Mirrors
Standard Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is owned and copyrighted by Gainax, all characters used from that series are theirs. All names are (TM) and (C) by their respective owners.
Ritsuko sighed. She was standing in front of the twin beds in the Nerv infirmary. Misato was beside her. Snarling. Shouting. Actually making more noise of the two Berserk Evas that had almost completely destroyed the testing chamber. The worst thing was that she had never been able to filter out the frequencies usually used by the Major, since from the college. While not so horrifying as the screams of rage of the Evangelion units 00 and 02, the rambling of the major was producing a big headache in her head. The fact that she was the direct responsible of the event wasn't helping either. Actually, the direct responsible was the Commander Gendo Ikari, but everybody knew the Commander couldn't make a mistake, and everybody knew that at his eyes the bad results of one of his orders was due to a flawed execution.
Finally she snapped: "Misato! Get out!"
Misato gulped and backpedaled a couple of steps, and before she could start again bothering her, Ritsuko pushed her outside the room closing the sound-proof door in front of her. Actually, she made a mental note to ask for better acoustic insulation , because the continuos bunching of the major's feet against the door was still clearly audible, as well as her snarls.
She sighed again and turned to look at the beds. What she first noticed was a wide-eyed Shinji looking terrorized at her, from the chair put between the two beds. He wasn't used to such an outburst of anger from the always calm and imperturbable doctor Ritsuko Akagi. She looked at him apologetically, and he found the guts to ask her: "Do.. Do I have to go too?" She shacked her head and smiled: "Sorry, Shinji, sometimes Misato could be a real pain in the neck. I guess this is her overprotective nature, if Rei and Asuka had been her daughters, maybe now I would be dead."
Shinji gulped: "Well.. but.. you are not responsible.. this idea… was my father's.."
The doctor looked back at the clipboard she was holding in her hands, reading again the print-outs of the experiments, "Correct, but he wasn't expecting this kind of results for this cross-synchronization.".
Shinji pushed forward: "But.. Why did he want to try again after what happened last time with me and Ayanami?"
Now the discussion was taking a path she didn't like, "Well.. This time the principle was different..".
Shinji looked at her suspiciously: "Is this the reason why they had to synchronize in the same time?" . "Yes.".
"And how the magi were involved in this accident?". She had to admit that Shinji was starting giving more attention to what was going on around him, a good thing in a normal life, but an harmful thing here in NERV: "Erh.. Shinji, I cannot tell you this, I'm sorry."
"Oh… I see." His dissatisfaction clearly depicted on his face. He thought a little and finally decide to go back to the small talk: "Do you believe they will be alright?"
Ritsuko mentally breathed a sigh of relief: "I think yes, it was more shock than anything else. I am surprised they are still asleep. I guess they were pretty tired from the previous tests. But it's better that I'll go and stop Misato before she would destroy all the doors of this hospital."
Indeed, outside you could still hear the Major shouting wildly, and when the doctor opened the door, Shinji was hit by something similar to a shock-wave. While he was still trying to comb his hair back to a natural stance, he heard someone moaning: "Oh.. damn.. did anyone take that truck's plate number?"
Shinji's head darted to his right, looking in awe to the girl who was slowly rubbing her head, and gasped for air.
The girl managed to reach a sitting position on the bed, finally observing the room: "I hate this rooms." Finally she turned to face Shinji, who jumped on his feet, standing just in front of the face of the other patient, still staring at the girl.
"Baka! What are you looking at?" She looked down to be sure her hospital gown wasn't showing anything. She looked rather upset at Shinji, and then she realized someone else was resting on the other bed. She could see her arm lying beside her slender frame. She raised her eyes to heaven and sighed :"Perfect. Like here at Nerv they could not afford two rooms. Next time they'll say they cannot afford two separate changing room."
The fact Shinji was quieter than usual drew her attention: "Baka, did anyone steal your tongue?"
But a better look at his features showed he was looking at her, as in mild-shock. A worried expression crossed her face :"What is going on, Shinji? Did anything happen to my face?"
Shinji gulped and cringed, trying to go away from her, but the bed behind him didn't allow him to do it.
She looked around and saw a wall-mirror close to the door, to the east side of the room. She managed to get up and to stand. She advanced hesitantly beside the bed, leaving Shinji to her right, looking him suspiciously, and was about to look at herself in the mirror, helping herself with an hand over the other bed when finally Shinji stopped her: "A.. Asuka.."
She turned to look at him: "What is it now, Shinji?"
He gulped and added: "I.. would not look at the mirror if I were you."
She lifted an eye-brown, and asked: "Why not?" Then she noticed she could finally observe the features of the other person lying on the bed.
Auburn air, Caucasian appearance.
It was her.
She was looking in shock at herself when Ritsuko entered the room. She exclaimed: "Oh! Rei, you are finally awake! Good."
But when the girl turned to face her, with an expression Ritsuko could never imagine to see in Rei's face, she got worried: "Rei? Is everything alright?"
She swallowed, and turned to face the mirror, looking back at her there was the unmistakable form of Ayanami Rei, designed pilot of Evangelion unit 00.
In the deeps of the Nerv HQ, a video feed coming from the infirmary was being displayed on a terminal. Not a single word got lost, and the interested observer could even switch the view-angle. While a loud scream echoed in the wide empty space, a wide grin crept over his face. A single world left the lips of Gendo Ikari, the Nerv commander: "Excellent."
End of chapter 1
Well..
This is it. You could think this like a try. If you like it send me a C&C. In this case I will consider write more of it, this time bothering EBJ for the grammatical correction and my other pre-readers of Train of Thoughts.
r.giammanco@datastudio.it