Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N This is the Rei Ayanami Chapter. It too will follow fairly close too the story line. But don't worry only a couple more chapters before my majors changes start to come. Please stay tuned...

Apotheosis:

Ones Descent into Heaven in order to become God

Chapter 6

Somber Marionette

Italics - Inner thoughts

Bold - English Dialogue (technically all other dialogue is in 'Japanese')

Then shall two be in the field;

the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Matthew 24:40

Misato just couldn't believe how easily she had let him off the hook. She was new to this whole responsibility thing, buy she was pretty sure that vanishing for two days was a severely punishable offense. Yet after their talk in the cell she'd said almost nothing about it. The only time she mentioned it at all was once they were finally in the privacy of their apartment; she wrapped her arms around him from behind and told him softly to never do that again. It had been surprising to her how much she had worried for him and how relieved she was that he was back. Not to mention how comfortable it was to embrace him. He had seemed tense at first, she doubted that he got much in the way of physical affection, he probably wasn't used to it.

She had asked him if he still wanted to pilot, his answer confused her. He had said "Of course, I must avenge my brother, by whooping ass, word is bond." She had no idea what the hell he was talking about when he said it, but he said it with such conviction that she found herself with a clenched fist raised in the air, ready for war.

Now as she wandered through the recovery site and looked up at the giant corpse of the previous angel she pondered the state her young charge was in. He was currently wandering around amongst the workers that surrounded the Angel with the explicit orders to not touch anything or bother anyone and to watch his head. The entire monstrous corpse as well as the recovery effort was all under a giant tent and high hats were mandatory. One never knew when something could fall or what it might be. It was no surprise she personally wasn't getting much done. This part of the job wasn't really her specialty, she was a fighter. Besides she had quite a few other things on her mind. That was ok though, because this was her friend Ritsuko's specialty and she was steadily plugging away on her computer and receiving all the data collected by the individual teams for analysis. She was probably one of the most efficient people in the world, the woman was all business. Misato however, she decided now was a good time to get a cup of coffee.

I can't believe the size of this thing.

I can't believe that I defeated this thing.

I Fucking Rock.

I must have repeated that to myself about two thousand times as I walked all the way around the Angel. Justifiably so if you ask me. Everyone was surprisingly nice to me as I walked around. People smiled at me or even said hello, it was strange. All I could figure is they were being nice to me because I'm a pilot. At the moment though that really didn't bother me. I didn't stop to talk to anyone though, I just continued to look up and marvel.

At about the three thousand mark I looked down after repeating myself yet again and there was Misato about fifty meters away walking up to Dr. Akagi. I began walking towards her when all of a sudden, a group of people came into site at the head of which was my father. He was the last person I wanted to see right now so I ducked behind a scaffold and watched as he passed. He was being fed information as he came to the spot where they had lowered a piece of the S-2 engine. As I looked on I noticed something, my father wasn't wearing his white gloves. Not only that but his hands.. they were harshly scarred, burned it looked like. Just as I started to think about it I was interrupted by...

"Heya there Hinote, whatcha looking at?" Misato said teasingly. I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard her voice in my ear. She followed my line of sight and before I could answer she noticed. "Why are you spying on your father? If you want to see him why don't you go and talk to him."

"That's an easy one, because I want to see him only slightly less than I want to talk to him." I made sure my voice held all the disdain I could muster.

"Well fine then, why are you standing there in your own world staring at him?" She said taking a sip of her coffee and starting to walk back over towards Ritsuko.

"Well, I just noticed my father's hands." Misato gave me a puzzled look, she obviously hadn't noticed. "Well they're burned, pretty badly too. I was just wondered what happened."

"Huh, I don't know. Hey Ritsuko you spend alot more time with the commander then me, do you know what happened to his hands?" She said as she handed the scientist a cup of coffee.

She looked over at me, for a second I could have sworn I saw disdain in her eyes as she recalled the memory but as her eyes met mine she seemed to shake it off. " It was before you arrived at NERV. Unit 00 went berserk during it's activation test. You heard about that right?" I nodded. "Well the pilot was trapped inside it..."

I cut her off, "You mean Ayanami right?"

She nodded, "It was Commander Ikari who rescued her. He opened the super heated hatch with this bare hands." She spoke the words but sounded as if the information coming out was as foreign to her as it was it me. She began saying something unrelated to Misato but I got lost in thought.

"My father did that?" Was just about all I could manage to say as I took a few steps to the side. And my mind repeated the sentiment. My father... did that? Are you sure? Doesn't exactly sound like the Gendo Ikari I know. It sounds more like something a human being might do. And I have far too much evidence to the contrary to believe that my father was human. I couldn't wrap my head around this. But I was quickly pulled out of it by an elbow to the ribs.

"... right Hinote?" Was all I caught from Misato.

"Actually I should be thanking Hinote. Thanks to him, I have a sample that is over ninety-five percent intact." You could see the almost childish excitement that filled her eyes as she looked up at the silenced enemy.

"Well have you managed to learn anything new about it?" Misato asked.

"Well come see for yourself." Ritsuko motioned for us to look at her screen and as we did she hit enter on a sample analysis. The error code 601 flashed up on the screen."

"OK what's error code 601?" My fellow onlooker questioned.

"It's the code for 'cannot be identified' which means the Angel is made of an unknown material. We do know that it's composed of a type of matter characterized by particulate and wave form properties, not unlike solidified light."

"Solidified light? What the hell, that's unreal." I left it at that but to myself I thought, How am I suppose to fight that?

Misato seemed to sense the need for a subject change so she cheerfully added. "Well at least you've found it's power source, right?"

Ritsuko didn't seem so optimistic. "Something like like that, but we still have absolutely nothing on it's operating principles. We can't seem to figure out anything about it."

Misato leaned back and nodded her head thoughtfully. "Wow, so we've finally found something beyond even our experience and knowledge."

Ritsuko laughed almost sarcastically, "The world is just filled with mysteries. For example, take a look at this. This is the angels inherent wave pattern."

Misato almost knocked me over pressing her face near the screen, "What, let me see."

To be honest I was probably more interested in what the screen had to show than her. I certainly knew as much if not more about the scientific areas. Though maybe not when it came to the angels but I became quite into science at a young age. I've thoroughly read every paper my mother ever published (at least the unclassified ones) or any work published by any projects she was on even some of her frequent colleague's papers. Her work was the only gateway I had to try and get any idea of what my mother was like. I mean I have my few scattered memories of her, but that was as a child where she was my ultimate protector and the most perfect person in the world. I wanted to really know her. The only other way I could find out about her would be to ask father but... that wouldn't go well.

I peered at the screen and when the technicolor graph came up I didn't even have to wait for Ritsuko's explanation, all the color drained from my face and my mind raced frantically. Misato seemed to have an idea but she hadn't seem to put it together yet.

"Although they are formed from a completely different form of matter, their actual composition in terms of arrangement and coordinates of the pattern fall within a 99.89 match of a human being."

"That's unbelievable." Misato absently said.

I was trying to grip what I had just learned in the last two minutes. First the angels are basically made of solid light, but at the same time they are almost exactly like us. Hell with only a few changes in their energy pattern and they would be us. Except unlike our carbon based bodies it would have a body of light. If that's not Sci-fi I don't know what is.

But it made sense in a way, they are called 'the messengers of light'. Angels are supposed to be god's messengers, everyone knows that. I guess the 'of light' part isn't as metaphorical as everyone thinks though.

For some odd reason I suddenly wanted to be one of the people with a screen in front of them. I had a sudden urge to know everything I could about these things, damn curiosity. On the other hand though this is the tough collecting stage, it would probably be alot easier to let them handle it. I can always look at the final analysis later. Wait a second, I'm a pilot I should be getting all of this information. Hell I should be made to study all of this information, this could be vital information, who knows what small tidbit of this might save my life.

I mean really, what possible reason could they have to hide any of this from me.

The next day I went to school again for the first time since everything had happened. It was a bit odd, it was like people had thought I was dead or hurt or something. Everyone was so surprised to see me.

When I made it to the classroom, the entire class fell silent. Well that is beside Kensuke who excitedly waved me over, "Hey Hinote, over here." I looked around and noticed all eyes were on me, that was except for the red pair that belonged to Rei Ayanami. She was staring out the window seemingly looking at nothing at all.

This is the girl who my father burned his hands saving. She meant enough to him that he sacrificed his own well being. Something I don't even think he'd do for me. So why would he for her? What is so special about you, Miss Rei Ayanami? My thoughts were brought to an abrupt end when suddenly as if hearing my thoughts her red eyes suddenly shifted to stare directly into mine. I was almost physically shaken with how little I saw in her eyes. Some say that eyes are windows to the soul, for her sake I hope they're wrong. Because if they're not, she has an empty soul, or none at all.

I walked over to my seat which was in front of Kensuke. He motioned me closer as I sat down and whispered into my ear. "I kinda told everyone about you being taken by those agents, had no idea what they'd do to you."

"Ah I see, that's why everyone is looking at me like that." I said giving a quick look around.

"Yeah sorry man. But you're here so I take it things didn't go too bad."

"Well I'm one of the only pilots they have. What could they really do to me?" I said almost arrogantly.

"Good point, if they make it so you can't pilot they all die, a perfect lose, lose situation." He nodded thoughtfully. "Must be nice to have a 100 meter tall insurance policy."

I laughed, "I never thought of it like that, but yeah, it is."

The teacher walked in and the class Rep. did her thing. After our daily stand bow sit dance, the teacher began his fairy tale history lesson. I wondered how many people knew the truth of second impact. Hell I wondered if what I knew was the truth, the whole truth. My father was highly involved with it, which made me skeptical of anything that had to do with it.

These thoughts along with a billion others, some trivial; some important ran through my head as the time passed. Before long it was lunch time and I found myself up on the roof with Kensuke and this time we were joined by Toji, who did finally get his chance to apologize to me.

I jokingly gave him a hard time but I didn't let the ruse last long. Mostly I wanted to try and put the whole thing behind me, but I did make him promise to introduce me to his sister. He told me he'd have to ask her but he didn't see why not. After we finished eating we all just kinda sat there staring down into the school yard. I noticed Toji's eyes were locked in position. After a second I traced his line of sight to a certain brown haired class Rep. An observation I simply couldn't let go without notice.

"So Toji, has Hikari moved since you started staring at her?"

His face went through almost every shade of red before arriving at a very fine crimson. "Umm, wha.. I mean... I wasn't looking at her."

Kensuke started laughing, "No you were staring, people who are just looking blink every now and then. And what's really bad is you only ate lunch with him one day and even Hinote noticed. " He slapped Toji in the back and laughed, "You're hopeless man hell the only person who hasn't noticed is Hikari."

"And nobody better tell her, the person who does is going to be the proud owner of a hospital bed." He pumped his fist into his hand threateningly. Me and Kensuke just started laughing.

"Well you don't have to worry about me telling her, it's none of my business. But if you keep boring a hole into the back of her head I'm pretty sure even an oblivious girl like Hikari will notice eventually. You should just go ask her out." Seemed pretty simple to me.

Toji looked at me like I had seven heads, "Are you joking, Miss All-work-no-play? There's no way she'd say yes someone like me. Hell I don't know if she'd say yes to anyone with how prim and proper she is."

This was too good of a chance for me to let go. "I bet she'd say yes if the 'hero of the city' asked." I said puffing up my chest and wearing a cheesy smile.

Toji began to lunge at my throat, "You son of a b..."

Kensuke got between us and gave me enough time to jump up. "Relax man I was just kidding. Still gonna try and tell us you don't like her?"

Toji deflated from his struggle to get to me, "OK ok you got me. But what am I supposed to do, I can't get a girl like her. She's known me all through school, she knows what I'm like."

"So? You've known her all that time and you like her." Kensuke helpfully added.

"Yeah but she's... so nice. And... so sweet and..." Toji was going somewhere with this.

"Hot I believe is the word you were looking for." Toji quickly gave me the look of death out of the corner of his eyes, I automatically put my hands up in defense.

"Well, yeah that too. I just can't picture a girl like her saying yes to a guy like me." His head almost hung in defeat as he said it.

"Then I guess it's a good thing Kensuke is the photographer around here, this way when you do finally work up the balls to ask he can take a picture to show you, as proof."

The bell sounded, signaling that lunch was over. We stood up and collected our garbage. "Well in any case if she says no to you can I..." I didn't stop running until we were in the classroom, which promptly got Toji in trouble. And of course, it was the object of his affection doing the yelling so I was immediately forgotten. The class came to order shortly after that. We all say patiently waiting for the next distraction to take us away from our drone of a teacher.

Physical Education they call it here. I had never been in a public school before I came here. I had home schooling and the dojo which I considered the place I got my real education. I was never much of a player of organized sports, Omar had taught me a game called hockey but it wasn't big here so most of the time we would just use the skates to get around. What I usually considered being physically active was training. Spending ten to fifteen minutes waiting for everyone to get ready and take attendance. Then another ten to get organized and get into the game. Now after that everyone needs an opportunity to play so in order to do that we sub out. So all in all if you get 10 minutes of actual playing time you're lucky. Kind of a turn off for me, I was used to being in the dojo for hours. Toji however loved the small amount of time he got to show off his athletic prowess. He was quite good at almost every sport. So I had decided that I'd always be on his team and that way he could just take all my playing time too. I felt it was a show of good faith and it stopped me from looking like an idiot for not knowing the rules of some of the games. Instead I got to sit lazily on the sidelines for the whole time. The teacher never paid attention so I got away with it.

So there I am, sitting on the side and something makes me look up to the pool. The girls were swimming today but I wasn't thinking about that when my eyes wandered up there and fell onto the girl who had plagued me with such confusion, Rei Ayanami.

Rei Ayanami, she's almost 5'4 her skin is so pale it is almost white rather then flesh toned. She had pale blue hair and deep red eyes not exactly a normal combination, though not an unattractive. When I asked Misato she said Rei is an albino. Which I had to take for granted because when I tried to use the computers at NERV to find out about her I found absolutely nothing. As far as the file was concerned the only kind of past she had was a birthday. Which oddly enough fell on the exact date of second impact. But she had no medical history, no family history, hell she didn't even have parents. I looked in my file they had everything you could possibly need to know. Including the results of every physical and mental test they had done since I got here, which were now reaching the hundreds in number.

Yet she has been here much longer than I have and hey have absolutely nothing about her. I wonder why that is, they must have information about her. So that leaves the question on why would they want to hide that information? And from who? What makes her so special? Why did my father save her?

I stared at her, my mind filled with questions. Oddly enough with all the thinking I was doing about this girl, I hadn't once thought of her sexually. And she was a pretty girl but even now that I had brought it to notice I just couldn't seem to think of her like that. Wow, my first purely platonic thoughts of a pretty girl in a while. It was almost like there was some kind of mental block on me wanting this girl. Well either that or the look in her eyes was a bit too creepy even for my lower half.

"Who are you?" I said almost under my breath. But Kensuke who had produced some note as to why he couldn't participate managed to hear it. I being in my own world didn't notice as he slid up next to me and started looking up with me. But before he could ask me who I was looking at the girls noticed me and some of the other boys looking at them and proceeded with the customary 'hentai' taunts. And a few of the increasingly frequent waves of some of the girls to a certain admirer. One girl even called out my name, not the one I was looking at of course, she didn't even move. Toji had come over once the girls started up and his ego was hurt when a girl called out to me and another just called him a pervert.

"How come I'm the one who get's called a pervert when Hinote is the one staring up there so intently? So spill it, who are you looking at like that? Who has the all mighty hero so smitten?" His tone became almost challenging.

Kensuke took the cue and jokingly added, "I think it was Rei, isn't that right Hinote?"

"No." I said trying to blow them off.

Kensuke and Toji leaned in, "Come on, am I stupid? I saw you."" Kensuke started

Toji quickly followed getting directly in my face, "What is it, Ayanami's breasts? Her thighs? Her Ass?"

I don't know why but I suddenly got extremely offended, I pushed Toji backwards. He would have fallen but Kensuke was right behind him saving him from falling and then me from Toji retaliating. "Sorry man you just shouldn't have got in my face like that. Besides, it's not like that with Ayanami, I was just wondering why she's always alone."

"You know, you're right. I haven't seen her with a a single friend since she came here in 7th grade." Kensuke noted

"I wonder why." I said absently staring up at her.

Toji answered it probably as best as anyone could, "There's something about her that just make her hard to talk to."

"Well you're both EVA pilots you should know her better than any of us right?" Kensuke asked

"Well, I've hardly spoken to her at all." It was sad to admit and I felt sorry for her thinking it but as far as I knew, my father was the one who knew her best.

Later that day I was at NERV for synchronization tests. I was sitting in the entry plug or hour number 4 as they rattled off different settings that they were testing on me. I opened my eyes when I felt a small shiver in the EVA. And there across the way standing on the cat walk next to her EVA was Rei. She seemed to be checking something when suddenly she turned around as if she'd been called and her eyes widened. I looked to where she was called from and I saw my father approach her. They began speaking, and for the first time since my mother died I saw a smile on my father's face.

Shock swept over me. I couldn't breath suddenly and against all reason my mind asked one terrible question. What's so wrong with me that I'm not worth even that smallest bit of kindness?

She is but I'm not? Is that it?

The whole rest of the test I was totally unfocused to the point where we cut it short. The ride home with Misato was a quiet one. She did however mention that she had invited Ritsuko over for dinner. According to Misato's cooking ability and her food supply that probably meant that we were going to have the better instant foods like Top Ramen instead of Ramen. We got inside and went to our respective rooms without a word. I was still wondering about what I had seen at NERV. What is the bond between them?

I changed into sweat pants and a t-shirt to get comfortable. I walked out into the kitchen and started to take out some of the things I thought Misato would want to make. She came out a moment later and gave me a tentative smile. Misato was good at sensing how I was feeling.

She wasn't quite as good at finding the right thing to say. "So what's twisting up that little brain of yours so badly that you couldn't concentrate on those tests huh? Got some girl on your mind?"

"No, I wasn't thinking about a girl." I defended myself.

She got a wicked grin on her face. "Not a girl huh? Then it must've been a woman. You know, you really shouldn't be thinking about me when you're in those tests. I am incredibly distracting."

I couldn't help but laugh as she struck a sexy pose in her little shorts and tang top. "Well as true as that is you weren't the reason either."

"Then I give up what was it?" She started heating up some of the food.

"Well I saw my father today in the cage during the tests." Misato stopped and looked at me, she already knew my father was a sore spot. "He was talking to Rei, and they were both smiling. I can't remember ever seeing either of them smile. And well my father, he was being kind to her something else I've never seen." I paused, I didn't want to take the next step and show my self consciousness.

Unfortunately Misato went ahead and took it for me. "And you wanted to know why her and not you?" she said solemnly.

"Yeah" I held together, but not by a lot. As strong as I wanted to believe I was, I couldn't help wanting my father to love me. "It's stupid, I know. But he burned himself to save her, I just couldn't picture him doing that for me... that hurts. A lot."

She gave me a heartbroken pitying look, like one someone would give a puppy out in the rain. "Oh Hinote, I..."

I wasn't going to be pitied, so I cut her off, "No, I don't want you to try and make me feel better. I don't want to be told it will be ok. I want to go through this, I want to remember that this is what my father is like. So I don't ever let him trick me into thinking he cares about me."

Misato quickly closed the distance between us and wrapped her arms around me embracing me tightly. "Well then I will tell you that you're not alone." I slowly returned the embrace and we stood like that for a while. I hid my face from her, the contact had broken down the feeble walls holding back my emotions. After about ten minutes we broke our hold and I quietly thanked her. To avoid any further discussion I quickly began preparing some of the food. Misato seemed to get the hint and we fell into silence as we prepared for our guest.

Ritsuko arrived only a few minutes after all the food was ready. So we got right to eating dinner. Ritsuko asked what was wrong with me today to but before I could answer, Misato told her I was thinking about a girl and gave me a slight nod. I understood and said yeah, I'd have to remember to thank her for that.

The dinner was actually not that bad, well the food was but it went alright. Ritsuko knew Misato's horrible instant food habits and had more than a few comments on how pathetic it was. Things got really funny though when Misato convinced us to try her special way and added some extra ingredients. It was awful, I think there was serious damage done to Pen Pen. He ate one bite then fell over, stiff as a board. I was about to go and check on him when Ritsuko distracted me.

"My god Misato you are the only person alive that could make ready to eat food taste so bad. Hinote you should move out and get a guardian who isn't so detrimental to your health. You can't let one bad roommate ruin your life." Misato glared at her she just grinned.

I laughed. "I've gotten use to it." The truth is living with Misato is probably the only reason I am still here.

Fifteen minutes into dinner and she's on beer number six. Impressive, or pathetic depending on how you look at it. But she slurs out. "Yeah, you see. Never under estimate the power of the human creature to adapt. Besides think of all the red tape he'd have to go through all over again. I mean he just got his permanent NERV ID card."

"Oh that reminds me, Hinote could I ask you to do me a favor?" Ritsuko said shifting gears quickly.

"Sure, what is it?" I said.

She reached in her bag and withdrew and handed me a small plastic card. "It's Rei Ayanami's new ID card." A strange grin appeared on her face, like a chess player setting up for checkmate. "I keep forgetting to give this to her. Could you stop by and give this to her, before you go into headquarters."

"Yeah no problem." I said absently as I looked at the girl's face staring back at me from the picture on the card.

She noticed, "Staring at Rei's picture, maybe she was the girl he was thinking about this afternoon. What do you think Misato?"

"Well this does give you a good excuse to go to her place now doesn't it?" She said.

I was getting tired of people saying that. "It's not that, I just find it strange that we're both pilots, yet I know so little about her I needed to look down this card to find out where she lived."

"Well that because she's like your father, she's not every adept at..." She paused looking for the right word.

"At what?" I prompted.

"Well, living." She put it simply, yet right on the money.

The rest of the dinner conversation was fairly trivial. Shortly after we were done eating Ritsuko left sighting how early she had to get up in the morning. After she left I helped Misato clean up and then she decided she was going to take a bath. I figured this would be a good time to go over to Rei's and get it out of the way. I yelled to Misato that I would be back and I left.

The night air was refreshing, the temperature had dropped from the day time and it was nice and cool. I loved to walk at night, the streets were usually so busy during the evening. It's fun to watch people scurry around busily when you yourself have nothing to do. I usually try to blend into the crowd so even people I know won't see me. I've been able to pass with in a foot of someone I know without them realizing, their eyes scanning right past me as if I wasn't there.

It took me a little while to get to Rei's place. She lived kind of towards the outside of town in one of the smaller almost run down apartment building. As I made my way through the halls I started to wonder why she, or anyone for that matter would live in a place like this. To be honest most of the doors looked like they hadn't been used in a long time. Well actually all of them. I got up to her floor and finally did get to her apartment. I could tell it was hers because it had mail poking out of the mail slot and it was the only door in the whole place that looked as if it had been opened in the last year or two.

I knocked on the door, no answer. I knocked again harder and this time I added a "Hello? Rei?" Still no answer. I put my ear to the door and I could hear running water, so she was home. Normally I would've just slipped it through the mail slot but in this case that didn't seem like it would actually get to her that way, and these IDs are important. So I decided to risk it and I checked the door nob. To my surprised it turned without resistance and the door open slightly.

Again I called out, "Hello Rei, it's Hinote are you there?" Nothing, so slowly walk into the room and my nervous uncomfortability from walking in uninvited quickly turned into puzzled curiosity. Her place was, well barren. It had a bed, a small tray with a beaker and what looked like some form of medication and a small refrigerator with some torn open food packages on top. And that was pretty much it other than a small chair with a pile of clothes on it in the corner. Besides barren the place was filthy. She must not have any self pride to let her own living space look like this.

As I walked further into the room and I noticed something. On the small tray there were a pair of glasses, and by the look of it, they were my father's. I walked up to them, they were broken and they looked almost as if they'd been slightly melted, but they were definitely my father's. If I hadn't been so locked into the thought I would have noticed the sound of the water turning off. I picked up the glasses and just looked at them. For a moment I was tempted to put them on but the last thing I wanted to do was be like my father so I refrained.

They were still in my hand however when I heard a door creak open behind me. I spun around and almost screamed when I saw Rei staring at me with nothing on but a pair of slippers and a towel draped over her shoulders which covered absolutely nothing. I froze, she didn't seem affected by my presence at all. I was staring at her naked body and it seemed like I was the only one who felt weird.

In fact I felt many different levels of weird. First I was staring at a naked, attractive, young female and I felt almost disgusted. As if this is somehow instinctively wrong, when I had learned in biology this was supposed to be quite right. Secondly the parts I expected to react instinctively didn't, and instead I felt almost sick. I hadn't even had one mental flash of us having sex. Which was perhaps that strangest part of all, I had mental flashes of having sex with women I past in the street who were fully clothed. I mean shit in the last 24 hours I have probably had some where in the neighborhood of 40,919,169 mental fantasies, give or take a few. Not that I was keeping track or anything. But all those were without ever seeing any of these women naked. Now I have a naked one right in front of me. The only mental flash I had now was how the contents of my dinner would look on Rei's floor.

Back in reality, her eyes locked on to the object in my hands and she suddenly seemed almost angry. She took a couple of quick steps towards me and I freaked. I tried to back up but I hit the small tray which put me off balance and just then Rei reached me and grabbed for the glasses. Before I knew what was happening I was falling forward without the footing to stop myself.

I took Rei with me tumbling to the floor and I wound up on top of her with my one hand braced firmly on her naked breast. I reared up quickly taking a few steps across the room and turning around. I did this half out of shame and embarrassment and half because I felt wrong even looking at her. And not because it was the immoral thing to do, normally I wouldn't care less about that when it came to checking out a totally nude girl not two feet from me. It was really strange, hormones should have taken me over like they normally do and gotten me slapped for being a pervert. Instead it's just the opposite, my whole body feels like this is just... wrong.

"Rei, I...I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen. I was just here to give you your ID card." I rambled off. I heard a rustling that sounded like Rei getting dressed. I filled the awkward silence with awkward conversation, "Umm, Ritsuko asked me to bring this to you", I held up the card. "Our cards were renewed."

The rustling stopped and I didn't here anything. I risked a look and saw that Rei had in fact dressed and was just staring at me with the glasses in her hand. I did notice one odd thing though, even though it was now almost nine thirty at night, she had dressed in her school uniform. Doesn't she have any other clothing?

She just stared at me for a moment and then as flatly as possible said, "What?"

She was cold as ice, and I was freaking out. I had to get out of there I felt like I was going to choke. "N-Nothing, I'm going." I was out the door within three seconds. After I shut it behind me I stood on the other side of it for a few seconds breathing heavily trying to compose myself.

Holy Shit! What the hell just happened in there? Why was she so unaffected by the whole thing? Come to think of it, why am I? What am I friggin' gay? Wait, no I know I am not gay. 40,919,169 fantasies a day and not a one of them of a guy. So what the hell is wrong with me? Rei is gorgeous, period, no argument! There is absolutely no denying that, but why did it bother me so much. I know it wasn't supposed to happen in the first place, but I should have enjoyed that... Well until I got slapped at least. But I was almost nauseous, not exactly a good start into the world of women. God damn it! Naked women: One. Me: Zero.

Satisfied that it was safe to continue walking now I left my spot and began walking out of the building. It was just then that I noticed there was something in my hand. I curiously looked down at the foreign object. There staring up at me were the same eyes I had seen in that room. The empty dead eyes of Rei Ayanami. Shit, in my rush to get the hell out of there I forgot to leave it. Well the next time we have to be at Nerv is tomorrow after school. So I can give it to her anytime before then. Because I'm sure as hell not going back in there.

I walked home uneventfully. When I got there it was past eleven. I found a note from Misato telling me she'd gone to sleep and I was going to be in trouble for being out so late. At this point I could care less, I rip the thing in two and toss it away as I walked into my room. I was absolutely shocked by how easily I fell asleep.

School was mostly quiet the next day. When the final bell rung I went to give Rei her card quickly in the confusion that followed in hopes that the chaos would relieve some of the awkward tension. But when I turned around she was already on her way out the door. I tried to catch up but I always seemed to be one step behind. Admittedly though that was partially because I wasn't exactly anxious to be in a one on one situation with Rei right now. Even when we boarded the train headed for NERV I sat on the far end of the car, even though their was not a single person on the train. In one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life I sat quietly wondering what this girl was thinking. I would sneak a look over at her every so often, mostly searching for the death ray's that I expected to be coming from my victim's eyes.

I practically sexually assaulted her last night, even if it was inadvertently, I certainly invaded her privacy. God she must hate me. But she doesn't seem to care. I haven't caught her looking at me even once. It could be she's better at this game than I am but I doubt it. Either that or she had simply erased me from her world and now I was simply a walking void in her time space continuum. Truthfully I wouldn't blame her. And I do believe the possibility of her eternally hating me and eventually plotting my death. But just in case her game is that incredibly tight, I'll have to keep an eye on her. Make sure this icy exterior isn't just to drop my guard. One can never be to careful when dealing with a woman scorn.

I thanked all that is good in the world when we come to the station and the doors to my prison slide open. Despite my anxiousness to get out of there when I came to the road Rei was almost fifty meters ahead. I was like that all the way to the main gate but she was having a bit of trouble with the electronic lock that was there. As I came up I noticed her card wasn't working. Not really all that surprising since I had her new one in my pocket. I came over and slid her new one through the slot that she had just tried her old one on and of course it accepted it. Rei gave me an inquisitive but surprised look but didn't say anything.

I filled the awkward silence, "Umm... This is your new ID. Dr. Akagi asked me to give it to you. That's why I came to see you yesterday, but after everything that happened I forgot to leave it. Here you go." I weakly smiled at her trying to mask how uncomfortable I was and also be as friendly as possible. She took the card from me without a word and her eyes narrowed for just a second, almost analytically. Then she simply turned and entered the facility. If this was an act, it was a damn good one. I was only a few steps behind her now as we got on the escalator. I found myself again needing to fill the awkward silence. "So Rei, I heard that your reactivation test is today, are you nervous?" It came out shaky at best.

She didn't even turn around, I thought she was going to ignore me but then her voice, "No."

That was not the answer I was expecting. "You aren't scared of getting back in Unit 00?"

"Not at all, is there a reason I should be?" She seemed genuinely naive as to why she should fear her EVA.

This was inconceivable to me. How could she be so indifferent? I didn't exactly know how to handle this, so of course I handled it badly by default. One never stumbles into the right way to handle a situation, only the wrong ones. "Well, yeah. The way I hear it, the last time you were in it you were almost killed, and took some serious damage. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a reason."

"Aren't you Commander Ikari's son?" It was a rhetorical question. Of course she knew the answer, but the tone of her voice was almost provoking me so I answered.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Don't you trust your fathers work?" Still without even glancing back at me.

For such a seemingly simple question, it's quite a loaded one for me. Do I trust my father's work? I certainly don't trust him, that wouldn't have even taken a moments reflection to answer. But did I trust his work? The work he'd abandoned me for, the same work my mother had started. One of the few things I noted about the file I read when I first arrived was how many times my mothers name was cited in various areas of research as well as alot of the ground work that created NERV. She was a committee head to almost everything that was talked about in there. And I have known for a long time that my father is an idiot compared to my mother but on the same token I have to admit Plato was probably an idiot compared to my mother. But at the same time the man was the commander of NERV. And he has this place on lock. I doubt there is much that goes on around here that he doesn't know. Not to mention the level of shit that is going on here. The man was responsible for creating the EVAs or at least overseeing their creation. Certainly not an accomplishment to be taken lightly, hell perhaps the greatest achievement of the human race. Well, certainly from a destructive stand point. So should I trust his work even if I can't trust him?

"Well, yeah I guess I do, but I don't trust the bastard. How could I? That son of a..."

My sentence was abruptly ended when Rei turned around with a look that carried with it lasers and a firm handed smack across the face. With the red imprint of a hand quickly darkening on my left cheek I stood stunned. I felt like a deer in head lights, I couldn't even think. She however simply turned around and walked away, for the first time had I saw Rei Ayanami show emotion.

Dr. Akagi said she wasn't very adept at living, but she seems to do angry rather well. Her slap wasn't half bad either, totally caught me by surprise. She reacts to me talking about MY father but not to me falling on her while she was naked and grabbing her tit. Damn, and I thought women were confusing before.

When I came to the landing and stepped off the escalator Rei wasn't even in sight anymore. I sighed to myself. Well smooth one asshole, now you have made it impossible for her not to hate you. Good job

I recovered from the shock and walked to Misato's office, she was sifting through the chaos that was her desk. A mountain of papers was currently barely holding together as Misato searched for some forsaken report or memo. All I could do was smirk and slightly shake my head, "Heya Misato, nice desk. Who are you trying to hide in there?" I laughed a little under my breath as she nearly jumped out of her skin. Apparently she had been too engrossed in her search to hear me come in.

"Ah! God damn it don't sneak up on me!" As her heart rate returned to normal she turned to me and defeated by her own disaster she stopped looking for her paper. "Oh Fuck it! Come on I'm gonna be late." She blew past me and out the door, I was left little choice but to follow. Though I often found following Misato had the benefit of watching her walk from behind. An act that if put to music might be considered the worlds finest interpretive dance. Or at least the sexiest.

She was mumbling to herself almost all the way too the observation room, which was a good thing too, otherwise she might have noticed the holes my eyes were boring into her ass. When the door slid open and we walked inside I finally realized what was going on. The window looked into the testing cage, and there stood Unit 00. The orange and white monstrosity filled up most of the space, it's massive form held against one wall with restraints. I would overhear the techies going through the motions of activation. Except they were doing it step by step double and triple checking everything. Even once Rei was in the entry plug; they didn't do the starting sequence at all like they did with me. They slowly turned up the harmonics ratio by tenths of percents at a time. But to be honest as I stared up at Unit 00 the words that came through the intercom blended into a muffled background. Instead I found myself almost hypnotized by the EVA. I felt nervous, despite assurances that these cages were made to hold the EVA's. That's real nice in the theoretical sense but I've piloted an EVA. If that thing goes berserk like my EVA did, these walls are going to be like tin foil. I don't care how strong you think you've made them.

Rei Ayanami felt no apprehension as she heard the same messages pass over the intercom as Hinote. Rather she was currently watching a memory in her minds eye. The events of the last activation test played themselves out and she recalled one of the few moments in her life she had felt cared for.

The commanders actions can not be dismissed simply as those of a concerned superior. He inflicted damage upon himself in order to ensure my safety. The way he called out to me, I could hear his concern. In all the time I have known him Commander Ikari has never once shown so much emotion. Surely all these factors must lead me to conclude that the commander cares for me. But if this is the case how come he does not show his kindness to me more often. Why is it that he doesn't treat his own son any better? And why does his son seem to wish to be kind to me. These are question that require more information to answer. Perhaps after the test I will speak with Pilot Ikari. Even if I cannot ask him directly I can ascertain his intentions through his actions. This will have to wait until then, so I will concentrate on the task at hand for now.

Back in the observation room Hinote watched as the activation test was completed without a hitch. Despite the long deep breath everyone had taken as the threshold was crossed and the unit activated, nothing had gone wrong. Everyone exhaled in relief as the confirmation of the tests success was repeated over the intercom. But no sooner then they began drawing their very next breath the world froze for everyone in Tokyo-3.

Alarms screamed through out the city and NERV. The next Angel had arrived.

End of Chapter 6

Omake

(Out takes)

Toji quickly followed getting directly in my face, "What is it, Ayanami's breasts? Her thighs? Her Ass?"

I don't know why but I suddenly got extremely offended, I pushed Toji backwards. He would have fallen but Kensuke was right behind him saving him from falling and then me from Toji retaliating. "Sorry man you just shouldn't have got in my face like that. Besides, it's not like that with Ayanami, I was just wondering why she doesn't turn me on."

"You know man you're right. I haven't gotten a single boner looking at her since she got here in seventh grade, and that is unusual. I wonder what it is." Toji agreed

The omniscient Kensuke came in with the answer "It's because she's a freaky clone lady, and well in you're case Hinote she's a freaky clone-of-your mother lady.'

"Well that explains why my fathers always happy to see her."

Omake two

So when the final bell rung I went to give Rei her card quickly in the confusion that followed in hopes that the chaos would relieve some of the awkward tension. But when I turned around she was already on her way out the door. I tried to catch up but I always seemed to be one step behind. Admittedly though that was partially because I wasn't exactly anxious to be in a one on one situation with Rei right now. Even when we boarded the train headed for NERV I sat on the far end of the car, even though their was not a single person on the train. In one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life I sat quietly wondering what this girl was thinking. I would sneak a look over at her every so often, mostly searching for the death ray's that I expected to be coming from my victim.

I practically sexually assaulted her last night, even if it was inadvertently. I certainly invaded her privacy. God she must hate me. But she doesn't seem to care. I haven't caught her looking at me even once. It could be she's better at this game than I am but I doubt it. Either that or she had simply erased me from her world and now I was simply a walking void in her time space continuum. Truthfully I wouldn't blame her. And I do quite liked that to the possibility of her eternally hating me and eventually plotting my death. But just in case her game is that incredibly tight, I'll have to keep an eye on her. Make sure this icy exterior isn't just to drop my guard. One can never be to careful when dealing with women.

"Fucking-trifflin'-ass-bitches." I mumble under my breath.