Chapter 13 - Gaghiel

Five minutes earlier...

"Asuka! I think something's happening!"

Asuka looked down from where she was standing on Unit-02's back. Shinji was calling out to her and pointing to the upper deck, where she could hear shouting and boots pounding on metal. Curious, she made her way over to the Evangelion's shoulder before hopping down to the gangway; an act which probably gave the worrywart Shinji a fit, but she was in a hurry. The two of them headed for the stairs at a fast jog.

Up on the top deck, people were gathering at the starboard side of the ship, looking out across the sea. A fighter jet flying into the distance caught Asuka's attention for a moment, but the plume of smoke coming from a ship on the other side of the Over the Rainbow seemed much more important. Shinji joined her just in time for them both to see another ship, closer to the aircraft carrier, crack in half from some unseen force.

"Something's attacking!" Shinji exclaimed. "Is it an Angel?!"

Asuka stared at the wreckage for several long seconds, before her face broke into a wide grin. She grabbed Shinji's forearm and rushed back down the stairs against his confused protests. Rather than heading right for Unit-02, she took a right turn into a nearby corridor and paused for a moment. One of the three doorways here led to a room where a plugsuit was waiting for her; she found it on the second try. Letting go of Shinji's arm, she turned to him as he began to rub the spot she had been holding onto.

"Wait here," she ordered, before glaring at him. "Don't peek, or I'll rip your eyes out and feed them to you."

Shinji seemed about to question her, but automatic self-preservation made him turn around and stammer, "Y-yes Asuka!"

Asuka took three seconds to confirm that he was sufficiently warned, before roughly yanking off her dress. She kept an eye on him as her underwear dropped to the floor, and didn't relax her guard until she was fully suited up in near-record time. Just as Asuka was about to head out, she noticed that there was a second plugsuit. An idea formed in her mind and she grabbed it.

"Here, put this on," she said, shoving the spare plugsuit at Shinji's chest as she left the room.

"W-wha-"

"Hurry up! We're under attack!" Asuka shouted, shoving him into the room, before placing the A-10 connectors on her head and adjusting them.

"B-but... will it fit me?" he asked as he took his shirt off.

Damn, he was skinny. Shinji really needed some exercise.

"They're plugsuits, genius," Asuka exasperatedly replied. "They conform to our bodies. Now get a move on, that thing could be here any second!"

"...Not quite what I meant..." Shinji mumbled. He started to unbutton his pants, before giving her a pointed look. Asuka quickly turned around as she realised she had accidentally almost watched him undress. After the warning she had just given him, it would be hypocritical of her to be the voyeur.

A tense half-minute passed, with Asuka trying to block out the sounds of Shinji undressing, before he spoke again. "I... really don't think this is going to fit."

Asuka growled and turned around. Thankfully Shinji had pulled the plugsuit all the way on, but he hadn't activated the evacuation function yet so it was essentially hanging off of him. She stomped up to Shinji, grabbed his wrist, and slapped the button that would rapidly evacuate the suit.

Close together as they were, Asuka got a very good look at Shinji when his eyes suddenly widened and a grunt passed his lips as if he'd just been gut punched. She blinked in confusion for a moment before looking down, and then realised why Shinji had been hesitant to put her plugsuit on.

While Shinji and Asuka were close to the same height, there was a reason why an Evangelion pilot's plugsuit was custom tailored specifically for them. While her plugsuits needed a little extra chest space, and the sight of that area on Shinji's body did give her a little mental chuckle, they didn't need room further down the body for something she didn't have.

Essentially, Asuka had just hit Shinji in the groin.

"Shit, sorry," she apologised, but all he could do was give a small whine in response. She shook her head and shoved the second pair of A-10 connectors into his hands. "Look, we can argue about this later. Let's get to my Eva."

Shinji gave a weak nod and followed unsteadily as Asuka ran back to Unit-02. By the time she climbed back up onto its shoulder, Shinji had apparently recovered enough to get the clips on his head, and only needed a hand with the last part of the climb. Once he was up and stable, Asuka ran over to the entry plug collar and hit the button that would eject the plug. It swiftly shot out, the hatch opened, and Asuka climbed in, once again helping Shinji up after her.

She pretended not to notice him trying and failing to adjust his plugsuit.

Because of how Unit-02 was positioned, the entry plug was essentially upside down. Fortunately the designers had thought of this situation and mounted the internal structure of the plug on a gyroscope, letting Asuka get into the pilot's seat without having to sit upside down.

"Shinji," she said as she hit the switch that would retract the plug and pump LCL in. "Reckon you can think in German while you're here? It'd make things much easier on me."

"Erm..."

She glanced at Shinji, who was looking thoughtful. "You've got five seconds before I make up my mind."

He only needed three. "Set system language to German. Aktivierungssequenz initiieren. Nervenverbindung etablieren und LCL einleiten. Gehirnwellen- und Synapsenfeinabstimmung verifiziert. Synchronisation beginnen."

Asuka raised an eyebrow when, after a few seconds, the error message she was halfway expecting didn't show up. LCL was already halfway up her legs. "Nice," she remarked in an impressed tone as she began speaking German too.

Shinji grinned sheepishly before gripping onto the back of the pilot seat. Asuka turned her attention back to the heads up display for a second, before swiftly reaching an arm up and behind her and latching onto Shinji's wrist. Before he could say anything, she dragged him around to the side of her chair and shuffled back as much as she could.

"Sit," she ordered, patting the seat between her knees. "I don't want you flailing around behind me once we start moving, and you can get us standing while I run through the power-on self test."

Shinji gulped, before gingerly sitting down in the space Asuka provided for him. She guided his hands to the Evangelion controls, before moving her own hands to the holographic keyboard. Unit-02 shuddered into life a moment later and she scanned the screen for any problems as the giant robot got to its feet. Gravity spun the entry plug in its socket, and the interior locked into its natural position.

"Looks like we're good to..." Asuka half-muttered to herself before trailing off. She tapped a few more commands, then swore at what the screen was telling her. "Is this a fucking joke?!"

"What?" Shinji twisted as best as he could to face her. "What's wrong?"

"We're in B-Type equipment! We're out on the open ocean and those morons didn't think to prepare my Unit-02 for underwater combat! And they didn't bother loading the spike launcher either!" Asuka slammed a fist into the side of the entry plug, somewhat stymied by the liquid environment. "Always anticipate combat! You idiots!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Asuka noticed Shinji's nervous expression. She slapped a palm to her forehead and sighed. "Whatever, let's just do what we can. You okay there?"

"Er... yes..." Shinji was gripping the controls so tightly, if it weren't for the plugsuit covering him Asuka was sure she'd see white knuckles on his hands.

"Relax a little," said Asuka, patting his shoulder as a thought occurred. "You don't need to worry about not having an AT-Field. I'm here and I can use one just fine."

The words of encouragement seemed to work; Shinji's hands unclenched slightly. Asuka smiled at the back of his head, then keyed the comm. Since she didn't know what frequency to use, she had to make do with an all-frequency radio broadcast.

"Flagship, this is Evangelion Unit Two. The fleet is under attack by an Angel. Awaiting orders."

Asuka sensed some confusion from Shinji because of her polite communication. "What?" she said to the back of his head. "Misato and Akagi already got on my case once for being rude to superiors."

"I didn't say a thing."

"Asuka, this is Misato," came a voice from the comm system. "That Angel's heading right towards you now!"

"More good news," Asuka groaned. "How the hell are we going to get over to you? We don't have C-Type equipment."

"I'm afraid you'll just have to jump ship, so to speak."

"...Pardon?" Shinji replied in a puzzled tone. "...Do you mean... hop from ship to ship?"

There was the sound of affronted sputtering, then a male voice said, "Those are warships, woman! Not toys!"

"That's the only option we have, Admiral," Misato stiffly replied. "Unless you can think of a way to distract that Angel for the several minutes it'll take for the Othello to pull alongside. And the Eva only has a minute's worth of power."

"I don't think that's going to work anyway," said Shinji, staring at the fin disappearing in a plume of water as the Angel sped up, heading straight for them.

"Damnit! All hands, brace for impact!"

The fin was very close now.

"Asuka," Shinji hesitantly began. "Do you think this will work?"

"Heh." The pilot of Unit-02 leaned forward, and her hands pushed Shinji's out of the way so she could control the Evangelion. Asuka felt him flinch at their unavoidable close physical contact. "I have no idea! Just let me take over for now."

The fin was only a couple hundred metres away when Unit-02 crouched. A second before the Angel hit the Othello, the Evangelion took to the sky.

For several tense seconds, Unit-02 was flying, until its feet impacted on the helipad of one of the destroyers escorting the Othello. A glance back showed that the transport ship was well and truly sunk. And the Angel was turning a hard circle to come back around towards them.

"Get the cable ready!" Asuka yelled into the comm system as she prepared to jump again. Unit-02 leapt towards another ship, landing near its bow cannon. The nose of the ship dipped dangerously close to the water before managing to stabilise, but by that time the Evangelion was already flying again. One more hop brought them close to the Over the Rainbow. With a cry of "Brace yourselves!" Asuka launched Unit-02 one last time.

The supercarrier certainly handled the jump better than the smaller ships, although it did still tilt side to side from the impact. Several fighter jets, apparently not tied down, slipped off the flight deck and into the water. Asuka gave a small chuckle as she imagined Kensuke's reaction, while Unit-02 held onto the tower to keep from joining them. Once the supercarrier stopped tilting, she grabbed the power cable some nice workmen had left there for Unit-02 and plugged it in, sighing in relief as the countdown timer blanked itself out just before hitting twenty seconds left.

"Right, now that we're here, you can put your hands back on the controls, Shinji," said Asuka as she pulled the controls upward and towards her. She flicked a switch on the side of the left controller that disconnected part of the handles and brought the sticks close enough for both of them to hold on to.

"So what's the plan?" Shinji asked as he complied with her request. "Even if we had a gun, shooting it isn't going to work."

"Then we'll just have to go melee," Asuka declared as she deployed Unit-02's Progressive Knife from the left shoulder pylon. As she reached up to grab it, she noticed that the tarpaulin was wrapped around her Evangelion's shoulders. She mentally shrugged and tore it away before grabbing the knife, thumbing the activation switch and sliding the blade out of its sheath. Unlike Unit-01's melee weapon, which resembled a scaled-up Bowie knife, this was more like a box-cutter with breakaway segments on the blade.

"What if it just smashes into the ship like before?"

The Angel leapt out of the water, providing an answer of sorts to Shinji's question as it practically belly flopped onto the flight deck and just barely missed knocking the tower over. Asuka heard the wailing of the Vice-Admiral as he complained about the damage, but put him out of her mind as she grappled with the Angel. She'd dropped the knife when it crashed into Unit-02, and got shoved away from her weapon. Together, she and Shinji tried to force the Angel away, but it was pushing them back.

Something gave under Unit-02's right foot, and they lost their balance. Thinking quickly, Asuka grabbed onto what she could of the Angel, and heaved. The Evangelion and the Angel fell into the water together, sinking quickly to the underwater ruins that were once part of old Yokohama. As they crashed into the seabed, a cloud of dirt obscured their vision for a brief moment before Asuka felt the Angel surge forward, pulling them out of the cloud as it swam at great speed mere metres above the ground.

Old buildings and bridges meant nothing to the giant fish monster; it smashed through everything. All Asuka and Shinji could do was try and hang on while the Angel attempted to buck its rider. After half a minute of this wild ride, Misato's voice came through the comm system again.

"Careful, you're about to run out of cable!"

NERV built things tough; even power lines. When the cable reached its limit, Unit-02 was jerked back and off the Angel without it snapping, and the plug's electromagnets held strong. The Angel, freed from its unwelcome passenger, swam off into the murky depths and was lost to sight within seconds as Unit-02 came to rest under an algae-covered bridge.

Even with both Shinji and Asuka straining to move, the Evangelion was incredibly sluggish. It was as if they were swimming in cement, not water.

"Damn, are we stuck down here?" Shinji groaned as he slumped in the pilot seat.

"Of course not," Asuka retorted, stifling the urge to slap him across the back of the head. "The carrier can just reel us in."

"Well could they hurry up on that?" Shinji pointed ahead. "It's coming back."

Out of the inky darkness swam the Angel, charging directly at its prey. It opened its mouth as it picked up speed, and Asuka's eyes widened in shock.

"Those are..." she began.

"...Some really big..." Shinji continued.

"TEETH!" they exclaimed at the same time.

The Angel crashed into them, and Asuka found herself getting an unwanted closer look at both the Angel's dental prowess and the core in its throat. Yet somehow, the teeth weren't able to bite through Unit-02's armour; a small mercy given they were being helplessly dragged around again. Asuka was still feeling some pain through the neural link though; an ache as if something was trying to crush her waist. Somehow, it felt like it was less pain than there should be, given what her sync ratio was likely sitting at right now.

And then Asuka remembered that Shinji was piloting too. Perhaps the sympathetic pain of the neural link with Unit-02 was being shared. She idly wondered what their combined sync ratio was like in this situation, but there was no time to ask; Misato was speaking again.

"Shinji! Asuka! Don't let that stupid fish escape!"

"Oh, don't worry Misato, we've got it right where we want it!" Shinji sarcastically yelled at the comm system.

Asuka had to bite back a snort at Shinji's surprising quip. "Yeah!" she added. "Totally about to turn this Angel into sushi in a minute!"

Despite the audio-only transmission and half a kilometre of water separating them physically, Asuka could feel Misato's deadpan stare. "I've got a plan," she eventually continued as if nothing had happened, "but you need to get that Angel's mouth open!"

"Good thing it's already trying to eat us then," replied Asuka. The transmission ended, and she turned her attention to Shinji. "Come on, we're going to have to work together on this."

"But we tried that before," said Shinji. "We barely moved at all."

"I don't think we were, actually." Before the Angel had grabbed them, it had felt to Asuka like it wasn't just the water working against Unit-02. "I think we were trying to do slightly different things, and ended up accomplishing nothing. I want you to follow my lead now."

Asuka felt Shinji's hands clench on the controls. "Okay," he agreed. "Tell me what to do."

"Right." Asuka closed her eyes and concentrated on the neural link. Stuck partway in the Angel's mouth, they couldn't see much, but she could feel her 'legs' trailing freely in the water. "First we need to get our feet into a spot where we can exert some pressure."

With a shaky start, the Evangelion's legs began to move, bending at the knees and bringing the feet up to the Angel's lips. Asuka continued giving directions, and Unit-02 began to strain against the strength of the Angel's jaw.

"Good work," she encouragingly said to Shinji. "Let's keep this up."

"You're running out of time!" came Misato's voice. "Get that mouth open!"

Asuka and Shinji began to growl and groan as they put everything they had into their efforts. As massive and powerful as the Angel was, its jaw began to give way under the might of Unit-02 and its two pilots.

"Getting there..."

"Gotta keep... pushing!"

"Open! Open!" they began to chant together.

Asuka felt a surge, and her vision went white for a split second as Unit-02's arms forced the Angel's jaws wide open.

Just in time for two massive ships to pass them on either side, smashing through the Angel's teeth like they weren't there and burying themselves in its throat. Asuka just barely had enough time to read the English word 'Kentucky' on one of the ships before their bow cannons fired and she felt herself being knocked away by the shockwave. The cable retracted, pulling Unit-02 to the surface, and Asuka observed the Angel's body briefly expanding as it tried to contain the power of two sets of battleship cannons.

It failed miserably.

The ocean turned pink as the Angel simply exploded. A second shockwave, one that put the first to shame, sent Unit-02 hurtling through the water towards the surface faster than the cable was retracting. The Evangelion broke the surface and went flying through the air once more. Seeing the remnants of the U.N. fleet below them, Asuka tried her best to get their unexpected flight under control and angle them towards the supercarrier. The retracting cable did most of the work, and Unit-02 touched down in a three-point landing back on the flight deck of the Over the Rainbow as displaced seawater rained down upon them. The supercarrier rocked back and forth, threatening to tip them back into the water, but it soon settled back down.

Asuka slumped back in her seat and let out a sigh of relief. In front of her, Shinji was hunched over, still holding onto the controls. She tapped the back of his head. "It's over now, you can let go."

"Oh." Shinji straightened up and released the controls. He shook the stiffness out of his hands, before leaning back.

Right into Asuka's chest.

"You can also get out of my seat now," she pointedly added, trying to ignore the body heat leeching through their plugsuits. "Before I start to wonder why you're still sitting in it." For emphasis, she made a fist and waved it in front of his face.

Shinji wisely got up quickly, face bright red as he moved around to the back of the pilot seat.

"Great job, you two!"

Asuka turned Unit-02's head to the tower, where she could barely make out Misato's mop of purple hair among black and brown heads and white hats. She waved the Evangelion's right hand at them, and was surprised to see something clutched in it. Opening the hand, Asuka saw that she had somehow held onto part of one of the Angel's massive incisors.

"Decided to keep a souvenir of your kill, huh Asuka?" Misato asked.

"I... guess?" Asuka hesitantly replied. "I don't remember grabbing it though."

"Er, that might have been me," said Shinji. "When those ships hit, I tried to grab something to hang onto before I realised what was happening."

Asuka turned in her chair to give him a look. "Why do I get the feeling you were also the reason why my Eva was wearing that tarp like a freaking cape?"

The suddenly shifty expression on Shinji's face told her everything.

XXX

With the Angel dead, the fleet swept the area for survivors from the half-dozen ships that it had sunk, as well as the evacuees from the Illinois and Kentucky. Unit-02 helped where it could, scooping entire life rafts up onto the flight deck of the Over the Rainbow.

Now the tattered fleet was pulling into port near Tokyo-3. It would be a strange sight for anybody watching: a giant red robot kneeling on the prow of a massive ship, both looking like they had... well... picked a fight with a giant monster. The tooth had been wedged into an aircraft elevator just in front of Unit-02, something which Vice Admiral Wilford probably complained about.

Unit-02 was loaded onto a train that would take it directly to the Geofront. Now that she could see it from the outside, Asuka could clearly see the puncture marks in its armour. That only lent more credence to her theory that she and Shinji had shared the neural feedback, especially considering the size of the tooth Shinji had inadvertently snatched. Even though it was apparently only half a tooth, it still came up to her shoulders when it was stood up. Kensuke had begged to be allowed to take it home, but NERV was only going to be so lenient with what they permitted him to do. He was lucky enough to not have his video camera confiscated.

And speaking of the nerd...

"Excuse me, ma'am," came Kensuke's voice from behind. Asuka turned around, instantly wary of the jovial tone in his voice, but he wasn't talking to her. He and Toji were facing the other way and focused on Shinji, or rather the plugsuit he was wearing.

"We're lookin' for our friend Shinji. You seen him anywhere, miss?" Toji asked, clearly trying to keep a laugh from bursting out of his mouth.

"Oh come on, you two!" Shinji whined, trying to cover everything with just his hands. "This thing is really uncomfortable and my clothes are somewhere at the bottom of the ocean by now!"

In any other circumstance, Asuka might have joined in, giving a couple of her own jabs before telling the nerd and the jock to cut it out. But Shinji had just helped her kill an Angel. He'd fought beside her... figuratively speaking, and he deserved some goddamn respect.

She caught Shinji's eye and put a finger to her lips to signal him to be quiet as she sneaked up behind the pair of cackling idiots, her rubber-clad feet ensuring almost complete silence on the metal deck. As Toji threw another verbal jab at her fellow pilot she reached out both hands, positioning them on either side of the two juvenile boy's heads.

And then Shinji set thing up beautifully.

"Hey guys," Shinji said, interrupting Toji's latest insult. "Does it hurt to be so insensitive?"

"Huh?"

"Whaddaya me-"

Asuka struck, slamming Toji and Kensuke's heads together like a pair of difficult blackboard dusters. The two boys almost fell over as their thick skulls rebounded off each other, and they turned on their assailant with angry words on their lips only to trail off as they saw who was behind them. Kensuke gave what he probably thought was a disarming grin, but the headlock he suddenly found himself in proved that Asuka was very much armed and dangerous.

At least Toji had the decency to be apologetic. "Er, sorry Red. And Shinji," he mumbled.

Asuka simply stared at him while Kensuke flailed helplessly in her grip. "Hey Shinji," she said, glancing at the boy in question. "Reckon I should make this idiot walk the plank?"

"Er..."

A tired voice called out to her. "Please don't throw anybody in the ocean. I'll probably have to fill out even more paperwork!"

The teenagers turned to regard the newcomer, who turned out to be Misato. Following close behind, staring at a sheaf of papers in her hands, was Doctor Akagi.

"Hello Misato," said Shinji. "Are we going home yet?"

"Soon," Misato replied, looking like she was about to collapse. "The car from NERV should be here in a few minutes."

"Why do you look so exhausted, Misato?" Asuka wondered. "We're the ones that fought a big fish, but you look like you did it barehanded."

Misato gave her a flat-eyed stare. "I am not looking forward to going back to my office," she growled. "Do you know how much paperwork sinking two battleships creates?"

"But that's what killed the Angel, right?" said an uncertain Shinji.

"Doesn't matter. We still need to account for stuff like the ordnance they carried, among other things." Misato slowly collapsed onto her knees on the ground, covering her face with her hands and groaning loudly. "I'm gonna be busy for ages."

Doctor Akagi cast a sympathetic look at her companion before turning her attention to Asuka. "So the two of you worked together to fight the Angel, correct?" she asked.

Asuka nodded. "Yeah. Shinji was able to think in German, so that made things easier." She recalled what she had wondered during the fight. "What was our sync ratio like?"

Doctor Akagi studied her notes for a moment. "Well it was all over the place for a start. Forty-one percent during your little hopscotch game, fifty-seven percent when you fell into the water, thirty-eight while you were drifting down there..."

"But we were working together though," said Shinji. "Well, besides when Asuka was getting us to the power socket. Why was it so erratic everywhere else?"

"There are quite a few possibilities," replied Akagi. "You might have been trying to do different things at the same time, for instance. Your own thought noise would have been creating quite a bit of interference. Not to mention that we didn't exactly design the Eva control systems to allow for two pilots. But... you two worked together perfectly when it counted. Would you like to know the maximum sync ratio you reached during the fight?"

"Oooh! Tell us!" Asuka practically began to bounce as she tried to guess the result herself. "Eighty? Ninety? Oh, if it was a hundred..."

Doctor Akagi smirked and held out a page. Asuka took it, finally releasing Kensuke who ran off gasping, and brought it over to Shinji. They both stared at the paper, practically touching heads as they read the number circled in red ink.

"One hundred..." Asuka began.

"...And forty-eight..." Shinji continued.

"Percent," they finished together.

"Holy shit!" Asuka swore in German, dropping the paper as she took a few paces backward, bringing both hands up to cradle her head. "Holy shit..."

"Oh wow," said Shinji, more subdued but clearly stunned at the revelation. "I didn't know that was even possible..."

"The numbers don't lie, Shinji," Doctor Akagi said as she picked up the dropped paper and returned it to her stack. "You only maintained it for six seconds, but for that brief period the two of you were perfectly in tune with each other. Well done." She turned to leave, but glanced back at Shinji over her shoulder. "Today has brought me one massive step closer to a solution for you. In a week or so I might be able to show you what I have in mind."

Doctor Akagi headed off towards Unit-02 without a word of farewell, returning her attention to the papers in her hands.

"A hundred and forty-eight percent!" Asuka shouted, still not believing what she had read and not noticing the exit of the scientist. "That's just... wow! What a way to break the record!" She turned to Shinji and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Even if we split it, that's seventy-four percent each! Still record-breaking!"

"But we still feel more pain as our sync ratio climbs," Shinji reasoned. "What would have happened if that Angel managed to bite through the Eva?"

That brought a jubilant Asuka up short. She took a step back, rubbing her hip as she recalled the phantom pain while looking up at the corresponding point on Unit-02 where there was a hole in the armour. "Well...," she hesitantly began, "it's apparently only sympathetic pain until you get close to one hundred percent, and that's when your body starts taking the damage as well. But we were sharing it, so we're both fine." She glanced at Shinji. "Right?"

"Well-"

Asuka suddenly slapped the spot on Shinji's hip where the hole in Unit-02's armour was. He recoiled, bringing up a hand to cover it as he yelped in pain.

"How does it feel? Does it ache or have you been stabbed?"

"...Just a bit of an ache," Shinji admitted with a scowl.

"Then we're both fine. Anyway," Asuka jabbed a finger into his chest. "You know what this means now, right?"

"That we shouldn't let our sync ratio get too high?" Shinji incorrectly guessed.

Asuka once again resisted the urge to slap him across the back of the head. Shinji could be surprisingly bright sometimes, while also somehow being incredibly dim. "No, genius. It means we have to really knuckle down and train if we're going to beat our record!"

"Oh. Um... okay."

"Sheesh, tone it down a little, you're getting enthusiasm all over me," Misato sarcastically said, hopping back up to her feet. She patted her hair back into place as she looked out towards the port entrance. A black car was waiting for them. "Our ride's here, so time to stop flirting with him, Asuka. You can pick it up again later."

"Wh-whaaatt?!" the two pilots shouted at the same time, their faces heating up. Asuka, finally noticing how physically close she was to Shinji, leapt backwards in shock. "W-we're not flirting!"

"Could have fooled me," Misato shot back as she headed towards the car. "Seems like today has seen you two get a little friendlier with each other. It's rather obvious how you were both able to pilot at the same time." She flashed them a grin over her shoulder. "Should I be keeping a closer eye on your apartment?"

"Mi-Misato!" Shinji angrily stammered. "A-are we going back to the Geofront or what?!"

To Asuka's great relief, Misato decided to let the matter drop. She shook her head at the question. "Nah, I'm getting dropped off there, but you and your friends are going home." She glanced at Shinji. "Probably not a good idea for you to be out and about like that. Red looks good on you, Shinji, but with that face somebody might mistake you for a boy."

Asuka swiftly brought up a hand to cover the snort that threatened to burst forth. Shinji was a little slower on the uptake, but he soon caught on.

"Misato!"

XXX

The heavy industrial case was lowered gently onto the desk. The scruffy man slowly unfastened the locks keeping it shut, and then opened it up. He spun it around to show the contents to the man sitting at the desk, who gave a smirk behind his interlaced gloved hands before standing up.

"Exceptional. You have performed well, Ryoji Kaji," said Gendo Ikari, leaning in to stare at the case's contents.

"You know, you could have warned me about the surprise visitor today," Kaji remarked as he took a few steps away from the desk and looked idly out the massive windows in the gigantic office. "I had to leave poor Katsuragi high and dry while I scarpered."

"That 'visitor' is why I ensured that two pilots would be available," replied Gendo. "In any case, it would have attacked Unit-02's transport even if this hadn't been in the area." He indicated the contents of the case.

"The linchpin of Human Instrumentality, eh?" said Kaji, turning to regard the strange thing inside the case. It had the appearance of a shrivelled fetus, encased in a block of solid orange material and stored inside a case that kept it frozen but apparently alive. It had been quite a task to 'retrieve' it from NERV Berlin without anybody noticing. Considering how rarely anybody there actually checked inside the vault that had once contained it, however, he was confident that it would be quite a while before his substitution would be noticed.

Gendo nodded. "The first human being, right here in front of us." He reached up one hand to adjust his glasses, and the artificial sunlight streaming into the office glinted sharply off them. His other hand gently caressed the block of orange material.

"This... is Adam."