Blood Ties Part 1: Wandering Souls

By crimsonwraith

Version 2: 23/08/04

Ghosts are nothing more than memories.

They haunt us with visions of the path we took in life,
the pain that we endured,
the regrets that we have.
The visions come no more clearly than before we reach the end of our arduous journey
when we are forced to look back at the path that we chose, forcing to ask ourselves

"Did I do the right thing?"

If the answer is yes, then the soul would move onto eternity at peace, knowing that
we have left behind a legacy that will continue long after our names are forgotten.

However, if the answer is no, then the soul would wonder the abyss with a chain of guilt
weighing it down.

We are doomed to wonder the world for eternity, hoping that one day we find
the true importance of our existence, allowing us to ease the pain
and move on to the next world.

Shinji felt sick.

Shrouded beneath a dark mantle of storm clouds, a small group weathered the bitter wind and pouring rain to pay their final respects to a fallen comrade. The procession seemed almost familiar to some, having buried many of their fallen companions in this desolate wasteland.

The voice of an elderly clergyman hummed solemnly over the small congregation, struggling to be heard over the drumming rain and the distant roar of the heavens itself. As with all things, it is hard to see in the dark.

A lesson Shinji had learnt only too well.

Shinji scanned the dreary surroundings, eyeing Misato in the distance. He can see a stream of crystalline flow running down her pale cheeks, chilled by the unforgiving storm. It stung Shinji to watch her cry like this, but this time Shinji couldn't look away from the pain on her face. He felt like crying as well, but strangely, the tears do not come.

He had cried himself dry.

Slowly, his gaze followed the priest's hand forming a small intangible cross in the air. His voice came colder than the night itself. "Ashes to ashes…" hissed the priest, motioning his hand from left to right like an ominous pendulum, before moving it from top and dropping it, "… dust to dust."

Slowly, a single casket slowly descended into the earth. It was small, like that for a child. The coffin was marble, with gold engraved onto the sides, and a single picture framed upon the focal point. It was a girl, with long flowing ochre hair draped tidily over her mouth, concealing a radiant smile. Her eyes seemed to glow a brilliant azure, but felt as if it had lost its warmth.

Then Shinji's eyes turned to the head stone planted just above the hole in the ground.

Asuka Langley Soryu.

Before he knew it, men had begun to cover the hole with dirt, returning the receptacle to its final destination and everlasting darkness. After three days, the pain of regret pierced through his chest like a hot blade, but the pain was worse now than ever. He knew now that he would never see Asuka again.

The funeral having finished, Shinji watched as NERV personnel began to walk away. Most of them were forced to watch her burial. Apart from himself and Misato, Shinji felt that they were the only ones who knew about her, who cared and lover her. Heaving a deep sigh, Shinji began to move away when he noticed an outline approaching the grave.

By the shape, Shinji concluded the figure to belong to a woman. She knelt before the headstone, placing a single rose stem upon the small garden, while caressing the headstone with her other hand. A dark veil covered her face, only a few locks of red were to be seen. Her lips moved, but spoke too softly for him to hear. Intrigued, the boy slowly approached her from behind, straining to hear her voice above the tempest.

Stopping just behind her, Shinji froze, but not because of the cold chill, but at the sound of her voice. It seemed strangely familiar, and at the same time frightening. Shinji could have sworn he heard Asuka speaking. His eyes glazed over the girl, still caressing the headstone, uncaring for the gale around her, uncaring for the cold gazes of onlookers. She knelt before the headstone, speaking to it as if Asuka was still there, listening to her.

"I can't believe you're gone," she whispered to the stone carving, "You promised that you would be strong. You promised that you would wait for me." She suddenly fell silent as tears welled behind her veil, falling silently upon the grave.

Suddenly, a hand fell upon her shoulder, prompting the girl to turn sharply behind her at a young man wearing a dark suit and a contrasting warm smile upon his face. He quickly moved to take his black suit off to place it over her head, covering her from the elements. At this, he smiled. "You'll catch a cold if you stay out in the rain."

For a long while, the girl just knelt there, staring blankly at Shinji from behind her shroud. The awkward moment lasted a few more heartbeats before she finally turned his hand away, pushing herself up to her feet from the mud. "I can take care of myself, Third Child."

Third Child, Shinji thought. He could have sworn his mind was playing tricks on him as her voice sounded almost like that of Asuka's. Wide-eyed with curiosity, he turned cautiously to the stranger before him. "Who are you and how did you get passed security?"

Shinji heard the girl scoff, murmuring something beneath her breath. "Section 2 was never really any good, and besides… this is a NERV funeral, is it not?"

The boy's gaze hardened spitefully. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That I also work for NERV," she answered wryly, her voice laced with irony. "NERV may be negligent to the point of gross incompetence, but at least they have the decency to allow relatives to say goodbye to their loved ones."

At this, Shinji stumbled backwards as her words found home in his stomach. "D-did you say relative?" he stammered.

This earned a smirk to curl itself at the corner of her lips. "This isn't twenty-questions, third child. I don't know what Asuka ever saw in you to begin with-"

"You still haven't answered my question," he hissed.

She didn't answer, continuing as if she hadn't heard. "You're slow, third child, but at least you have a spine…" she paused, slowly, the girl's hands rose from her sides, lifting the veil covering her face. At this, Shinji froze with his mouth gaping wide open. Long locks of crimson draped neatly over her should as the girl turned up to look at him, smiling warmly. Standing in front of him was the spitting image of the girl he just saw returned to the earth; a ghost of Asuka.

"My name is Sonya," she said, her eyes flashing a brilliant green rather than a perfect blue as Asuka had. "I'm pleased to have finally met you, third child."

"Asuka had an identical twin," Misato explained, furiously rubbing her hair with a dry towel. "According to her file, they were separated when their parents got divorced: her mother got Asuka, her father got Sonya. She and her father moved to the research facility at the second branch in the US while Asuka stayed with her mother at the third branch in Berlin."

Misato paused, throwing the now soaking towel into the distant corner of the bathroom and proceeded to changing out of her soaking black gown to a dry set of clothes. "When Asuka was chosen to become the second candidate for to pilot the Evangelion, naturally, Sonya was immediately regarded as a potential candidate, having the same blood as her sister. But it wasn't that simple."

Inside his room, lying wearily on his bed, Shinji stared up at the ceiling, half listening to Misato's explanation. Her voice came as a muffled tone through the crack under his door. "We found mental instability with her, the same complications that her mother suffered and died from. As soon as we found a capable replacement, we removed her as a potential candidate, pending further testing. But then we lost two pilots, and the dummy plug system…"

Her voice ceased, as if choked from existence. Images of limbs floating in the amber fluid flashed across his eyes. He could still remember their empty smiles. "NERV had no choice but to recall Sonya to active duty as the Second Child. They sent a Neural Link package specially made for her condition, so that she can avoid suffering the same fate as her mother."

And her sister, Shinji added to himself. He could still remember her sitting on the rooftop huddled in a foetal position. He could still remember her cursing him.

I HATE YOU SHINJI! I HATE EVERYTHING!!! Her words rang as clear as the day she said it. He could still feel the edge in her voice. I'll get you, Third Child.

Third Child.

It felt as if Asuka said it, but it wasn't her. It was her sister, Sonya. He can still feel her smile. They were the same as Asuka's. For the briefest of moments, it almost felt as if she was still there with him, smiling back at him.

Suddenly the door swung open. Shinji merely directed his attention towards the silhouette standing by the open doorway. "There's something else I have to tell you about Sonya…" Misato began.

As if on que, Shinji heard the front hiss door open, then shut again as footsteps echoed loudly off the floorboards, a silhouette standing next to Misato's. At this, Shinji quickly levered himself up, his face suddenly paling…

… as if he had seen a ghost.

"S… S-" Shinji spluttered, "Sonya?"

Elsewhere, an eerie silence hung below the dark unoccupied caverns of Terminal Dogma, broken only by slight pitter patter of footsteps upon the crimson lake. At the focal point stood a white giant whose seven lifeless eyes stared out into the void, as if yearning to be free from its bindings.

However, several dozen meters below, a young woman stopped, halting on the water just before the giant staring upwards. Her pale albino skin seemed to glow in the presence of the behemoth, as if reacting to its very presence. However, her crimson eyes lingered above, narrowing upon the giant's seven dun orbs.

Rei Ayanami could almost hear a voice running through her mind, imploring her to become one, but with what?

Or rather… with whom?

That was when a loud metallic clink sounded behind her as the massive bulkheads of Heavens Door began to slide open. Her eyes, however, remained upon the giant's face as it remained expressionless, as did Rei.

Gradually, the sound of mechanics halted as the door revealed but a single silhouette standing outside. Rei didn't see a sly smirk creeping across his lis lips.

"Ayanami," he called out, stepping into the light. "Have you forgotten your true purpose?" Gendo Ikari strode staunchly across the steel platform towards the giant of light, where at the end, Rei stood silently, watching the figure close up on her.

At this, Rei merely stared upwards as if searching the giant's face for answer that wasn't there. For a few heartbeats, the girl stood there staring upon the blankness upon the being's face, then ever so slowly, she turns from it, her eyes gazing towards the shadow moving along the steel boardwalk.

From a distance, Gendo sees this and halts in mid-stride, taken aback by a pair of blazing crimson orbs directed straight towards him. His grin fades, his heart freezes, as does his voice. "She called to her children, and they heard her call."

"…"

"She calls to them now, just as she did then…"

"…"

"They will come to her as they have before…"

"…"

"History, once again, repeats itself-"

Suddenly, Rei's crimson orbs narrowed spitefully, her voice came as a dry hiss. "Why have you come?"

At this, Gendo maniacally curls his lips, raising a finger to adjust his lenses slightly. His voice came dryly, yet shrouded with obscurity. "The Second Child has been replaced."

"The second child…" An image of a young girl suddenly came to her mind. Her long flowing hair was crimson in hue, appropriately matching her character. She can still remember a voice full of confidence carrying through the air a sense of pride she can only imagine. Finally, she can remember a pair of cyan eyes staring back at her like a pair of blue flames lighting the darkness around her.

Somehow she remembers all of this.

Except her name.

Gendo senses this, stepping closer upon the edge of the steel walkway. "Asuka Langley Soryu was buried at 2:57 this afternoon. Sonya Langley Soryu is now the designated pilot of Unit-02, the Second Child."

"Soryu. I know that name…" Suddenly, the girl's eyes widened, burning with an eerie scarlet glow. "Where is she?"

Her demand suddenly caught Gendo off guard. She had never demanded anything before, but why now? Why this? Rei's gaze hardened at the lack of response.

"Where is she?"

"She is staying at the Katsuragi residence."

At this, Rei nodded a silent reply and began to walk upon the surface of the LCL to meet Gendo on the solid platform of steel, stopping an arm's length away. For a few heartbeats, the two figures stood in silence, staring deeply into the other's eyes, before Rei began towards the door. A few steps afterwards, Gendo finally broke the silence.

"You wish to see her…"

The girl remained deathly silent, stopping mid-stride at the doorway. "She and I are alike," she said dryly. "She is a replacement…

"…"

"… like me…" With this, she continued down the hallway, letting the door slide close behind her, leaving Gendo alone in the dark with nothing but the Giant of Light to accompany him.

Why did she have to wear that dress?

Shinji kept silently to himself, sitting in front of the couch, peering from the corner of his eye towards the girl to his side. There was a cold determination in her deep beryl eyes as she stared blankly at the television, not even slightly interested at the program. The boy decided that she would probably be deep in thought, after all, her sister was only buried today.

"What is it?" she snapped coldly to break the eerie silence between them.

Startled, Shinji jerked back before stammering a hurried response. "N-nothing…"

"You were staring at me," she answered back, her eyes still focusing on the screen. "Is there something you want?"

"N-no."

"Don't lie!" She sighed, shifting her eyes away from the display and turning towards Shinji's eyes. "Let's get one thing straight, third child. I'm going to live around you out of respect for Asuka, but I am not going to tolerate lies, is that understood?"

"Y… ye… yes ma'am-"

"I don't care if you think you'll hurt my feelings," Sonya continued with a flame behind her eyes, "if I ask you a question, you will give me a true answer, is that understood?"

Shinji quickly straightened up, snapping a quick salute. "YES MA'AM!"

At this, Sonya sniggered, slouching back to her seat rest and smirked wryly. "Very well then, third child…" she mused wryly, "Have you ever had impure thoughts of my sister?"

"NO MA'AM!" Shinji answered, gulping nervously.

"Have you ever looked at her in the wrong way, you pervert!"

"N-NO MA'AM!"

"Have you ever kissed Asuka?"

Shinji fell deathly silent, feeling her cold glance upon his throat. Just how was he going to get himself out of this? If he says yes, then she would probably rip his head off for kissing her, but if he said no, then she'd know that he was lying. What she would do, Shinji could only imagine. Gulping nervously, Shinji turned shakily towards the girl with an awkward nod. "Y-yes. I kissed her!" At this, Shinji quickly jerked back in a foetal position, covering his face between his knees. "She asked me to…"

"Hmpf," scoffed Sonya, "and just why in the hell would she ask a pathetic little swine like you to kiss her?"

"I… I- I don't know!" he stammered, "all she said was that she wanted to pass time."

"Pass time?" Sonya echoed, raising a threatening eyebrow. "Do you expect me to believe that Asuka kissed you just to pass time?"

Nodding nervously, Shinji tightened himself into a smaller ball, gritting his teeth for the incoming barrage. "YES!" he screamed. "SHE DARED ME TO! IT'S THE TRUTH!"

For a long while, Shinji just lay there in his ball waiting for his punishment, but nothing came. Nothing, that is, except for the sounds of laughing coming from his side. Slowly, Shinji lifted his head up, finding the girl on the floor clutching her stomach, laughing loudly to herself.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE ACTUALLY DID IT!" she screamed, rolling on her back. "ASUKA REALLY DID IT!"

Upon hearing this, Shinji slowly stood up over the girl, eyeing her with great curiosity. "What?" he said blankly, "What did she do?"

"Kissing to pass time," howled Sony on the floor, "that really does sound like Asuka!"

"It- it does?"

Sonya nodded, her laughter subsiding as she wiped a tear from her eye. "Yeah! She'd always make an excuse for her actions…" she suddenly paused, grinning widely at Shinji. "She always made excuses when she was too embarrassed of the truth. Maybe she did it because I dared her… or maybe she…"

"Sonya!" Shinji whined. "I didn't think she liked it…"

At this, Sonya sighed, falling back into his seat rest. "Just relax Shinji. I'm just playing with you!" Slowly, she rolled to her side, staring at Shinji with her beryl eyes. "Hey third child…"

Shinji blinked, his expression still that of confusion. "W-what?"

"Do you miss her?" she said breathlessly.

For a long while, she waited for an answer as his jaw gaped open but words fail to come out, From this, Sonya knew that there could only be one answer. "Yes," he said feebly, "I miss her."

With this, Sonya pushed herself back up from the seat, brushing her hair crimson hair back over her shoulder. "One last question, third child."

Shinji didn't look up at her. "What is it?"

"Do you see her face…"

"…"

"When you look at me, do you see Asuka staring back at you?"

For the first time, her voice seemed weak, losing the edge that Shinji was becoming all too familiar with, forcing the boy to look up and study her face. For a moment, he froze, noticing her broken expression falling to the ground. Heaving a sigh, Shinji stood up and answered her.

"No."

"No?" she repeated, her eyes darting back to his.

Shinji, for the first time in a long while smiled back at her for this. "Your eyes, they're different. She had eyes, blue, that were so deep that you could lose yourself just by staring."

Afterwards, Shinji closed his eyes, solemnly marching away with his head held confidently high, disappearing into his room and shutting his door with a loud firm bang, leaving one Sonya standing alone in the living room, her breath and heart taken away by the same boy her sister fell for. At this, her gaze hardened in disgust.

I think I'm gonna to be sick…

It's quiet now, thought Misato as she lay on her bed, staring at an empty ceiling. It had been a while since she had anything that could truly be called rest, but as the voices died from beyond her door, a calmness descended upon her mind. She had half expected Sonya to have run Shinji into the ground by now, but it seemed that she had clearly underestimated the boy. Shinji was indeed growing up.

I never thought she felt that way about her. Misato would probably have laughed at the very thought a month ago. After all the beatings and humiliation he endured, how could the boy have grown fond of her? Sure they live in the same house and they did work together, but what made the two so close?

Suddenly, her phone began to rang. Rolling to the side of her bed, she retrieved the cordless unit, raised it to her ear and pressed the on switch.

"Yeeelooowww," she slurred wearily into the handset.

A woman's laugh came as a reply from the other end. "It's only 9 and you're drunk already? Either you're drinking more or your years of excess has finally caught up."

Misato almost dropped the handset, her grip still quivering as the voice echoed in her mind. It was unmistakeable. "Ritsuko?"

The scientist's voice managed a scoff on the other end. "Ah, cognitive display. I see that you can still hold your liquor. I'm not surprised, seeing that you drink the bar at level 2 dry each Friday evening."

Misato quickly pushed herself up to a sitting position, her grip tightening around the phone. "Ritsuko, since when were you allowed to use a phone in isolation cell?"

"Ever since they've re-instated me as project co-ordinator?"

Her gaze hardened. "I don't remember authorizing your release, let alone a full re-instatement."

"My my," Ritsuko taunted, "you really are an idiot, aren't you, Major?"

"What did you say?"

"Poor Misato, dumb and deaf."

"I don't have time to be insulted by you!" Misato screamed into the speaker, about to flick the switch off when…

"Ikari did it."

Misato paused just in time to avoid killing the switch, curiously returning the phone to her ear. "Commander Ikari released you? But why?"

"Come on, Misato," jeered Ritsuko, "You can't be this stupid."

"Stop treating me like a child and tell me already."

"Very well." Her voice paused as Misato listened to the rustling of metal in the background. She was probably adjusting her glasses. "It seems that NERV has had the foresight of installing a back-up for the Dummy Program in Germany. They want me to keep an eye out on the Beta variants"

"Beta variant?" Misato echoed hollowly into the speaker. "But that's impossible. I saw you kill all but one."

"Oh," Ritsuko mused, "the one that got away-"

"Are you telling me that there are more of those… Rei clones out there?"

She heard a sigh over the phone. "Yes… and no."

"What do you mean?"

"Yes, there are more clones, but no, they are not Rei. The Germans demanded a German national to be their test subject…"

"GET TO THE POINT!" Misato demanded over the phone.

"I'm sure you already know, Misato. After all…" she paused, grinning at the other end, "…you've taken another one into your home…"

Before Misato could manage a response, the line on the other side cut, leaving nothing but hollow beeps to sound of the speaker. Killing the phone, Misato's eyes darted towards the door. "No," she stammered, "it can't be…"

To be continued…

Next Episode…
Rise from the Ashes…

It has been three months since the disaster that nearly wiped out the third Neo Tokyo, but humanity has moved on. The city is slowly rebuilding itself and people are slowly coming back, hoping that the worst has passed them all. But psychological wounds linger, not more-so than in the mind of Shinji Ikari. How can Shinji let go of the memory of Asuka when her face is always staring down upon him?

But as things start to darken, old friends come to visit…

… and old skeletons begin to come out of the closet.

Author's Notes

If you're a S/A fan, don't kill me just yet. Let the story flow for a while. I promise I'm not a simple Asuka killer. In fact, I'm doing this fic because she's my favourite character. Please leave the pairings up until later. I know I will get flamed for this, but again, please be patient.

For those who are thinking that they've seen this before, it's because I'm redoing this. There were a few improvements in this chapter, but I've made a lot of changes in the next three chapters.