Ch. 2
Rei had gotten off the elevator and I was slowly walking behind her, more confused then ever. What is with her? How'd she survive Third Impact? How had my father survived Third Impact? I examined her face to see if I could find anything behind those blood-red eyes of hers. The eyes seemed to hold more life then they used to, but didn't give out any answers to the questions flying around in my brain. She saw me looking at her and offered me something she had rarely did before Third Impact; the rare Rei smile. It fit her perfectly, but she seemed to be uneasy with the expression and it quickly left her face. 'She'd make a real nice mother' was the thought that was going through my mind as we both entered Terminal Dogma, and saw Asuka and Father were ahead of us. "Well, well, well. It seems that Wonder-girl and the Invincible Shinji are finally here. What were you two doing that took so long?" Asuka kept her questions going in that voice she sometimes got, but Rei got to the answer before me. "It's none of your concern but, we were riding down the elevator and talking." At that point, Asuka's face seemed to get a look of something like hatred or great anger. With Asuka, it's very hard to tell the differences in her facial expressions. Rei got this evil smile and asked something that made my jaw drop. "Does that make you jealous Asuka?" Rei emphasized this by grabbing my hand and holding it in both of hers. What is wrong with her? She's totally changed (not for the worst though) and seems to have her emotions out in the open. Asuka looked as thought she had been hit by an Angel's attack. Her eyes suddenly turned poisonous, and a wicked sneer formed on her face. "What was that Rei? I thought that it was me Shinji choose to be his partner. Now why don't you let him make-up his own mind about which one of us he loves more." She took a step forward and Rei let go of my hand to take a step at Asuka. I looked over at Father to see him have a small smile on his face, and watched with interest as the two prepared to fight. In my mind I was trying to figure out who would win. I thought that Asuka had the upper hand, Rei was always so calm and collected that it seemed she wouldn't win. Then again, Rei had changed a lot and who knew how she might react? They got closer and closer, and they finally met. Asuka had gone pale and the evil sneer had seemed to grow and get even scarier as they closer to each other. Rei's eyes had lost the warmth they had a few minutes before, and just seemed to get more hate filled and angry by the moment.
Right as they seemed to get ready to strike one another, I blurted out "Father, why have you called all the Evangelion pilots here?" The two stopped and faced my Father. "As you may know, there have been more Dead Sea Scrolls found. These predict that 'An Angel even more powerful then all the others shall be ushered into existence only after the first 17 Angels are defeated." He cleared his throat and his eyes looked at each one of us in turn. "Now, you are our only hope to combat this foe. This impending Angel will come after the only Angel left; mankind itself. If that should happen, I hope that all of you know what to do. Only one other time was it recommend to you three to make out a will; I believe that this is going to be the last fight for humanity and one of you may die fighting for this cause. Now is the only change you will have, so make the best of your time together. The training begins at 16:00 tomorrow. Good luck, and may you all enjoy your last few hours without training." He turned and walked out of the chamber. After he left the door closed behind him and sealed all of us into darkness, but it wasn't an unpleasant darkness. This kind felt almost alive and it seemed to comfort me. As I looked around, Rei and Asuka kept giving each other the evil eye, but their spark was gone.
They turned towards me and all of a sudden, my heart fell into my stomach and the warmth that I felt a few moments before seemed to recede as well. They seemed to have an aura of pure lust and hatred around them. "Oh Shinji..." Asuka called out my name, and my blood ran cold as ice. "What are we going to do now mien kleiner Geliebter?" Rei looked at her and then gave me a very warm smile and a loving look in her eyes. "Ikari what shall we do together, my boyfriend?" I tried to back away from them, but I lost my footing and began to windmill my arms to try to stay high and dry. Asuka rushed over to me, and grabbed my hand right as I finally lost my balance and fell into the Sea of LCL. As I struggled to the surface I heard Asuka behind me start to scream. "Shinji you Domkopf! You got my school top wet, and now it's turning see-through!" She continued to whine, oblivious to the fact that I was unable to swim! Damn you Shinji, why didn't you ever take the time to learn to swim? Oh yes, I remember now "Humans aren't made to float." That's probably the most stupid excuse you've ever come up with!
After my internal beating was done, I realized that someone had pulled me out of the water and was giving me mouth-to-mouth! As my eyes open slowly, I saw that Asuka had pulled me from the surface and was giving me the air I needed. My heart went out to her more in this particular moment then I ever thought it possible. I tried to wrap my arms around her, but my arms still felt like they were hunks of lead attached to my body. She saw that my eyes were open and she stopped giving me the life saving mouth-to-mouth, but I saw that she was blushing very high up on her cheeks. I got up and coughed out the metallic, blood-like tasting liquid from my throat.
That's when I remembered that when all of the humans were touched by the Rei clones in the Third Impact, that they turned into LCL. This made me loose the last bit of restraint and throw-up all over the floor. "Great move, dumkopf." Asuka said with her usual tones. The blush had started to fade and I was starting to regain my composure, or whatever little bit of it that I usually had. After all of this was done, I made my choice. "Asuka, would you like to go to the movies with me?" Rei stopped and turned around. She looked me right in the eyes and tears started to form. As they rolled silently down her cream colored cheeks, I realized that I loved her too. "Rei, would you like to come over to our place after the movie and have dinner?." Rei stopped crying and she became happy again, Asuka looked a little put off, but she would live. We all got changed, and I only heard a little bit of fighting from the girls locked room right next door. I changed into my school outfit, after I finally got out of that awful plugsuit. It seems like it was made only for women to wear, but I ended up getting one anyway. But nothing could top the first time that I met Asuka and that Angel attacked.
Even thought it was months ago, it still sends shivers down my spine when I think about how revealing it was. Aside from the perverted thoughts, I stopped and realized one thing; even if all the Angels were dead, what about Karou? He was an Angel, but he (it?) said that he (it?) loved me. Well, that's no time to think about matters of the past, even thought my mind was turning back to my past friend (lover?) more and more often. This made me wonder if something was going to happen involving him, and I began to wonder if it would be him or a clone of him, kind of like Rei. I let my feelings on this matter pass only after I saw the two girls returning from their changing rooms. Rei was wearing her school outfit as well, but Asuka was wearing something that I hadn't seen on her since our first encounter. If you don't know the dress I'm talking about, let me describe it for you: it was lemon yellow, and she had a yellow bow around her midsection that complimented her looks and physique very well. Kaji had thought the same thing right before he di- No! don't you dare think about that, the more you focus on the past the more it will harm you. one of the reasons that i admired him was the fact that he seemed to be much more of a fatherly figure then my own father, and he was down right cool and smooth with the ladies. He was one of those people that could make anything right. Once, i lost the will to pilot my Eva and he made me realize that most people couldn't do anything at all to help humanity, but i could. That's when i got back into my Eva and saved Tokyo 3. Of course, I was almost killed, but when doesn't that happen to the Eva pilots? I ended up losing control and getting an unprecedented 400 sync ratio! Anyway, back to the topic at hand; Rei looked sad, but took my hand anyway. Asuka grabbed my hand and laced her fingers in between mine. Just at that moment i remembered our old "thermal expansion" lesson. I blushed very hard, but didn't let my beautiful dates see. We got to the movies and i realized one thing was missing, and that was the fact that i didn't have much money to pay for the movies. Come to think about it, i never had seen a paycheck for me in my entire life, but i did protect the world and ended up doing lots of damage to the surroundings. I remembered that Misato had given me 10,000 yen for doing all the chores and cooking. I paid for the three tickets, popcorn, and lots of drinks.
However, when we got into the movie, an argument broke out about who was sitting next to who. "Ikari is sitting next to me. I will not except it any other way." Asuka looked absolutely livid at what Rei said. What was happening to her? I couldn't figure her out at all, it seemed she was even more unfathomable then before Third Impact. "well, it just so happens that Shiji is sitting with me, and not you, Wonder Girl ." She pulled me towards two empty seats and then i noticed that there were three empty seats in the middle of the fourth or fifth row. "Wait Asuka! There are some seats over there that we could sit in, and I'll sit in the middle to stop the arguments from breaking out. As the movie came on, Asuka and Rei both grabbed my hand and held onto it for an hour or so; after that Asuka took my arm and put it around her and rested her head on my arm. Rei on the other hand, placed my hand in her lap and caressed it slowly. I knew the time would come when i had to make a choice, but until that time i was going to enjoy it while it lasted. I'm not a brave man by nature, but I do sometimes stand up for myself and protect those i care about. After the movie Rei left to go to the bathroom. No sooner had Rei left then did Asuka Get up and look me in the eyes to ask me a single question, "Who do you love more Shinji, me or Wonder Girl?" I began to look around nervously to begin trying to make my choice. There was only one thing you can ask for an answer in a situation like this; your heart. Inside of your heart everything that you hold dear or love is inside of this organ, and it's protected from all the other wear and tear on your body by its own AT field (at least that's what i think). My heart told me that Asuka was the one , but i didn't want to hurt Ayanami's feelings. God, how did i get into this predicament? I just want to be with the both of them. I began to blush, "Well Asuka, I think that you are the one that I love the most." After I said this, she looked positively joyous and leaned forward to kiss me. I wrapped my arms around her and embraced her kiss with one of my own. After the embrace was over, Rei walked in and Asuka said "Shinji chose me Wonder Girl, not you!" Rei looked crestfallen and looked at me for support, but all i could manage was a weak nod of my head. Rei turned around and ran away crying. I remembered that she live a few blocks away, but i still did feel guilty about what i had done to the poor girl. She was just starting to open up and I hurt her feelings like they were nothing at all.
End Chapter Two.
Notes: A bit longer this time and i hope it feels all right and not too bulky. Let me know in your reviews what you want to read and I'll do my best to make them happen.
