X-X-X

Chapter 17

X-X-X

"Are you sure she's not pulling another all-nighter?" Asuka grumbled.

"She usually at least texts me when she plans to stay at NERV overnight," Shinji said, his tone neutral as he continued stirring the pot on the stove. "She works late all the time, though. She's come home far later than this. I'm sure Ramiel created all sorts of paperwork messes, after all."

"Eh, don't worry about it," Mari said, leaning heavily against Asuka's shoulder in a blatant attempt to annoy her. She swung her legs up onto the couch for better leverage.

"Oi, get off me, Four Eyes!"

Asuka, Mari and Kaji were gathered together in Misato's living room, looking almost like an average family. In the kitchen, Shinji busied himself cooking dinner. Although tensions would probably rise as soon as Misato returned and the agenda for their grim gathering came to light, for a while they could almost pretend to be a normal social circle.

"I can wait all night. I don't get to hang out with you enough these days, Asuka~"

"Hmph!" Asuka folded her arms, but didn't move to push Mari away. "Not my fault we're real soldiers now, Four Eyes. With real responsibilities. I ain't got time to be your tag-along everywhere you go anymore."

"True." Mari's voice took on a slightly more subdued tone. "I'm glad I can still watch your back, though."

At that moment, the front door opened, and the apartment went deathly quiet.

"Shinji! Asuka! I'm home!"

Misato wandered haphazardly past the entryway to the living room, sparing a glance at the assembled people but not, it seemed, truly registering their presence. She continued on to her bedroom, and the sound of the door opening was followed by the sound of what was probably her handbag and jacket being unceremoniously dumped onto the floor.

There was a moment of silence. Then, rapid footsteps carried Misato back to the living room entrance.

"Kaji? Mari?" Misato shook her head as if to clear it, then frowned. "What are you two doing here?"

There was a moment where none of them spoke. Then Mari nudged Asuka, muttering "It's your show, princess" as she did so.

Asuka stiffened, doing her best to stand at attention whilst still sitting down. "Ah. Yes. Captain Katsuragi Misato, it has come to my attention - as leader and ranking officer of the Pilot Corps - that one of my pilots is being subject to gross negligence, and likely other mistreatments, by their NERV handler."

Misato stiffened, and Asuka regarded her carefully. Despite her laid back attitude outside of work, Misato was far from stupid, and Asuka's question had been clearly coded - if she wanted something out of Misato for herself or Shinji, she'd have already whined about it. Accusing NERV directly showed she was deadly serious about her grievance.

The captain's posture changed. Her back straightened, and she clasped her elbows in her hands behind her. Intentional or not, she had defaulted to a military at-ease stance.

"I'm listening, Lieutenant," she said quietly.

"The pilot in question is Warrant Officer Ayanami Rei."

Misato winced, although she didn't give the impression that she had expected anything different. "Asuka, you must know you're sticking your hand in a shark tank."

"That's Lieutenant Langley-Soryu to you. We're still talking army stuff, aren't we?" Asuka crossed her arms. "I have witnesses and evidence of Ayanami's deplorable living conditions. However, I… ultimately decided it would be wiser to address you directly, rather than seeking a court martial by the usual channels."

"Really, now."

"Hey, you said it, not me. Shark tank." Asuka looked over each of the others. "And we're all pretty clever here - even Shinji, to a degree - so let's not insult anyone's intelligence by pretending that NERV isn't soaked in corruption on almost every level."

Misato sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. She looked at the floor beneath her, and found it largely clear of debris due to Shinji's earlier efforts. Apparently satisfied, she sat down, crossing her legs.

"Kaji? Mari? Shinji?" She said, her voice hesitant. "You're all behind this?"

To everyone's surprise, Shinji - standing quietly in the kitchen entryway - was the first to respond, nodding emphatically. "At first I thought that father replaced me with her," he said quietly. "Now, I've seen that being in his care is bad news for anyone."

Mari nodded at Shinji's words. "Well, you already know me and Kaji's primary hobby these days…"

"And Rei is clearly mixed up in that," Kaji finished. "Not to be overly clinical when speaking about the fate of a child, but swaying her to our way of thinking could be critical to uncovering the deeper corruption in NERV. And, frankly, it's also the right thing to do. Nobody deserves to live in that grimy hovel."

Misato's expression was the kind of neutral that could only indicate a careful poker face.

"Alright," she said eventually. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Asuka spoke up again. "Well, you are ops director, and technically the handler of all pilots below age of majority, so if I were to take this to court-martial-" Kaji and Misato visibly winced at the words - "then I suppose, in theory, the blame would fall directly on you. But we all know I wouldn't even get that far, and that's not really the whole story anyway."

"Praise all gods," Mari murmured. "My little sister has learned to actually think before she acts."

"Shut it, Four Eyes. Ahem. In fact, Captain, I am more interested in enlisting you to dig a little deeper into how and why R- er, Ayanami is being treated this way -"

"Yes, yes. What makes you think I can find out anything more?"

"The fact that, despite your formal duty as our handler and caregiver, Doctor Akagi is far more responsible for Rei's care than you ever have been."

Misato frowned. "And you think she'll tell me what she wouldn't tell you?"

"I know she'll tell you what she won't tell me. And not just because you're higher up the food chain."

"Really? Why, then?"

Asuka affected a dry smile, although she wasn't actually feeling particularly humorous. "Well, I don't want to call you out in front of everyone like that," she replied. "But I'll say I sleep pretty lightly these days, and I've got good hearing."

Misato stared dumbly at Asuka for a moment. Then her eyes widened almost comically, and a faint but discernible blush crept across her cheeks. "... dammit," she murmured.

"Am I wrong?" Asuka pressed.

"No. You're not wrong." Misato sighed with resignation. "I'll talk to Ritsuko."

"Thank you. Make sure you ask about medications while you're at it. Those pill bottles scare me."

The atmosphere in the room softened. It didn't fade entirely, but the major cause of tension between those present was resolved; their cadre finally seemed unified in their quest to bring justice to the dark halls of NERV.

"Well, I'm glad that's over," Shinji commented from the kitchen. "Soup's ready, and yes, I did plan to feed five. Come on in here and let's eat."

X-X-X

"Wow, this is… I'm impressed, honestly."

"Nice, isn't it?" Maya looked around, taking in the surroundings with one eye and scanning for a waiter to flag down with the other. "I'll be honest, I doubt either of us could have afforded this place without their discounts to NERV staff. Their clientele seems to be mainly visiting JSSDF officers, with us underpaid little specialists only visiting once in a blue moon."

"What?!" Mari managed not to outright yell, but her voice rose an octave. "Jeez, way to take advantage of an offer!"

"Oh, hush you. I was thinking of making it a dutch-date anyway; besides, you make more money than me."

At that, Mari blinked, confused. "But… you're a good two rungs above me on the ladder. First Lieutenant, yeah?"

"Yeah, but you Pilot Corps get hazard pay while on duty alert. And you haven't been off duty alert since you came to Tokyo-3; you never go below green standby. To be honest, I can hardly begrudge that - I know I'd be demanding bigger paychecks if I had to wrestle freakish monstrosities on a regular basis."

"Huh." Mari cocked her head at that. "I had wondered why I seemed to be making more than a warrant officer's usual fare."

"Well, now you know."

The conversation lulled as Mari realized that she actually had no idea how to talk to pretty girls she was interested in and whom actually seemed to like her back. However, Maya beat her to the punch.

"Okay, so, not that I've been on many dates, but I feel like talking about work is a bit of a waste. Especially when we work in the same building," she said. "Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself, miss Illustrious?"

Mari leaned back in her chair. "I speak three languages - English, German and Japanese. Your turn."

Maya frowned. "I already knew that."

"Oh, fine. Hmm… I play video games in my spare time."

"Really?" Maya cocked her head, an amused smile on her face. "I suppose I should have guessed that; you do kind of look the type."

"Wow, thanks. Your turn."

"I wear contact lenses."

"What?! Really?" Mari leaned forward, staring into Maya's eyes. "Holy shit. Had me completely fooled."

Maya blinked, and Mari realized it may have been a little bit forward of her to lean right in and gaze into someone else's eyes. However, Maya didn't seem unduly fazed by it. "I don't like how I look with glasses. I could never pull off that cute librarian look you have going on."

"Cute librarian? I wish. I wear glasses because I can't wear contacts when I'm swimming in LCL." Mari pouted. "In fact, I bet you'd look way cuter than me in glasses."

"Well, too bad. I haven't worn my glasses to work in over a year and I don't intend to start now."

"Then I'll just have to make sure I see you more often outside of work, then," Mari murmured back. "Won't I?"

Maria's lowered tone produced the first weak spot she'd seen in Maya's composure - a brief pause as she searched for words; not quite a blush, but the words had clearly had an impact. Yes! It might be a baby step, but I think she's worth it.

"You pilots all seem to have a terribly persistent streak," Maya finally remarked. "I can't tell if it's a good or bad thing."

"Depends who you ask. Most say good. Can't be having pilots cracking under pressure, can we?"

"No, but on the other hand, it means that sometimes you don't think things through, or can't leave well enough alone."

Mari grinned. "Nope, can't leave well enough alone at all." She took a slow drink from her glass of water. "You'd be amazed what you learn about people, or organizations, when you're as nosy as me. But, surely atrocities and crimes against humanity aren't first date material?"

"Good point." Maya looked around as subtly as she could - the place wasn't extremely crowded, but given that the clientele was likely to be mostly military, it wouldn't do to be overheard. She noted that a server was approaching with their food.

"In fact, I have a completely different kind of question," Mari said, fixing Maya with an odd look. "And it may not be first date material, but I feel like I should probably get it out of the way early…"

Maya tilted her head inquisitively.

"Well… you've been visibly carrying a torch for Doctor Akagi as long as I've known you, until now." Mari sat back in her chair. "What's changed?"

Maya fell silent for a moment as their meals were laid out on the table. As the server left, she found her voice again.

"Senpai is… quite a woman," she managed at last. "Beautiful. Accomplished. Powerful. Intimidatingly… no, terrifyingly intelligent; you may think I'm smart, but beside her I look like a high school dropout. But…"

Mari raised an eyebrow expectantly. She also picked up her chopsticks, because she pretty much always had an appetite for good food, and there was no reason to let it get cold while she waited.

"Well, these past few weeks… months, I guess, have changed my perspective a bit. I guess I was kind of starry-eyed before. Nothing like actual battle duty to bring one's head out of the clouds, though." Maya poked at her food. "Doctor Akagi isn't the ideal woman I imagined her to be. She's a fair bit older than me, she's arrogant, she's hard… ruthless, even. She lies easily, even to me, and it feels like she has her own agenda in everything. She's somewhat cavalier about ethical treatment, of patients, and others. Also, I'm fairly sure she's already seeing someone."

All that, and she thinks she isn't as smart as I made her out to be?! Maya, if you applied yourself, you'd be a better spy than I am…

"So, you decided to try to move on with the next woman down the list?"

Maya looked away, frowning slightly. "It's not like that," she replied, her voice softer than before. "I am genuinely interested in you - you're sharp, you're strong-willed, you're pretty, you're not my direct superior or subordinate…"

"Always a plus, that one."

" - and don't you dare pretend that a gay woman in the Japanese armed forces has a lot of dating options on her plate," Maya finished. "So. That's my reasoning. Take it or leave it, I guess."

Mari tried to make a show of considering it, but failed to keep a straight face. "I'll take it," she chuckled. "I'm hardly in a place to judge someone for their emotional baggage. And I'm interested in you, too. It seems worth trying out, if nothing else."

Maya's smile was relieved, though her voice was even. "I'm glad you think so."

X-X-X

Asuka hated Mondays. It was nothing to do with work - technically, she worked on call twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week - but she hated going back to the grind of school.

I literally have a college degree, it's nothing but an insult for me to be in high school…

She'd tried to approach Rei twice since the morning bell, but hadn't managed to find the time. Their sensei seemed to have picked the worst possible week to take class times seriously and show up on time.

Now that Asuka's right hand was recovered enough to write with, Rei had moved back to her window seat. Asuka found, to her consternation, that she actually missed the other girl's quiet presence at her side.

No, now's not the time to think about that.

Rei looked… not exactly worse than she had before, but certainly no better. Despite lacking any increased interest in the lessons, she wasn't leaning on her arm like she used to. Rather than stare out the window for hours on end, her eyes would periodically dart around the room before returning to her vigil. From time to time, her hands would twitch aimlessly or her leg would bounce.

Oh, and there was the fact that Asuka had made it to school before Rei for the first time in her memory. That was truly unusual; Asuka had briefly consulted Hikari about it, and had learned that Rei usually arrived so early that she beat teachers there, let alone students.

"Ms. Soryu? Can you answer the question on the blackboard?"

Asuka cursed silently, her attention whipping back to the lesson. Old bastard, he knew I wasn't listening!

Fortunately, the subject matter wasn't a humanities class. Not that she wouldn't have known the answer; it was just incredibly embarrassing to have to ask someone to translate the Kanji on the blackboard for her.

However, currently, the subject was mathematics. A topic Asuka could follow in her sleep.

"Mmm… X equals the negative square root of five."

The glare that the teacher gave her was all she needed to know that she'd answered correctly.

"And how did you arrive to that conclusion, hmm?"

"I'm not walking up there and drawing out the longhand formula on the blackboard." Asuka leaned back and crossed her arms. "That's my answer. Take it or mark me down."

The teacher stared her down for a solid fifteen seconds before sighing and moving on.

"Now, for the next question I want you to open your books to page 193…"

X-X-X

Asuka paid virtually no attention to her classes, but it didn't worry her too much. Apart from her subpar performance with written Japanese, she was light-years ahead of her peers in academic ability; and she had other things on her mind.

The moment the bell rang, she sprang to her feet like a popping jack-in-the-box and gathered her books up as fast as humanly possible.

"Tell Misato I'll be home late! Bye, Shinji!"

"Soryu, where -" but Shinji didn't get a chance to finish. Asuka was already hightailing out of the school.

Rei walked quickly. The agitated state she had seemed to be in earlier had, if anything, increased her ability to move at nearly a jogging speed without lifting her feet. Even with her leg-length advantage Asuka found herself hard pressed to actually catch up with the girl; had she not known the route from the school to Rei's house already, she would have gotten lost more than a few times just on the first leg.

It was only once she got on the train that she finally had an opportunity to approach. Rei was sitting in an otherwise entirely empty car, staring off into space with total obliviousness to the world around her. From time to time she would blink rapidly.

An empty train car, in Japan? There's the real proof that Tokyo-3 is a dying city.

"Rei," she called, slowly approaching. The other pilot did not acknowledge that she had spoken. "Rei?"

Rei did not seem to notice Asuka until the German pilot was standing right in front of her. When she did, she looked up quickly - too quickly - to meet Asuka's eyes.

"Are you a hallucination?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Asuka's frown deepened.

"No. No, I'm real." It took conscious effort to keep her voice from shaking, but Asuka managed. "Have you been suffering hallucinations, Rei?"

Rei fell silent, and Asuka gritted her teeth. "Answer me, Pilot!"

"Never complex ones, no." Rei's voice had fallen to a true whisper, and Asuka had to lean closer to hear her over the roar of the train's engine. "But my defects continue to progress, despite my best efforts. The development of major psychotic symptoms would not surprise me."

"Defects?" Asuka leaned closer, reaching out to touch Rei's shoulder. "What do you mean, Rei?"

Once again, Rei failed to answer, instead simply looking down and away from Asuka's piercing gaze. Once again, she seemed twitchy, moving with rapid sharp jerks instead of her usual barely-motivated drift.

"Rei." Asuka dropped into a crouch, leaning closer still; Rei pulled back slightly, but didn't seem to have the willpower to look away a second time. "Talk to me, would you?"

Ironically, Rei looked more expressive than Asuka had ever seen her, but it brought Asuka no satisfaction to see terror in her eyes. Her pupils were wide and glassy, and she seemed to be shivering.

"Rei? Verdammt, do you really need to make this so difficult-"

"They're supposed to stop this confusion… to suppress feeling. That's what they told me," Rei whispered, her silence cracking like a flooding dam. "Doctor Akagi Naoko told that to One. Doctor Akagi Ritsuko told that to Two, and Three. But they aren't working, they aren't working…"

The train began to slow, and the car lurched. Rei swayed sideways, her body listing like a sinking ship.

"Rei!" Asuka almost ended up knocked over herself as she lunged forward, trying to catch the other girl before she suffered a concussion. She ended up awkwardly perched over the train seats with Rei's head and shoulders in her arms. "Scheisse! How can you have power-walked all this way if you're going to collapse now?!"

With a bit of effort, Asuka managed to maneuver her unconscious teammate to lie flat on the seats. Checking Rei's pulse yielded a racing heartbeat, and her skin was extremely warm - in fact, she was sweating quite heavily.

Alright, I'm calling it. This is a medical emergency. Asuka sprang to her feet, crossing the train car and engaging the emergency brake - fortunately, the train had only just been leaving the station, and was not up to full speed yet. Without stopping to acknowledge any stunned passengers, she dug her NERV-issue cellphone out of her pocket and hit the speed dial.

"Hello, Section Two? The First Child has suffered a medical emergency and is currently unconscious. I know you keep traces on us, so you know where we are. Get here ASAP." Hanging up, she dropped the phone back into her pocket and crouched down beside her unconscious comrade, doing her best to provide triage.

She's still twitching, but she was twitching before, so… it's probably not a seizure. Heartbeat, breathing, not great, but no need for CPR yet. Temperature is the most worrying problem here. Working as quickly as she could, she stripped off the strange vest that was a requirement of her school uniform and dug her water bottle out of her backpack. After folding and drenching the cloth, she laid the impromptu cooling pad over Rei's neck.

It was a tense four minutes before two of Section 2's black vans screeched to a halt beside the railway tracks. Asuka got up to punch the emergency door-open button, and three tall goons in nondescript black suits and sunglasses immediately climbed into the train car, apparently sweeping for threats. A fourth man - this one dressed more normally in a blue polo shirt and black pants, clearly an EMT - followed them, immediately going over to Rei.

"What can you tell me?" He said, his tone clipped.

"Breathing okay, fast heartbeat, feverish, twitchy," Asuka rattled off. "Before she lost consciousness, her pupils were really wide. She seemed kinda confused - she might have been hallucinating? That's all I've got, I didn't get to talk to her long."

"No head or neck injuries? No bleeding?"

"No, there wasn't any physical trauma that I saw."

"Alright. Thank you." The EMT turned, waving one of the goons over. "We should be safe to move her. Let's get her on over to NERV medical, guys."

Moving very, very carefully, the EMT and the Section 2 goon lifted Rei off the row of seats and carried her out of the train. They needed the other two goons' assistance to lower her down from the door of the train to the ground, but soon enough she was safe in the larger of the black vans.

Asuka went to follow the goons into the van, but the last one in blocked her, silently shaking his head.

"Excuse me?" She growled. "You're not letting me - her commanding officer, I'll remind you - go with her?"

"I'm afraid I can't," came the noncommittal reply. "You don't have the clearance."

"Was zur Hölle? I'm a Lieutenant, what the fuck is there in D Wing that I don't have clearance for?!"

"We're not taking her to D Wing. She's going to the special Section Three clinic," the man replied.

"What special Section Three Clinic-"

The van doors abruptly slammed shut in her face. Asuka was left standing dumbfounded by the roadside as the vans' tires screeched and they careened away.

"Fucking arschlochs," she hissed, digging out her phone and tapping in Misato's number. After four rings, the captain answered.

"Asuka? What's so urgent you need to call me at work?"

Asuka opened her mouth to speak, then hesitated. The call was between two NERV phones; she was taking a risk just by calling so soon after reporting Rei's distress. She couldn't afford to spill anything more on an unsecured line.

"You know. Girl problems," she snapped cryptically. "I need to talk to you. At NERV. I'll be in the geofront as soon as I can."

"Asuka, what -" but Asuka had already hung up, unwilling to risk the call continuing.

The stopped train's bell rang, shattering the quiet. A moment later, it started moving again. Asuka glared at the train as if it had personally offended her.

Well, no reason to keep going that way anyway, she thought sourly.

After a short, moderately illegal jaunt that took her across the train tracks and backtracked to the now-deserted station a little ways up the rail, she threw herself haphazardly onto one of the benches to await the next train back to Central Tokyo-3.

The tracker board predicted no less than a five minute wait. With nothing to fill her time with, all of the stress and anger and worry that she'd kept carefully suppressed for the entire day had no choice but to bubble to the surface.

"Fuck!"

X-X-X