A.N. "Blah"- Normal speech
'Blah'- Thoughts


Neon Genesis Evangelion
Rei Wonderland
Proof read by Katherine Hockey

Chapter 4: Down the rabbit hole

"Hello?" An intrusive voice asked, sounding bizarre and unusual to the weary girl. "Hello?" Something nudged her painfully in the ribs, "Please don't be dead..."

Finally, Rei forced open her heavy eyelids, the girl's short, colourless lashes parting grudgingly. The world was covered with a thin film that blurred her sight, rounding the edges and obscuring the details of anything she turned her gaze onto. One thought echoed over and over, chaotic through her normally lucid mind.

'I'm still alive.'

"You're awake!" The voice gasped exuberantly, with what seemed like a faint sigh of relief. "I was worried there, for a second." Why was the voice so familiar?

Rei wondered, allowing her eyes to close. She lifted a hand to rub at the soft flesh at the corners of her eyelids, before slowly blinking open her eyes again.

After her vision cleared, she began to see the face of the stranger and, quite suddenly, she was staring into a pair of very familiar sapphire eyes.

"Pilot Ikari." Her voice came out, hoarse from disuse, in a slightly breathless whisper.

"Pilot Ikari?" The stranger parroted in surprise. "Sorry, but I'm afraid you are mistaken, miss."

"No, I'm not." Rei insisted firmly as she forced herself into a sitting position, lying her palms flat, fingers splayed, against the ground for support. "You are Shinji Ikari, operative of the UN agency NERV. You are the Third Child, designated pilot of the Evangelion Unit-01, son of Gendo and Yui Ikari. You live in Tokyo-3, with Major Misato Katsuragi and Asuka Langley Sohryu, the Second Child, designated pilot of the Evangelion Unit-02."

"Well," The stranger blinked slowly as he examined her, then flashed her a quick smile, face lighting with inner warmth. "That's an impressive little speech, but you must be thinking of someone else." He offered her a hand, and Rei uncertainly accepted it, using him as a brace to climb to her feet. "I'm called the White Rabbit."

Rei studied 'Shinji' and realized, abruptly, that he looked different. His hair, once a rich brown, the colour of cooled caramel, was now a shock of ivory, with rabbit's ears poking out the top of his head at slightly askew angles. He was clad in his traditional school uniform, but also with a checked velvet waistcoat thrown over the top of it.

He reached into the small pocket, retrieving a gilded pocket watch. As he read the time, his russet eyebrows furrowed in anxiety.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear." He mumbled like a mantra, as he hastily shoved the watch back into his jacket. "I must go now, or I shall be late." He glanced at Rei, sketching a rough, half-bow. "I'm sorry, miss, but I must go or I shall be late and that would never do."

He sprinted off down a passageway, leaving a somewhat startled Rei behind. Unsure of what to do, Rei took off after him.

"Pilot Ikari! Where are you?" she cried out in desperation.

Either 'Shinji' could not hear her or did not care because the blue-haired girl received no reply. After running down the long, narrow passageway for roughly three or four minutes, 'Shinji' had come back into view. Rei picked up the pace when suddenly the boy disappeared. She sprinted to the point that 'Shinji' had disappeared. Suddenly, her footing was lost on something... and she was falling into darkness.

Rei was confused. It seemed as if she had been falling for a long time, which meant this hole was extremely deep. That or she was falling incredibly slowly, for she had time to glance about. First, she tried to look down and see what was coming. However, it was too dim to see anything.

Looking about her, she saw the sides of the hole were lined with thick, mahogany bookshelves, as well as the occasional, antique-looking map, the borders exaggerated and the parchment worn and yellowed. Every now and then, a picture would appear on the wall, ornately framed, though the sepia photographs were faded and unfocused. On one of the narrow shelves, she spotted a small, ceramic jar and snatched it as she passed. Scanning it, she smoothed the ripped label with her thumb. 'Orange Marmalade.' A small rumble came from Rei's stomach, but, to her disappointment, she found the jar was empty. With a minute frown, she laid it on the nearest empty shelf.

Rei continued to fall, wondering if the bottom would ever come. She stifled a yarn as fatigue embraced her, but to no avail. The motion of her falling ruffled her hair, but, other than that, she had been falling for so long it had become rather comfortable. Eyes closing, she was about to dose off. Thud!

She landed in an ungraceful heap on a pile of half-rotted sticks and decomposing leaves. After taking a moment to rub her backside, she glanced up only to find another endless passage way. 'Shinji' was still in sight hurrying down it. Realizing there wasn't a moment to lose, Rei jumped to her feet and gave chase after him, watching with half-narrowed eyes as he turned a corner.

"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it is getting!" he marvelled, disappearing from sight.

When Rei rounded the corner, he wasn't there. At the end of the tunnel laid a thick, elaborately carved door. Moved by her inquisitiveness, Rei took hold of the polished brass knob, slowly pushing the door open.

Closing the door after she slipped inside, she found herself inside of a spacious room, which she guessed to be about the same size as Commander Ikari's office. The chamber was lit by ornate lamps hanging from the vaulted ceiling. At least forty doors surrounded the main floor.

Rei, overcome by a sudden feeling of foreboding, tried the door behind her. It had locked behind her. Agitated beneath her calm demeanour, the girl spent the better part of a half-hour trying in vain to open one of the doors.

Giving up, Rei strode back across to the room to try the door she had entered through once more. It was ridiculous to assume it had locked behind her, she mused. Perhaps she'd simply tried the wrong way to open... The door wasn't there anymore

Instead, it had been replaced by a full-length mirror. Rei approached it timidly. Looking into the gold-framed looking glass, shegot a surprise. For the first time since she regained conciseness, she noticed that she was no longer wearing her plug suit. Instead, she was clad in a ruffled, beribboned satin dress. The bell-shaped powder-blue skirt ended just past her knees, revealing starched white stockings. A frilled white apron was tied over the front of the dress. On her feet, she wore a pair of highly-polished black Mary Janes. Uncertainly, she rose a hand to her hair, fingers touching the satin bow carefully. Rei shifted uncomfortably, the tea-length gown swishing around her thin legs. The only things she had ever worn were her school uniform and her NERV issued plug suit.

After examining herself, Rei glimpsed something in the mirrors reflection that had not been there before. Turning on her heel, she crossed to the low, three-legged table, her dress shoes clicking intimidatingly against the wooden floor. Lying on the low table was a small, golden key.

'This should open one of the doors.' Rei thought. Fingers curled tightly around the key, she approached the door closest to her. Then she tried the next one and the next, then the next. Either the locks on the doors were too big or the key was too small. Once again, Rei was about to give up, when she noticed a velvety curtain in the far corner of the room. Drawing the gold tasselled cord back, Rei discovered a small door.

The entryway could have been no higher then fifteen inches tall. Kneeling down, Rei slipped the key in its lock. With a click, it opened. Rei lowered herself until she was flat against the ground, but she really couldn't see anything. 'If I were smaller, I could enter.' Rei's cheeks tinged with pink at the utter absurdity of the childish thought. She got up off the floor and, looking over her shoulder in the direction of the table, she spied a small bottle.

"Drink me," Rei read aloud. "That's odd, this wasn't here before," Rei swiped a piece of silvery-blue hair from her face. "I'd better check to see if it's marked poison."

When she couldn't find any such label, Rei rose the bottle to her lips, and took a sip. Finding it agreeable, she took another sip, and, soon, had drained the bottle. After a few seconds, Rei began to feel that something wasn't right.

"I feel very strange." She noticed that every thing around her was getting large and she was getting closer to the floor.

Soon, she was only ten inches high.

'Curious,' Rei thought. Now, she was small enough to enter the door, so she pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

She was quite out of breath by the time she reached the door - being so small had added to the journey of crossing the room. Rei twisted the handle on the door, but she couldn't get it to budge.

She was wondering why, when the answer hit her like a kick in the head: she'd left the key on the table. Noticing something silvery on the floor, she picked it up.

It was a little tin box, opening it up there was a small cake with the words 'Eat me' written on top. Rei took a few moments to think about whether she should or not when her stomach growled and hunger won out. "I'll eat it." she said, remembering the bottle.

"If eating this makes me grow taller, I can reach the key. And if it makes me grow smaller, I can squeeze under the door." She concluded, though she wasn't initially sure where the thought had come from. She took a small nibble, but nothing seemed to happen.

Figuring she had to eat the whole thing, she put the pastry in her mouth, chewed it and swallowed.


Well that was the fourth chapter of this story, review it cos I love reading your comments. Also big note of thanks to my proof reader Kathrine. I apologize that I haven't updated in a while but unfortunately my computer contracted a half a ton of viruses and getting it debugged is taking a while so I won't be updating anytime soon. Everyone's favourite anime, Evangelion is owned by Gainax and Alice in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll and is owned by whoever the publisher is whilst I on the other hand own squat. I'll get to work on chapter 5 when I get my computer back. Peace.