NGE: Another Way

Chapter 3

Return

"She's awake, Shinji."

Those were the last words I thought I'd hear for a long time, but there they were.

This made me remember visiting Rei for the first time after she was found unconscious. This was after days of treatment and the day after Dad and I finally decided to put our differences aside.

"Rei, everything's going to be fine. Our days here are over. To add to this, my father actually wants me to be his son! As soon as you wake up, we'll be out of here and you'll be coming with us. You can finally have a family."

I realized Asuka was standing at the door behind me.

"You seem happy."

"I told you what's happening, Asuka."

"I know, baka. I didn't know you'd be so overwhelmingly positive about it. Especially toward the man who abandoned you, I just hope you don't do something stupid," she explained.

I ignored her last statement, trusting myself enough not to let her take advantage of me.

I guess she noticed, because she changed the subject.

"So, how is Wondergirl?" she asked.

"I don't know, neither do the doctors. She might recover fast or take a long time."

"As much as I despise her, not even I would put her in this situation."

"I just can't wait to start again when she wakes up."

Asuka gave a saddened look at me, but I was too absorbed in my situation that I didn't notice her.

I sat up, leaning against the wall behind my bed.

"T-that's impossible! S-she can't be, not in the condition I saw her yesterday!" I spat out, too shocked to believe anything.

"I received a call from the hospital. I'm not the one who said it," Father responded.

"I-I don't know what to do or say, this is..." I said, trailing off.

Misato gave a small smile.

"It's obvious, Shinji. We're going to go see her. She's probably waiting for us, mainly you," she explained, taking my hand.

I wondered at the time how Misato got so good at cheering me up, considering she used to use seduction.

"I'll get ready, I guess," I said, breaking a second of silence.

I thought I was never going to be ready, as everything was finally catching up to me, and it was coming fast.

I stood, letting my Father and my old guardian leave the room.

Why now, Rei? Now that I've finally broken down over this, you come back now? You've tortured me and worried me sick.

Don't get me wrong here, I was happy she was back. It's just that she came at a hard time.

I slipped on some jeans and an old t-shirt that Rei saw once, just in case she needed to reboot her brain for her memories.

I opened my door and put on my shoes, as Misato and Father waited at the front door.

I sighed.

Don't screw this up, Shinji."Let's go," I ordered, wanting to get there as fast as possible.

I opened the door and let my guardians out. Misato and I followed Father, as he planned to take his car instead of the train.

Father pulled out of his parking spot, so we could get in.

I sat in the back and Misato sat in the passenger seat.

Misato turned back and looked a little concerned.

"Are you alright? Are you afraid Rei changed or something?" she asked.

"I'm just nervous because of yesterday. Anyway, change would be good for her. We aren't EVA Pilots who follow orders anymore, so I hope she has a bit more emotion and freedom," I explained.

"I'm sure she does, Shinji, considering she refused my last order to her. She knew what I was doing was wrong but she unknowingly went the wrong way as well," Father responded.

There was silence, as I'm sure we were all remembering what happened that day. It was almost the end of the world after all.

"I'm sure you knew she began to change leading up to that day," I commented, breaking the silence.

"I knew she began to develop more human-like tendancies when you and Miss Soryu interacted with her more and more frequently. I never paid attention to it, only because I was blinded by my goal," Father said.

"I wasn't around her often either. I just thought she was quiet," Misato added.

I remembered (and cringed) the day I first went to her apartment and compared it to the last time I saw her awake. Of course, she was still Rei, but the last time I saw her, she seemed more mysterious and moody than usual.

I'm surprised my father never took some measures when Rei began to change, almost leading to end of the world.

I had to ask myself: Who is Rei Ayanami?

She might not remember anything. She may be a completely different person. You may not be able to communicate with her properly.

I was, of course, scared, though all I wanted was to see Rei alive and well at least one more time.

"We're here," I heard Father say, as I felt the car stop.

Here we go.

I sighed, as I opened the door closest to me and got out. I walked around the car to Misato's door, where I opened and closed her door as she got out.

"Thank you, Shinji," she said.

I didn't reply, saying nothing on our way in.

Father approached the receptionist I talked only a day earlier.

I didn't listen to their brief conversation, as I looked down at the ground. Misato patted my back softly.

"Everything will be alright, Shinji," she whispered, almost startling me and snapping me out of my trance.

I heard the receptionist excuse my father, and the three of us headed toward the hall of elevators. As we walked down this hall, I began have thinking that the hall looked familiar from before we had mlved to Tokyo 2, but I couldn't think of it right away.

We waited for a couple minutes for the elevator, which felt like hours, almost days.

My heart was beginning to beat faster as I heard the elevator getting closer and closer.

I heard the ding, meaning that the elevator arrived, and my legs moved me into the machine.

There was silence for the umpteenth time, as the anxiety finally finished setting in.

I looked around the elevator to distract myself so many times, but I couldn't do it.

Once more, seconds began to feel like hours. I felt the elevator shake as it moved, as if it were taunting me and making it seem like we were going to fall.

I hadn't felt that way since I was 15. Not even every embarrassing or troubling moment in high school could match the speed of my heartbeat and lack of focus at that moment.

I looked at Misato and Father.

Why aren't they talking? Why aren't they being social enough to kill this mood? I feel isolated and no one's doing anything. How am I going to cop-

My thought process stopped as I heard the ding of the elevator, and felt everything stop.

I sighed.

"Everything will be alright, Shinji," I heard Misato say again.

"I sure hope so," I spat out, stepping out of the elevator.

There it was, the door to her hospital room, and behind it, was someone I almost lost hope for.

My father stepped forward, knocked, and opened it.

Instantly, she appeared, sitting up.

I didn't exactly hear her, but I saw her lips move.

"Ikari," she said.

As I began to walk in, her gaze didn't leave me.

"I-it's been a while, Rei," I managed to say, sitting in the same seat as the day prior.

Father and Misato stood silent near the entrance, knowing what I had needed to do.

"Yes, it has," she responded.

"Do you know anything that happened in between when you were last awake and now?" I asked.

She looked away, blinked, and her gaze was directed at me once more.

"We aren't in Tokyo-3 anymore, Lilith and I are no longer the same, and I dreamt of you just before waking up," she answered.

She looked toward the entrance, at Misato and Father.

"Major Katsuragi, Commander Ikari," she called, with a dark tone when she said my father's name.

"NERV disbanded after Shinji and Asuka defeated SEELE's EVAs. Please, call me Misato. It's good to see you again, Rei," Misato said, reintroducing herself to the ex-First Child.

Father walked up to Rei's bed.

"Rei, I'm sorry for what I have done. Call me whatever, but I just want to make it known that I regret everything I did to you. I've changed since then." he apologized.

Rei didn't respond, but turned to me.

"Are you with your father now? Did he say the same to you? Did he mean it?" Rei asked, in an almost assertive way.

"Yes. I live with him, and you will be coming home with us when you leave here," I answered.

She turned back to Father.

"I accept your apology," Rei told him.

"Thank you," he said.

Father turned to me.

"I'm going to go talk to the doctor and see when we can get Rei out of here," he explained.

"Okay. I'll stay here with Rei," I replied.

As he left, I saw Misato give me a concerned look from the corner of my eye.

"I'll come with you, Gendo," she said, quickly leaving.

She shut the door behind her, leaving Rei and I alone.

There was a short silence, as I looked down at the floor. I looked back up, and saw Rei looking at me.

"How long have I been comatose, Ikari?" she asked.

"You've been in the same bed for four years. Another thing, call me Shinji. We aren't in a professional setting anymore," I responded.

"You look like you have changed," she pointed out.

"Only because I'm 19 now. You've changed more than I have," I replied, looking at her nearly anorexic frame and her other features. Her face seemed the most changed though, as it resembled my mother way more than when she was 14.

"I have not looked at my appearance," she stated.

"Do you feel different?" I asked.

"Yes. There is more weight on my head but I feel something else in my body that I haven't felt before."

"Possibly your frail limbs? Or is it emotionally?"

"I don't exactly know."

I looked around the room, and spotted a hand mirror in an open cabinet.

I handed it to Rei.

"Here."

She took it from me in a gentle manner, looking into it.

The first thing she noticed was her hair, grabbing her lock of it, which was now down her shoulder blades and almost touched her elbows.

After a few moments, her eyes widened.

"I look just like-" She said, stopping.

I sighed.

"My mother?" I asked.

She looked back at me in surprise.

"W-what?" She asked.

"I know what you are, Rei. I thought you'd know that I was told that you are my mother's clone."

"How did you find out? Ikari wouldn't have said anything. Did Lilith tell you?"

I'd never seen this kind of stress in Rei unless it was a life or death situation.

Lilith must've been the one talking to me in my dream.

"No, Lilith didn't tell me. I was told right after you died against the 16th Angel by Ritsuko after she was interrogated by SEELE. She killed the rest of your clones in the process, right in front me and Misato."

"I disliked her, but that may only be because of your father. I saw Ikari shoot her right in front of me."

"So that's how she disappeared."

"Yes."

Rei looked around the room for a second.

"I noticed Pilot So- I mean Asuka isn't with you. Might she be in Tokyo-3 or is she not here to visit me?" she asked.

"Asuka moved back to Germany after the disbandment of NERV. I wish you could have seen her after the day Third Impact almost happened. She seemed so remorseful and rarely snapped at me. But I did something to her and wrote to her about it. I haven't heard back since that day. It was hard," I explained.

"Was it that incident in the hospital?" she asked.

My eyes widened.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I saw many people's thoughts, including all of the people in the invasion, during my ascension into Lilith before everything went black. That incident was one of them."

"That must've been painful to see the NERV casualties' thoughts when we were under attack."

"I couldn't feel anything. I was basically nothing but a spectator."

This new side of Rei was something I didn't expect anytime soon, but it was all coming to her so quickly. Maybe the separation from Lilith made her more human.

There was a period of silence, before this happened.

"Why am I crying?" she asked, snapping me out of a trance. Tears rolled down her face.

I remained silent, not knowing what was happening.

I heard a sob, before everything was quiet again.

I finally opened my mouth.

"I should be the one crying here."

She looked at me.

"Why?"

"Well, you, who's technically my sister, just woke up from a four year coma. I thought I would lose you too. I'm sure I've lost Asuka and Misato usually never visits."

"Is that what you call loneliness?" she asked.

"Yes, Rei. I have Father, but I still feel alone."

"Oh."

Before that could go any further, a doctor came in.

"Rei, it's time for you to take a few tests. Shinji, your father is waiting outside," he said.

"Well, I have to go, Rei. I'll come by later," I stated, getting up and walking toward the door.

"Goodbye, brother," I heard Rei say behind me. This made me well up as I closed the door behind me.

A/N: This one took me a while to do! I hope it turned out okay. Sorry if it's a little short, but school started again so I've got less time to do this stuff. I'm trying to change Rei to give her a personality as she begins to develop emotions. Please R and R, thanks for reading and for the fast growth for the story!

Stay cool,

bakercomics