A/N: Since it's Christmas, here's the next chapter early.


Chapter 25

"...lost his right arm just above the elbow. It turned into LCL inside his plugsuit, so we can't even attempt to reattach it," Ritsuko said, dully reading off the list of injuries Shinji had suffered. While she wasn't a medical doctor, she could at least translate for the benefit of the less scientifically-minded Misato. The issue of repairs to Unit-01 had been skipped over, as the woman knew that they were less important at this point in time, and the Commander wanted the important news first.

Besides, there was something strange about Unit-01's S2 Organ that she needed to take a closer look at before reporting on it.

"Both legs will have to be amputated," Ritsuko continued. "The trauma was simply too severe to reattach them."

Misato held a hand up, while her gaze remained locked on the glass on the desk in front of her. "Stop, please. I don't need to hear any more of that," she replied. "Just... give me something besides bad news."

The scientist frowned. Misato had retreated to her office the moment she could. That had been ten hours ago. Her superior officer and friend was now unashamedly getting drunk, thanks to a bottle the former Sub-Commander had left in one of the desk drawers.

On the one hand, it was completely against regulations. On the other... Ritsuko wished there was a second bottle. The people involved with rescuing Shinji from Unit-01 would probably be coping the same way. She had seen the extent of the boy's injuries through the cameras in the operating theatre, and there had been several close calls already. Three cigarettes had been sacrificed in rapid succession before she had worked up the nerve to enter Misato's office.

"Alright, better news," she finally said. "With the equipment we have, Shinji could stay alive indefinitely."

"Hooked up to machines?" Misato darkly asked. "That's not living."

"You didn't let me finish," Ritsuko said with an irritated look. "What I'm saying is that it's going to take a while to repair all the damage he sustained. We might have some of the best people in the world, and we're actually flying in specialists as well, but Shinji's not going to be out of surgery for at least a few days. Even then, well... I'm just glad we finished the healing tank."

The purple-haired woman looked up at that, hope clear in her eyes. "You finally have one that you'd be willing to put my boy in?"

Ritsuko nodded. "After extensive testing of the compound, and modification of some existing hardware, I'm confident that we have something suitable for Shinji. After his organs have been replaced, and his spine reattached, he'll be placed in the tank to accelerate recovery time."

"Yes... organs." Misato brought her hands up to her face in a pose similar to her predecessor, but more thoughtful-looking. "How are you replacing those, since the originals were so... violently removed?"

As it turned out, all of Shinji's vital organs had been sampled during one of his many, many visits to the hospital the previous year. They had been cloned and put on ice, right next to a similar set belonging to Asuka after they had been flown in from Germany. NERV did not want to risk either pilot being out of action. It was easier to simply have their own spares ready to use instead of hoping that other transplants would not be rejected.

With NERV being so far underground, it had been easy to create a cold storage room that could last a long time without power. Unfortunately, by the time enough of NERV had been restored, those organs had begun to deteriorate.

Since Ritsuko believed that it was best to have something and not need it, rather than to need it and not have it, she had discreetly ordered replacement clones to be created with fresh cells after Shinji's disastrous time in Unit-01 all those months ago. Enough of the old cloned organs had survived to be sampled, but it was a bad idea to copy a copy.

The problem was, in order to create the organs quickly, they had had to utilise the same trick that was used to rapidly grow replacement limbs for the Evangelions. As a result, they had a lower life expectancy than if they had been allowed to grow naturally.

"You're not exactly filling me with hope here, Rits," Misato warned.

"Don't worry, the organs will still last a long while; several years at least," Ritsuko replied. "More than enough time to create permanent replacements."

The Commander stared at the bottle on the desk next to her, before putting the lid back on and placing it back where she had found it. She began to slowly sip what was left in her glass.

"How soon can I see him?" Misato finally asked.

Ritsuko tapped on her pad. "Two days, at most. By then, most of the critical surgeries will be done."

"Very well." Misato sighed heavily as she stood up from her desk, swaying slightly after sitting down for so long. "I'm going to go see how the rest of my kids are doing."


It was almost laughable, how easily the Mass Production Evangelions were going down. Even with her cable severed and running on backup power, Asuka was tearing them apart. SEELE would be wanting their money back if this was all that the next generation of Evangelions could accomplish. She couldn't lose, because her mother was with her. She said as much to whoever happened to be listening in the command centre.

One of their swords was suddenly flying through the air directly at her. Asuka reflexively put up her AT-Field to stop the projectile, which impacted against the barrier and stuck there like a knife in a wall.

And then it began to morph.

"The Lance of Longinus?!"

Unit-02 only had seconds of power left, but she had to strengthen her AT-Field. The transformed weapon was forcing its way in!

The AT-Field quickly gave out as her power did, and the lance continued on unerringly towards Unit-02.

Until a purple arm came out of nowhere and snatched the weapon mere meters from its two left eyes.

Even as her Evangelion fell lifelessly to the ground, Asuka let a smile grow on her face. She didn't even bother trying to hide it as she keyed her comm unit.

"You're late, Third! I've already taken them out!"

In hindsight, perhaps she shouldn't have said that; because right as she did, the white harpies got up, and two of them immediately charged at Unit-01. Asuka couldn't see much due to the position of her Evangelion's head, but she saw the lance swing through the air impossibly fast, and the two white giants were suddenly cut in half. Surprisingly, that didn't stop them as they flapped their wings and continued on their trajectory.

There was no finesse to the way the Mass Production Evangelions began to swarm over Unit-01. Asuka could hear Shinji growling through the comm link as he knocked them all away, slashing and stabbing as best as he could, but they just kept coming back.

Damnit, why did she have to run out of power?! She should be fighting too!

"Mama, please help!" she whispered urgently.

But there was no response.

The purple arm holding the lance was the first limb to be separated from the rest of Unit-01. The howl of agony echoed inside Asuka's head even as Shinji took out his Progressive Knife and stabbed the perpetrator in the core.

"Please, Mama! Shinji needs us!"

But there was no response.

No matter how much she begged and pleaded, Unit-02 remained silent. Shinji seemed to be screaming non-stop now, as the harpies began to tear his Evangelion's armour away and shred the flesh underneath.

And then one of them shoved a lance through Unit-01's chest.

"SHINJI!"

Asuka shot bolt upright in bed, gasping heavily. Her hair and clothing were damp from sweat, and she ran a hand over her face to pull away the strands that had stuck there.

"Just a dream," she muttered, allowing herself to fall back onto the hard pillow on her bed.

'Wait...' Asuka frowned. 'Hard pillow? Bed? An unfamiliar ceiling, too.'

Oh, right.

She was in NERV's hospital, not at home. As she sat back up again, Asuka could feel bandages on her right arm and around her chest. A gentle poke in the side of her ribs produced only a mild ache, and the same went for her arm.

Despite apparently being in the medical ward for a while, she could still smell LCL in the air. Her hair had evidently been washed, or at least thoroughly rinsed, as there was no stain on the pillow. In fact, as Asuka sniffed about she realised that the scent was coming from the bandages themselves. She pulled the hospital-issue shirt up and saw that the bandages were there to hold a strange orange pad against her skin.

Before she could investigate further, the door to her room hissed open. Asuka hurriedly dropped her shirt back down, thinking it was a doctor or nurse, but the newcomer turned out to be the First Child.

"You are awake," Rei quietly remarked.

"No, I'm just sleep-talking and doing a damn good job of it," Asuka replied with a roll of her eyes.

The bluenette blinked, then smiled a little as she approached the Second Child's bed. "You have gone from consciousness to sarcasm in an impressively short time. I was not out of the room for very long."

"Huh? Why were you in here in the first place?"

In lieu of a verbal response, Rei pointed to the other side of the room, where a second bed sat.

"...Oh," Asuka lamely replied. "Wait, then where's Shin..." Something burst through the door that led to her brain, and waved an important piece of information in front of her mind's eye. "...ji..." Her face fell.

Rei's expression swiftly copied that of the redhead. "...Shinji is still in surgery," she quietly replied. "It has now been approximately fourteen hours since the battle, according to the receptionist I queried about his state."

Asuka swore softly, and then asked, "But.. he's going to be alright, isn't he?"

"I... I don't know..." Rei's shoulders began to shake. "The spear... tore out most of his organs and severed his spine." Her voice was turning almost manic. "I could tell just by looking at where it penetrated him. He shouldn't have survived that! How is it possible that he's still alive?" Red, teary eyes widened and pale skin turned even paler as Rei clutched at her head. "Wait, why am I saying that? I don't want him to die!"

It took only a couple more seconds of babble before Asuka reached out and dragged the now-crying girl onto her bed and into a hug. The two girls latched on tightly to each other, and the redhead allowed her own tears to come forth as the bluenette cried into her shoulder. Rei was now the only thing holding her back from rushing out of the room to the operating theatre to discover Shinji's current condition. She both desperately wanted to know, yet at the same time dreaded the answer. Once again, fear was paralysing her. The hug was just as much for her benefit as it was Rei's.

But while she now had something physical to act as an anchor, Asuka couldn't prevent her own mind from rampant speculation, running through all the things that had happened with Shinji and their impact on his future. Even if NERV could offer prosthetics, would he still be able to pilot? Would it even be possible to repair his spine to a point where he could walk again? What about organ replacement?

Just because he didn't want to feel useless, Shinji would now likely be crippled for the rest of his life, if he didn't d-

Asuka finally managed to stop herself before that word could rear its ugly head.

Or maybe it was the third pair of arms that wrapped around the two girls that brought the speculation to a thankful halt.

"Hey, girls," Misato murmured into their ears. Asuka wrinkled her nose; she could smell alcohol on the woman's breath. "Hope you don't mind if I join in."

"If you have good news, you can join in until your arms fall off," replied Asuka.

The Commander of NERV told the Children what she had just learned. To Asuka's silent relief, Rei migrated to Misato's lap as the woman spoke to them. It was still strange to see the First Child so... vulnerable. The previous year, a frown would have been her biggest reaction to her brother's plight. Now, she was hugging their foster mother like a young child, despite the cautiously optimistic information they had just been given. Misato certainly didn't seem to mind, either.

But if she started bouncing Rei on her knee, Asuka was going to have something to say.

As the redhead shifted slightly on the bed, the sensation of the bandages against her skin reminded her of what she had seen just before Rei had returned to the room, and she asked Misato about them.

"It's something our development team has been working on for a while," the woman explained. "Bandages soaked in a compound made of LCL and... uh..." She pursed her lips in thought before continuing. "...some things with too many syllables in their names for me to remember them. The compound helps the body to regrow skin, nerves, and muscles."

"Well tell them to work on the smell," Asuka remarked. "It'll be easier for people to deal with if they don't have to deal with the stench of LCL."

"I'll let Rits know," Misato dryly replied. "Anyway, you have those patches on because your sync ratio was high enough for your arm and torso to actually take some serious damage from what the Revenant did to Unit-02. You were actually cut up quite a bit there, with a lot of bruising around the wounds."

Asuka lightly grasped her right arm, remembering the phantom pain of it getting lopped off. But that pain would be nothing compared to what Shinji had endured.

"So will Shinji be getting wrapped up like a mummy in this stuff when his surgery's over?" she asked, hopeful that she would be able to see the Third Child soon.

The Commander of NERV hated to dash those hopes, but it couldn't be helped. "No, his injuries are too severe for that, not to mention the surgery he has to go through. Shinji will need to be fully immersed in a more concentrated form of the compound. Even with it, he'll be in there for several more days to recover from surgery."

An involuntary shiver rolled through Asuka's body. She hadn't just asked in order to know when she would be able to talk to Shinji. Their closeness at night kept the nightmares at bay for both of them, but if she absolutely had to, Asuka was willing to suffer through them for a night or two. Her dreams were bad, but they hadn't ruined her yet. Shinji, on the other hand...

He heard the entirety of humanity screaming inside his head.

Asuka cautiously voiced her concern over Shinji's dreams, but held back what she had recently learned about them.

Misato's face darkened, and she glanced down at the top of Rei's head. "I wish there was something I could do about that, Asuka, but the surgeons have enough to deal with without needing to work around somebody in the way." She turned a helpless look on the redhead. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do except hope that he won't have any dreams while sedated."

"If he is sufficiently sedated, Shinji will not have any dreams," Rei sleepily said. "Or at the very least, he will not remember them when he wakes up."

The First Child yawned as she finished speaking, which caused Asuka to yawn as well. Misato took that as a cue to get up and carry the girl to her own bed.

"Get some more rest, you two," the woman said as she tucked Rei in. "I suppose I should do the same. I've been strung out ever since we went on alert, and I've been running on nerves and coffee all day."

The two girls bid their foster mother goodnight as the door closed. Asuka then rolled over and stared at the wall. She didn't know if Rei had stated a fact, or was merely giving hope to her, but she grabbed onto it anyway.

Asuka steeled herself for the onslaught of memories that lurked in the recesses of her mind.


A loud growl of frustration filled the office, but Maya simply looked calmly across the desk at its source. Ritsuko clutched her head and growled again, softer this time but much more drawn out. She had been trying to work on the current problem for two days now, and was still no closer to a solution.

"Maya..." she finally said as she brought her forehead down to meet the desk. "Why is it that I know more than everybody else in the world combined about the Evangelions, but they still persist in giving me headaches?!"

The mousy lieutenant sighed, but otherwise remained silent. She stood up while the Sub-Commander's gaze was focused on the wood of her desk and silently moved to stand behind the woman.

"I mean, it feels like every time something major happens, another weird thing pops up," Ritsuko continued. "I swear, it's like those damn robots conspire with each other to make up new things just to annnngh..."

The scientist's words petered out as Maya's hands went to work on her shoulders, and she let out a sigh of relief as the tension that had been building up over the last hour began to flow out of her body.

"You need to take a break, senpai," Maya murmured.

"Can't," Ritsuko muttered, too focused on the sensation of melting under the younger woman's hands to form a real response, much less reprimand her for still using that word. "Too much work."

"Have you had a day off at all since Third Impact? Because I'm pretty sure you haven't. Not to mention that it's been three days since the attack and you haven't come home at all. You've just been sleeping in here, haven't you?"

All Maya got was an unintelligible mumble in response. After a few more minutes, she gently pulled Ritsuko away from the desk and got the woman to sit where she had been, and then took her place at the computer.

"What are you doing?" Ritsuko asked as Maya adjusted the chair and keyboard to her slightly smaller stature.

"Taking over for you while you have a break." At those words, the scientist attempted to get up, but the lieutenant's glare froze her to the spot. "You are going to stay there, or I'm going to call a doctor in to make you take time off."

Ritsuko could see that Maya was not bluffing, and she slowly sank back down into the chair. "Fine," she groused. "But I still need to tell you what I was looking for."

"And what was it, senpai?" inquired Maya with a raised eyebrow, her fingers hovering in the air above the keyboard.

"The S2 organ in Unit-01. I've been speculating as to why the readings differ when compared to those from the last time it was active." Ritsuko tapped her chin as she remembered the data she had been pulled away from. "More specifically, they change just after we lost contact with the surface, when the Revenant's core exploded. But there's no damage to the S2 Organ, according to the tech crews. It may be related to why Unit-01 isn't regenerating as quickly as it should be."

Maya made a thoughtful humming noise, and her fingers descended onto the keyboard.

Whereas Ritsuko had been struggling to find an answer for close to an hour, Maya took half that time to come up with a probable cause.

"I believe I have an answer, senpai," she said, missing the almost inaudible sigh from the Sub-Commander. She spun the monitor around. "Take a look."

Ritsuko dragged her chair towards the desk and leaned in close to the screen. As she read, her eyes slowly widened in amazement. She knew that Maya was incredibly intelligent -one of the biggest reasons the lieutenant was essentially the only backup for herself when it came to the MAGI- but Ritsuko hadn't expected her to be able to solve the problem so quickly. Tired as she was, her eyes still flew across the screen as she absorbed the information.

"Impressive, Maya," she finally said with respect clear in her gaze. "You came to the correct conclusion when I couldn't."

Maya blushed, and waved a hand in dismissal. "It was just because you're tired, senpai. I'm sure if you were fully rested this would have been child's play to you."

Ritsuko smiled, and chose not to press the point for the time being. "Alright, now that we have something concrete to report, I need to tell the Commander."

The blush faded. "No." Maya sternly said. "You are going to go home and sleep. I will report to Commander Katsuragi."

That look was back in the young woman's eyes, and Ritsuko wisely stopped the feeble protests about being the lieutenant's superior officer from escaping her mouth. She made do with a sigh instead. "Why can't I say no to you, Maya? Okay, do the report. Just remember that the Commander requires simpler communication than we scientists are accustomed to employing." The last sentence was said with a smirk.

Maya nodded, and Ritsuko got up to leave. As she was about to open the door, arms suddenly wrapped around her from behind. She smiled and turned around in the embrace to return it, and planted a gentle kiss on the giver's lips before leaving the office.


Asuka stared resolutely at the door leading into the operating theatre. Ever since she had been allowed to leave her hospital room, the redhead had spent the vast majority of the last two days within the vicinity of the theatre. She had witnessed several shift changes as exhausted surgeons left and were replaced. Every single person leaving looked like they had been awake for far longer than they really had been.

But at least it was quiet in there. Loud voices would imply that something was going terribly wrong.

Recognising that her foster daughter was a bundle of nerves and would react unfavourably to any attempt to remove her from the Geofront, Misato had commandeered an empty room for Asuka to sleep in. The woman's only stipulation had been that Asuka had to sleep there, but the medical personnel had been ordered to wake her up if Shinji was coming out of surgery.

Rei came and sat with Asuka as often as she could, and Misato delegated as much of her work as she could to do the same. She didn't want to risk missing Shinji. Even if it was only for a moment, Asuka wanted to see him before he became untouchable for several days again.

Maybe that would stop the shivers that occasionally wracked her body.

It was now three forty-five in the afternoon. Misato was next to Asuka, and Rei was sitting across from them, having coming straight to NERV from school. The bluenette was recounting the reactions of their school friends upon hearing of Shinji's condition.

Apparently Toji had begged Rei to see if he could reclaim his spot as the Fourth Child, and had been crestfallen when told that Unit-01 would only accept Shinji. It had taken a hug from Hikari to bring the jock back to some semblance of normality.

Throughout the one-sided conversation, Asuka remained stone-faced, eyes fixated on the operating theatre door. She was therefore the first one to notice as it opened once more, but Asuka paid it no mind as she merely assumed that it was another shift change.

Until the man removed his surgical mask as he came to a stop in front of Misato.

"Commander Katsuragi?"

"What is it?" Misato asked, standing to meet the surgeon. "You have news about Shinji?"

He nodded. "Yes ma'am. He's stable now, and will soon be transferred to the tank."

Before the man could report any further, Asuka shot to her feet. Misato beat her to the punch, however, as she said, "We would like to see him before he gets transferred. Is that possible?"

"We were ordered to move him there the moment he was done..." The surgeon trailed off, noticing the look on Asuka's face; both pleading and demanding. "...But we can give you a minute or two," he finished. After asking them to wait, he ducked back into the surgical theatre. A different surgeon emerged a moment later, pushing a gurney.

"Shinji!"

Asuka was first to reach him, rushing to the head of the gurney to look down at the sleeping face of the Third Child. She reached out to him with one hand, until the blanket covering Shinji froze it in the air. Or rather, what the shape of the blanket revealed.

It was one thing to be told of Shinji's injuries, and to just witness them through a video screen. It was quite another to see the blanket dip down to meet the gurney where it shouldn't. Once again, Asuka cursed herself for not being a better pilot, but she welcomed the wave of relief she felt as his serene-looking expression calmed her insides.

Her hand finally came down on Shinji's remaining arm and squeezed gently, as Rei stepped up on the other side of the gurney to echo the gesture on his right shoulder.

"Will he be sedated the entire time he's in the tank?" Misato inquired.

"No," the surgeon replied. "We'll be giving him one more shot of anaesthetic, which should wear off sometime tomorrow."

"In that case, I want a familiar face nearby at all times. He's going to wake up confused and trapped in a much too confining glass tube."

Rei and Asuka looked at each other, then at Misato's serious face and nodded together. Neither of them liked the idea of Shinji returning to consciousness and becoming hysterical, possibly re-opening his wounds.

Misato returned the nod. "I expected as much from you two. Rei, I'll let the school know not to expect you for the next day or so."

"I am sure they are used to it by now," Rei replied with a weak smile.

There was a polite cough from the surgeon. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we need to move him now."

The three females stepped aside, and fell in behind the man as he began to push the gurney. A short while later, they entered a room that had been marked as a restricted area. Rei was the last one through the door, and she froze upon noticing something disturbingly familiar.

A metal-and-glass tube sat in the middle of the room. While it still looked like the one that had once been used for the First Child's memory uploads, it had undergone some changes.

It now rested horizontally, held off the ground by a bulky metal platform with several thick pipes leading into it. The 'cap' of the tube had been modified, the pipes removed in favour of the ones underneath, and a metal rack added to the inside. It now somewhat resembled a filing cabinet drawer, an image that was strengthened when Shinji was carefully loaded onto the shelf.

The changes could not stop Rei's hands from clenching as she remembered the time she had spent in that tube. Misato stepped up next to her after kissing her foster son on the forehead, and together they watched an oxygen mask get fitted over Shinji's head before being connected to the cap.

"I can see that you hate this thing, Rei," Misato quietly said to the girl. "But it's being used for a better purpose now."

Rei stared at the tube as the cap closed. A machine whirred to life as a substance that looked similar to LCL, but more viscous and less opaque, was pumped into the tube. A sheet was draped over the majority of the machinery to preserve Shinji's modesty, and only then did the First Child relax.

Only to jump in surprise when a voice behind her said, "I finally found you, Commander!"

She turned around to see a slightly out of breath Lieutenant Ibuki, who saluted once Misato's attention was turned to her.

"I have information for you concerning Unit-01, ma'am," Maya reported. "But if you're busy, I can just put it on your desk."

"You look like you've been hunting for me for a while," Misato remarked. "Might as well tell me now."

"Yes, ma'am." The lieutenant cleared her throat and began her report. "Sub-Commander Akagi and I have been attempting to analyse an anomaly with Unit-01's S2 Organ that appeared shortly after the Fourth Revenant died."

"Wait, there's a problem?" Misato cut in.

"Well, it's more like we may have found a limitation to Super Solenoid power, Commander." Maya shifted nervously. "It took some time, but... the Sub-Commander found that the S2 Organ was drained. Significantly."

Rei sensed that the lieutenant was lying a bit. Not about Unit-01, she had been telling the truth there, but about who made the discovery. She was curious as to the why behind the lie, but remained silent.

"Unit-01's S2 Organ is now sitting at approximately 92% of its original capacity," Maya continued. "It's steadily increasing, but wound regeneration has been slowed down."

Misato scratched her head. "Wait, aren't Super Solenoids supposed to be infinite sources of power? How can that get drained?"

"In light of this discovery, Sub-Commander Akagi has worked out that... it's more like infinite generation, ma'am." Maya looked down at her report. "It can produce a limitless amount, but there's a finite capacity as well as a limited charge rate."

The Commander of NERV still looked puzzled, and Maya was stumbling over her words to properly explain. Rei came up with an analogy to aid the young woman. "It is like a bathtub connected to the ocean. The water source is essentially infinite, but it can only come out of the tap so fast, and the tub itself cannot hold an infinite amount."

"Yes, exactly!" Maya said, smiling widely. "Thank you, Ayanami."

"Okay then," Misato said. "So something drained Unit-01's power faster than an alien power supply could replenish it. Do you happen to know what that something was?"

"There is... one possible cause," the lieutenant nervously said. Her eyes shifted rapidly to the tube in the middle of the room and back to Misato, so quick that only Rei noticed.

"Was it damaged by the explosion? Leaking or something, but repaired itself?" Misato asked.

"No, ma'am." Maya was now hiding her mouth behind the report in her hands, as if wishing to stop speaking.

"It involves Shinji, does it not?" Rei softly asked. Maya nodded, and squeezed her eyes shut. The bluenette reached out and took the report, briefly scanning the page before her eyes came to a halt at the point that the lieutenant didn't want to reveal.

And Rei saw why.

She stared at the tank that held her recovering brother. "The Angels all possessed an S2 Organ," she slowly intoned. "With it they could turn aside conventional human weaponry as if it were nothing and defend themselves against that which could oppose them. Unit-01 was made from Lilith, and its Organ was stolen from an Adam-derived creature and... forced into compatibility."

The First Child turned to Misato, who seemed to be beginning to understand. "Shinji's sync ratio was well over one hundred percent, at a point where it no longer matters what the exact number was. His wounds were brutal; not only did he suffer the injuries to his own body, but also every single injury that Unit-01 sustained."

Her red eyes began to fill with tears, but they remained focused on Misato's face. "How much energy would it take to forcibly keep somebody alive? To sustain somebody who was seconds away from death?"


The jean-clad leg twitched up and down at a steady rate. It had been going non-stop for the last several hours at approximately two beats per second, but the red-headed owner of the leg didn't seem to notice the passage of time. Only the fact that the tube in front of her contained a sleeping Shinji kept her from bleeding off more of her nervous tension by tapping on the glass.

She had heard everything said behind her about Unit-01 and its pilot. With her back to the conversation, she had been free with her tears as she heard about just what it had taken to keep the ever-unlucky boy alive.

There had not been a dry eye in the room. Maya had gently led Rei away, and Misato had pulled Asuka into the tightest hug she had ever received from her guardian and foster mother. The embrace had resulted in both of them receiving wet patches on their clothing, but care about such a minor thing was absent.

The technicians had long since departed after making final checks on the healing tank and its apparatus, and now Asuka was alone in the room. Once again, Misato had been able to easily read the subtleties in the Second Child's posture that meant she was not going to be moved from the room any time soon.

As Asuka tried to put the recent news out of her head, her brain instead decided to latch onto the Evangelions themselves.

While there had been too much classified data about the bio-mechanical creations to be able to get a degree focused on them, she had still made full use of her pilot security clearance level to devour as much information as she could during her spare time. Anything that could be used to better understand and operate the machines could only make her a better pilot.

If only she had learned about her mother being the soul of Unit-02 sooner.

At a single request from Asuka earlier that year, Misato had expanded the girl's security clearance, mostly so that she could learn everything about the details behind her mother's attempt at a Contact Experiment. Kyoko had told her in Instrumentality about how her hubris had been her downfall, but Asuka wanted to know more.

It had taken a long time, plus several icily polite questions directed at Ritsuko Akagi, to satisfy Asuka that there had been no overt foul play beyond that of Unit-02 stealing most of her mother's soul. With everything that had happened in NERV, she wouldn't have put it past the former Commander to... arrange things so that her mother would have been tricked into the situation.

At the thought of Gendo Ikari, Asuka frowned down at Shinji's quiescent face. Would it be possible to convince the boy to abandon his family name? If word got out that he was the son of the man who helped to nearly bring about the extinction of humanity, it was almost guaranteed that there would be at least one person determined to punish the son for the sins of the father. Certainly something to bring up with Shinji once he was awake.

A small sound came from the inside of the tube. Asuka ignored it, thinking it was her imagination. It was too much of a coincidence to think that Shinji was about to wake up just as she thought about it. Besides, it hadn't been enough time for the anaesthetic to wear off. Asuka pillowed her head on her arms, leaning forward onto the glass of the tank, in preparation for a short nap.

A minute later, she heard the same sound again. Asuka peered over her folded arms, and the cause of the sound brought a frown to her face. The tube had not been filled to the brim, and there was a small air pocket. Shinji's head was slowly shifting from side to side, causing small ripples throughout the surface of the liquid.

Asuka let out her breath in a low curse. The anaesthetic apparently was starting to wear off, and it was taking away the only protection Shinji had against his dreams as it left his body.

Should she try and find one of the technicians? They would be able to determine if something was wrong with the tank, but the thought of Shinji suddenly waking up with nobody to greet him froze her to the chair.

"Shinji? Shinji, can you hear me?" the redhead called out in a soothing tone, putting her face close to the glass. "It's okay, I'm right here."

The boy didn't seem to hear her, either due to the tube and the liquid, or because of his dreams. Asuka moved to the cap of the tube, and sighed in relief as she found what she was looking for. She pressed the clearly marked 'SPEAKER' button and spoke again.

"Shinji, whatever you're seeing, it's not real," Asuka said. "You're safe now. Follow the sound of my voice. Please... wake up."

Her right hand twitched, feeling as though it was almost demanding to curl around Shinji's own hand. She continued to calmly speak, raising her voice slightly as she sat back down in the chair.

"Just forget about anything else. I'm right here for you, I'll keep you safe, so follow my voice. Come back to me, please... Shinji..."

Shinji's eyes opened as his head shot up... and rebounded off the glass above him. The liquid slowed him down, but the shock of headbutting something was enough to return his head to a horizontal position.

"Huh, second time that's happened now..." Shinji muttered as he rubbed his forehead, his voice muffled slightly by the oxygen mask, but still coming through the speaker.

"Shinji!" Asuka was thankful for the colour of the liquid in the tank. It would do well at covering the redness of her face until it faded. Seeing Shinji struggle to wake up had almost brought tears to her eyes again.

"What?" The boy twisted his head about a bit, before spotting the excited girl on the other side of the glass. "Oh, hello Asuka."

Resisting the urge to try and pull the boy out of the tank just to settle the twitch in her hand, Asuka smiled at him and asked, "So what was that about me not being able to teach you any more German?"


"To be fair, we haven't exactly had a surplus of critically injured people to test this on," Ritsuko remarked as she checked the readings of the healing tank. "All our tests with the substance were small scale. I knew that it could get rid of toxins, but I didn't expect it to target a sedative as well."

Ritsuko, Misato and Rei hadn't taken long to return to the room upon hearing of Shinji's early awakening. While Misato had immediately moved to the tank to see Shinji, Rei had hesitated for a moment before her concern for her brother overrode her dislike of the tube.

"There was one person early on in the project that deliberately injured himself to give us something to test the bandages on," Ritsuko continued. "But nobody wanted to risk grave injury just to test the tank."

"Wait, you said you had extensively tested this stuff," Misato replied, staring suspiciously at the chief scientist.

"What I said was that the compound had been tested," Ritsuko replied. "Other people have been put in the tank, but that was to ensure that it functioned and was comfortable for the patient. Shinji is the very first person to actually be placed inside it for the purpose of full-body healing."

Misato tapped her fingers on her folded arms for a few seconds. Finally, she turned back to the tank and asked, "Shinji, how are you feeling?"

"Um, I know that... I lost my arm," Shinji began, twisting his head to look at his right shoulder. "But I can't feel my legs either." Despite his effort to look down at his body, the size of the tube prevented him from being able to sit up enough to do so.

"That's because... the doctors had to amputate them..." Asuka sadly replied. Even behind the red liquid, she saw Shinji's face pale noticeably.

"O-oh..."

"I'm sorry, Shinji," Ritsuko apologised, stepping up to the tank. "Your legs were crushed by your own pilot chair. We couldn't save them."

"...I see," the Third Child dully said, before turning his head to stare at nothing. Ritsuko took that as a cue to move away and pretend to be occupied with her PDA.

"What's wrong?" Asuka inquired, shifting to the other side of the tube to look into Shinji's eyes. "NERV fixed up Jock Stooge with prosthetics, they can do the same for you too." She levelled a serious look at the scientist and pointedly added, "Isn't that right?"

Ritsuko did not bother trying to match the stare, turning away with a nervous cough. "Of course. NERV takes care of its people." Somehow, she managed to say that with a straight face. "We can quickly organise a basic set of prosthetic legs for Shinji, but the arm is going to be more complicated and there will be some more surgery involved."

"Will I still be able to pilot?" Shinji asked, still staring at Asuka.

Now the Sub-Commander was being stared at from three different angles, as all three female members of the Katsuragi family waited for her answer. Ritsuko stifled the urge to nervously adjust her collar.

"It will take time to learn to use the prosthetics," she finally said. "Especially since you'll have an arm and two legs being replaced. If it was one or the other, I would be optimistic about you being at least nominally ready for the next attack. But if another Revenant appears in the next month, you will not be combat-capable."

Only Asuka saw Shinji's reaction to the news. A twitch of his facial features, followed by a hardening of his eyes. She didn't bother to look away this time as she said, "Well now that you're done giving him more bad news, how about you go and start working on those prosthetics?"

A shake of the head from Misato stopped Ritsuko from responding angrily to the girl. Instead, the scientist sighed loudly and left the room. The Katsuragi matriarch turned a despairing eye on the German girl for this latest remark to the Sub-Commander before also heading out of the room.

Asuka knew she was being insubordinate towards the chief scientist, but right now the only person she gave a damn about about was stuck in a tube.

"Brother, there is nothing to worry about," Rei softly said, and Shinji slowly turned his head to face her. "When the next Revenant arrives, Asuka and I shall face it and win." She exhaled and looked away for a second, before focusing on him again. "I do not know how to say this diplomatically. If you attempt to join us, we will both be worried about you. Our own performance will be impaired."

Asuka nodded. "Wondergirl's right, Shinji. I know you don't want to sit around while we fight. I know you want to help. That's clear to all of us. But you've already got one handicap in an Eva with a low sync ratio. How are you going to pilot now?"

Shinji stared for a long time at all that remained of his right arm, before closing his eyes and saying, "I'll find a way."

The two girls looked at each other. What neither female pilot wanted to outright admit was that Shinji's presence in the fight had been quite a liability in the beginning. Having to practically fight against his own controls to get anything done meant that the Revenant had seen him as an easy mark. its sudden change of target to the clear weak link had tipped the scales of the battle until Unit-01 had reactivated. And if every Revenant was better than the last...

Rei stood up and sadly said, "Shinji, all we want is for you to get better. Please focus on that, first." She silently left the room.

Silence reigned in the room for several long minutes, before Shinji mumbled, "Sorry..."

In response, Asuka blew air past her pursed lips before replying, "You've still got nothing to apologise for, Shinji. Except, I guess, for that insane way you fought." She gave the boy a light glare. "Seriously, what possessed you to go fully on the offensive? It was like Unit-01 was going berserk again?"

Shinji shifted nervously inside the tank. "It was... because I heard you, Asuka."

Colour began to fill the Second Child's cheeks again. "You... you mean when I was calling out to you when I was about to get impaled?"

With a slow nod, Shinji replied, "When I got stabbed, the pain interrupted my synchronisation. It was hard enough maintaining my sync ratio without that pain, so I just... gave up. 'What's the point?' I thought. All I had managed to do was get myself taken out. But then... you called for me."

Blue locked onto blue as Shinji stared directly at Asuka. "You whispered my name... and it sounded like you were saying goodbye. I heard that, and I knew I couldn't let it happen. My inaction was about to get you killed again." His body began to shake, and his voice became ragged. "I would rather die than let that happen a second time."

"Y-you... idiot!" Asuka angrily stammered out. "You almost d-died anyway! The only reason you're here now is because of that S2 organ Unit-01 has!"

"...Oh..."

"'Oh'? You almost get yourself killed to the point that it took alien technology to keep you alive, and all you have to say is 'oh'?!" It took a great amount of effort for Asuka to not slam her fists on the glass tank in frustration. "Damnit, do you know how freaking scared I was when I saw your Eva after the explosion?!"

She clenched her eyes shut as moisture tried to leak out. "Shinji... I was so afraid that you were dead... that I couldn't even bring myself to open the comm link until your Eva reached out to mine."

The horrific sight of an impaled purple Evangelion flashed in front of her mind's eye, its eyes flickering as its remaining hand feebly tried to pull the spear out. The almost-sad look on the robot's face as she tried to overcome her fear of what had happened to Shinji.

The thought that he was going to die before she could muster up the courage to admit her most deeply held secret.

For three days she had been forced to sit around and wait. When she had been outside the operating room, Asuka had twice heard alarming sounds and panicked shouts, even through the doors. After the second time, she had badgered Misato relentlessly to find out what had happened.

As it turned out, Shinji's heart had stopped twice.

She had almost lost her chance three times.

"Asuka... I-"

"Quiet, Third!" The redhead brought her hands up to her face, rubbing at her wet eyes with the heels of her hands. The tears refused to stop. "Goddamnit, why is this making me cry? Why do I care so much about you? Why the hell do I love you?!"

Shinji stared up at Asuka, eyes and mouth wide open in shock.

Asuka stared back down at Shinji, hands clamped over her mouth in a too-late attempt to stifle the words she had just uttered, with a face that suddenly felt like she was back in the volcano. Her legs twitched, ready to propel her out of the room, out of the Geofront, out of the country.

Her secret was a secret no longer. In her attempt to alleviate her fear about not being able to confess her true feelings, said feelings had broken out of containment and bum-rushed the guards in their escape out of her mouth.

Shinji licked his lips and swallowed nervously. He then spent the next few seconds opening and closing his mouth as he attempted to speak, but all he accomplished was making himself look like a goldfish; an image that wasn't helped by the liquid surrounding him.

Asuka's hands dragged up her face, moving from her mouth to cover her eyes as well, and she collapsed back into her chair. She too, was at a loss for words. What was there to say now? Maybe if they both remained silent, something would happen to distract them. A ridiculously long shot, but it was the only thing Asuka could possibly think of.

Hell, she would even accept another Revenant attack... maybe...

"Um... A-A-Asuka...?"

Ah, the Third Child had managed to reboot his brain. So much for an eternity of silence. Though she was sorely tempted to stay quiet, after a few seconds had passed, Asuka mumbled through her hands, "What, Shinji?"

Silence returned. She opened her fingers just enough to peer through them at the tank, and saw Shinji shift his remaining hand to rub at his head while his brows furrowed. Eventually, he closed his eyes and let out a sigh that fogged his breathing mask.

"Did... do you mean what you just said?" the boy quietly asked.

Anger flashed in Asuka's eyes. Her first thought was, 'Is he calling me a liar?' But then the rational part of her brain rapidly decided to give its opinion. 'He's spent a decade believing he was unloved. Is it so strange for him to be sceptical that somebody would suddenly claim what I just did? I have to say something, and it can't be that I didn't mean it. What would that do to somebody who has been emotionally stomped into the ground already?'

That thought wasn't enough to stop her mouth opening and letting out words that might not have been wrong, but still probably not very expected. "What are you implying, Third?"

Shinji visibly flinched away from Asuka. The act froze her blood and shattered her anger. For the first time in over a month, he was scared of her.

"Shinji."

One word, and the boy flinched again, despite the calming tone. Asuka shifted on her chair and placed both hands on the tank directly above him. "Shinji, look at me. Please."

The Third Child's head slowly jerked around like a malfunctioning animatronic robot. His eyes, when Asuka could finally see them, were filled with fear. She felt sick, knowing that she had caused such an old reaction to resurface so suddenly.

"Shinji, I..." Asuka paused, then wondered why she paused. Her biggest secret was already out. What more could happen? How could things get any worse? She kept her eyes locked onto his, to try and prove that no part of her was lying, as she said, "It's... true. I've... been wanting to tell you for a while now, but I couldn't bring myself to say it."

Her face had cooled down only slightly. Now it merely felt like she had been standing too close to a supernova. Asuka refused to let that stop her, as she recounted the horror she had felt at almost missing out on being able to confess three times. Her words may have accidentally slipped out a few minutes ago, but they were genuine.

Shinji's eyes flickered across her face, scanning for any sign of deceit, but finding none in her open features. "I... um..." he stammered, struggling to reply.

This was the part that Asuka had been dreading. One of the biggest reasons she had been too... afraid to confess. Did Shinji feel the same way about her, despite how many bridges had been burned the previous year? Or maybe he simply didn't like her that way, and had just wanted to be her friend. Her heart didn't know whether to prepare itself for suborbital flight, or to ready clean-up crews to sweep up after it shattered. Perhaps that confusion was why it was now hammering at her ribcage.

Shinji's breathing mask fogged up again as he took a deep breath and inhaled. A large dose of courage had evidently been in that lungful of air. He opened his mouth and spoke clearly, his words bereft of hesitation or stuttering.

"Asuka, I so desperately want to accept that, but I can't. Not yet, at least."

Asuka's heart began pounding harder. The clean-up crews were now on standby, but were keeping their distance. "W-why not?" she cautiously asked.

"Because..." Shinji squeezed his eyes shut, and continued with a grimace. "There's... something I have to tell you first. Something that will probably change how you feel about me."

Two minutes later, Asuka stumbled out of the room in a daze, almost sending the person on the other side of the door flying.


After departing the room, Rei Ayanami seated herself on the closest bench to the door, content to patiently wait and give the Second Child a bit more time with Shinji before her usual reminder to rest.

There were not many soundproofed rooms in the medical ward of NERV HQ, and the room containing the healing tank was not one of them. Thus, there could be no mistaking the shouts that Rei heard. Her first instinct was to charge back in and attempt to defuse the situation, but then she perceived what was being said.

There was anger in Asuka's voice, just as there had been last year when she had constantly harassed Shinji, but this time it was simply because she was worried. Rei had learned that people would sometimes use anger as a way to try and disguise their true feelings, to cover up fear or other unwanted emotions.

It certainly seemed appropriate that somebody like Asuka would resort to such a defense. At least this time, she sounded like she was angry for Shinji, rather than at him.

The voice softened to a point where Rei could no longer hear it, and she found herself unconsciously standing up and moving closer to the door.

There was another shout, and her eyes widened in astonishment.

For a long time, the pale girl stood there at the door, her mind churning over what she had heard and attempting to make sense of it.

Rei loved her brother, and she was fairly certain that Misato did too. Why was the Second Child so uncertain about her love for Shinji? They were a family. Was a family not supposed to love each other?

But then she thought of another boy and girl: Toji Suzuhara and Hikari Horaki. She had heard it said several times that the two were 'in love' with each other. Since she hadn't quite understood the difference between 'love' and 'in love', some research had soon followed. It didn't take long for her to discover that romance was what was being implied.

Was this situation between Asuka and Shinji similar? There were certainly parallels between the relationship of her fellow pilots and that of Hikari and Toji, such as stubborn denial and anger upon hearing rumours.

With an almost audible snap, things came together inside the First Child's head. Asuka loved Shinji in a romantic way, and had been attempting to hide it. Now Rei finally understood what Misato had meant back when the woman had thought that Shinji had 'confessed' to Asuka. Now she knew why the German girl had been getting so close to-

The door in front of her slid open, and a streak of red flew through it and into her, almost knocking Rei over. She staggered backwards, and recovered her balance for a few seconds until the backs of her legs collided with the bench she had been sitting on. Rei looked up as Asuka swore in German, before switching back to Japanese.

"Oh, didn't see you there," Asuka distractedly said, before then immediately setting off down the corridor. Out of sheer confusion and curiosity, Rei followed her.

The redhead came to a stop at the elevator and pounded at the call button. She stepped in the moment it arrived, and Rei stared at her, unsure if her fellow pilot was seeking privacy. Asuka sighed and beckoned to her, using her other hand to keep the doors open.

When the two girls reached the lobby, Asuka went to the corner of the room, the furthest point from the reception desk, and flung herself into the couch so hard she almost inadvertently bounced back to her feet. Rei sat down to the right of her in a much more sedate manner as the Second Child leaned forward and clutched her head, groaning long and loudly.

"Was there a disagreement?" Rei quietly asked.

Asuka tilted her head slightly to glare balefully at her with one eye. The look quickly faded, though, and she sighed. "You said there were four events that led to Shinji initiating Third Impact: Misato's death, my death, and two private events."

Rei nodded silently, and she continued. "Well I already know that 'my'-' Asuka made exaggerated finger quotes. "-rejection of him was the third event." The other girl nodded again, and her arms dropped into her lap. "...I reckon I just found out what the other private event was..."

Before the First Child could admit that she already knew, Asuka curled her hands into fists in front of her face and growled, "The Third... used me. I was stuck in a coma and he... sat there and jacked himself right off! He turned me into a goddamn sex fantasy!"

Rei lowered her gaze to the floor. Though she was certainly naïve about many things, she understood that Asuka felt incredibly violated by the act. But the girl still needed to try and defend her brother.

"Did Shinji tell you how he felt afterwards?" she inquired.

"Ew! Gross!" Asuka screwed up her face in disgust. "I don't need to know! He-"

Rei interrupted before the redhead could go on a tirade. "He felt like he was the worst person to ever exist."

"He... what?"

"When Shinji... finished..." Rei dully explained. "He believed that he had just defiled you. That act is what caused him to run away into the depths of the Geofront and hide."

Asuka lifted her head up and stared sightlessly across the room. "Wait... that was why he didn't offer any resistance when somebody held a gun to his head?!" she asked incredulously.

"That, and his unwilling execution of the final Angel."

Asuka slapped a palm against her forehead. "Damn. I'd forgotten about that." The hand slowly slipped down her face. "What did he say... 'If you're going to give up, then I will too'. Something like that, anyway. He was breaking down fast and turned to me to try and keep him up, but I couldn't do anything while in a coma. He gave up, tried something to feel better, and just made things worse." The redhead let out a single loud and humourless laugh. "That's the Third Child, alright."

"...Do you hate my brother for doing such a thing?" the First Child hesitantly asked.

"What? Well..." Asuka scratched her cheek, then let out a hissing sigh. "...No. I already forgave him for not being... able to help me. I can't very well do that, and then condemn him for something that's well... minor in comparison."

"Then you should tell him that."

There was silence in the room for a few seconds, then Rei raised an eyebrow as Asuka uttered a German word, clearly an expletive she did not know.

"I'm a goddamn idiot!" the Second Child exclaimed. At the other girl's confused stare, she clarified. "After he admitted to... that, I just stormed out of the room. And I had just accidentally told him I lo-" Her jaw snapped shut. "Never you mind!"

"I heard your... confession," Rei admitted. "It was rather difficult not to."

When the pale girl refused to wilt under her glare, Asuka growled through clenched teeth. "Tell anybody and you die."

"I have no intention of revealing any new details about your relationship without your consent."

"Good," Asuka replied threateningly. "Anyway, after that, he asked if I was telling the truth. I said I did, but then he said that he couldn't accept that because of... well..."

"Because he believed that what he said would make your feelings for him change," Rei finished.

"Yeah." Asuka growled again. "Me running off after hearing that? I'd bet my Eva that he now thinks I do hate him."

"Go back to him, now, and allay his fears."

Ignoring the wait for the elevator, the return trip to the healing tank room took half as long as their departure.


The sound of the door hissing open was impossibly loud in Asuka's ears. She turned her head to glance at Rei, standing behind her, but the girl's cool stare was no comfort. With a deep breath, she slowly stepped into the room.

One step inside was enough to see that things looked just as Asuka had feared. Shinji was staring blankly up at the ceiling, apparently not having heard the door open and close. The tank's speaker had not been deactivated, so it was clear that he was simply too busy beating himself up to pay any attention to things outside his own head. Even as Asuka drew closer to the tank, there was no response from inside until she reached out and gently tapped a fingernail against the glass.

For the second time that day, Shinji's head impacted against the glass tube, before flinching upon seeing who was standing nearby. His body began to tremble.

It wasn't until Asuka caught a glimpse of herself reflected in the glass and looked down that she realised why Shinji was reacting in such a way. The redhead's entire body was in a stance that radiated standoffishness. She slowly unfolded her arms and rubbed at her face to remove the scowl that had broken out without her realising, before moving to the other side of the tube and sitting down in the chair.

"I've thought about what you did, Shinji," Asuka began, keeping her tone low. "Part of me wants to reach in there and punch you in the face." The boy's eyes widened, but she continued in the same voice. "But that's the part that thinks all boys are perverts. Heh, I guess you're the only one who isn't, really."

He opened his mouth to speak, but Asuka swiftly interrupted him. "I've made up my mind."

Shinji blinked. "What... have you decided?" he asked, clearly afraid of the answer.

"Considering the circumstances of that day, I won't hold a grudge against you for it. It's in the past, nobody was hurt, it doesn't matter. As far as I'm concerned, it didn't even happen." Asuka leaned forward. "What I want from you is to believe the same thing. Understand?"

"You... want me to pretend nothing happened?" Shinji cautiously asked. "I-I don't know if I'm capable. That's been one of my most persistent hated memories ever since I woke up on the beach."

"Try," Asuka simply said. "Put it behind you, otherwise it'll just stick to you." She had been trying to do the same thing for the last few months, and with Shinji's proximity at night aiding in keeping away the nightmares when she couldn't do it herself, her attempts had been relatively successful. "Don't look back at bad memories, Shinji. That's when they catch up."

Shinji closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as her words washed over him, then opened them again and blinked several times in rapid succession. "Alright," he said. "I'll try." He said a few more syllables, but his voice was too soft for the speaker to pick it up and Asuka was unable to lip read it.

An uneasy silence descended for a few minutes, and surprisingly, it was Shinji who broke it. "So... um... d-does this mean that... uh... I mean, if we're pretending it didn't happen... um..." He was looking everywhere but at Asuka, who was now hiding a grin behind her hand.

She let Shinji's babbling go on a little longer, just to see if he would be able to say it, but then decided to take pity on the poor boy. "Are you asking what I said earlier is still true?" At his embarrassed nod, she said, "Well if that didn't happen, then nothing's changed."

"So... you do... l-love me then?"

Asuka found it strange that while she had kept skirting around the word since blurting it out before, he could say it almost normally. She nodded in response to Shinji's question.

One side of the boy's mouth twitched upwards, then the other followed suit. Asuka was enraptured by the slowly growing smile, and one started to form on her own face.

"If that's true, then..." Shinji began. Even through the liquid, Asuka could see redness begin to dust his cheeks. "I have something to tell you. Something I've been keeping locked away for too long."

And now her heart was beating like a jackhammer once more.

"Asuka... I..."

Her chest felt like it was about to give way.

"I..."

Was that a rib beginning to crack?

"I love you too."