The walk up the steps to the classroom was, in retrospect, one of the longest walks in his life. It was because of the effect this would have on his family that Pieter decided to do this himself. Manila envelope under his arm and cold steel in his eyes and a rock in his gut, he walks up to the door of the classroom and wraps his knuckles on the open door.
The lecture stops and everyone wakes up, turning to the door. Visits are one thing, but it is not every day the military governor of Tokyo-3 pays a visit. The envelope under his arm is also cause for attention, and saying nothing, he turns to the class representative and gestures her over.
He has known the Horaki family since he moved his family to Tokyo-3 four years ago. Their middle child, Hikari, is Asuka's age, and helped her transition back into the public school system, and quickly became her friend.
Still, it is with the utmost respect and bowed eyes that Hikari stands in front of him in the hallway, which makes this even harder.
"Commander," the pig tailed girl says, "How can I help you?"
"Evangelion 03 will be shipped to Tokyo-3 soon," he says, "In advance of that, the Fifth Child has been chosen. All potential pilot candidates were matched brainwave-wise to the new Unit, and the one most likely to synch with it has been selected."
She nods, her intertwined hands tightening slightly.
"I understand. Who is the new pilot?"
Pieter sighs. Opening the envelope, he takes out the folder and hands it to her. He opens it, and sets it on the page with the selected candidate's picture and vitals.
Kozou Fuyutsuki looks up as the door opens and resigns himself to his fate. He knew this was coming. He knew this was to be expected. As the man stands in front of his desk with an angry twitch in his lip which is the most emotion he's seen him show in ten years, Kozou folds his hands in his lap and sits back.
"I don't believe you talked to him," Gendo Ikari says, voice deadpan but hiding the willingness to strangle the old man.
"Yui was the closest thing to a daughter I ever had," Kozou responds, "Which makes Shinji something like a grandson. Excuse me if I feel like indulging that, some time."
"I'm pretty sure what you felt for Yui was far from paternal."
"At the time, yes. But I'm old, Gendo. I've seen far too much flotsam and crap over the years for someone twice my age, and there are enough people running this place that when my favorite student's only child wants to know about his mother, I can drop everything to tell him."
Gendo slumps into the chair in front of the desk, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"You weren't going to tell him," Kozou says, "Let's face it. The memory of Yui is painful enough that you can't tell your son about her. That's the reason you didn't fight it, and encouraged it, when Sohryu went for custody of Rei-"
"Will you just shut up?"
Kozou stops in mid rant, sitting back.
"You have less right to feel suddenly paternal than I do," Gendo growls, "I abandoned my son, but you stood there. You let it happen. If anything you just said was even remotely true, you would have said something ten years ago."
He folds his arms, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"I don't give a rat's ass that you told him about his mother. What I care about is that you just f___ed the entire scenario beyond recognition to gain Grampa points."
"The scenario's already f___ed, Ikari," Kozou says, eyes narrowing, "Or haven't you noticed? The Angels are appearing out of order, the Third Angel refuses to f___ing die, and we go months at this point without one of them appearing. Not to mention there is never any mention in the Scrolls of what we have on the f___ing Moon, and then there's Rei."
There is a warble in the air in front of him. Then the light accelerates and everything, everywhen swerves in front of him, spiraling in and out of perspective as the hallway outside the classroom shifts into a feature of white light, and coalesces into the rooftop of the school.
In reaction to this, Shinji stumbles to the nearby bucket and empties the contents of his stomach. Rei watches, impassively, as her fellow pilot throws up, raising her eyebrows before tucking her legs underneath her and floating.
He said he wanted to talk. Somewhere private. So, she expedited things and teleported them both to the roof. Asuka has warned him of side effects.
Kaworu had no side effects, though.
Why do her thoughts keep wandering to him? Her heartbeat accelerates when thinking about him. Before, her body would have a different reaction. Something along the lines of the need to find a hammer. Maybe she should talk to Dr. Akagi about this.
"Oh…oh God…"
Even being raised alongside Asuka, she has never truly explored feelings like this. Unlike her sister, she does not have a crush on Mr. Kaji. She does not flirt, or berate, boys.
"I don't remember eating that…"
She is 'good cop' to Asuka's 'bad cop'…no, no. Hikari is 'good cop.' She is 'forensics.' She examines everything from a dispassionate point of view. Turning to the sound of the thud, she sees Shinji on his back, breathing heavily, eyes wide and dazed.
"You wished to speak with me?"
"As you are both well aware at this point, Rei was created with a purpose in mind. She is one part human, one part Lilith, and as such is capable of abilities far above and beyond the human norm. At their full extension, under tightly controlled circumstances, she would be able to initiate a mass human mental conversion, better known as Instrumentality."
Spinning in the swivel chair, Naoko Akagi allows herself a moment to appreciate her daughter's stoic expression and Pieter's thinly veiled impatience. The other member of the group in the Dummy Plug chamber, Lieutenant Ibuki, watches patiently.
"Now, that was the original idea," Naoko says, "When Gendo and I proposed the idea and Ikari himself created her. However, what is happening now is not part of the original scenario..."
Pieter groans, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Stepping back as Naoko begins going into the nitty-gritty details, he runs a hand through his hair as Ritsuko elbows him in the side.
"How did it go," she asks.
"About as well as it could," he responds, "I have to head up after she finishes, so I can get chewed out by my daughter."
She glares at him.
"You…didn't…tell her?"
He shrugs.
"…which more or less means that Rei's lived about three times longer than planned."
Maya's expression has changed from patience to pursing her lips and glaring at Naoko's back. The clip board in her hand as shaking, and Ritsuko pats her on the shoulder.
"Let me go over that again," Naoko says, "As Pieter was too busy flirting with my daughter to listen."
Ritsuko palms her face and Pieter glares, folding his arms.
"The best way to determine if what is happening to Rei is good or bad is to awaken another Rei."
"Wait…what?" Sohryu asks, "How do we…awaken…a second Rei?"
"The purpose behind the Dummy Plug backups Rei does is twofold," Naoko says, leaning back in her chair, "First, it updates the full knowledge database regularly. Secondly, it backs up Rei. Each Plug is a genetic copy of Rei. Should something happen to her, such as, say, dying, another is brought out and uploaded with Rei's memories."
"What is wrong with you?"
Naoko turns to the young lieutenant, folding her arms.
"I'm sorry?"
"What my assistant is asking," Ritsuko interrupts, "Is why you're so casual about the scheduled deaths of a fifteen year old girl."
Naoko rolls her eyes, turning back to the computer.
"I'm not saying kill Rei and bring out another one-"
"Because that didn't work when you tried it," Sohryu growls.
"I'm saying run 'conception' and see what happens. If another Plug becomes active, we can see if the others mutate along similar lines to the First."
She turns back to the group, and slumps her shoulders, staring at their confused expressions.
"…'Conception'?" Sohryu asks.
"…right," Naoko says, rubbing her eyes, "This will take a while."
After some convincing, Rei stopped floating and sat on the rooftop across from Shinji. The boy is obviously flustered and a little disturbed, and for a moment Rei believes it is because she was floating high enough for him to see her panties. If he did, then Asuka's response would be to smack him upside the head and refer to him as a pervert.
Except that Asuka has not done so. In fact, she seems to hold of him a higher opinion than any other boy her age. Which makes him subhuman in Asuka's eyes, instead of bestial.
She has known many subhumans. She has known many animals. She has never met Dr. Akagi's cat, though. On the rare occasion she would be in the Doctor's house when her mother was not there, the cat would hide and hiss. Of course, it should be scared of her.
The Commander once tried to indulge Asuka and her and take them to a horse ranch near NERV Germany.
The proprietor of the ranch was paid off handsomely following the incident.
"Ayanami?"
Rei turns to Shinji, silent as she tends to be.
"Yes, Pilot Ikari?"
"I…I just talked with the Sub Commander," he says, sitting up against the stairwell housing, "I…he and I had a talk about my mother, because he knew her. He knew her before my father did, and unlike everyone else who did, he wanted to…you know, talk about her, and…"
He looks up to find Rei on her hands and knees in front of him, and he yelps, narrowly missing the vomit bucket as he falls back.
"W-w-what are you doing?"
"I am examining your expression," she says.
"Uh…um…why?"
"I am seeing if I can reach the point before you do."
At this point she's almost on top of him, studiously examining his expression at it turns from surprise to…horror? Is it horror she sees in his eyes?
"The Sub Commander told me everything," he squeaks, "About you."
His eyes dart from side to side, and for a moment he considers his options and then gently takes Rei by the waist and moves her off of him. For a moment, there is relief. Then he stares into the face of his doom. The twin pools of anger, terror, and pain before him that he knows will be that which consumes him.
"Hi, Asuka."
She slams the door shut, Kensuke's pained moaning echoing from the other side as he falls down the stairwell. She does not move otherwise. She only stares, she only glares, as if by sight alone she could cause him to burst into flames.
"I know how this looks," Shinji says.
She slowly folds her arms, as the door to the stairwell opens and Touji now peaks his head out.
"Damn," he says, "Going for the sister to, Shin-man?"
"Wait, what," Ken asks, rubbing his nose as he peaks his head out next to the jock, "Seriously? He was getting it on with Rei?! And he never told us?"
"What. Happened."
The words that come from Asuka's lips are like gravel, accentuated by her cracking her knuckles. It is never the wisest thing to upset a teenage girl, especially when the scene upsetting her is when the one who has befriended her has subsequently betrayed her trust.
The words must be carefully chosen, and processing the days events, Shinji summarizes the past few hours as his explanation, and hopefully as his pardon.
"I just found out Rei is my sister."
Finding the cafeteria empty of his usual lunch mates, Kaworu homes in on the areas he will be needed. He has not told anyone, but he has a mild level of empathic abilities. Not just the ability to read people, but also to sense emotion, to a limited degree. He has not been honest on just how much he has inherited from his other father, and may change that soon.
However, that can wait. Placing his tray down, he sits on the bench on the girl's table, much to the astonishment of everyone else, and calmly unwraps his utensils before staring at what he believes may be pizza, but is not sure.
"Good afternoon, Miss Horaki," he says.
Hikari snaps out of her daze, and looks up at Kaworu with a puzzled expression.
"I saw that Asuka was not with you," he says, "You look like you could use company. Is something wrong?"
She bites her lip, picking at her lunch.
"Since the Commander came by this morning, you seem to have become upset," he continues, "Did he say something that upset you? If he did, I may have to talk with him."
He sighs, smiling at her.
"After all, military leader or not, it is not becoming of him to make a girl as pretty as you upset."
"A new Eva's arriving soon," she says, finally, "He…he told me who the pilot for it will be. You know, the Fifth Child?"
"I see," Kaworu says, his smile fading, "Of course. You are friends with most of the class, and now you realize one of them will be put in harms way. Who did he say is the new pilot? It's not…Suzuhara, is it? I know that you have become closer to-"
"No," Hikari says, "No, it's not him. It's not any of them."
Her lip trembles, and when she does look in Kaworu's eyes he sees they are red and dry.
"It's me," she says, "I'm the Fifth Child."
"The Sub Commander told me that my father used my mother's DNA to create Rei. He mixed it with DNA from something else, one of the Angels, and used my mother's eggs. I think."
Shinji scratches his head, sitting on the roof with Asuka, Rei, and the two boys.
"I asked him, and he said that this does make her my half-sister," he says, "It's a little bit of a shock to me."
"Dr. Ikari originally planned to raise me," Rei says, "I am, in a way, his daughter as well."
"I saw how he planned to raise you," Asuka growls, "It makes what he did to Shinji look pleasant."
She palms her face, swearing in German.
"Sorry," she says.
"It's…it's okay," Shinji says, running his hand through his hair, "I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean for you to find us like that. It's just that I took so long getting to the point and-"
"I am surprised you did not already know."
They turn to Rei. Asuka raises an eyebrow in confusion.
"I…should have known," he asks.
"Yes."
"How," he asks, "I didn't know that you were cloned from my mother, or about angels, or about-"
"Because," Rei interrupts, "If it were not for our differing genitalia, you would notice that we have the same body type."
With that, she gets up and walks down the stairwell. Asuka watches her go, and Shinji takes a moment to consider what she said as his two friends break out into peals of laughter. Finally, fuming, he turns to them.
"Hey," Shinji shouts, "I don't look like a girl!"
He gets up, walking to the stairwell and making it a point to do so as masculine as possible. He almost makes it to the stairs before Kaworu bursts through the stairway, both of them dropping and Kaworu mumbling an apology before climbing off.
"Excuse me," he says, and turns to Asuka, "You need to go to the cafeteria. Right now."
Feet up on his desk, Sohryu looks over blueprints and schematics as the sun dips down behind him. Ikari has told him that he has secured the identities of the Jet Alone designers and they will be at the Geofront tomorrow. Looking up, he watches as Ritsuko walks in and sits down on his desk.
"That went well," he says.
"Which part? You mean the part where Mother partially activated memories in the Dummy Plug and they started throwing themselves against the glass to attack her?"
"I'm showing that at Christmas parties," Sohryu mutters, "Testament to my girl's emotional control."
"If Rei lacked emotional control, we would have been dead five years ago."
He looks at his watch, grimacing.
"What?"
"School let out an hour ago," Sohryu says, "Let's see…three…two…one…"
The door swings open, and Ritsuko turns to find Asuka stomping in, manila folder under her arm, screaming Germanic swear words as Sohryu calmly goes over the weapon blueprints.
"She found out," Ritsuko says, standing, "Hello, Asuka."
Asuka glares at her, and shaking her head, Ritsuko calmly walks over and yanks the folder out of her hands.
"Shall I act as an intermediary?" she asks.
"I'm pretty sure she's not going to talk directly to me," Sohryu says, sipping his coffee, "Especially since I don't listen when she swears."
"How you've survived this long is a testament to your patience, Pieter."
Sohryu snorts.
"Are you flirting with me, Doctor?"
"Of course not," Ritsuko says with a smirk, "Maya would kill you if you tried anything."
She opens her mouth to begin a long, level, reasonable explanation on why Asuka was not told ahead of time that her best friend was chosen to pilot Eva. It would have gone thoroughly into synch potential and how her best friend was the top choice. However, none of that happens.
Mainly because every alarm in the base goes off.
"BLUE PATTERN DETECTED!"
All three wince.
"We've got to talk to Makato about lowering the volume on his console," Sohryu mutters, pressing the intercom button, "Lieutenant? What's the status?"
"Blue Pattern detected, Commander," Maya's voice announces, "Angel Designation: Baraqijal. Sir, it's not approaching Tokyo-3!"
Sohryu looks at Akagi, then back to the intercom.
"Where is it?"
"It's approaching NERV-Germany! They are requesting permission to launch Unit-05!"
"Give it," he says, standing up, "I'm on my way."
He turns to Asuka, nodding to her.
"We'll talk when this's over. Let's go."
System activation.
Barrier one: PASS
Limb control system: START
Power Supply: CONNECT
Barrier two: PASS
Syncrhonization: START.
The walls of the plug honeycomb, becoming a distorted view of the hangar. Most of her face hidden by the helmet and visor, hands in the full arm controls and attached to green wires, the girl grins as she becomes one with her chariot.
Syncrhonization at 49%.
Unit 05: START
