After Rei stops everyone for a rest, the references to the pilot, and Cirus carrying him, are virtually all newly added. Such a glaring mistake had to be fixed, not like the general revisions with which I no longer bother. Cirus' failed search for a crutch for Asuka is simple character development for the dark pilot, showing a little bit of reality where a good intention doesn't come to fruition.
His halted reach to caress Rei's cheek is a point of his very real weakness regarding the young woman. He wants to be close and affectionate very much, and so he has to keep that under control. In truth, he shouldn't have even thought to touch her cheek at this moment, and that's why he stops.
Asuka still has nightmares about her mother even after discovering the link in her Eva. This becomes more of an issue later in Kenosis, but for now it serves as a handy character-interaction spur. Cirus doesn't hate Asuka, he just finds her arrogance extremely irritating. He also catches on to the begrudging relationship between herself and Shinji, and would rather help it than hurt it by coming off as the 'knight in shining (black) armor'. As a result, he regrets being the one to wake her up from the nightmare.
To excuse the absence of the pilot beyond being carried, I at least addressed the oddity of staying knocked out for so long through Shinji noticing it. If a production (movie, written story, etc.) at least *mentions* how odd an occurence within it is, that lets the audience cut it some slack and keep going with the flow... even if a real explanation never comes up. Technically, yes, the pilot should have woken up long ago, but I didn't want to get into that mess. Once they hear Hyuga's voice on their renewed hike, Cirus' desire to keep Shinji and Asuka together comes back up with a good excuse. He can't carry two people. Thus the forgotten pilot helped make the scene make a great deal more sense! See how these things are supposed to work out? And, of course, seeing Asuka awkward and blushing is quite cute... just hard to cause.
Switching to Hyuga's perspective briefly flowed as naturally as hitting the enter key after the previous paragraph. Hyuga is indeed one of my favorite characters (I like everyone but Gendo, basically...), and I was happy to give him a little bit of solo page-time. Naturally Misato is the first on the scene with the rest of the rescue squad, and some pleasant character interaction fluff takes place. The mention of the attack is kept subtle since the characters themselves have no desire to spoil the relief of finding each other again. Addressing the troubling issues is something to do with Ikari...
And the Commander summons the lot of them into his office to reveal what he did. When Cirus took a little while to recover the pilot from the clearing and join the others, he placed the bug referenced here on one of the soldiers. Realizing Cirus' role, everyone (except Rei) is alarmed until he explains his side of things. Ikari would've been quite pleased at the bonus of causing mistrust between Cirus and anyone else. After dismissing the aggravated group, Ikari and Fuyutsuki finish out the chapter with some of their usual dialogue. I hope the absence of SEELE's ominous influence on the plot is ammeliorated by the constant references to them... Onto Chapter 18!