Attention:  This fanfic is not meant to infringe upon the rights of the
copyright holders.  All characters belong to Gainax.  Thanks to the positive
comments! This is the sequel to Asuka's Plea found at SDAT Evangelion
fanfiction archive.  This story starts seconds after the first ends so if you
have not read Asuka's Plea (shame on you) then read it!  This fanfic can be
classified as alternate reality since Asuka ran away after her mind rape, also
bear in mind that all the children are about 17 now.  Well, on with the show.

Revision 4/8/99: New name and new outlook. Changed the name to NGE-Adam and
Eve: Chapter Two-Asuka's Return.

Revision 9/09/01:  Changed the name to simply 'Adam and Eve.'

Adam and Eve Chapter 2
An Evangelion Fanfiction
By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton

---Hiroshima 2---

	The two men had taken her downstairs to a black nondescript car, the
engine idling as they stepped off the elevator and onto the sidewalk.  The
night had just begun and the stars were just coming out as sources of
illumination as the trio left her slum and settled in the car.  They did not
leave immediately, apparently the driver was still inside the apartment
complex having a word with the landlord.  Asuka thought back to the vile
things she had allowed him to do to her, the degrading outfits and the
acts...unspeakable.  Needless to say, she was pleased when the last security
officer exited the building with blood on his shoes.

	As they drove away, Asuka felt that she was closing one chapter of her
life and opening the next.  Not a feeling, she'd had it when she'd first
started her wild escape that warm, humid night after the fifteenth Angel's
attack; this was different, now she knew what the new path had in store for
her.  Still, questions persisted, nagging questions that she knew she could
not answer.  The security officers never said a word.

	Who had sent them?  How had they found her?  In some far away part of her
mind, in a place where her memories of Tokyo 3 were locked away, Asuka
wondered what happened to Shinji, Rei...Misato.  True enough the news blasted
the announcement that the last Angel had been defeated by Shinji, but then
again NERV also denied that Asuka was missing.  Was she truly going to
disappear?  Did these men intend on erasing the last of NERV's living
mistakes?  She shuddered at the thought, she would live to see Shinji again,
and would live to make a new life for herself.

	The streets she had known for the past two years passed by her like
cardboard cut-outs or scenery from a play...she knew everyone on the street
corners and in the alleys, but now she was leaving.  She realized that the
past two years had been like a punishment of sorts, a self-imposed punishment
to be sure, but a valuable lesson in her life.  Certainly she would have never
left Tokyo 3 knowing the things she did now, she was no longer the naïve
virgin that left those years ago, now she would return and face her personal
demons...particularly a demon called Unit 02.

	The men never looked at her, never said anything save a few mumbled
orders in the front seat and an order to 'hang on' as they burst through a
police detour.  NERV had called her back, the feelings running through her
body were strange because for the past two years she had felt absolutely
nothing...nothing at all.  She thought back to the driver walking out of her
building with blood on his shoes and wondered if they had killed her landlord,
or just wounded him, if it was the latter Asuka sincerely wished that they'd
castrated him.

	"Pilot Sohryu, we've arrived."  The two guards next to her opened the
side doors simultaneously and she stepped out the right, her dirty sneakers
scuffing on the gravel landing pad of a NERV VTOL (Vertical Take Off and
Landing).  If they were taking this, chances were they were taking her back to
NERV HQ in Japan, she had briefly entertained notions of going back to the
Berlin HQ.  The air was cooler that it had been when they arrived at her flat,
the darkness leeching the heat from the stones around her.  Somehow she
empathized with the darkness; she had been a sort of leech for the past two
years, she had fed off degradation and lust, humiliation and guilt, of those
around her and had become tainted herself.  The pain and filth she felt within
her soul would not be so easily erased, she felt she needed to do something
important once again, even if it killed her.

	The group walked up the boarding ramp, the guards looking cautiously
around at the bushed surrounding the chain link fence enclosing their
position.  The VTOL was not as she remembered it inside.  Of course the last
time she'd been in a VTOL had been before Zeruel, certainly before Bardiel,
and then the craft was outfitted for military purposes; this craft was lined
with plush seats, the likes of which could be found in the finest sub-orbital
transports, and a wet bar.  The guards made one final look outside to make
sure no right-wing religious fanatics were lurking around the perimeter before
giving the okay for takeoff.  A lengthy process but one necessary after a VTOL
of high-ranking UN members was shot down by Catholic extremists who
disapproved of NERV's plans.  Asuka had seen a report about it on the news,
apparently the Prime Minister had been aboard.

	It was sheer coincidence that the PM was one of the UN's staunchest
allies and consequently  one of NERV's staunchest opponents.  Asuka didn't
believe in coincidences.  NERV planned the attack, she reasoned, to help
protect them in case SEELE or the Marduk Institute threatened NERV's sphere of
influence; the UN was beholden to both parties, especially SEELE, so having a
new PM (Pro-NERV of course) on the UN security council was a definite plus.
Still, enough with politics, Asuka thought as she settled into one of the
seats and latched herself in as the thrusters roared to life.

	Soon, all that was left of Asuka's old life AWOL was an empty apartment
leased to nobody, a dirty bath towel one of the guards had forgotten to take,
and the decomposing body of her landlord, castrated with his bowels hanging
out.

---"?"---

SEELE 08:  The second child will soon be back in NERV's hands...

SEELE 01:  The Eve of the Scrolls...

SEELE 05:  The final barrier between us and God will be shattered if she
cooperates.

SEELE 02:  Doubtless Ikari will take strong measures to ensure her safety...

SEELE 03:  Futile.  The puppet will only perform with the proper manipulating.

SEELE 11:  True, without us Ikari is nothing, if it weren't for us he would
never have the proper tools at his disposal.

SEELE 10:  Yes, but how will we use the puppet after we've cut its strings?

SEELE 12:  The Lancae Longini...that was the only thing that kept Ikari in
line, now-

SEELE 01:  The Lance of Longinus can be retrieved.  The only problem is when
to bring it back.

SEELE 04:  To enact our scenario we need The Mother, The Lance, and Eva Unit
Zero...

SEELE 06:  But we could use Eva Unit One and the replica.

SEELE 02:  That would be like asking Ikari to enact his plan.

SEELE 01:  This meeting is adjourned.  The lance will return in one month, and
our scenario will be realized.  This bickering will not accomplish anything,
Ikari is our enemy and we must eliminate him.  SEELE will personally retake
that which was stolen.

SEELE 09:  Do you think that it's wise that SEELE take direct action?  We
could manipulate the UN into-

SEELE 07:  The mass production model EVAs are entering the final configuration
phase.

SEELE 01:  Excellent, Ikari you will rue the day your scheme was hatched.

	SEELE 01-08 disappear leaving 09-12.

SEELE 09:  Kihl is hiding something from us...

SEELE 10:  Yes, he seems too eager to destroy NERV and Ikari, he may be
letting personal bias influence his decision.

SEELE 12:  Kihl may hold power over the committee but we produce the raw
parts.

SEELE 11:  True without us, the project would fail.

	SEELE 09-12 disappear, SEELE 01 and 05 reappear.

SEELE 01:  They think that we are helpless...

SEELE 05:  None shall stand in our path, our only way to heaven.

SEELE 01:  So it is written so shall it be done.

---Central Dogma---

	Rapid taps echoed off the thick walls of Gendo Ikari's office.  The sound
of rustling cloth and the tap of fine-made leather shoes indicated to the
commander that his latest patsy had arrived on schedule.  Fuyutsuki sat at his
right hand, content with the small granite desk off to the side of Ikari's
massive glass and marble desktop.  The blue glow of the Systema Sephirothicum
and the Tree of Life pulsed in the darkness of the massive office.

	Captain Tenma Honturi was understandably frightened by a visit to
Commander Ikari.  It wasn't just the rumors of his cold nature or the fact
that most of the security people fired by Commander Ikari were no longer
alive, he understood that the commander just wanted the best from his
subordinates...it was the damn office.  Every time he walked in the room it
frightened him on a deep down, instinctive, level.  How the commander and
sub-commander could sit all day long in the space astonished and unsettled
him, he could barely stand three minutes.  The single thin window running
around the circumference of the room didn't help as it made seeing the
commander very difficult indeed and only heightened the security officer's
anxiety.

	"Captain Honturi, report."  Gendo laced his fingers in front of his face
as the order was given, Fuyutsuki just leaned back in his chair and watched
the proceedings with amusement.

	"Recovery of the Second Child was successful, Commander.  At 20:10: 32
hours, Asuka Langley Sohryu was taken into custody at the Shino Apartment
Complex in Hiroshima 2, at 22:12:12 hours the Second Child boarded the VTOL
and is now en route to our landing strip off the Kii Peninsula.  With so many
changeovers it is unlikely a terrorist group will know which VTOL to hit, Miss
Sohryu should be back in Tokyo 3 by 02:14:15 hours tomorrow."  Honturi was a
lean man in his early thirties, muscular but not overly so, with short, close
cropped hair and deep blue eyes.  Being assigned to NERV's security division
at such a young age surprised him, but he gave the job his all and so far had
not incurred the Commander's wrath...so far.

	"Very good, you may go now Captain."  Honturi bowed briskly and strode
off towards the door, his gait faster than before.  He grasped the oaken
door's smooth steel handle and pulled the door open, thankful to turn his back
on the eerie office space, as Gendo's voice called from the far end, the
reverberations off the walls giving it a distorted, mechanical quality.  "Your
orders are to protect her with your life...is that clear?"

	"Yes sir!"  Honturi bowed again and shut the doors firmly behind him.
Fuyutsuki chuckled softly from his desk, wiping the side of his face with an
aged hand.

	"To be so young again...would you want to be young again, Ikari?"  Gendo
moved imperceptibly and grunted, his answer noncommittal.  "I envy them the
youth, but sometimes I worry about the young these days..."

	"You sound older and older with each passing day, Fuyutsuki."  Gendo
stood from his chair and faced the window, at the new sensor stations being
built around Terminal Dogma.

	"I feel older with each passing day."  Fuyutsuki stood and walked to his
friend, laying a hand on his shoulder.  "Ikari?  Do you really think this is
wise?"

	"What?"

	"Do you think that it's wise to manipulate the council like this?
They're still pretty sore at you about the Lance of Longinus..."  Gendo
scoffed.  "What are you planning to do?"

	Gendo turned away from the window and the pair returned to their seats,
his gloves were off today, Fuyutsuki noticed.  "My plans have not changed,
Fuyutsuki.  With the Second Child returning, our plans will soon be complete
and I'll have everything I need for the scenario."  Ikari opened his desk
drawer and pulled out a thick file.  "I need you to go to Switzerland, to the
UN Finance Summit."  Fuyutsuki picked up the file, noting that plane tickets
and hotel arrangements were already made, so even if he had said no, Ikari
would have made him go anyway.

	"You're taking an awful risk, Ikari, the UN budget for defense is already
stretched thin enough, I don't think they're going to approve a ten million
dollar defense system."

	"That is why I'm sending you.  If they allocate it or not is irrelevant,
I can't be away from headquarters for so long."

	"You've included the documentation for our 'existing' security system, if
SEELE even got a hold of this-"

	"Precisely my point."  Gendo stood up from his desk and boarded the
hand-rail elevator leading to Central Dogma.  "You leave tomorrow."

	"So I'm just a cleaver diversion while the Second returns?"

	"Yes."

	"And just what am I supposed to do if Kihl is there?"

	"Just tell him that everything is going according to the timetable and
that the Second Child is already back in Tokyo 3."  Gendo disappeared down the
tunnel as Fuyutsuki snorted and grimaced at the task ahead of him.
Unhurriedly, he gathered his papers and started home to pack, he'd have to
hurry to catch the 00:00:00 monorail back to the surface.

---Tokyo 3---

	Shinji Ikari lay on his back in the darkness of his room, awake and deep
in thought.  In the wee night hours before the sun began to rise and after the
last monorails had stopped rumbling underground, he savored the silence of
darkness around him.  He had changed he reasoned, he was no longer pure and
naïve as he had once been, things that now were second nature to him would
just as soon have repulsed him two years ago.  Rei was partly to blame for his
change, it was true that she was instrumental in his change for the better,
but the root of his bad habits began with an 'N'.  Work was dull and boring
nowadays, without the Angels to fight it was just synch test after synch test,
sometimes nude, sometimes fully clothed in plugsuits.  Sometimes with LCL,
sometimes without.  Sometimes, and these were few and far between, together
with Rei.

	Rei.  The name had new meanings and feelings associated with it now since
the end of the Angel wars.  Since the Angels had quieted down and his father
had no call for their services as Eva pilots, the two remaining pilots had
time to live a normal life, at least for awhile.  Still, there was always that
invisible barrier between them and the rest of the people around them, as if
people didn't want to get close to them...as if they were afraid of them.
Still for every dozen that were afraid, there was one that was not, as was the
case with Touji, Kensuke, and Hikari all of whom had since moved back after
Tokyo 3 was rebuilt after the defeat of the seventeenth.

	Kaoru, or Tabris, or whatever he was, the memories of those few days with
him caused a black wellspring of depression to grow within his heart.  He had
been a friend, his first real friend since Touji and Kensuke had left
and...since Asuka left.  He had been a friend, they had even bathed together,
talked about the future, talked about the pain of piloting Eva, and yet in the
end Shinji killed him.  Shinji had crushed Kaoru's body like a tick and burned
off his head with the glowing edge of a prog knife, he still had
nightmares...even to that day.

	As if sensing his distress, the door for his room slid open partially and
a creamy leg slipped through.

	"Rei?  Is that you?"  Shinji was wide awake, looking sideways at the open
door with her shadow across it.  "Rei?"  Perhaps it wasn't...Hikari could have
always crashed on his couch and come in to seduce him...but only in his
wildest (and ecchi) dreams.

	"Ikari-kun...are you feeling alright?"  Rei stepped into his room, the
moonlight hitting her soft bangs granting her a gauzy, almost ethereal
quality.  He was somehow glad he had stayed in Misato's old apartment, it just
felt like home.  "I was...worried about you."  Shinji chuckled but the
laughter never reached his eyes.

	"Well, I didn't mean to worry you.  No, I'm fine Rei.  Why don't you go
back to sleep, we have a joint synch test tomorrow,"  he looked at the sky,
"well...this morning."  She made no motion to leave, just stood in his
doorway, her breathing causing her nightshirt to rise and fall.  "Is something
wrong?  Rei?"

	"I do not know why, Ikari-kun, but I wish to sleep in your bed."  Ah yes,
another of Rei's puzzling urges, these episodes almost always occurred before
a joint synch test, usually the night before.  He couldn't say he minded her
closeness, after all they had become one that night after Tabris' defeat, he
finding comfort in her arms.  "It would not disturb you...?"

	Shinji propped himself up with an elbow, looking at Rei dressed in white
pajamas - clutching her pillow tightly to her chest.  "No...no I don't mind."
He shifted closer to the wall, letting her settle next to him underneath the
blanket, her soft legs caressing his thighs.  The smell of her hair was in his
nostrils, soft and warm like kitten fur, as she lay on her side, facing him.
Her leg slipped between his legs, her arm underneath his shoulder, and Rei
finally went to sleep clutching at Shinji.  He didn't move, just wrapped his
arm underneath Rei's side and pulled her willing unconscious body closer until
her soft lips brushed his.  In the closeness of the darkness, Shinji Ikari
wept.

---NERV installation, Kii Peninsula - connection tunnel---

	Asuka disembarked from the VTOL flanked on both sides by NERV security
men.  They quickly made their way to the safety of the terminal and locked the
firedoors shut.  Obviously they were taking every precaution, why she couldn't
begin to say.  Why anyone would have sought her out was beyond her, only that
she had some special purpose to NERV now.  That was the only reason NERV would
ever have called her back, they didn't care about you until they needed your
help...but such was the way of the organization.

	"Pilot Sohryu, please follow me."  Captain Honturi walked from the deep
shadows of the boarding dock as the technicians towed the VTOL back into the
hanger, the loud clanging and klaxons wailing around her frail thin body.  The
captain watched her lifeless eyes follow him to the waiting car, a black
Mercedes, as they sat down and began the long ride through NERV's evacuation
tunnels criss-crossing the country that would take them straight to the very
heart of Terminal Dogma.  "It is my duty to see you back to Terminal Dogma
alive, I will fulfill my part of the bargain, just abstain from any activities
that would place you in any danger.  Do you understand?"

	Asuka's head swiveled mechanically to regard him with cold eyes.  "Yes."
She was obviously deep in thought and as he didn't wish to agitate her
further, Honturi watched the trail lights fly past them in the dark hollowness
of the tunnels.  The auburn-haired girl fidgeted with her skirt as the light
of the Geofront appeared at the end of the line; thin, almost emaciated,
fingers bunched the fabric around her hand as her brow creased in nervousness.
"Where...where is...I-is Shinji Ikari...?"

	"The Third is currently undergoing synch-testing with Dr. Akagi...you
will have a chance to talk with him after your physical."  Honturi readied his
security badge and handed her a loose chain with her dogtags and a NERV ID
passcard.  "Here...you'll need this to get into the city and pass through any
level three doors."  She accepted the gift and clasped it behind her neck,
letting the cold metal slid between her breasts.

	"Physical?  Why do I have to have a physical?"  The car was stopped by
three NERV security officers, each carrying an Uzi and several clips of ammo.
Whatever had happened in her absence had certainly changed the way NERV
operated.

	"Standard procedure to reduce the risk of possible Angel contamination."
He flashed his ID and the checkpoint let them pass into another tunnel, this
time a multi-layered car elevator that would take them down the steep slope of
the Geofront and to the flat bottom.  "I assume you realize how important that
is...don't you?"

	Asuka remembered something she'd heard...that the last Angel had reached
as far as the heart of Terminal Dogma before being stopped.  If it were true,
she could readily understand the necessity of a physical.  She nodded and they
spent the rest of the drive in silence.

	Darkness broken by occasional areas of light and ten more security
checkpoints before they even reached Central Dogma.  It seemed as though NERV
had suffered greater problems than those generally known, the level of
security was endless now, Asuka simply sat impassively through the process.
Inside her tortured mind those pesky doubts began to eat away at her hopes and
dreams.  She was nothing but an expendable pawn in Ikari's little game, so why
did she return?  Was it for love?  Was it for closure?  Was it...for Shinji?
The auburn-haired girl truthfully didn't know, all she knew was that she was
going back to NERV and facing the ghosts of her past, the ghosts of that day
of rain and sadness.

	How long had it been since she remembered the full brunt of the Angel's
attack?  She tried to push it out of her head with sex and alcohol, but both
just added to the burden of sins on her back.  How could anyone ever care for
her?

	Honturi watched as Asuka seemed to slowly withdraw into herself the
nearer they approached Central Dogma.  He had explicit orders not to allow the
Pilot to become agitated.  Orders were orders...

	"Commander Ikari and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki are eagerly anticipating
your arrival, Pilot Sohryu, NERV simply hasn't been the same since you left."
The friendly smile on his face didn't quite reach his eyes, which looked
panicked and terrified.  "I believe Major Katsuragi is quite happy we found
you after so long."

	Found her after so long?  NERV had known where she was the entire time,
they were just biding their time until they needed to use the 'unstable' pilot
again, looking for a suicide mission to send her on.  Honturi noticed Asuka's
lips move silently, cursing Gendo Ikari.  He noted her actions in his mind, if
her mental health was not up to par then she would have to be mothballed again
- a conclusion he hoped to avoid.

	"I'm a freak."  Asuka whispered it so silently Honturi wasn't sure
whether it was her voice or the hiss of brush under their tires.  Tenma looked
sharply to the security officer in the passenger seat, eyes encountering an
intimidating black screen of mirrored apathy.  Had he heard her outburst?

	"How much longer until we arrive, corporal?"  The shorter of the two
officers turned back, as if surprised at the intrusion.

	"ETA to gate three...five minutes if the new elevator is functional.
Otherwise, fifteen."

	Honturi just wanted to get out, get away from Asuka, Pilot Sohryu was
having a peculiar effect on his psyche.

---Gate Three, Level EFL-23---

	"Has the Second Child arrived yet?"  Ritsuko's tinny voice seemed to
blare from the micro-speaker around Misato's ear.

	"No."  The purple-haired woman managed through grit teeth.  It wasn't
that Ritsuko was being impatient, it wasn't that it was her period, it wasn't
that Shinji and Rei were having a joint synch-test; it was just the fifteenth
time Ritsuko asked the same question.  "For the last time no, I'll tell you
when she does."

	"Fine."  Ritsuko's voice was already irritated, her leg must have been
bothering her.

	"How are Shinji and Rei doing?  Are they almost finished?"  Misato stood
in the centre of a massive chamber used for transporting vehicles, in this
case a car but usually larger transports like mobile headquarters and the
like.  The tunnel leading back into Central Dogma was dark and even the room
was only sparsely lit with orange emergency lights.

	"They're fine, I think they fell asleep.  Sometimes I think they're a
little too comfortable with each other..."

	Misato saw a glint of metal moving up the shaft.  "Hold on, Ritsuko, I
think she's here."  She clicked off the headset and walked up to the
dangerline in front of the transport, her heels echoing metallically in the
expansive room.  She had prepared herself for this...she wasn't going to break
down in front of Asuka.  Not again.

	A roar seemed to start up the gaping mouth of the shaft, starting as a
dull drone but rising in pitch and baritone until the familiar klaxons and
lights could bee seen from the underside of the tram.  Misato schooled her
features as the wind began to rip at her clothes until suddenly the platform
appeared and crashed down into the safety locks with the hollow sounds of
technology.

	At once Honturi was out, glad to be rid of the Second, and at the other
side of the car, opening the door for his passenger.  Misato held her breath,
expecting the Asuka of old to appear from the car, defiant as ever.  Instead
she was forced to wait several minutes until a painfully thin ankle stepped
out of the car.

	Asuka stepped out of the car and looked at her surroundings before taking
in the image of Misato standing at the head of the car.  To the Chief of
Tactical Operations, Asuka looked ragged and emaciated both in body and
spirit.  She was anorexically thin with very little muscle tone and her eyes
were hidden behind a veil of auburn locks.  Misato realized that her foolish
hope for the old Asuka back was just that., a foolish wish cast by an equally
foolish woman.  Things had changed, too many things for the world to go back
to how it once was.  Her eyes began to shimmer with unshed tears.

	"Misato...?"  Asuka looked at her old guardian with dead eyes.  The Major
had changed, Misato now wore her hair in a perpetual ponytail and wore a
formal NERV female uniform rather than the military issue jacket she
remembered.  The bulge of a sidearm stood out from her jacket.

	"Asuka...welcome back."  As one the two women ran to each other, both
wishing for the past to be restored, neither realizing the changes that had
been wrought over the span of time.  It was foolishness for either of them to
think they knew the other...events had occurred that changed everything.  "How
was the flight?"  Misato tried to smile for her old charge.

	"It was alright.  Where is Shinji?"  Misato looked down as she realized
the true motivation behind Asuka's return.

She wrapped an arm around Asuka and led her to the blue sports car she'd owned
since Shinji arrived.  "Don't worry, Asuka, you'll get to see him soon
enough."

---To be continued---