Warnings: I don't normally bother, but. This one is purty definately a hurt/comfort story, so if you don't like that sort of thing don't read it.
It's set after an ep 23 set after my own 'Rei's Present 2 (L)' ^_^
#include "stddisclaimer2.h"
Suika Roberts
Presents
Rei's Present
Asuka
I was useless. I couldn't even move, just sitting there, in the Eva, watching. Shinji had to be launched, and then she beat it by herself.
Took her prog knife and started cutting it open, and by the time she reached half-way, it blew itself up. She didn't stop screaming the whole time.
I huddle lower in front of my Eva, and wait to die.
I couldn't stand the looks I was getting, so I left. No one tried to stop me, or no one that I saw, anyway.
_-_
I groan, the pain throughout my body almost matching the desolation in my soul. I wish I'd just hurry up and die, but I haven't yet.
'You're awake, good,' a soft voice says in my ear.
'Wha?' I manage, but don't bother to open my eyes.
The soft weight I hadn't noticed pulls back from my side, and the chill emphasizes the strange sense of loss. 'We need to get some food into you, you're badly malnourished,' it says, and a blanket falls back over me as its owner slips out.
I almost fall back asleep, but the soft hands shifting me into a sitting position stop me.
The voice, which I can almost place, speaks again, 'This is soup. You are going to eat it, OK?'
'No,' I say, my eyes still closed.
'You will eat it. I would prefer not to have to force you, but I do know the techniques, and you are too weak to stop me.'
I open my eyes at the threat, wondering who could be so blunt, and it becomes obvious, 'Rei.'
'Souryuu. Are you going to eat?' She has this almost hopeful look on her face as she speaks.
'Yes,' and I reach for the spoon, intending to drop it.
'You are too weak, still. I will feed you, and you will eat.'
'No,' I close my mouth, look down, and turn my head away.
'They were going to discard you. They did, actually, discard you. They feel that you have no remaining value. Are you going to prove them right?'
'And how did you get me, then?'
'I asked. It was that or let you rot in the awful situation they were going to leave you in until you starved yourself to death.'
'And they just let you have me?'
'I told them I wanted another pet, and that I would not let it interfere with my duties. And I signed a paper saying they could take you back if, in the oppinion of three independent shrinks, my having you was adversely affecting me,' she smiles, a look I've never seen directed at a human before, 'eat.'
'OK,' I tell her, and open my mouth when she brings the spoon close.
After she feeds me, she sits, watching me, holding my hands, occasionally brushing one across my face. I wonder at the soft look in her eyes, then remember I've seen it directed towards her Godzilla before. Thinking of her, where is the lizard.
'Where is Godzilla?' I ask, then shift uncomfortably, my bladder suddenly making itself known.
'She's in her bag, asleep. I don't think she finds you anywhere near as interesting as I do.'
I gape at her, bladder momentarily forgotten, 'You find me interesting?'
'Of course,' she smiles, and strokes my hands with her fingers, then stands, 'Let's get you to the toilet, OK?'
I nod, wondering how she knows.
_-_
'Why?' I ask her, having worried over the question for quite a while, and through two separate meals.
'Why what?'
'Why do you find me interesting?'
'I don't know. It is enough that I do,' and she smiles, and brushes my hair back from my face.
I tuck myself deeper into Rei's grasp. She murmors sleepily, rubs her face over my hair, and hugs me loosely. I open my eyes, get a blurry glimpse of her bare arm and chest, and let them close again.
She wakes me in the morning, 'Let's get you fed. I need to go in today, so I'm leaving after breakfast.'
'You're leaving?' the quaver in my voice is unmistakeable, and embarassing.
'I'll be back as soon as I can, but there's a spare phone on the dresser, and my number is on speed dial one.'
'OK,' I say, feeling my heart race, my breath come faster, the walls start to twitch, waiting for Rei to leave the room.
She wraps me in her arms, 'No, it isn't OK, is it?'
I shake my head, my heartrate slowly dropping back to normal, gasping.
'Lets get you fed, then we'll decide what to do, OK?'
I nod, still shaking.
_-_
'You can watch from here, OK?'
I nod, feeling odd to be here, on the outside, looking in on the simulation plug chamber.
'Asuka,' Shinji says, his eyes all shifty, 'It is good to see you,' he pauses, 'I was worried.'
'Rei will take care of me,' I tell him, then close my eyes as what I just said rings through my mind.
'Good,' Shinji says, 'I'm glad,' oblivious to just how deeply I meant that.
Without Eva I was nothing. Then Rei came, and she.
Without Rei . . .
I don't think I'd have to worry about starving.
_-_
She notices me trembling, and holds me close, stroking my hair, for a long time, then leans over, 'I've got to go. I'll be right over there, OK?'
'No,' I tell her, 'But I think I can cope,' I force my lips into a smile.
She touches my cheek, 'Good.'
'Kaworu-kun,' Rei greets my replacement amiably.
'Ayanami-kun,' he replies.
'Rei,' I greet her, wrapping possesive arms around her.
'Asuka,' she leans back into my embrace.
Kaworu smiles, 'You're like me, Ayanami-kun,' he says.
With a sickening suddennes, it all makes sense, 'You're the last,' I tell him.
He nods.
'And Rei-chan was made, like Eva,' my voice cracks with unshed tears.
She nods, blinking, placing a comforting hand on my own.
'They plan to strip away everyone's walls, remove their A.T. fields, and make them into a god,' Kaworu says.
'Will I still have Rei-chan?' I ask, cutting straight to the core.
'You will be Ayanami, as much as you will be Asuka, and four and a half billion other people.'
'No. Definately not.'
'Humans only? Or animals as well?' the right corner of Rei's lips lifts, 'It might be nice to be Godzilla.'
'I don't know. It depends on how successful they are.'
'No,' Rei says, 'I don't think so.'
_-_
'Ibuki,' Rei greets her, 'We need to talk.'
'What is it, Rei-chan?' she asks.
I barely keep myself from growling, but grip her more possesively.
Ibuki smiles, and ruffles my hair, 'You can call me Maya, and don't worry, Asuka-chan, I'm not poaching.'
'You'd better not,' I tell her.
She laughs, and chuckles my chin, 'I'm after a woman who will never notice me,' she shrugs, 'So I've no reason not to be nice.'
'Do you know what the Instrumentality of Man project is?' Rei cuts through our banter.
'Some big expensive project of SEELE.'
'It intends to take four and a half billion people and try to make them into one god,' I tell her.
She blinks, then faults, 'Rei-chan?'
'It will destroy everyone's A.T. field, and the rest of it is supposed to just happen,' she shakes her head, 'I don't think it will.'
'So they're planning on exterminating the rest of the human race, so that maybe they can make a perfect being out of them?' she shakes her head, 'It would be kinder to use tailored biocides to kill us all.'
'You know things, and know how to know things,' Rei says, 'So.'
'Right,' she says, and walks away.
_-_
Ibuki is snogging Akagi in the hall. Akagi looks as surprised as I feel.
Ibuki breaks off the kiss, smiles at the doctor, 'Seize the day, Sempai,' and walks off, her hips swaying gently.
_-_
'What is down there?' Kaworu asks, leaning against a wall next to our path.
'Lillith. The spear is in orbit,' Rei says, and we walk along, not having paused, or even broken stride.
This time, Akagi is snogging Ibuki. She has one hand inside the smaller woman's jacket, the other on her butt, both moving rhythmicly. Ibuki is moaning happily, rocking her hips against the tall woman's thigh as they kiss deeply, with a lot of tongue.
Rei pulls me along after a moment.
_-_
She comes out of the bathroom, as usual, in just a towel.
I set Godzilla back on the floor, and she gives me an annoyed look before she stalks under the bed.
I stand, take Rei's towel, and drop it on the floor, then lean in and kiss her. She lets me press her up against me, moaning ever so softly, then trips me, hooking one of my feet out from under me while pressing her weight forward. I topple back onto the bed, and she straddles me, shoving the straps of my school jumper down my shoulders.
I run my hands in small circles on her hips, and she smiles, starts to unbutton my shirt, then, after about four, frowns and rips it open. I only hear one button clatter against a wall. She shoves it down, trapping my arms further, and begins a methodical examination of my torso, starting with the fat-pad on my belly, then working her way out to my sides, then back to the middle up my ribs, moving slowly, watching me the whole time.
Her face is so intent, so focused. It's wonderful. She's looking at me, not just my body, but me, her her eyes wide, her smile twitching up whenever I react specificly to her touch. She gets to my bra, and frowns, tracing the underside of my breasts.
She works her a hand into each cup, gripping each firmly and tugging hard, trying to separate them. The material strains, but doesn't give. She takes her hands out and puts them on either side of me.
She traces her nose up the line from my belly-button to my sternum, then climbs off, standing at my feet, 'Up,' and she grabs my shirt and pulls.
I stand, and she pulls my head down, kisses me. She keeps kissing me, even as her hands reach around behind me and unfasten the skirt of my jumper, pulling it down to pool about my ankles. She yanks my shirt off, tugging the still-buttoned cuffs over my hands, then dropping it as well. She plays with the clasp of my bra, her tongue sliding over mine, then grabs the back strap on either side and pulls until it rips free. It falls loose between us, held up only by the pressure of our bodies together, even as she reaches for my panties. She shoves them down to mid-thigh, then shoves me back onto the bed.
She strips them off, and drops them into the pile. I smile at the intent way she thumps up over me on her hands and knees.
'Up,' she orders, gesturing towards the head of the bed.
I shove myself further onto the bed, going sideways because the bed isn't very wide.
'Good,' she says, and drops full-length against me, and kisses me, a contented moan in her throat. She smiles as she shoves herself back, sitting straddle my thighs, and continues from where she left off, coming back out from my sternum over my breasts. She takes a long time on them, crossing back and forth, over my nipples, above them, below them, smiling as I twitch, moan, and whine. After a time that is entirely too much and not even enough, she moves on, pausing to map the hollows between chest, shoulder, and collarbone before going back out my collarbones, running gentle, firm fingers all over them, then down my shoulders and up my neck, pressing on my trachea just hard enough for me to feel it. Her fingers, firm everywhere else, trace my eyelids gently, barely brushing over the soft flesh. I can almost feel my eyelashes sway back upright again.
I let my head roll back, stretching my neck, as she kneads my forehead.
Soft wet warmth lets me know she's kissing the taut flesh, and I moan happily, my hands sliding up her sides to tangle in her shaggy pale hair.
She pulls back, smiling, 'Mine,' she growls, her hands on my shoulders.
'Mine,' I agree, with a sharp nod.
She nods back.
I drop my hands to her shoulders, and lean up, kissing the point of her sternum. She moans, a soft, breathy sound, and wraps her hands into my hair, pulling rather hard. I whimper, and she presses her breast against my face. It is so soft, and after an instant's worry about suffocation, I moan happily against it. I push her back, just a little, and begin a slow, thorough exam of her breast, from the lovely curves, its underside, where it sags ever so slightly, a single decreasing radius curve from her ribs to her nipple, side to side, perfect, not quite symetrical, a little sharper on the side near her sternum, softer, wider, on the outside. The slightly concave curve from just below her collarbone to where it curves back out again to her nipple. I trace these curves first with my eyes, then my fingers, then my lips and tongue and face.
I roll us, so I'm kneeling between her legs, and carefully trace the altered curves of her other breast.
An indeterminate time later, I pause to catch my breath, intoxicated by the lovely salt taste of her, and she throws her weight against me, rolling us onto my back, and insinuates her leg in between mine, pressing gently against me. I rock back against her, her lovely slender form pressing impossibly lightly against mine, and she kisses my neck between sweet, lovely, little gasps. She moans, and tucks her chin over my shoulder, rocking slower, and sudden realization is quite enough to bring me off, too.
I pull the blanket up from one side of the bed, then roll us into it a bit further, both of us on our sides.
Rei gives me a sleepy smile, and curls up against me, her face tucked against my shoulder.
I spend several minutes trying to find a comfortable position, then give up, accepting one of the less-uncomfortable ones, and let myself not think.
_-_
Shinji practically bounces into the room, practically dragging Kaworu.
'You do know he's the last, right?' I ask him, pointing at Kaworu with my chin.
'Last?' he asks, looking cutely confused. I ponder that for a moment, then realize it's much the way Rei would look, if she were ever to let confusion show.
'Angel,' Kaworu says gently.
Shinji faults, hard, 'That's a bad joke. A very mean joke.'
'It isn't a joke,' Rei says.
'No,' he says, and starts to cry.
Kaworu cuddles him to his shoulder, 'Your father is involved in something called the Instrumentality of Man project. It's goal is to create a god by destroying every human's A.T. field, and merging them.'
'That's genocide,' Shinji says, sniffling.
'What if they succeed?'
'You've still killed four and a half billion people,' he says, 'How do we stop them?'
'The equipment is here,' Rei says, 'It is large, bulky, expensive, delicate, and we now know where it is. It took them ten years to make it, and if we destroy it, it will take them much longer to rebuild it, since the Angel threat is over, with one Angel fewer than expected,' she smiles.
'Good,' Shinji says, straightening, 'When, and how?'
'Tonight. SEELE has been holding frequent meetings with your father, and I fear something will happen soon. We will sorte the Eva into Central Dogma at 1900. We will destroy equipment there, and finish by 1930. At 1945 we will break into Terminal Dogma, and destroy the rest of the equipment.'
_-_
'Eva Shougouki, Nigouki, Zerogouki, hashin junbi!' Misato says at 1855.
I wait, impatient, to see if Nigouki will move for me, if I've patched whatever psychic hole let my ability to pilot escape. The locks disengage, and pull out of the way.
At 1858, 'Eva guntai, lift off!' she orders. The final locks release, and my shoulders sag forward weighted down with auxilary power packs, and I crawl after Zerogouki down the tunnel to Central Dogma, 'The antenna is in the main control room, as are the Magi. Both need to be destroyed,' Ritsuko says, a little hitch in her voice.
I've never engaged in vandalism before, I smile, and now I'm going to destroy trillions of dollars worth of equipment. What a way to start a hobby.
'The antenna is under the control deck, in the concrete,' Maya says over the comms, and a diagram appears in front of us. The Magi are raised, like when Ritsuko fought an Angel for them. It makes it much easier to tear one off, throw it on the ground, and stomp it flat. Small chunks escape, rolling or bouncing away, but I don't think anything important does. The liquid nitrogen coolant is spilling everywhere, and the concrete is spalling in the cold. I give the concrete around the antenna a spinning roundhouse kick, and it cracks, 'Good,' Ritsuko says, 'The Magi have been dealt with, and that cracked the antenna. It's down to ten percent efficiency.'
Rei kicks it from the other side. The whole structure collapses, raining concrete and steel.
'Target Destroyed,' Maya reports.
Shinji is crushing bits of the Magi which have rolled from their places, Kaworu sitting on his shoulder, with a safety-line to keep him from falling off.
'Good. Still no alarms. Proceed to Terminal Dogma,' Misato orders.
'The doors are open all the way,' Maya tells us, 'Proceed at the best possible speed.'
We jog down the corridors, then head down, all three of us on the single straining lift-cable.
'The important items are on the destroyer, and in the bank of equipment behind the figure. The banks on either side were very expensive, but only speed up the process,' Ritsuko repeats the briefing, Terminal Dogma once more overlaid as a colorcoded wireframe on reality.
We drop the last few Eva-lengths to the ground, one at a time.
I drop first, and take off flat-out, charging through the open door and into the pool of LCL. I grab the destroyer, continuing to run a few more steps, and use that momentum to swing it up, letting it fly into the back wall. It crumples, crushing the huge racks of equipment, gouts of liquid helium freezing whatever they touch on contact. I pull myself out, stomping everything until it's a uniform two feet high. When I look up, Rei has destroyed the left-hand bank, which might have been able to produce a more limited range field.
Shinji is kneeling near the door, one hand on the ground, head bent.
'Shinji, what's wrong?' Misato asks, finally.
'I stepped on him. No, I stomped on him. Splat! Little bloody red spot,' his voice is shakey.
'Who?'
'Father. Splat!' a little hysterical.
'Make sure you crush him well,' Rei says, 'He had Adam grafted to his palm.'
'Yes,' Shinji says, still shakey, then proceeds to twist and scrape at a spot with Shougouki's foot. I can feel the A.T. fields from the other side of the room. With a little *Crack* that barely echos once, the smaller one fails, and Shougouki's foot plunges into the concrete to her ankle.
Rei and I rip the final rack apart, dropping some parts into the LCL, and stomp the rest of them.
'Is that good?' Rei asks.
'All known components of the Instrumentality of Man project have been destroyed.'
'Redeploy,' Misato orders, 'We'll await further developments from more defensible positions.'
'Ryoukai,' Rei answers, and we follow her back to the cable. We ride back up one at a time.
_-_
Rei cuddles me in her lap, her plug suit warm against my face, 'You did good, Asuka,' she tells me, stroking my hair.
Kaworu is cuddling Shinji. Maya is cuddling Ritsuko.
Misato is standing by herself, looking miserable, until, 'Come here,' Maya says, waving her over. Misato looks nervous for a bit, then walks over.
Maya waves her down, then gathers her into a hug, squishing her up against Ritsuko.
The Eva kneel against the platform we're on, umbilical cables trailing from the room, and the external alarms are on again, as are the news feeds.
'Do you think they'll belive it?' Misato asks.
'They should,' Ritsuko says, 'Since we used the proper codes, and NERV assets have been compromised before. It is not unbelievable that your father could have been taken by an Angel, and done all of this damage.'
'A lot of it has Eva sole-prints all over it, though,' Shinji says.
'That was from trying to step on the little bastard,' Ritsuko smiles, I can hear it in her voice.
'I don't know if they'll buy it,' Kaworu says, 'But it would be nice.'
_-_
We wake up as the alarms go off. A quick check of the monitors shows that it's everyone showing up for the day shift.
'Look at this!' Maya says, reading one of the news feeds.
'Investigating anonymous tips, UN Security forces have confirmed that SEELE, the council charged with fighting the Angel threat, diverted trillions of dollars into a plan to kill every man, woman, and child on the planet. Several members are still at large, but the ringleaders have been captured,' Ritsuko reads the first paragraph.
'Sounds good,' Misato says, 'But don't get your hopes up too high. They have Seven Evangelion Mass Production Types finished or nearly finished. If they can spin this against us,' she draws her index finger across her throat.
_-_
It's been a week, and no attack. They executed Kiehl, on public television. The live audience was convinced it was him.
_-_
Six months, since we destroyed equipment worth more than a half-dozen second-world nations. The UN is restructuring after the SEELE debacle.
Unless it's just a trick, to lure us into complacency.
_-_
A year of mild paranoia. Maya says there's no sign that the UN restructure wasn't on the up-and-up, or that any of SEELE survived.
So they've invited us all to the wedding. Misato, Ritsuko, and Maya look lovely in their gowns. Ritsuko's hair is blue, now, not the pale not-quite-white of Rei's hair, but a deep sea blue. Kaworu and Shinji look relaxed, but I catch Shinji adjusting a concealed weapon. The suit he's wearing apparently fits differently than what he normally wears.
Rei and I are carrying, of course. Maya, Ritsuko, and Misato as well, although I wonder what the seamstress thought of putting holster-pockets in their wedding dresses. I'd never have known if Maya hadn't pointed them out.
Somehow I catch a bouquet. Rei catches another, and the third bounces off of the crowd trying to catch it, and lands in Shinji's hands.
He starts to laugh, and doesn't stop until Kaworu kisses him.
---
plan:
rei fights off the ring-angel
rei obtains asuka
rei hassles asuka into submission
rei returns asuka to proper function.
rei decides what to do with what she knows about Third Impact, and seele's
plans.
rei and asuka save the world.
---
log:
2000 July 29: started
2000 December 16: continued
2002 September 24: Continued this thing
2003 April 8: Watched _Death and Rebirth_ and _End of Evangelion_ again, and decided this would be a good place to work it off. added more to the plan section ^_^
2003 September 14: finally watched 21-23 again, and realized my braino in the intro-bit.
2003 September 14: Wrote a lemon scene! And destroyed lots of equipment. Maybe finished this bugger.
2003 October 3: A couple tiny edits. It still needs a title-block.
2004 November 5: Title Block
2009 June 15: edited for posting to ff.n
