End of the Future, Part 20

Looking Up. Looking Down.

Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I am doing wrong (to correct it).

Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Future site of Tokyo-3
Directly Above the Future Site of Terminal Dogma
And the "LCL Production Plant"
1986

"Rei?" What are we doing here?" The newly renamed Shinji Ayanami asked his sister. He adjusted his T-Shirt, it was green, at Asuka's insistence, and had a big image of a sunset. Asuka herself now wore a comfy set of sport pants and a hoody. Red with white stripes, and her hair had been styled into a extravagant hairdo, full of waves, fixed with enough hairspray to maybe act like a helmet.

Rei sat on the ground, her new blue pants would need some time to get completely comfortable with, and the oversized white T-Shirt that covered her slender frame proudly proclaimed, in big, bold black letters, that she was the "ANGEL GIRL". Strangely appropriate title for her, the three former pilots thought.

"I need to… there is no correct word in either the Japanese or English languages for what I need to do here."

Sitting on the grass, Asuka commented, "German might have it. We have words for everything." (1)

"It does, but the list of words for the final composite would be very long, defeating the idea. In any case, the exact description is not important now, due to lack of context." Rei commented, sitting to the redhead's right, and patting the ground next to her, signaling Shinji to do the same.

The three former pilots lay down on the ground, looking at the sky above them. "Just like after the Ninth Angel…" Shinji noted. "But in daylight."

Asuka nodded, and realizing he couldn't see her from where he was, she um-hummed. "That was a good day." She said, longing in her voice.

The other two kept silent in their agreement. "So, what's the closest word, First?"

"Commune is close, though there are no religious implications. Visit too, but being part of the same whole negates it." Rei grabbed Shinji's hand, lacing her fingers with his. "I need to contact Lilith in this time, and I won't be able to do so from Hill Valley. It can only be done here, this hill is the closest physical location to the chamber Lilith is, around 854 meters below us, depending on where you measure, as Lilith's body is Evangelion sized."

She did the same with Asuka, despite the redhead's initial reaction. She had started to pull her hand away, but relaxed a moment later, allowing the gesture. Rei continued. "I need to stay in contact with you two, or I risk to be lost in Lilith's… soul."

Shinji sat up, alarmed, "What?"

"I am a fragment of a future gestalt of Lilith, three versions of Rei Ayanami, Kaworu Nagisa, and all human souls absorbed during Third Impact. In comparison, I'm not even a bacteria to her, yet I must contact her, to be able to do what has to be done in relation to our plans to prevent Third Impact."

Hesitantly, Shinji laid down again, wincing at the reminder of the last Angel, "What do we do?"

Rei looked up at the blue sky for a few seconds. Remembering an exercise in free association done long ago in her subjective timeline. "Hold my hands, and don't let me go. I need you to be my anchors to myself, to here and now. My beacon in the storm." (2)

Asuka sat up, still holding Rei's hand. "Sounds dangerous. Are you sure yo have to do this?"

"I am. To have any hope of success, I must connect with Lilith, even though at this point in the timeline, she is into the equivalent of a deep coma."

"Then why..?" Shinji hesitated again, to Asuka's mild irritation.

"Hey, Third. Pay attention. Your sister here is in charge of the metaphysical stuff, if she says she has to go into the anthropomorphic personification of life on Earth, that's good enough for me." She nodded decisively to Rei. "If she says you and I are her anchors and beacon, then we do that."

Shinji thought about her words, his lips set with his decision, a gesture Asuka certainly liked to see in his face, and finally, the pilot laid down again. "Right."

Rei squeezed their hands, closed her eyes, and relaxed. "Feel free to talk among yourselves, the your voices won't be a problem, instead, it will help me to find my way back."

Downhill, Marty and Jennifer waited next to the black truck, still decorated with Chibi versions of themselves. "What do you think they are doing, Marty?"

"No idea, this is really heavy duty for me. But Doc said it was okay, we are just the transport." He extended the cloth and opened the wicker basket. "Wow… Mom made a lot of sandwiches…"

"For a really slender girl, Rei sure does eat a lot, I don't know where he puts it all." Jennifer opened a Can of soda, and took a short sip. "I'd be a whale if I eat even half of what she does."

"Really?"

"Doc says it's because her metabolism is way out of the usual parameters. Your mom says she's still a growing girl, and your dad says that she is a tridimensional representation of a fourth dimensional being, and therefore has a lot more space. Personally, I think your dad is the closest to the truth."

Marty shrugged. "Maybe she is just hungry."

Jennifer laughed.

Rei relaxed her body to inhumanly high point. She barely breathed, and her heart slowed down to a crawl.

Down, in the dark cave that contained her, Lilith slept.

She bled constantly into a subterranean lake. The effluvia smelled to iron and water. Almost, but not quite like rust. It was the smell of freshly spilled blood, and also the smell of the primordial soup that had been the origin of all life on Earth.

The lake had stayed undisturbed for aeons, the entity that had created it without even knowing immobile on its crux, eternally crucified for reasons beyond human understanding.

Lilith slept without dreams. Without thought. Without worry or joy.

She was simply there.

Sleeping.

Until today.

A fragment of itself appeared. Vaguely recognized as part of Lilith, and alien at the same time.

It was dynamic, active, and emotional.

It spoke to Lilith for an infinitesimally short time. Without stirring, still in its eternal dreamless dream, Lilith listened.

A brief spark of thought ran through the immense mind, before going dark.

It was enough to answer the petition.

"Yes." Lilith said.

Above, Shinji and Asuka talked, as Rei had asked, even though she wouldn't be able to actually understand them, the sound of their voices was one of the beacons her consciousness would follow to return to her body.

"Um… what are you planning to do first?"

"I'm not sure. All my life was geared to be the best EVA pilot. To be the best in anything and everything." She sighed. "You?"

"I'm not sure either, maybe try to be, I don't know, more social. I can count the number of friends I've had with one hand."

She paused for a few seconds, "I have fingers left."

"Marty and Jennifer gush about those old Star Wars movies. Maybe…" Hearing this, she perked up. "Maybe we could watch them together..?"

"Are you asking me on a date?"

Now it was his turn to think. "I… Um…" he gathered his courage. "Yes. I'd be honored to take you on a date."

"Very well, Third. Be sure to ask for advice. I don't want a repeat of the stupid date Kodama's friend tried. I'm too mature for the Ferris Wheel."

"Sure. I'll ask Marty for good places for a date."

"Not the worst adviser you could ask, that's for sure. He seems to be treating Jennifer right."

"Yeah. Maybe his father has some ideas."

"Just don't ask Doc, I mean, Uncle Emmet. The man sounds like he wouldn't know what to do in a date, unless it involved a lot of SCIENCE!" She giggled.

"Can you imagine him asking Dr. Akagi on a date?" He snickered.

She thought about it for a moment. "Nope."

"Well, I think they would be a good couple."

She scoffed, "Oh, please. She's too cold and he is too wild. Though I heard some rumours…"

"Yeah." Suddenly, his mood went crashing down.

"You actually know something?"

"Yes. The Commander strung her along as part of her plan. And her mother too, long before we even heard of NERV. In fact, it was Naoko Akagi who killed the original Rei. The Commander manipulated both."

"Damn… and I though my father was bad…"

"Let's change subject, please."

"Sure. What do you wanna talk about."

"Did you find the Klingon primer you wanted?"

Her eyes sparkled. "Oh, yes. And Lisa compiled a teaching aid to learn it. She already has it down." She cleared her throat. "I have been practicing this one, I'm reserving it for when we go all Gott's Revenge on them. Even as I disappear, I will say this: Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam."

"That sounds like you're gargling ground glass! What does it mean?"

"Today is a good day to die." Her smile would have scared Shinji had he seen it. As it was, her voice was enough.

"It was a war cry. Meaning that you are ready and willing to die in the battlefield. Personally, I will dedicate it to SEELE's plans. Even if they take years to die, they WILL die, by my hand, even if indirectly."

He though about it for a moment. "Say it again."

"Why?" She suspected, but wanted him to say it.

"Because today," he smirked, "is a good day to learn."

She laughed. It felt good to laugh like that. She composed herself and with a smile, she began her lesson, "Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam. Go as guttural as you can, stress the hard sounds. The vowels are short."

Downhill, Marty and Jennifer heard her. "Man, what's she angry about?"

Jennifer looked at him. "I'm betting on SEELE."

"Good point. If Shinji begins to sound like that, I'll bet on his father. That guy would make Darth Vader look like Father of the Year…"

Moments later, it was Shinji who sounded really angry. Though it took him several tries to earn Asuka's approval.

Suddenly, Rei squeezed their hands and inhaled brusquely.

"Rei! Are you okay?" Shinji sat up immediately, looking at his sister with clear worry. At Rei's other side, Asuka was already checking the bluenete's pulse.

"I'm okay." Rei said, "It is done. We can go." Her stomach growled, and instinctively, she put a hand over it.

Asuka shook her head, "Doc said we should have a picnic. He thought you might be hungry."

"I am, yes."

Shinji had already stood up, and he extended his hands to help his teammates.

"So, what did you do?"

"I anchored myself to the current version of Lilith." She seemed to want to say more, but decided against it. "Let's go with the others."

Author's Notes:

(1) Nope, Asuka hasn't watched The Simpsons. It's just her pride talking.

(2) This bit was inspired by several scenes in The Spectre cómic run, by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake.