"The analysis shows a large mental power drain right here.  This is about
7 minutes after Shinji fell asleep from what the heart monitor said.   The
nerve connection band recorded R.E.M. that started at this time.  This
shows that when he started dreaming, his connection with the Eva
suddenly experienced a momentary power loss.  His brain waves look
fairly normal for this cycle of sleep, but take a look at this."  Ritsuko
placed a copy of Asuka's brainwave patterns over Shinji's. "They are
identical.  It could be that they were connected not only to their Evas,
but also to each other.  This presents an advantage if we can control it.
After they linked, they probably shared their combined power.  Their
synch ratios both rose more than hundreds of percent from their starting
values.  They were also identical.  However, when they were awakened,
the ratios dropped back to normal levels."

"This would give us an edge over the angels.  If we were able to expand
A.T. field in proportion to these levels of synchronization, they would be
nearly impenetrable. " Fuyutsuki stated.  He arched his eyebrow at the
sight of the highest ratios.  "359?  My god!  That is incredible.  Are you
sure of your findings?"

"Yes.  Are you going to alert Commander Ikari?"

"Yes.  His trip to the US, to placate the rumors of the second branch
disappearance, couldn't come at a more inconvenient time.  Here we
have a great discovery, and he is not here to enlighten us with its
potential uses."  Fuyutsuki said matter of factually.

"To be sure.  I think that this should be kept under wraps for a while.
We can run some tests between the two of them, but they have to appear
totally benign.  I don't know how much we are going to get out of it, but
it should prove interesting."

"Will this put us further behind on the Human Completion Project?
HCP is our priority.  True it relies on the Eva project finishing at a
certain time, but I feel that that time is rapidly approaching."

"No. We are on schedule now, and should stay that way even with this
new development.  HCP will be implemented as planned."

"I don't know how he is going to pull it off.  And to think that the future
of humanity will then rest on them!"

"I  know." Akagi stopped, and stared into space thinking. "A frail unsure
boy.  And a hotheaded ambitious girl.  How did he pick her anyway?"

"He didn't.  He engineered her mental stance.  That is all that he needed.
It is a shame how he went about it though."

Far away in the apartment that was Misato's house, Shinji and Asuka
slept.  Misato had woken in the middle of the afternoon, and went to his
room to check on him, and think over the images she had seen from
during their synch tests.  When she got there, she found that he was not
alone, but nuzzled up to Asuka.  She found that she did not think of her
as so much a seductress now, as she a companion.  <They look peaceful
there like that.  Come to think of it, that is the most peaceful I have ever
seen Shinji.>

She decided that the relationship would not be interrupted by her, or by
the personnel at Nerv, mostly because she would work to keep it from
being common knowledge.  She felt that Shinji was owed at least this
from life, since his had not been easy by any standards.  As she left, she
noticed a strange smile on Shinji's face.

In the dream world, Shinji smiled broadly.  He had found Asuka there
again.  They walked along a sandy beach, and let the waves roll over
their feet.  The scenery changed to a high cliff-side, and they watched
the ocean crash on the rocks below.
Then a strange thing began to happen.  Shinji and Asuka were unable to
control the scenery for a few seconds.  It changed from the cliff-side to a
large cavern below Nerv HQ.  The words Terminal Dogma were
stamped on the door.  A large red spear against a red cross impaled a
huge white body.  Yellow fluid that smelled like LCL ran down at the
bottom.  The face of the being ha a large triangle on it and seven eyes.
Shinji and Asuka had an overwhelming sensation of searching,
searching for this being.  Something was willing to lay down its life, to
reach this goal.

Then the scenery shifted to a bleak landscape.  Snow and ice covered as
far as the eye could see.  A single lone building sat on the ice, dark
against the blinding glare.  Then an Evangelion that they had never seen
before rose from the ice.  It was different.  Not Eva, but Angel.  It's
armor shone with the force of the sun, melting ice around it with its
intensity.  Then it exploded.  They were unhurt, the blast went right
through them, but they didn't feel it.

They saw a man, at the last second, setting the rocket assist on a pod
about 6 feet long, then closing the hatch, and setting it off.  Then the
blast overtook him too.  It zoomed out showing the old continent of
Antarctica.  Engulfed in flame, ice actually burning, turning from solid
to plasma form, without even bothering to go through the other forms
first.  Then they were back on the cliff as though nothing had happened.

Shinji woke, sweat dripping from his face.  Next to him Asuka woke as
well, obviously shaken by what she had seen.  "Second impact."

"What was that other thing?  The one with all the eyes?"

"I don't know, but it scared me a little. Look, I had better go.  Misato
will be up soon, and I have to think about this stuff."  Asuka got up, and
groggily made her way to her room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

He got up, and went to the bathroom, and took a bath. Afterwards, while
he was drying off, a tapping sounded at the door.  "Just a minute."  The
tapping came again. "I said just a minute!"  He hurried up, and got
dressed.  Opening the door, he found an impatient penguin, giving him
the evil eye, rushing into the bathroom, to draw a warm bath.  "Weird
bird.  Never have seen what Misato sees in him.  Well at least he can't
stand Misato's cooking the same way I can't."  He was reminded of an
unconscious Pen-pen, lying on the floor after tasting Misato's curry.

That night, he made dinner, but none of them were too hungry because
of the large lunch they had had earlier that day.  So they retired to the
living room.  They were in the middle of a boring program when Misato
started talking about something boring, and Shinji felt his eyes start to
droop.  Asuka was finding it equally difficult to stay awake.  Pretty
soon, Misato was the only one still awake, and she talked for many
minutes without knowing it.

In the dreamscape, Shinji decided that they try something new.  "Let's
see if we can make people too.  Every where we go, it is empty.  I am
getting a little lonely in this place."  So he concentrated a little, and
Touji appeared, but he didn't do anything.

"I don't get it."

"Well, I think that you just made his body.  Maybe he would have to be
here in mind also to be of any use."

"Could it be possible to go find his sleeping mind, and pull it here?"

Asuka pondered this. "I don't know how you would do it.  That sounds
like something I heard once.  Astral projection and I think this is a little
different.  So far we have been confined to the dreamscape."

"I wonder if you can do anything here?  I mean like in other dreams.  I
sometimes have dreams of flying."

Asuka tried. Closing her eyes, she concentrated really hard on flying, but
it didn't work.  She opened her eyes, but couldn't find Shinji.  She
looked around, and then she spotted him out of the corner of her eye.
The bottom corner of her eye.  She looked down, and saw that she
floated, just as she was standing, about 20 feet off the ground.  "Hey, I
did it."

"Yeah, but I feel like the laws of physics are still in effect.  I would hate
to fall, and hit the ground.  That could kill us."

"Your tight, we should learn more about this place, or this realm, or
whatever, before we do anything that potentially dangerous."

Once again, control of the dream was taken from Shinji and Asuka.
They found themselves in space, floating.  They looked, and found
themselves many thousands of miles from the Earth, right in between it
and the moon.

In the distance they could make out a shape, moving towards them at
high speed.  It was totally amorphous. Changing shape all the time.  No
specific shape either.  A blob, hurtling at them.  It came within about
half a mile.  It was not as big as the Angels usually were, but it was still
huge.  It passed them as though it hadn't seen them.  They couldn't see
any eyes.

It slowed as it neared Earth, and entered geo-synchronous orbit over
Japan.  It stayed there for a while, then retreated back the way it had
come.  Suddenly they were floating above the hillside they had just left.

"Whoa, I kind of wonder about the safety of this stuff.  Our
dream.thing.  I don't know what to call it, but it is certainly strange.
What was that?"  Shinji cried as he hit the ground hard.  "It looks like
some of the laws of physics are still in effect."  He said rubbing his head.

Luckily Asuka had appeared on the ground.  "Boy, Shinji, I wonder how
you make it sometimes."  She giggled.  Although I am certainly
disturbed by that image, there is nothing we can do about it"

Asuka heard Misato calling her name, and started moving backwards.
She faded away with a string of curses that Shinji didn't think was
possible to say yell in one breath.  He concentrated on trying to get out,
but found that he was stuck, so he laid down.

Back in reality Asuka jumped up, and assaulted Misato with her cursing.
"Misato, what's the big idea?  I was having a good dream too." Then she
noticed two things.  Shinji was still sleeping.  That meant that he was
unable to exit the dream realm unless someone woke him up.  Also she
saw that Misato was frantically putting her finger over her lips trying to
get Asuka to shut up.

"Be quiet.  I didn't want to wake up Shinji, but I just had to ask you
something.   Asuka, something happened during that test, and I had to
ask you about it.  Was there anything different in the way the body felt
that time?"

"I don't think that is any of your business, Misato."

"I think it is my business.  I am supposed to know about everything that
goes on in the Eva.  I am the operations manager for Christ's sake.  I
need to know about this.  It concerns me that nobody knows anything
about it."

"Well, if you must know, I have been having some strange episodes
lately."

"What kind of episodes?"

"Now, Misato, this is going to be a little hard to believe, but it really
does happen. OK?"

"Yeah, sure." Misato said confidently.

"In the test, I fell asleep, and. I kind of dreamt about this place, and I
met Shinji there, but it wasn't like a dream Shinji.  It was really Shinji.
He and I are able to connect somehow, and experience each other in our
dreams."

"You mean it happens to him, too?"

"That's what I said right?  He sees it through his eyes, and I see it
through mine.  It's like an alternate reality or something.  It only
happens when we are both sleeping, it seems like."

"Your right, it is a little hard to believe, but it would explain at least to
some degree why you were." Misato ended abruptly.

"Why I was what?"

"Nothing, I can't tell you that.  It's classified."

"If I was the one doing it, I would like to know what it is."

"I'm sorry Asuka, but I can't tell you that."

"Well, I have to wake up Shinji. He is probably sitting there wondering
what happened."  Asuka walked over and lightly tapped Shinji on the
shoulder. "Hey, Shin, It's time to wake up."  She whispered.

Misato knew after that that there was a little relationship going on.  She
didn't know how to feel about it.  It had appeared that Shinji had lost all
interest in her long ago.  He knew that she was beautiful, but his
attention had drifter elsewhere.  Presently his attention was on the red
head trying to bring him fully to wakefulness.

"Wha? Huh?"

"Get up stupid!"

Then again, she could be wrong about the relationship thing.

Asuka winked at Shinji, but Misato missed it.

"Hey, idiot, if you're that tired, you need to go to sleep in your room.
The couch is nowhere to sleep."

Shinji groggily nodded his head.  He stumbled off to his room, running
heavily into a wall before getting there.

Asuka stood there, thinking about her relationship.  She came to a
conclusion.  She had to tell Misato; sooner or later she would find out,
and it would be a little painful.  Misato might feel that she couldn't trust
Asuka and Shinji for keeping something this important from her.  Asuka
figured that she would be better off staying with Misato than having to
move out to an apartment by herself.

"Misato, if I tell you this, do you promise not to be upset?"

"That depends on what it is you tell me.  As long as it is something that
can be dealt with, yeah."

"Ok, here goes.  Shinji and I have shared more than just the dream
connection.  We have also begun having feelings for each other." Misato
started to say something. "Just hear me out, Misato.  I am sure that given
my past behavior, you don't think much of a relationship between Shinji
and me.  But, it still exists.  I love him, and he loves me back. And that's
all there is to it."  She snapped off the last remark a little louder than she
had hoped to, startling herself.  She rushed past Misato, now upset over
thoughts of the possibilities of futures that lay in store.

Maybe Misato wouldn't think anything of it.  Or maybe she would
report it to Commander Ikari, and he would order them separated.  Or
maybe they would be under surveillance, and chaperoned until this war
was over.  She cried into her hands, and wondered at the cruelty of life.

Misato wondered too.  But she wondered what happened.  She had been
right after all.   She had expected Asuka to try to cover it up some, but
she had admitted it instead, then grew frightened over what Misato
might do.  She decided to enter this in her journal on the Second Child,
but leave out the fact that she and Shinji were involved.

Asuka cried that night.  For the first time in many years, she cried.  Her
connection with Shinji was in danger, and she was hurt.  Although
Misato had not done anything yet, there was always the possibility.

The Angel hung high above the Earth far from the scans of the puny
satellites littering the space around the little blue planet.  It examined its
targets, and found that an almost tangible bond had formed between
them.  Much more powerful than it had set out to make.  It examined
them closer, and found also that they had fallen in love.  This shocked
the Angel, and surprised it.

It had failed.  Its mission was to affect the minds of its two greatest
enemies, and force them to dislike each other.  It had instead mistakenly
changed their mild interest in each other into a far more serious matter.

It tried with all of its might to break the bond.  The connection held.  It
was just too powerful.  Love could not be broken as easily as interest,
and anger.  It feared what this could mean for its counterparts that were
already placing themselves on-planet, thinking that it would be an easy
mission.  A mission where it's opponents would be fighting each other
as much as they would be fighting their enemies.

The Angel backed out of orbit, and sped out of the system, heading for
its origin, hoping that it's news would reach its brethren in time.