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Fanus: I answered your comment via pm, but I'm sorry that I have to dissapoint you about those two fights

Disclaimer: See Prologue
Chapter 14: The Chase

Early morning sync tests were even more grating than normal sessions.

"Oh my God...Could this get any more boring. If we're gonna be stuck in these plugs, why can't we be fighting Angels?" Asuka was especially hyperactive and talkative during this particular test.

"Because we're working to build a peaceful world after all this. And you wishing for an Angel attack is counterproductive. Boredom is part of the job." Misato said from her current location on a spinning office chair.

"Endless tedium...could you imagine? One boring day at work after another." Ritsuko mused down to Maya, reading the neural output coming from the static entry plugs.

The other two Children weren't having any difficulty dealing with the incredibly dull sync tests. Rei simply waited with her usual indifference while Shinji passed the time by gawking at Rei through the open videoconferencing channel.

Maya ran the final report and opened the chambers. "All right, you three you can come on out.

Hyuga spoke up. "Unit 01 may be in action, but as long as Unit 00 is on the bench, our budget and our spare parts are completely out the window."

"I know," Aswered Ritsuko, "the Commander is lobbying for increased funding and a Unit Transfer as we speak. It can't possibly come soon enough..."

Even more boring than sync tests was the afternoon of classes that Shinji wasn't exempt from. He was alone on the observation roof at school again when a girl fell from the sky, parachuting directly onto his confused and panicking form. She crashed, knocking Shinji senseless, and scattering her belongings across the roof.

"Dammit where are my glasses!?"

"Umm...are you okay...?"

"Oh, sorry about that-" She heard her cell phone ringing "Yeah it's Mari...No I don't really want to talk to you right now...Why? You scoop me out of the ocean, divert me to Okinawa, and then put me on a training flight with a bunch of douchebag paratroopers and you want to talk about being covert?!...No, I literally landed in some guy's arms when the wind gusts blew me into what looks like a high school...No I didn't have to fight anyone, he kind of freaked out and started running away...Reminds you of somebody you know? How?...If there's a matching core coming then what's the problem...No, that's Germany's problem now...Fine, just make sure that it arrives on time. 'K bye now!"

The girl, Shinji assumed was named 'Mari', shuffled through her static line rig and crawled over to him, animalistically smelling his hair and skin. "You smell good, like LCL, that's my favorite smell in the world..."

"wa-Wa-Waitaminute...How do you know what LCL is?"

"I know a lot more than that, for instance, I know what NERV is, and I can guess what you do for a living, but let's just pretend I never came through here, okay, Third?" She handed him his SDAT and ran off. Could Shinji's day get any wierder?

Shinji learned not to ask himself questions like that. He was waiting around NERV's sublevels, not doing anything when he felt an ice cold object on his face. He screamed and whirled around to see Kaji laughing like a madman and offering him a canned coffee.

"You look bored to tears in here and I need some help, lets go hang out for a while..."

"Are we on a...farm?"

"Technically it's just a big garden, but yeah. NERV doesn't develop any of the land out here so I claimed a little chunk and planted it. Now let's get started, clear the weeds out so the edible crops have more light and soil."

"You know, I don't remember signing up to work the fields..."

"You never really signed up to fight in a giant robot, either, did you? But you got pretty good at that, all things considered."

Shinji actually had to agree with that strange piece of wisdom.

"You'd probably never guess that a scarred up rogue like me would do something so quaint as planting watermelons and grapevines, right? I love watching things grow and ripen, it's like watching a person grow and change. The quiet time out here helps me sort through life and get better perspective."

"So it helps you sort through your pains then?"

"Not a big fan of pain, are you?"

"...Well I don't like it..."

"C'mon, is there anything you do like?" Shinji just scowled at that question.

"Look, Shinji, the reason I brought you out here is because I want to see you being honest with yourself."

"How am I not?"

"Just because you don't like piloting doesn't mean you shouldn't be proud of all the good you've done while at the controls. Just because Asuka is abrasive and cocky doesn't mean she isn't one of the good guys too..." Shinji had a hard time beliving that one. "...You tell yourself that your dad abandoned you, what he really did was run away. Running away was something I did to Misato years ago, and I've been trying to fix that ever since, and I don't want to see you make the same mistakes I did."

"I'm getting better about not running away, trust me."

"Then I've got a challenge for you, now that you aren't running away from the things that scare you, start chasing down the things that scare you. My biggest weakness is that I would rather have fun than accomplish anything; Misato is just as married to her work as her father was; we were total opposites, and we drove each other apart because of it. Ritsuko's mother died a decade ago, but Ritsy lives in the shadow of Naoko Akagi's accomplishments, and she hates it."

"And you think you know what my weakness is?"

"You run from opportunities to be the good guy, Shinji, you can't do that, even if being 'good' is what brings punishment or pain."

"I took one of those opportunities, and Misato exploded at me because of it."

"That doesn't suprise me, Misato has never been great at deciding the difference between what's legal and what's right. Even if she or anybody else explodes at you, don't ever let a chance to do the right thing pass you by. Don't be afraid of failure. If you're rejected, keep chasing anyway."

"Like you keep chasing Misato?" Shinji asked dryly.

"You think that's a bad thing for whatever reason, but don't pretend that nobody sees you chasing Rei." Kaji smirked.

"WHAT?! You too!? Why is every adult in this place so interested in me and Rei?!"

"Because you act like a real man should to her. I saw you at that aquarium, remember. You're kind, chivalrous, generous. You act the same way to Asuka and Misato as well, but niether of them were neglected and repressed like Rei was, that's the result of her living with your father and a fleet of scientists for years. She doesn't know how she deserves to be treated, but you're good to her anyway. I'm going to spend my time trying to fix things between me and Misato, and the best thing I can do for you is try to show you where I went wrong."

"...You know, Kaji, you brought me out here to help tend to your plants. Do you think you can help me with a hammer and nails?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, Rei basically has an entire library at her apartment..."

"All right, you dragged me out here tonight." Misato talked over her third beer.

"Hey, you could have said no." Kaji smirked at her while looking over the menu of the seedy grill they found themselves at.

"Trust me, this isn't a date. I've got questions for you, and you aren't leaving without answering them."

"Wow, as intense about work as ever."

"Yeah, well this is important." She lowered her voice. "Tell me everything you know about the dummy plug experiments."

"Is that all? Easy, NERV's been trying to develop an autopilot system for the Evas for years. They can control it remotely already, but it can't protect itself with an AT field without a sentient human pilot. NERV's been trying to create an artificial AT field since it was founded. It's more humane than putting children in the middle of a battle."

"No it isn't. We know the effects of the drone wars. The Vatican Treaty itself was written due the possibility of 'intelligent' war machines. Having a human pilot inside means having a human heart and mind inside, with the ability to attack, or to refuse to attack. Doing the latter can be just as important."

"You certainly have a point, but I've never aggreed to using somebody else to do our own dirty work."

"Shinji and the others...they have the heaviest burden anybody could carry, and we gave it to them...but I still trust them more than some unthinking machine." She looked up from her drink. "Who the hell is SEELE?"

"When somebody says 'SEELE' it carries roughly the same credibility as 'Illuminati'. A bunch of pretentious old men playing at running the world. But the world left them behind long ago."

"They're still a threat; what is Human Instrumentality?"

"I promise I'd tell you if I knew, but I've got no idea..."

Rei walked into her apartment feeling lightheaded and high. The Commander had her spending more and more time in LCL, taking more and more of her thoughts from her each time. = He is acting urgent and alarmed. I do not understand why. = She didn't concern herself with it. = I know that I am not in the condition to ponder the experiments, anyway. =

She was justified in thinking that she was halluncinating when she saw Shinji finishing a simple bookshelf he had installed along her wall. He pulled the six cardboard boxes full of her extensive library from the closet he found while cleaning her room on one occasion. Aside from an unmistakable pair of glasses, her books were the only possesions she had that she valued.

"What is being done here?"

"Hi, Rei, I got Inspector Kaji's help building this bookshelf for you. All of these books and novels you have are too important to hide away in a closet." He rifled through a few pieces of her collection. "Plato's The Republic? A Brief History of Time? Machiavelli's The Prince? The Art of War? All this knowledge you have...it deserves a home. All this stuff is too important to lose. You're going to have to get that front door lock fixed, now."

"...Shinji..." She said his first name again. "is this...paid for?

"Of course it is." He answered, a hint of pride in his voice. "We pilots certainly don't have money problems."

"I have never been given such a substantial gift before-"

He inturrupted her, "Sure you have, all these books are worth more than this shelf."

"These books were not gifts, I either purchased them for myself or simply took them from NERV's facilities."

"...I was under the impression that my dad would have given some of them to you. He should know how much reading and learning you do..."

"He does, but he has only given me the texts necessary to complete the education given to me by Professor Fuyutsuki."

= Oh yeah, that's right...Fuyutsuki did homeschool her... =

"But come on, you've gotten better gifts than a bookshelf, haven't you?"

"No, I have not."

Shinji's perception of time slowed as he tried to understand that statement. = She's a teenage girl who has never done anything to become enemies with anybody; I don't even give a damn if she's quiet and antisocial, how the hell is Asuka suddenly the most popular girl in school? They're equally pretty, but Asuka is, well, mean and violent. Rei is quiet, polite, and agreeable, but people neglect her...God, Kaji was right...I have to start doing something about this. =

"Rei, do you mind if I stay for dinner, we can eat and organize the books however you want them."

"I will not send you away, Pilot Ikari, but I do not have enough food for guests..."

= She didn't say no... = Shinji walked to the kitchen and brought out a thermos and two bowls. "I happen to remember you calling my Miso Soup recipe 'Delicious' didn't you?" he coyly asked her.

= He prepared meals for us preemptively...He expected that I would not be an agreeable host... =

"Yes. I did say that."

He made a simple spread for them on one of the closed boxes, and proceeded to marvel over the content of the books she read. There were the classics, works by Dickens, Verne, Twain, Shelley and others. There were University Biology, Physics, and Mathematics textbooks. He found conspiratorial and philosophical content along with business and finance studies.

"Rei, do you seriously read this stuff, and understand it?"

"Technically, yes, I have completed all of the texts placed in storage. However, I have not reread many of these books in years."

"Okay, even if you haven't been through them in a long time...you really are brilliant, aren't you?"

"I do not consider intelligence a trait to be boasted about, but Dr. Akagi has said that my intellect is well above average."

He picked up one of the documents on philosophy. "Would you read some of this one out loud?"

= I suppose that is not an unreasonable request. =

"A man lit three candles on a certain day each year. Each candle held symbolic significance: one was for the time that had passed before he was alive; one was for the time of his life; and one was for time that passed after he had died. Each year the man would stare and watch the candles until they had burned out.

Was the man really watching time go by in any symbolic sense? He thought so. He thought that each flicker of the flame was a moment of time that had passed or one that would pass.

At the moment of abstraction, when the man was imagining his life and his existence as a metaphor of the three candles, he was free: not free from rules of conduct or social constraints, but free to understand, to imagine, to make metaphor."

He barely made out that she was reading about the concept of thought and contemplation itself, but, more importantly, she read with a conviction beyond what he expected from her soft, quiet voice. He knew he would have a hard time comprehending the subject, but he never expected to be distracted by her voice itself.

A/N: I'd like to thank Eidos Interactive and Bungie Studios for their unwitting assistance with some of the deeper concepts of this chapter. If anybody knows what I'm referencing, leave it in a comment and you'll win an Internet.
A/N 2: Ask me about the drone programs, I dare you.