All characters copyrighted by Gainax, not me.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

In this fic, Yui Ikari is NOT part of Unit 1. If you have a problem
with this, don't read.

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Commander Ikari looked at the printouts of the EEG and the timings
of the Eva's eyes lighting up. Then he looked back at the EEG and saw
that another brainwave had overlapped Shinji's. The other brainwave 
spiked in it's intensity whenever the Eva's eyes were aglow, but
was strangly shifted when it wasn't. That couldn't have been a 
coincidence, the Commander thought, but what could he do with it? He 
glanced at his monitor and saw his son back in the hospital, this time
with three seperate EEG's hooked up and with a round-the-clock 
guard. As this project was too important to allow any interferance,
the Commander had decided not to trust the Doctor to keep people out.

He picked up the remote and switched the signal to the camera he
had set up to watch Eva 1. He looked at it's cold, metallic face,
still in disbelief about what had happened. If he hadn't seen it 
himself, he would've dismissed it and moved on with business. And 
speaking of business... the Commander allowed himself to think 
about what Seele has planned. What they were going to do, he had no 
idea, but he knew that it was going to be big. They hadn't come out 
and said that they were planning something, but their body language 
and they way they tried to switch topics whenever he brought up
things to do; there was no way of hiding their plan completely from
him, he was too good at doing that himself.

'Removing me as Commander?' he thought but quickly dismissed it.

They needed him for the project. Then he tried to think about who they
didn't need. 'Fuyutsuki, Major Katsuragi, Maya, Makoto, and company.
What pilots? Rei is expendable, Unit 0 is not. Toji they don't need. 
Asuka? Perhaps, but Shinji they need with Unit 1. How to use that?' He
dwelled on the topic for a few minutes before he decided he needed 
help, both with this problem and the one with his son and Unit 
1. He looked back at the monitor and knew who he needed for help, the 
one person who is intimitely connected to both. He picked up his 
phone, called the hospital, and asked them to have Shinji sent to him 
when his son woke up.

Hours later, Shinji had no idea why he'd come to the door before
him. He had never been inside his father's office before, and was wary
of changing that. He was begining to like his biological family the way
it was, and he'd replaced the lacking that followed with his friends.
Misato was the mother he hadn't had for so long; Rei the sister he 
never had; Kaji as an uncle; Toji and Kensuke as friends; Asuka... 
well... he didn't know where Asuka fit into the scheme of things. He 
wondered how Kensuke was doing, and smiled at the thought. The little 
freak had gotten himself admitted to a Military school, whose graduates
immidiatly entered the armed forces of the United Nations. He'd have to
look him up one day, Shinji thought while standing outside the door. He
still couldn't make up his mind as to whether he should knock, just 
walk in, or leave. Then he made up his mind; he _had_ to know why his 
father suddenly changed behavior and started taking an interest
in his life, such as it was. He raised his knuckles to rap on the door,
but before they could move to their target, he was interuppted.

"Come in," his father said, and Shinji opened the door and walked
into the gigantic room. He crossed the floor, keeping his eyes on his
father, and stopped a short distance from the desk. His father made no
move to rise, nor did he ask Shinji to sit down. 
"I know what's going on with you and Unit 1. Do you want to know?" 
Shinji kept a straight face, though his mind churned. He nodded slowly.
The Commander picked up the remote and showed Shinji the recordings of
Unit 1's eyes. Then it all fell into place.

"I know, too," he said. "I now understand what's happening to me.
However, I wonder if _you_ really understand." Though his father would
never show it, or admit it to anyone, he was proud of Shinji then. For
the first time in so long, father and son had actually worked on the 
same level. Shinji had deduced what was happening to him, and even 
figured out that Commander Ikari couldn't know all of it.

"We'll see. What do you think is going on?" Commander Ikari asked
while pressing a switch on the remote.

Misato and Kaji, pressed slightly together because of the other
people around them, cursed silently. Everyone in the control room,
including Fuyutsuki, was wathcing the screen at Maya's station, making
space a commodity in short supply. She had patched her screen into the
security tapes, so they could watch everything that occured in that
room.

However, when the Commander pressed the switch, he shut off the sound.

Nothing could be heard from that large room.

Now the only way they were going to learn what was happening, and
why Shinji came back, would be if either Ikari told them, and Misato
had a sinking feeling that that wouldn't happen easily. They watched 
the meeting between father and son with morbid interest. They couldn't
see what was on the Commander's monitor, and the couldn't tell what was
being said, so they could only speculate by their actions, or lack 
thereof. In the whole meeting, Shinji didn't sit down, nor did he 
change body position. The Commander did the same, the whole 
meeting spent with his fingers steepeled in front of his face. 
'Two statues,' Misato thought. 'A family of statues, that's all.'

The meeting lasted for two hours, and when Shinji turned around to
leave the room, apparently disgusted with something, Misato, Kaji,
Asuka, and Ritsuko all ran to the office door and stood outside in the
hallway.

When Shinji finally opened the door, he walked out only to be attacked
by the people waiting for him.

"What did you do?"

"What took you so long?"

"What were you discussing?" Shinji could only look around for
help, with none in sight. They were so intent on finding out about
what happened that they forgot the door was left slightly ajar. Asuka
repeated her question, "What were the two of you discussing?
Well?" She was getting mad.

"The Ikari family trade," Shinji replyed cryptically with a small
smile. That only served to make Asuka even angrier.

"The _what_?! What the hell is _that_?!"

"Business," a cold voice boomed from behind Shinji. Commander
Ikari emerged from the large office, closing the door solidly behind
him.

Father and son made no motions to even acklowedge each other's
presence, the Commander walking by his son without a word; 
Shinji replied with the same thing.

The Commander only made a few steps before he turned around and
gave orders. "In two hours Asuka will try to synchronize with Unit 1,"
he said. When Shinji turned sharply to look at his father, the others
knew something wasn't...right.

"Is that wise? After what's been going on?"

"This test will either prove or disprove that theory," the
Commander said, slightly annoyed that Shinji would let his compassion
for others colour his judgment. Shinji started to nod when Asuka spoke
up.

"Hey! As this involves me, shouldn't I be told?" she said, and
Shinji was suddenly overcome by a feeling that he had to take her into
his arms, to comfort her, to tell her everythi... *slap* *slap*.
He mentally smacked himself in the face a few times. He thought
_that_ about _Asuka_?

'I must really be loosing it!' he thought.

"No. This will have little or no affect on you, should everything
proceed according to plan. In the event that something goes amiss...
you might be informed," Commander Ikari said. Ritsuko and Misato were
shocked to hear this from that man. Never before had they heard him 
divulge so much about an experiment to someone involved, never! He just
didn't do those things! "Two hours," he warned them and then spun 
around and left everybody speechless.

And so Asuka found herself inside the entry plug of Unit 1, and for
the first time in nearly three years she found herself with the idea
of actually activating the giant machine. 'If I can do this, I finally
show him who's best!' she thought, then she changed them slightly. 
'IF? IF?

_When_ I do this!' she amended.

Maya looked up from her station in the control room. "Doctor, the
entry plug is secure. We are ready to begin," she said. However, it
wasn't Dr. Ikagi who answered her.

"Good. Proceed," Commander Ikari said, and the activation
proceeded as normal until Asuka and Eva 1 were synchronised. For the
first time in three years Unit 1 had accepted a pilot other than 
Shinji; and there was cheering from inside the control, most was 
coming from Maya, who had the agony of trying to find what was wrong 
Eva Unit 1.

Soon the cheering settled down and people got back to their work,
Asuka on the inside of the war machine, couldn't understand what all
the excitment was about; it was almost like they _doubted_ her! Asuka 
was insulted that they could ever think such a thing. She was 
perfection incarnate! 'Now if only I can convice Shinji and Wonder 
Girl that!' she thought with a smile. While her mind was focused on 
Shinji, she found herself feeling sorry for the poor kid.

What, with all this going on, those headaches, his hatred for his
father, the complete and total lack of feeling from said father, the
reactions of his schoolmate...

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Asuka screamed as her mind threatened to
explode. She put her hands to her temples, and kept screaming. The
robot stopped moving and everything went quiet except for Asuka's 
screaming over comm channels. Then Ritsuko took action. Reaching 
over Makoto, she crushed the glass case with one blow and pulled 
the emergency entry plug ejection handle out of it's case. One shart 
twist later the entry plug was ejected, and Asuka ceased her
screaming as the pain abated, but her tears filled the void, her 
body racked with shudders of pain.

"Well, that proves it," Commander Ikari calmly said.

"Yes, it does!" Shinji said savagely, "At Asuka's expense!"

"There will be no permanate physical damage. The rest is up to
Asuka," he replied, still unearthly calm. Then he spun on his heel and
started to leave, then he stopped and turned back. He saw Shinji
looking out of the window, in the direction of Unit 1; but he could
have been looking at Asuka for the Commander knew. Then Shinji 
turned his head to stare at his father. For a brief moment the outside
world faded from view.

There were only the two staring at each other, and in that instant
Gendo Ikari, not the Commander of NERV, knew that he'd made a very 
powerful opponent in his son.

Cory Holmes

gholmes@stardate.bc.ca

Thanx to:Mark Eymer, HARIJUBAL, Nat Hrynuik.