To the anonymous reviewer on chapter 38: I actually have considered killing Shinji. You're not wrong to assess that he's basically a pointless extra. However, this fanfic is kind of a comfort work for me at this point, so I'm not killing any children in it. (you'll have to read my original fiction for that sort of thing.)
Hope an entirely Asuka-POV chapter helps.
X-X-X
Chapter 40
Soul Of The Demon
X-X-X
"I'm still not seeing it."
"You started moving too fast, again."
"What? No I d- oh."
"Yes, like that."
Finally, Asuka had the binoculars trained on Jupiter.
She was trained to use binoculars to observe the earth, not the sky, which involved different arcs of motion and less accounting for perspective. But she was getting the hang of it.
"Woah."
Rei made a soft sound that might have been a hidden laugh.
"And here I thought that star cluster was amazing. You didn't tell me we'd be looking at planets too."
The distinctive red spot wasn't visible, but the stripes were sharp. The image quality was better than Asuka had expected from a pair of binoculars. It might have been her imagination, but she felt she could almost make out turbulence in the atmospheric border zones.
"So..." Asuka began, at length. "Got any more cool sights to show me?"
"Of course. I thought you might like it if I saved one of the best for last," Rei said. Asuka could have sworn she heard the smile in Rei's voice. "For something both easy to locate and rich in detail, observe the moon."
Asuka immediately looked up, sweeping the binoculars to look the cratered lunar surface. Somehow she had assumed that, because it could be seen so clearly unassisted, there was nothing new to see there. She couldn't have been more wrong.
The moon was waning, shifting gently from half-circle to concave crescent. It was significantly dimmer than at its full - yet the boundary of the lunar sunset was fascinating in its own right, as long shadows shrouded craters the size of canyons, and defiant ridges and peaks shone bright in contrast.
"It's beautiful."
"It is." Rei's voice took on a subtle faraway note. "What NERV call the Black and White moons are not related to Luna, which was formed eons before either vessel touched the Earth. Still... I often feel connected to our moon, in ways I cannot truly explain."
Asuka looked away, then, back to Rei, and opened her mouth to speak.
A shrill ringing from her pocket beat her to the punch, however. She whipped out her phone, but there was no emergency logo screen, only a 24 hour clock display and a text banner reading GET UP FOR CROSS SYNC TESTS.
X-X-X
Asuka was upright - swaying, but upright - almost in the same heartbeat as her eyes opened, one arm clumsily slapping the face of her phone where it lay on her bedside table.
Her muscles and brain booted up more slowly than her spine. It took another thirty or forty-five seconds to actually gather her bearings and process her next steps.
Scheisse, right, early cross sync tests. On a Saturday. I guess now I know Ritsuko is still evil, despite siding with the good guys.
With methodical efficiency, she dressed herself in plain clothes. It was a bad time of year for a sundress, and there was no point dressing up nice for NERV staff anyway.
(Nevermind that around half of her 'plain clothes' were sets of custom-fit Bundeswehr casual fatigues, and thus actually among the more expensive clothes she owned. They still looked plain, and besides, Asuka had long ago decided that the world owed her a few weird personal contradictions.)
Like a good dream before getting up early for weekend duty. That sure doesn't happen often.
Asuka was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of movement and voices from the other living spaces.
Okay, no more dreaming. Brush your teeth and get ready to roll out, Lieutenant Langley-Soryu.
X-X-X
"Cockpit systems online."
Tilting her head back, Asuka inhaled deeply, then exhaled as completely as she could to force the last bubbles of nitrogen out of her lungs.
"Before we begin, Lieutenant, I'd like to re-calibrate your piloting software suite. It shouldn't take long."
Asuka frowned, but then shrugged. "Alright. What needs tuning?"
"The software department has been working on sensory post processing. They recently rolled out an update for lateral sound offsets. I'm given to understand NERV's audiologist recently prescribed you a hearing aid? Such devices are not rated for LCL exposure."
"Yeah. And I know, I left it in my locker." Asuka shifted in the contoured pilot seat. "... Did you redirect our software department's research... just for me?"
"Better sensory post processing has been on their roadmap for some time." Ritsuko sounded as businesslike as ever. "But yes, your developing condition certainly changed some priorities."
Asuka could only blink for a moment. "I - I see."
"Don't understate your value as the tactical linchpin of the corps. We need you - and you specifically - as combat ready as possible at all times."
A smile tugged at the corner of Asuka's mouth. Used to getting chewed out by Misato for implanting mods, and here Ritsuko's proactively having them developed for me. Not exactly what I expected from her.
"Are you ready to begin?"
"Yeah."
Two master volume sliders appeared on Asuka's HUD, with tone mixer sliders just under them.
Alternating test tones began to play, starting as shrill pings and pitching down till they became more like gentle riffs from a bass guitar. Asuka reached her thoughts out into the command interface.
"Okay. Play that sequence again." Asuka relaxed back into the seat, closing her eyes.
"Copy that."
Another high-low-high-low cycle. A few more tweaks.
"One more time."
"We can take as long as you need." Ritsuko played the sequence again.
"I think it's just about perfect. Thanks."
"Of course." Ritsuko looked over at something off-camera. "Stand by for link circuit activation."
The entry plug creaked slightly as the LCL bath around it began to heat up, simulating proximity to an Evangelion's fast-neutron reactor heart.
"Umbilical supplying power output level three. Cage tertiary movement interlocks engaged. Powering up Evangelion Unit 02."
Asuka could almost feel it. Hundreds of meters away, on the other side of central dogma L-1, Moloch was waking up.
"Evangelion Unit 02 online. Systems read normal across the board. Energizing Link Circuit."
And Asuka's human body started to fall away.
Although she was submerged in its blood, she was not interred within the monster's heart. She was not adorned with diamond armor and her body was not implanted with arcane technologies. Consciously, she knew the entry plug that bore her mortal vessel wasn't actually seated in the back of her Eva.
And yet, even through the remote connection, it was always a heady experience to reconnect with Moloch.
"Sync level holding at 90.91%."
A baseline sync test involved two hours in the entry plug.
I hope that's long enough.
Asuka often struggled with boredom during these tests. She had the most success sustaining high sync when she entered a sort of focused dissociative state, much like how, in the field, she would pass the hours of banal waiting that preceded the minutes of violence.
But not this time.
Reach out.
Underneath the cold, hard limiter layer, Moloch's rage was searing hot. Comparing it to the greatest depths of human anger would have been like comparing a sputtering wax candle to a crucible of molten steel - perhaps it was an emergent property of their purpose as living weapons, or perhaps it was a twisted reflection of the undying hatred the Angels bore for humanity; but an Evangelion's wrath was more a state of being than an emotion. It could only be bound and forced to rest by tight chains of steel and hyperdiamond and silicon.
But gods of war isn't all that they are.
Asuka felt... fuzzy. There was an itch developing on the inside of her skull.
Reach out.
On the entry plug HUD, Ritsuko frowned at one of her displays. Asuka tried not to think about the fact that she could still see the HUD with her eyes closed.
"Sync level spiking. Ninety-five - ninety-seven percent. Falling. Back to around ninety. How are you doing, Lieutenant?"
Asuka ignored her.
Reach out...
A concerned beeping filled the comm.
"Asuka, your sync levels are oscillating very fast. What's going on?"
"Shh."
Not now, doctor. I'm busy.
Ritsuko's jaw dropped, but she did quiet down. After another minute or so, the beeping stopped.
"... Sync level stabilizing at 93.2%. I suppose I can't complain if it worked."
It hasn't worked yet, but I think it will.
Then the HUD, too, fell away.
X-X-X
All she knew at first was that the place was warm, white, and quiet.
"Asuka?"
Asuka jackknifed to her feet, stumbling upright as fast as she could. It was hard to orient herself, since the featureless white ground blended seamlessly into the featureless white... sky without any sort of texture change that might indicate terrain or horizon.
Standing before her was a ghost. Or, if not a ghost, certainly someone of a rather ghostly appearance. Her clothing shifted like water, half a buttoned lab coat over slacks, half a red plug suit, half a hospital gown, never completely any one or another, all hazy and inconsistent like an old memory.
The features of her face and her long golden hair were clear and solid, but her right eye was... missing. Behind it was the same blank white backdrop that surrounded them, making her look eerily two-dimensional.
"It's you," Asuka managed, her voice cracking. "You're... really here."
"Most of me, yes."
"M-most of you?"
"I didn't plan for this like Yui did. I fought back. Some parts of me were left behind, dying and rotting like the twitching corpse."
"So that... truly wasn't... you."
"Not much of me."
Asuka swallowed a fresh lump in her throat.
"I'm glad you came to see me."
She's glad. I made her happy after all.
That was what finally broke the dam, and Asuka let out a choked sob, tears rolling down her face.
"I-I'm sorry... did I say something wrong?"
Asuka looked back to Kyoko, blinking furiously to clear the tears from her eyes. Her mother's brow was furrowed with concern, but the expression looked a little too practiced to be natural.
"No," Asuka managed, still fighting down the lump in her throat. "N-no. This is - this is just a lot, is all."
"I suppose it must be."
The older woman's stiff hesitance was not what Asuka had expected. Now, faced with the real thing, Asuka was going through a painful realization - that, despite all the rumors and secondhand accounts and NERV mythology built up around the image of Kyoko Soryu, Asuka did not know her mother at all.
"I am happy you came to see me, though. Truly." Kyoko's voice sounded sincere, if still stiff. "Being... being an Evangelion is a lonely existence."
"Try growing up without a mother." Asuka hadn't intended to snap, but the words came out harsh anyway, heavy with calcified pain.
"... I'm also sorry you had to go through that. Truly."
Asuka shook her head. "N-no. Don't be." Finally, she was able to straighten her back and steady her voice. "It's not... your fault, right? Scheisse, it's just... a little hard to let go of the old grudge."
"Grudge?" Kyoko frowned. "What happened?"
"You tried to kill me. Or - what you called a 'twitching corpse' did." Asuka was a little surprised at her own tonelessness. "They put you - it, whatever - into inpatient mental care. It, um, makes a lot more sense now, in hindsight. You - we thought you'd just - forgotten us. Replaced your life and family with delusions and... and dolls."
"Excuse me?" Kyoko's eyes widened in a horrified expression, which in turn amplified the unsettling quality of the blank emptiness in her right eye socket. "Did you say I tried to kill you? "
"I don't know what you - your remnant - was thinking. It was a long time ago. All I really remember was that you, it, it thought I wasn't really... me. It dragged around a red haired doll that it called Asuka, then called the real me an impostor. Super fucked up stuff." Asuka tried to adjust her hair clip, realized her hands were shaking, and let it go, taking a measured breath instead. "It... only carried on like that for a few years. I was still pretty small when you - when it hung itself with its hospital bedsheets. It's long buried and rotting now."
Kyoko's expression of horror had only deepened. "Asuka, I'm... I'm so sorry." She covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm sure that hardly means anything now, but-"
"No, it means more than you'd think." Tears threatened to prickle the corners of her eyes again, but she blinked them back. "It's a lot more than I thought I'd ever get."
"I... I feel like I should offer to hug you, too. Is that too much?"
"I don't think I'm quite ready for that level of, um, maternal affection yet," Asuka replied. "Let's... take it slow for now."
"Of course. As you wish," Kyoko replied, glancing behind herself and then sitting down on nothing at all. "Regardless... I have many things I would like to ask you. About the outside world, that is. If you'll indulge me."
"Sure." Asuka, not knowing how to create an aethereal chair, settled for sitting on the equally featureless ground. "Ask away."
"Well... there are things I can perceive in here, in a vague sense, through the lens of Moloch's mind. But Moloch neither understands nor cares about the fine details of lilin lives," Kyoko explained. "So, what I think I would like to know most is - how exactly did you become so closely entwined with Yui's little angel child?"
Despite not technically being in her own body, Asuka could still feel herself blushing.
"Well, um, it's kind of a long story," Asuka began. "In fact, if I were to write it out, I bet it would fill at least forty chapters..."
X-X-X
"Ritsuko still wants to interrogate you, you know. I hope you're grateful I got her to back off."
Asuka blinked, looking up from her spaced-out staring at the bench on the opposite side of the changing room. "Huh? Oh... yeah. Thanks."
"You're welcome. Also, here." Misato dropped a bottle of water into Asuka's lap. "I don't know what you went through in there, but whatever it was, just... try to take care of yourself, okay?"
"Thanks." Asuka unscrewed the bottle cap slowly, still a little lost in her own head. "And... thanks for not pushing, too."
"Of course. Um, be aware, though," Misato said, fidgeting uncomfortably with her hands. "Since you're not injured and not... admitting to any psychological trauma, Ritsuko wants the rest of the cross sync tests to proceed as planned. Apparently your control score in Moloch was impressive."
"Oh? How impressive?"
"In excess of ninety-eight percent."
"That is impressive," Asuka replied, forcing the listlessness out of her voice.
Verdammt... hard to feel like anything else matters, now. Now I know that she's still here, that she never left...
If Misato wanted anything more, she didn't voice it. After a moment longer, Asuka vaguely registered the fading clacking sound of the Major's heeled shoes walking away.
Some time later - no more than a few minutes - another set of footsteps approached, these ones quicker and lighter, soft like the flexible rubber foot-pads on the soles of a plugsuit.
"Sup, princess."
Asuka didn't look up. "Central Dogma L-3, I think."
"Yeah." Mari sat down beside Asuka, then unceremoniously elbowed her in the ribs. "And what's wrong, princess?"
That, finally, got Asuka to look up, although the wall of empty lockers across the room was as unchanging as the bench was.
"She's... she's really there." Asuka felt her voice threatening to crack again. "I suspected - even expected - but I guess part of me was always too afraid to hope. But now there's no more hoping, no more uncertainty. She's really there."
"How is she?"
The question took Asuka off-guard. She was so used to Mari fussing over her that the thought of her bringing up concern for Kyoko almost seemed outlandish.
"You - you knew Kyoko?"
"Well, we weren't close or anything. But we spoke a few times, yeah." Asuka spotted a signal jammer in Mari's hands as she fidgeted. "And... I always wondered how it, well, worked out for her, I guess? At first I thought she was like me, but she was so much more... damaged when she came out, like there was hardly anything left at all. That's actually the reason I first tracked you down back then; I could tell she wasn't going to be up to taking care of a kid anymore."
"She told me that 'most of her' was in there. I guess she looked nearly whole."
"That's good to hear."
"Mmhm. So, 'like you,' huh? How come I don't know this story, Four Eyes?"
"... Because I don't like to tell it, mostly." Mari's shoulders hunched forward, as if she were trying to sink into the bench. "It's hard to recall, too. Partly because of what happened itself. Partly because it hurt... sometimes still does, if I'm honest."
Asuka frowned, but kept her mouth shut.
"So, somewhere within Moloch's core, Kyoko Soryu's soul is stored," Mari began. "And somewhere in Ishtar's core, Yui Ikari's soul is stored... or was stored. But, strictly speaking, a mother's soul isn't necessary for the connection that makes the monster move. Rei never had a mother, yet she can link with Asherah."
"Rei's a half-angel. There have to be different rules for that."
"But I'm all human, no? And it isn't my parental figure inside Ba'al." Mari took a deep breath. "It's just me. Pieces of me that went in and never came out."
Asuka opened her mouth, thought better of it once again, and closed it. Mari half-smiled at the gesture.
"I was the first contact experiment. The prototype of the prototype. That's why it was on an Eva that was never intended to see combat. And its alleged 'success' is why further contacts were authorized." Mari looked down at the jammer in her hand, apparently realized she was squeezing it, then consciously loosened her grip. "The first thing I noticed was my vision. I never needed glasses before, but my eyes had become blurry overnight. The rest came later, or at least took me longer to piece together..."
"The rest?" Asuka couldn't hold in the curiosity any longer. "Like what?"
"Lots of things. Kind of scattered all around. I'd lost skills - I could still read, for example, but I had to completely re-learn how to write. I'd lost memories. You remember my parents died in the second impact, right? Well, I can remember my mother as clear as day, but looking at photos of my father is like looking at a stranger." Mari shook her head. "And I don't know... I guess I can't know, how much I changed in behavioral traits... certainly the NERV-E staff found it shocking. They said I used to be quieter, more disciplined, less lackadaisical. But I don't remember the person I used to be well enough to say. Maybe I was always this way, and Ba'al only ate the part of me that cared to pretend I had professional decorum. I'll never know. There isn't really enough humanity in her to actually... make conversation with."
Asuka reached out to touch Mari's shoulder, than pulled her into an awkward side-hug.
"Ah, jeez, look at me," Mari said, her voice shaky. "I came in here to cheer you up, not dig up my own old trauma."
"I'm glad you told me, though." Asuka hugged tighter. "And you weren't... un-helpful, anyway. It helped put some things in perspective."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, my mom may have been eaten by a war machine, but at least she's still theoretically around." Asuka screwed the cap back on the empty water bottle and threw it, scoring a perfect hit on the mouth of the wastebasket by the door. "Like some unlucky bitches around here can't say."
"Ahh, you're feeling well enough to be cruel again. Yeah, you're fine."
X-X-X
Much later, Asuka found herself camped on the fore catwalk of cage 02.
Cross sync in Ba'al had gone unexpectedly well. Her sync was still tanked compared to the level she could achieve in Moloch, but at 48.6%, still well above the critical threshold for activation. In the back of her mind, Asuka was already drafting requests for live cross-sync battle drills.
Now, however, more of her attention was occupied with the notepad on her knees, where she was studiously sketching a circuit diagram.
Technically, NERV's engineers weren't supposed to impliment modifications that weren't issued by Section-3 administration. In practice, Asuka could get almost any mod she asked for if she could make a sufficiently detailed proposal and test parameters.
She was currently working on an improvement to the main power control circuit. Hopefully, this would eliminate the blow-past in reactor temperature when the Eva hearts received output increase commands.
Messing with something this crucial will take a lot of convincing, though... and a lot of testing. Probably several days of dedicated live tests out on the range, if not more.
Pushing the notepad aside for the moment, Asuka picked up the hardcover book on her other side.
EVA Hearts: LBE-Cooled Fast Reactors As An Interim Power Solution, Pending Breakthroughs In Super Solenoid Technology
The title was a mouthful, and the only other marking on its plain beige cover was a stamp that read 'TOP SECRET - NERV Command and Engineering Administration ONLY'. What had truly drawn Asuka's attention had been the authorial credits page.
By Dr. Soryu Kyoko
With consultation from Dr. Ikari Yui, Dr. Akagi Naoko, and the staff body of NERV Section 3
The dry, factual jargon within had made Asuka imagine it as confidently written - authoritative, even. When she'd first gotten her hands on it as part of her officer clearance, she had imagined her mother lecturing the material before some sort of academic panel, straight-backed, sure-voiced, utterly unaffected by any sort of criticism.
Now, knowing that Kyoko might be better described as 'an awkward nerd', it read a little differently.
Shaking her head, Asuka flipped to the section she was looking for - the control rod overview. With relatively small reactor cores and very high-temperature operating ranges, even small control rod movements could have a large impact on performance.
The problem she was attempting to resolve stemmed from - she was almost certain - an over-correction effect that emerged between the temperature sensors and the control rod drives. When shifting power draw up, the drives would continue pulling until the core reached the target temperature. Since there was always a delay between rod movement and temperature change, this meant the rods always drove too far out before correcting and driving back.
Most obviously, this caused unnecessary mechanical strain on the rod drives, wearing their parts out faster. This strain was also present in inverse when shifting power down, but uncontrolled temperature drops weren't nearly as much thermal strain on the Evangelion's systems as temperature spikes were.
Despite its comprehensive explanations, many things outlined in the EVA Hearts manual were crude, dated, or poorly implemented to Asuka's eyes. Nuclear Engineering wasn't the focus of her collegiate studies, but even Asuka could tell that some things could be done better.
But isn't it kind of amazing they work as well as they do, really?
Mom was working with 1990's tech; molten salt reactors weren't a useful concept yet. She was Gehirn's only dedicated nuclear engineer... and she was trying to design a mobile, refuelable power plant that needed to outperform all existing naval reactor tech... while standing up to more punishment and operating in a smaller volumetric footprint...
Asuka looked up, then, at the looming, alien visage of Moloch's helmet.
And at that, it was always supposed to be temporary, too. I guess that one Design Principles professor was right - there are few things more permanent than a temporary solution.
Closing the EVA Hearts manual, Asuka picked up her discarded notepad and slowly began erasing and re-penciling the connection points. After all, the greater electronics system of an Evangelion was a temperamental thing. Making sure her glue logic worked as intended might prove a harder battle than the actual temperature control issue itself.
Ah scheisse, I'll need to book some MAGI simulation time before going to actual integrated circuit fabrication, too.
Her phone beeped.
Asuka managed not to knock her notepad into the lake of coolant, but the pencil would probably never be seen again.
Well, that's time.
No more spacing out or geek therapy, Asuka. Time to face the final test.
X-X-X
"Cockpit systems online."
The entry plug was normal, identical to what Asuka was used to. It set her teeth in edge, even before she realized what was wrong.
"Umbilical supplying output level three. Cage tertiary movement interlocks engaged. Powering up Evangelion Unit 00."
She'd seen inside Asherah's duty entry plugs before, and this definitely wasn't one of them. There were no cables!
"Evangelion Unit 00 online. Systems read normal across the board. Energizing link circuit."
Asuka let out a gasp as a sudden, severe spike of pain hammered through her skull. On the comm interface, she could see Ritsuko frowning.
"Attempting to emulate Rapture-type link circuit hardware... let the test log show that this is an experimental function that has not previously demonstrated any success."
The pain abated, but not completely. A dull, whole-head throbbing persisted. However, a moment later, the LCL went clear.
"Emulation layer launched successfully. Emulating Rapture hardware version 2.8.10, running on Jacob's Ladder hardware version 1.2.1. Link circuit appears stable. All failures bypassed or ignored successfully."
"All failures?" Asuka grunted. The entry plug had yet to show a functional heads-up display. All there was currently was the comm interface, a digital clock, and several meaningless lines.
"All of many." Ritsuko's gaze flicked over an off-screen control panel. "This is further than previous attempts ever got, but far from battle ready. Not crashing and shutting down the link circuit is itself a first-of-a-kind success here."
"Amazing." Asuka rolled her eyes. "So what's my score?"
"Hold on, let me see if I can re-initialize the feedback timer daemon without fully rebooting the link circuit..."
"... Wow."
"Yes, the substantial majority of the software's features are outright broken. And what remains appears buggy."
The proto-HUD abruptly dissolved, leaving only the comm interface open. The LCL bath darkened, returning to its natural orange color; the pain in Asuka's head faded.
"Pretty sure you just cut the link circuit."
"Dammit." On the comm, Ritsuko could be seen chewing the end of her pen. "Alright... let me try tweaking some of these emulation parameters and I'll try again."
"Sure." Asuka leaned back, gently rubbing her neck.
"Energizing link circuit."
The LCL went clear again, and the lines of the 'HUD' reappeared. The headache returned, too, still dull, but still painful.
"Your emulator's giving me a pretty bad headache, doctor."
"Hmm. Thank you for letting me know. Do speak up if it changes suddenly, especially if it worsens."
"Sure."
There were a few more moments of silence, then Ritsuko's expression lit up. "The feedback timer daemon appears to be working! You're reading 22.8%, although I don't quite trust the accuracy of that reading, given this... makeshift link circuit is not calibrated."
The temperature in the entry plug seemed to drop, which was odd, given the warm test pool was carefully climate-controlled.
"Any changes to the headache?"
"No." Asuka shifted. "... Feels cold in here, though."
"Odd. I'll turn up the pool temperature. Bear in mind it'll take at least fifteen minutes to feel the change."
"Thanks."
Don't really love having surprise experiments sprung on me, Asuka thought sourly. Not really sure what else I expected, though, when I heard 'cross sync test in Asherah'.
"What was that?"
"Oh... nothing." Asuka ducked her head, embarrassed at being caught mumbling.
"Mhmm." Ritsuko looked lost in thought, her entire attention absorbed by another monitor.
Asuka leaned back and began counting her breathing, doing her best to relax. The chilly LCL and the headache made it difficult, but she'd endured worse hardship before.
Then part of the HUD flickered.
Asuka's breathing stopped for a moment. She looked at Ritsuko, but the doctor was still engrossed in something else.
The HUD flickered again, like a computer monitor with bad vertical sync. The 'tearing' was noticeably worse in the center visual field. Asuka narrowed her eyes.
Okay, just try to swallow all of your many concerns about Asherah's weirdness and... reach out.
"Well done, Lieutenant. You're up to 25%. Of course, this system is still uncalibrated."
Asuka ignored Ritsuko's comment, because in the center field of the heads-up display, there were graphemes forming.
GOAWAY,
LETMEREST
Asuka almost voiced a reply, but she shut her mouth at the last second, glancing nervously at Ritsuko's profile on the comm interface.
Instead, she brought up the on-screen keyboard - which appeared to be, mercifully, functional - and reached out with her hands to grasp the control column.
|| who are you?
GOAWAY
|| I'm stuck in here for two hours no matter what. Sorry.
IWISHYOUCOULDLEAVE
|| you and me both.
"Asuka?" Ritsuko finally deigned to look up from her coding. "Doing alright in there?"
"Yeah. Just, uh, shifting to get comfortable, you know."
"Mhmm."
Asuka determinedly tapped the on-screen keyboard.
|| who are you? Do you have a name?
IWASCAL#LED###REI,
ANDA#LSO#ONE
|| do you know who I am, Rei?
SOR YUA SUKAL ANGEL Y
|| that's right. do you mind if we talk?
WEARETALK#ING
Asuka couldn't help but smile a little at the... smart-assery of the comeback.
|| then I'm sure you won't mind if we talk a bit more. when you say 'one,' do you mean you're the first Rei?
IAMFIRST&MAYYETBELAST
|| the Rei I know is three. What happened to two?
Asuka had already heard the story of Rei-2 from Mari, who had in turn learned it from Maya. But the point of this wasn't to seek information, just this 'one's opinion.
SHEF#OUNDHEROWNEND,
THELUCKYONEOFUS
|| you wanted to die too.
ASIWASPROMISED
After hearing a similar story from 'her' Rei, Asuka wasn't too surprised. The context was very different, though, between a walking, talking, breathing human(oid) teenager, and a tortured soul fragment trapped inside an Eva core.
"He told me he would allow me to die, and then twice went back on his word."
BUTWHENILAYDYINGHE####PUTMEHERE,
ENTOMBEDWITHINIMMORTALFLESH,
UNDEAD##&UNDYING
|| that sounds awful.
And in that light, it makes a lot more sense why Asherah capitulated to Iruel so easily.
ITISNOTTHEWORSTWHENICANREST
|| I'm sorry I woke you, then.
The LCL began to chill rapidly, and Asuka felt herself begin to shiver despite the insulated neoprene around her. At first she thought she might be able to tough it out - but then the headache started to worsen.
"Pain's spiking," she called, trying not to sound as anxious as she felt. "Getting... real cold in here, too!"
Ritsuko, to her credit, pivoted fast. "I'll try a soft de-sync, then bring the circuit back up with a hardware limit in place. One moment."
Nothing happened.
"N-nothing happened."
"Dammit. Hard de-sync it is."
The link circuit blinked off. In barely a heartbeat, the LCL was orange, the HUD was gone, and the plug temperature was back to normal - even a little warm. The headache started ramping down immediately and was gone within ten seconds.
"Better?"
"Much."
"Alright. The hardware limiter is in place and capped at ten percent, like an Eva crippled to the point of immobility. Energizing link circuit..."
The LCL cleared. The plug grew colder, though still much warmer than it had been.
"No headaches yet?"
"Not yet."
"Alright, I'm going to increase the limiter to a fifteen percent cap."
The temperature dipped lower still, and a dull sense of pressure began building in Asuka's skull.
"Now the headache's starting."
"Alright, I'll leave the limiter there while I work on the emulator more. Let the test log show that synchronicity was hard capped at 15% for concerns of pilot safety."
Flicker.
WHYWON'TYOULEAVE
|| Dr. Akagi is very persistent.
The HUD flickered again, then broke down completely into a pixelated impression of smashed glass.
"Hmm..." Ritsuko bit the end of her pen again. "Unit 00 just twitched against the movement interlocks. Any change on your end, Lieutenant?"
"No," Asuka lied.
"Very well... then the test will continue."
AKAGISHOULDBEDEAD
Asuka blinked, frowned, then thought back to what she knew of the earliest dates in Unit 00's duty lifetime.
|| Dr. Naoko Akagi IS dead. This is Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, Naoko's daughter.
GOOD,
IH#AVENOTSUFFEREDIN#VAIN
Asuka thought to ask for more detail, but decided against it. The erratic, aggrieved consciousness she was conversing with seemed, put tactfully, easily upset.
ICAN'THURTYOUANYMORE,
?
|| Ritsuko put in a sync limiter. Sorry.
YOUARENOTSORRY
|| not really, no.
H##HH#H#H HH##,
#HHH#
The text broke down into more meaningless pixelation and screen-tearing. Asuka sighed heavily.
"Still alright, Lieutenant?"
"Yeah, just..." Asuka looked at the clock in the un-scrambled portion of the HUD. "Just not looking forward to another hour and a half of this headache."
Gott, I hope One's little tantrum ends before then.
X-X-X
Kyoko's appearance is based on the manga since we barely get to see her at all in the anime.
This chapter was almost entirely written by hand in a notebook, a major change from how I usually write, but it's a strategy that's allowed me to waste time writing on the clock at work, which has hugely boosted my productivity. On this note, anywhere you see a "#" is a grapheme I had to scribble out since my hand wasn't used to the weird formatting.