I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I'm sorry it took so long to get this next installment up. I have been really busy, and will try to come out with something new sooner. This installment is not so much an action piece so much as that it sets the stage for the next chap. Please bare with me and you will be rewarded. Enjoy.

Oh, and Auska isn't about to breakdown. At least not yet. She is just pissed off about what happened to her.

* * *



At the bottom of NERV headquarters, in a room so secret that less than a dozen people knew of its existence, in a tank of LCL that glowed a pale blue, floated the first child to be chosen as an Eva pilot. Her name was Ayanami Rei and she was the creation of a man called Ikari Gendo, cobbled in a tank of LCL from the DNA of several dozen genetic donors and that stuff which passed for DNA inside an immense giant being that was made of a solidified form of light.

The First Child floated, bobbing almost lazily in the narrow tube, appearing for all the world to asleep. Or dead. And yet she was neither asleep nor dead, merely in an altered state of consciousness as she struggled inwardly to regain her cognitive faculties and move her body. She had regained consciousness in this tube several hours ago or so it seemed. But what was she doing here, she wondered. Rei tried to recall her most recent memories but it seemed her mind was cloaked in a haze. She thought she recalled having been sent out in her Eva, though for what she could not recall. Was there an angel attack, or something else, and if something else than what, she pondered? And what was she doing in side of this tube? Had the Commander put her here?

Rei struggled inwardly as she attempted to open her eyes, focusing her every thought and ounce of concentration to performing this one simple function, and slowly, after spending several seconds gathering her will, Rei's eyes opened weakly.

The First Child looked blearily through the oddly colored LCL and immediately felt a sense of shock rush through her. Shinji stood in front of her, standing calmly and motionless before the astonished First Child with a small, yet comforting smile on his face. Rei's eyes widened as she tried to process this piece of information. What was Shinji doing here? Who brought him. Could he have snuck in to this lab? Impossible! But then what was he doing here? He may be the 3rd Child but he has no purpose here, the young girl thought. Rei was about to try to call out to Shinji but stopped. It was the look in his eyes, calm, happy, and yet sad all at once that caused Rei to remain silent. Shinji continued to gaze at Rei, his face, smooth and relaxed, stood in sharp contrast to the worn, haggard expression that was all that the face of the weary First Child could muster. A wave of weariness washed over Rei, and she struggled to keep her eyes open. This moment meant something to Rei, though she could not fully explain what that was, and she gazed back at Shinji, at his soft blue eyes and kind, gentle expression.

Suddenly, beneath Rei, their was a shift in the strong, subtle flow of the current that had caused her to float upward in the LCL tube. Rei felt her body gently fall to the floor of the glass cylinder. Her body no longer held upright by unseen currents, Rei was unable to continue looking at Shinji as she drifted to the bottom of the container and fell to her knees, the trunk of her body, to heavy for her to raise, bowed downward, and her arms fell to her side. Rei struggled to raise her head and finally she was able to look upward. Shinji was still there, but somehow he did not seem as cognitive as he had been, his face now expressing disorientation. He even seemed less tangible, as if he were now less present than he had been before. Rei did not want this. Her body felt as if it was being crushed under the weight of the LCL, even breathing was difficult to her. Pain was not knew to her, she felt pain in a variety of ways, but that pain had always lessened when Shinji was around, ever since he had first come to NERV he had given her the comfort that no one else had ever cared to.

But Shinji continued to decrease in substance, until he was barely discernable from the background behind him. Mustering what was left of her depleted strength, Rei raised her trembling left arm slowly through the murky blue LCL and rested it on the tank's glass wall.

"W-wait," Rei choked out.

Despite Rei's urging to stay, Shinji vanished entirely, leaving her alone in the LCL. Exhausted and now feeling more abandoned and alone than she had ever felt in her entire life, Rei's hand slid to the floor of the tank her head bowed forward once again, resting on her knees. Deep with in she felt her mind slide into the dark regions of her unconsciousness and soon she was asleep.



* * *

Shinji awoke with a start, gasping for air, he thrashed on the couch. His arm swung out and accidentally knocked over the little glass candy jar on Misato's tea table. "Aarrghh", shouted Shinji as he clutched his bruised wrist, still confused to the surroundings he had awoken to. Trying to sit up straight so that he could better orient himself, Shinji instead fell off the couch that he had been sleeping on and fell over landing on top of Pen- pen who had been sleeping beside the couch. The poor Warm Spring Penguin, who had been asleep up till the second that Shinji had fallen on top of him, squawked with all his might as he scratched and bit at the figure that had disturbed his slumber.

"Hey, what the hell is going on out there?" Suddenly Auska appeared standing in front of her doorway, wearing a large red night shirt that came down to her knees. On her face was a groggy, yet angry expression on her face.

"Uuugh, I fell", Shinji said, not able to think of anything more intelligent to say.

"Dumpkoph, its three in the morning. SHUT UP!" With that Auska turned and went back into her room.

Shinji stared after her for a moment, and then he turned to look into the accusing eyes of Pen-pen who had retreated into the freezer after Shinji's unexpected assault and was now looking at him with his head poking out of his little pet door. Shinji was sure that if penguin's had facial expressions Pen-pen would be scowling at him. Shinji looked back at the penguin sheepishly.

"Sorry. Bad dream I guess." Wierd dream was more like it, Shinji thought as he tried to discern whether his subconscious was trying to tell him something. It was only natural for him to have nightmares of Rei given the current set of circumstances, but the dream he had just been having was a little much.

"Squawk", said Pen-pen, who seemed oddly consolidated by Shinji's meek apology. Groggily Pen-pen waddled out of his freezer and over next to Shinji who was still clutching his hurt arm all while laying sprawled on the floor amidst his pillow and blankets right where Pen-pen had been sleeping. The penguin waddled over next to Shinji and then unceremoniously flopped himself down on the floor beside the young boy and lay still.

"Thanks, its nice to know that I can count on someone to go easy on me." Wish everyone was so nice to me, he thought.

With that Shinji gathered his blankets together and spread them back over the couch, repairing his make shift bed. When this was complete Shinji lay back down on the couch, and tried to relax. Sighing, Shinji wished that he hadn't ripped his futon up earlier that day right after he had come back home from NERV headquarters. I'll have to use the mail room in NERV to order myself a new one now, he thought. It was surprising, he reflected, that the pain he had felt earlier that day, when it seemed in his mind's eye that the world was coming to an end, had now become a simple void that silently ate away inside. A sense of guilt was also with in him, gnawing away at his heart, this despite how kind Auska had been with him earlier that afternoon while she sat with Shinji and listened through Shinji's litany of that days turmoil that had been caused by his father's revelations.

Flashback

Shinji is talking to Auska as both of them sit in his room amidst the reckage of his recently destroyed room. Shinji is no longer on the verge of hyperventilating thanks to Auska who has just gotten off of Shinji after twenty minutes of sitting on his back while holding his arm behind his shoulder.

"Ok, now if you think you are ready to speak coherently lets try this again. Now, what do you mean Rei is an angel," Auska growled, as one hand moved to grasp her forehead as if it pained her.

"HE said that they created her from angel and human genetic material. That is why she is alive, because she is like the Eva's, and she can will her body to heal itself."

"But you said that she was practically road kill in that tube!"

"Yes," Shinji said in a voice that indicated the self-loathing he felt. "You see it looks like I took control of her, the way we take control of the Evas. I used that gift we have to heal her body and make her act out the way I wanted her to."

"And so? That doesn't make you a pervert. Trying to kiss me made you a pervert you idiot boy, but what you did was an accident and it saved Rei's life if any of what your father said is to be believed. Okay so you had a crush on her. That doesn't make any particular sense unless you are _really_ desperate, which come to think of it does make sense, but still, you had a crush. Rei is alive and she is probably lonely. Not even regarding what happened in the entry plug, now's probably your best chance to speak to her. The very worst she could do is say that she'll only go out with you if someone tells her to."

End Flashback

Shinji sighed, deciding that he would go and visit Rei tomorrow. But after what he did to her what in the world could he say to her.



* * *



"Well?"

"All recent memories have been erased, sir."

"Good. Inform the First Child that she is to remain inside of her original quarters until further ordered. She is to forget about any prior duties."

"Yes sir," said Sub-Commander Fuyatsaki reluctantly. He had always privately loathed the way the Commander had penned Rei in that little cell, alone for so many years. Her entire existence as a matter of fact, until a year and a half ago.

"Now," Gendo continued, "what is the status of Ritsuko's current assignment?"

"Amazingly well all things considered. Contrary to our fears, there were enough fragments of the original structure of Rei's soul left in her AT Field that we could piece them together and make a complete copy. Due to the fact an Angel's soul can't usually be destroyed it will always have some place in the universe, at least on one of its levels, that will echo its existence. Having the wave patterns of Rei's soul consumed and corrupted by the Sixteenth Angel was one of the few things that could have destroyed the perfect form of Lilith. But the echoes of Rei's original state of existence resonated long enough on her for us to copy and recreate her soul. Creating an angels soul is impossible under most circumstances, but in this case all we did was fill a vacuum, so in this case it was just next to impossible. Ritsuko hasn't stopped yakking about how she is a goddess. I thought she was going to do a victory dance."

"Excellent."

"Ritsuko did give one word of warning though. She said that this copy of Rei was going to be a _very_ good copy of her."

"Indeed?"

"So if the original did have feelings for the Third Children. . ." The Sub- Commander left it hanging.

Gendo scowled. "Well, can't she remove those memories as well?"

"That was the first thing I asked, but she insisted that if we did that we not only risked corrupting the third Rei's wave patterns, but also the vacuum we pulled her from. She said, however, that this Rei will be different enough from the second one that any risk of predisposal for a romantic involvement with the Third Children is relatively minimal."

"Good. And are the arrangements made for the Third Children's new living quarters? Yes, they will both be moved out of the Katsuragi house hold, by tomorrow."

"Good, we need Shinji to be more controlled now more than ever since he is the last Eva pilot. The Major may find and share information with him that is best left out of his reach. Since killing her or isolating her will only make him more erratic and possibly cause him to turn on us this is the best possible option."

"Yes sir. But do you really think that it was wise telling her that this was a punishment for her behavior earlier."

"She needs to learn respect for her superiors. I won't have a major using that sort of language with me."

"I think she was drunk."

"That merely compounds her error."

"She was off of duty."

"No excuse. Besides, at least the apartment we will be providing him will be better. It is an ocean front property. And with a pay increase he will probably be fine."

"Yes sir."

"Dismissed."

* * *





* * *

Rei II opened her eyes. Where am I now, she wondered. Rei II looked around herself, and with a sudden sinking feeling she realized that she was home.

"First Child".

Rei immediately stood to attention, and realized that she was wearing only a hospital gown. She ignored this and stood to attention before the Sub- Commander. "Yes sir."

"You are to remain in your present quarters until further ordered. This command comes directly from the Commander."

"Yes sir." So this is how it ends for me. I sense her presence. He has finally cast me aside as I knew he would. What should this make me feel. This is the day I have longed for, but it is not the day that I have longed for. I am still alive. If he has found another to take my place than what is my purpose? Am I the flower now, living a meaningless life? What is my purpose?

* * *

Somewhere beneath NERV, a girl lying on a medical bed opened her eyes. Where am I, thought Rei III. In her abdomen a slow burning sensation began, making its way through out the rest of her body, causing her every cell to feel as if it were on fire. She shuddered, and hoped that the pain would not last long.



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Ok, I know a few of you are screaming 'boring'. Sorry. This is more, chap 2 ½. I wanted to build up to the next chap you see. There will be a lot of action and dialogue there, honest. This will be a Rei II vs. Rei III vs. possibly a female Kawrou. And before you think that it is a done deal for Rei II, you should know that Gendo was correct in his assessments concerning Rei II's actions. She was just acting out Shinji's fantasies of her. But who is to say what sort of mark that left on Rei's soul or the soul of the third Rei? At the very least it could help her to know that a door is open to her in Shinji's heart. I hope this story will be original. I will try to come out with a new chap sooner. And maybe a new Rei. or eight. y.