"Twenty-One"
-

There was only one way out. All had been lost, Rei could see that now; it had been that way from the beginning. There was no way to change the past, nor was there any way to change Ikari's tampering with it. Picking up her daughter (who was smiling), Rei silently left her room. There was there in her hand, the gun she took from the robber all those years ago.

She went down to the basement unmolested. It felt strangely anticlimactic; she had come so far, planned so much, only to be crushed beneath the ruthless inevitably of Instrumentality. And then, to walk away so brazenly, carrying a gun in one hand and her daughter in the other, seemed just wrong.

There was a click of a gun. Rei froze. She turned, slowly, and found a laser-sight aimed between her breasts. Wielding it was none other that Toji Suzahara, with hair rumpled, and a glare of madness in his eyes.

"Trying to get out?" he asked, in surprisingly lucid tones.

Rei did not reply.

"We all signed on to this together."

Rei bit back a response. She knew exactly where to poke a proverbial sharp stick, but she had to pick precisely the right moment.

"Everyone. You, me… those ex-Nerv people who are dieing one by one in the upper levels. After Third Impact, we all cut that sign into our skin."

Silence rang through the halls.

"So? You've nothing to say? Angel got your tongue?"

"I realized something, Suzahara."

"What's that?"

"Any change facilitated by Ikari cannot be undone. In order to undo the changes, we must make changes of our own," she began walking forward, ignoring the trembling gun. "Furthermore, we only exist as a result of Ikari's tampering. To undo it would destroy ourselves." She was very close now. She recognized it as one of the MP5s formerly carried by the JSSDF. "You will never be reunited with Hikari. Never. You are separated by the one uncrossable river, a fissure in time." The gun was pressed against her skin now. It was cold as winter. "You are doomed, Suzahara."

Toji's eyes widened. "But-" He stepped back, aiming the gun away. "That can't be-"

Rei seized her chance. She drew her gun with lightning speed and fired before Toji could even realize what happened. As the gunshot rung away, he fell to the ground, most of his face gone. The baby girl began to cry.

-

Shinji was lying in bed, having an obscene dream about Rei. Rei, the only woman he had ever come to love. But he supposed he loved Misato too, in an entirely different way, and even Asuka, in yet another. But Rei was the one he wanted hold and cradle and sleep with. Rei was the one he adored.

He was awoken by the sound of rapid breathing. He looked beside him and saw Asuka lying there, gasping in air.

"Asuka…"

There was no reply.

"Asuka!"

"Water… broken…" she wheezed. Filled with dread, Shinji reached up and turned on the light.

Asuka's yellow nightgown had water around her crotch, staining it into a dark mustard shade. She was already covered with sweat.

"Why didn't you wake me sooner?" Shinji asked.

"Get… Misato… you… idiot… or I'll…"

Shinji had hurried out before Asuka could finish the threat.

-

Ritsuko was not a midwife.

Though she had been there and Shinji's birth. Admittedly, she had not wanted to attend, but for whatever reason her mother dragged her along to see it. She distinctly remembered him as a squalling, red-faced baby, who would only be silenced by his mother.

And here she was, at the birth of yet another baby, this time as the only trained doctor in the entire facility.

She bit her lip. Obviously, almost anyone with a medical degree had at least some knowledge of birthing children. Hell, just about everyone had some knowledge of delivering a baby. But at that precise moment, she felt like the most ignorant person on the planet, shiny diplomas and all.

Well, there was one thing to be thankful for. There was an ultrasound machine in the basement – lord knows why the stocked it there – and they could use it to take a look. It looked like any other baby, but examining the graph, Ritsuko's Impact-battered memory conjured an image very similar to this one, though she could not pinpoint where it came from.

One thing was certain, though. This baby had Angel DNA; Asuka had it, ergo the baby would. And Shinji… Shinji had it too, albeit to a much higher degree. So what was being born here? The nineteenth angel, or her former lover's grandson? Ritsuko hated dilemmas, which is perhaps why she had almost failed the ethics class in med school.

Before too long a problem presented itself, If she gave Asuka morphine (it was all they had) and cooked the baby alive, maybe the Children (ha-ha) would hate her… or maybe they would thank her. And then, another problem opened up.

Ritsuko was peering between Asuka's legs, ignoring the steady cacophony of shouting from the redhead, and saw that something was not quite right. The cervix was not dilated, not nearly enough. No dilation meant no normal delivery, and that meant a c-section, but without any painkillers.

Asuka was screaming like a banshee. Covering her ears, Ritsuko took a brief leave of her small core of nurses, left the room, and approached Misato and Shinji, who were watching through the plexiglass window.

"Well…" Ritsuko began, wiping sweat from her brow. "We have a problem."

"What?" asked Misato, visibly worried.

"We don't have any painkillers except morphine, which can create complications."

"So? Don't give them to her."

"Ah… about that…" Ritsuko said. "You have to understand, it looks like this is going to be a difficult birth… Asuka's contractions aren't going properly."

There was a silence.

"Look, this is what I'm saying: we won't be able to deliver the baby normally. For whatever reason, the cervix is not dialating."

There was a silence.

"Hell, do I have to spell it out? We need to do a c-section and I can't risk giving her any of the painkillers that we have!"

Misato was horrified. "But that would kill her!" she spluttered, feeling a little sick at the very thought.

"Not necessarily," Ritsuko said, quietly. "There's no reason she should not survive. We can stop the bleeding, and we have the equipment to care for her afterwards. I can promise you that it will not be a pleasant experience, though."

Misato bit her lip, thoughts playing through her head.

"I don't think we have any choice," Shinji said, gloomily. "We do the c-section, and she has a chance of living and the baby has a guarantee of living. We don't, and both will probably die. There's nothing to discuss."

Both women looked long and hard at the boy. He was still dressed in his old school uniform, frayed and ancient though it was. He had an expression of resignation on his face, a kind of 'there's nothing to be done.' While not incorrect, this sudden display of decisiveness seemed strangely… out of character.

"I'll talk to Asuka," said Misato, quietly.

Sound did not carry through the heavy window, so Shinji could only watch as Misato explained the situation to Asuka. The redhead first looked frightened, then horrified, then vicious. She started shouting words Shinji could not hear. Misato left the room, an exhausted expression on her face. "She agreed."

-

Eternity's a terrible thought. I mean, where's it all going to end?
-Tom Stoppard