The Curious Case of Rei Ikari: Common Threads
Part Three:
The Sniper

"You backed her up then, I'm asking you to do the same thing now."

I spit my gum out. The flavor had worn off anyway so it was just as well. "Yes, that's true. But you know why I did that." She was close enough to the situation, and always had been. I might have known more about Ayanami's origins than she did.

I was there for it, after all.

"I do not have to tell you how bad it would be if the Americans were able to discover what Nagisa is. This is what is at stake." Ayanami was wearing brown contact lenses, and had her hair dyed. I didn't really like it. It looked too much like-

"You're asking me to turn on WILLE. You're asking me to go AWOL at least. So why?" I asked. She had already left the fleet once on this errand, now she was back to try to draw me into it? And she'd do it looking like that.

Even if I did help her, that was no guarantee of success. We had failed more than we'd succeeded, but we'd always won when it counted. Which category did Ayanami's little operation fall into?

Ayanami... Ayanami had changed since fourth impact. She seemed more driven, but more reckless. I had noticed what she'd stolen from the armory on the Kitty Hawk, if anyone else had noticed she would have been in a world of trouble.

But then Katsuragi had let her take one of the civilian aircraft for her own personal use. I could not quite figure out what relationship there was between Ayanami and the Marshal. Whatever it was dated back to Nerv, and meant that Ayanami could get away with anything short of outright treason, or so it seemed.

"Because force is useless if it is not used for a noble purpose. We can not sit on our hands and let another world burn for our inaction. Human life is born of Lilith, and this world is no different. If we let this chain of events continue we may yet see an impact event on this world. Could you live with that?" Ayanami's eyes almost seemed to be glowing behind those contact lenses. A trick of imagination, or memory. I remembered another woman who had that same look, so many years ago. She had been gone for longer than she'd been alive, but I could still-

I should have looked after Ikari more. I should have been there for her, helped her. I should have made sure she wasn't sent to that place she grew up. Maybe I could have kept her from that pain. We'd taken an escape pod from our world, but if I had been better we might have been able to save the world we'd had.

I diverted my eyes from Ayanami and examined the metal wall of my bunk room. I could count the rivets as a distraction if I put my mind to it. "Ikari is going to get you in trouble again."

I felt her hand on my chin and she forced me to look at her. I saw... a ghost. My mind took me back to when I was just a teenager, before Evangelions and Angels and biological contamination. Back to that woman in a lab-coat and a pair of glasses. Glasses that I didn't need to see. Ayanami wasn't her.

"Is that the answer she would have given? Is that the answer she would have wanted you to give to her daughter?"

I felt like I'd been slapped. Hearing those words, in that voice, from that face. I was sixteen again, being chastised for my misbehavior.

"How could you understand? How could you hope to possibly know?" I asked her as the tears welled up in my eyes. My face and chest felt tight, I hadn't felt like this in years.

"Because Unit One moved for you. You are not her daughter, but you do have a bond. A strong bond. You're older than all of us and... You know that I am of her. That's why you are so uncomfortable isn't it, Makinami? Because of what you share with Yui Ikari? That does not change that Rei Ikari needs your help now. We all do." Her voice felt like icewater in my veins.

My hand struck her across the cheek before I really realized what I was doing. She may have been of Yui, but she had spent too much time with Yui's husband. Pulling at my heartstrings to do what she wanted.

She wasn't wrong, and she had made me see that I had an obligation to Ikari, but the means to her end were too cold and callous to have come from that face.

She recoiled from me and held her cheek, the alabaster skin had turned pink from the blow. She'd earned it. "You're too much like her father. Fine, I'll join your mission. I wasn't doing anything important here. Maybe this will be different. Maybe if I'm lucky the Marshal will show me as much leniency as she's been showing you."

"If we're lucky we won't need it." She answered. Her hand was already down from her face.

That was not wrong. "So if you need my help, what is it that you need me to do?"

"We need a sniper."