The walk down to the GeoFront is quiet, with the three of them lost in their individual thoughts and two of them unaware that they've fallen into perfect step with Rei in the middle as usual.

Asuka interrupts the silence as they get closer.

"Rei, if you don't stop smiling like that someone is going to ask Ayanami questions. What are you so happy about anyway? You've been like that since this morning. Hikari even asked me, as if I'd know!" Asuka's annoyed tone had far more to do with Hikari's completely unsubtle questioning than anything Rei had actually done.

"Your training session with Pilot Ikari was successful," the smile on her face had vanished without a trace, but there was still a hint of it in her voice.

"And you know that how?" demanded Asuka as they hadn't discussed it at all.

"You and Pilot Ikari are refusing to look at each other."

Which meant of course that they promptly did.

The only reason their blushes weren't identical was that Asuka's appeared brighter on her paler skin.

"That doesn't mean anything," insisted Asuka. Denial would have been the better option with anyone but Rei. Not that that occurred to Asuka.

"I have observed similar behaviour between Class Representative Horaki and Suzahara-san. They make eye contact before looking away. You and Pilot Ikari look away when you reach two degrees outside each other's peripheral vision."

"I am not dating the idiot," growls Asuka, not appreciating the comparison at all.

Rei nods, "I believe that is my role."

Asuka stares at her, aghast.

Rei continues, "Unless I performed inadequately during my skills evaluation and require further training before I can fulfil the requirements for Pilot Ikari."

Asuka has no idea how to respond to that. The only thing she could fault Rei for was refusing to tell her where she got that damn dress - and that was only an issue for when Rei was going out with her, Shinji didn't care about that, only whether Rei was wearing anything under it! The only other thing was not asking properly before kissing her the first time. Which she was not going to think about, especially if Rei was going to dismiss it as just part of the skills assessment. Of course this was Rei, she could have been referring to any other part of the day. It didn't help that she could feel Shinji smiling, he'd certainly interpreted it that way. Pervert.

Rei might be fine, but obviously Shinji required more training if he wasn't even bothered by Rei kissing her. What kind of boyfriend actually enjoyed their girlfriend kissing someone else? She certainly didn't enjoy thinking about them kissing. Even if she was arranging it.

She stomped off down the hallway. She wasn't dealing with either of them until after this stupid test.

Her annoyance with them lasted as far as the elevators. Shinji's genuine smile as Rei adjusted her position in her arms was unavoidable. Even if she looked away she could still feel it. Idiot baka dummkopf.

Shinji sat immersed in LCL, looking at a silent 00 and feeling utterly useless.

In theory he was there to prevent problems if 02 went berserk, but Asuka's Eva didn't do that. If anything it had felt calmer than being here in his own. Even with Asuka there. Even with Asuka there behind him.

Instead all he could do was sit here and wait. At least being here meant he wasn't going to watch his mother's death again if he closed his eyes, and there'd been no repeat of the feeling of the LCL overheating. On the downside he had to feel Rei flirting with Asuka, because he knew perfectly well that it wasn't necessary to brush against her like that when climbing into the front plug seat even in the slightly closer confines the production unit apparently required. It wasn't that he minded, it just felt very intrusive to be sharing it with them. He'd have work out how to ask Asuka how she masked her reaction from the sync, because if Rei was going to do things like that he was going to start thinking about things that would require him to do the same thing.

"Good afternoon Ikari, Ayanami, Rohrnudeln, I hope you know how this works by now."

"Ayanami, Asuka, you have a new set of filters just in case, so if either of you feels anything off in the LCL or anything else, please let us know immediately."

Asuka's synchronisation sequence is relatively normal, that is if she ignores the annoying glitch that had caused her synchronisation to briefly halt just before activation. Clearly whatever Akagi has been doing to her Eva for this stupid experiment is causing problems. She hopes that's all that happens, and that Rei doesn't experience any weird tasting her. Because looking down at Rei's head between her legs that suddenly has some rather disgusting connotations. Even if it is Rei.

As Rei synchronises, she doesn't feel anything unusual. Which is unusual in itself. 00 almost always fights the synchronisation. With 01 she had to argue with the very definite presence of Yui. With 02 she had expected at least some response from Kyoko. Something. But all she could feel was Asuka. She took a moment to enjoy feeling Asuka and nothing else before completing the synchronisation.

On the other hand, as Rei synchronised, Asuka definitely felt something unusual. Not from the Eva itself, but she was unexpectedly aware of being aware of Rei. Not in the way she was aware of Shinji, who was sitting over in Unit 01 sulking. More in the way the LCL filling her lungs made her aware of the necessity of breathing. In the way Rei's head is supposed to fit against her shoulder. The form and the shape of Rei. The way her mind seemed to work in logical and incomprehensible ways.

The way her gut wrenches and tries to turn itself inside out when that sense is replaced by a gaping hole in the universe. The sensation is completely different than the momentary glimpse of the abyss of loss that was losing her connection to Shinji. It is terrifying in a very similar way.

As she reaches out her hand to where Rei has to be, whatever her mind is telling her, what she sees is even worse - a doll sized Rei made in the same materials as the one that had been hanging with her mother...

The nightmare drags Asuka far beyond the inconsequentialities of hearing the increasing panic from the control room.

She blinks back the tears and looks through the familiar glass at the familiar bed. Her mother, it must be her mother, is swinging the Rei-doll in front of her, a rope of her own hacked off hair wrapped around it's neck.

"Asuka, why is your hair blue?" whispers her mother's voice in her ear.

She turns, but the corridor is empty.

Back in the room, her mother is rocking the doll in her arms, a loving expression on her face. Her eyes however. Her eyes.

"What did they do to your pretty hair, my darling Asuka? It's all short like mine. It's supposed to be long and pretty. I'm not pretty any more. See, they cut my hair off too."

"Mama, I'm right here. That's not me." Asuka repeats her childhood words to no avail this time either.

She bangs on the glass, her teenage strength creating cracks despite how small she feels.

Rei opens her eyes and looks back at her, the perspective twisting until she appears her normal size, looking every part the blank faced doll that Asuka perceived her as when they first met, except the smooth skin of her face transitions into hair made of coarse blue wool which flows and cascades down her back until it's as long as Asuka's.

"Asuka," the Rei-doll says in Ayanami's monotone voice, no hint of the inflections that make her Rei.

"Die with me" she whispers in a voice that doesn't sound like Rei at all but eerily and completely like her mother's.

The nightmare pulls Asuka further down. Reality might have scared her more.

She is staring out of the window of her hospital room at the strange girl who keeps insisting she is Asuka. That's not right. Asuka is right there with her. Asuka is always with her. It's one of the reassuring things that keeps her from the despair she didn't know she had before Asuka. Something is wrong. Her hospital room doesn't have windows. There's someone else with her other than the Asuka she is holding. Something is wrong. The person is her husband. That makes sense. Of course her husband would be with her in the hospital. No. Her husband is a joke. Her husband doesn't love her. Her joke loves her. Something is wrong. Part of her is missing. Maybe it is the part her husband loves. The part that is a mother. She can never be a mother. Something is wrong. The part of her is a child. She has never been a child. She has never had a child. Asuka is with her. Who is the strange girl with the blue hair. Something is wrong. She loves Asuka. That part is right. Asuka is with her. Her husband is with her. This must be right. Something is wrong. What is it. Why is she here. Her husband loves her. Her husband is a joke. What is a joke. Is she a joke. Something is wrong. Who is the girl with the red hair who wants to be her Asuka but cannot be. Is she Ayanami. Who is Ayanami. Who is she. Something is wrong. Why is the girl crying. Is it because she cannot be Asuka. Who would not want to be Asuka. Asuka is loved. Something is wrong. Her joke loves Asuka. Her joke does not know. Maybe that is the joke. What is a joke. Something is wrong.

"Eject sequence not responding. The Eva is refusing the command."
"Pilot Ayanami's synchronisation has reached negative ninety percent."
"How is that possible? Never mind. How long do we have?"
"Another two minutes at the current power consumption rate," Aoba's voice is somehow the only calm one in the room.
"Asuka! Ayanami!" Shinji's panicked voice is even louder than the rest.

Shinji's panic is increasingly being replaced by despair. He doesn't know exactly what Asuka is experiencing, but he recognises her side of the conversation, he's held her through that nightmare far more often then he ever wanted, far more often than she knows. Now he's stuck in his Eva and can't reach her. At least he still knows Asuka is there. Whatever Unit 02 is doing to Rei has pulled her out of his sense of her existence and, unlike Asuka, he can hear the back and forth in the control room perfectly clearly.

Two minutes is too long and not long enough. He can't eject and get to them in that time, but he needs to get to them. He can't even move his Eva towards them, it's still locked in place and even if he could somehow tear loose it would take longer than he has. Asuka needs him. Rei needs him. Why is he so useless?

"Shinji, your sync rate just spiked over a hundred percent, stop what you're doing, we've got other things to worry about without you breaking the limiters."

Shinji doesn't hear them. Normally he and Asuka are trying to minimise the synchronisation, he's completely focused on a possibly pointless attempt at increasing it. He not even thinking enough to care if it shows up on the sensors. He can't reach them physically. He can't think of anything else to try.

Normally he isn't much more aware of Asuka's body than he is his own. Walking in sync is not much different than breathing, not something he's aware of unless he thinks about it or something goes wrong. Trying to consciously deepen the connection means being aware of his own body and of hers, the way her legs are longer, her hips slightly wider, the way the plugsuit supports the slight weight of her breasts, the different way their suits fit the arches of their feet, every little detail no matter how uncomfortable it was.

"Sempai, you're looking at the wrong graph. He's at nearly two hundred percent in Unit 01, that's Unit 02 you're looking at."

He sinks deeper, wrapping a mental image of himself around Asuka in the hope she can feel it. The scent of her hair, the taste of her lips, the way the muscles of her back tensed under his fingers as she absolutely did not cry. He briefly wonders if this was how Asuka felt, fighting against an Eva to get the people he loves back. He reaches a mental hand out to Rei. He can't feel her, but he knows she must be there. Rei is always there. He can't do this without her. "Rei" he calls not realising he's said it out loud, pulling her towards their Asuka.

He doesn't notice the consternation he's causing on the bridge, or the sound of bakelite cracking, or the way Unit 00 has turned to look at the other Evas.

"Pilot Ayanami's psychograph stabilising, synchronisation rate at positive forty percent and falling. Absolute borderline reached, she's desynchronizing."

"Rei!"

Who is Rei. I am Rei. I am not Rei. That is my husband. That is not my husband. Die you bastard. Where am I. Who is that.

ShinjiShinjiShinji. Shinji. The voice is Shinji. He is your child. No he was born before I existed. What is he. He is Asuka's. He wants my daughter. She claimed him. Who are you. I am Rei. You want my daughter. She has offered herself. Have you accepted. I will protect her.
Then do so.

Pain. Fear. Loss. Disintegration. Confusion. Loss. Pain. Something is wrong. Pain. Escape. Run. Die. Die you bastard. Pain. Fear. Run. Loss. Pain. Escape. Something is wrong. Pain. End. Escape. Die. Die. It is the only way out. Something is wrong. Die. Escape. Loss. Gnawing absence. Void. Darkness. Cool. Welcoming. Dark. Die. Something is wrong. Escape. Together. Only option. Only escape. Pain. Loss. Tearing. No. Mine. Stay. Die. Die. Die with me.

"Rei!"

The room shatters. Glass. Fabric. Reality.

Shinji? Asuka?

There are arms around her. Only one of them is real. They both are. Home. Loss. Grief. Fear.

As the power level falls below the level required to sustain synchronisation, Asuka opens her eyes to find Rei curled tightly against her. A very solid real Rei with normal hair and a terrified look on her face. As the LCL drains out of the plug, the sense of Shinji curled protectively around them both fades.