Rei's Unit 01 was in a position in which she could see the White machine, but she couldn't really be sure of what she was seeing.

What was supposed to be an Angel was instead resembling an EVA.

Only 4 minutes worth of battery were powering Unit 01, so Rei was not really in a situation in which she could take everything slow. She embraced the Machine Gun she brought to the field and fired some shots at the leg of the EVA. In that moment, the white machine lift her head, showing what resembled two red eyes, which blinked, as if the machine was just being powered up.

Without a word, the White EVA assaulted Rei,the giant white body jumped on EVA 01 letting the girl drop her weapon. Rei reacted fast and threw the enemy away. Then she reached for the machine gun, and a with a cold but anxious expression she gave Unit 02 the order to fire everything. The machine gun had 2 types of ammunition, explosive granades from the upper fire, and giant steel bullet from the lower one. The grenades were meant to blow up the weakness points of the enemies, while the peculiar form of the bullets were optimized to damage the AT Fields of the Angels. The explosion of the grenades stirred up a great amound of powder, covering Rei's visual on the enemy, but the girl kept firing, eventually emptying up the ammunition.

"Is the signal still there?"

Rei tried to ask for feedback from the HQ, but received no response

She could hear Misato talking, but it seemed like the signal was disturbed, and Misato's voice was too low and fragmented to understand. The answer to her doubts arrived after some seconds, not from the HQ, but from the enemy itself. The landscape was devastated by Unit 01's weapon, but the enemy stood there without any damage. The EVA arm pointed to Unit-01 and the hand was wide opened, ahead of it, there was a AT field active.

"Using an AT field like that? So it really was an Angel after all"

Rei acted quickly, unleashing the knife and assaulting the enemy. She jumped toward the white EVA but then something happened to Unit 01, and the machine shut itself down. The energy was over.

"Damn, I forgot the battery lenght..aaah"

The cockpit went dark, as Unit-01 entered emergency mode, but this didn't prevent Rei from feeling the pain of the White EVA attack. She couldn't see outside anymore, nor she could hear what was happening, but a feeling of intense pain reached her arm. The veins in the arm were bursting, as she screamed painfully. Then another she felt another movement, the one of her own EVA felling on the ground.

Powerless, the girl tried to stop screaming from the intense pain and started trying to get the EVA up,but without the energy, nothing could be done. The LCL started feeling more and more of blood, the cockpit felt darker and darker, and hence, Rei lost grasping of reality.

—

A strange ceiling met Rei's eyes

It was not a ceiling she was used to see, but she already saw it once

She was not in the hospital bed, nor she was in any kind of bed, even if something was under her head softening the cold floor in which she found herself in.

The ceiling was then covered by a familiar face.

A sad face, but one that Rei was happy to see. The girl got up fast, bumping her head onto the boy's head

"Argh"

Both the Children let out a quiet scream, for the light pain of the two heads bumping each other

"Good Morning Ayanami."

The boy was the first to talk, as Rei was still slighty confused.

"Shinji?"

Rei embraced the boy, which was surprised by that reaction

"Yes, it's me. It's everything alright Ayanami?"

"I fainted inside the Unit 01. Does this mean this is what's inside the Unit?"

"Wait…Wait, slow down. You already were here some time ago don't you remember?"

"Well…"

She remembered the last time. She found herself on that train, together with Shinji after the last Angel attack. And now she was there again.

"Is it time for you to get out?"

"I don't really know. But it seems like we're reaching someplace"

"Really?"

"Yeah, the guy on the other side told me we're reaching a destination. Though I didn't really understand his words"

Rei got up and went toward the boy on the other side of the train

"Ayanami, wait.."

Rei ignored Shinji, she wanted answers. If she didn't want to leave like last wanted to take out Shinji with her.

She arrived to the barried, and watched on the other side, the figure was not clear. The boy on the other side was someone she knew.

"Kaworu?"

"Hi, here again First?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see this train destination. Well, unlike you it's not like I'm stuck here or anything. I'm on the other side as well, working on getting this train to its destination."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm here to make Shinji's dream come true."

In that moment Shinji entered the discussion

"Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"Only you know. I'm not the one that will chose what your wish will be, I will just trigger the way the wish will be granted."

"Cut that bullshit, explain yourself"

The boy watched Shinji, wearing a sad smile

"You see Shinji, I met you before. And that time, like now, there was something that was bothering you. Something that didn't make you live happily. I lived as a human for years to understand what that was. And in the end, I understood. It was the hedgehog enigma. That mandatory, yet difficult challenge you all have to overcome. Getting near someone means to be prepared to being hurt, or to even hurt if you don't make yourself vulnerable. Words to hurt like the hedgehog spikes, feeling to be hurt, like the one who's hit by the hedgehog spikes, and the hedgehog itself. I searched for a solution for this, for you to overcome everything. But it's impossible. Humans will keep being afraid of being hurt, and that feeling will continue to hurt whoever tries to get near another human being. The dilemma won't be solved. There's no solution, there's no overcoming. It's not much a dilemma, as much as a curse. And because of that, I will revolutionize the world: leaving to you the final choice. Will you keep the world as is, to live in a known environment at the cost of human isolation, or will you revolutionize the world, getting into the unknown to overcome the AT field surrounding people?"

"What? What are you saying? Where is this train headed, stop being mysterious about this and just tell me"

In that moment everything went back, only to be lighten up by hundreds of glowing SEELEE symbols on the glass of the train. In that atmosphere the boy replied to Shinji, clearing the doubts

"We're going to a crossroad, in which you can decide where to go as I said to you before. If you want to know what that crossroad is…well, I think you can say it's the Third Impact"

"What? The Third Impact? The one we're trying to prevent?"

"It won't be the Angel Third Impact you were told about, it will be a full blown revolution. And you will be in charge of it"

"Don't give me that crap"

Shinji shouted and threw a punch to the barrier

"Don't involve Ayanami in that shit. Third Impact? Revolution? I'm not worthy such effort."

After saying that the boy went to the exit on the right, and started trying to force it open.

"Shinji, what are you"

Both Kaworu and Rei were surprised by the boy's action

"I don't care about revolutionizing the world. What I wanted then, and what I want now, it's just someone to care about, and that can care about me. In this moment, in this very moment, I just want Ayanami to be that one. I wanted to save her then, and I want to save her now"

Little by little, the door started cracking open.

"So. That's how it is"

Said Kaworu, watching the boy struggling to open the door with all his strenght

"Maybe then, you can find the answer to the dilemma"

Shinji used all his strenght, and the door finally opened

"Ayanami, please exit while I keep this open. I want you to be safe, I want you to get out. I want you to…"

Shinji couldn't finish his sentence, not because he didn't know how to express his feelings, but because something unexpected happened. Rei pushed the boy out of the train. The boy fell out, and the door shut just being him, trapping Ayanami in there.

"Ayanamiiii"

Shinji, started passing out, with a last sentence from Kaworu ringing in head

"Go to the destination, you'll find me and her there"

In the Train, Rei and Kaworu watched Shinji's body disappear

"Will he return to the Unit-01?"

"Yeah, but are you sure of this choice? He won't be happy without you"

"He will, no one needs a doll like me"

"You're no doll, Rei. Even if you're a clone, you have something does not have. And I'm sure he saw that too, your sacrifice, your feelings, your voe of virtue"