Katsuragi Misato, NERV Headquarters inside the Geofront.
"Damn, damn, damn! What are they doing there?!"
"What can a guy and a girl who are obviously attracted to each other do when they are left alone at home?"
"Ee-e-e-e-e-e!"
The long beeps of the third phone number dialed were still "delighting" Katsuragi's ears.
"If they don't pick up the phone now, I don't know what I'll do to them!!!"
"Will you join?!" the inner voice, recently acquired due to nerves, continued to gloat.
- R-r-r-r-r! - the captain growled through clenched teeth.
"Conceptually..." came from the suddenly revived receiver, in an indifferently ironic voice that the captain hated.
- SHINJI!!!
- That's also very succinct, but I still don't get the gist of the question.
Misato took a deep breath. "I'm going to kill him!" Exhale. "Calm down, that's what he wants." Another breath. "No, I'm definitely going to kill him!" Exhale. "Calm down! Just calm down. Breathe, breathe..."
"Shinji..." Misato said slowly, carefully following the instructions of the voice of reason.
- Yes?
- Why didn't you answer the phone?
- I was busy.
- How?
- Communicating with Rey.
- And you were so carried away that you couldn't answer the phone?!
- Yes.
Another deep breath and tightly closed eyes. "Parasite! What kind of parasite is he!"
- So, a car will come for you now, get ready and go out. I'm waiting for you.
"Who's in charge of the escort?" Shinji's voice seemed to have not changed at all, but something flashed in it that made Katsuragi involuntarily pause and brace herself. This was far from the first time she felt something like this - normal for someone like Commander Ikari, but in no way consistent with the appearance of a fourteen-year-old teenager. The feeling that made one stand at attention, and answer questions clearly and only to the point, combined with the understanding of who was calling him - a wild mixture.
Trying, as usual (although what the hell is usual in this situation?! – a panicky thought flashed through the girl's mind.) to pull herself together, Misato answered, carefully controlling her voice:
- Escort - second section, chief - senior sergeant Madaraki.
- Appearance? - the feeling had already disappeared, but the question still had serious undertones.
- Well... - the captain desperately tried to remember what the FSB officer she had caught a glimpse of looked like. - Asian, not tall, stocky, crew cut, standard suit and glasses.
- Clear.
"Ugh... Sin, you scare me sometimes," the girl exhaled into the phone, leaning back in her chair.
- Sorry. If you want, I'll buy you a cake today. Okay, we're going...
- Yeah, I'm waiting...
The phone started to ring shortly and the call was automatically cut off. Misato, still holding the phone in her hand, rested her fist with it on her right cheek and sighed, looking thoughtfully into space:
- Eh... Well, why aren't you at least twenty?..
***
Ikari Gendo's office.
- ...sir, this is a bad idea! Believe me, he will understand everything very quickly!...
"Are you afraid of the child, Captain?" Commander Ikari coldly interrupted his subordinate, looking at her gloomily over his hands folded in front of his face.
- Yes, I'm afraid! - the girl answered boldly, not even thinking of being embarrassed. - I live with him and have studied him enough to understand that he is REALLY capable of destroying the entire Geofront if he suddenly senses deception on our part! And we won't be able to do ANYTHING with him! Either we kill him when he is outside of Eva and are left without any protection from the Angels, or we die at the hands of a furious Evangelion under his control, is that what you want?!
"That's exactly what we need to do to avoid this experiment," the Commander said, still cold and calm, ignoring the outburst of rage from the chief of the operations department. "We can't always be hostages to a bratty boy and we need to clearly know the possibilities of activating the Evangelions with the forces we have."
- To eliminate him fearlessly, right?! Just like he said back then?! I refuse to participate in this!
"Captain Katsuragi!" Gendo raised his voice. "No one is going to eliminate the pilot of Unit-01, we just need to conduct tests."
- To eliminate it later?!
- No. He is the best pilot we have, with unique experience and ability to control Eva, and there are no others in the near future, his elimination would be an extreme manifestation of idiocy, and I have not yet shown signs of feeblemindedness.
- But how are you going to avoid the consequences? Shinji is not a fool and will quickly understand everything, and Rei will tell him everything.
- Ray can be ordered to keep quiet, and everything that happened will be just a minor accident, an unfortunate misunderstanding, nothing more. You yourself convinced me that my son is not a fool, which means he will not go to extremes because of such nonsense.
Captain Katsuragi hissed something in displeasure in response, gritting her teeth in impotent rage.
- And I'm still against it. It's too big a risk!
- It's not up to you to decide, Captain, and the decision has already been made. You just have to clearly fulfill your role. Precisely, to avoid serious consequences. Do you understand me, Captain Katsuragi?
- Yes!... Sir! May I go?!
- Go.
The extremely dissatisfied girl jerked her hand sharply in an army salute and, turning around just as sharply, quickly strode toward the office exit. The sound of her heels, forcefully slamming into the floor, echoed loudly throughout the room. Commander Ikari followed the back of his subordinate with a heavy gaze from under the yellowish lenses of his glasses, without changing his pose.
"Now I'm beginning to understand why Shinji hates people... with a father like that..." the captain quietly muttered under her breath just before the door and walked out the door without slowing down.
***
The trip to headquarters went normally. Ray behaved as usual, although there was some displeasure about the challenge, though almost unnoticeable, even if you watch very closely. We went in three cars, or rather two of them accompanied ours. But as last time only to the checkpoint, then our SUV went down the elevator alone.
Misato met us with a fat brown folder in her hand and excitedly rattled off something about tests that were not done yesterday because of my stubbornness and now she had to answer for it. She was noticeably wound up and clearly angry about something, and even more noticeably did not want to talk about it. I did not pester her with questions and practically silently walked to the elevator cabin, staring at the tablet.
Already in the elevator, Misato took out a thinner version of it from the folder and handed it to me.
- Here, Sin, have a look, it was just delivered from the factory this morning, it's not exactly the, as you put it?... "Figured club", but it's also not a bad thing. Plus, there are a couple more little things, once we sort things out a bit, you can try it out during training.
"A weapon for Eva?" I asked, just to be on the safe side, accepting the white cardboard folder.
- That's it. Just don't scold me right away, these things were designed and ordered long before that Angel showed up here. Of course, they adjusted something there, so to speak, based on the results, but the devil knows how it will work in the field.
- Clear.
- And yes... - Misato hesitated. - Anyway, you go ahead for now, wait for us in my office, Rei and I will step away for about twenty minutes.
- M?.. - I looked up questioningly at the captain.
- Yes, everything is fine - a couple of tests, then we will go up and continue together. Well, maybe we will be a little late, but that's up to Ritsuko to decide, you will get acquainted with the material at the same time.
"A couple of tests, huh? And individual ones for Rei? Hmm... Well, okay, let's pretend we understand. And it's not the first time. Although I don't like your nervousness, Misato."
"Okay, but try not to linger too long," I glance at Rei, she's looking at me too, her eyes slightly tense and expectant. I smile slightly, with the very corner of my lips, and calmly close my eyes. Ayanami nods slowly, barely noticeably, and relaxes.
- Uh-huh, - the girl muttered, slightly pursing her lips and turning away to the control panel, pressing one of the buttons. A couple of minutes later we were there and the elevator stopped. - Well, don't be bored, - my beautiful companions left the cabin and, briefly following their backs with my eyes, I pressed the button for the desired floor, myself immersed in reading the folder as soon as the doors closed.
So, what Misato called "not quite a club" was in reality a one-and-a-half-handed, double-edged quantum sword, made to fit Eva's size. The attached photo of the unit was impressive. True, I don't know how long it will withstand the loads when I work out some armored Angel, but in principle, I think it will be possible to strengthen the frame with an AT field, or even just spiritual energy, but this will only be found out during testing. In general, I must admit, the idea is worthwhile, in any case better than that parody of a dagger that is built into Eva's pylons, although I would slightly change the shape of the blade, and its length, but this is already nitpicking ...
Suddenly, the elevator stopped.
- So... You didn't get the joke?
I waited for a few seconds for some kind of reaction, but the doors didn't open, and according to my internal chronometer, there were still about thirty-six seconds left to go to the floor with Misato's office. The light continued to work, but the button for opening the door didn't respond to pressing, just like the others with floor numbers. The control room was also silent.
"Either the elevator is broken, or one of two things..."
It was hard to believe that the elevator had broken down. If there was one thing they wouldn't allow, it was something like that at NERV headquarters, one of the strongest and richest organizations in the world. And the lack of communication with the operator, or whoever was monitoring the internal transport, with the lights on and no corresponding sound effects of a breakdown, was very suspicious. And combined with Misato's nervousness...
"A set-up..."
"The question is, for what purpose? Clearly not elimination, there are many much simpler, more effective and cleaner ways to do that than crash the elevator. Capture? About 15 percent, but no more, and there's no need to break the elevator for that. So detain. And after first separating him from Rey. But why would they need that? I didn't seem to interfere with their "special" examinations, and how else could I have interfered with taking such radical measures... hmm... nothing comes to mind. Unless... They decided to launch Eva-01 without me?"
A smile touched my face, but I quickly suppressed it - if the operation was planned, then it is impossible to rule out the presence of hidden cameras, which are now recording all my reactions. "However, the situation was becoming clearer, if it was all about Gendo's desire to test how irreplaceable I am, then there are no problems and no need to fuss. By the way, I provoked him to this myself, during the previous experiments with double synchronization. Perhaps it was necessary to show then that Rei would not be able to synchronize without me, although no - nonsense. The whole goal was to add self-confidence to her, so then everything was done correctly. Well, and now ... Well, I'll sit for a couple of hours in the "accident", it will not hurt me, and there is something to read, thanks to the shameless traitor Misato, he-he ... "
NERV Command Center.
"Introduce the capsule. Begin the first stage of synchronization," Akagi commanded calmly. Misato watched with irritation, reflexively squeezing the sleeves of her jacket with her hands folded across her chest.
The fact that Rei calmly obeyed did not surprise her, the girl was generally very disciplined and obedient, it would be strange if she refused to follow the Commander's order. Although Rei still asked a question about Shinji, but received a simply "exhaustive" answer from the Commander:
- "You will carry out the activation without him."
Misato almost spat out in disgust at that moment, barely holding back, but Rei still obeyed and didn't ask anything else. But then... Just before the launch, when they were left alone for literally a minute:
- Captain Katsuragi. After all, Shinji was removed on purpose?
"Yes," the girl answered heavily after a pause. If Rei understood this, then Shinji would even more accurately calculate the situation. "What are they thinking?"
- Is he okay?
- Yes, he just got stuck in the elevator.
- I see. He... How quickly can he be delivered to the hangar? - Ayanami had been looking away stubbornly from the very beginning of the conversation, standing half-turned to Katsuragi, and there was something in her question that made Misato freeze from an unexpected feeling of great trouble, a fear that came from somewhere inside and was not directed at anything specific.
"I... don't know," the captain answered honestly, looking away from the girl's figure.
"I see..." Rei lowered her head slightly, but the next question, asked in a calm and indifferent tone, shocked Misato:
- What should I do if Eva gets out of control?
And now Misato was in a quiet rage and at the same time on the verge of panic. The commander did not want to listen to anything, Ritsuko also waved it off, referring to the data of the previous experiment where Rei successfully synchronized without Shinji, but Katsuragi was feeling uneasy. And she simply did not know what to do, and meanwhile the experiment had already begun.
- Yes! - Maya responded loudly from her chair, as usual. Even with some youthful enthusiasm and joy that did not fit with the captain's mood. - Beginning LCL polarization! Connection with nerve A-10... Error! Pulses out of phase! - Misato jerked as if from a blow, the air in her chest caught, and her gaze, wide-open in horror, was firmly attached to the image of the fixed Evangelion.
- What?! How can this be?! - Akagi, who had been calm just a second ago, jerked towards the monitor.
"Eva-01 is rejecting connection!" Aoba reported.
"There's a surge of energy inside Eva! The core has awakened!" Makoto's scream interrupted him.
- Crap!...
- Ray!?... - the cries of the heads of the scientific and operational departments sounded simultaneously, but were immediately interrupted by two operators:
- AT field deployment detected! 547 units!
- Another AT field! The spectrum is red!
- Where?!
"...Here, inside the Geofront... the third level..." Lieutenant Hyuga responded, turning pale and sharply adjusting his glasses with a trembling hand.
- Intensity!? - Akagi commanded, shocked and with a hint of panic, rushing to the necessary monitor. Misato almost didn't care, almost, after all, a new signal meant an Angel, but she was much more worried about Rei, Rei, whose question she still couldn't answer intelligibly!
- The signal is gone!
- Eve's AT field has disappeared! The energy reaction in the Core is dying down! - "How disappeared?! That means..."
- REY!? - Misato grabbed the microphone clip in her hands and drowned out the noise.
"I'm fine," a weak voice came from the speakers. "Eva is calming down. But she won't see me alone."
- What happened, what did you feel?! How were you able to calm her down?!
- It wasn't me... It was Shinji.
"So the second AT field..." Ritsuko said, dumbfounded.
- Yes...
"Ray, what happened?" the Commander's voice demanded, drowning out the noise as he watched the activation from his balcony.
- He... I don't know how, but Shinji was able to calm her down... The second AT field belonged to him, I felt it...
"I see..." the commander paused, during which a ringing silence settled in the room. "Get out."
- Eat.
Misato gave the table on the balcony and the face of the person sitting behind it a furious look, and hurried to the elevator to the hangar. "These kids are ALREADY her family, and even if Shinji turns out to be a damn Angel after today, she doesn't care, as long as she's their guardian and the commander, she's responsible for them. Although it remains to be seen who's guardian... But damn! She won't allow such idiocy as today again, even if she has to shoot that fucking bespectacled freak!"
Sitting at the top of the pyramid of the command center, Ikari Gendo, completely lost in his thoughts and not noticing the incinerating gaze of the chief of the operations department, clenched his fingers so hard that the white gloves creaked pitifully.
"The experiment failed. Completely. And the consequences are too difficult to predict. Although it is clear that they will be catastrophic! Unless the information gets outside NERV... Yes, Seele must not know anything, at any cost! First of all, it is necessary to destroy all records of the experiment. The operators... Fortunately, there were few of them today, only the necessary people and they are all reliable, but security must be strengthened. Shinji... The ability to form an AT field, after only two encounters with Angels... The influence of the absorbed Core? No, there is something else. Something much more serious... That look... The look of a killer... Reactions similar to Rei. Such deep contact with the Eva. The flash of the AT field... could it be... Tabris? NO! THIS cannot be! The scrolls directly say that Tabris will appear later! And Shinji is the one on whom the future of humanity depends! He cannot be an Angel! He cannot... We must act. Erase all data before Akagi thinks of making a couple of backup copies, one of which she will definitely "forget" to delete. Quickly and now! And Shinji... Later! There are more important things to do now! "...