Chapter 36 - I'm Staying Here For Asuka
DAY 1
Lethargic as he was feeling after a night of insufficient sleep, Shinji still rose with the dawn. Or rather, with the alarm on his phone, laying on the bed next to his head, that he set to wake him up at the usual time since the bunkroom didn't have the luxury of a window looking out onto the Geofront. He sat on the edge of the bed, rotating an aching shoulder in circles, and glanced about the room. Several other beds were occupied, hardly surprising after recent events, and one bed even...
Shinji hurriedly averted his eyes. Obviously in a place with as many employees as NERV, there would be at least a few people in romantic relationships. It was no business of his if they decided to fall asleep in the same bed after a gruelling work day. But that logic couldn't stop him feeling a strange sensation in his heart as he passed by the snoozing couple and exited the bunkroom.
After a quick stop at the pilot changing room to shower, Shinji put on yesterday's clothes and made a note to ask Misato about getting some things from his wardrobe. He then went to the mess hall and picked something at random for breakfast; after all, unless it was prepared dangerously wrong he wouldn't notice anything anyway.
He soon found himself back at the door to the Evangelion cages, barely even remembering the trek. At a more sedate pace than yesterday, he headed to Unit-02's cage; empty apart from him and the red behemoth. Leaning on the railing in front of the Evangelion's head, Shinji bowed his head and sighed, staring aimlessly down into the LCL it was sitting in like the world's largest bathtub.
"Good morning, Asuka," he said after a while. "I'm sure if you could respond, you'd do your usual half-awake grunt while reaching for the coffee machine. Heh. Come to think of it you're a lot like Misato, except she drinks beer to wake up for whatever reason. I'm sure the only thing stopping you from imitating her can slam is the fact that you'd break the mugs."
Shinji glanced around the cage at the massed equipment, none of which he knew the purpose of. "They're going to do what they can to rescue you. I really wish I could help, but I don't have your intellect. I have to stay at NERV, being the only pilot and all, but I don't know if I'd be able to go home even if they'd let me. Until you're back with us, it feels like I have to be here. Couldn't get much sleep last night because I kept thinking about you.
"I wonder what it's like in there. Are you just unconscious, are you dreaming, or are you actually looking at me right now?" At that last thought, Shinji blushed slightly and looked away from Unit-02's face. "Guess it's a good thing I already confessed. Not like I can do much to embarrass myself any further."
Engrossed as he was in his one-sided conversation, Shinji didn't hear the cage door open. Doctor Akagi took one step in, paused upon seeing him, and sighed.
'This is getting out of hand,'she darkly mused. 'Now there's two of them.'
XXX
DAY 6
It didn't take long for a pattern to emerge. Shinji would wake up, shower, eat breakfast, and be the first one in Unit-02's cage. At the end of the day, he would be one of the last to leave, generally when somebody reminded him. The insistent thought had thankfully died down a bit, so Shinji no longer felt like he was being magnetically pulled towards the cage. This allowed him to begin asking Doctor Akagi for any minor tasks he could do to assist.
So of course he ended up mostly fetching coffee for her. It was entirely possible she was also using this as an excuse to get Shinji to do something besides stare at Unit-02 all day, but it did mean he could feel at least somewhat useful, insignificant as the task might be in the long run.
But the days passed, and every retrieval attempt ended in failure.
XXX
DAY 8
Shinji's phone began to ring, jolting him out of his musing. He didn't recognise the number on the screen, but he flipped the phone open anyway and gave a cautious "Hello?"
"Hey, Shin-man! It's Toji!" came the energetic greeting from someone Shinji hadn't even thought about in ages, let alone talked to.
"Ah, um, hello Toji. How are things?"
"...'How are things?'" Toji echoed in surprise. "Well there's the fact that four people are missing from my class for the past week. Four people that happen to be Eva pilots! Four people that happen to be friends of me n' Class Rep!"
Shinji winced as his friend's tone turned harsh. With everything that had happened, he had completely forgotten that Toji and Hikari would have been left completely out of the loop as to what had happened. He sighed into the phone. "Sorry. Things are just... not great, to be honest."
"...How bad are we talkin' here?"
Glancing up at Unit-02, Shinji replied, "...Well, to put it simply, I'm the only active pilot right now, meaning I have to stay at NERV. The others are... hospitalised." He had to be vague, what with operational security, but it pained him to have to almost lie to Toji.
"Shit." Along with Toji's angry curse, Shinji thought he heard a gasp of surprise from someone else. "But, they're gonna be okay, right?"
Shinji almost gave the answer he wanted to, but the words caught in his throat. At that moment Doctor Akagi walked past, and he covered the phone as he called out to her. "Excuse me, Doctor?"
"Hmm?" She turned around and raised an eyebrow at him. "What is it, Shinji?"
"I'm talking to a friend from school. What can I tell them about the other pilots?"
Doctor Akagi blinked slowly, and then beckoned for the phone. Shinji hesitantly handed it over. "This is Doctor Ritsuko Akagi, head of Project E at NERV. Pilots Ayanami, Soryu and Aida are currently hospitalised. Ayanami is stable and should be discharged in a few days, but it's currently unclear how long Soryu and Aida will take to recover, as their conditions are much more severe. That is everything you are allowed to know. Any questions?" After a moment, she handed the phone back to Shinji and continued on.
"...Well I guess that answers that," Toji mumbled. "How are you holding up though, Shin-man?"
"I'm... managing," Shinji quietly replied. "We got hit real hard. Two Angels at once, and not like the one where we had to dance. One of them was strong enough to blast a hole from the surface right down to the Geofront in seconds."
Toji chuckled. "I'm gonna take one guess and say that's the one you 'n Red went after."
Shinji smiled weakly. "Yeah, you got it."
"Well, I still gotta have lunch before the bell rings, so I'll let ya go for now."
"Alright then. Catch you later."
"Seeya."
XXX
DAY 12
"I'm surprised you're not bored senseless by now."
Shinji turned away from Unit-02, its head armour fully restored, as Misato stepped up next to him. "Boredom doesn't matter," he replied. "I'm staying here for Asuka."
Misato mimicked his posture, leaning on the rail in front of the Evangelion. Even now, almost a fortnight after the latest Angel attack, she looked tired in the middle of the day despite the fact Shinji knew she was most likely living off of the coffee in Doctor Akagi's office. And with no Asuka around, their guardian would have reverted to instant, no-real-nutritional-content meals to keep herself going.
"So you've spent almost two weeks just standing around here, huh?" she said. "Have you even gone to see Rei at all?"
Shinji felt a flash of guilt. In his current obsession, he had completely forgotten about her. "W-well, I did visit her back before I started coming here," he replied, internally wincing at how lame it sounded.
"And then you basically abandoned her to stand around in a cage staring at a robot," Misato retorted. She raised a hand as he opened his mouth to protest. "Yes, I know very well that you want to be here for Asuka at all times, but that's no excuse to ignore everything and everyone around you. I mean, do you even know what's going on with that Kensuke boy?"
"...No..."
"Of course you don't." Misato's harsh demeanour suddenly broke down as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Then again, I don't really know either. He's quarantined, has remained unconscious, and nobody's allowed to even be in the same room as him without full HAZMAT gear, even though he's locked in an isolation tank."
Shinji looked up at her, worry creeping its way onto his face. "Do they know anything new about him?"
"Only that whatever infected the Eva also got to Kensuke. Tried to... assimilate him. That's why he's in quarantine; for all we know the Angel could be hiding out in a human host."
Misato's grim expression was enough for Shinji to understand just how serious she was. He raised a fist and slammed it down on the railing, ignoring the sharp jolt of pain erupting in his hand. Misato caught his arm before he could do it again.
"This wasn't your fault, Shinji," she stated. "We've been going over everything that happened, trying to learn where the Angel came from, and we're still not entirely sure. Our best guess is the storm the transport plane flew through on its way here. Data analysis showed odd readings when it got struck by lightning, but the crew either didn't notice or didn't think it worth mentioning."
Shinji stared at her as she slowly released his arm and he let it return to his side. "And there was... nothing else until the fight that said there might be something wrong?"
"Nothing at all," Misato confirmed. "This Angel seemed to know exactly how to disguise itself to avoid detection."
Shinji looked away, hissing in frustration. "And it knew exactly when to strike too. If it wasn't an Angel I'd think there was a spy in NERV."
Misato sighed and slumped over the railing. "I'd love for that to be the case. I can hunt down a spy; I can't do anything against an Angel besides send you kids out there and tell you what to do."
"Well, I... uh, I'll keep my eyes open anyway," said Shinji. "You know, just in case."
Stifling an amused snort, Misato replied, "Shinji, if you actually manage to find an Angel wandering around NERV, I will... uhh..." She trailed off for a second, thinking deeply. "Oh! Got it! I'll pay for your first car when you get your license! How about that?"
Shinji levelled a bemused look at her. "I can't tell if you're serious or not."
"I am totally serious!" Misato exclaimed. "If you find an Angel, I'll buy you a car! Deal?"
"It's not much of a deal, but... I guess I'll take it?" Shinji paused, blinking several times. "Wait, are you trying to get me to spend less time in here?"
"Ssssssort of?" Misato replied, waggling a hand in a so-so gesture.
Suppressing a sigh, Shinji pushed off from the railing. "Well, you did remind me that I haven't talked to Rei in a while, and Doctor Akagi's busy with something else at the moment. I guess I may as well take a walk."
"Alright, I'll see you later then!"
Misato gave him a jaunty wave, which he absently returned before heading back through the Evangelion cages. He stopped at the main door, glancing back in the direction of Misato.
'Yeah, sure,' he thought to himself. 'She knew it would be ridiculous for me to find an Angel hiding out down here. She's just trying to look out for me, in her own weird way.'
Shaking his head, already dismissing the ludicrous idea of winning the bet and Misato buying him a car, he stepped through the door into the corridor.
And was almost knocked back through the doorway as somebody barrelled past him. Only a hastily thrown out hand grabbing onto the doorway stopped him from falling on his ass.
"Sorry!" the person shouted, not even looking back.
Shinji scowled at their retreating back. It was yet another harried NERV employee, judging by the beige outfit and the stack of papers in their hand. He let out a sigh and headed the other way down the corridor towards the elevator.
'Didn't know people dyed their hair white of all things,' he mused as he got onto the elevator.
XXX
"Hello, Shinji."
If Rei was disappointed or annoyed with his absence, Shinji couldn't detect a hint of it in her voice. "Hi. Sorry I've been gone so long, I-"
"I understand," she gently cut him off. "And judging by your expression, there has been no luck yet in rescuing Asuka."
"None at all," he glumly confirmed. "I'm not even really sure their efforts have done anything. From the sound of it, we're no better off than when we started."
Shinji let out a sigh, ambling over to the chair next to the bed and slumping onto it. "Enough about me, I guess. How have you been doing?"
Rei slowly raised a hand to the height of her head. Shinji could see that there was some minor shakiness to it that he knew had never been there before. "I have regained almost full use of my arms now, although they are still rather numb. I am to remain here until the doctors can confirm I am back to a hundred percent."
"Considering it's just the two of us, you likely still won't be going home when that happens," Shinji mused. He froze as a thought occurred. "Damn, if an Angel had attacked this past fortnight, would you have been sent out? I still remember what happened on my first day here..."
"If there had been an attack, I would have asked to be deployed regardless," replied Rei, determination filling her eyes. "The Angels must be defeated, and though you are a strong pilot you do not have an AT-Field to protect yourself. I will fight with you. Even if my body is battered and broken, I will be your shield."
Shinji averted his gaze, blushing slightly. "Um... thanks, Rei."
"As it is, I believe something is being planned," Rei went on. "Doctor Akagi came to see me yesterday and said she wanted to perform a sync test soon."
"How soon?"
"Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Shinji repeated in surprise. "I haven't been paying attention to your Eva, but have they finished repairing it? The arms were completely infected weren't they?"
Rei nodded. "Yes. They would have destroyed the infected arms and produced replacements. By now they should be attached at the very least, and I am recovered enough for testing." She slowly rubbed her arms as if she was trying to convince her brain they were still there.
"Well in that case," said Shinji, standing up. "I'll get out of your hair for the time being. There's somewhere else I want to go while I'm still able to keep myself away from the Eva cages."
Rei seemed to know what he meant, judging by how her naturally pale face went a few more shades towards pure white. "Y-yes," she stammered. "I... shall see you tomorrow."
For a brief moment Shinji considered changing his mind and staying, but reassuring words failed to come to mind and in the end all he could do was give a pathetic farewell wave and retreat to the corridor.
He would have gone straight to where NERV was holding Kensuke, except there was one little problem; he had no idea where that was. Shinji took out his phone and stared at it, before realising that Misato would likely be too busy to talk, and that he had no idea what Doctor Akagi's number was.
And so, despite his best efforts, Shinji found himself returning to Unit-02's cage.
XXX
"Damnit." Doctor Akagi tapped her tablet against the side of her head, oblivious to Shinji's approach. "I'm sure this can be done. We just haven't found the right configuration yet."
"Excuse me?"
She turned around, fixing him with a stare. "Shinji? Didn't expect to see you back here so soon."
Shinji blinked. His gaze had been gradually drifting up to Unit-02's head, and he forced it back down to Doctor Akagi. "Well I did go and see Rei, but afterwards I realised I had no idea where you're actually keeping Kensuke."
Doctor Akagi stared at him. "You didn't think to ask somebody down there?" At his guilty expression, she sighed and her face softened. "Of course not. Your... obsession is pretty damn strong. I'm starting to wonder if all this dual synchronisation was really worth it."
"What?" Shinji frowned in puzzlement at her.
"Nobody knows the long term effects of having two minds linked together, not even me. Add to that the fact that you're still growing and maturing, and this could be doing irreparable damage to your psyche. Hrm." Doctor Akagi tapped on her tablet. "I'm making a note to check your psychograph after tomorrow's test against what we recorded when you first arrived. Anyway, I suppose I may as well take you to visit your friend, little as there is to actually see. I want to have a quick look myself to check up." She sighed heavily. "Never get into a job like mine if you hate constantly running from one end of your workplace to the other."
Shinji nodded and began to follow her as she left the cage, but he couldn't stop his head from turning to give Unit-02 one last look. He tried to memorise the route that they were taking, and by the time they came to a stop outside a door with a bio-hazard warning label, he was vaguely confident he could return on his own.
The two of them waited for the door to slowly hiss open and stepped into a tiny antechamber. The entry door closed and a second one opened after a brief delay, letting them into a room with terminals, large screens, and a window looking into another room. Through the window, Shinji could see something akin to a metal coffin emblazoned with NERV logos and warnings.
"We're taking every precaution we can," said Doctor Akagi. "That room was built to the same specifications as an Eva test chamber. And if a breakout does occur, this entire section will be locked down and these two rooms will be purged with fire."
The technician in the room, that Shinji only just now noticed, flinched slightly at her clinical description of the safety precautions.
Doctor Akagi waved a hand at one of the screens. "Would you like to see for yourself what we're dealing with here? I must warn you, it's really not pleasant to look at."
Shinji thought for a moment, glancing at the box in the next room. The way she had spoken, he knew it was going to be an understatement. "...Yeah," he finally said. "I want to see him."
She gave him a look as if to say 'I did warn you', before signalling to the technician. A few seconds later, an image appeared on the main screen that made Shinji recoil in shock despite the warning.
A bluish mass covered most of Kensuke's body; only his head, right arm and part of his chest were still free of the stuff, but blue lines could be seen crisscrossing his exposed flesh. The entire mass was slowly pulsating at about the same rate as a human heart beat.
"Oh... gods..." Shinji breathed in abject horror. "Are... are you sure he's even still alive?"
Doctor Akagi gave him a grim nod. "He is. There's neural activity that still matches his own records, and that's the only reason we haven't incinerated the body yet. Well... that and his father begging us to try and save him. But unfortunately, nothing we do can stop the spread. The best we've managed is slowing it to a crawl. At this rate it'll only be a couple more weeks until he's fully infected. But if it comes down to it, we'll euthanize him before it reaches his brain."
"Is it... the Angel itself?" asked Shinji. "Trying to survive through him?"
"No, there's no Blue Pattern we can detect. This is just... leftover biomass attempting to fulfil a biological imperative. It's also fused with his nervous system. If we try to cut it away, it's as if we're sticking a knife directly into his body. His neural activity just goes berserk." She reached up and rubbed at her forehead with the fingers of one hand. "We should have simply operated right when he was brought in. He might have lost his limbs but at least he would be alive and untainted."
Shinji slowly approached the screen, staring at the image of his friend slowly being consumed by the corpse of an Angel. Was he going to lose two friends at once to the Angels? His right hand began spasmodically clenching and unclenching. "Is he at least completely unconscious like this? Does he feel anything?"
Doctor Akagi shook her head. "He's essentially in a coma unless we try to interfere. Small mercies, I guess. I can't imagine actually being awake while something tries to slowly infest your entire body."
Pulling his eyes away from the screen, Shinji instead focused on the box in the next room. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you don't think you can save him."
The silence behind him was all the answer he needed.
XXX
DAY 13
Shinji slowly got out of bed, trying to force the image of Kensuke being fully absorbed before being burned alive out of his head. He made to leave the bunkroom but halted when he saw the greenery attached to the door. He stared at the wreath for a few seconds before checking his phone.
'Christmas Day. That really sneaked up on me,' he mused with a sigh. 'Not like it matters at this point, since I couldn't leave to buy a present even if I knew what to get.'
Despite the sync test not being for another hour or so, Shinji headed off for the pilot changing room. Though he was a little hungry, he still remembered Asuka's advice about avoiding meals before sitting in LCL and steered clear of the cafeteria, even as his stomach began to grumble. Once he arrived at the changing room, he got out of yesterday's clothes, got into the shower and turned the heat up. He then immediately turned it back down to lukewarm as memories of the almost-disastrous volcano mission surfaced.
It seemed his mind just didn't want to behave today, which could become a problem if he couldn't shape up before the test started. With plenty of time before the test Shinji stood in the shower for a while, trying to blank his mind like a monk sitting under a waterfall. It wasn't very effective; his thoughts were constantly jumping into the spotlight, demanding to be heard, only to be shoved out of the way by something else a moment later.
No doubt he'd catch hell for it from Doctor Akagi amid demands to 'concentrate', as if he could just flip a switch and laser focus on one thing but was simply choosing not to.
Some amount of time later Shinji turned the shower off, trudged over to his locker, and got suited up. Then he began possibly the slowest trip from the change room to the testing lab in NERV history.
XXX
It was like he was psychic. No matter how much Shinji tried to follow Doctor Akagi's instructions, he just couldn't focus to the degree he was formerly capable of, and his sync ratio had plummeted. He could hear the frustration in the scientist's voice, but there was simply nothing he could do. Mercifully, this testing period wasn't going to last for several hours.
"Alright, Shinji," said Doctor Akagi. "Hop out of your plug, but stay where you are for the moment."
Shinji did as instructed, waiting on the gantry next to Unit-01 and watching with mild curiosity as a mechanical arm latched onto the entry plug and took it away. A moment later another arm arrived with another plug; one emblazoned with 'DS-PLUG-01'.
"Oh," he said to himself. "Of course. They're going to see if Rei and I can work together like..."
"Correct," said a soft voice nearby.
As he expected, Shinji saw Rei walking past Unit-01. He waited until she ascended the stairs and stood in front of him before he spoke. "Well... I guess all we can do is hope for the best."
Rei nodded, but her expression was somewhat hesitant. "I most certainly do not wish to replace Asuka, but we must make this attempt in order to keep humanity safe."
"Yeah... yeah," Shinji glumly conceded as the plug was shifted into position and the hatch opened. He turned and stepped up into the plug, taking his customary forward position.
"Okay, this is just going to be a quick activation test to begin with," said Doctor Akagi after Rei took her seat. "If all goes well we'll throw a couple simulations at you."
The plug filled with LCL and the power up sequence began. As they approached the absolute borderline, Shinji began to feel a tingle in the back of his head. He reached up, rubbing at the spot with a gloved hand, but the sensation persisted.
"Shinji, are you... ngh..." Whatever Rei was going to ask was cut off by a grunt of pain.
"Absolute bord-"
He didn't hear the rest of the sentence. Shinji blinked, and found himself staring at a dark room, the floor flooded with what looked like LCL. He shook his head and tried to bring up a hand to rub at his eyes, but his hands seemed to be stuck fast. Looking over to his right, he saw that his hand wasn't just stuck, it was pierced through by a massive nail-
A jolt of electricity shot through Shinji's skull and he yelled in pain, finding himself back in the entry plug. The system was dark and the LCL was steadily draining away; apparently the test had been stopped.
"Are you two alright?!" came a worried shout over the comm unit.
"I... think so," Shinji weakly responded. He got up out of his seat, feeling like his legs were made of rubber, and turned towards the hatch to see that Rei didn't seem any more stable on her feet than him. He moved over to her, putting a hand on her hip and one of her arms over his shoulders, and together they headed for the now open hatchway.
The moment they were on the gantry, Rei tilted her head closer to him. "Shinji," she whispered. "Please do not speak of whatever you may have seen."
"Huh?" Shinji replied. "What I-"
"Doctor Akagi," she suddenly said in a louder voice. "I believe that we will be alright in a few minutes." She pulled away from Shinji and headed down the steps to where Doctor Akagi and Misato were waiting.
"Are you sure?" Misato worriedly asked. "Apparently there was some nasty feedback just as you hit the borderline. The two of you were completely unconscious for a few seconds."
"Perhaps these two simply do not have the compatibility that Shinji and Asuka do," Doctor Akagi theorised. "Maybe it's only their... unique circumstances that allow them to synchronise with each other."
"Whatever it is, I think we can put this idea to bed," replied Misato. "Especially since right now we're basically toying with the only two pilots we have available."
Doctor Akagi nodded ruefully. "Alright, go get some rest you two. If you don't feel any better after an hour or so, let us know immediately."
"Yes ma'am," said Shinji and Rei. He was still swaying slightly, but he didn't feel like his legs were about to disappear from underneath him as he made his way to the cage entrance. In the corridor, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Rei's eye's glancing around, before focusing on him.
"I meant what I said before," she quietly told him. "It is entirely possible that you may be punished for revealing anything that you might have seen during that test."
"Rei?" Shinji replied nervously. "What did I see?"
She looked away, silent for a few seconds. "I cannot tell you. I am sorry, but I simply cannot. Just promise me that you will keep it to yourself."
Shinji stared at her for what felt like an hour, and gave a shaky nod. Rei returned it and, without even bidding him farewell, took off at a fast walk down the corridor, leaving a stunned Shinji staring at her retreating back.
"Oh good, you're still here," said Doctor Akagi from behind him.
Still reeling from Rei's strange behaviour, Shinji somewhat absently turned his attention to her. "What is it, Doctor?" he asked, his mind's eye still seeing Rei's almost fearful face.
"First of all, I did what I said I would and compared your psychographs." Her ever-present tablet was thrust in front of his face, and he tried to focus on the wavy line on the screen. "I'll get right to the point. As I expected, your current neural activity is far different than when you first arrived, even allowing for natural mental development. All the dual synchronisation we've put you through has radically altered your brain pattern."
"...Considering everything Asuka and I have been through, I can't really say I'm surprised," said Shinji. "Is there anything you could do to... set things right again?"
Doctor Akagi shook her head. "Nothing that would be immediately effective. You'd have to spend a long time away from dual synchronisation, hell even piloting in general, to let your brain pattern return to what would be its natural state."
"And that's not an option, especially now."
"Of course not," she sadly agreed. "I hate to say it, but the safety of humanity comes before what, in the grand scheme of things, boils down to some odd mental quirks. Anyway, the second bit of news... I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. It's something you're really not going to like."
Shinji felt his stomach turn to ice. "...What's going on?"
"The Committee have decided that we're making no progress on extracting Asuka from Unit-02. They've changed their mind on giving us the whole month; they want us to put the Eva away tomorrow."
XXX
'They're taking Asuka away.'
It was hours later, and Shinji had barely moved from the changing room bench he had collapsed onto after Doctor Akagi's grim news. Angry words had been said, but there was nothing she could do to get that time back. All she could do was give her most sincere apologies before making a hasty retreat. Misato had come out of the cages a minute later, seen the look on his face, and hugged him without care for the LCL she was smearing on her clothing. He had been too shell-shocked to respond with anything more than grunts and mumbles, so she had gently directed him to the changing room.
And now, of all times, Shinji's mind was completely blank. Had he been coherent enough to care, he might have laughed about how it took such horrible news to do what he couldn't do himself. Right before punching himself for thinking something so blatantly stupid.
It took an aching rear end and back for Shinji's mind to return enough to realise how long he'd been sitting hunched over on the hard wooden bench. He glanced up at the clock above the doorway, dully noting that it was well after dinner time. Yet despite not having eaten anything since yesterday, he did not feel the least bit hungry.
'They're taking Asuka away.'
Shinji stood up, his joints popping and flakes of dried LCL crumbling off of him. His legs, slow to wake back up, eventually managed to carry him over to the shower where a blast of cold water managed to clear some of the fog from his head. He knew that Asuka would absolutely hate to see him like this, likely shouting and swearing in German at him to pull himself together, but he was about to lose the one person he was able to feel truly close to in a decade.
As much as it pained him to admit it, there was nothing he could do; once again, he was useless.
'They're taking Asuka away.'
XXX
Ritsuko sighed as she headed into the Evangelion cage, preparing to do one final check on Unit-02 before putting it into storage tomorrow morning. She passed by Unit-00 with barely a glance but slowed down near Unit-01, frowning at it and wondering if the Committee would have been so quick to put their tool on ice if it had been the one that absorbed both an Angel's core and a pilot.
Of course they still wouldn't have given a damn about the pilot. The old men thought they were the most important people after all. One pilot, hundreds of civilian casualties, billions of Second Impact victims... all that mattered to them was Instrumentality on their terms.
Commander Ikari wasn't much better in that regard. He had been part of the Katsuragi Expedition that had triggered Second Impact, leaving the day before purely by coincidence with a copy of all their recorded data. He had originally been on board with the Committee's plan only because wherever Yui Ikari went, he tagged along behind like a puppy, but then she had been absorbed into Unit-01. And now he was going along with the plan to initiate Third Impact, but only so far as to hijack it for his own ends. Despite her best efforts to try and get him to move on and accept the loss of his wife, he was instead planning to use Third Impact just to be with Yui again.
Coming up to Unit-02's cage, Ritsuko once again wondered if the son would have done the same thing as the father if given the opportunity. And speaking of the boy, to her complete lack of surprise Shinji was there in front of the red Evangelion. He was still in his plugsuit, hands clenched around the gantry railing, staring up at Unit-02's head. She slowly walked over to him, yet despite clearly being in his peripheral vision Shinji did not so much as twitch his head at her approach.
'Yes,' she darkly thought. 'He would most definitely burn the world to get the girl he loves back. It's a good thing Unit-01 didn't absorb the Angel's core or that might just end up happening.'
"I'm not about to ask how you're doing," she said out loud. "I can see it just by looking at you."
"...It's not fair, damnit," Shinji quietly replied after several silent seconds. "She doesn't deserve to be trapped in there forever."
"I know, but the decision's out of our hands now. There's nothing you or I could say to convince the Committee otherwise."
Shinji's hands clenched tighter on the railing for a second, before he pushed himself away and stomped past Ritsuko, heading up the gantry steps to sit down next to the entry plug hatch. Clearly any further conversation with him was not going to happen. She slowly continued walking along the gantry, absently running a hand along the railing, but halted when she felt a slight indentation in the metal, coincidentally where Shinji had been standing. A pair of indentations, in fact; large enough that she could almost fit her hand in them. Her gaze darted between the deformed metal and the boy curled up in a ball at the top of the gantry.
Ritsuko suddenly decided she didn't want to remain here any longer than she absolutely had to.
XXX
Shinji peeked at Doctor Akagi over the top of his arms, staring at her until she eventually left the cage. He gave it another fifteen minutes, occasionally glancing up at the control room above Unit-02, before he decided she wasn't coming back today. His body slowly unfolded as he got to his feet, looking around for anybody else that might still be in the area. The control room was dark, Unit-02's repairs were complete, and NERV had given up on trying to rescue Asuka. The cage was empty and likely to remain that way until tomorrow.
He stood in front of the small computer terminal attached to the gantry, where he took several minutes to look the screen over. Fortunately it was simple enough for him to understand; from here he could access an interface for the system that moved entry plugs around to insert or remove them from an Evangelion. There had been a similar terminal in Unit-00's cage, and though nobody had been using it, it had still shown what was presumably commands from the control room.
Right now there was some sort of 'signal termination' plug inserted into Unit-02. He wasn't quite sure what its purpose was, but it wasn't what he needed. Shinji hesitantly tapped at the screen a few times, soon working out how to extract the plug. The noise of the system engaging filled the entire cage as a mechanical arm latched onto the plug, and Shinji nervously looked around, expecting security personnel to come charging in at any second.
The arm holding the plug disappeared into the depths of NERV, and Shinji tapped more buttons. A minute later, another arm appeared carrying a much more familiar plug and positioned it at the gap in Unit-02's spine. Shinji frowned; he wouldn't be able to get into the plug and have it inserted... wait...
Shinji groaned and slapped a palm to his forehead. Of course the entry plugs could be inserted by the pilot. When NERV had been without power, he had had to type a command to manually activate and insert the plug after his father had spoken to him and closed the hatch. As he clambered up into the entry plug, he hoped that he could still remember that command.
Of course Shinji had no intention of trying to activate Unit-02; there was no Angel attacking, and no need to move the Evangelion. He was sure that if he even attempted that, someone would be able to shut it down. No, all he wanted was to be as close to Asuka as he could get without being absorbed himself. Then again, if that somehow managed to happen again, he wasn't sure if he would try and fight against it.
Inside the plug, he settled down in the forward seat and brought up the holographic display. It ended up being a simple two button presses to insert the plug, and he turned the screen off while it was asking him to activate the LCL system. The plug went dark again, lit only by faint emergency lighting, and Shinji slowly let out a long breath. It was slightly chilly in here, but he would tolerate it.
"Hello a-again, Asuka," he said into the darkness, his voice hitching slightly. "Seems like this might be the last time I get to... get to talk to you. NERV's given up on you, and Unit-02's going to get put into storage tomorrow. I don't know what that'll be like for you, but then again I still don't know if you're even conscious.
"They may have stopped caring, but I never will. You're the Great Asuka Langley-Soryu after all. You've been through so much during this war; getting shot several times by a giant laser, almost being crushed by an Angel falling from space, and getting trapped inside an Angel. You didn't let any of that slow you down, and you shouldn't let something stupid like getting absorbed by your Eva keep you down either."
Shinji paused for a moment, letting his head drop until his chin rested against his chest. "But me? It's only been a couple weeks and I'm already falling apart. You're stuck in here, Kensuke's being... eaten alive by the remains of an Angel, and... something's going on with Rei. All I can do is stand around and wait for someone else to solve the problem.
"...I really miss you, Asuka. I just... don't know what to do anymore. Without you I'm practically useless as a pilot. But more importantly than that, you're my best friend. The one I look up to, the one I admire most... the one I-" He cut himself off, blushing heavily. "Well, you already know how I feel about you. I'd do anything to bring you back to m-... to us."
Shinji let out a dark chuckle, shifting in his seat to try and get comfortable. The entry plug seemed to be getting a little warmer, banishing the chill that had started to seep through his plugsuit. "I wonder what Ms. Bwynvienne would do if she heard me say that. It's just too bad I can't sell her my soul to get you back. After all, you already have it, and it's really served you well. I'm not sure either of us would have made it this far. Heh. Best stupid decision I ever made in my life."
He fell silent, thinking back over the past year. About meeting Asuka for the first time, and finally being able to put a face to the name. Seeing where Rei lived, and how Asuka had erupted in righteous fury at the mistreatment of a fellow pilot. The incident where she had ignored Misato's warning and tried to climb from one balcony to another. Their rather... unique fishing trip. Everything he and Asuka had been through together, good and bad, enjoyable and scary, hilarious and insane.
And yet, if given the option, he wouldn't have changed a thing.
"Hope you don't mind, Asuka, but I'm just going to spend the night in here." Shinji adjusted his position again. A pilot seat wasn't nearly as comfortable as he would have liked, but he wasn't about to try and sneak around NERV holding a pillow. "They'll most likely find me in the morning and try to punish me, but I don't care anymore. I'm not about to leave you alone at a time like this."
The plug was still getting warmer. Shinji thought about checking the computer, wondering if he'd bumped something without realising, but then let out a large yawn; whatever the cause, it wasn't important. His eyelids were already getting heavy, and his head drooped to one side.
"G'night, 'suka," he managed to slur out. "I... I l've you..."
XXX
DAY 14
Ritsuko stepped into Unit-02's cage for what could very well be the last time, sipping from a cup of coffee. The first thing she did was look up the gantry at where she had last seen Shinji. To her surprise, he wasn't there. She thought about this for a moment, before deciding that he must have headed to the bunkroom after all. Shaking her head, she took another sip of coffee, silently urging the caffeine to work faster at melting the cobwebs in her head.
Something about the cage was off, Ritsuko suddenly realised, pausing with the cup at her lips as her eyes darted around the cage. She was the only one in here, the Evangelion hadn't moved, Shinji wasn't here but likely would be soon, knowing him...
She looked back up the gantry at where he had been sitting yesterday, then headed up the steps. There was the anomaly: there was no signal termination plug inserted into Unit-02 like procedure demanded. Instead the armour plates were closed around the hatch; most likely there was an entry plug inserted instead. Ritsuko checked the terminal, her fingers dancing over the keys as she connected to the control room computer, input her password, and brought up the command history.
Somebody had switched the plugs yesterday evening.
"Oh... don't tell me," Ritsuko muttered, glancing at the Evangelion. "Surely he wouldn't have... what am I saying, he woulddefinitely have done it. He's just like his father after all."
She ordered the system to eject the plug and open the hatch. Grumbling to her self, she got ready to hoist herself up to the hatch. She was going to tear him a new one if-
If...
Ritsuko stared into the entry plug with open-mouthed shock. The surprise made her lose her grip and fall on her arse on the gantry, but she quickly got back to her feet and climbed back up to confirm what she had just seen.
"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me..."
