Own nothing, as usual, all characters so far belong to Gainax unless I add some OC's . . . whatever
Sorry for the ate, I have trouble writing some times, I just cant right comfortably and stuff like this always comes out awkwardly. Ican never get the questions to be answered in the right order in my head. If anyone knows some good mental excercises that might help please go ahead. Now on with the show.
Chapter Two: When your waiting for a strange girl to wake up, expect strange explanations.
Gendo looked up at the grinning deaths head of EVA-04, the thought that there were at least three more of these things if that designation meant what he thought, sent a shiver down his spine. He was all the more paranoid with it sitting under his roof.
The JSDF had grudgingly handed the monstrosity over to Gehrin to analyze it and it's pilot when they finally realized that they didn't have a clue what they were dealing with. They had however kept the remains of the other monster, and without the heavy cargo equipment available to Gehrin, they had been reduced to fencing off the area around the battle sight and posting a constant guard as scientists from all over the world were called in on short notice.
"Have you found anything?" Gendo asked as he studied the contours of the EVA. Despite its hulking mass it was surprisingly slim and wiry.
Doctor Naoko Akagi standing behind him and out of his field of view, shrugged for her own benefit. "Well, we've found out exactly how tall it is, and how much it masses if that's worth much." She replied dryly.
"Anything of more importance then that?" Gendo asked, "Like how it can heal itself or how it was able to move so quickly, you saw how it fought. Nothing that size should be able to move so fast, if it could move at all, the weight to mass ratio's for a living creature . . ."
". . . Become astronomically inefficient once you exceed ten tons, I know." Naoko agreed.
The one thing they had discovered about this monster was that it was a living creature, a giant scale cyborg. Though a cyborg of what she didn't think she wanted to know. Most intriguing though were the tissue samples they had taken, the muscle tissue seemed to be a complex organic material, similar to the muscle polymers some labs were working on now. The stuff was actually strong enough and light enough to break the vicious power to weight cycle that prevented extremely large land animals. She still didn't see why somebody would build something as inefficient as a giant robot to fight a monster though. Why not just drop an N2 mine on it?
Naoko starred at the EVA herself for several long minutes, it sat now in the top most hangar level of the Gehrin facility surrounded by a detachment of Captain Katsuragi's security company, forty meters beneath the earths surface with an almost impenetrable layer of carbon nanotube load baring rods, titanium mesh, and concrete between it and the main tarmac.
The Hangar was the largest space in the facility, easily capable of accepting even the massive Russian cargo aircraft which often ferried in heavy equipment.
Slouched down in a sitting position against one of the hangar walls, the EVA's head nearly reached the ceiling, twenty meters above.
"We've finished searching the girl's equipment." She said finally.
"And?"
"Well we couldn't find anything to identify her, we're going to run a DNA check and see if we can't track her down in the database." Ritsuko elaborated.
Gendo blinked in surprise finally turning to his second in Command. "And you hadn't done this before now?" He asked sternly. The girl had been unconscious for the last three days, the doctors were sure she would be fine, but they had seemed a bit nervous. Gendo had gone to see what the problem was, and found exactly what was wrong.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, the strange girl had been admitted to the Gehrin infirmary with a broken wrist, several fractured ribs, a damaged eye, and a mild concussion, all of them minor injuries, but they would require at least a week to heal to any degree.
When Gendo saw her the next day the nurses had already removed the cast on her wrist and one had even been bold enough to move the gauss over her eye. Where there had been blood and damaged flesh before there was now a nearly healed eyelid. It was rather disturbing, some people healed quickly, the eye he could accept as that had been little more then a scratched cornea and she had received treatment, and the wrist may have been mistaken in the X-rays. Still, something just didn't feel right, not wrong, just not right either.
"We had some trouble with the software, we keep getting L4 errors when we run her DNA through the system." Naoko said, 'God I need a cigaret'.
An L4 error was a rare report that the DNA was not readable, meaning it was not human. That was pretty much always due to contamination or an error in filing, but it had happened three times now with three different blood samples.
Naoko had finally given up and was having the MAGI run a full breakdown, she would get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing she did!
"I . . . see, and have you determined anything about the uniform and nodes?" Gendo asked shifting to technical matters, at least this was a subject that was a little less disturbing, technology was something man had intimate knowledge of, something that if he could not understand, he could at least take comfort that it was simply beyond his present understanding and nothing more.
Gendo had a dark feeling that this machine, and the girl who now resided within the base infirmary under armed guard, were the kinds of things that man could never understand in the way he had come to understand technology. 'Yui, I hope you can come home quickly'. He thought of his beloved wife as Naoko began her detailed breakdown of the few pieces of equipment they had so far been able to analyze.
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"You okay Shinji?", Misato Asked as she handed him a soda.
"Yeah I'm fine", He said, not looking up from the hospital bed that lay before him. His father had grudgingly allowed him to visit each day since the girl's admission and with the school closed, being within the military defense cordon, he had little else to do.
Misato found it a little disturbing that Shinji could be so obsessed with a girl he had never even seen before. 'So I guess all the girls at school have to do to get his attention is pilot giant robots and get the stuffing beat out of them, talk about easy to please!', Misato thought mischievously.
She studied Shinji again, still brooding over the girl's bedside, her mind came full circle, becoming once again focused and thoughtful.
The girl was strange, Misato thought, and it wasn't just that shock of messy azure hair that made her think that. She just seemed to emanate a sense of something, an aura, a presence, or perhaps it was just deja vu. Misato wasn't really sure, whatever it was she hoped the kid would wake up soon so she could ask.
"You know you don't have to hang around here Shinji." Misato pointed out to him as she straitened her skirt, she had to head back to the command center. Her shift started soon and Lieutenant Hyuga really couldn't be trusted to handle things for too long on his own. He was good at following orders and offering advice, but he just wasn't a command type.
"Hmmmm, no, I want to be here when she wakes up."
Misato sighed. "Shinji we've gone over this, there is NO way you know this girl, or she knows you. Maybe you miss heard." Misato said sharply, it wasn't that she had a problem with Shinji staying here and watching over their guest, but Misato didn't want to see the kid she thought of as a younger brother go through all of this trouble just because he thought some pretty girl recognized him.
"No, I'm sure I've seen her before." Shinji whispered under his breath.
Misato paused, there a was a distant look to his eyes as if he was trying to place something important. Misato took a longer look at the girl, she got nothing.
Sure she was pretty enough, with delicate features, and that blue dyed hair was odd but she couldn't think of anything that really stood out. Then she frowned as recognition hit, "Well she looks a bit like your mom."
"Yeah", Shinji agreed. "But why do I keep thinking it's my mother who looks like her, rather than the other way around?" Shinji asked.
Misato shuddered, "This isn't another of those weird things is it? You know like how you think of purple when you think of your mom, or expect your dad to be wearing gloves?"
Shinji's face was weary as he looked up at Misato, "Actually I think it is." He said.
Misato shook her head sadly. "Look, all I'm saying is . . . don't get too attached okay?"
Shinji paused for a second, a buried part of him was screaming 'No way in hell', but he nodded his head anyways.
She stepped out into the hall still shacking her head. She found Ritsuko on her way out, and smiled at her adoptive sister. "Hey Ritz, got anything else on that thing up in the hangar."
The bottle blond Doctor glanced at her colleague, her face was tense as if she'd been working a bit too long. Well, her day HAD started sometime in the vicinity of Friday. Glancing at a calender hanging from the wall of a nearby Nurses station, she noted that it was now Monday. She wasn't really sure now if it was the coffee, the massive amount of sugar in said coffee, or the stimulants she had taken that were keeping her on her feet. She suspected she would need rest soon regardless of how awake she felt, she knew she was getting sloppy as her brain shut down.
"We have some idea's now, but I'm afraid I can't tell you much." She said, the two of them continued walking.
"Because it's been classified, or because you don't know?", Misato asked.
"Both."
"I see..."
"No Misato, I don't think you do. Look at the situation, we've just been invaded by monsters from god knows where. One of them had a weird girl inside of it, who by witness account recognized Shinji though we're taking that as hearsay, and to top it all off we're almost too paranoid to even touch the damn thing. All the technical team has done so far is scrape off some of the armor and taken some tissue samples!"
Ritsuko placed her hand to her forehead in disgust. "Gehrin is supposed to be the top technological research facility in the world and even we only have a vague idea what we're dealing with. To make things worse the JSDF isn't telling us anything about that other monster."
Misato nodded nervously, it really was a bit much to think of all the things that were happening now. 'What next giant flying pyramids and little green men?'
"What do you think the military will do with that thing anyways?" Misato asked. Despite the militaries attempt to hide it the UN was screaming to take the thing and study it and every biologist on the planet was demanding a meter cube slab of its carapace for research. Misato somehow doubted that the JSDF was going to let this thing end up like that, not so soon anyways.
The problem was that it was so BIG, nobody had any equipment available that could move it. Even the EVA had barely been within the weight capacity of the Primary lifter vehicle Gehrin usually reserved for moving similarly massive pieces of equipment, such as components for large aircraft or wreckage from live fire exercises, there was a bet going, on which technician could come closest to the EVA's weight. Most people guessed around a six to seven hundred tons.
In fact it was precisely eight hundred forty two point six tons. The weight given by using the hangar bay pressure sensors as a set of make shift scales.
And that thing laying out in the outskirts of Tokyo was at least twice the size of the smaller one Gehrin had been given.
'Yeah well, bigger ain't always better you dorks', Misato thought, or at least she hoped. At least they knew this one had been built by humans, judging by the number of Japanese and English markings on the outside of that cockpit assembly.
That was another thing they were careful about touching, though the technicians had hit the jackpot with the cockpit computers. Somebody had figured out how to bring up a maintenance program with full schematics. The format was alien but the MAGI were working on decryption. If nothing else they would be able to take the cockpit apart and put it back together again in working order.
"I'd imagine they'll try and figure out how to make it into a weapon", Ritsuko replied dryly.
"Wuh, how?" Misato asked, that thing had definitely been quite dead when she had seen it.
"Trust me, there's plenty of things you can learn from a sixty meter tall alien that the JSDF would love to have, like those beam weapons it used to shoot down their VTOL, or that barrier we got a glimpse of."
"That makes sense I mean-" Misato didn't have a chance to continue as an orderly came hurrying down the hallway along with a security detail. Misato blinked.
"What's going on?"
"Ma'am", a Corporal in the black and white uniform of Gehrin security saluted sharply. "We were just informed, the Child's awake!"
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Rei felt herself rising towards consciousness, she wanted to stay down in the dark, in the warmth that existed only between the realms of wake and sleep. It was a comfortable existence after all. A part of her mind knew it well . . . the part of her that had been a mentally starved, soul-less body at the very bottom of terminal dogma. That didn't change how comfortable it was. Yet her mind was already gearing up, a moment more and her eyes snapped open, her senses fully alert.
She considered her immediate situation before going into any deep analyses. Alive, apparently not severely injured judging from the lack of pain, or drowsiness that would suggest pain killers. That was good, in her incarnation as the Second the Commander had allowed doctor Akagi to use morphine on her despite the presence of less addictive pain killers. Now that she thought about it, the addiction she had developed had probably been another way to control her.
She scanned the room, plain white walls, medical instruments on a table next to her, a hospital room. Rei loathed hospitals, she didn't know why but they thoroughly irritated her. Everything from the antiseptic smell to the muted activity outside her room which seemed to never stop, and only served to get on her nerves, as much as anything could get on her nerves that was.
She finally stopped though as she noted the one other person in the room, slouching down, starring at the floor, familiar hair, familiar face, familiar posture. He glanced up, and froze with a shocked look.
"Ikari?" Rei whispered. The boy just starred blankly, with a deer in headlights look, an expression that Rei really didn't understand. She shook her head slowly. She was still trying to understand 'how' and 'why' she was here, and now she had to face even more questions. This was likely to become tiresome, but new data was badly needed.
"Ikari", Rei whispered again carefully as she starred Shinji down with her one good eye. She knew the other one to be healing well but repairing the damage fully always took more time, it was irritating to Rei that her bones could knit in less then a week, yet the accelerated healing stopped as soon as the damaged part of her body was able to function again. This had lead to many, many, months of pain with badly bruised bones and tender strips of sensitive skin, but it was preferable to the much longer hospital stays she would have had to endure otherwise.
Shinji blinked a few times, he at least had sense to hit the call button before trying to speak to her, "Hello, uhm, what's your name?" Shinji asked, it seemed as good a thing to say as anything else to his surprised mind. She had awoken only minutes after Misato's departure. Was leaving him alone in such an awkward situation god's way of pushing his buttons?
The girl blinked understanding in her crimson eyes. "Ikari, you do not recognize me?" She asked, she seemed curious, confused, sad. WAIT! How was he so sure of these things? He found himself reading tiny muscle movements, eye shifts, small hand twitches. Like he had known her once.
"I . . . see.", 'Shinji did not wish for me to be part of this world . . .' Rei thought. Her mask almost cracked. 'He does not want me to be with him, perhaps he wishes to be as far from me as possible' . . . 'But then . . . why am I here?'
"Uhm, I'd like to know you though."He said, noticing how his earlier words had upset her. How he could tell, he wasn't sure.
"No, you would not", Rei replied starring down at her hands. "If you had wanted to know me, you would not have forgotten me."
Shinji paused, gulped slightly, and the put his hands on top of hers. "Please?" He asked, 'God just give me a chance, if I forgot a girl as beautiful as her somehow I don't deserve another chance but please god.'
He felt a slight tension in the hands before it slackened, he could not see the slight flush of red on her downcast face. Rei spoke again.
"I am Pilot Rei Ayanami, NERV serial number RA00110, Designated Pilot of Evangelion Unit Zero." She announced, speaking each word softly but clearly.
"Rei . . . It's a pretty name", he said under his breath, shacking his head, 'Your thinking about her name at a time like this!' He mentally berated himself, some of his father prioritizing skills had rubbed off on him.
"Uhm, you said Evangelion? You mean like that thing that they have up in the hangar?"
Rei paused, "Artificial Human Evangelion, an all purpose humanoid weapon system developed to combat the Angels." She said clarifying for him. 'Did Shinji simply wish for a world without EVA? Then he may not have intended to exclude me.' Rei felt happy and relieved as these thoughts came to her. If there had been no need for EVA in this world then she would never have been created, Shinji could be forgiven for such a mistake he had not been in a good condition to make such decisions when the power of creation was forced upon him.
"That sounds like it, a white giant robot with 04 on the arms, so . . . how do you know me?"
Rei considered, it was best, she decided to be honest, if this world had no need for EVA then it also had no need for NERV, this was the world Shinji had wished for, and now the Angels were trying to destroy it, that was unacceptable. Shinji had created this world, so it was important that Shinji understand.
"You are my fellow pilot. Pilot Shinji Ikari, NERV serial number SI00252, Designated Pilot of Evangelion Unit One, and controller of instrumentality." She recited, adding the last part thoughtfully, it was true, she had given Shinji the power of god over this world. From her brief glimpses of the apparently functioning city she had found herself in during the battle, it did not seem that he had done poorly with it.
'Ok, that tells me absolutely nothing' Shinji thought to himself, Rei seemed to understand the confusion in his eyes and was about to elaborate when two more guests came rushing in.
Both children turned to face a heavily breathing Misato and Ritsuko, neither adult had bothered to close the door and a whole throng of nurses and doctors were attempting to get a glimpse of their unusual guest.
Fortunately one of the security officers had the good sense to close the door behind his commanding officer, though not before noting how Shinji was holding the girls hand, he gave the younger Ikari an unseen thumbs up, grinning behind his helmet.
There was another awkward silence broken only by the breathing of the rooms four occupants. Rei sighed internally, she was not comfortable being the one to initiate conversation.
"Major Katsurgai, Doctor Akagi." She said simply.
Both Misato and Ritsuko blinked. 'Major?'
Misato decided it best to be friendly, the commander and sub commander would be here soon enough. "Well, Hello, errrr".
"Rei", Shinji provided. Ritsuko and Misato both noted how he was holding her hand.
"Would you like us to bring Shinji a pair of scrubs so you two can play doctor", Ritsuko asked dryly. Misato blanched at such a tasteless joke coming from her friend.
Shinji's hand immediately teleported to his side as his face flushed red. "IdidntmetodoanythingshejustseemedsadsoIwastryingtobeniceand..." Shinji blushed deeper.
Rei turned her gaze from Misato, to Ritsuko, to Shinji before speaking quite seriously. "I do not believe that would be advisable, it is unlikely that Ikari has sufficient medical training to act in the place of a doctor."
In old American cartoons Shinji was certain this was where you were supposed to cue the tumbleweed.
"May I continue my explanation Ikari?" Rei asked turning back to face him and thinking nothing more of the blank faces of Misato and Ritsuko.
"Uhm, Sure, go ahead, I . .. I mean if-f its not a problem." Shinji said, curiosity mixing with impatience, and his more or less ever present case of politeness to cause him to stutter, still trying to decide how to properly form the sentence.
Rei paused in deep thought, this would be difficult to explain. If Shinji had asked for a world without second Impact then none of these people would have any idea what an AT field, Angel, or EVA was. This would make things drastically harder to explain. "May I be allowed to meet with this facilities commanding officer?" Rei asked, "I would prefer to re-tell this as few times as possible, it is not . . . pleasant for me to remember." She said, looking to Shinji apologetically, or As apologetically as she had ever been. Which was to say not more then a small glance in Shinji's direction.
Shinji seemed to understand that it had been a sincere gesture on her part, and did not take too much offense.
Misato shrugged, "Well we've waited three days, we can wait a few more minutes, the boss had already been informed your awake." She stretched her arms out as she took a seat the wait hopefully wouldn't be too long. In the meantime Misato decided to make some small talk. Unfortunately most of her questions, what are your hobbies, what kinds of food do you like, etc. Received blank stares as their only response.
'What an odd girl.'
"Well, um, ok then, where are they?..."
"Don't fret so much Misato." Ritsuko teased as she decided to busy herself checking Rei over. All of the tests had been finished the day of her arrival, but it was always good to be sure.
No concussion, she could move her wrist without any pain, confirming that, as the doctors had suspected, it had been an X-ray error. After all, a bone couldn't mend that fast, not even from a minor fracture. Her EEG had seemed odd, her subconscious mind seemed to be highly active even while she was awake, like she was dreaming. That HAD to be a system error, either that or this girl had a really strange mental condition.
Well they'd run her through for a full body scan now that she was awake. Ritsuko kicked herself for not having it done while she was unconscious.
'Oh well, not like there'll be any problem doing it with her awake, just so long as we can get her to hold still. At least', Ritsuko though dryly, noting the way the strange girl sat hands in her lap, 'She seems quite good at that.'
Little did anyone else in the room know, Rei was now in deep thought of her situation. She began to work off of known information. Assets, one known pilot, herself, one possible pilot candidate, Shinji Ikari. One Evangelion, unknown Unit number and model possibly a type-3 or type-4 MP unit from the description, making the most likely candidate Unit-04 equipped with an S2 core or units 05 through 14. Maintenance was a non issue, logistics was still a very big issue.
Even a super solenoid reaction needed mass to convert to energy and the EVA's tissue was nourished on a protein/sugar solution fed into it through a series of ports behind the jaw of the mouth guard. It wouldn't be an issue as long as the EVA was not active it could remain dormant for months but it would be quite important if it had been healing itself recently.
"I will need to see to the status of the Evangelion." Rei whispered, piquing everyone's curiosity.
"Yeah about that . . ." Misato said, trying to sound friendly. "What can you tell us about that thing anyways?"
Rei considered, Shinji had every right to know, he was this world's creator, he was the controller of instrumentality, the embodiment of the Angel of Humanity where Rei was the embodiment of the mother. The others, though, she was not so sure about. Misato, in another life had been her direct superior, and Doctor Akagi had also been her superior, but this was not the world she had been created in. This was not the world where she had been given life for the sole purpose of following orders and initiating Instrumentality.
She chose the best course of action, she deferred to the one person in the room she felt she could trust. "Ikari, would you like me to tell them?" She asked, looking at Shinji.
It was kind of creepy to Shinji, those eyes looking at him with a painful neediness. He was feeling frightened of this girl, but he felt also deeply concerned and caring, why? He didn't know, but he would try to find out.
"S-sure go ahead." He stuttered. Misato and Ritsuko both raised an eyebrow. Why was this girl so trusting of Shinji, sure he was the cute kind and all . . . but Misato couldn't see how a girl in a giant robot who had to be a member of some super secret organization could be so willing to spit out her secrets. It was kind of weird, and added to her belief that she had mistaken Shinji for somebody else. She kept quite though, any information they could get out of her was worth it.
Rei paused, closed her eyes and then began. "The machine I was piloting, is an Evangelion, commonly referred to as an EVA." Rei began. "It is a hybrid, bio-mechanical, all purpose humanoid weapons platform developed for the sole purpose of defeating the Angels."
"Angels?" Shinji, Misato, and Ritsuko asked simultaneously. They could all guess by the context though that she meant that monster the JSDF was dismantling in the outskirts of Tokyo to study.
Rei's next words confirmed this. "The Angels are the greatest threat humanity has yet faced. Their intention is the total annihilation of the human species. To achieve this they originally intended to initiate and event known as the Third Impact which would lead to the destruction of all humanity and their own transcendence."
Misato nodded, okay, she was right, she had know clue what this girl was talking about.
"Why build a giant robot though? I mean what's the point of such an impractical weapon, when, if what you say is true, it would justify simply nuking the things." Ristuko asked, glancing at Misato.
The Gehrin security Captain gave her an irritated look, their were SO many things wrong with that solution not the least of which was the absurd collateral damage. But it was true, if the stakes were really that high why risk such a clumsy machine?
"Conventional and Nuclear weapons are totally ineffective against Angels," Rei explained. "The only weapon system capable of defeating them are the Evangelions, due to their AT fields."
None of the group had a chance to ask on this one as Rei continued on. She was starting to get an idea from their questions how to best answer.
"The AT field is a barrier which defends the Angel from all attack. Evangelions, are biological duplicates of the first Angel, capable of generating their own AT field. When two opposing fields meet they negate each other, and the combatants become vulnerable to convention weapons. As the EVA units are already used to generate the AT field they are the most effective platform for the conventional weapons."
Misato nodded in agreement. "Fight fire with fire, makes sense . . . But that still doesn't explain how something like that thing was built without anyone noticing, and how it just popped up in the middle of the city!"
Rei nodded her head. "I . . . Am not certain myself, though I may theorize at what happened, it would require further explanation, I would prefer to speak of it in the presence of this facilities Commanding Officer."
Rei set her head back down on the pillow of her hospital bed, this was mentally exhausting. She had rarely been called upon to act on her own initiative before. And she felt uncomfortable doing it now, after all, when the only other time she had done such at thing was for Shinji, and he had rejected her for it. Why?
She couldn't understand, she had offered him a perfect world, where nobody would have to be lonely or unhappy ever again, yet he had not accepted such an existence, he had not accepted paradise, so what could she give him? What more could he want from her? Rei couldn't understand as they sat there quietly, the poor girl just couldn't understand because understanding had been cruelly robbed from her in all of her lives. She closed her eyes and turned deep within herself, trying to decide on a course of action.
The rooms three other occupants had the decency to note her exhaustion and stop asking questions. It was obvious the girl was carefully nursing her strength for when it was needed.
Unfortunately it appeared it was going to be needed now. The door opened once more, Rei did not bother looking this time, she was too deep in thought.
Shinji winced as Rei's hand closed on his in a death grip. She was staring eyes wide as the new visitor stood before her.
This had not been expected, Rei berated herself for this, she should have known he would be here. But why? Why had Shinji wanted him back? Why had Shinji wanted his him any place near him?
"Commander Ikari . . ." Rei whispered, eyes dilated.
There wasn't more then a flicker of recognition in Gendo's eyes as he merely noted how much the girl looked like his wife. He caught his own extended stare and shook his head, "How rude of me, I am Gendo Ikari, chief administrator of the Gehrin advanced research division." He bowed slightly to Rei, before giving her a relaxed smile.
Rei frowned as she studied the older man. He was cleanly shaven, his glasses were un intimidating, with none of the orange tinting she had known in her past lives. She could see the mildly concerned, mildly thoughtful, and mildly curious eyes behind them. 'Is this what the Commander was like when his wife was alive?' Rei thought to herself. She had little experience with judging people, but the commander she knew had been dark and cold to all but her, this man simply seemed to distance himself, as any good administrator did.
"Uh, Rei is there something wrong?" Shinji asked.
Gendo stiffened slightly as he noted his sons behavior. 'Have to ask him about that . . .'
"Oh sir, Rei here was just informing us a bit about the EVA we recovered." Misato said as she stood up and saluted.
"Indeed", Gendo responded, "I believe it would be prudent for us to question you in a more private location." Gendo said, coughing into his hand as he looked at his son.
Shinji got the message, this was Gehrin business, and got up to go. Unfortunately he didn't get very far before he was stopped by the tight hold Rei still had on his hand.
"I insist that Ikari be allowed to stay . . . this involves him as well." Rei said softly, not loosening her grip in the least on Shinji's hand even as she starred at Gendo.
Gendo let out an imperceptible sigh as he agreed. He was ready to call an orderly for a wheelchair when Rei got up on her own, disconnecting the IV drip from her forearm with a practiced efficiency. She stood shakily, using Shinji as a crutch as she pulled him along towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Ritsuko asked, trying to bar the girls way.
"I thought you said you wished to continue this conversation elsewhere?" Was Rei's only reply glancing at Ritsuko with her good eye. Gendo nodded in agreement, adjusting his glasses as he opened the hospital door.
The first thing Rei noted about the environment outside the hospital room, was how confined it was. This came as a slight surprise, she had known she was underground from the previous dialogue, but she had assumed that she would find herself within the Geofront . . . which, now that she considered, had only been discovered as part of the project to find Lilith.
"Where are we?" Rei asked as she walked beside Shinji, letting him support her slight frame.
"This is the Gehrin research facility infirmary, we are currently three hundred feet beneath Tokyo in one of the largest underground military complexes in the world, it is structurally reinforced to take a class ten earthquake and the surface defenses are practically impenetrable." Gendo stated, a bit of pride seeping into even his voice at those words.
"I see." Was Rei's only reply, for someone used to the expansive majesty of the Geofront this place was unremarkable, it simply was what it was, and she assumed it served its purpose adequately.
The silence was a little disconcerting as they made there way to one of the Gehrin conference rooms. Rei was mildly surprised by how much it looked like the conference rooms in the Geofront, though then again, a conference room was likely to look pretty much the same anywhere in the world. Or across worlds as the case may have been.
She was seated in a chair near the head of the table, a pair of guards made them selves noticed, gesturing that they would be right outside before shutting the door. "May I begin?"Rei asked, apparently studying the fake grain work of the table before her with intense interest.
"Just one moment, we're waiting for one more person to arrive, I know the good Doctor has plenty of questions to ask you." Gendo Ikari began, as he took the main seat for himself. Shinji sat down next to Rei, with Misato and Ritsuko flanking both of them.
Gendo hit the recording button at his head seat to catch everything the girl said. It would later be played back for stress analyses by the MAGI, Gendo was the kind of man who made it a point to get the most reliable sources of information possible.
The door opened once more admitting the final member of the group. Shinji was slightly startled when Rei suddenly squeezed his hand tight again. This time he was certain she was going to break the limb.
Rei starred, a very sickening memory playing at the back of her mind. How she remembered she was not sure. Perhaps it had something to do with why she could be here at all, but she could remember now, remember the life slowly leaving her body as she tried to beg for air. It had NOT been a pleasant experience. Her free hand softly rubbed at her neck as she took a few deep breaths, assuring herself that she wasn't suffocating.
She whispered so quietly not even Shinji could hear her. "Old Hag."
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"Do you really believe her story?" Gendo asked as he and Naoko Akagi stood before Unit-04 once more.
"Of course not." Naoko said irritable. "But that little trick of hers definitely has me convinced she's not joking that something is going on . . . And . . . The genetic breakdown, I'd had a look at it, she's definitely not human"
Gendo shifted uncomfortably at that thought and what had happened earlier. Naoko had been thoroughly fed up within the five minutes of arriving at the conference room. Rei had done nothing but spout impossible theories and principals, going so far as to explain the AT field as the force of a persons soul, as if that had anything to do with science.
-"I am not going to sit here while some little brat goes on about magic, souls, and Angels." Naoko stood to leave, walking with a quick stride towards the door, disgust evident on her face. She never knew what hit her as she ran face first into an orange hexagon of light with no prior warning.
Everyone started in shock. Everyone but Rei, who sat, one hand in her lap, one hand holding Shinji's, eye's closed as if deeply focused.
"As I have said", she began, "The AT field is the barrier of the soul, Angels and EVAs are able to use this barrier to protect themselves, and negate another's AT field in a physical realm." Rei was slowly becoming quite annoyed, something she had rarely experienced before. These people were just so astoundingly dense! They refused to accept an answer that was not only logical but fit within the framework of observed data seemingly unwilling to even consider the situation if it went beyond their comfortable world view.
She hadn't noticed that her Second and Third selves had done much the same thing when it came to her emotions.
She realized Shinji was starring at her. She blinked a few times, coking her head to the side slightly, "What is wrong, Ikari?" She asked, red eyes boring into him hauntingly.
He tried to pull his hand away, "R-Rei you s-said that only the Angels . . . and EVAs could generate something like that!"
Rei looked into Shinji's eyes, fear, confusion, NO, she did not want to see these things.
"Ikari, please calm yourself." She said softly, loosening her grip, but not enough for him to escape from it. He looked her in the eyes. "What . . . what are you, i-if you can do that?"
Rei starred for several seconds more. "I am I, nothing more and nothing less. I was . . ." Rei struggled with the thought, what was she to Shinji? She was starting to see that parts of all of her former selves were heavily influencing her, more so then they ever had before. Rei I had never known Shinji, never even known of his existence before her own short life was brought to an end. Rei II had become attached to Shinji, an affection that had gone beyond anything she had ever been capable of feeling for Commander Ikari. Rei III had perhaps even loved him, or was that merely the ingrained memories of the second making themselves known? This would require much thought.
"I . . . think I was your friend." She finished, her own stare not wavering as she spoke.
Shinji kept starring at her as she turned back to the silent adults. "Major Katsuragi please put down your firearm." Rei requested calmly as she noted the mauve haired woman, on her feet and taking careful aim. Misato didn't flinch, to her credit it was impressive that she had realized the field was of Rei's making. Rei sighed, closing her eyes, this was very tiresome.
Gendo Ikari, having as much sense in this world as he had in the last, held his hand up, hoping to stop the Captain from doing anything too brash.
"When you speak of Shinji you seem to know him, how is that?"
Rei's gaze turned to the Commander, "I know him, because in another life I wished to become one with him."
Gendo blanched, though to his credit only very slightly, Ritsuko snickered, Misato sat trying to comprehend the girls words, and Naoko, well Naoko just stood where she had been stopped, right eye twitching rubbing her soar nose.
"Could you please run that by me again . . . With a more detailed explanation?" Gendo asked, quietly. He was using his dangerous voice, the one where all of the emotion had been sucked out and replaced with liquid nitrogen for all the warmth that it projected. The voice that told you that if you didn't come up with a good response you would be working as a test subject for the Akagi's latest experiment.
Rei noted this with no small amount of discomfort. "If I were to tell you, I would need to start from the beginning." Rei said quietly.
"The beginning is always the best place to start a story." Gendo replied simply.
Rei did not respond. "Please make yourselves comfortable, this will take a while." She finally said. There was a long silence as Naoko came back to her seat, lighting a cigarette, drawing from it, and then extinguishing it again in disgust. Rei closed her eyes, letting the same calmness she had felt during harmonics tests overtake her.
"Have you ever been so lonely . . . that you felt the loneliness like a physical pain?" She asked cryptically, it was obvious it was a rhetorical question.
"My story, begins with my mother, the mother of all people. It begins fifteen years ago. When the world was ended by selfish men, and . . ." Rei glanced at Shinji ". . . remade by a hurt young boy . . ."-
Gendo shook his head as he remembered the girls retelling. The claims were too absolutely insane to be true. Yet it would explain the Event. The disappearance of so many people. After all, it was impossible for a soul to come back if it had already been extinguished and what would the point be recreating all of those shells if there was no mind or soul behind them.
Though if what Rei was saying was true that left a lot of holes, she claimed that doctor Naoko Akagi had been dead for some time. When questioned how the doctor could be alive then Rei had simply said it was her 'bond' to another's soul. Though who she had been referring to Gendo could not begin to guess.
That was pushed out of his mind as he watched Shinji, nervously standing on the shoulder of the EVA, Rei at his side.
Rei had all but refused to let go of him since she had woken up, with the exception of going off to change into a pair of grey green coveralls a size too big for her, she had not released Shinji's hand more than once.
Shinji watched as Rei sat eyes closed, upon the shoulder of the EVA, her free hand placed softly, fingers spread against the armor of the enormous weapons system. "So what are you doing?" Shinji asked curiously. He was starting to grow accustomed to the girl's presence, despite what she had said about herself, he didn't feel afraid, his curiosity had taken the better of him and he was fascinated by the half angel girl who sat on her knees now seemingly in a state of deep meditation.
"I am attempting to understand why I am here." Rei said simply. As she focused, this was something she had never been called upon to do. And in fact she had been ordered not to try. With her constitution she could theoretically have chosen her synch rate with EVA at her own discretion. At least with Unit-01. Now she was attempting to ferret our Unit-04's soul and try to see what it knew of all of this.
She frowned as she lowered her own mental defenses as much as she dared, she was intensely uncomfortable doing this with several strangers in close proximity, it gave her the same kind of fear many girls would feel standing naked before a particularly lecherous person. In her own mind it was something on that order. Lowering the barrier to her soul was risking others affecting her and changing her when she did not wish to be changed.
Rei opened her eyes with a start as the world went black, and paused. She was standing amongst a glowing web work. 'I know this pattern . . . EVA nerve layout' She could see the clusters where the nerves linked with the entry plug, the EVA's brain, and most importantly the core. It was startlingly beautiful.
She reached out with her own AT field touching the core and letting it recognize her. A brief moment of confusion. 'Other?' A flash of Anger 'Enemy!' A pause as the EVA's artificial soul reconsidered 'Unknown' And finally a start of realization 'Pilot, Comrade, Ally' The EVA lowered its own defenses slightly allowing her to communicate with it.
There was no language involved, only the transfer of feelings and memories as the two conversed. The EVA was content, it was not lonely anymore as it had been in the Sea of Dirac, and in fact it seemed quite satisfied to simply be, and be able to watch the activity about it. It's soul was to put it bluntly, a very simple affair compared to Rei's own. It held no animosity towards her or any others, so she could be reasonably certain that it would not be at risk of going berserk.
She asked next about the Sea of Dirac, she asked about her own existence. The EVA seemed somewhat uncomfortable thinking about that. Something had deeply disturbed it. Which considering what an Evangelion was, was quite a feat.
'Darkness, power, anger, fear, hate.' All flashed through the EVA's soul. 'Warmth, protectiveness' Also came though from another source. When she asked the EVA's reply would simply translate as 'Not Father', she tried to interrogate it further but the EVA insistently replied 'Not Father'. Rei thought of it from another angle. If not Father then . . . Mother. She understood a little bit more. This was as much as Rei could hope for. She withdrew back into the world.
Rei blinked a few times as she found herself laying on her back, Shinji looking at her worried.
One of the technicians was looking her over, he shown a light in her eyes checking to be sure her pupils were dilating. Checked her pulse and then nodded to himself. "She looks fine Mr. Ikari." The tech reassured, before standing back up and brushing himself off.
"Thank you." Shinji said nodding to the technician before putting both hands on Rei's shoulders and looking at her worried. "Do you feel ok?". He asked concerned.
"Yes, why should I not?" Rei asked.
"You . . . You just slumped down and fainted, what happened!" Shinji was concerned, he would have been concerned for anyone after something like that. She shook her head slowly as she took stock of her situation.
"I think I understand . . . That was enough for today." She whispered. She moved to get up, and paused, studying her current situation. "Would you please get off." She asked calmly.
Shinji realized the rather compromising position he was in, laying almost on top of Rei while he had looked her in the face. Despite the baggy overalls he though he had a good idea what lay beneath. His mind overlaid the moment with another, only this time Rei was sans clothes. He shot up in shock, flustered. "I-I'm Sorry!" He shouted as he stood rod strait, eyes averted.
Rei cocked her head not understanding what had caused her companions suddenly distressed state. She simply took his hand and pulled him along toward the scaffolding leading from the EVA's shoulder down to the hangar floor. Half a dozen technicians were busy near the mouth guard taking measurements for the appropriate pipe heads for EVA feeding. Fortunately Gehrin had the connections to get the relatively simple chemicals and proteins needed in bulk from providers within a few days. The rest was just fabricating an appropriate interface head. With the S2 core for power and to handle repair the EVA's continued operation was guaranteed.
Unfortunately that left the problem of weapons. Heavy positron weapons would be necessary if the Angels attacked as they had before. Rei didn't let this outwardly bother her but there would be much to do it seemed.
'And Unit-04, it sensed another.' Rei was not one to get her hopes up but it was possible that there was another EVA someplace in Japan. The only other unit that been anywhere near functional had been Unit-03 which had been taken to the German branch for repairs and decontamination. It had been 82 percent complete at the time of third impact. Just above the combat affective marker.
She would have to consider the Units possible locations. Someplace heavily secluded most likely. If it had appeared like the Angel through a Sea of Dirac then there were many places even in a country like Japan where it could be hidden. It was vastly easier to hide something if nobody had seen it being put in its hiding place.
They made it to the bottom of the scaffolding in time to be met by Shinji's father.
Gendo Ikari looked mildly concerned having seen Rei apparently pass out. He'd already called for a medical team when she started to recover, though now it appeared it would not be necessary.
"What were you doing?" Gendo asked, slightly suspicious. He felt uncomfortable letting Rei have nearly free reign, but then again, the AT field she had demonstrated proved that it wouldn't be worth the effort to try and stop her.
"I was merely querying the EVA." Rei said, simply as she started to head towards the hangar exit. Gendo and Naoko Akagi trailed close behind Rei, and the now permanently attached Shinji. "Wouldn't you need a terminal if you were going to bring up an operations log?" Naoko asked as they reached the elevator that would take them up to the conference level.
Rei shook her head. "Allow me to explain, I was querying the EVA's soul to be more precise."
Naoko simply nodded dumbly, she'd decided it was best for her to simply accept some things for the moment. She was still wrapping her mind around the barrier Rei had used to restrain her several hours earlier, that was at least enough to make her a believer that SOMETHING beyond her understanding was involved. What that was she had every intention of finding out.
Which reminded her, "Oh, Rei would you mind going through some tests?"
"Why?"
Naoko sighed, it was becoming apparent that Rei was . . . a difficult person to speak with in general. How someone managed to use so few words and yet be so cryptic she wasn't really sure.
Shinji shifted uncomfortably at the word 'tests'. Naoko gave him an evil smile. "Don't worry about it Shinji we're not going to vivisect your little girlfriend. Just some tissue samples and full body scans." Naoko said cheerily. "After all, we can learn more from a living person then a corpse."
Her words of reassurance only made Shinji shift all the more. Naoko Akagi was considered by many of the Gehrin workers to be a real live mad scientist.
Rei considered the exchange, "As long as it does not adversely affect my ability to pilot it is acceptable."
Naoko studied the girl. 'So odd'.
The elevator deposited them on the highest floor of the underground facility. Directly above this was a thirty meter layer of concrete and armor. The small group headed out, they were walking towards the administrative section. Gendo had given up on hoping to contain Rei, especially after her demonstration of what she could do with her AT field. She seemed content to be near Shinji anyway, and if he had to use his son as the carrot to keep Rei happy, so be it. There were still too many questions left unanswered and he didn't entirely trust her.
"Captain Katsuragi has a spare bedroom, you will stay with her for now." Gendo said simply as he signed off Rei's papers. Gehrin was working with the JSDF to get the appropriate documentation for Rei, it would not do to have a girl who didn't exist walking around. For now, a fake ID that would pass cursory inspection by a law enforcement agency had been fabricated. Any cross referencing would show it was a phony but by that point Gehrin would already have stepped in on Rei's behalf.
"Understood", Rei replied simply as she took the paperwork and looked it over. Place of residence and family history were provided, she memorized the birthday and past places donner residence. "This is adequate".
She handed the papers back to Gendo before pulling Shinji back towards the elevators again, this time going towards the surface.
Gendo left the two children off, heading back down to the command level to handle the monumental amount of paperwork involved with Rei waking up. He was also considering the task before him of coming up with a story that would not cause the top brass to move for his confinement to an asylum.
'Why does the truth have to complicate things?' Gendo mused as he proceeded back down into his lair. Looked like it was time to open that bottle to 190 proof he kept in his liquor cabinet. Yes getting plastered would be quite a good idea at the moment. Monsters, hybrids, giant robot cyborgs, all in a days work for the Commander of Gehrin.
Shinji looked at Rei curiously, it clicked suddenly. Lock . . . key. "R-Rei, you said that in the world before instrumentality we were friends."
There was a silence as Rei considered. "Yes, I believe friend is the word."
"Did we go to school together?" He asked.
"Yes." Rei replied turning to face Shinji curiously.
"I'm sorry, it's just . . . I'm sure I recognized you." Shinji said. "I mean, I kept having this sense of Deja vu, and now, now its . . ." Shinji looked at Rei as if seeing her for the first time.
". . . You're the person I keep trying to remember aren't you."
Rei did not reply.
"Aren't you!"
"I do not know, I cannot see inside your mind." Rei said looking away deep in thought 'Could he remember?'
Shinji starred at her. 'Rei'.
He decided to try and spark up a conversation. Usually you asked about a persons family so . . .
"Uhm, do you have any family."
". . ."
Rei paused for several long seconds. 'STUPID', Shinji snarled at himself as he realized who he was talking to. How could he be so dense! Rei might be uncomfortable thinking about such things.
However this was not what was on Rei's mind. Shinji had needed to know what she was, she didn't want to hurt him and in all likeliness the Gehrin staff would have done a genetic analysis so it was pointless concealing that she wasn't entirely human. What was troubling her was whether or not to tell Shinji where her human side was from. "I . . . I'm sorry." He whispered.
"Do not be." Rei replied.
"It does not matter, the donor for my human genetics was anonymous I do not know of any relatives." Rei said. The elevator door opened to the warm air of the afternoon and Misato waiting outside by her Alpine. The two children stepped out into the sun. It was time for Rei to go home.
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Ok, advanced explanation. I agree with some of the other people here that Rei due to her genetics is most likely nottruly related to Shinji. Besides the point of which she is most likely sterile making it a moot point anyways. But in anycase under my interpretation of Rei's natures. ITS NOT INCEST!
Also a question. If Rei was created in response to Yui's death then she couldn't possibly be more then ten years old. Wierd.