Be warned this chapter has disturbing images of suicide and death, Along with Nudity.

Rated M for Mature.

Part 9: Questions

Rei looked at herself in the mirror. Along with the discoveries of the S2 organ producing AT Fields, she wanted to explore her human heritage. But, feelings kept eluding her. She grinned a few times in the mirror, but, no emotion came about. She felt as if she was missing a piece of herself, that was when Shinji came into the room.

"Rei, how're you doing?" Shinji asked as he walked into the room. Rei just keep her eyes on the mirror.

"I do not know," Rei said as she turned around to look at Shinji. The only few moments in her life she had ever experienced any happiness was either with Shinji after he saved her or during instrumentality, the only other time was with Kaworu. She felt, for lack of a better term, normal around him. It was probably the fact that they were both hybrids that led her to have some commonality. After a moment, she looked at Shinji suggesting she wanted something. "Pilot Ikari," Rei caught herself, "Shinji, I am unfamiliar with emotions. I have images of warmth and..." Rei took a moment to narrow down the word. "...attraction to Kaworu. I do not know what to do." Rei clearly looked worried. "I know about your feelings for Asuka, could you help me?" Rei requested, waiting a moment to understand the situation she had put into motion. Shinji just looked at her and blinked a few times.

"I don't know, I mean that Asuka can be a bit much, I mean, she is so forceful about things," Shinji said looking at Rei. "She wants me to know things I don't understand and she doesn't tell me what they are." Rei walked towards Shinji. Shinji wondered what Rei was doing until she reached out and touched him on the shoulder.

"It is the same way with Kaworu. He wishes me to show emotion, but, I do not have a reference to work with." Shinji looked at her.

"You do show emotion, Rei." Shinji said reaching out to her. "It's just that you don't show it much." Shinji bowed his head down to search his memories, then, he remembered about when he saw Rei actually happy. "Rei," Shinji said looking up at her. "Do you remember when we were prepping the EVA's and my father came by to speak with you about something?" Shinji started to backtrack his memories. "This was a few weeks before Asuka joined us, you sprinted down the EVA hatch to speak with my father about something, you looked very happy about something to me" Rei just shook her head as the incident was out of her frame of reference.

"I don't know of the event you speak of." Rei said frankly just the same way that she had said when Shinji entered her apartment for that first time and had found her naked.

"I wish that you could read my mind so that you could discover or at least remember that incident." Shinji sighed in defeat.

"Shinji, I know that in time you can remember details, but remembering one incident with the Eva's in the cages is much for me to remember," Rei said as she looked at Shinji. "Though, I do remember when you told me to smile." With that, Rei smiled at Shinji cheering him up for a moment as he grinned back at her gaining a moment of commonality between the two of them.

Kensuke saw the blond girl standing before them in an off pink salmon colored female plug suit that looked liked it was from the pattern Rei preferred. But, the jacket tied around her waist screamed that she was attempting to stay modest or at least had an issue with her body.

"Good day," the girl said to the group in fluent Japanese. "My name is Amanda; it is good to see you all in person." That was when another girl showed up in a red plug suit. For a moment, Hikari thought it was Asuka, but seeing the features being radically different from that of her half-German friend; however, the girl's features were still clearly European.

"So welcome! How many folks here speak English or at least broken English? I know enough to speak in it, but try to keep the swear words to a minimum." Amanda said as the girl came up to her and looked at the group. That was when she looked real hard at Tru and her brother. Before yelling out to the room she had come out of for someone name Spike to come out.

"Spike... your girlfriend is here!" She said as the entire group wondered what was going to happen next.

Tru was startled by the manner in which this female with red hair was behaving. It was as if it was of arrogance, but, also of compassion. However, when she heard the name Spike called out, she realized that there was another Angel like herself nearby. She hoped to see red eyes like her own. Maybe this person had the answers she so desired. That wasn't when a male with shire hair wearing a male blue plug site and a white chest panel came around the corner. She couldn't see his hair or his face but from the voice that was coming from hi it was Spike. Quickly, she sprinted in that direction into the shadows to meet her fellow Angel. She spread out her arms and embraced Spike while he as still in Shadow.

"I am so glad to meet a fellow Angel from home. I was worried that my brothers and I were the only Angels left," Tru said letting herself hear the heartbeat of Spike's heart.

"You are not the only one left. Hey, this is the first time I have ever been hugged on by a girl, especially one that happens to be Albino," Spike said in the human language English. With that, Spike held her as he slowly made a turn in a circle until they were both in the light. Tru felt safe until she looked up to see that Spike had blue eyes.

"Tru, I..." Spike's words after that were not heard. Tru was scared as she backed up against the wall in fear. A human had learned the Angel language and knew how to speak it. She was terrified. Would she and her brother die at the hands of this human?

"Please, spare me, I do not wish to die," Tru said in fear as she slowly slid down the wall and onto the floor. Slowly, Spike knelt down and started to speak to her.

"I won't hurt you. Listen, I don't care if you are an Angel or a human. We are people, people who have been through a lot of loss and pain. For all you know, I might just be an Angel who has taken on a human appearance." Spike reached out, cupped Tru's face with both hands and ran a thumb across one of her cheeks. "I won't tell if you don't tell." He grinned some and she felt the S2 organ inside of his body. She felt safe as she reached out and hugged him tight. "I don't know human languages. Will you teach me and my brother how to speak?" Tru asked holding on for dear life.

"Yes, I will. Um, I think the others are wondering why you were a little freaked out by me or that I may have given you bad news." Spike said helping her up. "So, play along, I'll translate the best I can some of the concepts you don't know, but, just don't violate any of the dietary laws, okay, my stomach is still a little sensitive from the past few days," Spike said as Tru started to lean on her and grinned a little.

"I understand, I vomited several times before I started to have a bleed between my legs," Tru said looking at him.

"That is a little too much information right now. How about later we can play catch up," Spike said as the girls wondered if they were about to kiss or start mating before them.

"So, what you are telling us is that we are inside of NERV Germany?" Hikari asked as she looked at the various screens around her.

"Yeah, I think that when the Third Impact happened, something or someone switched control of the NERV Japan Magi computers over to the other systems between here and the other NERV bases," Kensuke said as he watched as Tru started to mouth a few words here and there as she was learning Japanese and English at the same time in an attempt to learn to speak on her own terms.

"Yeah, but, I have a bad feeling that if Tokyo three is gone, that would mean that it would be the site of the Third Impact," Carline said as she looked at the group. Little did she know, that in another part of the compound, a new terror was forming up that would affect both the Lives of the Humans and of the Angels.

Maya was running through the abandoned hallways of NERV as fast as she could, naked. Her bare feet were aching as they hit the hard metal floors, but, she kept running through the pain being driving by adrenaline and pure fear.

All she remembered was being with Ritsuko Akagi and making love with her in her childhood bedroom and giggling like mad as their tangled limbs touched one another. But, being grabbed out of a tank of LCL and tossed into a semi dark room full of half-eaten naked bodies screamed at her that she had awakened to a nightmarish world. She could feel the LCL drying across her naked flesh and cringed more at the sensation it made as she absorbed the oxygen through her skin. She remembered seeing a dying boy of about fifteen lying naked on a fairly large pile of discarded bodies. His albino skin and blue hair screamed that he look a lot like Rei, but, it was his eyes begging her to kill him as the orange blood seeped out of his belly. She was too afraid to think. Maya looked down at the boy as memories flooded back to her. The JSDF was attacking NERV. There was shooting and... "Oh, God this is Third Impact!" Maya said as the boy begged to be set free through the pain seen in his eyes. Maya was scared as she felt a gnawed foot beside her leg. Picking up the foot, Maya closed her eyes, aimed the bone sticking out of the dismembered limb and aimed it at the boy's heart. The sickening sound of the leg bone going through the cartilage of the boy's ribcage would be a sound that she would never forget until the day she died. After hearing the gurgling, Maya slowly let go of the flesh she was holding and turned away never seeing the look of release on the boy's face as she walked towards the door or hatch she had been thrown through and started feeling for a release as the smell of Blood, LCL and rotting flesh flooded her senses. After several long moments, she had found a keypad and started typing in all the override codes she knew after noticing the German words were on the control panel that she was in NERV.

That was a long time ago. She felt the door break free and open up. From the various paths of blood and limbs, she was in some sort of nest and it was eating survivors. With that, Maya started running until she found a security door, opened it up and passed on through. With every ounce of fear behind her, she turned around and started typing in the override code for the door as she heard the low guttural sound of something coming her way. Pounding in codes like there was no tomorrow, she got the door to drop. Then with her elbow, she slammed it hard into the panel shorting it out so that it could not be opened.

With that, she ran as she decided to find a way to the surface before she became this thing's next meal. She took off in the direction of the command center. She knew she would need clothes and weapons to survive and there in the command center she could hold out until she found a path out of this Hell that used to be called NERV Germany. The last orders she was given was SHOOT OR DIE and she didn't want to die.

Asuka was helping little Yui take her bath. Something about the little girl made her feel safe. Though the thought of not having children was a concept that had stuck with her since her mother's suicide, seeing Yui's expression of joy made her happy. She now thought about maybe having one or two of her own. Shinji wasn't so bad, he needed a little work to make him social, but, given how he was putting on muscle, maybe in a few months or a few years, he might be worth doing the deed with. Yui reached up and touched the light scar that Asuka had on her face that ran from her left eye to behind her ear.

"Asuka, thanks for being her." Yui said grinning. Asuka just looked at the girl as she slowly worked the untangling oil into the child's hair.

"Yeah, I know, you are an Angel that I would like to keep," Asuka said as she bent over and kissed Yui on her forehead.

"Uh, ah," Yui said as she looked at the scar. "Asuka, how did you get this?" Asuka traced the light scar. It had been several weeks since her injuries had healed but the scar was a clear reminder of her battle with EVAs five thru thirteen.

"It was right before the Third Impact." Asuka said looking at Yui. "I was inside of my EVA trying to protect my friends," Asuka said as Yui looked at her as she hung on every word. "I fought like an unstoppable force of nature as I tore through those renegade Angel units." Asuka took on a vicious grin as she leaned over Yui. That was when the girl started to get scared. "I loved it!" That was when Yui started to shake.

"Please! Please don't hurt me! I didn't mean to say old hag! Please don't put your hands on my neck!" At that moment, Yui started to pee where she stood in the tub. Asuka realizing she had scared the child, stopped from her crazy face and looked at the terrified young girl in front of her.

"Yui, don't be scared, it's just me Asuka," Asuka said as gently as she could even going as far as to make a fake grin to help calm the girl down. Yui just fell backwards out of the basin Asuka had been using to bathe her in and started to scoot backwards in the spilt water until she found the corner of the room.

"I'm sorry about calling you OLD HAG." Yui called out as she started to shake in fear. Asuka moved over slowly to Yui with a towel in her hands to cover the young girl's trembling body.

"I know that you didn't mean it," Asuka said looking down into the twin crying crimson red eyes.

"Then you won't hurt me, Doctor Akagi," Yui said rubbing the tears from under her eyes. "Doctor Akagi? Wait, then you're not upset at me calling you..." then the fear returned.

"Wait." Asuka looked at Yui as she moved and sat down on the floor and looked at the young Angel. "You think that I am Doctor Akagi?" There was a small nod.

"I have a memory of a woman by that name though I have never met her." There was a small shiver down the girl's body. "I keep feeling her hands around my throat." Asuka winced at that image remembering how her mother died. That was when she heard something drop. As she turned, she saw Rei standing in the doorway in her open nightshirt. The look on her eyes screamed of sheer terror as she started to hyperventilate the same way that Yui had earlier.