NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: COMMUNION
Part I: "Glass"
AD 2016, New Years Day
Luna dug her feet into the sand, feeling the warmth of the world soul lap at her toes with every ripple of the red sea. Twirling a wet strand of hair around a finger, she glanced over her shoulder at the second and third shapes to pull themselves out of the primordial brine. To be fair, Luna had retained her autonomy throughout the entire affair, a strangely pleasant experience, wrapped this time in nostalgia. The boy had ruined everything, but she could not spite him for having chosen a different path. She felt a strange swell, something her other children had never given her. It was pride. As the boy began strangling the only person he desired, Luna laughed. How interesting.
Standing up, Luna gave a gentle shake. The sand and moisture flew off her naked form like stars escaping the beginning of time, scattering through the air in a needless expression of joy. Nothing was going her way, but it was so wonderful. The Communion was silent, and her thoughts were her own. She found a skip in her step, floating as much as striding across the bleak landscape strewn with the enormous remains of her precious child. That giant white ruined face loomed large in her view, with half a smile for Luna and Luna alone. With a final effortless leap, Luna nestled herself between the two great lips, a makeshift ottoman upon which to recline and gaze at the new world.
"I can feel you everywhere," said Luna, pressing her face happily into the white flesh. "Did you find something worth existing for? You surprised me, you know, but I wouldn't have loved you if you'd remained my puppet."
Luna lay there a while, her blue-black hair growing over her back and down over the great face's bottom lip. Something about the flesh of the white creature rejuvenated her, or perhaps time was flowing without regard for law or reason. Propping herself up on one arm, head in hand, she pondered her once "living" seat.
"What are you?" she said, with a playful air. "Are you the thing others call Rei Ayanami? Are you yourself?" She paused. "Whatever your sense of self, you must return what was native to me in the beginning."
With thumb and forefinger, Luna tore a long strip of flesh off the vast lip, bouncing her legs off her grand seat like a little girl. She pushed a part of the strip in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully while the rest of it swung free. Her expression softened, dancing between a smile and a scowl as the meat dropped, bouncing off the white face and falling onto the sand. Luna's eyes narrowed, watching strange little plants sprouting from the discarded meal.
"Of course, you taste like… her."
* * *
c. 7 billion years ago
The examination room seemed unnecessarily large for just a simple white table and two chairs. Luna fiddled with her blue gown's draw-string, staring blankly at the researcher across from her. She had never bothered to remember his name, despite the name tag, which she couldn't be bothered to read. Through the glass walls, Luna could see an array of similar rooms, arranged in groups of four with halls running in-between. The light moved through the cubes in a glittering fashion, if one squinted their eyes. Nowadays, there were more rooms than people. The researcher shuffled his pile of papers, although he never looked at them. He never took notes.
"Your tests show progress," he said, while Luna coiled and uncoiled her draw-string, looking through the glass. "Your potential is predicted to be highest in your group."
In the next room over, a young woman in a red gown sat at the edge of her chair, speaking animatedly with her researcher. Shoulder-length black hair swayed like wind-blown grass with her every gleeful word. Each motion and gesture seemed to draw all things to her, like a whirl-pool suddenly spinning to life in a calm sea. Luna wondered who was questioning who.
* * *
The sun was slipping past the forested hills, casting a warm orange light through the windows of the "Blue Block" dining hall. The isolation of one of the world's last wild regions made the perfect location for the Transcendence Project, far from the bustle and choke of the endless city-sprawl. A couple of Luna's fellow Blues sat down (uninvited as usual) at her table, chattering noisily before their bottoms had even landed.
"Everyone from Yellow and Green is gone," said one girl, eliciting gasps from the others, despite having already heard this many times today. "Not a single sign of potential from either block! Can you believe it?"
"I thought that one boy from Yellow was still holding out…"
"He went last week! Haven't you noticed during your interviews? It's just us and the Reds, now."
"I wonder where everyone goes, after…"
"Hmm? Probably some government place, like an orphanage for grown-ups."
"Ugh, why do they divide us into blocks anyway?"
"Oh my God! I know! There was this guy in Green, and I always wanted…"
Luna folded her napkin into a random geometric shape, unfolded it, then began anew. She didn't hear her name being chirped.
"Luna? Luna?" Giggles. Like birds. "They told me you tested top in Blue. Isn't that great?"
Smoothing out her napkin, Luna exhaled. "Tired," she murmured.
* * *
"Raise your arms," said the probably pre-recorded voice. Luna felt the cool mist swirl about her skin, one of many inexplicable daily rituals at the research facility. "Please," added the voice, when additional blasts of the stuff failed to jolt her from her stupor.
The constant spray blurred every defining feature of the long white hall, a gentle obstacle course of staggered shiny black pads to stand on. The voice prompted her at each stop, and though she wondered if there weren't people behind the walls observing, she could not find it in herself to push the required amount of air over her vocal chords.
Though their schedules were strictly regulated, Luna found herself going to sleep earlier and earlier. Her single room was hardly more than a coffin, as white and featureless as most of the facility. Fading the lights, which seeped through the walls from no apparent source, she laid back on the form-fitting bed, forgiving herself for allowing a happy sound to escape her. With no desires or fears cluttered her mind, Luna welcomed the emptiness, taking no notice of the many wires waiting in the dark folds of her bed. On the edge of sleep, she was faintly aware of their timid emergence, brushing against her, only to retreat in the morning. They could watch her all they wanted. In the black embrace, nothing mattered. She would be sent away eventually, to wherever unneeded things slept. It could not be much different than this.
* * *
Between fingers and thumb, she rubbed a clutch of her hair, listening to the crunching sound it made close to her ear. Beyond the glass she saw her, facing her assigned researcher with a full-body smile. That Red never tired of the world around her, never tired of reaching out aimlessly, grasping and holding everything she could. Her researcher take no notes, either. Luna imagined those papers were given to the researchers for fidgetry alone.
"Luna," intoned her researcher. "I'd like to talk to you about your dreams."
She said nothing. She never dreamed. Crunch-crunch, whispered her hair.
"We have some readings," he said, shuffling his papers, "that indicate you've had some especially vivid dreams."
Luna slid her fingers and thumb down a long strand, letting her hand drop on the table. She felt like a puppet whose strings had been cut, head too heavy for her neck. It was all so aimless. Transcend to what? She was ready to sleep again. Tilting her head, Luna's bangs parted like curtains, revealing that smiling Red in the next room, focusing all her aimless cheer through the glass. Luna saw no reason to turn away.
"Dreams?" she asked, watching specks of light swim around the Red's big eyes.
* * *
More giggles. It was raining so hard the trees were hunching over, tapping on the windows, as if the weather was bad enough that they would want to join their conversation. The green hills rippled like leafy waves along the horizon.
"—she's been crying all week," rambled a girl, on and on, in-between mouthfuls of whatever synthetic mystery feed they were pushing on them. "They won't tell where they sent him."
"I told her it was a bad idea to date other patients," said a know-it-all.
"You mean test subjects," laughed the first.
Luna threw up, a single great heave spreading stunned silence and blood across the table.
* * *
Water felt nice. There was a taste in the back of her throat that would not go away, almost acid-like, both pleasant and revolting. It was different. It was unwelcome. Sitting on the edge of her bed, Luna fiddled with the lights, mesmerizing herself with the ebb and flow of the walls' soft glow. The cleansing hall had found nothing wrong with her, though the voice had told her to do the walk twice. She held up her hand, spreading her fingers, remembering the blood on her palm. Red. There was no such colour in her room, save for hidden under her skin.
Snuggling into her enveloping bed, Luna curled into a ball. The incident in the dining hall had put her on edge, and the wires crept out while she was still awake; shiny little worms drawn out by the escaping light to feed on dreams she could not recall.
* * *
Luna dug her middle finger nail into her thumb over and over, watching the row of little crescent moons slowly grow faint. The researcher tapped a pen on the table, perhaps to catch her attention, perhaps not. The moons were disappearing slower now. She became gradually aware of an unexpected dampness between her legs. Did she forget to dry properly after leaving the white hall? Tap, tap, went the pen.
"Amun says she had a dream where she was searching for something," he said. "Her progress is exemplary, across the board."
"Amun?"
The researcher pointed to Luna's left with the dreadful pen. On the other side of the glass was the black-haired Red. A mesmerizing landscape of empty rooms spread out behind her, a geometric desert. Amun was in high spirits, inching closer and closer to the edge of her chair with each smiling response. If she enjoyed her interview any further, she might end up on the floor.
"What did you dream about last night, Luna?"
Luna stifled a gasp as the dampness spread down her right thigh. She imagined the sound of water splashing across the floor. It made her feel sick.
"It's okay if you can't recall the particulars," said the researcher in what passed for a soothing tone. "Anything at all is fine."
"Warmth," she offered, faintly. "S-sunlight."
A great thud shuddered along the glass walls, with enough sudden force to cause Luna's researcher to flick his pen out of his hand. Amun was pressed against the glass, her researcher stunned and seated behind her. The red-robed girl's eyes were wide with delight, her lips mouthing something indecipherable into the fogging pane.
I am everywhere now, came a voice, soft and close as a lover's. Luna's eyes welled up as the dampness spread down her legs, every opening threatening to force out what was inside. Amun's eyes rolled back in her head, mouth agape. With a great spasm her body tore open like a hollow paper doll, spilling out a torrent of clear amber liquid. Luna's researcher was out of the room in an instant, shoes squeaking over a wet floor. The amber liquid sloshed and grew, a pulsating entity. It swallowed up Amun's researcher, seat and all, mixing his particles into the soup like sugar into tea. Luna pushed her hands between her legs and squeezed, unwilling to tear her eyes away. Amun's skin was smeared across the glass like a wet newspaper, slowly flaking away in the churning amber squall, threatening to break free of its small cube with every swell.
Luna looked down, finding the sight of amber between her legs, slick across the tiled floor. It was enough to tease out a sob. Some primal switch within her was flicked, sending her rushing out of the room, unnecessary thoughts hammering in her head. She flew by row after row of empty glass rooms. Only another row and a turn and she would be in the open, free of the glass maze. She went too fast into the turn, sliding on her wet soles into the wall. Amun's hand, completely unscathed, reached down as if to help her up. Luna slapped it out of the way, scrambling into the hallway's corner. Jerking her head to the side she saw nothing but empty glass cubes. Faint screams could be heard beyond the white hall. A klaxon sounded, red lights flooding everything in the tinge of her forgotten dreams. Luna breathed heavy, frantic breaths, trying to steal more air than she could manage.
"This is our last hello," cooed Amun, hair swaying around her head as she leaned forward. She smiled like a child finding a stray kitten on the road. "Soon we will never be apart. Your body responds, even if you don't."
Luna tried to force out words, but could only bleat and whine. The dampness was a vague sensation now. She felt warmth spreading. The clouds rolled back to reveal the sun.
"You're quivering," smiled Amun, that impossible woman. "So many emotions, so many sensations. You're going to shake apart." She reached out a hand again. Luna made to move, but with a dizzying lurch, Amun was cupping her face. Her very skin seemed to ripple, tendrils and droplets of Amun wrapping around Luna, encircling her in a creeping embrace of a million touches, skin melting into skin.
As Luna fell forward, sinking into the warmth, she could hear Amun say, "We are one."
(To be continued…)