Rebuild of Third Genesis
Six
In the beginning, she dreamed.
Visions of other places, other people appeared and vanished in her mind's eye. Flickering fragments of another life, another existence. A older man and a baby sun, caring for them with all her heart. A child telling a woman she was old, then a sudden darkness. Standing on a platform with a sad young man, promising to protect him. Bits of lives she didn't understand, flickers of knowledge she couldn't put any context to.
She didn't know exactly what it was, that woke her up from her deep sleep. Something had disturbed her, some unidentified sound, or maybe a familiar presence nearby. Her eyes gradually opened up, first observing her surroundings, the tank full of clear liquid that she floated in, then looking outward to those who were gathered outside.
A tall, blonde haired woman dressed in a lab coat stood beside a shorter, boyish looking dark haired girl in gray military garb. Not too far away from them, a dark haired woman in a bright red jacket stood alone watching other two. Finally, a much younger woman looked over at the tank itself, standing out with her shocking mane of bright red hair. Her two eyes met the girl's one, and she saw the redhead's eye widen in surprise.
"She's awake," the redhead blurted out.
The blonde turned, looking first at the redhead then at her before trailing of in surprise, "Asuka, she can't be..."
'Asuka,' she thought, feeling some deep satisfaction rising within her, at being able to name the oddly familiar red haired girl at last. Another flash of memory, Asuka asking to be friends... 'Will she be my friend?' she wondered.
The dark haired older woman grabbed at the blonde's arm and asked, "Ritsuko, will she be all right in there?"
"She should be, Misato," Ritsuko looked at her thoughtfully, "it's the same LCL fluid we used in the entry plugs to protect the pilots."
It was strange, hearing those three names spoken aloud. She recognized them all, somehow, even though she knew that she had never seen them before today. She looked over at the smaller girl, trying to place her as well. There was a name on the tip of her tongue, but it slipped out of her mental grasp like water.
"Maya," Ritsuko turned to the shorter girl, "Go grab a uniform in her size."
"Right, Sempai," and Maya bolted.
"You aren't seriously considering letting her out of there," a frowning Misato said, sounding quite irritable. "We have no idea what Gendo intended for her to be used for..."
The girl in the tube was a little surprised to hear Asuka speak up for her angrily, "Well, we can't just leave her in there."
"She's right," Ritsuko said, sounding quite gentle. She put her hands in her pockets, "I've done some pretty questionable things over the years, Misato. I think leaving a conscious kid in one of those tubes would be one of them..."
She saw Misato looking over at her, and she met the dark haired woman's gaze calmly as she breathed the slightly chilly LCL. Misato was the first one to turn away, sighing as she admitted, "I guess you're right."
"All right, start pumping the fluid out," Ritsuko ordered the other scientists, "and then replace it with a standard oxygen blend."
She felt a sudden moment of panic, as her environment around her began to change, but she quelled it forcefully. She tasted the air, smelling the tang of medicine and ozone in it, the scent of a science lab at work. She breathed it in deeply, and it strangely felt like home.
In only a few moments she stood dry in the middle of the sealed tank. Ritsuko herself then stepped forward, grasping the catches set on the side of the tank. "Opening," she unsnapped them loudly one at a time, "now."
The blue haired girl stepped carefully out of the tank into the outside world, taking a breath of the air out there. She took another step but stumbled, suddenly falling, when strong arms grasped her, preventing any injury. 'Asuka,' she thought dazedly, looking up into the eye not covered by the black eye-patch, a change from the flash of images.
"Who are you?" Asuka asked her softly.
She paused in thought, and the name came to her much easier than any of the other ones had. "Rei," she murmured softly, "Rei Ayanami."
Maya arrived a few moments later, carrying another NERV uniform. "Here you go," she handed the pile of clothes to her.
"Thank you," Rei found herself saying softly before she began to pull the uniform on over her naked body. It felt a little strange, she noticed, because she was expecting it to be more skin-tight. 'Plug suit' she thought, unsure of what that name referred to.
"Rei," Misato asked her quietly, "what do you remember?"
Sitting on a bench Rei looked up to meet her dark eyes, knowing that the question was very important to the woman. "Fragmented pieces," she said softly. At Misato's confused look Rei quietly explained, "I know who you and the others are, I know that I'm in Tokyo-3, but I don't know how or why I know that. The knowledge is just... there."
Misato nodded thoughtfully, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Rei responded to her automatically.
Rei looked around her, noticing that Ritsuko was leaning over a console, one that looked like it was tied into the medical monitoring devices. She and several other scientists were talking together quite excitably, but Rei could only hear fragments of their conversation: "the bio-scans read human norms..." "if she has any of ADAM's DNA, it's recessive.." "far less anemic than was previously recorded..." "certainly looks much more healthy.."
A figure settled down beside her, and Rei turned to look at Asuka. The redhead looked at her thoughtfully, "You really don't remember anything?"
Rei shook her head, "Yes and no. I have... images of you, in my head. But they don't seem to make any sense to me."
"I see," Asuka said to her softly, "Well, I know that there are some things that I'd love to forget." She puffed out a sigh, "This time, maybe we can be friends."
'This time?' Rei thought curiously.
In an oddly old-fashioned looking gesture Asuka offered her hand to be shaken as she said, "My name is Asuka Langley."
Rei shook it gently, "I know." A smile, "My name is Rei Ayanami."
"I know," Asuka smiled slightly, a bit of humor in her eyes.
A brown haired scientist bustled over to them, roughly grabbing at Rei's arm and saying, "We need to get a blood sample."
Rei didn't even see Asuka move, she was up out of her seat that fast. She grabbed his wrist and squeezed it hard, making him quickly release Rei's arm with a gasp of pain. Angrily she growled at him, "You could at least ask her politely."
Rei put her hand gently on Asuka's, "It's all right, he's just doing his job." With obvious reluctance, Asuka let him go.
"If so, he's doing it badly," Asuka glared, and Rei realized that her protecting Rei might be from her own issues.
'Did the doctors dio something to her?' Rei wondered, feeling a odd pang of concern.
The man rubbed his sore wrist, keeping an careful eye on Asuka even as he asked Rei, "Could I please get a blood sample?" Rei simply pushed up her shirt sleeve, revealing the bare arm underneath. He got his sample, then all but fled.
Rei wasn't quite sure what to say as she looked over at Asuka, so she smiled at her and simply said, "Thank you very much."
Asuka's cheeks went a bit red, "You're welcome."
Only a few moments later Asuka was called away, and Rei watched her go with a curious expression on her face. Asuka, Misato, and Ritsuko were talking over to the side, keeping their voices down so that they couldn't be overheard.
Finally Misato separated from the others, walking over to Rei silently. "We were just talking about you," she smiled, "when I realized we should probably ask you, first."
"Ask me about what?" Rei asked Misato quietly. She wasn't used to being asked things, given options for her to choose from.
"The doctors want tpo observe you for a day or two," Misato said, "but after that I was wondering if you would like to stay in my apartment, along with me and Asuka?"
Rei hesitated, looking over to gaze at Asuka. The redhead smiled just slightly, and Rei looked back at Misato to say, "Yes, I'd like to."
To be continued...
Notes: This Rei is NOT a blank slate, unlike the first version I wrote about. She had fragmentary memories of all three Reis, though where it came from I'll cover later. Or may not explain. Ha!
