Episode: 5 (part 2)
"Remember the Fallen"
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The seats vibrate spasmodically as the elevated train trundles along its route through Tokyo-3. Rei is seated, but she barely notes the sensation underneath her. She's watching the orange orb that is the sun ease itself down outside the train-car's dirty windows. To her right, a middle-aged man holds his young daughter, who has drifted off to sleep. To her left, a teenage couple slightly older than herself shamelessly kiss, oblivious to anyone around them. In front of her, silhouetted by the light of dusk, sits a mother nursing her infant.
To scream or gasp or even shout a warning would all be pointless. Rei just watches as the N2 mines fall like leaves, toppling end over end in slow motion, down past the tops of the skyscrapers. She doesn't feel a thing, physically or otherwise, as Tokyo-3 is annihilated.
I'm naked… but I realize my purpose at last. I can see them all dying, before, now, and later… their souls unbound. Major Katsuragi, Dr. Akagi, Vice-Commander (Professor) Fuyutsuki, everyone everyone everyone everyone everyone…. It takes a second… it takes forever. Their bodies become nothing… and I watch each one.
I'm dying too…. The Commander put something inside of me…. I stand beneath the masked Angel… Lilith. Adam is a part of me, now. I must become one with Lilith. The mask falls away, and it's my face. I am Adam… I am Lilith… I'm not dying….
I am Death.
NO! she thinks. I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Yui! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei! I'm Rei!
"You are… still not ready…." The voice carries immeasurable disappointment. The voice is Kaworu's.
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2001…
Naoko Akagi peers through her car's windshield, trying to keep her eyes and herself on the road despite the driving rain. The wipers swish back and forth, barely keeping the downpour at bay. Few houses along this stretch have their lights on, as power-conscious residents still conserve, though it's been almost a year since the cataclysm known as "Second Impact". The thunder crashes, and she prays that nature's tumult won't wake the baby in the car-seat behind her.
In the distance, the house she's been searching for is aglow, cutting through the rain and night with its warmth. She sighs with relief and sneaks a quick glance back at the sleeping baby. It's still cooing softly to itself, wrapped up in the fuzzy blanket Naoko had bought. She pulls slowly into the driveway, and her chest tightens with nervousness each foot she draws closer. After a long while spent sitting in the car, she gets out and opens her umbrella.
"Damn," she whispers, wrestling with the car-seat as she tries to hold the umbrella over the open car-door. "Please don't wake up! They make these blasted things differently than when Ritsuko was little!" With the baby in hand, she makes her way to the front door. Unexpectedly, no one is waiting to greet her. She wonders if her approach wasn't heard because of the storm. Her hand is shaking as she goes to ring the bell, but it's not from the cold.
"Hello, Dr. Akagi," says the dour man who answers the door. He looks to be in his mid-thirties, like Naoko, and it suddenly occurs to her that she's never met him before. Nonetheless, he's exactly as she pictured him, thanks to vividly unflattering descriptions.
"Hello, Mr. Soryu," Naoko answers back icily. "I'm here to see Kyoko."
"My wife has been… unwell, since the disaster last year," he says cryptically. He looks from Naoko to the baby, then back. The rain beats down on her umbrella. Finally, with a frown, he motions for her to enter.
"Perhaps she'd be doing better if you'd allowed anyone to visit her in the meantime," snaps Naoko as she walks ahead of him through the foyer. "Or, at the very least, you could have let her return one of my phone calls!"
"Your concern for my wife is appreciated, Doctor," he replies, apparently unfazed by her accusations, "as are your efforts on our behalf." With that, he takes another long look at the baby. Naoko sets the heavy car-seat down, but doesn't leave its side. She crosses her arms and stares firmly at her host.
"I did this for Kyoko," she tells him. "And I'm not leaving without seeing her. Or, if I am, then the baby is coming with me."
"There is no need to threaten me, Dr. Akagi," he says. Naoko thinks she sees sadness creeping into his stoic features.
"Where is she, Mr. Soryu?" Naoko demands.
"If you could answer me one thing first…," he starts. His face is still emotionless, but his eyes are pleading. "…is that… is that baby one of the pilots?" Naoko fumes silently and grinds her teeth as she considers leaving immediately. But if she does, she might lose any chance of seeing Kyoko.
"Well, yes and no," she admits. "The baby was cloned along with the pilots, so she does bear the same genetic alterations that would enable her to sync with an Eva. But I wiped her from the database. She's not on the official roster. It was against the protocol from SEELE to clone anyone who wasn't projected to die in "Second Impact". I had to hide her, or else they probably would have euthanized her when they discovered I cloned her from Kyoko's DNA. This… this is the closest thing to a real child of her own that I could give her."
"And it's the furthest thing from a child of my own," Kyoko's husband mutters.
"Naoko, is that you?" comes a frail voice from an adjoining hallway. Dr. Akagi rushes to help the newcomer join them in the sitting room while Mr. Soryu looks on in shock and anger.
"Kyoko," he scolds, "you were supposed to take your sedative."
"I didn't want to," she answers petulantly. The woman Naoko Akagi leads into the room bears little resemblance to the vibrant, young girl she knew. Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu looks emaciated, wearing only a stained, ill-fitting robe. She walks with halting uncertainty, and her once-sparkling blue eyes are now dull and vacant.
"I… I brought something for you," Naoko says unsteadily. She suddenly doesn't know how to behave, faced with this apparent stranger who's but a shadow her former friend. Slowly, she leads her to the car-seat and kneels down with her to examine its contents. The look of joy on Kyoko's face fills Naoko's heart with hope.
"Look!" Kyoko squeals to her husband. "Look what Naoko brought me!" She hugs the older woman roughly, then turns back to admiring the baby. "It's beautiful! It's the most beautiful doll I've ever seen!"
"No, Kyoko…," Naoko says softly. She feels the hope leaving her, and she desperately tries to hold onto it. "It's not a doll…. This… this is your baby." Kyoko grimaces. When she looks at Naoko, she's on the verge of tears, like a child whose toy has been taken away.
"That's not my baby," Kyoko says, her voice distorted by sadness. She lets out a small whimper. Then, in a flash, her sadness turns frighteningly to rage.
"That's not my baby!" she screams, rising from the floor. Kyoko tears open her robe, clawing at her gaunt stomach with quaking fingers. "That didn't come out of me! That wasn't inside me!"
Her screaming wakes the baby, and the infant's cry forms a torturous cacophony with Kyoko's continued wails. Her husband hugs her with firm restraint as Naoko cowers on the floor. He looks down at the doctor, conveying with that single look that she should go.
"All my babies are dead!" Kyoko yells at Naoko as the older woman flees.
Naoko wipes away her own tears as she sits in her car alone. She thinks she can hear Kyoko and the baby, crying over the sounds of the rain and thunder. But she decides it must have been her imagination when she can still hear their cries, long after leaving.
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2016, this morning…
Asuka Langley Soryu humbly thanks Hikari Horaki's mother for letting her enter before immediately tramping up the stairs to her friend's room. She'd decided that twenty-four hours would be enough time for Hikari to cool down after yesterday's embarrassing scene. Then, after asking Mrs. Horaki if Hikari was in and asking if she could come inside, Asuka became a juggernaut. She doesn't even knock on Hikari's bedroom door before entering.
"Can you believe Toji, pouncing on me like that…?" she starts in instantly.
I don't even know if Hikari wants me as her friend anymore, she thinks.
"…I mean, who knew he was such a rapist…?"
But I'm going to keep acting like I am.
"…It's a good thing we found out before you two got really serious…."
She'd have to be pretty pissed off to contradict me.
"What are you doing here?" Hikari asks, her eyes narrowed with malice.
Okay… she's pretty pissed off.
"I'm here to console you," Asuka answers glibly. She puts her hands on her hips and smirks, trying to maintain her resolve. She hadn't come over expecting a challenge to her self-righteousness. "You just found out that your boyfriend was a two-timing jerk. I thought you'd like some company."
"Asuka," Hikari starts with an exasperated sigh. Her look changes from anger to pity, but Asuka only notices the absence of anger, and her smile grows. Hikari, nearly deterred, summons up a great deal of strength to get her next words out.
"Do you even know how much of a bitch you are?" she asks. Asuka stares at her in disbelief. Ironically, she probably would have taken that as a compliment if it had come from anyone else. "I mean, people call me that, because I have to tell them what to do at school. I don't like it, but I have my responsibilities. I… I just don't understand why you do the things you do."
"What the hell did I do?" Asuka shrieks. "This isn't about me! Toji's the one who screwed up. I'm here as your friend. This is the thanks I get for going out of my way to come over here? I'm just trying to make sure you don't make a horrible mistake and forgive him!"
"You're doing what?" shouts a livid Toji. The girls turn to see him standing in the open bedroom doorway. "You're right, Hikari… she is a bitch!" Hikari hangs her head as Asuka confronts the Fourth Child.
"I can't believe you were standing there eavesdropping! Haven't you done enough?"
"I can't believe you're trying to talk her out of giving me another chance!"
"Oh? Why shouldn't I?"
"I'm not the only one to blame here!"
"You sound just like her! How is any of this my fault? I didn't kiss myself!"
"Yeah, well you can go f--"
"Stop!" interrupts Hikari.
"--yourself," Toji finishes.
"Just stop it!" Hikari commands. Toji and Asuka fall silent, and it comforts Hikari that she can still wield this kind of authority outside the classroom. Her pleasure is short-lived, though, as the insolence of her guests continues to irritate her.
"The only words I've heard that might make me consider not giving you a second chance are the ones coming out of your own mouth, Suzuhara," she growls. "And as for you, Asuka…you need to go and think really hard about what it means to be someone's friend. I'm sorry, but if you don't see anything wrong with what you've done today, or yesterday, or what you did to Rei… then maybe I don't need a friend like you."
The two of them stare at her until Hikari's withering gaze sends them marching shamefully from her room. Toji and Asuka walk in hostile silence from the Horaki home, then stop to stare each other down on the sidewalk. Each wants to blame the other for their predicament, but Toji makes the first solid attempt.
"So what was it Asuka?" he asks her. "Were you really upset about Shinji dying, or were you just trying to get me to kiss you, like you did with Kaagi?" She looks at him, aghast. She's as upset by his question as she is by the fact that Hikari obviously told him about her plot against Rei.
"You conceited bastard!" she says, slapping him. She stalks away in a huff, leaving Toji essentially without an answer. She couldn't admit to trying to seduce him, because that would make her vile, but she couldn't admit to caring about Shinji, because that would make her weak. She's also not entirely sure which it was. But, with mounting humiliation, Asuka considers the possibility that it was both.
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2005…
The long flight to Germany had given Naoko Akagi plenty of time to reflect on the events leading up to her trip. After hours of enduring overwhelming guilt, and shedding quiet tears that the other passengers chose to ignore, she had stepped off the plane ready to face the consequences of her actions. Still, that fateful, catalytic conversation with Gendo would not leave her.
"The old men tire of working exclusively with Kaworu," he'd said to me. "They want to integrate one of the other pilots into the Project. And, unfortunately, their restlessness has brought them dangerously close to discovering our true agenda. Given time, they will find the boy… Kaagi."
Naoko flashes her I.D. badge mechanically at each checkpoint in the Japanese Embassy. The names and faces of the people around her are all a blur.
"Well, fine," I told him. "I've got stacks of files on my desk with the names of fourth-level candidates. As per SEELE's instructions, we gave preference to Gehirn employees wanting to adopt, so we could have the majority of the pilots readily at hand. Pick any name you like: Aida, Horaki, Naguchi, Suzuhara …."
The room she's led to is bare, except for a chair, and a table with a TV/VCR combo sitting on it. A one-way mirror is set into the wall. She doesn't bother wondering if anyone's behind it.
"But the old men's desire for secrets won't be sated with a pilot that they know about, Naoko. We have to deliver something more. They must think they know all the secrets, to keep them from digging deeper."
She waits while the police officer assigned to the case brings her the tape. Her request was unusual, but her status with Gehirn brooked no denial.
"What are you talking about?" I could never feign ignorance with him, though I tried. He just knows me too well.
"The Soryu girl. Did you think I didn't know what you'd been doing?"
"No, Gendo! I promised her mother…. Is there no other way?"
"If we let them keep searching," he told me, "it's possible they may discover both her and the boy. You must hide the boy where no one will locate him. Then, leave a trail of breadcrumbs to the girl for the Committee to find. Once they have their secret and their Second Child, they'll leave well enough alone."
"Are you sure you need to see this, ma'am?" the officer asks kindly.
"Play the tape," Naoko orders.
On the grainy surveillance tape, a red-haired woman cradles a rag doll in her arms. She rocks back and forth, sobbing and mumbling. Naoko turns up the volume all the way, filling the tiny room with the woman's voice.
"They're taking you away from me, Asuka," Kyoko says. "I can't let them do that. Don't you see? Mama loves you, Asuka… but she can't let them ruin you. They'll ruin you just like they ruined me, and I can't let them. I won't let them!" The misery on her face bends into a malevolent sneer, and she wrings the doll viciously until its head comes off. The misery returns directly after, even deeper than before.
"I killed my baby…," she moans. "I killed my baby…."
"Was this the section you wanted to see?" asks the visibly uncomfortable officer. "The subject, Mrs. Soryu, spends a great deal of time searching for rope and securing it before performing the actual deed."
"That part," says Naoko. "The "actual deed" as you put it. Show me that." Reluctantly, the officer fast-forwards until he reaches a particular time-code. The screen shows a dangling rope and Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu moving a chair underneath it.
"The subject has nothing further to say," the officer adds, hoping the masochistic woman will ask him to shut it off. He's ignored.
"Don't do it, Kyoko, please," Naoko whispers pointlessly. The officer, having never viewed the tape at this volume, is surprised to hear something he'd missed before.
"Mama!" a tiny voice calls from somewhere off-camera. "Mama, they chose me! I'm an elite pilot now!"
"No, Kyoko, don't!" Naoko says, no longer whispering. Tears begin pouring down her face.
"I must keep this a secret," continues the girl, "but I'll only tell you, Mama! Everybody's so nice to me now; I don't feel lonely anymore…!"
"Listen, Kyoko!" Naoko screams, grabbing the television with both hands. "That's your baby, Kyoko! Listen to her, damn it! Don't do it!" She collapses onto the tabletop, sinking to her knees on the floor in front of her chair. She buries her face in her arms and cries.
On the video, the sound of the chair being kicked over is followed a little later by the sound of an opening door, and the sharp intake of a four-year-old girl's breath. Mercifully, the officer stops the tape.
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Rei smells the grass and the cool air. She feels the wood under her knees and palms, holding her up over… a stream? She hears the sound of water rushing by. The wood doesn't move, so she assumes it to be a bridge and not a boat. A breeze swishes the skirt of her school uniform and brushes her hair against her cheek. The sun is hot on her exposed arms, calves, and back of her neck. She doesn't want to open her eyes.
The last thing she'd seen was a dead planet. Not really dead… but all of its life had been reduced to a base liquid form, lapping at a beach where the only two survivors rested. Eerily, she'd thought she'd seen Shinji raise his head to look at her. Out in the sea, her own head lay split open, gazing with a single, lifeless eye at what she'd wrought.
"Did you not like it?" asks Kaworu with pride. Rei cocks her head toward the source of the sound. "Was it not glorious?"
She risks opening her eyes to see Kaworu sitting on the bridge's railing. He smiles down at her from his perch as she stands up. In front of her, in the distance, a tiny shack sits atop a hill. The hill itself is sectioned into rice paddies which continue down into the field that this very stream runs through. Behind the shack, two mountains loom. The whole scene looks surreal, as if she were viewing a painting rather than a real thing.
"That was my destiny?" Rei asks Kaworu.
"That is the destiny of Man," he answers. Rei can't tell if he means to be affirmative or negative. "You must forgive me taking certain liberties, for the sake of the narrative. The sudden and inexplicable return of the Lance was my indulgence in what some Lilim call "deus ex machina", which I find amusing for reasons I cannot say.
"But that vision of the End…," he continues, "my vision… varies hardly at all from what my former masters wished to transpire. Indeed, even your master seeks an End similar to the one I have shown you."
"I do not accept that," she tells him. She turns away from the idyllic field. The road behind the bridge leads to Tokyo-3. The buildings are surrounded by flickering orange/yellow as black smears climb into a red sky. Tokyo-3 is burning… and Gendo Ikari sits in the heart of the flames, immune and impassive.
"Ah…," says Kaworu. "The Dragon and his steel Gomorrah still beckon you. Like Shinji, you are torn between a love that will free you, and one that will destroy you."
"I do not understand your contradictions. You once said that I was Shinji's antithesis, yet now you say we are the same. You have said that you love the Lilim, but you find glory in their destruction."
"You do not understand because Gendo Ikari has sheltered you, in the hope that you would be easier to control," he says disapprovingly. "My masters educated me, and I took their knowledge to even greater heights. So certain were they of their righteousness, they presumed that the more knowledge I attained, the more I would agree with their goals. I think I did… until the day I met Shinji. Then I saw the truth."
"Do you withhold this truth from me now, that you may exert similar control?"
"Forgive me," Kaworu says with a laugh. "I forget we are not equal in all things, yet. Where you see contradiction, there is none. You and Shinji are both different and the same… opposite sides of the same coin. As to the Lilim… it is an unfortunate fact, but in order for them to be saved, they must first be destroyed. The war against the Angels cannot be won, as the Dead Sea Scrolls have told our masters. Only the terms of the Lilim's inevitable defeat may be negotiated. And the disagreement lies in who will sit at the godhead once all become one.
"Perhaps it is because you assumed the female form," he muses. "Impulse and curiosity rule you more than they do me. In seeking knowledge, you forsake the truth." Kaworu climbs from his sitting position to stand on the bridge's railing. As effortlessly as if he were on solid ground, he begins pacing the thin, cylindrical wood.
"Do you climb higher to attempt to illustrate my inferiority?" Rei asks, looking away from him, instead of up. She nimbly climbs onto the other rail and begins pacing in the other direction. With perfect synchronicity, they turn back each time they reach opposite diagonal corners.
"Destiny cannot be denied," he tells her. "The Lilim will die, and you will become one with Ikari."
"But the choice remains mine."
"You cannot deny that you enjoyed being with Shinji… you inside him, him inside you."
"But that did not satisfy him."
"What I have shown you is the only hope that exists… the only love. All others are false."
"I must…."
"You must end the Lilim. End their pain. Make them one."
"I must…."
"You must become one with Ikari."
"…"
"…"
"I must become one with Ikari," Rei repeats with acceptance. The answer was so simple.
"At last, you understand," Kaworu sighs with relief. But his expression changes from joy to confusion as he sees Rei's thoughts. She turns to face him, with her back to the water. Holding her arms straight out at her sides, she begins to tip backward. "What are you--?
"No!" Kaworu screams. He reaches forward to grab her, but she's too far and it's too late.
Rei's eyes follow Kaworu's face as she falls, and she sees his features contort in anger for the very first time. She experiences a wicked satisfaction as she bears witness to his new-found fury. Smiling up at his enraged visage, she closes her eyes, and the azure stream envelops her.
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2016, now…
Gendo Ikari stands before the dormant Unit-01, frowning and waiting.
"Come back to me," he demands. The Evangelion's eyes are black and empty.
He is the sole figure on the green, metal bridge that spans the width of Unit-01's holding area. He doesn't know how long he's been standing here, but he won't leave until he's too tired to keep standing. There hasn't been much for him to do since Ritsuko's coup. Though she's only the Vice-Commander, she's already usurped most of his former duties. He almost doesn't care. Until the problem that he's now literally facing down resolves itself, nothing else really matters to him.
From the shadows beyond the door to the walkway, Kaagi Chuda watches Gendo stare at the purple behemoth. Furiously, Kaagi, too, tries to will the Eva to return Rei Ayanami. It hasn't worked yet, but he doesn't give up. He'll be damned if he lets Gendo Ikari keep a vigil one second longer than he does.
Ritsuko watches them both on the security-feed to her office. She'd tried to dissuade her brother from going down there so soon after returning to Japan. But he wouldn't listen to the nurses, let alone her. So in the end, she'd let him go. She doesn't talk to Gendo, if it can be helped. But she can't stop herself from grudgingly admiring the tenacity of them both, as well as their unwavering hope. If it weren't for hope, Ritsuko herself might have just withered away and died in that Isolation room.
Suddenly, Unit-01's exposed heart pulses. It glows red, then blue, then blinding white. Kaagi and Gendo shield their eyes until the light fades. Opening them slowly, they see their prayers answered.
Gendo sees her first because he's standing only a few feet from her, a teenage girl in a white plug-suit. She lies facedown on the walkway, drenched in what's presumably LCL. Sputtering, she lifts her face to look at the Commander, and his eyes grow wide. Her appearance is the same, except that her skin no longer holds any trace of pallor. Her hair, too, has changed color to become dark brown, and her eyes are now a piercing green.
"Yui," he whispers.
The girl seems confused. She looks all around, blankly, as if lost. She stares up at Gendo.
"My name…," she starts. A memory flickers in her green eyes. "My name is Rei."
He slaps her so hard that her head hits the floor. A trickle of blood snakes out onto the green metal where her eyebrow has been cut open from the impact. Gendo has a feeling like his insides being torn out, which he barely recognizes as guilt. He starts rationalizing his act at once, believing that the swell of anger in the wake of crushing disappointment forced his hand.
He makes ready to apologize to Rei, and to explain away his impulsive abuse, but Kaagi doesn't give him the chance. Gendo hears running footsteps, turning only in time to see a flash of red as Kaagi swings a fire extinguisher into his head. The Commander's glasses crack, flying off into the pit below. He crumples, unconscious, next to Rei. There's a sizable gash in his own forehead, and his blood mixes with hers on the walkway.
That was stupid, Kaagi thinks, looking down at the bleeding Commander. Kaagi's wounded body is totally spent from the effort, and he drops his makeshift weapon. He obviously wasn't going to hurt her anymore. I was just looking for any excuse to hit him, just like with Shinji on the plane. And I did it in front of her, damn it! Maybe… maybe she'll only think I was trying to protect her, and she won't realize what a violent monster I am.
Rei slowly rises to her feet, looking with puzzlement at the bleeding man lying next to her. She recognizes him, though her memories are splintered like broken glass, difficult to see and painful to touch. She looks over at the boy who'd struck the man. Though Rei's memories are returning, the process is gradual. Her instincts, however, return quicker. The first, and most deeply engrained, being the instinct for blind loyalty.
Rei lunges, wrapping her hands around Kaagi's neck. She presses as hard as she can, squeezing his windpipe closed. He's too weak to fight her off, if he could even bring himself to try. His first, implausible thought is to tell her that he loves her. His second is to say that he's sorry for what he did. Without air, he can do neither.
Surprise and confusion ravage him for agonizing seconds before he loses consciousness. Going limp, his body falls to the floor, and Rei's dragged down on top of him. She loses her grip when they land, and lays there, unsure if she should continue. She feels his chest heave up and down underneath her, reflexively gasping for air. His breath escapes his mouth and tickles her cheek.
That same feeling of loyalty, or one very similar, swells in her own chest. But it's spurred this time by this boy that she nearly killed. The illogic frustrates her. She climbs off Kaagi and stands, looking from him to Gendo repeatedly. At a loss, she flees, feeling helpless and scared. She runs past the NERV medical staff that Ritsuko had summoned to the scene and loses herself in the corridors beyond.
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2010…
"Do you think I'm blind, stupid, or both?" asks an infuriated Naoko Akagi. Minutes ago, she'd burst into the office of Gendo Ikari, using the key-card he'd given her.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Gendo says flatly.
"The girl! Rei Ayanami. Did you think, just because her genetic structure is based on the Kaworu archetype, I couldn't tell that it was Yui? Please! Give me more credit than that."
"Shouldn't you have known all along, then?" asks Gendo. "Project Shinji and Project Rei were conceived simultaneously."
"Maybe I should have," admits Naoko. "You wouldn't clone yourself without her to bring along too, would you? But damn it, you're cold. They're not just projects anymore, they're children! Real children!"
"A matter of opinion," say Gendo. "Besides, Rei isn't just based on the archetype… she's a duplication of the entire experiment. I had to bring her to the Geo-front to begin her integration. Kaworu is already too far ahead. But, despite my precautions, there's been a leak. The old men have been asking questions. I need you to pull Kaagi out of hiding to divert their attention away from Rei."
"I already sacrificed Kyoko's child to cover your secrets," she says angrily. "How dare you ask me to sacrifice my own?"
"Yours?" Gendo asks, arching an eyebrow.
"Never mind the semantics, it's too late anyway," she tells him, trying to hide her regret. Despite herself, a part of her still loves him. It was the same part that had so rashly betrayed him when wounded. "As soon as I saw Rei, I looked her up in the database. It didn't take me long to figure out you were running your own dummy-plug project. I was so angry and hurt that I… I told the Committee. They're actually delighted. They're taking Kaworu to First Branch in America, and allowing us to continue here, with her."
"You've ruined everything," Gendo says accusingly, his mind racing at the implications.
"I'm sorry," she says, looking drained. "I really am. But you should have told me from the start… maybe, I don't know…. But don't you dare talk to me like I'm a failure! The Magi are finally ready, Gendo. They're the culmination of all my work, and I'll have them online by the end of tonight! After that, maybe we can work this out…."
He lets her kiss him, a brief conciliatory gesture. Then, she exits his office with her head held high, ready to bask in the glory of her achievement. Once she's gone, Gendo slams his fist down on his desk. After this fleeting loss of composure, he straightens his tunic and sets his jaw.
"That old hag is annoying," he says. He doesn't allow himself to express any more emotion than that. Emotion impairs his ability to make decisions. And another decision has already formed. "That old hag is no use anymore."
Unnoticed in a shadowy corner of his office, Rei hears.
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2016, now…
Asuka races through the halls of NERV's private hospital, searching for a particular room. As soon as Misato had told her that Shinji and Kaagi were alive, she'd bolted from the apartment straight here. It was an impulsive and irrational thing to do, she decided, about halfway into the trip. But she continued on since she had already come halfway.
I'll show you, Hikari, she thought, after analyzing her motivations more thoroughly. You want to give Toji a second chance? You think I'm such a horrible bitch? I'll show you what a good person I am… what a good friend I am! I'm going to do what you'd want me to do. I'm going to give him a second chance. He kissed me, he left me, but I'm going to let him love me! No games, no revenge against Wonder Girl… I'm just going to go into his hospital room and ask him out. Then you'll see how gracious I can really be, Hikari!
Still searching, Asuka makes her way past a room guarded heavily by security. Peeking around them, she spies Commander Ikari sleeping within. His head is bandaged and his glasses are markedly absent. She frowns at this oddity before moving on.
At that moment, Rei, too, is wandering the same halls. The small cut above her eye has stopped bleeding and is beginning to scab. But it was something other than her medical needs that drew her to the hospital wing of NERV HQ. She feels her memories tickling the edge of her consciousness, beckoning her closer to… to what, she doesn't know.
Rei stops at a room where a familiar boy lays unconscious. She walks in, guilt stiffening her pace. She hazily remembers that her actions have caused the boy to be here in this condition. She walks closer and stares at his arms lying limp at his sides. She remembers feeling safe in those arms. And she remembers feeling content, holding him in hers.
She crawls on top of him in the bed, hoping that being closer to him will bring back the memories that she's sorely missing. Her face nears his, and another blurry recollection comes to her. It's the recollection of a feeling… the feeling of a kiss. As if to take that memory back, she leans in and kisses him.
At that moment, Asuka steps into the room to find them there. The poetic justice of the situation nails her right between the eyes, obliterating her romanticized notion of how this scene was going to play out.
I guess I'm not going get to show you how good I can be after all, Hikari, she thinks. At least I'm not so self-absorbed that I can't tell what this is. This is exactly what you felt yesterday when you found me with Toji, isn't it? This is exactly what Rei felt on Monday when she attacked me. This is the pain that I gave you two, and now I'm getting it back. So much for second chances, Hikari…for him… or for me. She turns to go without noticing that the boy in the hospital bed has begun to stir.
And, as Shinji slowly opens his eyes, he's shocked to discover that the lips he's kissing are no longer Kaworu's.
Oh my god! he thinks, finding Rei on top of him. Her face fills his field of vision, so he doesn't notice the red-haired girl leaving his doorway, shutting the door behind her. Only one other thought penetrates his brain as Rei's kiss floods his senses.
Kaagi is going to kill me! he thinks.
But he doesn't stop kissing her.
To Be Continued…
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Next Episode Preview:
At last, shattered friendships will begin to mend. But most everyone discovers that in order to save one relationship, another may have to be sacrificed. They're all talking, but are they talking to the right people? Next: "Strange Bedfellows/All Alone Together".