Genocide 0:10 / Shatter

'Look at the fireworks, Mama!' the little child exclaimed in an excited voice.

'I see them, aren't they pretty?' the parent replied, holding the child's hand.

The child nodded. 'What are they celebrating?'

'Christmas,' came the reply.

'What's that?'

'It's the birth of their Savior,' the parent answered. 'They celebrate it every year. This is your first Christmas, isn't it?'

The child nodded again. 'Yep, we don't have those where auntie lives.'

The parent smiled warmly. 'Well, this will be your first of many. You are with me now.'

"Mama…"

A voice murmured in the darkness. "Keiko…"

'What happened to Mama?' the child asked, as the older girl kneeled in front of her.

The older girl's face was grim. 'There was an accident.'

'Is Mama all right?'

'She…' the older girl choked on the words, 'She…'

'Miko, what happened to Mama?'

'She…'

"Mama…"

The voice came to her again through the darkness. "Keiko!"

The brunette girl blinked back to awareness as Ritsuko's voice flooded the dimly-lit entry plug. She shook her head slowly and took in her surroundings. This was the tenth time she'd been in the Eva, yet she couldn't get used to the sensation and every time she closed her eyes a painful memory surfaced.

The voice poured out of the speakers. "Keiko, your thought pattern is spiking. Try to concentrate," Ritsuko informed over the communicator. For the young pilot, it was easier said than done.

Keiko took a deep breath of LCL, making sure she didn't swallow any of it, and let it out slowly. She was tense. The test had gone on longer than she had expected and her anxiety that begun to build.

Ritsuko continued, not caring to hear a reply. "The sooner you settle down, the sooner we can get this over with."

"I'm trying," the girl replied. She had made a habit out of just closing her eyes while attempting to clear her thoughts, but that no longer worked because the memories always washed over her like a wave.

Keiko squeezed her eyes shut once again and it was then that she felt the tears running down her cheeks.

Ritsuko pressed her point. "Your synchrograph is fluctuating," the doctor said. "Try harder."

Keiko let out a sob. "I'm trying. I really am."

Another voice flooded the entry-plug. "Damn it, Nagara. You are crying again?" Asuka's words broke into the plug like a hammer. "Can't you keep it together for once?"

"Asuka!" Ritsuko barked. "I've asked you to stop hazing her!"

The German redhead let out a groan. "What? This is your fault for scheduling my test after hers!" she yelled back in anger.

Ritsuko retorted. "Her test was given priority over yours."

"Pathetic! When the next Angel comes she'll be nothing but cannon fodder."

"Asuka!" the doctor cried.

"This is a waste of time. Her selection as a pilot must've been someone's idea of a joke."

Ritsuko had had enough. She overrode Asuka's signal protocol and locked her out of Keiko's communication's system.

The brunette had not been paying much attention to the exchange that had just taken place, though she had heard what Asuka said about her. She knew the German girl was right. It must have been a cruel joke somebody decided to play on her.

'You are with me now,' a voice inside her head whispered.

Keiko drew her knees up and buried her head between them. She couldn't put up with it anymore. The sensation was too overwhelming. She knew she had to get out or she would fall apart. "Can we stop?" she pleaded with whoever was willing to hear her.

"We need to get this data," Ritsuko replied, coldly. "The Commander insisted on it."

"I can't do this," Keiko's voice began to break down. "Please, stop it."

Ritsuko tried to reason with her, but there was nothing she could really do. "Keiko…"

"Please, stop it! I can't take it anymore," the brunette cried.

Ritsuko thought about her options for a few seconds before replying. "All right. We'll finish here today and continue tomorrow."

X

"Your anxiety is directly proportional to your forgetfulness of nature, for you bring on yourself unlimited fears and desires."

-Epicurus

X

"I appreciate the dinner, girls," Nakayima said as he set his chopsticks on the edge of the plate. "I can't remember the last time I had something this good."

"It's OK, Nakayima-san. I was not gonna have you over just to offer you booze," Miko replied with a beaming smile, though that gesture did very little to alleviate the generally depressing mood that had gripped the evening.

"Well, food and booze. No one in their right mind would say no to that," the Agent said.

It had all been Miko's idea and she had been rather adamant about it. Keiko understood, though. Her guardian was not a shinning example of what a good social life was, so when she was approached with the idea to share dinner with a man she had never met before simply because it was evident that Miko liked him, she couldn't refuse. This Nakayima seemed like a nice enough guy.

Despite this, the rookie pilot was very uncomfortable with the arrangement and that had become quite obvious to both Nakayima and Miko.

The awkward silence had been the predominant characteristic of the atmosphere as they sat at the small living room table and ate dinner. Miko had cooked, something she did once every blue moon. In Keiko's eyes that alone pointed to the fact that the agent was more than just an acquaintance to her guardian. Where had she met the guy, anyway? She wondered.

"So, Keiko-chan," Nakayima began, in his latest attempt to break the ice between him and the younger girl. "How does it feel to be an Eva pilot?"

"Fine," Keiko replied, simply and shrugged. "How is it supposed to feel?"

Nakayima gave her a curious glance. "I have no idea. I've never met a pilot before," he admitted, focusing on the girl's features. The brunette wore her hair tied in a ponytail, but certain locks still managed to wash delicately across her face. Her eyes wandered, like a pair of lost stars. The agent could tell that something troubled her, and it was not necessarily his presence.

"She's too modest," Miko broke into the conversation, gazing over at Nakayima. "I think it's a good thing and she should be proud of herself."

"There is nothing to be proud of," Keiko whispered, picking herself up and silently heading for her room. Nakayima focused on the girl's movements. There was a quiet grace that surrounded her, and yet she moved as if carrying a great weight. Her shoulders were slumped and she dragged her bare feet across the floor with uncertain lethargy.

"Are you going to bed already?" Miko called out to the brunette.

Keiko shut the door behind her as she entered her room without saying a word.

"Damn, and I thought I was depressing," Nakayima muttered as he reached for the nearest bottle of liquor, one of the many lined up over the table.

"She's not always like this," Miko offered, as a way of excuse. She reached out with her glass. The agent understood what she meant and poured her a shot of liquor.

"Well, we all have our good days and bad days."

"It's not like that," Miko moved the glass to her lips and took a short sip. "I think it's this place. It brings out the worse in people. Before we came here, she was such a happy girl. You know how kids can be. She was so full of life, so eager to live on, but now…I think I should have never brought her here. This place is so full of sadness."

"You did what you thought was best," Nakayima said, drinking from his glass. "You talk about her being a kid, but you are not much older yourself, are you?"

"I'm nineteen."

"I'm twenty-six and I can be pretty childish. The point is that I think you expect too much of yourself. You are young and shouldn't worry about this kind of thing. If something bothers her and she wants to talk about it, she'll come to you. If not, then she'll get over it on her own."

"You would make a really bad parent, you know that, right?"

Nakayima narrowed his eyes. "I know, which is why I never intend to have kids," he said. "I don't need the burden."

"Children are not a burden, Nakayima-san," Miko pointed out. "They are a blessing."

"To each their own, I guess," the agent said, finishing the last of the bottle. "So tell me, how is it that you became her guardian?"

Miko considered his question for a few minutes before replying. She wondered if she really wanted to open that old vault of memories. It couldn't hurt to share them with someone else, could it? "I met Keiko about six years ago when her mother brought her to Germany for the first time. My mom and hers were good friends so naturally we had to get along. I think she was eight at the time. We used to spend a lot of time together, since our mothers were always working. Keiko was like a little sister to me and she still is. I once even took her skating in the Winter Garden in Berlin and bought her coffee."

Nakayima raised an eyebrow. "Coffee?"

Miko shrugged and ran a hand through her dark blond hair. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, a year later Keiko's mother died in some weird lab accident. The details were never made public, but what did I care. My mom decided then that we would take her in with us. It was much better than allowing her to be placed with foster parents."

"It's always the children who suffer the most. One more reason not to have any," Nakayima said apologetically.

"Think what you will, but I should tell you that I enjoyed the time we spent together after that. My own mother was never there, but I had Keiko. I didn't miss her when she was working. She became like a stranger and secluded herself in her job. She died a week after I turned eighteen. I didn't cry at her funeral, though. I ran out of tears long before that," Miko said, leaning with her elbows on the table and fiddling the empty glass with her fingers. "So now you know, Nakayima-san. Would it be too much if I asked for your story?"

"I," Nakayima began, thinking about what he would say. He surely couldn't let her know much, if he let her know anything at all. She wouldn't understand, he decided. She was too different, too honest. It would be dangerous and painful. Painful. The thought hit him right there. He had never told anyone about him, not because he wanted to keep it secret but because it brought him pain. People knew what was on the files or other sources, but he had never willingly given away any of it. This girl wouldn't get it.

"Well?" Miko insisted, staring at her glass.

"I…" Nakayima shook his head, "…am not nearly drunk enough to tell you."

X

Asuka was angry and Shinji could tell that by just looking into her deep blue eyes. She hadn't said anything, which was unusual since she tended to make a spectacle out of everything, and simply committed herself to wandering around the apartment like a prowling cat. This had been going on since she had arrived home from Central Dogma.

The Third Child had decided that he was not going to push her into telling him what was bothering her. Asuka would do so if she felt like it, so Shinji opted for the preventive defense instead of the frontal approach.

Time and again the redhead had attempted to settle down, at the kitchen table, the couch, the floor, her bedroom, the tub and pretty much everywhere else, and yet she always ended up on her feet as if some plague would befall her if she stayed down on any one place for a prolonged period of time.

From his place on the couch, Shinji gazed at her captivated.. He wondered what it was. Could it be in relation to him? Had he done something to upset her? The boy tried his best to find an answer. He knew he hadn't done anything to her, but there was always something with Asuka. Her moods were like the weather, somewhat predictable yet quite untamed. Even someone like Shinji, who had grown used to her, found her difficult to understand. He was afraid of her, but he was certain that she was just as afraid of him and that made it all better. Asuka was a strange girl, but he was an equally strange boy and there was something in that correlation that made it work.

Finally, Asuka stopped and turned to him. "I'm going out for a walk," she announced loudly. "Come with me."

Shinji understood. It was not a question, nor an order, but rather an invitation in Asuka's traditional fashion. She wanted to talk to him.

The Third Child got up and made his way to the door by which time Asuka had already slipped into her sneakers and was holding the door open. He got into his shoes and stepped outside. He didn't feel like walking but there was no arguing with Asuka, not that he wanted to argue with her anyway.

He followed the girl to the small plaza located on the building's central atrium and surrounded by several concrete benches. The night was humid, since it had been raining all day. He felt cold and was pretty sure Asuka was cold too; after all she was only wearing a pair of shorts and an oversized T-shirt, but if she was, she didn't show it.

They made it to one of the benches and Shinji promptly sat, while Asuka chose to stand next to him and gazed at the night sky. The boy was the first to talk. "Uh, Asuka?" he spoke with a dry throat. "W-what is it?"

Asuka glared at him, a gesture that he had already become familiar with. Shinji had to admit it though: his redhead roommate was the only person he knew that could look like she wanted to kill someone and incredibly charming at the same time. He decided that it was something about the way she curled the corners of her mouth slightly upwards, while half-closing her eyes. Asuka ignored the inquiring glance he offered her. "Shut up. I'm doing the talking," she snarled.

"Okay."

"Listen, I…need to know something," the redhead began, without looking at him. "If we weren't Eva pilots, I mean, if we were just two normal kids with normal problems…would you still put up with me?"

Shinji was confused, to say the least. "I-I don't understand…"

"Naturally," Asuka scoffed. "What I mean is, even if there were nothing to make us special, even if we had nothing else, would you still…you know, be there for me?"

"I think I would," Shinji replied, uncertain.

Asuka narrowed her eyes. "You think?"

Shinji quickly corrected himself. "I know I would."

"Even if there was nothing to make me special?" the redhead pushed the issue, but this time she phrased the question differently.

"Y-you don't need the Eva to be special," Shinji assured her and attempted a smile. "I think…you are special enough on your own."

Asuka sneered. "Pervert, pick-up lines don't work with me."

Shinji panicked, without knowing if she had misunderstood him, or was being sarcastic. "I was not…I…didn't mean to sound like that, Asuka. Sorry," he attempted and apology. "I was…just…"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Asuka brushed him off. She knew him well enough by now. Shinji would never try a line like that with her. He must've had a momentary mental blackout or something, the redhead decided.

Neither of them said anything for a while.

The cicadas chirped in the distance.

"Asuka?"

"What?"

The boy hesitated. "Why did you ask me that?"

The German redhead seemed to consider his question for an eternity, rolling it in her mind and wondering if she should answer. For the first time in the night, their eyes locked.

"My synch-ratio dropped today," Asuka finally informed him. "Five points."

She didn't have to say anything else.

The last time Asuka's synch-ratio had dropped life had become a nightmare for her. Shinji could sense the dread in her voice and the thought frightened him. Asuka was the strongest person in his life, in a sense she was like his angular stone, the foundation of his own strength. He would stand as long as Asuka stood with him, but if she collapsed he wouldn't be able to keep himself together.

Shinji remembered the words he'd spoken to a comatose Asuka, so long ago it seemed. 'Asuka? Please...talk to me,' he had pleaded, in desperation. 'Asuka...talk to me...say...anything!'

The Third Child felt a chill as the image of the redhead in the hospital bed hit him. He didn't want to remember her like that. He didn't want it to happen again.

He wouldn't be able to bear it.

Asuka remembered it too. She had reason to be afraid.

X

Keiko stumbled out of her room half asleep, and clumsily made her way to the bathroom. She knew the way by heart so she had no problem navigating in the darkness, but the second she turned the bathroom lights on, the flash of light hurt her eyes. She hated having to get up in the middle of the night to use the toilet, but the alternative would be rather unpleasant and embarrassing. The brunette didn't think much about it, and decided that she might as well accept the fact that it would be nearly impossible to will herself back to sleep.

She took care of her business, washed her hands and shut the light, but as she made her way back to her room, something broke through the mist that clouded her mind and urged her to get back to bed as soon as possible.

Keiko heard the voices from the kitchen and frowned. Is he still here? she thought to herself. What is she thinking?

Silently, she moved towards the kitchen and stopped just a few inches away from the door. A sliver of light pierced the darkness at the spot where the wood-like division failed to meet its frame.

Nakayima's voice was the first one she was able to make out. "I think that what bothers you is the fact that she's not happy," the agent said, sounding concerned.

Keiko gently slid the door open just an inch, enough to allow her to peer into the kitchen.

"I dunno. What's it matter? I made her do it," Miko's voice trembled as she said those words. She was not drunk, that much Keiko could tell, though she didn't doubt that her guardian would rather have been. The blonde girl was sitting on the kitchen table, with her legs folded underneath her and with a bottle of some kind of liquor on her lap.

"It's not like you forced her," Nakayima, who was standing by the sink with a cup of coffee on his right hand, said. "She chose to do it out of her own free will."

"I am responsible for her happiness, aren't I? It's my fault that she is not happy," Miko said, shaking her head. "It's my fault."

Keiko was taken aback by her guardian's statement. She had never blamed Miko, nor ever intended to. The decision to pilot the Eva, though somewhat influenced by her discussion with the older girl, was hers alone and she would stand by that decision.

"Don't say that," Nakayima replied. He was uncomfortable, but couldn't bring himself to keep quiet while Miko went on criticizing herself.

"I'm sorry I ever thought I could do this. How stupid was it of me to think I could take care of a child, when I'm just a child myself?"

"You did a good thing."

Miko closed her eyes. "She could have gone to a nice family. She could have been happy, but…I was too afraid of being alone. I had to keep her by my side. I had to be selfish."

In all honesty, Keiko felt guilty. She couldn't believe that she was the cause of so much of Miko's pain. She had always been grateful that the blonde girl had decided to take her in and spare her the horrors of foster care. Miko was someone she was fond of, ever since she was a little girl, but now she was making her suffer. Keiko wanted to slide the door open and speak to her guardian, telling her that she shouldn't blame herself for anything, but a part of her held her back.

Slowly, a darker feeling began to surface. Doesn't she want to be with me? Keiko wondered.

'You are with me now,' the voice within her mind whispered.

'Don't you want to be with me?'

Keiko's head dropped. She stood motionless on that same spot; tears now streaming silently down her face, and the voices from beyond the door were soon blocked out by the sound of her own.

"Please…don't leave me."

X

The rag doll hung on the end of the noose. It swung symmetrically, tracing a circle on the air just underneath it. Asuka's blue eyes followed its every movement with the most childish glee. She smiled, a grin of satisfaction, for she hated the doll with every part of her being. It had taken the most precious thing away from her. It deserved it.

'Asuka darling, don't look at that girl. She'll yell at you,' a somber, monotonous voice said.

"I am your daughter," the redhead cried.

The voice ignored her. 'Asuka, you mustn't complain or Mama won't love you anymore.'

"I am your daughter."

'Asuka, you must be a good girl.'

Asuka pressed her open palm against her chest, while her eyes filled with rage. "I am your daughter! Not that doll!"

The voice became stern. 'Asuka, you must do what Mama says.'

"I am not a doll!!!"

Asuka's words echoed through the hospital room, but she was no longer the child she had once being, watching helplessly as her mother slipped away from reality. No. Now she was a grown up. She was mature and strong.

'Asuka, you mustn't be mean or people won't like you.'

The Second Child squeezed her eyes shut, her hands clenching into fists. "I am not a doll! I don't care if people like me!" she yelled at the top of her lungs and when she opened her eyes, the hanging doll was gone. Instead, the redhead saw an image of herself in the entry-plug. She was curled into a tight ball, sobbing.

'No…don't make me look. Don't make me see those awful memories,' the figure with her form begged.

Asuka snarled at herself and couldn't believe that the broken voice had been hers.

'Kaji, help me. It's defiling my mind.'

The redhead felt ill. How could that have been her? She had promised never to cry and never to need anyone, but that had all changed that day.

The figure kept on crying. Tears of anger, hate and desperation reddened her cheeks. 'Why won't you look at me?'

Asuka shook her head desperately. "No! I don't need anyone!"

'You won't even hold me,' her own voice whispered back.

"I don't…need…"

'I…felt lonely,' those words made her stop and gasp. She had admitted that. Not only that, but she had admitted it to him. 'I hate…feeling this way, but…thank you for caring.'

No! That couldn't be her. She wouldn't acknowledge that and not to him. Not to him!

'Promise that you'll never hurt me,' the voice began streaming through her mind. 'Why won't you look at me?' it called in an angry tone. 'Look at me!' it demanded.

'Asuka, don't look at that girl,' another voice warned.

The German girl cried. "I am your daughter!"

'I hate you!' a third voice, sounding like Shinji, said.

"No!"

'I hope you die!' the same voice screamed.

Asuka looked and saw the boy standing in front of her. His face was blank and his eyes were empty. 'Are you stupid?' he said.

"Shinji…"

'I hope you die,' the voice repeated.

"I don't need him! I don't need anyone! I am not their doll!"

Asuka heard her own voice again. 'How does it feel when you pilot your Eva?'

'Empty,' something from the darkness replied.

"It's…empty," the redhead mumbled, almost incoherently.

Asuka heard a new voice screaming from behind her. She slowly turned and as soon as her brain processed the image, her eyes widened with horror.

The voice screamed again. 'Look at me!'

Asuka saw herself hanging from the noose, like the doll had only moments before. Her body was limp as it swung there, her feet slowly oscillating from side to side with a gentle, pendulum-like motion. It was wearing the red plug-suit, which made it look as if it was covered with blood.

'Look at me!' the voice shrieked, even louder than before.

The hanging Asuka opened her eyes and was immediately replaced with the doll.

The German girl fell on her knees and allowed her head to sink between her shoulders. "No!" she cried, fear and hopelessness seeping into her mind.

'Why won't you look at me?' the voice demanded again.

"I can think by myself. I'm not a doll," Asuka replied, but this time, her voice was nothing more than a soft murmur. "I am not a doll"

'Asuka darling, why are you hiding from me?'

It was then that she felt the hands reaching for her, dozens of them, grabbing at her body. Asuka did all she could to fight them, but was overwhelmed. They pinned her down, grasping her head, her hair, her arms, her legs. They were all around her, like mad ghosts, pulling her downwards so that she couldn't move. Asuka was terrified. Frantically, she struggled to tear herself free, to run away, but it was in vain.

'Look at me!'

The voice made Asuka stop and she tried to scream as the noose was wrapped around her neck.

Asuka's eyes flew wide open as she kicked away her covers and leaped out of bed. She quickly reached for her night lamp and flicked it on. The darkness dissolved immediately. The girl looked frenetically over the room, looking for any signs of the nightmare. Every shadow made her anxious, as they appeared to reach out to grab her, like the hands had done. Though she finally managed to convince herself that she was safe, that there was nothing to be afraid of, that it was over, it took her almost fifteen minutes to calm down enough so that her heart would stop trying to escape through her chest. The redhead was covered with sweat from head to toe and it made her feel sticky, only adding to her general feeling of discomfort, but that didn't seem to really matter.

"What's wrong with me?" she shook her head in an attempt to push the last remains of the nightmare out of her mind and refused to turn off the light.

X

Misato walked into her office and was surprised to find Ritsuko sitting behind her desk. The blonde doctor had a cup of coffee on one hand and a thick report on the other. She dumped the report on the desk as soon as the Major entered. "Well, the Commander is officially mad."

"What else is knew?" Misato replied sarcastically. She made her way over to the coffee machine set on a corner of the room and poured a cup, though she had always disliked Ritsuko's coffee in the morning. The doctor had the disgusting habit of using a far too small powder coffee-to-water ratio.

"Why did you tell Maya not to give Unit 08 combat status?" Ritsuko inquired. She sounded cold, even for her own standards.

"Because it is not ready for combat," Misato replied. "You are just too blind to see it."

"You are the one who is blind. Your concern for the pilot is costing us time. Right now, Unit 08 is as good a weapon as any. We can't afford more setbacks with it, regardless of what your morality tells you."

"Listen to yourself, Ritsuko," Misato muttered. "That's a human life you are talking about. You are going to end up killing this girl."

"If it servers our purpose."

Misato did not reply. She just gave the doctor a hard glance. There was no point in arguing. Ritsuko would never understand her concept of the value of human life; she had grown too used to being around people like Commander Ikari.

Ritsuko continued. "At any rate, we have been ordered to find more effective ways to deal with the problem."

"Which means?" Misato gave the doctor a hard glance.

"You are being too conservative."

"The pilot's safety is my first concern," Misato retorted. "Your schedule comes second."

"Then I'll have to place a formal complaint requesting the revocation of your authority in matters not directly pertaining tactical or strategic situations," Ritsuko threatened.

"You have been ignoring my authority in those matters since you came out of the brig," Misato pointed out, as she drew out a chair and took a seat across from the doctor. "So be my guest."

"Look, Misato. I understand your concern for the pilot, but she has a greater purpose. It is imperative that she be ready when the time comes. For this, we must adhere to the schedule. Any failure to do so can have very grave consequences."

"Everything we do has grave consequences."

"That is the nature of our trade."

Misato narrowed her eyes. "Sometimes, I even wonder what trade that is," she said. "We seem to be more intent on destroying people's lives than in saving them."

"A few lives are a little price to pay in the grand scheme of things. Sacrifices have to be made for the greater good and if those sacrifices entail the ruination of some lives, then so be it. We cannot be concerned with it. Otherwise, we would never get anything done," Ritsuko replied. "You should know that by now."

"Means to an end, right?" Misato said, sarcastically. "It always comes down to that, doesn't it?"

"It's only fitting. Life, in its lowest form, is exploitation."

X

Asuka's face looked peaceful, though Maya knew that it was only a facade. The Lieutenant fixed her eyes on the image provided by one of the many cameras placed inside the entry-plug.

"Her synch-ratio has dropped three more points. That's eight in less than a week," Hyouga reported unceremoniously. "The synchrograph is shaky and I have a great deal of interference on her brain pattern's readouts. The system is picking up a 9.7 percent discrepancy between Asuka's current outline and her established parameter."

Maya sighed. She wouldn't tell Asuka about any of the abnormalities, as she had been told. It would prove way too risky and knowing the redhead's emotional condition, she was sure that, for once, her orders were for the best. "What are the possible causes?" she inquired, having already asked the question half a dozen times.

"Short of a total contamination of the system, which is impossible, we can't find anything wrong."

Maya nodded. Time to think like Dr. Akagi, she told herself. "If there were contamination in the system, what is the most likely cause?"

Hyouga swayed the question in his mind for almost a full minute before answering. "Given our past experiences, I would think it's the pilot, the Eva itself or a combination of both," he finally said. "It's strange, though. If it were in fact contamination, we should be able to pick something up on our readings, but there is nothing. Regulations dictate that we classify the divergence as 'system error'. However, we have overhauled the entire system and the readings are still flawed."

Maya took her eyes off the screen and permitted her gaze to lock on Hyouga. "I hope it's not the pilot," she declared somberly.

X

"The distortion in the system has increased exponentially," Ritsuko reported with a dry, emotionless voice. "This can only be explained by the appearance of complications in the basic structure. Nevertheless, the start-up program is holding itself together, but we cannot hope to determine how long this will last. The diagnosis has confirmed that part of the program's safety shell has already been contaminated."

"The safety shell is vital to the program's integrity," Ikari did not turn away from his observation window as he spoke. "If it fails, the information at the core of the program will be set loose and come into contact with the pilot's mind. That would be disastrous."

"I know," Ritsuko replied.

"What is the actual status of the shell?"

"It's disintegrating fast."

"And the Second Child?"

Ritsuko was somewhat amazed at the question, although she knew that the Commander was not interested in Asuka's well-being, but in her value as a tool. That was all that ever mattered to him. "Major Katsuragi tells me that the Second Child has been having nightmares, and her synch ratio dropped 8 points in a week. That could very well be an indication that her mind is beginning to feel the strain placed on it by the program. If the safety shell were to collapse, her weakened mental state could make it tougher to recover the system, not that it would make a difference, because the code would take over the system so quickly that we would be dead before we had a chance to do something about it. I don't fear this. What worries is the fact that the Tablet might revert to its original function."

"I am aware of the threat, Dr. Akagi, but we will deal with the situation in the agreed upon manner. We took a chance when we created the program and chose to fight fire with fire, now we must avoid getting burned."

"That might prove too difficult to achieve."

X

Shinji's day had been uneventful, so much so that he had spent most of it waiting for something to happen. He had gone to school by himself, since Asuka had decided that she would stay home. He knew the redhead at a synch-test scheduled for the day so he didn't say anything about her not going to school. The boy had gotten home early and made dinner, which he shared with Asuka as usual. The girl didn't comment on her test so he decided that he shouldn't ask.

After dinner they had gone their separate ways. Asuka locked herself in her room and Shinji went to work on his homework. More than a few times, he felt like asking his fiery roommate for help on the more complex physics problems, but opted against it. Asuka was in a bad mood and it wouldn't do any good to bother her about something as trivial as physics. They didn't see each other for the rest of the day and after watching some TV Shinji went into his room and turned on his S-DAT.

He had already lost track of time as he lay on his bed, resting on his side. The darkness enveloped him in much the same way as the musical notes from his earphones. Sleep never presented itself, so he was forced to close his eyes and immerse his senses into the arpeggios of a cello solo. Halfway through the piece, he heard a noise from outside his door and promptly turned the S-DAT off and pretended to be snoozing.

Shinji heard the door being opened, then footsteps, and the door again as it was slid shut. In the darkness, the footsteps drew closer and he felt the side of the bed sinking.

"Shinji?"

Her voice surprised him. He thought he was dreaming.

She called for him again. "Shinji, are you awake?"

There was a part of him that wanted to ignore her, but as he heard her words again, he knew that that was not an option. "Yes," he replied as he rolled over to face Asuka, who sat on the edge of his bed. He could barely see her in the darkness, but the tone of her voice was awkward.

What is she doing here? He wondered.

Asuka sighed. "I…was wondering if I could…spend the night here."

Shinji's eyes grew wider. He thought he was surely dreaming, but the next words shattered that illusion.

"Don't look at me like that, you pervert. I don't want to do 'that'. I just want to sleep."

He blinked a few times as his brain struggled to fully comprehend what was going on. "W-what's wrong with your bed?"

"Nothing, stupid," Asuka scoffed. "I had a nightmare and…"

The redhead didn't need to say anything else. Shinji understood. "M-make yourself comfortable, Asuka." he said and quickly added, "Just don't hug all the covers."

"Let me warn you, Third Child, if you try any funny business, you won't live to see daylight," Asuka said as she crawled onto the bed and under the covers, which she pulled away from Shinji.

"Hey!" The boy complained.

"Be quiet," Asuka retorted. "And turn around. I don't want you staring at me while I sleep."

Shinji had once heard a joke about how German tourist were the nicest of all, except when they marched into your country with intentions to stay. He thought that was a somewhat amusing analogy, considering the situation. Asuka certainly made her presence felt as soon as she got into bed next to him and his body responded accordingly. He hoped she wouldn't notice or he would be nursing a black eye for the next few days.

It took Asuka a few minutes to settle down. She felt uncomfortable with the state of affairs, but she really didn't want to be alone right now. The nightmare had been the worse so far. She had seen herself covered in blood, among other things and it made her feel sick. The images had been so vivid, so lifelike that had she not awakened on that instant, the redhead swore she would have lost her mind. She was strong, but there was only so much abuse her subconscious could take. So she had made the decision to come to Shinji. Normally, she would have rather not go back the sleep at all, but with all that had happened between her and the boy, Asuka felt she could trust him for comfort, even if it meant asking him for something. She could imagine the things that must have gone through his head as she told him she wanted to spend the night. He must have thought it was his most perverted fantasy come true. That bothered her.

As it was, they ended up lying with their backs turned to each other, and Asuka controlling most of the cover. The redhead squirmed and struggled to find her ideal comfort spot. She had always hated Japanese beds: they were too damn small, and this was particularly uncomfortable. Still, she would rather endure this than go back to her room where the nightmares awaited her.

Shinji was not having any more luck finding the peaceful solace that came with sleep than Asuka was. He could hear her body rustling against the bed sheets and feel her movements, but after a while she became motionless.

"Asuka?" The Third Child gently called out.

There was no reply.

"Asuka?"

Shinji rolled over and sat up; letting what few parts of the covers he had somehow kept hold off fall away from him, and looked over at Asuka. It was then that the image of the redhead's body fully struck him.

There was no light in the room, but he could clearly distinguish Asuka's slender, elegant contour just under the sheets, which barely managed to cover down to her knees, leaving the flesh from the top of her calves to the tip of her toes exposed. Though she had her back to him, he could still see the profile her sharp features made in contrast to the white pillow on which her head rested, amidst an ocean of red locks. She looked so peaceful, so far away from everything, and yet she was lying right here next to him. And so close, in fact, that he could smell the perfumed scent of her hair, along with the sweet essence of the skin cream she regularly used.

Asuka's mouth moved gently, a soft moan escaping her parted lips.

Shinji sighed and slowly inched out of the bed.

"Sorry, Asuka." He grabbed his pillow and lay down on the floor.

X

The phone pierced the quiet morning air. Shinji slowly opened his eyes, blinking several times to clear his vision and remembering how much he hated the shrieking sound of the device's ringer. It always brought bad news.

Sluggishly, he tried to get on his feet, but barely managed to get up on his elbows when something stopped him. He felt a strange weight around his waist. At first he thought he'd become entangled on the covers, but then recalled that didn't have any. In the half-asleep condition he found himself, the Third Child turned to look down at what the weight was.

The phone kept ringing.

Shinji froze as soon as he realized what was holding him down.

It was Asuka's arm. The redhead was lying right next to him on the floor.

The boy sat up, causing Asuka's limb to slide down from his waist and onto his lap. Had he not been sure that the German girl was asleep he would have freaked out, not that the thought didn't cross his mind since her hand ended up in just the wrong place.

He was aware that he had just ended up on in a 'long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs' kind of situation. He was pretty sure that if Asuka woke up to find herself doing 'that', she would find a way to blame him. Shinji decided to move away slowly, but the second Asuka's lips began to move and her body stirred, he jumped to his feet and went for the phone, hoping that the girl would never know what had just happened.

The Third Child didn't realize it at the time, but he had been holding his breath.

X

Misato stormed into the Control Room and shot Ritsuko a hard stare. "What is it?" she demanded, dismissing the worried glances of everyone else in the room.

"I think you can take a guess," Ritsuko replied, waving her hand at one of the monitors.

The clear screen displayed an image of the outside world. Misato could see the dark blot on it, surrounded by trees and forest. She knew immediately what it was, though at first she thought it was an image glitch. "Have the MAGI confirmed anything?" the Major asked, unable to tear her eyes away from the Angel's picture.

"No," came the reply, "The pattern keeps changing, just like the last time. We have forgone the confirmation and have already declared this the 19th Angel."

Misato narrowed her eyes as something struck her. "Where's this image from?"

"Sector 8," Ritsuko replied coolly.

Misato shot her a shocked look. "Jesus! That's inside the defense perimeter."

"I know," Ritsuko added "If it hadn't been for their visual systems, we wouldn't have even seen it coming."

Misato blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The IFR sensors didn't pick up anything, the MADs didn't either. Even know, according to radar and sonar, this thing doesn't exist. The only confirmation we have is the visual feed."

Misato allowed her eyes to away from the doctor and back to the Angel's image. "Is that possible? How can it not show on the MAD?"

"I don't know," Ritsuko said. "In theory, anything with that much mass, and a functioning S2 organ creates a disruption on the Earth's Electro-Magnetic Field. The problem is: I ran a spectrometer check on it and its total mass is less than 0.001 grams."

"That's impossible. It's got to be a malfunction."

"On the contrary, it's quite possible. Mass, like volume, weight, time, is relative. Something with so much mass in our universe may not have any mass at all in another. This applies to different solar systems, planets, planes of reality; you name it. What we are seeing may just be the representation of what the Angel really is in another dimension."

"Like some kind of ghost?"

"A ghost with an S2 organ, yes. We saw a similar thing with one of the previous Angels, remember?"

"I remember, but that time Unit 01 tore it apart from the inside," Misato said. "How do we fight something with no mass from the outside?"

"It still must have an S2 organ, and an A.T Field. When it comes to the Angels, those are invariable laws of our universe. If it exists here, even if it's just a representation, it must adhere to those laws," Ritsuko explained.

Misato felt a headache beginning to build. "You are not helping."

"There are only two forces in our universe capable of creating this kind of phenomena. One is gravity, and the other is magnetism," Ritsuko continued. "For it to hold itself together like this it must have one of the two. Since gravity requires mass and density, it's quite possible that its total mass has a super-high density, which in turn creates gravity. I took that into consideration and managed to pinpoint a gravity anomaly somewhere inside its spectrum. Our sensors and tracking devices are not set up to detect gravity. I've ordered the technicians to re-calibrate them to allow us to track this. There is a very scientific explanation for what we are seeing though. It's called Dark Matter. In theory, that's what this is, since Dark Matter has no, or negative mass, around a center of super density."

Misato blinked. "Like a black hole?"

"Yes, precisely. A black hole sucks matter towards it because it's a void of such high density that its gravity traps even light. This is a very similar thing. We are seeing a black shadow because the light that comes near it cannot escape it. The only problem is that it should be sucking everything towards itself, which it's not."

"And the point?"

The doctor took a deep breath. "It must have a counter-force to keep itself in a state of balance with the universe around it. All CPT symmetry theories dictate that for every particle in the universe there is a counter-particle, and I think that is what it's using. I could be wrong, since relativity and quantum field theories contradict themselves, but this goes beyond plain relativity. A quantum system can be explained by many theorems that go beyond your plain Lie Algebra equations. Some downright reject the possibility of there being a relation between relativity with most of the other symmetry systems. This means that whatever this thing is, there is no way it can exist in a state of balance without a very powerful force acting, and this force is ruled by our universe's physics."

Misato understood what she meant, even though she could have done without the lecture in astrophysics. "Is there any way we can tip the balance?"

"Yes: energy, and lots of it. A sudden burst of energy might up-set the balance and disrupt the symmetry, causing a chain reaction," the doctor explained. "We cannot hope to concentrate enough to disrupt its gravity, but if we can cancel out its counter-force even for just a nanosecond, the symmetry will be destroyed. Then the gravity, if it's anywhere near what it should be in order to create Dark Matter, will force the core and whatever else is close by to smash against its center and collapse."

Misato pondered on that piece of information, but before she could say anything, Hyouga approached her with a report. "Major," he called. "The children are here."

The Major nodded. "I want them fully suited. Take them to briefing room three when they are ready. Ritsuko," she gave the doctor a glance. "How much energy are we talking about?"

"At point-blank range, not that much. Certainly a multi-megaton warhead would do the trick, but I think that if we can get close enough, an N2 mine will suffice."

Misato nodded again, then glanced across the room. "Ok, people. We know what we have to do, now we have to find a way to do it and not get killed in the process."

X

"You want me to do what?" Asuka's cry echoed across the briefing room. She gave Misato a glare that would have scared the devil. "Are you insane?"

Misato shook her head, though she understood the girl's reasons for refusing the dangerous assignment she'd been given. "This is the only plan that I can come up with at the moment."

She allowed her gaze to land on each of the three pilots standing before her. Asuka stood in the center of the room, flanked by Shinji and Keiko, and they were all clad in their plug-suits. Misato could sense the tension, and fear coming from Keiko, the concern from Shinji and the outrage from Asuka. Though it was strange that neither the brunette, nor the boy had said anything, she was sure the redhead spoke what they felt.

Asuka let out an annoyed groan. "A 'plan'?" she protested. "Smashing myself against that thing carrying and N2 mine is not my idea of a plan."

Ritsuko took a step towards the redhead. "It's a lot safer than it sounds," she offered. "You will have your AT Filed fully deployed in order to neutralize the Angel's, so the explosion from the mine won't hurt you."

Asuka set her gloved hands on her hips. "What if the mine hits the AT Field before it erodes?"

"We have removed the impact detonators from the mine and wired it to a gravity fuse." Ritsuko explained. "Impact will not set the mine off, the Angel's gravitational pull will."

"Taking me out in the process," the redhead retorted.

Ritsuko gave her a frown. "Your AT Field will protect you. I don't see what the big deal is. Rei did something like this once. She was not even ordered to."

Misato saw the expression on the Second Child's face change at once. She knew that she should have been mad at Ritsuko for playing Asuka's bravado in such a way, but she understood that this had to be done. She would have plenty of time to regret it later.

"Fine," Asuka finally agreed, and turned to Misato. "I'll do it, but I want you to remember this the next time I ask for a favor."

It was then that Shinji spoke. "What about us?"

Misato locked eyes with him. "You will be inside Unit 01 as back-up. The Commander wants it to stay in stasis for the moment, but it will activated if the situation requires it."

Shinji felt a cold lump on his throat. "You mean," he hesitated. "I wont be out there with Asuka?"

"We can't risk it," Ritsuko interjected.

Shinji looked over at Asuka, with a great deal of fear in his eyes. The redhead nodded back, as if that gesture would make the boy's concern vanish.

"Keiko," Misato called, causing the brunette's body to stiffen with fear. "You will support Asuka."

Keiko blinked once, as her eyes slowly filled with horror. "S-support?" she faltered.

"Yes. You'll be out there providing fire support for Asuka," Misato said. "You are not to engage in close-quarters combat unless absolutely necessary."

The brunette's throat went dry. "I-I…understand."

Asuka snarled. "This is ridiculous," she let out a laugh. "The crybaby will probably wet herself as soon as that thing starts coming towards her."

"Asuka!" Misato barked.

"I'm about to do something incredibly stupid that you dare call a 'plan', so get off my back," the redhead retorted.

Ritsuko agreed, since she had gotten what she wanted. "Lets go," she gave Misato a nod. "We have other things to do tend to."

The Major gave Asuka a gentle smile. "Be careful," she offered and with that, she and the doctor made their way towards the nearest exit.

Shinji was the first of the three children to speak. "Asuka."

Asuka cut him short. "I'll be fine," she said. "We've had stupid plans before."

He did his best to give her a smile. "I know. Asuka, I-I wish I could go out there…"

"It's not your fault," Asuka replied. "If I fail…"

The Third Child shook his head. "Don't say that. You are…you mean a lot to me."

Asuka gave him a cynical look. "Right."

Shinji was about to say something else, but Keiko beat him to the punch. "We are in a lot of trouble, aren't we?" she said, fear creeping into her words.

The Second Child shrugged. "We always are, now it's just slightly worse."

X

"The target is still holding steady," Hyouga communicated over the main tactical frequency. "No hostile activity detected."

Asuka nodded her acknowledgement and moved out from behind one of the buildings on Tokyo-3's south site. She carefully traced the route that would taker her behind the Angel, or at least, on the opposite side of where Unit 08 stood as decoy. It had been Misato's idea to use Unit 08 to get the Angel's attention, while Asuka closed in on it from behind. The redhead would have rather taken the vanguard, but had to admit that Misato's idea made much more sense, tactically speaking.

It only took her few minutes to reach her mark, and she checked the small map of the city displayed on her main HUD unit. The Angel was now directly between her and Unit 08, but it did not appeared to be going anywhere. It was just sitting there. Asuka cradled the N2 mine she carried, pressing it against her torso, and could not avoid thinking about how stupid this whole thing was.

She heard someone's voice over the communicator. "Open fire."

The order was immediately followed by a stream of fire from Unit 08's rifle. Asuka leaned over the edge of the building she was using for cover and saw the projectiles tracing a gentle arc in the air as they approached the target. They were all hits, and at the same time, they were all misses, for the projectiles hit the target, but sailed right past it and smashed on the ground. Asuka focused her gaze on the dark monstrosity that was the Angel. It looked like nothing she had seen before and its dark spectrum seemed to just suck the light out of the air. She knew it was supposed to have a core, but from here she couldn't see a thing.

A second stream of fire poured from Unit 08's rifle, and again, they sailed through the target without even an AT Field to oppose them.

"I'm in position," Asuka announced. "Tell the crybaby to stop shooting or she'll get me."

"We are ready," Misato replied. "Begin your countdown."

Asuka tightened her grip on the control sticks and allowed a fierce snarl to form on her features. She held the cylindrical N2 device with one hand now, much like a quarterback getting ready to hand off a football. Asuka had gone over the scenario a half-dozen times already. She would rush at the Angel, AT Field fully deployed, and shove the N2 mine as close to the Angel as the gravity trigger would let her before detonation. What would happen after that was anyone's guess. "Screw that, I'm going out there!"

Unit 02 sprung from its static position with a thunderous roar, spreading its AT Field as it went. It pivoted on its right foot and sprinted towards the Angel with long, elegant strides, like a world-class runner, covering most of the distance between it and the dark entity in seconds. The red Evangelion held the mine with an arm stretched forward, keeping it as far away from any vital organ as it could. Asuka could feel the ground shaking under her feet, the adrenaline rushing, the sheer intoxication of the charge.

The distance closed awfully fast and Asuka braced herself for the explosion that was soon to follow, but just as she did, something stopped her. An AT Field stretched before her like a hexagonal wall composed of sharp red lines.

"Scheisse!" Asuka cursed and brought all of her strength to bear on the AT Field, while focusing entirely on increasing her own. She could feel the titanic forces around her fighting, while she tried to press the mine through, but the AT Field held it at bay. Asuka snarled and pushed with all her fury on the weapon's cylinder.

And then the AT Fields disappeared.

Asuka barely had time to register what happened next. Without the AT Field to oppose her, her strength and momentum sent her and Unit 02 diving forward. She managed to catch herself with a stiff-arm maneuver against the ground, and quickly darted back to her feet, but as she tried to raise her AT Field, one thought hit her. When the Angel's AT Field collapsed, it took hers along with it and she lacked the strength to produce another one fast enough.

"Asuka!" Misato yelled over the comm. "Get the hell out!"

The redhead narrowed her eyes and focused on the Angel, only a few dozen yards away. Its dark spectrum eclipsed the sunlight as it towered over her. "What are you talking about? I'm fine," she said, looking down at the mine on Unit 02's hand.

She gasped. The mine.

Asuka froze, and as she realized just how close she was to the Angel, something began tugging at her. She blinked slowly, unbelieving, and her electric blue eyes began to grow as the realization of what she was seeing sank in. Something was pulling her towards the Angel's dark mass. Gravity!

A bright light enveloped the horizon. Asuka averted her eyes and felt the ground around her shaking. The sound of thunder filled the entry-plug. "Mama!"

"Asuka!"

The energy released by the mine's detonator at point-blank range was too much and without the AT Field, Unit 02 was defenseless.

Asuka didn't even have time to curse as the ball of white engulfed her.

X

"Asuka!" Misato screamed at the top of her lungs. She could barely believe what had just happened, but Ritsuko was quick to point it out for her.

"It was the AT Field," she said. "The counter-force keeping its symmetry in balance."

Misato narrowed her eyes, feeling a desperate coldness wrapping around her heart. "What's Asuka's status?" she demanded.

"She's alive," Hyouga replied. "I don't have much more at the moment."

Misato nodded with a certain degree of relief.

Aoba called from his console. "Major, I have a huge gravitational anomaly on my scanners."

Misato glanced towards the nearest screen and saw, horrified, what was going on outside. It was as if someone had opened a hole into the fabric of the universe and now everything within range was being sucked into that hole, making a spiral as it went. In a matter of seconds, the black spectrum that had made up the Angel condensed into a medium sized sphere. A perfect sphere, she thought, and as assorted things smashed against it and were assimilated into its crust, she noticed that its diameter increased.

"Is this…" Misato couldn't find a way to finish the sentence. All of the bridge was plunged into silence as the images struck home. She could see the fear in their faces.

And then, just as it had started, it stopped and only the sphere was left, hovering calmly over the cityscape as if nothing of what had just happened concerned it.

"The anomaly is gone," Aoba reported.

"This is its true form, isn't it?" Misato inquired, almost sarcastically.

Ritsuko nodded. "Looks like it."

"The bastard knew we would try to intercept it," Misato whispered, unable to fully grasp the implications of her words. "It baited us."

"Impossible. They don't think like that," Ritsuko replied, casting a glance at the Major. The concern she saw in those dark eyes almost had physical form. "They don't…"

She was interrupted by Keiko's scream.

X

Something burst out of the sphere and shot towards her. Keiko failed to realize what was going on until it was too late. The thing, which looked like some the kind of cilium common on protozoan and other single-cell organisms, wrapped itself around Unit 08's torso. Frantically, Keiko tried to get it off of her, but it held on tight. She felt it squeezing her, pinning her to the plug's command seat. As she struggled, the thing looped around her Eva, catching its right arm at the elbow and trapping it against its body. Keiko shrieked as the futility of her fight began to sink in. More out of sheer terror than anything else, she kept struggling.

A voice came to her, but she couldn't recognize it. "Keiko, your unit is equipped with a progressive knife. Use it!"

But Keiko was beyond rational thought, and her plight was merely fueled by the primitive instinct to survive. She was hurting, her pretty face locked into a grotesque mask of pain. The limb, or whatever it was, squeezed with such force that she thought her ribs would crack. Soon, she was desperate for breath, and with a firm tug, Unit 08 was brought to its knees. Keiko was exhausted. She knew she couldn't fight this thing, but the idea that she was about to die seemed childish.

The voice came again. "Keiko, don't panic!"

Keiko desperately gasped for air. She shook her head and thrashed about in her seat, as if to force the thing to release her, but it held on even tighter. She planted her feet on her console, and used all the leverage she could muster to tear herself free, but it was in vain.

"Keiko, you can make it!" the voice of encouragement was lost on her.

It was pointless.

The girl allowed the tears to run, tickling her cheeks as they went, and shut her eyes. Convinced that she was going to die, she gave herself to the Angel's mercy. Keiko whimpered quietly as she felt Unit 08 being lifted into the air.

X

No one on the Control Room spoke a word. They watched as the Angel's whip-like appendage tossed Unit 08 in the air and yanked it towards its spherical body. It was a surreal scene, almost too incredible to believe. The Angel had overpowered the Eva, and was now playing around with it.

Misato was the first to gather her thoughts. "We need to do something."

"No kidding," Ritsuko replied. "Any ideas?"

The Major shook her head. "You'll be the second one to know." She stared at one the nearest screen as Unit 08 crashed against the Angel, with such force that she wondered if the Evangelion would break in half. A million ideas went through her head. She had to do something, but the question was: what?

"Major," Hyouga called. "The Angel's energy pattern is changing."

Ritsuko beat Misato to the reply. "It could be that even this is not its final form."

Then, as if on cue to the doctor's words, the sphere's crust began to crack. To Ritsuko it resembled a planet fracturing under the force of a nearby star. The sphere was not big, its diameter was barely wide enough to be equal to the distance between the Evangelion's shoulders, but she didn't know what kind of damage it would do if it exploded. She noticed something on the image. The Angel's whip was holding the Eva by its torso, pressing its side just under the left clavicle against the sphere's circumference, where she could tell the crack on its crust had originated. It can't be because of the impact, she though. Ritsuko focused harder, and noticed that there was some kind of liquid escaping from the spot where the cracks had originated.

Ritsuko knew then what the Angel was going to do. "It's going to attempt contact."

"What?" Misato spun around to stare at the doctor, hoping that she had misunderstood.

The doctor nodded. "It wants the pilot."

Misato's eyes filled with horror. "Keiko!"

The image flickered as the zoom was engaged. There, Misato saw it and, as the dark liquid came into contact with Unit 08's armor, it began eating through it. It was as if the liquid had a life of its own. The substance expanded over the Eva's armor like a cancer, blackening it as it went.

"It's gone through the armor plates!" Hyouga yelled. "First level contact is imminent!"

"Get her out of there!" the Major ordered. "Eject the entry-plug!"

"It's not good!" Haruna cried. "The signal is being rejected!"

"We have physical contamination in the system!" Aoba reported. "It's going over the safety parameters."

With a thunderous roar, the cracks on the sphere's crust began to expand, until they covered all of it, like grotesque coordinates in a map, and from each one of them, more liquid came pouring out. Misato noticed that the whip was actually pushing the Eva inside of the shattered sphere, as if it were trying to devour it.

"Major," Hyouga called. "The Angel…it's…" he struggled to find the words. "It's gone quiet!"

Misato blinked. "What?"

The sphere came crashing towards the ground, dragging Unit 08 with it. It smashed against the street below, and started to melt, as did the whip, which was still wrapped around the besieged Evangelion.

"Keiko!" the Major screamed.

"It's going to take over the Eva!" Ritsuko cried, as what had been the Angel turned into a pond of dark fluid, and began adhering itself to Unit 08. Soon, the white Eva unit was engulfed into a blackened heap as every part of its body came into contact with the Angel's blood.

"Mental contamination appearing on all levels!" Hyouga cried.

"The synchrograph is off the scale!" that from Haruna. "I'm picking up anomalies on the pilot's thought pattern!"

"Massive physical contamination on all circuits!" Aoba reported. "Connections 23 to 745 are gone. The Neural Nodes have been invaded!"

"All systems are collapsing." Hyouga yelled, and displayed Unit 08's diagram on the main screen. It showed a static view of the Evangelion, and divided it section-by-section. The contaminated sections were tainted red and the non-contaminated ones in black, which at this point were only the ones on the right upper body and the section set immediately above the core.

Misato gasped, feeling a knot forming in her stomach. Eighty percent of the Evangelion had been taken over in a few seconds. "Sever all physical and logical links between the pilot and the Unit!" she ordered. "Isolate the main nervous…"

"Main nervous system has been invaded up to the 3rd vertebrae," Aoba replied. "Isolating lymphatic system. Isolation has failed!"

"Terminate neural links!" that from Ritsuko. "Keep the physical contamination away from the pilot."

"Neural links have been overridden!" came the frantic reply. "We are being locked out of the system!"

Then came the report Misato feared the most. "The entry-plug is being invaded!"

X

From one of the observation decks above the Control Room, Commander Ikari watched the events as they unfolded. Rei stood next to him, gazing at one of the computer screens with a blank look on her face. Fuyutsuki was further back, peering over one of the computer consoles.

"Can you feel her?" Ikari inquired, turning to give Rei a soft glance.

The blue-haired girl nodded gently. "Yes," she whispered. "Is this her pain?"

"Lilith has a bond with all her creatures," Ikari explained. "She can feel what they feel."

"She is afraid," Rei said. "She is crying for help."

Ikari's face turned to stone. "We can't do anything for her now without changing the scenario," he said. "But, if she survives, you can help her escape the pain."

Rei closed her eyes and focused inwards. She could feel the sensations washing over her and reached out to touch them. Fear was the dominant one, then pain, regret, shame and the desire to die. They mixed together into something she could not distinguish, but could not ignore either. They tugged at the edge of her consciousness, slowly plunging her deeper into a state of semi-awareness. She had felt it before, when she had come into contact with the 18th Angel.

The girl heard the voice at the back of her mind. It pleaded for help. She could hear it breaking down into gentle sobs, and calling out to someone. These were the pilot's thoughts, Rei knew. She reached out to the nearest screen, tracing her fingers along the image of the corrupted Evangelion, and letting her index finger stop on the exact spot where she knew the entry-plug lay. She could sense her pain, her sorrow.

For the first time in her short life, Rei felt pity for another human being.

X

The pain hit her like a tidal wave. It began at the small of her back, and spread upwards. She looked down through tearful eyes and saw something that shocked her even more than the pain. There were small tendrils spreading across her plug-suit like fingers, inflaming the black-and-gold material. She felt them touching her as they worked their way over her body, wrapping themselves on every part of her flesh they could find.

Keiko gasped in terror as she realized that these tendrils were actually inside of her, consuming her like a disease. She clutched desperately at her body, wrapping her arms around her belly, where she felt the tendrils moving about. It felt as if her intestines and stomach were on fire. She drew her knees up and shut her eyes, letting the tears cascade down her face. Her body tensed and trembled as the pain forced itself on her. From her stomach, the pain began to spread, like radiation from a star, as the grotesque fingers reached out between her legs and around her torso to converge on her spine.

Keiko felt her lower abdomen screaming as the 'thing' attacking her reached it. She shook her head and shrieked as her gloved hands clawed desperately at the spot on her belly where she felt her insides burning. It was as if her entire lower half was being liquefied. She opened her eyes, as the pain keeled her over, and, looking down on her hands, saw that the tendrils were now running across them and over her forearms.

The pain shot through her spine with such force that she though someone had just ripped her back open and yanked it out of her. Keiko screamed, eyes and mouth wide open, as her back arched in a way that seemed impossible. In desperation she reached out a hand, and clawed at the LCL around her, as if trying to reach for something that would help her. The pain forced every muscle to tense, and her back twisted as they began to spasm.

Keiko whipped her head about, feeling the burning hot sensation at the back of her neck. Her throat trembled as she tried to scream, but no sound ever came. She threw back her head and fixed her horrified gaze on the plug's ceiling. The tendrils moved across her breasts, into her lungs and over the base of her collarbone. Her body was dying, that much she knew. But in the state of absolute terror she found herself in, even that failed to register. It seemed like such a joke. She was going to die.

The tears ran unrestrained, streaming down her reddened cheeks like a river through a blackened battlefield. Keiko felt the tendrils moving into the back of her head and her face. She froze, but out of a kind of morbid curiosity allowed her eyes to roll down so she could see what was happening. The tendrils spread out over her body like a grotesque circulatory system, mocking veins and arteries.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the tendrils on the back of her head began digging into her cerebellum. Keiko clutched her head between her hands, mouth wide open in the hopes that somehow, someway a scream would take away the pain, but even that relief was denied to her.

And then she heard the voice, as the tendrils wrapped themselves over her brain. "Who are you?"

X

Inside the Control Room, Misato was somewhat glad that the Angel had severed all communications, both visual and sound, between them and the pilot. She didn't think she would be able to take the image of what must be going on inside the entry-plug.

"The plug is gone," Aoba reported, his voice barely a shocked whisper. "I…am not reading anything. The Neural Link is still in place, but there is not much I can do with that."

Misato swallowed hard. "What about Asuka?"

"Still nothing," Hyouga replied. "I can't tell what the extend of the damage is, but she's unconscious. Still, Unit 02 has power, so she's not entirely out of the fight."

"Keep calling her," Misato ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am." Hyouga nodded.

Misato turned to Ritsuko. "Get Unit 01 out of stasis."

"You don't have the authority," was the reply from Ritsuko.

The Major snarled. "Screw the authority. Haruna," she said, turning to the female operator. "Where the hell is Maya? Tell her to get Unit 01 ready for combat."

Ritsuko gave her a harsh look, but before she could say anything Hyouga's alarmed voice echoed from his console. "Major," the operator cried. "I have contamination detected on Input port three-four-seven."

Misato narrowed her eyes. "What's Input port 347?"

"It's part of the communication's array," Ritsuko answered. "In fact, it's the port connected to the pilot's output signal from the A-10 frequency, but…" the doctor caught herself right there. "Oh shit…"

Misato felt her eyes widening. She understood. "Terminate the port's signal!"

"I can't," Hyouga replied. "Contamination in ports 348, 349,350,351 and 352 detected!"

Ritsuko found herself screaming, as she began to realize what the Angel was doing. "It's using Unit 08's entire communication package to access us!"

The Major shot an incredulous glance. "But all communications were down."

"Because the Angel was blocking them," Ritsuko replied, struggling for an even tone of voice. "Now it's using them to load itself into our system. It's using the pilot's brain as a kind of transmitter. That's why all the signals and sensors from inside the plug are down. It's cramming itself into our network using the pilot's interface with the Eva as a portal and her mind as a living, sentient broadcasting tower."

X

The hospital room was brightly illuminated by the collection of white halogen lamps spread through the ceiling, and yet it was the darkest place in Keiko's mind. It was stale, with white walls, white tile floors, white everything, and only the assorted medical equipment that littered three of the four corners giving contrast to the emptiness. But not a sign of life could be found. On the fourth corner, the one farthest away from the door, there was a bed on which a young girl, wearing a black-white-gold plug-suit, sat.

Keiko hated this place. It was the room in the hospital on which she had been interned on after her mother died, and she had tried to kill herself. She hated the lack of color, the silence, the emptiness, but more than anything, hated looking at it. It represented the part of her that had never healed from her mother's death. The part of her that wanted to die, the part of her that saw only empty stares on the people around her. She curled into a tight ball, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, wishing that she could make herself disappear. The first time she had been here, she had been a little girl, now she was a grown girl of fourteen. The fact that she felt just as afraid now as she had before, as a little girl, made her realize how very little she had changed.

"Loneliness," the girl whispered. She buried her head between her knees. "Why do I have to be alone?"

A voice came to her. It was soft, comforting. "Is this your loneliness?"

Keiko nodded, curling tighter. "Yes," she said. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"I need to understand," the voice replied.

Keiko felt a shiver run up her spine. That was the only answer the voice ever gave her; it needed to understand. She lifted her head and dared to look beyond the barrier that her knees made in front of her. "I don't want to be here," she said, clawing at the bed sheets under her with her toes, as if needing to anchor herself to something.

"Why not?" The voice inquired.

Keiko closed her eyes. The tears wouldn't come anymore. "I just don't."

"Does it make you feel worthless?"

The girl nodded. "I am worthless," she whispered. "I'm so worthless that she didn't even want to be my mother. So worthless that Miko doesn't want to be with me anymore." She let her words hang in the air for a second. A soft whimper escaped her lips. "So worthless…"

The next voice she heard was Asuka's. "I am sick of been forced to do monotonous tests and I'm sick of you. You are not a pilot, so why should I treat you as such. You are just someone they put in the Eva, God knows why, and expect it to work."

Keiko sighed. "She was right about me."

The voice continued. "What do you think will happen when you have to fight an Angel? Do you think they will take pity on you, or that they will stop so you can catch your breath? They will take you apart. They will look into your head and rip you to shreds."

"I am not a pilot," Keiko admitted. "I am not a warrior, I am not a strong person, I am not Asuka, but I just want to be something that would make my mother proud."

Asuka's voice came at her again. "If you depend on others, then you are weak, because you can't live for yourself. It's always what others want and what they impose on you. Even if it's your own mother."

"I wanted her to be proud," Keiko muttered. "That's why I did it."

The next thing she heard was a much more familiar voice. "You are with me now."

"Am I so worthless that you had to die to be away from me?" Keiko wondered.

X

"All clusters on Sector 178 have fallen!" Haruna cried. "The firewall won't be able to hold this at bay."

Ritsuko nodded. "Activate all countermeasures in the near-by sectors," she ordered. "I want this thing contained."

"Containment engaged," Hyouga announced. "Terminating all logical links to the corrupted sectors."

"Sector 179 has fallen!" Haruna said.

"Containment engaged for Sector 179!"

"Sector 180 has fallen!"

"Engage containment procedures on all Sectors from 000 to 200!" Ritsuko ordered, turning to Misato. "This is not going to work. It's running over the entire array, so it doesn't matter what we contain, it uses the array to load itself into a different sector. Once it goes past Sector 255, the only thing keeping it out of the MAGI will the firewall."

"Sector 207 has fallen," Haruna cried.

Misato mulled over that piece of information but couldn't think of anything to do. "You are the computer genius, Ri-chan," she said. "What do we do?"

"When you have a virus running on a network, you isolate all the infected nodes on the network before the virus has a chance to spread. The problem here is that the virus has access to everything in this section that's linked to the communication's array. Viruses are self-replicating entities; this is not. All of its information comes from a single source: the Angel in Unit 08."

"If we could only terminate all the links between the Eva and us," Misato said.

"It's overrun all the protocols, so we can't terminate the links."

Misato shook her head. "There has to be a way," she said. "It's using a damn wireless frequency. Half of the time, my cell-phone doesn't even work."

Ritsuko's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "That's it!" she beamed, and shot Misato a smile. "We don't have to terminate the link, all we have to do is interrupt it!"

Misato gave her a puzzled look. "And just how do we do that?"

Ritsuko's grin broadened. "Electro magnetic pulse," she said. "That interrupts all communication signals, at best, for the length of the pulse. An N2 mine would buy us at least six seconds on which the entire array would be down, meaning that we could use the MAGI to take over the Input ports and close them. We scramble the protocols and lock the Angel out."

Misato blinked once, as all the information was processed in her brain, and smiled. "All right, Ritsuko, lets get to it!"

X

The notes flowed like a gentle river. Every stroke of the keys elevated her, making her feel special. She was hugged by the music, feeling as she imagined it would feel being hugged by a loved one. It was so ecstatic, so blissful. Keiko could hardly remember why she had given up on the piano, but recalled that she had stopped just after her mother died. After that, the notes no longer had meaning to her. They were cold, and heartbreaking, and reminded her of all she had lost.

So it was that she sat at the piano, still dressed in her plug-suit with the notes milling around her. She was in a spotlight, so all she could see was the piano in front of her and the infinite darkness beyond. She allowed her gloved fingers to dance over the keys, completely out of her conscious control, but fueled by her own instinct, her own passion. This was all she had once come to be, and all she had stopped being.

"I'll always be there," the voice whispered.

But then the music ceased. Keiko's fingers froze over the keys and she couldn't bring herself to play another note. The brunette rose to her feet. She leaned over the piano's top, supporting herself with her arms, and allowed her head to sink between her shoulders. "I used to play for you," she whimpered and felt the tears beginning to flow. "I played for you, but you never listened."

"I'll always be with you," the voice replied.

The teardrops splashed against the piano's glossy finish, making small puddles as they did. "You never listened," the girl repeated.

"I always have," the voice said.

Then a second voice appeared. "Is this what you fear?"

Keiko's knees buckled under her. She collapsed in a heap on the floor, holding her head in her hands. "I wanted you to listen," she sobbed. "I played because it made me happy that I could do that for you. It made me feel like I was special, like I was loved."

The first voice came again. "I always loved you. I died for you, for you future."

Keiko shook her head frantically. "All I wanted for my future was a life with you!"

"I am sorry."

X

Asuka blinked her eyes open and the first thing she felt was the throbbing pain on the side of her head. She tried to reach to and rub the sore spot, but her left arm, the one that had carried the N2 mine was numb. One quick look at the outside confirmed that Unit 02 was missing that very same arm. Asuka snarled. She began to feel the blood running down the side of her forehead, from just under her hairline. Somehow, she pushed the pain away and managed to bring Unit 02 to a sitting position. She was groggy, as if she had just woken up from a dream, and every part of her body that she could think of, hurt. Still, she willed herself to focus on the task at hand.

Asuka tried to talk to the control room, but no reply came. "Hey, anybody there?"

What the hell happened? She wondered, but before she could start rationalizing any possible scenarios, a sound caught her attention. Asuka looked up, and in the sky she saw a single UN bomber flying a path that took it directly over the fallen Unit 08. The redhead focused her gaze on the darkened heap of metal, armor, flesh and dark stuff that had once being a Mass Produced Eva Unit.

My God! She felt her stomach turn.

Taking a deep breath, Asuka forced herself to calm down. She brushed long locks of golden-red hair, with her good hand, out of her face, as a strange feeling overcame her. She felt something within her coming to life with hatred and anger. One word appeared on her mind's eye.

Kill.

Asuka felt a gentle tickling sensation running down her left arm, from her shoulder to the tip of her fingers. She bared her teeth and allowed a grin to spread across her features as she realized that Unit 02's severed arm had just regenerated.

X

"Sector 249 has fallen!" Haruna cried.

There was no reply to that. All of the people present in the room stared at the picture on the main screen. They saw the small cylindrical object falling from the sky, and right on top of the corrupted Unit 08. The device went off, igniting a bright, unnatural sun in the middle of the street. The screens flickered as the EMP shockwave hit them.

As soon as it did, Ritsuko issued her orders. "Go! Engage containment procedures on all sectors. Engage the safety feedback protocol!"

"Sector 250 secured," Haruna reported. "Sector 249 secured!"

"Input port 352 secured!" Hyouga announced. "Ports 351, 350, 349, 348 secured!"

"Scramble the access protocols for all the ports!" Ritsuko commanded.

"Port 347 secured!" Hyouga yelled, excitement building on his voice.

"All access protocols have been secured!" Aoba cried, cracking a smile. "The Angel is cut off from our system."

The image on the main screen began to clear as the dust and particles lifted by the N2 mine's explosion started to clear. And then they saw it. Unit 08 picked itself up from among the ruins in the crater the bomb had just made. It bellowed like an angry god, and spread its wings.

Misato did not hesitate to give the order she knew was her last hope. "Bring Unit 01 out of stasis."

The reply was not what she expected. "Major," Hyouga called. "Unit 02's readings, they…" the operator struggled for the right words. "Everything's off the scale."

Misato's eyes flew wide open as she saw Unit 02 smashing itself headlong against Unit 08. "Asuka!"

Hyouga shook his head. "But just barely," she said. "Her thought pattern is 78.4% unidentifiable. It must be an error."

"Get me a channel," the Major ordered. "Now!"

"I can't. All the communications are down," came the reply.

At that moment Ritsuko stepped in. "Route it through one of the internal ports and relay it to one of the surveillance stations. Give them the protocols so they can contact her from there."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

X

On Asuka's command, Unit 02 caught the corrupted Unit 08 squarely on its midsection. The white Evangelion offered little resistance as it was pounded into the ground. The earth shattered and cracked under the force of the impact. It bellowed angrily as Unit 02 wrapped its hands around its neck and, extricating it from the terrain, tossed it through the air in the opposite direction. Asuka groaned with the physical effort it took to handle the Mass Production Eva in such a way, but her most savage instincts had already taken over.

Kill.

A fierce grin embraced Asuka's face. She watched in morbid delight as Unit 08 landed hard on its head, but didn't waste any time pressing the attack. The Second Child engaged the spike gun located on her Eva's shoulder pylons, which split open to reveal the nasty weapon. By the time Unit 08 was bringing itself to its feet, Asuka had positioned herself. A storm of long, metal spikes rained on Unit 08's body, from its navel to the base of its neck. Blood flowed and splashed through the air like a geyser. Asuka frowned when she realized that the Eva did not fall. She engaged the second set of spikes from the opposite shoulder and fired.

Kill

The second wave of hard steel caught Unit 08 between the chest plate and its snout, bursting it as a single spike buried itself on its mouth. The Eva made a gentle arch backwards as it toppled to the ground, spurting blood as it went. The spikes protruded from it as if on a porcupine, creating a surreal sculpture of destruction.

Kill.

Asuka was on top of the downed Eva as soon as it hit the ground. She took hold of one of the spikes and pulled it loose, sending an arch of blood flying through the air, and used it to stab her prey. But something deep inside of her called for more. The Second Child clutched at Unit 08's armor and began tearing it apart, like a hungry vulture would pick clean a corpse. Blood, and tissue gushed out from the wounds, forming a lake of red on the ground. Bones cracked, muscles ripped. In a moment of absolute rage, Asuka yanked at Unit 08's arm, tearing it free from the body and stomped on its head, bursting it like a watermelon.

Then she stopped.

The radio crackled. "Asuka! The Neural Link is still enabled!"

The Second Child looked down at herself, and saw Unit 02 towering atop a bloodied pulp of decimated flesh and armor, and it was itself, covered in its prey's blood. With eyes opened wide, she stared at her hands, frozen into claws.

Asuka saw her Eva's hands, blood smeared all over them.

And the images from her nightmares struck her. But this time it was real. This time she could not escape into her waking life, or into Shinji's room. The nightmare was all around her. It was in her rage, her hatred, her blood, her soul, her mind.

Asuka let out one loud, horrific scream.

X

To be continued.