Asuka glared at the computer. Time was running out before she was supposed to start attending classes at the same school as the other pilots, and she wanted to get as much done in the remaining time as possible. However, the MAGI were not cooperating with her at all. Every time she thought she was finally getting somewhere, they would flash a 'Restricted Access Area' message at her. And then, half the information that was available to her didn't add up, and the MAGI were seemingly stumped on the questions she sent their way, either unable or unwilling to answer her.
She had to laugh at herself a little, although she would never say so. Normally, she wouldn't have given the purple Evangelion or its boring pilot a second thought, for she had her Unit-02, which was the most advanced model. But the more she looked at things, the stranger they became. She was far from stupid, and so when she added two apples to two apples and suddenly got six oranges, well, she knew something was not right. So, it was only natural she took an interest in the boy's Evangelion. It was a scientific curiosity, nothing more, she told herself.
Absentmindedly chewing on the end of a pen, she decided to mentally catalog the main things bothering her in an attempt to figure out what she would try to look at next. When in doubt, organize what you know and what you want to know, and figure out how to get to the second from the former. That had been drilled into her at the Berlin University, and it had served her well during her time there. She was sure it would continue to do so here.
One: Structure designs for the Unit-01 Evangelion are classified higher than my Unit-02's, or the Prototype Unit-00. However, from the repair documents I've seen, there are major design changes between the Prototype and the Test-Type that were reversed with my Unit-02. There are no available documents to suggest reasons for the design changes, nor are there listings for such feature design proposals in the MAGI archives. Many of these seem to be largely cosmetic, such as the helmet design, the head spike, and the barred teeth design of Unit-01's mouthguard being not a solid piece of armor. It is a fully articulated mouthpiece, which is then restrained with bolted metal strips. Why is its mouth not wired shut in the first place, like the other two? Why give it an articulated mouth, and then restrain it?
Two: While the sensor equipment used was damaged by the EMP weapons, the reported data telemetry from Unit-01 makes no sense when looking at the reported information before the launch of missiles, and not all of the sensor equipment was damaged; when the shielded sensors came back online, they still reported nonsensical information.
Three: How did the Evangelion fight the Angel in the water without the aid of Type-E equipment? Even though the musculature system of the Evangelions is reinforced, it is not enough to function in the water. The Evangelions are normally too heavy for an aquatic environment.
And this is just scratching the surface!
She sighed, looking at the time on the monitor display. It was late, she was tired, and she had only just started listing the things that stood out and cried for explanation. They had hooked her up with a nice apartment here in the Geo-Front, up on the 'ceiling', and she was told it was only twenty minutes from the school by way of the express lift she was authorized to use. The neatest thing by far was the fact the main room's floor could be set to transparent, allowing her a bird's eye view of the grounds below. She shut the terminal off and stood, stretching out the kinks in her back. She would grab something to eat from one of the cafeterias on the way home and pick this search up again tomorrow.
Maybe I should ask Sempai about the Unit-01 design differences. It doesn't make any sense for them to be so drastically different from the others. At the very least, she can tell me why the blueprints are at a higher security classification than the others. What's so special about it?
As she passed through the halls, she ignored the few people still up and about in the late hour. Despite the free lodging available for all NERV personnel in the Geo-Front most still decided to spend their money on topside housing, leaving the residential sectors of the subterranean base fairly empty. On the level she stayed at, there wasn't anyone living in her block apart from her Section 2 detail. This was fine, however. She liked it that way, living on her own. After all, the Great Asuka Langley Sohryu didn't need anyone.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji lay on the bed, eyes open but not looking at anything in the near-total darkness of his cell. He hadn't spoken to anyone in four days after the Sub-Commander had brought in the two men he had tased. He had apologized, trying to sound sincere, but in his heart, he didn't mean it. His worry and gut reaction to the news of Rei's solo deployment had been right, and given the same circumstances, he'd do it again. That much he was sure of. Even though he hated the fighting, if she were in danger, well, he would have to fight. He rolled over, staring now at the wall instead of the ceiling.
This actually isn't so bad. I'm sure if I was more like Miss Misato, I'd be going crazy down here. A soft smile popped in and out of existence. I'm sure they wouldn't let her have any beer if she was down here. I just wish I had my SDAT. He sighed, mentally kicking himself. If he had his ruined SDAT with him, it still wouldn't do him much good.
Indeed, the isolation and restriction of movement and activity that was meant to act as a punishment had little effect on Shinji. While certainly an atypical case, the only things that bothered him throughout his incarceration thus far were the lack of an SDAT, the migraine he had suffered through for the first few days, and the fact he had not seen for himself that Rei was safe. He had no way of knowing if what they told him was true or not, and it wasn't like she would be allowed down here to see him.
But sequestered in the cell all by himself as he was, he was not without something to do. He had looked over his new leg and, through trial and error, had figured out how to remove it and attach it again to the new metal knee implanted at the stub where what was left of his original leg ended. The leg was a dull black and weighed rather more than the flesh and bone one it was replacing had. The leg portion was comprised of a sturdy metal cylinder, attached to a sphere on either end, which plugged into the knee and the foot. The foot was an articulated replica of a human foot. Both the spheres and the sockets they fit into were completely smooth, devoid of any sort of movement control mechanism he could see.
He wasn't sure how it was powered or how it worked. The only idea that he could think of to explain why the leg and foot locked together was that they were magnetic. However, none of the three pieces (knee, leg, and foot) reacted to any of the metal in the small cell. He wasn't sure what this meant if anything.
Pacing back and forth in the cell had shown him he walked without much of a noticeable limp, thanks to the smooth movements of the knee and foot. However, there was a definite thudding sound whenever his new foot hit the ground, and his gait was a little off, both due to the weight of the new limb. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, but there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, what was the point of complaining?
Rolling back over to stare at the ceiling, he closed his eyes and began to hum Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to himself, a small, easy smile on his face.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
If anyone had taken him aside and explained to him at a much younger age that spies didn't lead lives as depicted in the movies, Kaji would never have gone into the spy business. It just wasn't fair, he would explain (if you were a fellow spy) over a few beers, that James Bond never seemed to have to do any of the meat and potatoes work that went into being a spy. Reading reports, analyzing the reports, writing reports about the reports, vetting his sources, looking into every single small detail, every dead-end lead that had to be looked at; in other words, all of the paperwork. Good old 007 never did any of that! He romanced beautiful women, fought against shadowy secret organizations, and killed people, all while delivering pithy one-liners.
True, he got to seduce plenty of beautiful women (he was confident he was breaking down Ritsuko's barriers again, as well as Misato's), and he actually was fighting a shadowy organization, but the few times he had actually needed to kill people, it hadn't seemed really appropriate to make jokes at their expense. He'd also been too full of adrenaline to make pithy comments at the time.
That being said, he could not fault his current assignment as being boring. After all, here he was, running around in the base of a major branch of the same shadowy conspiracy organization he was fighting, which was supposed to be hiding a dormant god somewhere in the basement, and hadn't he hand-delivered the next stage of human evolution to the Commander? He wasn't sure what else the fetus, named after the first man, who apparently was named for the dormant god, was capable of, but the Human Evolutionary Laboratory in Berlin had kept the thing on ice and encased in Bakelite, so it was obvious it wasn't a normal run of the mill fetus.
He had a few ideas about it though, ones he hadn't shared with his handler in the JSSDF. He was leaning heavily on it being something like a human-sized Evangelion, capable of generating the mysterious AT-Field that protected them in battle. One of his sources working in the Berlin labs had suggested he look more into the Ayanami girl's past, which was shrouded in as much mystery as the fetus itself. His JSSDF connections also believed Gendo was planning something with the girl and the fetus, possibly artificial impregnation. If the girl carried the 'first human' to term, what would it mean for mankind? It being the next step in the guided evolution of man didn't mean much if it was the only such sample. It would be years before the child could begin to spread its genes, and it would take decades before it had had a barely noticeable impact on mankind at all, if ever. He didn't know a whole lot about biology, but he knew enough to know evolution did not work like they showed on TV or in the movies.
So the questions remained as unanswerable as the riddle of the chicken and the egg. What was SEELE planning, and what was Ikari planning? More importantly, whose plan would come to fruition first?
He sighed as he continued to write his latest coded report to his SEELE handler. They wanted to know if Ikari was following orders and marching along to their tune, but while he wasn't going to flat out tell them the man wasn't, he knew if they were suspicious enough to send him there to report on the man's loyalty in the first place, then they would be equally suspicious of any glowing report of Ikari's fidelity. At the same time however, if he exposed Ikari, he would expose his own actions on Ikari's behalf, and he seriously doubted that the shadowy masters of SEELE would forgive him of his trespasses against them. It was a delicate dance, working for the three groups, SEELE, NERV, and the JSSDF, but he was a skilled dancer. But if he could count SEELE firmly in the camp of those he counted as irrevocably his enemies, he still had NERV and the JSSDF as viable 'homes' in which to take shelter and hide. The JSSDF didn't know about SEELE, so if he dropped out of favor with Ikari and, by extension, NERV, he could reveal the global conspiracy to them and reap the benefits.
Despite being engrossed in his work, he heard his erstwhile ward creeping up behind him and, with practiced skill, stood up out of his chair yawning just as she threw her arms around the empty space he had just occupied.
He turned to look at her, a look of surprise on his face as natural as the morning sun rising in the east. "Oh, Asuka! What brings you down here?"
The girl pouted as she poured herself into his chair, kicking it into a gentle spin as he moved to the coffee maker on a small cabinet to pour himself a cup of coffee.
"Oh, I need a reason to come visit you, Kaji?" she asked in a sing-song voice, her eyes never seeming to leave him when the spinning chair brought him back into her line of sight. "But I must say I'm still upset with you! Leaving during my debut battle!" She pouted again, looking hurt. "And you never did explain why you left, you know."
Kaji smiled softly at her back with a shake of his head. "Oh, I had to ensure the safe delivery of a few things. I had no worries about your safety since you were in your Evangelion, after all. But you know you weren't the only thing I was escorting over here. I had to make sure it wasn't lost in an accident." He winked at her, tapping a finger against his nose. "It was some secret agent business. Very hush-hush."
Asuka laughed, a merry and musical sound that somehow brightened the dull gray walls of his office. "Oh, Kaji. You're not a Section 2 agent! It was the latest test data on Unit-03 wasn't it? My Unit-02's twin."
Grinning back at her, he laughed and nodded. "Oh, Asuka, you know me too well. But you know I can't say anything about it one way or the other; they take security breaches very seriously here, probably more so than back in Berlin."
"It's because of the Commander, isn't it?" she asked, a thoughtful look on her face as she reached out to push against the desk before continuing. "He seems like a very serious man."
"That's a bit of an understatement, Asuka. He's quite possibly the most serious man in the entire world. He created NERV pretty much single-highhandedly, after all, and don't forget that he holds a doctorate in Meta-Biology and was a major member of the team that created the Evangelions. He's also a strict man, and books no insubordination from senior members of his higher echelon staff, let alone the lower levels. He's not a man to suffer fools or disobedience."
She nodded, thinking of his cold, abrupt manner when ordering her Sempai to deploy the EMP weapons during the battle. She shivered a little, imagining him turning that... clinical, almost disinterested gaze in her direction. But no one could accuse him of not holding back in the war against the Angels, which was the important thing in her mind. Such a person would be sure to recognize her obvious talents and put her at the head of the battle rosters.
"He's very different from his son. Is the Third really his child? They're total opposites of each other."
"Oh? And you're an expert on them? You've spent that much time with the boy, or his father?" Kaji asked with a raised eyebrow and a smug smile. "But yes, Shinji is the Commander's son."
"But that makes no sense! Why would he lock his own son up in the detention cells? I mean, he did kill the Angel, and rescue the First Child. As long as we beat the Angels, it doesn't matter what we do! And that's another thing! If he's the Commander's son, why does he suck so much in combat? It's like he hasn't had any real combat training at all!" While it seemed that she complained a lot, the things she was griping about today were valid complaints.
So you noticed that, did you? Well, you are a prodigy, and it really is painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain, I suppose.
"Well, apparently the Marduk Institute just recently selected him as a Pilot. He was originally going to be Piloting Unit-03 once it was done, but since it was an emergency situation with the Third Angel, what with Ayanami being injured in an earlier accident with Unit-00, they had no choice but to try him in the Test Unit, Unit-01. Since he's done so well with it, it's been decided he will remain with Unit-01, and they will move Ayanami to Unit-03 once it's complete, and shelve the Prototype."
"Humph. I'd rather go with Unit-03 than stick with the Test-Type if it were me. Why keep an inferior Evangelion?"
"I don't really think it's up to him, Asuka."
"Bah. I'd like to see them try to take my Unit-02 away from me," she said, kicking her legs out to bring the chair to a halt. "Soo~, Kaji. What say you and me get some dinner? We haven't had dinner together since we got here, and when we were on the ship doesn't count."
"Ah, well, unfortunately, I have to meet with Dr. Akagi and Misato in a little bit, and we're going to be working through dinner. It actually has to do with Shinji's incarceration, and how long the Commander plans to keep him there. But enough about such depressing things; you're supposed to start school in a few days, yes? Are you looking forward to it?" He grinned at her, deftly changing the subject away from him. The type of dinner Asuka had in mind was most certainly not a wholesome domestic one between guardian and ward.
A frown quickly appeared on Asuka's features, as she crossed her arms in irritation. "I don't see why I need to go to that stupid school. What is some Japanese high school going to teach me? I should be working towards my master's degree if anything! And I'll be missing out on learning from some of the best! You know how NERV Central is about the best talent, they all end up here for some reason or another. It'll be so boring there, compared to what's being worked on down here!"
He smiled as he sipped his coffee. "Well, the social experience is important too, you know. It's important you don't waste your childhood." He watched the irritated girl with a smile on his face. "You know, it probably wouldn't hurt to try to get to know Ayanami before you show up at the school. That way you're sure to know at least one person, and she can introduce you to all her friends."
"I haven't met the girl yet. Hell, I haven't even seen her. But have you heard her? When she went into battle she sounded dead. Lifeless. No emotion."
"It could have been the radio, Asuka. You know people sound different over the comm nets." He paused for a moment, the girl's words working through his mind. "Wait, you haven't even stopped by her hospital room at all? Nothing?"
She shrugged. "Why? It's not like she killed the Angel. That was the Third Child. What do I care about a loser who can't handle a single Angel on her own?"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei narrowed her eyes in concentration as she looked from one tunnel to the other, unsure as to which one to take. Despite having memorized the ventilation schematics provided by the MAGI, she had encountered several air ducts that had not been present on the map. Still, she was fairly confident she was on the right path to the detention cells. It was slow going, as the metal ductwork amplified every sound, sending echoes up and down the vent. She did not wish to broadcast her location or activities in such a manner, as it would not do for the Commander to find out about this. She had heard nothing either way about being able to visit Ikari in the detention cells, but the point of solitary was that one was confined without interaction with others. Given recent events, it was doubtful she would be permitted to visit him. It was not an experiment she wanted to perform, testing that hypothesis. It would only draw more scrutiny to her, depriving her of options and free movement.
Opting to take the right 'pathway', she marked it with a red marker, and then continued on her way, hoping no one noticed she was missing before she returned. This was a good way to become familiar with the vent systems, especially in light of the 'secret' ductwork. If this had been an emergency requiring speed on her part, who was to say what would have happened with her possibly lost in the vents?
I wonder why the MAGI did not say anything about this. Is it possible they do not know? What purpose does it serve to keep parts of the ventilation system off of the blueprints? Are there secret rooms that are also not listed on the official blueprints of headquarters? It would not be very surprising, considering the nature of NERV and its enemies. They would have access to such documents, being the 'parent' organization, and undoubtedly would be quick to grant such things to their agents, to better equip them before sending them against us. This once again shows the foresight of the Commander, for a keen mind studying the blueprints might notice discrepancies such as air vents that go nowhere.
However, the dead space on the maps also must be taken into account. I should make an effort to map out these extra vents, create an overlay on the map provided by the MAGI, and consult with them on this matter. The air vents suggest they are providing ventilation for something, and secret vents suggest secret rooms. It would be interesting to see if the MAGI know about this; for if this level of preparedness has been taken with these blueprints, perhaps the MAGI have been left uninformed in the event of a hostile electronic intrusion. While it is extremely unlikely any such attempt would be successful without the aid of at least one of the other MAGI clusters at other NERV installations, the Commander is not one to take half-measures.
Her eyes widened suddenly as she stopped in mid-crawl, as an unsettling new thought took seed in her mind.
Is the Commander expecting me to do something like this? Or if not me, then someone else? Is it possible my progress here is being monitored somewhere else? I will need to keep watch for sensor devices and cameras as I move.
As she continued to make her way down, slowly but surely creeping deeper into the earth towards her target, new thoughts and doubts began to plague her as she pondered the Commander's possible reactions to her attempts to circumvent the security in place on the detention cells. She halted her advance in order to think. None of the outcomes she was able to come up with were by any stretch of the definition 'good' and it seemed to her a betrayal of the Commander's trust. Was she not privy to his plan to defeat the enemies of Man? Was she herself not the linchpin in his grand design?
He has given me everything I have ever wanted in this world and will give me the gift of oblivion. He has shown a wish to keep me from harm and hurt, though my mortal shell is replaceable. He has entrusted me with the security of his victory over SEELE. He has given me life, and he will give me death. He has, to some extent, given me his son.
There must be a reason why he removed me from Ikari's room that day. Was he uncertain I would be able to leave his side to battle the Angel? Was he worried I would be distracted and not able to defeat the Angel? Her face was emotionless as she tried to come up with answers to the questions plaguing her mind. I do not think it was so, but regardless I was unable to perform my duties as a Pilot. Is my interest in Ikari causing me to lose sight of my purpose?
A ball of ice formed in the pit of her stomach, and her face twitched slightly as guilt made itself known to her for the first time in her life. It was not a pleasant sensation, and she had to fight the urge to vomit. Turning around inside the cramped tunnel was not easy, but she managed it without much fuss. Biting her lip the rest of the way back to the grating that had granted her access to the vents, she promised herself she would make it up to the Commander. She would re-earn his confidence and trust. A good daughter was expected to honor and love her father, according to everything she had studied. She owed him everything. She would be a good daughter.
But what of Ikari? I... I do not wish to halt my Science in regard to him. Perhaps I should limit my socialization experiments and concentrate on the Evangelion experiments. I will still be able to spend time with him then, if not in such close proximity. There is also the school, and when we perform the NERV administered tests. Perhaps this will be for the best.
Somehow, that thought was not very comforting to her.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji stood, shackles on his wrists and ankles, before his father's desk. His eyes were glued to the floor in front of him, and while he did not flinch much when the man spoke, it was noticeable to those who were well-versed in reading people. To Gendo Ikari, his son was like an open book.
"Do you know why you were incarcerated, Third Child?"
"Yes." Because I tased two guards. Because I rescued Rei. Because I tore up the city trying to get to her. To the one you value more than me.
Gendo watched his son, as sure of the thoughts running through the boy's head as he was that despite Shinji's apologies to the men in question, he hadn't been sorry about it. There was, however, a chance here to turn things to his advantage. There was a time for the stick, and there was time for the carrot. In order to hammer home the idea, Shinji needed to follow the orders given to him; he would give the boy what he wanted: praise and recognition, the carrot, followed by the threat of the stick, in the boy's case, admonishment.
"While your concern for your fellow pilots and your enthusiasm for defeating the Angels is admirable, you do not have the authority to decide to sortie. That is up to the Operations Director and the Acting Operations Director. Had you not hijacked Unit-01, Pilot Sohryu would have been deployed in it to assist the First Child. The pilot corps must obey the orders of the officers appointed over them. NERV must be able to count on the Pilots do they are told when they are given orders."
Gendo paused in his speech to stare silently at the slightly fidgeting boy for a few moments, watching as the small movements became more pronounced as the minutes crept by without either saying a word.
"Do you understand the responsibilities inherent in your position here? Do you know why you are required to obey the orders of those over you?"
"Yes."
Gendo nodded to the Section 2 agent, who unlocked the shackles on Shinji's ankles and wrists. Shinji rubbed at his wrists, glad he was freed of his constraints. He looked back up to his father, waiting to be dismissed now that he was done being lectured, eager to go home. He was sure the apartment had become a disaster in his absence and wanted to get started on cleaning it up before going to bed.
Still not moving from his intimidating position, Gendo smiled warmly underneath the cover of his gloves as he said the last piece of his lecture to his son, unable to resist giving Shinji a last little piece of carrot.
"You did a very brave, if foolish, thing, Shinji." He unfolded his hands, any trace of a smile gone, and picked up a report from his desk and began to read it. While it was clear he was dismissed, Shinji could only stare open-mouthed at his father, even as the Section 2 agent propelled him out of the office, gently guiding him with a hand on his shoulder.
Misato was waiting outside the office and nodded to the uniformed man who disappeared down the hall, leaving the two of them with a modicum of privacy.
She smiled weakly at her ward, who didn't really look that bad for having spent over a week in solitary, followed up by what had to have been a soul-crushing tongue-lashing from his father. "Hey there, Shinji. You ready to go home?" she asked, her tone soft and tired.
Shinji was staring at the closed door to his father's office, but turned to look at her. "Hi, Miss Misato. I'm... I'm ready to go home now." Suddenly, to both his, her, and his father's (watching them over the camera) surprise, he threw his arms around her waist in a deep hug. Unsure for a moment of what to do, she smiled and wrapped her arms around him as she felt hot tears escape from his eyes to soak into her shirt.
"C'mon Shinji. Let's go home. We'll pick up something to eat on the way home, something from a stand."
Releasing the embrace, Shinji nodded as he wiped his face, a weak grin on his own face as they made their way down the corridor to the elevator banks.
"Miss Misato... was anyone hurt... when I fought the Angel?" Shinji asked, fear and dread in his voice. The thought weighed heavily on his mind once he first realized he had gone on a 'rampage,' and for the past few days, he had been sick with worry he had hurt or killed anyone. His relief was almost palpable when Misato shook her head as they boarded the elevator.
"There's been no reports of any casualties. Pretty much everyone had already gotten to the shelters when the initial alarms were sounded. While there was a lot of damage in between the shaft you used to get out of the Geo-Front and the beach, it's nothing that's out of the ordinary for an Angel battle."
Shinji was mostly silent the rest of the trip home, only supplying the smallest of small talk with Misato as they obtained dinner from one of the numerous noodle stands that had cropped up to feed the ever-present construction crews fast and hot meals cheaply. While it was a long shot from being Shinji's favorite or even preferred meal, it was much better than a dinner of the instant foods Misato was still so fond of, even after months of being pampered by Shinji's home-cooked dinners.
"So, do you feel up to going to school tomorrow? Or do you want some more time to get used to... well, your leg?"
Shinji paused in mid-bite to stare at his leg, hidden from inspection within his pant leg. Do I want to wait? Or should I get it over with? "I'll go to class. I guess there's no sense in putting it off more than needed, I suppose."
Misato beamed at him, inwardly relived he seemed to be adjusting well to the new leg. She had seen both ends of the spectrum of limb replacement acceptance, and sometimes people reacted badly (understandably so, but still badly) to have lost limbs in combat. With as melancholic as Shinji normally was despite the antidepressants, she had been worried, but it looked like he wasn't going to just soak in self-pity and bitterness.
"Well, tomorrow will be Asuka's first day at school too! She'll be in the same class as you and Rei, so be sure to introduce her to all your friends!"
"Asuka? Doesn't she have a college degree? Why is she going to high school?" And why would I want to introduce her to my friends? She'll only make fun of them like she did with Kensuke and me on the ship.
"Well, that is true, but we want her to have some semblance of normalcy, so that means not keeping her all cooped up in the Geo-Front all the time. Plus, she doesn't have a firm grip on reading Japanese, even if she can speak it well."
"Oh." He finished off his meal and went to take care of his trash, but Misato stopped him on his way back into the kitchen.
"Oh, I'll take care of it! You go run yourself a bath. I'm sure it'll feel good after being stuck down there for so long."
He looked into the kitchen, surprisingly free of the piles of junk he expected to see (Misato had spent most of her time in the Geo-Front and had come home only sporadically to feed Pen-Pen. Her office, however, was the disaster zone Shinji had expected the apartment to be). "Are... are you sure, Miss Misato?"
She rolled her eyes as she waved him on, sipping from her beer. "Go! Cleanse your heart and soul! I'll keep Pen-Pen out of the bathroom. Take as much time as you need."
Nodding, he moved down the hall towards the bathroom. That's actually a really good suggestion, he thought to himself, closing the door behind him. At some point after the surgery to attach his new knee and deposit him in his cell, he had been dressed in his usual clothing, which meant someone had come here for a set or had just come up with them from somewhere else. However, they had only given him one set, and he had lived in them for the past week. Now that he was thinking about it, a bath was more and more attractive, as opposed to collapsing onto his own bed.
Misato sighed as she tossed back the rest of her drink, listening to the sound of running water. She didn't know what had been said in Commander's office, but it couldn't have been good. The Sub-Commander was still furious according to Ritsuko, and if he was, who knew how the Commander felt? But Shinji hadn't come out of the office any more morose than usual, and his sudden display of affection could be attributed to the stress from the fights and then being locked up.
She grimaced and opened another can as she got to work clearing the table of the remains of their dinner. She hated thinking like Ritsuko, always trying to see into the deeper, hidden meanings of things. Why couldn't people just take things at face value? Why did there have to be deeper meanings to everything? But it was all part of the job, at least as far as the reports she had to compose on Shinji's mental health and well-being went. The doctor would want to know why she thought Shinji suddenly hugged her when such an act was out of character for him. Misato idly wondered who was responsible for the reports on Rei, and who would be doing the ones for Asuka.
Well, all she could do for the time being was be there for him. Throwing another party seemed to be in somewhat poor taste, what with Shinji having lost a leg and all, but maybe something on a smaller scale. Something that wouldn't turn into a building-wide riot.
He would like that, wouldn't he? Maybe just the pilots and their friends?
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Gendo looked up from his plate to watch Rei as she ate in silence. It was not often she was the one who requested they share dinner, and so when she did he would see to it that his schedule was cleared for it. She was less talkative tonight than was normal for when they dined together and he suspected that he knew the reason why. Rei was sulking and wanted him to know she was unhappy.
"How are things at school?"
"Fine."
"It is fortuitous the school has escaped damage thus far in the war, is it not?"
"Yes."
Silence reigned as they ate, the two taciturn people carefully considering the words they might say. Conversation was like gold to the pair, and so it was spent accordingly. Gendo also had to carefully plant certain suggestions in her mind, as he needed to slow things down between Rei and the boy, but he also needed them to remain close. It was a fine line between the two, and he needed to carefully nudge them in the right direction. It would be hard to tell her she was to no longer die at the end of the Work, that she and the boy would have each other, but at the same time tell her to back off from him.
Rei, for her part, wanted to do right by her feelings for both Ikari men, to be a good and obedient daughter to the Commander, and to be with his son, however in ways not normally held appropriate for blood siblings. She knew not exactly what it was she wanted with the younger Ikari; other than extreme closeness with him and to discover the source of his own feelings for her in addition to finding out the nature of his connection with Unit-01. She could not bring these things to her father's attention, as it would almost certainly be detrimental to her goals. (It would be.)
"The Third Child was released today."
Rei looked up from her noodles, obviously surprised. She had not heard that little bit of news. "Will Section 2 be informed that I am not to see him?"
"No, you may see him at school and at NERV, unless it is deemed necessary otherwise."
She narrowed her eyes as she glared at her plate. Why would it be deemed otherwise? I am... Her eye twitched as she reminded herself she had sacrificed personal objectivity in regards to Shinji some time ago, and at the time it had seemed to be a fair trade. However, it was making it that much harder to deal with this.
Why does the Commander dislike his son so? Does he not realize it makes Ikari doubt and mistrust him? That he has no faith in his work? Would it instead not be more beneficial to all concerned? If Ikari was on similar terms with the Commander as I, would there not be less confusion all around?
Would we not be a real family?
They were silent for the rest of the meal. As she made her way back home, she wondered if it would not be appropriate to ask the Commander if his son could join them for a meal.
After all, it is a well-documented fact there is an increased level of association in family units that regularly eat together, as opposed to those that do not. If Ikari had faith in his father's work, would he not be more interested in following the orders given by him? And would they not also be happier, if they spent more time together? I do, after all, enjoy my time spent with the Commander, and also enjoy, if for different reasons, my time spent with Ikari. If X+Y=Z, and X+W=Z, does not Y+W=Z? There is a definite level of antagonism between the two. How do I convince them to sit down at the same table together?
Hypothesis: If the offered meal is homemade, it will make the offer more attractive. I had a definite preference for the soup that Ikari made for me over the numerous soups from many of the 'fine' dining establishments around Tokyo-3. If I offered to make the meal, would that convince the Commander and Ikari to share dinner with each other and myself?
If I am to test this hypothesis, I will need to increase my cooking skills. While my reproduction of his soup was good, it was not the same as the soup he made for me. However, if I suddenly ask him for assistance in cooking, it will alert him to my experiment sooner than is necessary.
Perhaps I should enlist the aid of the Class Rep- of Hikari. She was most helpful in the supermarket, and obviously she knows much about cooking, as she has professed several times to be the primary caregiver in her household, in addition to preparing meals for Suzahara.
Should I prepare lunches for Ikari? This is a valid display of affection between male and female members of our age group, and I cannot deny I feel affection for him. However, what normally goes into such a lunch? My own mid-day meal consists of store-bought sandwiches. I will have to gather more information on the contents of these lunches in the near future. It will require careful observation.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka stared at the computer screen, not wanting to believe the information the MAGI were telling her. It had taken some time to convince Dr. Akagi to allow her tech-level access to the MAGI in her room, but in the end, she had capitulated, recognizing Asuka was not like the other pilots and could actually do work with such access. So, instead of getting ready for her first day at the stupid school, she was still trying to figure out the secrets of Unit-01 and to find out what had happened up there on the surface during the fight. There hadn't been a lot of information to begin with, and then all of a sudden the MAGI started returning security access errors. Someone high up on the food chain had classified the battle and classified it much higher than the previous ones. There were only three people who could do that, and she was sure her Sempai wasn't the one who had.
It had been hard work, trying to get tiny bits of data from which to extrapolate the information she sought. It was an imperfect process, and more than once it seemed like she was trying to squeeze blood from a stone. However, the MAGI had relented to give her some data after a long conversation with them, which had left her feeling somewhat ridiculous for arguing with something that wasn't even alive. However, the thinking supercomputers that made up the MAGI had definite personalities. If they hadn't, she never would have been able to get this information, which was deemed by the triumvirate to be harmless enough to hand out, so long as it stayed on the internal NERV network.
And what information this was! If it could be believed, it was quite damning information; for if it was true, it threw everything she thought to be true about the Evangelions and AT Field defensive system on its head.
According to the garbled data the MAGI had been able to collect and record during the havoc caused by the ECM weaponry of the Gomorrah Protocol, the Third Child had extended his AT-Field to encompass the entirety of the bay and had kept it up despite engaging in extremely close quarters combat with the Angel.
But what purpose would that serve? The point of the force field is to erode and neutralize the one generated by the Angels and to serve as a protective barrier against physical and high-energy attacks, such as the 'cross beam' that has been documented in use by most of them so far. Spreading it out over such a large area would be pointless... unless there is another use for it, besides what I've been told. And what of the physical limitations of the field itself? Surely at that size, it would be considerably weaker than a tight shell around the Evangelion. But that aside, it doesn't look as if it was bothered much by the EM pulses.
She frowned as she dug through her bag for a printed-out still image from the day of the battle. The image was of poor quality due to the overcast skies and the streaks of water on the lens of the camera, but the blurred images of the battling giants were not what Asuka was interested in at the moment. Switching on the desk lamp, she stared at the photo, one long, delicate finger tapping the faint yellow smudge in the background that had to be the AT-Field causing its trademark disruption of visible light, manifesting as a grouping of yellow hexagons, which it only did with the strongest of AT-Fields. As she focused on the image, clarity hit her like a ton of bricks.
He pushed all of the water out of the bay! He wasn't able to get to the Angel to fight it, so he moved the water with the AT-Field! She frowned again as she looked back to the data on the screen, her practiced eye picking out pertinent numbers and data from the mess of information. Now that she knew what she was looking for, some of the insane numbers became explainable, but this revelation only raised new questions.
But why didn't he remove the water the first time? Of course! He used the geography of the bay to his advantage. It would be harder to keep a pocket area free of water in the middle of the ocean, and what would keep the Angel from simply falling through the field's bottom limit? Her frown became a glare as the ramifications of Shinji's second battle with the Angel became clearer to her. What else can the AT-Field be used for? What are its true capabilities? Her glare intensified as she stared at the screen. How did he know to do this, let alone how to do it? Why didn't he say anything to me about it? Hell, why didn't anyone say anything about it to me? Is it because he's the Commander's son? Does he get special treatment or special tips on using the Evangelions? Well, it didn't keep them from locking him up in the brig, anyway.
She switched off the monitor, but left the information up on the computer. There would be time enough tomorrow after attending the farce that was the school, and she would get to the bottom of it. There was no sense in making a bad first impression, even if it was a waste of time.
I guess I'll have to put my charms on him to get him to talk. Ugh... I hope that Kaji doesn't get the wrong idea... I'm not interested in that dull boring boy at all... it's just I need to find out how I can use the force field like he can. But... If he was capable of using the AT-Field like that, why did our first fight with the Angel go so badly?
Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!
The water turned into a white froth as Gaghiel propelled itself out of the waves, pushed along by its massive flippers and AT Field into the massive ship, screaming its keening wail the entire time. Men and machines on the deck were thrown overboard as the enormous Angel slammed into the ship, sending it listing. Inside the floating city people were thrown around like rag dolls, the call to brace for impact coming too late.
Great gouges in the deck were carved out by Unit-02's feet as the red titan struggled against the fish-like Angel. Inside the Entry Plug, Asuka growled in hunger, a savage look of delight on her face as she peppered the Angel's face with the depleted uranium spikes from the shoulder launcher inside the right shoulder fin, rewarded by a spray of blue blood, which she felt splatter on her own face despite being completely immersed in LCL, spots of liquid heat standing out against the warmth of the cockpit.
Trying to ignore the annoying, panicked yelps of the Third Child behind her, she swung an armored fist into the Angel's face, knocking out a few of the huge, dagger-like teeth.
"Make yourself useful, Third Child! Look for the core while I show you how a pro handles an Angel!" she cried, feeling more alive now than she could ever remember. This is what she had trained so long and so hard for, and it was all worth it! The sleepless nights, running through training program after training program, hours upon hours of physical conditioning, to encase her iron mind within an iron body. All of it was an investment that was now paying off in spades. Asuka was feeling wonderful, and nothing could dampen her savage joy.
The same could not be said of Shinji, who was desperately trying to find the Angel's core, but he was having no luck whatsoever, as the sensors feeding optical imagery to the pilots were guided by Asuka and not himself. It tracked her eye movements and intentions, not his, as it was part of the built in sensor suite and not a separate component system the way the communications array was.
So while he could concentrate on talking to the Admiral and Miss Misato while she played 'hopscotch' with the ships, he could only pray that he could glimpse the core as Asuka concentrated on applying her physical diplomacy lessons to the Angel's face.
Is it always the face with her? he wondered as she dealt what would normally have been an impressive right hook into Gaghiel's jaw. To be fair to the fiery German girl, the Angel did seem to have an overabundance of face just begging to be hit.
"Where's that core?" Asuka shouted as the Angel slid backward off the ship's deck. "Shiesse! We can't let it escape us!"
"I can't find it!" Shinji shouted back at her, growing upset with her unreasonable demands. "Where did it go?"
"I don't know! Try talking to the ships and see if any of them are picking it up on the sonar," she replied as she spun the Evangelion around on the deck, watching for the Angel. "I thought you had experience dealing with these things!"
While Shinji was calling up the communications net for Misato, the ship suddenly jumped up out of the water into the air as Gaghiel rammed it from below. Its massive mouth firmly clamped on either side of the aircraft carrier and sent Unit-02 sprawling to the deck as they came back down. Cursing, Asuka was concentrating on getting them back to their feet, and thus, it came as a surprise as the Angel threw itself onto the ship once more, using its massive bulk to send the Evangelion over the side.
Hissing in pain as she nearly dislocated her (Unit-02's) shoulder, holding onto the edge of the ship, she grinned as the pain faded away almost instantly. With a mighty heave that resulted in a shocked, pained gasp from the weakling boy sitting behind her, she threw Unit-02 up into the air out of the water one-handed, landing back down on the deck in a crouch. There was an audible snapping sound from somewhere, but she couldn't tell what it was from. Ignoring it, as there was no accompanying sympathetic pain or damage alert, she picked up a wrecked jet fighter that hadn't yet been washed overboard. Keeping low to the deck, she spun them around as the Angel's distinctive wail filled the air once more.
Grinning again, she squealed in savage delight as she fed the Angel the jet, followed by a vicious uppercut. Her grin deepened into a full-on smile as jet fuel spilled out over the Angel, her fists, and the deck, and with an almost casual deliberateness, she threw her fist in a lazy arc to drag her knuckles along the deck's surface, sending up a shower of sparks.
She was barely aware of the outraged shouts coming over the radio from the Admiral, or Shinji's shocked cry as the fumes rising up from the fuel ignited, a rolling wave of flame flooding across the deck back towards the Angel's grinning face, wreathing it in dancing flames.
Screaming in anger and pain, Gaghiel pulled itself back down under the waves, forcing the ship down with it into the water, the cold salt water rushing over the ship to extinguish the flames. Gaghiel released its hold on the ship, letting it pop back up out of the waves as it swam off into the murky depths.
Cursing the Angel and suggesting it do several things that it clearly didn't have the anatomical ability to follow through on, Asuka leaped high into the air as the Angel surged back onto the ship. Crashing down on top of the Angel, Asuka landed with both feet straight on the grinning, malformed face, sending up a spray of blood from the broken and crisped flesh. As she slid down the ruined face, wet gore caking to Unit-02's feet, she pulled the progressive knife free from its carrier in the left shoulder.
As they touched down onto the deck, they spun around on their blood-slicked feet to deliver a crippling blow to the Angel, but Gaghiel had other plans. Its massive tongue, a patchwork of blackened flesh and blistered pink, snaked out and snatched Unit-02's left leg, drawing it into the cavernous maw.
Feeling the boy she was sitting on stiffen immediately, screaming into her ear, she suddenly felt a new hot warmth smack the back of her head and the Entry Plug suddenly smelled of bile and vomit.
Enraged at the twin affronts of being trapped by the Angel's mouth and having the ridiculously useless Third Child vomiting in her hair, making her have to breathe his puke, Asuka screamed in rage herself, arms lashing out against the Angel, the progressive knife tracing a wicked pattern across the its face, showering them with fresh blood, but it was to no avail; Gaghiel only tightened its grip, teeth clenching around the leg.
Screaming in new fury, Asuka left the knife embedded in the Angel's skull, reaching out to grab hold of another jet in one hand and began to slam it repeatedly into Gaghiel's face, screaming at it to release her Unit-02's leg, sending up a spray of blood, flesh, and bone high into the air.
It's wail much more plaintive now, the Angel pulled away from the Evangelion and the ship, pushing out for deep waters, leaving behind the shattered UN Fleet, and a crippled Unit-02.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji sighed as he walked to school, trying to ignore the thudding sound his left foot made each time it impacted the ground. At first he had tried to gently lower the leg to muffle the sound, but it was too much work. Besides, he tried to tell himself that it's still not that noticeable with all the background noise. Only when it's quiet can you hear it. His stomach gurgled at him, upset he hadn't fed it this morning before leaving. He sighed again; he had not woken up in time to either eat or make himself lunch; he would have to get something from the cafeteria. He stopped in his tracks as he heard an ever more familiar voice call out to him. Turning around, he saw the impatient redhead, with a large swath of students (both boys and girls) trailing in her wake, all abuzz with murmured interest in the foreign girl.
Seeing his downtrodden expression, Asuka sighed inwardly. So he's back to 'normal' then. Where did the raging fighter disappear to? Where is the tactical genius that trapped the Angel on dry land? "Jeez, Third Child! Why are you so gloomy? You get to hang out with me at school and at NERV!"
Shinji mustered a weak smile and started moving again after she caught up, not feeling up to commenting on what should have been the obvious reason for his black mood.
"Hey, the other one is here too, right? Sempai said she was..."
Not quite sure what she was going on about, Shinji turned to look at her, confusion plain on his face. He had slept poorly and wasn't awake enough yet to deal with her this morning if she was going to be anything like she was when he met her on the ship. Deep down inside his mind, he wondered if he could ever be awake enough to put up with her if she was going to be like that. "Who? What other one?"
Asuka rolled her eyes as she sighed in exasperation. "The First Child, of course! Who else would I be talking about?"
"You haven't met her yet?" he asked, too tired to put much feeling into the question, but Asuka picked up on the slightly reproachful undertone.
She scowled as she scanned the crowd of people before her for the blue hair that supposedly marked the First out as surely as her own red hair marked her. "No, she never seems to be around, and she's never returned my calls! She doesn't even have her voice mail-box set up!"
"Oh..."
With a sense of victory, Asuka spied a girl sitting down on one of the benches reading a book. Nothing out of the ordinary with that, but this girl had hair of blue that somehow looked... natural, nothing at all like the too-light or too-dark blues of different hair dyes. And for some reason, no one seemed to be interested in that fact!
They must be used to seeing it. Kaji did say she's been going here for years now. At least they understand enough not to mess with a pilot who wants to do her own thing! That's something in her favor...
Pushing her way through the crowd and leaving the slow-poke boy behind, Asuka stood before Rei, a warm smile on her face, and waited for the girl to acknowledge her.
Rei shifted a little to the left, moving her book out of Asuka's shadow.
Umm... what? Maybe she thinks that I'm just another student.
Asuka moved back in front of Rei and coughed slightly in order to prompt a response from the other girl.
Rei shifted slightly to the left, moving back out of Asuka's shadow, never taking her eyes away from the recipe for stuffed vegetable dumplings, as she built the master menu for a meal with both men in her life.
Growing heated now as she imagined that she was hearing snickers in the background, Asuka moved again, this time extending her hand, held open in greeting, over the book.
"Hello there! I'm Asuka, the Second Child! You must be Rei Ayanami, the First Child! Let's be good friends!" she said in a cheerful voice, hiding her irritation.
This time Rei did look up, but her eyes flicked immediately over to the approaching boy with the odd gait. Folding her book closed, she slid it into her bag. "Why would I want to do that?" she queried the redhead, her voice holding the same level of emotion and volume it normally was, sounding just like she had when going into battle when Asuka had first heard her voice, empty and devoid of life.
Startled not only by the nature of her response and the enthusiasm it held but also by the girl's pale skin, paler than hers got to in the cold months in northern Germany during the winter, Asuka stuttered out her next words, much to her disgust. "B-because it would be convenient, that's why!"
Standing up now as Shinji drew near, Rei leveled her best impression of her father's stare she could without having a desk, glasses, and a darkened room. Warmth spread through her as the annoying girl recoiled a few inches. "If I am ordered to, I will." With that, she moved off to silently greet Shinji, walking with him in slow silence to their classroom, leaving behind her the fuming German.
Her eyes twitching, Asuka stormed after them but was intercepted by Hikari, who had been notified of the new addition to the class. Easily picking the girl out of the crowd from Kensuke's description, not needing the NERV mugshot that had been attached to the note she had been given, Hikari called out to the girl.
"Hello, Miss Sohryu! My name is Hikari Hokari, and I'm the class representative for 2-A!"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Hikari sighed happily; it was the end of the day. The students with extra duty had gotten everything done quickly, which meant she could go home and relax a little before beginning dinner and her sister's lunches for tomorrow. It had been an especially tiring day, with all the uproar and fuss that Asuka had sparked, but she had won out in the end each time, establishing order with an iron fist. Stretching, she yawned, closing her eyes on an empty room. When she opened them again, Rei was standing in front of her.
Startled, Hikari drew back reflexively; Rei had dispensed with the empty space between her and others she normally preferred, and was mere inches away from the class representative. "R-Rei! What are you doing here? You didn't have clean-up duty!"
Rei regarded her tentative friend momentarily before holding up her cookbook. Hikari didn't recognize it; it was not one of the ones she had gotten the girl to purchase that day they had met in the market.
"I require your assistance once more, H-Hikari." Rei rushed through the sentence, stumbling over her use of the girl's first name. While she did not feel the two were close enough friends by the means that society measured things, the class representative had insisted they be on a first-name basis.
Hikari's mothering instincts, well-honed by being the matriarch of her family, kicked into high gear as she tried not to go into insulin shock as Rei peeked over the top of the book, holding it in both hands in front of her face. She smiled, and threw her arms around the startled girl, drawing her into a hug. "Oh, of course, I'll help! What did you plan on making today, Rei?" she asked as she released her friend.
"It is not for today." Rei responded, "It is for a meal at an undetermined date in the future. I wish to learn the specifics of resource selection and to obtain your advice on the menu."
Hikari grabbed her bag from her desk, slinging it over her shoulder as the two girls left the school grounds. "OK, what were you planning on making?"
As they walked, Rei began listing the different dishes, ranging from salads and soups, then on to appetizers, main entrees, and all the way through dessert. As the list of prospective dishes grew ever larger, Hikari's jaw dropped more. Once Rei finished with her list, the brunette took a deep breath.
"OK, well, you've got a lot of ideas. Um... who's this dinner for?" she asked, eying her friend appraisingly. "A lot of them are rather complicated recipes, and not normally something someone would make for just themselves."
Rei, feeling more confident about this now than she had at the beginning, nodded at Hikari's comment. It only strengthened her resolve, and once again validated her choice in eliciting the girl's assistance for this project. "It is for Ikari's benefit."
Hikari blushed, rosy warmth spreading across her cheeks as she held a hand in front of her mouth to cover her pleased expression. "Oh! In that case, we'll need to set up the room as well as the meal!" She pointed to the supermarket, and the girls crossed the street. "If you want, I can help you set up the room as well. The mood set by the room is just as important as the meal itself, you know."
Rei did not answer immediately, thinking about the different restaurants she had eaten at with the Commander; the restaurants had several distinct styles of furniture, lighting, background music, and her meal at Rosewater's with Ikari. It was true, she told herself, the restaurants had several distinct styles of both furniture, lighting, background music and decoration. While she had largely ignored them to focus on her dining companion at the time, it made sense that such elements could be utilized to alleviate stress and provide subconscious cues for subjects to react to.
"That would be... appreciated."
As Hikari began explaining the merits of the different dishes and their ingredients, Rei paid careful attention. She obviously knew what she was talking about, having given outstanding guidance before, and she spoke with the ease and authority of one with much experience. As they moved through the supermarket, they picked up enough items to test out one of the recipes on their list when Rei suddenly stopped in one aisle, staring at a display of bento boxes, a singular thought running through her mind.
Ikari did not bring lunch with him to school today.
"Hikari, what do you put into the lunches you make?"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Ritsuko sighed as she read over the MAGI's analysis of the latest sample of Angel-flesh. While she could not fault the boy for his enthusiasm in dealing with the Angel (even if he was dancing blindly to the tune of his father, not that she denied that everyone else did as well, herself included), she did wish he would give her another almost completely intact corpse the way he had with the Fourth. However, it was better to be safe than sorry as far as the Angels were concerned. In fact, it was better to be safe than sorry when dealing with Gendo as well.
To that end, she was holding off on directly questioning the boy about his latest battle, especially the part where the MAGI reported off the chart readings of energy output via his AT-Field. The MAGI had no answer for her, and the three supercomputer gestalts actually wished to interact directly with the boy to find out more themselves. It was not often they requested direct access to the pilots; they dealt with Ayanami during her image downloads each month and had been introduced to Asuka when she had shown her impressive technical skills, earning her direct access to the supercomputers. But they had never shown much of an interest in the boy before, other than a few odd scans of his files and test results from Maya's aborted stress test.
But now they wished to 'speak' to him personally. Of course, given the information they were working with, it wasn't unreasonable. Her claims to Misato that he had to have plugged into the power grid at some point were completely false; at no point during the battle did the power system record a new connection being made; and something the size of an Evangelion being plugged into the grid was not exactly unnoticeable. Even if there wasn't a system acknowledgment between an Evangelion and the power plant when the umbilical cable was connected, the power drain of one of the titanic cyborgs in Full Gain mode was not a negligible one. During the entirety of the battle, there had only been one linkup, and that had been to Unit-00, which had been forcibly disconnected when the girl had been drug out to sea. Unit-01 had never hooked up.
So where had the energy come from?
She knew where it had gone; that much was obvious. The boy had pushed back the waters in the bay and, at the same time, neutralized the Angel's AT-Field. But this only raised new questions, ones the Commander wanted answered, but not through direct interrogation of the boy. After all, Shinji was supposed to remain largely in the dark about things; even more so than Rei, who only thought she knew everything the Commander did. Ritsuko smiled smugly to herself. The girl only knew what Gendo wanted her to know. She might know she was an artificial human, that she was the lynchpin in the Commander's grand plan, that they held Lilith, the Second Angel, captive down in Terminal Dogma, but that was it. She didn't know anything about the truth behind the Evangelions, behind her roots, or even behind the boy with whom she was so infatuated.
Closing the report, she leaned back in her chair and yawned. It was looking like it was going to be another all-nighter for her. She had sent Maya home hours ago, over the girl's protests; no sense in both herself and her right hand being strung out from lack of sleep the next day. She pulled up another report, one of Asuka's 'findings', an unofficial analysis of the battle. The girl was good; she had to admit; there was a lot of potential there underneath the brash exterior.
Ritsuko, of course, knew all about the redhead's history, the girl having been chosen pretty much from birth for the task of piloting by her mother. Asuka's entire life had been shaped by Project E, even if the most defining moments were unfortunate accidents.
She herself hadn't been working at Project E yet, still finishing up her first doctorate, but her mother had later told her about the fallout of Dr. Sohryu's 'improved' contact experiment. While it was true the woman had not been absorbed entirely into Evangelion's core as Dr. Ikari had, the end result was possibly more traumatic for the young girl. Shinji at least never had to deal with an insane mother for two years, including having her try to strangle him, eventually followed by her suicide and being the one to discover her body hanging limply from a light fixture; instead, the event had been buried underneath the trauma of being abandoned by his father shortly following his mother's death. If one were to believe the reports, Shinji had no idea that he had been present for his mother's death or knew the specifics of it. He hadn't recognized the completed Unit-01, but to be fair, the contraption he might have seen that day looked nothing like the completed machine.
Who was to say which of the pilots was the luckiest, then? The boy, or the girl? Or was it Rei, despite growing up knowing and looking forward to the day that she would be allowed to die?
Ritsuko chuckled to herself as she keyed in new test procedures for the next sample of charred pseudo-flesh. It would be pretty fucked up if the little test tube girl were the luckiest out of the three, even with the fact she knew just how replaceable she was, and what she knew about the actual state of the world.
The blond doctor shuddered at the memory of being called back to the new headquarters to be informed of her mother's murder of the little girl Rei and then her apparent suicide. But that had not been the most shocking revelation of the day; far from it.
Gendo, still just Commander Ikari to her, had taken her down into the deepest pits of NERV and had told her of dark secrets behind the lies the world believed, of the men behind the curtain, and of the future they had planned and plotted in the dark.
And then he showed her.
First was the Chamber of Guf, the birthplace of the little dead girl. The machine that offered an immortality of sorts, the image (soul) download and upload apparatus. He showed her the true nature of the girl, a vast enclosure filled with LCL and the giggling clones. He had said that they reacted to the presence of others, turning to look and smile and laugh, but that they were empty vessels, waiting to be filled.
Already feeling ill from the grim news of the night's happenings, seeing the tank of children, all smiling and laughing, and the same had pushed her over the edge. She had fallen to her knees, vomiting up her breakfast, spilling it out over the floor; she would later watch the Commander hosing it down into one of the drains as she rocked back and forth in shock.
She recalled her cold terror, upon seeing the room of cores; he had called it Purgatory. Within each core sat the potential destruction of a family; and his grim predictions had come true. Under the cover of the UN's Artificial Human Evolution Act, countless mothers from across the globe who met the specific criteria had their souls ripped away and stored in the red orbs; leaving behind only unwitting husks that would go on to die slowly over the next few years, leaving behind shattered families, but more importantly than that, a wide pool of potential pilots.
Then he showed her the Angel Lilith; Mother of all Mankind.
The Vastness of the Creature, its repulsive yet strangely alluring countenance, the slick marshmallow consistency of its flesh, the trickle of LCL pouring from the wounds at its torn midsection, all encompassed by the overwhelming sense of Love that permeated the cavern. Crucified on that great cross, grinning mindlessly down on her children as they stood before her as her captors and torturers. Most of the Angel's lower half had been culled to give flesh to the machine that would be christened Evangelion Unit-01, one-half of the catalyst of man's total enslavement. Some flesh had been taken to give birth to the giggling obscenities several floors above them.
That day had changed her life as surely as the day of Second Impact. Now she knew why her mother had sent her to visit relatives up in the mountains that week; quite possibly one of the few motherly acts of love she would receive from her mother throughout her life. Everything was over now for her; her past life, for she could not unsee the things she had seen, nor could she rip the knowledge from her mind and remain the same. Her future was over; all thoughts, hopes, and dreams smashed upon the rocky shoals of cruel reality. Her fate was tied irrevocably with NERV's, that of the Commander's, one way or the other. He did not say it, but it was clear, join me or die. One did not walk away from secrets of such import and live very long.
He had given her the option then, standing in the shadow of creation, to take her mother's promised place at NERV, as the new head of Project E, and join him and Dr. Fuyutsuki, standing against the Illuminati and their plans to become a new god, on the backs of the corpses of all mankind. To have faith in the works of man, to have faith in man himself; being able to fight on for survival in even the most desperate of times against all odds.
To have faith in the children who would be sacrificed to save the souls of all the world.
She never resented him for it, even now, years later, having watched her friends' accomplishments, both professional and personal while she lived her life out in the shadows. She took her solace where she could, both from Gendo and from her work.
"Join us, and save Mankind. Through Third Impact, make this world Paradise."
When he put it that way, how could she refuse?