The First Child / Before I Sleep
Part 2 - Premonition / The Three Faces of Eve
-------

The NERV sentry feels the skin on his neck crawl. Taking a firmer grip on
his rifle, he turns his head slowly behind him, only to see the
scarlet-eyed schoolgirl, the one who had passed him just seconds ago,
staring intently at him.

With a strange look of... sadness in her eyes.

Still shaken, the sentry sighs and smiles at the girl. "Is something
wrong, miss?" he offers.

"You should leave this place... it is dangerous," replies Rei.

"Why, did someone follow you here?" he asks, one hand reaching out for
his radio.

"No... I don't know. I just... feel it."

"Don't worry, Miss Ayanami, I'm here to protect you. You go on to where
the Commander wants you," grunts the sentry, suppressing a laugh. "We
all have our duty to perform," he says awkwardly, turning his back
to her.

The sentry returns to his position at the gate, adjusts his helmet,
and looks out, blank-faced, into the night.

After a few seconds, Rei uncertainly resumes her walk, deeper into
the depths of NERV. Still struggling with the strange sense of foreboding
gripping into her consciousness.

Later, the sentry would still be pondering the strange encounter with
the young Eva pilot when the JSSDF commando's knife slices his throat
from behind.

***

She senses the Fifth Child's presence, again, behind her. Standing
behind her as the escalator descends.

A crunching sound, a slight slurping, and self-satisfied chewing.

"What are you doing here?" she asks quietly, not turning to look.

"Just eating," he replies, with apparent nonchalance. He offers the
half-eaten apple to her. "Want some?"

"Thank you," she says. "But I am not hungry."

"You're sure? It's only an apple, you know. It's not the Forbidden Fruit."

The boy holds up the apple in his right hand, and gazes at it, as if
lost in thought.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asks, a soft diffident whisper.

"I'm trying to make amends, Lillith-child", he says, finally eliciting
a stare from the girl, who turns her head back to look at him from
the corner of her eyes, but says nothing.

"Can you imagine a universe consisting of only two dimensions? A
universe that's only a flat plane, if you will," he continues,
interrupting himself to grab another bite from the apple. "Imagine what
a sentient being in that universe would experience, if a three-dimensional
entity like this apple were to fall on his flat-plane universe? He
would see just small portions of the apple, the few surfaces touching
the flat plane of his world. Now imagine the apple rolling along that
plane; the apple would only be shifting position, but to the sentient
observer living in that two-dimensional universe, it would seem as if
the apple was appearing and disappearing, incarnating and reincarnating
at random at different places. This is because that observer cannot
imagine anything existing in a third dimension."

"Fifth Child," she replies, turning her back to him once more. "What
is your point?"

"Just by way of analogy, what if our theoretical, two-dimensional
sentient being is actually a three-dimensional being herself... but
it's just that she doesn't know it, or refuses to know it yet?"

He smiles at her behind her back.

She steps off the escalator as it reaches a concrete landing.

"Fifth Child, I do not..." she starts to reply, turning back to look
at him. And stops when she realizes he's disappeared. Again.

"I do not understand," she finishes, her voice trailing off.

"I do understand we are one, you and I," she hears her own voice saying
to her, behind her.

She turns to look down at the now ascending escalator. Where the figure
of a blank-faced girl approaches her, and steps off at the concrete
landing to face her.

It's like looking at a mirror, she thinks.

"Are you one of my clones?" she asks the newcomer.

The other Rei doesn't answer.

"Answer me," she pleads.

"Why do you suddenly need answers?"

"Because my mission is nearing completion."

"Your life and your mission are not the same. They don't have to be. This
is your reason... this is your answer."

"Then you are what I will be because of this mission."

"You are looking at Forbidden Fruit, First Child. Be careful."

"What do you mean?"

"It is your choice to see me, even though I am you. Remember this,
that you are responsible for what you see. Such knowledge breeds danger,
if not treated with care."

"Rei Ayanami."

"Yes."

"Show me."

A pregnant pause.

"You can't see everything. And what you would see won't necessarily
be real."

"Then tell me what you do see..."

The Other turns away from her, but answers, "All right..."

As she opens her lips to speak, the blackness of the Void envelops them.

***

She finds herself back in the vast plain where Yui Ikari's gravepost
once lay, the scene of the last civil discourse between Gendo and Shinji
Ikari. As Rei walks slowly among the undulating rows of graveposts,
she spots a solitary figure standing silently in front of one gravepost.
She recognizes the Commander's black uniform, but the wearer is different
today. Shorter, more delicate. Stronger and more vulnerable. A woman
with auburn hair.

Yui Ikari.

The woman turns to face Rei as she approaches.

"You're finally back," whispers Yui, in a voice at once ancient and young.

"They desire your presence... both of them do... I am here to summon
you back..."

Yui looks at her in silence, unmoving. It takes Rei a moment to note
the tear rolling down the older woman's cheek.

"Mother..."

And the Void envelops them both.

***

Terminal Dogma. In the Chamber of the Guf.

In the darkness, the last incarnation of the child Rei Ayanami
stands silently staring at the tank containing the remains of her clones.

Gendo Ikari, in a brief moment of doubt as he walks into the lab,
wonders if the child has been trying to talk with the dead. But his
anticipation overcomes him.

"Rei... I thought you'd be here."

The girl turns to face him.

"The promised time has come," continues Ikari. "Let's go."

(to be continue...)


****
Author's Notes:
"Moon over Damascus" is an allusion to the Biblical revelation of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus.
"Three Faces of Eve" is an allusion to the book and film "The Three Faces of Eve." This is not
meant to portray Rei as a Multiple Personality Disorder patient, but rather to expand on and highlight
the First Child's nature as a vessel for Lillith's and Yui's selves, as well as Rei's own emerging
sense of self. This fic will try to explore the dynamics among these three selves, as the
fates and motivations of Yui's Gendo, Lillith's Adam, and Rei's Shinji and Asuka intersect at
Third Impact.