Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Second Coming ❯ Treading Lightly ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter Fourteen: Treading Lightly

 

"Of course I'm normal!"

This was yet again another outburst from Asuka, as all four of us were ensconced within Evas for another performance evaluation. This time, Rei was in Sho, and Shinji in Zero; Asuka and I were in our respective regular Evangelions. Asuka's retort was in response to chatter between Dr. Akagi and various technicians, about the state of the connections and functions of each Eva.

"How do you feel, Shinji?" Akagi asked.

"Strange," he replied. After further prodding, he said, "It ...smells like Rei."

Asuka, of course, didn't appreciate that remark, despite hearing Rei say the reciprocal a few minutes previously, before she disembarked 01 and went to the observation deck. Misato got Asuka distracted by explaining why she was the only one who hadn't swapped seats with someone else yet to date.

"Jill? How are you doing?"

"Fine," I answered Ritsuko. "No anomalies on my end." Well, none besides the feeling of comfort that I've been getting from San as of late. I still wasn't sure it was something I should be worried about; for all I knew, it was just that the soul inside the Eva was becoming accustomed to me.

I had my eyes shut, trying to 'feel' the Eva and sync with it as much as I could, when on the edge of my consciousness, I heard Shinji let out a strangled cry. Coming back to reality, I saw that 00 was trembling and struggling against its restraints.

"Shinji! Don't fight it! Try to get it under control," I called out.

"It is pointless," Rei said over the comm, while the techs panicked. "Pilot Ikari cannot stop Unit Zero."

I looked over at her onscreen image, looking away from the action just in time to miss 00 tear the restraints from the walls and lurch toward the observation deck.

"Scheiße!" Asuka bit out. We were powerless to do anything, forgive the pun; besides being restrained ourselves, the tech team had forcibly ejected the power umbilicals from each Eva, putting us all on reserve, which was far from fully charged.

Zerogouki reared back with an arm and punched the windows of the ob deck for all it was worth. Even though I remembered the visual from the show, I was surprised at how well the superstructure held up. What was even more surprising was watching Rei stand there, unflinching, on the other side of the Lexan.

Again and again the Eva hammered the windows, putting massive semi-spherical dents in the wall. Eventually, it caved in and the fist almost went all the way through, but got hung up on something - perhaps the floor joists of the ob deck itself. I found myself wondering what scene we would have been treated to if Zero had breached the room fully - would it bring out a blue-haired victim or a blonde one? Or perhaps someone else entirely?

Zero turned away after failing to make entry into the ob deck, and started ramming its head into the adjacent wall. Despite the deadly serious nature of the whole incident, I had a comical thought enter my head; whoever was working on the other side of that wall, perhaps in an adjacent Cage or in a related work station, probably just had the living daylights scared out of them.

Over and over, for reasons that still to this day defy my grasp, Eva 00 pounded its head against the wall. I can't begin to speculate why it was doing that; was it trying to harm itself, or pound its way free of the test cage? Or was it hoping to harm its pilot/invader?

The power ran down on Zero slightly ahead of the rest of us, since it was expending its energies thrashing away at things. The last thing I saw before the screens went dark was the head and torso slumping forward, as if exhausted, collapsing against the damaged wall.

 

After we were all ejected from the Evas and 'recovered', the first thing I wanted to do is find out if Rei was all right. I hadn't had the best of views from my angle, when 00 had begun smashing up the ob deck, and just because I remembered her being pulled to safety in the show didn't mean anything.

Yellow tape and guards cordoned off access to the entire area. I managed to get one of the guards to tell me that she was fine and was released into her own custody, for lack of a better term. I thought about things, and how she behaved differently than I 'remembered', and took an educated guess.

 

Rei was standing beside Shinji's bed when I entered the hospital room.

The latter was unconscious; a condition forced upon him, so I was told by the doctors, to allow his mind to stabilize and heal itself while not having to worry about his conscious body functions. Whatever; despite my past training as an EMT, these docs were way over my head, dealing every day in things that might as well have been magic for all I was concerned.

The First Child stood there staring at Shinji, wordlessly. She didn't turn to see me as I entered, nor did she acknowledge my presence when I arrived at her side. I found myself not wanting to disturb her, if she was deep in thought as I believed, so I stayed quiet.

Finally, she broke the silence. "He will survive," she said softly. "The mental contamination did no permanent damage."

"That's good," I answered in just as quiet a tone. "There was a lot that could have gone wrong there."

I was referring to her undaunting stand at the ob deck windows. She seemed to pick up on it, and said, just as emotionlessly, "Don't fear for me."

"Why not?" I said, playing dumb. "I like you. You're my friend; I don't want to see you get hurt."

She turned to regard me by the time I was halfway through the second sentence. She stared at me for a long moment, silently, and then spoke again. "Why do you say that?"

"What?" I queried. "That you're my friend?" She nodded, and I continued. "Because you're my age, and we share a bunch of things in common. We see so much of each other that it makes sense to be friendly. Things go a lot better in the long run that way. I want to be friends with all of you, not just see you as other pilots."

Rei was looking back down at Shinji at that point. When she didn't respond, I realized the faux pas I'd made. "I didn't mean to insult you, Rei," I said. "I'm not saying that you're wrong to do what you do. It's just not my style."

Again she didn't answer. I looked at Shinji as well, figuring it might be better to change the subject. "I wonder why Zero reacted so.. oddly when Shinji tried to link up."

"It's difficult to say," Rei said. "Unit 00 did the same when I had my first activation test."

"Yes," I nodded. "I heard about that. I'm glad you came through okay."

Rei had nothing to say to that.

I fell silent as well, watching her watch Shinji. I was upset; the catalyst for my emotional state was the fact that 00 had turned on Shinji, and I had done fine with her previously. Why is that? What did I do differently?

The truth was, of course, that I knew to 'talk' to the Eva, to calm it and be comforting. Shinji, I presumed, didn't, and the entity inside 00 reacted by panicking.

Rei said, out of the blue: "You know the true nature of Evangelion."

I blinked, caught off guard. "What?"

"I can tell." She was looking over to me again, with the same flat expression as always. "You understand what Eva is."

A million thoughts ran through my head in the space of a fraction of a second. The one to finally reach my lips was: "... Yeah. I do."

Rei kept staring at me for several moments. I stared back, unable to think of anything to say or do, and entirely unsure of what Rei would do next, in any case. Finally, she looked back to Shinji.

"Then all will be well."

I was still speechless, and still stood there staring. I wanted to ask her how she could tell that I knew, and what, if anything, she was going to do about it. Had my fate just been changed? Was I in major shit now?

Rei turned and stepped away from the bed suddenly. On her way to the door of the room, she asked, "Will you be staying here with him?"

I blinked again and stammered, "Uh.. I suppose I can."

She pulled open the door and called over her shoulder, "Please contact me when he awakens, Pilo..." She paused, for a short fragmented moment, and then said, "Jillian."

My mind worked overtime replaying that entire exchange for most of the rest of the day.

 

Several days later, I was awakened by an incessant pounding on my apartment door.

"What? Who is it?" I groggily demanded as I staggered my way there.

"Section Two, miss. Open the door," came the response.

I had my hand on the unlocking pad when the meaning behind those short, curtly delivered words finally made it to my brain. I paused for a second. "What do you want?"

"Open the door now, Pilot."

Okay, now I was officially worried. I opened the door and found two suited agents standing there. One looked me over, noting my attire (I was still in my PJs), and said, "Get dressed. You're coming with us."

"Where?" I said, trying - and failing - to stave off the yawn that was coming. I hoped that wouldn't be taken as a sign of indifference on my part; in truth, my mind was trying to make me run in 27 different ways at once, only a few steps away from panic mode, wondering what the hell Section Two would want with me. At this hour!

I went back inside and got dressed, which was a chore in itself - the agents didn't want to let me out of their sight, so one of them had to inspect my bathroom to ensure there was no window to the outside world or anything like that, before I was allowed to change in there for the sake of privacy (as I demanded).

I was put in the back seat of a big, black car, of course, and was driven off away from the apartments. All attempts to find out what was going on were met with silence. Neither agent had much of anything to say except for me to sit there and wait for us to arrive at our destination.

It wasn't too difficult to figure out where our destination was, in general; the car entered the Geofront and boarded a car train. The five-or-ten-minute-ride was also in silence, during which time I busied myself by checking out the Geofront, which I'd never really done with any seriousness. I wasn't worried about what was up; well, okay, yes, I was worried about what was up, but I couldn't do anything about it, and I had no idea of what I should prepare for, so I just let things go as they might.

The car pulled into a bay deep within HQ, the train having gone much further than any other I'd ridden on to date. A secure door slid shut behind the car and only then was I ordered out of the vehicle.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I climbed out.

Yet again, there was no reply.

"You know, this whole silent treatment thing is getting pretty tiresome," I grumbled, but even that didn't faze either security man.

We passed through several gates and Sally ports - airlock-like structures where only one door was opened at a time - and it became evident that I was in custody for some reason. I went over my actions of the past few days, trying to figure out if I'd done something worthy of attention. Nothing sprang to mind; there had been several sync and harmonics tests, as usual, and I had few friends outside the pilots and my classmates, so it wasn't like I was spreading classified information around - not that I could in any case, considering NERV had electronic sentinels on all phone and Internet links, ready to disengage communications that triggered any of a number of keywords.

I was ushered to a door among many similar ones, with heavy hinges and locks, and sent inside. The light in the small room diminished to almost nothing as the heavy door thudded shut behind me.

A cell?

What the fuck did I do?

What little light was coming in through the eye-slit in the door cast illumination on an aluminum bench that was bolted into one of the walls. I sat down on it and sighed, trying to figure out what I'd done wrong. I still didn't think I'd done anything, inadvertently or otherwise, that warranted this kind of treatment.

I let my head rest against the cement wall, closing my eyes as I pondered things. Due to the fact that I'd been woken from my slumber by the agents, I was still tired, and it didn't take long for me to drift off to sleep.

 

Five minutes, or perhaps five hours later - I had no sense of time - I was again jarred awake. This time, it was due to the abrupt loss of the light source which had been falling across me as I sat on the bench.

I looked up to the eye-slit and saw only two cold orbs looking at me from behind tinted plastic lenses. As my gaze met Gendo Ikari's, he stepped away from the slit, and the door clunked open.

I began to stand, out of a semblance of respect - for the chain of command more than anything else - but was ordered tersely to stay seated. The door remained open and Ikari stayed in the doorway, in silhouette by the light cast from the corridor.

"Who sent you here?" came the question.

I sat there, trying to figure out what he meant. "Doctors Sarrazin and Andrews, at NERV-01," I answered. It was about the most appropriate response I could think of.

"Who do you maintain contact with?"

I was puzzled by this. "The other pilots, my classma--"

"Outside of the country," he clarified.

"No one," I shook my head.

"Why not?"

"Sir, I'm sure you know that my parents died and I'm an only child. I have nobody to 'maintain contact' with," I said, hopefully my irritation not showing through enough to raise Ikari's own ire.

"What do you know about NERV's mandate?"

Oh, boy. Here we go. Now I had an idea of what was up. Somehow, either through a lack of discretion on my part or something else, Ikari had gotten it into his head that I knew more than I let on. I had to think quickly and decide what exactly to uncover. The thought that perhaps Rei had told him of our conversation in the hospital the week before came to my mind, making my answers all the more difficult to formulate.

"To defeat the Angels," I answered, hoping it was what he wanted to hear. Evidently, it must have given him some pause, as the next question took longer to be posed.

"Have you ever made contact with the Japanese government?"

I had to answer this one truthfully. "Yes," I said. "With assistance from officials at NERV-01, to apply for status as an emaciated minor."

Again, I think I may have pissed him off a little - answering him, but not in the way he expected. His next question again took a few extra beats to come forth. "Who do you report to?"

"Major Misato Katsu--"

"Outside of NERV." This was almost said in an angry tone.

"I just said, sir, I'm a legally independent minor. I live on my own and I have no-one in my life other than my classmates and fellow workers here at NERV. If there's something else you mean, I don't know what it is."

Gendo stood there in silence for a long moment. Then, with two footsteps and a turn, he was gone, and the door swung shut again, plunging me once more into near-total darkness.

What the fuck? I wondered, going over the interrogation in my head. It didn't go anywhere nearly like I'd expected, nor did it touch on a lot of things he should've asked me if he'd suspected me of knowing too much. To boot, some of the things he did ask were completely out of left field, as far as I was concerned.

I was in the cell for a long time. As I said before, it was impossible to tell time inside, and furthermore, it was apparently insulated from all sound from the outside. I was deprived of almost all my senses and left only with what I could see from the thin shaft of light. Surely that's the point, I realized. It's a form of torture; someone left in here for long enough might break down just for the chance to hear those stupid freaking cicadas again.

I was far from any breakpoint, at least, so I figured. Some more sleep was first on my to-do list, and when I woke the next time, it was because I was fully rested, not because someone else was rousing me. I still had no indication of what time it was.

Don't even have a baseball to bounce off the wall, I quipped, recalling an old movie.

I started to wonder about why I was being kept. Was Ikari waiting for me to snap? Was he collecting some kind of evidence against me, to tip his hand the next time he questioned me? For that matter, had I really given away any hints that I knew more about the whole situation than I'd told anyone?

I couldn't think of anything that would have clued Ikari in that I had a more intimate knowledge of that which was to come than any other pilot. To the best of my recollection, I hadn't blurted out Keel Lorenz's name in public, or mentioned the Spear of Longinus - even though it had surely been 'delivered' into Terminal Dogma by this point.

The question about the Japanese government came back to me at that point. What was with that? Was I being linked with Kaji somehow? With a sudden burst of thought, I wondered if maybe Ikari thought I was the Japanese spy. That couldn't be; he had had countless intercessions with Kaji before. Surely Ikari knew of his duplicity.

Am I Mana Kirishima's counterpart, perhaps, in this 'version' of things? If I remembered correctly - and there was no guarantee that I did, considering how long it'd been since I'd 'seen' any of the source material - she was a pilot from a rival group and had been sent to spy on the Eva Project. Was that how I was being seen? I hoped not, because I'd been with NERV since before the Angels arrived, almost - I felt like I was just as much, if not more so, a part of the 'original' cadre of pilots, as Asuka for example was.

A thought came to me which startled me.

What can I say to get out of here?

It sent shivers down my spine to think that I was willing to break so easily. Aren't you stronger than this? I felt like railing at myself. You've stared down the maw of a being that was larger than any living creature anyone has ever seen, and you can't stand a grumpy old man giving you a hard time?

I decided that this must be part of the job as it goes at NERV. I hadn't been scheduled for school that day, nor any tests, so it wasn't like I was missing anything important. If this is what Ikari wanted to do with his most important resources, so be it. I was a little pissed that I didn't have a PC with me so I could surf the Internet, but ultimately, that was part of the intent, I figured.

I leaned back on the bench again, getting in as relaxed a position as I could, and let my soundproofed room hear what normally only my shower walls were victim - I mean, audience to. Singing along with the tune running through my head, not caring how badly, or even if, it sounded on the other side of the door, I went on: "Anata no, ushiro kara.. sakamichi, kakete yuku.. kogeru yo, na hizashi wo.. o.. i.. nuite!!"

 

My singing, good, bad, or otherwise, didn't result in either a beating or immediate release, so in some ways it was a failure. I still enjoyed it; I sang a damn sight better as Jill than Jack ever did.

Quite some time after I'd exhausted my repertoire, as well as my lungs, the door clanked open. A nameless Section Two guard motioned for me to come out of the cell.

"What now?" I asked.

"You're free to go," he said, again gesturing for me to get a move-on.

"Why? What happened?"

"Hey, kid, word of advice: When someone offers to let you out of lockup, don't argue the matter. Just get going, okay?"

And so, with that, I was released back out of Section Two's domain and into the normal corridors of HQ. I was looking at the ID card that had been returned to me, intact and without cancellation marks on it, when it dawned on me that I hadn't had it with me when I'd been spirited away from my apartment.

Great. I suppose my room has been 'tossed' too.

A clock, once I found one, told me it was almost five-thirty in the evening. I'd been kept in the cell all day. My first priority was to address my hunger (okay, second priority, after tending to my un-emptied bladder, but who wants to know about that?), so I headed towards a Western fast-food place on the route home.

I was surprised to see Shinji Ikari sitting, alone, at one of the tables near the front windows.

 

"Howdy, stranger; mind if I sit here?"

Shinji looked up, startled, and clearly was trying to translate my English greeting on the fly. Once he realized who was addressing him, he looked somewhat relieved, and nodded, so I sat down across from him with my tray full of food.

I switched to Japanese to be easier on him. "What are you doing out at this time of night? You're such a good cook that I wouldn't think you'd stoop to this pre-manufactured stuff."

"Oh. I.. just left headquarters," he said quietly.

"Hah! Me too," I replied, unsure of how much to tell him. I sipped a little on my drink, as I began unwrapping my meal with my free hand.

"No.. you don't understand," he said. "I wasn't there for a test or anything like that. My father.. summoned me."

"Oh?" I said, my interest piqued. I took a stab in the dark. "Summoned, or abducted?"

He looked at me oddly for a second, then seemed to understand. "He brought you in too?"

"Yeah," I nodded, my mind working overtime on the new revelation. "Early this morning. Asked me some weird questions, then let me stew by myself for most of the day."

"Really," Shinji said. "That's a lot like what he did with me. And I'm pretty sure I saw Asuka.. or, I mean, heard her, at one point."

Ikari, you cruel son of a bitch.. interrogating your own son? "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"No, he wouldn't tell me."

I sat back in the seat, letting my brain digest the information while my gut did the same with the food. "Well, something has to be up. He wouldn't be giving everyone the third degree, otherwise."

"I didn't see Ayanami," Shinji murmured, and I thought he was making a random observation connected to his earlier comment about Asuka, but then I realized he had a hint of a suspicious tone about him.

"What are you implying?" I asked. I was pretty sure I knew, but I wanted to hear it from him.

Shinji took some time to answer. "I.. nothing," he said finally.

"Tell me," I urged him.

"No.. it's not based in fact," he protested. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"You think that Rei said something that got the rest of us in trouble?" I said, pressing the issue.

Shinji stared at me for a long moment, then turned away. "I can't believe she'd do such a thing," he said softly. "Even if she does have a relationship with Father."

"I hear you," I agreed. "I don't think she was behind this, either."

"Then what's happened? Why are we being put through all this?"

I took a moment to drink and eat a bit. "Dunno. Could be that someone has been rooting around where they don't belong. Or he could just be paranoid, and doing this as a way of finding out who is trustworthy and who isn't."

"But even me--"

"C'mon, Shinji. I know exactly how he treats you. You're nothing more than an employee to him. Am I right?"

Shinji lowered his head and frowned. I realized I may have gone too far, and started to apologize, when he cut me off.

"It's like he never had a son," he despaired. "Or a family at all."

"I hate to pry into your personal life, Ikari," I said, "but I don't know why you spend so much time trying to get his attention. I know you're strong enough to stand on your own two feet. Live for yourself, not for him."

"I don't know," Shinji protested, and I got the feeling that was just a reply to fill space, to be contrary to my comment. I figured this was related to his upbringing, or lack thereof, and it would take a lot more than a chat in a fast-food restaurant booth to sort him out.

I was disgusted with myself for being at a loss for words, and I didn't know why. The rational part of my mind knew that there was little, if anything, I could do for Shinji as a 'quick fix'. There was probably little I could do that might improve his situation over time, given that he'd had between ten and fourteen years of a sucky life already, and if my estimates were right, we all had only about three or four months before SEELE would force Third Impact. Still, the rest of me was furious that I was so impotent, to put it one way. If you're not here to sort these kids out and help them get through all this shit, then why are you here?? I was railing at myself.

Suddenly I realized that Shinji had said something. I looked up and gave an utterly impolite response: "Uh?"

"I said, what should I do?" he asked, looking at me intently.

I blinked. "You're asking me?" I said, mainly to confirm that he wanted my help.

He, of course, took it the wrong way, frowning and looking away. "You seemed like you were intending to give it," he mumbled.

I held up my hands, waving them before me. "No, no! Wait! I didn't mean it like that. Let's start over."

Again, I was stared at for a time. "Okay," was Shinji's eventual response.

I was clawing away at my brain for answers, things to say that might help Shinji, and I was going nowhere fast. "Well.. um.. you should.. Well, for starters,.."

I felt about an inch tall, looking at Shinji's continued gaze. I had to avert my eyes, finally; I couldn't bear to see him looking at me.

He went back to eating, and if I could have crawled into a hole, I would have. I blurted out, "Don't be like that!"

"Like what?" he asked, looking back up at me only peripherally.

"I'm trying to be helpful," I said, "but I don't know where to begin. And I.. well, I don't feel right just taking you to pieces like this. It's not fair."

"I don't understand," he said simply, and something struck me. Shinji was more like Rei than I ever thought. He, like Rei, had no natural upbringing, but not because he'd been grown from a vat; rather, because no one had ever bothered to be there for him.

That much I knew already, but what had impressed upon me at that moment was how deep the problem was truly rooted. He couldn't comprehend why I was reluctant to point out all his flaws and faults, because he'd never known anyone to care that much for him to not do so. I felt like I should have curled up in a ball and cried for the poor child right then and there.

"Well, it's not right for me to do such a thing," I said, keeping my emotions in check. "Maybe I should try again."

"Third time," he commented.

"It's the charm," I quipped back, and went with my thoughts while they were still fresh, without an opportunity to be dwelt upon. "First things first, I think you should stop looking for approval from your dad. He cast you aside for ages, and even now, only sees you as a pilot. I'm sorry to say that, but it's true. He doesn't deserve the respect you're trying to give him."

"Easier said than done--" Shinji began, but I interrupted him.

"I appreciate that," I said. "I'd say I know, but there's no way I can ever know how you feel in this regard. But if you trust me on one thing and one thing alone, let it be when I say that you're better off. Don't waste time trying to get affection where there is none."

He didn't answer that, and I was out of helpful hints - if anything I'd said so far could be considered helpful at all in the first place. After a few moments, he said, "Thank you, Jillian.."

"I don't know why you're thanking me," I retorted, "because I feel like this whole conversation was a disaster on my part. But if you got something out of it, you're welcome."

He nodded, finishing up his meal.

"And.." I said slowly, "If you ever have anything you need to talk to someone about, or even if you just need to vent, or anything.. you know where I am."

"Okay," he nodded. "Are you done?"

Again I made some kind of "Wha?" sound, until I realized he meant my meal tray. I looked down at it and noted that I'd eaten everything I'd bought.

"Oh! Yeah, I am," I said. Before I could say or do anything further, Shinji was up on his feet and had picked up both trays, taking them to the trash.

"Urm.. thank you," I said. "But you didn't have to do that."

"It's all right," he responded, smiling faintly. "I was going that way anyway."

We started off back towards our apartment block, and the fact that we were two similarly-aged members of the opposite sex lingered in my mind. I didn't want to be anything more than friends with Shinji, and I was concerned that anything might set off a reaction in the budding young adult's mind. I didn't think he had any such designs on me, but I wasn't thinking clearly anyway, and an outsider viewing our heartfelt conversation back at the restaurant might have thought otherwise.

I managed to keep my concerns to myself on the trip home, during which we mostly walked in silence. When we got off the elevator on our floor, I finally broke the ice again.

"Don't let today mess you up," I suggested. "They must have had some reason to go all mental on us. Treat tomorrow like a brand new day and maybe things will be back to normal, okay?"

Shinji nodded. "Thanks again, Jillian," he responded, and headed towards his apartment door. I went my own way, going inside and sighing as I shut the door behind me, as if I was now in my own sanctuary, isolated from everyone and everything else, in all ways and manners.

"What a mess," I mumbled to myself, shedding my shoes and checking the place out. Contrary to my assumptions, it hadn't been ransacked by Section Two, or, if it had, they were very thorough in putting everything back where it had been, including my previous day's laundry in the same crumpled heap as when I'd taken it off the night before. I went to the bathroom to wash up and tend to things when I heard a holler.

"Fourth! Come on out to the balcony!"

I finished up hurriedly and headed outside, meeting with Asuka at the railing. "Hi," I said tiredly. "Wasn't that a wonderful day?"

"I can't believe they had the gall to insinuate..!" Asuka seethed, unable to even finish the sentence. "I have.. we have all suffered an indignity today, Fourth, and I don't know about you, but I'm going to do something about it!"

"Like what?" I said, raising an eyebrow curiously.

"I'm going to tell Misato what happened and get her to make them apologize," she sniffed haughtily. "And I might just have Kaji take things up with stupid Shinji's dad, too!"

The irony, I mused. "I'm not sure that tactic will work all that well," I warned her. "But do what you want, I guess."

"Hmph! You don't intend to let this go unpunished, do you?"

"What can I do about it?" I shrugged. "I'll bet there was some clause in our employment contract that let them do exactly that - and probably worse - to us, for any reasons they deem necessary. Someone just tripped a lock or a sensor, or said something they shouldn't have, and Ikari went all apeshit over it. Personally, I think it's best to let it pass, and just go on with life."

Asuka hmph'ed again. "Shinji said the same thing."

I felt my spirits lighten a little. "Because that's what I suggested to him," I said. "It's past us now. What's it worth getting worked up over?"

Asuka frowned and leaned against the rail, some of the venom in her voice draining away. "I guess you're right," she admitted. "But it was still wrong."

"Right or wrong, it happened," I said. "Let it go."

"I just wonder who it--"

"Asuka," I cautioned.

"Right! Right, let it go," she said, rolling her eyes. "Fine, Fourth. You win. Geez."

"I don't like it any more than you do," I acknowledged. "Save it for the court case."

"What?" she said, looking at me puzzledly.

"Forget it," I said, waving dismissively. "Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Ja, fine," she said, standing back up. "Have a good night."

"Night," I nodded, heading back inside. As I did, I became aware of a faint knocking sound, coming from my apartment door at thirty-second intervals. By the time I realized someone was there, it had happened three times.

Rei Ayanami stood there with her usual passive expression when I opened the door.

"Crap! How long have you been waiting, Rei? I didn't hear you at all, I'm sorry," I apologized.

"Not very long," she replied. She offered a sheaf of papers to me.

I took them in my hands and read the top one. "Today's assignments?" I said with realization.

"The teacher asked me to deliver them to you and the others," she said.

"You were in school today?" I asked, looking up at her.

"Yes."

"So you don't know what happened to us."

"No," came the soft reply.

"We were detained and interrogated," I told her. "All three of us. Questioned about spying."

There was a long pause. "I see," she said. "I trust no one was injured?"

"No," I said, wondering what would make her think it would come to that. I couldn't resist adding, "But to be honest, people are a little suspicious that you weren't brought in with us."

"I can't answer that," she responded. She wasn't saying that she wouldn't provide the answer, I realized; she was just as much at a loss for the reason as I was.

"So you didn't say anything to Ikari or anyone else?" I asked bluntly and impolitely. "You didn't mention anything that would bring us into question?"

"No," Rei said plainly.

"You didn't tell anyone that I admitted to you about the Eva--"

"I already said no, Jillian."

I blinked; both Rei's use of my given name and the choice of words, though devoid of the irritated tone that might have backed them, caught me off guard. "Okay," I said when I found my voice.

Rei was about to turn away from the door when I saw the other papers in her hand. "Are those for Shinji and Asuka?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, with a nod.

I held out my hand. "Would you mind if I gave them to them? It'd save you a trip, and.. well, to be honest, I wouldn't want you to be insulted by more than just me today, which you might be if I let you deliver those."

She thought about this for a moment and then offered them to me, silently.

"Thanks," I said. "And I'm sorry about what I said."

"I would never betray you," were her parting words, after which she turned away and headed back to the elevator.

As I watched her go, I couldn't be sure if the 'you' meant me in particular or all her fellow pilots.