WHEN THE TIGER ROARS LONG AND LOUD

Toji looked around the Arcade catching sight of Shinji and Kaworu who were seated at one of the breakfast bar tables some way from him. He turned to Mari who was standing next to him. "Come on lets go."

Mari eyed him feeling the uncertainty take over. "Are you sure I mean they don't know me." Toji looked at her she had stayed around his apartment with Sakura last night as it was clear that she really needed the company and she had, had a lot to talk about and get out into the open regarding her sexuality and she did seem in a much better mood today and much more herself he put an arm around her shoulder. "Come on Mari." Mari eyed him. "Yeah but I've been kind of cruel to them in the past."

Toji eyed her. "I'm sure they'll forgive you they've forgiven Asuka for worse from what I've heard." He breathed in deeply. "Plus I'm really hungry and I want breakfast so come on." He walked forward waved as he spoke seeing them both turn. "Good morning." He paused turning to Mari who looked uncertain. "Can we sit here?"

Shinji looked up giving them both a smile. "Sure we hadn't ordered yet." He turned to Mari. "Are you okay I heard that Yuki attacked you last night?" Mari eyed him. "So long as I take the fucking pain killers I'll be fine I mean he mostly beat my lower body but I think I can still drive my Lamborghini to the Argentous Tower tonight." She paused before speaking. "Asuka said she was going to kick that guy's ass." Kaworu looked at her. "She did and if you want to see the video its on Nerv's cloud feed."

Toji smirked. "Yeah I saw it playing in someone's office before I came up here to meet Mari for breakfast it's awesome how she beat the shit out of him. He kept throwing petty names at her to wind her up and it didn't do shit, love her finishing touch with the gold and silver lightning rods." Mari grabbed her phone. "I thought she was bluffing."

Shinji eyed her. "Asuka never bluffs trust me and Yuki is properly going to spend the next two weeks in the hospital wing since she really beat him up badly and broke his bones." Toji leaned over. "Oh yeah and I heard that there's a little sound byte floating about through the Nerv e-mail of her giving some mind blowing love decoration to Rei which is from the spa. Because though they cut out the video, they never cut out the sound and there was a lot of kissing going on and your little sister got well pissed off about the whole Champaign interruption."

Shinji eyed him. "Send an e-mail to the gym they'll send you the sound byte but for the love of the gods don't let Asuka find out you have it she'll go mental if she realizes she was being recorded." Kaworu looked up. "Her declaration of love is most beautiful though." Mari turned passing Toji her headphone. "I've already got that sound feed someone's already sent it me." Toji grabbed her headphone putting it in watching as a coy smile appeared on her face as she listened to the recording which started with Rei telling the person bringing the Champaign to go away. "Wow your sister is really sharp when she's really pissed off."

Mari listened closer feeling a smile form. "When Asuka's is in romantic mode, it's like she's someone else." Toji laughed as the recording cut off. "Shit that is something else I mean the part about fullfilling Rei's every desire…damn." Shinji raised an eyebrow. "I know, I am normally totality against sound bytes going around but it threw me a little as well I kind of thought everyone was joking until I heard it because in all years I've known her I've never heard her talk that way."

He looked up seeing Mari take out a headphone to listen. "There's something else though you know how her left eye glows when she gets mad and the teeth grow?" Toji leaned forward. "Yeah?" Kaworu put his hands together. "Well it would seem that anger is not the only emotion that brings it on, it would appear that desire plays a part to. As everyone looking at them got something of shock when she closed the hot tub blind the other day because the teeth and glowing eye were on full display."

He paused. "They said her left eye though was like some glowing torch it was extremely bright." Toji looked around. "Where is the tiger today anyway?" He turned seeing that Mari had one headphone in and was watching the video of Asuka beating up Yuki. "I mean I know she's here and so is Rei I saw her new modified motorbike which Asuka altered for her up in the garage it's right opposite her Trident." He looked up slightly. "You should see the stares those two bikes are getting."

He leaned forward. "How did Asuka get hold of a fucking Trident? It's a three year waiting list." Shinji looked up. "Rei told me that she built it from scratch and it's been modified for much better performance than the original model." Toji blinked in surprise. "Oh please tell she can modify car engines as well because my Lotus Evora Sport is sitting in Nerv's garage right now and it really needs fixing up core wise it keeps loosing power."

Shinji looked at him. "Just ask her, I mean she helped Rei and I with our bikes so I don't see why not and Misato can also help you she's very good with sports cars." Mari stood up taking her headphone out looking down catching sight of Asuka and Rei who were seated two levels below. "Oh wait I can see them they're down there eating at the continental breakfast bar." Toji stood up looking down. "Who wants to go down pay them a little visit?"

He felt a smile form. "Oh is that bacon, eggs and sausage I see on Asuka's plate." He paused licking his lips. "Oh yes it is I got to go down there if there serving that." Mari eyed him. "How do you even see that from up here? I can't see that and I have fucking glasses." Toji eyed her. "It's my stomach it tells me." Mari rolled her eyes. "Come on let's just get down there fast I'm hungry." She turned eyeing Shinji and Kaworu. "You two are coming too right?" She watched them nod. "Good because I have this feeling that Asuka won't like it when we all surround her table."

Asuka took a bite out of her breakfast which was a full English watching as Rei ate her yogurt and honey next to her it had been a quite night last night once they'd gotten back to her house they had just gotten a snack and gone to bed and fallen asleep. Truth was she'd been really tired and she needed to wait for bruises to heal they'd put the Champaign in the fridge it could wait for another night.

She turned watching as Rei flipped through her home e-mail on her phone. "Is there anything remotely interesting?" Rei looked up. "Other than Misato inviting you and me to her house no, I know you haven't read your phone today but it's probably on yours as well." Asuka breathed in deeply. "I can't be bothered today tonight's the press conferences and it making me nervous." She was about to say more only for Toji's voice to hit the air as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder leaning over her. "Good morning Asuka!"

Asuka felt a sneer form as he hugged her tighter. "Get off me." Toji moved further forward. "But your breakfast looks so great." Asuka looked up. "So go verfickte buy one of your own, you're not getting any of mine!" Toji eyed her. "You have so much though can't you give us a rash of bacon?" Rei took a slow sip of her green tea. "She doesn't share food accept with me, so I would quit while you're ahead Toji." Asuka felt her teeth grind together as she spoke. "Seriously if you don't get off me, I'm going to punch you!"

Toji pulled away raising his hands. "Okay I'll go order my own, what's the waiting time?" Asuka rolled her good eye. "Five minutes." Toji eyed her. "That long that sucks?" He turned to Mari who slowly sat down opposite Asuka whose face turned to utter confusion. "Save me a seat!"

Mari turned slightly. "By the way I want what Asuka's having its called full English, wide plate!" Asuka turned just in time to see Shinji and Kaworu take a seat near Rei while Mari put her bag on Toji's seat. "Why are you all sitting at my table, since when do you all sit at my table?" Shinji eased up his hand getting Toji's attention. "Hey can you order hotcakes with honey for me and Kaworu?!"

He watched as Toji nodded before turning back to Asuka who looked really confused and out of her depth now and she had innocent look on her face once more. "We wanted to spend time with you for a change." Asuka eyed him. "Oh I see and since when am I so popular?" Mari leaned over. "Since you decked Yuki's worthless ass, thanks for that by the way." Asuka eyed her. "It was nothing, like I said wasn't going to let the asshole get away with it." Mari eyed Rei. "Oh but you, you got the best seat in the house to watch the show, I bet watching Asuka fight gets you really hot under the collar."

Rei lowered her cup speaking evenly. "I'm sorry but that's very personal." Mari leaned over grabbing Asuka's shoulder. "I bet princess is a real tiger in bed huh?" Rei rolled her eyes ignoring the comment. Asuka turned eyeing Mari. "Seriously did I just wake up in some alterative universe where everyone thinks its okay to hug me?" She pulled away from the taller woman. "Also stop harassing my girlfriend!"

She turned back to her food. "Bad enough I've had every damn person staring at me since I arrived here today, now this." She raised her hand. "All I did was beat up Yuki's miserable, worthless ass." Shinji looked at her she really didn't have a clue that, that was only half the reason everyone was probably staring at her. Kaworu leaned forward taking Asuka's hand ignoring her surprise. "Thank you for what you did I'm glad that you mentioned my name when you struck him." Asuka looked down slightly. "Really it's fine Kaworu, I knew your accident wasn't hiking related, since Yuki always tries to aim low enough to take away your ability to have children regardless of your gender." She breathed in deeply. "I hope he did no permanent damage."

Shinji put an arm around Kaworu's shoulder. "It all healed up fine he told me some days later that it was Yuki but of course when we reported it nothing ever came of it, we had no idea that he beat you up after Shamshel." Asuka turned to Rei. "Yeah well Rei can tell you all about that she saw me that day but I was very short because I was really miserable and low and in a hell of a lot of pain, I didn't want to go up to the hospital wing because it would bring up questions and since I had a history of fighting I knew that the blame would just get placed on me."

Mari looked up. "Yeah well since you put him in the hospital wing, hopefully Misato will pay attention this time." She turned as Toji appeared putting a full English breakfast next to her then one on his part of the table, he ran back grabbing Shinji's and Kaworu's food putting it in front of them. "Breakfast is up dig in!" Mari eyed him in annoyance. "You ate my egg didn't you?"

Toji looked at her. "I might have." Mari turned stabbing her fork in to his sausage grabbing it off his plate. "Don't steal my fucking food Toji." She paused watching as a bunch of Nerv employees appeared they were carrying a massive material banner which they began to attach to the banister three levels up. They then suddenly started clapping and chanting the words tiger trying everything possible to get Asuka's attention. "Asuka I think you had better turn around."

Asuka eyed her. "Please what it is now?!" She turned watching as the group stopped there chant as they unfolded a massive banner which was the close up digital painting of the weretiger's face with the glowing left eye though at the top was a gold part with the words power and control are nothing on there own while the silver bottom part read they must be balanced through honour and justice. Asuka turned away suddenly not feeling so good. "Why is this happening to me?"

Mari eyed her. "Its called being popular get used to it." Asuka pushed her plate in Toji's direction. "I've lost my appetite you can finish this." She slowly got up. "No offence but I need to take a walk, to clear my head." Rei watched as she got up walking away she finished the last mouthful of her yogurt as she stood up. "Save our chairs I'll bring her back." Mari watched her go as she followed Asuka who was some way from them and heading towards the nearest corridor. "I don't get it, she gets an awesome banner and she looses her appetite, she's always been popular it makes no sense."

Toji looked up. "Yeah I'm confused I thought she'd be really happy." Shinji looked up. "You don't understand she's never seen herself as popular and she's believed for many years that everyone at Nerv hated her and that they only tolerated her because she could pilot 02."

He took a bite out of his food as he spoke. "She also believed that no one would care if she vanished or died because she didn't value her own life, worth or existence. Now she's finally realizing that people might actuality like her and its very difficult for her to take in. It's like the opposite of what she used to since she's always preferred to just fade in to the back ground and just wanted to go unnoticed."

He looked down sadly. "Shamshel ruined her she never recovered from the blow it caused to her self worth she had to start over find out who she really was and even then she didn't feel she was worth a second chance because she thought she didn't deserve one." He looked up slightly. "Now she's finally healing emotionally but the transition is very hard for her." Mari blinked in shock. "I never knew she felt that way I just assumed that she liked being alone, because she didn't like people hence why she was so cagey."

Kaworu took a bite out of his breakfast before speaking. "No one truly wants to be alone, we all want connections and to feel part of something, Asuka lost faith and trust in people and just accepted that she would always be alone." He took a sip of his drink. "I'm sure though that she will come around in time." Shinji felt a smile form. "Yeah she just needs more time, she's never adjusted well to change it always takes her a while to settle."

Asuka turned walking the long corridor that led away from the Arcade she pulled open the door to the nearest room knowing it was one of the employees lounges which was empty she sat down on one of the sofa chairs feeling the tears start before she could stop them, she had no idea what she even crying about. Her emotions just felt like they were yanking her in all different directions, she wasn't worthy of this kind of attention why was she even getting it?

She suddenly felt a pair of hands on her face which was pulled up to meet Rei's the smaller woman was standing over her the concern in her eyes. "Why would they do that for me?" Rei looked at her for a long moment. "Why wouldn't they Asuka?" Asuka looked down sadly. "I don't deserve that kind of admiration."

Rei looked at her for a long moment she moved forward not thinking as she got onto the other woman's lap pushing her gently back in the chair ignoring her surprise. "Oh I think you do." She moved her hands to her face gently wiping away her tears. "Why do you fear admiration so much Asuka, what is about being admired and adored that scares you so much?" Asuka breathed in painfully. "Admiration made me an egotistic brat it made me think I was god and it made me think I could have anything and anyone I wanted."

Rei leaned closer as everything suddenly clicked into place Asuka was afraid of becoming her old self that was why she tried to run away from admiration even though she just wasn't that person anymore she associated it with very negative things in her past and how she used to behave. "You need to let go of these feelings Asuka, I know it's hard for you but you have to."

Asuka looked up. "You know some days I wish I could meet my younger self, just so I could punch her just for how she treated you and Shinji and I hate that she rolls around in the back of mind forever reminding how stupid I was."

Rei looked at her for a long moment. "Have you considered that maybe having her in the back of your mind helps you, because you've seen yourself at your worst through her and therefore you can always look back and compare your behaviour now to hers and therefore better yourself." She put a hand gently on the other woman's stomach. "Also from where I'm standing it looks like you'll never be her again as long as you live."

She moved her finger around in a gentle circle. "Do not be afraid of admiration now when you truly deserve it." She moved her hand taking hold of Asuka's. "Also if I felt for a second that you were acting like your former self I'd be the first to tell you." Asuka raised an eyebrow. "Oh I see so you don't mind that I chew people out now and again?" Rei smirked. "Hardly and between you and me that's what makes you who you are and I'm fine with it."

She moved her hand up the other woman's face. "I don't want perfect well mannered Asuka I just want the Asuka I know best with all of the quirky personality traits who speaks her mind." Asuka felt a wide toothy grin form as she put her arms around the other woman's waist pulling her closer. "Oh I see it's nice to know that me being a difficult asshole at times doesn't bother you, I was kind of worried that you just put up with that part of me because you had to."

Rei eased up her hand running it through her long red hair as she kissed her gently on the lips. "I like that part of you just fine please don't change it." She moved her hand easing the patch up slightly seeing the glowing patterns underneath. "So how's about we go back to the breakfast table, join the others?"

Asuka eyed her. "How about we go back in five minutes? Its just I'm really enjoying it here right now being with you." Rei laughed as she looked at her. "You know Toji will have eaten what was left of your breakfast and drunk your coffee before you get back." Asuka shrugged. "Like I said I wasn't hungry and Nerv coffee tastes vile anyway I swear the Argentous tower better at least have a decent cup off coffee or a milk shake waiting on my table when I get there tonight, you know since I've been away for three years from the press conference."

Rei looked down meeting her gaze. "I'm sure they will they'd be rude if they didn't." Asuka leaned up meeting her lips again in a slow long kiss before pulling away enjoying that sharp firing of desire which was moving through her body. "Yeah and I don't think they'd want to piss me off, it might just piss you off and the both of us loosing our tempers well that would terrible for them."

8

Misato slowly walked into Shoji's and Leiko's office watching as they looked up giving her a wave. "Sorry my visit was not sooner, I had other prior engagements to attend to." Shoji looked up from his hologram screen. "Ah yes the big press conference tonight and we heard Asuka's going to appear for the first time in three years, how did you talk her into it?" Misato slowly pulled up a chair sitting in between their desks. "I didn't Rei did."

Leiko raised an eyebrow. "Should've known Asuka's little sound byte says it all." Misato sat up in her chair. "What sound byte?" Shoji smirked. "Just ask the gym for a sound byte of Rei and Asuka in the hot tub from yesterday, you will not be disappointed." Misato leaned closer. "Really I must look into that I mean I was the one who gave Rei Asuka's swimsuit size." Leiko laughed. "You should also look up the feed of Asuka kicking Yuki's ass as well…that's just so good."

Misato turned sharply. "Asuka kicked Yuki's ass?!" Shoji looked up raising his hands. "Trust me its not what you think, her reasons were nothing if not noble and what she did was right no one at Nerv will tell you any different. Plus Yuki is a homophobic asshole who needed to be put in his place beating up pilots and harassing staff he deserved to be put in a hospital bed. Even the hospital wing's report is in Asuka's favour since not two hours before that he beat up Mari, after he found out she was gay and took real offence to her being his friend."

He paused bringing up a video which showed Mari being cornered and beaten with lightning rods in one of the Arcades corridor as he leaned back sadly. "Piece of shit tried to delete this footage as well but I retraced it through the back up buffer and got it back."

He paused flicking up another video which showed Kaworu being cornered and beaten on the stairs. "This one's two years old and Kaworu did not stand a chance and unlike the others he didn't even try to fight back in fact he just circled up and took it. We heard that when he was a child solider and prisoner of the rebels that they did beat him to keep him in line so we think that him going through this all over again was quite traumatizing and after this he seems to have visited Maya for a lot of sessions."

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He paused flicking up another video watching the same scenario play out only this time Asuka was the target but unlike the others she was trying really hard to fight back though failing. "This is even older and sometime after the battle of Shamshel Asuka gave it her best even though she was wounded at the time and fresh out of hospital." He brought up a folder on the desk top. "And in here is about a hundred separated incidents of him harassing staff and punching others, I've sent these complete files to your work station along with all of the hospital reports." Leiko took a sip of her coffee. "I hope you fire that jackass." She brought up another video from the Delphi gardens. "In happier news, look who finally got together."

Misato felt a smile form as she eyed the video of Kaworu and Shinji kissing. "That's nice, Shinji told me he loved him, I'm glad he finally acted on his feelings." Shoji looked up. "Well it will be a talking point if they've been spotted out together in Tokyo three, that's for sure." He turned pointing to the wall scrolls of 01 and 03 which were now side by side. "We also put these two side by side as well because we think it's another wonderful day for Nerv when this kind of thing happens." Misato eyed the scrolls. "Yeah it is and I'm glad to see that Shinji's happy and I'm sure the press conference is going to be really interesting tonight."

Shoji breathed in sharply. "Now I sadly must put a downer on this because we looked into your whole plug suit incident and it led to some very disturbing things." He looked up slightly. "You can rest assured through Kaji had no involvement, we checked him first because of the spy back history, he is clean all of his footage shows him doing what he should be doing when he's not with you, though we noticed the sound dies in certain conversations you have together with Maya and the others." Misato raised her hand. "I know what that's about its nothing to be concerned about." Shoji met her gaze. "Maya is clean, Shigeru clean, these two are nothing if not loyal to you like Kaji."

Leiko breathed in bringing up another video. "Sadly this one is not loyal to you at all." She eyed the video which showed Makoto taking Asuka's new plug suit of one of the staff smiling. "See it looks like he's just being nice and sweet and the young woman doesn't question him, he's higher level staff why would she?"

She paused watching as he looked around before going in to another room, she changed the camera watching as he pulled out a calibration key from his pocket sticking it into the plug suits collar. "There goes all of Asuka's preset settings in one go right down to her locking buttons." She looked up. "We also rechecked the sync tests and we noticed that there was a certain one that he had been changed there was this certain recent test where Asuka's results came up that she had very high levels of alcohol in her system."

She flicked her screen bringing up two sets of results. "Asuka's alcohol level was quite low that day and most of the alcohol was out of the system there are real clear signs she'd been drinking lots of water prior to the test to get it all out of her system." She tapped the other result. "The result he tampered with, it made out that she had some kind of high level alcohol in her blood enough that it would get her into trouble. He basically brought up one of her old tests from five years ago when she had drinking problems and overlaid it on the real results and of course no one questioned it which resulted in Asuka being punished by Ritsuko."

Misato breathed in feeling the anger take over. "Great." Leiko paused before speaking. "Also this is not the first time someone has tampering with Asuka's things." She pulled up another video. "This video is from nine months after the battle of Gaghiel I do believe this was before Asuka's depression really kicked in."

She watched as a woman walked into the wreck room and moved straight over to Asuka's bag pulling out her plastic water bottle putting in pills before shaking it and putting it back. "That little drug is called Zircon and its nasty fucking stuff, if you're emotionally balanced it's like a happy kick, if your not it's a nightmare. It causes serious mood swings and aggression and I'm guessing it's been messing with her mental sync it can also cause sleeping problems its not that you can't sleep, but more that your sleep is very restless. These little round pills also have a see through coating which makes them hard to see in clear water and the inner contents are in liquid form."

She brought up another video of the same woman putting pills in another plastic water bottle. "I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that you've also had issues with Mari lately, because she is also being targeted, now we know Mari and Asuka have issues and don't get along but the reason may be their minds are being warped by this stuff." She put her hands together. "Someone wants these two fighting each other they want them to have break downs because out of all the pilots they are the most openly aggressive."

She looked up slightly. "They also both have the biggest chips on their shoulders regarding their mother's deaths and both have in the past avoided therapy. I can tell you now that Mari was recently dosed within the last three days and they dosed Asuka last week but for reasons I do not understand it's has, had no effect on her system. She carried on as normal clearly the loop back from 02 which changed her body now means her body is somehow able to flush it out."

She eyed the video. "This woman whoever she is, she is not coming up as Nerv staff we think Makoto must have given her a key card to the pilots wreck room because he's so high up. She clearly also knows about all of the special water bottles Maya give the pilots to drink from as they're meant to give them their daily dose of vitamins and minerals. Each bottle is speciality tailored to each pilot's body requirements as Kaworu has to have an extra immunity booster due to his condition and Mari and Toji have had poor health in the past due to very poor diets and need extra vitamins."

Shoji folded his arms. "If you're wondering why it didn't register in tests Zircon is a clever little elitist drug that's been engineered so that when it goes in the stomach it sticks to the lining. Then it releases incredibly slowly not all at once and over a number of days in very small doses that are just not enough to trace and you need to have a stomach scanner set to a very certain frequency just to find the tablets themselves."

He put his hands together. "But it's nasty as fuck because it goes straight to the brain every time and it really affects your mood also all of this footage had been deleted and overlaid with static footage but again our software showed the discrepancy and we were able to get the real footage from the back up buffer." He breathed in sadly. "Ah yes and we found someone else wandering around the units who really shouldn't be there." He brought up another video. "I assume Kimi has no clearance to be wandering around the Evangelion bays?"

Misato leaned forward catching sight of Kimi who was dressed in an official Nerv uniform looking up at 02 and 04 with another man. "No she doesn't have any fucking clearance." Shoji breathed in deeply. "Yeah that's what we thought we also have no idea who the other guy is again he's not Nerv staff and he's pretending to be a worker and we have no idea why either of them are hanging around 02 and 04."

He looked up. "We also know that head staff in both the media and visitor centre can only go to the lower levels, if called. Otherwise they are forbidden from entering and all things down here are off limits to them and that goes for the normal staff in both those buildings. Because the idea is it's only those who work fucking hard above ground and who show great prowess and impress get jobs in Nerv central."

Leiko eyed Kimi's video. "Yeah like us…I always knew there was something off about Kimi, no wonder she relegated you to a crappy job probably thought that you might be on to her." She leaned back in her chair. "I just relegated because Eshima is just a huge egomaniac."

Misato looked up. "Yeah about that, do you still have that three month pitch you worked on, before she kicked you to the curb?" Leiko turned opening a draw pulling out a data card. "Its very large hence it had to go on data card and it plays kind of like a movie, I went through all the pilots and tried to find how media could work for them and how they can be humanized."

She handed it to her. "Please take very good care of this." Misato eyed the card. "Don't worry I will." She turned it between her fingers. "There was something you said to me the first time we met and that's, that Eshima and Tadao's making them gods isn't working and I agree. I think the whole strategy needs to change plus we now have two new couples and they need the support. Frankly I don't want to read any media centre shit about Asuka being some legendary goddess in bed or Shinji's dick brings even the men running, it doesn't help either of them and it only hurts Kaworu and Rei, what they need to hear is who they are as people and how they feel about their loved ones."

Leiko breathed in deeply. "I did cover every possible relationship scenario and I mean everyone I even have Mari with Asuka in there and the other crazy one Rei with Toji. I also have the ones that are now real which is Shinji, Kaworu and Rei and Asuka though I missed out Shinji and Asuka as it was clear there relationship never worked out, so there was little point in even running the scenario."

Misato laughed. "Mari and Asuka that'd be interesting but I'm not sure if they'd love each other or try to kill each other." She paused turning serious. "As for Asuka and Shinji I think it was right to leave the scenario out, they're not right for each other I see that now though it took me a number of years and I think they are much better off with the people they are with now."

She breathed in deeply. "Thank you for all your great work I'll see that your efforts really well rewarded." She raised her hand. "Please send all you've found to my work station." Shoji looked up. "Are you going arrest these bunch of traitors?" Misato got up folded her arms. "No I'm going to give them all enough rope to hang themselves with then I'm going to come down on them hard and fast, they're going to all pay for betraying Nerv and they're going to pay for screwing with my pilots." She felt a sneer form. "Seele also doesn't take well to traitors believe me."

8

Asuka turned going towards Maya office she wasn't really sure why she'd been called up here as her next therapy session and talk wasn't till after the press conference. She opened the door allowing Rei to follow her in she watched as Maya stood up the concern in her eyes. "You called for me." Maya turned to her. "Yes Asuka take a seat." She gave Rei a smile. "Feel free to sit anywhere you want Rei this won't take a moment." She paused seeing Mari appeared as she walked slowly towards the door opening it the confusion in her eyes as Toji came in behind her as she spoke. "You called."

Mari turned catching sight of Asuka and Rei. "Is this some weird fucking group therapy session or something, because I only agreed to speak with you doing a one to one?" Maya looked at her. "No it isn't, take a seat next to Asuka." She turned to Toji. "You can take a seat next to Rei." Toji blinked as he went over to sit next to Rei. "What's going on?" Rei looked at him. "I don't know." Mari walked up slowly taking a seat eyeing Asuka who looked just as confused as her. "You know what this shits about?" Asuka shrugged. "No idea."

Maya slowly raised a device. "Okay this isn't going to be pleasant for either of you, this is a stomach scanner." Asuka eyed the device. "Oh verfickte great…" Maya eyed her. "Please pull your t-shirt up Asuka." Asuka rolled her good eye pulling it enough that she could scan her stomach she felt the pain as the device started to scan. Maya pulled it away. "Okay you're clean." She turned to Mari. "Shirt up please..." Mari eased up her shirt feeling the pain as it started to scan. "Could you please tell me what going on?!"

Maya eased the scan up. "You aren't." She turned to them both. "It's come to our attention that someone's being trying to dose you both with Zircon they've been putting it in the special plastic drinking bottles I give you to drink every day." Mari blinked she was even more confused now. "Zircon?"

Asuka rolled good eye. "You've got to be kidding?" Maya looked at her. "No sadly I'm not and yours Asuka is very long running it started nine months after your battle with Gaghiel right up to the UN Alpha test then whoever drugged you gave you a long break and then tried to re-drug you last week with a much higher dose than before but it didn't work clearly Bardiel has gotten rid of it as he likes you to be clear in the mind. What I will say is if he hadn't been there would have been enough in your system to make you loose your mind and attack someone, we think they probably wanted you to attack Rei."

Mari looked up. "What the fuck is Zircon!?" Rei looked up. "It's a really awful drug that effect's mood and emotion." Toji turned sharply. "Who would do something like that, that's really messed up?" Maya turned to Mari. "They've also been drugging you with it weekly for the last six months Mari, it's probably why you're feeling so agitated and you're having issues with your mood and you feel really angry. They also raised your dose as well very recently from one pill to two."

She picked up the medical gun. "I'm going to get it out of your system Mari with a counter drug but it's going to make you very sick you see the tablet stick itself to your stomach lining and it takes ages to digest because of how it's made as its slow release and it's strong enough to resist stomach acid." Mari looked at her. "I can take it, puked up worse just give me the dose and let me get on with it."

Asuka put her hands together. "They wanted me to attack Rei." It was more of a statement than a question. "Oh gods they wanted the Hikari thing to be true." Rei moved putting a hand on her shoulder. "Its okay Asuka, it never happened." Asuka looked at her. "What if it had?" She breathed in sharply. "I could never live with myself if I did that to you, even if I was verfickte high as a kite."

Maya looked at her. "Do not dwell on this Asuka just don't, I know you I think you would have done everything in your power to turn your anger away from Rei and you were on this drug far longer than Mari and in all that time you never hit anyone instead it just had a huge impact on your depression in that it made your unhappy emotions much more intense and painful they were giving you three pills but the recent increased dose was five."

Mari eyed her. "You know she has a point I got on your nerves for ages and you never touched me."

Maya looked at her. "We think that was the point, we believe you two were targeted because they wanted you to fight they know you sometimes get on each others nerves and what better way to rattle up your divisions because they know Alexandra does not get on well with Geraldina."

She looked at them both. "Misato is going to deal with these people in good time though from now on Mari and Asuka you are only to drink the vitamin water that we give you personally, though your normal water bottles will be left in place. Because we want it to look like we haven't found out and we want to set them up." She moved towards Mari raising the gun as she passed her a sick bowl. "I'm sorry Mari." Mari breathed in as the gun was fired. "Its fine I got this."

Toji breathed in as silence fell across the room as Mari began to throw up violently. Asuka leaned over easing her long dark hair back so it didn't get in the way, somehow it just felt like the right thing to do since she knew what throwing up like this was like as she done it so much after the accident.

Maya watched as Mari stopped. "Is it all out?" Mari nodded easing herself up watching as Maya passed her a drink of water as she took the bowl putting it to one side. "And there it is." She grabbed a set of tweezers easing out one of the two small half dissolved round pills so she could see it in the light. "This is Zircon and you had two of these stuck to your stomach lining."

She watched as Mari finished the water the colour returning to her face. "This is the reason for all your bad moods lately and agitated unhappy feelings and like Asuka you were becoming deeply depressed, though unlike her we caught you just in time as any bad feelings you have are made ten times worse by this awful drug."

Rei looked up. "Why did they target Asuka and Mari, why not me or Toji or my brother and Kaworu?" Maya breathed in sadly. "This drug when a person is happy and well balanced is like a really wonderful three to four day trip where it's like being in heaven, if on the other hand your unhappy don't like your life or your have emotional issues you have not dealt with its like mental torture. Zircon isn't a street drug its not like Speed or LSD. It's an elitist drug normally taken by the very happy and wealthy at rich people's private parties. It's extremely expensive so whoever did this had connections in the Tokyo elite that's the only way they could have come by this drug and in Nerv we would never to think to scan for this as our drug tests only cover general street drugs and steroids. That's going to change though from this day forth and once these people are caught we are going to have every single employee checked for this drug, just to be sure we don't have anymore leaks."

She paused before turning to Mari and Asuka. "You both have a lot of issues you're working through you both have natural aggression and it makes you the perfect candidates for this drug because it makes you even more violent and agitated and you'll just take it out on each other."

Mari looked up adjusting her glasses. "Great so over the past six months I've had hundreds of pounds pass through my stomach weekly I don't know whether to be flattered or really pissed off." Maya looked at the pill. "In your English pounds its five hundred and fifty per pill." She turned to Asuka. "Five hundred in German Euros and in both Germany and Britain it's banned because it's caused massive problems because unhappy people have tried it and gone mental and attacked and even killed people because its gotten out on to the streets."

She put the pill down. "Sadly here it isn't banned as yet but that's because whoever in the elite is making it are going to great lengths to keep it off the streets in Tokyo three." She folded her arms. "But I have a feeling once we root out the rotten little weeds, we might get a name and with this and we will be able force the Japanese government to ban it for good because it's affected Nerv and you two which is a huge issue." She turned meeting Mari uncertain gaze. "I'm surprised you didn't know about Zircon Mari since you were in the hacking ring."

Mari put her hand on her chest. "Look I hacked secrets and tampered with ATM machines I didn't touch illegal drugs and my group had nothing to do with drug cartels or barons. Personally I hate illegal drugs and all that shit, plus this explains why I found coding harder these past six months, it was messing with my mind." She breathed in deeply. "I was getting frustrated because recently the code mistakes I kept making were simple and obvious and I've been having problems sleeping recently."

Asuka looked up. "When you find whoever did this, I want to punch them personally, because they clearly made my depression much worse and I want to give them a second punch for trying to overdose me so I'd attack Rei." Maya looked at her for a long moment. "Normally I don't condone violence but since I recently saw the feed of you putting Yuki in his place for the right reasons I think this can be arranged." Mari turned sharply. "Wait if she gets to hit this person I want in!"

Maya looked at her. "No not this time Mari plus as of tomorrow, you and Toji and the others will be training under Kyo in personal one to ones a woman called Aliya will be taking Yuki's place in employee group sessions as she is also one of Kyo's students trained under his instructions. It's very clear to us now that Kyo's training is what's needed and is best for people, another of his students Leon will be taking over gun training and all of Yuki's personal students will now be retrained as I don't see him keeping his job."

She felt a smile form as she turned to Asuka. "It would appear that your speech about silver being more prominent than gold moved a lot of people." Asuka looked at her in confusion. "They're not my words, they're Kyo's it's just what he taught me." Rei moved to stand over Asuka putting her arms around her neck. "Ignore her she's just being modest."

Mari turned eyeing Asuka. "Yeah princess your consort is right you're being far too modest." Asuka rolled her good eye. "Seriously I think I preferred it when you hated my guts four eyes." Mari folded her arms. "It's too late for that I like you now since you beat up Yuki's worthless ass after what he did to me." Toji smirked. "Hey I prefer the idea of you two as friends though I swear sometimes you two could pass for sisters, I mean you're really similar in some ways."

Asuka stood up. "That's it I'm leaving, we are going to get lunch." Toji raised his hand. "No wait hear me out, I've watched you two for a long time, you both read the same comics and graphic novels you both have recliners you never let anyone sit in and your sofa chairs in the wreck room are off limits. Your both really possessive over food, not to mention you're both carnivores who don't hold back when in comes to eating meat and you both like cats it's just Asuka owns a real cat while Mari's got this shelf full of cat toys in her bedroom."

He felt his smile widen. "Also you're both aggressive and really like your own personal space sometimes oh yeah you both have AI learning personalities on your home game machines that guard your personal stuff, Asuka has Anneberg and Mari's AI is called Cheshire you know after that famous British grinning cat from Alice In Wonderland."

He turned to Rei who was clearly thinking through what he was saying. "Come on you must have seen this too right Rei?" Rei breathed in deeply. "It's probably just coincidence." Toji raised his hand. "Yeah but they've both have had issues with adjusting to there sexuality it's like they were brought up by the same parents or something!"

Asuka eyed him. "Please don't say anything else." Mari turned eyeing Toji. "Yes please don't, you might say something you might regret." She watched as Asuka left closely followed by Rei closing the door behind her she turned to Toji taking in a deep breath before letting it out. "Sorry it's just been a strange day Toji." Toji sat up. "It okay you know since you puked up, would you like me to get you something from the vending machine?" Mari eyed him. "Yeah get us something sweet and savoury if possible."

Toji stood up. "Will do I'll be back in two minutes." Mari watched him go she folded her arms looking down sadly maybe it was time she came clean she just really didn't want to hold back the truth anymore. Maya turned catching the look of sadness in Mari's eye she moved over to her putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey are you okay? You know if it's about your sexuality and coming out you have nothing to fear, I got Asuka through this I'm sure I can work with you to."

Mari looked up. "Next time we talk after the press conference can you get Asuka in here alone with me? Its just I have something really important to tell her as I haven't been honest with her from the very beginning." Maya blinked in confusion. "You know if it's about the UN Alpha unit incident I think she's lets it go I mean the drugs you were on could have caused you to put her entry plug in 04's mouth because you weren't thinking straight." Mari shook her head. "It's not that, it's something much more important and she has a right to know."

Maya looked at her for a long moment it was probably just Mari wanting to right a wrong concerning her behaviour, which was understandable as her and Asuka had been going through a lot lately. "Yeah I can do that for you it won't be a problem."

End of part 48

Silvermoonlight