There was something of a buzz in Project E the next day. Maya Ibuki was, to put it simply, everyone's friend, and they all considered the possibility that Mrs. Makinami was going to take advantage of her. Such possible contingencies as 'track her', 'hack her bank account' and 'tell Zwei she's a squirrel' were bandied about, but were quickly dismissed as 'problematic,' 'unethical,' and 'getting the meat out of Zwei's grill.'

Which is all moot, Misato realizes, as she stands in the hallway outside of the junction between Sections 1 and 2 and watches Maya Ibuki skip past. She scratches her head, shrugs, and turns just as the new bluenette Ritsuko Akagi walks down the hallway.

"I'm going to ask anyway," Misato says, "What happened?"

"Last night," Ritsuko says, no small measure of satisfaction in her voice, "I seduced Lieutenant Ibuki."

Misato sips at her coffee.

"I don't know whether to deck you or give you a high five."


Chapter 55: Reiproduction


The school had reopened, allowing them to enroll her to, as they put it, 'socially normalize' her. A scoff, internal. There is nothing normal about her from their perspective, and nothing normal about them from her perspective. Normality is but a measure of perspective, after all, and the sooner they realize that start truth, they will become more oh great she's monologuing again.

Stepping in front of the class in Tokyo-3 Municipal High School, a hush falls over the classroom as she clears her throat. For a moment, they believe her to be someone else. Gently raising her hand, she points to the back of the room. Everyone turns.

Rei waves at them, smiling.

"Greetings," Kei says, "I am Kei Ayanami. I am, in accordance with the cover story you have swallowed as the sheep you are, Rei's long lost sister, recently adopted by the Ikaris. I will let you draw your own conclusions."

From the back of the room, one of the students emits a high pitched, girlish scream despite being on the men's soccer team. Several follow in suit, before Kensuke Aida, faithful minion that he is to the Ayanami line, jumps onto his desk and executes the rest of her opening gambit.

"She's discovered mitosis!" he screams, "Rei can bud!"

The room breaks out into screams, as Kei begins to walk back to her desk. The screams stop as quickly as they began under the stone grinding gaze of Hikari Horaki. Yes, Kei thinks, definitely a strong will. She will be a worthy opponent.


...


The viewscreen clicks off, retracting into the table. Standing around the table in the briefing room, used as an impromptu theatre, Yui Ikari takes off her glasses and rubs her eyes, smacking herself to try to tell herself that was all just a very bad dream. But no. She is awake. She saw that. Now she's trying to figure out what it was.

"What did I just see?"

"The season finale," Pieter explains, slumping into one of the swivel chairs, "As it turns out, the MAGI has been rewriting the scripts at Gainax. So technically, the Ree wrote the anime."

"I...that made no sense. Why was Shinji sitting in a metal folding chair? Why was everyone congratulating him? What the Hell was going on there?"

"I know. The first dozen episodes were fine, if a little existential."

"Then it got weird. And uncomfortable. If I didn't know the girls were probably joking and doing that to see if they could get away with it, I'd be worried that they all had severe issues."

Pieter stares at her. It wasn't that anyone at NERV didn't like the Ayanami sisters, it was that no one at NERV ever put the words 'Ree' and 'normal' in the same sentence, unless pointing out something along the lines of 'it's normal for the Ree to make you jump as duct vents,' or 'it's normal for the Ree to strip an elephant to the bone in six minutes,' or 'it's normal for the Ree to kidnap a polar bear.'

"Respectfully," Pieter sighs, "The test audiences liked it. The director was surprised, but said we should release it anyway. He's making a follow up movie."

"Hopefully it won't be as confusing."

"As long as the Ree don't switch out his meds."


...


Logging on chat room.

TEHREI: Sooooo how are you liking school?

Kei: It is fine. I have no complaints.

Shinji: Were you testing Hikari, Kei?

Kei: Possibly. I wish to assess the strengths of everyone involved. I have come to the conclusion that real people are harder to predict than virtual projections.

TEHREI: I know! I mean, while Iti and Zyuu cornered Kensuke, they thought he'd just bounce back like the whole game with 'hide the PVC pipe' they made in the simulation, but once they got three feet in and he started crying, well. Stuff.

Shinji: What.

ProfessorAsuka: That seems wrong.

TEHREI: I know! Then he started squirming! And the pipe broke! And then the turnip got used and then Maya found them and everyone was crying and screaming and the polar bear was angry.

Kei: …

*Shinji has logged off.*

*ProfessorAsuka has logged off.*

Kei: Tell me more.

The school bell rings. Shinji and Asuka close their lap tops, looking at each other, turning to Shinji's left to find Kei staring intently at the screen and the IM chat she is having with Rei. Shinji peaks over her shoulder. Blood drains from his face, and he turns to Kensuke, who has a blissful smile on his face.

"That's wrong," he sighs.

He turns back to Asuka, who is furiously typing in a coding program. The room empties as the lunch bell rings, Kei shooting them both a glance before rising and joining the exiting crowd. After all, Mom insisted, she has to be able to socialize with people other than family, albeit Rei's there to introduce her.

"So, what is that?" he asks.

"Dr. Ikari's working on a new, life size avatar body for Ichi," Asuka says, "About the size of a six year old girl. They scheduled a birthday party for next week, so I've been working on the bluetooth protocols so it will be ready by then."

"Okay. Thought 'life size' meant sixty meters. When is the party?"

She taps her track pad, bringing up a calender.

"Really?" he asks, "But...that's when Mom had the Contact experiment."

Asuka nods.

"I t-talked about it with Dr. Ikari," Asuka explains, "She says that Ichi actually became aware about two years after that, but th-thinks that the Contact Experiment had a major role in creating her intelligence. So, they d-decided that the Contact Experiment was her birthday."

He nods, scratching the back of his head. The computer beeps, and Asuka turns back to it, narrowing her eyes at the new email message.

"What is it?" he asks.

"Mother," she sighs, "Mother wants you to have dinner with us next week."


...


Loading virtual environment: Grass Field . Env.

Participants: Ikari, Ichi; Sohryu, Kyoko; Kirishima, Capt. Mana; Prime, JA

The green field appears first as an outline, slowly shifting into reality as the three participants appear. Ichi, in the form of a six year old girl with brown hair and blue eyes, looks up as Kyoko appears, visibly taken aback by the virtual avatar of Unit 01.

"Hello, Doctor Sohryu," Ichi says with a smile, "Mommy wanted me to apologize for sneezing on you."

"Apologies accepted," Kyoko says, raising an eyebrow before shaking her head, turning as Mana visualizes, "Kirishima, we're here to see what form JAP's new virtual intelligence has taken."

"Yep," Mana says, looking down and noticing that for some reason, her virtual appearance is in the Suit, "Huh. Well, you said the Prime's mind's gonna be based off me, right?"

"More or less. The Synthesis system created a persona based on your subconscious. It will be a representation of you."

A new pillar of digitized light, stemming from the ground, as it rises into a vaguely humanoid, female shape. Kyoko adjusts her glasses, Ichi smiles from ear to ear, and Mana folds her arms, watching as her partner, her other half, someone whom she should know like the back of her hand appears.

The resulting figure manifests fully, two white shoes landing on the grass. A full head shorter than Mana, she is in a pink and white, sectioned dress that appears to be made of metal plates similar to Jet Alone's armor. The hat covered her short red hair falls in two sectioned tails ending at her waist, as she opens deep brown eyes and clasps her hands at her flat chest, smiling demurely.

"What the fuck?" Mana asks.

Kyoko, sensing what was to come, covered Ichi's ears preemptively. Keeping the hands where they are, she watches as Mana's jaw drops, seeing her shy, short, very ladylike avatar built from her subconscious.

"Seriously, what the fuck? This is my subconscious?"

Jet Alone Prime's virtual avatar falls to her knees and starts crying, Ichi rushing forward to comfort her, Mana ranting about how there is no possible way that her subconscious could look this possibly needy.

Which is when the alert klaxons started wailing and the virtual world faded away.


...


"Blue Pattern Detected! Angel is emerging from Tokyo-3 Harbor!"

The Big Screen shifts, showing the bubbling waters off the japanese coast as the first signs of the Angel appear. The rounded shoulders rise first, the gangly limbs rising as the rest of the massive body, measured at over 600' tall, rises. Buildings are already retracting into the city proper, Tokyo-3 shifting to Fortress Mode.

"That's not right," Pieter says, already at his station next to the Commander, "We already killed that Angel!"

"The Angel had two cores," Yui answers back, as Kyoko walks onto the bridge, the virtual interface gloves still on her hands, "Junior! How did the Angel gain that much mass!"

Junior appears, the transparent hologram from Sheol manifesting in the middle of Central Dogma.

Israfel gains mass and weight by consuming matter. From my link with its overmind, I see that Israfel's second core consumed a pod of Blue Whales.

"That'll do it," Misato says, folding her arms, "Alright. Here's what we're doing. Get Mana into JAP and have it powered up. Section 2 is en-route with all three Children. We're going to see if we can entice the Angel into dividing again and engage it four on four."

Maya squeaks in surprise. The bridge officers turn, Ristuko walking over and leaning over Maya's shoulders to stare at the screen.

"Well, shit."

"Ritsuko?"

Yui walks over to the console screen. Her eyes go wide, a word that is not found in any dictionary escaping her lips as she turns to the screen just as the crane moves into position.

"Report," Gendo says, standing.

"If I'm reading this right," Maya says, still staring at the screen, "The MAGI has just seized control of 95% of all the construction vehicles in Tokyo-3. And now I'm seeing these modifications that have been done to them over the past week that wasn't listed in the maintenance reports until now!"


...


It was child's play to sneak off of school grounds. And technically, lunch is not over yet and high school sophomores can leave school grounds for their lunch period. This should be over shortly, anyway. Standing on the top of the nearest ammo building, Kei cracks her knuckles, PDA in her right hand.

"Modifications are finished?" she asks.

"Yep!" the other six voices sing song through the communications link, "We tested'em and everything! It'll work perfectly!"

"Good. Begin sequence. Transfer manual control towards me. Mark."

Behind her, a VTOL slaved to her PDA rises.


...


"What is she doing?" Akagi yells, the Big Screen focused entirely on Kei.

"MAGI has finished deliberating! Response received!"

Above the Big Screen, the four cores of the MAGI glow in agreement and one message is laid out for all to see in perfect clarity.

FORM DEVASTATOR.

"Mari!" Pieter screams, "Vacation's OVER!"


...


The two dump trucks fire the rockets newly installed on their undercarriage, flipping up as a pair of construction haulers take position underneath. Explosive charges fuse the two sets into feet and legs, nanite modifications forming joints and tendons as the wrecking ball crane makes up one half of the torso and leg arm.

"Joints set! Interlocks online!"

Two bulldozers stack on each other for the right side of the torso, new modifications testing out for the shovels to shoot out as battering rams, a steam shovel attached for the right arm, forming an impromptu fist.

"Turbines to full!"

DING.

"Fries up!"

"Wait, where did we put the five keys?"

"No, stupid, that's when we make Voltron! We're making Devastator!"

"But I wanted to use lions!"

"Next time, Zyuu. Kei's idea, Kei chooses the giant robot."

"Okay..."

The VTOL hovers over the body as more and more construction equipment joins the gestalt thanks to the nanite tendrils, quickly going from a skeletal mashup of disparate machines into a seamless, armored giant as big as the massive Angel. Several girders are laid down, forming into the impromptu neck. Watching from the rooftop as the VTOL begins to lower itself, Kei grins.

"And I'll form the head."

Israfel's face shifts, twisting slightly in confusion. This can't be right, it thinks, there's no way the Lilim could actually build something that ridiculous. That thought echoes through its head for a moment. Then another thought comes as it realizes the wrecking ball has created a thunder clap.

So, Israfel thinks, Force is mass times acceleration.

So, the wrecking ball breaking the sound barrier should hurt. A lot.

And serendipity, it was right.


...


Cage 2 is mostly empty, thanks to everyone clearing out to watch a 600' tall robot made out of construction vehicles wail on the Angel. So, when Rei kicks out the ventilation grate and drops onto the walkway, she has no one she has to abduct, knock out, or toss into the LCL lake.

"Hey, Zwei!" she says, waving at the four eyed Evangelion, "Wanna help me kill an Angel?"

The four eyes light up.

"ANGEL?"


...


A new set of klaxons blair. Maya has surrendered her seat, working at her console standing while Yui sits in the comfortable swivel chair, watching the Big Screen.

"No, let me guess," Yui says, "Rei has hijacked Unit 02 and has had the MAGI, which is right now the Ree, send her to the surface. Am I right?"


...


The keywords were "Ree" "Giant Robot" and "Built." Hence the television screens in the lounge were keyed in to the surveillance cameras on the surface so anyone who was so inclined could watch the giant robot beat down of the Angel. As the Reetron lays into Israfel with its wrecking ball flail, Shinji and Asuka watch from the comfort of the lounge on floor B-12.

"Yeah," Shinji says, "I could see this being Hatchi's idea, but Nana would put together the weapons. But Kei really thought out the design. Normally, the girls wreck Kei's stuff, but they really did miss her."

"How d-do you know all this?" Asuka asks.

He shrugs.

"I'm trying to be a better brother."

The Section 2 agent hands them a bowl of popcorn, both thanking him with a smile as he retreats to the other couch, where the Section 2 detail is watching the brawl.

"Do you ever wonder why everyone's so much friendlier here?" he asks, "I mean, compared to those other worlds the Angel sent us to?"

"I think it's Rei."

"Really?" he asks.

She nods, munching on a handful of popcorn as they watch Reetron unleash its right arms, to the chuckles of Section 2.

"Ha ha," one comments, "Angel in a woodchipper!"

"I think," Asuka says, tilting her head as she watches the carnage, figuring out how exactly it works, "If Rei decided to do her own thing, there's not a lot NERV could do to stop her. So Dr. Ikari decided to give Rei a reason to like humanity..."

"And gave her a childhood," Shinji says, and sighs, nodding, "Yeah, sounds like something Mom would do. She's always very practical about that. All the biological weapon around here have nice personalities. Zwei could probably take over a nation, but he melts if you give him a belly rub."

She nods, leaning against him. They turn back to the battle just in time for the wrecking ball to shatter Israfel's face.


...


The massive Angel goes down, taking an ammo building with it. Zwei charges as it goes down, both Progressive Knives already unsheathed, extending its AT Field as Reetron brings its wrecking flail back for another strike. On the ammo building overlooking the battle, Kei has a smile of pure, childlike contentment on her face. There is a difference between building these things in the virtual world of MAGI-00 and building them in the real. Much more compensation for error.

Much more SCIENCE.

As Unit 02 jams both knifes into the core of the Angel and the Angel begins to crumble, she gives one last command to the giant mecha to finish the job. The wrecking flail swings, shattering the Angel's graying remains, the shockwave rocking Tokyo-3 with the full force of a multi-ton wrecking ball traveling at Mach 1.

It also causes the ammo building to list, eliciting a very girlish squeak from Kei.

Maybe it is time to find a new vantage point, she thinks, and quickly exits.


...


"Alright. The Angel's officially dead. We do have problems with the mini Angels but the MAGI is telling us that they have no blue signal and are basically animals. The MAGI also wants one as a pet."

Sighing, Pieter removes his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. Some days, he doesn't believe that he reads some of the reports he does. But then again, he also read a report last night of his daughter having a 'laserface', so it comes with the territory. Perhaps it was that budding horror of realizing his little girl could blast through three layers of Geofront armor that made him realize what sort of situations the Ikaris were in. Well, at least he just has two girls, and one is still classified as human.

Tapping the PDA closed, standing in the debriefing room in front of the pilots, Kei, and Dr. Ikari, he clears his throat.

"Additionally," he explains, "Kei's construct has gone dormant and disassembled itself. MAGI analysis is that it took the AT Fields of all six Rei to make it work and punch through the Angel's own field. The...robot...was there because they thought it looked cool."

"And which is why they did not wreck it," Kei says with a small grin.

Yui shrugs, leaning against the room's table.

"I'm just glad she used it to destroy an Angel and not take over Tokyo-3," she explains, "Well, good work then. Dismissed."

They leave, Rei going to lengths on how awesome the Reetron was as they do, the doors closing behind them.

"You're taking this in stride," Pieter observes.

"Not much I can do about it," Yui responds, "Kei is Kei. She's possibly the most intelligent of her sisters and she has a spark to that intelligence much like my own. If I tried to stifle that intelligence, it would destroy her."

"Still. Giant robot."

"Yes, and I may have to give her a half-hearted lecture about misusing NERV properties," Yui sighs, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. So, family dinner on Monday?"

He nods.

"Good. Because Tuesday is the big day."

Pieter raises an eyebrow.

"Big day?" he asks, tapping on his PDA again and cycling through his schedule, "What event...oh. Oh."

Yui turns, flipping through camera views to the auxiliary hangar, just as the technicians begin hosing down the massive cone.

"It's Ichi's birthday," she explains, "And the first birthday she had that she got to spend with her big brother."


...


There was still an hour left to school following the Angel's spectacular demise. That went without any problems, even with the subtle power struggle between Kei and Hikari which Mari found, nonetheless, hilarious. No one's seen Mana today, but she was at NERV with some sort of experiment. Still, normality is good. Even if she's wearing that special choker to hide the Core in her throat, she likes feeling normal.

Which, of course, is interrupted by the bushes near the tree she was sitting at moving, and an Israfel peaks its head out. Looking from side to side, the Mini-Angel hops out, walking over with an exaggerated gait.

"Yeah?" Mari asks.

Yeah, Ramiel. Sorry if we're, y'know, annoying you.

Mari sighs, sitting cross-legged underneath the shade of the tree, peaking over her shoulder to find the other students already on their way home.

"What's up with you?" she asks.

That's both cores. We're done. But, you sort of didn't blow up one Core. We did, instead.

She raises an eyebrow, folding her arms.

"Really?"

Yeah. We sort of like it here. Maybe once in a while, one of us will get all the smarts, but for the most part? I think we're gonna just mix in. You know, find a niche. Join nature.

"You're going native?"

The Israfelim stands a little taller, hands on its exaggerated hips.

We're alpha pests. You'know, getting in everywhere. Like rats with laser beams. So, we're joining nature, not trying to over write it. Why not? The Lilim seem to have some good ideas, outside of the whole 'pump out smoke' thing, but if you didn't, we wouldn't have the toys we steal. So, just lettin' you know, Rami. We aren't going for the Prize anymore.

The Israfel looks from side to side. It scratches the top of its head, nodding, turning to the bushes where another dozen Israfelim peak their heads out.

Um...just, if Zeruel asks? Tell him we're dead, okay? No one wants to ever piss him off.

Mari nods.

"I...don't have a lot of Ramiel's memories," she says, "What happens if Zeruel...or whoever he is...gets pissed off?"

The Israfelim turns back to Mari. It seems to make a sighing motion nodding.

Ramiel, you have to listen. Imagine a being with a heartbeat that could move an island. A gaze that can burn down a mountain. More power in his little pinky then we have in our full, entire form. Imagine something that early Lilim wrote about, thinking it was Omnipotent, Almighty, and a vengeful God. Imagine that, and maybe you can imagine Zeruel.

The Israfelim holds up its hand, the two fingers up.

Peace out.

And with that, it jumps into the bushes and is gone.


...


It is later, much later, that Kei is lying on the bed she shares with Rei. The events of the day replay themselves in her mind to the tune of her sister's snoring. It was glorious, magnificent. She built a giant robot that went Sickhouse on the Angel, completely destroying it and, once more, getting praise from Little Mommy in the process.

It is only later that she realizes that it goes against her modus operandi to do so. She would find other, practical ways. She would find a way to use Science on the Angel's core. Wouldn't she?

It is only later, as the blissful smile flattens out and she raises an eyebrow in consternation, that she realizes the Reetron was a very Ree thing to do.

"What'cha doin'?" Rei asks, rolling onto her side and staring at her sister.

Kei is silent, for a moment. An answer comes unbidden from her lips.

"Stuff."

She deflates a little. Maybe, now in the real world, she is very much showing her Reeishness.

But really, she asks herself.

Is that a bad thing?