Neon Genesis Evangelion and all characters from therein are the property of Gainax. They are used without permission and we beg the kind and benevolent creators of the glorious show not to sue us. ^_^ Chain Lightning Studios Presents Together We Stand By T. L. Webb Don’t be surprised, when a crack in the ice Appears under your feet The Thin Ice Pink Floyd, The Wall []===============[] Book 1 Part 6 []===============[] Asuka was in high spirits when she returned to the apartment. She still couldn't really think of the place as 'home', in fact, she hadn't thought of anywhere as being home since she was a child. It was simply a place where she dwelled until the morons at Nerv realized that she was fully capable of living on her own. On the upside it was much nicer than the disgusting cell that they had shoved her in at first. She pitied any other new pilots who arrived; that was no way for the saviors of Mankind to be treated. The Katsuragi residence was small, but it was nice by Japanese standards. As compact as it was, even she had to admit that the place was well planned out. When she had first seen the room she was using she hadn't believed that she could possibly fit even half her stuff in it. After a closer inspection she discovered how well managed the space was, and she had only ended up sending about a quarter of her belongings to storage. Despite that, and fact that couches seemed to be non existent in Japan, she liked the place. It had a great view of the city from the patio that was right outside her door. Her only real complaints were her roommates. Misato wasn't so bad, if she would try to find a decent brand of beer Asuka thought that she might be able to put up with the woman. Whoever had hooked the poor lady on that disgusting Russian brew should be shot. Sooner or later she would have to get Misato some _real_ beer so she wouldn't have to smell the stuff anymore. Her other roommate... was a bit more annoying. How Shinji Ikari had lasted this long was a mystery to her; the boy was hardly pilot material. He was a fluke, he _had_ to be! There was no way that someone as pathetic as that boy having such a high synch ratio was natural. She and Ayanami had worked for months and months to get their ratios high enough for activation, to synch on the first try... 'It has to be a fluke,' she thought as she removed her shoes, 'no way they _picked_ him for this.' Back in Germany, she had heard rumors that he had even run _away_! What kind of loopy selection process would pick someone who didn’t even want to be there? Well at least they had her. She would show all of them just what a _real_ Evangelion Pilot was capable of, and after over eight years of training she was more than ready to do just that. At the moment however, she had better things to think about. Her shopping trip had been heavenly! Spending the whole day with Kaji had been wonderful, and she couldn’t wait till the next time. He was so handsome and charming, completely unlike the disgusting boys at collage. If he didn’t insist on pursuing that ridiculous obsession with Misato he would be perfect. She would have to remember to tell him so on their next date. That, of course, would have to wait until after she got back from the class trip. This was the other thing that had her in such a good mood. She hadn't had a chance to go scuba diving since the last stages of her pilot training had begun two years previous, and she missed it. Okinawa was supposed to be a nice town in the first place, and with the high ocean levels since Second Impact, there would be many submerged buildings for her to explore under the sea. As she made the turn from the hall to the kitchen however, something told her that there was about to be some bad news. Misato was sitting at the table with a beer in front of her, but instead of being half-empty; the can was unopened. She had only seen Misato do this once before, and that had been when she was instructing Shinji and herself on their synch training. Also, Shinji was sitting at the table listening idly to one of his tapes on SDAT. So the obvious conclusion of this was that Misato Katsuragi was about to get serious on her. For Misato to do this at home was a rare occurrence. At work the woman was amazing, juggling task after task and still keeping up with whatever the Angels threw at them. At home... at home she reminded Asuka of some of the frat boys back at collage. Sure enough Misato gestured for her to sit down, and what she had to say was more than enough to ruin Asuka's mood. []====[] []====[] "What do you _mean_ we won't be going?" Asuka cried out as she stood from her chair. "Your presence is required here in Tokyo Three until the threat of the Angels is past," Misato responder calmly. "No one ever told me anything about that!" "Well now you’ve been told," Misato said with a smile. "Who's crazy idea was this anyway?" Asuka muttered as she slumped back into her chair. "That particular crazy notion would be mine," Misato told her as she popped open her drink, "as the operations planing manager it was my decision." Asuka seemed to simmer in her seat, and Misato could feel the anger resonating off the German girl like a tangible force. To her relief-- and slight amusement-- Asuka decided to direct it to the boy sitting beside her who, until then, had been observing silently. "Hey you, don’t just sit there drinking-- say something! Stand up for yourself! It's your rights she's trampling on too you know!" "Well... I kinda figured we wouldn't be allowed to go from the beginning," Shinji told her-- doing an admirable job of not melting under her glare in the process, "and she does have a point, if an Angel attacks we do need to be here." "So you're just give up and let them strip away your freedom?" "It's not like that, it's just--" "I can't believe that they housebroke you so easily! You're pathetic!" "There's no call for that Asuka!" Shinji said indignantly. Actually, he had no idea what the English term she had just used meant, but he was sure it was not polite. Coming from Asuka it was a safe bet anyhow. "Don't take that tone of voice with _me_ you little twerp!" Asuka said, her eyes burning. "Will you make up your mind?" Shinji demanded, raising his voice. She had been doing this for weeks now, and he was starting to get sick of it. One moment she would complain that he let everyone walk all over him, the next she was screaming at him for talking back to her. "Stop it both of you!" Misato yelled, slamming her beer can down on the table and causing both of them to jump in surprise, "Asuka I know how much you want to go on this trip, but we just can't risk it, I'm sorry. "Wait, wait, wait, _wait_, _WAIT_! That’s all we ever do around here!" Asuka shouted, turning her anger back to her guardian, "any _good_ solider will tell you that we should be hunting _them_ not sitting around waiting for them to come to _us_!" "Asuka, if we could do that, believe me we would," Misato told her as she took another sip of her beer," but you do have to admit that this will give you both a good opportunity to catch up on your studies-- or did you think I wouldn't notice your test scores?" Shinji wished he could sink into his chair. He had known that sooner or later the absences and rushed makeup work was going to come out in his scores... he supposed he should be grateful it had taken this long. "You do realize that all your exam results were forwarded directly to my office? I am very disappointed with both of your scores, especially you Asuka... with your education you should be doing much better than this." "Hey, don’t blame me if the grading scales you Japanese use can't properly identify my talents, " Asuka told her haughtily-- unfortunately for her point, she was making no sense whatsoever," why are we even forced to go to school? It's not like they could actually _teach_ me anything there." "When in Rome," Misato said with a grin, "do as the Romans do... and get used to it because you're signed up for at least the next two semesters." "This sucks!" Asuka screamed as she stormed to her room and slammed her door. Shinji looked at Misato and a realization struck him. Living with the redheaded girl had been difficult for him, he had lost his room, the quiet, and a lot of privacy... but Misato on the other hand had seemed to take everything in stride. In the proceeding 'conversation' however, Shinji had detected a subtext to Misato's tone that was just now becoming text to him. "You enjoyed that," he asked his guardian as she downed the rest of her beer, "didn’t you?" Misato tossed the empty can expertly into the recycling bin he had brought in awhile back and winked at him, "now Shinji it would be downright mean of me to take pleasure in denying that _sweet_ young girl a trip she had been looking forward to. Even if it was fully authorized and I had no choice," she leaned over onto her elbows and fluttered her eyelashes innocently, " why would you _ever_ think I'd do that?" Shinji chuckled at that; at least it wasn’t just _him_ that Asuka drove crazy. []====[] []====[] Kensuke had been up most of the night. Last time he'd looked at the clock had been around one. Not that he really cared as he was, at the moment, wrapped up in what might have been the most fascinating conversation of his life. Ever since Nerv had secured the UN's undivided attention after the Jet Alone disaster, information on the Evangelions had been much easier to come by. The lack of international funding had not stopped other countries from developing war machines-- in fact there were numerous projects all around the world rushing robotic battle machines into production. Part of this was because the world feared what might happen if the Eva's were ever turned against mankind, but it also was a remnant of the twentieth centuries cold war mentality. If one country had a weapon, then the next largest would try to match them. It was the 'red queen' phenomenon. Everyone was running as fast as they could to stay in place. Kensuke ran a web page devoted to the latest rumors of such projects. He meticulously researched his leads, and only accepted new information from trusted sources. His current conversation was the result of an Email he'd received earlier that day. He was well aware that the Jet Alone project had been mostly abandoned by the JSSDF, but that the two prototypes had been sold to China. At the moment, there was no official word on the status of the JA's, and he had about given up hope on it. However, the person he had been conversing with most of the night had relayed information concerning a new project that had him very interested. [TheMechSage] so it's a land sea and air system? [TetsuShojo] that’s right, it's one of the reasons they called it what they did. [TheMechSage] this is great? How long before they go public? Not that I don’t believe you, but I have to confirm some of this before I can post it. [TetsuShojo] I understand, but I just don’t know. They don’t exactly tell us much in my department [TheMechSage] that’s a shame, ever since the American project fell through and they joined Project E there hasn’t been much to report. If I didn’t have such great footage of the Eva's then my site wouldn't be worth much. [TetsuShojo] I think you're doing a great job. That picture of Unit One under repair is amazing. It's even better than the one of it and Zero at sunset [TheMechSage] oh, I can't take credit for that one, it was a gift [TetsuShojo] really? How did you manage that? [TheMechSage] well I don’t usually tell people this, but one of the pilots is a pretty good friend of mine. His guardian got the photo for me. I think she got tired of my pestering her about it. [TetsuShojo] you're kidding? [TheMechSage] truth, truth! Check out my 'life in Tokyo Three' page for a pic of him, he's the one with the sad look on his face [TetsuShojo] hmmm he's a cutie, and you’re the sexy one with the glasses? [TheMechSage] that’s me in the glasses, I don’t know about 'sexy' though [TetsuShojo] hey, I think freckles are _way_ sexy on the right guy [TheMechSage] you flatter me ^_^ [TetsuShojo] hey, while I'm thinking about it, I heard something about an Australian project today. I'll see what the word is on that tomorrow [TheMechSage] I really appreciate all the information; you've been a big help [TetsuShojo] it's my pleasure, when will you be on again by the way? I've had fun talking with you [TheMechSage] well I'm going to Okinawa for a few days, but I'll be back in a week or so. [TetsuShojo] glad to hear it, I look forward to our next conversation [TheMechSage] hey, before you go, what's your name? I never did catch it [TetsuShojo] ah, but that would be telling... ^_^ [TheMechSage] a woman of mystery, I like it! [TetsuShojo] silly, it's late and I do have to go... enjoy your trip [TheMechSage] Thank you. I'll talk to you soon. Nite! []====[] []====[] "I still wish you could go with us," Hikari told Shinji as they walked back to the airport terminal where everyone was waiting for the plane to arrive. The rest of their class was there as well; Asuka had even come to see them off. The only person who was not there was Rei, but Hikari didn’t mind. She knew from her dealings with Shinji that it was going to take a long time before Rei could make anything close to his progress in the social department. "It's probably better that I stay," Shinji said with a weak smile, " I wouldn't be able to go diving anyhow." "Why not?" "I can't swim," he replied with a slight blush. "Seriously? That’s a shame... I could teach you if you want." "I don’t know," he said apprehensively, " I spend so much time breathing liquid in the Eva that it doesn't appeal to me much." "Well I kind of see your point there, but you should still learn. You never know when it will come in handy." "I suppose... hey have you decided what you're going to the dance as?" "No, I still can't think of a costume... the rules said that it has to ' represent an aspect of your personality'. Interesting in theory, but it makes picking one out a bit difficult." "I'm sure you'll come up with something," he said-- reaching over and squeezing her hand. "Even so, I won't have much time if I don’t do it soon... anyway, what are you going to do while we're all gone?" "I think Misato has something planed with your sister, but other than that I'm mostly going to be studying for the make up exam." "I'm sorry, I should have helped you study more." "It's not your fault, I doubt I would have scored as high as I did if you hadn't been there. It’s the training and tests that keep cutting into my time." "Not to mention your roommate's music tastes," Hikari said cringing in memory of the German rock bands that Asuka favored. She liked the girl, but was doubtful that she would ever like her music. "Well, it hasn’t been so bad since Misato threatened to throw the stereo out the window; I think Asuka got the message. It’s a very good thing that we don’t have neighbors." They stood and walked back to where the rest of the students were gathered. Asuka was chatting away with Ichigo and a couple other girls, Kensuke was fast asleep, Touji on he other hand was wide-awake and waved them over to where he was sitting. "Where have you two been hiding?" he asked as they sat down. "We were over at the food court," Shinji replied "Cool, I think I might run over there before the plane arrives. I doubt I can make it the whole flight on just peanuts." "Didn't you have breakfast before you left home?" Hikari asked "Yeah... why?" "It was just two hours ago Touji," Shinji said. "So?" "Never mind," the two sighed in unison. "So what's shaking with the demon?" Touji asked, "she didn’t even insult me this morning, I _almost_ miss the attention." "Well she found out Misato was going to let her use the natatorium to go scuba diving and she's been in a good mood ever since. Come to think of it she hasn’t even called me stupid once today" "Gotta be some kind of record or something," Touji said with a grin, "Stop it you two," Hikari told them-- trying to keep from smiling as she did so. "Shame you can't go," Touji told Shinji, "not gonna be as much fun without ya." Shinji almost blushed, Touji wasn’t just saying that-- he really meant it. He had only known the other boy for a sjort while, but in that time he had learned that Touji generally said the first thing that came to mind. No pauses to ponder the outcome simply thought to deed in one electric leap. So for him to say something like that, especially offhand like he had, indicated that he meant it fully. "Thank you Touji," Shinji told his friend, " I wish I could go too, but I do have a responsibility to be here." "Well, I'll try to have fun for the three of ya," Touji said with a grin. "Suzuhara!" Hikari said-- crossing her arms wit ha frown. "What? I shouldn't try to have fun?" "You're utterly hopeless, aren't you?" Hikari said with a sigh "Hey!" Asuka said as she sauntered over, " whatcha talking about?" "Not much," Hikari said, "just wishing you Rei and Shinji could go." "I know, and it’s a damned shame that Nerv won't go on the offensive, "Asuka said as she leaned against a support beam and crossed her hands behind her head, "if Misato didn’t have the highest tactical scores out of the last six classes in Germany I'd think this organization was run by idiots." "Is she really that good?" Shinji asked, this was the first he'd heard of this. "Well Kaji was in her graduating class, and he told me about it once," she said, "apparently she even had to take the hardest tests twice because they couldn't believe she hadn't cheated. Then she beat her previous score and they all flipped." "Wow..." Touji said, he glanced over at Kensuke who was still snoring in his seat. He would have to remember to tease his friend for missing out on this information about Goddess Katsuragi. "Yeah, the only reason she didn’t graduate top of her class was that she missed a week or two in mid semester, I asked Kaji about that but he said he didn’t know why. I have to admit, despite her sloppy housekeeping, she is the best I have ever seen at what she does." As they pondered the high compliment Asuka had just given Misato, their flight was announced and the other students began gathering their carry on luggage. Shinji and Hikari stood there for a bit each wanting to say something, but not having the words. "I guess this is it," Shinji said at last as he looked down at his feet. "I'll get the two of you something nice while I'm there." "Thanks." They stood there for a few moments longer before Hikari came to a decision. Taking a determined breath she stepped forward, and to the surprise of Touji, the newly awakened Kensuke, and the completely befuddled Asuka-- she kissed Shinji deeply on the lips. They had kissed once before, and it had been nice, but this one shot it down in flames. As Shinji overcame his surprise and began to return her embrace, the others watched on in shock. When the two finally came up for air and saw the looks they were receiving, they both blushed deeply. As Touji looked back and forth between the two and scratched his head in confusion, Kensuke pinched himself to make sure he was really awake. After a moment, Asuka threw up her hands and walked off cursing in German about all Japanese being perverts. This sent Hikari into giggles and Shinji into an even deeper blush. Finally the boarding signal was given and the class began heading to the plane. As they made their way down to their seats, Touji turned to speak with Kensuke "When did this start?" he asked his groggy friend. "I have no idea, but I kinda had a hunch something was up." "Really? I didn’t have a clue." "I _must_ be tired if I'm passing on a straight line like that," Kensuke said with a yawn, " why so shocked though? It's not like they don’t make a cute couple." "I dunno, Shinji's kinda weird." "He can be a little different, but that’s just because of how he was raised. Think about how much he's changed since he started hanging out with us and the class rep. I don’t remember him even talking to anyone for the first two weeks, now he and Hikari spend almost every spare moment together. "You do have a point... but I dunno," Touji looked out the window at the terminal where he could see Shinji standing against the glass, "think he's good enough for her?" "If I were any more awake than I am, I'd suspect you were jealous Touji," Kensuke said as he leaned his seat back a bit. "Of course not!" Touji said defensively, "but she _is_ our friend and we ought to look out for her. It was a legitimate question." "Well if he was still like he was when he arrived, I might agree, " Kensuke said as he settled back in his chair, " but he's come a long way since that day at the train station... I think there's hope for them." Touji listened to that and thought about it for a moment. He was about to ask something else when he turned and found Kensuke was fast asleep. Farther back in the plane Hikari and Yume were seated together. Naturally the other girl wanted to know the hows and whys of what she had just witnessed. "I told you," Hikari repeated, " we're not too serious yet, that was only our second kiss." "And you're not worried?" "About what?" "Leaving him alone with the other two pilots. I'll admit that Ayanami isn't much of a threat, but the German? I wouldn't leave my guy alone within a mile of her." "Shinji isn't interested in her, he told me so." "Hikari, I thought you were smarter than that..." "Smarter than what?" "Boys don’t exactly think with their _brains_ all the time. Asuka isn't the nicest girl I've ever met, she could melt just about any guy's spine in half a second if she tried." "I doubt she's even interested in Shinji, she complains about him constantly." "Hmmm maybe, but you never know..." Hikari turned away and looked out the window as they pulled onto the runway. She trusted Shinji; he was practically the definition of 'heart on his sleeve'. But Yume did have a point and that point had actually been one of the reasons behind the kiss that had so surprised everyone. She had wanted to leave Shinji with her on his mind in a big way. In the end it came down to the fact she trusted him, but even as she reminded herself of the fact... Yume's words resonated in her mind... []====[] []====[] From the terminal, Shinji watched the plane lift off. As it sailed off into the clear blue sky he sighed and thought back to that electrifying kiss. He had never experience anything like it, he had felt totally open for that moment, and he hadn't been afraid. It was amazing how much more intense it had been than the last one, and that had been considerably intense. Almost amazing as the intensity was the closeness he felt to Hikari. When he was around Hikari, he felt safe. That was the best way to put it. He knew she wouldn't twist anything he said into a joke, or yell at him like Misato and Asuka did. He knew she would listen to what he had to say, and that she trusted him to do the same. He knew that she enjoyed his company as much as he enjoyed hers. Most importantly he felt that he could be totally honest with her, and that had been something he'd never been able to do before. When he had arrived in Tokyo Three he had been alone. Since he had arrived he had gained friends, he even had something like a family- dysfunctional as it might be, and now... a girlfriend? "Hey! Let's go stupid," Asuka Shouted from behind, " I want to go swimming sometime _before_ they get back!" He smiled, having suspected she wouldn't last the whole morning without saying it at least once. []====[] []====[] He hadn't planed on going with them, but Shinji had allowed Misato talk him into joining Rei and Asuka at the natatorium. Her reasoning had been sound enough-- if something happened to Asuka while she was underwater, he could at least shout for help and the Section Two guards would come running. Unfortunately what Misato hadn't taken into account was the mindset he had been in since Hikari's departure. Every time he thought back to the kiss his mind became more muddled and he found it harder to concentrate on his studies for the makeup test. This was made even more difficult by Asuka's new swimsuit. He wondered if the designer of the suit had crafted it with the sole purpose of inciting lustful thoughts in males, it didn’t seem to be designed for _swimming_ that was for sure. It was far too delicate to be able to stand up to much vigorous swimming, or diving, and had Asuka not merely been planing to use the Scuba equipment it would have been a poor choice in his opinion. All that aside, the main problem he had with the suit was the ridiculously big zipper on the front. He could understand the need for one with the design the suit had, but it was a bit much. The idea was so blatantly obvious that even he could understand it. The zipper was supposed to catch a guy's eye, and he was supposed to want to unzip it. Clearly she had bought this particular suit with Kaji in mind, but he wished she would save it for when the older man was around-- at the moment it was keeping him from concentrating. "Hey Shinji, whatcha doin'?" Asuka asked as she wandered over "I'm trying to get some studying done before our makeup exam," he told her, trying not to stare at her chest-- which was at the moment almost shoved in his face as she leaned over and read off his laptop. "Oh you're such an _obedient_ student," she teased as she sat down in the chair beside him and crossed her legs. Behind her in the pool Rei was making her second lap underwater without coming up for air. "Well," he explained, grateful that she had removed her cleavage from his face, "I don’t want to have to spend years catching up to my studies when all of this is over." "I suppose that makes sense... hey, what's this one?" she asked as she turned his laptop to face her. After a moment she pressed a couple of keys and turned it back to him, " there you go, all done. Its easy if you know how." "I don’t understand Asuka, you can solve a hard problem like this... but you failed the exam?" "Oh _that_" She said leaning back in her chair and looking up at the ceiling, " I still haven't mastered all these crazy little squiggles that you call a written language over here." "You don't know the Kanji?" "Not all of it, I didn’t have to study it in collage," she said as she twirled a few strands of hair between her fingers. "Y--you went to _collage_?" "Yeah," Asuka said dismissively, " I graduated last year, they said I was the youngest graduate in like sixty years or something... hey why are you just sitting around up here anyway?" "You mean why am I not swimming?" "Yeah" "I can't swim." "Really? Why not?" "Back where I used to live there wasn’t anywhere to do it, and like I told Hikari after breathing LCL so much I'm not very eager to float around like that." "Well you're missing out if you ask me." "What's so fascinating about it anyway?" "Lets see, for one thing I like how the echoes are all different when your down there. Sound actually carries better under water. Plus when you're floating down there its like flying. The ocean is even better because its like a whole other world suspended in midair." " I see your point, but I still think I'll stick to dry land for the moment, " he told her with a frown. "Your call, but I still say you're missing out Shinji... anyway, what's this one say?" she said pointing at the computer. "It’s a question about thermal expansion." "Oh that’s baby stuff, in short, things get larger when they get hot and smaller when they get cold." "I know that but-" Shinji started to say, however the redhead cut him off in mid sentence. "I'll even make it easier for you," she told him as she took her hands -- and to Shinji's discomfort-- cupped her breasts. "Now, " she said as Shinji's face reddened, "if I were to warm my breasts with my hands would they get larger or smaller?" 'What the hell is her problem?' Shinji thought as he looked away, 'she spends weeks calling me a pervert and now she does something like this?' "I don’t know," he said quickly as he tried not to look at the admitably interesting scene before him, "I don’t think about things like that!" "You are _so_ dull Third Child, " she said haughtily as she stood and walked over to her scuba gear, "I don’t think there's anything about you that's really interesting." Shinji frowned. He had never pretended to understand Asuka, take this for example; she had come over to _him_ and started up the conversation, now she was cutting it off and complaining. If she didn’t find him interesting he wished she would just leave him alone and stop teasing him. There was a splash behind him and he turned to see Ayanami climb out of the water and start to towel off. Before he could register this however, a shout echoed thorough the natatorium. "Hey Shinji! Lookie, lookie!" Turning once again, he saw Asuka wave at him as she fell back into the water. 'Oh, right,' he thought with a sigh and turned back to his studies, ' you don’t find me interesting at _all_ ' 'What is wrong with that girl anyway?' He wondered as she finished the next few questions; 'doesn’t she realize that she's contradicting herself all the time?' As he considered this, he heard soft footfalls close by and turned to find Ayanami standing behind him. "Hello Rei," he said politely, " did you enjoy your swim?" "Yes." She said simply as she sat down. "I wish I could be as interested in it as the two of you are," he told her, "Asuka tried to explain it to me, but I still don’t know..." "Pilot Soryu finds comfort in water because it isolates her from the world." Rei said, startling Shinji with the depth of the statement, "many have different reasons." "Why do you like to swim Rei?" he asked "Our bodies are mostly water and there is a sense of oneness when I am immersed, also it gives me the feeling of..." she paused and frowned for a moment, "I do not know how to further describe it, I am sorry." "Its okay, I think I understand a little... particularly Asuka's reason." "Why is that?" "Because, I do something like that sometimes, only I use music instead of water." "Music isolates you from the world?" "It can," Shinji said as he looked out at the Geofront beyond the window, "some music draws you in if you let it. You can create whole worlds in your mind if you let yourself drift to the melody." "I have never considered this," Rei said thoughtfully, "does it occur with all music?" "Everyone's taste in music differs Rei, some you might like more than others... but for me classical is the best for doing that. Would you like to hear some?" Rei nodded an affirmative and Shinji pulled up his music file. He usually kept most of his tracks on his hard drive and downloaded them onto his SDAT when it was time for a change. It only took a moment for him to find his Beethoven collection and soon Moonlight Sonata was drifting out of the laptops built in speakers. As Rei listened attentively to the somber piano melody, Asuka surfaced, having heard the music's echo from below the water. When the piece was done Shinji noticed that Rei's eyes had been closed. She opened them nodded at him, then stood and walked out of the room. Back in the pool Asuka shrugged and submerged. 'I guess that’s her idea of a 'thank you'...' he thought as he reloaded his homework program. []====[] []====[] Somewhere deep in the Geofront, there was a room that only two men ever entered. This room was not overly large; in fact Commander Ikari's office was almost three times its size. It was however large enough to accommodate a complex holographic projection and recording system. In the center of the room was a table with six spaces, each of these was illuminated in a different hue. At one end of the table sat Commander Gendou Ikari, with his Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutski standing nearby. The other five men in the room were in fact miles away. Their images were also no doubt altered to keep their identities secret from even the other members. Each of these men was a member of an organization known only as Seele. It had existed for years, perhaps centuries as a network of powerful men with one outstanding goal in mind The human instrumentality program. At the moment however, the topic at hand was only linked to that by incident. A few hours previous a discovery had been made at one of Japan's active volcanoes-- an Angel slept therein. If captured it could be a tremendous source of data for the numerous projects under development around the world. If they failed however... "An A17?" one of the committee members asked with more amusement in his tone than Gendou cared to have directed at him. "You wish to make a pre-emptive strike then?" another asked, at least showing a polite amount of interest Gendou fought the urge to sigh in annoyance. Seele was made up of some of the most powerful men on the planet. Men who ruled nations sat in it's committee. One would have thought that some tact would have come with the job. "Yes," he told them simply. "Not acceptable! It's too dangerous!" one of the other men sneered at him. Unsurprisingly, it was the American, the prideful fools never had forgiven the Japanese for overtaking them as the dominant world power, "don’t tell me you've already forgotten what happened when we tried this 15 years ago." Gendou fought the urge to get up and simply walk out. These sessions were more dangerous to him than any Angel attack could ever be. It seemed as if they were purposefully trying to antagonize him sometimes, "It's an opportunity to take an offensive posture, we've been doing nothing but defending ourselves since the beginning." " I must agree with him Ikari" the man who Gendou had known for years as Kiel said, "the risk is far too great." "Surely you admit how important getting a sample of a living Angel is," he said keeping his eyes fixed on Kiel. A moment passed between the men in total silence as Kiel considered those words. Finally the visored man spoke "Failure will not be tolerated," he told Gendou as the holographic conference was terminated. When the light of his place marker went out and he was certain that they were alone, he finally allowed himself to relax slightly. He detested dealing with these greedy and desperate fools, but if his goals were to be realized then he had no choice. To leave them to their own designs was _not_ something he was prepared to do-- no matter how annoying their bickering could be. "Failure?" Fuyutski said with obvious disgust, "If we fail, humanity will cease to exist." []====[] []====[] "So this is the Angel?" Shinji asked as they looked at the projected image on the screen. It didn’t really look like an angel at the moment... it looked more like one of the x- rays that doctors took of an unborn baby. They had called them in not half an hour ago and they had been suited up and ready to go when they had found out the nature of the mission. Needless to say Asuka was happy about it. "Yes," Ritsuko told them "this is something like a chrysalis stage before adulthood. I want you all to remember that the top priority for this operation is to trap the Angel, capturing it alive and preserving its original condition as much as possible." "And if we screw up?" Asuka asked "Annihilate it as quickly as possible," Ritsuko answered, showing no reaction to the insolent way Asuka had asked her question, "do you all understand what I've told you?" "Yes," the three pilots said in unison. "Good, now the assigned pilot will be--" She didn’t get to finish before Asuka began bouncing in her seat with her hand in the air, looking for all the world like a teacher's pet who knew the answer to a tough question. "Me! Me! I'll go!" she cried excitedly. They all knew that she had been craving a solo mission since she arrived, and that she wasn’t about to let this one slide by without a argument. 'But of course, they'll pick me as usual,' Shinji thought as he slumped back in his chair. "The pilot will be Asuka" Ritsuko finally finished with a roll of her eyes. Shinji sat up with a start at hearing that, for a change they weren't going to put him in the hot seat... As he thought about that with relief, Rei spoke up "And myself?" "Unfortunately the equipment hasn’t been standardized for use with Unit Zero" Maya told her, " we still haven't finished the upgrades to the prototype." "Correct," Ritsuko added, " but since it is nearly fully repaired you will remain here in case of emergency" "Understood," Rei said. "Awwww too bad," Asuka teased, " you won't be able to join us at the hot springs I guess" Shinji frowned-- there was absolutely no call for that. "Ritsuko?" he asked, " once the Angel is defeated is there any reason Rei shouldn’t be allowed to join us?" " I suppose not, if she wants to go we could arrange a transport... Rei?" Rei looked around at the expectant faces with a touch of surprise; she had not considered the possibility of joining the others once the condition of the prototype had been explained. However she had never been to a hot spring, and the idea did appeal to her. "If it does not interfere with my duties, then I would enjoy to go." She told Ritsuko who smiled as she caught Asuka's reaction out of the corner of her eye. The reaction in question was one of great annoyance. In the meantime Shinji sat there with a smile on his face. []====[] []====[] They had arrived quickly and set up at the edge of the fiery pit. Shinji was to stand by in Unit One while Asuka took the type D equipment down into the inferno. He had to admire how brave she was, if something went wrong she would be not only roasted alive, but feel Unit Two's pain long before the Entryplug was affected by the heat. He knew _far_ to well what that felt like, and did not envy her job. As he sat above the rim of the volcano in Unit One, he noticed a series of smoke trails above, there normally weren't that many planes in the area and it caught his attention. Flipping on his communications he asked Misato and the others what it was about. "That's the UN air force," Ritsuko answered "Oh?" Asuka piped in from Unit Two, "are they here to help us?" "No," Ritsuko replied with a touch of sour amusement, " they're here to clean up the mess if we fail." "What do you mean?" Asuka asked "If we fail their orders are to saturate the area with a N2 bombing run." "That _sucks_!" Asuka screamed indignantly from her Entryplug. " Who would order something like that?" Shinji wanted to know. "Commander Ikari" Ritsuko replied 'You bastard...' Shinji thought angrily as he looked up at the planes circle above like vultures. []====[] []====[] Other than the scissors dive as she went in, Shinji had to admit that Asuka was totally professional. It was strange... Misato was the same way. Off duty the woman was a total slob, constantly drinking and dressing in clothing that would get her arrested anywhere other than a beach. On duty Misato was just what Kensuke and Touji called her-- a Goddess. Right now she was completely in command of all aspects of the operation and the very picture of professional behavior. A similar duality was at work with Asuka. Thankfully she didn’t have Misato's habits, but the ones she _did_ have were almost as bad. But now, as he listened to the exchange going on between her and Misato, he respected her understanding of procedure. It was something he didn’t have; for the most part he had to struggle just to remember the proper procedure for communications. As she passed the recommended safety depth, he was again impressed by her lack of fear. Had it been him down there with the magma he knew he would have turned back by now. "Nothing detected, no one's home" Asuka told Misato as she scanned the expected location. "The lava flow at that depth is faster than predicted, we are recalculating the location now" Misato told her. A few moments passed and Shinji was sweating despite the fact he was on the surface, every few moments he could hear a creaking sound over the radio contact, and he knew it was the armor of Unit Two warping under the heat. "We are exceeding the maximum safety depth, Asuka what is your status?" Misato asked "So far so good, but I wanna get into a shower first thing when I'm done, I feel nasty in this damn weird Plugsuit" "I know," Misato told her, and Shinji could almost picture the grin, " when we're done here we'll head off to the hot springs okay?" As the Eva continued its slow trek, Shinji could still hear the creaking of the type D equipment through the communication link. The pressure down there was unbelievable; it had even snapped the straps holding the progressive knife in place. Every creak singled a step closer to the armor's implosion, how Asuka could stand it was beyond him. Finally they found the target. "Releasing magnetic field... no problems detected, " Asuka told them from the bowls of the earth, " capture successful" "How are you down there Asuka?" Shinji asked "Oh this was nothing," She told him, "but I definitely want to get the hell out of this damn suit and into that hot bath." Shinji grinned at that and sat back on his seat. Nothing had gone wrong, she was ok, and soon they would be at the springs. He wished Hikari would be there, he missed her. At least it would give him a chance to get to know her sisters though. They had planned this trip from the moment they had discovered that he and Asuka wouldn't be going on the class trip. Misato had even arranged for Kodama to bring Rei with them when she and Nozomi came up later. When she wasn’t teasing him, Kodama could be nice enough, and Nozomi was just fun. The younger girl was smarter than most of the people he knew, when she grew up she just might make good on her desire to take Misato's job. As he drifted along to his thoughts, he heard a beep from the com, then an alarm. Sitting up quickly he checked his readouts and saw that there was a problem with the EM field around the angel... it was waking up! "Abort the capture," Misato yelled over the com, "drop the cage!" "No!" Asuka cried as the beast tried to free itself "Our operation is now altered," Misato ordered, "annihilation of Angel is the number one priority. Unit Two, withdraw and prepare for battle." "Understood!" Asuka said from below, "I've been waiting for this!" However a few seconds later, Shinji's hairs stood on end as he heard her next transmission "Oh, shiest!" She cried, "I forgot that I dropped the knife! The enemy is approaching from the front! Releasing ballast's." "Asuka," Misato yelled as Ritsuko relayed Shinji's new orders, "Unit One will drop its knife. Try and catch it!" Shinji threw his progressive knife into the bubbling lava, but his concern didn’t ebb a bit. Switching on a private line to Misato, he asked permission to join the fight. "Negative Shinji, we need you up here in case the angel defeats Asuka." "But Misato--" "I said _no_ Shinji and that’s an order, you are our last line of defense" 'Gee, no pressure," he thought bitterly as he watched the churning mass of molten rock below. The battle was tense for all of them. Visibility was nil and without weapons, Asuka was reduced to dodges for the moment. Her depth was rising rapidly but it just wasn’t fast enough. As the progressive knife arrived Shinji let out a sigh of relief... that was until what he heard next. "I'm not getting any use out of this damn thing!" she cried as she tried to cut into the Angel who was trying to _eat_ her. Ritsuko reported that the Angel's mass was too great and that the heat was preventing the Progressive knife from making even a scratch. 'Damnit I can't just _sit_ here' Shinji thought as the others tried to come up with a plan, the answer came to him in a flash as he heard Maya report that one of the coolant pipes had been damaged. "Asuka!" he shouted, trying to slow his mind down enough to make sense "think Physics!" "Thermal expansion!" She yelled as she realized what he was saying, "transmit all coolant pressure to pipe three!" As they followed the directions, Shinji leaned over the edge and looked at the lava again, no sign of the battle below could be seen from there, despite the fact they were only a few hundred feet below the surface now. " Heavy damage to all pipes!" Makoto yelled suddenly, " structural integrity down to three percent!" "I'm going in!" Shinji shouted as he realized that Asuka's lifeline was about to snap. "No Shinji!" Misato yelled back, " this is an order, you sta-" Whatever she might have added to that was lost as Shinji switched off all communications and leapt into the volcano. The first thing he noticed was the pain. The searing heat all around him transmitted through the neural interface he shared with Unit One. It was not, however, as bad as what the fifth angel had done to him, and he felt he could take it for a while. The second thing he felt as he sunk rapidly down into the magma, was the pressure. It felt like every inch of his body was being crushed more and more as he went deeper. Had this been the same for Asuka? How could she stand it? As he activated the CT monitor, he saw that Asuka was only a couple of meters away now, and as reported the piping was about to give out. Switching his communications back on he could hear her. "I defeated the Angel," she said softly, " but I'm done for..." 'No!' he thought as the pipe snapped just below him. Grabbing the end, he threw Unit One forward and reached as far as he could, grasping the edge of Unit Two's piping at the last possible second. Unit Two's descent stopped with a jerk, and he heard a surprised gasp come over the com link. As he breathed a sigh of relief, he heard her let out a short laugh. "Show off" she said. []====[] []====[] "Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in Shinji?" Misato demanded once he returned from the shower. He was painfully reminded of a similar situation just after the fourth angel. That had been about he same thing-- disobeying orders. "I gave you a direct order to hold your position and you ignored it. Not only that you shut off communications and placed Unit One at great risk." Misato told him, her voice was like steel trimmed with ice, "the price of repairs for Unit Two alone could feed a small nation, but you went down there with no protection at all. We're going to be clearing lava out of Unit One's armor for weeks!" Shinji stood there and listened to what she had to say. He didn’t care really, he had saved Asuka and that was the important thing. How Misato seemed to be missing that point was beyond him. "I will have you know Shinji Ikari, " Misato said, " that we are in a time of war, and during war solders who disobey orders can be executed at the whim of the commanding officer. What you did back there can be interpreted as treason _very_ easily. Am I making myself clear?" "Crystal" Shinji said, and while he did understand, he didn’t really care. The angel was dead and he had not been about to let someone die like that if there was something he could do. It felt... good to have saved someone's life, and he was not going to let anyone take that away. Even Misato. "Good," she told him, her voice suddenly softening" because now I want to thank you Shinji." "W--what?" he stammered, completely caught off guard, "why?" "For saving her life," Misato told him, "Shinji, I don’t want you to think I chewed you out like that because I was mad you dove in there after Asuka. Don’t get me wrong, I am angry that you disobeyed my orders, but there is a reason for that. If you don’t follow orders in this job then people die Shinji, and that's what we're trying to prevent. You have to learn that I'm not telling you to do these things for the hell of it. Calls like the one today have to be made sometimes. It sucks, and I hate myself for it, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it anyway." "You never asked for this," she continued, "and I curse myself and your father every day for forcing you into it. But if we don’t do this then too many people will lose heir lives. We don’t have a choice Shinji, do you understand?" "I'm trying to Misato..." he told her as tears threatened to flow, "I really am, but I just don’t want people to get hurt" She walked over and gave him a hug, "me either Kido, me either... hey, what's say we go spend a few dozen hours at the finest hot springs in the country and forget about all this bullshit?" "That sounds good," he told her as they stepped out of the truck that held the lockers and into the sunlight. []====[] []====[] Later that night after the others arrived, they sat around a fireplace in the Hot spring's best suite and laughed as Misato told them about the Plugsuit they had made for Asuka's dive. Asuka of course was not happy about this and proceeded to tell everyone about the night Misato had tried to sing while drunk, complete with impressions. Nozomi had taken over the show at that point and had managed to not only embarrass Asuka, but had managed to bring up a couple of incidents that had Kodama and Misato blushing as well Shinji sat in his robe watching the proceedings with a smile. For so long he had hated piloting the Evangelion, but after today, he was realizing that there just might be a purpose and reason for him to continue. "Hey Ikari," Kodama said suddenly, "I need to talk with you a moment." "Okay..." he said as he sat up, and they walked over to a corner. "I heard about the kiss." Kodama said getting straight to the point. "Oh..." Shinji replied with a gulp "How do you feel about Hikari?" she asked him as she crossed her arms. Fighting to keep from blushing, he tried to answer as truthfully as he could. "I like her a lot Kodama, she makes me feel like I'm actually worth something." "Okay... well look, other than the fact you need a serious self esteem implant, I don’t have any problems with you, but the first sign that you're not treating her right and I'm going to make sure you regret it." "Um..." Shinji said, his eyes wide at the threat, " I'll do my best." "S'all I wanted to hear. As long as you're good to her, then you're alright in my book Ikari." "Thank you," he said, as he wondered if other guys got this from their girlfriend's families. "So, what's the deal with Rei?" She asked him as she nodded where the girl sat by the window watching the rising moon, " is she your cousin or something?" "Huh?" Shinji said as he glanced at the pale girl, "no, I never even met her till I came here, what gave you that idea?" " I was just wondering. You two kind of... never mind, my bad call okay? "Don't worry about it," Shinji told her as they joined the others. []====[] []====[] As Asuka lay on her futon that night she thought back to that moment between the pipe snapping and her rescue. The reason this was so dominant in her mind was that for that instant, she had been relieved. 'Why?' she wondered, 'why would I ever be _glad_ that I was about to die? That just doesn't make sense. I'm the best Pilot in Nerv, what could possibly make me want to leave that?' It was confusing to her, and bothersome because it threatened to bring out some things that she didn’t want to remember. Rolling on her side she decided that there was too much pain in her past to dwell on this crap; it only brought back bad memories Across from her, she could see Nozomi and Rei sleeping silently. Rei wasn’t exactly a talker, and Asuka didn’t care for her attitude much anyhow. Nozomi on the other hand... Asuka was glad she had come, hanging around with her had given her an excuse to conveniently 'forget' to thank Shinji for saving her life. It was frustrating that the little twit had overshadowed her greatest triumph. Not that she wasn’t glad he had been there to pull her fat out of the fire, but she had wanted to complete the mission by herself. His having interfered had marred what should have been her total victory. To make matters worse he kept sinking his claws into her life! First she had been forced to share the apartment with him, and that had been survivable. But now she was being forced to deal with the fact that her only friend in the country had some kind of disgusting crush on him! She had _no_ idea what that was about, he wasn’t much to look at, he had no personality and to top it all off he was a grubby little pervert. How Hikari could ever feel anything for someone like him was beyond her understanding. She had tried to figure it out that day at the natatorium, but still hadn't seen whatever it was in there. She had even seen Rei talking to him once or twice, and _that_ had to be proof enough that he was weird. As she tossed back to look out the window, she rolled her eyes and tried to get to sleep. She would have to have a long talk with Hikari when she and the others got back, that boy was nothing but trouble. Hopefully Hikari would be smart enough to realize that before anything disgusting happened. []====================[] To Be Continued... []====================[] Authors Incoherent Babbling: Some quick trivia: I was going through my (Webster's) English-Japanese dictionary looking up words and stuff and I found Hikari in there. The word translates as "ray or beam of light". Appropriate huh? Oh, and Nozomi means "hope, wish or a desire"... kinda cool stuff. I like how Japanese names do that. Occasionally in the English speaking countries you will run across a similar thing (generally with girls) where their name is Hope, or Crystal, or Willow. This happens in a few other cultures; I know Native Americans have names like that, but I don’t know about others... the more I learn the more I discover I have yet to learn. On that note, anyone with a handle on Japanese might have caught the identity of Kensuke's new friend. I know it's not a cannon character, but I couldn't resist. Besides, I have a very good reason for doing it. And also on that note, I seriously doubt they just junked the JA's, selling them makes more sense in the starving world economy of post second impact. About the beer thing ... well I'm just guessing here, but chances are that Misato started drinking in collage and it just might have been Kaji that started her in on the Russian beer. *Snicker* And for the music, that one is just a guess, but if that’s _his_ laptop it makes sense. Shinji only has the one bag and we never see a collection of music, but he has to record this stuff _somehow_ so I figure he keeps it on the laptop and mix and matches to suit his current mood. One more thing, and this is another attempt to dodge mailbombs from Asuka fans. If you don’t like the portrayal of her here that’s fine. I'm trying to portray her as someone who is very confused, but doesn't realize it. She lusts after Kaji, but every time she sees someone makin' with Der smoochin' she rolls her eyes and thinks 'how disgusting'. I don’t think Asuka understands the difference between love and lust (or knows that there is one), and it's something I'll be exploring in Book 2. Well its late and my brain is fried from too much sugar and caffeine, off to sleep. Hotwire Chain Lightning Studios http://www.chainlightningstudios.com