AN: Song: Broken, by Seether and Amy Lee.
Cause I'm broken
When I'm lonesome
Rei sat ready to be launched. The next angel had come. Somehow, she couldn't concentrate on fighting. Her thoughts were on Shinji…. And Asuka.
"You hated it…. You hated her…" No, she couldn't remember. Everything had faded…
"Unit 00, ready to be launched."
I want to hold you high
And steal your pain away
Back at his bedroom, Shinji contemplated on Rei's actions earlier. Why had she nearly killed herself, just for that angel? She saved him, right? Wasn't that correct? But why did she save him? Rei was too important to him to die. He'd wish she'd known that at the time. She had been acting strange lately, and he wondered if she'd ever be the same.
And I don't feel right
When you're gone away
The words of the angel kept repeating themselves in her mind.
"You wanted him all to yourself…"
"And your heart became darker… uglier…"
"What did you feel?"
"You hated her…"
No! She couldn't hate Asuka. Asuka was her friend, right? Then why did she feel such contempt towards the fifth child? What was a friend, anyways?
You don't feel me here
Anymore
Was she really that insignificant compared to Asuka? What was so special about Asuka? Rei felt that familiar sore feeling emerge in her heart again. She willed herself to not feel it, to be numb towards it, but the feeling only grew stronger.
All her life, she had been alone, up to the point she had met Shinji. When she met Shinji, her heart was warm. She had felt like a human being, and not an experiment. The feeling of humanity was warm, it was gentle. But when Shinji touched Asuka's hand, and looked at her with that worried face, Rei felt her humanity being stolen from her.
She was alone again. Alone in the world.
A fighter again, Ayanami Rei fired up her gun and aimed at the angel.