From: sephirius@iname.com (James Grabowski) Subject: [Eva][Fanfic] Neon Genesis Evangelion: Variations on a Theme - Volume 4 __________________________________________________________________________ NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: VARIATIONS ON A THEME - Volume 4 - Find Your Own Truth / A 'Human' Salvation Written By: James Grabowski & Geoff Upchurch Revision: 1.00 - Official Release Category: Fanfiction Style: Prose Theme: Action / Darkness / Drama / Humour / Romance / WAFF Source: Neon Genesis Evangelion Date: August 21, 1999 Time: 8:13:45 PM - EDT | 7:13:45 PM - CDT [Started: January 16, 1999 / 10:40:00 PM - EST | 9:40:00 PM - CST] __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ LEGAL INFORMATION: All characters contained in this script are copyright GAINAX, Project EVA, Movic, and any other company and/or division associated with the creation and/or production of Neon Genesis Evangelion. A.D.Vision holds the copyrights to the translated version of Neon Genesis Evangelion. At this time, they are used WITHOUT the permission of the aforementioned institutions. This script is a production of the above mentioned authors, and may not be used in any way, shape, or form without prior permission of the authors. Distribution is subject to prior approval by the authors. Right now, distribution is strictly prohibited. __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ CONTENT WARNING The following fiction contains content which some readers may view as offensive. This includes: + Offensive language + Overt darkness + Spoilers for Neon Genesis Evangelion and the majority of all theory behind many of its more controversial concepts Neither author cares one iota about the reader's age; they are 16 and 19 years of age respectively at time of publication. All judgement is made by the reader whether or not to examine the contents of this document. In other words, reader discretion is advised, just as viewer discretion is with Evangelion in general. __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ AUTHORS' NOTES: This passage marks the release of "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Variations on a Theme - Volume 4", the unknown-how-long-awaited sequel to the VoaT series. Although ten days behind the target release date, it still manages to be the most quickly released volume to date, it being two months and ten days since Volume 3. As everyone who has read this far should obviously know, this volume will mark several turning points, both plot-wise and character-development-wise. While there shouldn't be anything _too_ sneaky, it really does pay, especially in this volume, to read every line. You'll most probably regret it later if you do. Although the spoiler warning says it all, it pays to repeat it again - many of the questions without answers (or really confusing answers, or really debated answers, or really stupid answers) are answered here, thanks to much discussion and analyzation over a period of about six months, which is about how long we argued about various Eva conundrums on a regular basis. Of course, all of the answers aren't here. Maybe they're not even right. Of course, if we're actually going with this, then we're assuming we know what we're talking about. But, it goes beyond that. These are, as it were, the rules that this universe plays by. Whether or not you _agree_ with them, it's the basis of fact in the world that _we_ have created, and, in the vernacular, it's our way or the highway. This volume also introduces a few new interesting aspects to the VoaT continuum. No, nothing outrageous like pink-bunny Angels. Technically, nothing _new_. Just something unused in the past. And, when you think about it, you've got to wonder, _why_? Amazingly enough, this volume really cuts out a lot of the philosophy from the previous three, and by that we mean a few particular scenes that everyone was giving us hell over. You'll just have to see for yourselves. Oh, and as an added bonus, there is absolutely nothing like that scene from Volume 3. Ahem. Well, just remember not to skip over anything. There's nothing worth skipping over (which is a good thing), and you'll regret it if you do. Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but soon... That's 'soon' as in six months from now, when Volume 5 finally gets to make an appearance. No, seriously, you really don't want to skip anything. Except maybe this overly-long authors' spiel. Speaking of Volume 5, anyone who's interested in a small preview of the volume, it is now available at the S.S.P. web site, and on Mien Diem's Anime Warehouse S.S.P. Sub-Page. Of course, Volume 6 is still remaining off limits. We can't give you too much information, and other such excuses as that. So, with that in mind, get on with your reading, and don't forget to tell us what you think. After all, to use another cliché, nobody's perfect. - James Grabowski & Geoff Upchurch - Scheduled Scenario Productions __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ Neon Genesis Evangelion: Variations on a Theme - Volume 4 - Find Your Own Truth / A 'Human' Salvation ------------------------------------ Central Dogma. No darkness existed within the permanently lit Headquarters of NERV, the regional arm of the United Nations which subsisted off its own supporters, unknown and unseen to the public eye. Late at night, without sight of activity in the outlying areas of the local region, activity was at a minimal. The gates of Central Dogma remained closed, shielding it from the harsh, outside world. Tapping sounds resounded faintly. Footsteps. Five figures, shielded faintly by the darkness of the surrounding land but betrayed by the brightness of the technological mammoth which served as the primary exterior shell of NERV HQ and Central Dogma, calmly, cautiously, and discreetly made their way toward their goal - one of the main access gates leading into Central Dogma. And so they arrived, without fail. ------------------------------------ AUGUST 3, 2016 - 12:41 AM ------------------------------------ Ryouji Kaji casually glanced at the group with whom he had been charged with the security of. From the indifference of the good Doctor Akagi to the intense air which surrounded Major Katsuragi, from the mild feeling of nervousness which encompassed the Third Children to the relative lack of interest exhibited by the First Children, they were nonetheless there, and prepared to hand over their lives to the guiding spy in order to accomplish the task at hand. "Well, we're here," Ryouji stated quietly as he ended his surveillance of the surrounding environs and his comrades. "Ritsuko, I believe the honours are yours." With a slight nod, the unlabcoated Ritsuko stepped forward and removed her ID card from her skirt pocket. With little flair and much finesse, she drew closer to one of the many gate doorways, approaching it until she hovered over one of the security access mechanisms which accompanied each portal. "Move forward," she directed simply. The remaining infiltrators did as commanded, crowding in around the blond-haired doctor. "Last chance to turn back," Ritsuko warned. "..." "..." "..." "..." "... Too late." With a simple gesture, Ritsuko slid the card through the opening in the mechanism. Access granted. The infiltrators made a break for it. Moving quickly to get in before the gate had a chance to close, the goal was successful save for Ryouji nearly losing his head to a quickly dropped gate panel. "That... could have been timed more appropriately..." Ritsuko commented freely. "_You're_ the one who didn't give us any decent warning," Misato replied crossly. "The door would stay open until someone passed through, I told you that already. If we had simply went slowly and walked through the gate at the same time..." Ritsuko quickly shook her head. "Forget it. We're in, that's all that counts now." The two were at least able to agree upon that point. "So..." Shinji's voice broke the silence, albeit barely. "Where to now? With a passion for common safety, Ryouji extracted his handgun from his rumpled, casually worn black suit jacket and removed the safety, quickly replacing it back within the interior pocket. "The door to doom, naturally." Without awaiting a response, Ryouji plodded toward the next goal of the evening - an elevator. The others followed pace somewhat more quickly, a measure designed to catch up with the rapidly disappearing spy. Some carefully surveyed their encompassings, as if that would provide any aid if any category of attack were to approach. Others simply stayed set to their path, paying no heed to their surroundings. Yet there was more to this scenario than met the eye. As the primary group of infiltrators walked quietly to the elevator system which connected to the first level of Terminal Dogma, a second group of infiltrators had just gained access to Central Dogma, the gate having opened to admit an additional problem. This group was composed of one person. "I... can't believe it worked..." Kensuke whispered, hand still clasped over the recently-stolen ID card in his hand. He blinked, locked in total surprise. He had accessed Central Dogma. Without a second thought, Kensuke withdrew his arm from the access mechanism and stumbled quickly into Central Dogma, lugging with him a second 'black market' acquisition - a black laptop computer. He did his best to refrain from jumping as the gate slid shut behind him, but could not avoid the action entirely. "Eep!" he cried quietly, quickly regaining his composure, coupled with a minor degree of nervousness. "H... hello?" he asked quietly, his voice barely discernable even in the dead silence of Terminal Dogma. Kensuke was answered by the very same dead silence. He stepped forward nervously. "Ummm... help?" For a second time there was no response. Alone in the main entrance of Central Dogma, his only hope was to, unlike Misato, be capable of comprehending one of the many maps which explained the many locations within the great labyrinth, in addition to one's own location - the equivalent of a 'You Are Here' sign. Luckily for Kensuke, one such map was posted at the entrance, and with little other choice, he made his way to it and gazed upon its intricacy. It looked like it had come from the brush of Van Gogh, designed by the thought processes of Freud. 'Oh... boy...' Kensuke thought, beginning to sweat as he realized what kind of situation he had just gotten himself into. With little to go on except for previous glances at this map in the past and overheard information from reliable NERV personnel, the young man scanned the map quickly for something he might recognize. "Okay, boy. Think," he said softly to himself. "You've seen this map before. Where do you want to go today? Anything will do..." He continued to scan the map in search of something of interest. 'I've gotten this far, my mind can't go blank now...' And then he stopped. Slowly, he smiled, eyes shining with pride. "Command Center!" he exclaimed. His decision made, along with the implications imposed upon him for having illegally gained entry to NERV HQ, Kensuke Aida set off at a very quick walk toward the Primary Command & Control Centre. ======================================================================== Volume 4 Find Your Own Truth / A 'Human' Salvation ======================================================================== In Hikari's room, Asuka was still against the wall, crying. 'You don't have to live... with death...' 'Why don't I move?' Hikari asked herself silently. 'I should've... made him...' Hikari gripped the sheets on her bed, knuckles turning white. "I should've let him...," Asuka said through loud sobs. The knuckles drained of all colour as Hikari listened, and did not enjoy what she was listening to. Asuka whipped her head back against the wall, padded only by her hair, emitting a strangled cry. 'I... I can't,' Hikari thought, eyes thinning slightly as she continued to affirm her grip on the sheets. Asuka clenched her fists at her sides, shaking her head until her bangs covered her eyes once more. Hikari continued watching intently, her only motion being her soft breath. "Hikari... I don't want to be able to." Hikari finally spoke, softly. "Able to what, Asuka?" "I don't want... to live long enough to keep my promise." Asuka resumed silence as Hikari swallowed audibly, letting 'don't want to live long enough' sink in. Hikari stood, speaking firmly, though masking her own mental state. "Your life has more value than to simply take it away so suddenly," she stated, realizing that she was dealing with an Asuka so unbalanced that she was actually considering the possibility of suicide. "Then I'll let the Angels do it. I'd hate to botch the job, anyway," Asuka replied softly. "Knowing me, I would." "Stop it!" Hikari screamed. "Why?" Asuka asked, still in that deadly calm voice. "It is 'truth'." "No. None of it is," Hikari said, speaking loudly in an attempt to keep from crying. "You wanted to know who _I_ was, Horaki. _My_ pain," Asuka said in that pale voice. "I gave you fair warning." She smirked. "More than once, I did." "It's no reason to die!" "I bring pain. I bring death," Asuka stated simply. "I can't do the one thing that gives me any real value, and I'm not even to be granted the simplest of wishes, of pleasures, and in return for that, I'm utterly _imcompetent_! You say it's no reason to die..." she continued in a hushed whisper. "I'd rather ask you what reason I have to _live_." "Because of all the people who care about you..." Hikari replied, fist shaking at her side. "No one _cares_ about someone useless. Pities them, maybe, or despises them... but not care. I am _not_ here to accept pity, and I will _not_ accept others despising me, and because of who and what I am, I _can_not_ be cared for..." "Damn it, Asuka! I care for you!" "Don't lie to me, Hikari. Everyone else is too good at that already." Hikari fell to her knees, looking at Asuka through tears. "_I_... I care about you." "Then let me do as I see fit," Asuka replied softly. Hikari began crying in force, looking at the floor. "Don't die. You don't have to die... don't... leave..." she sobbed, continuing as if talking aloud, but to herself. "I just don't want her to be hurt... why... Why?!" "Because there is something, or someone, for everyone else." Hikari smashed her fists into the floor, speaking firmly, yet also crying. "You have others... You have your friends, you have... you have me." "And you have... someone else," Asuka replied. "I will not interfere." "Do I? He hasn't even noticed me in that way." Her hands spread, then reflexively clenched again. "Love isn't always based on intimacy, Asuka." "No, it's based on understanding. Look at yourself. You're in no condition to offer me _anything_. The understanding has taken anything that could've been shared. And y---" Hikari cut her off then. "Understanding?! You're telling me I don't know how to understand? Look at yourself! Look at what you've been doing. You won't even give me, or anyone else, the _chance_! You want to love, and you refuse to _do_it_." "All my love will do is destroy. I won't do that." "What... do I have to do to make you understand? I'm not selfish, but... I want you to love me, because _I_love_you_, Asuka..." Hikari sobbed, thinking, 'God, I hope you see...', then adding, "If I can't make you love me... then just tell me what I'll have to do..." "Please, then," Asuka said coldly. "Be Ikari-chan." "I can only be who I am..." Hikari replied quietly. "That's all I can give you. It's all I'm worth." "Then it'll be enough, or it'll destroy us both." Asuka smiled sadly. "I don't want that." Hikari looked up, more than slightly surprised, with tears still falling from her eyes. "J..." she began, then shook her head and changed her mind. "Asuka, you have to let me know what you're thinking. I can't give you what I don't have... I'm here for you if you want, but you have to tell me _what_ you want." "You want to know what I want?" Hikari stood, already prepared for everything to come crashing straight down. "You choose," she said, no longer the crying girl from seconds before. "This is what I want: I want you to stop trying, as of now, because I will not drag you into this as well." The Class Representative with no class to represent looked down at Asuka, strength in her eyes, as the redhead continued. "You can't recover from death..." "No, Asuka... you can't." "Then I'm no better going that route... though otherwise means living with myself," Asuka said softly. 'Intent... hurts worse than deed.' "Then make your choice. Which way would you rather be living? Or dying? Kill yourself, or reject others, or learn about them and, in doing so, find out more about yourself." She watched for an answer. 'It may be all you have left.' Asuka shook her head. "My life has _always_ been on the line. After courting death this long, who's to say I won't be pushed over?" "The people who love you. All of them. When one can't protect you any longer, another will, because that's what they _want_ to do. But don't think about others. It's what _you_ want, in the end." "I _am_ that heartless," Asuka stated softly. "God help me, I am." "Impossible. Someone like that couldn't care about anyone, but you already do. You can't claim otherwise anymore. None of this happens if _you_don't_care_." Hikari turned and walked to the window, looking out at the sky. Unbidden, fresh tears began streaking Soryuu's cheeks. "Hi-kari..." she choked out, burying her face in her hands. "Yes?" the other asked, turning around and speaking softly. Shattered by sobs, she only choked out, "H... help me..." Hikari thought to speak momentarily, then pressed her lips together and walked slowly back until she found herself standing over Asuka, who simply cried, "Please...", her face still hidden in her hands. She slowly placed a hand on Asuka's shoulder, thinking, 'So, you know...' as Asuka wrapped both arms about her, the redhead burying her face in Hikari's right shoulder as she cried. Hikari slowly put her arms around Asuka, whispering to her softly. "How weak I've become..." came out through choked sobs. "Just realizing the truth of yourself," Hikari replied, still holding her 'charge' gently. A barely-recognizable whisper told her that, "The true 'myself' is always crying..." "You do..." Asuka stopped speaking, instead choosing to turn her head and bury her face in Hikari's neck, lips mixed with her own tears, just before a new round of tears began falling. "I what?" Hikari asked softly, gaining no reply through Asuka's tears. "It's all right..." she added, stroking red hair softly. "No it isn't," Asuka argued, lacking sufficient conviction to convince anyone of her intent. "Then... what do you want to say?" Hikari asked, overlapped by the reply, "I owe you my life..." Hikari didn't so much as blink as she said "I just want you to have... your life." Only then did she smile, and tear up. "The one I want to have my life..." the statement broke momentarily for a sob, then continued, "... He won't have it." "He cares about you," Hikari answered softly. "You should already know that he doesn't want to hurt you..." "Then why won't he..." she began, then stopped, seeming to regain her old form, if only for a moment. "This sucks!" Hikari chuckled, then replied, "That's because he's torn between two. He's unsure of himself, and of what he wants to do." "He's unsure of everything," Asuka stated certainly. "It's a perfect match." "A part of caring about someone _is_ understanding," Hikari half-explained. "He has his own feelings, just like you do." She then listened as Asuka said, in not so many words, that she hoped Shinji would find whatever he wanted, even if it was with Rei. 'Asuka, I'm proud of you...' she thought. "God damn it... I just wish he'd see it." "You started that earlier, before the ride here. You looked somewhat content, so... I think you may be on the right track. But don't kill yourself over it, either," Hikari said softly, getting the response she expected very quickly. "If I kill myself, any chance I have dies with me." "True," Hikari agreed, holding her more tightly, but smiling. "A chance worth living for..." Asuka said. 'And a poor choice if I happen to fail.' "The hell is this? Practice?" Asuka asked, laughing softly and blushing as Hikari kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Returning yours," Hikari answered quietly, slightly red herself. "I can't even keep a promise not to keep a promise," Asuka said, still laughing and shaking her head. "Which means you'll still have to keep the promise," Hikari chuckled, as both girls turned quite red. "You don't have to," Hikari stated gently, then blinked as Asuka returned that last kiss, and pushed her over. "Says you," Asuka replied, grinning despite the better portion of the blood vessels in her face being open as wide as they could go. "What's this? I win already?" she asked, still smiling through a reduced blush. "No..." Hikari replied, pulling them both to their feet and leading Asuka to the bed. "I'd just prefer not to have my head split open on the hard floor." Asuka pounced her, landing them both on the bed. They both slipped slightly, and yelped. 'I thought she said her sisters were here. They must sleep like they're in hibernation or something...' Asuka thought, laughing. "It's late, Asuka. We should get some rest." Asuka rolled off the other girl, lying next to her, with one arm still hooked under and around. "We'll probably wake someone if we don't." "It'd be worth it," Hikari replied, smiling. "Then why stop? If we haven't woken your sisters yet, it ain't gonna happen." "Because I don't want to accidentally fall asleep. That'd be... embarrassing," she said, chuckling. "Only if your alarm clock is Shinji or Touji," Asuka stated, smirking, as well as drawing a blink and a blush from Hikari. "But, if you're too tired to..." Hikari pulled Asuka close, giving her a long, slow kiss. One set of eyebrows went up, as if to say, "Well, that answers _that_." After a few moments, all action ceased. "Let's go to sleep, Asuka." "You forgot your other clothes," Hikari said as Asuka's head hit her pillow with a soft thud. "Testing today... is going to be without plug suits anyway. I won't miss out," Asuka said, laughing. "What does that mean, exactly?" Hikari asked, gulping. "Oh, Shinji-kun, Ayanami, and I are going to be run through seventeen wash cycles buck naked and do harmonics testing directly with the Evas without our normal 'gear'. "Ah." She blinked. "Did that make _any_ sense at all?" "Except that it doesn't answer the question about your clothes. Otherwise, yes it does." "Well, going that route, clothes aren't going to matter terribly much anyway. Though, if I catch Shinji looking at Rei in that walkway... I think... I don't know what I'll do. Probably faint so I can't do any more damage," Asuka said, chuckling. "Guess that means I don't get to see you in those loose-fitting clothes again, then," Hikari replied, giving Asuka a devious grin before breaking out in a fit of laughter. "Well..." Asuka said, bringing a blush from Hikari, then blushing again when she repeated herself. "Well, what?" Hikari asked nervously, still somewhat red. "Nah... it's nothing you've not seen before." was overlapped by "Ummm..." and a blush. "You sleep. I'll decide," Asuka said, laughing softly. "Sleep well, Hikari." She kissed the other girl softly on the cheek. "Pleasant dreams." Hikari brought a hand to her cheek, then smiled and laid a hand and arm across Asuka. "You too." ------------------------------------ The quintet began their descent down the main shaft, heading straight for the basement. The trip looked like nothing so much as a trip down a quickly-abandoned mine shaft. Very few lights surrounding the area of descent marked entrances to various levels and access tunnels, and also provided the very minimal sight on the descent. Not, of course, that there was much to see. Aside from being more than a little scorched and scraped from the Fourteenth Angel's use of the shaft, which no one had yet had the time to repair due to more pressing concerns, it was still completely functional, including the service elevator they were presently using. Below them, the light slowly became less, and before long the five were descending in near-total darkness. ---------------------------------- Central Dogma: Depth 2008 Meters Terminal Dogma ---------------------------------- Within the depths, at the end of the ride, softly audible beeps came from a small computer terminal. The screen displayed in a harsh light: Main L.C.L. Plant - Circulation Line #3 - KEEP OUT At that terminal, Ritsuko Akagi slipped her access card through the scanner just to the right of the interface. The screen remained still for a moment, then gave a loud beep and an equally-obnoxious error message. Ritsuko, annoyed, frowned at the screen. "I see you've found out that I decided to change the access code," Ryouji said, smirking as Misato did all she could to keep from laughing at Ritsuko's plight. "_You_ did?" Shinji asked incredulously. "Of course," Ryouji replied, stepping up behind Ritsuko and nudging her aside. "It wasn't too hard, you see, but it took a goodly little bit of time." He continued as he typed. "You didn't think I'd let a secret this big remain the sole property of NERV, did you?" He laughed softly. "Now, obviously they don't come down here very often, or I'd most likely be dead by now. Your father's probably letting me do what I want for now... though if he was expecting this, that's another story." "Isn't that overly... risky?" Shinji asked, not noticing Ritsuko, who was standing around looking partially stunned, but mostly annoyed. "Perhaps, but I was expecting to have given my final gifts. I suppose I had a change of plans." "Idiot," Misato and Shinji practically spat at him. Ryouji grinned, stopping just before he punched in the last of the code. "Can I have your card, Ritsu?" he asked her softly, then spoke loudly to the others. "All right, Major Katsuragi. It's time to make a decision. Care to answer your unknown first, or show them the 'big' surprise?" "You're the guide," Misato replied. Ryouji got the card from a slightly reluctant Ritsuko Akagi, then input the final two digits. "In that case, why backpedal when we can go straight through from the beginning? Big secrets are always more fun to blow right from the beginning. So, ladies and gentlemen, if you'll just take a look to your right and fasten your seatbelts, welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth..." He swiped the card with a grandiose flourish and a slight smirk, watching as the doors began opening at a snail's pace. As the doors began to truly slide out of the way, Shinji's eyes grew wide, nearly echoing the sharp gasp from his mouth. Unfortunately for him, he was the only one to show any surprise. Both Rei and Misato looked at the scene before them almost completely impassively, though likely for different reasons. After a very few moments, all eyes came to rest on Ritsuko, whose own eyes narrowed slightly, hardening her expression as she walked past the still-opening doors and up to the edge of the LCL pool that surrounded the creature hung on the cross. That selfsame creature stared out blankly through the seven eye slits of the mask which had been imposed on its face. Oversized, white, almost human arms spread one to a side and were nailed through the hand to the cross behind. The body itself trailed off after the midsection into hundreds of small growths which appeared to be leaking the yellow-orange liquid which filled the lake below it. Implanted in the middle of the chest, as it had been for some time, was a large, red, double-tined lance which very nearly twisted the eye out of the skull to look at. "Still quite impressive," Ryouji said, pocketing the card. "What the hell is this?" Shinji asked, more than a little incredulous. "This, my dear boy, is the key to the Instrumentality Project, and everything before and after. It's both the cause, and the main driving force," Ryouji explained. "Adam," Misato whispered. "Okay, stupid question..." Shinji said. "Why's it hung up there like that?" Misato looked at Ryouji, who blinked before saying, "I don't know. I know why it's kept down here..." Ritsuko smirked appreciatively, though no one there could see her face. "Not as great as you thought you were, now are you?" she asked Ryouji, pointing to one of the nails. "Naturally, those are in place to restrain it from escaping. This particular position, of course, is so we can keep a steady supply of LCL." 'Not as if it could escape...' she thought, then continued, speaking to the giant, "You've grown since the last time." "Huh?" Shinji grunted, confused. "This giant is the Source of life itself, not the harbinger of destruction. LCL could be considered the soup of life..." Ritsuko trailed off. "You mean I've been... _breathing_ this stuff?!" Shinji asked unsteadily before promptly throwing up. Ritsuko knelt down before the golden pool and ran her left hand through it, letting the liquid drip off of her fingers. "It's not at all dangerous. You already know its use. Are we devils, taking what one creature bleeds and drinking its blood? More... It's a way of survival." "No, we're not devils," Shinji said in a soft, dark voice. "We've just created them." 'He could be Misato's offspring, if it came down to it...' Ritsuko thought idly. "It's not the most inspiring of humanity's moments," Misato agreed. "Perhaps not, but it's still _very_ impressive," Ryouji said. "Live _is_ impressive..." Ritsuko said, regaining her feet. "That much can, at least, be said. Why shouldn't the 'Source of Life' be just as impressive?" "Impressive isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe it, and certainly not _that_," Shinji said, shaking his head. "Ryouji," Ritsuko continued, ignoring Shinji, "at least have enough sense to do your research properly next time." "Huh?" Ryouji asked, quite miffed. "You called this being Adam. Naturally, you're the one who delivered Adam to the Commander, so you assumed that just because it was restored to an embryonic form that the Commander would regrow it," Ritsuko said. "What purpose would that serve?" "How should I know? I'm not an expert in that field." "Then I'm surprised that the Japanese Government takes no interest in it. I'm sure you've at least touched on Jewish folklore," Ritsuko said to him. "Not extensively, no." "This is the spirit of the storm, the great night. Adam's first wife, even before Eve." Shinji glanced at the Giant, then at Ryouji, then spoke. "Lilith, I think." "That's right," Ritsuko said, turning on Ryouji. "Don't feel very proud now, do you Kaji?" She quickly turned back to the others. "This is Lilith, the original Source of life, who despises Adam." "Guess I was wrong," Shinji said, in a rather offhand tone. "That _makes_ us demons." "It may describe our more negative traits," she said, walking to the group, looking rather impressive as she walked away from the huge cross behind her. "Lilith fled Adam over a simple argument, and refused to return at the bidding of three Angels. The great Lilith herself became a demon through her rage and jealousy, attempting to ensnare the children of Adam and Eve. We look at our negative traits, our thoughts of destruction, and debauchery... this is Lilith acting within us. Though she failed, who's to say that she didn't partially succeed? The seeds of evil were planted in us through the foolishness of the Parents and the jealousy of the Mother. You could divide us into two halves: Cain and Abel." "If it's so evil, why not just destroy it? The world can maintain its own balance between good and evil without a big white thing hanging on a cross in our collective basement," Shinji said. "We become no better," Rei said quietly, speaking for the first time. Ritsuko paused for a moment before answering, listening to what Rei said, but continued with her own words. "Think of this as Lilith making penance for her crime by helping us keep humanity alive. Aside from that, if we were to destroy the one who helped to create us, isn't it akin to destroying God? The Cain in us would win out... humanity would have no hope for purity then." "Doesn't that all depend on whether or not you believe that? I don't see that this _thing_ bears any resemblance to us... and we certainly don't bleed LCL," Shinji said, then dropped his voice. "More likely, this is one of Father's ideas, brainwashing people with falsehoods..." "Perhaps, and perhaps not. Truths of the past come to pass, and change over time. But, never think that everything is what it seems. There's always more than what's really there," Ritsuko said, pointing up at the creature. "If it were my decision, this thing would be locked up deep underground never to see the light of day, or even of this subterranean layer two kilometers under the Earth's surface, ever again. Rest assured, it has other purposes." "That's not very reassuring." "No doubt," Ritsuko replied, answering the statement that had come from three different mouths. "Okay Ritsuko," Ryouji said. "Since you know so much, would you mind explaining something that I didn't understand last time around and still don't know?" "Like proper hacking skills?" Ritsuko asked coldly. 'What a poor time for humour, though I think she's serious,' Shinji thought silently. "Very funny. I meant the red thing sticking out of its chest." "Lancea Longini," Rei stated quietly. "What?" Shinji asked, glancing at Rei. "Lancea Longini," she repeated. "Yes, I can see that." "You are misinterpreting the name. It is called Lancea Longini, Lance of Longinus. It does not mean Long Lance." "Okay, Kaji, can we just go back to your question? I think you meant what it's for, not what the name of it is," Shinji said, half paying attention to the apparently Latin-fluent Rei who was regarding the Lance quietly. Ryouji looked at Ritsuko for an answer, but she was cut off before she even began speaking by Rei, who simply said, "Restraint." "O-kay... Though, I would think that stabbing something through the chest would more likely kill than restrain..." Shinji said, nodding very slowly. "She is the Source of life. The Source can't be destroyed as simply as stabbing it," Rei explained, watching him out of the corner of her eye. "Anything is possible, really..." "O-kay... I may be a _complete_ idiot, but why is _this_ the biggest secret?" Shinji asked, then dropped his voice for Ryouji's hearing alone. "Or did you literally mean 'the biggest'?" "It depends on your point of view. At least for the literal," Ryouji whispered to Shinji. "Isn't keeping the mother of all life in your basement about the biggest surprise you could pull on someone?" Misato asked generally, resisting the urge to grab Shinji by the ear and forcibly pull him aside. "No," Ritsuko answered her curtly. "Fine, then, it's time to move on. Apparently the good doctor thinks she has something cluttering this place that will impress us more than this." Ritsuko quickly snatched her card from Ryouji, sliding it through the scanner so the door would close as they left. "You're the one who wants your questions answered, Major. I'm simply a conduit." She turned back to Ryouji and tossed him the card. "Open the Underground Facilities Elevator." Ryouji caught the card cleanly, then used it on a slot that barely even seemed to exist. "Only human-sized access to the belly of the beast. Shall we?" Shinji followed him, seeming to take the trip remarkably well thus far. He was followed by Rei, who actually beat him through the door, then followed Ritsuko, snatching her card back once more, and finally Misato, who was staring coldly at the back of Ritsuko's head. Shinji soon began looking around quietly at the elevator, and startled quickly when Misato nudged him and said, "Yeah, really impressive, huh..." "How come you're not afraid of anything, Misato-san?" Shinji asked quietly. "No one ever said _that_," Misato said, just as softly. "I'd just rather not worry right now." Shinji watched her for a moment, then returned to staring at the 'walls'. Everyone else quickly amused themselves by looking in opposite directions, staring impassively at their surroundings, and at least pretending that they were not worried in the slightest. As they did, Ritsuko tapped a few keys on a numbered pad, and the doors slid shut on the apparently glass elevator, which began moving downward at a steady speed, although with nothing to truly base the idea of movement on, only the feeling of motion was truly there. The beams of energy surrounding the elevator, serving as a shaft, entwined with one another, creating a spark of red light in the void. "What the hell is this?" Shinji asked. "Speak politely," Ritsuko chided. "It's a shaft which connects the upper layers of Terminal Dogma to the lower layers where all the... storage is kept. Nothing more." "But how does it stay steady without being connected to the wall?" Shinji asked, purely curious. "Energy," Ritsuko said, rather loudly as she had to compete with a chuckling Ryouji Kaji. "I wouldn't know..." "I don't think you want me to explain the various laws of physics which support this structure. You'll most likely collapse from boredom. Isn't that right, Misato?" she asked, hinting at something. "How should I know? The only laws of physics sustaining this thing are the laws against the saviours of mankind plummeting to their collective deaths," Misato replied, grinning oddly. "You're so positive..." "Of course!" Misato agreed, still smiling. Shinji looked more than a tad nervous, though that passed when Rei took one of his hands in one of hers. "Don't worry, Shin-chan," she said softly. "It is not... dangerous." He nodded, eyes wide for a slow moment, then returned to their normal size as he seemed to relax somewhat. "Better?" Rei asked softly, gaining an affirmative response. "Ritsuko... you'll explain this later. I know how it _should_ work, but I didn't know the technology existed." "You haven't been down here very often, have you. You may have seen some more of it and had a better chance to analyze it." "Up there is as far as I've seen," Ryouji replied. "I see," Ritsuko replied, smiling sadly at Ryouji's upturned thumb. With the exception of Ritsuko, everyone, Rei included, ended up tapping their feet as the elevator continued its descent. Nothing changed, with the possible exception of the intensity of the red glow. Ritsuko took that as a sign, and tapped a few keys, causing the elevator to double in speed, staggering everyone slightly. "How long is this?" Shinji asked. "Not much farther now. Hold on to something." Shinji, standing in the middle of the platform, looked around quickly, finding himself quite indecisive. Misato, noting that there were no real handholds, pulled Shinji to her and held on, bracing herself against the wall, just in case. 'Oh, geez... It can't be _that_ bad...' Shinji thought, noting that Rei was standing against a wall, looking quite unconcerned. He saw that Ryouji had likewise plastered himself against the wall, waiting as they all were for _something_ to happen. Even Ritsuko put a hand on the door frame. Then, suddenly, the elevator halted quite suddenly. With the exceptions of Ritsuko and Rei, they ended up doing their best to maintain their balance. Unfortunately, in the attempt, Shinji managed to trip Misato, then trip over her. Completely unfazed, Ritsuko tapped a few keys, causing the door to open. "Come on," she said, exiting the elevator. Shinji slowly climbed to his feet, none the worse for wear, though Misato came up groaning and trying to shake off the pain. "Err, sorry..." Shinji said. "S'alright," Misato replied, taking a wobbly step before walking normally out of the elevator. "Glad I could protect you." "Okay," Shinji nodded. "Let's go, then." "You can still get back in and leave," Ritsuko told them all. "No chance in hell," Ryouji replied, grinning. Rei looked at Shinji placidly, though also somewhat expectantly. "... What?" he asked after a moment. "I'm waiting for you," Rei answered quietly. "W-why? I'm not the guide." "You're why I'm here," she replied, laying a hand on his shoulder from behind. "Let's go." Shinji agreed with a nod, and after a soft nudge from Rei, was quickly out of the elevator. -------------------------------------------- Central Dogma: Deep Underground Facilities Terminal Dogma -------------------------------------------- "This was the reference, wasn't it?" Ryouji asked himself, gazing slowly down the left and right ends of a _very_ long corridor. "What was?" Misato queried discreetly. "Hmm? Nothing. Just a piece of information passed my way about Terminal Dogma..." he murmured. "Well, Ritsuko? This is your show now," Misato said, nodding to her. "Lead on." Ritsuko, taking her lead, looked around, then turned and began walking down the hallway to the left without offering a word of warning to anyone. Everyone else quickly turned and hurried after her, all holding to their own thoughts, thus maintaining the silence of the 'earth'. Ryouji and Misato hung slightly back, wearing hardened expressions as nondescript walls and the soft glow of lighting passed by for nigh-on eternity. "So... where are we going?" Misato asked softly, finally breaking the silence to a degree. "To the beginning," came the reply from the darkness ahead. "The beginning? The beginning of what?" "... The beginning of everything," Ritsuko replied, drowning every other sound in silence. Misato returned to the silence as well, and the group continued their trek down the eerily-lit corridor. The only sound reverberating in the near-total darkness was the sound of footsteps, echoing so that the sound was of an army marching, not a small group of five. Against that sound were pitted slight indescribable sounds in the distance, and the hum of machinery and the few corridor lights. 'This place is _huge_!' Shinji thought. 'You could fit an _army_ of Evas in here!' Rei's eyes rested on an off-shoot of the main corridor as they passed it by, then turned to face forward as soon as they were past it. The same was repeated twice more with small sub-corridors like the first. To the best of Shinji's knowledge, there was nothing at all different about any of them, but Rei ignored all the rest. "Ritsuko... we need _something_ to get us there faster. Or are you going to tell me that this place just _is_ this long?" Misato complained. Ritsuko ignored her faithfully, walking for a while longer, then simply pulled up short at the end of the incredibly long corridor. "We're here," she stated simply, tapping a few numbers on the panel accompanying the door. Slowly, just as far above, the doors began to slide apart, and Doctor Akagi quickly disappeared through them into the room beyond. The room itself was bathed in complete darkness. Not even so much as an exit sign lit the room. Everyone else slowly filed in to just inside the doorway, each shaking just slightly, not at all sure what to expect from this new room. As soon as they all passed the threshold, the door slowly snapped shut. "Ladies... Gentlemen..." Ritsuko's voice came down from somewhere in the darkness beyond. "This is the beginning of... everything." Suddenly, the lights kicked on, catching everyone by surprise. Shinji was the only one to make a noise, a slight gasp. Everyone else just stared in wide-eyed amazement at the room before them. Bank upon bank of lights lit in succession, starting at the door and trailing towards the recesses of the chamber. Several paces away from them a huge spinal column rose. It held a tint much more gray than white, and trailed down into a pit below. Higher, the incomplete skeletal structure had produced both shoulders and arms, which trailed down below the main floor as well. Towering above them was the head, the only truly complete portion of the thing in front of them. Straight down to the colouring, it looked like Unit Zero before the refits it had undergone after being nearly liquefied by Ramiel's particle beam, with the exception being that the face contained not one, but five eyes. Beyond the first construct, others lay on the ground or were hung up in a similar fashion. Most were no more than a head and spine, but others were nearly as complete as the one hanging in the foyer. None, however, appeared to have any kind of hip or leg constructs to them. All had five eyes. "Shinji, Rei..." Ritsuko said softly, though in a way that carried through the vast room, "These are your beginnings, in particular." "Our... beginnings?" Shinji asked, shocked and confused. Rei merely blinked, though that was sign enough of surprise. "Of course! I guess you could call this... practice," Ritsuko said, her voice changing slightly. "They almost look cute, don't they?" She smiled sardonically. "Remind you two of someone you know?" Shinji remained silent, eyes belying the remainder of shock in his system. Rei, however, stepped slowly forward until she stood just in front of the closest of the 'failures', the one on which Ritsuko appeared a few moments later, standing on its head. "It looks like Unit Zero with... five eyes," Misato said, simply staring at the thing. Rei remained staring at the thing intently, not even the motion of breath visible to mark her as alive. "Ritsuko, why does it have five eyes?" Misato asked. "Perhaps the better to see you with... Perhaps just the designer's choice. The original, of course, only had two... served as a design technique, and perhaps to remind us of how they are separated from humans and Angels, even if they are similar." "Of _course_ the original had two..." Misato grumbled, eyes on Ritsuko as the thing was slowly lowered until its 'face' was resting at floor level. Like everyone else, she failed to notice as Rei slowly reached out to touch the head with her left hand. "Then why does 'our' Zero only have one eye?" "A modified design," Ritsuko said quietly. "Why modify it?" "... Change, of course. Unit One was termed unusable, so a new functional model was required. The first copies of the Angel, Adam, all rest here. We took data from the Unit One design and meshed it with the data from these attempts to give birth to Unit Zero. The Prototype, at least in terms of being the first to be used for other than initial activation. The first of its kind." "Zero wasn't activated first?" Misato asked. "That doesn't make _any_ sense." "After our last one of these failures, we reworked the design with the data from Unit One to build the Zero. The Zero's design was originally scrapped, and the model itself forgotten, because Unit One had supplanted it as the main project. However, with the data from Unit One, we were actually able to rework a failure by combining the basics with the slight differences found in the One design. Zero was never activated, in the sense that when it was attached to power, it failed to translate that power into motion of any kind, so it was abandoned in favour of Unit One, which did move when powered. The modification that was made for today's Unit Zero was really taking one step back to move two forward. That's also why Unit One is different from the other Units. The others were all based off of the combination of the original Zero and One, which is what we call Unit One." At that exact moment, Rei's hand came into contact with the face. Then, also, Shinji spared a glance at her as Ritsuko's mini-lecture ended, simply wondering what she was doing. He thought to remain silent about it, but that proved impossible as the blue-haired girl screamed. Both Misato and Ryouji spun to the source of the noise, all but having their sidearms in hand. Rei quickly pulled her hand away, holding her left arm against her, looking at the Eva with her eyes squinted in pain. Her breath came in small, ragged gasps. Interestingly, Shinji was the first to cover the ground between the door and Rei, catching her right hand in both of his. "Rei?" 'What?' Ritsuko asked herself, looking down at the two. "... Barren," Rei commented, quietly pulling her hand away from Shinji, staring idly at the Eva's head. For his part, Shinji nodded, rather miffed. "Anything else, Misato?" Ritsuko asked, apparently disregarding Rei. "No... I-I don't think so," Misato said, recovering her voice. "That is, unless there's something else here that I've missed." "Of course you have... But live with it," Ritsuko commented, turning to face Shinji from the heights. "I'm surprised you don't have some memories thanks to this room, Shinji." "I've never been here before. There's nothing to remember," Shinji stated firmly. "Perhaps, though you should recognize one or two of our friends here, and a good deal of the equipment," Ritsuko replied, disappearing behind the giant head. "Sorry to disappoint, but it doesn't look any more familiar now than it did before." Ritsuko's reply came from somewhere behind that head. "Traumatic experiences tend to render that result. It isn't surprising." "What isn't surprising?" Shinji wondered aloud. Ritsuko reappeared from behind the head, standing beside it on the floor. "The setup here is similar. You really have forgotten, perhaps for the better. You were watching when your mother disappeared... Being unable to remember that is part of such an experience." "What I have of her, I have in my heart," Shinji said, nearly borrowing an exact statement from his father. "That memory is enough." "Then you have more than enough, because you have more," Ritsuko said, walking down a staircase near the base of the head. "Then you know more than me. Somehow, I'm not surprised," he answered her, looking more than a little shock-detached. "Still, it wasn't a question I came here with. I have the time, after all." The leader appeared on the main floor, walking into the distance of the Evangelion graveyard, speaking aloud as she continued to follow the nearly-dark path into the recesses of the room. The acoustics must have been near-perfect. "A graveyard is all this is now, isn't it?" She very suddenly disappeared from even the keenest eye's sight. "Ritsuko?!" The exclamation hung in the air for a moment, bouncing off of the walls. After that moment, silence echoed in response. Both Misato and Ryouji looked ready to draw weapons against the silence, as though it would do the least amount of good. Suddenly, quietly, a red light flooded the room, displacing the normal 'white' lighting. The floor of the graveyard, below the actual metallic floor, remained jet black even as the room became lost in a sea of red. Anyone looking at Rei's eyes in that moment, eyes almost devoid of expression yet filled with that red light, would very nearly have had the life scared out of them. Everything else took on a similar contrast. Anything in red or white shone red, while anything else was black as a clouded night. Within that hellish relief, an alarm rang to life, causing everyone to jump. "What the hell is that?" Misato asked loudly. "A setup?" Ryouji asked in return, gun already in hand, the safety quickly switched off. "If it is, they didn't choose a good place," Misato said, drawing her gun, even as she continued to look around. At the back of the room, a solid wall began to slide down into the floor. With no way to see in the red-and-black, there was also no exit. Misato and Ryouji were both turning slow circles, watching for any sign of imminent danger. Then, just as suddenly, the alarm ceased to ring. The red lighting died off, supplanted by the normal incandescent white. In the new room revealed by that sliding wall, which, they now realized, they had only seen the motion of because of white lighting within the room, Ritsuko was standing on what appeared to be a floating platform utilizing the same energy and magnetism idea of the previous elevator. "Rit-suko?" Shinji called timidly. "Put away your weapons," Ritsu commanded. "You don't need them." "I certainly do," Ryouji replied, grinning darkly. "I intend to shoot you in the foot." Ritsuko removed a small control pad from somewhere upon her person and pressed a button, causing smoke to begin billowing from below the Eva head situated closest to the remaining four on the ground. The sound of billowing smoke slowly gave way to the hissing of decompression as Misato and Ryouji stood in near awe. "What the hell?!" Misato asked loudly. "Stand back." Misato, Ryouji, and Shinji all but leapt away from the head. Rei, in contrast, simply stepped back slowly, as though she commanded time itself, and danger would come only after she had allowed it to. Once she was a scant few steps away, a bar of white light shot directly up from the floor of the graveyard on all sides, outlining its edges. The entire floor of the graveyard beyond began to rise, Evas and all, towards the ceiling. Ritsuko apparently slipped through the middle of this on her elevated pad, and all watched as the floor's bottom rose over Ritsuko's head, lit by that nearly blinding white light. Once the clearance was about twice as tall as the doctor herself, the graveyard 'floor' ceased to rise, yet there was still at least another hundred meters of clearance to the roof. The white light receded as soon as the floor stopped rising, and eventually ceased altogether, leaving Ritsu as the only source of 'visible light' in the area. "Not only can we create the dead," Misato grumbled, audible only to Ryouji, "We can _wake_ them, too." "Once they remain alive, eternal life will be the next goal of humanity... Bullshit." A string of lights began appearing from Ritsuko's platform straight across what used to be the space above the graveyard and was now the space below it, leading straight to where the others were standing, then twisting and descending deep into the area below the observation platform Misato and the rest stood on. The visible lights proved to be small markers, like guides on an actual track, which they were. The track itself split the room neatly in half, the reason behind the split in the floor. Slowly, the platform began gliding to the others, bearing Ritsuko in all of her demure, serious majesty. "Okay, Ritsuko, you can stop showing off now," Misato grumbled. "Hardly the case," Ritsuko replied, slowing the platform to a momentary stop. "Hurry." "What?" "Get on the platform," Ritsuko commanded. Everyone, even Rei, hurriedly, hopped aboard. Ritsuko pressed a button, and the platform began gliding again, heading onto that twist of 'track' that lead below the main floor. "What's the rush?" Shinji asked. "What's the reason for being here? I don't care. I would just rather leave before this becomes too involved," Ritsuko said. After the moments of silence that followed her reply, the platform stopped in the middle of the room, albeit lower than it had been. The course then became a straight descent into the darkness. All the red lighting above, as well as the little white lighting from the back room, quickly ceased to be. With the exception of the edges of the platform itself, and the track, the darkness was soon complete. "She always was too much of a showman..." Misato groused. "It's tempting," Ritsuko said quietly, "to jump from here..." Misato promptly smacked her upside the head. "You don't get out that easily. Keep your mind on your work, just like you always did." "Don't forget that I'm _allowing_ you here, Major! This can be called off at any time. You have _no_ authority here whatsoever!" Ritsuko all but screamed at her. "The only reason you have even a semblance of dignity right now is because you chose to _help_ instead of leading this expedition at gunpoint!" Misato countered hotly. 'Call it whatever you want,' Ritsuko thought quietly. "Ritsuko-san?" Shinji asked quietly, in an attempt to calm everyone down and stop a fight from ensuing, a fight which could result in a death. "I never got to ask about what you said before. What did you mean by Unit One being termed unusable? What was that about?" "Well..." she replied, completely off-hand and in a voice the sound of which seemed meant to provoke, "I suspect that you wouldn't agree that the destruction of a human life and the stealing of its soul would be sufficient cause." Shinji simply glared at her. "Where is this going?" Ryouji asked, also attempting to keep a fight from breaking out. 'There's no record of an extension to the 'graveyard'...' "I assumed as much," she said, ignoring Ryouji. "Let's just say that no one really trusted it before that little... accident. It was different enough to warrant that caution." 'Then why lift it?' Shinji thought, watching her. "I didn't expect you'd have anything to say," Ritsuko said, chuckling softly. "Just be patient. Or would you rather I increased the speed? There's nothing on this one to keep you from falling off when it comes time to stop us. We _could_ all die if I did that..." The elevator continued to descent, despite the grumbling from Ryouji and the murmuring about barrenness from Rei. Eventually, however, the platform did come to a stop in the darkness. By that time, Ryouji had gone from bitching to simply looking cross. Ritsuko, at that point, held out her control pad and pressed a different button, causing the area to light up. Three extremely large kiosks inhabited the space in front of the elevator. The scene looked like nothing so much as an obscene artist's rendition of a marriage between high technology and Gothic architecture. The floor extended out in shades of white and gold, while the kiosks themselves were combinations of white, gray, silver, and black. 'Not only is it a "shouldn't exist"... It's a really _big_ "shouldn't exist"...' Ryouji thought sullenly. Without a word of warning, Ritsuko took off for the kiosk on the far left. Shinji followed first, looking more than a little intimidated, and was himself followed by Rei, with Misato and Ryouji bringing up the rear. The door opened after a few keytaps on a number pad beside it, and Ritsuko lead the travelers into the pitch. "It's bright enough in here," Shinji commented. Ritsuko clicked a button on her own keypad and the lights came up quickly, just as the door clanged shut behind them, revealing a docking area for an Eva, much like the 'cages' in Central Dogma. The five humans were standing in front of a large pool of coolant, out of which rose the head of a jet black Evangelion head. The head itself looked almost exactly like that of Unit Three, except the jaw piece was incomplete. Half of the armour covering was complete, but the other half revealed bared teeth, and a few empty sockets. Shinji, upon sight, backpedaled _very_ quickly, tripping over Rei and landing flat on his rear, still squirming backwards as muffled sounds escaped from his lips. "S... a... Sa..." Misato attempted, awestruck. "Unit Three Kai. One of my little pet projects," Ritsuko announced proudly, grinning. "Not bad..." Ryouji said, joking, "but the nose is too long." With that he began giggling madly. With the exception of Shinji, who was too unhinged to think much of _anything_, everyone looked at Ryouji like he was some kind of blood-soaked alien. Rei, after momentarily thinking along those lines took to looking quietly at Shinji, who still looked terrified out of his mind. Ritsuko, however, looked about ready to beat any sense Ryouji had left in him right out. "There is no problem with the external armour. This Unit is exact," she said icily. "Then why is the mouthpiece only half-complete?" Ryouji asked, quite serious. "I haven't exactly had the time to... fit that yet." "What the hell are you doing rebuilding that thing?" Misato asked, voice obviously regained after a look at Shinji, who was still staring wide-eyed at Three Kai. "How _can_ you rebuild that thing?!" "Because humanity needs a future... and this will be part of that future. The destruction of the original was not in accordance with the wishes of NERV," Ritsuko explained calmly. 'Ikari's damn initiative,' Misato thought. "Then just what are those 'wishes'? A free target for the next Angel that wants to possess an Evangelion?" "It would certainly be easier to handle than the last Angel we faced. Still, we have the Unit, and we have a pilot. Therefore, we will make use of what we have." "Pilot?" Misato blinked. "The Fifth?" "There is no data available on the whereabouts of the Fifth. That is not an option." "But... Suzuhara's in the hospital, so---" Ritsuko promptly cut her off. "And is none the worse for the wear, I assure you." Shinji listened to the exchange in silence, and were it humanly possible, it looked as if he should be sprouting a battle aura visible halfway across the world. "_He's_ piloting this thing?!" Misato asked incredulously. "It has already been decided." "By who? Ikari? You?!" Aside from the conversation, Shinji had regained his feet, and had that more-than-slightly-deranged look on his face which had been there only once before: the argument after the Bardiel battle. Obvious to Rei and Ryouji, who were looking, was the fact that he looked quite ready to perform various dismemberments and disfigurations on Ritsuko with his bare hands. Whatever shred of sanity remained, it was the only one left. "Suzuhara," Ritsuko answered. Misato looked like she had just been punched in the stomach; more than slightly stunned, and obviously having lost the battle. Shinji's hands shook, and his soft voice belied the fire that should have been rising from his eyes and lighting his hair. "He... what?" "Chose to try again. Not much for brains... but the kid's got spirit. I'll give him that much." Shinji remained stock-still, stuck in seeming disbelief. "But... he's injured..." "Correction: He _was_ injured," Ritsuko interjected. Shinji shook his head slightly, still apparently unable to come to terms with everything he was being forced to assimilate. He backed up another step, trying to comprehend her meaning. "What do you mean, he _was_ injured? Unit One crushed half the bones in his body! You don't just _recover_ from that!" Misato voiced. "The majority of his injuries were able to be healed through time, medicine, and some intensive surgery, though the amputation of his left leg was a different story..." Shinji had reverted to a purely self-protecting state, face buried in his hands, attempting to shut off all sensory input. "He agreed to have the limb physically replaced," Ritsuko continued, ignoring the balled-up Shinji. "Replaced? How? Prosthesis would adversely affect his return to the Eva, wouldn't it? It would be an amazing feat of engineering to make that work with the neural interface." "Which is why we biologically engineered the new limb." "Of course," Misato said, somewhat depressed. "If we can make something like an Eva, growing a leg couldn't be _that_ hard, could it?" "DNA copying and restructuring. Minor, when compared to an Eva, but more intricate due to the unique code needed to produce the proper result. I could while the night away explaining the intricacies of it all to you, but you'd need a severe background in molecular biology to understand the half of it." "Though far less risky. A cloned leg can't steal a soul." "Why rebuild _this_ one?" Ryouji asked, studying the Eva. "It would be very simple. The original Unit was mostly destroyed, though pieces of it remained in one form or another. One of its hands, for instance, is from the original. Using this, and the schematics for the Unit Three Production Model, regrowing Unit Three wasn't all that great a difficulty. If pieces of it hadn't still remained, it would've no doubt taken much longer..." Ritsuko explained. 'Or... so it seems.' "It's one God-awfully ugly bastard..." Ryouji said darkly, though in jest. Off on the side, Rei spoke softly to Shinji, something that none of the others heard. Apparently, it had its intended effect, as Shinji pulled his face from his hands and looked up at her. "You do yourself no good to turn away from this fear," she stated quietly. "You know that." "It's like... meeting a ghost," Shinji replied softly. Rei turned around and stared at the Eva, rubbing her left arm gently. "Yes." Shinji regained his feet slowly, still looking at Rei, who was in turn watching him. Neither were truly looking at the Evangelion. "You think so, Kaji-san?" Ritsuko asked. "It still has its advantages." "All of which were taken advantage of by the Angel. I saw _that_ while you and Misato remained within the debris of Matsushiro." "Oh, I wouldn't say all," Ritsuko replied slyly. "Granted, we haven't incorporated the Solenoid theory into this one... the Angel had that on it, but a human knows how a humanoid body works better than an Angel would." She grinned suddenly. "Remember what you saw, Kaji." "No doubt about that. Impressive... Advantageous, perhaps." "Just consider what a pilot who knew how to utilize those strengths would fare." "But why bother creating these blasted demons? Their purpose isn't going to end after humanity is saved from the Angels, is it." It came out as much more of a statement than a question, though it could've been either. "Even if it doesn't, I would prefer that to their purpose being cut short because there aren't any humans left to _save_," Ritsuko replied in kind. "But... why subject anyone else to what we can already handle? Why break one more person in the process of 'saving humanity'?" Shinji asked. "The 'person' made the choice to save humanity. The wish has been granted." "Yeah," Shinji agreed darkly. "Great way to grant a wish. Hand him a sword and tell him to go fall on it for 'humanity's future'. I won't let him go." "It's not your choice... and he would agree with me. You can argue with him yourself... He'll be paroled later today." "Why wait for anyone else's choice or decision?" Shinji asked, in an almost impossible cold rage. "No one else ever seems to. If anyone else can make that choice for someone else in the interest of saving humankind, then I can do the same thing to save a life. Unless that's not what you care about..." "You can argue with him yourself. He will be paroled later. I'm not here to debate the value of life with you." "Only because you don't value it anyway," Shinji said, almost inaudibly. Ritsuko refrained from smacking him, instead pretending that she hadn't heard, choosing to speak to the assembly in general. "A few sections of the Evangelion are still being generated. The time frame before completion is estimated to be within a week. The core for the Unit has also remained unchanged." "Oh, that's really good. That means we're dealing with a potential repeat of 'last time'," Misato growled. "As of yet, the Angels have all been different. There is no guarantee of another occurrence," Ritsuko replied, already headed for the exit. "And they've also gotten stronger, faster, smarter, and several have even built upon the strengths of former Angels. We've already seen two takeover attempts, Ritsuko. Trouble sires three children. The mistake isn't mine when we allow that birth." "Ready to shed the blame as a snake it's skin?" Ritsuko shook her head. "There have been modifications. The United States' First Branch constructed the original. The errors they made in the design have been corrected." She left before any reply could be made. Everyone else left, Shinji trailing along very slowly at the back of the pack, even stopping to take one last look over his shoulder at Unit Three Kai, then hurrying after the others to avoid being left behind. The door snapped shut neatly behind him, and he jumped to catch up with the others, who were already halfway to the next kiosk. When they arrived at the second, Ritsuko sat down on the steps in front of it, rubbing her head. "You okay, Ritsu?" Ryouji asked, genuinely concerned. "Tired..." was the reply. "You've got a right to be. Too bad we're going to get _no_ sleep today." "No school, so the schedule's been moved back three hours as far as I'm concerned. My initiative..." "Oh, you'll be railroaded on coffee by the time you _think_ you'll be asleep, Ritsuko," Misato said, near laughter. "As long as it isn't yours..." Ritsuko complained. "One lump of paint thinner, or two?" "Whatever puts me to sleep quicker..." "That'd be one lump on the head," Misato joked. "Discussed that already," Ritsuko answered, slowly getting up and typing something into the hidden control pad, then walking into an already-lit kiosk. Everyone else followed her in, once again stopping just inside the door. Ritsuko, however, kept walking until she stood just a few meters away from an object suspended in mid-air, crystalline in appearance. The thing looked somewhat mechanical, and also partially biological, and was blood red. "Wh-what is _that_?" Shinji asked, somewhat worried. "A partial construction of our hopes. Misato?" "Y-yes?" Misato said, staring wide-eyed at the _thing_. "We got the schematics from Germany the same day." "Schematics... for what?" Misato asked, still confused. "The same thing that gave us our first glimpse of a Sea of Dirac." "Adam's heart..." Misato whispered. "Solenoid theory in action," Ritsuko confirmed, looking up at the glinting object which was glowing and pulsing softly, coupled to the machinery surrounding it. "And I suppose you're going to tell us that this is another formerly-flawed object that you've updated and improved." "Not especially. Same design... I can't cover over 32,000 possible design flaws in such a short time. However, Unit One's data was a great help in modifying a part of it which I _know_ was flawed. I can, of course, only speak from theory and conjecture." "Unit One's data? How would that help?" Shinji asked. "Because Unit One contains an S2 Organ. Discovered during the attack of the Fourteenth Angel." "That... should not be..." Rei said, speaking in place of a shock- mute Shinji. "Nonetheless, it exists. The ingestion of the Fourteenth Angel's S2 Organ has also added stability to Unit One's own. It is now active, but how to control it or use it to any advantage is still unknown," Ritsuko said. "What... do you mean... it already had one?" Shinji asked. "It already had one. When the entire front armour was ripped off, there was an S2 Organ right there. It must have developed over time, because it certainly wasn't there in the beginning." "What about the others, then? Would Zero and Two be similar?" Shinji asked, at least a little intrigued. "They were scanned. No Organ exists among them. They would require an artificial unit, such as this one," Ritsuko replied. "It still remains untested." "But... if they all came from the same place... why would one be any different from any other? Why would the Test Type be singled out?" Shinji asked, thinking, 'And why would _it_ be termed unstable? Why not the Prototype? It _should_ be the other way around...' "As I've said, the Prototype was a combination of the original design and incorporating a portion of Unit One's. Whatever caused it to come to be in Unit One was not part of the design which was carried over to the Prototype." "Like a middle ground, right?" Shinji asked. "The original idea wouldn't work, and One worked _too_ well, so a compromise was reached?" "That'd be the easiest way to sum it up, yes." "K-Kaji-san..." Shinji said, sweatdropping. "Yes?" "I... think I know..." Ryouji looked at Shinji out of the corner of his eye. "They made the same mistake... didn't they?" Ryouji watched him quietly for a moment, then trained his gun on Ritsuko just as quickly. "Oh, put that away..." Ritsuko said irritably. "I did that before when you requested, even when I said I wouldn't. Not yet. You've known all along just why Unit One's been so different from the others... You've been tiptoeing around it since this began." "Why don't you ask Shinji?" "Shinji just brought something to my attention that's been bothering me for some time now. This is it, isn't it. You made the same mistake I did when you first found 'Adam' after Second Impact." "I'm afraid I can't answer that. Not because I don't want to, but because I _can't_. I didn't become involved in E Project until eight years after the fact," Ritsuko answered, turning to Misato. "Would you say our pretty little 'cross-hanging' looks like what you found down there, Misato?" Misato nodded slowly, her eyes slightly narrowed. "Hmmm... interesting. Take from one, pattern off of the other. What great fools we make of ourselves." "Unit One is the Mother," Rei stated quietly. "That's why I won, wasn't it. It explains... almost everything." "Eva is a copy of Adam, but Unit One is of Lilith, the Source. A virtual God. Technically..." Ritsuko stopped, shaking her head. "Lilith may well _be_ God. And... we're on the verge of creating another. Taking in a true S2 Organ to complement the one that has developed within it from Lilith... Unit One has broken all restraints." 'I don't need unlimited power to destroy...' Shinji recalled. "There's only one thing left that can actually control Unit One..." Ritsuko stated quietly. "And that is?" Misato prompted. Ritsuko turned away from the S2 Organ, sweeping her gaze across the others before denoting, just as Rei did, Shinji. "Me?! What can _I_ do?" Shinji asked incredulously. "You can pilot it," Rei answered. "But piloting and controlling are two different things! That thing already _is_ out of control." "It follows you," Rei stated in completely normal tones. "Only to a point. It does what _it_ wants. I'm just the best available candidate to 'sit in the seat'." "It does that because it wants to protect you," Rei continued. "What?" Shinji asked, still failing to comprehend. "I will no longer be accepted. It has made its choice." "That would explain... quite a bit. All the times it moved without power... Shinji wouldn't know how to do that... but if anyone would, the core would," Misato commented. Shinji returned his face to his hands. "I'm piloting God..." "If you want to look at it that way. As far as your purposes are concerned, one Evangelion would work just as well as any other. Perhaps, in his own way, your father decided to protect you." Shinji blinked. "... Protected?" "Yes," Ritsuko replied to the half-question. "How better to safeguard you than to give you the one piece of 'equipment' that NERV would never willingly lose?" 'Yeah, the equipment... He doesn't matter one goddamn...' Misato thought icily. "Hard to accept?" Ritsuko asked. 'It's sure as hell hard to comprehend.' "Hard... a lot of things," Shinji agreed. "Why is an S2 Organ being generated?" Rei asked. "So that we can make use of it, of course. Perhaps extending Unit Zero's active time to virtual infinity would be an interesting experiment?" "It will be tested on Unit Zero..." "That's not a viable option." Rei blinked. "Why?" "First, because it was not designed to carry one. Second, because of the unpredictable nature of Zero Gouki, it would be ill-advised. Third, Zero has its own secrets, and fourth... we have a better option available to us," Ritsuko answered her, heading for the exit of the kiosk. To a varying degree of quickness, everyone followed after the doctor, who was already headed for the third and final kiosk. "What do you mean, 'we have a better option available'?" Misato asked the retreating back of Ritsuko. "Oh, quit being so damned impatient. It's not like I can just think the thoughts into your head," Ritsuko said, trailing off into a low muttering. 'I don't like these surprises, even if they are what I want," Misato thought sullenly. "Rei, this is the answer _you_ sought here," Akagi said, opening the door just as she had the first two times. "What do you mean, _her_ question?" Misato asked, as they all entered the darkened kiosk and the door snapped shut. "The better option," Ritsuko replied. "The original intention." The lights came up on another room housing an Eva cage. Once again, a head rose out of a sea of coolant, but instead of black like Unit Three, the head coming out of the new pool was silver. The head itself was only half-complete in its armour plating, the other half being various tissues. The eye socket not covered by the armour was void of an eye, and the mouth was devoid of teeth. The unarmoured half of the face was also shrunken somehow, as if even the growth was not entirely complete. Shinji backstepped into Ryouji. "W-wha..." Shinji began, then got the sentence out by crushing it together. "Whatthehellisthat?! Another Unit Three?" "No..." Misato answered, clenching her fists, then stepping forward and pushing Ritsuko out of her way as she walked to the edge of the coolant. "It can't be! What the _hell_ is Unit Four DOING HERE?!" Her voice reverberated around the relatively small chamber. "Death to all opposition. A Unit designed to contain the power of your father's own Super Solenoid theory. Unit Four Kai," Ritsuko announced, grinning viciously. "K-kai?" Misato yelled. "Then... you're recreating Unit Four?!" "Yes, we are," Ritsuko confirmed softly. "Why are you _doing_ this?" Misato asked hotly, spinning around to grab Ritsuko by the shoulders. "We don't _need_ all of these Evas! What are you trying to prove? What's this all for?!" "To replace what is outdated and outclassed. You have, of course, noticed that the performance of Units Zero and Two has been immensely less than that of Unit One. Granted, some of that can be attributed to what One _is_, but the vast majority of it is a design flaw which we're attempting to correct with Three Kai and Four Kai. If we succeed in this, both Zero and Two will be reconstructed as well. Consider Four Kai to be the 'Second Prototype', if you will." "We don't need all of that..." Misato said, staring in horror at Ritsuko and staring at the Evangelion in turns. "Who donated their body for this one..." "For a prototype that should, for all intents and purposes, never see the light of our sun? No one. Death is bereft of a soul." "So, who's going to give Death a life?" Misato asked sarcastically. "Human intelligence and courage..." Ritsuko grinned. "And our pulsating friend in the last room." "The nose is still too big," Ryouji commented. "Will you stop that?!" Ritsuko asked hotly, spinning around and smacking Ryouji over Shinji's head. "Another Eva... but, you said there was no data on a Fifth Candidate. No more pilots..." Shinji said, a little uncertainly. "Oh, that," Ritsuko said, shrugging dismissively. "As your father would say, 'That is no problem.'" Shinji glared at the Eva with narrowed eyes, thinking, 'Why?' "I would Pilot Unit Four?" Rei asked softly. "Rei..." Ritsuko replied, almost sternly. "If we were going to give you Unit Four, why would I be talking about reworking Unit Zero?" "You will need a pilot to collect test data until a true candidate becomes available. So, until then, yes," Rei said quietly. "Anyone else would do just as well. Besides, we don't necessarily need a fifth-level candidate for the Fifth. It would just be... preferable." "Fourth-level, maybe?" Shinji asked sarcastically. "I'm sure Kensuke would just _love_ to do it for you." "Must I keep repeating myself?" Ritsuko asked. "Anyone will do just as well. Someone who agrees would be preferable, of course, but we always have ways of achieving what we want." "Why not do it yourself?" Misato asked, spitting into the coolant. "The Akagi family has already sacrificed more than enough for this cause, Misato," Ritsuko said, nearly missing Shinji asking when 'this monster will be ready'. "Oh, _this_ isn't what'll consume time. The physical body could be ready within a matter of a few weeks. However, we'll be waiting longer for that S2 Organ." "Of course, it can still run without it," Ryouji commented. "Of course it can. However, the past has proven that our current energy-providing systems are lacking at critical points. We _will_ be fashioning a remedy to that problem here." Meanwhile, Rei had apparently made her way around to one side of the room, and was heading for a walkway on the armoured half of the Eva, completely unnoticed by everyone else. "Ritsuko... You keep on mentioning the 'core' of an Eva, like it's some kind of all-powerful force, and everyone should just understand. What _is_ it?" Shinji asked. "The center of the Eva. What allows it to generate an AT Field. Virtually, what gives it life," Ritsuko answered evasively. "Then... the Eva generates its own core?" "In a manner of speaking, but a Pilot must control it. No core, no Pilot..." "Isn't _that_ a kind way of putting it..." Misato murmured, still failing to notice Rei, who had progressed to the end of the walkway spanning the room and was facing the Eva at the center of its head, looking at both halves with equal intensity. "What do you mean, 'no Pilot'?" Shinji followed up. "You can't pilot it without its core. It's that simple. With, of course, the exception of the Dummy Plug... but that's not an ideal choice in terms of effectiveness." Shinji looked at Misato and Ryouji before applying his next query. "Okay," he said slowly, "time for the mother of all dumb questions. Why can't you pilot an Eva without a core?" "Remember those failures in the upper chamber? They failed to have a core, amongst their other faults, and thus never worked." "So... it'd just go upstairs, then..." he said, mulling that over. 'I know there's more to it than that... I just need the right question...' "No, not this one. The design is right for what we want. That, and unlike my predecessor, I don't tolerate the failure of my projects." "But, how do you make a core?" Shinji asked, at the same time Rei put her hand on the Eva's face, specifically, on the shrunken biological half. "Time to give ground, Ritsuko," Misato said, smirking. "Find a pilot," Ritsuko said, again being evasive. "But you just said that you couldn't pilot an Eva if it didn't have a core!" Shinji exclaimed. "Find someone to pilot the Eva, and then the core can work. The fact that this model will make no difference for who becomes the candidate makes it that much easier to properly generate the needed core. Meanwhile, the reason why the Pilot normally stays with their Eva is because that's what they become most familiar with, as in adapting to the core of their Unit, like you have with Unit One. Like you have, so much so, that you have exclusive rights to pilot that Unit, since it won't _accept_ anyone else." "That is why my synch was less with Unit One? Because it was Ikari-kun's?" Rei asked, just catching herself before she went off and called him Shin-chan again. "That's right. Though, it was only a few points lower. You were able to adapt much better to Unit One than Shinji was to Unit Zero." Ritsuko agreed, then stopped, eyebrows furrowing. 'Echo?' she thought, looking up to the source of the voice, with Shinji's gaze right behind her own. "It is understandable," Rei noted, thinking, 'I felt the rejection.' "So... why didn't you test Asuka for compatibility with any other Evangelion?" Shinji asked. "She's too attached to Unit Two. She doesn't _want_ to pilot any other Eva. What good would it do to, say, shove her in Unit Zero against her will? She wouldn't even _try_ to be compatible with the core, and it isn't exactly something you can just bludgeon into doing whatever you want," she said. "Get away from there! It's dangerous!" she called to Rei. "It has no will. There is no danger here except what you wish to see, Doctor Akagi." "Rei, please come down," Misato added on top of Ritsuko's request. "There is nothing more to see here," Rei agreed with a nod, starting back down the walkway. "In any event, this ends _this_ portion of the tour..." Ritsuko said, shaking her head in slight amazement. "Well, let's keep going, then. You're the one who wants to sleep. The faster we get back on track, the sooner you can put your head on your pillow." "Blow the place sky-high... that'd help some..." Ritsuko grumbled, then spoke more clearly, "Follow me. We're going back upstairs." With that, she headed out of the kiosk, followed almost instantly by Misato and Ryouji. Shinji, on the other hand, loitered around waiting for Rei to descend from the catwalk. Once the others had made their way out the door, she called softly, "Shin-chan..." "What is it?" "I do not know these secrets, but I do know some of this. There is a desire here." "A what?" Shinji asked. That idea, in itself, was confusing enough. "A longing, very strong. It can be felt. The others had one, but weak, painful. The need here is strong. Powerful." Shinji walked slowly back to Unit Four, watching both it and Rei. "I've never felt this around the Eva before. There was a new feeling when I entered the room above... a feeling that is here as well, but not with Unit Three," she explained, shivering visibly as she walked down the remaining steps to the landing which Shinji had attained. "It is saddening, painful... Frightening. I have only known the feeling of being rejected." He took her hand for a moment, then took off up the stairs under her watchful eyes, half-running until he popped up in front of the Eva's face, looking down at Rei. "Touch it, if you can not already feel the change." Shinji carefully set his hand against the Eva's face and began to draw it slowly down, only to be interrupted and subsequently preoccupied when Misato yelled, "What the hell are you doing up there, Shinji?!" "There is a difference here, Major Katsuragi," Rei explained quietly, eyes still on Shinji. "If she says it, I believe her," Shinji added. "But all I feel is something not at all Eva-like." As he spoke, he looked away from the face before him, supplanting it with the faces of Rei and Misato, and thus did not notice as his hand slowly began sinking into the skin. "What do you mean, 'not Eva-like'?" Misato asked, uncertain. "It just... _isn't_," Shinji attempted to explain. "And not just the feel of the skin, either... It just _feels_different_." "... Because it is," Rei stated, now looking at Misato as well, and succeeding in drawing the Major's eyes so that none were paying the slightest attention to the Eva, which seemed to be discussed without the knowledge that it was right there in the room, holding Shinji at the wrist. "Well, you know. What makes it different? I can tell it's there, but not what it is," Shinji attempted to explain. "I... do not know," Rei disagreed. "Shinji! What're you doing?" Misato exclaimed, rather unexpectedly. "Talking to you, Misato-san. What's it look like?" "Your arm!" Misato cried. Shinji was suddenly jerked physically forward, his arms up to the elbow now embedded in the Eva's face. "God in Heaven!" he shrieked, looking on the verge of passing out. "Ikari-kun!" Rei exclaimed, darting up the stairwell at a rather surprising rate of speed. Misato had a faster option at her disposal, and promptly utilized it. The usefulness of the gesture, most likely a futile one, was highly doubtful, but she quickly had her gun in hand and had taken the safety off and fired two shots before Rei took a second step. The bullets impacted on the flesh of the Evangelion and sunk in, bringing no visible effect, with the exception of the sound of gunfire drawing Ryouji Kaji like iron filings to a magnet. "What the hell is going on?" he inquired automatically, firearm already in hand. "Look!" Misato commanded, firing again. Ryouji looked up, eyes widening, and ran quickly to the front of the pier, firing shots as he went, also to no avail. "What the hell is this?" Shinji yelled, pulling against the tug of the Eva with every ounce of strength he could muster, and then only just managing to maintain the balance. Rei came charging down the walkway at that moment, sliding to a stop behind Shinji and started pulling on his arm. Ryouji, thinking along similar lines, took the steps three at a time in a way that would have made Hundred Metre Hurdlers proud. As he ran and Rei pulled, Misato took aim at the empty eye socket and fired two more rounds, again without effect. "Damn it!" she yelled. "Let go..." Rei commanded quietly. "If I do that...! Aaa!!!" Shinji attempted to comment on the matter, but was cut off as he was pulled in up to his shoulder. "Let go of him..." Rei said quietly, futilely pulling on Shinji's torso as she did. "God damn it! You idiot!" Ritsuko groaned from the doorway. "Now's not the time!" Misato screamed at her, even as she fired more rounds into the exposed face. The rounds sunk in just as all the others had, and Misato jammed the safety back on and stuffed the weapon back into her jacket in frustration. "Misato, get off the floor!" Ritsuko called to her, thinking, 'Damn it all! Fixing all this is going to take time...' Ryouji had, in the interim, arrived at Shinji, and tried firing three point blank shots into the face near where Shinji was being pulled in. The result, predictably, was absolutely nothing, and Ryouji flung his gun away and joined Rei in pulling Shinji with all of his strength. "Hang on..." he grunted. "Misato, listen for once in your life!" Ritsuko yelled, already running for the stairs. "Let go..." Rei repeated, trembling. Ritsuko and Misato hit the stairs at nearly the same time, the former fumbling with her keypad. "Three months..." Ritsuko said softly, triggering some sort of mechanism which caused the floor to drop all of three inches. "Let go!" Rei nearly screamed, obviously angry. From where the floor used to connect to the wall, something quite shiny began poking out from under the 'main' floor. "What is that?" Misato asked, looking at the light reflecting off of... whatever it was. "To kill the snake... cut off the head," Ritsuko commented, seemingly to herself. "What?!" Misato asked incredulously. "Let go of me, God damn you!" Shinji cried. "Let go of Shinji!" Rei shouted at the head, looking quite impassioned. She quickly jabbed her arm forward into the head, her face distorting slightly. Whatever it was did the trick, as Shinji stopped being pulled in. Ritsuko wavered at the controls as Rei began pulling Shinji's arm out along with her own, both stained red. "It's... letting go?" Shinji asked quietly. "How...?" Misato asked, mirroring the question that was plastered all over Ryouji's face. Ignorant of anything around herself, Shinji, and the Eva, Rei continued to pull, a determined, angry expression still on her face. Still, she kept both arms moving out at a steady pace until they both came out with a loud slurp, blood dripping from their arms, as well as falling from the Eva's face like a river of tears. As soon as they were both free, Rei sank to her knees, breathing raggedly. For his part, Shinji fell back against Ryouji as though he were about to drop, though Ryouji looked at him and the arms, then at the Eva, upon which there was not even so much as a hint of damage to the bioparts. "There's no danger, Rei?" Ritsuko asked. "Please, then, explain what just happened, if it wasn't dangerous." Neither of the children could hear her, or would have paid attention even if they had heard. Rei was still breathing heavily, crying slightly, and Shinji was kneeling beside her, breathing none more steadily with his free hand on her left shoulder. Misato, at least, heard, but she only stared on helplessly. Ritsuko, in the interim, had replaced the floor to its 'normal' state and had replaced her controller as the other two adults stared rather dumbfounded at Unit Four. "It's over," Ryouji said, still standing behind the Children. "Rei..." Shinji said, answered by another soft cry. "Rei," he repeated, drawing her head to his shoulder. "Longing... so strong..." she managed through somewhat evened breathing. "You know what that was," Shinji stated accusatorily, glaring daggers at Ritsuko. "You don't stick your damn hand into it! Of course you're going to get sucked in! It's part of the damn biology of the thing! Why do you think we _restrain_ it? I _told_ you not to go up there!" "It was trying to make Shinji its core, wasn't it..." Misato said, so softly that only Ritsuko could hear. "Yes, it was. And I would have taken it apart just to prevent it." "At least you wanted them... I can't take _that_ away from you." Ritsuko nodded slightly, then stepped down to the floor. "Let's get out of this God-forsaken place. After seeing that, I've made my decision for Unit Four's core." Shinji, meanwhile, was still holding onto Rei, as much for his benefit as for hers. The quick whispered exchange between Misato and Ritsuko had gone unnoticed by those two, and unheard, though noticed, by Ryouji, whose fingers were twitching, seeming to be thinking of the best way to go about swiping Ritsuko's control pad. "What do you mean?" Misato asked, still using the whisper. "Now _that_ will be explained later, and, for once, there will be no worry of anyone being mentally or physically scarred, injured, or otherwise debilitated." "Will you let me know what that is when it happens?" "That... is for the benefit of more than just you. However, you'll know," Ritsuko replied. "We'll head back up now... when you're ready. I'll be waiting outside," Misato said, directing the comment at Shinji and Rei, who were still seemingly oblivious. The Major then nudged her friend to follow as she left the kiosk. "I'm getting too old for adventures..." Ryouji said to himself, watching the two women leave. "Why did you have to come?" Rei asked softly. "Me?" Ryouji asked, interrupted from his reverie. "No." Shinji, however, offered no response. "You would have died..." "But... I didn't," he answered, tears starting to form. "Why?" Shinji almost instantly recalled a time, from long before this night, when Rei had told him she would protect him. A time just before Ramiel had nearly killed them both. "Because..." met with silence, then he simply fell apart. "Oh... you've risked your life for a fool..." he cried, tightening his grip somewhat. "For a Goddamned fool..." Tears started falling softly. Both sat there, half collapsed in a blood-soaked embrace, though Shinji seemed to be completely unaware of that fact for several moments. Finally, that simply broke off and Rei hooked her chin over Shinji's right shoulder. "I... don't know what you did, Rei... but I owe you my life... again." Both ended up crying onto each other, though were otherwise nearly unmoving. Ryouji considered, and rejected, the notion of breaking it up, at least for the time being, since they needed to keep moving. "Death... is as painful... as almost losing someone..." Rei stated softly. 'I've never known it, but... I know it.' "Remind me, the next time I think I need to see for myself... that I have no reason to doubt you, Ayanami..." "You would've been gone..." Rei began softly. "You would have left... You're not allowed to do that!" She clenched his arms tightly. "I'm sorry... I don't want you hurt..." "I'm not going to let you die," she said resolutely. "I will, if that's what it takes... so don't die. Please... don't die..." 'All I can do for you... is try,' he thought. He couldn't bring himself to actually say so. "I shouldn't have told you to touch..." "No. It wasn't your fault," Shinji cut her off firmly. Rei silently wrapped her arms around Shinji, pulling on him strongly, and also soaking his shirt in blood. "Rei... let's go. There is... more to see. And I don't feel right staying here." "... Live..." "I will," Shinji agreed, giving a slight squeeze with his arms. "Let's go." Regardless, Rei rested there for about another half minute, then slowly let go of Shinji and stood on her own power, taking one of his hands and slowly leading him toward the stairwell. Following at a short distance was Ryouji, his gun now replaced in his jacket, who's simple thought was, 'Impressive.' ------------------------------------ Kensuke made his way, as silently as possible, down one dimly lit corridor, his flashlight well in hand. "It should be around here somewhere, shouldn't it?" he asked himself softly, stopping in his tracks as he referred to his mental map of the building, something he had all but committed to eternal memory. "Left... or was it right?" After several moments spent grousing quietly, he decided, "Left. Right goes to Janitorial." That in mind, he struck off down the left passage, accompanied only by his footsteps for more than a minute before he reached a door which said: Primary Command & Control Centre Level 4 Access S.C. MAGI System SUPER-COMPUTER BALTHASAR-2 His eyes widened noticeably. "Jackpot!" he whispered loudly. He set to work on the panel, trying to override the security lock on the door. Failing, he quickly set to looking for a manual release to override the electronic system. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he found none, and in his frustration, he punched the sign violently. The marker instantly slid into the wall under the force of his fist, and the door hissed open, much to Kensuke's stunned disbelief. Kensuke took one quick look around the hall to make sure he had not alerted anyone to his presence, then stepped quickly into the room, shining his flashlight around. Primary Command and Control was rather unchanged from the state it had entered as a result of the battle with Zeruel, though the holes in the walls of the room were showing more signs of decay than they had back then. Kensuke, of course, had no way of knowing this, but it was obvious even to him that there had been some kind of confrontation in this room that had seen the use of at least one Evangelion. The dim green lighting was sufficient for viewing after a few moments of getting used to, so Kensuke switched off his flashlight. All the holograms and monitor displays were down, and the main wall had been completely punched through. To his right was another hole in the wall. What all of this destruction amounted to, he was unsure, except to say that something had obviously gotten loose in C&C. "What the heck... happened?" he asked himself. "I _think_ this is the right place. The sign out front _said_ so... What on earth happened to the Control Centre?" Kensuke turned and walked about six steps, still looking at the far wall, and ended up walking right into a block of metal. In his surprise, he switched his flashlight back on, just in time to fall on his rear. "The hell...?" he asked aloud, looking at what he had run into. The flashlight had rolled out of his hand when he fell, and was now shining on lettering: "THASA". Kensuke quickly grabbed the flashlight and ran it back along the lettering to read from the beginning: "SUPER-COMPUTER BALTHASAR-2". "Well, I'll be damned..." he muttered, a sly grin spreading across his face. Were Kensuke a computer program, his system had just activated the command line for 'hacker.exe'. He regained his footing in a flash and happily shuffled over to BALTHASAR-2, knocking on the casing excitedly, only to be met by the sound of a hollow cavity. "Damn..." he grumbled softly. "No deposit, no return." "Maybe it's just a design thing," he said hopefully, searching the wall near the door for a release lever or something of the sort. "There's gotta be a way to open this thing up..." he whispered, searching along the wall until he found a control panel. "Here we go... hmm..." He scanned the panel until he came to a small print which read, "SUPER-COMPUTER BALTHASAR-2 - Release System". Kensuke tapped the button, causing the metal casing to whir noisily, shaking for a moment before it began to rise. Beneath, it was completely empty. "Damn... it's not here!" Kensuke looked around the desolate Control Center. "They've probably relocated it, no doubt..." he said, sighing. "And here I thought I was finally going to see the MAGI up close..." He sluggishly hit the panel again, closing the BALTHASAR-2 casing, as well as opening the door. "Does this mean they've moved the others too?" Kensuke kicked the door. "No wonder it was so easy to get in here. They would _have_ to have moved it!" Rather depressed at the absolute _lack_ of Super Computer in the shell of BALTHASAR-2, Kensuke turned and sulked out of the room. "Well, doesn't this just suck... May as well try the other ones, though. With how _big_ they are, they can't have them _all_ transferred yet." Once outside the door to BALTHASAR-2's 'chamber', Kensuke hung a left, keeping the flashlight on the wall to his left, watching for any sign of another door. "I'm risking my life to see these great creations and they don't even have the decency to be here! That's not fair! I'm gonna---" Kensuke's breath dropped when his flashlight suddenly fell across another sign: Primary Command & Control Centre Level 4 Access S.C. MAGI System SUPER-COMPUTER CASPER-3 "If this one's not here..." he muttered, punching the sign as he had the first time. The door gave a quick hiss as it slid open, disappearing into the cavity which was meant to contain it. Already Kensuke had his flashlight held high, shining on the great casing which was meant to contain the Third of the MAGI. "Well, here goes," he said quietly, fumbling for the release in the same place he had found it the last time. The casing began to chortle and whir just as BALTHASAR-2 had, slowly rising up off the ground, gears within turning it upwards. The difference was the amount of piping, wiring, and machinery which appeared underneath, giving the appearance of a solid block of technology. "Yes!" Kensuke happily rushed through the doorway up to the closest side. It was notably large and complex, though no entrance could be found, not that it mattered to him, for the moment. "Damn... NERV keeps secrets from _everybody_! Even their own databanks are wrong," he muttered to himself, pacing slowly around the casing. "How can you fix a problem in something like this without a way _in_? Pop the top off? God... if someone ever managed to virus this thing... it'd shut the entire place down! So there _has_ to be a way in!" In the middle of his ranting, Kensuke walked right past the exposed entrance, and ended up on the other side of the unit again. Still annoyed at such a major design flaw in the world's greatest Super Computer, he continued to pace. "Am I gonna have to take a buzzsaw to you?" he asked the silent computer. "It's no wonder all the information is wrong, if the greatest computer system in the world was designed _this_poorly_... Oh well. At least the things actually work... but I wish I could get a l---" Kensuke stopped cold, as his pacing brought him to the end of the MAGI overlooking C&C. It took two glances for him to even realize that he had simply made a mistake the first time around. Patting the casing almost affectionately, the delighted Aida dropped to his hands and knees and shuffled into the hole. "What on earth...?" he wondered aloud, reaching for one of the larger clumps of white. "Post-It Notes?!" He shone his light upon the paper which he held, then burst out a loud shrill of pleasure. "Design notes!!!" he exclaimed in ecstasy. "God forgive whoever left all of these here... because I'm not complaining at all!" he cried gleefully. He quickly replaced the note on the wall, gazing around the interior at the multitude before his eyes, until something irregular caught his eye. Black paint etched across part of the interior. "What have we here?" he asked softly, shining the light over the black marks. "Graffiti _in_ the MAGI?!" He crawled up to the marks in confusion, suddenly dropping the light, letting it crash on the ground, his complexion had paled slightly. Very quickly, his expression changed. "That's not Shinji's pen... Apparently his father _is_ that bad." 'Ikari You Idiot' burned Kensuke's vision, but he quickly turned away from it. "I'm not here for this..." After a few moments of fumbling around for his flashlight, Kensuke turned and started crawling further down the tunnel. "Must be more... must be more..." He passed by more exposed circuitry and small, flashing indicators, but paid little attention. Instead, his vision was focused on a point of light further down the tunnel, and he crawled for it with all possible speed. He was quickly stopped in his tracks, thrown to his side as a current quickly surged through his body. Lasting only an instant, but enough to increase his breathing rate to near-hyperventilation. An electrical field in front of him which had not existed just moments before was destabilizing into non-existance. "Holy shit!" he cried out. "Not good... this is not good at all!" He quickly backed up, hoping the field was meant to block, not to trap. The interior of the MAGI suddenly sparked to life with red light, a stronger whirring becoming apparent in his ears. A display to his side flashed to life. INTRODUCING CASPER 666 ALPHA PROTOCOL INTO SYSTEM "Time to take a break. Right now!" With the words clear of his lips, Kensuke spun a 180 on his knees and all but shot out of CASPER-3 like a bullet. Out of the Super Computer faster than a screen could refresh, Kensuke bolted to the right side of the casing, caught hold of the railing, and nearly dropped of exhaustion. It took him but a moment to notice that the green lighting above had changed colour, now red. The four screens high above the towering structure within C&C had come to display red text upon them. CASPER 666 ALPHA INITIATED PHYSICAL ELIMINATION PROCEDURE ENGAGED 'Oh shit!' he thought, not wasting time with speech when there was no one to hear. He took two quick steps toward the door, then turned at the sound of a static discharge. Everything red was momentarily cast in a bright yellow-green hue CASPER-3 discharged a spark the size of a basketball from the hole in the casing. 'Holy God!' He couldn't help but watch as energy coursed through the rail he had been holding onto only moments before, and fly across the room through a very large, two-Eva-wide hole in the wall and explode against something in the next room. Kensuke's teeth chattered violently against each other as he fell against the closest wall, slowly sliding down it, his words stuttered. "I was--- that is--- it would--- and I--- it--- eee--- ummm---......... OH DEAR GOD!!!" Kensuke promptly passed out against the wall. Completely unfazed, on the platform, the casing for CASPER-3 slowly shut itself of its own volition. ------------------------------------ ---------------------------------- Central Dogma: Depth 2008 Meters Terminal Dogma ---------------------------------- Main L.C.L. Plant - Circulation Line #3 - KEEP OUT Standing in undisturbed silence at the edge of the LCL sea, Rei observed the distant form of Lilith, the one who continued to remain motionless within her induced crucifixion. The blood of Unit Four no longer fell from Rei's contrastingly pale arms, but had left its mark in her skin, leaving it stained a deep red. Her clothes had not survived nearly as well - her blouse was dotted with blood stains, her dress was smeared with the dense liquid, albeit dried and broken. Her appearance suggested her own death to be inevitable, though she was certainly healthier than the Evangelion which had nearly taken Shinji's life. "Why did we come back here?" Shinji asked quietly as he looked at Ritsuko, his apparel no better off than Rei's, possibly worse due to their earlier embrace - his shirt blotched as if he had been stabbed repeatedly, his arms tinted with the red dye. "To maintain a proper state of physical and mental health," Ritsuko replied simply, untouched by the contents of Unit Four. "That _is_ actual blood, Shinji. Synthetically made, yes, but blood nonetheless." "What do you want me to do? Take a bath?" Ritsuko motioned to Misato and Ryouji who had been standing by in admiration and to bring a sense of actual security to the area. The two nodded silently and turned, leaving for the other side of Heaven's Gate, the portal which had been opened for a second time that night. Whether blushing or paling, it was of no importance. Shinji was unnerved. "The blood will easily dissolve within the LCL," Ritsuko explained to the two blood-drenched Children, whether they were paying attention or not.. "I suggest soaking your clothing in it as well, as it should help to break up the residual remains. This side of the room is deep enough so that you can soak in it. It would probably make you cleaner than the rest of us. You won't contaminate anything if you cleanse yourselves of the blood, nor will this LCL be contaminated, so don't think about that." Noting the two, she mentally added, 'You won't _be_ contaminated either...' Shinji blinked, his gaze slowly falling to the floor. ******************** Within Unit One's entry plug, Shinji banged fiercely on the overhead hatch, desperately trying to make good his escape from the impure LCL, the batch now tainted after the purification system had ceased function. "Blood! This place smells like blood! I hate this place! Let me out of here!" ******************** Shinji quivered, unnoticed by the others. "You can't go around like that, Shinji. Try not to take too long though, because it isn't safe to stay in one place this long. I'm going to leave this open," she detailed, pointing out the massive Heaven's Gate. "We'll be on the other side, alright?" The gentleness found in her voice seemed out of place on her. 'Leaving Lilith exposed... I trust my judgement.' Shinji nodded slowly, shaken nonetheless. "O... okay..." With nothing else to be said, Ritsuko turned on her heel and left the two Pilots to themselves, disappearing from sight. "She thinks I'm going to get in _that_ after she said it isn't safe?" Shinji whispered softly to himself, his eyes glued to one of his blood-soaked hands. "She has to be kidding..." A soft patting sound was caught by Shinji's ears, gentle and faint. "Whatwasthat?" Shinji nearly shrieked, spinning very quickly in the direction of the sound. Meeting Shinji's fearful gaze was Rei, her shoes by her side, her bloodied dress now lying at her feet. Shinji inhaled sharply and reddened, feelings of confusion and uncertainty washing over him. "... What?" Rei asked softly without even turning around as she unbuttoned her school shirt. Shinji slowly walked up to the edge of the outcrop, looking down tentatively at the lake of LCL before him. Once his gaze wavered to Rei who showed him no regard as she finished unbuttoning her shirt. He quickly returned his gaze to the LCL. "... I shouldn't have come..." "Do not regret your choices," she stated, tone unchanged. "It's too late for that... I've had my near-death experience for the day. I don't want to touch this..." "Would you rather be coated in the constant reminder of your experience?" she queried as she turned to face him. Shinji slowly turned to look in the direction of Rei's form, a form much different from the previous history of experiences. Rei's arms were not all that were bathed in blood - the thin material of her dyed shirt had done no good to protect her. The Eva's blood had soaked through the shirt to her skin, patches of red faintly and darkly marked on her body; her side looked as if she had been impaled by a knife; her bra was dyed much like her shirt, giving the impression she had been stabbed within her breast; her stomach was dotted faintly with the synthetic blood; the dress, though it had protected her for the most part, had not done so completely, and the occasional faint blot of a blood-stain could be seen on her legs. The contrast between the purity of her skin and the essence of the blood gave the impression that she was in fact losing her life's essence and dying upon her feet. Shinji turned away quickly from the fear-inducing sight. "Sooner that than invite it again..." Rei slipped the shirt from her shoulders and stepped forward into the depths of the LCL. "It is safe, Shin-chan," she stated without looking back. "That's not what Ritsuko said..." he said, shaking his head in fear. "I'm not going to ignore that warning again." "She said it wasn't safe to stay in one place too long - because, we will be caught, not because of what is here." Shinji's eyes slowly looked to the form of Lilith, and then locked on the grating below him. His hands shook slightly. After a moment of silence, Rei stepped out of the LCL, back onto the grating, and walked silently up to Shinji until he slowly raised his face, catching his eyes in her hold. "Now only I'm looking..." Shinji blinked, then swallowed somewhat forcefully. Nodding slowly with a sense of understanding, he slipped off his shoes, unbuttoned his school shirt and slipped it off, wrapping it around his arm for a moment before dropping it into the LCL beside him. "There's a memory..." he whispered as he watched the shirt float slowly outward into the lake. Rei watched him without a word, and was caught off guard when Shinji, who had become unaware of his surroundings, walked directly into her in his forced effort to enter the LCL. Emitting a muffled gasp of surprise, Rei clasped her arms around Shinji in an effort to maintain her balance, which subsequently resulted in the loss of Shinji's balance, which led to the two toppling over together into the LCL. Rei, breathing softly while immersed in a shallow area of the sea, spoke softly as her hands slowly tumbled from their grasp. "Shin-chan..." "What is it?" Shinji questioned, his eyes slowly opening after the initial impact of the crash and quickly adjusting to the LCL. "Would you... please move?" she queried, her voice clearly understandable through the Link Connected Liquid. "Oh... sorry." The LCL hid the slowly appearing blush, the only symbol that Shinji hadn't completely broken down into despair. "I... uh... That is..." All this was said without actually moving. Rei, meanwhile, had let her arms fall lax and allowed them to float at her sides. She said nothing more, and remained in that position until Shinji finally released her and drifted aside, at which point she took to standing in the mid-thigh-high LCL. "Finish undressing." "W... why?" Shinji asked uncertainly. "You can not bathe without removing your clothes," she replied as she fingered the blood-stained brassiere in unconscious thought, then proceeded to unclasp it from behind her back and allowed it to fall into the lake. "B... b... I..." Shinji stuttered nervously closing his eyes to hide his view of Rei's blood-painted body. "I..." He opened his eyes again, both calmed and terrified by Rei's view, and certainly worsened by the further off Lilith who surveyed the entire seen in her glorious majesty. He flinched unintentionally. "Finish, Shinji," Rei offered gently. Disgusted with himself, and disgusted with his terror-dominated thoughts, Shinji averted his eyes from the blue-haired girl as she walked by him towards the outcrop of grating, even as some of the residue of the Eva's blood started to slowly decompose, resurrecting the purity of her skin. Without leaving the LCL, she retrieved her shirt and her dress from the platform, passed by Shinji a second time, and retook her brassiere from the LCL. With the bundle of clothing tucked under her arm with little organization, she made her way into knee deep LCL and knelt, submerging herself to her waist as she sat on her heels. Resting her other clothing beside her, she took hold of the dress and laid it out upon the LCL's surface. Wordlessly she set her hand upon it, and began to carefully scrub the stains from the dress. Shinji still did not look up, though he could hear the echoing sounds of splashing. Rei continued her efforts, scrubbing harder as she started to encounter difficulty with the dress. After minutes of a more thorough washing, she set it aside to soak in the LCL, and quickly took up the shirt. Taking hold of the opposite sides of the same sleeve, she rubbed the thin material together, breaking the dye more effectively by way of the friction. The blood encased within the materials of the clothing floated out like a thin stream into the LCL, and was slowly broken down within it, turned into LCL itself. "I... shouldn't be here..." Shinji whispered softly to himself. Setting aside her now clean shirt to soak next to its green counterpart, Rei took up the cotton brassiere and lapsed into the same technique as before. The majority of the blood disappeared within a duo of minutes, and was thus set aside to soak with the others in hopes of dissociating the remaining traces of blood soaked within the fabrics. Having finished washing her clothing, Rei extended her arm to her side, and unexpectedly came up with an additional piece of clothing. This time, it was the white dress shirt that Shinji had dropped into the LCL earlier. Wordlessly she held it in front of her, and once more fell into the act of washing and scrubbing it free of Unit Four's blood. Catching glimpses of what she was doing without so much as having the courage to look up quickly, Shinji silently whispered, "She shouldn't do that..." More time than necessary was spent on cleansing the shirt, Rei pausing every few moments, then continuing, pausing and continuing repeatedly. Her weak voice could be heard within the room, emitting, "Spot," as she worked. "This isn't good..." Shinji said quietly. "Why?" Rei inquired with a slight smile as she set down his shirt, now completely devoid of blood. "I... shouldn't..." Shinji's broken attempt at speech was cut off as he turned over in the LCL and made a half-hearted attempt to float, which when considering his lack of abilities to swim, he pulled off reasonably well. His mind's fear didn't let him forget what he was doing however. Despite being in LCL no higher than a half of a metre, Rei fell silently forward onto her stomach and disappeared completely within the eternally-produced liquid. Shinji's arms slowly spread out at a right angle in a measure to maintain his balance. Floating, though a relatively simple exercise, can not be easily maintained by one who is first trying it. Despite the success of the maneuver, Shinji took no note of it as he lost himself in his painful thoughts, and did not notice how quickly he was drifting out into the lake until his ankle registered the sensation of something organic being latched around it. His natural reaction was to thrash and place himself upright in the LCL, unintentionally causing himself to sink a full foot below the LCL's surface, looking around him with terror in his eyes for whatever had been moving him. Shinji was more than slightly terrified when Rei swam up under him and easily removed his indigo shirt during his confusion. Shinji watched in his former shock-induced state as she, floating effortlessly within the LCL, scrubbed the stains of blood clean from the material. His eyes slowly turned from the scene as he felt an odd feeling of disgrace wash over him for his lack to comply with the other's wishes, in addition to it being the primary reason for his being here, and subsequently had no choice but to watch it being done for him. Within two minutes of cleansing the shirt, Rei released it into the LCL, also devoid of residue, and watched it silently float to the surface among a stream of decomposing blood. "Never regret your decision Shin-chan. Do not dwell on the past..." she said, slowly turning to face him within the liquid, adding more softly, "And do not wish another turnout." It was then that the younger of the surviving Ikari's of NERV lapsed into a state that would have surprised even Asuka. "Why the hell do you keep telling me not to regret things? Aren't you even human enough to understand something like that? That you've lived too long and shouldn't have been saved from your own idiocy?" His verbal lashing and sarcasm dropped into a tone meant for himself, but was clear enough to be transmitted through the LCL. "No, of course not... you're the Golden Child... you don't even _make_ mistakes! What did you do... bring me back... make me just like you?" His tone grew more desperate as he slowly gripped his sides. "I don't want to die... but I don't want to be singled out to be saved, either! God damn it..." His voice then dropped to nothing more than a mere whisper. "I don't want to die... never to die... never again..." Rei stared at the emotionally collapsing boy for a few moments before starting to speak, her words quiet. "Not human... what am I?" Shinji managed to begin paying attention. "I meant to rescue you from death... that's all I knew." Her eyelids fell shut, barring the way to the red portals of her eyes, but not halting the uncharacteristic flow of tears which escaped from the corners of her eyelids and either dissoluted or floated to the surface of the LCL. Her voice remained steady and uncracked however, almost as if she did not realize what was happening to her. "Then leave me now, so you won't have to see what I am." "No..." he stated quietly, nervously looking at her. "I'll see death become me first." Rei became the second of the two human-shaped beings in the room to fall prone to uncharacteristic behaviour. Specifically when she grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed them both up to the surface of the LCL, then hovered with her shoulders onward resting above the surface as she proceeded to slap him strongly across his left cheek for the second time in their acquaintance, leaving a red mark behind. The imagery of the anger which her eyes betrayed was pitifully being ruined by the tears which still leaked from the corners of her eyes, despite her inability to acknowledge their presence as they rolled down her cheek and into the LCL. "... Then take it," Shinji uttered, his face still staring in the direction that the slap had left it. "I wanted you to live..." Rei stated quietly. "How... so I'm inhuman." "No," Shinji responded, continuing onward as if he had been contemplating this issue since he had first mentioned it in his attack. "I'm the one who's... lost his humanity..." "How?" Rei's gaze fell to her left arm, recognizing the blood which was trailing feebly down her arm as it was washed out from her skin. She took her right hand to it, aiding in the destruction of the stains from the skin, slowly replacing it with the natural colour. "By... giving you every right... in the world... to l---" "You will have every reason to leave me," she started quietly, an unmistakable tone of sternness present, "but you are set to not doing so. I've made the same choice. It's identical; neither of us can win separately what we are seeking from the other, because we're already committed too strongly to never leaving, because we are bonded." Although her next words were said as if meant for herself, they were loud enough for both residents, and Lilith if she happened to be alive within her crucified state, to hear. "This is love." Shinji nodded silently, though his face had fallen to staring into the LCL. Through regular breathing and his inability to take anything else into account other than his personal situation, Shinji remained floating upright within the LCL. "Kindness wouldn't do that..." Rei continued in the unaccustomed tone, the sternness blending oddly with her soft voice. "You don't understand, do you? I'm doing the same thing for you, and you refuse to heed the warning I give you. I'm being kind to you, loving you... and you're doing the same. There is no escaping this cycle... but it will be overcome, so that pain will disappear, over time. Understand that, Shin-chan." Shinji was next to silent. "Death can't be healed..." "You aren't dead. You were saved. It is that simple; there is nothing else. Doctor Akagi would have damaged the Eva to rescue you; I did it instead of her." Quietly, she added, "It... doesn't matter how it was done," then made the mental addition of, 'Does it?' She continued aloud, "It was done, that's all." "But... it shouldn't have worked, should it," he stated softly, continuing to wallow in self-pity. "You don't even know _what_ you did." "I saved you. That's all that matters to me," she replied, quietly finishing with, "It is." "Then that... is how it is," he deduced. 'For the sake of appearances, anyway...' "To me, yes. To you, you say it, to keep from hurting me." Shinji remained completely silent, blinking once. 'I can't keep a thing from this girl...' Oddly enough, that thought brought a very weak smile to his lips. 'Maybe... I do still have a reason...' The uncomfortable silence continued, watched over carefully by Lilith's eyes until Rei quietly intoned, "Please remove the remainder of your clothing. You can not be properly cleansed, nor can it." Much by rote, Shinji remained where he was as he removed his pants from his legs, but did not let them float away, instead holding them himself as he did his best to rub out the blood. Losing any sense of observation, Shinji lost himself to his thoughts. 'Is life even worth living for one person? Even for love? ...Or am I just too spineless to face reality...?" Rei watched him quietly, breathing indistinguishable as he continued his work, unreceiving of his gaze as he finished with his pants and allowed them to float to the surface. "We shouldn't still be here," he stated half-heartedly. "Misato-san will be worrying." Rei shook her head. "It's all right, for now." Shinji was more than surprised when Rei moved behind him, wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and pulled him under the LCL. He managed a surprised, "Wha...?" before he started to choke and gasp within the LCL, the remainder escaping as a flurry of bubbles as the LCL invaded his lungs. Within a matter of ten seconds, Shinji found himself to be, along with Rei, submerged five metres below the surface of the LCL and standing on the earthen ground that made the bottom. All to be seen in all directions were LCL and the sloping upward of the different sections of the room. "Rei? What are you doing?" he asked, masking his terror of being submerged so deeply within the LCL, which was certainly not the deepest point of the room. His only response was to watch as Rei sat down on the surface of the lake's floor, and pull her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs in the process as she rested her head just barely atop her knees. With no known means to swim back up to the surface of the LCL, Shinji sighed ever so slightly and resignedly sat down as well, choosing not to look in Rei's direction out of mild shame and confusion, couple with a general sense of decency. "... The Eva has a presence," Rei stated as she stared into the depths of the LCL lake, breaking the silence. "Something you understand," he replied quietly. "I can't tell..." "Haven't you felt it before? You have to open your mind to your Eva, or you are unable to control it. You've said yourself that you found something there in your time." "Maybe... but that wouldn't make any real sense." "Do you remember piloting Unit Zero?" Shinji nodded, caught a little off-guard by the question. "Vaguely." "You do not remember it fully... but it did attack the laboratory. Similar, to my first activation..." It was interesting how, if anyone had been watching her, they would have observed her eyes simultaneously narrow and soften. "Similar to... yours..." he said, speaking slowly as he tried to recall the incident in question. "The accident you were injured in?" Rei nodded softly. "Unit Zero reacted identically in both instances, despite a change in its Pilot." "But... between those two instances... it worked fine, didn't it?" "Yes. Which indicates it seems like a simple malfunction, but..." Her voice fell into a much quieter tone. "They weren't. A malfunction could not be as painful as that." "Why... when Unit Zero went haywire... did I..." "Forget?" Rei finished. "No, not that... I wouldn't want to have to remember what I did... But why did I see you?" Shinji had successfully surprised Rei, meriting a succession of blinks from the girl in question. "You saw me?" she asked softly. Shinji nodded. "Where, why, I don't even know... I can't even remember what I saw, but I know it was you... about you." "Too familiar," Rei started quietly, "but for it to be able to recount experiences to you, the Eva... with no Pilot, must..." With an idea and suspicion in mind, Rei spoke the word true. "... Learn." The reason for hiding in the depths of the LCL lake was becoming more obvious. "It would make _some_ sense... if we made them from an Angel..." Shinji slowly reasoned, "and the Angels learn, they improve. But..." "In the tomb, the presence felt weak, nearly non-existent," Rei contributed. "Unit Three felt strong. Unit Four... was in need." "In need of _what_?" Shinji asked, taking the opportunity to forever eliminate a the blood dabbed upon his torso. "Why me?" "In need of life. The presence... what is it?" Rei closed her eyes to help her think the situation over. "So familiar, yet so distant... secluded, just as a..." Rei's eyes quickly snapped open, and turned to Shinji. "As what? Secluded like what?" Shinji pressed. Rei's voice became eerily soft as her eyes took on a look of absence. "The feeling of an empty soul." Shinji's face drained quickly of colour, though it was not greatly noticeable within the LCL. He managed to retain his composure as best he could. "Soul...?" "It is alive in a sense..." Rei concluded, shortly thereafter slipping into a monologue. "Entry Plug... throne of the soul. Eva... container for a soul." Even the LCL couldn't hide the whitening features of Shinji's visage. His left hand unconsciously flexed. "The accident..." "... Say what it is... Shinji," Rei submitted. Shinji looked like he wanted to cry as he slowly lapsed into the same position as Rei, though gripping himself more tightly. The young boy had finally made a realization. "Father... Damn you..." "Accident... with your mother?" Rei queried quietly. "Planned, no doubt." Rei blinked. 'He is not of that nature... is he?' Shinji's grip loosened as his voice became somewhat deeper, anger- filled. "He'd use anyone else... why not her?" "Use?" Rei questioned, sounding almost protective. "Of course," Shinji responded, sounding as if he was resisting to fall upon the edge of spite. "Back when I came, he knew enough to use you to get me in that thing." "It was the first activation of Unit Zero," Rei explained sternly. "The outcome was unknown. I was not... used." "No, not then... when I first came to NERV. Maybe... you were too hurt to remember." "No," Rei responded, the sternness now gone from her voice. "I do remember... you holding me. At the time, it was of no consequence to me... I was to pilot..." She blinked. "You piloted... for me?" Rei asked as the thought crossed her mind for the first time. "I was going to leave... to run away..." An odd chill ran through Rei's body. It wasn't a shiver - it was one of those indescribable feelings. "You stayed... due to my condition..." Shinji nodded. Rei looked straight into his eyes, or rather, straight through him, as she became lost in thought. Her hands twitched involuntarily on her legs, a reflexive movement. Shinji was more unnerved by that single empty gaze than he had been from being caught in it when it was attentive. "Are you... okay, Rei?" For her part, Rei hadn't yet moved, with the exception of the hand reacting for a second time. Not ignoring, it was safer to assume that she had simply not heard him. Unsure of what else to do, Shinji put a hand on each of her shoulders and shook them softly. "Rei?" Rei's eyes seemed to regain a slight semblance of presence, yet she herself did not as her head fell slowly forward until all Shinji could see was the top of her head. She was lost. ******************** "Rei! Are you alright?! Rei!!" Gendou exclaimed as he ducked his upper half into the beaten entry plug. Rei looked up painfully, coming to meet his eyes. ******************** Rei awoke to find herself in a hospital bed. Commander Ikari's voice quietly came over the intercom. "Rei?" "... Yes, sir?" "Our spare is unusable. You will do it again." "Yes, sir." ******************** The IV unit rattled along with the hospital bed as Rei was rolled into Unit One's docking bay. ******************** Rei's gaze was intense as she stared down the oncoming particle beam of Ramiel, dedicated to defending her charge with a fledgling shield. ******************** "How are you feeling today Rei?" Gendou asked her, a smile upon his face." "I feel well," she replied, smiling in her own right. "I'm prepared to pilot Unit Zero again." ******************** Floating inside a tube of LCL deep within Terminal Dogma's, Rei looked up silently. She smiled as Gendou watched her in silence, smiling himself. ******************** Unit One struggled for a moment longer, and at last sank completely into the Sea of Dirac, halting all communication from its Pilot. ******************** Rei watched as Unit Three passed her by, walking on some unknown course. "... He's the pilot." ******************** Rei shivered in pain, holding the arm which felt as if it had been ripped from her very being. Her Eva now lay useless on the battlefield, a casualty of Unit Three. Her communication devices crackled weakly with messages being broadcast between Unit One and the Control Centre. [It will work better than the pilot.] Gendou's voice was more than clear. ******************** Rei stared ahead blankly at Major Katsuragi, only catching the words from the Commander to his son. [Good work, Shinji.] ******************** Still huddled within the remains of Unit Zero, the messages from the intercom continued to rattle through. From the Control Centre, gasps and moans. From Unit One's entry plug, screams. Unit Three's blood quickly washed over Unit Zero's head. ******************** Rei opened her eyes to listen to the Supreme Commander who remained outside the tube of LCL. "We're finished, Rei." ******************** [0.9, 0.8, 0.7, 0.6...] Rei patiently awaited the connection with Unit One. [0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.2... 0.1...] Rei's mind snapped for a brief instant as she felt a split-second shock course through her body. [A-10 nerve connection confirmed. All systems are nominal.] ******************** Bank upon bank of lights lit in succession, starting at the door and trailing towards the recesses of the chamber. Several paces away from them a huge spinal column rose. It held a tint much more gray than white, and trailed down into a pit below. Higher, the incomplete skeletal structure had produced both shoulders and arms, which trailed down below the main floor as well. Towering above them was the head, the only truly complete portion of the thing in front of them. Straight down to the colouring, it looked like Unit Zero before the refits it had undergone after being nearly liquefied by Ramiel's particle beam, with the exception being that the face contained not one, but five eyes. Beyond the first construct, others lay on the ground or were hung up in a similar fashion. Most were no more than a head and spine, but others were nearly as complete as the one hanging in the foyer. None, however, appeared to have any kind of hip or leg constructs to them. All had five eyes. ******************** The lights came up on another room housing an Eva cage. Once again, a head rose out of a sea of coolant, but instead of black like Unit Three, the head coming out of the new pool was silver. The head itself was only half-complete in its armour plating, the other half being various tissues. The eye socket not covered by the armour was void of an eye, and the mouth was devoid of teeth. The unarmoured half of the face was also shrunken somehow, as if even the growth was not entirely complete. ******************** That selfsame creature stared out blankly through the seven eye slits of the mask which had been imposed on its face. Oversized, white, almost human arms spread one to a side and were nailed through the hand to the cross behind. The body itself trailed off after the midsection into hundreds of small growths which appeared to be leaking the yellow-orange liquid which filled the lake below it. Implanted in the middle of the chest, as it had been for some time, was a large, red, double-tined lance which very nearly twisted the eye out of the skull to look at. ******************** Rei silently watched Gendou's face, which appeared to be lost in contemplation. ******************** Rei... Rei... Rei... Rei... Rei saw herself, over and over again. ******************** Rei keeled over in Unit One, and looked up into the intercom as she refrained from succumbing to the nausea and the pain of the failed connection. "I can be replaced." ******************** Rei slowly returned to reality as her conscious thoughts became known to herself. 'I can be... replaced. Because... that's how he deemed it.' Shinji once more shook her shoulders softly. "Rei?" 'I am living for an unknown purpose. That isn't my desire - my desire was... unimportant.' She shook her head slightly, speaking quietly, "It is important." "Important? What?" Shinji watched her with confused curiousity. Rei's head slowly raised, taking to regarding Shinji passively as her voice regained the simultaneous bout of softness and firmness. The next words left her lips as if they had become commonplace to her, and she had one understanding of their meaning. "I am not his doll." "Huh?" Shinji didn't understand what she meant. "I understand Soryuu's perspective. I... am not his doll," she reaffirmed. "Who? My father's?" Rei nodded slightly. "I am not valued by him the way one would value someone you have concern for." She shook her head slightly. "I will not exist for him." "No one said you had to," Shinji reasoned. 'No one will.' "I was lied to," Rei whispered. "How? By who?" "It was... to use me," Rei continued, the words coming to her lips as being foreign, never before considered. "Commander Ikari... was using me..." 'Me...' Shinji thought in succession, then regarded Rei. 'No... everyone. Even my mother... his wife... his own _wife_!' A look of perpetual darkness crossed his face. Coupled with small molecules of blood dissociating from his skin, it made for a rather uncomfortable image. "I've been lied to," Rei once more stated, trying to come to grips with the self-proclaimed fact. She looked to the young man. "Secrets kept, what we've seen is understandable. But Eva, the presence... a soul, is not." Shinji nodded quietly in agreement, thinking, 'His in blood...' "... I... won't..." "Won't... what?" Shinji questioned, mildly startled. "... I won't forgive that." Mild astonishment befell the listener. "Anger," Rei quietly described, "of being betrayed and used... I will not be his doll." Her thoughts were considerably less harsh. 'Why... did you do that, Commander Ikari?' "You are no one's doll," Shinji resolutely affirmed. "You're Rei Ayanami, and that's what matters." Rei seemed to let that soak in for a few moments, literally, and was soon to follow up with a quietly worded, "Shinji." "Y... yes?" "You're the one who I trust. Do you trust me?" "Of course," he replied with a nod. "I'm the one who's been untruthful," he countered, shivering slightly. "Then... no secrets," Rei concluded. "When this is over... we do not leave the truth. We continue to learn it, and do not hide anything." "I won't hide anything from you, then. But... that may end up hurting more than helping..." For the first time in quite some time that evening, Rei smiled softly, directed at him. "No, it won't, otherwise we are lost. Nothing to hide, when this is over... That is my desire, that I wish to share with you." "... That's how it is, then." The two sat there unmoving for a short time afterward, watching the sea of LCL drift by slowly before their eyes, breathing in and out as different thoughts played through their minds. The blood, during the past exchange, had been banished from the temples they had invaded, and left behind the purity of the human body as it had been transformed into what the two Children now breathed. "Sea of LCL, source of life... a place of birth," Rei commented softly as the LCL drifted body. Shinji nodded in agreement, though his mentality and knowledge on such a topic was much less developed. 'Like before,' he thought to himself. Rei's gaze of the sea never wavered, but was calm as the drift. "... We've... stayed in one place too long," Shinji spoke after the prolonged, peaceful silence. "A moment, taken advantage of," Rei dictated. "... One to remember," Shinji replied, unintentionally doubletalking. "As I said, I will give you many," she quietly reminded as she stood up. "This is only the first for today." Shinji nodded, stood, then suddenly froze as he let that impact. "T... oday!?" Very softly, Rei returned, "To break tension." Shinji blinked, then quietly blushed and gazed at the ground from embarrassment, and again for the general idea of showing some decency. "Yeah..." "I have spent the day with you," Rei pointed out. "Yeah," Shinji replied, a bit uncomfortably as he slowly adjusted out of the more painful emotions he had been through earlier. "Sooner started, sooner done," he reasoned, then let the current situation fall into place once more. "I'm sure Misato-san is worrying by now." "Though... we can't drown," Rei reasoned. "She slowly kicked her legs and began to move upward, which left Shinji at loss for he had no idea how to swim, which left him rather immobile and confused where he stood. "... You are unable to swim?" Rei questioned monotonously, yet seemed to carry the tone that it was something which came natural to everyone. "Let's... not worry about that right now," he responded somewhat defensively. '...No, he can't,' Rei concluded. Now understanding his situation, she looked around herself and indicated the direction of the 'shore', which was not overly distant from their current position. "You can walk in that direction to return. I'll retrieve the clothing," she said, to which Shinji nodded and began to plod carefully along the surface toward the overhanging grating and shallower land. 'Later,' Rei finished silently before she swam in another direction to obtain both their sets of clothing. As Shinji surfaced and sat on the edge of grating, Rei continued her rounds of collecting their clothing. From where she had pulled Shinji to their place of solitude within the LCL, to where she had been washing the clothes of blood earlier, Rei collected each article. Nonetheless, something had caught her observant eye as she added the final piece of the collection, her school shirt, to the mounting pile under her arm. The Lancea Longini had shifted - barely. The double point which had been buried deeply into Lilith's chest was somewhat more visible than it had been, almost as if the creature was attempting to spit it out. Or perhaps it was a trick of the light. Unsure of what to make of this, Rei gave it a lingering look before swimming on the surface of the water to where Shinji awaited her. The clothing already separated under her arms into two separate piles, she handed the pile which was Shinji's to Shinji, who despite a silent thank you seemed quite pleased to have his clothing back. Nonetheless, Shinji remained quiet as he silently dragged on his clothes, his eyes almost closed as he lost himself in thought once more. Rei, on the other hand, did not yet move from where she was sitting on the edge of the outcrop, eyes silently switching from the LCL to Shinji, then quickly back to the LCL. '... Secret?' Without another thought, Rei removed her legs from where they rested within the LCL and kneeled on the grating, wringing her articles of clothing out over the LCL in an attempt to dry them. Shinji, in the meantime, had finished dressing, and now stood by on the outcrop, his back to Rei so she could for once in the past two days dress in 'privacy', which by all standards was a ridiculous thought with Lilith watching on in the background. "Where will they... take us next?" Rei looked at the ground somewhat seriously as she slipped her dress on. "Perhaps... the Dummy Plug." "I'm not looking forward to that," Shinji commented sadly. Rei finished buttoning her dress and slipped on her shoes as her gaze fell to the distant Lilith. "... I do understand, but in a different way." "Let's go, then," Shinji said softly. "I'd rather not worry about it." "... A positive to this," Rei commented as she walked toward him. "For once, we weren't interrupted." Shinji blinked, and could feel the heat in his cheeks. "To break tension," Rei reasoned as she took him by the hand and led him toward Heaven's Gate. "Come... An evening that will not end awaits." "Thankfully... this is morning," he replied, allowing himself to find a few moments where he could actually grin naturally, their ill-timed humour the most efficient way to keep strong in the situation. "Silly," Rei replied quietly, allowing herself to smile slightly. "Of course I am," Shinji responded, chuckling softly. 'This does help it all. A lot.' With nothing left to do but continue onward on the journey, the two disappeared into the darkness on the other side of Heaven's Gate. Lilith watched in silence as the gate drew closed. ======================================================================== NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: VARIATIONS ON A THEME Volume 4 "Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh." - Proverbs 3:25 ======================================================================== Asuka silently closed the door to Hikari's room and walked across the immaculate living room to the balcony. The red-headed girl quietly gazed out upon the city. Despite the suburban location, the lights of the city continued to shine closely. 'Why did they want me gone so badly? This just sucks...' she thought, playing the fingers of her left hand softly along the glass. 'No doubt to give _those_two_ a chance to get along without me.' Lights in the distance flickered softly. A lit sign of some distant shop was slowly shutting down. The red lights flickered out of existence, the white and blue disappearing together soon after. 'It must be my lot in life to get screwed by the world,' she thought, tapping the glass softly. 'Just my own God damned luck.' High in the sky, the stars could be seen shining faintly; an impressive feat given the nature of Tokyo-3. A white light streaked through the darkness, a star falling to the earth. 'Luck,' she sniffed disdainfully. 'More like a bloody curse.' The streak could be seen far in the distance, sparkling on its way down, fizzling out of existence. "Still up? Hikari's not..." a voice intruded on the ranting in Asuka's mind. "What?" Asuka said, head snapping up. "Who---" she began, turning to face the intrusion, then relaxing when she realized who it was. "Oh, hello Nozumi." The unwitting intruder tossed her sand-brown hair slightly. Asuka momentarily had the irrational and unjustified urge to throttle the not- quite-ripe-yet youngest sister of the household. Instead, she eyed the younger girl critically. "Just not tired?" Nozumi asked softly. "Something like that..." Asuka replied. "You should go back to bed. Hikari is probably freezing without her blanket..." the young girl said, a half smile playing on her lips. Asuka blinked quickly, managing an embarrassed smile as she rubbed a hand behind her head. "Did I take it? Guess I didn't realize that at the time..." She promptly sweatdropped. "Silly. Why would you take _her_ blanket, anyway? You couldn't be _that_ cold..." "I may just have been half-asleep when it happened..." Asuka answered, yawning. "Or maybe I was wide awake and took it by reflex." "I thought you said you couldn't sleep." "Well, probably a reflex then..." Asuka said, a sweatdrop hidden by her hand. 'Geez...' "A shame reflex, maybe?" Nozumi asked, grinning wickedly. "And just what do you mean by that?" Asuka asked flatly. "And just why are you blushing?" Nozumi asked, shrugging. "Iamnot!" Asuka slurred, blinking. She slowly brought a hand to her face, found it heated, and promptly dropped it to her side, staring at the ground. "I need sleep." "I thought you couldn't sleep," Nozumi replied, pressing her advantage. "Of course I can't sleep. You're keeping me awake!" "I don't care who's keeping who up... You _both_ woke me up. Get the hell back to bed!" Kodama said from behind them. Asuka gulped slightly, thinking, 'I'm not the one that's supposed to be afraid of her, but she's... Hikari in class rep mode... and older...' "Bed. Now," Kodama ordered softly, eyes narrowing. "Yes ma'am!" Nozumi nearly yelled, marching comically back to her room. "Please... go back to bed, Kodama. I'll go back eventually," Asuka said, turning to face the new speaker. For some reason, she realized, she had always been at least a little jealous of Kodama, though she also knew that she didn't really have any grounds for it. 'So what if I'd kill for her figure,' Asuka thought sullenly. 'Some of the hair would have to go... though it is straighter.' She caught herself before she growled aloud, then suppressed such irrational modes of thought. "Just keep it quiet." She yawned. "I haven't had much sleep lately myself..." "O-okay," Asuka agreed, hiding another sweatdrop. 'Weird girl,' Kodama thought, quietly reentering the house. 'Hikari... is middle ground...' Inside, the muffled sounds of someone marching around were followed by a shout of, "Get to bed you little brat!" "What the hell was that?" Asuka asked herself, blinking as Nozumi ran by the balcony door, slowly followed by Kodama. Asuka promptly sweatdropped. Hikari took that time to stumble out onto the balcony from the direction the other two had just run, closing the door behind her, looking quite groggy. "A problem?" "Noisy..." Hikari answered, rubbing her eyes. "Yes, well..." Asuka chuckled. "I think I woke Nozumi." "Brat!" reverberated from inside the apartment. "No kidding..." Hikari said, watching Asuka watch the chase going on within the walls of the apartment. "Kodama... my older sister. And if Nozumi weren't there, you'd be able to tell." "What's that supposed to mean?" Hikari watched as Kodama slung Nozumi over her shoulder and hauled her off in the direction of the bedrooms. "Let me just say, she probably isn't cut out yet for being a mother, when she can't handle a sister who's only a couple of years younger than her. If she had no children, she'd probably make a wonderful wife, and a great head of a family." "What about her? That little one has a mouth on her," Asuka said, laughing softly. "She's thirteen... not _that_ little, just... well, maybe she is, at that," Hikari said, blinking suddenly. "_She_ has a mouth on her?" She managed a weak grin through her sleep-ridden state. "This coming from _you_?" Asuka laughed. "Yes, this coming from me. I thought you'd have her trained better." "I try. She behaves better around me than she does around Kodama. But when she's alone... who knows. I guess I should work harder at it." Asuka attempted to hold back further laughter by speaking. "Maybe I should borrow her... She could come over and live with me and Misato-san for a while... and we could leave Shinji over here." "You saying she's hopeless?" "No more hopeless than Shinji," Asuka retorted. "Well, Shinji's quieter," Hikari said, looking thoughtful. "I don't think Kodama would mind him nearly so much..." "What's that mean?" "You want to trade them?" Hikari asked, grinning. "Ayanami wouldn't agree," Asuka replied quietly. "Let's go back to bed, Asuka," Hikari said, grin fading as she noticed the sudden change in the mood of her friend. "No... I'm not tired. You go ahead." "Ummm... Asuka?" "Yeah, what?" "Can I... have my blanket back?" "I wouldn't advise that," Asuka answered carefully. Hikari blinked, asking why. "Because I didn't bring those loose-fitting clothes you were talking about," Asuka smirked. "Keep them," Hikari said, turning suddenly red. "See you inside." "Can't sleep in that thing anyway. It's uncomfortable enough to be _awake_ in." "Most people would agree with you on that," Hikari agreed, still blushing slightly. "I'll not ruin Nozumi, either," Asuka said, laughing harshly. "Go back to bed." Hikari shook her head slowly. "Just don't flash my sisters," she cautioned, at least seriously, opening the door. Asuka could do no more than laugh at her. 'I hope she doesn't take that the wrong way...' Hikari thought. "See you later." With that, she closed the door and disappeared, leaving Asuka alone on the balcony, still laughing loudly. After she regained control of herself, Asuka opened the door and headed back into the house herself. She hadn't taken two steps, however, before she was promptly broadsided by Nozumi, who apparently had not yet been put in her cell locked down and surrounded by guards. "Ouch-y..." Nozumi groaned, looking up. Asuka glared at her for the two seconds she had before Kodama skidded and fell on the both of them while trying to come to a stop from running full-tilt. The pile, having grown to three, was now louder in its complaints, as well as its emissions of pain. "Nozumi! I'm going to lock you in your bedroom!" Kodama threatened, causing Nozumi to promptly seek refuge behind Asuka. Kodama advanced slowly, thinking, 'I'm not supposed to be spending my time chasing after a hyperactive pre-teen!' Asuka yelped as Nozumi cowered against her. "Get off of me!" "Save me!" Nozumi screamed, shivering and tugging on the blanket. "Asuka, run this way. Now!" Kodama commanded. Asuka started running, dragging Nozumi along briefly. Soon, however, the act of dragging combined with the act of running caused Asuka to pitch forward and scream loudly before planting her face on the floor with a resounding thud, which was echoed moments later as Nozumi flew through the air and landed next to her. "Anta baka!" Asuka grumbled loudly. "No kidding..." Kodama agreed, rubbing her head. "Can't a girl get _any_ sleep in this house?" Hikari asked, mumbling softly. She, at least, had apparently gone back to sleep for the few moments she had been away from Asuka. At least, she looked it. "No!" Asuka and Kodama yelled, directing the sound at Nozumi. "Asuka..." Hikari said, still speaking softly as though just awakened. "What happened to my blanket?" Asuka closed her eyes, still sprawled out on the floor and wrapped in the majority of the blanket, pointed to Nozumi, next to her, who had the small minority of the blanket clutched in her hands. Hikari took one look at where her friend pointed and sweated heavily. Kodama seized the moment by snatching the ripped shred of blanket from Nozumi and handing it to Hikari, still looking at the unfortunate Nozumi. "Bed, Nozumi. Now. You've caused enough trouble for one night." "But... but..." Nozumi protested, glancing hopefully at the still- drowsy Hikari. "_Please_ go to sleep, Nozumi... It's really late... or really early," Hikari pleaded quietly. "Okay!" Nozumi promptly agreed, rather too brightly. "Sorry about the blanket..." She frowned, then turned to Asuka. "Wake up early," she said just before she scampered out of the room, disappearing. Kodama wiped a momentary stunned look from her face, then adjusted her thin glasses. "How do you _do_ that?" "A promise... no, I think that was a threat. A very _dark_ threat..." Asuka said softly to herself, sweatdropping. "Less of a commanding tone," Hikari replied, yawning. "Maybe you're just too good at being a Class Representative." Asuka just stared at them, holding the less-of-a-blanket in place because it happened to no longer be wrappable. "Don't know whether that's a compliment or not..." Kodama shook her head. "I'm going to go to bed, and try to salvage what I can of my sleep. Good night." "God... I'm not looking forward to waking up today," Asuka said, watching the eldest Horaki wander off. "Durchaus nicht..." "Don't worry about her," Hikari said, waving a dismissive hand. "She's just poking fun at you... probably." Her eyes furrowed slightly. 'She's so different from Kodama and myself...' "Need sleep... need rest... need _food_..." Asuka commented. "In that order," Hikari agreed, pushing Asuka toward the bedroom. "Let's go..." "I'll... pay for the blanket," Asuka offered. "Don't worry about it," Hikari replied, smiling slightly. "I planned on helping Nozumi with her sewing skills anyway. I've just been given a perfect opportunity." "You plan _everything_ in advance, don't you?" Asuka asked, thinking, 'Must make you absolutely _hate_ me at times...' Hikari chuckled softly. "No, not everything... Spontaneity is fun. Sometimes. Of course, we know that first-hand, don't we?" "Promise made, indeed," Asuka said, laughing softly as she threw herself on the bed. Hikari climbed into the bed much more gracefully, taking exquisite pains to crawl over Asuka and collapse stomach-first, face hitting the pillow and turning slightly to face Asuka's direction with eyes already shut. "Sleep..." She sighed. "Sleep well, Hikari-chan... Sleep well..." Asuka said. 'At least one of us should get to...' Her thoughts continued after Hikari mumbled a response and a smile. 'Well, that was an adventure,' she admitted, lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling at nothing at all. "Be thankful you didn't lose the whole blanket..." Hikari muttered. "I could always get into some of those itchy school clothes." "No, that's all right, Asuka. I was talking in term of you in front of my sisters, that's all." "I'll have to eventually," she said, sighing. "We don't have a school to use them at," Hikari reminded her, sounding saddened. "Wait until later, Asuka. You don't need to now." "Good," Asuka commended, turning her head on the pillow. "I hate that stuff..." "You called it cheap carpeting." "Wha...?" "Insulting my uniform..." "Mine's no better," Asuka informed her. "Stuff like that _can't_ be good for the skin." Hikari shrugged noncommittally. "Oh, go to bloody sleep!" Asuka complained. "You starte---" Hikari was cut off by a deep yawn. "Sleep. Good. Now," Asuka said, stuffing a pillow in Hikari's face very quickly. "You have the blanket," Hikari said, cuddling up behind her, "so you're going to _be_ the blanket for tonight. Good night." Asuka sweatdropped. "Don't complain," Hikari murmured, yawning. "It's not a bad thing. Warmer, actually..." The sweatdrop increased by a factor of ten. "And stop sweating. You can't be _that_ hot." "Don't start, please..." Asuka groaned. "Just rest. We have other things to do tomo--- today." Asuka yawned again. "Then go to sleep." "Agreed." A slight smile. "'Night..." Two pairs of eyes closed slowly against the dim morning light. ------------------------------------ Kensuke stumbled down the stairs leading to the floor below BALTHASAR-2 and CASPER-3. Needless to say, Kensuke was no longer as go-lucky as he had been earlier. 'I'm gonna die... I spent all this time trying to figure out how to get _in_, and now I'm gonna die...' Kensuke's inspiring words continued to ring through his mind as he stumbled blindly down a hallway, still in shock at having nearly been killed while 'investigating' CASPER-3. The flashlight in his hand shook softly, the light bouncing upon the floor as he kept one hand to the wall for support, his own security no longer as large a concern as it had been earilier. After all, he was going to die. 'Well... seeing as I'm dead any way I look at it... maybe if I'm more careful...' he thought, a deviant grin spreading across his face. He turned his head, along with the flashlight, across the nearby walls, and found the manner of his execution. Primary Command & Control Centre Level 3 Access S.C. MAGI System SUPER-COMPUTER MELCHIOR-1 "Perfect!" Doom's door slid open as his hand came into contact upon the panel. The casing which represented the first of the MAGI was the sight to behold Kensuke's weary eyes. 'Kensuke Aida... if you're going down... go down in style!' Kensuke's hand instinctively flew toward the release control on the panel stationed by the door. With a soft hiss, the automation of the casing removal began once again. 'I don't think I'll ever get over that...' he thought as the casing rose. The sounds stopped as the casing locked into place, the only sound being the faint humming of the exposed MAGI computer. Kensuke crept forward silently, the door to MELCHIOR-1's balcony sliding closed behind him. 'Now... what triggered security last time?' Kensuke fell to his knees as he came upon the entrance to the MAGI computer. 'Kensuke no baka! Don't go charging in there like a complete idiot! That's what someone with all the technical savvy of Asuka would do!' Kensuke silently peered into the crevices of the outer casing around the entrance; no indication could he find of what might set off an alarm. At least, from the outside. "Well... so much for technical savvy... I know what the alarm _looks_ like now... Hopefully it's enough." Inhaling deeply, Kensuke again dropped to his knees, and slowly, cautiously crept his way into the Super Computer. Once more, the walls were littered with design notes, giving the dark interior a brighter, yet more disorderly appearance. With a brain behind the general idea of what he wanted to do, Kensuke began looking over the notes carefully for any mention of the alarm system and, if found, how to shut it off. Kensuke muttered silently to himself. "Casing repairs required... spare parts... possible system changes... design flaw..." He shook his head. "What good is any of this if I can't even get in?" he cried softly. 'Well... we'll just hope and pray, then...' he thought, crawling further into the tunnel. Time passed quickly as he shuffled slowly down the miniscule tunnel. As he crawled, he became familiar with a certain spot on the floor; one where he had been thrown to within in a similar Super Computer. 'It was... about here...' he mused within his mind. 'Well well well... if it happens again... I'll just run faster,' he thought, grinning broadly. Kensuke took a deep breath, and then scampered forward with all his speed. He instantly regretted it. Once more Kensuke found himself tumbling backwards, being knocked with enough force to land him on his stomach, meaning he had managed to do a complete backward roll. He breathed heavily on the ground as the initial shock of the current left him gasping for air. 'Damn... that was stronger then last time...' He attempted to turn tail before the system went off again, when he noted something of value. The electrical field which had generated had _not_ dissipated this time. "Time to get the hell out of here!" he cried, whirling around, and just as quickly bouncing back. Kensuke gazed up in pain at the field that had formed but two meters away from him. His eyes widened as best they could. He slowly raised a hand, trying to stretch it outward, but dropped it but a moment later in pain. "D... d-damn..." Around him, the computer flooded with red light. A monitor lit up next to him: INTRODUCING CASPER 666 GAMMA PROTOCOL INTO SYSTEM 'What the hell?' Kensuke began to swear, slumping against the side of the tunnel. "God... I'm an idiot..." The monitor flashed the message in his eyes, as if refusing to leave, a testament to Kensuke's failure. 'That's it, then. My life will end in a couple of seconds... I'm hungry...' The message disappeared from the monitor, replaced by another: CASPER 666 GAMMA INITIATED PHYSICAL ELIMINATION PROCEDURE ENGAGED (MELCHIOR ADVANCED TEST STAGE 1) The electrical fields began to pulse slowly. He closed his eyes, though it did little good against the vision of pulsing electricity which was most certainly about to make a flame-broiled Kensuke steak. The fields glowed softly, their intensity slowly increasing, the circular fields of electricity beginning to extend into the section of MELCHIOR-1 where Kensuke was thoroughly blocked on either side. "Perhaps... Mister Kaji's 'gift' would be of use..." he grinned, unslinging a 'borrowed' laptop. 'High praise to that man... if I ever see him again.' The fields stopped growing before he could even turn it on. "Na...ni...?" Kensuke blinked in surprise as the monitor flashed to life with a new message: MELCHIOR-1 INTERNAL SECURITY BREACH VIRAL INFECTION DETECTED - SYSTEM ELIMINATOR MELCHIOR-1 INITIATING FIRST CONTACT "Virus? In the MAGI?" he laughed. "Perfect! It thinks the _program_ is the _virus_! YES!!!" CASPER 666 GAMMA - MELCHIOR-1 INTERNAL VAPORIZATION INITIATED The fields started moving forward again. "Oh shit..." The fields continued to near him, edging closer and closer, when Kensuke noted something. They were charring the MAGI interior. Upon that note, the laptop was open and active, and Kensuke was searching for a place to plug it in. MELCHIOR-1 INITIATING SECOND CONTACT INTERNAL SYSTEM PHYSICAL DAMAGE DETECTED VIRAL BODY ENGAGED The fields stopped moving forward again. They appeared to be struggling to continue forth, failing miserably, being held back by an unknown force. 'Please stay... please stay...' MELCHIOR-1 INITIATING THIRD CONTACT PURIFICATION COMMENSED The fields burst to life for but a moment, crackling, attempting to hold stability. Failing. 'Fall... damn it... fall!' Kensuke thought, hope his only chance. MELCHIOR-1 REMOVING "CASPER 666 GAMMA" PROTOCOL FROM SYSTEM The fields crackled one last time in a vain attempt to keep composure, then slowly dissociated themselves from existence. "Yes!" Kensuke yelled, crawling forward, dragging the laptop with him. "Success!" 'Kensuke Aida... you will _never_ attempt to physically hack a computer _ever_again_!' Looking back as the red lights faded, he noted a new message that had appeared upon the monitor. MELCHIOR-1 REINITIATING "MELCHIOR SSS" PROTOCOL MELCHIOR SSS INITIATED HUMANOID LIFE FORM DETECTED LOGGING ACTIVITY 'Damn! Something else I've gotta fix...' Within the MAGI computer, Kensuke was able to hear the sounds of clicking within the machinery itself. 'I hope that isn't a new method of locking files,' he thought, sweatdropping. ------------------------------------ Once again, the entire company was traversing the dimly lit corridors of Terminal Dogma. The spacing of the lighting was very nearly insufficient, so from one light to the next, they most always passed through deep shadow, with only off-branching corridors of differing sizes to tell them that they were actually making any progress. Shinji and Rei were walking quietly behind Ritsuko, as was becoming standard, and were trailed by Misato and Ryouji who were talking amongst themselves. "No more kiosks," Misato whispered to him. "No chance in hell," Ryouji agreed softly. 'I even find myself hating this place,' Ritsuko thought. Shinji looked up at Ritsuko's back, considering the distance they had traveled, and refrained from asking the obvious question about the length of the corridor. That question had, he decided, been asked once too often already this evening, and every time it had been asked, bad things had always been resultant. 'Lancea... moved,' Rei thought, thinking of Lilith. "Why did we leave them there?" Misato asked, holding Ryouji back. "Everyone has their own questions to have answered. You, of all people, should know that, Katsuragi." "Maybe, but the last question I need _asked_ of me is how the Third Children mysteriously vanished in the middle of the night." "He didn't," Ryouji stated firmly. "Now's not the time. Cold this may sound, but mask your emotions for now. Show them once we've left. Walk, and appear calm when you want to run and hide. There will be plenty of time for the latter when it won't let someone else down." "Just don't let me do anything that stupid again.." "You two coming along?" Ritsuko asked, well down the corridor with Shinji and Rei at her back. "It isn't _that_ much farther." "Of course," Ryouji replied, taking Misato by the wrist and pulling her forward, then turning to speak to her alone. "I'll do my best." "The only danger in here... is a lone falling object," Ritsuko said as she opened the door. "And I won't let anyone stand under it." 'Sounds like something Asuka would like to stick a few people under,' Shinji thought, chuckling for a moment, then blinking. 'Why isn't Asuka here?" "Dummy Plug..." Rei whispered, causing Shinji to growl softly. 'Demonic,' Ryouji thought simply. "Don't stand out in the cold," Ritsuko chided, walking into the room swiftly. Rei followed Shinji closely, drawing him into the room behind Ritsuko. Everyone filed into the large, mostly empty room. All the walls were dampened in blackness. The floor lit as a track for a few short meters, then trailed off into nothingness as well. The room, for all they could tell, could have simply trailed off a few meters beyond that. "I expected something more... grand," Shinji commented. "Never believe everything is just as it seems," Ritsuko chided, pressing a button on her pad. High above the floor, a large red entry plug slowly began lowering from out of the hollows of the ceiling. Written across it, in light- trapping letters were the characters "R E I". Everyone simply stared at it for a moment, though at least Ryouji seemed thoroughly unimpressed. "Why Rei?" Misato asked. "Or rather, why leave it open?" "That's who it was created from," Ritusko answered, shrugging. "There's no reason not to. Even the Unit itself is programmed with the name of the Dummy upon initiation. An identifier." "Then... I was in that?" Shinji asked weakly. "No, not this. This is just the prototype for the Dummy. All the data collected for the Dummy is stored in here. An entry plug can easily be programmed with the data, and then the uplink can handle the rest. This... is a plug that wouldn't require you as a pilot. It would only be the Dummy." "Oh, so you can just turn that thing on and hope it chooses the right enemy?" "Don't blame me when _Commander_ Ikari refuses to listen to my recommendations. This system is still riddled with problems. It isn't the least bit safe," Ritsuko replied, shaking her head. "Rei's personality was transferred to this, though the human mind, and the soul, aren't digitizable." She took a moment to look up at the still-descending plug. "It's an imitation of a pilot's thinking patters. A machine. Inhumane, as Maya put it. I don't think I would find much ground to argue with her. Inhumane, literally, because it isn't human." "The blame falls to him. Again. How surprising." Rei silently stared at the hanging red plug, barely hearing Shinji's words. "We're just hell-bent on generating things that hate us, aren't we?" Ryouji asked. "Only when Man refuses to investigate its creations before turning them loose upon the world," Ritsuko replied, walking deeper into the room until she began to be enshrouded in the darkness. "So... that's all that's here? More pain... more of mankind's folly in his pursuit of perfection?" Ryouji asked. "It's only a folly due to ignorance. Otherwise, it would, perhaps, be a triumph. The Dummy has refused to work with Unit One since, there have been internal programming errors detected during its sampled initiation with Unit Zero, and there has been no reason as of yet to use it with any other Eva. I can't say that I'm not comforted by that," Ritsuko answered, walking further into the darkness. "Ritsuko... Lights, now, or I'm following. Safety off." "You'd probably be better off that way," Ritsuko replied from within the darkness. "This room isn't only storage for the prototype." As she spoke, the lights came to life along the walls, seemingly leading back into eternity. Closest to Misato and the rest were three entry plugs, at the beginning of a row, marked with the numbers 00, 01, and 02. Further down both rows were almost an innumerable number of additional plugs, none of which were numbered individually. "Wh... What _is_ this?" Misato asked incredulously. "Prototypes for an entry plug which can use the Dummy system while still containing a normal pilot. Failures," Ritsuko replied, looking down the red-lined walls. "All failures. Except these. We still haven't been able to perfect Unit Two, but that won't continue to be a setback for long. Care to take a look?" Without waiting for a reply, she clicked in a series of commands on her pad and a large metal arm with a clamp swung down from the ceiling and took hold of one of the plugs, removing it from the wall and twisting it so the seat would rest pointing up. The look of it bore an eerie similarity to the Unit Zero plug after the rematch with Ramiel. "Well... let's see it," Misato commented, subtly but intentionally blocking Shinji's view. "You'll never see anything from back there," Ritsuko commented, already well near the center of the room, where the plug rested in the grip of that metal arm. Paying the others very little heed, Ritsuko opened the hatch of the failure and stuck her head inside, and thus not noticing when Misato started heading across the room, followed by Ryouji and Rei, leaving Shinji standing just inside the doorway. In the distance to which they walked, an extension from that mechanical arm had opened the top of the entry plug and was reaching inside for _something_. 'There must be more technology incorporated into this room than anything short of the MAGI...' Misato thought, nearly whistling. "No part of it..." Shinji whispered, inaudible to all but himself, even Rei, who had taken the opportunity for a backwards glance. "I would sooner destroy it... or myself." Far beyond him in the room, the extension of that metal arm had removed the seating unit completely from the plug itself. The seat remained suspended in the air momentarily, then the extended arm moved toward the door, setting its cargo down facing the door. A moment later, Ritsuko pulled her head out of the plug. "And what history comes from the black box now?" Misato asked. "None of these could support the uplink. They all contained the programming, but the uplink failed regardless. The link cannot be maintained with the Eva when the Dummy is incapable of supporting itself. It's not a programming problem, really, but the Eva isn't just a machine, either." "We've already been over _that_," Misato replied, her face grim. "So, why did it... fail?" "It was unable to support an inhuman object. A fake," Ritsuko answered, walking around the back of the seat and popping another opening, causing LCL to spill onto the floor. 'Damn. Can't cover this up...' Shinji watched motionlessly as Ritsuko moved to the far side of the seating unit, pressing a switch that caused another hiss, and the detachment which was released only increased the steady flow of LCL. The doctor then stepped behind the seat, tapping a second switch, causing one handle to appear on each side of the hatch. The LCL continued to pour out, more than slightly tinted in red. "Kaji, could you give me a hand, please?" Ritsuko asked, taking hold of one handle and indicating the other. Ryouji nodded and gripped the other handle tightly. "Would the two of you step away, please?" Ritsuko continued unabated, earning a nod and quick movement from Misato and Rei. Shinji continued watching quietly from the end of the hall, hands clenching and unclenching involuntarily as Ritsuko nodded to Ryouji and the two lifted on the handles, flipping a sloped section up and away from the main seating component. LCL quickly rushed from the opening, spilling onto the floor in a red-gold river as the revealed cavity emptied itself of its contents. Along with the liquid flowed a soft, almost rubber-like mass, as well as flecks of black and brown. "Failure indeed," Misato said, nodding grimly. "Those would no doubt be part of a partially corroded intestinal tract," Ritsuko remarked clinically, regarding the rubbery mass. "Hmmm... remnants of skin," was the comment the flecks drew. "That's a... you said a..." Shinji stammered, sliding down against the door, seconds away from covering his face. "... Was," Ritsuko agreed, regarding the mess on the floor with a mixture of disgust and seriousness. "Not completely degraded," she reiterated, delving into the seat and removing an intact human hand, cradling it within her own, eyeing the pristine white bone which protruded from the wrist along with a sight of nerves and blood vessels. Aside from the dark brown tint to the skin and the very slight drain of blood from the hand, it seemed in excellent condition. 'That's why the plug continues to bleed,' Ritsuko thought silently. Shinji and Ryouji both exhibited Maya-esque characteristics at the sight, helped along the path to reviving a dead supper by Ritsuko's wonderfully clinical tactlessness. Misato was nearly as unsettled, looking pale despite trying not to show it. Even Rei was somewhat shocked to see the doctor holding the remnant of a human hand. Ritsuko, of course, did _wonders_ for everyone's physical and mental health when she carelessly pulled a vein from the hand and regarded it for a moment by dangling it in front of her eyes. After giving it a careful twice-over, she tossed both the vein and the hand back into the compartment she had opened and pulled down on the upraised metal with all of her strength. "This isn't enough," she muttered, almost angrily, adding a shake of the head for effect. "It never is..." she continued, resealing the seat into its proper place, then using her pad to begin the automatic removal of the plug. "Ritsuko, that is _enough_. We're moving on. Now," Misato commanded, all but dragging Ryouji along with her as she headed for the door. Meanwhile, Rei watched Ritsuko as the doctor watched the seat be reinserted into the actual plug, and that then be lifted by the mechanical arm and inserted into its proper slot on the wall. "What will you do?" Ritsuko asked quietly, pitching her voice so that only Rei could hear her. "He'll leave, if you ask him to." "Too late," the girl replied, listening to the satisfying sound of metal snapping into place. "I did not know this." "There is time, you know... Until he learns the truth, there is more than enough time. The lie could be mine." "I am unable to change his mind," Rei replied, her eyes resting on the LCL staining the floor. "But... I wish for no secrets. Other than Eva, he is all I have." With that, she turned silently and walked towards the door. 'I can't save someone who won't even save themself. Then... damage control takes precedence, though what damage can be prevented now is a good question. The self begins its revelations through its origins,' Ritsuko thought, walking to the exit, and narrowly avoiding the mess that the LCL had made. 'I would rather destroy it all than clean it up,' she reflected, tapping a few controls into the keypad next to the doorway. She then looked up to see Misato watching Ryouji, who was still pale, and Rei, who had a hand on one of Shinji's shoulders. In contrast to Shinji, Ryouji looked as though he had never felt better in his life. "No, Misato... I was a mess before. This just sucks," Ryouji confided weakly. "No kidding." "Are you all right?" Ryouji asked seriously. "No," came the simple reply. "Good that one of us is strong..." Ryouji laughed weakly. "Are we ready to keep moving?" 'I had to learn from someone,' Misato thought, looking at Shinji who was still regaining his breath. "One minute. I don't want anyone to die at this stage, be it sickness, security systems, or something else." "Don't worry, Misato-san..." Shinji said, still slightly hunched over the contents of his stomach. "I can go... any time..." After a moment of sharing guardian-like vigilance with Rei, Misato nodded. "Ritsuko?" "Whenever, Misato." "Where?" Ritsuko smiled evilly. "The beginning of several hopes. And, perhaps, the end of others." "Let's just... go," Misato replied, shaking her head. The five of them quickly left the room behind, all of them either harboring fears of the past, or fears of the future. Ritsuko lead them down the long corridor to their left, which was nearly invisible when they had arrived at the door to the plug room. After they followed that to a T-junction, they again took the left hand turn, and came to a literal fork, four-pronged. This time they bore right, and after several more minutes of what seemed like aimless wandering, Ryouji was irritated enough to ask the obvious and inevitable question. "Oh, you people are _all_ so impatient!" Ritsuko grumbled. 'Let's just go...' Misato thought. 'Why spread out this pain?' "Don't worry. We're there already." "Hmm?" Misato asked, looking up. A dull metal access panel with a twist of lime light. Another door in the hallway. ARTIFICIAL EVOLUTION LABORATORY 3 Ritsuko turned her head ever so slightly, her voice oddly calm and light as it betrayed faint warning. "Not too late. Not yet." "What are you talking about?" Misato asked as she stared at the door, only to find it open a moment later at Ritsuko's command. Despite the doorway being wide enough to fit three people, the group entered the lit room in single file. Shinji, who trailed behind Misato and Ryouji, who trailed behind Rei with the downcast eyes, who trailed behind Ritsuko with the power of the controls, blinked against the sudden increase in light. It was a rather featureless room, the walls metallic and dull in nature. A bed served as the centerpiece of the room, with various equipment assembled around it - lights, a curtain hanging on a metal rod, a cart. An empty glass beaker resting on the cart. Rei's passive action of blinking in mild wonder was surpassed only by Shinji's softly sharpened inhaling and blinking in mild wonder. Though both Children already knew the cause of their reaction, Misato and Ryouji remained unimpressed and mostly mystified. It was only when Shinji started to break the silence that the puzzle fell into place. "This... this is..." "... Rei Ayanami's room," Ritsuko finished. Misato looked in succession from Ritsuko, to Rei, then to Shinji, letting those words sink in, to an extent. "Rei's... what? Wait just a minute..." "The image of this place," Ritsuko cut her off, "light and water which make up Rei's mentality. Her place of birth." Shinji stared at the room at a loss for words, only finding as Rei came into his line of vision, delicately setting her fingertips upon the edge of the glass beaker atop the cart. "It can't work the same..." "Why did you keep this here?" Misato asked Ritsuko softly. "I wasn't with NERV, back then," Ritsuko explained as she regarded the room in interest. "When is 'back then'?" Misato pressured. "Long enough ago that it doesn't really make a difference." The doctor shook her head in disinterest. "What matters is what happened just prior to it." "What was that, then? I don't know this, Ritsuko... or had you forgotten the history of this organization was sealed?" "You didn't come to see this, Misato. The sign on the door is all you really need to know, isn't it?" "If that's what's important... why not just tell me and save all the walking?" Ritsuko turned away from the questioning conversation, her eyes falling upon the Children. "Because _they_ would be here for this." Shinji, who had lapsed into one of his self-collapsing states, whispered softly to himself, "Rei... is Rei. That's enough." '...I am I... aren't I?' Rei thought to herself. "Then you understand now?" Ritsuko asked simply. "The decision is yours, Shinji Ikari." Just as simply, Shinji crossed his arms and counter-questioned, "Why here?" Ritsuko raised an eyebrow in confusion, to which she was answered, "Why was she born here?" by Shinji. Unnoticed, Rei watched on quietly from where she stood next to the rolling cart. 'Dense as lead,' Ritsuko asserted to herself, verbally explaining her view in an almost regretful tone. "The sign wasn't enough." "Somewhat unclear..." Shinji replied nearly inaudibly. "Just as you won't be." "Yes, Commander," Ritsuko answered flatly with narrowed eyes. "I am _not_ your commanding officer. However, you brought me here. All I want is the truth, end of story." He shrugged, and as his high of Ikari-induced adrenaline diminished, his head slowly turned to Rei's, his voice now questioning and confused. "I am I?" "... I am I," Rei replied. "I is me... I am Rei Ayanami." "But... who is Rei Ayanami?" Ritsuko interjected softly. The only other resident adults exchanged puzzled glances, coupled only by a faltering in Shinji's confident demeanor. "Rei Ayanami is the girl you see standing in this room," Ritsuko stated outright, "and born in this room. Twelve years ago." Rei's face betrayed a small amount of surprise, eyes widened more than their standard amount. Shinji, meanwhile, took that as a harsh blow as he fell victim to another surprise. He took a step back in disbelief, blinking more quickly than usual as he rested against a wall. "Rei... room... tw..." The thoughts failed to process completely. Rei meanwhile had walked closer to him, regarding him passively. "Twelve years ago... all due to that little accident..." Ritsuko's facade slipped into a sad smile, her head falling forward enough to allow her bangs to shroud her eyes, giving her an unnerving look. "Mother... It's because of you that I know this. I envy you." Met with silence, Ritsuko raised her head to face her audience. "Commander Ikari, in a sense, could be considered to be her father. He's the one who engineered her." Ignoring the soft murmurs and raised eyebrows, she continued onward, trying to sound consoling as she added, "Don't worry though... you two aren't brother and sister..." She was met only by the surprised looks of Misato and Ryouji, and the now slowly decomposing confidence of Shinji. Rei merely shook her head and remained silent. "But, Shinji," Ritsuko continued condescendingly, "You do have a real Oedipus Complex developing..." "I... a what? What's that?" Shinji failed to understand the reference. "In Greek myth," Ritsuko described, "Oedipus was a man who killed his father, and accidentally ended up falling in love with and marrying his mother. Rei's DNA came largely from the remains of Yui Ikari after her 'accident' with Unit One." Ritsuko's voice and visage darkened as she drew to her conclusion. "How does it feel to know that you're in love with your own mother?" "... H... his... mother?" Rei spoke softly, her voice so calm, smooth, and slow, that it could have been born only from being unable to comprehend a situation, or from not wishing to. The implicated boy stared at Rei in disbelief. "I... I..." He shook his head fiercely as if that would scare away the thought. ******************** "Well, that's good for you." ******************** In his mind, Shinji saw a woman who looked much like Rei, only older, her hair brown, a warm loving smile on her face. A lost memory recounted. 'Mother!' Shinji's head fell forward as he saw his mother in Rei, something he did not want to, but did see. It was something he was unable to face. He slowly slid down the wall, his gaze now gone from the blue-haired girl, now focussed on the floor, now focussed on nothing as he lost consciousness, his torso tumbling to the floor, joining the remainder of his body. "His... mother...?" Rei, in a fashion similar to that of Shinji, fell to her knees, looking at the unconscious form of Shinji. ******************** Boy and girl rode in silence in the elevator, neither saying a word. Shinji, standing at the elevator's edge, and Rei, standing directly in front of the door, headed for their destinations in silence. It was that way until Shinji spoke, albeit a bit nervously. "Hey, when you squeezed that cloth? It reminded me... of a mother." Prolonged silence. "... A mother?" Rei asked quietly. "Yeah!" Shinji chuckled as he spoke, sounding very jovial. "I bet you'd make a great mother Rei!" He failed to be met with a response, and quickly stopped, uncertain of his situation. Rei, in the meanwhile, blushed as she heard the words. Her face betrayed a clear expression of uncertainty when she heard them, uncertain how to react. She remained with a soft blush in her cheeks as she softly responded, "... You... embarrass me." ******************** "Don't." "Don't what?" he replied, somewhat startled by her voice leaking into his thoughts. "Don't think about it. You don't have to." Her tone held a sense of concern, as if it were a fate that she was resigned to, one that he didn't have to endure, and should avoid if he could. "How did this happen...?" he asked, as much to himself as to Rei. "It did. How isn't important, just that it did," she stated. "Not everything is painful," she added, smiling gently. "I was wrong about one thing, Rei. You'll never be a good mother. Any good mother would have a fit if she heard that," he joked, grinning as strongly as he was blushing, which was quite strong. "You are teasing me, Shinji Ikari," she answered, sipping her tea. "However, I can not claim that's true. Would you help me right now?" "With what, Rei-chan?" "To find out if it's painful. I'll need your assistance." "To find out if what's painful?" "Bearing a child," she replied straightforwardly. "I'm unable to do that on my own. Shinji blushed a deep shade of pink, beginning to sweat during the following silence. "Is something wrong?" she asked, seemingly oblivious to what Shinji appeared to be going through. "Oh no... no, nothing at all. You just surprised me," he replied, managing a weak smile, still blushing. Rei stood up, standing next to him and taking his hand. "Are you ready?" "Ummm, Rei... do you have any idea exactly _what_ that entails?" he managed to get out, meekly. Rei smiled lightly at him. "Yes." ******************** "I have been protecting him... for a long time. I will not... fail... now." The determination in Rei's gaze was powerful, despite her soft look. ******************** Rei shook her head as she denied the accusation. "I am not his mother," she whispered softly to herself. "She _can't_ be," Misato said, sounding none too calm herself despite the happenings of their activity within Central Dogma. "That isn't _possible_!" "Why not? Created from Ikari's wife's DNA... physically she's his mother... for the most part, I'd think." "That shouldn't have even been in existence!" Misato exclaimed as she tried to root out this conundrum "'She' was lost in the Unit One experiment in 2004... wasn't she? You said yourself that the rescue attempt failed." "She? What? Wait a minute!" Ryouji was out of his environment as the private exchange between Misato and Ritsuko had never been heard by him. 'Misato... you _are_ an idiot, aren't you,' Ritsuko thought. "Misato?" Ryouji interjected. "That's... Why wasn't I told about _any_ of this?" "I don't know Kaji," Misato replied almost sarcastically, too involved in trying to reason out this new development to care about Ryouji's lack of information on the topic. "You're the damn spy..." "Damn it! This is _important_," Ryouji emphasized. "Yui Ikari died... the grave tells that much... died in 2004, that's all. If you're right, and she was gone, how do you explain all of _this_? It's conflicting information!" Ritsuko watched the entire confrontation with a smirk, observing Misato with expectance in her eyes, then Rei who remained motionless where she kneeled on the floor, her eyes locked with a soft gaze at one of her hands which rested beside her. "That's exactly what _I_ said," Misato countered as she turned slowly on the informative doctor. "Well, doc? Care to explain this one away?" she asked in an attitude which threatened to break out into violence. "You're not as observant as you think you are, even when you already know," Ritsuko replied jovially with the grandest of smirks. "You... the one who screamed Shinji's name when the LCL poured like blood from his entry plug within the docking bay, because you believed he was still fused with it." The doctor quickly directed a sharp glare at the purple-haired Major. "Just what did I say about that Misato? _Exactly_ like ten years ago." "... I see," Misato responded quietly, looking away from Ritsuko. "Next, I suppose you're going to tell me that a completely intact Yui Ikari is wandering around down here somewhere too, right?" Misato completely missed Ritsuko's evil grin. "I'll take that as a 'no'," Misato stated quietly when she was met with silence. "Then... what made the difference?" "You already know what Unit One has," Ritsuko said, forcefully emphasizing, "Who it has." She continued her explanation aloud. "We know after all this time, that unlike the experiment back then, the Pilot actually had a possibility of returning. And, fortunately, he did. His molecular structure reformed within the LCL, reproducing his body and his ego border. The _difference_ Misato, is that his soul was still _in_ the entry plug." He glared disdainfully at her, wondering just when Misato would use a fraction of her recently acquired intelligence and realize the situation. "Then he came back... because _she_ was already there... the Eva can't take two souls, then." The doctor resisted with all her remaining sanity to smack Misato across the face for the answers that were so obvious to herself. "That's irrelevant Misato. Our experiment failed miserably... he chose to come back..." Ritsuko was suddenly struck with an additional thought. 'Or... she wanted him to.' "That's..." Misato stopped short. 'How lucky is this kid?' ******************** "I just wanted to see them... one last time..." Shinji spoke just above a whisper as a crying Misato held his limp form. ******************** "How should his choice make a difference? Not as though that's even the issue!" Misato growled softly. 'She's diverting us intentionally.' She looked at the woman with all the answers square in the eye. "Ritsuko, answer me straight. If the rescue was a failure in 2004... how was there anything left of Yui?" "Everything was left of Yui. Literally," Ritsuko responded spitefully. "She was coating the entry plug from beginning to end. Remember the botched dummy plug? Just like what happened to Shinji, she decomposed into LCL... The only difference between what happened to her and what happened to Shinji, is that her soul wasn't in the entry plug when it was taken out." With no choice but to accept that truth, Misato nodded and asked her next question. "And whose choice was Rei?" "Our _great_ leader, of course... as I already said," Ritsuko exclaimed with enough sarcasm on the word 'great' to put Asuka to shame. "I am not his doll." The heads of two very surprised and uptight female NERV employees swiveled to the sound of the voice. Both blinked in surprise. "I am not his doll," Rei repeated in the same soft voice, standing up once more. Curious as to how Rei had found the audacity to speak out such words, a cross between a smirk and a frown fell upon Ritsuko, both contradicting to each other, but displaying both her amusement and annoyance with the 'mother' of the unconscious Shinji. The only way to describe the look on Misato's was to deign it the equivalent of her saying 'What the hell?', brought on by her realization of having officially lost any control she may have had. Ryouji merely watched on from behind them, saying nothing, and merely observing. "Then whose are you?" Ritsuko asked as she took two steps toward Rei, staring her down. The affliction of paralysis which Rei's eyes caused in their beholder had never been stronger. "The one who is also mine," she stated quietly, yet simply. "You are the one questioning like a fool now." Ritsuko inhaled sharply, her eyes widening as if she had just been punched in the stomach. She stared in disbelief at Rei. Such insolence, such innocence were in her words. All coupled with a small, gentle smile. Ritsuko nearly shrieked as she heard Rei's words echo in her mind, replaying and twisting as she became burdened upon the defiance and disrespect, almost as if she were becoming a useless tool. But Ritsuko was not her mother. She stepped forward with an exceptional degree of calmness and collectivity until she stood in front of Rei, staring her down from her height above. Her voice, as gentle and calm as an ocean's breeze, was more frightening than any barrage of anger and rage could have been. She slowly raised a hand, pointed at the unconscious Shinji, and pronounced gently, "Then wake him, and just get out of here." Silence. "Drag your son onto your bed," Ritsuko continued, pointing to the bed near the center of the room, "and screw him for all he's worth. Your family's messed up enough as it is, so fucking with your own son won't make a difference. Just make sure the little Oedipus kills Gendou first before you make love to each other." The gentle, soothing voice continued as her lips softly curled upward into a smirk betraying obvious contempt. "After that, nothing will be left to stop him from laying you down and doing whatever you want. Rape, ravish, hit, hurt, force, pull, bite, suck, lick, love, kiss, touch, caress, feel, make love to, whatever you _want_. If that's what you incestful little Children seek from each other, then go right ahead. Just make sure you and your child call each other by mother and son while he suckles on his mother's breast." Ritsuko finally found what she was looking for as she ignored the shouts to remain silent, to halt, to cease. Forcing her truth on Rei was quickly instilling fear in the younger girl's mind. But Ritsuko had gone too far into her hatred for the blue-haired girl, so far that she had decided to incorporate another person into the one-way conversation. Not only did she find it fit to mentally destroy Rei, but Yui was an even more tantalizing target. How fortunate that Rei and Yui were one and the same to her. "Little whore..." Ritsuko spat spitefully, the gentleness gone from her voice. "Your husband wasn't good enough for you so now you turn to your son for your desires... Disgusting. But I guess that's alright. Just let him lay on top of you, and then you take whatever you can get out of him while you whimper and vibrate for him... Or why not bring in your whole harem for him? Giving your son all those precious gifts that were made from you... Or do you want to have him all yourself? It feels good, doesn't it?" She laughed darkly, advancing another step on Rei, who did not look as if she were in a very confident state. "Go!" she declared. "Take your son and take him to bed with you! Let him have his way with his mother while you call out your son's name in incestful ecstasy, as he breathes hot passion into his mother's waiting lips. Let Shinji take you to the depths of burning desire and forbidden passion as he reenters the mother's body he was born from, mother and child shuddering together in orgasmic convulsions. Get on with your incestful lives!" She pointed once more to Shinji. "Your son wants you. Aren't you obligated as his mother to love him?" She took Rei by the shoulder and pulled her close. "Then do it. You're worthless to us now. That's all you're good for anymore." She pushed Rei away, nearly causing her to trip over Shinji's unmoving body. Rei stared back at Ritsuko's menacing form. She barely moved as she looked up to her elder in silence, eyes widened in fear. Ignoring the minor pain in the shoulder Ritsuko had pushed her on, Rei's voice came softly as she stared at Ritsuko, and at the same time, stared at nothing. "I... am....?" Ritsuko merely smirked in delight as the visibly shaken Rei, indicated by her utter lack to convey anything, stepped back as if it would distance her from the words thrown upon her. All hope fell short as she hit the wall, and looked on with the same expression, her eyes slowly falling shut. "Am I that... useless...?" The girl slowly sank to her knees, to the obvious pleasure of Ritsuko Akagi, and cried softly and silently, an effort to withhold unwanted tears failing as she stared at the floor in near-silence. To add a crowning touch to Ritsuko's blow, Rei's form toppled over to its side, the verbally scarred female having blacked out in her inability to handle the truth. The notably useless Ryouji Kaji stared on in horror, speechless as Rei's body toppled to its side, speechless as he watched the frightening smile on the maniacal Ritsuko's face. Only after all of this did Misato at last hold true to her last words. "Ritsuko, that will be _enough_," she said firmly, her voice lacking in its boisterous charm and resembling that of a voiced threat. "Perhaps you'd like to join _me_ in the next room. Though I doubt either of us would find any pleasure, I could at least keep my promise." Ritsuko became the unfortunate victim of a glare, which if it had the power to harm, would have reduced her to a pile of ash. Ritsuko, completely ignorant of Misato's invitation, watched the unconscious bodies of Rei and Shinji in mild interest. "Mother and son, together in sleep. How fitting, though that's not what they want out of each other." Her last shred of tolerance destroyed, Misato grabbed Ritsuko by the shirt collar and slammed her against the nearest wall. "One more word," she hissed, "and one of us doesn't leave here alive. Right now... money's not on you being the one leaving." It was clear that Ritsuko could no longer be dealt with logically. Her jade-coloured eyes, irregularly glazed, and her lips, turned upward in a frightening smile, betrayed the growing insanity. "Yui won't leave me alone, even when I didn't know her!" She laughed eerily, removing herself from Misato's grip as she pushed her aside, and stumbled forward a few steps before falling to her knees. Misato quickly hauled Ritsuko back to her feet and even more harshly against the wall. "Ritsuko! Pull your damned self together, _now_." More softly, she reasoned, "... Or you won't be able to continue." Ritsuko's head fell slightly forward, her eyes widened greatly as they looked up at the purple-haired woman. "Wh..." The disturbing grin never disappeared from her face. Ryouji, finally making some use of himself in the horribly degrading situation, drew his gun and gripped the barrel in hand. "We don't have the time..." At the last instant, Ritsuko's gaze fell away from them both, resting on the floor. The grin now gone from her face, the glaze faded, the doctor quietly asked the air around her, "Rei... does that make you happy now?" Tears rolled from her cheek. "Join them," Ryouji voiced softly as he brought the flat of his gun swiftly down on the emotionally-devastated Ritsuko. Frozen for a brief moment with that saddened, distraught look on her face, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi toppled forward into Misato's arms, joining the ever growing league of the unconscious. Misato slowly, carefully, and successfully propped Ritsuko up against the wall. Looking sadly upon her unconscious friend's motionless complexion, Misato quietly began, "Thanks, Kaji... I d---" "You're welcome," he said quietly. "What came over her?" Misato asked, indicating Ritsuko with a thumb jabbed in her direction. "... I don't think she has fully let go of her 'love'. She's tracing it all back to Ikari's wife. It never was a point where she was strong... this definitely isn't helping her." He shook his head in dismay. "But... what's so special here?" "Because she's trying to put a kind of logic to love." Misato shrugged, not giving much commitment to her words. "Though... why she would be so obsessive about _what_ Rei is..." Her head shook from side to side. "I doubt, if it is really true, that Shinji would even care." Ryouji, turning his head to gaze on the two Children in the distance, walked over to them. He knelt down next to Rei and picked up her fragile form in his arms, complementing Misato's words with, "... I wouldn't doubt it," as he laid her body down upon her bed. 'Nor would I stop it. That isn't what they found in each other...' Most unexpectedly, a soft moan from Shinji Ikari halted all conversation and had quickly rushed Ryouji to his side. With one hand extended to the now conscious boy, Ryouji helped him to his feet. "Owwww...... K... Kaji?" Shinji mumbled. Supporting the non-motor-skill-coordinated boy, Ryouji answered, "Yes... You fell pretty hard," noting the obvious fact that Shinji was rubbing his own head, and hadn't yet relieved himself of his support. Shinji looked around the room slowly, a slight look of confusion on his face. Compiling the mystery into a question, Shinji softly asked, "... Why are we... back at Rei's place...?" "... We're not..." Shinji eyes quickly ran to the most notable object in the room - the empty glass beaker. "... Oh..." Still softly, Shinji inquired, "The Artificial Evolution Lab... Right?" Ryouji nodded quietly in response as Misato watched on, helplessly and hopelessly. "And... why are Rei and Ritsuko..." "I clubbed Ritsuko!" Ryouji declared cheerfully in a poorly designed effort to regain Shinji's senses. "You _what_?!" "Good... you're alright. I knocked her out before when she became... There isn't a proper word for it." He considered those words for a moment, and mentally rephrased, 'A proper word that needs to be said.' "And Rei?" He looked at Ryouji darkly, which came off as if he were going to drift off into unconsciousness again due to his week state. "You didn't club her too...?" "Honestly, what do you think?" Ryouji asked seriously with a skeptical expression on his face. "I think... it was something Ritsuko did." Ryouji nodded quietly. "... Yeah." He regarded the Third Children whom he supported in his arm, and decided to query, "Can you stand up?" "I think so..." Shinji did just that, but rubbed his head in pain. "I didn't know it was humanly possible to have a headache this big." "Fainting onto a hardened floor while standing, and then losing consciousness. It's explainable. Come on..." The elusive spy began to lead Shinji across the room at a slow pace, followed by Shinji's somewhat stiff walk, and Misato's unwavering watch. "What did she say?" Shinji asked softly. "... Expounding upon her 'fact'... needlessly," Ryouji replied. "I don't think she can be right on everything..." "On what?" "She can't be," he reasoned, "because... I know where my mother is." The pony-tailed man's eyebrows raised but momentarily, and fell just as quickly. '...So... that's the secret.' In an audible response, Ryouji countered, "I think that there may be just a little more that sent Ritsuko into her... madness." "Ritsuko isn't mad," Shinji said calmly, glancing at the propped Ritsuko lying against the wall with furrowed eyebrows. "... No, she isn't. Just hurt." With a brief glance at the doctor, he continued in a less audible tone. "Shinji... she said one thing of value. It's yours to know." With a blank expression, his gaze still on Ritsuko's comatose body, Shinji retorted, "That is..." "... Rei is only your mother in the sense that she was created from her DNA after her incident with Unit One. That's all." Almost coldly, Shinji snapped, "She lies." ******************** Shinji watched, mesmerized, as water dripped from the cloth wrung in Rei's hands over a plain bucket marked for class use. It was something that he, inexplicably, could not take his eyes away from. Rei, observed closely, looked quite intent on her job as the water poured off her pale fingers and fell like raindrops into the bucket. It seemed so natural. ******************** Boy and girl rode in silence in the elevator, neither saying a word. Shinji, standing at the elevator's edge, and Rei, standing directly in front of the door, headed for their destination in silence. Until Shinji spoke, albeit a bit nervously. "Hey, when you squeezed that cloth? It reminded me... of a mother." Prolonged silence. "... A mother?" Rei asked quietly. "Yeah!" Shinji chuckled as he spoke, sounding very jovial. "I bet you'd make a great mother Rei!" He failed to be met with a response, and quickly stopped, uncertain of his situation. Rei, in the meanwhile, blushed as she heard the words. Her face betrayed a clear expression of uncertainty when she heard the words, uncertain how to react. She remained with a soft blush in her cheeks as she softly responded, "... You... embarrass me." ******************** 'She must,' Shinji mentally concluded. "Even if she doesn't, you didn't find your mother there, Shinji," Ryouji explained. "You lied to me," Shinji said to the unconscious Ritsuko, taking a step toward her. "You lied to yourself... You built your whole world around your own God damned lies. Why should I believe you now?" Why, after all this, should I believe you now?" Prepared to physically restrain Shinji should he prove himself to be mentally unstable, Ryouji calmly stated, "She's not awake Shinji. She won't hear you." He continued the sentence, but in his mind. 'She doesn't lie... ever. She only hides.' Throwing back a glance at the only other male in the room, Shinji commented, "She's one of two people with the truth. The other one... I know _he_ won't give it. So she has to." One hand clenched at her side, Misato spitefully answered in turn, "She did," though that spite was not directed at the young boy. "I won't accept her lies. I know where my mother is, Misato -san... And the woman lying on that bed _isn't_her_!" "Body and soul are two different things," Misato said softly to him, the anger now gone from her voice. "What do you mean, two different things?" Shinji said, looking for all the world looking completely lost and on the verge of tears due to his growing strain. "There shouldn't be _anything_ left." "Shinji..." Misato took a deep breath. "When you were in the plug, they said your soul was in there, along with your body. It was broken up, fused with the LCL." "Then... what? And who said? Another of 'her' fabrications?" "Because," Misato continued quietly, softly, gently, "it was the same thing that happened to your mother. History repeated, step by step." "But... you said that I was gone... I wasn't there..." As if she had never stopped speaking, Misato continued her explanation. "There was only one thing different between those two times." "What's that?" "... There was no soul to recover." "Then... she came back...?" Shinji asked, looking somewhat surprised. "Not that I know of, except for the LCL." She shook her head in disgust. "Dissociated in that... soup." Cast into silence, Shinji's eyes fell upon the floor. 'My father betrayed me, Rei... even though I was finally able to talk to him.' He quietly stated, "No. I won't let them ruin this... Rei is Rei. No one else." On the final line of her explanation, Misato finished, "He made her from what there was of your mother, in that entry plug..." A final afterthought, an important mental addition, struck home with her. 'So... where did he get the soul?' "So... that's the way it is." He looked straight up at Misato. "I don't know how... and I don't care for the scientific explanation of it. I know Ritsuko-san won't understand that." Softly, he added, "She doesn't need to." "You're that devoted?" Unbeknownst to anyone, the bed sheets moved softly as Rei started to wake up. "Yes," Shinji replied. "But you already knew that, didn't you..." "Of course. Otherwise, what would you have expected?" "That... doesn't matter. I'm just... I'm..." He sighed softly. "Thanks for the truth, Misato-san." "You're welcome, Shinji-kun," Misato replied, smiling slightly, giving the impression that she might break into tears at any moment. 'Comfort and pain, one can't exist without the other...' "But... it still hurts..." Shinji uttered quietly, blind to the fact that Rei was sitting up on the bed, watching the conversation with partially drawn-shut eyes. "The truth can hurt," Ryouji started, "but it can also bring aid. A double-edged sword, without a doubt one that should not be denied the holding. The truth shouldn't be feared, because you realize that the pain is meaningless compared to the reality." Shinji nodded. "Thank you... Kaji-san." 'Being young never was easy...' Ryouji thought to himself. The philosophical moment was brought to an end as the faint sound of shuffling echoed faintly on the room's metallic walls. Heads turned to see Rei sitting on the bed. "Rei...-chan?" Shinji asked carefully. The girl in question immediately crawled backward on the bed, trying to distance herself from the speaker as if he were an attacker intent to rape her where she lay, and her with no where to find safety. "Rei..." She backed up further. Watching her intently, somewhat unsure of another one of many situations that day, Shinji took a step forward. Rei immediately froze in place, one of her hands slipping off of the bed and finding itself wide open just centimetres from her face. She gazed at it silently, not a hint of expression betraying her thoughts, with one exception - the hand was not still. "Ayanami...?" Shinji asked, another bout of indecision upon him. With the watchful eyes of the two conscious adults and the only other Children in the room overlooking her, Rei slowly leaned over where she had come to sit on the bed. Her elbows were the first and only part of her to contact the mattress. Her hands, suspended in the air, caught her face, and that's where it stayed. No sound left her, no action did she take - she simply stayed that way, her face buried and hidden from view in the pale skin of her hands. '...What did you do?' Misato asked herself silently, preferring to ask the doctor the very question. With minimal discomfort, unsure of how to phrase his thoughts properly, Shinji simply told Rei what was on his mind. "Rei... I know." It took a few moments for the recipient of the address to provide any response. She looked up slowly to the voice, tears running from her eyes, her voice soft. "Dolls, don't need... Mother..." "That doesn't change anything," he said as he shook his head slowly, trying not to fall prey to the explanation he had been given. "Don't want to hurt... son..." Her hands shook involuntarily. "If that's what you want, then stop acting like this," Shinji said firmly. Rei merely leaned over again, replacing her face in the hold of her hands, still extended upward from the elbows which rested on the bed. A rather silent silence followed, a silence where no sounds could be heard - the sounds of people talking, the sounds of people walking, the sounds of people breathing, much less the sounds of their hearts beating. No one moved to speak, nor blink an eye. All eyes were frozen on Rei's form which was silent, bent over at the waist and nearly folded in half due to how her head rested in her hands. The silence finally broke with the sounds of Rei's quiet voice. "Not... a son. Not a mother." Shinji tentatively sat down on the far edge of the bed, regarding Rei with caution and concern. "Right." "My body is not my own," Whispered, but heard throughout the room, Rei continued. "My soul is what I have... I. Me." "You are who you are," Shinji stated, speaking the only things which he considered to make sense. "Rei Ayanami." Rei looked up slowly. "You... find..." "I find Rei Ayanami. You're your own person. Everyone comes from somewhere. That doesn't change anything, no matter who tries to tell you differently, because they can't speak for me." Uncomfortable silence, again. Rei's eyes, closed for the most part in their looking at Shinji, slowly began to leak with fresh tears. "... No consequence. I... I want to feel your touch... against my skin. I... Rei.... I want to feel you Shin-chan." With little choice to make over the declaration, Shinji drew forward and put his arms around the distraught girl. "It's truth." Had he been able to see Rei's eyes, he would have seen the effervescent fear and terror - fear and terror which slowly began to recede. After a minute of indecision, Rei hooked her arms under his and onto his shoulder blades. She spoke quietly, her voice still calm and level as ever. "... You kept it." She bowed her head slightly on his shoulder. "Like you, I can't leave this... or want to." Her hold tightened. 'Too bad the Angels don't listen to reason,' Misato thought, smiling. "We could just let him _talk_ them down." "Don't... stop," Rei whispered as Shinji wiped the tears away from her cheek, tears which were no longer falling from her eyes. "Whatever you want," Shinji said, bringing himself to smile despite other conflicting emotions in his being. "No matter what... Rei-chan." "... I know how to cry, and you will make me do it again." She smiled slightly - barely, but enough to convey the meaning of her words. "How this is seen doesn't matter... Shin-chan. I am I." Shinji nodded in agreement. "... Lie down next to me," Rei said quietly. 'I am not like you... Akagi.' Shinji complied with her request, lying down with her on the bed in silence, a silence which was broken only for an instant by Rei. "... Thank you." Shinji smiled. "Welcome." As the two rested in silence, Ryouji finished his observations of an unconscious Ritsuko, and relayed to Misato, "I didn't hit her _that_ hard..." "That's _supposed_ to be good..." Misato mused. "I guess I'm just better at it than I thought." The sound of Ritsuko groaning softly merited "I hope it's that," from Misato. Both adults watched Ritsuko slowly but surely awake from her stupor of unconsciousness where she rested propped up against the wall. The doctor, while rubbing her head and groaning softly, quietly spoke. "What the hell happened to me..." She sorely raised her head to look around the room and was met with two sites of interest - the two adults watching her, in addition to the bed and its two occupants. "You fell," Ryouji explained. "Hit your head." 'What a nice lie of omission,' Misato thought. 'She did fall, and her head was hit, though he didn't say by what.' Ritsuko had a relapse and ran her eyes across the bed a second time. Completely broken from her disoriented state, Ritsuko exclaimed, "Those two didn't listen to one damn word I said, did they?!" She smacked her forehead with her hand. "On the contrary, they did listen... quite well..." Misato defended. "... They appear to have reached a decision based on the facts," Ryouji concluded. Ritsuko's head fell forward momentarily, remaining frozen in that position until her head snapped backward against the wall, a sound which resounded throughout the room. From the most unexpected of sources, the next came from the blue-haired girl lying down on the bed. "... From the options you made available to me, I wish to love, kiss, touch, caress, feel, make love to, as well as anything else which should arise... with Shin-chan. Please leave my room so that we may love each other." She didn't even look up, choosing to stare at Shinji quietly with a small smile. Wishing to be more like her mother who had the ability to leap onto super computers with a single bound, Ritsuko settled for whacking her head against the wall again and screaming incoherently. "Do not interrupt if our incestful activities disturb you," Rei finished. Shaking, Ritsuko smashed her skull against the wall a third time, quite intent on eliminating herself even as Ryouji pulled her forcefully away from the wall. "Let me _go_! I will not be a party to this... this..." She tore away from him and dashed out the door in full agreement with Rei's earlier statements. Rei wholeheartedly paid no attention to the doctor and rested soundly next to Shinji on the mattress of her bed. "We'd better go after her..." Misato suggested quietly to Ryouji. "Let me," he said. "Seeing us both would probably make her worse... And I won't subject you to that." Within a moment, Misato nodded agreement, and he had disappeared out the door faster than Ritsuko had, taking a hard right turn the moment he stepped out in pursuit of Ritsuko. Further up ahead, the blonde-haired doctor rounded a corner in a vain effort to outdistance her pursuer who was steadily gaining ground. His ponytail whipping around behind him like wild fire, Ryouji nearly fell into the far wall as he rounded the very same corner at full tilt. The doctor, knowing she would be unable to keep away from him much longer, slid to a stop as she pulled herself to the closest door. She frantically tapped a series of keys on the adjoining control panel, and darted into the room before the door had fully opened. The door started to slide shut only moments later, and was barely cleared by Ryouji who had rebounded off the wall and flew toward the opening, tripping over the metal panels as they locked together behind him. He cursed silently. Ritsuko had picked a room unlike the others. The room itself was large and circular, two beams of light running around the room as large circles, defining its boundaries. The floor was of metal, red, carved in an odd fashion due to the circuitry which lay underneath. In the center of the room was a large glass tube, filled with LCL, extending upward to the ceiling. The most defining part of the room was what encroached the ceiling - what could only be defined as a giant mechanical brain; a mass of tubes, wiring, dull gray metal, and various coloured lights which defined a complex construction. A sound like various pumps operating filled the room, exerting and inhaling air and water. Too stunned to notice that Ryouji had gotten into the room, Ritsuko stared wide-eyed at the mechanical brain and attached glass tubing in disbelief. She whispered softly, "... Why here?" "What's the big idea running off?" Ryouji asked, breathing somewhat hard, unaffected by the contents of the room due to it being the most unimpressive site he had seen that day. 'Track is not my forté.' The ever-degenerating doctor whirled around, eyes firm and sharp enough to cut through a titanium-alloy wall and all twenty-two layers of defensive plating encompassing NERV Headquarters. "You bastard. You're condoning it!" "Honestly..." Ryouji stated softly, "I don't give a damn what you think about my personal choices. However, someone still cares enough about you to keep you from trying anything stupid." Ritsuko shook her head. "Lies. Those are lies. _He_ doesn't care about me... He cares about _her_! That damn bitch in the other room who's making out with her own son! Damn Ikaris... all of them are idiots, fools... all disgusting..." Ryouji waited quietly for the momentary break in her speech to talk. "This isn't about them. You know that. You're the one being a bitch, Ritsuko Akagi. Throwing your anger at people because they're convenient targets. You're disgusting." Ritsuko's lips drew into an unpleasant smirk. "You haven't been sullied like I have. Of course I am... it's my lot in life... to be dirty." Her hands shook softly. "I don't care what's done to me when I love someone... but it's just lies. All lies from people who make me impure because of their own sicknesses." "And what are you waiting for?" From her skirt pocket, Ritsuko slowly withdrew a small handgun about the size of her open hand and held it aimed at the floor. "I don't think... I'm waiting for anything anymore. I have nothing to claim." "Who else can do what you do?" Ryouji asked calmly. "Tell me that." Ritsuko clicked off the safety of the gun. "Maya will learn, in time. Then she'll learn what it's like to be broken, just like me." "She wouldn't be broken," Ryouji pointed out. "She'd be destroyed. Ibuki doesn't have your strength, Ritsuko. Not many people do. Broken people don't defy their commanding officers for nothing more than the simple truth." Ritsuko laughed slightly, but it didn't hold a strand of pleasantness in its weaving. She looked at him serenely. "My mother defied him, before she died... she destroyed part of his project when she learnt the truth, or at least she tried. I tried... so, I'm ready to join her now. What strength I have is going to waste. I'd rather go back to her." Ryouji looked at her with disbelief on his face. "What happened to the woman who was ready to destroy an Evangelion just to save the son of the man she hates? Will you put that down to a lapse in good judgement? I don't see how you can." "I-I... I..." The smirk faded from her face. "You can't even decide what you want, can you. Despite everything, you still want to live. You're not that unreadable. The world just isn't that simple." Contradicting Ryouji's words, Ritsuko slowly raised the gun and turned the barrel toward herself, pressing it into her navel. Both her hands and her voice shook. "I... I'm messed up." Tears fell from her eyes as she jabbed the gun further into her stomach. "Why should I live?" "Because death won't bring you your revenge," Ryouji explained quietly. "W... won't it?" Ritsuko's grip on the gun weakened slightly. "I don't want to feel anything, anymore..." "Quit the outright lies," Ryouji nearly snapped. "You're not good at them. Sure, you won't feel anything any more... but since _he_ doesn't care anyway, what good would killing yourself do? It doesn't bring you any closer to what you want. Not a step. He'll just go on and forget you completely. Dying changes _nothing_." "I... won't have to care, about anyone... or hurt... or be hurt... It's halting of existence, except for the soul... isn't it?" Her hand shook violently. "And then," Ryouji concluded, "you have to live with it for eternity." Ritsuko's hand twitched involuntarily, falling to her side, along with the gun which had formerly been jabbed into herself. "I... I _hate_ this..." Her voice shifted into a whine as she started sobbing softly, dropping to her knees. The gun escaped her grip, clattering on the metallic floor as her arms rested by her sides, her body becoming wracked by more powerful sobs. "No escape..." "None but the escape you find in life. _That_ is truth." Ritsuko sobbed loudly, her head bent down toward the floor. "Still... that's something you have to find for yourself. Your own truth. Your own individuality." Ritsuko, for her part, keeled over and fell to her knees, sobbing softly as she buried her face in her arms, her arms resting on the floor's cold surface. Ryouji kneeled down beside her and pocketed the discarded handgun. "I wish..." Ritsuko started softly, "sometimes... 2008 turned out differently." "Don't we all," Ryouji agreed quietly. "We all lost quite a bit..." "I thought you were strange in college," Ritsuko continued. "I still valued you and Misato as my friends." Ryouji chuckled softly. "Most people would've given a lot to say that." Ritsuko slowly moved from where she was hunched over on the floor, kneeling within a moment. Her next words were most uncommon for the refined Ritsuko Akagi. "When this is all over... let's go out to a bar, like old times." Ryouji thought about it momentarily. "... This time... I'll make sure Misato keeps control." Ritsuko blinked momentarily. Her smile, almost school-girl-esque, reflected the more positive side of her nature. "Can we at least agree not to explode again when we rejoin the rest of the group? It would... simplify things." Ritsuko's expression became grim as she slowly looked around the vast room. "This room is next." She bent her head down. "Things are going from bad to worse..." "You don't have to stay, you know," Ryouji offered. "I can get everyone in and out from here." Ritsuko shook her head softly. "... I'm not running away, yet. No reason to soil my record when we're this close to the end." Ryouji nodded. "Then, let's go back." After a moment of silence, Ritsuko slowly rose to her feet. "Alright." She debated with herself quietly. 'Virtual haven within hatred. It leaves me to wonder.' Ryouji rose from the floor and took her hand softly. "It's time." Ritsuko looked at her hand semi-surprised, and blinked. Somewhat unusual in itself, a twinge of blush became visible in her cheeks. 'Why is the truth always found in the last place you look...?' She began walking slowly toward the exit. "That's unlike you, Ritsu," Ryouji commented. "What?" Ritsuko asked, still walking. Ryouji grinned. "You're blushing." "Maybe I want to watch you burn in the heat of your passion for me..." As Ryouji does not sweatdrop, he instead imagined himself sweatdropping about as large as an Eva's head. "I said that, didn't I..." Ritsuko chuckled softly. "Remember, I don't forget anything important... or ludicrous." She grinned lightly. "Yes, of course," Ryouji agreed. 'Thank God I don't make promises...' "You didn't do a bad job in 2008," Ritsuko commented off-hand. Ryouji sweatdropped. "And then there was that time with Misato... which I still find... odd." "That... time with... Misato?" "I wouldn't believe you have forgotten, according to two certain Children." Ritsuko gave him a look which promised imminent death. "Only to give them all the facts of the matter, of course." "Of course," Ritsuko agreed sarcastically, jeering. "Lost in another fantasy, right?" "No, more like fighting one more doomed battle against reality." "Who knows... maybe you and Misato will get lucky and get another chance to convince me." The irregular suggestion was coupled with a fiendish grin. "Weirder shit _has_ happened," Ryouji commented, grinning. "No doubt, which makes the probability of that range within 100% in comparison." "You never know," Ryouji chortled. "It just depends on how many rounds are on you." He winked at her slyly. "I have the highest pay out of any of you," Ritsuko casually remarked. "Only because they don't pay the Children," Ryouji retorted, starting to laugh once more. "Of course... they'd all have to buy us root beer..." "That's something I don't understand about you... You freely condone relationships, but not alcohol. I guess alcohol would be Misato's specialty." "I only condone what I think right, Ritsuko. And, like I said before... doomed battles aren't my style." Ritsuko sighed. "And like I said, I thought you were weird in college. That still hasn't changed." Ryouji's laughter continued, though she wasn't paying attention as her face suddenly fell in a moment of revelation. "Good," Ryouji continued unnoticed. "I'd hate to think that being a working man changed me that much." "Kaji?" Ritsuko voiced sternly. "Why do you want the Children to buy rounds of root beer? They _aren't_ getting involved in anything, _right_?" Ryouji smacked his forehead with his hand. "No. Certainly _not_." He grinned suddenly. "Besides... we can't have you go around shaming everyone with your overpowering beauty, now can we?" "You're pathetic," Ritsuko stated flatly. "And you're blushing again." Ritsuko muttered something under her breath, blushing lightly nonetheless. It faded as Ryouji steered her through the door of the Artificial Evolution Laboratory. Very little had changed since the two adults had made their dramatic exit. Misato hadn't moved, still standing in the same place in the room. She turned her gaze away from the bed where Shinji and Rei rested, Shinji with his back to Rei and wrapped up in her arms like a mother gently cradling her child. "Are we ready to continue?" Ryouji asked softly. Misato nodded her head softly and turned it toward the two Children. "... It's time to continue, guys." Shinji's head popped up, voicing his excitement and pleasure for continuing with a quietly muttered, "Oh..." One would think Rei was tempting Shinji to keep from continuing on this mission from the softly emitted sigh, but one would think wrong to think so. Shinji brought himself to sit up, glancing at Rei momentarily as she stood up from the bed, brushing a hand across his cheek as she did so, apparently as a test to Ritsuko given the fact Rei had her eyes discreetly trained on her - the doctor succeeded passing-well. "Errr... right," Ritsuko mumbled as the two Children came up next to Misato. 'Indeed, we will be going right. Fitting?' She shook her head. "Come on. This one really _isn't_ all that long a walk." Ryouji merely grinned. Ritsuko walked out of the room and into the dimly lit corridor, followed shortly afterward by Rei and Shinji who walked separately in a pair, followed by Misato and Ryouji in the same suit. Misato glanced at Ryouji. "What'd you do?" "I think... I talked her out of making a permanent decision," he said quietly. His concentration was momentarily broken when an odd thought struck him. "We're going out drinking tonight us three." "Like hell we are," Misato scoffed. "I'm _sleeping_." "Nah... You'll go home after this in sleep. I mean _tonight_ tonight, not god-damn-one-thirty-two-o'clock-in-the-morning tonight." He grinned sheepishly. "I'll still be asleep..." Misato mumbled. "You'll have to wake up for your day, because you're not off tomorrow. Besides that, I'll make sure someone wakes you up by that time, even if I have to do it myself." He smirked, but didn't leave Misato a chance to argue and quickly let it slide. "So, how were things on your end?" "Nothing spectacular. Soon as Ritsu left, they ended up as you saw them when you came back in. I don't think much is going to break _them_ up, if you get my meaning." "Rather impressive, isn't it?" "Almost makes you wish you had 2008 to do over again, doesn't it?" Ryouji nodded. "Yeah... that was nice, even if we might have been kids... it was still great to play house." He smiled. "I doubt most people would look at it _that_ simplistically," Misato chuckled. "Simplicity is bliss. And sometimes, the best way to understand what you already know." "Have any reserves of 'simplicity'?" Misato chided with a smirk. "I'm a simple man with simple goals," Ryouji declared solemnly. "One is to learn the truth. Another is to take you to bed." "And you think you're good at both, do you?" Misato replied flatly. "You were never left lacking now were you? Last time, as I recall, you were very active and actively receiving." "Just so no one knows but you." Misato grinned childishly, leaving Ryouji wish an eyebrow slightly raised and with a slight smile. "Must you two carry on so?" Ritsuko sighed, slipping around Rei and Shinji whom she had apparently convinced to walk faster, and were thus somewhat out of hearing range. "You complained about _him_ never being discreet?" Misato spoke both nervously and embarrassed. "Erm, yeah, but..." "Where did he learn his mannerisms, I wonder?" Ritsuko asked innocently. Ryouji, not one for doomed battles, stared up at the ceiling. "We _did_ live together." "Your point?" Ritsuko pressed. "Nothing. Just maybe we wore off on each other." ******************** "You look worn to the bone Major Katsuragi," Makoto told his commanding officer as he read over incoming readings on the main display in the Control Centre. "There are reasons why I'm worn," Misato replied happily, almost as if she were in a dream-like state. "Kaji's bone?" Ritsuko asked with a slight smile as she read over a report attached to her clipboard. "SHUT-YOUR-FACE!" ******************** "Misato was worn off, all right," Ritsuko stated disdainfully, mock-scowling at Ryouji. Receiving nothing more than an expression with somewhat raised eyebrows, Ritsuko pressed on, now grinning. "Maybe you are too?" "What?!" The man in question grinned quickly. "I don't get worn. I don't even get tired." "Stop grinning, or I'll make you prove it," Ritsuko stated darkly. "Just buy the drinks, Ritsu. Then you can have all the proof you want." Ignoring the increasingly nervous expression on Misato's face, Ritsuko blushed slightly and responded, "Well, like I said, I have a bigger salary... Weird." "He _is_ that," Misato finalized, saying nothing more as she accidentally cross-checked Shinji into a door, and was snapped out of her conversation by the sound of his shouted 'Owwwwwwwwww!' Her head turned to him instantly. "Shinji-kun?!" Shinji groaned. "Rei said to stop..." "That's all well and good... but why didn't you warn me I was about to run you over?" "I _did_," he said, rubbing his shoulder. "You weren't paying any attention. "Oh." Misato blushed out of embarrassment. Rei, the only one who had not spoken a word for some time, stared at the door in front of them in calm silence. "Let's move, then," Ritsuko commanded, dropping the social pretenses and returning to her take-charge demeanor. "No sense in lagging around here." Ignoring Rei's semi-expectant, unemotional reply - a gaze - Ritsuko pressed a series of keys into the door's adjoining keypad. The door hissed slightly as it opened, admitting the foray. It was the same room Ritsuko and Ryouji had been in moments earlier. The pumping sounds continued relentlessly. "Home," Rei said to Shinji softly, before Ritsuko could go off on another spiel. Shinji blinked, confused. 'Home?' Ritsuko walked forward into the room, followed patiently by Misato and Ryouji, Ryouji paying no attention to the room for a second time. "Core of the Dummy Plug," Ritsuko revealed simply as she stood before the glass tube. "Source of data collection... source of the uplink." "Uplink?" Misato asked, having heard the term many times during the revelations of the Dummy entry plugs, but never having had it explained. "The plant for manufacturing the Dummy System," Ritsuko continued, producing her control pad once more. "This is where the components for the Dummy System are produced... I'll show you the truth." Click. In the space between the identical circles traced along the wall of the room, bubbles started to rise in the darkness - first slowly, then much more quickly. That very same gap between the circles slowly lit up, revealing a wide, reddish-orange strip in its wake, identical to that contained within the tube connected to the mechanical brain - a tank of LCL. As the light intensity increased, human forms began to take shape in the lightening darkness - first as scattered shadows, then as concentrated shadows, then as formed shadows. The dark forms slowly became visible, casting away the darkness to reveal bare human flesh, strands of hair, accentuating female features. The bare female bodies rested in various positions, all with their eyes closed and their heads bent slightly, all enveloped in pale shadow. All were motionless, as if sleeping. All looked like Rei Ayanami. A round of restrained gasps, widened eyes, and pursed lips befell Shinji, Misato, and Ryouji. Rei took a step forward, gazing at the bodies which had the very same form as her. Shinji's gaze shifted back and forth nervously, without control, between Rei and the tank of Reis - back and forth, pupils dilated and eyes acting like that of a hamster who had been squeezed too hard. He choked slightly on air. "... The 'Dummy' in Dummy Plug," Ritsuko explained, unfazed. "These are nothing but Dummies... and parts for Rei." "P... p... parts?" Shinji stuttered. "To keep her 'safe' if she should ever be unable to continue with her current body. It happened once, six years ago..." "You mean... she...?" Shinji started, trembling. "Died," Ritsuko finished plainly for him. "And, brought back to life." She shook her head in dismay. "An Eva is a human vessel. A human made from Adam, with a human soul brought into it... But they're taken from wherever they can get them, through salvaging the dead... Except for Unit One. Rei's the one that's different from the Evas. She doesn't have a salvaged soul. She's a vessel for a soul. Only she has a soul that is hers. Eva is nothing more than a vessel for a soul, but they don't have their own soul." She gestured to the tank of inanimate bodies. "These bodies don't have a soul... They are soulless creatures, so they are inhuman." ******************** "Why the hell do you keep telling me not to regret things? Aren't you even human enough to understand something like that? That you've lived too long and shouldn't have been saved from your own idiocy?" Shinji's verbal lashing and sarcasm dropped into a tone meant for himself, but was clear enough to be transmitted through the LCL. "No, of course not... you're the Golden Child... you don't even _make_ mistakes! What did you do... bring me back... make me just like you?" ******************** Shinji shivered, a resultant from the memory and the reality. Unnoticed to the group, Rei silently made her way over to the tank, staring quietly into the large container, breathing softly, one hand resting against the glass. The pumping sound which had filled the room earlier had become much softer and had evened out. The breathing of the forms of Rei had become much more level since the tank had been lit. "Rei has a soul, so she is, even if she was created from Yui Ikari," Ritsuko diagnosed. "Her soul is hers. One of these will become the new vessel if her current body should perish." "Is there a... difference... afterwards?" Shinji inquired tentatively. "... A new life, traces of what was once had. That was the result." "Traces? Nothing really remains intact?" Shinji pressed. "A new life created, most of the past eradicated. Remembering what was rests at a minimal, if even existent... they are shadows of a forgotten past. That was the result," Ritsuko repeated. Shinji walked slowly, as if unsure of his footing, to Rei. "This is... Rei." Rei turned, resting her back against the glass, her spoken word soft but audible. "... I can't die." The entire evening ran through Shinji's mind like a pack of rabid dogs intent on their pray. The uncertainties, the fears, and the indecision mixed as one, creating the final result of it all - reality, the truth. With a single choice before him, Shinji mustered up what courage he could and took hold of Rei's shoulders, focussing as firm a grip on her eyes as he could. Once more it all ran through him, along with everything that had happened to him since he came to Tokyo-3, regardless of who or what. Searching for the right words to convey his thoughts, he found them, and voiced them. "Faces... numbers... they don't matter. This is all there is. I love Rei Ayanami." Rei's gaze was unwavering, her breath soft. Whether consciously or not, her hands slowly went up to her own shoulders, cupping Shinji's. The moments were shattered as a reaction occurred in the tank. The multitude of copies of Rei Ayanami sparked with life as each head whipped up in unison, eyes open, staring down with a variety of smiles on their faces - some with lips sealed, others with mouths opened with a general look of excitement. Eye intensity varied from body to body, some with eyes more narrowed than others. All their gazes were directed at Shinji, not one of them looking anywhere else. The adults all had a double-take. "T... this is..." Ritsuko stuttered. "Inhuman..." Misato whispered, concurrently with Ryouji's shouted "Insane!" Shinji turned his head from Rei to the three gaping adults, a look of genuine confusion on his face. Rei softly turned her head to the tank and took in the view of her selves. For a few moments she regarded the bodies, showing no indication of it having any affect on her state. Her head turned back to Shinji, and quietly she said, "Don't fear, when you turn back to me." Shinji's head made about half the turn to Rei before stopping stock-still. His hands clenched Rei's shoulders from surprise more than from anything else. His face drained of colour, though he remained standing tall. Only when he felt Rei move slightly in his grip did he realize he was most likely hurting her, and quickly relaxed it. Still enduring shock, he managed to stutter, "W... what... on earth... how is this...?" "They have a presence..." Rei said quietly. "They are seeking a soul... seeking humanity. But... faintly. They're barely alive. That is how it feels." "Sirens," Shinji said weakly. "Though, they don't call to destroy." Rei looked back slightly at the countless smiling faces. "They call to live." "To live... by destroying someone else?" Shinji asked, trying to put the situation into perspective. Rei held her gaze softly on the glass tank. "... No. To prevent death, to be someone else. They exist to live when I am unable. This life... would be what they want. A soul." She looked aside. "I can be replaced... but I never wanted to exist. I wanted death. In my life, death was all I sought..." Her eyelids closed and opened in a swift, singular motion. "I will never have it, because he will keep me alive. I can not die." "Because of this..." Shinji whispered, staring at the ground. 'I understand.' "No secrets." Rei watched him quietly. "Not between us, anyway." He looked up at her, smiling slightly as she took his hands from her shoulders and let them fall from her. She walked up beside him, facing the tank in silence. In a tone only the two of them could hear, Shinji quietly murmured, "Father..." Misato's eyes traced the entire tank. 'This is...' '...SEELE had its input into this...' Ryouji deduced. "... I am I, but I becomes they, they becomes me," Rei reasoned. "And 'they' almost killed Touji." The expression on his face would have looked much more impressive on his father, or at the least, if he had been wearing glasses. His head was bent down slightly, but his eyes were directed upward as if looking over the rim of a pair of eyeglasses. "... No. Just told... programmed... what to do. That's what they were given, all they had. No choices. The programming is my personality, who..." She broke for a moment, continuing firmly as she struggled with understanding the concept of individuality. "Who I am." "More of my 'wonderful' Father's work..." Shinji rejoiced. Ritsuko, her ears intent on the conversation and her eyes intent on Rei and her many siblings, wondered, 'Seeking individuality?' "It is still me," Rei stated, looking at him without expression. "Why do you bear me no anger?" "They weren't left a choice," Shinji replied. "Neither were you. I'm not going to hold who you are against you just because I don't happen to like the person generating the whole thing." "And... them?" Rei questioned, indicating the tank with the slight sway of her head. "I guess... that will fulfill one of my statements," Shinji replied, if not with some regret. Rei blinked, then recalled the instance and smiled slightly, if unexpectedly. "We'll argue, another time." The moment was quickly broken by the sound of murmuring, almost like the sound of wolves howling travelling through the wind from a point far distant. The sound had come from the tank. "What?" Shinji asked, head snapping up, startled. Ritsuko glared at the tank quietly. The faint sound grew louder, becoming more audible, more clear. It was the sound of female laughter. It became clear even to those with visual acuity disorder that its origin was from the forms of Rei. The lips of each of their heads pursed slightly with the soft laughter, becoming louder and louder with each passing moment. "What _is_ this?" Shinji asked, looking to Ritsuko quickly. Ritsuko said nothing, her expression darkening with each passing moment. The laughter continued to increase in volume, making its source more than obvious by this point. Despite the amplification, their lips remained only mildly pursed or open in a smile, depending on the body. Even though they were the ones producing the laughter, none of them moved, much like statues etched in marble. "_Answer_ the _question_, doctor," Misato emphasized, her tone much like a low growl. Ritsuko continued to see all and hear nothing as she walked forward silently, focussing a dark glare around the tank. The laughter, at this point, had reached an unnerving volume. "Inhuman," Ryouji chided. "Then what the hell are they doing?" "What the hell is this?" Shinji muttered fearfully, the collective laughter and the many eyes trained on him causing him to twitch his hand involuntarily. The pressure of the gaze was withdrawn from Shinji as the eyes of the bodies suddenly snapped to a new target - Rei Ayanami. The laughter continued ceaselessly. Rei stared quietly back at them, apparently not taking much in stride. "Ritsuko, what is going on?" Misato nearly shouted as she stepped up behind the addressed. "... They're laughing at fools." Her eyes quickly scanned the tank. 'Even without a soul, they have a damn desire...' Her eyes then regarded the First Children. 'No doubt.' "A-at... fools?" Shinji stuttered. The sound of glass being hit caused Shinji to shout in surprise and the adults to turn their heads to the source of the sound. Rei only watched passively as the others focussed on the arm which had suddenly taken to life and lashed out from the body directly in front of Rei and had hit the glass as a fist. The body's intent gaze rested on Rei, an eerie smile on its face. Shinji's eyes snapped back to the tank, a look of shock, if not concealed horror, on his face. "What's it....?" The hand opened up, palm against the glass, and slid slowly downward as the other came to rest gently on the tank's glass wall. It continued to gaze into Rei, now prominent over all of the other tank's residents. Shinji shook, now at the point where his eyes looked ready to fall from their sockets. He forced them to close to an acceptable level with obvious effort. The smile on the clone which had taken the lead position dropped very slowly from one of eeriness into one of serenity. Its eyes blinked just as slowly, its lips twitching faintly as it appeared to struggle to move them, or perhaps imitate an action as the other hand slid sluggishly down the glass, faint pressure being applied at the fingertips. "Not quite alive... not quite dead, either. Just a medium." Ritsuko smirked unpleasantly. The image of Rei was sheltered from the darkness, completely illuminating in light the physical structure of Rei Ayanami chiseled to perfection, a duplicate that at least five people could attest to being absolutely the same. One of its arms fell from the glass, floating to its side in the LCL. The other followed a moment afterward. The right arm moved as if in slow-motion to the left, the hand gripping the left arm as it stared quietly at Rei. The menacing laughter echoed from its compatriots. "What's it... doing?" Misato murmured. "... Imitating," Ritsuko stated, observing the same position that Rei stood in. "Im... itating?" Shinji asked, blinking twice as he noted the identical positions that both Rei and the clone now stood in. The eyes of the body suddenly snapped wide open as it seemed to use all of its strength to fling its arms toward the glass, pressing its hands forward against the glass, pressure weak nonetheless. Its eye slits narrowed slightly, the same serene smile still on its face. "ENOUGH!" Ritsuko shouted, clicking a button on her control pad. The entire tank was quickly bathed in darkness as when the group of five had first entered the room, the sounds of laughter dying out slowly afterward, until only one remained, and disappeared like the others. Shinji continued to quiver. "That was...." Rei's eyes were set more firmly as she continued to gaze at the now blackened tank. Moments later, she emitted a soft breath, which caused Shinji to nearly jump out of his shoes. Rei regarded him with a look out of the corner of his, observing his noticeably quickened breathing as he intently eyed the tank. Ritsuko was the next to speak. "Is there anything else in here anybody would like to see, or are we finished our business here?" "If that is... all..." Shinji said slowly, still trying to calm his breathing. None of the adults moved as Rei turned from the tank, firmly took Shinji's hand, and walked wordlessly toward the exit. The only thing she conveyed was an easily definable look, one of annoyance, directed at Ritsuko. She received no resistance from the person she towed along, and received no reaction from anyone, with one exception - despite the obvious decomposition of character Shinji had just experienced, a weak smile managed to creep up onto his otherwise drained face. The two disappeared from the chamber, the electronic door shutting behind them. Ritsuko continued to eye the tank, tapping a finger against her control pad as if she were debating some action or another and had not quite decided on whether to perform it or not. Ryouji, always the opportunistic gloat, gave Misato a look which was the equivalent of saying 'I was right'. "Kaji-kun... don't say it," Misato said quietly. Eyes closed, the pony-tailed man just waved a hand to the side, saying nothing. "Is that all, Ritsuko?" Misato asked, nodding to Ryouji. "We shouldn't just let them wander around, should we?" "Almost like..." Ritsuko started, sounding somewhat distracted, "a mother not wanting her child to see something. Isn't it...?" "I thought we were over that," Misato grumbled. "Much like hiding a secret that wasn't supposed to be released..." Ritsuko continued, her expression, unseen to the others, conveying an impression of confusion. "Ritsuko!" Ritsuko slowly walked around the curvature of the room. "None of this is of any concern to you Misato? Since you witnessed the Evangelions underground, you seem to be just viewing these things because they're there. You're observing and ignoring. Why know the truth when you don't even care about it?" She regarded her haughtily. "Why are you here?" "Would you prefer I passed out down here?" Misato questioned, completely serious. "I doubt Kaji-kun is quite strong enough to carry me back." "You're not heavy." Ignoring Ryouji's ill-timed comment, Ritsuko continued unhindered. "Your mask doesn't escape my eyes Misato. If you're not going to show anything, at least confess yourself." She eyed her skeptically. "I'm not in the best of moods for having led someone around down here on a pleasure trip." "I'll faint for you later," Misato said softly. "This is just a _bit_ of an overload, don't you think? It's not as though _you_ got led through here all at once when you didn't know what the hell you were getting into, now is it?" She shook her head. "Just sorting all this out is gonna take days..." "The Commander was the one who had taken me on this little tour, though there wasn't as much back then." Ritsuko shrugged slightly. "New developments, indeed..." She shook her head slightly. "There's no other reason to stay here, except to describe Instrumentality." "I don't think I could take that... right now." "Then wait for me in the hallway. I'll join you in a moment." Misato nodded slowly and edged toward the door. Ritsuko ignored her as she inspected the tube of LCL at the center of the room, deaf and blind to her surroundings. "Go on ahead," Ryouji said to Misato, using a shooing motion to herd Misato from the room as Ritsuko eyed him without expression. Misato reluctantly obliged, walking out the door, letting it shut behind her, then ran down the hallway, which indicated that neither of the two Children had been outside the door awaiting her. As soon as the door had closed, Ritsuko stood up from where she she had kneeled next to the tube and produced her control pad in her palm. "Time to cut the lies Ryouji," she said without turning. "How much of this did you already know?" "Well... our large white friend, for one thing. I had my guesses about the reconstruction efforts, especially after the last Angel managed to bring us down to _one_ operational Unit, which is really in no condition to be used _anyway_. As for this, the Artificial Evolution Lab, and the dummy system... I knew nothing." Ritsuko's eyes narrowed slightly. "While Shinji was being truthful, you were faking sickness in the other room, Kaji. I am a doctor, and I have studied medicine." Ryouji shrugged, unconcerned. "We're all human here, _doctor_. That includes me... and the only thing inhuman that I know... is Misato's cooking." Ritsuko smirked slightly as she leaned back against the glass tube, her eyes closed. "Well, I hope you're happy. We're all in the same boat as you now, though spying for SEELE, NERV, and the Japanese Government only applies to you." Her head swayed from side to side for a moment. "If we make it out of here alive, this should be okay. I've got my own secret for you." Ryouji, in that odd half-surprised tone of his, prompted, "Oh?" "Two really. This room... If I wanted to capture everyone, I'd simply have to destroy it. Destroy them all. Realize that I was half-ready to do this when we came here this evening... and now I _would_ destroy everything here, except for the fact that we _would_ get caught." "Haven't we been already? Since your little card-swipe up top, a record has been kept of what you've done... or rather, in this case, what you haven't, since that doesn't apply down here. Anyone paying attention should catch on very quickly, shouldn't they?" He chuckled, regardless of the topic's indications. "It all depends. In reality, everybody else here has a chance to escape this. I'm the only one who's on suspicion... With, _one_, slight exception." She regarded her control pad before continuing. "MAGI has been displaying... interesting activity this evening." "Under my name, no doubt," Ryouji smirked, laughing after he said, "Didn't you know I have a mechanical brain?" "Really? Then, maybe you'd like to tell me how you managed to set off the physical elimination systems in both of the remaining MAGI in the old Centre, hmmm?" Ryouji's laughter was quickly laced with nervousness. "Now that I don't think I could tell you." "No doubt. Melchior's monitoring the intruder right now. It looks we have our own game if you're up for it. We could easily cover up whatever we manage to screw up on our way out. Up for a little hunting?" "I'd love to figure out who swiped my pass into this place." He grinned darkly. " Whoever it is... isn't going to live to see the light this morning." "Well then, want to see the others out and join me on an excursion? We're the only ones with anything to lose. Your death warrant will be signed with this one, and I'd rather cover it up as a system glitch, which wouldn't be a surprise given your current activity." "Well... I doubt Misato's any better off. Section Two is on her... slowly, of course. Still, she's a bright girl. She'll take care of herself, and she's not nearly so expendable, now that she'll have all three of our beloved Children at her place." He smirked, expressing an observation. "Heh." Ritsuko looked up at the ceiling. "Ten to one odds on Shinji asking to move in with Rei. He's got some of that fool-pride for protecting people, when he gets up enough courage. However, I don't believe the great Commander Ikari would like to have Rei relocated at this time. From my understanding, he's been informed of the situation." "In a tactless ploy by our wonderful 'Major' friend. Still, the kid's got guts. Both, really. Though... I doubt any of the parties involved, except Rei, would even _think_ of allowing Shinji to move in there." He continued his statement mentally. 'And it's so noisy there. He'd never be able to get any sleep. I woke him up turning over in the night!' "I think some living-quarter-roulette may be in order. Divide and redivide and rejoin, as it were." Her eyebrows furrowed up into a contemplative expression. "Given the situation with the need for new pilots, Misato's apartment block may serve well as a NERV housing facility. Lord knows Shinji can survive on his own, sad as it may be... A change may be good for all of them." She shook her head, dismissing the thought. "Then again, it'd also be dangerous to bring all of our most important people under one roof. At any rate, this isn't the time. Let's show our 'guests' to the door, and then it'll be up to me to save you from the fire." She gave him a smug look. You're just lucky that you talked me out of suicide." "I'm well aware of when my ass is on the line. First round's mine, no 'buts' about it. Now... let's round them up before they manage to cause us another problem we need to fix tonight." The man scratched his stubbled chin and yawned. "I'm too tired to fix more than one..." "No kidding. Mine are getting worse. Judging from Misato's scrambling, it sounds like she was headed back the way we came. I'm just keeping my eye on this intruder... Would you give me my gun back?" "As long as you're not intent on turning it on anyone in our group, yes." Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Remember the alarm system in the graveyard? I could've taken you all then if I wanted. Truth is, I didn't even need to wait _this_ long. You should know that." "I've owned up to my life enough today, I think. Maybe I _should_ just sleep the day away. It'd be safer. Let's go." With that, he withdrew her gun and tossed it to her with a flick of his wrist. Ritsuko caught the gun open palm and pocketed it quickly, heading out the door before it had disappeared from site. She was quickly followed by Ryouji, the door snapping shut behind them as they proceeded to navigate the corridors. "That thing wouldn't be able to tell us where we're pacing to, would it?" Ryouji inquired. "They weren't bugged. However, simple analysis of the Children... I have a decent idea of where they are." "Lead on, then," Ryouji said, not having the slightest idea where he was being herded to next. "I can keep up." Continuing to keep pace at an easy stride, Ryouji silently praised, 'Thank God for longer legs...' The two walked in silence, taking a twist and a turn down the passageway, until Ritsuko halted in her tracks. They were standing, once more, in front of the door to the Third Artificial Evolution Lab. "Back here," Ryouji sighed. "I should've guessed." A tap on Ritsuko's control pad was all that was needed to open the door. The interior of the room revealed Misato, standing with her back to the wall beside the door, and Rei, standing next to the rolling cart and holding the empty glass beaker in her hands, fingers spread about its delicate surface. Shinji turned to the door at the sound of it hissing open, then released a large sigh. Ritsuko stepped in silently, Ryouji tailing her. "How'd _you_ guess?" Misato asked as Ritsuko stepped through the doorframe. "Doctor's intuition." "I'll assume everything's in order, then." "To an extent..." Ryouji uttered uncomfortably. "We'll just be showing you the way out now." Looking like she was going to collapse from overbearing fatigue due to strenuous activity, Misato responded, "That's good... I think." "Depends," Ritsuko commented off-hand. "We won't be leaving with the three of you. Let's---" "Why?" Misato inquired, interrupting Ritsuko. "Do the words 'slight situation' say anything to you?" Misato paused, blinking. "Plenty. You'd better get at that, then." Ritsuko waved a hand to the occupants of the room, beckoning them to the door. "Come on. Don't stand around. Tour's over, until later today anyway." "Yeah, tour of duty," Misato grumbled. "Come on, Shinji." Silent as usual, and unaddressed, Rei stood fast, holding the glass beaker. "What about Rei?" Shinji asked to no one in particular. Rubbing her head, on the verge of passing out from a lack of the cleansing power of sleep, Misato grumbled, "Yes, Rei too... geez..." "Rei," Ritsuko stated simply, "the beaker stays here." The result was the impression that Rei would destroy the beaker much like Asuka had the day before, this determined by the sudden reddening of her fingers as she clenched it tightly. Looking at it as Shinji walked tentatively toward her, she quietly whispered, "It is... my home." "... Then we'll build a new one. A new home. But we can't take this," Shinji managed quietly, almost giving the impression that he was the girl's father from the way he spoke. Not taking her eyes away from it, Rei continued. "It is also a part of who I am that was taken." "And something that I can't bring back, or replace... Life is an experience, right? Then, we'll learn to live without it." He smiled comfortingly. Her gaze didn't waver. "I... wish to go to my residence," she requested quietly, setting the beaker down softly. "Then that's where we'll go, whenever you're ready." Rei gazed at the beaker for but a moment longer, letting its majesty burn a permanent image into her mind before turning away without another regard to it. She left it behind and walked away, Shinji following behind her. Misato nodded. "That accounts for everyone. And since you two have something else you'd rather be doing," she said, looking at Ritsuko and Ryouji, "I suggest you make this quick." Ritsuko waved her hand in a sweeping motion, beckoning the others to exit the room as she kindly demonstrated. Misato followed on Ryouji's heels, who was doing his best to keep from being stalked so quickly. Ritsuko regarded the two Children who stood silently, waiting outside the door. Her eyes caught Rei in particular as the door slid shut behind herself, as she was still looking at the door, remotely. All but Ritsuko began the trek down the hallway, the adults as a pair first, the Children as a pair second. 'Hopefully that doesn't contaminate,' Ritsuko thought as she clicked a button on her control panel and followed quickly after the others. Staring at the backs of the blue-haired girl and her compatriot Pilot, Ritsuko's thoughts wandered to recollection. 'The resemblances are almost frightening...' 'Thank God... for whoever decided not to bring Asuka on this trip,' Misato prayed silently. Shinji glanced backward and forward, walking without break as he searched his environs, lost in his thoughts. 'This is a lot... too much. ...Touji? And a Fifth?' He shook his head in dismay. 'Damn it...' He looked up quickly, glancing at Rei momentarily, then faced forward. 'Did I... mean that?' "Time for a bit of truth on your part, Ritsu," Ryouji said from ahead of everyone else, shattering the tranquility of their thoughts. "There _is_ a faster way out, isn't there." "Running," Ritsuko muttered off-hand as she glanced at the light resembling MELCHIOR-1 on her control pad flash red, indicating the problem in the system. Ryouji sighed quietly. "I don't envy people... who have to come down here more often." Time passed slowly as they made their way through the many corridors, each life lost in his or her own thoughts the while. The long journey within the bowels of Terminal Dogma finally came to its conclusion upon entrance to the great elevator that had delivered them into NERV's hideaway. Slowly the elevator began its ascent upward, the endless void the only surroundings worth noting, though only for a moment as they quickly passed from sight. Ryouji Kaji was the only person showing any real sign of life, tapping a lone finger on his leg, the only real movement other than breathing. Even that was brought to an abrupt halt as their ride ended shakily. "Okay, _everybody_ out," Misato called. No one really listened to her, the time for her heading the mission long ended as their subconscious minds now controlled all of their functions, half of the elevator's occupants already outside the elevator before Misato had completed her sentence. Misato was left with little choice but to lug the still-motionless Ryouji out of the elevator, Shinji following slowly after them. Misato regarded Rei and Shinji for a moment. "It'll be bed for the both of you," she commented, yawned, and quickly added, "Me too." "Argment..." Shinji mumbled, slightly slurring the original word. Rei was indifferent to everything. 'I envy that,' Ryouji thought as he observed Rei's composure. 'Or I could after a nice, warm bath.' Ritsuko remained on the move, already ahead of the others, with the exception of Rei who followed her at an even pace. She blatantly ignored Heaven's Gate as she headed for the elevator to Central Dogma. The others followed in a lethargic fashion, partially paying attention to their surroundings, but not a great deal of attention. Another touch to her control pad merited the opening of the elevator shaft. "Here already?" Ryouji inquired. As she walked in, Ritsuko commented off-hand, "Wake up if you're going to use a firearm." Ryouji's head snapped up quickly, a smirk on his face. "Oh, please. I could hit at a hundred-twenty paces in my sleep." The others quickly filed into the elevator one after another, much to Ritsuko's growing impatience. After entering commands into the elevator's control panel, the high-speed ascent began. The elevator continued its quick ascent, causing some of the occupants to temporarily lose balance at the sudden speed increase. Otherwise, the ascent was just that - an ascent. Words remained unspoken, thoughts once more brewing strongly within each mind. 'At least we were here for this little break-in,' Ritsuko considered. 'Undoubtedly, everyone on duty has paid no attention to the MAGI. We'll just have to find our intruding friend and make a little example.' The ride ended just as it had began - in silence. The primary group of infiltrators once more walked out of the elevator in file, this time into the large reception area at the entrance of Central Dogma which they had used earlier that morning. And, at the end of their long journey, the group prepared to go its separate ways, to divide into two. Misato walked purposefully towards the exit where the car awaited. "Wait!" Ritsuko shouted more loudly than she world have liked. Misato spun on her heel, seeing the four other remaining 'visitors' still standing there, looking at her, all of their gazes wishing to ask, for all the world to know, 'What are you doing?'. Ritsuko walked up to her, the two Children following swiftly behind her, Ryouji the only one to stay put. "You can't just walk out of here," she declared on the approach. "We all got in on _my_ ID. You can't get out without an ID, and I still need mine." "Be that as it may, I am _not_ staying here until you get done hunting around for whatever the hell it is you're so intent on staying for. I'm tired, I lack caffeine, and I want _sleep_," Misato stated outright. "Stop complaining," Ritsuko scolded as she walked up to one of the many gateways. ""Let's just say that, apparently, Kaji's down in the MAGI right now. When I'm through with the logs, this whole night's going to be off the record, so I'm not giving this to you - it'll just raise more suspicion. Come here, all three of you." Rei and Shinji continued to follow Ritsuko as before she had said anything, but Misato cut in between them and the doctor. "You're just going to 'leave twice', aren't you," Misato mused, grinning slightly. "I should've guessed earlier." "Came in, decided to leave, changed my mind and came in again, then left for good later on. Simple as that. Now, don't run for the exit this time. Stay close and walk _slowly_." Ryouji patiently waited near the elevator they had all exited as Ritsuko slid the card through, and the group of four shuffled through the exit, Shinji darting through once the door closed upon passage of the first member. The metallic barrier slid shut behind them. "Well... it beat trying to cram everyone in," Misato decided. "I'm not sure what Kaji'll do for a car, though." Misato laughed as she twirled his keys on her fingers. "Then I'll speak to you later this morning," Ritsuko said. "I'll take care of us using my car when this is over, along with our new 'friend' we're going to make. Until then... remember, _stealth_ mission. Don't go blasting out of here like a maniac!" "Just remember, if it's an SSDF member... rough 'em up." Misato grinned smugly. "They still owe us collateral." She quickly turned and herded Rei and Shinji toward the exit to the Geo Front. "Don't forget, bright and early here tomorrow!" Ritsuko reminded, watching after them. "Regular time! I can't move back the exam schedule until then." She silently added, 'If I can actually manage it.' "Synchs, harmonics... I know..." Misato sighed quietly.. Ritsuko smirked to herself as she turned around and placed her card on top of one of the access panels to Central Dogma. "Okay, you two already know," Misato said quietly. "Let's go. I want my bed. Badly. And I don't care if it's empty or not." Her only responses were wordless nods. In silence, the three continued onward, disappearing into the depths of the night-like atmosphere of the Geo Front. Confident that the three were now on their way away from the forthcoming ordeal, Ritsuko picked up her ID card and slid it through the access panel, and entered the hazardous territory for the last time in that early hour of morning. ------------------------------------ "How did she steal my keys..." Ryouji grumbled, following along behind Ritsuko. "Who, your protégé?" "I don't have one." "Then who's the poor fool who almost got roasted by my Casper?" Ritsuko asked, chuckling. "I really don't know..." Ryouji shook his head. "From what you said... I don't understand. Just what is that thing?" "What thing? My keypad?" "No, that program which has taken to making barbecue of intruders. 'Casper 666'? Your own project?" "A more than fitting one, at that. Protects from intruders on the outside, and those on the inside as well," she explained. "A replacement for the Standard Security System for each MAGI, or a complement?" "Some of both, actually. It only replaces what was outdated, and complements some of the newer programming by giving it an 'ally'. Much like trying to block a hacker by using two people instead of one." "But, you said you had different versions running on each MAGI. Gamma on Melchior, Alpha on Casper and Balthasar. Any major difference?" Ritsuko shrugged. "Just some debugging between the Gamma and Alpha versions. I didn't like some of the old code, so I went back and changed it." "It appears that the older version didn't handle our intruder too well... According to you, Melchior deleted it from the system." "That's part of the code I changed," she explained patiently. "I guessed as much... But why didn't you change it in Melchior?" "Haven't had the time yet. Though, I'll sure as hell make the time today." Ryouji nodded, his eyes trailing along the walls. "The schedule says Casper is due to be moved in three days." "It'll be fine," Ritsuko assured him. "They can do _that_ without my help. However, there's not a person in this organization I'd trust to perform the upgrade on '666'." "Of course not. It's a personal project." "And you're the one person to whom that'd make any sense," Ritsuko said, smirking. "If you keep walking, we're going to have to backtrack." Primary Command & Control Centre Level 3 Access S.C. MAGI System SUPER-COMPUTER MELCHIOR-1 Ryouji quickly took three steps back to a stopped Ritsuko, looking at the sign on the wall. "How true," he commented, tapping the plate with his hand, causing the door to slide open. His other hand, of course, was already in his jacket. Ryouji Kaji had quickly turned all business. Ritsuko stepped into the room just after him, her gun almost perfectly concealed in her hand. "Already inside," she noted. "Whoever it is really knows his shit." She grinned darkly. "Though, his knowledge will do him about another... thirty seconds of good before it's splattered across some wall where no one will ever find it." "No kidding... It's either that, or he's some hapless SOB who got too lucky for his own good," Ryouji replied, grinning darkly. "Lucky enough to beat '666', even the outdated one? I doubt it." "That depends," Ryouji noted. "What was the problem with it?" "That can wait. We talk, and he has more chances to send out information to God-only-knows-where." She stalked forward. "Soon as I see a part of this 'kid', I'm rushin' him." Inside, Kensuke had been paying attention. Apparently, it doesn't take four hours to find one's way around the MAGI. 'Oh boy...' he thought desperately. 'Damn, no more physical security system...' Ritsuko rapped on the hull of the computer, and Kensuke yelped in surprise. "Trained professionals don't startle. Guess I was right," Ryouji commented, smirking before he yelled at the entrance, "Get'cher ass outta there!" He was careful not to put himself within sight of the entrance, just in case the lucky SOB happened to be carrying a firearm. Kensuke shivered. 'What an I gonna d---' He stopped, a smile slowly playing across his lips. He dropped his voice as far as he could without making it seem forced, speaking in what he hoped was a threatening tone. "I've got a Colt .45 and a grenade saying I stay here. You know what's good for ya, you'll get outta here before I decide to make this a kamikaze mission and take out this Super Computer!" "This little shit's full of it, but God only knows if he's really got a grenade. Can that little pad of yours activate '666' on a lower level? Something, say, in a stun setting?" Ryouji asked carefully. "It's gone from this one, but not from the others..." Ritsuko said, resting her back against the MAGI, typing in various codes. "Let's just see how he likes being cut off from the MAGI." "Don't go just yet," Ryouji said, chuckling. "We'll see if just the threat of '666' is enough." He turned back to the computer. "Listen, ya little shit. Remember that program that tried to barbecue ya earlier?" He paused to let that sink in. "I've got a lady friend here who'll turn that back on herself if you don't get yer ass outta there. Now!" Kensuke blinked, then smiled, not realizing who the 'lady friend' could be, and returned in kind in that quasi-deep voice. "It's been deleted. Don't insult me." "Ritsu, give 'im five seconds," Ryouji commanded loudly. "Rit... su?" Kensuke blinked. "It's prepared. Casper and Balthasar will be providing us with some... assistance. Let's see how the little bastard likes a 10,000 volt feedback pulse charging through his laptop!" She laughed darkly, priming the system for action. "Three seconds!" Ryouji yelled into the tunnel. Kensuke frantically typed on his keyboard, looking around and finding nothing. "What is this? Nothing's here! What're they talking about?" "Now, Ritsu!" Ryouji yelled gleefully, just as Ritsuko entered the activation commands. On Kensuke's screen, a map of the three MAGI, looking almost as if seen through drugged eyes, floated across his screen, with '666' beginning to randomly float across his field of vision, causing the screen to glow somehow more brightly. "Last chance! Come out now, or come out cooked!" Kensuke banged on his keyboard, but to no avail. Locked out, and with the sneaking suspicion that at any moment, with the way his screen is lighting up, his laptop would explode and send him into a wall, he stammered, "Y... n... I GIVE UP!!!" "Ritsuko, hold that lock on 'im," Ryouji said before yelling back down the tunnel. "Then come out _really_slowly_... or I can't guarantee anything." He smirked. "And another thing. I can hit easily at one hundred and twenty paces in near-collapse from lack of sleep, which _isn't_ right now." Ryouji fired a shot in just for effect, though more for the noise than for anything else. "Now move yer ass!" Kensuke, his hands shaking, set the laptop down and began crawling forward. He was quite pale, the blood all but drained from his face, and his teeth were chattering. Ryouji backed off to one side a few steps so he'd have the advantage of getting the first shot off before any marksman could find a target on him and snap off a shot if he bolted, just as Ritsuko shut off the feed from BALTHASAR-2. 'H-help... R-Rit...su? Ritsu?" Kensuke thought, still crawling forward. 'Ritsu-ko?' He paled even more, skin an ashen white. "Oh my God..." Ryouji waited impatiently at the exit, gun aimed to take full advantage of anyone popping out suddenly. When Kensuke came near that entrance, he slowly slid his hands out first, proving them to be empty. "I-I... I don't have any weapons! I'm coming out! Don't shoot!" Ryouji rolled his eyes. "Spineless son of a..." At that second, Kensuke's head popped forward, eyes facing the floor. Ryouji, despite years of training and life that had conditioned him to expect anything, dropped his gun. "Aida no baka! What the hell are you doing? Get your ass off the ground, young man, before I pick it up and pitch it off this balcony!" Ritsuko blinked, nearly as surprised as the other two, and shut off CASPER-3's feed. She stared down at the boy with a nearly blank face. Kensuke blinked, recognizing the voice, and looked up slowly, his breath catching in his throat. He jumped to his feet, looking like he'd like nothing better than to find some hole he could crawl into and die quietly. This, of course, was about the same as the first option he'd been given. "Ritsuko, may I present your hacker," Ryouji said, a hand seemingly plastered to his forehead. "Kensuke Aida." He shook his head, mentally adding, 'And may God have mercy on him, because even if I do, she won't.' Ritsuko blinked, looking at Kensuke. Kensuke blinked, looking at Ritsuko. Then, his breath caught again, and his knees shook. 'A gun! She's got a gun!' Ritsuko blinked once more, then burst out laughing. 'And she's... laughing?' Ritsuko pounded a hand against the side of the MAGI's casing, overtaken by an uncontrollable laughter. "This... this is the guy who... took your... ID, Kaji?!" "Erm..." Ryouji Kaji, for only a moment, looked and sounded like Shinji Ikari with stubble, which only kept Ritsuko's laughter from dying. "Kaji-san, sir... I could live in your trunk!" Kensuke exclaimed, realizing that, although he was in rather definite trouble, he wasn't a dead man. At least, not yet. Ryouji looked at him skeptically, then slung the unfortunate teenager over his shoulder and walked to the balcony's edge, followed by the continuing sound of Ritsuko's laughter. "Ack! Not the balcony! I donwannadie!" "Put him down... Ryouji..." Ritsuko said, calming herself from full-blown laughter to a rather harsh chuckle. "Why? You wanna toss 'im?" "Yes," she replied, walking forward while turning a stunning glare on Kensuke. "Ack! No!" Kensuke cried, struggling. "Stop struggling, or he _will_ throw you off. And trust me, you'd much rather I do it than him, _if_ you get my meaning," Ritsuko commanded. Kensuke blinked several times, then ceased all movement except for a very shallow breathing. 'Survived the MAGI, killed by their master...' "Set him down," Ritsuko ordered. Ryouji did just that, though he also clamped a hand down on Kensuke's shoulder. "All right, start talking. Kensuke Aida, yes? What the hell do you think you're doing sneaking around with a stolen ID at three in the morning in NERV Headquarters? Not only have you managed to break the curfew set on the majority of NERV personnel, but you've also accessed restricted areas, committed theft, and infiltrated property belonging to the United Nations," Ritsuko said, all but reading from a list. 'Yeah, and nearly got barbecued...' "Considering the number of offenses you've managed to commit, and the severity of them, you do realize that the penalty for this _is_ execution? 'Trespassers will be shot on sight.' Did you ever even consider this before doing something so recklessly stupid?" "Kaji-san, just shoot me, please? I don't _want_ to know the details of half of the NERV security rules, which I'm sure I've broken, and a few more that'll probably need to be _created_ just to cover what I've done..." "I don't think so. Not yet. I'm enjoying this." "Answer the question. _What_ were you thinking?" Ritsuko pressed. "That I... wanted to see... thegreatestSuperComputersevermade! Too bad nobody'd ever believe it... even if I were alive to..." "Great," Ritsuko said under her breath, "I'm dealing with a bloody otaku..." She regained her composure after that moment. "And in addition to everything _else_, you intended to inform others of 'government' secrets. The list just keeps growing, doesn't it..." "And who would I tell, huh? What person in their right mind would believe any of this shit?" Kensuke asked, quite truthfully. 'Well, Shinji and Touji, but they know me well enough to know I wouldn't shit them about something like this... exception to every rule.' "You will not speak disrespectfully, do you understand?" Ritsuko asked sternly. "Yess'm!" Kensuke agreed, flinching. "Damn it..." she grumbled, rubbing her head. "The fact that you even know about _any_ of this is where the major problem lies..." She stopped as Kensuke muttered something barely audible. "And do not speak disrespectfully under your tongue!" "Now who's being disrespectful?" Kensuke mouthed silently, then spoke aloud, "How about I tell you how I broke your security codes. That should... about cover the breaking and entering." "You're not as good as you think. Security's been put to a minimum while we transfer the MAGI." 'Then why'd I almost get barbecued? If _that_ is minimal...' He looked about ready to faint on the spot. "With the exception of '666', of course. I'll give you this much: You have potential. Even the basic system would ward off most people. You do have potential... but, quite frankly, yes, you are dead," Ritsuko confirmed. 'More subtlety than Iruel...' "Unbelievable." "I think we agree on that one..." Kensuke said, nodding slowly. Akagi silently took her gun and clicked the safety off, raising it to Aida's forehead. "Soryuu said it best..." he intoned. "This sucks!" "Don't hate me for this..." Ritsuko said, not sounding at all enthusiastic. "Ritsuko, are you an idiot? You plan on taking my life too? This kid's skull may be thick, but it isn't gonna stop a bullet at point blank!" The next few minutes, to Kensuke, seemed to drag out to eternity. Ryouji stepped out from behind him after he refused to move, seeing no real reason to move to someone else's appointed dying ground. He later recalled something about mentioning a disk he dropped in Misato's apartment, which, apparently, Ryouji had gone to great lengths to acquire, since _he_ had it in his possession. He was so busy looking down and giving Ryouji instructions on what to do with the disk that he didn't even realize that Ritsuko had put her gun away. "Tell him... it's a memento," he said, eyes still on the floor. Ryouji blinked. "You're going to have to go through a lot to make up for this," Ritsuko commented to the top of his head. "Yeah..." Aida sighed. Ritsuko was forced, thus, to shake him by the shoulders until he looked up. During that process, Kensuke realized that he was not bumping up against a gun as his head flopped around. "You are officially serving out an alternate sentence from this point. Do you understand?" Ritsuko asked. "That is?" "For the moment, nothing. You will report to NERV HQ at 8:00 AM this morning. You will wait at the gate you used to enter Central Dogma. Do you understand?" "Yess'm," Kensuke replied, nodding vigorously. "Though... may I ask one question?" "Granted," Ritsuko said, regarding the boy quietly. "After... _this_... Why would I be brought back here?" "You aren't threatening, nor do you plan your activities to an exceptional stint. However, you do show that you have several rather exceptional skills for someone of your age. An alternative to execution is, though unheard of, an avenue I believe prudent to pursue. I would suggest you take this alternative, whatever it may be. You know your other option." "I definitely see your point," Kensuke gulped. "A very good point, too. 8:00 AM sharp, you said, right?" "Better," Ritsuko said, smirking slightly. "I am Doctor Ritsuko Akagi. Please refer to me as Doctor Akagi. Do you understand?" Kensuke simply nodded, more in order to keep from a slip of the tongue than anything else. "I'll be about ten minutes or so repairing the damage caused by tonight's excursion," she explained to Ryouji. "I'll drive him home after that, and leave you at Misato's to pick up your car. Please watch him until I'm done." Ryouji nodded. "Clock's ticking. Lord knows when the Commanders'll get in." With that thought following her, Ritsuko disappeared into MELCHIOR-1, and moments later, the keystrokes started. "Okay. I don't know what was going through your fool brain, and I don't think I want to. To the best of my knowledge, this night is an error. One big bug in the MAGI. Just _don't_fuck_this_up_ tomorrow. For two reasons, Aida. First, you're not off the hook, and I think you damn well know that. Second, because making you 'disappear' would be a huge pain in the ass, and it's just one more thing I _don't_ need. Got it?" Kensuke blinked, nodding quickly. "And one other thing." "... Y-yes, Kaji-san?" "How on the face of God's Earth did you manage to break into my _trunk_?" "I... err... kind of, well, just banged on it when I was angry about something else, and it just popped open..." Ryouji blinked, looking stunned. "My whole car, wired with security to the teeth, and you got in by banging on the trunk?!" "I guess the lock was faulty or something... Honestly, that was all I did..." "And that was _my_ laptop she fried, wasn't it..." "Sorry!" Kensuke yelped nervously. "It sounds like she's using it fine, though," Kensuke added as the keytapping continued. "Relax, kid!" Ryouji said, a little irritated. "If she's going to drag you in because of all of this, the last thing you need to do is to show up a nervous wreck." "Kaji-san?" Kensuke asked after he got his breathing under control. "Yeah?" "Could I please have that disc back?" Ryouji smiled. "I thought it went to Shinji." "I'll make him a copy." The small smile on Ryouji's face grew somewhat. "And what do you need it for, if it's a memento for him?" "I'd just... maybe... like to remember it too..." "You? You want to remember a serene moment?" Ryouji laughed. "From what I know of you... little I know, excuse me... I wouldn't have guessed." "You saw it..." Kensuke whispered, looking a tad embarrassed. "Those two are... rather close. Though, invoking Ikari's name... That probably wasn't the brightest idea around Ritsu today." He laughed, which only confused Kensuke. "Though... if he'd threaten for _that_..." Ryouji nodded to himself. "Ritusko actually thought about it. Good for her." Kensuke, with absolutely no idea what Ryouji was going on about, just stood there and watched in quiet confusion. "I must admit, for a teenager, you've got balls, kid." Kensuke blinked, and managed to look more than properly embarrassed, though a small smile made a mind-twisting addition to the otherwise appropriate gesture. ------------------------------------ The sky was certainly black. Whatever time it was, it was early enough in the morning to merit it. Anyone who managed to hold fast to themselves a single shred of sanity slept soundly within their beds. It was no surprise that Misato Katsuragi was one of the many insane people of the world. Driving in an extremely irregular fashion - obeying the speed limit and all traffic signs - the Major drove in relative silence and fatigue toward the apartment building which she inhabited, her evening's charges in tow in the back seat. Her charges were no better off than herself. A glance at her rearview mirror revealed the two leaning together, eyes barely open in addition to their minds. Shinji's head rested on Rei's shoulder, though it was to anyone's guess if either person was actually aware of it. Still driving at a frighteningly slow speed, Misato took a soft turn, and asked in an irregularly quiet voice, "Anyone awake back there?" "... About awake enough... to wish I weren't..." Shinji whispered quietly. "Yes..." Rei replied softly, eyes remaining half-open as she subconsciously stretched and squeezed her hands, remaining with an after- thought of what she had squeezed, if anything, and quickly let it fade due to being too tired to know, or to really care. Misato chuckled softly. "And I thought _I_ was tired." She smiled an unseen smile. "You two've all but been to hell and back." "No kidding..." Shinji concurred. "Hopefully..." Misato started, interrupting herself with a yawn, "Ritsuko'll 'glitch' the MAGI into pushing the schedule back a couple of hours..." "That would be... acceptable..." Rei stated quietly. "Ya damn right..." Misato replied in a rather slurred, drunken voice filled with an odd tone of pleasure. She continued with another yawn, one much more powerful than the first. Another yawn filled the fatigued air of the car, a soft yawn from the only other resident female. 'At least once I'll get a good rest...' Misato thought to herself. 'They'll be out before I am... and Asuka's gone as well... Thank God...' Seeming only to be partially conscious of her actions, Rei slid over to the right slightly and slowly straightened up against the car seat. "Shin-chan?" "Hmmm?" Shinji inquired, head and eyes coming up groggily to meet the question. "We'll go later." "Mmmm..." Shinji agreed with his spectacular communication skills, replacing his head upon Rei's shoulder. Conversation became absent as the drive continued, and only became a consideration when the car slowly came to a stop, the motor died, and Misato quietly explained, "We're home." Shinji nodded, murmuring softly, "New... home..." His head slowly slipped down Rei's arm as he fell silent again. Rather half asleep herself, Rei quietly moved said arm out of the way until his head fell gently into her lap, then proceeded to drape it over him. "Hmmm?" "We're home," Misato whispered again. "I'll carry Shinji-kun." She became aware that she was smiling as she opened her car door and stepped out. Rei shook her head in an effort to regain some sense of consciousness and opened her eyes enough to actually see visibly. She unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door, carefully sliding out from under Shinji's head as she moved to stand. On the other side of the car, Misato opened the second of the two doors in the car and pulled Shinji out, trying her best to carry him as she herself was also half-asleep. From the small parking lot to the main entrance to the interior hall the group walked, in one form or another. Rei courteously took care of the operation of the elevator to assist the Major in her transportation of the Third Children. Once successfully in ascension, Misato set Shinji's feet down on the floor so he could at least partially support himself, her only reply being mumbled incoherence from the boy in question. 'No point in waking him...' Misato reasoned to herself. 'He'll be back asleep before it'd do any good...' Once the elevator came to a halt and opened upon Misato's floor, the half-carrying and half-dragging of Shinji resumed down the hallway to the targeted apartment door, Rei following quietly all the while. Whether by fluke of nature or by sheer skill, Misato managed to open the door to her apartment without dropping Shinji on the floor and walked in, continuing her efforts down the hallway of her home. The blue-haired albino tentatively stepped forward, seemingly forgotten, only to engage the function of the door which closed it, and followed quietly once more. Misato took Shinji to his room, yawning audibly with good reason, and promptly deposited him on his bed in a semi-proper position, proper enough so that he wouldn't fall off. Without another thought toward Shinji, Misato turned and walked out the door, passed by Rei and mumbled a brief salutation, entered her room and closed the door behind her. Rei, who has been standing quietly in the doorway of Shinji's room, walked in and slid the door shut behind her. "Mmmm..." Shinji's head rolled to the left on his pillow, apparently engulfed in sleep. Rei softly walked to the occupied bed and gazed gently at its sole resident, her sight aided only by the little moonlight coming through the window pane. She leaned over him, watching his face quietly in the dimly lit darkness as she slid one of her hands over his and clasped it gently. Shinji's eyes slowly slipped open, peering into the darkness above him. Awakened by the soft touch of Rei's hand, the outline of the young woman's face met him, entrancing him for but a moment before he clasped back weakly at the hand in his, before he spoke his thoughts. "M...mother...?" Rei was quickly shaken from her stupor of fatigue. Her eyes widened slowly as she found herself, for the first time, held in the gaze of another with no salvation of escape, frozen in silence. Shinji's eyes continued to look up at Rei's form - eyes which gazed weakly, were half-closed, but nonetheless were intent on their mission. The silence didn't break for sometime, but neither did each respective gaze - Shinji's tired and curious, Rei's surprised and shaken. "..." Rei slowly took her hand away from Shinji's. Her gaze followed suit, looking away from the young man as she spoke the only words she thought appropriate, the only words which would ever be right. "... Yes?" Shinji mumbled softly, still gazing up at Rei. Reaching for his 'mother's' hand in unconscious thought, he legibly whispered, "Warm... mother..." Rei didn't so much as move as he felt her hand being drawn closer to him. If anything, she trembled, slightly. "Mother..." Shinji tightened and relaxed his grip, still looking up into the face above him. "No..." Rei did not respond. "No... That's... Rei-chan..." Rei's eyes opened widely a second time, gaze immediately trained on Shinji once more. Shinji's, in contrast, closed, and did not open again. ------------------------------------ TO BE CONTINUED... __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ APPENDIX I: JAPANESE SUFFIXES -sama: Your Worship - Extremely honorable term. -san: Mister, Miss - Honorable term. -kun: Similar to "young man"; fonder than -san, but not on the level of -chan - Normally reserved for males. -chan: Similar to "person we are fond of"; Cute / Young & Cute - Used often by close friends, children, or couples. __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ APPENDIX II: GERMAN TRANSLATIONS Durchaus nicht: Not at all __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ APPENDIX III: REFERENCES Lancea Longini Lines 859-64: ["Lancea Longini," she repeated. "Yes, I can see that." "You are misinterpreting the name. It is called Lancea Longini, Lance of Longinus. It does not mean Long Lance."] Explanation: Latin Translation - To translate the name of the object from Latin, Lancea Longini becomes "Lance of Longinus". Explanation - Shinji is translating the name as "Long Lance", which is a more than obvious physical description of it, but an incorrect translation nonetheless. The end result is that Shinji doesn't know Latin, nor do the authors of this fanfiction as they're the ones who made the mistake first, and had it pointed out by Emanuele Barone. Side Note - For the oddest reason, there is a scene in NGE which identifies the Lance, written in English, as "Spear of Longinus". __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ APPENDIX IV: CHARACTER BIOS (Basic / Simplified Edition) Ages are relative to August 3, 2016. Horaki, Nozumi -------------- AGE: 13 DATE OF BIRTH: July 13, 2003 HAIR COLOR: Light Brown EYE COLOR: Light Blue HAIR STYLE: - Short - Fly-away FACIAL STRUCTURE: - Slightly younger perception of Hikari Horaki - Freckles GENERAL GARB: - Formal: School uniform - Night: Jumper-like nightgown (similar to Hikari) - Preferred: Plain T-shirt and shorts PHYSICAL BUILD: - Skinny - Boyish (no physical development common to females) HEIGHT: 4'5" DESCRIPTION: "Classified" Known: - Has proven herself to be rambonxious. - Acts much younger than her years. - Causes trouble, especially for her older sister Kodama, but listens to Hikari without question. Horaki, Kodama -------------- AGE: 17 DATE OF BIRTH: March 7, 1999 HAIR COLOR: Dark Brown EYE COLOR: Deep Green HAIR STYLE: - Waist Length - Straight - Untied - Thick, slightly curled strands of hair run down each side of her face to mid-torso FACIAL STRUCTURE: - Older perception of Hikari Horaki - No freckles - Narrow-framed, thin glasses - Slightly elongated eyes - Slightly thick eyelashes GENERAL GARB: - Formal: School uniform - Night: Housecoat and nightgown - Day: "Proper" / "Appropriate" clothing PHYSICAL BUILD: - Full-figured - Rivaling Misato in waist/bust/behind in terms of proportion, given her comparitively lesser height HEIGHT: 5'3" DESCRIPTION: "Classified" Known: - Has been referred to as a Class Representative. - Does not appreciate having her sleep interrupted. - Tends to act mature, even more so than adults, in almost all situations. Is polite, fair, and just. Has friends from age groups beyond her own. - Has difficulties when dealing with her sister, Nozumi. Gets along well with her sister, Hikari. __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ -> Scheduled Scenario Productions <- -------------------------------------- "Midnight Limited" & "Solbination Limited" Subsidiaries Design / Planning ------------------- James Grabowski - Sephirius Endymion, Rei Ikari - sephirius@iname.com Geoff Upchurch - Mien Diem, Shinji Ayanami - miendiem@netscape.net Authoring / Writing / Editing / Revising ------------------------------------------ James Grabowski - Sephirius Endymion, Rei Ikari - sephirius@iname.com Geoff Upchurch - Mien Diem, Shinji Ayanami - miendiem@netscape.net Script Editor --------------- James Grabowski - Sephirius Endymion, Rei Ikari - sephirius@iname.com Pre-Distribution Readers -------------------------- Mark Eymer - saotome@micron.net Shi Lin - silver_phoenix@usa.net Zhou Tai An - kain@pacific.net.sg Mark Aragona - aramark@philonline.com Emanuele Barone - e.barone@flashnet.it William Wells - pcwells@attcanada.net __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ Scheduled Scenario Productions [UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION] - http://www.sephirius.tsx.org (http://www.crosswinds.net/~sephirius) + "Scheduled Scenario Productions" Link James Grabowski's Site [Endymion's Portal] - http://www.sephirius.tsx.org (http://www.crosswinds.net/~sephirius) + "Endymion's Portal" Link Geoff Upchurch's Site [Mien Diem's Anime Warehouse] - http://members.tripod.com/~Mien_Diem __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1998-1999 - James Grabowski & Geoff Upchurch Scheduled Scenario Productions __________________________________________________________________________