FanFiction Loaf Slice 2
By Brian Funk

Copyrights the property of their respective owners.

Slice Title: "Infinitus Rei Officina"

"Pattern Blue!"
"Lock it down, where is it?"
"Its in the center of Tokyo three!"
"Visual?"
Standing serene in his customary white shirt and black pants, Karowu smiled, and the defenses began to shatter around him.
"What the hell?"
"Source confirmed, its him..." dread at the sight of the white haired threat was plain to hear.
"Prepare to Launch Evangelion's, keep him busy until then with the defense grid!" Misato took immediate charge of the situation.
"Sir, which Eva? Unit 02 refuses to sync with the pilot, and Unit 01 is in stasis."
Gendo's voice broke in, preventing Misato from asking the question.
"Unit 00."
"But sir, Unit 00 is barely even operational, it could nev-"
"It must suffice until Unit 01 can be activated, so long as it keeps the angel busy until that time, its damage is irrelevant." turning back with anger written upon her face, Misato moved on.
"Where is Rei?"
"In the cage."
"Rei, we need you to hold the Angel off until Shinji can bring out Unit 01."
Without saying a word, she climbed into the plug. A moment passed, and Unit 00 shuddered, then collapsed.
"What?" it was Akagi who explained, despair on in her voice.
"Its damaged past the Heinfleck limit... It can not synchronize with a pilot."
"Send up unit 02 as a distraction." The commander's desperate order was conveyed with his usual detachment, but Kozo could detect the desperation in him. Then something unexpected happened.
"No, I will stop it." No one had bothered to close the Line to the Cage holding Unit 00, and Rei's voice came through clearly. All eyes turned to the monitor.
"Theres no time to get Unit 02's software reset!" as Rei walked towards the exit to Unit 00's bay, the words reached her.
"Unit 02 is not required." most faces on the bridge simply conveyed confusion. Ikari's mask broke for a moment, his hands came down to the desk, and he gaped in naked terror at her words.
"Second AT Field detected, Location... Eva 00 cage and 2 Meters from first signature?" today it seems, was a day filled with redefining the limits of what is possible.

In Tokyo three central park, Rei flashed into existence before Tabris. To his credit, Tabris maintained the same superior smug smile that had defined his face since he had appeared. "And what are you doing here shadow of Lilith? Where is your vaunted Evangelion, your cute little doll of Adam." "Mankind has spent its time, forging blades on a hill of swords, never once retreating, nor aware of gain, never once victorious. They withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for ones arrival, waiting for the arrival of the weapon, with which they could slay Fate." Rei simply stepped forward, to the point were either could have reached out and laid their hand on each others shoulder She blinked, smiled, and spoke in Latin for the second time in her existence. In the control room, the Magi translated into Japanese in real time, compiling clips of Rei so that it seemed she was speaking both languages at once.

"Ego sum Permaneo meus versus,
Meus valde viscus quod animus es ornamentum,
Ego partum super millies milies,
Ego nex,
Tamen non vita,
Ego haud alius causa ut futurus,
Etiamnunc iam Ego meus causa.
Sic ut Ego precor, Infinitus Rei Officina"

I am the Last in my line,
My very flesh and soul are weapons,
I have been created over a thousand times,
I knew death,
But not life,
I had no other reason to exist,
Yet now I have my own reason.
So as I pray, "Infinite Rei Works"

As the last words left her mouth, Reality seemed to shatter like glass.

"What? A Sea of Dirac?" Tabris's confused shout echoed about an undefined orange lit world with a Replica of the Design in the office of commander Ikari the color of blood upon the ground as its only feature. Scattered about randomly were Rei's by the thousands, standing, sitting, kneeling, or slumped as if dead no two dressed quite the same.
"In this place beyond limits," (The scattered Rei Clones abruptly animate, turn to face Tabris and speak as one) "I can use all of myself to fight you."

"Rei and the Angel have fallen into a Dirac Sea!"
"What is generating it?" Misato's voice was frantic, the memory of the 12th Angel filling her mind.
"The magi provisionally state that the inverted AT Field is from... Central Dogma, section 36?" Maya's shocked and confused voice betrayed her lack of knowledge
"The Storage lab?" 'The Reiquarium? But...' Retsuko could not believe it, it was something they had tried to accomplish for years and now Rei was doing it, on her own.
"Then I have seen enough... Major, you have command." and with those words Gendo Ikari walked from the command deck. His Sensei following.

Inside the bubble of unreality, Tabris was starting to actually sweat, manifesting his AT Field through yet another Rei as it threw itself at him, He started feeling an emotion he could not place, for it had never come to him before. The field of Rei corpses, some simply dismembered parts, others reduced to a fine mist, surrounding him was now nearly up to his knees. 'For every one I destroy, another comes out of this damn place, and I cant use my AT Field to block them.' The Angel had tried this initially, only surviving the experience because when they grabbed him his shirt had torn. They had passed through his AT Field without even slowing down measurably He had tried neutralizing their AT Fields with his own, to reduce them back to LCL. They had none. The simple impossibility of that had shaken him more then he would ever admit, because even the Angels needed AT Fields to exist. The edges of the world were undefined, reality falling away into a fog of quantum uncertainty as he tried to gauge the size of the place. His S2 Engine was by necessity much more compact then his brethren, and extremely high performance. But what it gained in size and power, it paid for with endurance. The fact his body temperature had risen at all was an indication that it was starting to wear itself down. 'They aren't even that much of a threat, they have no weapons, no strength beyond a normal Lilin, I should be able to fight any number of them and win!' Another of the Rei's, this one in a Lab coat to large for it, chimed in moments before he flayed the flesh from its bones. "Any number, but Infinity is a concept, not a number." 'the worst part of this is, I keep killing them, and they keep coming, smiling!'

In the office of The Supreme Commander of NERV:
"You are quitting?" It was as valid a question as any of the others flying through his mind as Kozo watched his pupil collapse into the chair behind his desk.
"Yes, if she did this, it can only mean she has another reason to exist, one more compelling then my purpose for her. We have only one more Viable spare, and she will use it to return. There is no other way out of where Rei has gone."
"Why?"
"You can not return from a place that does not, never has, never will and never could exist."
"But what about Yui?"
"She is lost to us now, our... my vision of Third Impact is impossible now."
"Then why are you still here?"
"Because, if she truly has a reason to exist now, I can not abandon her the way Yui did me. I am human, much as it pains me to admit it."

Steam rising from his head, cloths little more then rags and blood seeping from the torn portions of his scalp and flesh, Tabris cut a pathetic figure. They had never stopped, and it felt like an eternity had passed. 'How can they keep throwing themselves into certain death like this? All things have the will to live.' "Yes, but the will can be consciously overridden, if you just have a cause." Slipping on the corpse of the swimsuit clad Rei his At Field had torn in half that had spoken, Tabris continued to move forward, the wake of bloody parts behind him a mute testament. Then he stopped, and stared incredulously at the sight before him. 'Impossible, This is were I started.' "This is the truth, the reality behind the graven image you saw outside." While the attacks continued, a Single Rei stood out, dressed what could only be described as Unit 00's armor. "What are you?" "I told you, I am the last in the line." seeing the Angel was confused, so much so that it did not notice the attacks had stopped, a veritable ocean of Rei's gathering around him, Rei responded. "Evangelion is called the Ultimate Decisive Battle Weapon, it would more accurately be named the Penultimate Decisive Battle Weapon." Tabris looked down from her eyes, and asked contempt dripping from its countenance "And the final weapon, the weapon that could slay fate is you?" "No." The Angel looked up "The weapon able to slay fate, is humanity." The Angels scream could not be heard over the sounds of the mass of Rei's crashing unto him.