Devil of Evangelion

Chapter 3

Dreams

As Rei finished putting on her Plugsuit, she pressed a few buttons on her left wrist, causing her suit to pressurize and tighten around her slim body. For her this wasn't any different than any other day, or when an Angel was attacking the City, such as was the occasion today. For as long time, she always had to attend Tests that required her to be inside her Evangelion's Plug, meaning that she also had to put on her Plugsuit too every time she went in there too.

For as long as Rei could remember, she was the only one that was being given these tests, since she was the only Eva Pilot at NERV HQ in Japan, with the only other Pilot in the entire World being over in NERV Germany, until nearly a month prior, when the Commander's Son arrived at Tokyo-3, Shinji Ikari. Her fellow pilot, the Younger Ikari, had complained at first of feeling very uncomfortable with the skin-tight suit, exclaiming that it felt strange in certain parts and made him feel like he wasn't wearing any clothing. Shinji Ikari was an enigma to Rei's way of thinking. A small part of her mind found him intriguing in a curious kind of way, while another part of her found no logic in approaching and satiating this curiosity, so she stored away those thoughts that she found no use for.

Despite not requiring any sort of camaraderie between the Pilots nor needing to ask them any useless questions, Rei still couldn't help but have those Questions of her fellow Pilot on her mind still relevant, even after a few weeks of his arrival. Those emotions usually tended to confuse her, and when they did, she used to go to the Commander, who was one of the few, if not the only person, that Rei would actually start a Conversation with and engage in it just as much as the other person. He would simply tell her not to worry about those emotions. After having done this around more or less a dozen times and kept receiving the same answer from the Elder Ikari, Rei chose to no longer ask the Commander about these questions of Emotions, figuring that the Commander would never answer her those questions and were more of an annoyance for him instead.

She stood up from the bench she had been sitting on, and turned around to her clothing she had neatly folded into squares that was lying on the bench next to her. She found no use to have possession of any other clothing aside from her School Uniform. She would only wear that and her Plugsuit, and she would sleep without any clothing. She found no issue with that either, since she never had any visitors to her apartment, and even if she did have visitors over to her home, she found no use to wearing clothing in her home since it wasn't neither school nor NERV, where she was required to wear their respective uniforms. She grabbed her School Uniform and walked over to one of the lockers that was on the other side of the lady's changing room.

As she stood in front of one of the lockers, she reached out with her other hand to open the locker door handle. At that moment, Rei felt a sudden sting in her hand that traveled all the way up to her bicep. She instinctively snatched her hand away, and looked at her palm closely.

Rei rarely had any static shocks, mostly thanks to her different body composition, so the sensation of having one still intrigued her and kept catching her off guard somehow. She tightened her grip on her clothing, feeling a strange feeling in both of her hands. After a few seconds of examining her hand, she turned back to the Locker and reached her hand out once more. A cry escaped from her lips as she felt another shock in her hand, but this time, the pain was tenfold of the previous static shock and she felt it throughout her entire body. She stumbled back a bit, and felt herself lose her grip on her clothing, letting it tumble down into the floor.

She suddenly began to feel something sickening in her stomach that was building up fast and worsening within seconds. She had never had the urge to vomit before, only spitting out LCL from her lungs whenever she was done testing or fighting an Angel. The sensation of throwing up the LCL felt strange, in an uncomfortable kind of way. She didn't understand why, but something she knew for certain was that she didn't find the sensation likeable in any kind of way and she wished she didn't have to do this every time she finished piloting inside her Plug. Her eyelids began to grow heavy as she felt a sudden headache beginning to set in as she felt her surroundings beginning to spin around her, like a Carousel.

She felt a thump as she fell onto her knees, grimacing in pain slightly from the brusque landing, before curling up in the ground as she felt her mind was about to explode. She groaned slightly as she began to see dark spots on her vision. The last thing she heard was a gasp before hearing a voice shouting out her name, although it sounded very distant and echoed. The voice sounded male and young, and it only took Rei a few seconds to figure out who it was. But that wasn't what scared her at that moment. It was that fact that she was experiencing a new emotion that she could correlate with an Emotion humans called "Fear". For the first time in her short life, Rei was genuinely afraid for her life, and it scared her as to why she was feeling that. She was only a Tool, after all. There was no reason to be afraid.

She heard a thump, and that was that.

Rei's vision had grown dark just as soon as she felt her head hit the floor, along with her hearing also going mute. It was a strange new sensation for her. She couldn't see nor hear, yet she could think and feel awake. In fact, she felt more awake than ever before, with the nauseous and dizzying sensations in her head and stomach having seemingly vanished mysteriously, not that Rei would complain about, which she never did. The darkness and silence somewhat reminded her of when she was in the LCL Tube in Terminal Dogma. It felt peaceful, and it was one of the few rare places Rei genuinely liked and enjoyed to be in. The silence and lack of people down in Terminal Dogma allowed her to ponder all she wanted on her thoughts.

However, as much as she appreciated this newfound darkness and silence, she felt herself a bit off-put about this surrounding, it felt strange, it felt… foreign. Almost like it shouldn't belong here. She had no idea just how much time had passed as she tried to wonder where she was and how she got here. She was still trying to figure out her thoughts when she suddenly heard a scream, shattering the silence and making Rei flinch and jump slightly. She turned towards the direction she heard the voice, only to find more darkness surrounding her. This confused her, it felt as if someone had screamed right next to her, yet she didn't see anything. Another scream soon rang out again as she suddenly saw a line of light out in the distance. It almost looked as if it were a crack on a wall of some kind.

"Rei!" She heard the voice scream again, but this time it said something coherent, her name. She wasn't scared, but rather, confused as to what was occurring around her as she heard another scream as the glowing crack grew slightly more. The scream didn't sound like one of pain, rather, it sounded more like one of exerting too much stamina and exhausting one's self. Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently, making Rei stumble slightly.

"Rei, hang on! I'm not letting you go, dammit!" He heard the voice shout again as the place shook again, this time much harder, as the crack became even bigger. Rei didn't recognize this voice at all, nor did she understand what this voice meant by its words. However, she could tell that the voice belonged to a male that was around the age of her and Shinji too, but it wasn't Shinji's voice. Suddenly, the loud banging and pounding stopped, and so did the screams too. After what felt like seconds to Rei, a hand suddenly ripped through the crack, causing another loud sound, making Rei step away from the light unconsciously, she didn't understand what was going on, nor did she comprehend the emotions traversing inside of her. Another hand suddenly slammed through the crack too, making the light penetrate the darkness even more as both of the person's hands began to pull on the crack, causing the barrier or whatever it was to break even more, allowing more light to enter. Finally, after remaining mute for the entire experience, Rei spoke.

"Who are you?" She spoke in her regular soft but serious tone.

"Dammit Rei, hang on!" The voice shouted again as the crack got bigger and bigger and more, smaller cracks began to appear all over the barrier.

"You didn't answer my question, who are you?" She asked again confusedly.

"It's me, Rei, it's me!" The voice shouted in exasperation after a few moments of silence, yet it still didn't answer her question. Rei knew that the voice had acknowledged her question, from the way it responded, yet it didn't wish to give an answer to her question. She felt a new emotion from looking at the cracks and the hands breaking down the barriers. She felt fear. She felt herself beginning to step back from the light.

"Rei, grab my hand!" The voice screamed once again, causing Rei to stop moving backwards. At that moment, Rei had many thoughts rushing through her mind. She was still wondering who that hand and voice belonged to, why it was asking her to grab his hand, and why she felt so much terror from the light and the person. It confused her as to why she felt so much fear from just looking at the light. She didn't understand it. However, she also began to realize that she was feeling something, another emotion, that intensified in strength every time she took one more step backwards from the light. It felt just as horrible as the fear she felt from looking at the light, if not, even worse than that. She felt a sudden rush of various emotions soaring over her, and they weren't positive ones either.

She felt as if she just wanted to be left alone with herself for as long as she could, to no longer be with others, to not longer have to face any of that fear, to finally feel safe. Yet, a part of her didn't desire that, in fact, that part of her feared that feeling, it didn't desire those feelings. It desired something else. It desired the opposite of this emotion. Rei still had idea what emotion she was even experiencing, but she felt a terrible amount of melancholy and other emotions she had never taken notice of. She desired not just the opposite of this "loneliness", but also, she desired … freedom.

"Freedom." Her eyes widened in confusion as to why she just said that. That feeling. That feeling of freedom. Rei's eyes widened in realization as a small part of the entire confusion she was experiencing finally got resolved inside her mind. When she saw that light, those hands reaching out and pleading with her to grab onto them, she had those thoughts travel through her mind.

'Are those feelings of fear when I look at that light and those hands actually….freedom? But why am I afraid of it?' Rei wondered in her mind. Her entire mind was divided now. One part of her desired to stay and remain in the darkness forever, where she didn't have to fear anything anymore, yet she felt imprisoned, like a bird in a cage, or as the Germans called it, Vogel Im Kafig. The German language had always intrigued Rei for reasons that even she didn't understand. For an outsider, when they heard the Language being spoken, it sounded harsh and demanding, but when it was spoken, it felt beautiful. It was almost like the world. It could appear to be cruel at first, but it is also very beautiful too. Perhaps this was the reason that she found the language so intriguing. She had just started to learn it by herself, and she did it out of her own will, out of her own freedom, without having anyone telling her to do it.

That was when she realized the boy's voice wasn't speaking in Japanese, but rather, also German. At that moment, her mind was divided. One part of her wanted to stay in the darkness forever, while another part of her wanted to go and reach out and grab the boy's hand, to finally be free, to finally get rid of this… loneliness. Both ideas terrified Rei, but she felt as if she had to do her choice at that moment. After what felt like a few minutes, Rei had finally made her decision. Looking at the hands reaching out and holding a hand, she ran towards them. Her mind was screaming at her to stay in the darkness and silence, where she could be safe forever from any pain, but she didn't want any loneliness no more, she wanted to finally be free. She had no idea where she had gotten this surge of determination that she had never felt before, but at that moment, she didn't care anymore about that. It felt as if another part of her that had been locked away for a long time had just been unlocked and rejoined her self once more. At that moment, the only thing she was thinking of was reaching that light.

"Grab my hand!" The voice shouted as he extended his hand further into the darkness, coating more of the place in bright light. Rei ran even faster and began to reach out her own hand too towards the light.

'This...this is Freedom.' Rei realized in her mind as she finally was within just a few feet from the light. Feeling as if something was holding her back from reaching out completely, Rei felt herself start screaming, not from pain nor fear, but rather, from determination. Even she was surprised by this new experience. Her hand soon held into the boy's hand. At that moment, Rei felt a surge of new emotions rushing through her mind. However, unlike the previous emotions she felt before in the darkness, she felt a complete variety of different sorts of emotions that contrasted each other completely. However, a new voice in her head, a voice that sounded just like the mysterious boy's voice, soon began to blur out those feelings with the Phrase it was shouting.

'Fight, fight fight!' The voice screamed inside her mind as she felt the hand beginning to pull her into the crack of bright light. Suddenly, Rei felt a violent tug on her hand as she got pulled completely into the light crack, blinding her vision completely as she heard another loud scream originating from the boy as he pulled her through the barrier.

Rei felt her eyes open again, only this time, instead of darkness blinding her vision, it was something else Rei would have never thought to have seen. She was laying in the ground, looking at what seemed to be the night sky. However, she noticed that something was off about the sky. There were streaks of bright particles covering some of the sky. At first glance, Rei believed them at first to be auroras, similar to the ones that appeared at the Former North and South Poles. However, they didn't appear like them nor did they move at all. It appeared as if they were almost like…. Paths.

She observed the Lights in the night sky to their direction. She realized that they kept going for what seemed to be miles, beyond what the naked human eye could see. Rei figured that such an endeavor to reach the end of the lights was not worth it to just satiate a small question she had in mind. At that moment she finally registered in her mind that she was in a desert of some kind, with the red sand appearing to be covering the entire landscape for as far as Rei could observe, with only a few mountains jutting out of the ground. She no longer felt that terrible emotion when she was trapped inside the darkness, in fact, at that moment, she felt nothing. No fear, no joy, nothing. She then turned around to observe where the other end of the Lights went towards. She followed it closely with her vision as she stood up from the ground and turned around towards where the lights were headed to.

"Rei."

Before she had a chance to see where the lights went to, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She immediately turned towards the voice that said her name, only to be met face-to-face with the person, with the person who had that voice that helped her escape the lonely confines of that darkness.

It was a boy. He appeared to be around her and Shinji's age. His skin was a fair tone of clear European Descent, with medium-sized brown hair covering some of his forehead with his bangs. She noticed that he didn't appear to be wearing anything, except for some rolled-up pants of some kind. He also had a muscular form, a testament that proved hours of working out for years, but that wasn't what intrigued Rei the most. It was his eyes. Humanity has a saying that the eyes are windows to one's soul. Rei found it impossible for eyes to be windows to one's soul, but this boy's eyes made her question her own thinking. The Iris of his eyes was a sharp Jade Green in color, a kind of color that made it seem as if he was looking at another person's very soul.

"Who are you?" Rei asked the boy.

"It's me."

Rei adopted a confused stare, which the boy didn't fail to notice.

"Rei, you still have the key that I gave you, don't give me that bullshit that you don't care, you do! Rei, remember my promise, my promise that no matter how long or how much it'll take, you'll be the one to unlock it! You're free. You're free from anyone's command! You're not a doll"

At that moment, Rei was one without words. She didn't understand what the boy was saying, but she herself knew one thing for certain, the boy was wrong about something, she wasn't free from Commands. She didn't call it not being free, more like she really had only one purpose in her life. She only had one mission, she was just a Tool for the Commander's Plan, and she did not seem to mind it at all. It wasn't her not being free, it was just her following her purpose. The boy somehow read her thoughts, because at that moment, his face transformed into a scowl.

"You're not replaceable Rei! You're not a tool! You're Rei Ayanami, and you are free, because you were born into this world, just like everyone else! I won't lose any of you again! Comrades don't leave each other!" The boy nearly shouted at her. Rei could only look at him in confusion and intrigue.

'What key is he talking about?' After a few seconds of thinking, her eyes suddenly widened as she felt something in her hand, something small and metallic, with a strange shape. She looked down at her hand, and her mouth gaped slightly as she saw a Key laying on the palm of her hand. It appeared to look very rusty and old-fashioned, like those keys Rei saw in pictures from the late 1800s. At one end of the key, a string was tied around it and around her fingers too, making it a necklace. She still had no idea just how long she had had that key in her hand, since she never realized it was inside her palm in the first place. She suddenly felt a pair of her hands on both of her shoulders, before feeling them pull her in towards the boy. The first thing she realized at that moment was that she was lacking any clothing, unlike the boy, who was still wearing pants, however, neither she nor the boy seemed to care much about it. She also realized that the boy had pulled her into an embrace, and was hugging her tightly.

At first, she felt a strange amalgamation of fear and anger, before she began to feel something else, she had no idea what it was called, but she knew that it was the opposite of "loneliness", of the feeling she had inside the dark space.

"Rei, you're free now." The boy whispered into her ear as he kept hugging her tightly. At that moment she felt as if another part of her had just joined her. She felt various new feelings and emotions running through her mind. She felt…. free. She couldn't help but respond in kind with a hug of her own too. It shocked her even more when she returned the hug. She never really understood the point of hugging a person, feeling it to be a strange way of showing affection, but for whatever reason, she felt compelled to do so. Finally, after what felt like hours of peaceful silence between the two, Rei spoke.

"What's your name?"

The boy released her and turned to look at her. His face became one of what Rei assumed to be annoyance. Finally, the boy responded.

"You don't remember? It's-" His voice was suddenly drowned out by another male voice, a shout.

"Rei!"