From part 1, "I Left My Soul in Tokyo-3". No spoilers here. Enjoy.

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  The EVA cage was warm this evening.

  Misato stared at the giant purple robot. If she didn't know any better,
it seemed like it was thinking. Or maybe it was scratching its posterior;
she wasn't quite sure which.

  "What _are_ you? What?"

  A voice spoke behind her. "A creation of man, in the form of a man. It
was built to fight the Angels...and perhaps, it was built from something
we know far too little about."

  "What is the link? The Evangelions. Us. Angels."

  "You may as well ask what the human soul is. No one knows, one can only
guess."

  "The soul," breathed Misato. "We've seen...we know that the very spirit
of a person can exist inside the EVA. What was it that they said? That
it's an 'artificial human'?"

  "Though its form only vaguely resembles a human, and in scale is far
larger, yes, that is right. It has blood, nerves...on occasion, even a
soul...."

  "Yes." Misato paused. "A frightening thing, isn't it?"

  "Yes, it is. Piloted by a few select children, who were conceived on the
night of an awful destruction visited upon Earth. The power of the EVAs is
simply unparalleled.... It alone can truly fight the Angels. It withstands
enormous blasts. It tears steel apart like paper. The product of the finest
human technology. It slices, dices, and makes julienne fries."

  Misato blinked. She turned around. Her jaw fell open.

  "Pen-pen?"

  The spa penguin was just coolly standing there, holding a can of beer.
"What, you didn't know I can talk? Hey, I was on the design team for that
baby." He drank a gulp of beer. "She's a beauty, that one," he stated
proudly.

  Misato sat up in her bed.

  "That's it. No more ham-and-wasabi pizza before I go to sleep."

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<SNIP>

  Shinji stumbled out of the room. This sudden migraine really wasn't
helping things, and he needed a break. Bad. He ripped off his headphones,
panting.

  "Stupid books on tape," he gasped, collapsing onto the floor. "'Lynn
Minmay reads the Pentateuch'? They should have put warning signs on that
one.... Who the heck is Lynn Minmay, and why is she allowed to do this?
Argh." He rubbed his temples in an attempt to rework his brain into
something useable.

  "You okay, there?" Touji popped out of the room and sat down on the
floor next to Shinji. "This stuff is so hard for me to understand. Seven
eyes? Why does God have seven eyes? Crap. I hate doing this." He yawned
and leaned his head against the wall.

  There was a sudden rumbling inside the room, and some shouting. The two
guys blinked, looked at each other. Before either could say or do
anything,  the door slammed open. Touji's head jerked forward from the
vibrations. A female voice rang--nay, nearly screeched out.

  "I HATE this! I am SICK of this!! IKARI, YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!!"

  "Geez, I'm sorry already, Asu--"

  "_Ayanami_?!"

  The albino girl stomped over to Shinji and picked him up by his shirt
collar, hissing. "Dammit, because of you, I'm stuck in that room forced to
look things up that are really messing with my head. And it's all-your-
fault-!" She dropped him on the floor and marched off.

  The two boys sat there stunned.

  "Must...must be that time of month," mumbled Touji. "The mental part,
that is."

  "'That time of month'? I wasn't aware that Ayanami had a 'that time of
month'. She's never _had_ a 'that time of month'. Heck, if women had a
'that time of year', Ayanami would have had to forfeit on account of not
showing up. It couldn't be 'that time of month'. Not Ayanami. Not the
mental part. No, not her." Shinji paused to re-establish motor neuron
control over his shaking hands. "I think I feel scared."
<SNIP>

Andrew Huang, at home, and without ethernet