Part 3: Shopping

Asuka was walking through what looked like an old shopping complex in Tokyo-3. She was still feeling a little numb right now. Other humans would be emerging from the LCL Sea in the next few days or they might have already swam out of the sea and just been wondering around like her and Shinji for the last few weeks wondering what had happened to the world. But, that was a thought that kept her thinking about the facts she had on hand at this moment from Shinji and the rest of the Angels. One was the fact, that the current group of Humanoid-Angels had been all copies of Kaworu and Rei from the SEELE and NERV LCL dummy plug tanks.

The most shocking thing was that Shinji had told her that Rei was a clone of his mother and that she had been spiced with Angel DNA to make her compatible with the EVA technology they had found in the Antarctic. It kind of made her think about what type of humans would be coming out of the LCL Sea. Would they be like her and Shinji, or something else altogether?

But, given that the Angel's now wanted peace with Humanity, added to that, the entire Human Instrumentality project which had quite literally sucked both sides into the bloody primordial soup. No matter, both sides had gotten thoroughly screwed like Dutch prostitutes during tourist season.

Which raised the question in the back of Asuka's mind, there had to be those like herself and Shinji who had the skill to get out of that mess and remake their bodies unharmed. But, having an Army of Rei's and Kaworu's to deal with was getting to be a bit much to cope with at once, even if they did act differently from one another. At least whatever they were, they had taken the time to take Wonder Child's duplicate bodies and changed them, so that there was some difference between them. What she hated the most was they hadn't changed those god damned eyes and hair. That was just creepy. Sheba, Yui, and Steve of the Angels moved with her. Steve was a Kaworu who was a bit more muscular in appearance and a little taller than his counterparts. Sheba was well miss, I have curves and breasts, was the one who had groveled to her to help heal Rei. Rounding out the group was Little Yui, the youngest of the Rei clones who was with them. Something about that little girl just made her wanted to care for the child and think about the good times she had with her mother when she was at that age.

Those last few moments spent with her Mother's soul during the instrumentality had made her feel compassion and know it wasn't her fault. It was the mental break her mother had undergone during Asuka short lived youth, which had so traumatized her as a child and it made her shudder at the impact of the events. She didn't want to leave Asuka, but, she had no choice due to her illness and she had thought of the little doll as being her daughter. Now seeing how Wonder Child had been used by the Commander to achieve his obsessed goals, the least Asuka could do was to help Rei get better in more ways than one. Rei Ikari.

A real name change for the First Child. What a strange world they were now living in as she looked at the three Angels she was with.

Sheba would need to have a pair of pants after this trip after Asuka saw her slip while they were walking. There were things that no one in a modern society should see unless you are a doctor, married, or worked for one of the nature channels, but back to the task at hand.

Their first mission was to find a pharmacy and get the medicine that Rei needed to cure her illness. Asuka remembered what a menstrual cramp was like and it hurt like hell, given that this was Rei's first. Well, she didn't want Rei to suffer anymore than she already had. But since Sheba begged in the buff, having a Rei as your personal servant wasn't a bad thing to get out of the deal.

"Hey, Clothes," Sheba said as she walked into a storefront window that had been broken by the Third-Impact. Asuka walked over to see that it was just an American Jeans' store. Plain clothing, nothing she would like to wear for fashion sense, but, given it was getting colder over the last few nights; the clothes would serve to keep them warm.

"Sheba, grab some long warm clothes, make sure that they fit you and the rest of us will get a mix from the guys and gals sections of the store," Asuka said as she left the curvy Rei Clone to her tasks.

"Okay, given from the storefront map we passed when we came in, the pharmacy should be around the corner of the center of the mall," Asuka said as she walked forward with a salvaged hand crank flashlight. Before she could take a few more steps, she heard a scream. It took a moment for her mind to register that it was Sheba's. Quickly, Asuka ran back to the storefront where she had left Sheba.

Sheba in her short existence as a human knew what fear felt like, to have a sheet of metal shoved next to your throat screamed that you were being attacked by someone who wanted you dead.

"Blood, you smell of the Blood Sea." The female's voice said as she held the blade against Sheba's neck in semi-broken Japanese.

"Yes, I came from the Blood Sea," Sheba said feeling her heart race hard. It was like when she first started to breathe air for the first time, her body ached in pure pain as she slowly started to learn that she had a human form and it followed different rules than her original Angel body. She even remembered the way she had to urinate from the built up liquid pressure in her bladder that first day in this form.

"Are you human?" The voice asked as heartbeats started to pound louder.

"No, I am an Angel." That was when the Blade pushed harder into Sheba's neck.

"Did you wipe out the humans?" The girl's voice asked as she started to curse some in English.

"No," Sheba said calmly. "A group of humans made the blood sea dissolved the AT fields of every person and every Angel on the planet," Sheba said trying to buy some time and to explain what she knew had happened to the Angels and the humans. "Me and others... Humans and Angels... different... unique AT fields."

"AT Fields, what is that?" The girl asked in English.

"AT Fields, barriers that allow life to form, individuality. You have one, I have one."

"Sheba," Asuka said as she came into the store and shined her light around. "You okay?" Then Asuka's light hit them.

The girl holding Sheba was about a meter and a half tall with strong brown olive skin and facial features that screamed that she was either Middle Eastern or East Indian in decent.

The girl had long black hair and brown eyes. Given how messy her hair was and her smell, she probably hadn't bathed in a few days, but, the jeans and other clothing stated that she had raided this store for clothes to fight off the growing cold.

"I won't hurt you," Asuka said looking at the girl as she slowly turned her light up to her face to show that she wasn't a threat.

"This girl says she is an Angel. If that true, then are you an Angel sent to destroy me?" The girl was definitely working with some serious broken Japanese and adrenaline.

"Yes, she is an Angel, and no, I am not an Angel. I am a freaking human, you ingrate. Now, let Sheba go and we can talk about..." Asuka's words were cut off the girl's sudden movements of anger and fear. Fight or flight had taken over and this wasn't good.

"I WOKE UP IN A SEA OF BLOOD, NAKED." The girl said as she stared to shake. "All I remember is peace, the part of me felt... no, knew it was fake..." There was a pause. Maybe it was the broken thought, but, Asuka thought that this girl was just running on enough broken Japanese to make sense and give commands.

"You broke through the instrumentality, sought yourself, sought to feel the pain of choice. To live free," Sheba said shaking in some fear, but, making absolute sense to Asuka. The girl with the knife was a completely other story.

"Gendo Ikari, a human, created the Instrumentality, the Blood Sea." Sheba started to take hard deep breaths as she blurted out words and concepts as fast as she could form them in her mouth. "Humans and Angels got pulled into it."

"Then..." The dark haired girl started to look at the Angel's face from the side.

"I chose to come back; I wanted to live, to feel the real..." Sheba said as she started to cry. "No being part of the singularity, to feel pain, to feel alive." The last words sunk into the girl's mind. "To have a choice of whom I was and what I wanted to be."

"I felt the same." The girl said as she slowly pulled the knife away from Sheba's neck and moved slowly away. "Wanting to live. To know that this life was real, not a made up fake fantasy."

"Then, even humans desire the choice of live," Sheba said as she slowly offered her hand out as she turned to face her on time hostage taker. "I am called Sheba."

"Navi," The girl said back as she pulled her dark hair back. "I am from America, but, my mother is from Germany and my father is from India," she said looking at Asuka.

"Okay, listen, Let Sheba go, okay? She might look like a cheesecake slut, but, right now, have you eaten yet?" Asuka asked looking at the girl as she pulled away and let down her guard as German took over from just broken Japanese.

"I haven't eaten in a day or so, but, I would be glad to have a meal, as long it isn't meat," Navi said looking at Asuka. German would fill the rest of the conversation as they spoke on level terms.

"Well, we have a lot of vegetables, but, if you can tolerate the smell of fish, well, you come back to our campsite." Asuka said as Sheba moved over by her.

"Do you think it is wise to bring her back? We do have to find medicine for Rei," Sheba said as she moved to hide behind Asuka.

"Listen, I am not leaving anyone," Asuka said putting her foot down before swapping back to her native German. "Listen, how far have you scouted out this place out? We have a friend who is really sick and need some medicine," Asuka said striking a compromise on her terms.

"There is a pharmacy down the way," Navi said looking at the folks around Asuka. "It is pretty much intact but you will need a guide of medicines to help your friend out. I dug one out of the bookstore a ways down, before I hit the sporting goods store." She motioned to her knife holster firmly positioned in her belt.

"Okay," Asuka said to the group. "Navi, you come with me," she said in German. "Sheba," Asuka said to the semi nude Angel before her. "Get some clothes, shoes and put on some undergarments for goodness sake. I don't care if it is a thong; put something on to cover your naked ass." With that, Sheba gave her a slow nod and went over to a few of the clothes racks and started to look for a pair of sweats that could fit her. Promptly putting a pair on Sheba flashed the group with her behind as they rounded her ample buttocks.

"Man," Navi said as she put her knife into its holster on her waist. "What did you do to become queen bitch to the Angels" Asuka turned to look at her.

"Nothing, just something that you get when you are an EVA pilot that has kicked Angel ass repeated times." With that Navi looked at Asuka like she had grown another head.

"You're kidding me right?" Navi asked as Asuka looked at her wondering what she had been true.

"No, Second Child chosen by the Marduke report with the psychology to pilot an EVA," Asuka said with pride. "I still have the uniform and what is left of my EVA from the big battle."

"Okay, well listen, I'll take you down to the pharmacy and you tell me about you being an EVA pilot," Navi said as off in the corner, Sheba stripped naked by a mirror and started to don some of the garments she had found.

Sheba had known most of her life as an Angel, but, being in this Lillum form was a unique experience for her, Sheba thought as she looked at her nude body. She hadn't taken much thought when she had scavenged the remains of the Lillum/Angel hybrid female bodies in the LCL tank. Many had taken time to reconstruct the bodies back to their original format like what Kaworu had done with the male Hybrids of the Angels that SEELE had created. But, seeing that there were fragments floating around of fat and skin tissues, she gathered them up to wrap around the anatomy of the body she had chosen. Seeing the size of her Mammaries and the curve of her buttocks, screamed that she had gone a little overboard in building her body. Well, considering that she was using a physical reference, the Humans had broadcast through their visual art medium called by the Americans as Anime.

Feeling the flesh of her body starting to chill, she realized that she would need to reduce the size of her Mammaries and slim her form down before she was like the Lillum/Angel Rei. Picking up a garment called a bra she found that could at least fit her breasts into; she hitched it up so that her breasts were squeezed in there, so that they wouldn't move around as much when she moved. Then, she shifted to the undergarments and slipped them on so that they covered the lower half of her body. As she slipped on a pair of long blue denim pants and donned a halter-top with a thermal shirt and finally a jacket, she went looking for a pair of shoes and stocking.

After a moment, she felt an AT field form in the distance. It felt like fear. It was Rei and she was screaming. Sliding on the nearest pair of shoes that would fit the bottom of her feet, she started sprinting off to where Asuka was at leaving the untied shoe laces straggle in her wake as she ran.

Rei was hurt, but, this type of pain fell in between two areas: the first was her being choked to death by one of the NERV Scientists she had called Old Hag, and the second was her activating the self-destruct against one of the Angels and dying in the explosion. This was leaning towards the latter.

"Rei, stay with me," Shinji said as he moved over to her and held her hand while with the other, he stroked her head to keep her calm and let her know that he was there for her. Whatever had happened to her had left Shinji running on instinct to help her out. But, right now, being there for her had calmed her down as she slowly opened her eyes. She turned to look at him and started to cry. She was scared but knew that he would be there to protect her.

"Shinji, Am I, me?" Rei's words hung in the air like a fear in her wake.

"Rei, you are you," Shinji said as he pulled the blanket up over her nude body to help keep her warm from the increasing cold of the night. "If you mean I know that you are a clone, I do. I don't know what it was like every time you came back, but, I get the feeling that you wanted to have your death final. But, not being able to pass on after you died must have been a living hell for you every day you existed here. I know that my father was a jerk. Hell, you are practically my sister and what he did to you was inexcusable on any level." Rei bit her lip at those words as she adjusted her head to look up at Shinji.

"Shinji, you see me as a sister?" Rei asked being a little scared and comforted by Shinji's words.

"Yeah, I think that was why I feel like I need to look out for you, baby sister." Rei grinned at this and for a moment, her pain went away.

"Then you don't see me as a Doll, like Asuka does?" Rei asked aloud. Shinji looked at her in shock for a moment, then with compassion as he remembered Asuka's harsh words towards Rei on many occasions.

"Rei, my Father my have used you as his personal plaything, but, I see you as a person. I see the compassion in your eyes. I know that you were distant, but, that was from the damn Dummy Plug tank. I mean, being the only of your kind that had any self-awareness, being human must have scared the crap out of you. But, I want to help you, you are not alone. I will help you connect with this world and let you find your place in it, Rei." There was a small grin of happiness that showed on Rei's face as she lay back on the ground, looked up at the sky, and wondered about her existence of being a person.

"Domo arigato (Thank you), Shinji," Rei said as she road through the pain of her body. "Shinji," Rei spoke up again as she rolled onto her side. "If my apartment is intact and undamaged, I want you to bring me your father's glasses." Shinji looked at her with concern.

"Why?" Shinji said with concern.

"Because I want to break them," Rei said as she looked at Shinji as she closed her eyes to catch some sleep. She needed to break the chains to her past and rebuild her life on her own terms. Shinji would be there for her through thick and thin helping her through the rough spots ahead.

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