Rei looked up from her tablet to glance at the sleeping girl. There was little difference between the times she was awake and sleeping- only the breathing pattern showed that Sohryu was genuinely asleep and not just lying there with her eyes shut. Watching the older girl's chest rise and fall in the dim light, Rei considered her feelings towards the Pilot-Captain. She was a source of irritation, but her positive aspects outweighed the negative. She was a keen scientist and engineer with a solid sense of tactics and a healthy dedication towards piloting her Evangelion and fighting the Angels.
There was, Rei considered, a burgeoning, if somewhat resistant, affection for the mind-shocked girl. There was respect, to be sure. One could not help but respect the fiery-tempered Pilot. She had never given up on any assault against the Angels. She attacked all obstacles in her path- even if she did complain about many of them. Then, there were the impressive modifications she had made in secret. The MAGI had obviously helped her in some way, but they had kept it hidden even from her- and they were her closest allies in her own private endeavors towards seeing the machinations of the Supreme Commander come to bear.
A formidable individual. A capable rival. A dedicated leader.
So what had happened up there, high above the planet? What had gone wrong?
She had sensed the moment the unauthorized modifications had been activated, Sohryu's soul igniting in the darkness above so brightly that it fought the Angel's own fires. Those fires burned brightly yet were snuffed out all so quickly. The Angel had reacted almost instantly, and time seemed to have slowed down as she watched, fascinated, with her senses stretched out as far as they could reach.
When Asuka had gone dark, Rei knew what she had to do.
Urgency drove her actions, and her older sister worked with her in unison, ramping up their own synchronization to launch the ancient weapon up through the atmosphere to strike the Angel before it could harm the Pilot-Captain. The burning vortex of atmospheric gases and the playing lights of the aura borealis triggered in the planet's magnetic field had been duly gratifying. Still, there had been no time to appreciate the display.
Falling back to Earth, off course, and not configured for re-entry, Unit-02 made a hard target to locate. It had taken all of her ability and concentration to find the tumbling giant and only slightly less to catch the plummeting war machine with her AT-Field, much like they had arrested the fall of the Eighth Angel.
Rei stood up and crossed the small distance to sit on the edge of the girl's bed, studying the sleeping face, which twisted with despair and fright, so unlike how Sohryu was typically, so unlike how she was now, when awake, a placid and unmoving visage holding none of the fire that had been present before.
The girl was very different from Shinji. His face was often serene and peaceful when he slept, either naturally or in the grips of a coma. Their Captain could not escape whatever terror had gripped her high in orbit over the planet.
The soul of Kyoko Sohryu had been reticent and as unwilling to speak as Unit-01's inhabiting spirit but had eventually yielded answers. The synchronization score had risen, risen fast, and risen high. A boundary had been crossed, and she had felt their connection begin to change- she could feel a tugging on her spirit, pulling part of her out of the Evangelion just as part of her daughter was being tugged inwards. She had reacted out of sheer, blind terror for her daughter, and she had felt her daughter's mind recoil at the realization that she was there.
Sohryu's mind had retreated into her own body as synchronization cut backward. Still, she was defenseless against the hate that had poured off the Angel, affronted that such a being could exist, that such a thing would strike against it. The Angel had launched a mental assault the likes unseen before by the previous Angels, just before its attempted physical attack.
If their connection had occurred during a test and not combat, perhaps it would not have been so disastrous.
Unit-02 had attempted to enter a berserker state, to do what the spirit of Unit-01 had done several times before. Still, no matter how much she had railed against the now lessened restraints that blocked her within, she could not utilize the Evangelion by herself. Dr. Sohryu's and Pilot-Captain Sohryu's willing participation was required to use Unit-02. Neither would be able to instill motion in the Evangelion.
This was an exciting bit of information. Unit-01 acted by itself as often as Shinji piloted it. Even Unit-00 had acted entirely of its own volition when her sister raged against their initial synchronizations. Why could Unit-02 not take command during this situation? Further questions to probe this problem had fallen flat as Kyoko retreated into herself. She was unwilling and uninterested in doing anything else but brood, worried that she had crippled her daughter.
Sohryu whimpered in her sleep, tossing and turning, muttering in German under her breath, too softly for Rei to hear, although her command of the language was limited. It was unlikely she would have understood the whispered words even if she had caught them. Reaching over, Rei pulled the sheets back up over the girl and placed a pale hand on her brow. She had been chilled and clammy since Rei started keeping her company at night. Her red hair, a source of pride and vanity in the girl, hung limp and dull. Usually, Rei now knew, the vibrant copper hair was the target of an intense daily hygiene routine. The nurses and caregivers assigned to assist the girl kept it clean but did not give it the care it was used to receiving. Fingers running through the copper strands, Rei marveled at the fineness and texture.
Rei went back to her chair but tugged it over towards the bed. Watching the sleeping girl closely, she wondered if the catatonic redhead would appreciate or respond to a thorough hair care treatment- like the one she had been subjected to. Resources would not be an issue. She had plenty of supplies on hand to keep the hair of her drones matching and to allay any suspicions from casual observation. The problem was the timing.
They were going to attempt recovery tomorrow.
By all rights, she should have been ecstatic, she knew, but the final simulations and tests were not promising, and they were running up against the deadline. They said that irreparable damage was inevitable to Shinji's mind after this point, even if it was still highly probable. Her own simulations and tests in other avenues were more disappointing. She had not been able to crack this problem on her own- and she had run out of ideas to try.
Looking back at Sohryu's prone form as she rolled onto her side, Rei wondered if the other girl would have had any other ideas they could have tried if she had brought her into her confidence. Her reflection of the tablet's screen seemed bitter and accusatory. The Pilot-Captain obviously had solved some of the issues with her mother's contact experiments and corrected them in her modifications to Unit-02. What could they have accomplished had they worked together on the issue of pulling Shinji from Unit-01?
But now there was only waiting for the morning and the recovery effort to begin.
Awash with restless energy, she sent her mind to another drone body.
Rei was far beyond the need for sleep, finding that her control over her nascent Angelic powers was sufficient to forgo such concerns of rest and eating. She still consumed food to avoid raising suspicions. She stopped pretending to sleep in her room altogether, though. No one noticed, or else they thought she slept in Asuka's room while sitting there. Everyone was more concerned with other things, even the agents tasked with her safekeeping.
Inspecting her other sleeping charges, she studied the drugged agents. She was confident the spy knew nothing more of interest, but she had no clue how to put him to good use for her own ends or how releasing him would serve the Commander's while keeping her efforts secret. Swapping out a nutrition IV, she walked over to the glass tank that kept her other bodies, watching as they turned to gaze back at her with empty eyes and smiles.
All efforts to make a backup copy of the agent had failed. She was sure now there had not been missed an opportunity to make one of Shinji. Synchronization was still different from the downloading process, even if tangentially related. She suspected that the issue lay in the differences between her biology and that of stock humans and not anything related to experience with the mental link with the Evangelion.
Perhaps a change of environment would help the other Pilot, Rei idly wondered. Her lab was full of things that the girl would generally be more than excited to see and inspect- but would it be enough to break her out of her catatonia? The problem was also getting the girl away from prying eyes long enough to sneak her down to the lab. They were keeping a watchful eye on her, and while an annoyance, it was an understandable one.
Letting Asuka have access to her labs and letting her in on her own secrets would have been a problem, Rei reasoned as she watched the drones. She still would have had to hide the agent or try to reason with the other girl as to why his continued captivity was necessary. She doubted that would have been an argument she could have won, given the man's hold on Sohryu's heart, even if it was clearly not returned.
Turning away, she wandered across the lab, looking over at abandoned projects, a layer of dust covering her tools and equipment. Some of the modifications made to Unit-02 were of use to her, even with the special arrangement she and her sister had. The ability to control and shape the AT-Field more finely would be welcome in future fights. That said, the technicians were reviewing the Evangelions with extraordinary intensity, set on finding discrepancies between their current systems and how they should be.
The Commander and Dr. Akagi did not want to repeat the most recent fight. Any modifications she might plan for Unit-00 would have to wait for the current systems checks to conclude and to see how closely they would inspect the Evangelions in the future.
Even if she felt like turning her restlessness towards working, she could not put them to use for some time. All there was to do now was wait, as each second seemingly took an eternity to drag on and pass.
She had never felt this way, even before her first fight with an Angel. It seemed so long ago now, that battle where she was tasked with protecting Shinji as he took aim at the geometric nightmare boring its way down towards Lilith. Her promise to protect him.
Eyes glowing, a smile crossed her face, remembering. Shinji had been so sure of himself then, at that moment, opening fire for a second time. The mountain still bore the scars of the fight. Such power, such devastation. Frightened, scared, and hurt, he had still stood up, burning with a desire to protect her.
That she could so effortlessly throw herself away, he would not accept.
She loved Shinji Ikari. She knew that he loved her.
She jumped back to the drone in Asuka's room to continue her night there, watching over the other Pilot. There was nothing else she could do tonight.
If she was not to be reunited with Shinji, then she would have to come to terms with that. But what would she actually do? What would the Commander do? His plans for Third Impact all depended on a Unit-01 without Shinji being merged with its soul. She existed to facilitate his plans. If those plans could not come to fruition and Shinji was trapped within the Evangelion, her continued existence here would not be worth bearing. Would he initiate his emergency scenario and destroy everything in an effort to deny SEELE their victory? Or would he attempt something else?
She would have to find a way to gain entry to the Entry Plug and conduct a Contact Experiment. She would have to join herself with the Evangelion and Shinji.
Asuka thrashed suddenly, flinging sheets to the floor. Picking up the discarded linens, Rei watched the sleeping girl.
A shiver of renewed excitement ran down Rei's spine. Third Impact could still be attained, but by her hand instead of the Commander's, depending on the nature of the merging.
What would she do if she were to be the guiding hand of Third Impact? If she initiated a complete contact experiment and entered Unit-01 the way that the Commander's wife had, she would have everything that she-
A small question Rei should have asked herself a long time ago suddenly inserted into her thoughts. It was a small thing, a known oddity that nevertheless had gone uninvestigated by the inquisitive girl.
The Commander's Scenario for Third Impact had the stated goal of him being merged forever with the soul of Yui Ikari, entombed in Unit-01.
This predicated that the driving soul of Evangelion Unit-01 was Yui Ikari.
Rei, Unit-00, and Unit-02 had come to a consensus that the current soul was, in fact, not one Yui Ikari but someone else entirely unknown to any of them. They had moved on to trying to puzzle out who was joining Shinji, but with the burdens of fighting the Angels and the pressing needs of other experiments and other outside annoyances, they had placed that particular item on the back burner.
None of them had asked the question that now bothered Rei.
If the Commander wanted to join with his wife in Third Impact, and Yui Ikari was currently not in the Evangelion, where was she?
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Misato stared at the purple titan, watching the technicians and engineers run final tests on the equipment spilling out from the exposed mechanisms and housings of the Evangelion's spine and chest. In about eight hours, they would be taking their only shot at recovering the boy she had come to love and care about.
She truly loved all three child soldiers, but the boy had a particular spot in her heart. He had come so far from the frightened and easily startled civilian she had picked up on the streets. The strange inner fire that flashed so brightly and briefly had drawn her to him like a moth. If only he could burn that flame lower but longer, what leader he could be.
It had been hard at first to see any family resemblance between father and son. Shinji had been such a hesitant boy, and after all she had done to draw him out of his shell, he still remained that way.
Not so when finally roused to anger and action, but how quickly did that fire fade! Rei was the only thing capable of keeping that candle lit, but the small flickering light was nothing compared to the firestorm they had all seen within him.
His rage at the helm of Unit-01 gave them all pause, even the constantly argumentative Asuka. He could frighten anything when lost in the berserker state.
He had taken on the guise of ADAM, a neat enough trick, given he had never seen the monstrous form of the First Angel. But Asuka had shown she could replicate that feat, although her attempt at the burning wings of light had fallen short of the boy's.
Lost in thought, somewhere between mourning for her lost little brother and hoping against hope that she would see him again, Misato didn't notice Ritsuko's approach.
"You should get some sleep," Ritsuko said, pushing a steaming cup into her friend's hands, knowing full well the woman wasn't about to sleep any more than she was. "Nothing is going to happen for a few hours."
"Is it going to work?" Misato asked, taking a long draw from the steaming mug, barely registering the supremely bitter taste of the beverage. "What do we do if it doesn't?"
"If it doesn't work?" Ritsuko watched the Evangelion, looking at the dull glow emanating from its eyes. "If it doesn't work, there is no 'what do we do, Misato. If we fail, and there is a good chance that we will- he will burn this place to the ground. He'll activate the scorched earth protocols, try to assassinate as much of SEELE as possible, and ensure no one can initiate Third Impact."
"Is he sure it'll work? Lilith is weak, but we don't have the Lance anymore, and even then, that had only kept her weak and Him asleep."
"We're confident Rei will be able to deal with Lilith. I'm confident we'll be able to blast this place down to the basement rock. I'm not confident he'll let anyone know before setting the plan into place."
The pair stood in silence, drinking coffee and watching the technicians.
"Might be good to take Asuka out someplace else to convalesce after all of this. Take a break from the hustle and bustle of the Geo-Front."
"I don't think he'll let someone with as much working knowledge of the Evangelions as Asuka out of the collateral damage zone, Misato. Even without an Evangelion, the cores, and the MAGI, she'd be a wealth of information."
"I wasn't planning on asking."
"Some place warm would be nice. Sunny beaches, blue skies, and blue water."
"You wanna come with?"
"I wasn't planning on it." Sighing, she gestured halfheartedly at the facility. "This place has been my life's work. This is where I've made my mark on the world, for better or worse. If we have to erase it from existence, I'd like to go with it."
"And him, of course."
"Well, yes."
"How long do you think I'd have to get her out? We're supposed to go into lockdown in about three hours. Does he plan on kicking off his Armageddon immediately?"
"I don't know, but I think you'll have time to get her out before this place goes up. Once Tokyo-3 gets locked down, there won't be any communication in or out until he gives the okay to lift the security blanket. I know that he has plans to assassinate several members of SEELE, but I don't think any of his agents are currently in place."
"He doesn't tell you about his plans?"
Ritsuko didn't answer; instead, she took a long drink from her mug. "He doesn't tell me everything. He still plays things very close to the vest. Only Kozo knows more than I do, and even then, I don't think the old man knows everything Gendo has planned."
"You didn't get a chance to pick his brain while working on the recovery operation?"
"Hah. He's a competent man in his own right, don't get me wrong, but he's spent far too long playing politician for the Commander. While he hasn't been keeping up with our advances in the scientific fields, he's sharpened his subterfuge and political skills to a razor's edge. He's as committed to this project as the Commander, but only they know why. No point in me trying to crack that nut, not when we were working on this."
"Kaji told me once that they knew each other in the old days, but he wasn't an original Project E or GEHIRN member. The Commander brought him in shortly after the project transfer to NERV, after losing his wife."
"Yui was one of his doctoral students. They had remained close after her graduation, but she never approached him to bring him on board with her father's work for some reason."
"The Commander must have made an impression on him, or the other way around for them to have joined forces the way they did."
"Gendo certainly makes an impression, that's for sure." Sighing again, the blond turned away from the observation window, heading back towards the elevators. "I'm going to check on some more things and maybe catch a nap. You should think about it too- one way or another, you'll want to have at least a little rest."
"Hey, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about for the recovery mission," Misato said, following her friend toward the elevator. "I know it's not really scientific or even procedural, but I don't think that could hurt."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"All systems are prepared. Tokyo-3 lockdown is complete, Unit-00 is standing by, and all systems are in place to begin." Ritsuko Akagi, Chief Scientist of NERV-CENTRAL and Head of Project E, reported to Gendo Ikari, Supreme Commander of NERV. She looked up at him from the central command bridge, currently staffed with the best engineers and technicians from the three different Evangelion Teams. Different colored patches adorned their uniforms, each sporting the logos painted on the shoulder fins of the war machines. While this operation was for the recovery of the pilot of Unit-01, it was a group effort.
Gendo looked down at the waiting crew, his expression as unreadable and inscrutable as always. No hint of what he was feeling was present, something that awed and worried the men and women assembled below. They were poised to try a risky operation to recover his son, but you'd never know it to look at him.
"Begin the recovery operation," Gendo ordered, sitting at his desk, folding his hands over his face as he hunched forward to watch the main screens.
Turning around, Ritsuko nodded to Captain Maya Ibuki. "Beginning recovery operation. Initiate system lock."
"All systems are locked in. All restraints are in position." Maya replied, hands flying over her console.
"Initiating cage isolation. Faraday system is activated." an engineer sporting the mushroom cloud of Unit-00 called out from a wall terminal, shunting standard circuits off and activating the Faraday Cage.
"Isolating Reactor-3 from normal power operations. Reactor team, report."
"Reactor-3 is isolated from the main grid. Removing control rods now." A rumble was felt below them as the graphite control rods were pulled from the nuclear reactor, letting the fission reaction run unhindered to send all 1314 megawatts to the Evangelion cage.
"Charging cage LCL."
The LCL in the Evangelion cage shimmered as the electrical current was dumped into it, matching it to the LCL inside the Entry Plug.
"Stage One is complete, moving to Stage Two," Ritsuko announced to the room. "Prepare Secondary connections."
"Cage personnel ready," the senior cage technician reported over the radio. This operation was a joint effort across all three crew teams. Men and women wearing the colors of the three different Evangelions were stationed at other areas within the cage, ready to do their part in the recovery effort.
Nodding, Ritsuko scanned the small inset screen on the main display, watching the data stream across it. Satisfied that everything was within calculations, she moved to the station that typically monitored pilot synchronization during battles.
"Commence Entry Plug isolation."
In the Evangelion Cage, workers scrambled over the stripped titan, attaching emergency recovery equipment to the cap of the Entry Plug. Other technicians readied manual plug depth restraints and were ready to drive them into the slotted housing to prevent plug re-entry.
Unit-01 stood partially submerged in the shimmering LCL, armor plating removed. Flesh and interior superstructure were exposed, as was the cream-colored capsule housing the last of Shinji's physical remains. Isolation restraints had been inserted into the limbs of the Evangelion, and the mechanical housings and supports disengaged or removed. In theory, Unit-01 was a slightly more meaty version of the simulation bodies. In practice, nobody knew if the Evangelion would generate new flesh connections to re-mobilize itself in response to the recovery operations.
Emergency medical teams stood by on the gantry, waiting to see if their services would be required, one way or another.
Above them all, on an observation catwalk, a silent and blank-faced Asuka, accompanied by an attending nurse, watched the proceedings. In the access hallway the cage connected to, Rei sat in Unit-00, pallet gun in hand. She was keeping an eye on both the recovery teams and on Asuka, although her official purpose was to act as a countermeasure to a berserking Evangelion.
"Isolation teams report ready!"
"Attach recovery umbilical cord to socket."
Workers cleared the area around the regular umbilical cord jack that had been serving to draw off power from the absorbed S2 Engine. A new cord, modified to handle the power being fed from an unfettered reactor, was lowered and locked into place. Connection lights went from amber to green as it hit home.
"We have power input. Data feeds are reestablished. Connections are good."
"Flash the Entry Plug electronics. Prepare to send data package."
An orange light flashed along the diagnostic display strip on the entry plug as the software that ran the onboard computer systems was reset and new code was installed. After a few minutes, the light changed to green, and a confirmation signal was received back in the command room.
"Begin power pluses, pattern one."
"Beginning pluses!"
The LCL inside the Entry Plug began to receive electrical pulses in the pattern of Shinji's resting heartbeat from his last recorded test.
Rei focused all her senses on the war machine housing Shinji's soul, but she still could not find him, as she had found the Angel in space.
"Begin pattern two."
"Pattern two initiated. All systems are green."
A second set of electrical pulses mimicked Shinji's brain activity patterns.
"Begin plug pressurization in sequence with power pulse pattern one."
"Pressurizing."
The emergency resuscitation system that pressurized the LCL activated, pulsing in time with the heartbeat electrical pattern.
"Begin plug removal."
"Plug removal initiated. All systems are green."
The plug started spinning up and out of the housing superstructure slowly, almost tortuously so. As it was deeper than generally intended, at the rate it was proceeding, it would be another minute before it cleared the first of the sockets where the titanium rods the waiting technicians held could be inserted to prevent it from regressing back.
"Plug has cleared restraint level seven!"
Rods were inserted into the spiral arrayed holes, forming the first barrier to prevent the plug from regressing back down towards the glowing core.
Catching Misato's eye, Ritsuko nodded. "Begin Modification Protocol Three."
"Modification Protocol initiated."
The opening stirrings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony began to play inside the Entry Plug. Misato shot her friend a subtle nod of thanks. She didn't know if it was his favorite song, but she knew he liked it.
"Initiate organic framework insertion procedure."
Engineers made way for the pair of workers standing by on the gantry as they scrambled up to where the exposed Entry Plug waited. The rising cylinder continued its slow ascent from the depths of the Evangelion, and more rods were shoved home to block re-entry. The lead technician, satisfied with the readiness of his equipment, nodded to his companion, who in turn waved to a trio of engineers waiting with a gurney. On the gurney was a heavily modified ICU stabilization casket. LCL was visible through the observation window, with something suspended within. They rushed the gurney up to the waiting pair even as another two technicians maneuvered a connecting hose to the base of the casket.
Once a third set of titanium rods was installed, the other workers abandoned the service gantry. As the lead engineer ignited the waiting plasma torch, his subordinate keyed back to the waiting command team.
"Insertion team ready, waiting for clearance."
"Standby, Insertion Team," Ritsuko ordered, watching the wave patterns generated by the MAGI and the ones from the Evangelion. "Wave patterns are within tolerance. Halt plug removal."
"Entry Plug removal halted."
"Begin insertion."
Sparks flew from the side of the plug as a circular hole was cut into the metal, the next endpoint for the LCL-filled casket. Cutting through the different layers of armor took several nerve-wracking minutes. Finally, the cameras inside the plug showed the glowing outline on the far wall.
"Halt cutting!"
Disengaging the torch and dropping it into the cart, he grabbed a port housing. Lining it up with the still-hot metal, he slammed it home and bolted it in place.
"Housing installed, ready for Stage Two!"
"Begin Stage Two. Insert organic framework."
The free end of the hose connected to the casket was handed up and locked into the newly installed housing. Satisfied with the connection, the technician activated the serrated edge of the hose, which finished cutting through the armored plating.
"Linkage complete," Ritsuko said, watching the five-inch tube breakthrough on the monitor. "Activate pumps."
The casket hummed as the pumps pressurized and began to push the contents into the Entry Plug.
The assembled crew and onlookers watched the monitors displaying the live feed. Slowly, a pale object began to appear. A soft, gelatinous skeleton oozed through the tube into the plug, soft bones held together by ligaments and small amounts of other connective tissue.
The product of many a heated argument and modification to the cloning device that served to grow more bodies for Rei, it was a backup framework for Shinji's recovery from the LCL. As the only other person who had ever completely sublimated into LCL had entirely resisted recovery, they were unsure how Shinji's return would actually occur. Theoretically, he could emerge from the LCL like a precipitate out of solution. Under this model, he could emerge as he had entered, in which case he was likely to die outside of the LCL, having been torn in half. Alternatively, he could show up with a completely new body, a new physical representation of his ego. Another idea was that a new body would be built up on top of an existing framework- a reconstruction of his body from what remained in the plug. It was towards this end that this gelatinous skeleton, a (mostly) perfect clone of Shinji sized to his measurements before the incident, existed.
The insertion of the skeleton as a new framework addressed two primary issues with reconstructing his body from existing materials. Firstly, a new body built from the inserted skeleton would have two legs. Secondly, there was some debate over whether Shinji's body would actually return at all or if it was a matter of splitting his conciseness apart and shifting part of it back into a body- if this was going to be the case, then they needed somewhere for his soul to go to. His lower half, the only existing part of him, wouldn't provide that. They needed a whole body- but they couldn't exactly just open up the Entry Plug to plop in a completed clone body. Hence the need for a semi-soft skeleton that could be forced through a tube.
Only a few of the technicians knew what was going on at this stage- the products of NERV's Artificial Evolution Labs were still a closely guarded secret, even at NERV-CENTRAL. The cloned skeleton was mostly human and had only 5% Angelic material in its genetic make-up, the minimum amount needed to allow the vat gown framework to be aged up appropriately and to allow the completion of the body inside the plug from the modified LCL mix pumped in with it.
"Framework insertion is complete; isolate the port."
The technician at the foot of the casket pulled a lever which dropped a self-sealing port bolt into the tubing. This bolt was pushed along by the pumps' pressure stream until it connected with the restraining collar at the mouth of the tube. The engineer, wearing the purple and green of Unit-01's crew, twisted the hose to the left until the gear teeth on both components meshed together, watching for the telltale glow of the thermite paste fusing the bolt to the sides of the hole they had cut.
Smoke was pouring off the newly installed port, and he cut the hose free, tossing it down to his feet as the red-clad assistant handed him welding equipment. Picking up a large plate, they maneuvered it in place over the blocked port and began welding, creating a double seal between the outside world and the contents of the plug.
"Isolation complete!" the engineer reported back to command. "Pulling back from gantry now."
"Begin body restoration."
It was slow going and easily one of the lengthiest parts of the process planned out for the day. Now that the framework was inserted and sealed, they could finish growing the cloned body, cell by cell. First, the skeleton would harden as tendons, muscles, and nerves began to grow over it, while internal organs would grow as their supports completed. The circulatory system would be filled with LCL until replaced by new blood. Likewise, his gastrointestinal tract would be filled with the LCL beyond what was usually absorbed into the body, and so he would be experiencing a diarrheic effect until his system purged itself. He would require easy-to-digest foods until his stomach microbes reestablished themselves. He could cough up the LCL in his lungs, being accustomed to the process after immersion, but they would be ready to pump his lungs if needed. They would also have a complete set of immunization shots prepared to give him.
Silence fell over the command staff as they watched the gradual growth of Shinji's replacement body, cell by cell. In the meantime, Beethoven continued to play in the background as the pattern of electrical pulses mimicked the boy's brain activity.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji paused, panting, as he fought the Angels. He could hear something faintly at the edges of thought and awareness. The twinned Angels, currently joined together, took advantage of his temporary distraction and charged at him. Swatting them aside with a casual slap, he tried to focus on the ethereal sounds, ignoring the eruption of fire and light.
The battered cityscape of Tokyo-3 misted and vanished into smoke along with the Angels, replaced by a dark void.
Brows furrowed in concentration, Shinji felt an uncomfortable tugging on his mind that was strangely familiar.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"Body reconstruction is complete." Captain Ibuki announced to the room in general, watching her display screen reporting the body's status. It had long ago completed the external components, and they had watched the floating lifeless creation in more or less silence until the internal organs had all been completed. It had been a somewhat surreal experience for the assembled crew, even considering the amount of weirdness that went along with working at NERV. Apart from being slightly paler than he had been before, the body was visually indistinguishable from before- something that had been checked by Kozo and Ritsuko before finalizing this part of the recovery procedure. It would not do to have any hint of Angelic heritage shown in the boy.
Other than the heartbeat, there was no sign of life in the body.
"Initiate cascade sequence. Begin pattern three."
The electrical pulses shifted to a slightly different pattern, reminiscent of the original Contact Experiment that split Shinji's soul. This distinction was lost on all but three people in the room.
"There is an energy spike in the S2 Engine." Lieutenant Aoba's voice was calm but warning. "It's still within tolerances for the draw-off equipment."
"Bring the secondary systems online. Signal Unit-00 to prepare to engage on my orders."
Misato started murmuring into her headset, keyed into the main communications channel for the Evangelions as the other technicians brought the massive capacitor bank circuit online. Immediately, the surplus power from the spike dropped, feeding into the capacitor bank, but the large gauge cables began to smoke, and the capacitors themselves began to glow.
Sitting in Unit-00, Rei felt the power surge from Shinji's Evangelion. It was like a punch to her stomach, leaving her breathless and lurching. Beyond the increase in the power output, there was a thrumming of something... else... on the edges of her perception. It differed from her awareness of her drones or Lilith's presence in Terminal Dogma. It was something more than her drones and less than Lilith. It could only be Shinji.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji thrashed and screamed inside of the Entry Plug, feeling the pull on his mind, the tugging on his soul. A pain unlike anything else he had ever felt- even compared to the worst horrors of fighting the Angels. Outside, the shifting landscape had changed to a war-ravaged Tokyo-3, buildings shattered and burning.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"The third sequence is showing no progress. Preparing to initiate the next sequence, in three, two, one, mark." The humming machinery and electronics switched in tone as the pattern of simulated mental waves and synchronization settings passed through the connecting cables.
Ritsuko stalked back and forth across the command bridge, eyes flying across the various screens and displays, mind calculating new information with the results of her many previous tests. Eyes hard, she turned up to look at the Commander, shaking her head.
Things were not looking good.
"Prepare to begin the seventh sequence." She ordered, turning back to watch the main screens. "Modify the pulse wave with program R-78. Increase plug pressure by one-quarter atmospheres, and increase the temperature by ten degrees."
Gendo sat silently, watching the frantic work to bring his son back. They were running out of time.
The fresh body sat lifelessly in the Entry Plug, devoid of even the empty half-life of Rei's clones. There was no sign of anything else stirring in the LCL. There was still hope, but it was slipping quickly out of his hands. The sinking feeling in his heart was the same as it had been watching his wife as she climbed into that other Entry Plug so many years ago.
If they could not split his son back out of the Evangelion now, everything he had done since that day was in vain. A monstrous edifice of lies, manipulation, torture, and coldly calculated murder. His future world, his planned Heaven, one that would ensure the future of Mankind, was vanishing like a mirage in the desert.
It would take some time to ready the final preparations for his scorched earth plans, verify the deaths of the SEELE Council, and arrange the final disposal of the loose ends. Ultimately, it wouldn't be more than a month before this place was nothing more than atomized dust below a newly expanded bay.
Doctor Akagi was one of the best scientists to ever work on Project E. She had not entirely gotten her position based on nepotism. She hadn't even gotten it primarily on nepotism. Precious few in this world could match her skills and expertise. There were none he trusted more to do their utmost in service to NERV's mission. Still, the desperate plan she had cobbled together looked more and more like a failure. Their plans were running out of time. His hand was going to be forced.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei stared at the still form of Unit-01, silently watching as Sub-Commander Katsuragi screamed at it. LCL pooled underneath the girl, still dripping off her plug-suit, having rushed to the cage from Unit-00. Dr. Akagi was not far behind the sobbing woman, trying to get her away from the Evangelion and allow the crews to finalize the recovery of the special equipment used in the recovery procedure. The plug had been removed, and the entrance opened. The lifeless clone body was being retrieved by the attending technicians. The Commander watched from the observation window high above them, pulsing with energy from the ADAM embryo growing inside him.
She was cold and felt a hollow emptiness inside that hurt. It was a sense of loss that cut at her core like nothing else she had ever felt before. This...
Shaking her head in disbelief, Rei felt the tears welling up behind her eyes. There was no hope. Trembling, fists clenched and held tightly to her sides, darkness began to creep in at the corners of her vision as she fought back the tears. The Commander would not cry. Crying was something that Shinji did. Shinji Was Gone. She would not be able to fulfill her purpose with him. She would never see him again. Shinji Was Gone.
The Commander remained.
But Rei did not want the Commander. She wanted Shinji.
She had failed Shinji. She had failed the Commander. She had failed the Pilot-Captain.
There was no more point, no more purpose in being.
But everything else paled next to the fact that she would never see Shinji again before the end. The only option she had now was to attempt an unrestricted Contact Experiment with Unit-01, to join him inside it.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji Ikari, the Third Child, Pilot of Evangelion Unit-01, screamed in pain and clutched his head. He lay in a fetal position on the floor of the apartment he shared with Miss Misato and Asuka, one wall missing and overlooking a burning city.
Tokyo-3 was shattered and broken, a burning war-scape often seen from the Entry Plug. Shinji was accustomed to seeing from the viewpoint of his titan, solid and powerful, insulated from the burning wreckage and choking smoke. It was entirely different as a small, defenseless child.
To be an Evangelion was to be a Colossus, immense and unyielding. The Evangelion was a force of nature, a storm fueled by his emotion and driven by his mind. He was the unmoving object and the unstoppable force.
But to be a human was to be weak, frightened, and cowed. Fragile, easily hurt. Easily killed.
Something was burning inside his mind, tugging at his consciousness. Imperatives he could only dimly feel warred with the sense of rightness that he now felt, which he had not remembered feeling in so long. Strange shadowed commands and pulsing feelings pulled at him, twisting his mind and body.
Thunder sounded across the sky with a familiar voice as lighting with a woman's face flashed in the smoke-filled clouds. Music thundered in his veins while the booming refrain of German singing filled his lungs. Shinji's entire world was chaos; the twisting clouds of storm and smoke took the forms of friends and enemies. The fires ravaging the city leaped and danced amidst the ruins in time to the omnipresent music, towering flames reaching for the clouded skies. Everything was red and orange, the air hot and choking. Fear gripped his heart, and the lizard part of his brain screamed at him to run and hide, to flee this place, to escape these feelings. He wanted to do nothing more than to find a hole, jump into it, and pull it closed behind him.
Still, though, past the unnatural tightness he felt in his mind, heart, and soul, Shinji's nature warred against these thoughts of flight. The faces that appeared in the lightning and twisting clouds reached out to him, calling him to stay and return.
Return?
Fight warred with flight as the sound of tearing cloth filled the air, bringing a sudden stop to all noise. Everything went dark, and he was left in the silence of the void, floating and weightless.
Lifting his head, he looked around, trying to find anything in the inky darkness, but to no avail. As far as the boy could tell, he was the only thing that existed here. Despite there being no source of light, he could see himself. He wasn't glowing, so the part of his mind that had paid attention in class told him he shouldn't be able to see his hands in front of his face in this otherwise impenetrable darkness, but Shinji could look down and see his shirt, and slacks, bare feet sticking past the legs of his trousers.
Feet?
Something was wrong, but he couldn't say what or why.
He drifted in the void for what seemed to be an eternity, alone in silent solitude, until a faint buzzing sound could be heard at the edges of his hearing- a voice. A girl's voice was soft and delicate. A voice unused to strong emotion, on the edge of cracking. In those sounds, he could hear a girl on a precipice, waiting to fall over the side and to be lost.
Rei's voice.
Rei... Rei Ayanami.
His girlfriend. His love.
Something clicked back in place in Shinji's brain as the world came rushing back into sight. The darkness became the Evangelion cage, and he found himself suspended over his Unit-01. Below him was Miss Misato- kneeling before the service gantry, clutching the railing as if for dear life. Past her stood Rei, the white material of her plug suit slick with LCL, and he could almost smell it, its bloody copper taste filling his mouth, which was watering with hunger. Two technicians, both wearing his skull and crossbones insignia, stood with his lifeless, naked body almost immediately underneath him. Dr. Akagi walked slowly towards them from the elevator bank, her face cast in resigned sorrow.
Rei was saying something, but her words were just out of comprehension, only the tone and inflection coming through to him.
The men began to take his body away, prompting him to scream. Pounding his fists on an invisible barrier, Shinji shouted at them that he wasn't dead. He was right here! Couldn't they see him?
"Why won't you listen to me?" Shinji screamed at them, tears in his eyes, fists beating against the invisible surface. A fist became an open hand as he slapped the barrier, and his fingers brushed against an invisible ledge just inside his reach. Eyes opening wide, he lunged forwards, flailing limbs grasping for, and then finding, that second dimension to the barrier before him.
Red light filled his vision as he kicked and scrambled to climb up and over the barrier.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Lieutenant Aoba, somberly watching the video feed from the cage on the command bridge, glanced over at a flashing light that caught his attention.
"Oh, shit." Scrambling for his headset, he shouted a warning to the other bridge members on duty. "Unit-01 is reading as Blood Type Blue!"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Alarms blared in the cage, but all therein stood transfixed where they were, caught by the deadly display.
Evangelion Unit-01's eyes were burning infernos, twisting orbs of spiraling fire. The LCL bubbled and boiled around the giant, the same nightmarish light shining from the exposed orb in its chest. The cage was lit with its red glow, all other lights drowned out by its radiance.
Up overhead, a spark of liquid fire erupted like a fountain out of thin air, coalescing into a small ball that began to stretch out into a thin line. The line spread out to form a glowing halo, crowning the Evangelion.
Misato's tears dried almost instantly, the heat stealing the moisture from her face. She looked up at the hellish sight, stomach lurching.
Rei watched, interested and awed despite her despair.
Ritsuko gaped in dumb confusion, horror writ across her face.
Gendo watched in numb shock from the observation deck. From his vantage point, up above the Evangelion and its halo, he could see down into it. A spiraling vortex of flame descended down inside the thin circle, reaching down into eternity. And within that twisting firestorm, a small burning figure was climbing up.
A glowing hand reached up over the side of the halo, joined by another, pulling itself up. A boy's burning figure stood atop the halo, featureless save for two eyes burning like the sun, twin specks of pure, focused flame.
Unit-01 went dark and sagged against its restraints and moorings. The halo vanished, and the burning figure dropped to the helmeted head. Metal smoked underneath its feet and hands as it climbed down to the catwalk- prompting the two technicians to flee, one grabbing ahold of the kneeling Sub-Commander to drag her away. The other tried to pull Rei away, but she pushed past him to meet the approaching thing.
Slowly, a face began to form out of the burning light- Shinji's face. The metal catwalk hissed and puddled underfoot as he walked, leaving molten footprints in the grate that pinged as they cooled behind him. His burning body changed, the fires fading to leave warm flesh behind. The burning eyes of starfire were the last thing to change as Shinji reached out to Rei, who raised her hands to meet him, her eyes never leaving his radiant gaze.
He pulled her into an embrace, leaning his head down, eyes closing as he kissed her like a drowning man breathing air.
When he opened his eyes again, they were the same blue shade she had memorized long ago.
"Rei..." Shinji whispered, his breath catching in his throat.
"Shinji..." she whispered back, ignoring the shouts and pounding of running feet fast approaching them from behind her.
"Rei, I saw you. I had to come back... I-"
Shinji's following words vanished as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He collapsed in her arms, going into convulsions.