This is the sequel to my earlier fic, "The Power of Pain".  I know I said
that I wasn't going to finish it but....  Oh, and by the way, yes the name
was changed.  I decided to save "Power of Love" for later use.
All characters are copyrighted by Ganiax, AD Vision, et all.

SPOILERS.  I think.


The Power of Partnership

        "Increase power to the Life-Support systems!" Ritsuko yelled and
Maya rushed to comply.  Shinji's life was at stake.
        "Life-signs stabilized!" Makoto said.
        "Get him out of there!!!!" Misato yelled.  It was a worst-case
scenario, one of the pilots getting seriously injured during a fight
against one of the Angels.  Too add salt to the wound, it was Shinji who
was injured.  Misato had started to think of him as a good friend, if not
family.  Sure she was close to Asuka, but with Shinji it was different
somehow.  Special.  And she reacted in the appropriate manner.
        "Recovery teams are moving in," Maya said, trying to keep her voice
somewhat professional.  Casting a glance up to the Major, Maya saw that she
was near tears.  She understood perfectly, for she knew that her own face
looked much like Misato's.
         "What's the status of the Second Child?" Sub-Commander Fuyustuki
asked from his position beside the Commander.
        "Alive.  More than that...." Makoto said, then trailed off.
        "Asuka?" Ritsuko asked.  Unit 02 was still cradling Unit 01's head.
"Asuka, can you hear me?" she asked, and was taken aback a little when she
got no reply.  She started to ask again, but a beep from one of the panels
grabbed her attention.
        "The recovery teams are reporting in," Maya said, then started to
relay their report.  "They've reached Unit 01 and are in the middle of
force-ejecting the entry plug."  On the screen, Unit 02 let go of Unit 01's
head and turned it over, giving the recovery crew easy access to the Entry
Plug.
        "Place them on the PA system," Misato ordered.  She wanted... no,
needed, to hear what they had to say.  It was the next best thing to
actually being there.  The voices of the recovery team flooded the giant
room.
        "Watch out for that edge, it's sharp," a woman said.
        "I know that, you just look out for yourself," a man retorted.
        "I can take care of myself, I don't need you to tell me.  In fact,
I don't need you for anything, so you can forget about coming over
tonight," the woman said.
        "And how does this conversation apply to work?" Misato demanded
impatiently.  With Shinji's life at stake, they shouldn't be joking.  There
were two little gulps as they realized that their conversation was being
listened too.
        "Entry Plug ejected," the man said a little hastily, hoping to
cover their asses before Misato put both of them in a sling.  Everyone in
NERV knew how Misato thought about Shinji.  Getting between her and Shinji
right now, would be like getting between a bear and her cubs.  Not a
healthy idea.
        "Try the emergency hatch," the woman suggested.
        "No good.  Look's like we'll have to cut our way into it," the man
replied.  There was some clanging in the background as the equipment was
readied.    A few moments later there was the distinctive sound as the
hatch was forcebly removed from the Plug.
        "Hatch removed.  Probing interior," the woman said.  A few moments
of tense silence followed before a crunching noise was heard, followed by
some screaming.  "Get him restrained!!" the woman yelled.
        "What?!" Misato yelled.  "What's going on?"
        "The Third Child," the woman said between laboured breaths, "is
attacking us.  We're holding him down and attempting to sedat-" she was cut
off by Shinji's fist slamming into her face.  In the background Shinji was
screaming, not in pain, not in vain, but in pure anger.
        With a strenght they didn't know he possesed, Shinji tossed off the
two NERV personelle trying to hold him down.  He still wasn't saying
anything understandable, just screaming and yelling.  He lept to his feet
and charged the nearest person, the woman he'd punched in the face before
they'd managed to restrain him.
        With a flash of insight, she held the hypodermic needle in front of
her, so Shinji hit that before he had a chance to get to her.  The needle
plunged deep into his body and the chemical was pumped in.
        He kept coming.
        His movements started to slow somewhat, but he still managed to
pull her to the ground and raise his fist to hit her again.  He paused for
a moment, look at her for a moment, and seemed to ask her something with
his eyes.  Then his eyes rolled up and he passed out as the chemical took
effect.
        "Report!!" Misato demanded.  If they did anything to hurt
Shinji.....  No one moved or answered for a moment, but then the man who
was talking with the woman earlier found his voice.
        "The Third Child has been subdued," he said and then cast a glance
around to his teammates.  "Only minor injuries to the team."
        "What?!  What are you talking about?"
        "When we cut our way into the Entry Plug, he was just lying there,
not moving.  Then he opened his eyes and attacked us."
        "He did _what_?"
        "He leapt at us and started punching everything in sight.  We had
him on the ground, underneath us, but he escaped.  Lieutenant Jinki got him
with the sedative and he stopped," the man reported.
        "Get him back here, now!" Misato yelled, fearing for the worst.
Then Maya picked up on something the others had forgotten.
        "Major, what about Unit 02?"
        "Asuka?" Misato asked.  "Asuka, do you hear me?  Open a direct line
to Unit 02," she ordered when Asuka didn't answer.  The image that appeared
on the screen forced everyone to remember that Asuka had been the one in
trouble when Shinji went out to help her.
        "Is Shinji alright?" Asuka asked in a very small voice, so small
that Misato almost didn't hear it.
        After she'd let go of Unit 01, Asuka knew they'd try to talk to her
again, so she curled up into a ball again and tried to hide.  Hide from
NERV, hide from Misato, but, most of all, she tried to hide from her shame.
Now that Shinji was being taken care of, the feelings of what the Angel
did to her came back.
        She didn't want to remember, but she did.  She remembered how the
Angel had forced it's way into her, forced it's way past all the barriers
she'd made for herself over the years, forced it's way into her mind and
got to the real Asuka, the girl hidden beneath all of that aggression and
arrogance.  The girl who was far from home and very, very lonely.
        She didn't want to remember what it felt like, being violated that
way.  There was nothing she could've done to stop it, no kicking, no
biting, no weapon to make it stop and go away.  She could only scream, and
that didn't do any help; not until Shinji took his own actions and came to
her defense.
        "We don't know.  He's alive, if that's what you're asking," Misato
said, bringing Asuka back to reality.  Misato realized that Asuka would be
next to useless right now, so she ordered Rei to get her back to the Eva
cages.  Unit 00, after a little fumbling around with someone that didn't
want to help, managed to help Unit 02 back to where they belonged.  During
the rather long trip, Asuka started to shut down again as feelings crashed
down onto her mind.  She was doing to herself, unconsiously, what the Angel
had done to her.
        The repair crews inside the cages had to cut open the Entry Plug to
Unit 02.  What they saw was enough to bring a tear to even the strongest of
them.  Asuka Langley Sohryu, easily the loudest, brashest, and most
motivated of the pilots, cringing inside her Plug.  Repeated attempts at
talking to Asuka were only met with silence punctuated with occasional
whimpers.  What could the Angel have done to her to do this?  To break her
so utterly?  After a sigh, one of the crew decided to reach out and
physically haul her out of the Plug.  At the slightest touch Asuka pulled
back, as if his hand were white-hot.  After looking at his comrades, he
tried again.  This time Asuka not only pulled back, but started shrieking.
        "NO!!  GO AWAY!!  NO MORE!!  PLEASE, NO MORE!!", the rest was an
incoherent babble.  The man looked back at his team before shrugging and
grabbing hold of her arm and dragging her out of the Entry Plug.  It wasn't
easy and by the time that he'd gotten part of her out, he was panting
heavily.  The rest of his team reached and helped him out, but it wasn't
any easier for them.
        Asuka wasn't trying to pull away, or struggle, or move in any way.
What made it hard was her constant shrieking.  After a few minutes of
pushing and shoving, the six-person crew had Asuka lifted above their
heads, three on each side of her, and moving her away from the Eva as fast
as possible.  She didn't stop yelling and babbling until they had her on a
stretcher and one of the staff doctors sedated her.
        When the doctor looked up at the team, she was greeted by the sight
of six burly men, all panting for air, simply because the pilot was yelling
like a madwoman.  She briefly wondered what the world was coming to, but
soon stopped, not wanting to get too depressed.  Then she looked over her
shoulder to see Misato come running up to her.
        "How is she?" Misato asked.
        "I don't know," the doctor replied.
        "What do you mean 'you don't know'?"
        "I don't know," the doctor said, then called out to the big man on
the recovery team to come over.  "Tell the Major what you told me."
        "Well, when we opened the hatch, the Second Child was... for lack
of a better word, cowering behind her controls.  Repeated attempts were
made to contact her, but none succeeded so I took it upon myself to bring
her out.  When I touched her, however, she reacted in what seemed to be
fear."
        "What do you mean "seemed to be fear"?" Misato asked.
        "She started yelling for us to get away and stop doing something."
Misato turned her attentions to the doctor.
        "What is her psychological state?"
        "You'd have to ask a psycharatrist for a more detailed answer, but
I'd say that she was assaulted."
        "ASSAULTED!?" Misato asked incrediulously.
        "She's showing all the major signs of an assault.  Of what kind I
have no idea, but the psychariatrist might be able to tell you."
        One of the techs still attending to Unit 02, who were all listining
in to the conversation, voiced the question in everyones mind: "What did
that Angel do to her?"  The stretcher was moved to the hospital.
Incidently, both Shinji and Asuka were transported side-by-side.  Both had
large straps over their bodies; Shinji to prevent him from attacking again,
Asuka to prevent her from trying to stop those people trying to help her.
        They were wheeled into seperate births in the hospital, both being
looked over by seperate doctors.  The examinations went on for several
hours, with both Misato and Ritsuko standing outside the whole time.  To
pass the time, they had several discussions on why Ristuko was there.
Misato argued that it was for some perpose that NERV wanted.  She, in turn,
insisted that it was only out of sheer worry for the two children.  Misato
didn't believe her for a second, not with all the lies she's spun over the
last year, all the truths she kept from Misato.  Rei eventually joined
them, but it wasn't until a few hours after the two other pilots had been
brought in and Misato and Ritsuko had their last argument.
        When the doctors finally emerged from the ER, they both had rather
grave looks on their faces.  The older of the two of them reported on both
patients, as he drew the short straw.  He found he had a very attentive
audience.
        "Well, it seems that this Angel has done some serious damage," he said.
        "What kind of damage?" Ritsuko asked after hearing something that
sounded like choking coming from Misato.
        "Without a more in-depth examination we can't be sure of anything,
but it appears that some parts of their brains have been affected by this
latest attack."
        "Affected?  How?" Misato asked after finding her voice.
        "As I said, we can't be sure until we run some more tests, but it
appears that something went wrong with some of their brain tissues," he
said, and then continued when he saw Misato opening her mouth to ask a
question.  "It appears that some of the neurons simply misfired.  I doubt
that it'll have any perminant side-affects," he hastily added when he saw
Misato's face..
        "What could have caused this 'misfiring'?" Ritsuko asked.
        "At a guess, and don't quote me on this, the Angel did something to
them both.  It appears to be more prevalent in Asuka than in Shinji, but it
is something has to be checked out more thoroughly on both of them."
        "How soon can you get those tests done?" Misato asked.
        "As soon as we get permission from Commander Ikari," was the prompt
reply.
        "And why I can't give permission?  I'm the legal guardians of those
two!" she screamed.  The doctor simply looked at her and raised an eyebrow
for an answer.  Misato swore to herself.  It was very unlikely that
Commander Ikari would give permission.
        "Ikari, will you give the doctors the permission they need?"
Fyutsuki asked the Supreme Commander of NERV, several hundreds of meters
above the hospital, in the personal office of Gendo Ikari.  He didn't get
an answer, but knew full well that the silence was an answer in it's own.
But, he pressed on, nonetheless.  "There are other factors to consider
before you make your final decision."  Commander Ikari slowly swivled his
head to stare at his subordinate.
        "What factors?"  'That I haven't already taken into account,' was
the unvoiced addition.
        "Well, for starters there was Shinji, who managed to activate Unit
01 by himself, with no help from us.  That can only mean one thing."
        "A mild abberation.  We simply underestimated his capabilities,"
Ikari returned.
        "There are supporting statements to the idea that Shinji was in
contact with something inside of Unit 01," Fuyutsuki said, stressing the
"something" quite a lot.  "The fact that he was answering questions that no
one in Central Dogma asked, the fact that he was yelling at the Unit to
move and it did-"
        "Simple coincidence," the Commander interuppted.
        "There's nothing simple about it, and you know that."
        "Better than anyone here," Commander Ikari agreed.  "But that
changes nothing.  As far as we and NERV are concerned, nothing out of the
ordinary with Unit 01 occured."
        "Yes, sir.  Is this the story you're going to sell to Seele?"
        "Story?  I'm not aware of any story.  I'm only going to tell them
the truth," the Commander said and Fuyustuki sighed.  What a game the two
of them were playing.  He grunted as he stood up.
        "I have duties to attend to," he said as explanation.  Commander
Ikari inclined his head a little, giving the older man permission to leave.
For several hours after Fuyutsuki left, Commander Ikari sat in his dark,
forbooding office, thinking about exactly what he would tell Seele and how
to deal with the other problems assaulting NERV.  He ran a mental checklist
to see what still had to be done.  'The Fifthteenth Angel has been
defeated, the Lance is gone, Insturmentality is proceeding on schedule,
Unit 01 is finally ready for the program,' he thought before another
thought entered his mind.  'But can it be used?  It has shown increasing
resistance it useage by anyone except the Third Child.  No way to force it
to assist, no way to activate it without the pilot within it.'  He grunted
as he realized that he had no choice in that other matter he needed to
attend to.  He picked up the phone by his desk, called the hospital, and
gave his permission for both pilots to undergo the more extensive tests the
doctors recommeneded with the explicit order that all reports be given to
him before anyone else saw them.  He also gave some special instructions to
the psychologist who would be assigned to the two pilots.
        An hour later he was still seated in his office when his phone
rung.  He knew that it was too early for the test results, and that could
only mean one thing.  He picked it up and was informed that a meeting of
Seele was in progress and his presence was requested.  'In progress,' he
repeated to himself.  'That means that they've been in session for some
time by now.  They'll probably want an explanation,' he thought as he
steeled himself for the meeting ahead.  Dealing with those five were a pain
he could've done without.
        Misato refused to be budged while the doctors scurried around the
two teenagers, doing their tests with the most sophisticated equipment in
the world.  It only took three hours to do tests that would've taken at
least seven with regular insturments.
        One of the nurses walked out and bade Misato, Ritsuko, and Rei to
enter.  When they saw the elder doctor, he looked at them and told them
plain-faced that the results wouldn't be avaliable until tomorrow.  A few
minutes later, back in the hallway, Misato fumed about while Ritsuko
glanced over at Rei.  She could guess why the results wouldn't be ready
untill tommorow.  But the doctor had agreed that a psychologist would be
seeing Asuka as soon as possible.  Both pilots would be kept under sedation
for the rest of the night.
        Commander Ikari, weary from his latest debate with Seele, was
pleasantly suprised to see the reports from the medical staff on his desk.
Loosing himself in the documents allowed him to temporarily forget the
ineptness of the Commitee.  They'd argued that he'd overstepped his bounds
and allowed too much carnage to rein inside the base.  Not to menton the
Lance; they'd harped on that for a good hour.
        He looked up from the reports when he heard the door to his office
open.  He saw Fuyutsuki walk in, not quite angry, but upset about
something.  Completely unfazed by the older mans appearance, Commander
Ikari asked if there was anything wrong.
        "Why were all the medical reports funnled through you?" Fuyutsuki
demanded, then checked himself and realised that he'd probably get nothing
from Ikari in that way.  "I don't see the point to it," he said in more
normal tones.  Commander Ikari gestured for him to take a seat and then
handed him a sheaf of papers.  Quickly glancing at them, he saw that they
were the medical reports he was demanded an explanation for.  He said as
much to the Commander.
        "Look at them carefully," Commander Ikari said, nonplussed at the
demands.  Fuyutsuki looked at them more closly than he'd done a few moments
before.  "They're preliminary guesses at the cause of the sudden changes in
behavior in the Second and Third Children," the Commander supplied.  He
waited a full minute before going on.  "I think the Angels are starting to
evolve."
        "Evolve!" Fuyutsuki thundered before he could catch himself.  "Why?
How?" he asked.
        "Why do I think that?  Look at the avaliable data:  Angels Three
through Seven, and Nine through Fourteen came to us.  The Eighth Angel was
found in the volcano.  Common sense dictates that, from the avalible data,
they know more about us than we do about them.  But can you tell me, then,
why the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fifteenth Angels all attempted contact
with a human?" he asked, and then pressed on before he could be answered.
"Look at their attempts at contacting a human.  The first attempt, Angel
Twelve, absorbed an Eva with it's pilot.  The report says that no contact
between the Angel and the Pilot was detected.  What if it was simply trying
to passivly collect data?  Give the Pilot a stimulus and see his response?
The data gathered from that encouter could have then been used to assist
the Thirteenth Angel in its domination of Unit 03 as well as help the
Fifteenth in its attack on Units 01 and 02."
        "It makes sense, if you look at it that way," Fuyutsuki slowly said
after a moment of thinking.  "But that would mean the Angels are in
communication with each other."
        "And that they have some sort of central gathering place to share
that data."
        "But how does this suggest evolution?"
        "The first eleven attacks were rather straight forward.  This new
pattern of attack based on human physiology and psychology would have
appeared long before if it was orginially planned.  As well as the fact
that each new Angel seems to be more advanced than the previous.  We've
seen this sort of upgrading before."
        "With the Third Angel," Fuyustuki agreed.  "But that would mean
there is an Angel, somewhere, watching what happens here and reporting back
to the others."
        "A discomforting thought.  And you've just answered your other
question of 'How?'" Commander Ikari said.
        "What does this have to with these reports?" he asked, wondering
why the Commander had gone off on that tangent.
        "These reports show that something interfered with the firing of
neurons within the brains of the pilots.  I think that this is latest
development in their attempts to contact us.  It is now my belief that the
Angles don't know as much about us as we originally thought.  I suspect
that the next Angel will be able to make more direct contact than the last
one."
        "Perhaps.  On another topic," Fuyutsuki said, trying to change the
subject, "what did Seele have to say?"
        "Their usual rant.  Admittadly with a few new twists, but much of
it was the same."  This snagged Fuyutsuki attention, for in all the years
that he'd known the man beside him, never before has he said anything like
he just did.  'Either Seele said something to really annoy him, or all this
thinking about the Angels has made him mellow out,' Fuyutsuki figured.  A
small chuckle escaped his lips before he could suppress it.
        "There is something humurous about this?"
        "No, sir.  My appologies," Fuyutsuki said, forcing himself to keep
from giggling again.  It wasn't easy.  "And what are they going to do?  For
the use of the Lance without permission?"
        "Who knows?  Whatever it is, we probably won't like it."
        "And what do you propose to do about the pilots, Commander?"
        "Nothing for now.  Only after the doctors have pronounced them to
be in good health, physical or otherwise, will we make our desision."
        "Why wait?"
        "We don't have enough data at the moment to take proper action," he
said and glanced down at his desk.  Fuyutsuki was in the middle of setting
up a go board.  Twenty minutes later, the Sub-Commander walked out of the
massive office, having lost again.
        After two days, Asuka was not doing well.
        After waking up from the effects of the sedation, she'd had to
helped to do everything that a normal person would.  At first it wasn't
easy, she'd refused outright to do anything on her own.  A nurse had to
feed her, roll her over, sit her up to assist in the changing of pillows
and such; she'd also been completely non-responsive to anything the doctors
and nurses could think of.
        They tried turning off the lights at night, but it did nothing
except make the room dark.
        They tried adding flowers to the room, but they only wilted due to
lack of attention.
        They tried putting a TV in her room, but it only sat there, never
once used.
        They tried moving the position of her bed within the room, but it
did nothing except make Asuka stare at a new patch of the wall.
        They tried..........
        And then there was Asuka during the night; not a pretty sight by
any stretch of the imagination.  Asuka would spend hours, just staring at
the ceiling, with or without the lights on, it didn't matter.  When she
finally did get to sleep, it didn't last.  She would wake up after twenty
minutes, sit up straight, and wail and scream and yell.
        Nothing happened until the psychologist came by.  She sat there, in
Asukas room, watching her.  When Asuka did nothing, she got up, walked over
to her, and sat down on the bed beside her.
        Misato watched all this with a careful eye, following the womans
actions, wondering what she was doing the whole time.  After spending a few
moments with Asuka on the bed, she got up and exited the room, and was
intercepted by Misato outside, in the hallway.
        "What were you doing?" she demanded.
        "Getting to know her," the psychologist answered.
        "And what have you found out?" Misato asked sarcastically, not
believing that anything useful could've been learned in such a short time.
        "Quite a lot, actually," she answered, completely unaffected by the
tone of the question.  "She started to act normal for a while, and then
started acting like this?"
        "Yes," Misato said, totally serious.  It seemed as she really
wanted to help Asuka.  "Just after the Angel was destroyed."
        "How long did it last?"
        "About 5 minutes."  The doctor made some quick scribbles in a
notebook she produced from her back pants pocket.
        "When, exactly, did she start to shut down?"
        "When the recovery teams made to Unit 01 and started to extract
Shinji from the Entry Plug."
        "Makes sense now," the doctor muttered to herself, but Misato heard
it and demanded an explanation.  The doctor answered by saying that she
couldn't be sure of anything until she'd had more time with Asuka.  Misato
yelled something about that being the lamest excuse she'd ever heard and
ordered her to say what she thought was happening.  The psycologist, in
turn, refused, saying that she wouldn't make any diagnosis until later, and
turned on her heel and walked away.
        Misato stood in the halway, not moving, thinking dark thoughts
about the other woman.  Ritsuko came by ten minutes later, with Misato
still thinking not nice things.
        "Do I want to ask?" Ritsuko said.
        "Ask what?" Misato replied after a few minutes of trying to calm down.
        "You don't normially stare at a wall with that sort of look on your
face for no reason," Ritsuko pointed out.
        "Oh.  That.  Just some dumb bimbo trying to piss me off," Misato spat.
        "Looks like she's suceeded," Ritsuko teased, but then backed off
when she narrowly avoided a swipe by Misato.  "All right, all right, I'll
stop.  What did happen, though?"
        Misato told her what happened, especially the part where she
out-and-out refused to diagnose Asuka.  "I'm going to put her up on report
for disobeying a direct order," she finished.  Ritsuko was thoughtfull for
a moment before commenting.
        "Is she about your height, has dark eyes and hair?"
        "Umm, yes."
        "Then good luck on putting her on report.  She has direct orders
from the Commander to use whatever means and methods she deems proper.  The
only one who can put her on report is the Commander himself.  She has total
immunity, giving her the freedom to do whatever she wants."
        Misato swore after a few moments of digestion of the new materiel.
Then an odd question popped into her mind.  "Why is the Commander suddenly
taking an interest in the pilots' welfare?  He's never done it before."
        "I wish I could answer that," Ritsuko said, and then added to it
when she saw Misato's gaze.  "Really.  I have no idea what he's planning
now."
        ''Now'?' Misato asked herself.  'That could mean that she knew what
he was planning before,' she added before filling that away in her mind for
later study.  "So what can we do about that doctor?" Misato asked, trying
to change the subject.
        "Nothing," Ritsuko said, her tone something halfway between a grunt
and sigh.  "The most we could do is try to help her with whatever she
needs."
        Misato grunted.
        "I know the thought doesn't sit well with you," Ritsuko soothed.
"But it's not like we have that much of a choice, you know."
        Misato grunted again.  Somehow, she knew that the next few days
were not going to be pleasant.
        And she was right.  For the next few days, all she could do was sit
there and watch the doctor sit with Asuka, saying nothing, but watching
her.  A sort of uneasy alliance grew between the two women, and they hadn't
had another fight since that first day.  It didn't make it any easier to do
nothing except watch, but it wasn't like she had any choice in the matter.
        After the third day with Asuka, the doctor started trying things to
get her attention.  First it was different types of music, then different
volumes, then different colours of light, then different intensities of
coloured light.  The attempts only took a few minutes each, so by the time
they were done it was still morning.
        After the last attempt to get her attention, she walked out into
the hallway to converse with Misato.  "Alright, I  think I have it narrowed
down."
        "Have what narrowed down?"
        "Something to get her attention.  However, I will need access to
all of your reports and personal notes about the attack.  As well as all of
your notes and reports about Asuka herself."
        "Why ask me?  Why don't you just go to the Commander?"
        "The Commander is a buisy man, who has more important things to do
than get me the information I need.  Especially when I could get it all
from you."  Misato sighed with frustration.  She didn't want to help this
woman, but she had little choice in the matter.  After a few minutes of
silence, solely designed to annoy the doctor, she finally agreed and turned
around to go get them.
        "And make sure that it's all of them," the doctor called after her.
"It may prove to be the key to getting her out of this."  With that said
Misato turned around and stared into the other woman's eyes.  Then she
nodded again, promising to herself that she would get all of the requested
papers.  If it would help Asuka, she would do whatever was asked of her.
        The reports were on the doctors desk by that afternoon, a testimate
to the drive and determination that shone behind Misato's eyes.  She stood
there as the other woman poured over the volumes of information, carefully
reading every word and phrase, not heasitating to ask a question if she
needed it.  The hours flew by, and before either of them knew it, it was
two in the morning.  Sighing a little, the doctor held up a hand, calling
the meeting to an end.
        "Tom-" she started before correcting herself, "later today, I think
I could try something new that would get her attention."  Misato thought
about asking what she was going to try that already hadn't been tried, but
she didn't, knowing that it wouldn't get her anywhere.
        The next day, Misato was almost vibrating with nervous
anticipation.  She really, really, _really_ wanted to know what the doctor
had in mind to get Asuka's attention.  But, as usual, she had to stay
outside the room when the doctor was inside with Asuka and stare through
the little window.
        As usual, the doctor walked in, sat down on Asuka's bed, and looked
at her.
        As usual, Asuka didn't do anything.
        As usual, the doctor called one of the nurses over.
        As usual, she told them what she wanted them to do loud enought so
that Asuka could hear it.
        "I want you to move the Third Child from the next berth to the
other side of the building."  The nurse, who'd thought she'd seen
everything, did nothing to cover the look of horror from spreading over her
features.  "Is something wrong with your hearing?  I want you to move him,
now."  The nurse knew that she would be fired from her job here if she
didn't do what she was told by the doctor and hastened to obey.
        "No."  The word was said so softly that the nurse and doctor both
thought it was a whisper of the wind.  "No."  It was louder this time, loud
enough so that both women could hear it.  It was coming from Asuka.
        "What was that?" the doctor asked.
        "He stays," Asuka said firmly.  After that first word, it was as if
something inside her mind that had been daming everything up had suddenly
been broken and the words and feelings associated with those words rush out
in a torrent.  "He stays," she repeated when the nurse turned towards
Shinji's limp form in the other bed.
        Misato, watching all of this from outside the room, rushed in when
she realized that it was Asuka who was talking.
        "Asuka!  Asuka, are you allright.  I was so worried, I'm sorry..."
Misato trailed off when she saw the look in Asuka's eyes.