THE FAMILY THAT GROUNDS US
Geraldine walked the long white corridor that led to Asuka's hospital room she knew where it was she'd been here before but it had been some years ago and this time felt so different. She breathed in feeling the pain in her heart as she caught sight of her grand daughter whose only good eye was staring up at the ceiling she was an utter mess both of her legs were bandaged and her right arm as well as her chest and stomach but that was covered by hospital clothes, word had it that the stomach wound had been serious and there had been massive internal bleeding and a least a section of the young woman's guts had been hanging out and it would probably leave a scar for life along with the loss of her left eye.
She eyed her hand which was missing a finger, scars though you could carry with pride mental damage was much harder to treat and being bed ridden could drive even the best warriors and soldiers crazy when they loved to fight and the road to recovery could long and painful, the last time her granddaughters healing had been fast but this time it just wouldn't be.
She turned seeing a dark haired woman was talking to her Asuka she was dressed in a white lab coat and dark trousers who was called Maya. She had been Ritsuko's assistant once but since Ritsuko's shift of position and power people had been moved around some dethroned from power positions like Kaji who was now stuck doing pilot testing on the hologram field while Maya had risen up but unlike Ritsuko she took a lot more time and care with regards to the pilots mental health and well being and ironically she was happier about her being the one standing in this room than Ritsuko.
As it meant her granddaughter would get both the mental and the physical help she needed. She took in a deep breath pulling up her bag which she'd picked up before coming down here as it was a number of gifts for Asuka. Looking at it she realized that despite everything she was old fashioned and she still liked to spoil Asuka like she was a tiny child when ever possible but maybe that's how she saw her always as the little girl who used to run and grab her leg.
Asuka being with her step father and step mother had been the worst thing ever she had seen it only right to take her away from them after her mother's death, plus she was so mentality screwed up thanks to them and she had started to bury her feelings inward which young children shouldn't do. She had been desperate for attention and for her mother to see her and instead all she had gotten from her mother who was psychologically broken after testing unit 02 was abuse and violence.
Kyoko had refused to see that she was her daughter and had once tried to strangle her when she was five. That event had made her custody battle for Asuka so much easier ironically because her step father had been screwing the doctor who was Asuka's step mother in the other room and not paying attention and Asuka had almost died and after her mothers suicide she had become hardened and very with drawn, plus she had nearly drowned in the lake near that house because they weren't paying attention.
She would never forget walking up their house packing Asuka's things and taking her hand and taking her away from those awful people and their daughter to live with her, yes it had been confusing Asuka who had been seven at the time but she wanted her granddaughter to have something of a normal life to be at least happy on some level and she had never regretted the decision. Asuka still had problems and she had gone through an awful bullying ego phase in teens which she was in part to blame for as she had not taught her the difference between power and cruelty and she had done everything in her power to correct that when she'd found out about it but now as an adult Asuka was well rounded and calmer, she had her moments but every one had their moments it was what was being human was all about. She took in a deep breath opening the door to the hospital room hearing Maya's gentle voice as she spoke. "You know you have to eat the food Asuka." Asuka looked at the bowl in front of her which tasted awful. "I hate this hospital food…its disgusting."
Maya breathed in deeply she should have seen this coming from a mile away. "Listen this is all you can eat right now, your stomach won't be able handle solids for a while, believe me." Asuka lay back on the pillows which were pushing her up but not fully because of her broken legs. "Great I get part of my gut yanked out and now I have to eat this anything tastes better than this even LCL." Maya put a hand on the bed rail. "LCL tastes disgusting and the smell sticks around all night." Asuka raised her eyebrow. "That's because you just don't understand it, it's warm, loving if your one with it." Maya blinked in surprise. "All you pilots always say that to me, but you never tell me what you mean by it." Geraldine smirked as she looked up. "Maybe some mysteries are better left unknown."
Maya turned watching Asuka's grandmother come in to view. "Geraldine it's so good to see you." She walked towards her taking her hand. "I hope your flight over here wasn't too difficult." Geraldine shrugged. "Nothing could keep me from my granddaughter." Maya recognized that shrug that was Asuka's she had clearly gotten it from her grandmother. "I'll leave you two alone maybe you can get your granddaughter to eat her dinner."
Asuka watched as she left she winced as she tried to get up. "Grandma." She didn't get to move much more as the older woman's arms wrapped around her tightly as she spoke her words full of pain. "I'm so glad that you're okay Asuka…I saw the news I saw your entry plug…" Her words ended as she held her even tighter. Asuka spoke keeping her voice soft. "I'm okay grandma I'm just sore." Her grandmother pulled away giving her gentle kiss on the head. "Please don't play down your pain Asuka I know you better than that." Asuka breathed in painfully. "Okay but I didn't say how I really felt because it would involve curse words and I know you hate curse words." Geraldina pulled up a chair. "To be fair little one I would understand you're cursing right now, it's not every day you get put through the grinder like this, you know you're going to have some amazing scars to boast about when you're up and walking again."
She opened her bag. "Speaking off which I brought you a few things, you know to cheer you up." She put German boiled sweets on the table and a large bar of chocolate. "I know you can't chew but you can wait for these to melt in your mouth, they might make the food your stuck eating taste less horrible." She eased out another item. "I also got you some large bread pretzels which you can have when your stomach is more up to it but I'll keep them at your home and your favourite coffee don't worry I didn't just bring you some small can ether I brought you at least six months worth, because your forever telling me how much you hate the coffee over here and how it doesn't taste like home."
Asuka felt a smile form. "You have no idea, though my coffee maker helps, it just never tastes right." She took in a deep breath despite the pain in chest. "Thank you Grandma." Geraldine put a hand on her face. "Anything for you little one." Asuka breathed in deeply. "Could you tell me what's going on back in Germany I just haven't visited in so long?" She watched as her grandmother nodded as she started speaking.
Misato watched through the glass granted she couldn't tell all of what was being said because the glass was sound proof all that was clear to her was that Asuka was happy at this moment in time and that was all she really cared about as it would help in her recovery she turned as Shigeru appeared walking towards her. "Is everything okay?" Shigeru looked up as he raised his hand. "Sorry to trouble you but the British delegate is leaving but specifically asked for you to see her off, clearly she wants to talk to you about something." Misato shook her head. "Okay take me there…."
Shigeru put his hands in his trouser pockets. "Would you like a drink, you know after this shift ends?" Misato shook her head. "Look I don't want a date Shigeru." Shigeru breathed in deeply. "That was not what I was asking, I was asking if you wanted a drink, because you look tired and like you need a pick me up after everything that has happened?" Misato turned looking in to his eyes seeing that he was being genuine. "Okay a drink after this over, meet me here at the end of the shift."
8
Misato walked the long bridge to the landing bay seeing the British Helicopter which was gearing up ready to take off. She could see Alexandra standing arms folded looking at her coldly. "You asked to see me." Alexandra breathed in deeply. "I see you're struggling with Mari, would I be correct?" Misato looked at her for a long moment before turning her eyes to the bays where unit 02 along with 00 where being brought up to the surface of the other training ground it had be done with all the units.
They had to come to the surface to be washed by one of the teams and their glass lenses were checked for cracks and the S² Engines fired up just to check if they were working then powered down, it was normally done below but since Toji's Evangelion was being finished all focus on the lower bay was about completing the work. Also some Evangelion's were twitchy she had no idea what caused this but unit 02 had been known to break parts of the lower bay sometimes with it's hand during maintenance checks but up here with the teams who were air born and in planes they could work in safety on it.
Unit 00 and unit 01 had this same problem the rest of the units never misbehaved she could only assume it was coding error the scientists were yet to crack. Unit 01 had the worst history of twitching but it was getting less and less where as 02 was starting to get worse for some reason, these machines weren't alive even if they had living parts so she had very little understanding as to why.
She watched as the huge section of the field came up on ether side of unit 02 and like a giant car wash started spraying thousands of tons of clear water on it which in turn caused two months worth of dirt to flood down in an almost brown stream to the unit's feet. The washer stopped as it moved to unit 00 doing the same though what came off was half as much dirt. She turned back to Alexandra. "Yes I'm struggling with Mari."
She was about to say more only to see unit 00's huge blue hand suddenly moved even though it was turned off which caused Alexandra to blink in shock. "I thought that unit was switched off it just moved." Misato breathed in deeply. "It's a coding error." Alexandra looked at her for a long moment before speaking. "You say that so casually is this issue in Mari's unit?" Misato put her hands in her pockets. "No it's only in the older units, we only wash the twitchy ones above ground because there have been accidents before, it's an ongoing problem we are trying to fix but Evangelion's are expensive and time consuming machines but I don't need to tell you that, you already know." She looked up seeing two black media helicopters in the distance doing there rounds they couldn't enter the training ground but they liked to test there luck regardless and record from afar and they were always around during the elite pilot training simulations and during these three units cleaning and testing. Alexandra turned back to her. "On the issue of Mari you're struggling because you're too soft with her."
Misato blinked she wasn't going to mention that she had slammed Mari up against a wall and chewed her out. "Believe me I've not been soft, once upon a time Asuka had similar issues but she grew out of them so it's not my training." She looked down at the floor. "Mari is more difficult and I'm still confused as to how you got her to confess to hacking." Alexandra felt a cold smile form on her lips. "That's easy you see the problem child thinks it's all fun and games until you remind her off her past and her beginnings and that she is in essence a convict who got out of doing prison time."
Misato looked over watching as one of the cracked lenses was eased free of unit 02 left upper right eye and moved away as a new one was brought up and slowly hovered in to place so the work man and women could fit it. "Isn't that rather cruel?" Alexandra shrugged. "This is what I mean by soft, you shouldn't be so nice to these young adults just because they have bad pasts they use that kind of stuff no end to get what they want."
Misato tensed uneasily she really didn't agree with that statement at all but she wasn't going to say anything. "Are you seriously suggesting that I beat Mari up emotionally over being a hacker and having a prison sentences?" Alexandra straightened her grey jacket. "Believe me it's the only language she understands, we tried playing nice with her many times and it didn't rub off, in fact when she was caught by the secret service the integration torture did nothing and believe me when I say they really worked her over but when it got to the physiological, well things changed fast, her body might be able to take a real beating but her brain well that a little softer." She put her hands together. "The only way you'll get through to her is through physiological carrot and stick it's the only method that works and it wipes that self knowing smug smile of her face in seconds." Misato turned meeting her gaze. "I don't believe in that, it is not how I train pilots."
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Alexandra breathed in deeply as she watched the work man and women finish refitting the lenses on the red Evangelion's eye. "Well what you're doing isn't working, you might want to reconsider, believe me if she was back on my soil, I'd give her what's coming to her." Misato tensed not liking her words. "May be it's for the better then that she's not coming home."
Alexandra looked up feeling her smile widen. "I'm just giving you my opinion, because this won't end until you insert your dominance over her and yes though I know your German pilot has a history of beating people up who get in her way and annoy her but that really isn't going to work on Mari. The ratty little child spat blood in the face of special services interrogators she's not afraid of pain in fact I think she really enjoys it. Like I said physiological carrot and stick because she's real sore about her poverty stricken past and being ditched by her father and her mother having alcohol issues which made her miserable, she spent all of her money on drinks rather than raising a daughter, the fall from grace and loosing everything was so awful for her as husband took everything she had apart from Mari, granted her murder was an awful tragedy but it was bound to happen when you when you drink like that you end up making bad choices."
She stepped in to the helicopter looked up as the red unit's whole body suddenly jolted violently enough to cause some of the roped women and men to jump off she rose her hand pointing in the red units direction. "Yeah and you should really fix that red unit, the press will have a field day with that." Misato breathed in as she stepped away as the British helicopter took off blowing dust in its wake.
Clearly Alexandra didn't keep up with the news, everyone around the globe knew about this issue the press had long stopped running with it because it wasn't interesting anymore. She watched as the washer lowered back in to the ground and the workers planes moved as far away as they could get as the both units started up suddenly standing bolt up right there eyes glowing as S² Engines worked like a charm as always.
Both units slumped as the engines were shut off and the glowing eyes faded to black. Another successful test she watched as they were both slowly lowered down back in side Nerv central no doubt unit 01 and unit 03 Kaworu's, Mari's unit 04 would come up after and probably remain up all night while they fixed a lot of the plating which had been damaged during the battle along with two of the many eyes.
They had not found anything interesting in her entry plug, just a load of empty energy drink bottles, but nothing to ring home about other than that Mari was very laid back and didn't care about keeping the entry plug clean which was meant to be a protocol but she couldn't really tell her off for this as now and again the other pilots brought things in to LCL because it helped them in battle and she wouldn't take that away from them no matter how much is annoyed the specialists who cleaned out their entry plugs and maintained them.
8
Kaji slowly opened the double doors to the pilots wreck room, which were sealed off to most staff accept a trusted few the room was very large with two three seat leather sofa's and two personal sofa chairs which were Asuka's and Mari's and at opposite ends of the room to each other. There was a large flat screen TV in the corner and a pool table along with arcade machines and a pin ball machine and a large bar which was set up so they could drink and eat and had cushioned tall chairs on either side.
There was a completely separate room for showering using the toilets and a separate area for dressing in plug suits which were all kept in special glass casing along with there interface clips. All of the pilots also had there own personal lockers when the children had started out they'd only had one what looked like a school locker but now all these years later they had very large deep special lockers, where they could keep everything inside and these had become very personalized now.
Shinji had painted his in bright colours Rei's had computer game cheat codes stamped all over the place, Toji's had army trucks and sports cars and Kaworu's had musical pages some which he was writing on his own, while Mari's was just yards and yards of computer code which she liked writing. Asuka's though was completely clear apart from an image of a Trident motor bike and a few basic engine schismatic sketches which were in the corner and next to her locker was one of the old school lockers but it had dents in it and it was also hers and she tended to take her frustration out on it.
No one ever touched it, accept her and normally when she was kicking it they just let her get on with it. He eased up the red interface headset clips the only part of Asuka's plug suit that had been salvaged he had the rest in a box under his arm as it had only been needed by the technicians to they could take the shape and dimensions and compare them with the new ones which the hospital wing had sent down as they had time to give her a full body scan when she'd been in the decontamination tank which was called Orion and had been built by Maya's team.
The technicians were building Asuka a brand new plug suit with a new colour scheme maybe it was ironic that her bright red one had been destroyed as she had been complaining for months that it didn't fit and it was uncomfortable around the shoulders and back. He had brought the old one up here so she could have it, with her things as she might want to keep it as a trophy. She didn't have a child's body anymore though she had a young adult's body though her face had not changed that much it was still very youthful and the other's were the same.
Only a few of them had gained some height and that was Shinji, Kaworu and Asuka while Mari was the tallest of the women and Rei was the smallest of them all but she was still the youngest and could still be very shy at times though she had very open moments now and again, Toji was by far the tallest off all of the men.
All of these children were adults now and he had already seen the work that was being done on all their suits, only Mari and Toji didn't need replacements as they were fitting perfectly with out any complaints and Mari was a real complainer if the chest didn't fit right. He was convinced that one of the issues with Asuka's not fitting wasn't just her growing up as she should but more due to her become muscular as she and Mari spent the most time in the gym doing combat training on the one of the upper levels with the special force sector of Nerv who trained everyone in hand to hand to combat and trained the staff in firing guns and using knifes and other weapons.
Misato had ordered that everyone here have combat training including the pilots and most days he saw Mari and Asuka coming and going from the gym but never at the same time and never together because they loathed each other on and off the field. The gym at Nerv was something of a specialty in that every level had sports you could do anything from ping pong ball to tennis to gymnastics and weight and exercise machines, there were even a huge spa with hot tubs and sauna's and the lower level had a huge sub tropical swimming pool.
That was the only good thing that had come out of Ritsuko taking the helm as the second she had, had the levels refurbished and added on lots of luxuries. There was a whole massive section now called the Arcade which had shops, bars and restaurants and it spanned more than sixty levels, she liked the idea that nice thing would make employees happy and they'd work harder and she was in fact right.
He turned seeing Rei's long flowing gymnastic dancing ribbon trophy hanging up close by she was a beautiful gymnast and the other one who visited the gym quite often along with Toji as he like to do weight lifting. Shinji and Kaworu hardly ever visited other than to relax in the hot tub now and again and watch everyone else burn calories they instead preferred to play music. Kaworu played the piano and Shinji either played the Viola or played alongside him on the piano. They both played on the special open level of the Arcade where employees could play instruments or bring there own, hearing them in symphony was beautiful.
Long gone was the self loathing young boy Shinji if anything was a young adult man who could take care of himself and was surrounded by friends. He was fiercely protective of Rei even back when he had been a child despite his self loathing he had always stood up for her even against Asuka when she was going through her bulling ego phase though Rei had also stood up to her as well at times and things had often gotten very heated between them.
He looked around seeing that Rei was sitting on one of the three seated sofas dressed in jeans and decorated short sleeve shirt playing with her handheld console not really paying that much attention to him he smiled as spoke. "Hello Rei."
Rei sat up pausing her game. "Hello Kaji, sorry I didn't hear you come in." He felt his smile widen, Rei was always so polite he looked around him. "Where are the others?" Rei tensed as she sat back. "On the gun range practicing….apart from Mari she's still being punished on the training field." Kaji breathed in realizing why Rei wasn't there.
Her and Mari were superb mark's women with rifles both in Evangelion's and with the real thing but nether of them were as good with the normal hand guns or machines guns or pistols which the others excelled at in and out of the Evangelion's. "Hand guns still not your thing?" Rei shrugged. "No I hate them, plus I'm Shinj's mark and it's not like he ever lets anyone get that close to me anyway." Kaji eyed her hearing the slight bitterness in those last words which were very two fold in there meaning. "Big brothers are like that." Rei looked down at the floor. "Yeah I know but sometimes I just feel so outside of everyone else because of it."
Kaji eased up the box he was holding. "Well when they get back, you can all go see Asuka and bring her your gifts." He breathed in deeply before speaking. "Mari though is forbidden to go near her until she's back on her feet." Rei nodded as she looked up. "I understand." She looked at the box. "What's that?" Kaji carefully handed it to her along with Asuka's interface hairclips. "Its Asuka's old plug suit her damaged red one the technician's just couldn't save it, it was to far gone, maybe when she's up and walking around you can give it back to her. She might want it as a trophy or memento since she's seen a lot of battles in it." He eased up his hand. "Her interface hair clips were the only things that weren't broken so she won't need new ones."
Rei put down her hand held opening up the large box then carefully eased up the tattered red plug suit which was stuck in skin tight mode as it could no longer deflate there was a massive gash in the lower stomach. "How did she even survive this? When we opened that entry plug I thought she was dead it was really awful part of her insides were hanging out."
Kaji shook his head. "I don't know and I'm afraid I don't understand the complexities of Asuka because I don't get how someone could have that anger all the time, like how do you live with that twenty four seven and it not tier you out? I know she's calmed down a lot but still." Rei took hold of her canned drink taking a slow sip. "Ask the locker in the other room, the one she's always trying to break the door off." She breathed in deeply. "You know it wasn't so bad some time ago it was only when Mari joined the program it all started to get bad again. I mean she does nothing but antagonize her and the worst part is that the old Asuka would have just beaten her up there and then, there would have been no hesitation and it would have ended this there and then but not our Asuka she just tells her to shut up then sits there stewing and I know she's restraining herself and its so hard for her I see it in her eyes, she's so conflicted." She looked down sadly. "I think when Asuka looks at Mari she see her old self and she hates it but what Mari's issue is with her is no one knows and she won't say, all I know is she hates Asuka so much and she wants to see her really suffer."
She took another slow drink. "It's really sad because I could see them being best friends in some other life time as they are not so different." Kaji felt a wide smile form. "That's very insightful Rei." Rei looked down hating that she was nervous right now, she found it so easy to open up to her brother and Misato to a point, yet she struggled with others like Asuka, Mari and Toji and even Kaworu. "No it's not insightful I have just read a lot of books." Kaji straightened his Nerv uniform. "Well your instincts are still good regardless."
Rei put Asuka's plug suit back in the box closing it. "I'll pass the message on for you." Kaji eased up his hand. "Maybe I'll see you some other time then." Rei eased up her hand held console. "Maybe." She watched as he left personally she doubted it as despite that he'd tried to socialize with Misato she had always refused and had kept him at arms length despite that they were friends. Not that she could really talk when it came to relationships she'd only ever had a few and she just didn't connect with the people in question on any emotional level and the emotional level meant so much more to her, than sex.
She wanted someone who would be gentle someone who could give and not just take everything she had to offer and frankly she didn't see that person showing up in this life time. She paused her game again no longer wanting to think about how she hated being lonely as she picked up Asuka's interface hair clips moving them between her fingers more out of a curiosity than anything else because she'd never gotten this close to them before. As Asuka no longer wore them outside like back in her school days she always wore her hair loose and she hated the attention she got wearing them and the rest of the time they were behind glass or on her head when she was in her Evangelion not once in all the years they'd piloted had she ever held them like this.
Also they smelt strangely like flowers but what flower she had no idea LCL smelt disgusting to most people but she had noticed that every pilot had a certain smell when they came out of it and it wasn't disgusting at all it was normally sweet and she was sure it caused by the LCL giving the pilot a sensation to please them when they were synced with there Evangelion.
End of part 5
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