THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

Misato walked up to the table Asuka was seated at, she was at the Japanese's restaurant she could see Rei ordering food close by. She moved closer to her seeing that she was drawing on her digital scroll and not really paying attention to the fact that a lot of the employee's around her were looking at her with real curiosity. Whatever she was drawing it clearly had nothing to do with the image sets as they were all complete.

She slowly seated herself in the chair opposite not really sure if Asuka was completely aware of her presence as she spoke. "So I heard from a little bird this morning that you and Rei made the front cover of one of those LGBT magazines." Asuka didn't look up as she spoke in truth she had no idea why Misato was even here talking to her and she didn't trust that it was for a good reason because it never was she had only visited her in hospital out of guilt for putting her in the UN Alpha test unit not because she actuality cared.

She carried on drawing her sketch which was showing glowing sunflowers in bright soft colours and soft pastel tones. Misato breathed in seeing that response was forth coming she slowly pulled out a magazine putting it close to the red haired woman whose good eye moved watching her suspiciously. "I got this for you I know you like to read these even though you claim you don't because they always say really nice things about you." Asuka eyed the magazine before looking at her. "What do you want?"

Misato looked at her. "Just to chat you know I heard that the press sent you some e-mail's wanting interviews with you regarding your art and Rei you know I think you should go to some of them." Asuka raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to order me to them or something?" Misato looked at her it was clear she didn't trust her at all not that she could blame her normally when she came to speak to her one on one it was because she was going to punish her for her behaviour. "No that's not why I brought it up."

She breathed in deeply. "You know I just wanted to talk to you like we used to back when you were younger." Asuka felt a cold smile form. "Oh I see so you want to talk to younger brattier me I'm sorry she doesn't live here anymore she's gone for the foreseeable future." She eyed her for a long moment before speaking coldly. "Maybe you should leave along with her." Misato breathed in realizing that this was going to be a lot harder than she'd first assumed as stroking Asuka ego by buying her gifts clearly didn't work anymore. "You never told me that you had feelings for Rei."

Asuka felt a cold sneer form as she closed her digital scroll putting it down on the table. "What would it have even mattered if I had told you? All you ever cared about was your self fulfilled prophesy that me and Shinji were going to grow up get married have kids and live happily ever after."

She felt her teeth grind together as she spoke. "And that is the whole problem I didn't love him I never did I loved Rei right from the very beginning those feelings were there even in school, though I never knew what they were at the time." Misato breathed in deeply pulling out her tablet putting it up so Asuka could see it. "Maya, Kaji and me we were going through your images this afternoon and this one came up." She brought up and image which was an outward shot of a younger version of Asuka lying on the beach in a red plug suit which was missing a sleeve and had bandages with a bandaged left eye being strangled by a younger version of Shinji both were by a red sea and there were huge grey statues coming out of the red ocean. "Did Bardiel show you this?"

Asuka eyed the image breathing in sharply. "Yes he showed it to me but it didn't come from him." Misato eyed the image. "Where did this come from Asuka please tell me because I need to understand?" Asuka eyed the image as she turned seeing Rei place her food down the younger woman looked in between them then at the image the concern appearing in her face as she sat down quietly listening. Asuka put a hand on her face. "It came from verfickt Shamshel!" She looked down slightly. "Before she used her wonderful tentacles to tear my units head and arms off she gave me a taste of own medicine so to speak."

She eyed the image. "She gave me a looping vision but not from my perspective of others but how I looked to others, I saw and felt every blow, every bad word, every thing bad I'd ever done it was a cascade of images tearing at my mind up in all its glory and that gem was the last and final image she showed me. The irony is though I hate Bardiel I don't hate Shamshel before she died she made me see who and what I really was and I believe that final image was where myself and Shinji were heading."

Misato eyed the image. "Shinji would never do this to you Asuka he's a good young man." Asuka remained still. "Insanity drives people to dark places Misato, I don't know what insanity drove that image but I know that we weren't happy we were miserable and we fought all the time and pushed each other around and the way I see it is if we had carried on one of us would have snapped because we both just had too many problems." She put her hands together. "So I did what was best for both of us, I ended it and I spent two years trying to a least create some form of friendship from the tattered remains."

She paused before speaking. "I'm happy he's moved on I'm happy he's healed, he deserves every happiness life has to offer." Misato eyed the image. "You should have told us Asuka that Shamshel entered your mind." Asuka looked at her for a long moment. "Yes and therein lies the problem, you see if I had told you, you would have maybe said it was all just a bad illusion meant to throw me off and that really I was an okay person and I would have just carried on as normal but after that happened I knew that I was a vile, cruel, abusive, entitled little brat with a huge ego and I wanted to change for myself and not for others."

She raised her hand pointing at the younger version of her self in the drawing. "Because I never wanted to end up like her on that beach, miserable and alone with a person who hated her so much that he would rather have strangled her to death to be alone than be with her." She breathed in painfully. "Whether it's real or not doesn't really matter for all I know it may not even be from this universe but for me it was enough to wake me up and bring me back to verfickten reality."

Misato flipped the image she knew she was pushing it now and she could see the concern in Rei's face. "Tell me about this girl because I've seen her twice in your imagery." Rei eyed the image feeling the confusion hit her as she raised her hand. "Hang on she looks just like me from when I was in school but my hair isn't blue and I don't have red eyes, though I did try doing that once but it was a phase." Misato breathed in deeply. "Yes that's true Rei but I've noticed Asuka draws you quite differently to this girl, your lines are always soft and delicate where as this girl is drawn with harsher lines like she's sad, empty and lonely and its almost like she's in a void."

Asuka laughed as she looked up. "She's just one of Bardiel's twisted jokes, he claims that he doesn't know who she is, he's lying, she's just some warped sad version of Rei." Asuka turned to Rei's putting a hand on hers squeezing gently. "I think he just does it to get back at me you know because he knows that I harassed you in school." She breathed in sadly. "I also hate it when she shows up because I feel sad for her and I want to make her happy but I never can and she never speaks to me she just stares at me and she doesn't blink."

Misato stared at her in shock clearly Asuka was completely unaware of who this girl was or her history and she had appeared to her not once but twice when she'd seen these image after the training she'd been reeling because she couldn't believe it as she knew full well that this girl had also been seen watching unit 02 when it had broken free from containment.

This also made even less sense now why was this girl watching Asuka, what did she want with her? Did she even know about Bardiel also were they co existing on the same plane of existence or separately? She breathed in deeply turning her tablet off she wasn't going to question Asuka anymore. She realized the truth which she and almost everyone else had missed when it came to about Shamshel and she felt bad because it explained so much as to why Asuka had taken the path she had.

It was clear that she'd wanted to change though she'd never really noticed it along with so many other people she just got so hung up on the egotistic abusive brat she used to be. "Thank you Asuka." She stood up slowly. "I'll let you two finish your lunch." She breathed in as she turned to them. "You both trained really well on the field today, I look forward to seeing more of that and I'm sure the press loved your balancing act."

She pulled out a glossy ticket out of her jacket putting it opposite the magazine on the table. "One other thing for you Asuka, this a new time and date for a photo shoot, it's so the banner you pulled down can be replaced with a new updated one." She tapped it. "They said that they'd be happy to do a bunch of shots with you and Rei even relationship ones if your comfortable with that and I made it really clear to them that its by your terms not their's, because you deserve to have really good photos in the books and hanging off the wall up in the visitor centre."

Rei watched as Misato left she turned to Asuka who was now very quite. "You know she should have done this in your therapy session Asuka not over lunch." Asuka eyed her food. "Its fine Rei, those images were going to come up anyway and I always knew the one with your brother would cause questions whatever." Rei began to eat her miso soup. "I get the thing with Shamshel, I really do I mean that explains so much now and why you went through so much change." She looked up. "I just don't get the girl who looks like me I mean that's just weird." Asuka began to eat her pork noodles. "Like I said she's just a twisted joke." She felt a sly smile form. "But I'll give him credit for trying I mean she looks just like you did in school, real spitting image no expense spared on the details she even stands like you used to back when you were shy and quite and I couldn't tell what emotions were going on in your head."

She breathed in deeply. "Ironic really because I used to stare at you in school from across the room and wonder what you saw when you looked out of that window everyday it was a puzzle my asshole bratty younger self was desperate to solve." Rei felt a smile form as she pushed her empty bowl aside. "If you must know I liked looking at the mountains and the scenery I found it relaxing it helped me focus my mind because I was so inwardly scared hence why I didn't talk much to anyone. Its probably why I like your house better than mine I mean all you have to do is walk out your front door look left and you have those huge distant mountains and vast rural fields I never cared for my apartment anyway I was thinking of selling up that place I'm just not happy there. I only really went there because it's close to Shinji but I don't think it was ever what I really wanted."

She paused before speaking. "Plus before all of this happened I was getting so bored I just felt like my life wasn't going anywhere and it was hard because I knew Shinji's life was changing direction and I love my brother to bits but I just hate being in his shadow." Asuka raised an eyebrow as she picked up the magazine handing it to her as she put the card away. "You know I think that time might be over, that is so long as you don't mind the attachment to me."

Rei eyed the cover flipping it open, finding the centre story which was about them. "They don't let the grass grow do they? I mean we got together to the public at least yesterday now this today." Asuka pushed her empty bowl to one side. "To be fair this might be my fault they did ask me in interviews if I cared about you over the years in my teens I always said no but in the last few years I said yes, so maybe they caught on." She breathed in deeply. "I knew you didn't read the magazines so I assumed you'd never see." Rei turned slowly to her. "You know I would love to read your collection the one you have under your bed."

Asuka leaned over putting an arm around her shoulder leaning close to her ear speaking softly. "You can read whatever you want plus I have a book that defines sexualities it a loose guide but it might help you find where you stand, I wouldn't like to say what I think as I think people should define there own sexualities." She turned realizing that a number of the staff around them were staring at them seemingly mystified, she felt a sneer form as she eyed them. "Why don't you all take a picture it'll last longer?!" A man smirked as he spoke. "Can I?" Asuka eyed him as she spoke coldly. "Not unless you want me to break your phones camera."

Rei eyed them. "What Asuka means is its very rude to stare, don't you people have better things to do?" A woman opposite adjusted her jacket. "We are all staring because we are wondering what Asuka's really like underneath all that metal, because that image up in the visitor centre she painted of you is melt your heart glorious, which makes us think that she's actuality very soft and sweet." She paused before speaking in a coy tone. "So tell us Rei is she the opposite in your company?"

Asuka folded her arms in annoyance. "This is so stupid!" Rei eyed Asuka a part of her wanted to say the truth but at the same time she knew it would be unfair on Asuka as she finding this very uncomfortable. It was in her face and pose which had turned very defensive not that she blamed her this really wasn't any of there business. Plus Asuka did not trust these people she'd made that quite clear last night and though she knew not all of them meant ill or wrong it didn't mean that some might just be probing because they wanted gossip. "How she is in my company just really isn't any of your business or your concern and I'm not going to spill any home truths just because you want gossip."

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She paused putting the magazine down. "Because gossip and rumour can be very damaging and it surprises me that you want to know this now when half of Nerv has been spreading a certain other rumour for years which was very damaging to Asuka." She looked up slightly watching as some of them suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "You can't expect her to want to turn around and trust those of you who got a thrill out of spreading it." She looked at her hands. "I will say this though I believe she is innocent of that crime and I think a lot of people including myself made the mistake of having a knee jerk reaction, because it was convenient to place blame because of Asuka's turbulent past with her past issues with anger."

She paused taking in a deep breath before speaking. "I think the painting speaks volumes of how much she's changed but I regret that just like everyone else I didn't see that change when it mattered three years ago." She stood taking the magazine as she watched Asuka put her card in the slot paying for their meal while putting her digital scroll away. "Think long and hard about that before you try to create more gossip about the both of us to throw around." Asuka looked up she hadn't really expected this she didn't expect Rei to fight her battles for her despite that they were together.

She felt the other woman gently take hold of her leather jacket sleeve as they walked away maybe it wasn't so bad she felt a slight smile form but didn't say anything right now. She would give her thanks later when they were home alone. Maybe it would be okay to visit the Elysium galley with the younger woman it might not be so bad perhaps she could find some sense of peace in going with the one person she trusted above all the others.

Her works would never measure up to Shinji's or Rei's but in truth that wasn't such a bad thing as she would be in the same gallery as them as she would be among her friends. The world was awful and cruel, people could be really brutal and unkind but unlike before perhaps there was a chance that she could find those few good people out in this world and it would give her some form of hope.

Clearly in the past she had just been around the wrong people because misery loved company and all of those people who had thrown her away three years just hadn't been her friends to start with. She'd just never realized it at the time because she'd never held much regard to her celebrity status perhaps all of those people had only liked her because she'd had money and what they believed was power but when she'd become stuck they'd not defended her and just left her to rot.

8

Misato walked in to the new room where Shoji and Leiko were stationed just as before they still the poster of unit 01's face on the door. She opened the door walking in side seeing both of them now working on two large top of the range panels desks complete with hologram screens which were facing her. All of there unit wall scrolls were still on the wall though the 02's one had the updated version along with 00's and they had placed them together rather than on opposite sides of the wall like in there other office.

They had more action figures but they were on the cupboard opposite where they'd stored there files discs and all manner of other stuff and they also had better coffee maker sitting close by. They both now had the official Nerv cream coloured uniforms though their bands weren't orange like the general staff they had red which meant that they were part of the intelligence division. Makoto, Kaji and Shigeru's had yellow bands and Maya also had these same yellow bands on her lab coat shoulders to show that they were at the very top of the command chain. "Hi there, I hope you're both settling in okay."

Shoji felt a smile form on his lips. "Hello Major." Leiko looked up slightly. "Yeah we are great here this is so much better than the shitty box room back up the visitors centre." She raised her hands. "The gym is to die for." Misato felt a smile form as she pulled up a chair so she could sit between there desks. "More new stuff I see." Shoji smirked. "Yeah well its free now and we didn't see why not." He turned pointing at the 00 and 02 wall scrolls. "Plus they are awesome together."

Misato looked up slightly. "Ah so you've heard." Leiko's smile widened. "Well who hasn't I mean everyone's talking about it, it was so unexpected. I mean we heard rumours upstairs that they had started to become friends after the UN Alpha test unit accident but even we didn't expect that." She paused before speaking. "Also I had no idea Asuka was an artist like Shinji." Misato looked up slightly. "To be fair none of us knew she kept it very private for years." She eased out her tablet. "It's also clear that she's seen the ghost girl you talk about so you might want to add this to your research." She flipped the images onto Leiko's screen. "One is from the ward and another was when she was on the train." Leiko looked at the digital paintings. "That's intense." She put her hands together. "She draws this girl really differently to Rei."

She typed her holographic panel bringing up the image of Rei from the visitor centre which was now all over the web. "Style, tone it's so different." Misato looked up. "That's just what I though as well and she's seen her two times now and you said it's incredibly rare to see one time let alone twice." Leiko blinked in confusion. "Yeah but this makes even less sense because this girl appeared when 02 broke free she was watching it. I mean we've been told its partial AI in the core malfunctioned and I thought it should have a pilot hence why it took its entry plug back and tried to leave before you shut it down."

Misato looked down knowing her next words were a lie. "Something like that yes." Shoji looked at his screen. "We have looked back over the whole event with Hikari and we have found something very disturbing, though we stumbled up on by complete accident. Hence your other team might have missed it, because it's not public information and it's in some very old logs." He pulled up an image of a woman's face which had freckles and long brown hair which was tailed the woman also had dark brown eyes. "Hikari Horaki German born, though her mother is Japanese but as you know children can pick their second name nowadays and take either their father or mothers second name. We were very surprised though when we tracked her life back and looked at the German division's old logs you know back to when they had eight test subjects Asuka being one of them."

He brought up an old photo showing all eight children in a group with Asuka right at the back in a little dress while Hikari was placed front smiling. "She was a candidate for the German program and at one point it was thought that she would be the pilot of 02 because her sync ratio was far higher than Asuka's who was middle range for at least a year but then something changed in the second year. We believe it was Asuka going to live with her grandmother because after that her test scores improved and her sync ratio went up and she started to succeed and surpass all the other candidates in spades they just couldn't keep up with her in the end."

He looked up slightly. "Asuka was picked in the end and went on to the second section of testing and later down the line was sent to Japan to complete the final phase when she hit fifteen." He tapped the screen. "I heard how Asuka got accused of beating this woman but I don't believe in coincidences, this girl gets surpassed by Asuka then gets rejected from the Evangelion program then shows up years later when she's an adult and just happens to find her way in to Asuka's bedroom." He breathed in deeply. "This stinks of spite, rejection and someone wanting to get there own back."

He eyed the young woman's image. "After the program ended all of the candidates were interviewed years later when they were teenagers by the German press for a news paper called the Spiegel and her statement was that 02 should have been hers not Asuka's but this article is very obscure it wasn't posted world wide only in Germany and we had to use the computer to translate it it's how we found out that she was part of the program and we only got that by tracing her back history." He breathed in deeply putting his hands together. "Oh and there more this woman's sex life has been male only and has been very messy, at least two of her boyfriends filed domestic abuse claims against her and she has a history of violent, aggressive behaviour and its not alcohol or drug related it appears to be personality based and the reports make it very clear that she enjoys causing pain to others and she has a long list of violent offences on her record."

He looked up slightly. "Though I won't comment on her sexuality as it's a fluid thing, I do find it very strange that up to this point she only had boyfriends then suddenly she was after her rival to sleep with her. Also we found plane records which said that she flew to Japan but she only stayed for one month as soon as the thing with Asuka was over and she had the pay out she left but she didn't go back to Germany she flew to an expensive five star holiday resort in Peru and then vanished off the map, she has not been heard of or seen since."

He shook his head sadly. "Asuka probably never saw this coming, I mean we know she's not a people person hence she was an easy target I doubt she even recognised Hikari and the bar tender said that Hikari was playing this flattering game with her telling her nice things about her appearance and trying to stroke her ego which just wasn't working."

He looked up as he brought up the bars camera footage showing Hikari speaking to Asuka who didn't look impressed as she carried on drinking her beer watching out of the corner of her eye. "Asuka was just drinking her beer not saying much and being very suspicious but it was this comment that broke the water, she said to Asuka that she was a good person and who wouldn't want to be with her. The bar tender never forgot that because he said Asuka's whole behaviour changed she opened up and was really warm and kind. It shocked him because it was a full three hundred degree shift in character and he'd served her for years and he'd never seen that side of her up to that point." He brought up another video which was Asuka dancing with Hikari romantically on the dance floor. "There's more though he said that she went and danced with Hikari on the dance floor and that she kissed her really softly and was being really kind and gentle with her."

He breathed in deeply. "There was no violence, no pushing for dominance and no predatory behaviour, he even stated that he was really sad that she never came back to the bar after that and that he wouldn't have kicked her out if she had returned as he saw her as innocent and felt that something was off with Hikari." He folded his arms. "Asuka wasn't searching for a date that night either she was just drinking and minding her own business." He looked up seeing that the colour had drained from the Major's face. "Are you okay?"

Misato leaned forward putting her hands together. "I made a horrible mistake just like everyone else I assumed this was Asuka's fault, because she has had issues in the past with violence and anger." Leiko looked up. "To be fair I don't think any one at this Nerv branch would have known about Hikari's connection to the German Evangelion program and we had to ask the German division for the records and they were very confused as to why we wanted such old logs because almost all of the people associated with the early Evangelion testing program are retired or have died. Even Asuka's grandmother wasn't allowed to know about who the other candidates were as Seele kept all test candidates a secret in the early days as they didn't want press or outside influence. Unlike now where it's all out in the open and at the time she had only be in charge of the division for a year."

Misato breathed in painfully. "You don't understand this really ruined Asuka's life both at work and outside, it turned her into a recluse and she was innocent the whole time and just like everyone else I didn't give her a chance I even shouted at her over this and said that she was an utter embarrassment to Nerv." She looked down sadly, "I was just so angry with her that day because the commander and Ritsuko had already shouted at me over it and I went and I just took it all out on her and tour at her hide in the worst possible way." She shook her head. "I even told her that she didn't deserve a sex life if she felt it was okay to behave that way and I compared her to the other pilots and how she wasn't on par with them and probably never ever would be, because she's always been a problem."

She looked up slightly. "She did try to defend herself but I didn't care to listen to her side of the story and I shouted at her in front of the other pilots in the end she just looked so miserable and stopped speaking." She looked down sadly no wonder Asuka hadn't wanted to return to the world of the living and Bardiel had, had to shove her back, she had gotten her anger wrong every time through out this whole event it was like the others had said, she was in so much emotional pain because she felt she couldn't win and that nothing she did meant anything, so she was lashing out, out of pain.

Her lowered sync was because she didn't believed that she was not as good as Rei or Shinji, hence why she questioned her abilities all the time and never thought that any credit given was even real. She had very low self-esteem as well and that was clear as day to her now because she had been confused as to why she'd acted the way she had before going through the door in to the visitor centre. She'd assumed it was nerves but in truth it wasn't it was fear and uncertainty and the only reason she'd even gone there was because Rei had asked her to come she probably wouldn't have gone at all otherwise.

Bardiel had clearly had a field day with her in the beginning because she had nothing and no one to turn to and it was only by chance that Rei had just been in the right place at the right time and she was the thing that was keeping her going right now. She turned to them as a question entered her mind. "I understand Hikari's information not coming up along with her connection to the German division candidate program but no one ever showed me that video of the bar or said anything about the bar tenders response." Leiko breathed in deeply. "We don't understand that either, I mean it's really strange and it feels like both were intentionally cut out from the report."

Shoji folded his arms as he froze the video which was showing Hikari being kissed very gently by Asuka. "The bar tender said that he was visited by Nerv staff and his statement was taken along with a copy of this video. When we called him he said that he had kept this video for years and that to this day he has always wanted to prove Asuka's innocence as he couldn't believe that she was painted as the villain and that his side of the story ignored. He even gave copies of this video to the press but they left it out of the stories and wrote Asuka as the villain and sided completely with Hikari and we've seen one of her live interviews and how much she turned on the water works which was clearly to gain the public's sympathy."

Misato eyed the frozen video feeling the anger start to burn as she spoke through gritted teeth. "What video feeds were in this report?" Shoji looked up sadly. "The only video feeds in this report are generic with them both going to the train and the last video is them getting off at the station near Asuka's house. In one video Asuka is tugging Hikari a little but its more that she's happy to be with her, there are also many statements but we have no idea if these have been altered. It is very clear to us though that the whole report looks as though it's been purposely changed to paint Asuka as the villain and guilty of the crime when she is in fact innocent." He breathed in deeply. "Clearly someone somewhere tampered with the report but we have no idea who did it or when because there's no sigh off signature."

End of part 40

Silvermoonlight