A field of flowers, lilacs to be precise, wave in the wind of the setting sun. Orange and red hues sprinkle the sky with a pleasant and warming glow. She stands there, gazing at me, atop a hill. The breeze through the flowers whispers a tune that is all too familiar. The sound of freedom; the sound of wonder and joy; the angels know the song like they know how high their halos sit atop their heads; and the animals know it just as they know their mating calls. This I have heard before, but each time, it is different. Fathomless wonder assault my mind as I make my way to her. I wave to her to catch her attention, and she waves back as well. I hurry on and rush through the flowers, feeling the sun set as I near. Atop the hill with her, I walk slowly. She does not move. Once I reach her, a flash of light appears, and I am greeted with nothing but a mirrored cage. I can view the rolling hills of lilacs, and I can see the sun setting with its gorgeous colors; but I cannot feel them anymore. I cannot brush my hand along the flowers; I cannot feel the wind against my face; I feel the warm sun touching my skin. All I can feel is the coldness of my cube, my prison, my confinement, and gaze at myself; a woman of alabaster skin, demonic red eyes, and hair the color of silver and blue. I talk, but no one answers; I sing, but no one listens, and I wait, but no one ever comes to save me.
Rei's eyes creak open once the dream ended. The same as always. She thought to herself. The dream has stayed with her for as long as she could remember. From when she could first dream; that dream was all she could really think about. Each day was just another day of trying to understand it. Now however, she felt no closer to understanding it then when she first remembered it. She sat up and moved her feet to the floor, feeling the weight of sleep catch her slightly. She stumbles putting her house shoes on, but recovers swiftly. She knew what she was, but she could not let the others know. She had lived this life many times before. She had been alive before, and had prior memories, but she could not recall which number she was in the cycle. The last number she remembered was six; so perhaps that was her reincarnation that she was on. It's just the same.
She walked over to her desk in her room, sat down at it and opened a journal of sorts; a journal of her past lives so to speak. She flipped through it, looking at each page slowly. Each one read the same thing with slight variation.
Name: Rei Ayanami
Birthdate: ?-?-?
What do I remember?: I am Rei Ayanami. A father figure I look to is Gendo Ikari, Shinji's father. I feel close to Shinji Ikari. I pilot EVA UNIT-00, the prototype EVA with exceptional skill. I had the same dream tonight as I have for some time. Looking at myself on a hill. Purple flowers. Setting sun. Mirror prison. I like the color blue. My eyesight is not perfect. I have red eyes. I am fourteen years old?
The last sentence, about her age, and about her eyesight, never seemed right. She could see fine. She did not feel 14 years old. She felt much older. That was beside the point however. Rei took a pen and began writing on the next page.
Name: Rei Ayanami
Birthdate: ?-?-?
What do I remember?: I am Rei Ayanami. A father figure I look to is Gendo Ikari, Shinji's father. I feel close to Shinji Ikari. I pilot EVA UNIT-00, the prototype EVA with exceptional skill. I had the same dream tonight as I have for some time. Looking at myself on a hill. Purple flowers. Setting sun. Mirror prison. I like the color blue. My eyesight is alright. I have red eyes. I am not fourteen years old. I feel older.
She felt like this would become the routine soon. She closed the book and dressed, grabbing a pair of glasses and placing them on her face before leaving the room. She felt awkward with them on, and felt as if she did not need them, so she went back and placed them in the spot they were in. Why do I have those? Did I… need them before?
No one was awake yet. Rei moved over and sat down in front of the television, in what she deemed Asuka's spot. Asuka took up the couch in the morning, making Shinji cook breakfast and making Rei sit elsewhere, but the couch always looked comfortable. At first she sat with her hands atop her lap, but gradually fell over into the soft couch. It felt quite relaxing to simply let oneself go and embrace the action of 'being lazy,' as Asuka put it. She heard a door close and immediately sat up, placing her hands back in her lap. "Good morning Asuk… Rei? Is Asuka not up yet?" Shinji exclaimed from the hallway. Rei shook her head, not knowing how to respond. She felt something nagging in the back of her mind, but she could not place it. "Well… Do you… want something to eat Rei?" He said, making his way to the kitchen.
"Toast with jam," She said, staring blankly at him. The same as always.
Breakfast was uneventful. No one spoke. Asuka still had not come out of her room. "She never misses breakfast."
Rei shook her head.
"Can you think of any reason why she wouldn't wanna come out here?" Shinji asked, but received another blank eyed shaking head from Rei.
"Should we… check on her?"
"Perhaps," She replied in the same dry, quiet tone as the day before.
"Alright… let's… let's go."
Shinji stood up from the kitchen table and made his way slowly with Rei in tow. They crept through the hallway, trying not to wake the demon that could possibly still be sleeping in its room. They moved up to the door and knocked as quietly as they could. No response was heard on the other end. "Asuka? Are you awake?" Shinji asked timidly. The sound of silence permeated the area of the apartment soon after his question remained unanswered.
"Is she there?" Rei asked finally to break the silence.
With a shrug Shinji turned back and knocked louder. Shinji slid the door open after the fourth knock, and looked inside. Asuka's bed lay there without its owner, the sheets turned back in a rush. "What happened?" Rei asked as she looked in, that same dry tone now gaining some form of emotion; shock and puzzlement.
"Asuka? Are you in here?" Shinji asked again before entering.
They both looked around, finding little besides a note that looks to be in Misato's handwriting. Once back in the kitchen they read over the note together.
"Hey Shinji! Hey Rei! Just letting you know, Asuka's fine. I figured you two would go snooping in on her eventually, so I took the liberty to write this out beforehand. Now, don't worry. Asuka is fine. We just have to run to the lab for a bit for some tests with her EVA. You're tests will be coming up soon! You better be studying! We should be back by tomorrow morning, so don't be worrying. I'll be dropping her off and I might have time to swing by so you all better be preparing a big dinner for me!
See ya!
Misato"
The handwriting is undeniably Misato's. Rei goes back to the living room, watching the scenery outside the window with her knees curled up around her chest. Birds sing as they fly through the air and the clouds roll by peacefully and serenely. This feels… familiar. She thought to herself. But… not the same either.
"I guess there is not much we can do. Um… do you wanna watch TV?" Shinji suggested.
With a light nod, Rei turned to the television, waiting for whatever program Shinji would pick so they could pass the time until lunch.
"Now what happened? How'd she get in?" Vick's voice felt hollow in the car.
"Don't ask me! I thought I locked the door behind me!" Ginger's voice sounded frazzled and panicked. The breach was almost an hour ago. Luckily no one else had woken up once Asuka hit the floor. Her mask had fallen off, but Ginger had slipped it back on to keep administering the gas to keep her asleep. They rode in Vick's car, a cramped SUV due to all the equipment he moved around for the experiment.
"Alright. Well. How else did she get in? Was she not sleeping?"
"As far as I know, yes. They always go to bed at about the same time. They don't deviate because they can't leave! Asuka must have stayed up cause of that dream you guys made me put in!" She said, punching his arm a little.
"Shit! Sorry! I didn't think it would have that much of an effect! We'll get her to AGP-1 and get her put under. Her cell is complete anyway. The other two should be completed tomorrow."
"Ahead of schedule? Man, how much money did you give those guys?"
"Don't ask me. Ask the Project creator. He's the one who's got dough. I don't know why he volunteered his own son into it, but damn, he is serious."
"Whoa what? Shinji is Director Lain's son?"
"Yup. Sure is. Dunno why he did it though. Makes sense why they made him the first subject though. He's been through the most shit, that's for sure."
"I beg to differ but whatever."
"Who has then?"
She looked at him, dead in the eyes. "Do you know how long it took to fix Rei's memory? Director Lain gave us a schedule she needed to follow. Any deviation from that, we needed to erase it and fix it. Each time she brushed her teeth before brushing her hair, bam; gone. Every time she puts on those glasses and realizes she sees better with them on, bam; memories gone. We have to keep her a hollow shell so that the memories we imprint will take. But imprinting those memories while the others are already imprinted? It's fucking hard. Her brain doesn't get why the memories of the last week aren't good enough. It doesn't understand how remembering to put on her glasses is a bad thing now. It is so hard wired… That it might just break soon. Those memories might come back. That's why we need to hurry and use the final imprinting method on her. It's the only way to finish it and make her what the Director wants her to be."
"We can't final imprint anyone. That means that she can't, and won't, ever be herself again. That's the last phase of the Project; reintroduction into society. Final imprinting fucks that all up, unless the director has a way to take off final imprints."
"Like that is going to happen Vick. How many reintroduction experiments have worked? I've seen a few, but they all ended with the subject dying in right at or less than five years. Would that be a success for the Director? I doubt it. If so, we work for one fucked up man."
"I don't know his mind, but I hope it is not that extreme."
"We are erasing minds of people and making them think their lives are extraordinary. Subject 1: a twenty year old male that is smaller, shorter, but has a great personality, reduced to a whiney twenty year old who things he is fourteen years old and now despises his father, because he thinks he does not care about him at all. Oh! And he thinks his mother is dead! Subject 2: An eighteen year old girl who signed up for the Project as a test subject; she was recommended for the Project because she had no family to speak of and had only two friends she could rightfully name. She was reduced from a bubbly and happy eighteen year old, to a clean slate of near perfection. She doesn't have a care in the world because she has no idea what the world is right now. And finally, subject 3: a nineteen year old, vibrant, smart, and agile woman who was, and still is, an up and coming in the field of gymnastics. She signed up thinking it would be a good 'PR stunt' as her agent put it. She is now a bitchy and mean fourteen year old girl who thinks she is the best thing in the world. She also thinks it's her fault that her mom killed herself!" Ginger ended the explanation with a yell. "Yes Vick, our Director Lain is one fucked up man."
Silence was the sole topic of conversation while the car began rolling into AGP-1; a building that enclosed a lab with tanks for the subjects to interact and have their facilitated memories worked. Everything was simulated up until they were removed to the apartment. The lab was being redone, and the subjects could not stay in their tanks. The time out, a total of three weeks, had damaged their fragile psyches greatly, but with the most fragile of them going back, the rest of the project should be underway once more.
"We're here. Let's get her inside and hooked up to her tank. I don't know how much gas that mask has in it," Ginger replied as they pulled up.
The drive to the new lab from the apartment is not a long one. Twenty minutes at most for the SUV that Vick drives. They took the twenty one year old limp body and deposited her in the same tank as before, hooking her up with all the necessary equipment before starting the simulations once more and submerging her.
"There. Mission accomplished. Med already took care of you before I got there right?" Vick asked before heading to his car.
"Yeah don't worry. Just got spooked is all. Thanks Vick." She said with a smile.
"Alright, good. I'll see ya around," he said with a wave.
"Vick, could you… drop me off by my apartment?"
"Why's that?"
"I didn't bring my car with me. I left it there and got my friend to drop me off. I'm sorry."
"Sure. Why not? You need to drop by the Project apartment again? You remembered to lock the doors right?"
A flush of worry went over Ginger. Her bare legs in her skirt shivered and she could feel the goosebumps flowing over her. But then it subsided, once she remembered how she left the apartment.
"Yup. Locked the doors. No worries."
Shinji glanced down the hall and saw a pale light coming from the cracked door of the locked room. It was cracked, due to the lock being turned, without the door being fully closed. Once Rei had gone to bed, Shinji made his way down the hall, not wanting her to worry about anything. Who's there? Misato? Asuka? Did they get back early?
He moved down the hall with a sloth's stride. Finally reaching the door, he opened it, and saw the setup of computer wires and all the different gadgets attached to it, along with the filtration system for their air vents. He saw it all, and understood none of it. He moved forward to the small stack of papers, and rifled through them, looking for anything he could understand, and then he found it; something that made sense to him. He found the project goals for him, Rei, and Asuka. He read them the over and over, until his mind could not take it anymore. Shinji, or rather, Franklin Lain, stared at his hands and the expanse of technology before him, and thought about tearing it apart; his two personalities battling it out for what he should do in the next minute before the knockout and amnesia gas kicked in. His brain, not being able to handle the stress and strain, made him exit the room, and lock it with the key that was still in the door. He threw the key down the garbage disposal before the gas began to start spewing. Franklin Lain, now Shinji Ikari once more, passed out on the couch, inches from his freedom.