Chapter 25: A link to the past. A hope for the future.
The outfits chosen by each main cast for comic-con day was designed to reflect their personas. Madoka is another universe full of mentally unstable kids forced to fight tooth and nail everyday to survive without so much as a thank you from the people they save.
Shinji = Madoka: Both of them have practically no self-esteem. Both are selfless yet unwilling to take action to the extent that their selflessness damages their friends rather than helping anyone.
Both want to please everyone yet end up please no one because of how little they are able to do.
Despite this, they are the only people in their respective universes that everyone likes to an extent since they are the only ones among their group that can be described as anywhere close to "nice and kind". And because of this, they serve as a uniting figure that is the only thing holding their group of friends together, as well as encouraging everyone else to be better even if they cannot do much themselves.
Rei = Homura: Was once a nihilist who wanted the world's destruction. With Shinji/Madoka's help they slowly found purpose and reason to try and save the world instead.
Homura even ended up becoming the most reasonable of the bunch after Madoka and everyone else went off the deep end.
Mari= Mami: Once an antisocial introvert, who became more brash and confident after the timely intervention of a good, good friend in Shinji/Madoka. She appears far more sane and confident than the rest of the cast but deep down hides her own tragic past.
Ritsuko = Kyoko: Aside from Madoka and later Homura after Madoka went off the deep end, Kyoko was the most sensible member of the cast and the only one who tried to take Homura's advice seriously.
Both are also tomboys with a crush on another female member of the cast.
Maya = Sayaka: Self-explanatory. Two kind and fun-loving tomboys who easily fall into despair.
Asuka = Hitomi: For the longest time, both characters served as little more than a hinderance to the main characters because of selfishness and the refusal to simply admit they had problems so that they could be dealt with. Asuka refused to admit she had still not gotten over the loss of her mother and Hitomi refused to admit she was incredibly lonely and that the loneliness was consuming her inside out.
Both however had the potential to become good and helpful people if they became less needy and confessed their problems so that they could be helped by their friends. Though in Hitomi's case, it was Madoka and the other's fault for refusing to open up to her as well while in Asuka's case, it was more her own fault.
"Shinji?"
"Yes, Asuka" replied the boy in question in his normal voice, knowing when to be serious. He was sitting in the front seat, riding shotgun next to Mari while Asuka sat in the backseat next to Rei who was looking at her with a bizarrely friendly expression, seemingly completely ignorant to how she had been almost as badly mistreated by the red-haired German over the years as Shinji.
"Thank you. For everything you've done for me over the years. For being so nice to me even when I was so mean to you. For cooking my meals and being the only one to sit at my bedside when I wasn't well. I know I didn't say it before, but I just want you to know that it all meant a lot to me."
"I was just trying to be nice. It's nothing really." Shinji bashfully replied, still not used to this kind of compliment from his roommate.
Each word sounded like music to his ears. Receiving compliments from Mari and Rei felt great, but to actually receive validation from the roommate who had until today shown him nothing but scorn despite his efforts, he was not sure he could take so much positivity.
"No Shinji. I mean it. Stop not taking credit for your accomplishments. That's another thing your going to have to promise me if we're going to be friends from now on. You've done absolutely amazing things and its time you start accepting the fact that you are an amazing person."
"Well. I'll try…" It would take a while for him to drop the negative self-image he'd spent his entire life building after being made the lead scapegoat by everyone he was forced to be in constant contact with.
But for the sake of maintaining his and Asuka's finally improving relationship, he was prepared to risk all.
And if it meant that he could see himself in a better light while making these commitments, so much the better. "I'm glad you appreciate my efforts. Asuka. I would do anything for you."
"Now that's more like it. That's my teammate."
"And Asuka… I'd like you to promise me something now, if you don't mind." Slowly but surely, not being called an idiot or being punched in the face was granting Shinji more courage and willpower than he had before. It was time he voiced his first request for her for a change. For her sake as much as his.
"Anything, Shinji."
"Don't keep your problems to yourself, Asuka. If you have something that upsets you or hurts you or makes you feel like life's not worth living anymore then bring it to us. We're your friends Asuka. And we care about you. We'll help you get through it, no matter how bad it seems. It's alright. It's not a weakness to ask for help."
"Admission is the first step to recovery." Mari helpfully pitched in as she kept her eyes fixed intently on the road as another explosion sounded in the distance.
Asuka grinned wistfully, with a little hint of playful humiliation. "Well in my case. Denial was. But it won't be any longer."
"That's good" continued Mari as their car passed under a dark tunnel filled with neon lights. "Because, I have a suggestion that I know will help all of us."
"What is it?" asked Rei, finally putting in her first word in this conversation.
"It's a place built not long ago to help EVA pilots like us in particular to cope with the stresses of our difficult lives." Mari explained. "It was built and founded by wealthy humanitarians with the intent of improving the declining quality of piloting that NERV has began to see a drop in, as well as in response to the increased awareness some members of the public have begun to develop for how tough life has been on us. It's a very effective sounding program, and because we are pilots, it won't cost us a yen."
"I mean, what does it do?" Rei rephrased, with affected interest.
"It's a service called counsellors corner. It provides 24-hour therapy with a licensed therapist for us to share all our problems with. To be quite honest, I should have mentioned it long ago."
"It sounds good." Shinji happily exclaimed.
"I don't need a shrink. I'm perfectly fine." Retorted Asuka defiantly.
"You are clearly not fine, Asuka." Shinji firmly replied with concern. "And neither am I. Neither is Rei or Mari after all we've been through. This is something we should have done a long time ago, Asuka. And you already promised that you would start being more open with your problems. Keeping them hidden isn't going to do you, or any of us any good. This service will help you. It will help us."
"I'm not going" insisted the reformed but not tamed redhead.
"Do it as a favour for us, for your friends. We are friends now, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well Asuka. This is what friends do for each other. Please. This is for your own good as much as ours."
Asuka scowled as she sat for a few moments while the car made its way out of the tunnel so that NERV's headquarters were now in sight. Her childhood trauma involving her parents had given her a very pessimistic view on any kind of doctor and therapist.
But as that other idiot Kaworu had put it, the past was done.
And as crazy and ridiculous as Mari's mannerisms sometimes seemed, her eyes did contain a kind of cleverness that even Asuka had no choice but to admire, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
And if the others thought this was a good idea, then as their friend she really had no choice in the matter. Asuka did not declare her friendships lightly but when she did, she stuck by them steadfastly.
"Fine. I'll do it."
"Great." Mari answered as she drove the car down to an underground parking lot next to NERV's main building. "After this battle is over. I'll take us there. I know where it is, and it's walk in. No need for appointments."
"Sounds like a plan." Shinji responded as the car stopped in a vacant area and the four pilots got out.
This would be just one more incentive he had for winning this battle.
He now had a wife, friends and a warm and welcoming home to return to. And now he would finally get therapy for his traumas along with his friends. He needed to win. He needed to win by a landslide. He needed to win so hard that the Angels would wish they had never come.
They raced out of the underground passage and through the main doors as the ground shook beneath their feet. But for once in his life, Shinji Ikari was not afraid.
He looked bravely at his fellow pilots, now his friends and they looked at him.
"We have a secret weapon, Angels." He whispered as they were let through by security and they ran for the briefing room with Mari taking point. "It's called friendship."
As corny as that sounded, he knew it just had to be said.
The last thing he had the chance to ask Mari as they stood in the elevator going down to where they would board their EVA's was:
"How do you know about this?"
Mari grinned. She was glad she had a chance to tell her fellow pilots what she was going to tell them now.
"Dr Akagi told me about it. In fact, a lot of what I know, doctor Akagi told me. She has a lot of the answers you might want, and if you ask her nicely, I'm sure she'd be happy to answer any questions you have."
Mari tilted her head slightly in satisfaction.
"She isn't quite as loyal to Gendo as you all might think. Go to her. She knows a lot of things that even I don't know."
Shinji, Rei and Asuka all cracked a smile as the lift doors opened and they entered the underground room they would be briefed briefly about their mission inside. They were all one step closer to finding the answers they so badly craved now.
…
Gendo Ikari was seething with unadulterated fury as he arrived in Tokyo-3's airport to learn from the security guard that no Shinji Ikari nor Rei Ayanami could be found anywhere within the complex.
It was here where the madness festering in his mind since the day he lost his wife, broke loose and he came upon a completely crazed and insipid conclusion which would make even a lobotomised cyborg with no brain shake its head.
"Shinji always said that if he had an opportunity to go wherever he wanted, he would go to new York because it was the city of liberty in the world." He reasoned to himself. "And Rei's been casting some extremely suggestive gestures towards my cowardly son as of late, almost as if, she cares for his wellbeing."
His fragmented mind immediately jumped upon this train of thought without further consideration. It tried at the last moment to rethink but the attractive image of three extremely sexy young women one of whom blew him a kiss and another who's hair flips put the two Akagi's meagre charms to shame, confounded him utterly.
As far as he was concerned, that Mami Tomoe woman he had spoken to could be nothing less than one hundred percent truthful.
"Shinji and Rei fled the country" he guessed whereupon he begun to tear at his rapidly reddening face as smoke billowed out of his ears. It explained everything. From how he had found a few notes less in his money vault, to how much happier his Rei seemed to become around his son.
He grabbed the security guard who had checked the cameras for him, by the sleeve.
"Get me and a group of my guards, on a private supersonic jet to New York city, this instant. Or I will kill you." he ordered in a soft but dangerous snake like hiss whereupon the young and skinny man quickly nodded and leapt to obey without question.
He turned to his guards.
"You are going to accompany me to New York city and we are going to find my son and my Rei."
"Sir yes sir" was the unanimous reply as they touched their brows in salute, each of them secretly wishing they could just open fire and wipe the bastard of a commander out this instant.
As he walked in the direction of the VIP boarding area, he begun to tremble all over as sweat covered his body and his eyes went cold.
Without Rei's soul, he couldn't resurrect his wife Yui. And if Shinji got the word of NERV's atrocities out to the world, then his life of luxury and excess was finished.
Of course he didn't expect anyone to believe a pipsqueak as insignificant and useless as his silly little runt of a son, but he couldn't take chances.
As much as he hated to admit it, his son was his son. And he was NERV's chief. And a nasty tradition that had lasted till the modern day was that the chieftain's child, the king's prince and the president's offspring were generally taken very seriously in their opinions, being seen often as the second in command without a spoken rule.
The terrible image of being forced to eat cold instant noodles on a kerb on the sidewalk while cold rain soaked him to the bone, without his wife Yui made him gnash his teeth like an animal.
The idea of his workers being given better paycheques and moving into better apartments with proper running water and electricity made his blood boil.
Even the mental picture of countless beggars in rags being let out of the slave pens with their chains removed and cheering, caused the hairs on his neck to stand on end as his blood vessels bulged.
Gendo Ikari was suffering a hypertension attack.
The slave trade ended once because of human weakness and he was not about to have it end again on his watch. He would not see the totalitarianism he had dedicated his life to building through intimidating others, give way to democracy. He would be the dictator of the world till the end. The only dictator.
"You can run, Rei and Shinji." He sneered to himself as he came within view of the large and luxurious jet that would take him and his guards halfway around the world. "You can run but you can't hide. Not from me."
…
"And so, the Angels must be stopped at any cost before further damage is caused to the city." Ritsuko Akagi dressed in the purple pink hair and school uniform of Kyoko along with her signature labcoat, quickly explained after a very short yet still very redundant explanation on how much damage the terrifying monsters had already caused and how close they were now to entering the city interior.
The area closest to the Angels had been successfully evacuated but if they got further, there would be little escape.
"We can do this." Crowed Shinji with more enthusiasm than he usually exhibited in a year of his life.
"We'll teach those monsters a lesson of what happens when they pick the wrong city to attack."
Ritsuko smiled. It warmed her heart to see the mistreated introverted son of the most cruel and evil man on Earth act so positively and come out of his shell.
"Not bad, soldier. Not bad. Let's see you put those words into action. Pilots. To your EVA's." barked Ritsuko proudly, quite enjoying her temporary role as the acting Major for the day.
NERV figured that with Gendo gone, Maya fired and Misato missing, who better than Misato's closest friend to take her place. A rational and not drunk scientist who was also about to kick the habit of smoking for good too. A completely clear mind to read the battlefield like the pages of a book.
"Yes ma'am." The pilots all replied, equally proud to be led by someone of her calibre and respectability. A hard-working woman to take the place of the lazy bum they had all in their own ways gotten a bit tired off.
"Good luck" Ritsuko called after them as they ran for their respective hangars with no more concern despite the evident danger of their situation, than if they were late for lunch.
"Please don't die" she prayed to herself when they had all left the room. It was fun to act as a drill instructor when it was safe, but the idea that one of the pilots who were no more than young teenagers might never come back alive, was horrifying to say the least.
They were all so innocent. Even Asuka and especially Rei, who Ritsuko had spent a lot of her life mistreating in the same way Asuka and Misato had mishandled Shinji.
Oh Rei.
Shinji felt no fear as he ran down the dark corridor, into the large room where EVA unit 1, his EVA was kept. He now knew or at least hoped that when he fought in that giant "robot", his mum would be somewhere in there watching over him, guiding him. Mother and son were saving the world in unison. He was spending quality time with his good parent, even if that time was spent fighting dangerous battles against world destroying monsters.
"Shinji get in the f*cking robot" he heard the combined voices of everyone he knew shout to him once again. But this time, these words encouraged him onward rather than holding him back. They were his friends now, or at least the other EVA pilots were.
"Oh, I will." He replied, with a level of confidence that would have made an Asuka on her better days impressed as he slipped on his plug suit like a fashion icon slipped on their costume. "I'll get in that robot and kick massive ass. You all owe me your lives for the amazing things I've done and am about to do."
And as he climbed into the cabin of the purple and green EVA that was EVA unit 1 and the connectors linked his body and nerves with it, a frail and melodious voice sounded quietly.
It spoke not to his ears but to his very soul. He knew no-one else could hear it, but he knew it was real. Somehow, he and he alone could understand the short but no less powerful message being radiated by EVA unit 1 to him now as it finished loading up its final functions.
"My dear son." It said in what he knew to be a woman's voice despite its blurriness. "I'm so proud of you. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me the most but know that I'm here and always watching. Do your best, Shinji. Son. I know you can do it."
And before Shinji could bring himself to reply, the telepathic message faded and EVA unit 1 was silent once more.
"Son…" he muttered in wistful nostalgia as he guided his EVA out of the hangar and into the city.
He smiled sadly, but gratefully.
"Now that's a name I have not heard in a long time. A long time."
Mari told the truth. His mum was not gone completely after all. And now he had another reason he had to ensure the world survived and he along with it.
"For my wife, my friends and the wonderful world I live in" he cried as he finally made it outside to see the three Angels already beginning to devastate the city.
"First I'll save the world and my friends. Then I'll come back for you, mum. Hang in there a little longer."
…
Asuka was unusually tense as she went through the usual procedures, she must have been through a thousand times by now.
She was about to go on a high-risk mission where the chances of coming back alive made the average lottery player look lucky in comparison.
Three Angels at once. Three times the usual risk, and usually for the red-haired daredevil, three times the usual fun.
Piloting was nothing new for her. She had controlled her EVA in all the tests when it was first built.
In school back in Germany when she played dodgeball, she was always first to rush to the front of her side of the court willing to risk all in the hopes of improving her chances of a hit. She never hung back in pelting as many balls at the opposition as she could with full force, knowing full well that a single poorly made throw would result in her elimination from the game.
She left herself completely unguarded as she did this, not at all fearing the pain that taking a dodgeball to herself could and would leave her with.
It made her the player to knock the most opponents off the court, and the player always first to be knocked out herself. She had a score of bruises to prove this point if she had to.
It was much the same tactic she used in NERV. Risk was nothing new to her.
No risk, no reward as she liked to put it when lecturing Shinji and Rei about their more conservative approach to every battle, preferring to stay in the back row at least until the Angels were nearly upon them.
Yet today, something was different.
Today she felt honestly afraid of the prospect of such a tough fight against a superior opponent. Usually she, Shinji and Rei would be working together to tackle just one Angel but now there were three.
For once she was glad that Mari's able performance had given her a line in Toyko-3's newspaper which usually didn't care squat about a bunch of children told to risk their lives for the amusement of others. She was grateful for such expertise and timely intervention of another pilot in their team, who had indeed made her time in NERV easier since she was now given less missions and additional support in the missions she was forced to undertake.
Yesterday she would have been cursing the news that she, Shinji and Rei could expect less missions and an easier time fighting the Angels with the addition of Mari, the fourth child to their team.
Today she was relishing it.
She needed to win this battle. But she needed to come back alive as well.
She still had to demonstrate to Shinji and Rei that she really had changed and didn't just say she had.
And they still had to have that amazing hangout Kaworu said they should when their differences had finally been put aside.
Yesterday she would have been calling that grey haired Russian insane.
Today she was calling him, absolutely brilliant.
Her EVA begun to beep as it came to life with its pilot linked to it.
Lights came on and to try and allay her fears as a few more beeps sounded, Asuka began to sing the childhood song her mother once used to put her to sleep when she still cared for her daughter, and life was still simple and straightforward.
"When I was just a little girl. I asked my mother, what will I be?" She sang in an unusually gentle and soothing voice not typical of a gritty jock as she slowly guided her now fully booted up EVA for the exit that would take her above ground to join Shinji and the other pilots.
"Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to me." It was this line she stopped at as a tiny tear rolled down her cheeks through the visor of her red plug suit. It had been so long since her mother sang to her anymore that she had forgotten the rest.
She was sure that it was an incredibly lovely song, but she couldn't even remember all the lyrics with how young she had been when she had been all but abandoned by her own mother to fend for herself.
If only she could finish her childhood bedtime song. Then she might stop shaking so intensely and be able to actually focus on the battle enough to have the faintest hope of winning it. She tried her hardest but a faint cold fear which almost froze up the heat of life had penetrated the marrow of her bones and she felt her blood freezing like ice. She didn't even remember what her mother had said to her when she still loved her like a daughter. And she was about to enter into a death trap she might very well die in. How unfair.
"Que sera, sera." A warm and motherly voice echoed through her very soul as her teeth clattered so hard she felt they might break. "Whatever will be, will be."
"Mother?" Asuka managed to ask despite the intense shock at such a beautiful, tender sound which to her sounded like nothing less than a little slice of heaven.
"The future's not ours to see." the sweet singing of EVA unit 2 slowly continued, showing without showing that it had acknowledged the girl's acknowledgement of its true identity.
"Que sera, sera" Asuka and her mother trapped in the EVA finished the song in perfect unison, the first words they had shared since a time too long to count. Like two members of a choir singing their last line together to signify the ending of a performance as the curtain fell.
Asuka waited a few more seconds as yet another tear trickled out of her other eye, the one that had not yet cried. Only this time, the tear trail it left made her feel pleasant and warm inside.
This was a tear of joy. Joy at finally realizing that her accomplishments she had worked tirelessly all her life for, had not gone unnoticed after all.
Joy that in the years she felt like the whole world was against her, she had never really been alone after all.
This EVA cabin was now the most angelic place on Earth for her now. And though she knew she couldn't stay here forever, she would be sure to give each and every moment she had in it, the proper respect it deserved. Her trembling stopped and colour returned to her as the heat of life came back into her as the sound of crumbling rubble sounded in the distance. She had found her inner peace.
"What will be, will be." Asuka ended the song alone with. She knew it wasn't a line originally present in the lullaby that put the young her to sleep, but it felt right to add it here now that she was older and had seen what she had seen. And as a final reassurance to herself that whether the ensuing battle went well for her or not, now she had no regrets. Sometimes things in life just happened, and so long as you could say you did the very best you could to yourself, it wasn't your fault.
The ugly face of the largest Angel turned to face her with a low and savage growl.
"La, la, la, la, la" She simply replied with still in song as she gripped the controls more tightly as she waited for Shinji ,Rei and Mari's EVA's to come within view, neither afraid nor angry in the final seconds before the start of the battle, knowing what she knew now.
…
As Rei took in her first sights of the carnage which made her gag from within her white plug suit in her aptly named EVA unit zero, she suddenly felt gripped by an unexplained feeling of desperation and rapidly fading hope.
As this sensation, a twisted mixture of unbearable and euphoric strengthened itself, Rei felt an oddly familiar presence in the air around her.
A presence too alien to be treated as an acquaintance and yet too familiar to be a complete stranger.
As her books would have put it, a Déjà vu.
Then the whispering began. It was too quiet for Rei to truly discern what was being said, but she could tell that the speaker was crying as they spoke as if every word was draining what little soul and spirit of the speaker remained.
There it was again. This time it was just loud enough that Rei could only just make out what was being said but only just.
"S, sorry. Rei. I'm S, sorry." The invisible presence pleaded as Rei felt a terrible pain in her neck. This moment was triggering a repressed memory from one of her past lives in a previous body.
"I didn't mean, I didn't mean to hurt you. I truly regret what I did to you Rei. I do. Really I do. Gendo, wasn't even worth it."
And then the pain in Rei's neck subsided as she felt a pain in her head instead.
She nearly screamed as the memory of a brown haired scientist with the same eyes and outfit as Dr Akagi strangling a blue haired girl remorselessly to death came back to her, now as clear as a whistle.
It was ironically not anger that Rei felt as the rest of the memory slowly begun to return to her despite the brutal way her previous body had been murdered, but pity.
Pity she could now feel with her extended range of emotions, made possible only through Shinji's repeated kindness toward her and his ability to forgive his violent roommate Asuka when Rei herself could not.
"I didn't mean to call you an old hag. I'm sorry too. Dr Akagi." Rei apologized in return. If Shinji could find it in his heart to forgive, then she could at least try. This was also part of being fully human. "I was, I was very angry from the commander's insults that day and I let my emotions (which unfortunately were very basic back then) get the better of me. Please forgive me too, Dr Akagi. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
Rei referred not to the current blonde-haired woman now running NERV's remaining scientific division after it had converted itself to an arms corporation from a peaceful laboratory.
Rather she referred to the by now almost forgotten Naoko Akagi who not even Gendo brought up in conversation very much anymore despite being the inventor of most of NERV's digital firewalls that even her daughter couldn't get through, and being the scientist who originally created the Rei clones one of which would eventually become the one Rei with a soul that Shinji would come to love and care for in spite of her artificiality.
"We're not replaceable Doctor. Neither of us are." Rei continued when she heard nothing but quiet weeping. "We're both human. And that makes us both unique and special in our own ways."
A massive roar rocked the city as the metallic noise of metal clanging against concrete begun to grow louder with every step EVA unit 0 took towards the battlefield.
Asuka, Shinji and Mari would be here any second now. Good.
"Please, I beg of you. Protect my daughter Ritsuko." The soul of the dead scientist wept, its voice getting weaker and less coherent with each syllable. "She's still a child even if she has grown up. Please, do what I as her mother could never do for her. She needs you, Rei."
"Tell…her…I…love…her" the final words spoken in a clipped, robotic static as EVA unit 0 let out a few weak beeps.
"I will, doctor." Rei promised as she got herself into position, patiently waiting for the moment when all of her fellow pilots were poised and ready for a strike.
"And when all this is over, I'll come back to save you so you can be with her again and tell her that yourself."
Part of being human was being thankful. And despite her bitterness, Rei was very grateful to the previous doctor Akagi for creating her into existence.
She was the closest thing Rei had to a parent; all things considered.
Rei was just glad to know that there were no hard feelings between them now. She couldn't have linked with her EVA if there were.
She paused for a moment as she pulled one of her EVA's metallic fists back for its first punch.
"And doctor. Please stop thinking of me as Yui Ikari. I'm not Yui. I'm Rei. Rei Ayanami. Just because we share the same genes, doesn't make us the same people. And you of all people should know that."
…
Mari's Evangelion joined the other Evangelions from an angle that put her behind the three Angels while they stood in front of them.
She had once again switched back to the green and white plug-suit she got the day she started in NERV after it had been successfully repaired.
Pink really wasn't her colour. It was simply the only thing available because of how cheap NERV was even to its pilots.
She dashed her EVA forward and gave the largest of the Angel's a kick to its shin.
And then it was on.
Kind of ironic that she was a Briton while Shinji and Rei were Japs and Asuka was a German.
It was like World War 2 except backwards with everyone working together. World peace 3?
Was the world finally going to learn from its mistakes of the past so that it resolved them instead of repeating them?
The second EVA vs Angel fight is on.
I was always of the mind that the soul inside EVA unit 0 has to be Naoko Akagi.
It makes perfect sense when you consider that NERV puts everyone who commits suicide into an EVA because of short supply of souls. (I mean who would willingly sacrifice themselves to be trapped in what amounts to a purgatory where their soul has to suffer eternal torment unable to even completely die)
And you consider that just as Yui and Kyoko (Asuka's mother) have loved ones who are the only ones who can pilot their EVA (Only Shinji can pilot Unit 1 and only Asuka can pilot Unit 2) this makes even more sense.
My theory is that only those with a very strong and loving connection to someone can have their souls placed into an EVA and still be kept alive.
Naoko Akagi still has her daughter, Ritsuko so it matches with how Shinji and Asuka's mum's love their children and wanted to stay with them forever.
And it stands to reason that after a few decades spent reflecting over her actions, she would actually regret what she did to Rei and allow Rei to pilot her EVA, as penance.
But until then, thank you all so much for reading and reviewing.
Please leave a review or favourite if you want to support me and hopefully I'll see you guys in the next chapter or another story.
Thanks for being so awesome.