Chapter Twenty: Wonderland

A soft piano melody was pulsing through the air and almost directly into the ear of the slumbering teenager that was no more than two feet from the radio-alarm clock. Normally, the young woman could sleep through loud thunderstorms or even Asuka's blaring stereo system…but Rei knew she didn't sleep with a radio-alarm, so why was she hearing one? Judging by the genre of music, which was definitely an 18th century sonata, there was no doubt that it was Shinji's radio-alarm clock. Gradually, she drifted back to consciousness and awoke lying in a bed that was most definitely not hers…and that wasn't a pillow her head was resting on. As her eyes fluttered open, her gaze fell upon the bare chest of the young man she had shared the night with. Her eyes met with his, which were already wide awake and appeared to have been watching her intently.

"Good morning Rei," he greeted softly with a warm smile. "Sleep well?"

"Yes," she answered in a whisper. For some strange reason she seemed to feel so refreshed for a change. Most mornings Rei just woke up and felt…normal – the same way she'd feel during the rest of the day. Now though, not only did she feel strangely more alive but she also didn't want to get out of bed. It felt…sublime…so natural and more importantly it just felt right for her. "Did you?"

"For the few hours that I managed to get," Shinji chuckled softly, leaning over and planting a soft kiss. "I'm not quite as used to falling asleep next to somebody as I thought I was." A small smile crept upon her lips along with a faint blush thanks to Shinji's hand brushing along her bare stomach. His roaming hand deftly worked around her waist, eventually pulling her up close and holding her there. While they had been close before, it still felt so…foreign to Rei. Still she didn't want the enticing embrace of his warm body against hers to stop.

"We're going to need to go to class soon," Rei commented as she glanced over to the radio alarm clock. Normally Rei was up by nine at the very latest but today it was closer to eleven – an extreme rarity for her save for days when she was up all night. Then vague memories began flashing to mind and she recalled having been up for most of the night. She could only recall bits and pieces clearly but they all involved a lot of passion and lust. The mere thought of the night before brought about a strange…warming sensation through her, much like a blush except extending to every part of her body.

"A few more minutes isn't going to kill you," he jived, attempting to entice her to stay with a trail of tender kisses along her neck. Rei, however, would always be loyal to her commitments and she had a duty to attend her classes when possible. As tempting as it was, Rei eventually slid out from under Shinji and out of bed. With her usual indifference, headed out into the hall and to the shower. Oddly enough, there was no sign of Kyo or Asuka but chances were both were already at the university with their own commitments.

Pausing at the bathroom mirror, Rei took a few moments to just stare at herself in the mirror. Rei had never been one to ever worry, nor complain, about her figure but it had been a long time since she took a moment to think about herself as something more than just an Eva pilot. There was no denying the fact that she had a figure that rivaled Asuka's and while Asuka had the personality to make many a men lust after her, Rei captured the attention of one person on a much more intimate level. Of course, there was more to life than just love and romance and while Rei had complete confidence in her abilities to succeed in the working world once her duty to NERV had been fulfilled, her confidence to be…a woman did not have the same degree of fortitude. Was now even a time to be worrying about something so far off? As Rei stared into those gentle blue eyes of hers…she knew that whatever awaited her, she wanted Shinji to be there by her side.

Wait a second…

Her mind seemed to be telling her that everything was okay and yet in her gut she could feel something was amiss. Rei found that the more she stared at her reflection, the more it felt as though all was not as it should. Alas, it became difficult to focus on the issue as Shinji came waltzing into the bathroom and embraced her gently from behind.

"Something wrong Rei?" Shinji asked quietly.

"Have you ever had a moment where you were certain you were dreaming...but everything pointed to reality?"

"Well last night I was pretty sure I was dreaming," he answered coyly, though his chuckle died down quickly upon seeing that Rei was being quite serious.

"Something's not right."

"Maybe you're thinking too hard about it; you just want something to be wrong so you can return to how things used to be."

Rei let out a very quiet sigh, leaning back against Shinji and letting her eyes drift shut for a moment. Perhaps it was just her imagination…perhaps she was just trying to find something wrong. Shinji's warm embrace would've swept away her worries except that she suddenly started coming down with a monstrous headache. The sudden onset and severity took Rei by surprise and Shinji immediately noticed her tensing body.

"Are you all right Rei?"

"Just a bad headache," Rei answered. When she looked into the mirror, though, the first thing she saw was that her eyes had now become a deep crimson. It was a shocking sight but the moment she blinked, her eyes had returned to a gentle blue. She knew she wasn't crazy so there had to be an explanation to what she had just witnessed…but try as she might there wasn't any except the possibility that something was terribly wrong with everything around her.

"Rei?" Shinji's concern grew as she pulled away from him and braced herself up on the bathroom counter. "Rei what's wrong?"

"This…this is all wrong," she groaned, the pain in her head growing worse.

"What are you talking about?" Shinji muttered, trying to offer a reassuring touch to her shoulder. Instead, though, she pulled away from him even further.

"Don't touch me," Rei snapped, pulling back to the corner of the room, both hands gripping at her hair as she tried to combat the pain and confusion that was ravaging her mind. "This isn't right…this is all wrong."

"Rei what's gotten into you?" Shinji said as he tried to regain control of the situation. Taking hold of Rei by the arms, though, just caused her to struggle further. "Rei calm down!"

"No…this is wrong. Let me go!"

"Calm down Rei!" Shinji's words were falling on deaf ears though. As he called her name out repeatedly, for some reason his voice began to change. It started growing more hollow and raspy. Even more, his grip began to feel colder and colder. When his voice was completely alien to Rei and his grip icy to the touch, Rei opened her eyes to see what had been happening. Instead of looking back to Shinji, there was a gray, shadowy being standing before her. Its glowing white eyes seemed to piercing straight through all the confusion and pain and its voice resonated in her mind. "Rei Ayanami…wake up!"

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When her eyes snapped back open, Rei found herself right where her last clear memory placed her – inside the entry plug of her Eva. Her mind felt numb and her body weak but she was conscious and the shouts from those back at NERV were coming in clear.

"Rei, can you hear me? Please respond!" It was her commander's voice calling to him and it quickly brought back the memories of what had just transpired.

"Yes sir, what just happened?" Rei quickly responded as she began starting her Eva back up.

"You were put into some sort of hypnotic trance…we had to zap your brain just to wake you up," he explained. "You've only been out for a few minutes – the target is almost to the city. Now pick up your weapon and go!"

"Yes sir. What's the status of the others?"

"You were the last one woken up. Shinji and Asuka are already en route to the target."

Sure enough, a quick scan of the area showed that neither Eva-01 nor Eva-02 were present. Spotting her spear discarded on the ground, Eva-00 armed itself and raced off to back-up the other two pilots. Only a few kilometers closer to the city, Rei found the others already wrestling with the Sin. Now that they were aware of how its abilities worked, they knew how to avoid the danger it presented. The downside, however, was that it would be impossible to hit the core without being exposed to the danger it presented.

"Dammit Shinji give me a hand here," Asuka shouted as Eva-02 held on tightly to the Sin's back. The creature thrashed about madly, slamming the Eva against nearby walls and roads but with no success in throwing the Eva off of it. Keeping an arm up to shield his vision, Eva-01 cautiously approached the Sin from the front.

"Just hold it still," Shinji replied. The Sin roared ferociously at Eva-01 but Shinji kept its face blocked from view. As he pounced to try and get a hold of the creature, it thrashed about violently once again and its tail end struck Eva-01 across the face and toppled it over.

"Somebody stop this crazy thing already!" Asuka yelped as the Sin began to buck even more fiercely. Eva-02 managed to straddle the creature's body and held onto the wings, now resembling something of a rodeo cowboy as the Sin bucked about.

"Shinji!" Rei called out as she tossed her spear over him. As Eva-01 caught the spear, Eva-00 charged as the Sin and pounced from the flank. Catching the Sin by surprise, Rei succeeded in grabbing hold of the creature's maw. The added weight dragged the creature to the ground, which, unfortunately, was right on top of Eva-00. Victory would still come with difficulty as the Sin continued to struggle against the two Evas' grip. Eva-02 was able to regain control from atop, digging its feet into the ground to keep the creature pinned to the earth. Throwing more weight on its upper body, Eva-02 carefully grabbed hold of the Sin's upper jaw.

Seeing Asuka's plan clearly, Rei slowly loosened her grip around the creature's maw and moved to take hold of the lower jaw, all the while making sure its jaw kept shut. With less control of its head, the Sin was able to thrash more violently, bashings it head against Eva-00 in an attempt to force Rei to release it. There would be no faltering on Rei's part though as she and Asuka worked together to keep the Sin's head in place.

"On three!" Asuka ordered as Eva-01 moved into position with spear in hand. "One…two…three!"

On cue, Eva-00 and Eva-02 pried open its mouth and Shinji thrust the blade down its gullet, this time making sure to keep his eyes averted. The weapon found its mark, plunging deep into the center of the core. Its garbled shrieks echoed for miles and though its body convulsed wildly, the three pilots were able to keep the Sin contained and its jaw clasped shut around the spear until its body fell limp at last.

"Is it dead?" Asuka asked cautiously, refusing to let go just yet.

"Somebody go check," Rei recommended.

"It was Shinji's attack, he should go check."

"Agreed." Of course, being pinned underneath the Sin provided no possibility for Rei to check and for Asuka to check she would have to let go of the creature's jaw.

"Alright, alright…just open it slowly," Shinji sighed reluctantly. Every so carefully, Asuka and Rei pulled the jaw apart until Shinji could see just enough of the core to confirm that the spear had struck its target. "It's a hit. Target has been silenced."

There was a round of relieved sighs from everybody above and below ground. "Excellent work people, return to base immediately – we'll worry about the clean-up," Captain Yamato instructed. As Eva-02 dismounted from the creature, Eva-01 rolled it off of Eva-00 and then helped the fallen Eva back to its feet. Weary from their first sortie against the new threat, the three Evangelions drudged back to base.

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"Talk about weird…had us all by the neck and didn't even finish us off," Asuka remarked as she met with Shinji outside of the change rooms. "Whatever it's after, it must be pretty damn important to completely ignore us. I'm not sure whether to be thankful or insulted that it didn't considered us a threat." This was the first chance anybody would have to talk to Shinji alone and Asuka was thankful that she was able to get the first crack at it. She just hoped that she could say everything that wants before Rei shows up and spoils the moment.

"We won, quit complaining," Shinji replied indifferently.

Asuka frowned harshly at his half-hearted response. "Don't tell me you're still annoyed with me."

"You punched Rei!"

"Oh, of course you immediately think I'm to blame for it. Have you ever thought that maybe I'm the one that's a victim here?"

"Well then whatever you did to provoke her, I'm sure you got what you deserved." Asuka growled almost inaudibly as her friend's audacity. Clearly she still couldn't shake his bias towards Rei.

"Oh get stuffed," she scoffed. "You can be so damn obtuse, you know that? Your just angry at me cause the fact that we did the horizontal hoedown means you've pretty much screwed up any chance of you being able to do the same with her. Maybe you had forgotten but she rejected you; meaning that she doesn't want you anyways!" The conversation wasn't going quite as Asuka had been hoping but that temper of hers was starting to get out of control, as usual.

Shinji fell silent for a moment, his personal frustrations churning inside slowly like a dormant volcano. "She rejected me cause she thought I had feelings for you," Shinji sternly retorted. "And thanks to you, now Rei has evidence to confirm her false beliefs."

"Well Rei probably has a point. Maybe you don't recall all of that night but you came onto me pretty quickly after you had a few beers in you," Asuke semi-lied. There was mutual 'coming onto' that night but Asuka could easily convince Shinji that it was all him. "And maybe if you were a little more honest about your feelings we wouldn't be in this situation."

"Okay, fine! Maybe I did have a bit of an interest for you…but that ended four years ago! I consider you a good friend but let's be honest, why would I want to be interested in somebody who treats me like crap? You are the most self-centered, egotistical bitch I've ever met and nobody is ever going to love you as much you love yourself!"

Shinji's sudden outburst caught Asuka a little bit by surprise. That wasn't quite the revelation that she had been hoping for…but it was the one she had subconsciously expected from him. In the back of her mind, she knew it was a bit foolish to think he'd like somebody who was so…hostile to him. She didn't think she treated him like crap but she certainly didn't treat him anything close to the level of 'good friend'. "Huh…looks like somebody has managed to grow a backbone," Asuka said quietly and venomously, trying to mask the inner pain she was feeling at the moment. "Just be careful not to burn all your bridges Ikari." Without another word and still with much tension in the air, Asuka stormed off just as Rei arrived out of the change room. While she had overheard the last part of the argument between them, Rei had no intention on commenting about any of it – it was none of her business.

"Um…h-how are you feeling Rei?" Shinji asked nervously, hoping that his outburst hadn't given Rei a bad impression of his mannerisms. He didn't normally shout like that but sometimes…Asuka just had it coming to her.

"My head still feels a bit weird," Rei commented as she watched Asuka leave.

"Same – apparently Ibuki reconfigured the emergency defibrillator to deliver the charge to our brain instead of our heart."

"Did you…have some sort of dream as well?"

"Yeah…really strange. It felt so real," Shinji answered after a short pause. He didn't want to discuss the details of his dream since they had been rather…explicit and he didn't know if it was just isolated to him or a universal experience.

"There was something weird about my dream near the end," Rei started, a little uncertain of how to phrase it. "You were in my dream but when I realized that it wasn't real and my head began to hurt, you disappeared and some sort of…gray shadow person had taken your place. Its voice was empty and sounded like a hoarse whisper…telling me to wake up." Shinji was uncertain of how to answer at first, since he too had a similar experience at the end of his dream. The only difference was that Shinji knew that it was Nanashi that had invaded his dream in order to wake him up. "Did you have the same experience?"

"Um…n-no. It must've just been something from your subconscious," Shinji tried to avert suspicion by making it seem like an isolated incident.

"Perhaps it was just something created in my mind as I regained consciousness," Rei speculated, setting aside her curiosity with a dismissive remark. If it were just an isolated incident, then it was not something that she should concern herself with any further. Shinji, of course, knew that it was his mysterious companion lending support in his own little way…but Shinji had to keep its identity a secret, otherwise he would have a huge problem having to explain why he never told anybody for so long. In all their discussion, Shinji had completely forgotten about their interrupted conversation from earlier. Rei, on the other hand, knew she had to finish what she started and she was even more certain of her decision. "Shinji…there had been something I had wanted to tell you before we were called in."

"Oh right," Shinji recalled…a little uncertain of how to take the news.

"I'm not ready for an intimate relationship yet Shinji," Rei explained, no longer struggling for words. "When I rejected you…it was because I was uncertain of how to explain what I was feeling at the moment. I looked for the first thing that was wrong and went with it. I know now, though, that it's because I'm not ready for that kind of an emotionally connection."

"Wait…so you weren't…really adverse to the idea of…us?"

"No, I'm not. But I'm not ready for that commitment yet," Rei continued as she took a step closer to Shinji. "When I am ready though…I want it to be with you."

"Why didn't you just tell me from the start?"

"As I said…I panicked. I've never…felt this way about anybody before. You know that I'm not…natural…I was worried I was only going to hurt you in the end."

"It doesn't have to be like that. There might be risks but there are always risks in life and I'm willing to take that risk…when you're ready."

"Thank you Shinji," she whispered softly. "Thank for you understanding. I'm sorry I hurt you…and I'm sorry for inadvertently causing you to sleep with Asuka."

Shinji let out a dry chuckle, even though Rei wasn't trying to be funny with her last remark. "I'll wait till you ready," he finished. Subtly, Rei took one of Shinji's hands in her own and gave it a gentle, affectionate squeeze. He smiled warmly to her…and she blushed softly in response. Rei slowly leaned in embraced Shinji with a tender kiss…short but sweet and almost a shame to have to end so soon. It was a kiss that not only warmed both their hearts but also brought peace of mind to each of them, especially Rei.

However, down the hall Asuka had not exactly left the scene. She had stayed hidden around the corner just to keep an eye on the two, though now she regretted that decision. Watching them together was a bittersweet end to a long and wretched ordeal. As painful as it was for her…at least he would find some happiness…and in the end that would have to be her only compensation.

It still didn't stop the tears though…