ARISE UP ON THE ETERNAL PLAIN ANEW

Rei moved closer to unit 02 which was still roaring in agony she typed trying to get through to Asuka's com she'd heard her cry out in desperation for her mother everyone had heard it somehow her outward commutation had turned on which wasn't meant to happen. "Asuka can you hear me?"

Misato face appeared on her screen. "Don't get any closer to unit 02." Shinji's face came up opposite. "Shut her down she's suffering!" Misato looked at him. "We are trying she's shut us all out we don't know how she's even doing it!" Rei inched closer. "Yeah well if you're not going to, I will! Tell me what I have to pull off or destroy to shut her down?"

She watched as unit 02's head suddenly lowered violently as it sagged forward and the whole body stopped tensing going limp she inched closer as it remained completely still "Asuka?" The next moment caught her completely off guard as the head suddenly lifted its mouth opening as a massive bellowing roar came out she watched in utter shock as the face started to bend and creak as the metal started to buckle on both jaws as parts flew off as the lower jaw lengthen massively.

All of the eight cylindrical green cores that made up part's of the back suddenly flew up they were burning red hot as they tried to expel the internal heat in a mass of red hot steam which meant that the unit 02's core was seriously overheating and the cylinder cores were doing everything possible to keep it under control.

The head shook violently as a long human like tongue suddenly came out of the mouth as the two lower canine teeth on the bottom jaw started growing upwards turning into huge upward facing sabres as all the other teeth turned long and razor sharp and the top canines grew downwards becoming very prominent while the neck lengthened slightly getting thicker as the whole throat widened. Two sets of huge strange black horns smashed violently through the crest two on each side though the lesser one was curved.

The whole body was next as the sails on both shoulders started to lower themselves going further back as red plating flew off all over the place as the green eyes glowed brighter as the whole body hunched over becoming less human as more plating shot off. This wasn't Asuka's normal beast mode it looked nothing like this her normal form didn't change that much other than getting more muscled and normally the lower jaw got slightly longer and the unit's teeth becoming much more proximate and razor sharp while her speed became faster and she lost her shoulder sails.

The huge red hands started to shake as they grew downwards becoming half human with long thick curved claws and a longer palm with much longer fingers. The feet followed growing large claws becoming sub human as they grew upwards becoming almost lycanthrope like changing in size and length. The knees bent downwards to compensate for the upper body weight which increased as the top half became more muscular. A massive tail grew downwards from the end it was huge being almost as long as the body there was a massive crack as it split directly down the centre becoming two tails which seemed to move independently of the other lashing around violently she watched the cylinders go back in to the units back only to come out again as they expelled even more heat.

The huge jaws widened further as a bright blue ball with red light started to form inside it looked almost like a blue cross pattern she pressed on her com looked up seeing that the two vertical wings had now moved over unit 02 and Shinji was moving in unit 01 to intervene. "Asuka, if you can hear me please stop this you're loosing control!" She listened as Asuka's voice spoke it was distant small and weak. "Rei…"

The huge jaws suddenly snapped shut causing the blue light to be blown apart it blasted outwards in a massive blue and red shock wave which hit all the units including her causing her screen to flicker like crazy as a blue cross appeared staying there for a long moment before vanishing. The next moments shocked her as every Evangelion unit other than herself fell over there power cutting out completely.

She had barely any time to think as she saw the two vertical wings falling towards the earth she grabbed her controls running with all her might towards them then leapt up grabbing them both by the rudders before they could hit the ground. She pulled them up with all of her might they weren't the smallest planes in the world they were damn heavy. She carefully lowered them to the ground turning on her outside com so she could speak to them. "Are you okay, what happened?" She watched as both pilots appeared the first talking over his load speaker so she could hear them. "Our electrics cut out!"

Rei raised her unit's huge blue hand. "Excuse me I have to stop 02." She turned seeing unit 02's core cylinders go back down locking back in to place as the tongue drooped outside of its mouth, its legs buckled as it hit the ground hard on its front as the two massive tails went limp and the green eyes slowly turned dark as it shut down fully.

"Is anyone out there can anyone hear us?!"

Rei turned hearing Misato's voice as she came up on her screen with sound only. "I can hear you." Kaji's voice came filled with confusion. "You're still standing?" Rei looked around her at the other Evangelion's who had literally fallen over and were lying in awkward positions probably the worst was Mari who was literally sprawled on top of Toji. "Yeah don't ask me why the wave hit me but none of my systems went down."

Kaji spoke again in deeply concerned tone. "We had a massive power outage here it cut off half of Nerv we are getting reports that in Tokyo three that one of there transformers went dead which has knocked out six blocks. We have only just got the emergency back up power on and it will take us a minute to get back full screen but it will take them half an hour to get power up below, is Asuka still alive? We tried to shut her down but we lost power before we were able to complete." Rei looked at Asuka's unit. "Once she bit down on that ball of light, her unit shut down she's gone silent, I don't know if she's alive." Misato's voice cut in sharply. "What about the others?"

Rei turned as her brother unit eyes suddenly began to glow white and it started to move closely followed by Kaworu who moved from his position which was over Shinji unit's chest as he'd tried to protect him during the blast. "I think everyone's reactivating."

She watched as Mari got up slowly on the other side of the wall her voice coming through filled with rage. "What the hell just happened what did fucking princess do to us?" Toji's voice hit the air filled with anxiety. "Can someone get me out of here I've lost all power I can't even get my entry plug to release!" Mari moved over to him pulling out his cable. "Okay easy now I'll get you the Beta unit's cable, just give me one second..." She pulled the other cable out slowly pushing it to the training units back. "You got any power?"

Toji's voice came again though this time even more sharp and anxious. "No!" Mari breathed in watching as the four medical vans appeared on the surface driving full speed towards the training field there sirens going. "The medical staff are coming they will release you from the other side" she watched as they ran past her units feet stopping next to Toji training unit. She turned to Rei as the central wall that split both training grounds lowered as the other medical vans sped past her unit's feet as the stopped next to unit 02 as the emergency crew and medical crew got out. "Fucking pathetic her crying out for her mom, like that."

Rei eyed her in disgust. "How can you be so damn insensitive, she was in real pain?" Mari folded her unit's arms across its chest. "She's twenty three she should have gotten over her issues with her mother by now!" Shinji moved placed himself in between them. "Stop it both of you this is not helping anyone!" Kaworu eased up his units white hand. "Shinji's right we need to be calm and focused right now so the medical and emergency crews can do their work." Rei watched as Misato's image appeared on her screen. "Okay we now have full power again we have reads out from unit 02, she's alive but unconscious the medical staff are going in to pull her out they should be with you now." Her eyes shifted looking elsewhere. "What the hell did she do to unit 02 it looks like some kind of Oni on steroids?!"

Rei looked up seeing that the press helicopters were returning they had practically high tailed it the moment the blue and red ball of light had appeared in 02's mouth because they clearly though there was going to be an explosion. Worst part was they had no doubt recorded the footage of Asuka crying out for her mother, now they were just here to soak in all the turmoil and there were no virtual wings to stop them and it would probably take a moment for the tanks to come out and point their guns at them just to keep them out of the training grounds which they could literally fly over at will right now if they wanted to.

She typed in to her screen watching as their direct new feed came up she watched as Asuka's entry plug was ejected half way and the door was opened slowly by the crews who went inside as the news camera beamed in closer as the news man spoke. "Very tense moment here people please stand by we are only just getting this if we move any closer Nerv will not be happy."

Rei breathed in deeply she sat up as she caught sight of Asuka as they brought her out on a stretcher while putting a breathing apparatus on her. The news casters voice came again. "It appears that the German pilot Asuka Langley Soryu is alive just unconscious, though I think this brings up far more questions than answers, was Nerv's new test software faulty or was this caused by pilot's mental instability? Because we've all seen what a taste of that can do with unit 01 and the pilot Shinji Ikari some years back." His voice turned to disgust. "Either way unit 02 now truly does looks really demented and twisted, I mean look at its tongue you could stretch it over a yard arm." Rei tapped the volume silencing it so it was picture only as she eased up her legs and folding her arms watching in silence.

8

Maya breathed in deeply looking at Asuka who was lying in the hospital wing she had been out for five hours and had yet to regain consciousness. She could see Shinji, Rei and Kaworu who were all waiting for her to wake up and seated next to her bed. Yet again she'd had to be dressed in hospital shirt and trousers with the bionic over the top and she wasn't going to like being back here, she could feel it.

She watched as Misato walked up the hall towards her the concern in her face as she spoke. "How is she?" Maya shook her head. "Nothing's wrong with her I checked everything, her hearts fine, brain waves are all normal she's just not coming around and I have no idea as to why." She put her hand on her face. "This is whole event has been awful, I never wanted it to be this way I wanted her to get better."

Misato leaned against the wall easing up her black trousers leg as she put her black army boot against the wall. "Well we know Ritsuko's going to kick off big time and try to blame it all on us and the press are going to have a field day and I have no idea what were are even meant to do with unit 02 now. The specialists said it will take them a few days to fix the armour and they'll have to work nonstop, because it's a massive refit job as they have to take the spare plating out of storage and modify it."

Maya looked up sadly. "I spoke to the technicians and specialists what ever she did it's permanent they checked the units code over twice because they thought it was stuck in some kind of beast mode but its not. In fact the code for activating beast mode has completely vanished its like it was purposely erased from the entry plug's software and they did try to put it back in but it got instantly rejected which really confused them as the units entry plugs don't normally reject new code."

She eased up a hand. "They made one thing very clear though that it's a physical change in appearance to match its pilot's mental state granted years ago when 01 went berserk it went through minor physical changes in that the crest horn now has opening sections and its hands are clawed and it became even stronger. This on the other hand is a complete metamorphosis in that Evangelion's real body has also changed drastically under the armour and it's unlike anything we've ever witnessed before." Misato looked up. "You're telling me this thing looking like it came out of the pits of some Oni hell is the result of Asuka's mental breakdown?"

Maya nodded. "Yes but what none of us can wrap our heads around is that normally depression in pilots means they don't sync well and they can't perform well either. Their own Evangelion rejects them it happened to Rei once when she was younger and going through hard times and kept dying her hair blue and putting in red contacts because she so badly wanted her fathers attention and we couldn't get her to sync right for over two weeks."

She raised her hand "Asuka though has somehow broken the rule she's twisted the form and still has the Evangelion working for her. I mean all of the read outs suggest that she wanted to do this that she willed it somehow but hearing her crying out for mother is just utterly heartbreaking and the worst part is everyone heard her, as the feed was being pumped across the world in real time." She breathed in painfully. "Some people in the media will use this to crucify her because they love to kick others when there at their lowest and some of them hate Asuka because of her past actions on their networks and now they finally going to get their pound of flesh and they know the issue with her mother is like some gaping emotional wound."

She looked down sadly. "The media team upstairs are also saying that Asuka's ratings are now at an all time low in fact they've had to do nothing but damage control for her since the UN Alpha unit accident and to a lot of people out there she's no longer a god, she's a washout and this incident today has just made it ten times worse because now her mental stability is being seriously questioned. You know that Gendo tried to pull Shinji from the program after he went berserk in 01 but he had to keep him because he found dummy plugs just don't work the Evangelion rejects them every time."

Misato felt a cold sneer form on her lips. "I don't give a shit about what the media outside are saying or our media team here, I mean we can just say this happened due to coding error in cores partial AI, I mean they always buy that bullshit right? They know the Evangelion's series are forever a work in progress since they are the most sophisticated weapons on earth."

Maya eased up her hand. "Yes and that would work had Asuka not turned unit 02 in to some crazy demented looking lycanthrope like creature. They're not even going to even believe this now for second and if we lie and say it's stuck in beast mode they'll still have one over on us because her unit looks nothing like its normal beast mode form, our best option is to stay quite until we know just what's going on."

Misato looked up as Kaji made his way towards them the concern in his eyes as he spoke. "I wanted to come down here to see how she's doing." Maya looked through the glass. "She hasn't woken up we are all still waiting." Kaji pushed his long tail back. "This whole thing is terrible and I still don't understand how she locked us out, I mean she's not Mari she doesn't have hacking skills her specialty is mechanics and engineering."

Maya put a hand through her hair in frustration. "Panic attacks cause all sorts of emotional problems what I can't figure out is what is triggering her, both times it's been so sudden like someone flicking a switch in her brain and this time she was perfectly fine for a while." She folded her arms. "Is Toji okay, I know it took them a while to pull him out of Omega's entry plug and he was really shook up?" Kaji put his hands in his pockets. "Young man's fine, the reason he was having such a hard time is he doesn't like pitch black places, it's all to do with his street living where him and sister had to hide in some really awful dark places to get away from people with guns. His new unit is being fitted with a device so it always has a red glow even when it's turned off just to keep the entry plug lit, we did put extra light in Omega's entry plug but the shock wave shorted it out."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Shinji looked behind him through the glass seeing the others talking. "What do you suppose they're talking about?" Rei kept her arms folded not looking behind her. "I don't care what they're talking about." Kaworu turned to her. "Is what happened with Mari still getting to you, I mean what she said about Asuka?" Rei felt her body tense. "No but it's something else related to it." She turned to Shinji. "You never told me Asuka cried out for her mother in her sleep." Shinji raised his hand "Look at the time it was between us and I did try to talk to her about it but she got angry and shut me out."

Rei eyed him "Yet I never knew, I'm your sister not a stranger." Shinji put his hands together. "Look I didn't tell you because I was trying to protect you, you and I both know how Asuka used to be and how she loved the sympathy vote and liked to manipulate people so she could get her own way." Rei felt her teeth grind together. "Please walking in on your mother when she hung herself and crying about her in your sleep is a sympathy vote?"

She sat up fully "You know our mother loved us to her last breath and even after she was gone and father ditched us we at least had each other to depend on and our family did care about us and tried to help, Asuka wasn't so lucky her stepparents didn't care about her." Kaworu turned to Shinji as he spoke hearing the pain in his words which he knew his best friend would understand "Messy childhoods lead to messy feelings that are unfathomable and for some of us they are much more difficult to navigate than others."

Shinji looked up meeting his sister's gaze "I'm sorry Rei I was just trying to protect you I know Asuka scared you in school but at the same time I know she liked you though not in good way it was more about wanting you and having ownership." Rei adjusted her shirts embroiled collar. "I'm starting to think that school was tragic waste of time because we were all so messed up in ourselves and never knew who we really were or who we really wanted to be and now all I feel is sadness that we all couldn't have, had happier lives." Her next words were cut off as she saw Asuka's fingers start to twitch she moved over to bed followed by the others. "I think she's coming around."

She watched as both of her eyes opened though her blinded left eye now looked very different it had weird glowing blue patterns in it and it was no longer milky though the pupil was still white it seemed a much brighter white she spoke softly and quietly. "Asuka you're in the hospital wing." Asuka eased up her hand putting it on her left eye groaning painfully. "Where's my patch?" Rei leaned over passing it to her as she sat up in bed. "It's here."

Asuka eased on her patch as she turned to the others. "I've verschissen es up again…" Rei looked at her for a long moment. "No Asuka you didn't." Asuka felt her teeth grind together as she spoke. "Please you do not have to make me feel better I remember what happened I lost control of my verfickte Unit and caused some kind of accident!" She put a hand through her hair in frustration. "I know because I remember unit 02's jaws shutting and something being forced outward and it gets really hazy after that." Shinji moved closer. "Asuka all you did was knock out the power in our units and part of Nerv along with a part of Tokyo Three but no one died, they got the power switched back on."

Asuka put her face in her hands. "Ritsuko's going to bury me for this." Shinji looked at her for a long moment before speaking. "What because you threw off the power and she couldn't make her overly priced expensive tea for half an hour." Asuka looked up at him. "No because she verfickt hates me and wants me off the program!" She lowered her gaze to the floor. "Just like she hated my mother…." She felt her self tense as the sudden memory flooded back and she found herself pulling up her legs just to hide her face in them. "Oh please no…I was crying out for my mother on the live speaker."

Rei moved a little closer. "Asuka it's okay." Asuka buried her head deeper. "This is not okay…the media are going to destroy me over this there going to make me out as incompetent and mentality unstable." Rei breathed in deeply. "There just the media Asuka what they say means nothing." She looked up as Misato came in followed by Maya and Kaji. "Asuka, Misato's here she wants to speak to you Maya's here to and so is Kaji." Asuka lowered her legs seeing them all come into view as her anger melted away turning in to pure sadness. "You're here about my suspension right, because I caused a serious incident on the training field?" She looked at her hands. "Where people could have died because I wasn't in control."

Misato blinked in shock she could see the overwhelming sadness in the red haired woman's face it was there clear as day. "No Asuka that's not why I'm here." She raised a large photo which showed unit 02 new look. "All of us just need to know how you did this." Asuka eyed the red unit which looked nothing like hers but more like some kind of demented demon. "Is this some kind of joke because if it is, it's not verfickt funny?" Misato looked at the image. "No Asuka this is your unit you did this to it, what we need to know is how we've never seen anything like it before?"

"I changed it for you when we merged fully, you'll thank me later."

Asuka turned realizing that Bardiel was sitting opposite the hospital bed but no one could even see him other than her, she felt herself fidget nervously feeling her good eye dart. She didn't want to be here anymore she wanted to run away and leave. "I don't know how I did it, I don't remember." Misato eyed her closely she could now see clearly Asuka just wasn't right her emotional state had changed very quickly and that distant behaviour Maya had spoken about was showing because she wasn't focusing on her at all and she seemed deeply distracted. "Asuka we all have to go up to head office in an hour we need to explain this, if you can tell me anything to explain this."

She leaned forward speaking very gently. "Just tell me what your emotional state was inside unit 02 when this happened it's really important." Asuka felt her whole body tense as the words came out before she could really stop them. "I wanted oblivion so I couldn't feel the pain anymore." Misato looked around seeing concern and sadness as it appeared on everyone faces she tried to choose her words as carefully as possible as she spoke again. "Asuka are you talking about suicide?"

Asuka looked down maybe she was, right now she wanted everything to stop and she didn't really care how. She was trapped in one endless nightmare where nothing went right and nothing she seemed to do could made it better to her it felt like her life was just turning in to an utter train wreck. Every emotion felt ten times worse and even now she was holding back the tears because she just didn't feel like there was any light at the end of this tunnel.

Misato breathed in deeply trying again seeing that the red haired woman was staring off into the distance lost in her own world. "Asuka please are you talking about suicide, you need to tell us it's very important?" Asuka looked up knowing her next words were such an utter lie but she just wanted to be left alone. "Don't compare me to my mother, just because she took her own life doesn't mean I'm like her!"

Maya didn't think as she moved in front of Misato easing up her hands because she knew just how bad this might get "We weren't comparing you to your mother Asuka, we are just worried." Asuka eyed her. "Well I don't want your worry or your pity so leave me alone!" She pulled herself off the bed ignoring the fact that her body was really aching all over. "I assume my clothes are still in the changing room up in the wreck room because I just want to go home?"

Rei stepped in front of her raising her hands causing her to stop "Asuka, why don't you come home with me tonight? I mean I live much closer to Nerv, you can bring your cat Erika up on the train and she can stay with us, I also promised you this morning that we would both talk." Asuka breathed in deeply she really wishing that this wasn't happening right now because somewhere deep down in her heart a voice was crying out a desperate yes, while her mind was just screaming no.

Rei moved closer taking hold of her arm. "I can order in something for you since you're more of a carnivore than I am, wasn't your favourite junk food in school meat feast pizza?" Asuka stared at her for a long moment this was like torture because it was something she wanted so badly that it hurt why couldn't Rei just stop? Even if it was for real and it wasn't about guilt or pity why was wasting her time on her? She deserved so much better than her even as a friend she eased up her hand very gently easing hers off. "Thank you Rei but I'll be fine."

She hated herself for those words even as they came out because again that wanting and longing hurt so badly but it was better for Rei. She couldn't let her walk this path she was infected by an angel and she'd always be at risk she stepped away looking at the floor as she walked out watching as everyone moved aside to let her through.

Misato watched as she vanished from sight this was so sad, she was used to dealing with pilots problems but this was just shocking it was pure depression and it was crippling Asuka. She eyed Rei who now just looked sad she moved forward putting her hand on her shoulder. "You tried Rei." Rei shook her head. "She just won't let me in no matter what I say or do I know she's depressed but I just wish I could reach her."

Maya moved forward. "Believe me she wanted to I saw it in her face." Kaji looked down sadly. "What people say and what they feel are very different things and I think Asuka wants your friendship its just fear holding her back." Misato turned to Maya and Kaji. "We can not tell Ritsuko about what she said regarding oblivion because Ritsuko will use her mother's suicide against her we have to make up something else." Shinji stepped forward. "Say it was anxiety and fear, like you did with me when I sent my unit 01 berserk during the first battle which caused the crest horn to change and the fingers to grow claws."

Misato looked at him for a long moment. "That just might work Shinji." raised her hand. "Everyone has to back me up on this is that clear?" She watched as they all nodded as she turned to Maya. "Also when Asuka comes in tomorrow, just tell her she can do what ever she wants, hell throw sweets in lap just anything to perk her up I just need to keep Ritsuko's and Gendo's gaze off her while I fix this." She breathed in deeply. "Now I must give her grandmother a call because she's been trying to get through for hours I'll tell her that Asuka's stable and has discharged herself and has gone home and then I'll somehow have to explain to her how 02 ended up like this."

8

Ritsuko slammed her hand down hard on the desk. "This is a fucking disaster do you know how much rubbish I'm going to have to go through just to get this cleaned up? I'm meant to be flying out to Jordan tomorrow to speak to the king and queen there and now I can't do it because of the utter mess you've all made!" She eyed her husband who was sitting watching quietly on the other side of there joint desk.

She turned eyeing Misato Maya and Kaji along with Tadao who had come down from the market and media building above he was dressed in his jeans and Nerv logo t shirt. "We've had hundreds of complaints from Tokyo three about Asuka some how blowing out their power, not to mention I got stuck in a lift shaft for half an hour because she somehow managed to short out half of Nerv!"

She grabbed her remote device bringing up the holographic video screen which showed unit 02 being looked over in the lower bay where the specialist's were trying to fit new red plating on to the dark brown exposed flesh. "Also why does 02 now look's like some kind of hideous ugly Oni that crawled its way out of some hell pit?" Tadao pushed his short dark hair back grinning. "I thought it looked really cool actuality, I mean stick a knife on one tail and put a rifle or turret gun on the other it will be even cooler."

Misato sneered gods she hated the marketing department. "That's a stupid idea, it's not a child's toy it's a war machine!" Tadao eased up his hand pointing at image. "No that's got new toy line written all over it, I can't wait to see that thing in action I mean its capabilities will be so different from the other Evangelion's now." He looked at the others. "But could someone please tell me how Rei's unit didn't get shorted out from the blast? I mean we saw the whole thing from our building since we are close to the training grounds all the other Evangelion's fell flat on there backs but not her."

He felt a smirk form. "The whole thing with Kaworu diving to save Shinji is going to be great media press though because people love that kind of heroic stuff." Kaji breathed in deeply putting his hands in his pockets as he eyed the younger man. "Why are you down here again?" Tadao folded his arms. "Because it's my job and Eshima's to clean up your mess, you know make you look good to the world." He felt a cold sneer form. "We talk to the papers basically we do all of the things you really don't want or don't like doing because you're military."

He raised his hand. "Before you hired us you were doing that whole dark ages blackout media bullshit and it wasn't working for you, the world hated you and you weren't very popular." He looked up smiling smugly "So yeah I'm just here to make Asuka look good today despite that she knocked out the power." Ritsuko eyed them all. "Stop arguing and give me some answers!" Maya stepped forward. "Asuka had a panic attack we believe the anxiety and stress caused the transformation just like in the 01 Berserker incident which changed its crest horn and caused its fingers to grow claws as well as enhancing its strength." Ritsuko shook her head. "Please you must think I was born yesterday I helped create these Evangelion's with Yui and her sister Kiko I was there when they first turned on the Beta and Omega unit and had them running my mother founded the Magi system before she had a heart attack and passed away. So don't play down what this is, this is some form of mental state gone wrong."

She eyed the ugly red unit. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around that and I've been hearing all manner of disturbing rumours regarding Asuka's mental state like shorting out the one of the lifts breakers and breaking the camera and then sleeping in there for six hours along with being very distant moody and really out of sorts."

Maya put her hands behind her back great she'd already heard about this despite that she had done so much to silence everyone. "She's unwell what do you expect? The UN Alpha test accident has been very difficult for her in many ways she broke most of her body her recovery is going to be slow and difficult." Misato put her hands in her leather jackets pockets. "We are doing everything in our power to make her better believe me." Tadao looked up slightly. "Well her cry for her mother will get a lot of public sympathy upstairs we can use that in her favour and we can use it against the press who will go out of their way to try and take out chunks of her." Ritsuko leaned forward. "Asuka's mother Kyoko was an insurable bitch and Asuka needs to learn to grow up."

Kaji looked up eyeing her disgust. "Yet like Kiko and Yui, Kyoko's work was critical for making the Evangelion's function as they do now she gave her life like Yui and Kiko to further the program." Gendo looked up. "This is nonsense and I have no interest in it, do you believe that the German can pilot this new Evangelion or should she be removed from the program?"

Kaji turned to meet his gaze. "We all believe she can still pilot regardless of her mental state before she passed out and even during the transformation she was in perfect sync." He raised his hand to the holographic screen. "I mean she somehow created that new form, we still don't know how or why but it's unlike anything we've ever seen before it needs research and study. Not to mention that if she could create that ball of light again but somehow learn how to direct it, well we could recreate it in the others Evangelions. It could be a brilliant weapon against the three major terrorist groups who keep attacking the Evangelions when there trying to do help people, it might even please Seele."

Tadao looked up in confusion. "Who are Seele are they a new sponsor?" Misato felt a sly smile form. "That's well above your pay grade and classified." Gendo raised a white gloved hand. "Then make it happen." He turned looking at his papers. "Also I am most perplexed as to how unit 00 wasn't knocked out as well, as it was the closest."

Misato breathed in deeply. "Your daughter was really heroic she saved both of the vertical wing fighters lives when they were shorted out and she stopping them crash landing she also stood by unit 02 until the teams had finished and Asuka was out. Then she helped drag 02 back to the cage so we could get it back below to do the repairs and she even went around and picked up all of its plating which had popped off because she wanted to save the clean up crew time, you should be very proud of her she did all of this with out even being ordered."

Gendo's face remained emotionless. "She was doing what was expected of her but if you want to throw childish praise her way go ahead." Misato tensed in anger gods this man was such a bastard, he always ignored Rei's truly great moments. He did this to Shinji as well but he was older and could ignore it she was the youngest of all the pilots and the one who deserved to be noticed. She knew why he ignored her everyone did, it was her hair and those eyes she was a mirror of a Yui. She reminded him of his sins and his cheating when he'd gone behind his loving wife's back and he couldn't bear to be in the same room as her. Ritsuko raised her hand as she eyed them all. "This meeting is over leave now all of you, you all know what you have to do so get on with it!"

End of part 18

Silvermoonlight