Dr. Naoko Akagi paused in the hallway outside the office of the new commander of GEHIRN and took a nervous breath. Then the black haired woman knocked firmly, waiting until she heard a muffled voice call, "Come in." Sitting behind her desk Yui Ikari was studying the paperwork on the latest test series with a frown, her dark brown hair falling into tired looking eyes. Since the disappearance of her husband during the Unit-01 contact experiment she had been working night and day to find out what had happened to him. 'But does she already know, and is just not telling us?' Naoko wondered grimly. Even more worrying, did Yui know about her affair with Gendo before he disappeared? If she did, it could get... messy. Yui looked up at last, her mona lisa smile as enigmatic as ever. "How goes our attempts to reactivate Unit-01?" she asked calmly as she set the papers aside. "It's ready, and the pilot candidates for it and Unit-00 are ready," Naoko nodded. She hesitated a moment, "But... why THOSE girls?" "According to the Marduk Institute, the candidates have the best psychological profiles for piloting," Yui frowned, "though to be honest, I have my own doubts. But for now, they're the ones available, so..." "I understand," Naoko said after a moment. Yui paused a moment then asked, "Do you have any suggestions who should supervise the pilot testing?" Naoko looked thoughtfull a moment, "How about Professor Fuyutsuki? Other than you and... well, he know the Evangelion technology best." "Other than my husband, yes," Yui agreed with a sigh. "Mama?" a soft voice asked, coming from the door leading into the room beside the office. The young boy looked nervous standing there, his short brown hair falling into eyes that resembled both Gendo's and Yui's. "I'll leave you and Shinji alone," Naoko said with a wry smile, well aware at how traumatized the boy was. Whatever had happened to Gendo had occurred with Shinji and Yui there in the lab, the boy visiting with his parents. 'Poor kid,' she thought. "Thank you," Yui smiled. As Naoko was leaving she heard her murmur, "2004 hasn't been a very good year, let's hope things improve soon." Sometime later as a alarm rang through the complex Ritsuko Akagi growled under her breath as the black haired girl ran along the hallway. "Mother if I find out you nominated me for this, I'll..." she grumbled as the twenty year old girl tried to finish pulling the tight sky blue plugsuit top on. "What the hell?" Misato Katsuragi blinked as a partially dressed girl ran by. "Ritsuko?" she hurried after her, the nineteen year old's longer black hair flowing. "Oh thank you," Ritsuko muttered as Misato caught up with her. "Can you give me some cover, please?" she asked. "Why are you doing this?" Misato asked as she kept pace, using her body to preserve the other woman's privacy a bit. "They're running tests on Unit-01," Ritsuko explained as she finally got herself into the top, "and they need a pilot. Also, I'm late." They jogged together to one of the elevators, both a bit out of breath. "You're crazy, right?" Misato shook her head, "A guy disappeared into that thing." They stepped into the elevator and Ritsuko hit the switch to take them down into the Geofront itself. "That was a freak accident," Ritsuko said briskly, "it's not going to happen again." Despite her brave words Ritsuko patted her pants looking for a cigarette, apparently forgetting she was dressed in the plugsuit. Misato found her eyes drawn by the gesture to her friend's legs, then her eyes swept up her sleekly dressed body. Ritsuko was in good shape, and had developed enough to fill out the skin tight costume in all the right places. "Pervert," Ritsuko blushed, seeing where she was gazing. "In that outfit," Misato replied with a chuckle, "you really can't blame me for looking." Ritsuko blushed but had a hard time denying that point. "One of these days I'm going to talk Miss Ikari into putting you into one of these," she growled, crossing her arms over her chest. 'Though if the Marduk report I saw on mother's is right, you will be anyway,' she silently mused. "She's my guardian, remember?" Misato smirked as the elevator dropped smoothly beneath the Earth then added wickedly, "Besides, I don't think she goes that way." "Oooh," Ritsuko made a face as she answered with a groan, "I really did not need that mental image, Misato!" Yet oddly, Ritsuko found herself feeling more relaxed as the elevator finally came to a stop. Misato was good at that, taking her mind off the oddness of their lives now and helping her enjoy their days away from here. 'Even if I do have to help her in school in return,' Ritsuko mused with a wry smile. "Mind if I tag along?" Misato asked as they headed down the brightly lit hallway together. The facility housing GEHIRN's main base was almost shiny new, and they could hear their footsteps on the new floors as they hurried along. "Am I going to be able to stop you?" Ritsuko asked. "Probably not," Misato agreed cheekily. Together they hurried into the observation booth, looking out through the glass at the massive being that waited eerily for life. The Evangelion was a sleeping giant in the large testing chamber, a series of massive restraints and scaffolding surrounding the purple and pink colored humanoid. "Ritsuko," Naoko turned as the head technician said, "you're late." 'Bitch,' Misato thought uncharitably. Yui Ikari reached out to put a calming hand on Naoko's arm as she said gently, "She's a student and helping us here, Naoko." Naoko relaxed a little, her expression softening a bit, "Sorry." A faint smile teased her lips, "And are you joining us too, Miss Katsuragi?" Misato calmly met her eyes, "I thought I'd watch, if you don't mind." "Of course you can," Yui smiled at her gently. Looking over at Ritsuko she said, "We're just running entry plug tests today, we won't be plugging you into Unit-01 yet." Under her breath Naoko muttered, "I still think we're wasting valuable time." "We'll discuss it later," Yui murmured back. More loudly she said, "Misato, would you and Ritsuko go down to the entry plug?" "Right," Ritsuko took Misato's hand as they walked to the door in the side of the control room, leading down to the waiting entry plug. "What was that about?" Misato asked as they walked down the stairs. "Yui wants to talk to mom dear alone," Ritsuko sighed, "wish I knew what about." Yui waited till the door closed before walking over to the glass and saying, "Naoko, there's no need to rush." "Only if you accept the one interpritation of the Dead Sea Scrolls," Naoko crossed her arms in front of her, "that says the Angels will come in 2015. The other reading implies they're coming in 2005." "And you want your daughter to fight them?" Yui asked almost disbelievingly. "She's twenty years old," Naoko said flatly, "not a child to be protected, Yui. I think she can do it." "We don't even know if someone that age can operate a Evangelion," Yui shook her head, "the best projected age is a teenager. What if it hurts her?" "Then so be it," Naoko said flatly. Ritsuko closed her eyes, she and Misato having gone back up the stairs outside the door to listen in on their conversation. "Ritsuko..." Misato reached out to squeeze her arm gently in silent comfort. Shaking the hand off and livid with rage Ritsuko keyed the door open and stormed inside, racing towards her mother. "Wha..." Naoko started. "You bitch," Ritsuko slapped Naoko's face with all her might, sending her mother crashing to the floor. Tears in her eyes the young woman ran out of the room, Misato hurrying after her. "Oh hell..." Yui sighed, torn between chasing after the girls and helping Naoko. With a resigned sigh she helped the other woman up as she said, "Well, I think we have a new problem to deal with."
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