Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Evangelion: Third Genesis ❯ Chapter 14

Evangelion Third Genesis: Part Thirteen

Asuka blinked at Rei in surprise, holding her plug suit in her hands before clumsily pulling it over her near nudity, "What?"

Just as Rei was going to repeat what she had said, Misato stepped into the room.

The uniforms that Rei and Asuka had pulled on were baggy on them, extra material hanging off them as they stood there uncomfortably. "Let me adjust Rei's suit first," Misato walked to the blue haired girl's side, a small hand held unit in the dark haired woman's hand.

Asuka watched in interest as Misato pointed the device at Rei's suit and hit a switch. The fabric contracted before their eyes, gently squeezing Rei's body. The blue haired girl turned in surprise as the glossy material finally hugged her snugly, but comfortably.

"Now you wanted it to be blue," Misato muttered. The grayish material darkened even more, shifting to a deep, dark blue highlighted by lighter blue shoulder pieces, hip mounts, and twin strips on each of her long legs.

"Thank you," Rei smiled slightly.

"You're welcome," Misato waved slightly as she walked over to where Asuka stood. She got one look at the oddly pale looking Asuka and blurted out, "What's wrong?"

Asuka blushed slightly, looking down at the floor as the orange haired girl softly muttered, "Nothing's wrong."

"Uh huh," Misato gave her a very skeptical look as she adjusted Asuka's suit, rendering it as skin tight as Rei's was. "And you wanted your standard red," she hit a control and Asuka's uniform shifted. The gray cloth brightened, a vibrant red enfolding Asuka, with her shoulder pieces and the other accents in a lighter orange.

"Nice," Asuka murmured, swinging her arms a bit. She actually smiled slightly as she shifted her eye-patch, "Now I just need to get one of these that matches."

"Maybe later," Misato said with a smile. A bit more seriously, "These new suits are more protective than the original plug suits, both bullet and fire proof." She shrugged, "I don't expect all hell to break loose again, but I'm not taking any chances."

"Bullets," Asuka murmured, her expression oddly distant.

Rei looked at her curiously, then over at Misato. "Now that we have these uniforms," she asked a bit hesitantly, "are we going to pilot the EVAs?"

"No," Misato shook her head firmly, "we're not going to begin the synchronization tests unless Ritsuko and Maya are here, just in case something goes wrong." She took a look at her watch, "Why don't you two take the rest of the day off?"

"Thank you," Rei smiled happily, but Asuka had an odd look on her face.

"I'll be running through some files," Misato was clearly ignoring Asuka's misgivings, "so don't expect me until late." She almost grinned as Rei took Asuka's arm, gently tugging her over to where their regular clothes waited for them. 'Good luck, Rei,' Misato smirked as she slipped out, 'now I just hope things are going as well for Ritsuko and Maya.'

Hitomi smiled as the short brown haired girl saw them walking up to them. "It's nice to see you again," she greeted them cheerfully.

"It's good to be here," Ritsuko agreed. She looked good, dressed in the simple black dress she had picked out. Her necklace glittered, along with the earrings she wore. All in all, she looked almost the opposite of the reserved scientist she usually was.

Maya ran a hand through her short black hair nervously before tugging at her tie. The suit looked remarkably good on her, the flush to her cheeks showing everyone how happy she was. "Hi, Hitomi. Is that table I requested ready?" she asked.

Hitomi pulled a little black book out from a pocket in her oddly schoolgirl like dress, flipping through the pages until she found the one that she wanted. "Yes," she smiled up at them before calling out, "Hey, Excel?"

She suddenly bounded out of the crowd, the waitress outfit looking remarkably perky on the blonde. "Hi!" Excel beamed at them, "I'll take you to your table." With an almost complete disregard to the other customers' safety she barreled right through the crowd, Maya and Ritsuko following her much more cautiously.

"An interesting woman," Ritsuko softly murmured, walking through the crowd together and smiling as she gently held on to Maya by the arm.

"Oh, yes," Maya agreed warily.

The table Excel lead them to was nearer to the library shelves, away from the noise of the dance floor and kareoke stage. Excel waved them to their seats, but Maya stepped up to gentlemanly hold the chair out for Ritsuko.

"Thank you," Ritsuko murmured to her softly as Maya gently pushed the chair in for her, and was rewarded by the younger woman's blush.

"Kawaii," Excel sighed softly. She set two menus down on the table, then she left them alone to decide what to order.

The two of them sat there silently for a few moments, then Maya quietly cleared her throat nervously. "I almost thought I was going to faint when you walked out of your quarters in that dress," she admitted.

Ritsuko chuckled softly, "I felt about the same when I saw you come out in that suit." She gazed across at Maya, her eyes dark. "You know, I had this whole speech planned out," she said softly, "but it's all disappeared on me."

Maya reached across the table, gently squeezing at Ritsuko's hand. "I've loved you for a very long time," she said softly, meeting Ritsuko's eyes with complete and utter honestly, "I just thought that I didn't have a chance."

Ritsuko gulped. "I think I love you, too," she admitted softly, "and even though I know it will probably hurt you, I just can't help myself."

Another soft squeeze as Maya smiled gently, "Love doesn't have to hurt, Ritsuko." A deep breath, "Gendo was a badly messed up person, and he used you badly." Fiercely she continued, "That was in no way love, not like I feel for you."

Ritsuko looked across at her before softly murmuring, "You're wiser than your years, Maya." She tugged Maya's hand up, pressing her lips to the knuckles in a impulsive gesture.

Maya blushed brightly, but she didn't pull her hand away from Ritsuko's grip. "No, I'm not," she murmured shyly, seemingly lost in Ritsuko's eyes.

"You know," Ritsuko let her gaze move over to where the stairs led upstairs, "I'm not really feeling all that hungry right now."

Maya noticed where she was looking and her eyes widened slightly. She looking over at Ritsuko intently, "Are you sure?"

"I've never been more sure," Ritsuko answered softly.

Maya waved down Excel, and with a soft conversation and a sudden grin on Excel's face Maya was handed a key on a chain. She extended her hand, Ritsuko took it in hers firmly, and the two walked up the stairs together.

Across the city in the dim light of her office Misato Katsuragi looked at the monitor screen with a fierce frown. One of the things she had been having the techs working on was restoring all the data files that had been on Gendo Ikari's hard drives. Apparently he had placed destructive programs there, triggered by his death, presumably to destroy his private records.

One of the techs, Dr. Stingray in fact, had worked out a program to reassemble the files. It wasn't perfect, there were still chunks that were just gibberish, but it was making a major dent on the records. Sorting through the database she found the batch of records she was looking for, the ones dating back to when they thought Rei had been sealed away here.

Misato sicked the restoration program on that batch, then got out of her chair. She stretched, her back making a soft popping noise. Leisurely she walked over to the coffee pot, pouring out a cup of the thick glop.

'Wish I could have a can of beer right about now,' Misato thought, looking into the cup of black ooze dubiously. With a shrug she took a drink, shuddering at the taste. The computer pinged, and she headed over to see what the computer had for her.

The files were still a bit garbled, but there was enough to get the gist of it. "Gendo, you son of a bitch," she muttered, her eyes wide. Aloud she read," not enough to restore my wife's soul... the Rei clones simply unable to host her essence... a specially prepared clone, free of regular programming to house her soul."

Misato thought of the innocent, gentle Rei that they had released from the storage container and scowled. "Gendo grew her to hold his wife's spirit once he got her back," she murmured. She reached out, her finger hovering over the delete key, tempted to erase the entire thing then she drew it back. Instead she saved the records to a disk, getting up out of her chair.

"I'm too damn tired too think about this right now," Misato yawned as she stumbled out of the office door, locking the door behind her. Her lips quirked in a slight smile as she headed for the elevators, "I wonder how Rei did with Asuka today?"

To be continued...