Disclaimer: Same as Chapter 1.
Chapter 34: Jude
Rei now stood only a few feet from Kaworu in the Cage before Unit-02, their crimson eyes locked as though they were daring each other to attack. Rei chose instead to break the silence.
"...You are the last Angel...are you not?" Kaworu blinked in mild surprise, then smiled.
"...Well, I have to say I'm not surprised that you were able to discover it. That Major of yours, though...I certainly did not expect as much trouble as she's been giving me."
"Major Katsuragi tends to not take too kindly to Angels," Rei said with just enough sarcasm that the silver-haired boy let out a snicker.
"...Even now, you don't cease to amaze me, Sister. I suppose the old men were correct-- you HAVE deviated too far from your intended persona." Rei glared at him, the fury evident in her eyes though her calm voice did not betray her emotions.
"Why do you insist on calling me that...Kaworu?"
"Because," he said with a calm smile, "...we ARE related. In fact, we are far closer to each other on the genetic level than you are to your dear Shinji, even if you were cloned from his own mother. And with that closeness comes certain...similarities. You see, Rei, both of us were created as shells in order to chain down beings far beyond the understanding of the lilim."
Rei's anger instantly evaporated, replaced by shock at the Fifth Child's words.
"...What?..."
"Either one of us would have been acceptable to possess Adam for the purpose of bringing about Third Impact. Yet when the Twelfth Angel appeared in its quantum form, SEELE chose to appoint me as its vessel, while Commander Ikari was entrusted with you. You were the one tossed aside, left to wait for SEELE to determine when their desired apocalypse would come about."
The pale girl stared at her adversary in disbelief. Yet in spite of her astonishment at this new understanding of her existence, she spoke in a clear, strong tone.
"...What I am is of no importance. I will not allow myself to be used by NERV or by SEELE any longer. And I will not allow you to harm Shinji or anyone else."
"But you see, Rei..." Kaworu said as he began to draw nearer to her, "...what you are is significant. Especially since it is for that reason I will not be the final form of the 12th." The First Child stared at Kaworu curiously, but the anger radiating from her did not lessen.
"...I was intended to gain Shinji's trust and then to destroy it, so as to create in the Third Child the desire that SEELE intended him to have. Yet he has refused my company and my friendship, making it impossible for me to do so. But you..." He smiled at Rei significantly as he leaned closer, while the pale girl held her ground, refusing to be intimidated by him. "...You have become his only true emotional support instead of me. As such, it's only fitting that you fulfull the remainder of my duties...Sister."
He then leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips. The anger building up in Rei reached a boiling point at that moment, but before she could react, she felt an overwhelming surge of power flow into her. She desperately tried to fight it, almost instantly knowing what it was, but it was too much.
...No...
Without warning, she collapsed to the floor with a thud. Kaworu wobbled uncertainly on his own legs, clutching his forehead. It certainly FELT like it had worked, but he wasn't entirely sure. He concentrated on the door at the other end of the Cage, but it refused to budge.
So, I could transfer it.
He looked down at the girl lying on the ground with her eyes wide and blank, her body twitching slightly as if she was having an epileptic spell. Sweat was pouring from Kaworu's face like he'd run a marathon, and his knees began to give out from under him.
"...If only you had never loved him..." Kaworu struggled to say before he lost conciousness, " Then...it would not be you..."
At that moment, his strength failed him as his head made contact with the cold metal floor, sending him into darkness.
Shinji stared at the simple cereal he had made for breakfast, unmotivated to cook by the absence of Rei. When he woke up, he had been disappointed that she wasn't already up, so he had looked in his room. But she wasn't there, nor was she in any of the other rooms in the apartment.
...I wonder if she's okay?
It was probably nothing to worry about. She'd obviously left to do something, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, she couldn't be around him all the time. Still, it was hard to not worry, as her constant presence had been something of a comforting thing for him. He was about to take another bite of the wheat squares when the phone in the kitchen began to ring.
Who could it be this early in the morning? Probably just a telemarketer or something...
He sighed as he set his spoon down and walked a few feet to the reciever, picking it up slowly.
"...Hello?" he said unenthusiastically into the phone. On the other side of the line, he heard a panicked, worried voice he identified instantly as Misato's.
"Shinji, get down to the NERV branch hospital right away! It's about Rei..." If Shinji had seen himself at that moment, he would have thought he was looking at a ghost.
"W-wait, what about Rei! What happened!"
"I'll tell you when you get here-- just hurry up!"
Shinji managed to arrive at the hospital within 15 minutes, since Providence had allowed him to hail a cab and they were normally impossible to catch. After hurriedly overpaying the driver, he ran to the reception desk for information, but Misato was already standing there waiting for him.
"There you are!" she said with a bit of impatience, even though it would have taken him twice as long on the train. She quickly headed off toward one of the elevators, Shinji needing no one to tell him to follow her. Once they were inside, she pressed the button for the 4th floor and waited for the mechanical doors to slide shut. Once they started moving, Shinji decided it was time to start getting answers.
"Misato? What happened?" The older woman let out an exasperated sigh, more from the ordeal than from his question.
"...I'm not sure myself, Shinji. What we do know is that about an hour or so ago, we detected a Blue pattern for approximately 0.023 seconds inside NERV Headquarters."
Shinji stared at his superior officer in shock, but she continued, unaware of his reaction.
"We managed to trace it to the Cages, but when we got there, the only thing we found was Rei and Kaworu lying unconscious in front of Unit-02."
The elevator let out a ping to singnal its arrival at the chosen destination. Once the doors were open, Misato and her ward rushed down the available hallway.
"Wait, why was Rei there? And what was Kaworu doing at NERV! How could an Angel get inside without anyone realizing--"
"I DON'T KNOW, SHINJI!" His guardian bellowed in frustration. When she saw the frightened look on Shinji's face, though, she calmed slightly. "...Sorry, Shinji...I'm just..." --she let out another sigh--"...I'm just confused about this whole thing. It's all a great big mess, just like before..." Shinji looked at her with growing comprehension.
"A...are you saying that...whatever happened at NERV... was what happened at the hospital with Asuka?" He didn't see his guardian glare angrily into the distance as an image of Kaworu came to her mind.
"Yes...I think that's definitely what it is."
Within minutes, they came to their destination, Room 420 in the Intensive Care ward. It was one of the many rooms big enough for two people, and there Kaworu and Rei lay. Shinji barely gave the boy at the opposite end of the room a second glance before turning his attention entirely to the pale girl lying on the bed before him.
"...Rei?" He hadn't really expected her to answer, but the silence that his voice was met with did nothing to comfort him. He walked closer to the bed, as if an awareness of his presence would help her wake up.
"When we found her, it looked like she was having some sort of attack. We tried to treat her, but none of the muscle relaxants or sedatives worked."
"Wait, so is she--" Shinji began with fear. Misato, thankfully gave him a small smile and shook her head.
"Don't worry. She stabilized right after we got her here, so she's going to be fine."
The boy breathed a sigh of relief, then quietly put his hand on Rei's, squeezing it as though afraid of dropping her. The relative peace in the room was shattered as the sound of shoes running on tile filled the outside hallway, followed by a shock of firey red hair bursting through the door.
"Asuka...?" Misato said in surprise at the girl's sudden arrival.
"Where is he?" she sounded nearly hysterical from the degree of fear and worry evident in her voice. Before the Major could answer, Asuka looked into the other end of the cubicle and saw the object of her anxiety lying comatose in the other hospital bed. "Kaworu!" She ran to him without a second thought, then took a bewildered look at him before turning around angrily at Misato. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?"
"Asuka, keep your voice down!" Misato whispered dangerously at her. Almost against her own will, Asuka sighed and relaxed her clenched fists, but her eyes remained as full of frustration as before. When she saw that her other subordinate was calm, Misato related to Asuka what she knew about the incident in the Cage. By the time she had finished, any fury the redhead may have exhibited on her features was replaced by concerned astonishment. Shinji barely paid the conversation any mind, as the whole of his attention was focused on Rei.
"...So it was an Angel?" Misato nodded gravely in response. After a few minutes of silence, a look of determined wrath had fallen on her features. "Well, then we have to get back to NERV and find it!"
"It's not that simple, Asuka. I told you, it wasn't even there for a full second-- we were lucky that we even caught it at all--"
"Then we'll look HARDER, damnit! If you think I'm going to let that thing get away after what it did to Kaworu..." Misato flinched slightly. She didn't want to tell Asuka that Kaworu was the most likely suspect in her book, but as close as she was to him she was only putting herself in danger. She had kept meaning to tell the half-German her suspicions, but as often as she had been gone she'd had no opportunity. Besides, a blow like that might just make her unable to pilot again...
"Asuka...I know that you want to protect your friend, but there's not much we can do for them at this point. Besides," the violet-haired woman said sadly, "...As for the Angel, we don't even know where we would look."
"...I can think of a good starting point," the redhead said angrily as she acknowledged Rei for the first time since she had been here. Shinji caught the vicious glance at Rei as well as the implication behind it, and before he knew what he was doing he walked up toAsuka until they were toe-to-toe.
"Asuka...You can't mean Rei!"
"Why not?" She said coldly, her anger now focused on Shinji. "...I wouldn't put anything past that freak. Or do you love her too much to think she would EVER do something like that?" Shinji's face was soon screwed up in anger as he stared down Asuka.
"What about YOU? We barely know Kaworu but you seem to think he's absolutely perfect-- If anyone's making a mistake with misplaced trust here, it's you!"
"The only mistake I made was to think that I could ever be friends with that pathetic, soulless inhuman bitc--"
A fist came out of nowhere and made contact with Asuka's face, knocking her back into the wall. It was only after a few minutes that both she and Shinji realized that it was his fist. For a few minutes Misato could only stare, speechless, while Asuka gave Shinji a wide-eyed look of utter disbelief and the boy himself gaped at himself, wondering what force on earth could have made him angry enough to hit Asuka. Fortunately, the girl wasn't hurt that badly, she simply looked as though the effect of being hit by Shinji had damaged her more than the actual punch. A doctor, who had heard the commotion, walked up in the hallway and looked at the trio curiously.
"Excuse me-- are you the ones responsible for all the noise?"
"Uhh..." Misato began nervously, "We're sorry--"
"If you cannot maintain the silence necessary for the patients here, I will have to ask you and the other visitors to leave, ma'am."
"Oh, don't worry. We were just leaving," the Major said apologetically. The doctor gave them all a stern look before walking off, leaving behind only the uncomfortable silence. Misato sighed as she grabbed both children by the arm and headed toward the elevator. Both of them clearly wanted to stay with their bedridden friends, but knew that now was not the time to make such requests. "We're going back to NERV. We might be able to plan something out there."
Neither Shinji nor Asuka spoke. The simply allowed Misato to lead them away.
"...I know you two are worried. But neither of you can afford to mistrust each other--or Rei--right now."
Night fell over the hospital as Kaworu awoke from sleep. He raised his hand to his face as he lifted himself up and got out of bed.
So this is how it feels...to be 'human'.
He knew that there were cameras in this room, but at this point it made no difference. He quickly found his clothes, folded in the bedside storage cabinet, and slipped them on. He quietly approached the door, opening it slightly to make sure there was no one who could see him. When the coast was clear, he snuck out of the room and the hospital, making his way straight to NERV.
...And now to wait for Commander Ikari.
The hospital security guard stared at the wall of monitors before him, not really watching any particular one and merely glancing back and forth between them. He took a sip of his scalding hot coffee as he fought to keep his eyes open. It was nearly 11:00, and there were still two more hours until the shift was over.
I must have been a fool to agree to the graveyard shift.
Suddenly, he noticed something odd on one of the screens. It was the camera for Room 420, but there was no one there.
Well, at least now something's happening.
He looked at all the videofeeds for the fourth floor and looked for 420's two occupants. It didn't take long before he'd found one. He turned on the intercom for the front desk and spoke clearly into it.
"Attention security, be advised: patient Rei Ayanami, Room 420, is wandering the fourth floor halls. Current location is at intersection of hallways 4-C and 4-D."
It didn't take security long to locate the young girl. She was walking slowly with her head hung, her turquoise bangs making her face impossible to see clearly. Her footsteps were somewhat uneven, as though she was struggling to walk.
"Rei Ayanami?" The girl stopped at the sound of her name, but did not move as the guards approached her.
"...Your physician hasn't cleared you to leave your room." Rei said nothing in response, she only continued to stare at the floor as though it were the most interesting thing she had ever seen. One of the guards looked at her curiously.
Wasn't this patient declared 'comatose?'
He ignored the thought as he got closer and put a hand firmly on her shoulder. "Here, we'll escort you back."
But Rei refused to budge. It was then that the guard suddenly noticed something odd about the girl.
She was glowing. He wasn't sure if she had been shimmering like that before or if he had just now noticed it, but he pulled his hand cautiously away nontheless.
"Patient Ayanami?"
Slowly, Rei lifted her head to reveal a smile that had spread across her face. But her smile lacked any sort of warmth, only reflecting a cold mockery of joviality. A smile much like Kaworu's.
It was the last thing the two men saw as the hall was suddenly filled with a blinding flash of light and heat. Within moments, all that remained of the medical building was a shining crucifix of light that pierced the darkness for miles beyond, alerting the world to the arrival of the 12th Angel.