio is dropping. She's back down to 32%!"
Misato whirled around. "A psychic attack?"
"No, nothing of the sort. She's... scared." Ritsuko looked up from Maya's screen.
Slamming her hands down on the console, Misato yelled, "Asuka! Please, talk to me! What do you see?!"
"It's... it's..."
The next three words rooted everyone in the command centre to the spot.
"The Eva Series!"
