Identity Crisis
Chapter 2: Dream On
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. All rights belong to Hideaki Anno, Studio Gainax, Studio Khara, and some other people I don't mention.
A/N: Alrighty, then. Everyone ready for the exciting second chapter of this…thing? I know I am!

She was the strangest girl Shinji had ever laid eyes upon. Unnatural blue hair, unsettling blood red eyes, and a ghostly pale exterior. Covered up in bandages in some sort of white suit, she was definitely not someone he'd often see. But what was she doing here? And what was she doing on a stretcher? Was she really that badly hurt?

Shinji didn't know where he was, but he wanted out. There was a giant purple robot-looking thing next to him, partly submerged in some sort of liquid and restrained by many wires and such. A woman with purple hair almost resembling his teacher, Ms. Katsuragi, except she didn't have her signature "determined and confident smile," and she was instead wearing a red jacket over some sort of black dress or so.

There was also a woman nearby, resembling the school's nurse, Dr. Akagi, though she looked to be the same with her white labcoat, purple shirt, and black pencil skirt. He could also feel the cold, hard stare of his father from above, and as the young boy looked up, he saw Gendo Ikari, dressed in a uniform, white gloves, and glasses that almost hid his eye.

What in the world is going on here? Is this a dream? Am I losing my mind? Numerous thoughts raced through Shinji's head, the poor boy immensely confused and worried. Why was everyone looking at him like this?

Then, all of a sudden, the world quite literally shook, almost like an earthquake. It was all so strong and so sudden that Shinji couldn't help but lose balance and nearly fall down. However, the blue-haired girl in the stretcher fell off with a loud yelp. Debris fell from the ceiling and crashed into the liquid surrounding the giant purple monster.

Instinctively, Shinji ran towards the strange girl, kneeling beside her and trying to help her up. "Are you okay?!" He asked in alarm, though the answer should have been obvious; she was most definitely not okay. She was writhing in pain, gritting her teeth and groaning softly. Upon closer inspection, her face almost reminded Shinji of…

…of Mother.

Shinji awakened from his dream with a grunt. What a weird dream, he thought, before looking at his clock. Now was the time to get up and get ready for school, it seemed. It was early, so of course, the room was still dark…and silent.

Slowly, Shinji helped himself up, rubbing his eyes and yawning softly. As he sat up, he glanced at his nightstand, glancing at his clock again, and then his attention shifted to the thing next to it; a penguin bobblehead with a collar that said "Pen2." Shinji couldn't help but smile slightly, remembering how he got it.

It was a fair amount of time ago, but the young boy still remembered. It was near the end of last year, and at this point of course, students couldn't care less about grades, and instead looked forward to their next break. Ms. Katsuragi, aware of this fact, tried to motivate the students to get good grades on their exams by saying that the students with the highest grades would get a special prize.

Her ploy didn't actually work, though. There were quite a few students who failed regardless, and Shinji was the only one who aced the finals, surpassing even the class rep herself. And the so-called special prize that the boy got as a result was that penguin bobblehead. It wasn't good for much, Shinji admitted, but every time he looked at it, he would always remember Ms. Katsuragi's energy, her sometimes unorthodox teaching methods, and how unprofessional she'd act whenever the substitute teacher Mr. Kaji walked into the classroom for whatever reason.

He flicked the Pen-Pen bobblehead with his left index finger and thumb, seeing its head move as expected. Shinji couldn't help but smile a little bit. If there was anyone who could make Shinji smile, it was his teacher.

Deciding that he had wasted enough time, Shinji made his way out of the bedroom and into the restroom after grabbing his uniform, and then he did his business and wash his hair, before proceeding to get dressed.

After doing so, he made his way out of the restroom and into the main area, finding himself in the same position as yesterday morning; Father was likely out cold, as the place was quiet, except for the quiet hum of the ceiling fan. Proceeding with his usual drill of eating breakfast and making himself a bento box for lunch, Shinji eventually walked out the door, ready to start the day once again.

As expected, the day wasn't all that different from yesterday. People here, people there, sun up there, a familiar looking fiery redhead running over there…wait, what?

"Hey! Hey, you! Ikari, was it?" Asuka Langley Sohryu called over to the unsuspecting Shinji, who pulled out the ear buds connected to his SDAT player, blinking as he looked over at Asuka's direction, stopping dead in his tracks. Oh no, he thought, what could she want with me now?

"Um, yeah," Shinji said nervously, "Hi, Sohryu. Do you…uh, need something from me?" He said nervously. Does she have something malicious planned for me or something, Shinji mentally asked himself.

"Yeah! Well, you see…ah…" Asuka began, her enthusiasm and energy suddenly fading a little bit for some odd reason, "I…need your answers for yesterday's homework," she said, looking away with a frown, almost as if she were bashfully embarrassed. Or maybe she was scanning the area for anyone she knew. How embarrassing would it be to have someone find out I had to get something from this loser? Asuka thought to herself in disgust.

The young boy blinked in surprise. "Uhm…you need the answers? Y-You didn't do the homework?" He asked, almost as if forgetting to do homework was a foreign concept to him.

Well, it wasn't really forgetting to do it, as he would soon find out.

"Well, it's not my fault I couldn't do it!" Asuka exclaimed, her cheeks blushing a nice shade of pink in further embarrassment, "After all, I am from Germany! I've only started learning the Japanese language, and…well, I can't really read the kanji that well, much less write it…" she mumbled, before clearing her throat, "But trust me! I'm a genius! I'll have you know I'm just as intelligent as my father and as beautiful as my mother!" Asuka then said, proudly placing her hands on her hips as she put a smile on her face that seemed a bit awkward to Shinji.

"…Uh-huh. I-I'm sure," Shinji nodded skeptically.

"Stop wasting time already and give me your homework! And make it snappy, or else we'll be late for class, you big dummy!" She said, regaining her zeal.

"Alright, fine, fine!" Shinji sighed, giving in to the Red Devil's demands, "Follow me. You can copy my answers on the way to school, though I'm going to warn you, I didn't really understand the material Ms. Katsuragi explained to us yesterday, so it's not gonna be my fault if she calls us in, okay?" He asked, sincerely nervous that his dear teacher might want to have a talk with the two of them under suspicion they became covert answer partners or something like that. Shaking his head in order to dispel his odd thoughts, he fished out the worksheet from the day before and handed it to Asuka with a soft sigh.

"Thank you very much!" She said, graciously snatching the paper from his hands and taking out a pencil along with her own paper, doing her best to write as she walked with Shinji.

While the redheaded girl was distracted with doing her own homework, the curious young fellow couldn't help but sneak a few peeks at Asuka. He had to admit, she really was pretty. In fact, she was probably one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen. Then again, that was probably only because he didn't often meet girls from Europe.

Shinji couldn't help but make himself look away. If he kept on looking at her like this, he may get caught, assuming Asuka hadn't already noticed. He looked away uncomfortably, though he still walked forward, unable to hold back a small blush. He wasn't used to being like this around girls. Hikari always had a formal aura to her, like a respected queen or something, so Shinji didn't worry about liking her. Then there was Mana from Elementary School, but she was a different story.

"Here you go, Ikari! But don't think I owe you one or anything like that! Once I get a grip on your dumb language, I won't need your help ever again!" She said hotly, giving Shinji his paper back.

"Oh, um, okay then…" Shinji said with a small frown, putting his worksheet back into his bag.

A small silence then happened shortly afterward as the two children continued to walk to school together. Shinji frankly found it uncomfortable and awkward, so after swallowing, he cleared his throat and attempted to strike up a conversation with Asuka. After all, he'd like to get to know someone he just recently met, even if she seems to be mean to him for no apparent reason. Plus, there was just something in his gut that kept bothering him; like he knew her from somewhere before.

"So uh…Sohryu? Why did you decide to move to Japan? You don't really seem to like it here…" He told her.

"It wasn't my choice," she said with a small shrug, "A really good, high-paying job opened up for my dad in Japan, so he made the choice to move over here with me. He probably knows better Japanese I do. After all, this little country is actually the place where my parents met," she said openly. Her responsiveness surprised even her to be honest.

Little did Shinji know, Asuka was feeling the same thing he felt. A sense of strange familiarity that couldn't be let go. Even if she didn't want to admit it, assuming she paid this feeling any mind, she knew in the back of her head that she knew Shinji from somewhere before, and not knowing where frustrated her to no end!

"R-Really? Wow, that's cool, I imagine," Shinji nodded, feeling like he was making progress. It was nice not having to endure an insult from her every two minutes or so.

Wait, how much time passed again?

"Mhm," Asuka nodded, pursing her lips briefly, "Then again, I hear there's a lot of new students like me coming in. After all, Tokyo-3 is the capital of Japan, right? There always seems to be something new in this place. You could almost lose yourself in a place like this," she commented.

"Well…maybe you should get used to it. This place isn't all that special if you ask me," he said earnestly, scratching his head a little bit.

"We'll see about that."

The conversation was short-lived, as Shinji couldn't bring himself to continue it, whether it was because he couldn't think of anything else to say or he didn't want to break the world record of minutes that had gone by without being inconvenienced by Asuka in some way.

So thus, they simply walked, walked, and walked.

"Good morning, class!" Misato Katsuragi said with such energy that bothered some of the more acquiescent students, "How are you all doing today?"

"Good," some of the students replied, most of them responding half-heartedly as usual.

"Glad to hear it!" She said with a smile. A lot of the kids would always wonder how she manages to always be so energetic in the morning, "Alright, class. Now, I—" She began, before being interrupted.

Knock, knock.

The door had been knocked on, before being opened. Mr. Kaji walked in, dressed in his usual blue shirt and red tie, with that laid-back smile and his five o'clock shadow giving an unprofessionally professional ambience to him.

"Hey there, Katsuragi. How you doin'?" He said with a wink, glancing at the students who looked back at him, some wondering why he had disturbed the class, and others thankful for the extra time as they secretly rushed to do the homework they forgot, like Toji, for example.

"What are you doing here?" Misato asked Kaji, instantly irritated as she gave him a glare that could kill butterflies.

Kaji, however, didn't seem to be affected by the glare. Instead, he even chuckled lightly at her, as if he found the look to be cute in some weird way or another.

What a strange man, Shinji thought.

What a gorgeous hunk! Asuka thought.

"I'm just here to give you a new student," he said, before glancing behind him, "Come on now. They won't bite," he said, making way for someone.

A pale girl with blue hair and red eyes walked into the room. Almost everything about her appearance was strange, and some might even say disturbing, yet at the same time, she was…cute, another might say. Even if she was wearing an unfamiliar uniform.

"Come on! Introduce yourself," Kaji said to the girl encouragingly, "You can do it!"

"U-Uhm…m-my name is R-Rei Ayanami," she stammered shyly, putting her hands together, "H-How do you do?"

There was no response for a moment until Kaji cleared his throat, still smiling. "That's the spirit, Rei! Now, do play nice with the other students! Buh-bye! Take care of her, Katsuragi!" He said with another wink, before vanishing.

"H-Hey! Wait a second, you! I didn't—" Ms. Katsuragi began, almost intending to march out of the classroom and give Mr. Kaji a piece of her mind, before deciding against it. Giving a deep sigh, she returned to her desk and looked at Rei. "Alright, then. Ayanami, was it? Sorry about the outburst. Why dontcha sit in front of Shinji? Over there," she said, pointing to Shinji with her pencil.

"Okay," the girl named Rei said with a nod, walking over to the table in front of Shinji and taking a seat.

She's just like the girl from the dream. She looks just like…Mother, Shinji thought. Was this all just a strange coincidence? It couldn't be, could it? The boy didn't often believe in coincidences, after all, but what other explanation could there be? He was hit with the same odd feeling as he did with Asuka. But this one seemed stronger than Asuka, considering this Rei looked so much like his mother for some odd reason. But what could that odd reason just be anyway?

However, before the puzzled youth could think more into this, his thoughts were interrupted when Ms. Katsuragi spoke again. "Alright, class. Now that we have that over with, get out your homework assignments," she said, knocking Shinji back into reality.

Meanwhile, near the back of the room, an irritated Kensuke Aida was wondering just how the hell Shinji was getting girls like Sohryu and Ayanami to sit close to him. Why couldn't he get any pretty girls to sit close to, dammit?

Sneaky bastard. I bet he's paying Ms. Katsuragi some good money to get those girls!

After classes ended for the day, the mysterious Ayanami girl left the school building rather quickly, as did Sohryu. And Toji & Kensuke, for that matter. However, Shinji stayed behind for cleaning duty, being paired up with Kaworu Nagisa.

Kaworu Nagisa was an odd boy, but looking back, he was probably the first friend Shinji actually had made. Shinji had known Kaworu ever since the two of them were little boys. Of course, in the years that have passed, Shinji would rather describe him as "that old friend" rather than a "BFF" like Toji and Kensuke. Still, Kaworu was a good friend, and Shinji was glad he knew him. The older boy had silver hair and typically wore either an orange or purple shirt underneath the standard uniform. Come to think of it, he was also pale and had red eyes, like Ayanami did. Are the two of them by any chance somehow related?

"Is something the matter, Shinji? You look a little down," Kaworu said to Shinji as he cleaned the room. He offered a rather pleasant smile that calmed Shinji down a little bit.

"Well…I wouldn't say I'm down, but I'm just…lost in thought, you might say," the younger boy said, continuing to clean the classroom as well.

"What are you thinking of?" Kaworu asked curiously.

"Well, that new Ayanami girl, actually. She reminds me of you a little bit, so I was wondering if you know anything about her, by any chance."

Kaworu shook his head. "No, as a matter of fact, I don't know her. Your guess is as good as mine, Shinji," he responded simply with a shrug.

"Oh, I see," the brown-haired boy replied, "You know, if you ask me, you two look like you could be brother and sister," he said with a smile.

Kaworu couldn't help but laugh lightly. "You really think so? What a thought."

"Hey, dad. I'm home," Shinji said as he entered his house, taking his shoes off and walking into the main room, dropping his bag on the floor. In peripheral vision, he could spot his father sitting at the dining table along with…Ayanami?

Turning his head to get a better view, Shinji was extremely surprised to see that a stranger like Rei was there, in his own home! What was going on here?

"Um, dad?"

"Oh, hello there, Shinji," Gendo Ikari said in his usual tone of voice. He took his glasses off, briefly pinching the bridge of his nose, before standing up, looking at his son. "I'd like for you to meet Rei Ayanami. She'll be…staying here with us for some time," he announced.

"A-Ayanami's going to be staying here?" Shinji asked in surprise, to which his father nodded in confirmation.

"Yes, she is, so I expect you to be on your best behavior. Understood?" He asked strictly, to which Shinji nodded.

"Do not worry, Mr. Ikari. I have already become acquainted with Shinji in school today," Rei said quietly, her expression never changing, almost like the man next to her.

"So it seems," Father said, "Anyway, I trust that the two of you will get along?"

"Of course," Rei promised with a nod.

"Y-Yeah," Shinji responded, "How do you two know each other anyway?"

"Rei is your cousin, Shinji. Your mother's niece, to be exact. There have been some…complications with her own family, so she's been sent off to live with us," he told Shinji coolly, "This may be sudden, but I think she'll be a good addition to the household," he said, putting a hand on Rei's shoulder.

Shinji simply nodded. So that was why she looked like Mother. He was still a bit shaken up, though. It wasn't exactly often he was told someone was going to live with him from now on. Much less in such a seemingly apathetic manner. And even less a person whom Shinji had just met today.

Still, he had to regain his composure. Since Shinji had returned home late, it was nearly dinnertime, so he took a deep breath and looked at Rei. "So…are you hungry, Ayanami? I can make all of us some dinner."

"Yes, that would be fine," Rei simply answered, still with that eerie, almost robotic expression.

First, a fairly outspoken girl from Germany. Second, a quiet, reserved, and seemingly shy girl. At this point, a British girl could come falling from the sky and come crashing right into Shinji, and the boy probably wouldn't be as surprised as he'd think he'd be.

A/N: So yeah. Chapter 2. Sorry for the delay, my dear readers. I've been pretty damn busy with schoolwork and whatnot, but I hope I delivered. Anyway, the usual drill is there; reviews are greatly welcome, so don't be shy! You know what they say, the more the merrier. Until then, see you next time on Identity Crisis!