Now that I've put an Angel into the story, I want to say now that the
role of the angels will be downplayed.  I don't want to copy everything
Gainax did about how NERV discovers how to destroy each angel.  You can
simply read the scripts or watch the anime for all that.  I want to
spend more time with other things than use up all my time with
fighting.  This means the scenes of fighting with angels will be greatly

abbreviated and/or even changed a great deal.  It will appear I'm not
paying much attention to detail, but the whole reason I wanted to write
this is to deal with the human conflicts.  Fighting with the angels is
far less important to me for the purposes of this fic.  Sorry to those
who want elaborate fighting scenes, but I find the character
personalities and relationships much more interesting.

War of Evangelion

Episode 4:  The Magi System

"Could this be..."  The deputy commander was whispering to Ikari.

"An angel.  I suppose it is."  Ikari didn't allow Fuyutski to finish his

question.

Ritsuko was also there to hear what was happening.  She was just as
alarmed as everyone, knowing that half of Tokyo-3 could go up if they
didn't do something.

"Right now saving the Magi is more important.  What's going on over
there?"  Ritsuko began asking important questions, looking for a way to
stop the invader.

After a sigh, Misato concurred.  She had a personal conflict with the
angels that has lasted longer than Ikari's.  The matter she seeked to
resolve now had to be set aside to try and save thousands of lives.

"I've made a successful trace.  It appears to be in Complex-B.
Balthasar will be taken over in 30 seconds."  Maya was frantically
looking for a way to at least slow the hacker's progress.

"What are you doing over there?  Shut off the power."  Ritsuko was
determined to help out in any way to sure _her_ computers were not going

to be destroyed.

Keyboards were frantically clicking when Maya gave up on the order.
"The commands aren't working.  Balthasar is now recommending self
destruction."

Fuyutski was not happy about this.  Two of the three computers were
ready to turn the entire base into dust.  "Isolate Casper the best you
can.  Close off all connections between the three computers."

"No effect.  It has begun deciphering the codes to Casper."

"It appears the angel is particular to its environment.  See how it's
avoiding certain areas of the deep facilities."  Gendou was keeping
quiet through this stressful situation was analyzing the angel's
movements."

Upon hearing Gendou's words, Ritsuko noticed what the angel was doing.
"It appears it's avoiding the areas of high oxygen concentrations.
Flood Complex-B with pure oxygen."

On the commands, there was a noticeable difference in the angel's
activity.  Although it continued working on Casper, it's progress was
slowing down.

"Target's activity is decreasing.  No wait!  Its now feeding off the
oxygen!  Target's activity is now increasing!"

"Hrm...it seems to be evolving."  Gendou quietly said to his deputy.

"Yes.  The more we attack it, the more adept it becomes to living."

Maya broke in, shouting, "Sir, there is abnormal activity coming from
Casper.  Source unknown."

A few seconds later, there was no activity by the angel at all.
Although relived, NERV had no explanation for this.

"It stopped.  But how?"  Maya continued searching for an answer on her
consul, but she couldn't find anything.

Sitting in his chair, Gendou began rubbing his chin.  <So, they
intervened after all...>

With a grunt, Gendou terminates communication with Misato.  The argument

that would have escalated after the incident would have only wasted his
time.

"Well what now, Misato?"  Ritsuko used an 'I told you so' tone.  Hacking

into a second Magi computer revealed a vulnerable weakness that could
easily be exploited by a third party.  Misato was trying to be a savior,

not a destroyer.  The scientist felt this was a danger that should be
avoided at all costs.

After a sigh, Misato finally admitted the need to retreat on her
strategy.  "Ok, just keep our access to Melchior so we can use the
databanks for our purposes.  I guess we have to leave Balthasar alone."
The strategy had to be changed, but there were still other ways to get
to Gendou.

After class, Touji and Kensuke approached Rei's desk.  They wanted to
find out how Shinji was doing.  No word got out that an angel had
attacked NERV hq so everyone else went about their business.

Before Rei got up to leave, Touji got her attention.  "Rei, I was
wondering, do you know how Shinji's doing?  He hasn't been around for
two months.  I figured you would know better than anyone else."

"I don't know."  The words came out in a calm, soft voice.

"You mean they won't even tell you?  Is he dead or something?"  Kensuke
was suprised by her answer.

"He's alive."  Her face still showed no emotion.

"Then where is he?"  Touji was asking in almost a shout.

"I cannot say."

"What do you mean you can't say?  What do you mean by that?"  Touji was
definitely shouting, frustrated by Rei's calmness and vague answers.

"I cannot say."  Again with a motionless voice.

The probing was ended by Hikari breaking in at Rei's defense.  "Will you

leave her alone already?  Can't you see she doesn't know?  I'm going to
see Asuka now so are you coming or what?"

As they headed toward the apartment, Touji, Kensuke and Hikari were
silent for quite a while.  It was Touji that finally spoke up.

"You know, that Rei girl seems stranger every time I talk to her."

Although influenced by Asuka's opinion of the "wonder girl," somewhat,
she came to her defense.  "Its just probably the way she is.  What were
you two talking about anyways?"

"Well I tried to find out how Shinji was doing, but she kept blocking
me.  I think she knows, but won't tell me."  His calm voice broke out
into a much louder one, but just a serious.  "Its been two months!
You'd think she could at least tell us how he is."

Kensuke broke in at this point.  "Well you know how NERV keeps
everything classified.  When we see Misato, she'll probably tell us."

They went up the elevator and down to the corner on the right to the
apartment of the three NERV personnel.  Oddly, there was no answer at
the door.  With Kensuke's curiosity aroused, he decided to try the door
which was also oddly unlocked.

"Huh?  This is weird, they always have their door locked.  I wonder
what's going on."  Kensuke had thrown the door open despite protests
from Hikari.

Inside, everything was thrown about and things trashed.  This wouldn't
have been much of a suprise since they've heard Misato was quite messy,
but how things were dumped out of drawers made things suspicious.  This
was done by NERV security, unknown to the three children.  It appeared
they had searched to apartment for anything NERV wanted kept secret and
left.  Only a penguin gave the ransacked apartment any touch of
familiarity.

"What the?!  Something's definitely wrong."  Kensuke went around
frantically searching through things.  "Oh man!  Somebody trashed
everything."

Touji became worried about everything and just wanted to leave.  "I
don't want to get involved with any of this.  I think we should leave."

Hikari agreed and soon Kensuke gave in.  But before leaving, Hikari
picked up PenPen to take home.  He would have to have a place to stay
until they figured out what had happened to the three NERV personnel.

Ten days later, Asuka was feeling this rebel stuff very boring.  She
thought this was going to be fun going off with Misato while leaving
Commander Ikari and his favorite "doll" behind.  She couldn't go up
above ground, Misato and Ritsuko were busy all the time, and the only
one left to even talk to was Shinji.  After spending days doing nothing,

she finally felt it might be alright to at least talk to that pervert
again.

<Why him?  After what he did to me the other day, I don't want to even
see him.>  Asuka thought about this for a little while and soon found
she couldn't get Shinji off her mind.  <What's with him anyways?>  For
some reason, Asuka found him interesting.  He was definitely not normal,

even before the accident.  <Why did he kiss me?  Does he really like
me?  Well I sure don't like him, that jerk.>  She continued to stare at
an unnoticing Shinji who had found himself a book and was sitting in the

corner reading.  Finally, curiosity overcame her.  <I wonder what its
really like to kiss him?  That last time wasn't for real...>

"Shinji, come over here."  Asuka was still demanding, even after she had

thought through what she was going to ask him.

"Why?"

"Let's kiss."

Shinji thought of images of Asuka's hands and feet landing on him.  <Is
she serious?  I mean, after everything that happened yesterday, I was
sure she hated me...>  Finally he was able to mutter out, "Why do you
wanna kiss now?"

"Because I'm bored, dummkopt.  Why else would I kiss a male?"

Shinji thought of her infatuation with Kaji.  It was something he could
remember, but it seemed a long time ago.  "What about Kaji?  You wanted
to kiss him, right?"  Shinji wanted to find out exactly what she wanted
because the last time he tried kissing her, it ended pretty ugly and he
didn't want to relive that experience.

"What?!?"  He face turned beet red.  <He can remember that?  Nein...>
Despite her embarrassment, she was still able to retaliate, "Kaji's a
man, there's a difference."

"Man, male...seems like the same thing to me..."

"Wha?"  She was defeated.  She couldn't stand it, but there was only one

thing left to say to limit his victory.  "Are you going to get over here

and kiss or not?"  Asuka was red, mad, and screaming.

Shinji didn't know quite what to do.  Besides the fact he hated to make
others angry, he hated to make Asuka furious for there was an
uncertainty to what she would do.  He still liked her, but as angry as
she could get, she was libel to beat him again.  So cautiously, he went
over to her , hoping this would end the ordeal.

A few seconds after their lips touch, Asuka realized Shinji was quite
apprehensive about the whole situation.  His lips were quivering, for
some reason.  Asuka couldn't figure out why.  After all, he did try
kissing her just yesterday.  She still wondered what it would be like to

kiss him for real, so she forced her tongue in his.  Shinji was quite
suprised at this action, but despite his uneasiness, he showed no
disapproval.  He liked the fact that they were together like this.  But
soon Asuka got disgusted with the sensation.

<Ewww...I'm touching his tongue with mine!  Why do grown ups like this
disgusting stuff?>  She breaks away and tells Shinji, "There you got
your kiss.  Now don't bother me with another one."  Although disgusted,
she couldn't help herself to give a very slight grin.  As disgusting as
it was, it was a sensation she kind of liked.

Shinji smiled back.  After all that had happened, she wasn't angry at
him.

In a conference room, UN officials and Gendou were discussing the
current situation.  Obviously, they were unhappy about recent
situations, but they were satisfied by Gendou's explanation that Misato
will be stopped soon.  But there was another situation that needed
discussion.

"As you know, the Second Branch in Nevada has been destroyed by some
unknown cause.  Unit-04 has also disappeared in the incident.  Because
of this, we will need to transfer Unit-03 to Japan so another incident
like this won't happen again."

Another UN official spoke up.  "We were contemplating sending it the the

Third Branch in Germany due to the unstable situation in Japan, but we
feel that it is important to get rid of the rebels.  I hope you
understand that."

Gendou sat there and with a voice of assurance, "Don't worry.  I will
make sure everything's taken care of.  There will be no Third Impact or
overthrow of NERV.  I can assure you."

"I hope you're right.  Unit-04 has an S2 engine.  We cannot let
something like that fall into the hands of enemies.  You can't allow the

Eva to lead toward the destruction of mankind."

"We'll leave everything to you, but we expect results."

"We are the last and only line of defense against the angels.  We will
defeat them."

After leaving the conference room, he once again redrew the plans in his

head.  SEELE was nothing more than a group of naive old men.  That
conference I had a few days ago along with this one only confirms my
opinion.  They didn't understand what really should happen, what he
wanted happen.  Yet they were above him and beyond his grasp.  An
outright assault on Tokyo-2 to leave SEELE in chaos and ruin would draw
too much attention on him and NERV.  The Instrumentality Project had to
be completed at all costs, but the UN may not feel the same if SEELE
were attacked, no.  However, a group of rebels in an Eva could do
something like that without too much heat from the UN.  SEELE could
merely be written off as a tragedy in a struggle to reobtain the Eva.
With SEELE off his back, he would not have to move about as secretly as
he has been.  This would also help to speed up the process because the
tactical maneuvering would not be needed as much...

After a short while, Gendou made a phone call to Fuyutski.  "Commander,
we are going to need the fourth child.  We will discuss this in detail
later.  First I would like you to have someone approach him and find out

if he will cooperate."

"Yes sir."

Misato finally entered the room.  She had seen what had gone on, but
decided to keep it quiet for the time being.  She already made her tease

today, it could wait for a short while when things slowed down and she
needed a laugh at their expense.

"Shinji, I'd like you to join me in the hanger for an activation with
Unit-02."

This was not something Asuka wanted to hear.  Shinji in _her_ Eva was
something obscene.  Never mind the first time they met and fought an
angel, that was an emergency.  But now that they were here and she could

be ready to pilot, there was no way she was going to let that male in
her Unit-02.  "Now wait a minute!  Shinji is _not_ getting anywhere near

my Eva."  Her eyes narrowed as she turned her scowl from Misato onto
Shinji, almost daring him to make a move so she could have an excuse to
clobber him.

Misato had to defend her decision.  "You have to realize that NERV still

has 2 Evas against our one pilot.  We need a backup."

"Over my dead body!"

Suprisingly, Shinji spoke up despite Asuka's nonvocal admonitions not
to.  "Its ok Asuka.  You'll probably pilot it every time we need to
anyways."

This was something Asuka hadn't expected.  She had suspicions that
Shinji was going to replace her.  This, added to the disgusting thought
of Shinji in Unit-02 made her fight tooth and nail.  But now despite
these thoughts, Shinji was actually deferring to her.  Well maybe it
wouldn't hurt to let the activation happen so long as it made Misato
happy and Shinji wasn't going to be in her Eva after this one time.

"Well ok, but if you mess up my Eva, I'll kill you."  These words were
directed primarily toward Shinji.  She hadn't been defeated, it was a
retreat just enough to see that she would be the only pilot in the
future while making it seem like she was cooperating.

It did not take long for NERV security to get to Touji.  Touji, Kensuke,

and Hikari were sitting on a bench near school talking about how worried

they were about Shinji and Kensuke.  Rei was no help, all she would say
was "I cannot say."  It frustrated Touji quite a bit and Hikari was the
only one who listened to his frustrations.

Out stepped two men in suits and sunglasses.  One of them addressed
Touji, "You are Touji Suzuhara, correct?"

"Uhhh....yes sir."

"We will need to speak to you alone."

The three got into the car, leaving Hikari and Kensuke behind, confused.

"I wonder what that's all about?"  Hikari was questioning.

"Maybe it has something to do with being in Misato's apartment..."

About a minute longer, the car sped away without warning.

Kensuke watched as the car left their sights.  "I think we're really in
trouble now."

Inside the car, the conversation continued.

"So if you agree to pilot the Eva, we will transfer your sister to the
NERV facility where she will obtain better care."

"That's all I ask.  My sister is very important to me, you see..."

"Then it's agreed upon.  Remember, the information we will be giving you

is strictly confidential.  You cannot tell anyone of the current
situation of NERV..."

Shinji was quite apprehensive as he settled into the seat of the entry
plug.  Although he hated the idea of piloting the Eva, he had no wish to

disappoint the Misato.  He didn't want to disappoint her, so he felt
this was something necessary for him to do.

<Why am I doing this?  It only made Asuka angry.  I hate it when she
gets angry.  And Misato, she keeps insisting that I pilot these giant
robots, but I can't remember anything like this.  I guess I really am
messed up, since Asuka pilots it...or maybe I'm just dumb...>

"Shinji, how do you feel?"  Misato was trying to make him comfortable
inside the entry plug.

"It feels like...Asuka."

Asuka, there to make sure nothing happened to her Eva, was not the least

happy to hear this response.  "That pervert.  I'll kill him when he gets

out.  He'll never get in my Eva again."

As Misato and Ritsuko initiated the activation sequence, they noticed
the synchronization ratio was quite low.

"Only 8.5%?  I'm afraid he just can't pilot it like that.  He couldn't
control it if he had to."  Ritsuko was suprised by this.  She had
expected a lowed synch ratio, being in a different Eva, but this was so
low, he could not be useable as a pilot.

They had expected a lower synch ratio since he was in a different Eva,
but not as low as not enabling him to pilot.

Asuka saw this opportunity as a way to regain ground on Shinji.  "You
see, he just doesn't have the skills to pilot a real Eva like mine."

Ignoring this, Shinji spoke up.  "Can I get out now?  I knew it was a
waste of time."

"Alright.  You can return now."  Upon these words, the entry plug was
emptied of LCL, ejected, the hatch opened, and Shinji carefully got out
and stepped onto the umbilical bridge.

"I can't understand why his synch ratio was that low."  Misato was
confused.  He was accepted by Unit-02 before.  He even broke his synch
ratio momentarily with Asuka while fighting an angel in the Eva.

"I think it might be that he didn't want to synchronize with it.  He was

fighting it mentally."

Just as a large screen at the front of the Ritsuko, Misato and Asuka
flashed a report, NERV was already making preparations for the landing
of the next angel.

As personnel scrambled to their stations, Rei was getting prepared to be

launched in Unit-01.  It seemed there were few problems with her
activation.  Once ready, she sat down in the entry plug and awaited the
final preparations to be complete and for the command to launch.

In Tokyo-2, everyone was also scrambling.  Misato had ordered Asuka to
get ready for launch which was gladly carried out.  This was her chance
to show once and for all that she was the superior pilot.

Ritsuko was less enthusiastic about the orders.  "You mean you are going

to fight angels even when we don't have have the facilities for repair?"

"Defeating the angels is my first priority.  That will never change."

"That's what NERV is for.  They still have 2 Evas to operate."

"But they only have one pilot.  Rei will need all the help she can get."

While Asuka settled into the entry plug and turned on the radio, she
couldn't help but overhear the conversation.  "That's right, Rei will be

there.  This will be more exciting than I thought."  Her sly grin
betrayed her intentions, but no one noticed it.

TO BE CONTINUED...