A/N:

Small Content Warning for a description of drowning.

So, uh, I want to apologize in advance, to everyone who expected my next fanfic to be more Owl House stuff. I don't have any excuses, beyond me just losing interest in them. It's happened for a lot of my fics. That Muppets fic, that PPG fic too…Both of those were intended to have further sequels, it's just I didn't see much of a reason.

But, that Owl House fic has hit a good amount of popularity. Almost 10,000 views across all platforms I published it on. That's absolutely huge. So I'm hoping, considering the boost in followers I got, that maybe this fic will find at least its own niche.

I have more ideas in mind for this series. In fact, if I ever continue, this is probably going to be part 2 or 3. It's just the idea I had burning a hole in my mind, and I didn't want to get relatively caught up in the weeds on going in chronological order.

Please follow my twitter, WA_Stokins for more updates on this fic.

Extremely special thanks to my beta readers: Jake Van Eyck, Gen Nuisance, & Rambllz.

CHAPTER 1 -

Do I get Prior Warning?

The night was cold, and the fog was dense enough that Rei Ayanami could barely make out anything clearly beyond a few inches in front of her nose. Low visibility wasn't helped by the lack of light - The only illumination being provided by the moon's beams, which were mostly being blocked by heavy clouds.

She didn't know where she was. But in the distance, there looked to be a quintet of… figures. She couldn't make out any details, they just looked like smudges in the distance.

Without many other options, she began cautiously approaching. As she stepped forward, a couple of clouds on the horizon parted ways - Moonbeams briefly illuminating one of the figures.

Gendo Ikari.

She froze, as her foot hit the ground.. His eyes seemed to be staring daggers, as she felt a chill run down her spine.

The fog began to clear and the clouds parted further, the quartet of other figures coming into focus.

Asuka Langley Soryu,

Shinji Ikari,

Kaworu Nagisa,

and Misato Katsuragi.

None of them spoke. None of them even seemed to move. They just…stared, still and silent like stone gargoyles. But the weight of their gaze was felt more than any words. Rei felt a great pressure on her, before the ground under her feet gave out. Being embraced by the endless red ocean.

She sank like an anchor. She tried to fight, to desperately swim back to the surface and resurface, but no matter how much her limbs flailed she only descended further into the depths. It was…pointless, she quickly gave up fighting. A torrent of water filled her lungs, as she closed her eyes. Accepting her inevitable fate.

Until, she felt an aggressive tug on her arm. She tried to open her eyes again, but her vision was blurred from the stinging water. Thusly, she wasn't able to make out who her rescuer was as they swiftly brought her back up to the surface.

As they emerged from the water, the ground seemed to rematerialize under her feet. Though, she immediately fell forward onto her knees, and began heaving. The water expelled from her lungs felt like hot lava as it came back up.

She felt a hand on her shoulder as she caught her breath. As soon as she had the strength, she turned her head back to see who her rescuer was…

Mari Illustrious Makinami..

Rei awoke from that dream drenched in sweat, her heart pounding through her chest. She'd never had one before. It felt so…vivid. So real. She could hardly believe this was just her subconscious' doing.

Her mind raced as she tried to decode it. She'd read many books that posited that dreams were essentially the brain's way of keeping busy. Cooking up novel situations to learn from them. But, other books posited that dreams were manifestations of subconscious desires.

This was the first dream she'd ever had, why was it now? Did the dream itself have any meaning at all? Was it important that Mari was the person who saved her? Her brain raced trying to make sense of it all. But…Unfortunately, just before she was able to formulate an answer, her train of thought was completely derailed by her morning alarm blaring.