Ready?"
"I was born ready,"
"LAUNCH EVA'S!" The hydraulic rams came into play and I was catapulted up
towards Tokyo 3, Shinji in Unit One right with me. I was once again at the
controls of my Eva, designated Unit X, heading up to face another Angel.
"Okay guys, listen up," Major Misato Katsuragi's voice penetrated my entry
plug. "This angel appears to have one weakness. Its AT Field doesn't appear
to be active yet. We haven't been even able to confirm an AT field. So get
in there and blast it quick."
"Roger that. You want to take the lead Shinji, or shall I?"
"You can go right ahead Phil."
"Copy that. Here we go." We plugged into the external power cables and then
split up, Shinji's Purple Eva slinking away behind the skyscrapers of Tokyo
3. I took a moment to reflect what I was doing. Here I was, the Last Child,
preparing to take down another Angel. I took the Pallet Rifle that followed
me up on the lift.
"Okay Shinji. I'll blast it and distract it. You then get in there with the
Axe and slice it in two."
"Copy that. Is your AT Field on?"
"Yeah. Okay, on three," I watched as the Angel, in the form of a long tube
with legs (kind of like a centipede) crawled down the street, not noticing
us.
"One...Two...THREE!" I burst out from behind the building and fired of a
burst of machine gun fire. The centipede-like angel writhed in agony, then
turned to face me. It reared up and started to open its mouth. "Er, anytime
you want to jump in here Shinji?"
"My power cable is stuck! I can't move!"
"What!"
"Switching to internal power. Ill be there in a second!"
"I don't have a second!" The angel reared back and fired a power beam from
its mouth. It struck my Eva and I went flying backwards. The assault
continued.
"I don't believe it. It's passing through my AT field!"
"I'm coming!!"
"ARRRRGGGHHH!!!" It felt like I was being split in two. In the distance I
heard something about Units Two and Zero being sent as back up. I heard
Shinji yelling in the rush of battle. So far away... I blacked out.
* * *
Major Katsuragi was not calm. "Status report!" "Unit X is being recovered. The angel has been destroyed under the combined assault of Units one and two. Unit Zero is currently bringing Unit X down," Maya Ibuki, the Eva technical assistant announced. She turned to face Misato. "The status of the pilot is unknown." "How on earth did that angel manage to penetrate Unit X's AT Field?" Makoto Hyuga, the assistant strategist, spoke up. "We believe that the beam was made up of a fluctuating particle force that changed its pattern every point two-oh-three seconds, thus enabling it to pass through even the most solid of objects without causing damage to it. We also have reason to believe that the beam was a variation of the angel's AT Field." "That's probably why we couldn't register it as a defensive field." Doctor Ritsuko Akagi put in. She was drinking a cup of coffee. "Right." Misato nodded. "I'm going down to the cage to see if the pilot is still alive. Will you accompany me, Ritsuko?" The two women headed down the escalator towards cage three, where Units Zero and X were just arriving. "Any response from the pilot?" Misato asked as she walked into the cage control room. "None," The technician on duty replied. "I'm ejecting the entry plug now." Outside in the cage, the binding on Unit X's back opened up and the cylindrical entry plug ejected. "Open it!" Misato ordered. The plug split down the middle. LCL flooded out. Misato and Ritsuko walked over to the plug. "I don't believe it," Ritsuko broke the silence that had followed when both women had spotted the pilot in the plug. Pilot Weston was lying in the chair, unconscious, but the front of his plug suit was split open down the middle. And the reason behind it was lying in the plug, also unconscious. A girl, about the same age as Phil, with similar features, was lying faces down, completely naked on the floor. "From her resting position, it looks like she was ejected from Phil's body." "What?!" Misato looked dazed. "How did she get in there?" "I have a hunch. Let's get them both to the Med.-Lab," * * * I awoke to see the clinically white ceiling of the Number two Med. Room. "Oh my aching body," I mumbled. Then a face appeared above me. It was Rei. "Hey," I spoke up weakly. There was concern leaking through her calm emotionless facade. Despite the feelings we felt for each other, Rei still had difficulty expressing her feelings, and thus was still prone to lack of emotion. "Are you okay?" Her calm voice managed to break through the cloud in my brain. I instantly felt much better. "I could be worse. My whole body aches. I wonder if this is what giving birth feels like." Rei said nothing. I got up and put on some clothes. Then Doctor Akagi's face appeared in the door. "Oh Phil, you're awake. You really should be resting." "I'm fine, I feel like a million quid. What the hell happened?" "If you and Rei would like to come with me." We followed Ritsuko to the No 1 Observation room. We found ourselves looking at a girl, about my age. She looked strangely familiar. "Where did she come from?" "We found her inside your entry plug." "What? How did she get in there? Who is she?" "As far as we can tell, she is you." "Excuse me?" "DNA reads 99.9% identical to you. The only difference is the chromosomes, and thus her physiological make-up. In other words, she is you as a girl." "Okay, I'm freaked now. How did this happen?" "We think the Angels attack did this. As the energy beam passed through your AT Field, the properties of your field caused a subtle change to the beam's effects. Instead of causing your atoms to be split and scattered, it split your DNA in half. Your Female Chromosomes, the X chromosome, was ripped out of your system. With the DNA left over, it copied itself, and instantly created a body using that DNA. Because it copied itself, it is a Double X chromosome construct and thus it is a girl. However, because it is impossible for a double Y chromosome to exist, the remainder of the DNA in your body created another X chromosome, and thus you are exactly the same as before the incident." "Jeez. Will she be exactly like me?" "She will have your knowledge and similar personality. However, as Society also makes you what you are, she will have her own memories starting from when she wakes up, and she will go on to develop her own personality. Because many Talents are inherited, her talents will be similar to yours. This also means she might have the potential to pilot an Eva." "I think she would want a chance to get her new life sorted first." Rei spoke up. "I agree. Phil, I think you should introduce her into life, and brief her." "Okay. It's not going to be easy though, if she is as half as stubborn as I am." We heard a commotion and turned to face the medical room. The new girl was awake. People were crowding around her, asking questions and basically scaring her. "HEY! Stop that!" I yelled, running into the room. People took no notice. I pushed my way to the bed and scooped the girl up. Voices of protest rose as I carried the girl out the room. As I passed Rei, I whispered that I would meet her back at her apartment. Rei nodded and left. I made my way to the ready room, where I kept all my stuff for piloting Angel. I set the girl down on a seat and asked if she was okay. She nodded. It kinda scary seeing aspects of me in everything she did. "Okay, this isn't going to be easy, but I'm going to try and explain everything." She just looked at me. I took a breath and began to explain everything. Starting from the Second Impact, to the construction of the Eva's, to the purpose of NERV, to telling her about Shinji, Rei, Asuka and the personnel of NERV, to the recent battle and how she came to be born. At that point she started to get agitated and tried to get away. But she slipped and fell to the ground. She started to sob. "Are you Okay?" "No." It was the first word she had spoken. Her voice was like a softer version of mine. "How would you like it if you had just found out if you were the clone of a fifteen year old boy who pilots a huge robot to fight these weird creatures called angels. I was not born, I was created. I'm a freak." "The circumstances of somebody's birth should not define who they are." "You can say that. You were born normally. You are a normal human. People won't look at you strangely and whisper behind your back." "But I am not normal." "Yes, you are," I stood up and put a video in the T.V next to us. The picture that came up was of my first battle with an Angel. Where I had gone into an Angel Bezerker Frenzy. Her eyes widened as I was shown with Angel wings. The tape stopped after the point where I had saved Rei's life. "You see, I'm not normal. I've been through so many tests, I don't know who I am any more. But I'm still regarded as a person. Because it is what you DO with the gift of life which defines who you are, not how you are born. I mean, look at yourself now. You have your own memories. You are starting to develop your own personality. You are becoming your own person, not just some copy of me." "But I don't even have a name," "How about Kayleigh?" "Why Kayleigh?" "It's the name I was going to be called if I were a girl." She blushed. "Fine. Kayleigh it is then." "Okay Kayleigh. Lets find you some clothes and then get you sorted." I took her around the base, showing her my Eva and the other Eva's. I met up with Misato and explained what was going on. "Well, Kayleigh, We had better sort you out a security pass and a place to stay. I'll just get it cleared with Commander Ikari and then Ill be right with you." We went to wait in the ready room until Misato got back. We weren't there long before Shinji and Asuka came rushing in. "We heard what happened. Are you alright?" "Yeah, we're fine." "We?" "Me and Kayleigh." "Kayleigh? Who gave her that name?" Asuka snorted. "I did actually." I stood up. "You got a problem?" "Calm down, dummkopf! Hi Kayleigh. My name is Asuka Langley Sohryu," "Uh, Hi." "Hi," Shinji piped up. "I'm Shinji Ikari." "Kayleigh, these are the Second and Third Children respectively." "Uh, so. Are you an Eva pilot too?" Shinji asked. "I don't know." Just then, Misato came in with a security pass and the news that Kayleigh would be living with me and Rei. I phoned Rei up to tell her we had a new roommate. Then I started to get my gear together. "Hey Phil, here's your new plug suit." Misato threw a package over to me. I looked over at Kayleigh, who was looking around the briefing room. "Where's my old one?" Misato held it up, the huge tear down the front, presumably where Kayleigh had been expelled from my body. "Hmm. Better not show it to her." I told Misato. She nodded. I looked inside the package. "Hey, there are two plug suits in here!" I held up the second, which was identical to Asuka's one but this one was green and black, and it had two Xs on the front, like my one did. "Oh yeah. We had that one made up in case we ever needed to have a back up pilot for Unit X. That one is now Kayleigh's." I sighed. * * * Phil took me back to his apartment, which he claimed he shared with Rei Ayanami, the First Child. The streets of Tokyo 3 were strangely familiar, but Phil had said a lot of his knowledge was now mine as well, so that was a small comfort. I sat there in silence as we ate. My mind kept flitting back to the point where I awoke, remembering nothing, but seeing a lot of strange faces yelling at me, scaring me. Then Phil, as he scooped me up, and that warm feeling I had as he gently walked me away from the scary people. "Jeez that's just sick," I thought to myself, "he's you, for Christ's sake. You fancy yourself. That's like pride or something. Isn't that a sin? Its just plain sick, whatever it is." I looked back over to Phil, who was alternating between looking at me and Rei. Rei was a nice person, but not very emotive. I sighed. "Oh jeez, I almost forgot," Phil interrupted my train of thought. He reached into his bag and pulled out a bunch of papers. "These are your new transfer documents. As far as anyone else outside NERV knows, you are my Twin sister who has come over from England as my parents think its the best for you to spend more time with your brother." He flicked through some of the documents. "Jeez, who writes this stuff? According to this, your interests are music and technology. How can her interests be music, you idiot, she hasn't heard any yet!" Rei spoke up. "This came in the post earlier. It's for you." She handed over a large package. I opened it and inside was an outfit. A white blouse, a pair of shoes, some socks and a green dress. "It's your school uniform," Rei informed me as she left the room, heading into the bathroom. "School?" "Yeah, you're in my class." Phil was distracted, reading the documents. He put them down and started to clear the table. "You need an education you know. Oh yeah, you also have a harmonics test tomorrow. To see if you're Eva compatible." I sighed. I went to get ready for bed, wondering what my life was going to be like from now on. * * * I stood outside room 2-A. I sighed. I had been sighing a lot lately. I wondered if that was a trait of Phil's. "May as well get this over with." I opened the door and walked in. "...We have another addition to our class today. I hope you will make her feel welcome," The teacher was saying. All the eyes in the room were on me. I was slightly embarrassed as I walked to the board. I spotted Phil, sitting near the back. He winked at me and gave me the peace sign. "Hi. My name is Kayleigh Weston, and I'm from England." The words felt strange in my mouth, as if it was somebody else saying them. "You already know my twin brother Phil," Everyone looked to Phil who just smiled. ^-^ "There is a seat behind the Hikari Horaki, the Class Rep. You can sit there." I sat down and opened the laptop, which I had been issued with. I tried to focus on the lesson, but kept getting this nagging feeling that everyone was still looking at me. Later, at lunch, I didn't feel comfortable with anyone enough yet to ask if I could sit with them, so I went to find Phil. I found him sitting with Shinji and two other boys. "Oh. Hi Kayleigh." Phil noticed me first. "These are my friends, Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida." The boy with the glasses, Kensuke, stood up. "Pleased to meet you." "Hi," Toji smiled. "You guys don't mind if she sits with us, do you? " "Nah, that's fine," I sat between Shinji and Phil. I noticed Toji scrutinising me. "What?" "Its kinda scary. You look almost exactly like Phil, just with longer hair and a nicer face," "Hey!" Phil protested. "Well, it does make sense," Kensuke told Toji. "After all, they are twins," "I never knew you had a twin sister, Phil," "Yeah, well, you know what with piloting an Eva and all, it must have slipped my mind." "That's nice, forgetting your own sister and all. You Eva pilots sure are a compassionate bunch aren't you? I sure hope you aren't an Eva pilot Kayleigh," "I hope so too," I heard Phil mutter under his breath. * * * I watched as the hatch on the front of the Harmonics tube slid up to reveal Kayleigh sitting on the mock control seat. "Harmonic data confirmed. She is Eva compatible. Her synch rates are the same as Phil's," Maya spoke up from her console. "It only stands to reason," Doctor Ritsuko commented, "Lets face it, she is the Female Version of the Last Child." "I'll endeavour to remind you that I'm still here," I spoke up. I was wearing my Plug Suit, waiting. "I know. However, we are going to put Kayleigh in Unit X to see if she synchronises with it." "I don't like this. I know she is effectively me, but I don't think that Angel will accept her. She's only a few days old, why does she have to do this now?" "There is no reason why it shouldn't. Kayleigh has your knowledge, so should know how to synchronise with Unit X. We even have the Binary Codex ready, in case she does start to think in English." We were walking to the cage where Unit X was waiting. I saw the small figure that was Kayleigh get into the entry plug and then the plug disappeared as it was sucked into Angel's back. "You okay Kayleigh?" I asked. Her voice came back through the com-link. "I'm fine." "Okay Kayleigh, we are going to go through this step by step. Ready?" "Yes," "Lets do this. Neural Circuits online." "Roger." "Synch Graph active?" "Copy that." On the screen, a diagram of my Eva split in two and data raced past it. "Neural Pathways open. Rising Voltage above Border Line," A graph showed the rising voltage, while another showed the synchronisation of the brainwaves between Kayleigh and Angel. "How's it going?" "I'm fine. The entry plug seems disturbingly familiar. It smells of Phil." "Gee, Thanks." On the synchrograph, the green bars rose until it hit the borderline. It fluctuated at that point. Then the entire graph went white. "WHAT THE HELL?!" Ritsuko shouted out. Down each of the synchro blocks, red started to drip down, like blood. "Voltage is continuing to rise! Synchronisation is going off the scale." I suddenly bent double as pain shook my entire body. From my back, two wings burst through my Plug suit. I yelled in surprise and hurt. "My God! Unit X is going bezerk!" I looked up in time, despite my pain, to see the visor slide up on Unit X to reveal two brilliant green eyes, creased in pain. Then Angel did something I had never seen before. The lower part of her head lowered, like a jaw opening, to reveal bloodstained teeth. "My God. Is that Angel?" "What is the status of the Pilot?" "Unknown. All we can tell is that her synch ratio is off the chart!" "It's not her." All eyes looked at me. Many widened in shock as they took in my torn suit, angel wings and blood splattered everywhere. " I can only access my Angel powers when I'm in synch with Unit X." "But you're not in Unit X!" "I know. My only explanation is that Kayleigh has boosted my link with Angel," "But that would mean..." Ritsuko started. "Unit X is breaking loose!" We whirled around to see Angel break free of her moorings and slam into a wall. She roared in pain. "Pull the plug!" From Angel's back, the umbilical cable ejected and slammed to the floor, the impact cushioned by retrorockets. "That won't work! As long as I'm in synch with Unit X, she'll continue to remain active. Break my link with her. Eject Kayleigh!" "That might just work. Eject the plug!" "No response!" "What? Oh my God!" Angel was making her way towards us. She slammed her fist into the wall. Glass shattered as the fist made contact. Suddenly, through the com-link, Kayleigh's voice penetrated the confusion. "Help me! Oh God! Help! It's going crazy! AHHHHH!" "Hang on Kayleigh!" I ran towards the window, where Unit X was trying to smash its way in. She staggered back suddenly and then two feathered wings slammed out from her back. There was little room inside the cage, and Unit X was now cramped with the wings curling around the Eva's body. I launched myself into the air and flew up towards the head. Angel swung around, blood dripping from her open mouth. "Oh God. Okay Angel, its me. Phil, remember?" The Eva continued to writhe and a fist flew out. I dodged in time and the fist just hit a far wall. Suddenly, several ports opened on the far wall and a black goo shot out, flooding the chamber. It began to harden and stopped Angel from moving about as much. I focused and mentally tried to shut Angel down. Nothing was working! "Okay, I'm not sure if this is going to work, but it's my only chance. EVANGELION ANGEL BEZERKER FRENZY!" As Angel was already in bezerker mode, nothing happened to her. But my wings started to glow white, until they disappeared replaced by wings of Light. Angel stopped moving. Her mouth closed and her wings sucked back into her body. The visor lowered and Angel collapsed into a heap on the floor. I floated down towards her. "Voltage is holding below critical point. Unit X has been deactivated." The bindings opened and the entry plug ejected. Emergency systems came into play, spurting LCL from the end of the capsule. I opened the hatch to find Kayleigh, unharmed but traumatised, lying in a puddle of LCL. She looked at me and smiled. That was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out. * * * I awoke to find myself facing a clinically white ceiling. "This sight is becoming too familiar for my liking," I murmured as I sat up. Pain shot through my body and I had to lie back down. "Ouch." I turned to find Asuka with Rei and Kayleigh sitting by my bedside.
"You really know how to show off don't you?" Asuka sighed. "Its not like I really wanted to. I'm gonna be in pain for days." "Aw, poor baby," Asuka laughed. "Seriously though, you are going to have to take better care of yourself if you want to keep on piloting that Eva. I've got to be going now, but I'll see you later. Take care now. Oh and be more careful next time," She said in a superior tone as she left. "I'd love to take Angel's Prog. Knife and shove it up her arse." I muttered. "How are you feeling?" Rei asked. "Sore," "Um, Phil?" "Yeah Kayleigh?" "Id just like to thank you for saving me," "Hey, no problem. You're like a sister to me. Hell, you're closer than that." "Yeah, well... I've got to be going as well. School tomorrow and everything." "Are you going to be Okay? I mean, it must have been pretty scary inside Angel." "I'm going to be fine. I think the thing that terrified me the most was that I was going to die, and yet I've only been alive a few days." "As I once told Rei, death is nothing to be afraid of." "Really? Somehow, that doesn't really comfort me. Say if you died. That would give pain to all who cared about you. That is something to be aware, if not afraid, of." "Hey, I'm still here, alive and kicking. Well, I will be once the pain goes away." Kayleigh giggled then reached over and gave me a hug. "Ow, ow, ow, careful." She just laughed again, then stood up. "That feels, weird, hugging myself." She commented. "I don't think of you as myself anymore. I think you are more you're own person now." "Thank you" She left then, with Rei following shortly after. I sighed as I stared up at the white ceiling. Then Doctor Ritsuko came in. "Hey Doc. So what's the story?" "You're going to be fine after a few days. You should be back in action by the end of the week." "That's good news." "We also have the research results into what happened. Kayleigh's mind is currently developing like a newborn child. It has an imprint off your personality, but at the same time, it is developing her own. This cross of two minds in a single body confused Unit X. Normally, this wouldn't prove to be a problem as Eva-02's first sortie had both Asuka and Shinji piloting it. As long as the two were synchronised, the Eva would work. However, your angel energies amplified your presence, meaning both you and Kayleigh were out of synch, creating a heightened panic, which caused the bezerker frenzy." "And what about Kayleigh? I notice she didn't develop angel characteristics. Also, you think that Kayleigh boosted my link with Angel. So what is the results on that?" "We have none at the moment." "However..." "However, I have this theory. Kayleigh, you and Unit X have one thing in common." "Which is?" "I believe it is your soul. We know that Eva pilots provide the soul for the Eva. But when you got split in two, I think that the material that created the body was not general carbon atoms that happened to be floating about, but LCL." I digested this. "So what you are saying is that Kayleigh is part Eva, part Human? That she serves as a conduit between me and Angel. That still doesn't explain why she hasn't developed Angel Characteristics." "Kayleigh has no soul. Literally. You are the housing of the soul. When your data is in Unit X, it has part of your soul in it. In the same way, Kayleigh's LCL composition means that she is linked to you, and thus seems alive, because your soul is supporting her. If you were to die, she would revert to her original state: LCL. Because of this, she won't develop any angel characteristics unless you, the Eva and her are in direct synch. Only when the three of you join will any possible characteristics develop. Even then, she still might not develop any," "and I thought she was becoming her own person." I muttered dejectedly. "She is. But, like the umbilical cables, if you were to ever break off from her, she would last no longer than five minutes maximum." "I don't think we had better tell her this yet." "I agree. We need to keep you in for testing until you can move about again, then we'll let you go home." "Fine." Ritsuko left. I felt sorry for Kayleigh. Now I had a reason to fear death. Not for me though. For the people who loved me. And for the people who needed me. Literally. * * * Outside the Med.-Room, Ritsuko found Misato waiting. "Did you tell him about the other thing we discovered?" "It was only registered when his wings went into a bright light. Even then, we couldn't get an accurate confirmation. The MAGI are still debating over it." She looked down at the computer report she had received before the Bezerk Unit X had mangled the readings. When Phil had produced Light Wings that had reminded Misato so badly of the Second Angel, only one thing was registering: Blood Type: Blue. * * * Phil was still at the Geo-Front undergoing testing, and thus wasn't at school, so I had to go alone. I was sitting, daydreaming. I looked over at Rei, who was looking out the window. I watched her for a while, wondering about her, and why she was so quiet. I looked around the class. Shinji had his head on his arms, looking bored. I think Asuka was asleep. She hid it well. I was pretty bored as well. I was more worried however, about lunchtime. I had no one to hang out with. I didn't feel comfortable around Toji and that lot without Phil, and didn't really know anyone else. When lunch came, I was wondering if I should try to meet with Rei, when Hikari, the Class Rep, came up to me and pulled me aside. "Um, Kayleigh, I've seen you hanging out with Toji and those boys, and I was wondering...um...do you reckon you could ask Toji out for me?" She blurted out. "Huh?" I just stared at her. Ask a boy out? Sure it was for someone else, but I wasn't comfortable with the idea. "Why me?" "Because the boys would just reject anyone else who was friends with me. I was thinking he would listen to you, because your Phil's sister." "Uh.. I'm not that great at asking people, but I guess I could try." "Thank You," I wandered over to Toji and pulled him away from the other two. I whispered in his ear what Hiraki had asked me. "What?" Toji looked strangely at me. "Please do it. Just once." I pleaded. "Why is it so important to you?" "Because I really need more friends. If I do this favour, I might get some more." I paused. "I'm sorry, that's pathetic, Ill just tell her that you won't do it." I started to walk away. "Hey, wait a sec. I'll do it, but on one condition. Its gotta be a double date with one of my friends as well." "You mean it?" "Sure. If you can find somebody who will go on a double date, Ill do it." I went and told Hiraki, who agreed. Then I spent a lot of my lunchtime trying to find somebody who would go. "No way!" Asuka told me. "Not with any of Toji's friends," "I'm not that good at dating," Rei told me. "I'm not that good with people," Shinji replied. I was at loss. Then I had one final idea. It nauseated me, but it was my last hope. I called Phil's mobile number and waited. "This is not going to work," I told myself. "Hello?" Phil's voice broke the ringing tone. "Uh, Hi Phil," I replied. "Kayleigh! How is it going?" "Um, fine thanks. Listen, I need to ask a major favour of you." "Ask away." "Will you...um...go on a date with me?" There was a pause. "Excuse me?" I went on to explain about Toji and Horaki, and how he would only do a double date, and how no one else would do it. At the end of it all, Phil laughed. "Sure, Ok, Ill do it. I think I had better tell Toji about us though. I can trust him. Besides, it would look weird having a brother and sister on a date." "Not as strange as dating yourself," "Oh well, they say that life is stranger than fiction. Put him on." I called Toji over and handed the phone to him. His eyes widened as he listened and he turned to look at me. Then he laughed. "Sure, that makes a lot of sense, especially why you didn't tell us about her before. Okay, Ill do it. What time should we meet up? Six o'clock on Saturday it is then. Yeah. See you there." He put the phone down. "Hey, listen, now that I know about you, it doesn't mean I'm gonna treat you differently. You're still going to be a friend." "Thanks. Ill see you on Saturday then." * * * "Um Major, you should take a look at this," Shigeru Aoba, operator of the Central Military Operation Room at NERV H.Q, announced as he looked up from his computer, his long hair framing his long face. "What is it Lieutenant?" " It looks like a flock of birds, but they look like they're on a mission. Also, their flight pattern doesn't match any known bird movement." "Bring it up on screen," Misato ordered. On the screen that popped up, it looked like a cloud of giant mosquitoes had decided to descend on Tokyo 3. But these were no Bugs. Each was a sphere, about a metre in diameter. In the centre of the mass was a huge Red sphere. "Blood type confirmed," Makoto announced, his glasses reflecting the harsh lighting of Central Dogma. "Blue. It's an Angel." "Issue an evacuation statement. Prepare Eva's Zero, One and Two for combat." "What about Unit X?" " Pilot Weston is currently unfit for combat duties."
"What about Kayleigh?" Maya asked . "I'm not sure if it would work. We don't want a bezerk Eva on our hands as well as an Angel. Call all the pilots in for a briefing." * * * I sat in the ready room, frustrated that I couldn't go up and fight the new angel. Kayleigh sat next to me, also forbidden from getting in Unit X in case of a repeat of the activation test. Already, Shinji, Asuka and Rei were heading up to Tokyo 3, ready for combat. I watched on a view screen as the lift doors opened and up shot the three Eva's. They plugged in to their external power supplies and prepared to do battle with the angel. The view switched to the internal view of Unit Zero. Heading towards them was a large black form, a vague humanoid shape. "Huh? I thought we was fighting a bunch of little spheres?" Shinji called out. "It's a mass coincidental form. The mini angels are clustering together to attack. Its a cluster, so if you destroy the main core, all the rest will lose power and not be able to function." Misato informed them. "Right," Asuka yelled. "I'm taking point. Shinji, Rei, back me up!" "Roger," The view switched again to the outside. I saw Eva-02 fire its pallet rifle at the cluster. The cluster split apart, and the sky became cloudy with the mini angel spheres. "Huh? I missed!" "Attack the individuals," Rei suggested. "Right," Eva-01 pulled out a Hand Gun and began blasting every little ball that he could. Each time, the bullet rebounded off it. "What? They each have their own AT Field?" The balls started to gather in to a humanoid shape again, and when they had fully formed, they threw Eva-01 to the ground. "TAKE THIS!" Asuka yelled, diving into a rugby tackle. But the angel split in the middle, and Unit two passed straight through it and crashed into a building on the far side. "This is impossible, there is too many of them. We need a fly swatter!" Shinji yelled. Each individual ball began to glow and fire tiny laser beams. "Ow! It's like being stung!" "Don't worry Shinji. We're sending up Unit X as back up." "Who's piloting it?" "We're using a Dummy Plug," I ran over to the window, where I saw the dummy plug about to be fitted to Angel. The Dummy Plug was a new idea. It used the matrix brain waves of a pre-programmed pilot to fool the Eva into thinking there was a pilot and thus synchronising a computer with the Eva. A sort of automatic plot. I ran to the control room. "Is it working?" Ritsuko was asking. "Negative. The Eva is refusing to accept the dummy plug." Maya replied. "Why is it refusing the plug?" Ritsuko yelled, frustrated. "You said it yourself," I replied. "It can't sense my angelic energy, so is refusing to accept any form of pilot." "Somebody is fitting a normal plug to Unit X!" "What? Where?" We watched as a normal plug was attached to Unit X and a small figure in green got in. "Kayleigh?" "How can Unit X be accepting her?" Maya asked "She serves as a conduit for Phil's Angelic Energy." Ritsuko replied. The plug was sucked into the back of Angel and the visor lit up. "I'm going to try to pilot this thing again. Launch me!" Kayleigh's voice broke over the com link. "No Kayleigh!" I interrupted. "You don't know what you are getting yourself in to!" "I can't just watch the others get beaten. I'm going." She switched off the com-link. "You would have probably done the same." "I know. That's why I'm angry. It's because of me, that she is going to get hurt. The best I can do is try to suppress my Angel side to keep in synch with Kayleigh." I ran out of the control room and up the escalator to the surface. * * * I was doing better this time. So far Angel (as Phil had called this thing) had not gone crazy. I was slammed up to the surface. "Hey Guys. Need help?" "Kayleigh! Is that you?" "Uh-huh. So, any ideas how to beat this thing?" "We need to attack the core." Rei replied "But everytime we try, the little angels protect it." "Okay, I've got an idea. If we fire enough rounds into it, the little angels should be knocked away. Then we can attack the core." "They all have they're own AT Fields." Shinji told me. His purple Eva was swatting away at the little spheres like they were flies. "Someone needs to get into the centre of the mass and expand their own Field." "Ill do it!" Asuka volunteered. She ran to the centre of the mass, but it started to converge and prepared to throw her. "FIRE!" I yelled. Shinji, Rei and myself fired at the converging mass. It split to avoid the bullets, which allowed Asuka to get in there. "Expanding Field!" The barrier of energy spread wide, dispersing the spheres. "Fire in the hole!" Shinji yelled. We all fired again. Several shots careened off the smaller spheres, and they went spinning away. "Yes, it's working!" Suddenly the spheres turned and all of them fired at Asuka. She was hit with a million stings and she cried out in pain. She collapsed on the floor and we had to drag her back by her Umbilical Cable. "What do we do now?" "We improvise," "How?" "I'll go and attack it. When it converges, Ill let it attack. Then I'll get Angel to go Berserk and rip it to shreds. As it splits again under the force of my bezerker AT Field, you get in there with a Prog. Knife or something and smash the main core." "Are you sure this will work?" "No, but we havn't much else to go on." I got Angel to run towards the cluster. It converged and created a mass form that was similar in height and dimensions to my Eva. "Okay, you asked for it!" I yelled. "EVANGELION ANGEL BEZERKER FRENZY!!!" I waited for the transformation to take place. Nothing happened. "What's going on?" "You need me!" A small voice yelled out. I turned to face Phil, on the ground. Suddenly, from behind me, the Angel hit me and I went sprawling. I just missed crushing Phil. He stood between the Eva's fingers. "Pick me up," I did so. "We need to be in perfect Synch for the whole Frenzy to take place." He yelled. "If I just do it, Angel will go out of control. If you try on your own, it won't work. We do it together, and we'll have a controlled Frenzy." "Let's do it then," I set him down between Angel's legs and together we faced the Angel. Together, my Eva mirroring his actions, we spread our arms out wide, in perfect synch. "EVANGELION ANGEL BEZERKER FRENZY!!!" Phil began to glow white. I began to glow white. Unit X began to glow white. Then from Phil, an AT Field spread out so wide it forced me back and it caused the smaller Angels to explode. The white glow continued to brighten, and the smaller Angels continued to explode. Soon only the main core was left. From Phil's back, two wings of intense light grew. "Oh my God." * * * "Blood Pattern is Blue! It can't be. It says it's The Second Angel!" "No. Its Phil," "What the hell is happening?" "THIRD IMPACT!" "What?! No!" * * * Phil had disappeared in the light. Suddenly Misato came on line. "Kayleigh, subdue Phil!" "What? But he's about to destroy the angel," "If you don't, the Earth will suffer a Third Impact," "My God," I stared at the bright light Phil had become. "Shinji, Rei, I need your help," "We heard. What do you want us to do?" "As soon as I have subdued Phil, you're gonna need to destroy that angel. Rei, I need you to help calm Phil down." "Roger that." I threw myself on top of Phil, Rei in her blue Eva right with me. We both ejected our Plugs and got out. Phil was not easily visible in the light, but somehow Rei picked him out. "Phil, are you okay?" "What...who...Kayleigh?" "Phil, you should rest," "No...destroy them all...DESTROY THE ANGELS!!!" The light began to increase again. We had to shield our eyes. "He's reaching Critical! He's gonna blow!" Suddenly, the light was sent retreating back towards Phil. I turned to see Angel, in complete bezerk mode, eyes visible, mouth open, Wings spread. Her AT Field was active, suppressing Phil. It was if she was returning the favour for him stopping her frenzy during the activation test. The light faded. "Rei...Kayleigh...Thank you..." Phil's voice was weak. He collapsed. I turned to face Angel. Behind her, I noticed Shinji and Unit One slamming his Prog. knife into the core of the now defenceless angel, destroying it. Angels mouth closed, the visor lowered and the wings disappeared. I felt drained. Suddenly, a huge drop of crimson liquid fell next to me, drenching me. It was blood. Suddenly I noticed that both Phil and I were bleeding. Another drop fell. I looked up. Blood was leaking slowly from Angel's visor. I felt my eyes, and sure enough, blood was dripping out, like red tears. "What does this mean?" I wondered, "Are we in perfect synch?" I picked Phil's unconscious body up and with help from Rei, we took him back downstairs to NERV H.Q. * * * I awoke to find myself looking at the ceiling of the Number Two medical room. "Someone's taking the piss," I thought. I sat up. Fortunately there was no pain, just a shear exhaustion. I found Misato sitting at the end of my Bed. "How do you feel?" "Tired more than anything." "I'm not surprised. Seeing as you almost set off the Third impact." "What?" "The reports are here. It turns out that you have a Blue blood pattern. But, only when you are in synch above 80% with your Eva." "So what? Are you saying I'm part Angel?" "Yes." She pointed to a scar across my chest. "Where did you get that?" "During the Second Impact. I was only a baby. According to my Mum, I was hit by some shrapnel when the incident occurred." "That shrapnel was a piece of the Second Angel. It embedded itself inside you and now makes up a major part of your body. This is the reason Kayleigh doesn't get angel characteristics. She doesn't have a bit of the second Angel in her. You should rest. We have to be careful in the future. If you and her ever synchronise again, you could trigger the Third Impact. However, we've made a variation of your Binary Codex program, so Unit X will accept her, even if your angel side is boosting your presence. With this new program, she can pilot the Eva like any of the others without relying on you. So we shouldn't have any more problems." She turned and faced me. "I'd just like to say that, because you still have self control, we're going to keep you on here. Even if you go into Angel Bezerker Frenzy, you shouldn't be effected like you were unless you synch with Kayleigh. Get a good nights rest. I understand you have a date tomorrow." She smiled and left. ^-^ "Oh...Yeah." * * * I sat next to Phil in a decent restaurant. Across the table, Hikari and Toji were exchanging a few words, but not the usual words of irritation or anger. I was glad for the peace and quiet. I tugged at the dress I was wearing. I felt stupid in it, but Hikari had insisted it was fine. Toji and Phil didn't comment, especially as they knew my true nature. I think both of them found it weird as they both could see aspects of Phil in me as I had put it on. "Did you see that Angel? It was huge. I thought for a second we were goners," Toji asked. "Oh lets not talk about that," Phil replied, uncomfortable. "Let's just enjoy ourselves." "Speaking of which, don't you too feel strange going on a date together," Hikari asked. "You know, being twins and all," "I don't mind. I'm having a good time anyway," I said. "I feel if she is closer than my sister any way. A hell of a lot closer," Phil told her. "Closer than twins? Wow," We split up at around ten o'clock and went our separate ways. "How do you feel? About being half-angel, I mean?" I asked Phil. "Not too bad. As long as I have friends and family who care about who I am as a person and not a thing that has been slightly mutated, I can live with it. And now that you know about our shared soul, I guess that makes me feel even better to be alive, knowing that I'm always here for you." "I guess you were right though. You are not normal," "Me!" He said with mock indignation, "I'm as normal as they come!" "Nah, you're crazy," "Me? We're both crazy." "Why's that?" "We're talking to ourselves. First sign of madness you know." "Oi, I'm my own person thank you," "And I'm glad you feel that way," "I'm glad too," We walked the rest of the way in silence. I was happy, knowing that whatever may happen in my life, I would share it all with my inadvertent soul-mate. As long as Phil lived, I would live, sharing his soul.
By Phil Weston, the Last Child, with input from Kayleigh (alive in spirit if not real. ^-^) "One Soul, Three Parts" "Kayleigh" Primary Draft finished: 25/10/02
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or any of the characters in this fanfic except Kayleigh and Phil. Evangelion is a registered Trademark of the Gainax company and all rights should go to them.
Major Katsuragi was not calm. "Status report!" "Unit X is being recovered. The angel has been destroyed under the combined assault of Units one and two. Unit Zero is currently bringing Unit X down," Maya Ibuki, the Eva technical assistant announced. She turned to face Misato. "The status of the pilot is unknown." "How on earth did that angel manage to penetrate Unit X's AT Field?" Makoto Hyuga, the assistant strategist, spoke up. "We believe that the beam was made up of a fluctuating particle force that changed its pattern every point two-oh-three seconds, thus enabling it to pass through even the most solid of objects without causing damage to it. We also have reason to believe that the beam was a variation of the angel's AT Field." "That's probably why we couldn't register it as a defensive field." Doctor Ritsuko Akagi put in. She was drinking a cup of coffee. "Right." Misato nodded. "I'm going down to the cage to see if the pilot is still alive. Will you accompany me, Ritsuko?" The two women headed down the escalator towards cage three, where Units Zero and X were just arriving. "Any response from the pilot?" Misato asked as she walked into the cage control room. "None," The technician on duty replied. "I'm ejecting the entry plug now." Outside in the cage, the binding on Unit X's back opened up and the cylindrical entry plug ejected. "Open it!" Misato ordered. The plug split down the middle. LCL flooded out. Misato and Ritsuko walked over to the plug. "I don't believe it," Ritsuko broke the silence that had followed when both women had spotted the pilot in the plug. Pilot Weston was lying in the chair, unconscious, but the front of his plug suit was split open down the middle. And the reason behind it was lying in the plug, also unconscious. A girl, about the same age as Phil, with similar features, was lying faces down, completely naked on the floor. "From her resting position, it looks like she was ejected from Phil's body." "What?!" Misato looked dazed. "How did she get in there?" "I have a hunch. Let's get them both to the Med.-Lab," * * * I awoke to see the clinically white ceiling of the Number two Med. Room. "Oh my aching body," I mumbled. Then a face appeared above me. It was Rei. "Hey," I spoke up weakly. There was concern leaking through her calm emotionless facade. Despite the feelings we felt for each other, Rei still had difficulty expressing her feelings, and thus was still prone to lack of emotion. "Are you okay?" Her calm voice managed to break through the cloud in my brain. I instantly felt much better. "I could be worse. My whole body aches. I wonder if this is what giving birth feels like." Rei said nothing. I got up and put on some clothes. Then Doctor Akagi's face appeared in the door. "Oh Phil, you're awake. You really should be resting." "I'm fine, I feel like a million quid. What the hell happened?" "If you and Rei would like to come with me." We followed Ritsuko to the No 1 Observation room. We found ourselves looking at a girl, about my age. She looked strangely familiar. "Where did she come from?" "We found her inside your entry plug." "What? How did she get in there? Who is she?" "As far as we can tell, she is you." "Excuse me?" "DNA reads 99.9% identical to you. The only difference is the chromosomes, and thus her physiological make-up. In other words, she is you as a girl." "Okay, I'm freaked now. How did this happen?" "We think the Angels attack did this. As the energy beam passed through your AT Field, the properties of your field caused a subtle change to the beam's effects. Instead of causing your atoms to be split and scattered, it split your DNA in half. Your Female Chromosomes, the X chromosome, was ripped out of your system. With the DNA left over, it copied itself, and instantly created a body using that DNA. Because it copied itself, it is a Double X chromosome construct and thus it is a girl. However, because it is impossible for a double Y chromosome to exist, the remainder of the DNA in your body created another X chromosome, and thus you are exactly the same as before the incident." "Jeez. Will she be exactly like me?" "She will have your knowledge and similar personality. However, as Society also makes you what you are, she will have her own memories starting from when she wakes up, and she will go on to develop her own personality. Because many Talents are inherited, her talents will be similar to yours. This also means she might have the potential to pilot an Eva." "I think she would want a chance to get her new life sorted first." Rei spoke up. "I agree. Phil, I think you should introduce her into life, and brief her." "Okay. It's not going to be easy though, if she is as half as stubborn as I am." We heard a commotion and turned to face the medical room. The new girl was awake. People were crowding around her, asking questions and basically scaring her. "HEY! Stop that!" I yelled, running into the room. People took no notice. I pushed my way to the bed and scooped the girl up. Voices of protest rose as I carried the girl out the room. As I passed Rei, I whispered that I would meet her back at her apartment. Rei nodded and left. I made my way to the ready room, where I kept all my stuff for piloting Angel. I set the girl down on a seat and asked if she was okay. She nodded. It kinda scary seeing aspects of me in everything she did. "Okay, this isn't going to be easy, but I'm going to try and explain everything." She just looked at me. I took a breath and began to explain everything. Starting from the Second Impact, to the construction of the Eva's, to the purpose of NERV, to telling her about Shinji, Rei, Asuka and the personnel of NERV, to the recent battle and how she came to be born. At that point she started to get agitated and tried to get away. But she slipped and fell to the ground. She started to sob. "Are you Okay?" "No." It was the first word she had spoken. Her voice was like a softer version of mine. "How would you like it if you had just found out if you were the clone of a fifteen year old boy who pilots a huge robot to fight these weird creatures called angels. I was not born, I was created. I'm a freak." "The circumstances of somebody's birth should not define who they are." "You can say that. You were born normally. You are a normal human. People won't look at you strangely and whisper behind your back." "But I am not normal." "Yes, you are," I stood up and put a video in the T.V next to us. The picture that came up was of my first battle with an Angel. Where I had gone into an Angel Bezerker Frenzy. Her eyes widened as I was shown with Angel wings. The tape stopped after the point where I had saved Rei's life. "You see, I'm not normal. I've been through so many tests, I don't know who I am any more. But I'm still regarded as a person. Because it is what you DO with the gift of life which defines who you are, not how you are born. I mean, look at yourself now. You have your own memories. You are starting to develop your own personality. You are becoming your own person, not just some copy of me." "But I don't even have a name," "How about Kayleigh?" "Why Kayleigh?" "It's the name I was going to be called if I were a girl." She blushed. "Fine. Kayleigh it is then." "Okay Kayleigh. Lets find you some clothes and then get you sorted." I took her around the base, showing her my Eva and the other Eva's. I met up with Misato and explained what was going on. "Well, Kayleigh, We had better sort you out a security pass and a place to stay. I'll just get it cleared with Commander Ikari and then Ill be right with you." We went to wait in the ready room until Misato got back. We weren't there long before Shinji and Asuka came rushing in. "We heard what happened. Are you alright?" "Yeah, we're fine." "We?" "Me and Kayleigh." "Kayleigh? Who gave her that name?" Asuka snorted. "I did actually." I stood up. "You got a problem?" "Calm down, dummkopf! Hi Kayleigh. My name is Asuka Langley Sohryu," "Uh, Hi." "Hi," Shinji piped up. "I'm Shinji Ikari." "Kayleigh, these are the Second and Third Children respectively." "Uh, so. Are you an Eva pilot too?" Shinji asked. "I don't know." Just then, Misato came in with a security pass and the news that Kayleigh would be living with me and Rei. I phoned Rei up to tell her we had a new roommate. Then I started to get my gear together. "Hey Phil, here's your new plug suit." Misato threw a package over to me. I looked over at Kayleigh, who was looking around the briefing room. "Where's my old one?" Misato held it up, the huge tear down the front, presumably where Kayleigh had been expelled from my body. "Hmm. Better not show it to her." I told Misato. She nodded. I looked inside the package. "Hey, there are two plug suits in here!" I held up the second, which was identical to Asuka's one but this one was green and black, and it had two Xs on the front, like my one did. "Oh yeah. We had that one made up in case we ever needed to have a back up pilot for Unit X. That one is now Kayleigh's." I sighed. * * * Phil took me back to his apartment, which he claimed he shared with Rei Ayanami, the First Child. The streets of Tokyo 3 were strangely familiar, but Phil had said a lot of his knowledge was now mine as well, so that was a small comfort. I sat there in silence as we ate. My mind kept flitting back to the point where I awoke, remembering nothing, but seeing a lot of strange faces yelling at me, scaring me. Then Phil, as he scooped me up, and that warm feeling I had as he gently walked me away from the scary people. "Jeez that's just sick," I thought to myself, "he's you, for Christ's sake. You fancy yourself. That's like pride or something. Isn't that a sin? Its just plain sick, whatever it is." I looked back over to Phil, who was alternating between looking at me and Rei. Rei was a nice person, but not very emotive. I sighed. "Oh jeez, I almost forgot," Phil interrupted my train of thought. He reached into his bag and pulled out a bunch of papers. "These are your new transfer documents. As far as anyone else outside NERV knows, you are my Twin sister who has come over from England as my parents think its the best for you to spend more time with your brother." He flicked through some of the documents. "Jeez, who writes this stuff? According to this, your interests are music and technology. How can her interests be music, you idiot, she hasn't heard any yet!" Rei spoke up. "This came in the post earlier. It's for you." She handed over a large package. I opened it and inside was an outfit. A white blouse, a pair of shoes, some socks and a green dress. "It's your school uniform," Rei informed me as she left the room, heading into the bathroom. "School?" "Yeah, you're in my class." Phil was distracted, reading the documents. He put them down and started to clear the table. "You need an education you know. Oh yeah, you also have a harmonics test tomorrow. To see if you're Eva compatible." I sighed. I went to get ready for bed, wondering what my life was going to be like from now on. * * * I stood outside room 2-A. I sighed. I had been sighing a lot lately. I wondered if that was a trait of Phil's. "May as well get this over with." I opened the door and walked in. "...We have another addition to our class today. I hope you will make her feel welcome," The teacher was saying. All the eyes in the room were on me. I was slightly embarrassed as I walked to the board. I spotted Phil, sitting near the back. He winked at me and gave me the peace sign. "Hi. My name is Kayleigh Weston, and I'm from England." The words felt strange in my mouth, as if it was somebody else saying them. "You already know my twin brother Phil," Everyone looked to Phil who just smiled. ^-^ "There is a seat behind the Hikari Horaki, the Class Rep. You can sit there." I sat down and opened the laptop, which I had been issued with. I tried to focus on the lesson, but kept getting this nagging feeling that everyone was still looking at me. Later, at lunch, I didn't feel comfortable with anyone enough yet to ask if I could sit with them, so I went to find Phil. I found him sitting with Shinji and two other boys. "Oh. Hi Kayleigh." Phil noticed me first. "These are my friends, Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida." The boy with the glasses, Kensuke, stood up. "Pleased to meet you." "Hi," Toji smiled. "You guys don't mind if she sits with us, do you? " "Nah, that's fine," I sat between Shinji and Phil. I noticed Toji scrutinising me. "What?" "Its kinda scary. You look almost exactly like Phil, just with longer hair and a nicer face," "Hey!" Phil protested. "Well, it does make sense," Kensuke told Toji. "After all, they are twins," "I never knew you had a twin sister, Phil," "Yeah, well, you know what with piloting an Eva and all, it must have slipped my mind." "That's nice, forgetting your own sister and all. You Eva pilots sure are a compassionate bunch aren't you? I sure hope you aren't an Eva pilot Kayleigh," "I hope so too," I heard Phil mutter under his breath. * * * I watched as the hatch on the front of the Harmonics tube slid up to reveal Kayleigh sitting on the mock control seat. "Harmonic data confirmed. She is Eva compatible. Her synch rates are the same as Phil's," Maya spoke up from her console. "It only stands to reason," Doctor Ritsuko commented, "Lets face it, she is the Female Version of the Last Child." "I'll endeavour to remind you that I'm still here," I spoke up. I was wearing my Plug Suit, waiting. "I know. However, we are going to put Kayleigh in Unit X to see if she synchronises with it." "I don't like this. I know she is effectively me, but I don't think that Angel will accept her. She's only a few days old, why does she have to do this now?" "There is no reason why it shouldn't. Kayleigh has your knowledge, so should know how to synchronise with Unit X. We even have the Binary Codex ready, in case she does start to think in English." We were walking to the cage where Unit X was waiting. I saw the small figure that was Kayleigh get into the entry plug and then the plug disappeared as it was sucked into Angel's back. "You okay Kayleigh?" I asked. Her voice came back through the com-link. "I'm fine." "Okay Kayleigh, we are going to go through this step by step. Ready?" "Yes," "Lets do this. Neural Circuits online." "Roger." "Synch Graph active?" "Copy that." On the screen, a diagram of my Eva split in two and data raced past it. "Neural Pathways open. Rising Voltage above Border Line," A graph showed the rising voltage, while another showed the synchronisation of the brainwaves between Kayleigh and Angel. "How's it going?" "I'm fine. The entry plug seems disturbingly familiar. It smells of Phil." "Gee, Thanks." On the synchrograph, the green bars rose until it hit the borderline. It fluctuated at that point. Then the entire graph went white. "WHAT THE HELL?!" Ritsuko shouted out. Down each of the synchro blocks, red started to drip down, like blood. "Voltage is continuing to rise! Synchronisation is going off the scale." I suddenly bent double as pain shook my entire body. From my back, two wings burst through my Plug suit. I yelled in surprise and hurt. "My God! Unit X is going bezerk!" I looked up in time, despite my pain, to see the visor slide up on Unit X to reveal two brilliant green eyes, creased in pain. Then Angel did something I had never seen before. The lower part of her head lowered, like a jaw opening, to reveal bloodstained teeth. "My God. Is that Angel?" "What is the status of the Pilot?" "Unknown. All we can tell is that her synch ratio is off the chart!" "It's not her." All eyes looked at me. Many widened in shock as they took in my torn suit, angel wings and blood splattered everywhere. " I can only access my Angel powers when I'm in synch with Unit X." "But you're not in Unit X!" "I know. My only explanation is that Kayleigh has boosted my link with Angel," "But that would mean..." Ritsuko started. "Unit X is breaking loose!" We whirled around to see Angel break free of her moorings and slam into a wall. She roared in pain. "Pull the plug!" From Angel's back, the umbilical cable ejected and slammed to the floor, the impact cushioned by retrorockets. "That won't work! As long as I'm in synch with Unit X, she'll continue to remain active. Break my link with her. Eject Kayleigh!" "That might just work. Eject the plug!" "No response!" "What? Oh my God!" Angel was making her way towards us. She slammed her fist into the wall. Glass shattered as the fist made contact. Suddenly, through the com-link, Kayleigh's voice penetrated the confusion. "Help me! Oh God! Help! It's going crazy! AHHHHH!" "Hang on Kayleigh!" I ran towards the window, where Unit X was trying to smash its way in. She staggered back suddenly and then two feathered wings slammed out from her back. There was little room inside the cage, and Unit X was now cramped with the wings curling around the Eva's body. I launched myself into the air and flew up towards the head. Angel swung around, blood dripping from her open mouth. "Oh God. Okay Angel, its me. Phil, remember?" The Eva continued to writhe and a fist flew out. I dodged in time and the fist just hit a far wall. Suddenly, several ports opened on the far wall and a black goo shot out, flooding the chamber. It began to harden and stopped Angel from moving about as much. I focused and mentally tried to shut Angel down. Nothing was working! "Okay, I'm not sure if this is going to work, but it's my only chance. EVANGELION ANGEL BEZERKER FRENZY!" As Angel was already in bezerker mode, nothing happened to her. But my wings started to glow white, until they disappeared replaced by wings of Light. Angel stopped moving. Her mouth closed and her wings sucked back into her body. The visor lowered and Angel collapsed into a heap on the floor. I floated down towards her. "Voltage is holding below critical point. Unit X has been deactivated." The bindings opened and the entry plug ejected. Emergency systems came into play, spurting LCL from the end of the capsule. I opened the hatch to find Kayleigh, unharmed but traumatised, lying in a puddle of LCL. She looked at me and smiled. That was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out. * * * I awoke to find myself facing a clinically white ceiling. "This sight is becoming too familiar for my liking," I murmured as I sat up. Pain shot through my body and I had to lie back down. "Ouch." I turned to find Asuka with Rei and Kayleigh sitting by my bedside.
"You really know how to show off don't you?" Asuka sighed. "Its not like I really wanted to. I'm gonna be in pain for days." "Aw, poor baby," Asuka laughed. "Seriously though, you are going to have to take better care of yourself if you want to keep on piloting that Eva. I've got to be going now, but I'll see you later. Take care now. Oh and be more careful next time," She said in a superior tone as she left. "I'd love to take Angel's Prog. Knife and shove it up her arse." I muttered. "How are you feeling?" Rei asked. "Sore," "Um, Phil?" "Yeah Kayleigh?" "Id just like to thank you for saving me," "Hey, no problem. You're like a sister to me. Hell, you're closer than that." "Yeah, well... I've got to be going as well. School tomorrow and everything." "Are you going to be Okay? I mean, it must have been pretty scary inside Angel." "I'm going to be fine. I think the thing that terrified me the most was that I was going to die, and yet I've only been alive a few days." "As I once told Rei, death is nothing to be afraid of." "Really? Somehow, that doesn't really comfort me. Say if you died. That would give pain to all who cared about you. That is something to be aware, if not afraid, of." "Hey, I'm still here, alive and kicking. Well, I will be once the pain goes away." Kayleigh giggled then reached over and gave me a hug. "Ow, ow, ow, careful." She just laughed again, then stood up. "That feels, weird, hugging myself." She commented. "I don't think of you as myself anymore. I think you are more you're own person now." "Thank you" She left then, with Rei following shortly after. I sighed as I stared up at the white ceiling. Then Doctor Ritsuko came in. "Hey Doc. So what's the story?" "You're going to be fine after a few days. You should be back in action by the end of the week." "That's good news." "We also have the research results into what happened. Kayleigh's mind is currently developing like a newborn child. It has an imprint off your personality, but at the same time, it is developing her own. This cross of two minds in a single body confused Unit X. Normally, this wouldn't prove to be a problem as Eva-02's first sortie had both Asuka and Shinji piloting it. As long as the two were synchronised, the Eva would work. However, your angel energies amplified your presence, meaning both you and Kayleigh were out of synch, creating a heightened panic, which caused the bezerker frenzy." "And what about Kayleigh? I notice she didn't develop angel characteristics. Also, you think that Kayleigh boosted my link with Angel. So what is the results on that?" "We have none at the moment." "However..." "However, I have this theory. Kayleigh, you and Unit X have one thing in common." "Which is?" "I believe it is your soul. We know that Eva pilots provide the soul for the Eva. But when you got split in two, I think that the material that created the body was not general carbon atoms that happened to be floating about, but LCL." I digested this. "So what you are saying is that Kayleigh is part Eva, part Human? That she serves as a conduit between me and Angel. That still doesn't explain why she hasn't developed Angel Characteristics." "Kayleigh has no soul. Literally. You are the housing of the soul. When your data is in Unit X, it has part of your soul in it. In the same way, Kayleigh's LCL composition means that she is linked to you, and thus seems alive, because your soul is supporting her. If you were to die, she would revert to her original state: LCL. Because of this, she won't develop any angel characteristics unless you, the Eva and her are in direct synch. Only when the three of you join will any possible characteristics develop. Even then, she still might not develop any," "and I thought she was becoming her own person." I muttered dejectedly. "She is. But, like the umbilical cables, if you were to ever break off from her, she would last no longer than five minutes maximum." "I don't think we had better tell her this yet." "I agree. We need to keep you in for testing until you can move about again, then we'll let you go home." "Fine." Ritsuko left. I felt sorry for Kayleigh. Now I had a reason to fear death. Not for me though. For the people who loved me. And for the people who needed me. Literally. * * * Outside the Med.-Room, Ritsuko found Misato waiting. "Did you tell him about the other thing we discovered?" "It was only registered when his wings went into a bright light. Even then, we couldn't get an accurate confirmation. The MAGI are still debating over it." She looked down at the computer report she had received before the Bezerk Unit X had mangled the readings. When Phil had produced Light Wings that had reminded Misato so badly of the Second Angel, only one thing was registering: Blood Type: Blue. * * * Phil was still at the Geo-Front undergoing testing, and thus wasn't at school, so I had to go alone. I was sitting, daydreaming. I looked over at Rei, who was looking out the window. I watched her for a while, wondering about her, and why she was so quiet. I looked around the class. Shinji had his head on his arms, looking bored. I think Asuka was asleep. She hid it well. I was pretty bored as well. I was more worried however, about lunchtime. I had no one to hang out with. I didn't feel comfortable around Toji and that lot without Phil, and didn't really know anyone else. When lunch came, I was wondering if I should try to meet with Rei, when Hikari, the Class Rep, came up to me and pulled me aside. "Um, Kayleigh, I've seen you hanging out with Toji and those boys, and I was wondering...um...do you reckon you could ask Toji out for me?" She blurted out. "Huh?" I just stared at her. Ask a boy out? Sure it was for someone else, but I wasn't comfortable with the idea. "Why me?" "Because the boys would just reject anyone else who was friends with me. I was thinking he would listen to you, because your Phil's sister." "Uh.. I'm not that great at asking people, but I guess I could try." "Thank You," I wandered over to Toji and pulled him away from the other two. I whispered in his ear what Hiraki had asked me. "What?" Toji looked strangely at me. "Please do it. Just once." I pleaded. "Why is it so important to you?" "Because I really need more friends. If I do this favour, I might get some more." I paused. "I'm sorry, that's pathetic, Ill just tell her that you won't do it." I started to walk away. "Hey, wait a sec. I'll do it, but on one condition. Its gotta be a double date with one of my friends as well." "You mean it?" "Sure. If you can find somebody who will go on a double date, Ill do it." I went and told Hiraki, who agreed. Then I spent a lot of my lunchtime trying to find somebody who would go. "No way!" Asuka told me. "Not with any of Toji's friends," "I'm not that good at dating," Rei told me. "I'm not that good with people," Shinji replied. I was at loss. Then I had one final idea. It nauseated me, but it was my last hope. I called Phil's mobile number and waited. "This is not going to work," I told myself. "Hello?" Phil's voice broke the ringing tone. "Uh, Hi Phil," I replied. "Kayleigh! How is it going?" "Um, fine thanks. Listen, I need to ask a major favour of you." "Ask away." "Will you...um...go on a date with me?" There was a pause. "Excuse me?" I went on to explain about Toji and Horaki, and how he would only do a double date, and how no one else would do it. At the end of it all, Phil laughed. "Sure, Ok, Ill do it. I think I had better tell Toji about us though. I can trust him. Besides, it would look weird having a brother and sister on a date." "Not as strange as dating yourself," "Oh well, they say that life is stranger than fiction. Put him on." I called Toji over and handed the phone to him. His eyes widened as he listened and he turned to look at me. Then he laughed. "Sure, that makes a lot of sense, especially why you didn't tell us about her before. Okay, Ill do it. What time should we meet up? Six o'clock on Saturday it is then. Yeah. See you there." He put the phone down. "Hey, listen, now that I know about you, it doesn't mean I'm gonna treat you differently. You're still going to be a friend." "Thanks. Ill see you on Saturday then." * * * "Um Major, you should take a look at this," Shigeru Aoba, operator of the Central Military Operation Room at NERV H.Q, announced as he looked up from his computer, his long hair framing his long face. "What is it Lieutenant?" " It looks like a flock of birds, but they look like they're on a mission. Also, their flight pattern doesn't match any known bird movement." "Bring it up on screen," Misato ordered. On the screen that popped up, it looked like a cloud of giant mosquitoes had decided to descend on Tokyo 3. But these were no Bugs. Each was a sphere, about a metre in diameter. In the centre of the mass was a huge Red sphere. "Blood type confirmed," Makoto announced, his glasses reflecting the harsh lighting of Central Dogma. "Blue. It's an Angel." "Issue an evacuation statement. Prepare Eva's Zero, One and Two for combat." "What about Unit X?" " Pilot Weston is currently unfit for combat duties."
"What about Kayleigh?" Maya asked . "I'm not sure if it would work. We don't want a bezerk Eva on our hands as well as an Angel. Call all the pilots in for a briefing." * * * I sat in the ready room, frustrated that I couldn't go up and fight the new angel. Kayleigh sat next to me, also forbidden from getting in Unit X in case of a repeat of the activation test. Already, Shinji, Asuka and Rei were heading up to Tokyo 3, ready for combat. I watched on a view screen as the lift doors opened and up shot the three Eva's. They plugged in to their external power supplies and prepared to do battle with the angel. The view switched to the internal view of Unit Zero. Heading towards them was a large black form, a vague humanoid shape. "Huh? I thought we was fighting a bunch of little spheres?" Shinji called out. "It's a mass coincidental form. The mini angels are clustering together to attack. Its a cluster, so if you destroy the main core, all the rest will lose power and not be able to function." Misato informed them. "Right," Asuka yelled. "I'm taking point. Shinji, Rei, back me up!" "Roger," The view switched again to the outside. I saw Eva-02 fire its pallet rifle at the cluster. The cluster split apart, and the sky became cloudy with the mini angel spheres. "Huh? I missed!" "Attack the individuals," Rei suggested. "Right," Eva-01 pulled out a Hand Gun and began blasting every little ball that he could. Each time, the bullet rebounded off it. "What? They each have their own AT Field?" The balls started to gather in to a humanoid shape again, and when they had fully formed, they threw Eva-01 to the ground. "TAKE THIS!" Asuka yelled, diving into a rugby tackle. But the angel split in the middle, and Unit two passed straight through it and crashed into a building on the far side. "This is impossible, there is too many of them. We need a fly swatter!" Shinji yelled. Each individual ball began to glow and fire tiny laser beams. "Ow! It's like being stung!" "Don't worry Shinji. We're sending up Unit X as back up." "Who's piloting it?" "We're using a Dummy Plug," I ran over to the window, where I saw the dummy plug about to be fitted to Angel. The Dummy Plug was a new idea. It used the matrix brain waves of a pre-programmed pilot to fool the Eva into thinking there was a pilot and thus synchronising a computer with the Eva. A sort of automatic plot. I ran to the control room. "Is it working?" Ritsuko was asking. "Negative. The Eva is refusing to accept the dummy plug." Maya replied. "Why is it refusing the plug?" Ritsuko yelled, frustrated. "You said it yourself," I replied. "It can't sense my angelic energy, so is refusing to accept any form of pilot." "Somebody is fitting a normal plug to Unit X!" "What? Where?" We watched as a normal plug was attached to Unit X and a small figure in green got in. "Kayleigh?" "How can Unit X be accepting her?" Maya asked "She serves as a conduit for Phil's Angelic Energy." Ritsuko replied. The plug was sucked into the back of Angel and the visor lit up. "I'm going to try to pilot this thing again. Launch me!" Kayleigh's voice broke over the com link. "No Kayleigh!" I interrupted. "You don't know what you are getting yourself in to!" "I can't just watch the others get beaten. I'm going." She switched off the com-link. "You would have probably done the same." "I know. That's why I'm angry. It's because of me, that she is going to get hurt. The best I can do is try to suppress my Angel side to keep in synch with Kayleigh." I ran out of the control room and up the escalator to the surface. * * * I was doing better this time. So far Angel (as Phil had called this thing) had not gone crazy. I was slammed up to the surface. "Hey Guys. Need help?" "Kayleigh! Is that you?" "Uh-huh. So, any ideas how to beat this thing?" "We need to attack the core." Rei replied "But everytime we try, the little angels protect it." "Okay, I've got an idea. If we fire enough rounds into it, the little angels should be knocked away. Then we can attack the core." "They all have they're own AT Fields." Shinji told me. His purple Eva was swatting away at the little spheres like they were flies. "Someone needs to get into the centre of the mass and expand their own Field." "Ill do it!" Asuka volunteered. She ran to the centre of the mass, but it started to converge and prepared to throw her. "FIRE!" I yelled. Shinji, Rei and myself fired at the converging mass. It split to avoid the bullets, which allowed Asuka to get in there. "Expanding Field!" The barrier of energy spread wide, dispersing the spheres. "Fire in the hole!" Shinji yelled. We all fired again. Several shots careened off the smaller spheres, and they went spinning away. "Yes, it's working!" Suddenly the spheres turned and all of them fired at Asuka. She was hit with a million stings and she cried out in pain. She collapsed on the floor and we had to drag her back by her Umbilical Cable. "What do we do now?" "We improvise," "How?" "I'll go and attack it. When it converges, Ill let it attack. Then I'll get Angel to go Berserk and rip it to shreds. As it splits again under the force of my bezerker AT Field, you get in there with a Prog. Knife or something and smash the main core." "Are you sure this will work?" "No, but we havn't much else to go on." I got Angel to run towards the cluster. It converged and created a mass form that was similar in height and dimensions to my Eva. "Okay, you asked for it!" I yelled. "EVANGELION ANGEL BEZERKER FRENZY!!!" I waited for the transformation to take place. Nothing happened. "What's going on?" "You need me!" A small voice yelled out. I turned to face Phil, on the ground. Suddenly, from behind me, the Angel hit me and I went sprawling. I just missed crushing Phil. He stood between the Eva's fingers. "Pick me up," I did so. "We need to be in perfect Synch for the whole Frenzy to take place." He yelled. "If I just do it, Angel will go out of control. If you try on your own, it won't work. We do it together, and we'll have a controlled Frenzy." "Let's do it then," I set him down between Angel's legs and together we faced the Angel. Together, my Eva mirroring his actions, we spread our arms out wide, in perfect synch. "EVANGELION ANGEL BEZERKER FRENZY!!!" Phil began to glow white. I began to glow white. Unit X began to glow white. Then from Phil, an AT Field spread out so wide it forced me back and it caused the smaller Angels to explode. The white glow continued to brighten, and the smaller Angels continued to explode. Soon only the main core was left. From Phil's back, two wings of intense light grew. "Oh my God." * * * "Blood Pattern is Blue! It can't be. It says it's The Second Angel!" "No. Its Phil," "What the hell is happening?" "THIRD IMPACT!" "What?! No!" * * * Phil had disappeared in the light. Suddenly Misato came on line. "Kayleigh, subdue Phil!" "What? But he's about to destroy the angel," "If you don't, the Earth will suffer a Third Impact," "My God," I stared at the bright light Phil had become. "Shinji, Rei, I need your help," "We heard. What do you want us to do?" "As soon as I have subdued Phil, you're gonna need to destroy that angel. Rei, I need you to help calm Phil down." "Roger that." I threw myself on top of Phil, Rei in her blue Eva right with me. We both ejected our Plugs and got out. Phil was not easily visible in the light, but somehow Rei picked him out. "Phil, are you okay?" "What...who...Kayleigh?" "Phil, you should rest," "No...destroy them all...DESTROY THE ANGELS!!!" The light began to increase again. We had to shield our eyes. "He's reaching Critical! He's gonna blow!" Suddenly, the light was sent retreating back towards Phil. I turned to see Angel, in complete bezerk mode, eyes visible, mouth open, Wings spread. Her AT Field was active, suppressing Phil. It was if she was returning the favour for him stopping her frenzy during the activation test. The light faded. "Rei...Kayleigh...Thank you..." Phil's voice was weak. He collapsed. I turned to face Angel. Behind her, I noticed Shinji and Unit One slamming his Prog. knife into the core of the now defenceless angel, destroying it. Angels mouth closed, the visor lowered and the wings disappeared. I felt drained. Suddenly, a huge drop of crimson liquid fell next to me, drenching me. It was blood. Suddenly I noticed that both Phil and I were bleeding. Another drop fell. I looked up. Blood was leaking slowly from Angel's visor. I felt my eyes, and sure enough, blood was dripping out, like red tears. "What does this mean?" I wondered, "Are we in perfect synch?" I picked Phil's unconscious body up and with help from Rei, we took him back downstairs to NERV H.Q. * * * I awoke to find myself looking at the ceiling of the Number Two medical room. "Someone's taking the piss," I thought. I sat up. Fortunately there was no pain, just a shear exhaustion. I found Misato sitting at the end of my Bed. "How do you feel?" "Tired more than anything." "I'm not surprised. Seeing as you almost set off the Third impact." "What?" "The reports are here. It turns out that you have a Blue blood pattern. But, only when you are in synch above 80% with your Eva." "So what? Are you saying I'm part Angel?" "Yes." She pointed to a scar across my chest. "Where did you get that?" "During the Second Impact. I was only a baby. According to my Mum, I was hit by some shrapnel when the incident occurred." "That shrapnel was a piece of the Second Angel. It embedded itself inside you and now makes up a major part of your body. This is the reason Kayleigh doesn't get angel characteristics. She doesn't have a bit of the second Angel in her. You should rest. We have to be careful in the future. If you and her ever synchronise again, you could trigger the Third Impact. However, we've made a variation of your Binary Codex program, so Unit X will accept her, even if your angel side is boosting your presence. With this new program, she can pilot the Eva like any of the others without relying on you. So we shouldn't have any more problems." She turned and faced me. "I'd just like to say that, because you still have self control, we're going to keep you on here. Even if you go into Angel Bezerker Frenzy, you shouldn't be effected like you were unless you synch with Kayleigh. Get a good nights rest. I understand you have a date tomorrow." She smiled and left. ^-^ "Oh...Yeah." * * * I sat next to Phil in a decent restaurant. Across the table, Hikari and Toji were exchanging a few words, but not the usual words of irritation or anger. I was glad for the peace and quiet. I tugged at the dress I was wearing. I felt stupid in it, but Hikari had insisted it was fine. Toji and Phil didn't comment, especially as they knew my true nature. I think both of them found it weird as they both could see aspects of Phil in me as I had put it on. "Did you see that Angel? It was huge. I thought for a second we were goners," Toji asked. "Oh lets not talk about that," Phil replied, uncomfortable. "Let's just enjoy ourselves." "Speaking of which, don't you too feel strange going on a date together," Hikari asked. "You know, being twins and all," "I don't mind. I'm having a good time anyway," I said. "I feel if she is closer than my sister any way. A hell of a lot closer," Phil told her. "Closer than twins? Wow," We split up at around ten o'clock and went our separate ways. "How do you feel? About being half-angel, I mean?" I asked Phil. "Not too bad. As long as I have friends and family who care about who I am as a person and not a thing that has been slightly mutated, I can live with it. And now that you know about our shared soul, I guess that makes me feel even better to be alive, knowing that I'm always here for you." "I guess you were right though. You are not normal," "Me!" He said with mock indignation, "I'm as normal as they come!" "Nah, you're crazy," "Me? We're both crazy." "Why's that?" "We're talking to ourselves. First sign of madness you know." "Oi, I'm my own person thank you," "And I'm glad you feel that way," "I'm glad too," We walked the rest of the way in silence. I was happy, knowing that whatever may happen in my life, I would share it all with my inadvertent soul-mate. As long as Phil lived, I would live, sharing his soul.
By Phil Weston, the Last Child, with input from Kayleigh (alive in spirit if not real. ^-^) "One Soul, Three Parts" "Kayleigh" Primary Draft finished: 25/10/02
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or any of the characters in this fanfic except Kayleigh and Phil. Evangelion is a registered Trademark of the Gainax company and all rights should go to them.