Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion and I have no intention of profiting from this story

Chapter 7 – The Longest Day

"Why the hell didn't we detect it sooner!" Misato yelled, at no one in particular.

The panicked hustle and bustle in Central Dogma paused for a moment as all eyes turned towards the irate captain. However, when there was no second exclamation, the assorted techs and liaisons scrambled back to their work without a second thought. The officers might have had time for theatrics, but there was far too much to do and precious little time to do it. For each of them, every second counted and could mean the difference between life and end the world.

All the while, Misato fumed quietly to herself as she and her small team desperately tried to hammer together something that resembled a plan. They didn't have much. She was sick and tired of that. After two months and two battles, they still had nothing. No standard operating procedure. No set of proven tactics to fall back on. Nothing except empty advice. What kind of commander simply sends their soldiers out with the command 'kill?' The kind that should fully expect them to come back in body bags, that's who.

"All right, let's take it from the top, again, Makoto."

Her assistant wasn't nearly as mousy as Ritsuko's, but he was just as quiet and unassuming. He'd come highly recommended from her old commander back in the army where he'd served as logistical chief for her old company. She'd accepted him more out of appreciation for the old man, than anything else. She wasn't quite impressed with him, yet, but he did have a gift for finding things out that she was slowly begin to appreciate. He was handy to dump paperwork on, too.

"An hour ago, a farmer in eastern Kanto called in to one of our emergency lines, reporting that he had seen what is now designated as Ramiel, the 5th angel. Shortly after, we sortied a flight of VG-11s out of one of our local bases to investigate. Forty minutes ago, we had visual confirmation of the angel, and 35 minutes ago, the MAGI formally detected the Angel as it entered Tokyo-3 airspace." Makoto rattled off, for at least the second time.

Misato grimaced. "Damnit, I was hoping that it would sound better the second time. Six, what's the status of the city's automated defenses?"

A voice came over the loudspeaker mounted at the head of the table. "60% at best. The projections seem to indicate that Ramiel is approaching from about the same direction as the Third Angel. Even after two months, I've still got gaping holes in the coverage in that sector. Unlike Shamshel, the Third Angel really tore up the place. I'm patching where I can, but there's just too much infrastructure damage there. I'm going to have to shift more manned assets there to fill the rest of the holes," his voice was grim, "I'm going to have a lot of casualties."

Misato hung her head. "Do what you can. One?"

The pale-face woman in charge of Section 1 shot her a worried look, "Evacuations are under way. I had to drop all the towers early. I didn't think we had time to run the proper evacuation plan, so we've been evacuating the residents through the underground accesses. All of the outlying districts are locked down. Downtown's a mess though. The alarm went off right at the beginning of the lunch rush. The police chief says the streets will be cleared by the time the angel gets here, but I'm not so sure."

"Unfortunate, but unavoidable. Note that we need to refine our evacuation plans. We'll discuss it at the next tactical meeting." Misato responded.

"If there is a next meeting," someone towards the back muttered, just barely loud enough to be heard.

"Hey! None of that!" Misato snapped, "We're the adults here. For Pilot Ikari's sake, if nothing else, we must be positive. We're sending him out there to fight for us. The least we can do is give him as much support as we can. Got it? Good. Four?"

"Medical teams are standing by. The pilot retrieval teams are suited up, and ready wherever they're needed." Said the chipper voice of the young head of the medical section.

"Good. Five?" Misato asked.

"Media blackout is in effect. I've got a couple of cover stories ready to explain why the alert came so late. You want to hear them now, or save that for post-combat?" asked Takeda, spectacles glinting in the low light.

"Later. Too much other crap right now. Be ready, though. Last time, there were a couple of really nosy reporters."

Takeda laughed, "Pardon me, ma'am, but I was one of those nosy ones not that long ago. I think I can handle it. Any chance of snagging Pilot Ikari for a press conference afterwards? That'd go a long way towards satisfying their curiosity. I've already got the entire angle planned out."

"Don't you always!" the crowd nervously chuckled at her jab, "I'll think about it. Two?"

Captain Arima came to attention. "Ma'am. NERV is secure. Staff are still streaming in through the checkpoints, but we're beginning the lockdown as we speak. We'll be at full battle status in 20 minutes or less. Pilots Ikari and Ayanami are both secure and on station. Nobody unauthorized gets within 50 feet."

"Even better. Three?" Misato said, turning to face the last of her section heads.

"I don't know why the hell you all put up with this numbers business. It's not like we don't know everyone here," Ritsuko said, rolling her eyes, "Dr. Horaki and his crew are prepping Unit 1. It's good that the alarm happened when it did. Another or ten or twenty minutes and it would have been in full cryo-storage. The unit would have required another forty-five minutes to warm up after that. As things are now, it's ready to deploy."

"Good. That's been our one saving grace today. Thanks to the sync test, most of our key personnel were here. What can you tell us about the Angel?"

Ritsuko shrugged, and lit another cigarette. The ashtray in front of her was filled to almost overflowing. "What would you like to know? Its big, its blue, and its shaped roughly like a diamond. It's like every other Angel we've faced. We've got practically nothing on it. So far, it hasn't responded at all to any attempts to provoke it, it just shrugs everything off with it's AT field. I've scrambled a couple of the Predators that we have outfitted with scientific gear to take readings and measurements, but we haven't had time to properly analyze the results. I've got Maya and the rest of the research team working on it. The best I can tell you right now is, judging by the energy readings, the core is almost exactly in the middle of the thing."

Misato bit her lip, "Well, I suppose that's better than nothing. We know where the weak point is, if not precisely how to go to it. Speaking of that, do we have anything that's capable of getting to the core?"

Ritsuko snubbed out her cigarette, "Short of sending Shinji up there to hack his way to it with his progressive knife? No, not really. The machine gun isn't effective, we learned that last time. It didn't do much when the core was on the outside of the Angel; there is no reason to expect it to penetrate thorough layers of Angel matter to get to the core on the inside. We've been rushing development of other weapons, but we simply have not had enough time. I don't know if we'll make it through this one." She shrugged.

"Don't be so fatalistic, Ritz. We're humanity's only hope, which means we can't lose what hope we have. As long as our chances aren't zero, we have to keep fighting. We've survived the last two Angels with just as little chance. There's no reason to believe we won't survive this one. Shinji's survived long odds before." Misato said with the ghost of a smile on her pale face, "Now, let's get down to business. What the hell can we get him?"

Shinji had decided there were few worse things in life than being forced to sit in the plug of his Evangelion for hours at a time. There was nothing to do, the chair was uncomfortable, and there really wasn't a lot of room to stretch. He wasn't even going to talk about the smell. The only thing worse was having to do it more than once a day. He'd barely left the Eva after Unit 00's activation experiment, and then he'd been shoved right back in when the alarm had sounded. He hadn't even been allowed to go to the bathroom.

It was at least more interesting this time. There was a lot of activity outside his Eva as his ground crew made last minute adjustments to the Eva and staff ran back and forth through the hanger trying to get everything ready for launch. The hanger had been configured for the activation experiment, and several important areas had been either disabled or blocked off, in case Unit 00 had gone berserk. Crews from Sections 3 and 6 were hurrying to bring it back to full battle readiness.

His radio crackled to life, "Pilot Ikari, are you there? Can you hear me?"

"Y-yes, Captain Katsuragi," he responded, a bit startled. For the better part of twenty minutes he'd been without radio contact with anyone.

"Good, we're working on a plan to stop Ramiel, but to be completely honest, we don't have much. The Angel has, to our knowledge, ignored whatever we've thrown at it so far. If something shoots at it, it simply shrugs it off with it's AT field and ignores it. If something gets in its way, it simply pushes through it. It isn't providing us a lot to work with." Misato said, not sugar coating anything at all.

Shinji felt his stomach drop, but honestly wasn't that surprised. Despite the amount of support and encouragement that he received from everyone at NERV, once the battle started, however, all of it seem to evaporate and he was on his own once again. Boy versus divine being, no rules, no handicaps, all-in. Always good odds. He appreciated Misato's honesty, though.

"Anyway, we're going to try to do some additional recon, and see if we can gather information in stages. I've got a couple of different ideas I want to try. Hopefully, in the process, we'll get a better idea of the angel's capabilities and come up with a more concrete plan. We're going to have you move around a lot, to try to get the Angel's attention, and to try to get it to show us what it can do. We've never seen how the Angels were planning to get to NERV either, so maybe we'll get lucky and it'll just sit around with no place to go. I don't expect it, but hey, might as well be hopeful," the Captain finished, sounding, to Shinji's surprise, actually upbeat and energized.

Shinji blinked. This was new. "A-alright. What do you want me to do?"

"First, we're going to have you simply run in front of the Angel. As I said, it's been ignoring everything we've thrown at it so far, so we want to see if something closer to its own size will provoke it." He heard someone cut-in with another comment from Captain Katsuragi's side. There was a short, spirited conversation. "Well, that's awesome and completely useless. Rits just informed me that there are a couple of Eva size decoys on order. If they were here, rather than sitting in a warehouse somewhere, they might actually be useful," he heard Captain Katsuragi's sigh of frustration, "God, I hate half-assing this so much."

Shinji felt like he should say something to support her or reassure her in some way, but he wasn't quite sure how to go about it. She wasn't exactly filling him with confidence with her plan, but he knew she was trying. They all were in their own ways. But, this was something completely out of everyone's realm of experience. They were all in a hopeless situation with the world on the line.

And then it came to him. What he could say to cheer her up. It would be clichéd, corny, overdone, and not to mention highly embarrassing to even say, but that didn't stop it from also being the right thing. "D-don't worry. All of us together, we'll beat it. This one and all the rest. It's the only thing we c-can do. I believe in you guys."

For a moment, he didn't hear anything from the other side of the radio, and then it seemed to abruptly explode into noise. He wasn't sure what it was. There was a lot of laughter, but a lot of cheering, too. He definitely could hear Misato laughing and maybe Dr. Akagi as well. But it was far better than the tension he had heard in Misato's voice just a moment ago.

"Shinji, with every battle, I swear you are turning more and more into a comic book hero," Misato said, when she regained her composure.

He shrugged ruefully, even though she couldn't see it, "Well, I do pilot a giant bio-mechanoid robot. It had to rub off on me sooner or later." More laughter greeted that remark, which made Shinji glad. He didn't hear enough laughter around NERV.

"Alright then, Pilot Ikari. You have your orders. We'll be playing this one by ear, so pay close attention. Our current goal is gather as much information about the Angel as possible. If the Angel attacks, try to keep clear. Only engage if you see no other option," Misato instructed.

"Yes, ma'am. Unit One, Lt. Shinji Ikari, ready to go!" Shinji said, managing something like enthusiasm for the first time.

He could almost feel Misato's smile. "Let's go! Unit One, launch!"

As soon as Unit One began to approach the surface, things began to go wrong.

"Captain! Energy readings from the angel are rising. Th-They're going off the charts!" shouted the third member of the bridge crew, Shigeru Aoba, "The system can't even process what the angel is putting out! The sensors are burning out!"

"Switch main screen to the Angel! What the hell is it doing? Ritsuko! Shinji's gonna be out there in just a second! I need info!" Misato shouted.

Misato watched Ritsuko type furiously at her station out of the corner of one eye, while the rest of her attention was on the main screen. Whatever the Angel was doing… it was beautiful. There were no other words to describe it. Its original shape had been roughly like a cube standing on one of its corners, but before her eyes, it had begun to shift and fold in on itself. It was almost hypnotic as parts of it would peel back to reveal more of itself, which in turn fold in to reveal even more.

"Where the hell is it putting all of its mass?" she asked quietly to no one. Within seconds, the core of the angel was visible, and there was a moment when nothing happened.

"Goddamn it! It's charging a particle beam!" Ritsuko suddenly shouted, still typing furiously.

Misato scrabbled frantically for the transmit button to pass the information to Shinji, but a quick glance at his progress up the launch tubes told her she was going to be too late."Shinji! Dodge!" Misato managed to shout just as the lift crashed to the surface.

Later footage would show that Shinji had in fact begun to move the moment that Misato had yelled. However, it was simply impossible for Shinji and the Eva to move fast enough. The Angel's particle beam slammed into the Evangelion at near the speed of light. The entire bridge watched in horrid fascination as the Eva's chest armor began to melt away barely seconds after impact. However, that was nothing compared to the sound of the pilot's screams. It was a sound that Misato was sure would haunt her dreams for months.

"Deploy the blast shield!" Misato screamed frantically at the staff, trying and failing to remain calm and collected.

After a few precious seconds of scrabbling, her assistant hit the button, and the 20 meter thick protective shield sprang up, blocking the Eva from the deadly beam. With the beam, blocked, Shinji's scream slowly faded. As one, the bridge crewed sighed in relief. The calm was short lived.

"Angel's output increasing! That shield won't last long!" Ritsuko shouted, continuing to process data at her station.

"Can we get Shinji out of there? Retract the elevator!" Misato ordered.

The bridge crew once again frantically worked at their stations, but after a few seconds, nothing happened. "The elevator isn't responding at all!" her assistant said, "There was a lot of energy bleed from the particle beam. I think it must have damaged something!"

Other than Shinji, he meant. "Any other options? We're running out of time here people! Where's the nearest emergency hatch? Is Lt. Ikari still conscious? Can he move?" Misato asked.

"Pilot is unconscious and non-responsive! Suit life support functions have kicked in." Lt. Ibuki replied, "The heat from the beam was intense. Temperatures in the plug reach nearly 200 degrees, for at least a second. His body's gone into shock. It was like he was being boiled alive…"

"1 minute to penetration!" Ritsuko shouted.

"Goddamnit! Drop the entire damn block! The second armor layer can take the weight!" Misato yelled.

There was a moment of stunned silence before the entire bridge sprang into action. That was an order that had never come up in any of their battle simulations. The angels had, for the fourth time, thrown a punch that they hadn't been able to anticipate. Misato silently prayed that Section One had managed to clear that block out before the battle began. And that her team would make it in time.

Precious seconds ticked by. The bridge was swarming with activity; the crews desperately trying to do something they'd barely even touched upon in training. Misato's eyes didn't leave the screen. Any additional input from her would only slow the crew down even more. She had given her order, and it was their responsibility to carry it out.

They didn't make it.

The screams started again.

"At 1430 local time, the pilot's blast shield was penetrated by the Angel's particle weaponry. 13 seconds later, a team of engineers from Section 3 dropped all of Block B-251. Both the block and the Evangelion plummeted about fifty yards before hitting the second armor plate. Thankfully, the plate held. Unfortunately, the engineers, as well as 43 civilians who had holed themselves up in one of the surface buildings, were killed instantly upon impact. That number may go up. We're still digging out bodies," Misato reported, as she quickly flashed through various slides from the conclusion of the short battle.

"And the Evangelion?" asked Commander Gendo Ikari.

"The recovery crews were standing by and as soon as it was determined that the Angel had no intention of continuing the attack, they recovered both the Evangelion and the pilot," Ritsuko said, "All of the front armor is completely destroyed. I've got crews doing whatever repairs that we can actually manage right now. Most of the electronics were fried, and we're still short on replacement parts. With armor, I'm replacing damaged combat grade parts with just control plates, in a lot of cases. They aren't built to take much punishment. Though, it's a good thing that Shamshel did such a number on the Evangelion."

"Why do you say that?" Misato asked, a note of anger and disbelief in her voice.

"If we hadn't had to replace the front chest armor, there would likely be nothing left of either the Evangelion or the pilot. The original plates for the test type were much thinner and weaker than the combat grade set we replaced them with. It was close enough as it is. Two or three more seconds and the final plates around the cockpit would have failed. As it is, the Eva's armor stood up to the particle beam for nearly 24 seconds. I'm considering sending our supplier a commendation." Misato shot her a dirty look.

"And the pilot? How is Shinji?" Vice Commander Fuyutsuki asked.

Ritsuko suddenly looked grim. "He's in intensive care. He seems to be out of the danger zone for now, but it was touch and go for a little while. His nervous system took a huge shock from the initial hit from the particle beam. Lucky for him and us, the failsafes cut in and unsynced him almost immediately. I'll be happy if he wakes up and is relatively sane. And that's not considering his other injuries."

"You mean the fact that he was boiled alive." Misato declared.

Ritsuko shot Misato an irritated look. "He was not boiled alive. It was close, but not quite that. However, he has suffered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree burns across much of his body. The plugsuit protected him from much of the damage, at least partially, but anything exposed was burned. This, unfortunately, includes his lungs, due to the LCL."

Misato shivered. She didn't want to imagine what that had to have felt like. "Poor kid. It must have been like breathing fire."

Ritsuko shrugged uneasily. "Undoubtedly. Be glad he kept his eyes closed. He could have gone blind quite easily. As it is, I'm not quite sure how he managed to keep breathing, through the entire thing. Even unconscious, his body kept breathing, despite the pain. I'm probably going to have to recommend a psychiatric examination when we've finished with this angel. Not to mention, he's going to need at least some reconstructive surgery. He's a tough little brat, I'll give him that."

"The important question to ask then is: can he still pilot?" the Commander asked.

Misato began to protest, but Ritsuko cut her off. "Assuming he regains consciousness, yes. The Evangelion refits will take another 6 hours or so, and we hope he'll be awake by then."

"Do you have a way of waking him, should he not come to by then?" the Commander asked.

Ritsuko shifted uncomfortably; well aware the Misato was glaring at her. "Yes, but I would prefer not to use them. It is better that the patient regains consciousness by themselves. Waking him early could disrupt the healing pro-"

"I'm not interested in the petty details. He is a pilot, and undoubtedly we will need him for the battle ahead. Should it come to it, use them. The consequences won't matter if we're all dead. Captain, you have a plan?"

Misato nodded. "As unfortunate as it was for Lt. Ikari, the brief sortie against the angel provided me and my staff enough information to put together a plan. It's bold, risky, and requires a lot of cooperation with the Japanese government, but Ritsuko says she can pull off the parts she needs to do, and I know that our pilots are capable."

"'Pilots?'" the Commander asked, raising an eyebrow, "You will be deploying Rei, as well? So soon after the activation experiment? Are you sure that is wise?"

Misato almost winced at the Commander's questioning tone, but stopped herself in time. Showing weakness in front of the commander would be a major mistake. This plan would require the Commander's support and influence. She shook her head. "It isn't wise. However, with the information and equipment that we have on hand, I believe it is necessary. We must be willing to take any risk in order to defeat the Angels. Lt. Ikari is injured. I don't believe there is a high enough probability of success if he is the only one deployed. Another pilot is necessary. As you said before, the consequences won't matter if we're all dead."

The Commander frowned, most likely unhappy about her use of his own words, but Professor Fuyutsuki whispered something in his ear. The Commander sighed and nodded in assent. Misato would have paid a good sum to know exactly what the old man had said. Commander Ikari was not an easy man to convince of anything. She could tell he wasn't happy about it, however. "Very well. What are the details of this plan?"

"Operation Yashima's time table is as follow…"

The first thing he was aware of was pain. And then there was light. And finally, Rei Ayanami.

Staying focused on any of the three was difficult. He didn't want to focus on the pain, but it was constant and dominated much of his brain, despite how oddly muffled and distant it felt. He tried concentrating on the light or Rei, since either was better than the pain, but neither the light nor the girl were always there, either. Or sometimes they were and were different. He couldn't explain how or why, just that it was so. That disturbed him less than he thought it would, which only served to disturb him more. And sometimes he would just fade out, only to return to the struggle a short time later.

He wasn't sure how long that lasted, but eventually things became clearer, he felt more awake, and the pain felt less distant and became nearly unbearable. He realized that he was likely on some form of powerful painkillers. They were wearing off. But at least he was able to concentrate on Rei. She was there, in a chair, quietly reading a book. She was a reassuring sight. It was good to know he was not dead. He liked Rei, but she wasn't the person he imagined would be waiting for him on the other side. Though, he did suppose she looked a bit like his mother. That might explain his father's odd fixation with her.

Eventually, whatever he was on wore off enough that he felt confident enough that he could speak without babbling incoherently. He discovered immediately that he was wrong, for what came out when he opened his mouth sounded like a strangled combination of cough and moan which hurt like hell. Whatever it was that came out somehow sounded enough like 'water' that Rei seemed to figure it out. She reached into a cabinet that was sitting beside her, pulled out a bottle of water, and poured him a cup. She offered it to him with great care, watching how his bandaged hands grabbed the cup and brought it to his mouth. He hoped she was just trying to prevent a spill. But honestly he didn't care, because the water was the best thing he had ever tasted.

She refilled his glass for him several times, never saying a word. Finally, when he was sated, she sat back in her chair. "You are seriously injured."

It wasn't a question. From his limited experience with Rei, he had learned that she was an expert at stating the obvious. Honesty was the only thing you could expect from a girl who freely admitted that she had no social skills. It was something he had learned to accept from her. Still, it could be more than a little irritating.

He opened his mouth to reply, but, remembering the pain, instead gestured for something to write with. It took a few tries to get across to Rei exactly what he wanted, but once he managed it, she produced a pen and a pad of paper from the book bag at her feet. She apparently had been doing schoolwork while waiting for him to awaken. He belatedly recognized the book she had been reading as one of their literature textbooks. An angel had attacked the city above their heads, and she was doing homework. He really didn't understand what went on in her head.

He scribbled a quick question asking for details of what happened. It wasn't easy with his hands bandaged as they were, but it was far less painful than speaking. She nodded. "What is the last thing you remember?"

He considered her question. He remembered his conversation with Misato and the bridge crew before his launch, as well as the usual thrill of riding the launch elevator. But, he couldn't remember reaching the surface. He definitely didn't remember getting injured. That did not bode well at all. He did his best to summarize what he remembered.

She glanced at the paper, and seemed to think a little herself. "As soon as you reached the surface, the angel attacked you with a particle beam-type weapon. It inflicted severe damage to both the Eva and yourself before you were successfully retrieved. The Angel, perceiving that you were no longer a threat, positioned itself above Terminal Dogma, and began drilling through the armor plating. That was 8 hours ago. Section 3 estimates the angel will penetrate through the last armor plate in another 2 hours. You were in surgery and intensive care for 6 hours. The last two hours you have been here. Is that sufficient?"

He nodded, but scribbled another question.

"What kind of injuries did you sustain?" she asked. He nodded. "I read your sheet. You have extensive burns, both exterior and interior. The doctors think you are lucky to be alive. One of the nurses referred to you as the 'Invincible Pilot,'" she paused and seemed to think a little, "If I were not here, she might have kissed you, I think. I am not particularly skilled in reading people, however, as you know. Perhaps she merely wished to express her admiration in some other way."

Shinji certainly didn't feel like an invincible pilot. In his book, invincible people did not end up in the hospital completely covered in bandages after being unconscious for eight hours. He didn't deserve people's admiration for failing so badly that he was nearly killed. He didn't know what the nurse had been thinking, but she had to be crazy to put her faith in him.

"The doctor's and nurses seemed very concerned about your well being," Rei continued, oblivious to his musings, "And Captain Katsuragi and Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki have both visited several times asking about your health. I have heard your security team refused to be relieved from duty several times already. Major Arima of Section Two came down and spoke with them. There was almost a fight."

Shinji fidgeted uncomfortably. He hoped that his team hadn't got into too much trouble over him. Without Lt. Yamada around, they didn't have as much support as they normally did. With only three of them, rather than the full four, he knew that they were pulling long shifts. Lt. Yamada would have at least had the common sense to accept the offer to be relieved. Well, he hoped that the lieutenant would. He was valuable, but he would rather his team get the rest they needed so they could watch over him where he really needed it. Who would attack him while he was in the middle of a NERV hospital, surrounded by NERV security during an Angel attack?

Abruptly the door swung open, startling both Shinji and Rei. Standing in the door frame was Captain Katsuragi. She was breathing heavily, as if she had just run a good distance. In her hand was a large sheaf of paper and on her face was something that might have resembled a smile, if it hadn't seemed so predatory. He hadn't seen that kind of expression on her face before. She looked excited, angry, and eager all rolled together. There was a manic energy about her that put him on edge. Something big was about to happen.

"Good, you both are here. Saves me the trouble," she said as she shoved the door closed and practically threw herself into one of the other chairs that were placed about the room, "Things are going to be moving real quick soon, so I figured I'd come up here and brief you both myself. Plus, I don't want you getting up more than you have too, anyway, Shinji. Gotta make sure you are in the best condition possible."

Just judging by his injuries, Shinji was fairly certain that he wouldn't be in the best condition for several weeks, if not months. However, it was rare to see Captain Katsuragi this animated, so he merely satisfied himself with a nod.

"I shall excuse myself, then." Rei asked, moving to gather her belongings.

Misato shook her head and waved the girl back to her seat. "This concerns you as well. The upcoming operation will involve both of you. And both the Evas."

"Was this approved by the Commander?" Rei asked, with just a hint of doubt. If Shinji hadn't recently spent a good bit of time with the quiet girl, he wasn't sure if he would have caught it or not. He found it a little odd that she thought it would be strange for her to be deployed.

"Of course," Misato replied, "I couldn't launch either of the Eva's without the Commander's or Vice Commander's permission. Both of them have approved of my plan. It'll be risky, but with luck, no one else will get injured." She glanced quickly at Shinji, winced, and instead turned towards Rei.

"Lt. Ikari and Unit One will be at the center of this operation, Rei. Your job will be to protect him. While you are the most experienced with the Evas in general, you have spent the last several months recuperating from your wounds. You have had relatively little contact with your Eva since then. Not that we doubt your ability any, but this operation will require flexibility and timing. Shinji, while injured, is much more prepared for finesse work at this time. Understood, Rei?" Misato said.

Rei nodded.

"Good. Now pay attention, both of you. In less than two hours, at midnight, Operation Yashima will commence. Rei, you will deploy in Unit Zero with a large shield that we've cobbled together from the ceramic bottoms of several unused space shuttles. As Ritsuko put it, 'it won't be great protection, but it's better than nothing.' Your job will be to prevent Ramiel from firing at Shinji," She turned toward him, "Who will be firing our version of the positron rifle."

Shinji blinked and scrawled a quick question on Rei's notepad.

Misato read it, and nodded. "Correct, Shinji. Ritsuko and the brains down in Section 3 still are having issues with the rifle. As far as I can tell, the JSSDF and Section 3 are both having output trouble. If I understood Rits right, it takes a heck of a lot of power to generate a constant stream of positrons. Our version of the rifle can't handle the kind of output needed to penetrate the Angel's AT field, so we've borrowed the Self-Defense Force's version, which can. The issue comes from how to power it. Ritsuko said that all the power used to run Tokyo-3 would barely provide enough to scratch Ramiel's AT field. And normally that's all that we would have access to."

"I assume that to mean we now have access to a greater amount of power?" Rei asked.

Misato nodded smugly, "Per our charter with the UN, NERV has the authority to temporary requisition just about anything in order to defeat the Angel's. I asked the Commander for his permission to use this authority to requisition all of the electrical power in Japan."

If it weren't for his injuries, Shinji would have whistled in awe. That was no simple request, there. That was billions and billions of yen worth of power. Misato was moving mountains in order to see this plan through. It almost made him feel hopeful. But would it work? If the plan relied on him to shoot the angel quickly and accurately, could he do it in this condition?

He wrote that same question on Rei's writing pad.

Misato frowned, and didn't answer him for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was rough. "Yes. You can. It will be painful. Both you and Unit One are damaged beyond what I'd normally consider to be deployable levels, but honestly, there is no other choice. Most of the processes to fire the rifle will be completely automated, but we still need you to have the highest synch rate possible. In about half an hour, we're going to have to flush most of the painkillers out of your system, so you'll be aware and awake as possible. Dr. Akagi says that being in pain has less effect on synch ratio's than most painkillers, unfortunately."

Shinji nodded slowly.

Misato smiled wanly at him. "I tried my best to find a way to keep you out of this plan, Shinji. But short of dropping N2's until the thing dies, there was no other option. This is the best plan we have. If it makes you feel any better, I'm confident you can do it painkillers or not, but we really can't afford to take a chance here. I would rather you be in pain than dead. I'm sure you feel the same."

"He won't die," Rei said, re-entering the conversation so abruptly that both Misato and Shinji jumped, "You have ordered me to protect him. I will not fail."

Misato raised an eyebrow, and looked between Rei and Shinji with a look of dawning comprehension. Shinji knew what was coming, and was already frantically scribbling on the notepad when Misato started to laugh, "Wow. I heard the rumors, but I didn't believe it one bit. Could it be…?"

Shinji shook his head as fast as he could bring himself to, and raised the pad for her to see. It read, 'MISUNDERSTANDING!' in big, bold letters. That, of course, triggered another bout of laughter from Misato. NERV's rumor mill, as Shinji was rapidly discovering, was far too efficient for anyone's good.

"I bet, I bet. Well, before I leave you two… alone… I suppose I should finish the briefing. The rifle will be positioned on one of the hills surrounding the city. We haven't yet decided where, just yet, because the power boys haven't got back to us yet on where is most convenient…

Radio Transcript – Echo Team

Mission CI143 23:45 Local Time

*Gunfire*

Echo-1: Four and Five, move forward to support Seven. Take out that damned sniper.

Echo-2: Intercepting radio transmission from the building, Boss. They're calling in…a chopper? Requesting evac, it sounds like. Pilot on the other side says it'll be 15 minutes.

Echo-1: Hell. We need to be in there before the chopper gets here. Where's Yamada?

Echo-2: He's helping cover Four. She took a round in the leg.

Echo-1: Goddamn it.

*Sounds of scrambling and moving around. Gunfire is louder*

Echo-1: Three!

Echo-3: I'm a bit busy here, Lead. What the hell do you want?

*Burst of Gunfire*

Echo-1: I need you and Eight to go around back and flank 'em. Chopper inbound. We need things under control before it gets here.

Echo-3: Why don't we call in our own support? Our VTOL could drive off a chopper easy.

Echo-1: Orders, Three. You know how it works.

*Someone screaming*

Echo-3: Damn the orders and damn these spies. Doesn't anybody know we're all on the same side? Where's Eight?

Echo-4: I saw him move up with Seven. They took the sniper down.

Echo-3: Alright, I'll grab him and go retrieve the stupid papers. Before the chopper gets here. Damn spies. If I catch the mole, I'm going to string him up by his intestines, so help me God.

Finally out. This chapter was a hard one for me to get out. A lot happened, a lot of switching between viewpoints and times. I think it finally came together the way I wanted it too, though. Misato's second viewpoint almost got switched out for a Ritsuko viewpoint, but I don't really want to use her as a viewpoint character. Also, I got halfway through this chapter and realized that Gendo hadn't made an appearance in the story at all except as a shadowy figure.

There are a couple differences in what happened in this chapter verses the original. Can you find them? I'm trying to lay groundwork for things that will happen later. Can you find what's important? It should be interesting. Can't wait to get to the next couple of chapters myself…

See ya next time!

Macavity