Chapter 12: Convergence

My experience with such seeming predestination has rarely been as pleasant as it was here, but nonetheless, it wasn't too difficult for me to be prepared for it. Or at least, more of it than anyone else was. We were always going to bump into the Angel, and we were always going to be subject to some… high-impact fishing.
Everything was starting to come together, for more than most would know at the present moment. For good, for ill… certainly plenty of both, but it's always the particulars that get you, isn't it?

- Where I've Been, 43rd Entry

Several Miles out from New Yokosuka

Deep in the crushing, abyssal shadows of the sea, something monumental stirred within the ruins it had taken residence in, hearing, muffled though it may have been, the Call.

It sang, and the creature answered, drawn up to the song as it slid through the water utterly soundlessly to its source.

. . .

The most imminent threat on Misato's mind, however, was the threat of a rather different kind of crush.

How everybody, including one Ryoji Kaji, decided to take this one elevator, she hadn't the foggiest clue. But they'd packed themselves in anyhow, and she could swear that Asuka had somehow maneuvered her just so in order to put her right next to Ryoji. The gambit had, however, landed her right next to Toji. Fitting justice for… whatever the hell she did.

For the moment, she glared at Ryoji. "And what the hell are you doing here?" she nearly growled.

"Didn't Daniel ever tell you?" Ryoji said as he tried, and failed, to shift into a more comfortable position. "When you left, I was called up to be Asuka's guardian. I'd have figured at least Asuka would have told you about it."

"No…" Misato said, casting her gaze down at Asuka, at least as best she could. "Neither of them mentioned anything about it. Only that her new guardian was a pretty nice guy, all things considered."

She looked back at Ryoji. "If only they knew," she muttered as she tried, at about the same time as everyone else, to shift around again. An attempt that ended a little more shockingly than she'd wanted.

"Hey!" she shouted at the same time as Asuka. "Stop getting handsy with me!"

Both Ryoji and Toji groaned in reply. "Come on! Will you lay off?" Toji began.

"It's not like anyone's really trying to be that devious!" Ryoji finished.

From somewhere within this tangled web of limbs, Misato caught Shinji and Kensuke sighing wearily. 'You and me both,' she thought as the elevator continued its descent.

At last, however, the door opened, disgorging its occupants into the hallway as they all sighed in relief. After that, along with a few moments of stretching, they made their way to an empty dining room, collapsing at one of the nearby tables.

Misato's jaw clenched slightly as Ryoji sat across from her, and she made an effort not to look at him. She felt his foot brush across hers, a little game of footsie starting. She contemplated kicking him in return, but decided on staying her hand for now. 'Let him play his little game for now,' she thought. 'He'll stop and leave at some point.'

"So," Ryoji said after a moment, "how's life in Tokyo-3? I imagine you've settled in by now."

"It's fine," Misato said curtly.

"That's good to hear," Ryoji replied, Misato risking a glance to see a slight, damnably unreadable smile on his face. "How's the social life? Seeing anyone lately?"

"And why should that concern you?" Misato asked as she finally fully looked at Ryoji.

Ryoji shrugged. "I figured I'd ask 'cause I care. No harm intended."

Misato rolled her eyes, thankful for the silence that followed after. Instead, Ryoji turned his attention away from her, and over to Shinji.

"So," he said, Shinji glancing up at him, "you're living alongside Captain Katsuragi, if I recall correctly, Shinji Ikari."

Misato looked over at Shinji as he nodded. "Yeah, I am," he said rather hesitantly.

Ryoji smiled slightly as he nodded. "That must be nice. So, tell me…"

He lowered his voice only slightly as his smile became something of a grin. "Does she still make a fool of herself sometimes when she needs to sleep a few too many beers off?"

Misato watched most of the rest of the table react with no small amount of shock as she felt her face go from a violent blush to white as a sheet. What was most shocking to her was how… thoughtful Shinji appeared, the boy simply tilting his head and staring into some middle distance.

Finally, Misato seemed to find her voice again. "Why don't you just keep your mouth shut?" she asked hotly. "There's no reason to talk about something like that right now!"

Ryoji's only reaction was to chuckle softly. "She really hasn't changed, has she Shinji?" he asked.

"No, I guess," Shinji began.

"Oh, hey there," Daniel said from behind them.

All turned from the rather… interesting scene to see Daniel and Eleanor coming in, hand in hand. Misato looked at the couple (it was still somewhat hard to wrap her head around the concept so soon), and found herself feeling a very, very complicated swirl of emotions that would need a beer or two to untangle them. Or at the very least, to make them go away.

"It looks like we missed something big," Eleanor said after she and Daniel let each other go and sat down, Daniel by Misato, Eleanor by Ryoji. "Care to share?"

"Oh, just asking a few questions," Ryoji replied, looking at Eleanor with that look in his eyes that Misato knew meant trouble. "I noticed you on the bridge. Captain Flynn, right?"

Eleanor glanced over at Daniel with a twinkle in her eye before looking back at Ryoji. "Officially. Eleanor Theisman, as people are starting to find out today."

Ryoji, much to Misato's satisfaction, did a double take as he glanced down to the rings on both of their fingers. "Oh," he said, looking over at Daniel with a quiet chuckle. "You keep some damn good secrets, Daniel."

Daniel, for his part, smiled slightly. "It was always going to come out sometime."

He leaned over slightly. "Did we interrupt you, Shinji? We heard you saying something before we came in."

Shinji blinked, then nodded. "Oh, yes. I was just about to say that Misato still talks about Ryoji sometimes if she's had enough beers."

Misato nearly felt the room fall silent as her mind reeled. 'I still do that? How could I still be stuck on him? He's…'

"I've got things to do," she said, not fully realizing she was standing now. "Paperwork to get ready for when we get to New Yokosuka and all that."

With that, she turned and made her way out the door to try and go… somewhere.

. . .

Daniel watched as Misato left, looking back at Ryoji to see a rather peculiar look in his eyes. "Funny," he said quietly before standing himself. "I've got some things of my own to get squared away. You two'll keep an eye on the kids, right?"

"Certainly," Eleanor said, and Ryoji nodded as he ambled out of the dining hall, turning in the opposite direction.

It was silent for a moment before Shinji finally spoke. "Did I… say something wrong?" he said hesitantly.

Daniel sighed quietly, sharing a knowing glance with Asuka before regarding Daniel. "No, you just brought up something neither of them are quite ready to deal with," he said.

Shinji nodded slowly, clearly still rather confused. "How much does he know about me?"

"Well," Daniel replied, "he's lived alongside me for long enough that he's heard plenty from me and Asuka. It helps that you've become something of a minor celebrity within NERV."

Asuka sighed and rolled her eyes slightly. "Despite some of the circumstances thus far," she said quietly.

Shinji, for his part, seemed not to notice the remark as he blushed, chuckling as he scratched the back of his head, a familiar gesture to Daniel. "Come on. That was just luck. I could barely do much of anything, most times."

Daniel smiled slightly. "I find that luck and skill are often tied together far more closely than one might think. You seem to have a gift for this, rough though it might be as of yet."

"And we're going to do something about that, rookie," Asuka said pointedly. "The fate of the world is at stake here, and I've almost got an itch to take things up with your commanding officer here over how pitiful your training as a pilot has been."

Shinji shrank into himself. "Please don't," he nearly mumbled. "There's no need to go that far."

"Why?" Asuka asked, her eyes narrowing. "You need to stick up for yourself!"

"The commanding officer in question happens to be Shinji's father," Eleanor said. "It was never going to be that simple."

Asuka blinked, her eyes narrowing at Shinji, before Daniel spoke up. "I can explain the situation to you later in private, Asuka," he said calmly. "Now, I don't think I've actually met you two before. You're Toji and Kensuke, right?"

As Toji and Kensuke introduced themselves, Daniel noticed Asuka silently considering Shinji with no small amount of intensity.

As the conversation wound down and the table stood to try and find other things to do, Asuka stood in front of Shinji, cutting him off from rejoining Toji and Kensuke. "You're coming with me, rookie," she said firmly. "We've got some things to talk about."

With that, she took his wrist and led the boy, stammering and slightly blushing, out of the room. Shinji looked back at Daniel with what could be considered a panicked expression. He returned a patient, ever so slightly amused smile as the pair disappeared.

Toji and Kensuke, for their part, groaned softly. "Poor guy…" Toji said. "He gets to get an earful from that demon."

"I don't know…" Kensuke said. "She's been staring at him basically the whole time we've been here."

"Yeah…" Toji replied mulishly. "And he didn't even get a smack like the rest of us."

"It'll be fine," Daniel replied. "Knowing the both of them like I do, nothing bad or untoward is going to be happening to either of them."

'Not yet, at the very least,' Daniel mused with a grimace he managed to smother in time.

. . .

Shinji had absolutely no idea what to make of this girl that was currently dragging him through the ship, out into the open, and towards Unit-02's container. At the very least, she made some sort of sense as a trainer/compatriot from across the sea. Here, in person, however, her fiery attitude, or at least its application, absolutely baffled him.
He knew, likely as well as she did, that he'd seen the view the wind had presented Toji and Kensuke. Why, then, had she spared him from the same corporal punishment that she'd doled out to the other two? What was she planning on doing?

As they stepped into the vast cargo space, and Shinji got his first look at the massive form of Unit-02, Asuka let go of his arm, continuing forward on the catwalk, turning at its end and putting her hands on her hips.

"So," she said, "what do you think?"

Shinji blinked in surprise. "Uh… it's got a striking color scheme," he ventured.

Asuka shrugged slightly, and Shinji had no idea what to make of it as she replied. "That's certainly true, but Unit-02's so much more than just that. Unit-00's the prototype Evangelion, and your Unit-01's the test unit. You've likely had to make adjustments to your Evas every single time you've decided to take it out from its cage. Unit-02 here has all of your data and adjustments built into it from the ground up. It's as close to an official Eva as one can get!"

Shinji nodded slightly. "I see…" he said, trying not to be too distracted by the fact that when she wasn't bored or annoyed… she looked kind of cute. Especially with a proud smile that seemed to be tinged with enough happiness to wear away the edges that left him somewhat disgruntled by it.

Shinji wondered for a moment how she managed to care so much about this machine, the same kind that had caused him so much pain up until this point. Then he remembered a fragment of a conversation that he'd had with Daniel while they were still in Germany.

The topic of conversation had been lost to him some months ago, but Shinji clearly remembered that Asuka had spent a significant portion of it talking about her Eva and the tests that she undertook within it with no small amount of relish for the task.

He'd sighed in a rare moment of exasperation when Asuka left them the chance for a private conversation. "I have to ask, Daniel, does she ever talk about anything else other than the Evangelion?"

Daniel had considered the question silently for a moment. "There are a few things, yes," Daniel replied. "But there's something you must understand. Since about the age of 6, she's been tied to the Evangelion program in a way I doubt anyone other than the First Child, Ms. Ayanami as I recall, has been. For all intents and purposes, the Evangelion is her life. She hasn't had the chance to experience much of anything else."

The idea of it boggled the mind for Shinji. What had led her to join such a program at such a young age? Had she done so willingly? What had happened to her…?

He felt to be on the edge of something. Something that felt… familiar. And terrifying.

Before he could pontificate on where, exactly, such a feeling sprang from, a deep rumble shook the ship, a series of booming reports following after as the children swayed trying to keep their balance.

"What was that?" Shinji asked incredulously.

"An underwater shockwave," Asuka said, her expression and tone suddenly deadly serious. "And a real close one at that. Come on!"

. . .

Shinji found himself, once again, dragged by the wrist out to the open air, Asuka letting go as they raced to join the crowd at the edge of the tarmac that watched as a vessel, a destroyer if Shinji remembered correctly, began to sink in dramatic fashion, other ships attempting to save those that survived as they spread out between pillars of water that thundered into existence.

After a moment, a great shadow in the water grew under another vessel, cracking it in half as it moved on.

"Is that…" Shinji began as the crowd around them began to disperse, going off to more pressing duties as alarms began to blare. "That has to be an Angel! What's it doing all the way out here?"

He looked over at Asuka and found her sporting… an excited expression. "So, that's an Angel out there?"

Shinji took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves. "We should go find Ms. Misato. She'll know what to do."

Before Shinji could turn, however, he felt a hand on his shoulder, looking back to see Daniel and Flynn (Eleanor? Theisman? He'd figure it out later).

"What you need to do," Daniel said firmly, "is get ready for Unit-02 to sortie. Asuka, get to the Eva and get suited up. Shinji, you'll-"

"Put him in the Entry Plug with me!"

Shinji looked over at Asuka, his eyes wide with shock as she continued. "He's got experience with multiple people in an Eva, so he shouldn't foul up the synch score too much. And besides, he'll be in the safest place in the world: getting to watch some real Eva combat firsthand."

Shinji hoped against hope that Daniel would have some sense and let him get as far away from this as possible, watching as the two seemed to stare each other down.
Finally, however, Daniel sighed quietly and nodded. "Alright, then. Shinji, go ahead and join Asuka in suiting up and preparing to sortie. We'll monitor you guys from the bridge."

"Daniel," Shinji said as the man's hand left his shoulder, "are you really sure about this?"

Daniel looked at Shinji with that expression of confidence and surety that always seemed to calm him down. "If I didn't think you could make it work, I would have told Asuka no without a second's hesitation. But I believe in both of you. Besides, she's right. Unit-02's going to be the safest place to be in the world with its AT Field. I can't guarantee our safety on a piece of steel like this one."

Shinji blanched at the idea, but nodded nevertheless. "Alright then…"

"Alright, Shinji," Asuka said, nodding over to the cargo crate once again. "Come on!"

As they left, Shinji saw Daniel turn to Eleanor. "Alright, darling, let's go make sure they don't end up too banged up."

As Shinji followed after Asuka, they stepped into the crate, closing the door behind them before Asuka paused at a locker to reveal a number of crimson-colored Plugsuits. Pulling out two, Asuka looked over at Shinji, then back at her Plugsuits with a growing grimace.

"These are fitted to my measurements, rookie," she said. "You're gonna have to suck up some… uncomfortable spots."

As Shinji took the Plugsuit she held out with a slight blush, he couldn't help but grimace himself. There were going to be some awfully tight squeezes.

"Now," Asuka said as she turned her back on him. "Turn around and don't try leering at me! You'll get it this time if you do."

Shinji took it as a promise and tried to focus on the far wall of the container as he stripped down, putting on the Plugsuit and wincing audibly as he clicked the button to form it to his body.

"Alright," Asuka said as Shinji turned back to face him. "We've got to work together in this Plug. Much as I might be the one with the better combat training, you're the only one used to operating with hangers-on. So don't hold me back too much!"

Shinji sighed, but nodded. "Alright."

. . .

While Asuka and Shinji were sure in what they were about to do, Boswell and Bolinger, as Misato could clearly see, were completely out of their depth.

"Any identification on what the hell this thing might be?" Boswell said as he looked over to the radar station, past a table with a holographic display of the now battered fleet.

"There's no radar or sonar return," the officer manning the station replied, "and I can't find any sort of IFF, or any electronic signals at all!"

"Gentlemen," a familiar voice said, all turning to see a firm, serious Misato stepping onto the bridge, the hesitant, somewhat scared Kensuke and Toji behind her a stark contrast to Daniel and Eleanor, who strode across the bridge with laptops in hand.

"I have good reason to believe what we're facing is an Angel," she continued. "As of this moment, Unit-02 is being activated under NERV's jurisdiction."

As the bridge continued to try and make some fraction of sense from the situation, Misato moved over to Daniel and Eleanor, setting up their laptops at a station that was wide enough to host them alongside the officer.

Daniel glanced up at the holographic map as another ship flashed red in time with a thunderous boom. "Hell of a time to jump on us," Daniel mused as his laptop showed an uplink to the rapidly waking systems of Unit-02. "Do you think this one has some semblance of strategy?"

Misato shook her head. "Every other Angel's been focused on Tokyo-3, and while they're crafty, nothing's ever pinned them down as actually intelligent."

Her eyes narrowed. "So why attack us now?" she mused quietly.

She missed Daniel and Eleanor looking at each other as they took each other's hands.

. . .

Something about the Entry Plug of Unit-02 smelled different yet… familiar to Shinji as he climbed in and the Plug sealed itself, beginning to fill with LCL that also seemed different somehow.

He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, but the thought nagged at him as he heard Asuka start narrating the activation process in German.

[Überflutung LCL. Vorläufige motorische Verbindungen hergestellt. Aktiviere Nervenverbindung. Plug Suit Verbindung stabilisiert. Synchronisation beginnt.]

As she spoke, the Evangelion hummed to life, the sound building in power as Shinji felt a somewhat strange, but almost familiar connection forming between him and Asuka…

until an alarm blared, and a band of red words that read 'FEHLER: ART 72-J' stretched across the screen.

Asuka looked back, where Shinji currently floated behind her chair. "That's the thought noise error," she said with a grimace. "How much German did Daniel teach you?"

Shinji was silent for a moment as he blushed. "Not enough for it to stick in a situation like this," he admitted.

Asuka sighed quietly. "Fair enough, I guess. Even without German, we can still make this work."

She turned to her controls, tapping on a few of them in a pattern Shinji was sure he'd never learned. "Set cognitive linguistics to Japanese."
In a flash, the error disappeared, and a pressure Shinji had only felt the moment it disappeared lifted from him as Unit-02 fully came online. In a moment, a comm-screen, audio only, appeared on Asuka's left.

[Asuka, hier ist Daniel. Sind du und Shinji bereit zu gehen?] Daniel said, Shinji managing to remember some of the basic words he'd been taught.

"Speak Japanese, Daniel," Asuka replied. "We've had to switch to it so we can overcome Shinji being a rookie for the moment."

"Fair enough," Daniel replied. "Stand and get yourself plugged in and ready. The emergency umbilical will be close to the bridge."

"Got it," Asuka said, Shinji doing his best to focus with her as Unit-02 slowly rose, its back soon pressed against the tarp of the cargo container. As they came up against the barrier, the shoulder pylon of the Eva clattered open, and it drew a Progressive Knife, the blade not activating its energized element as it slashed through the tarp with little effort.

As the tarp fluttered free, Unit-02 continued to rise, cables and tubes snapping free as Unit-02 drew itself to its full height.

As it stepped over to the emergency umbilical, Asuka glanced back at him. "Sit back and relax, rookie," she said with a slight grin. "You're going to see what it looks like when I'm done training you."

As they finished plugging in, they faced the sea just in time to see the massive form of the Angel, clearly fish-like even for the brevity of its appearance, leaping over a ship to make its way toward them.

Shinji could distantly feel the shock rippling through Asuka at the sight of the Angel itself. The next time it came into sight, Shinji shared the jolt of shock that ran through her as it loomed over them, slamming down onto the deck and missing them by the narrowest of margins.

Asuka shouted, both in frustration and the joy of battle, as she drove Unit-02 to stab the Angel, its bulk rendering the Prog Knife's cuts relatively shallow as it flopped on the deck, shoving Unit-02 around perhaps without fully meaning to.

Unit-02 hung on doggedly, shifting as best it could to keep its footing as Shinji and Asuka held on as best they could. Trying to find anywhere that wouldn't put a hole in the deck was trickier than either Shinji or Asuka were expecting.

A foot took a slight step backward, and Shinji wondered if he and Asuka felt the slight shift underneath them at the same time.

Then, the elevator fully gave out, and Shinji and Asuka shouted as the world around them went wild, the sting of the cold ocean waters becoming a chilling blanket as the Angel followed them into the water, dragging them deeper and deeper.

. . .

Daniel looked up at the holographic map, steadying himself as a blinking green dot, marked 'Unit-02', appeared as it rapidly began sinking towards the ocean floor. After a moment, it became intertwined with a steady red dot, marked 'Angel'.

Misato looked at the display with a shaken expression. "Without Type-S gear, Unit-02's effectiveness down there is going to be tanked," she said with a grimace.

As Daniel's connection to Unit-02 became firm again, the Angel disengaged the Eva, swooping around to begin lining up what could only be a straight shot toward its intended prey.

"Asuka, Shinji, brace for impact!" Daniel said. The only response he got was a pair of screams as the creature slammed into the crimson Eva.

On the deck of the Over the Rainbow, the cable of the umbilical cable began to whir madly, causing the ship to sway slightly. "How much length do we have left in the cable?" Eleanor asked.

"We're reading 1200 meters and rapidly falling!" a crewman said.

"All hands, brace for impact!" Boswell shouted, and in the seconds after, everyone grabbed what they could, waiting for…

A buzzing, growling twang that sent the ship rocking to the side, the sound of jets screeching across the tarmac from the angle of the ship only muffled somewhat on the bridge as many of its occupants went sprawling, Daniel and Eleanor doing their best to save their diagnostic links from tumbling to the floor.

As the ship stabilized and some semblance of order returned, Daniel took a look around the bridge, seeing Kensuke releasing his death grip on his camera and beginning to sweep it across the likely rather messy deck.

After a moment, his gaze focused on something as the hum of an elevator distantly made its way into the command center. "Oh, cool!" he said, drawing the attention of many among the bridge crew. "It's a V-22 Osprey!"

Misato looked out to see the aircraft lifting off, a radio crackled to life. "Hey, Misato," a voice, smooth and familiar, said. "I'm headed out from the party early to make sure something important makes it to shore. Good luck out there."

Misato said nothing, seemingly contenting herself with a growl of frustration as she turned back to the holotable. Daniel kept his focus mostly on the screen in front of him, slightly surprised as Eleanor took his hand and squeezed it gently.

"It'll be alright," Eleanor said, speaking to that hidden kernel of anxiety Daniel always seemed to have about the unknown. "They're tough kids. They can make it."

Daniel squeezed her hand in appreciation, and from the corner of his eye, caught Misato regarding them with… a complicated expression.

. . .

Deep in the sea, the atmosphere was hardly so conciliatory.

Asuka and Shinji watched the Angel slowly circling them with all the patience of an apex predator. Asuka struggled to get the Evangelion to even keep the beast in sight, growling softly in frustration. Shinji could feel that some of that frustration was directed at him, likely for spoiling her otherwise surely excellent synch with Unit-02. He could do nothing but focus as best he could on the task at hand.

"Damn it! We're barely even moving!" she finally shouted.

"We're in Type-B configuration," Shinji mused, mostly to himself. "Maybe we could use the AT Field as a jet of some kind…"

"Not the worst idea," Asuka admitted after a moment. "Wish we had the time to figure that out…"

They fell silent, the tense atmosphere cut through only by Daniel's voice as the Angel seemed to tire of circling them. "It looks like it's getting ready for another pass," he said, the calmness of his voice shaded through with urgency. "Brace yourselves."

Asuka took a deep breath as she watched the Angel drift to a stop in front of them. "I'll get it this time. I'm sure of it," she said, Shinji somewhat incredulously finding a hint of… confidence in her voice.

The Angel began to advance towards them, picking up speed as its jaws, as long or perhaps even longer than Unit-02 was tall, gaped wide. The sight of it seemed to startle Asuka, a gasp escaping from her as she leaned back in her seat.

"Was zum Teufel?" she said incredulously. "It's going to try chewing us up?"

Shinji, however, looked past the teeth and jaws, seeing the glint of a familiar deep red jewel in the back of its throat. "That's where its core is?" he said with a slight, but still exasperated sigh as he and Asuka worked to make it so that their umbilical wouldn't be severed.

Then, as they angled their legs toward the Angel, it slammed into them, its jaws snapping shut around them. The Children shouted in pain as a belt of it bloomed their waists, and they began to be dragged through the water. Shinji fought to focus on an AT Field that would be keeping them from getting torn in two, but the pain that continued alongside it made it all the more difficult.

. . .

Meanwhile, up above on the bridge, the wire-frame representation of Unit-02 on Daniel's screen gained a bloom of pulsing red as he looked up to see the once-again tinned holo-table signatures beginning to zip through the water.

"My god…" one of the bridge crew said, looking up at the display as the twined dots zipped to and fro. "Did it actually eat them?"

"Is there anything that we can actually do to help them?" Bollinger asked Misato, who remained silent as she looked at the holo-table with a quiet intensity.

"Unfortunately, any conventional weapons aren't really in a position to affect it unless the pilots use the field that's keeping them alive to nullify its protection," Eleanor said. The revelation did nothing to assuage the tense atmosphere.

Toji and Kensuke stood beside Misato, looking at the display that rendered Shinji and Asuka's struggle so imperfectly. "Man," Toji finally said with a grimace, "all that to be bait for fishing…"

Daniel watched as Misato blinked, then frowned slightly. After a moment more, her eyes lit up as a smile began to spread across her face. "Of course!" she said as she stood tall. "We're going to do some high-risk fishing."

Most of the bridge looked at her as if she'd gone mad. Daniel, however, stood from his makeshift station. "Hold on. I think I know what she's getting at."

. . .

Shinji found himself in a particularly odd mood, at least for him, as the Angel continued to drag them through the water. A part of him wondered how much of it was his connection to Asuka, her frustration far more evident as she growled in exasperation.

"Well, we've finally caught it," he said, far more sardonically than he'd expected. "Now we just reel it in and shuck its core, right?"

Asuka growled softly. "Who asked for back-talk?"

She paused for a moment. "And will you get off my lap and let me pilot this thing?"

Shinji blinked as Asuka began trying to shove him off. When had that happened? He blushed violently as he realized how absolutely insane this must have looked.

Before Asuka could really start to put her physical training to work, Misato's voice cut in. "Pilots, sit tight! We have a plan!"

"Not like we have much choice," Asuka grunted as she succeeded in at least pushing Shinji to the side.

"Yeah," Shinji added, nodding. At least they were in agreeance here.

"Alright, listen up," Misato continued, seemingly heedless of their replies. "We're going to be sending down one of the wounded cruisers, filled to the brim with explosives and evacuated, that will be moving alongside your umbilical cable. Your job is going to be to nullify the Angel's AT Field and to open its mouth wide enough so that the body of the ship can pass through."

"The ship should be on its way in the next 3 minutes," Daniel said. "It should only take about 3 minutes after that to reach your depth. Lock in and get it done. I know you can."

"We'll figure it out," Shinji replied somewhat wearily.

"Excellent," Misato said. "We're counting on both of you."

With that, the link closed, and both rolled their eyes simultaneously.'No pressure, clearly,' Shinji mused.

After a moment, they felt the umbilical cable go taut, then slowly begin dragging them back up towards the surface, the Children wincing and soon gasping as the burning belt of pain around their waist began to intensify with the Angel doing its best to resist.

"Hell of a way to motivate us…" Asuka said through gritted teeth.

Both Shinji and Asuka focused as best they could as Unit-02 stowed its Prog Knife and gripped the jaws of the Angel, struggling to force it open, if nothing else than to relieve the pain that they were feeling.

The maw had only budged maybe a few inches before Daniel's voice cut back in. "The ship's getting ready to be on its way down. Synch up and kick this thing's ass."

"You heard him," Shinji said through the pain. "We need to synch up or we'll be the center of the worst sandwich in the world."

Asuka's momentary confusion registered in Shinji's mind before she grabbed his hands, placed them on the controls, and put her hands over his. "Seeing as we aren't in the business of sandwich-making," she said as she unlocked the joysticks, their closed loops becoming handles, "focus on just opening this thing's damn mouth!"

With that, the pair fell silent, a single instruction, a similar set of actions, slowly coming more and more into alignment, echoing through their linked minds .'Open, open, open, open…'

As they thought, they slowly pulled back on the joysticks, for all it was worth. But as they did, the jaws slowly started to come apart, Unit-02's legs finally slipping back out of the Angel's mouth and finding purchase on the lower jaw.

Then, as they felt the cruiser closing in on them, in the briefest of moments, Shinji and Asuka were fully synchronized with each other, linked mind to mind as they both felt a surge of power flow into the Evangelion. It made nullifying the Angel's AT Field and forcing its jaws opening almost… easy.

Not a moment too soon, either, as a pillar of gray rushed past them, breaking a few of the Angel's teeth as it lost its command deck. In that moment, Shinji and Asuka let go, allowing themselves to be dragged back. As they came to a safe distance, they watched the ship explode, the Angel shuddering for a moment before it too became a fireball, sending a shockwave that pushed the Eva out of the water and up into the air, their umbilical cable finally coming loose after everything else it had gone through.

And as the moment of synchronization was broken, Shinji looked down at the fleet and gasped, more involuntarily than anything. Asuka, however, grinned as the deck of the Over the Rainbow came into sight. "Don't sweat it, Shinji," she said as she used Unit-02's AT Field to nudge them toward their target.

After a moment, they made their three-point landed on the carrier's deck, a rather graceful application of the AT Field from Asuka making their landing barely have an effect on the ship. "Hah!" Asuka said, putting her hands on her hips as Unit-02 stood proud. "Nailed the landing and everything."

As the last syllable escaped her mouth, the timer for their internal battery reached zero, and the Entry Plug shut down, the pair feeling the muted rumble of the Evangelion going to its knees and slumping over, likely rather gracelessly, on the deck.

"Still stuck it," Asuka repeated, sounding only a little less sure. Shinji, with the benefit of the darkened Entry Plug, rolled his eyes heavily. They'd done it, if nothing else.

. . .

As the battered UN Task Fleet made its way into the port of New Yokosuka as best it could, Shinji and Asuka stood on the deck of the Over the Rainbow, having taken advantage of the ship's showers to clean themselves off and get out of their Plugsuits, and watched as several cranes lifted Unit-02, its destination a NERV-marked transport truck.

After a few moments, Asuka turned to Shinji. "So, rookie," she said. "You didn't do too bad. Yeah, there was every chance that you'd be an albatross hanging off my neck, but we made it work, didn't we?"

She turned to him, extending a hand. "So, congrats on not being the worst person to have in an Entry Plug, I guess."

Shinji, somewhat surprised by the action, slowly took Asuka's hand, shaking it. "Thanks… I guess," Shinji replied.

After a moment, Asuka's grip tightened as she pulled him a step closer. "Now, just because we managed to synchronize together doesn't mean I cut you any slack," she said sternly. "Piloting an Eva is a big job, and I only want the best people doing it beside me. So, ready or not, you're going to be training hard. Got it?"

"I got it, I promise," Shinji said somewhat hurriedly. "Could you let go, please?"

As Asuka did so, both heard a quiet chuckle, looking over to see Daniel approaching them. "I think I underestimated how much fun I'm going to have watching you two working together," he said with a wry grin.

Shinji was well aware that both of them were blushing now. "Come on, Daniel," he said. "At least think about how hard it might be for us…"

"For us?" Asuka said incredulously as she looked over at him with an almost withering glare. "Rookie, I was under the impression that you picked things up pretty quickly, if what little I've heard about your time in school is anything to say."

"Compared to you?" Shinji retorted. "You finished college already! How could I measure up to that?"

Daniel coughed rather pointedly, and both Children's attentions returned to him with slightly more narrowed eyes. "Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Asuka. You might get to see how he learns firsthand," he said rather cryptically, with a slight smile.

Asuka frowned. "And what, Bruder, does that mean exactly?"

Daniel raised his hands, a conciliatory gesture. "Idle speculation, and nothing more. Now, let's get Shinji home, at the very least."

With that, Daniel gestured for the pair to follow him, and follow they did towards the ramp that would take them, at last, to solid ground.

Meanwhile, down on the pier next to the transport truck, Misato sat in an open-topped jeep next to Ritsuko, slumped back in the seat. Ritsuko, in the driver's seat, scanned the battered fleet. "I must say," she said after a moment, "this is quite the mess you brought home."

"Blame the Angel," Misato said somewhat tartly. "It's the threat the showed up in the middle of the ocean, of all places. Add on top of that the fact that we didn't pack anything even resembling Type-S gear along, and what other outcome would you expect?"

Ritsuko sighed quietly. "Well, if nothing else, we've gotten some valuable data out of the whole thing. Unwise as the Second Child was to bring someone else into the Plug with her, at least she brought someone in with experience."

She paused, smiling slightly. "Even still, we both know that you'll have a mountain of paperwork to get through after this. Most of it courtesy of the UN."

Misato groaned softly. "Great. The gatekeeper to my personal hell."

Ritsuko chuckled softly, her attention turning to a crate slowly being extracted from the Over the Rainbow on a ramp that was being attended to by Daniel, Eleanor, and the Children. Her curiosity sufficiently piqued, she started the car and began to drive over to the group.

As they came to a stop by them, Daniel noticed them and spoke up. "Hey, Misato. I needed a ride while I was here in Tokyo-3 and with Eleanor usually carpooling with you to work, Unit-02 wasn't the only vehicle I decided to bring along."

As the crate finally landed on the dock, a pair of workers pulled the front panel off, and Daniel stepped inside. After a few more moments, an engine rumbled to life, and a familiar black car slowly rolled onto the pavement.

Misato's eyes went wide, and a slight smile creased her face as Daniel shut the car off and stepped out of the car. "You brought my 190E all the way from Germany? It's nice to see it again, I've got to say."

After a moment, however, a frown began to cast a shadow over her happy expression. "You brought my car, my restored, luxury, ultra-rare car, into the middle of an active battlefield?"

As she finished her sentence at a shout, Daniel put his hands up defensively. "I made it as safe as I could, I promise! No one was expecting an Angel to come and wreck a fleet just because!"

As Daniel and Misato went back and forth for a few moments over the care and safety of the car, Shinji looked over at Eleanor to see her sigh quietly and roll her eyes. "I don't think I've seen him this spirited over something so… trivial," he said.

Eleanor chuckled. "If ever he had a superpower, it was matching the energy that other people brought to something. But this shouldn't last too much longer, anyway. It's not that serious of an argument, now."

Asuka, listening in, sighed quietly. "Yeah, but we've got places to be. Give me a sec."

With that, she jogged over to the jeep, jumping on the door and drawing Misato's attention. "So, where'd Mr. Kaji go? I didn't see him after we kicked the Angel's tailfin."

Misato blinked, then growled out a sigh. "The jerk tapped out early to make some sort of 'delivery' to HQ. Probably just wanted to lounge around and leave the rest of us in the lurch."

Ritsuko arched a brow. "Ryoji's here?"

"I'll explain later," Misato replied.

"Well," Daniel said, "we should all be getting home anyway. Eleanor will keep an eye on Unit-02 while Asuka and I get settled in before we look for housing for her. Sound good?"

Misato took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. Just drive safe! You already gave me a heart attack over how you got the car here, I don't need another one."

"Come on, Misato!" Daniel said with a chuckle. "You know I try to be careful."

. . .

Deep in the Geofront, a vast, largely empty room was taken up by two occupants. Between them was a desk, and on the desk was a bulky suitcase.

"I have to say," Ryoji said, his voice echoing slightly, "This 'Key of Nebuchadnezzar' has something about it. An Angel coming right after us instead of what's in here… makes me wonder if this might be what they're actually looking for."

Commander Ikari said nothing, simply unlatching the suitcase and lifting the lid to reveal a large container, sealed with warnings and radiation signage. A lie, both of them knew, as Commander Ikari broke the seals and opened the container, the container hissing as steam began to emerge in whisps.

In the container's center, encased in a block of transparent, amber-colored substance, was an embryonic… creature, a massive eye leering out at the world from a shrunken, vestigial body. Etched in one corner in thin, severe letters, was a designation and a name: 'A-01 ADAM'.

Ryoji, for his part, whistled softly. "Would you look at that? According to the old men, even after being encased in Bakelite, it was still growing for a while. And a little creature like this is the most important part of the Human Instrumentality Project."

"Indeed," Commander Ikari replied. "True to its name, it is the Key to all things moving forward."

He paused for a moment, and Ryoji couldn't help but wonder somewhat where Ikari's eyes were pointed. "Thank you for your services, Mr. Kaji," he said, his voice utterly cold and professional.

Ryoji nodded. "I'll go ahead and take my leave, then. I'm sure you've got a lot on your plate for the next few days."

"Indeed," Ikari said as he closed the case and took a seat behind his desk. "With Unit-02 and its engineering staff having arrived, we will need to assess our chain of command in that particular regard."

Ryoji waited for anything that sounded like a continuation, then turned and left in silence. All that had needed to be said had been.

. . .

Daniel sat in the apartment in silence, simply… taking it in. It was a rather spare place, all told, a couch in the living room joined by a television set and a chair, some bookcases bracketing the hallway that led down into what was likely an office and a storage room for Eleanor.

Asuka had elected, for the moment, to go to Misato's apartment whilst she was away, 'grilling the rookie on his training regimen', or so she said.

He heard the front door open, then shut, felt the brush of her soul against his.

"So," he heard her say as she entered the living room, "more of a silent type these days?"

Daniel sighed quietly as he looked at her. "I take it when I can. It's a nice change of pace, even if it doesn't sink all the way in."

Eleanor hummed softly, walking over to the couch and sinking in with a quiet, but heavy sigh as she leaned against Daniel. They simply sat there for long minutes, enjoying each other's company.

"I know why you're here," Eleanor finally said.

A brow arched on Daniel's face as he looked at her. "Is that so?"

"Well, when you've established the pattern you have, it'd be a little silly to think you'd suddenly break it," Eleanor replied.

Daniel grimaced slightly. "When you've gone insane in the ways that I have, you learn not to truly count on much, unfortunately," he said softly, sadly.

Eleanor was taken aback for a moment, he could feel, before she pressed on. "I know why you're here because I know what happens here, too."

Daniel hummed softly. "So you've seen some sort of record of this multiverse?"

"I found your ship," Eleanor replied, her words softly pointed. "Parked out in the Oort Cloud, where no one's really looking for it."

"Ah," Daniel said, nodding slightly. "You found the Val."

"The Val," Eleanor replied, as if considering the weight of the name. "Well, I suppose that kind of nickname's better than the Valiant Penitence. Shade on the nose for you."

"But still fitting," Daniel said with a quiet sigh. "How much did you explore?"

"As much of it as I could," Eleanor said. "When it's potentially the last ship of its kind out in Reality, I wasn't going to pass up the chance. Ayre was also a very helpful guide, once she figured out who I was."

She paused for a moment. "She sends her regards and hopes things are going well, by the way. I think she's a little miffed you've gone this long without contacting her."

Daniel smiled wanly. "She's probably a little overprotective at the moment. Especially after…"

He fell silent as he remembered, Eleanor looking on the scattered memories that Daniel dared to recollect.

Her eyes went wide, slowly filling with horror. "My god… so that's what she meant by 'the second try'," she whispered.

"They deserve to know what's coming," Daniel said. "The full scope of it, what it means. But… I can barely face that right now. I can't break them like that, not when there has to be a better way."

"There is a better way," Eleanor said firmly, cupping Daniel's face and turning it to face her. "We'll figure it out. We have before, after all."

Eleanor smiled slightly. "Speaking of, the others are going to be thrilled once I tell them I found you."

"Who else was looking for me?" Daniel asked.

"Still?" Eleanor pondered the question for a moment. "At this point, everyone that's worked directly with you. After nothing really materialized from you disappearing, the search died down. It made it easier for us to sleep, though, that's for certain."

Eleanor sighed as she wrapped her arms around Daniel. "But the others can wait for now. Right now, you're not going anywhere," she said firmly, yet tenderly.

Daniel reciprocated, squeezing Eleanor gently. "No," he nearly whispered. "No, I'm not."