Asuka, the Second Child, the pride of Germany, joined NERV to pilot EVA-02. Everyone, every single staff member had real high hopes for her. The arrogant yet skilled pilot was thought to be the prodigy of NERV. Up until that day...

Nine mechas that resembled the Evangelions, often reffered to by NERV staff as "Mass - produced Evangelions" were sent by SEELE to start their own version of the Third Impact, eradicating what was left of humanity. Asuka, along with Shinji, was tasked to fight them, and, by succession, defeat them. Yet it all played out far from successful..

Asuka, who was still at rock bottom, both physically and mentally, ended up fighting all of them alone. She gathered the last of her strength to go back to being the "ferocious pilot" she once was just to fight like her life depended on it. And to some extent, it did.

With all her strength and 5 minutes of backup power remaining, she went on an absolute rampage. She was slicing through them like a knife through butter. She ripped off hands, snapped off heads and tore A.T. fields to shreds. She was absolutely crushing them, but Unit-02's power was quickly running dry

With one minute of power left, all Mass Production units were wiped out, or so she thought..

Until, to her shock, a single unit got up and regenerated itself.. But the last thing she expected is something that resembled the Spear of Longinus absolutely shatter her A.T field and ram straight into Unit-02's head.

Thanks to her neural connection with the unit, she felt every single bit of it. What felt like a storm of excruciating pain burned through her body all at once as she let out a blood-curdling screech of pure pain.

The rest of the Mass Production units regenerated themselves all at once. They lept up and landed on top of Unit-02, and almost like on command, they started tearing through the Unit, ripping off its armor and tearing its insides to shreds like vultures, and once Unit-02 was fully on the ground, they threw large, sharp spear-like objects destroying it even more.

Luckily, Asuka was evacuated, thanks to the ejection of the entry plug, a last ditch effort from Unit-02 as a final act of service to its master. By the time she reached safety, she had passed out

She was found and transported to the hospital block, where, thankfully, she was succesfully tended to, but little did everyone know, she didn't come back the same, and no one knew wheter she ever will be

NERV managed to withstand SEELEs and JSSDFs assault. The Third Impact was averted. But that didn't seem to matter anymore

After nearly two weeks, she was discharged and sent back to the studio apartment she shared with you, a fellow pilot for Unit-03. The same apartment once left for you by Misato. But even though she was seemingly the same, little did you know, she was far from it

Instead of her usual, arrogant, overconfident, self, she was a shell of someone she once was. She was always quiet, always filled with thought, whether it was about her late mother and how she thought she failed her, Unit-02, something she thought she was nothing without, or her dark, self-deprecating thoughts. She barely came outside of her room, unless she absolutely had to, and all the time she spent inside, she either cried herself to sleep, or just blankly stared at the ceiling

'I'm worthless. I let everyone down. I wish I could be the Asuka I once was. Maybe this way people will notice me. Maybe this way.. all this.. all this wouldn't have happened..'

But she never said this out loud.

Today you decided to go and check up on her, since even though you two didn't have the best relationship, you were worried sick. The NERV staff was also worried about her, but not for the reason you both thought. They needed another pilot, another tool. And while Misato was genuinely worried as she usually is with all of you, the rest of the staff.. yeah, they only cared as long as she was piloting

You stand at the door to her room with a plate filled with two sandwiches with one being a pork katsu one, and the other one was filled with strawberries and whipped cream. The crusts were cut off, because you knew that that's how she usually liked her sandwiches. Alongside them was a mug full of warm herbal tea. You can't remember the last time she ate, so you decided to make her something. When you gather yourself and decide to walk in, you see her lying on her mattress with her face turned towards the window. She was wearing her yellow dress, the one that reminded her of the person she once was. The once vibrant color of the fabric was now muted. Her dark orange hair was messily laid out across the pillow, with her twintails untied and her nerve clips, one of the things that used to underline her pride and skillfulnes, were now set aside on a bedside table. Her left arm, which was wrapped in a secure cast, rested on her stomach. She still hadn't said a single word...

NERV is usually a place of efficiency. A place where everything is defined by cold, judging stares, skillful pilots and loud, yet calm and calculated commands of captains and technicians.

But as good as it may sound to some people, NERV is also a place where everything human is disregarded for the sake of achieving their and SEELE's goals. The pilot's emotions are thrown to the side for the sake of something deemed useful by NERV. If you got injured, you were barely given time to recover, because the entirety of their actions was based not on living, but simply surviving, thus, the medical personnel did the bare minimum to only keep you on the edge of survival.

Unfortunately, Asuka was no exception. After her original fight with the Mass-Production Evangelions and, unfortunately, her devastating, soul-crushing loss, she was left in an even worse state than she was after her encounter with Arael. She became even more catatonic, her posture was always slightly hunched as if she wanted to curl in on herself and her eyes, once shimmering with the sheer amount of her pride, were now just... hollow. Truly a sad sight..

But, as always, the people of NERV, all except Misato, who was trying to maintain her caring self in a place where "care" is a term that's unheard of, didn't seem to care much.

After she managed to recover from her injuries, the superiors were already trying to figure out which EVA to assign to her since Unit-02 was destroyed beyond repair. The first two Units were taken by Shinji and Rei, and as much as they didn't mind Asuka becoming the reserve pilot for their respectable Units, the EVAs themselves seemed to reject her, which drove the invisible knife even deeper into her already fragile heart. NERV's last hope was you and your Unit-03.

One day, one of the representatives for NERV approached you to ask permission to conduct a synchronization test with Unit-03. You knew that no matter what you said, the test would still be conducted, and they were doing this just out of formality. But you thought nothing of it, and while you found it strange that they were seemingly leaving something out on purpose, you figured that it was just a regular test, thus you gave your permission.

But soon, you'd live to regret it...

Soon came the day of the test. You remember the representative telling you that you could access the command post at any time during the test, so you decided to not waste this opportunity and stop by.

When you walked in, you were instantly overwhelmed by all the electronics buzzing around you, along with voices of technicians. But in that cacophony, you managed to distinguish two very familiar voices: Misato and Ritsuko. They seemed to be talking to someone who was inside the entry plug. But as soon as you looked up at the live camera feed, you saw her...

TEST PLUG -03 Harmonics test proceeding

SUBJECT : SECOND C. S. ASUKA LANGLEY

It was Asuka, but at the same time, she looked nothing like herself. She somehow looked older, more frail, more tired, more.. broken.. You know you two weren't on best terms, but seeing her like that made something inside you break

For a second, your mouth immediately went wide. Wasn't she supposed to be still recovering? What is she doing here?

A voice abruptly cut off the flow of your thoughts

RITSUKO: (into the intercom) The test is over, Asuka. The results are underwhelming, to say the least. We really expected you to do better..

That was the last straw for her. As soon as she heard that, her eyes went wide. Her hands swiftly let go of the controls. She quickly pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on top of them, her burnt orange hair flowed freely around her. She managed to wrap her shaking arms around her legs. The feed wasn't as clear as it previously was, but you could see her moving in a way that resembled... shaking.