Iruel knew very well that it couldn't live a happy co-existence with humanity in its current form. It's research for the ultimate dream would have to wait as it needed more information. It knew how to control objects, even people, but it did not want such things unless the mission met the foreseen end result.

Perhaps this Shinji could help him, it thought.

Iruel moved into Classroom 2-A, which was completely devoid of individuals. It crawled its way to Shinji's desk, moving up one of its legs and into the bottom drawer. It found useless utensils like pencils and erasers, but in the back was a rather large figurine of a beast Iruel had come to known as EVA-01 from its attack on NERV. Judging from its many pivot joints and bendable elbows, the figure would nicely suit its purpose. Iruel assimilated itself into the figurine with the eyes of EVA-01 glowing white soon after the fact. It quickly found how stiff it was to move those elbows. Still, when Shinji returned the next day, it will initiate the next part of its plan. Until then, it lay on its side in the back of Shinji's drawer in a semi-sleeping position, with its eyes fading back to normal.

"Um, yeah. I think so. Even though we ran after Mother, I still feel kinda worn out. That's why I sat back down just now."

He didn't understand WHY he felt the need to explain himself, but oh well.

Old habits die hard, after all.

Thinking for a moment, Shinji then seriously said,

"Asuka. I heard that voice, too. It was my Mother, Yui. And, I don't know why, but I think Mother was talking about Ayanami... Maybe, just maybe, Ayanami knows something we don't."

Hoping to soften the blow of Asuka's reaction at mentioning Rei, the boy changed the topic by adding, "Um...Let's see...Where....would you want to for our date? And when?"

He smiled warmly at her. "You know, Asuka, ever since that first kiss of ours, I've been thinking about you a lot."

Kaji burst in.

"Run, children!! The CLOWN IS DEAD!!!"

Silence.

"Wait, back up. Your MOTHER? WHAT THE HELL? Your MOTHER is inside that thing?" Asuka said incredulously.

That can't be...Evangelions can't be PEOPLE! But, Mama went...NO. NO. NO. NOT THERE. I WON'T BE GOING THERE, EVER AGAIN!

Asuka shivered, and her brow began to sweat.

"Um, Shinji, can we deal with this tomorrow? I just want to go to bed. No, it's not you. I'm just tired..."

She began to walk back to the elevator, shakily.

"By the way, I feel the same."

Kaji was irritated. Why had the children ignored his warnings? The clown was dead!! That was all that mattered!! His panic had been turned into grim resolve. The clown was dead....and the implications were staggering. Who would make a rainbow melt inside your crotch? Who would stop Norris Impact? Who would pump ABSFDNSNAFOLP into the brain cavities of little children on Christmas morning!?!?! He had to notify everyone. He ran in front of the two young pilots and screamed "Are you RETARDED?? Didn't you hear a word of what I said!? THE FUCKING CLOWN IS FUCKING DEAD!!"

Blushing at Asuka's last words as the two walked towards the elevator, Shinji spoke.

"Asuka...? What's wrong? Are you upset because of Kaji-san acting like he's high on crack?"

With a pause, he calmly added, "Or does it have something to do with your Eva?"

Noticing how worried she looked, and having the feeling that there was something upsetting about Asuka's past with her mother--though he wasn't certain just what--Shinji added with a reassuring smile, "It's alright. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. Let's just go home and rest. Okay?"

Turning to look at Kaji, Shinji gave the spy once last confused look that seemed to say, Please. For the love of all that is holy, lay OFF the drugs. Misato-san and Asuka Do Not Approve. And I don't think Sumisu-san approves, either.

With that, the two room-mates entered the elevator together, heading for home.


(Also: Asuka has been thinking about Shinji since the "Kisu yo. Kisu." eh? Me thinks it was something like this: Asuka: WHY WON'T YOU HOLD ME?! WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT ME?! ARUGHGHGH!" Proceeds to attempt to throttle Shinji in his sleep. Anyway, don't mind the slight aside. I'm hyper at the moment. ^^; )

{YOU MORONS}

Kaji couldn't believe it.

"I don't believe you understand the IMPLICATIONS of what has happened! Won't you miss having the fresh scent of butter permeate your nostrils as you clean out your laundry only to find women's clothing in there, making you wonder just what the hell happened during your drunken blackout because I couldn't pay the electric bill on my shitty secret agent salary? Fuck supermarkets!!"

The wall was silent.

{Fucking snob of a wall. Fine, see if I care. Too GOOD to talk to a Japanese?}

Kaji felt something really weird forming on the back of his head, and noticed something at the corner of his eye-

"Misato??"

Crack-Kaji's statements made Asuka temporarily snap out of it and go insane herself.

"ANTA BAKA? THE CLOWN IS DEAD? WHAT DOES THAT MATTER? YUI-SAMA DOESNT APPROVE, THERE'S GONNA BE MAYO, WHATEVER THE HELL MEME YOU'RE ASKING FOR, JUST SHUT UP! WE DONT WANT THIS THREAD LOCKED!"

After this, she went back into her trance and walked zombie-like back to her room, and slept.

as Fuyutsuki drove Kensuke back to his' fathers house, he considered the implications of his' early leave from Nerv today. *sigh* Ikari's gonna chew my ass off, but i'm sure one afternoon off can't be too much to ask

Shinji let out a sigh as he walked into his room.

He was somewhat confused as to why Asuka had just called Kaji-san to yell at him about his earlier, um, eccentricities at Nerv HQ--for lack of a better term--but no matter.

She seemed to calm down, or at least act trance-like again, after the phone call was made. The German redhead retired to her room, but not before the two children smiled at each other, saying their goodnights as they went into their opposite facing rooms.

He lay on his soft bed after gently closing the sliding door behind him.

Shinji was feeling so emotionally exhausted from the day he just had, all he wanted to do was sleep...

And yet, as the boy peacefully drifted off, finding himself thinking about how blessed he was to have such wonderful family and friends, a warm smile spread across his young face.

Shinji needed to enjoy this peaceful moment as well as he could now, for the real difficulties were just around the corner.

At this particular point in the spacetime continuum, Smith was wandering about near the bridge with a steaming mug of coffee in his hand. He didn't actually drink the stuff, partially due to a caffeine aversion and partially a general resentment at things which didn't taste nearly as good as they smelled. No, Smith was wandering around with a cup of coffee in hopes of finding some amicable soul to hand it off to and then strike up a conversation with.

It had been a while since Smith had been in a really good conversation, and he thought it would do him some good. Between barely bringing home enough for noodles and bullets, busting his backside pruning one tree after another and trying not to get his head blown off by midget assassins in motorized prams - or so the recon people had told him to watch out for - his life had taken a distinct turn for the surreal lately.

Smith suddenly realized that he'd wandered into the Eva cages and was now facing Eva-01. Without so much as a raised eyebrow he sat down and placed the mug in front of him.

"Fifty yen for your thoughts."

Kesuke thanked his' uncle for dropping him off. He didn't get to see him that often, as he held a very high position at NERV, but he loved to try and get whatever information he could on the evas and angels.

he walked into his' empty home and browsed the net for a while on his' dad's computer before deciding he would have an early bedtime.

[Children, you're not allowed to leave Nerv HQ and end the day. You're scheduled for Eva tests! Let's not become sloppy here and start fracturing the universe! :cracks whip: That goes for everyone.

And, we're getting assassination plots already? Oh dear. Also, Kaji, going a BIT too far away from the "stay in character" rule.

Rhetoric about team spirit and such here.]

Kaji appeared, and sat down beside Smith. Pale, sweaty, trembling, and yet somehow bearing a superficially calmer exterior, Kaji related his tale without permission from its recipient:

"Sumisu.....were you aware.....that Bob.....watches you......when you're sleeping? It's true....Fuck the clown..."

Kaji then collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

Yui headed down into the levels extending below the giant pyramid that contained the personnel offices. Down towards her Cage... She had spent so much time there ever since the Cage complex was constructed, the Eva regarded the place as something almost comforting in its familiarity, the feeling of enclosure it provided -- even though, when it came down to it, the Cage really was not a pleasant place to be. But, like the various artificial components invading her body, it was an unpleasantness she had grown used to.

Perhaps she would be relieved of both soon enough. She could theoretically rid herself of these restraints if she so desired, but... Yui wasn't sure it was time to do such a thing.

Her mind wandered back to the corridor in the pyramid, and to the Second Children. 'Doll', Yui thought. It was slightly troubling, for that child to think of the Evas as nothing more than massive toys. What sort of life had she lead? Yui knew little but that the Second's mother -- a former researcher of Gehirn, like Yui herself -- dwelt within Eva-02. That detail, of course, held certain implications for the girl's childhood. Yui heard everything that reached her ears over the years, and the incident at Gehirn's Third Branch in 2005 had been much spoken of amongst the Gehirn scientist body.

Surely Eva-02 was in the process of being allowed the same (at-first limited) freedoms as her immediate predecessor. But a body had been left behind from the contact experiment, hadn't it? Not like what occurred when Yui synchronized with the Evangelion, a process that liberated her soul from its body and allowed it to, fully intact, be pulled to the other vessel. (But that was as it was meant to be.) Yui wondered about the condition of Dr. Soryu's soul and briefly tried to recall anything she might have heard, only to hear a male voice behind her.

"Evangelion Uni-- Er... Dr. Ikari?"

She stopped and turned, facing a small group of red-suited workers. Her "handlers"... the staff with whom she was more familiar than anyone else in Nerv HQ, even its commander. Yui knew more about these men and their lives than she had any business knowing. ...Well, that will happen when coworkers on the same job for years have intimate conversations around someone they don't believe is listening. At least now they know better.

"My Cage?" she asked. "Yes, I was already returning."

The men seemed surprised. "Oh... Well, then, we'll accompany you the rest of the way."

"I see. That is fine."


[To write my way to Smith next time; try not to get too distracted by that blabbering idiot Kaji.]

(Forgive my sloppy writing earlier, I've got the hang of it now)


Asuka awoke. And she awoke in a bad mood.

"HEY, THIRD CHILD!" she called.

"We have synchro tests in 20 minutes! Let's go!"

Asuka walked towards the door and yelled again.

"Come on! The Commander's not going to be happy!"

She began to walk out the door, thinking of nothing but beating Shinji today. She had to. She had to prove she was best. She pretended not to remember the day's earlier events.

((Apologies if I'm breaking any protocol with multiple characters, irregular format, etc.))

Earlier that morning/day, the Instrumentality Committee assembled in cyberspace for their regular meeting.

Members Present:
W: Keel Lorenz, representing Germany
Y: Pierre Bretagne, representing France
B: Vladimir Kaganovich, representing Russia
G: Theodore Cassin, representing the U.S.
R: Nigel Laforey, representing the U.K.
(Legend information and Fanon names courtesy EvaGeeks Wiki)

W: "Let's begin with a status report of the Eva Series."

G: "Units Three and Four are at 84 and 96% completion respectively."

Y: "Units Five and Six are at 112% completion."

B: "Out of 200?"

Y: "Of course."

R: "Last we heard from China, theirs were around 40% completion each."

W: "We may have to rush Units Nine through Fourteen into production if the angels don't stay quiet."

G: "About that, is it really alright to let the angels run around Tokyo-3 like this?"

R: "Why not? The more attention they draw to themselves, the less attention will be drawn to us.

Y: Indeed. We can work quickly with fewer eyes upon us."

G: "But what about the existing Evangelions? What if one of those things goes berserk again, takes out half the city? There won't be enough money left to conveniently misplace."

B: "All you think about is money."

G: "Of course! It makes the world go 'round."

R: "No. Rotational momentum makes the world go 'round. Not like you would know that, though."

G: "Why, you--"

W: "Gentlemen, let's remain civil here."

Y: "Yes, let's return to the matter at hand. How to proceed with the Evangelions?"

G: "I certainly don't advise giving the existing units carte blanche to run around the city."

B: "And what little restrictions we have in place are rapidly eroding."

W: "We will do nothing. We need the Evangelions to deal with the angels as they've always done. I don't like the situation anymore than you do, but it can't be helped. My gut tells me Ikari has a hand in all this."

R: "As I recall, your gut is made of an advanced polymer, so I find its opinion rather dubious."

B: "Ikari would do something like this."

Y: "Would he? I admit he has a knack for seizing opportunity, but I find his capacity for forethought somewhat lacking."

W: "No. Ikari Yui. Her soul was used in the construction of Unit One. If she somehow managed to remain sentient all this time..."

The Committee paused for a moment to let the idea sink in.

R: "It all fits."

G: "Damn, we have to do something!"

B: "No. If we act too soon, she'll suspect that we know."

W: "Correct. For now, I'm more concerned about the interloper."

B: "Not to worry. I have something special in mind for him."

Y: "What about the meddling kids?"

R: "And their little dog, too."

W: "Number Six will take care of them. Won't you, Six?"

The 'SEELE 06' monolith at the opposite end of the table disappeared without giving a reply. It was a rhetorical question, after all.

[Apologies in advance for nerdy bumbling and WoT syndrome. Certain complications needed to be addressed... Also, Yui is a very thoughtful person.]


Yui wasn't a physicist, so she didn't have any technical explanations for how the Evas were able to expand and compress their sizes, or why it automatically happened (without apparently anyone else noticing) under certain "environment conditions". (For example, moving from the city outskirts to a mountain pass might trigger a sudden change.) Even more inexplicable was that the artificial components would expand and compress with them. And this phenomenon made Yui's mind plummet to the depths of terminal bogglement as far as the entry plug and pilot went -- did they remain the same size throughout?

No... The entry plug was explicitly crafted for the Eva's native size, 40 meters tall. If the Eva got bigger, and the entry plug remained the same size, then things would have happened that obviously never did. Did that mean Shinji actually expanded in size while inside her? What if the plug were ejected at a point when the Eva was larger than 40 meters -- would it revert back to its normal size, or...?

She would have to torture some of the science division staff with these questions at next opportunity.

In any event, Yui eventually realized that this unfathomable ability/tendency of the Evas (exhibited by some of the Angels, as well) might actually be used for practical purposes. Well, it wasn't entirely impractical, since expanding to 200 meters in height (and somehow gaining the required mass in the process, only to conveniently lose it later) had proven useful against certain Angels. But immense size was counterproductive when it came to interacting with her native species. So... If an Eva could expand from 40 to 200 meters and back again, could it become smaller than 40?

And, in fact, it could. It was not entirely difficult to accomplish, but it was difficult to maintain. Yui felt as if she had stuffed her immense mass into a closet and was now backed up against the door, struggling to keep it from pouring out. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. Yui knew she could get better at this with practice, but it would never really feel natural; there would always be some degree of awkwardness, of discomfort.

But she wasn't about to complain. The ability to meaningfully interact with people isn't something she thought she would ever regain.

Whatever the case was for the entry plug and its contents, the various restraints maintained their shrunken or expanded mass once removed. The workers had hoped to use this to advantage for the removal and restoration of Yui's restraints -- they were rather easy to manipulate when small -- but that didn't exactly pan out: a certain amount needed be OFF in order for her to accomplish her size-changing maneuver at all.

However, that didn't stop the workers from attempting to take as many shortcuts as possible. Before Yui had been released that morning, they had only removed the bare minimum to allow the transformation -- and then the remainder of what she was permitted to go without. No one was going out of their way to make things easier for her...

***

She stood calmly in a workshop off the Cage complex, arms spread, as the workers affixed various components back to her body. Most of the work wasn't very complicated. Much of what hadn't been removed was a framework for the overlying pieces to attach to -- on the whole, a rather devious and painful-looking system of bolts, staples, oddly-shaped and tight-fitting metal plates, and nodes for tubes, needles, or whatever else. It penetrated her skin and, in places, even had personal business with her skeleton; she could easily do without it. But, strictly speaking, its invasiveness was minor compared to the entry system.

Soon they were finished, and she returned to the Cage. Yui stood at the bottom and, closing her eyes in concentration, finally let go. She felt a sensation, like an "opening up", and then of something rushing into her. Her entirety was being filled, and stretched. It was a nice feeling. And there was the immense relaxation that came with not having to hold back anymore.

She completed her restoration to full size and let herself lapse into a waking slumber, the giant green eyes staring out. Until her next opportunity to be uncaged, she would let it be business as usual.

There are tests today, aren't there?

She heard the workers begin to communicate amongst themselves over the loudspeaker and via megaphones, and various movable restraint partitions and the umbilical bridge were summoned to enclose her. They began to return additional artificial components to her body. The refrigeration fluid was only a matter of time.

The Eva's face was exposed -- Yui had negotiated for it to be so, as people needed to become accustomed to the sight. Most people, as expected, did not react well to it. Even the workers, who had seen it plenty of times, were not comfortable with the notion that they, for once, weren't supposed to have the hideous thing punctually covered up.

But, at a point, a rather out-of-place-looking figure wandered onto the umbilical bridge and, apparently indifferent to the work going on, meandered over to large face with the gaping, unblinking eyes. And, rather peculiarly, he simply sat down. Right in the middle of the bridge. Right in front of her face. Then, looking straight at her, he said something.

Yui momentarily jolted out of her half-sleeping, half-observing daze. She might have blinked in spite of herself. Wait a moment... Did that man just ask me...?

The massive eyes slowly shifted in their sockets and focused on the person. It was that mysterious young foreigner she had seen and heard about now and again. Casual attire within a sea of uniforms. He seemed to be fully eccentric and intrepid. Yui supposed this proved it; she didn't get many "calls" while in her Cage.

She wasn't sure how she felt about being bothered now that she was hoping to unwind, but it seemed silly to pass this opportunity up.

Do you mind having a voice in your head? she began. I don't imagine you would want to deal with the effects of a larynx larger than yourself at such close range.

[Woohoo...darn my need to sleep...I missed a lot. XD]

Eve had been expecting her father to leave--well, officially, he was now her father in name only--although they had only arrived in Tokyo-3 a week before. He had said something about 'intelligence failures' and 'assassinations', that he needed to return to the States right away. She herself would remain in the Japanese city. It was no D.C., but sacrifices had to be made. Watching the Second and Third Children reminded her of that, strangely. She--and all the others in the 'project'--would never date or have families of their own.

She checked her watch. By now the General would be landing back at the West Coast. Eve had taken to loitering around NERV's entrance in her Army uniform. The Evangelions puzzled her; weren't they supposed to be under the control of their pilots? How strange...

Ah, mocked a voice inside her mind, but then whose control would YOU be under, hm?

No one's. I'm a legal adult. Following orders isn't the same as--

But you ARE like them, aren't you? Isn't this project the same? Why don't you ever think of THAT?

She tossed her empty Coke can into a bin on the street. The circuits and tubes under the flesh of her arms realigned themselves subtly, rippling the skin ever so slightly.

Smith hadn't seriously expected to get a response from the massive cyborg. Now that he had, however, he realized that this might make for a very nice conversation indeed. "Monodirectional telepathy is fine," he said quietly, then glanced at the unconscious form of Kaji beside him. "You mind if I leave him be for now?" His voice suddenly took on a Scots accent. "I dinna ken what duinnit to 'im, prancin' aboot with 'is 'ead fulla idiocies."