Notes from GobHobblin: Nothing especially world-shattering, but I thought it would be amusing to mention that the 'crash course' hangover cure listed here is something that actually exists, and is in fact issued to some paramedic units that are unofficial '24 hour on call' guys (in which leave is never really leave, as they could be called back to work immediately). Also, keeping in with the naval theme of the story, Koji Takao has been given the rank of Commander (which is the rank a chief engineer on a large vessel would be). I have no clue what his rank is in the film. I should probably watch 3.33. Probably.

Upon arriving to the barracks, Mari was escorted to her quarters by a medic with an IV drip, one of the packaged 'instant hangover fixes.' The alcohol would be flushed from her system as she was simultaneously re-hydrated and prepped for duty. She had complained grandly about that, acting as much like a teenager she could, but she had gone along per her orders. She had a tendency to do that: act her apparent age, rather than actual, if she thought it would allow her to get away with something. She wasn't manipulative, Misato knew: she was just Mari.

After handing her off, Misato did in fact manage an hour or two more of sleep, before slipping back into wakefulness. She had at least three more hours left before she had to be on duty, and decided to use the time productively by heading to the gym. She changed into PTs, stretched in her quarters, grabbed a towel, and headed over. In the year after N3I, she had taken up lifting as a means of relieving stress. It didn't do that in the slightest, but it had also acted as sort of a soother to her. Repetitive motion combined with just a little bit (or a lot) of pain, depending on her mood. It was a pleasant way of simply allowing the world to melt away for a little bit.

In the very least, it had kept her from shooting herself…a few times, in the most literal sense. At her lowest, she specifically recalled staring at her service pistol, one time actually chambering a round…and not doing anything, because she knew that she would have to lift in a bit, and if she shot herself, she wouldn't be able to do that now, would she? She never told anyone about that. She didn't want to.

So she headed to the gym, in her PT uniform, passing and returning salutes to underlings and subordinates along the way. When she finally got to the facilities exercise room, she saw that it was crowded today, when compared to other times: there were five people already in there. She felt uncomfortable for a moment, preferring to exercise alone, when she heard a voice call, "Ah, Captain! Here to spot me, are you?"

She smirked...barely...and crossed the room as the other occupants murmured politely 'Morning, Captain,' or 'Good day, ma'am.' She stopped at the bench-press, where a bald, bearded, and well-built man sat slumped with a towel over his neck. He was smiling easily, with just a bit of insolence…the best kind a subordinate could give.

"Maybe drop a weight or two on you, you lazy waste-of-space," Misato said, crossing her arms. "Why aren't you fixing my ship?"

"Abusing the poor wrench monkeys," Koji sighed, flicking his wrist dismissively. "I swear, for a landlubber, you took to the finest traditions of the Navy quick!" She smiled, for a moment, but then the smile faded as though it had never been there.

"You need a spot?"

"I imagine you would like one, too, ma'am. Or are you doing the machines today?"

"I could do free weights," she said.

"I'm about to try for 90 kilograms," he said. "You want to check me first?"

"Don't hurt yourself," she murmured, circling towards his head. The last thing she needed was for her Chief Engineer to burst a spleen. He settled, readied himself under the weight as she draped her fingers just so beneath the bar. She did not expect to actually stop the weight if he began struggling, but she could help him shift it away from his chest if he needed to.

When he began pumping, she didn't know why she was worried: he pressed the weight without any sign of effort at all. "You're up early, ma'am," he observed, his tone having changed from teasing to disinterested...but interested. She narrowed her eyes: Koji was an old-hand, a long-serving member of the finest sense of naval tradition. He had been in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force when it existed, served a stint in the Merchant Marine of the United States as an adviser, before getting a commission in Wille. He knew how to speak to his superiors, how to wheedle them for information, how to give them support when they needed it. He also knew that Misato would be most talkative shore-side. When she was on the Wunder, she changed. She became withdrawn, hard, cruel even. Shore-side…she opened up a bit. She was a little bit her old self.

"Had to handle something," she said.

"Our Pilot, ma'am?" he asked.

"Word travels fast."

"Always. These ears are broken, but sharp."

"I bet."

"Hope you didn't dig into her too much, ma'am."

"As much as I had to. She injured some of the Shore Patrol."

"Every good Sailor has, at one point or another."

"She's not a Sailor. She's a Pilot." Koji's arms began to tremble just so slightly. "That's enough. Take a break."

"One more, ma'am," he huffed, lifting it and easily replacing the bar. He sat up slowly, letting the blood settle where it needed to. "What do you want?"

"Not 90 kilos," she said.

"Go with forty and see how you feel?"

"Twenty," Misato said. It was far below what she could do, but she never started with heavy weight. She always started light, slowly working up to avoid the chance of injury." Koji nodded, and stood up, removing weight from one end of the bar as Misato handled the other end.

"Have you heard about the other Pilot, ma'am?"

"What about the other Pilot?" she said, pausing in her task. Koji removed the last weight and tightened the brace on the bar.

"There was a power surge in the pod. They think she's about ready to come out, but they don't know how long. They probably didn't want to tell you until they were sure."

"You'd rival the Badger with your information network," she grumbled, pulling the last weight.

"I'm trying to beat the Chief at being 'the most knowledgeable on the Wunder,'" Koji said.

"Isn't the Captain supposed to be the most knowledgeable?" she grumbled.

"Of course not, ma'am," Koji said, surprised. "If a Captain knows everything that's going on, she's not doing her job and her subordinates are not doing their jobs. Trust us, we won't let you down. You just keep us pointed in the right direction, we'll get you there." He made a chopping gesture with his hand, to emphasize it.

She allowed herself another rare smirk. "Shut up and spot me," she sighed.

"Aye-aye, ma'am," Koji said, sharpish.

Misato spared thirty-minutes for breakfast when one of the Badger's aides caught her, a Colonel named Jasper Derraget. She was focused on eating some glue-like oatmeal when she heard a light rap on the table. She glanced up to see the skeleton-like man.

"Good morning, Captain," he said, blandly.

"Colonel," she replied. "How can I help you?"

"I've been tasked to play the courier," he said, sliding his hand palm-down across the table towards her. When he lifted his hand away, a memory stick lay on the table.

"What's this?"

"Classified, and for your eyes only. Something from the Badger." He crossed his arms, studying Misato with hollow-eyes. "Call it a motivator for Operation US." Misato laid one finger on the stick and dragged it towards her. Her eyes flicked up to Derraget.

"Are you saying that a meeting has been scheduled among the Central Staff?"

"Two days," he said. "We'll have the Chiefs teleconferencing. That'll include the Commanders-in-Chief of the operational sectors." He rubbed his cheek with a thumb. "I don't need to remind you how enthusiastic the Badger is about this Operation. He thinks it's the first step to winning the war."

"And you?" she asked.

"I do what my Chief tells me," he said without inflection, and left. She picked up the stick and rubbed it between her index finger and thumb. She left her breakfast unfinished, and hurried to her cabin. She closed the door, and placed the stick into the cabin's console. She booted up the screen, opened the drive, and saw a wealth of documents, plus a series of video clips. The first one was titled "PER: EYES ONLY, CPT KATSURAGI - View first." She clicked the file.

The file opened, and the Badger appeared. The angle implied that this was filmed from his console's camera. "Captain," he began. "I didn't want to disturb you yet, as I imagine you're sleeping, but my staff just compiled this intelligence brief. I thought you should see it, in light of what we discussed." He rubbed his cracked hands together. "Remember how I was talking about the incursions in my home country? Well, please take a look, at the following footage, if you don't mind." The video blanked out.

She keyed up the next video. She glanced at the timestamp, and noted the steady quality of the video. This had to be a perimeter camera, one of the stationary security measures for the Africa Line fortresses. The weather was either very rainy and foggy, or a mass of dust had been kicked up. In the foreground, she could make out jungle. In the distance…in the haze…something was moving.

The shimmer of a latent AT Field appeared, separating the camera from whatever was out there. There was a glitter, and a series of white beams intersected with the shield, warped and diffused. The AT Field went from 'latent' to 'active,' becoming the familiar honey-comb network of a near-solid energy field. The glitter could be perceived again, somehow brighter. The Field strained now, going from amber to orange to blood red…and failing. She had a clearer image of something large in the haze before there was a final glitter and the camera cut.

"Hum," she mumbled, and began working through the video footage. Some were more clear than others, but it was obvious that they were looking at a new weapon in Seele's arsenal. They looked like stunted Evangelion units, but it was hard to get any good imagery. After an hour at her console, she arrived at the final video, which was once again the Badger.

"As you can see, the situation is becoming desperate. I called these 'incursions,' but I've just learned that they've destroyed at least three Fortresses, and something in the range of 800 personnel are missing. I don't need to emphasize, I think, how dangerous this situation is if this is a new pattern in the war. Please consider that while preparing for Operation US." The screen blanked. She sat back.

Seele had been in the same boat as them, with very limited access to crafting and fielding new Evangelion units. They had more foundries in Europe than there had been in the current Wille constituent states, or Japan, but despite that there was limited success in actually fielding anything. Part of it was a lack of Pilots, and the other was a plain lack of resources: they had poured the better part of those resources into Japan, in anticipation of Seele's intended apotheosis. As a result, they found many of their German-based facilities suddenly unable to function at their previous capacity.

This, however…this was a change, and a dangerous one. Were these some sort of pseudo-Evangelions that they were now deploying? Even a runt-Eva was impossibly dangerous. She flicked through the intelligence reports, looking at the theories concerning the new weapons, what they meant, where they were likely coming from. She didn't need the specifics or the details: the implications were plain enough.

She stretched, and checked her watch. 07:48. She was on duty at 08:00. She glanced at her comm to see if she had missed any messages, and stood up to head over to the Wunder's berth. Work needed doing. Work, and more work.

Ever since the power surge, Ritsuko had been in the research suite, with no plans to leave. This was a breakthrough, a sign that they were making progress. She didn't dare step away now. She had to kick Hamish out for a short time, which was unfortunate. No one else had delved as deeply and successfully as he had into the pod's CPU, but she was afraid he would collapse if he didn't stop.

He was right, though: there was an increase in activity inside the pod. The originally latent 'language' of the occupant's unconscious mind was now active and rapid, something just under the surface as opposed to a buried subconscious. If there was ever a time to try and pull her out, this was it. So Ritsuko directed the efforts, using what they could from Hamish's work.

"So it can be done?" she asked the woman sitting at the primary console.

"Probably," the Japanese woman said. "I mean, I have as good a handle on whatever Hamish was doing as anyone else here, but he's right: the door swings both ways. We can see what she's saying, which means we can insert words into her mind now…so to speak." The screen in front of them was a cascade of Japanese characters: due to the sensitivitive nature of what they could be attempting today, they decided not to risk the moment to translation software. That's why this tech, a Wille NCO named Minori, was at the proverbial steering wheel. Ritsuko glanced over the cascade, but the words made no sense. Previously, there had been a general theme to them, but now this was pure word salad.

"So…what do we do? Any idea on the command sequence to pull her out?"

"No, but…we think we know where to look." The woman held up a notepad with scribbled formulas and code lines it. "There's three subroutines that were activated, and we think that two of these are probably necessary for actually opening the pod."

"The third one?"

"No idea, but it's most likely a management subroutine. You know, oversee the other two."

"Can we be sure of that?"

"No, we can't." Minori leaned back. "I know we've tried to avoid doing it, but…is it possible we can wash these programs through the Wunder's primary computer?" Ritsuko made a face.

"We don't know what could happen if we did that," she said.

"I know, we don't, but…here's the thing." Minori poked at her cheek in thought. "I was going over Hamish's notes, looking at this…I feel like this is sequential. Like, this is a pre-programmed event." She began to trace a circle in the air. "Basically, every so many months, years, whatever, this thing happens. For a little bit of time, the occupant is 'awake,' for…maintenance, or whatever. This is also the ideal time to pull them out, but when it passes, I don't know how long till the next 'burst,' if that makes sense." Ritsuko sighed, and rubbed her eyes.

"Let me ask the Captain," she said. "See what you can do." She straightened, and stepped out into the corridor. She toggled her comm, and waited for Misato to pick up. The line clicked when Misato answered.

"Ritz, what is it?"

"I've been talking with our techs, and they think they can pull the Second Child out of the pod today."

"Well, that's good."

"…If we use the Wunder's on-board computer to assist."

"No."

"Wait before you decide," Ritsuko warned. "The Wunder was built utilizing the best technology we could steal from Nerv. It's on-board computer is ideal for communicating with and working through whatever is in the pod."

"Be that as it may—"

"This may be the best chance we have for the next several months. Maybe even years."

"…I'm listening."

"This burst of activity might be cyclical, in which we don't know how long it will last, or when the next one will be. Which means that when it ends, we could be locked out. We can 'jimmy' the lock, but we don't know how long that would take, or the side-effects. And last time I checked, we were on something of a time-limit, right?"

There was no response from the other end, and Ritsuko waited patiently. She sniffed, and began tapping her foot.

"Do it," Misato said suddenly. The line clicked off before Ritsuko could ask if Misato wanted to be present. She made a face, and returned to the suite.

Extra security was brought to the suite, a medical crash team was on stand-by, and as a precaution, a null pylon had been installed in the back of the room. It should be enough to handle any contamination that might exist in the Pilot…assuming she had been contaminated. Which, Ritsuko reasoned, was a very safe bet. She turned and looked at the up-armored Security troops, wearing sub-armor exoskeletons. She grimaced: they were taking up too much space. Still…still….

For the past thirty minutes, the pod's CPU had been in constant communication with the Wunder, which was having a better time of sorting through the old Nerv protocols than the ground-side computers. It wasn't that the Wunder's brain was faster or better…it just had a certain 'quality' or 'language' that could not be replicated. It was a one-of-a-kind device, something possessing of…intuition. Ritsuko snuffled, scratching under her eye. She turned to see Sakura standing next to her. The young woman yawned grandly, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Excuse me, ma'am," she mumbled. Ritsuko smirked. At least she was more awake than Hamish…the hapless man was brought in to act as backup during the proceedings, and he was slouched on a table in the back, very obviously asleep.

"Useless," Ritsuko mumbled.

"Ma'am?"

"Look at him back there, being useless." She wanted to throw something at him, but decided against it. She turned back to Minori. "How much longer?"

"Couldn't say, but it should be soon," Minori said, slouching and tapping ineffectually on the spacebar. At this point, there was really nothing to do except wait. The process was out of human hands, and all that was left until the next stage was to monitor things and make sure they didn't end up killing the Wunder.

As if on cue, the screen changed, and a command prompt appeared. "Oh, it's done," Minori said, sitting up. Hamish mumbled in the back, and opened his eyes. Then he closed them, and returned to sleep.

"Hamish!" Ritsuko snapped. The man's eyes opened. "This is probably something you should direct."

"Yes, yes," he agreed, standing up and taking a place next to Minori. "All right, let's see…in Japanese, great. Uh…mmm…." He stared at the screen, ignoring the kanji symbols and focusing instead on the numbers. That was sufficient to orient his brain on what sub-routine and key-code sequence they were in. He pulled out a notepad and flipped through it. "Let's try…here." He handed Minori the notepad. "See this command sequence there?"

"Yeah," she said, and began tapping the sequence into the prompt.

"Do you think you've reverse-engineered enough of the architecture to start giving commands?" Ritsuko asked.

"Sure," Hamish said. "Maybe…we are about to find out."

"Hamish…." Ritsuko murmured, her voice carrying a note of warning.

"It'll be fine…I think," Hamish said. "It's not like it's coded or anything. It was designed to open with no-fuss. The only issue was figuring out how to 'ask' it."

"And now?"

"Now we see if the occupant wants to come out," Minori murmured, hitting enter. A second line of code came up. Minori typed a new command sequence. A third line of code. Minori pulled down Hamish's notepad, studied it, and entered the third sequence.

And the lights dimmed.

The Security troops raised their weapons warily. Everyone stared at the lights. Everyone, except Ritusko. Her eyes stayed locked on the pod, which was beginning to hum. Minori typed a fourth line of code. "That's it," she said. The command prompt had vanished, and a window bearing the word INITIATE had appeared. "That's all there is. Now we wait."

She then jerked in her chair as a burst of steam issued from the pod. The Security troops circled the pod, and the lights flickered madly. Ritsuko felt there should be some sort of shaking in the earth, some violent shift of some sort, but it was really quite still. The sensation was eerie, and she shivered. The venting steam halted, and for a moment, there was silence.

And then the pod cracked, and the room stank of blood. Red liquid pooled out on the floor, and everyone jumped back a space. Something solid sloshed out with the liquid, all limbs and shuddering like a newborn foal. Ritsuko blinked in surprise, making out the human shape in the soppy gore. For a moment, no one moved.

Ritsuko turned to the medical team, and was about to order them forward when Sakura gasped, "Ma'am!" The sound of rifle safeties being disengaged caught her attention, and Ritsuko turned back in shock to see the skinny frame trying to raise itself up from the gelatinous LCL. It was as if a spell had been cast on everyone present, and no one dared move. They should move. They should be securing the occupant, checking her, moving her to quarantine but…for some reason, they couldn't. The moment seemed to big for any one of them to approach it.

Slowly, the figure raised its head, and the face was one that Ritsuko remembered from a very long time ago. The eyes were blue, and the face fine. Except that one eye was blue, and the other…the other…the other….

Asuka Shikinami Langley shrieked, and the room went dark.