Ritsuko stared at the clone floating motionless in the tube. They were well into the third hour of the image download, and it would be another four until the newest iteration of Rei was ready to set foot upon the world. She had mixed feelings about the whole thing and was not shy about letting the insensate clone know about them. She had been ranting at it for the last forty-five minutes.
"You're very lucky we want a version of you to keep Shinji sane," she complained to her silent audience, "Because if we only needed you for Third Impact, I don't know if I'd be bringing you online with all your memories intact and not with just enough to do what we need." Sighing, she downed the rest of her coffee, setting the mug down on the pushcart next to the control station. "We couldn't afford the loss of Unit-00. Maya's workaround with the dummy plugs is useful, but the results are substandard. We really needed to keep you and Unit-00 up and running."
Ritsuko looked down at her watch and groaned. "Well, time to go and try to convince your boyfriend that you'll be okay after an extended stay in medical isolation." She typed a few commands into the workstation, and after reviewing the data readouts, she nodded and left, leaving the shadowed room in near silence, save for the hum of the machinery feeding the clone's brain with everything it would need to become Rei.
Rei stepped forward into the circle of light that bathed the machine and its controls. She watched the clone, trying to feel at it with her mind, noting it was now outside her capability to infuse with her awareness. Instead of being able to see the thing as a waiting vessel for her mind, it was now on the way to become someone else.
What would it be like for there to be another me, distinct and separate? Would I be able to convince her she is my copy? Or would she believe that she is me? The thrum of machinery was a steady drone, and there were no answers in either it or the still face inside the tube, already some other creature beyond her ability to control. Would she desire Shinji?
She had always known that she was not the first iteration of the identity which was Rei Ayanami. Her sister's spirit had been shunted into Unit-00 in a failed effort to save her life. A new body had been decanted, and Rei II had been born while Rei I languished inside the Evangelion. Rei I had hated her replacement for taking her place in their father's life and had fought and stymied her attempts at synchronization and piloting the Evangelion until they had come to their accord. They had hoped to be able to upload a copy of her sister into a spare body, but so far, their adjustments to the process based on what they had learned from her efforts with Agent Kaji had not achieved their goals.
Each version of the identity called Rei Ayanami was not the roughly unbroken chain her father and his cohort believed. Each had turned out to be a new and independent soul, a new Rei, and not some mere reincarnation. Meeting her sister's soul in the interface of Sheol had answered the question she had not even thought to ask.
Rei Ayanami was more than a body and a set of inherited memories. Rei Ayanami was now much more than just one body.
Now her sister was gone, her death and release from the bonds of Unit-00 finally realized. The ruined corpse they had recovered from the shattered Entry Plug had been disposed of during the alleged emergency surgery. Rei had felt her body die before during her subduing of her brother and Agent Kaji but had no desire to experience the undoubtedly traumatic end firsthand. She had abandoned the body the moment she had felt the plug begin the emergency eject, feeling her spirit fly through the void to snap back into her waiting drones.
"There is no need for another Rei Ayanami," she announced to the empty room, each word carrying an air of finality. "There is no need for anyone else to think they have a claim on Shinji." Walking to the terminal, she reviewed the data streams flowing across the monitors. She halted the data transfer and then disengaged the drain locks. Turning back to the tube, she watched the LCL slowly emptying out, eventually leaving the damp clone slumped over in the center. As the tube lowered, two of her drones entered the room, one pushing a gurney ahead of it. All three faces still and betraying no emotion, she watched as they lifted the incomplete copy onto the gurney and then left. The body would be incinerated, and the ashes disposed of.
Walking over to the main bank of clones, Rei opened up the main access hatch and filled one of the floating bodies with purpose. It swam over to the hatch and climbed out, walking over to stand on the tube's platform. Returning to the controls, Rei set the system back into motion and watched as the tube rose again and filled with LCL. The MAGI, sufficiently mollified by her actions to convince them of her sincerity, would make it look like the download was underway. She would then exit the tube when Dr. Akagi returned to decant the new her, and she would receive a brief of what to expect.
Rei already knew most of what her instructions were to be; an extended stay in medical isolation as she recovered from grievous injuries. A period of time where she would pretend to be ambulatory but remain covered in bandages, and then finally her full rehabilitation.
It would be hard for both her and Shinji to be separated for the time needed to have a believable masquerade. She did not relish this aspect of things at all, but it was a necessary sacrifice. The Angel had to be stopped from initiating Third Impact and from trying to merge with Shinji.
Accepting the limits the Acting Supreme Commander imposed on them was one thing. Allowing anyone else to interfere with or threaten Shinji was not permissible. That she would not tolerate, just as she would not tolerate anything threatening the Commander or his Scenario.
Satisfied with the current setup, Rei left the room. She had experiments to run and research to do, and even with all of her bodies, there was not a lot of time to do it all.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka and Shinji looked up as Dr. Akagi came out of the doors leading to the emergency surgery center, looking worn out. She sighed as she stood in front of them. "You're both still in your plug-suits," she commented, nose wrinkling at the stale smell of LCL lingering in the air. Neither had left the area after being released by Misato's debriefing team.
Sighing, Ritsuko shook her head. "Rei will live. She's out of surgery but still in critical condition. We have her in an isolation casket again, and she's in a medically induced coma. We expect her to be ready to be out of the casket in four to five days and then removed to non-critical care in a few weeks. If all goes well, she'll be released from the hospital in another two to three after that." She looked at them both, studying their drawn expressions.
Shinji was as one might expect. He looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and skin an unhealthy gray pallor. All in all, he looked just like any young man might after a traumatic experience and not quite witnessing his love's self-sacrifice and violent death. Food, water, and several hours of sleep would fix him physically, if not emotionally.
Asuka was also looking haggard, but where Shinji's eyes were those of a man desperately clinging to hope, hers told Ritsuko that the girl did not believe her. It was unfortunate she had beaten the recovery teams to find what was left of the previous girl, but in truth, if it had been Shinji or Asuka in that state, they were perfectly prepared and capable of returning them to mostly perfect health. The timeline was a little compacted in this case for the sake of expediency, but it wasn't outside their abilities. The LCL was a miracle medicine in its own right, let alone everything else they used it for.
Hell, Shinji's numerous stays in the hospital were greatly shortened by the generous use of LCL.
In theory, Asuka knew all of that. "In theory" being the operative words. Ritsuko could accept the girl found it hard to believe. After all, the body had been in pretty rough shape. If they had actually operated on her instead of putting the poor thing out of her misery, they would more than likely still be in the operating theater right now, and she might not have survived anyway. As it was, it was much better for everyone involved to have a new Rei downloaded and decanted. Any apparent gap in memory was easily explained by the trauma of the incident.
"Now, I want both of you to go shower, eat some food, and get some sleep. We will be running both Unit-01 and Unit-02 through tests and repairs for the next few days, and I want you to take it easy." She held up one finger, though, stopping Asuka as she opened her mouth to speak. "You're not going to be completely free of testing, but it's going to be at a reduced tempo while we get the Evangelions inspected and repaired. I trust you've already been told how catastrophic it is that we've lost Unit-00, our only fully functioning Evangelion?"
Both pilots glumly nodded their heads. Shinji obviously cared more about the condition of its pilot than the loss of Unit-00, but he wasn't so out of it that he could casually disregard the threat posed by it.
"Against a non-invasive type Angel, the current system where we run you in triplex with the dummy plugs may work better," she continued, moving on to the encouragement part of her lecture. "Asuka, you started getting nearer your old scores towards the end. I want you to work on that." She switched her gaze over to the boy. "Shinji, we had to eject your umbilical cable to keep you from acting foolishly. We cannot risk Unit-01 going berserk with the S2 organ still implanted."
She leaned in and pulled his face up to get him to look her straight in the eye. "It's not your fault Rei got hurt, Shinji. You know that, right?"
"Yes…" Shinji's response was a half-hearted thing and hardly believable. Ritsuko let him go and stood up, a worried look on her face. "Look, we're very good at dealing with traumatic injuries. You've been hurt just as badly," she held up one finger as Asuka started to object, "almost as badly before, and we've always gotten you back on your feet. She survived the surgery, and that was going to be the tricky part. She's in a coma to alleviate her pain, and the LCL submersion will accelerate and improve the recovery of her epidermis. We'll have her back on her feet in no time, as good as new. I promise."
Shinji still looked unconvinced. Ritsuko sighed and put a finger on his sternum, where he had once taken the full blast of the Fifth Angel's energy weapon. "Do you have a scar here?" she asked, knowing full well that he didn't.
"No," he muttered, dejectedly pushing the hand away from him. "I don't."
"No, you don't," she agreed before pointing at Asuka. "And this idiot here only has any scars at all because she refused LCL treatment." The words were harsh, but the tone was half-amused, easing their bite.
"A warrior is supposed to have scars," Asuka reflexively muttered, voice low.
"So look at me, Shinji," Ritsuko ordered, waiting until he looked back up at her. "Tell me you know that it's not your fault."
"It's not my fault."
"Tell me you know that Rei's going to be okay."
"Rei's going to be okay."
Sighing again, Ritsuko shook her head. He was unconvincing, but she didn't have time to deal with him. She had a new clone to finish making, and then she would have to buckle down on improving Maya's trick with the dummy plugs.
"Okay then. I want you two to get cleaned up, eat, and rest," she said, repeating her initial instructions. "I mean it. Get some sleep or go sit in the gardens. No shutting yourself up in the lab," she said, giving Asuka a hard look, who merely huffed in response.
Both pilots rose and left, Asuka speaking softly to Shinji as they headed out to the main hallway. Ritsuko watched them leave, doubting either pilot would take her words to heart, but that would be a problem for later. Now, she had to get back to the clone and finish supervising its image transfer.
Once that was done, she had a whole other mess to deal with.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
The sound the locker door made as he slammed it open was satisfying but did little to make Shinji feel better.
Even with the new dummy plug protocol, he had been unable to fully activate Unit-01, hovering near the borderline limit. He had been so close to achieving synchronization and activation that he could feel it just over the horizon as he sat in the Entry Plug.
He had been there for hours, listening with only half an ear to the commands coming over the network as they tried to cajole boy and machine to function as one. His heart just wasn't in it, and nothing had worked to make them cross the border.
Shinji knew, in theory, that his parents could both be described as geniuses. The Evangelions and NERV were the culmination of their work, and no one, not even their greatest detractors on the global stage, would deny that. Shinji also knew that he was a disappointment to his father but had come to accept it. He was not the favored Child, as that distinction obviously went to Rei, although Shinji no longer begrudged her for it. She was smart, intelligent, beautiful, and dutiful. She obeyed his father in all things, had full confidence in him and his work, and enjoyed his father's full confidence in return.
That she had not been as capable within the Evangelions as he had been only a small blemish on her record. Shinji knew he was nowhere near as talented as Rei in the world of books, but he had garnered recognition from his father for his ability within Unit-01. Now, however, that ability seemed to be gone. Shinji was less concerned over the potential loss of recognition from his father and more over his culpability in Rei's injuries.
The others could tell him it wasn't his fault all day long, but he knew the truth. If he had been able to do more than flail about Rei would still be fine, and they wouldn't have lost Unit-00.
Shinji wasn't as bright as Rei or Asuka, but he wasn't stupid. Asuka had seen Rei inside of the wreckage. He had smelled the stink of vomit over the smell of LCL while they waited for news inside the waiting room. She had refused to tell him what she had seen. She had clearly not believed a word of what Dr. Akagi had said, and she had been with Toji throughout his recovery time after his own crippling injuries. Whatever the extent of Rei's injuries, they were worse than Toji's had been, and those were arguably worse than any he had received.
"Rei will live." Shinji thought, divesting himself of the still sodden plug suit, tossing it over the bench. That's what she said. Rei will live. Not Rei's going to be fine, not Rei's all right.
His thoughts were dark as he showered, not really scrubbing himself to get clean, but more to just rinse the LCL from his hair and skin. Even with the plug suits, prolonged immersion left the smell of blood on one's skin, and it was hard to get those lingering traces off of oneself. Shinji was past the point of caring about it.
Shinji found himself caught between bouts of melancholic sadness and anger. He felt hollow, a deep emptiness in the very core of his being that threatened to swallow him whole. He had done nothing more than what was demanded of him this past week, which was testing, showering, and eating.
Truthfully, Asuka forced the last two on him more than anyone else. If it was just up to him, he'd rotate between the testing and collapsing in his room. Shinji had no appetite, and only the threat of violence could drag him out to the cafeteria.
Every time he passed Unit-00's empty cage, it tore at him. Every time he saw the framed photo of him and Rei on his desk, it tore at him. Every time he put on the plug suit, it tore at him.
Anger filled him by turns, mostly at himself, sometimes at Asuka, sometimes at the others, and always at the Angel. He had failed Rei by not being able to properly synchronize and pilot. Asuka had failed her for much the same, but she at least had been able to offer some assistance during the fight. The bridge staff had failed her, their countermeasures incapable of changing the course of the battle. The Angel, above all, for its assault on Tokyo-3 and part in her injuries.
He could not take action against the Angel, for it was already dead, and he had been incapable of doing anything to it to begin with. He could only be unpleasant to the bridge staff and Asuka, but there were limits to how surly he could get away with being. In another world, he might have been able to try to physically run away from the issue, but where was there to go? Tokyo-3 was a ruin, and traffic in and out of the city was severely restricted. He was a high-profile subject of observation, so there would be no way to escape his problems through flight.
Thus, impotent rage always swung back around to black melancholy, and he let himself wallow in the darkened room, eyes staring into the nothing, eating little, sleeping less, and soaking in self-recrimination.
He moved through the halls with slow, plodding steps. Asuka had told him she was working on something today but would be looking for him at dinner time. Left to his own devices for the rest of the afternoon, he had no idea of what he wanted to do that he was actually permitted to do.
They had barred him from loitering in the hospital wing. They had barred him from sitting in the Evangelion cages, staring by turns at Unit-01 and the empty cage where Unit-00 used to rest. He was barred from visiting the surface. They had taken his pistols and barred him from visiting the range or the hazard lanes.
Even his old standby of escaping into the world of music was denied to him; he found neither solace nor relief in either listening to or playing music. He had tried to play his cello a few times, but the music would not flow from him. It was all he could do to not smash the instrument.
Shinji toweled himself off and dressed slowly. Each movement was slow, laborious, and almost mechanical in execution. He stared off into space, not paying attention to anything. Even the sensation of being watched was not enough to send a shiver down his spine or set his skin tingling. What did he care if S2 or the MAGI watched him? What did it matter if he was being haunted by the ghosts of slain Angels?
Did anything matter at all?
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"Shinji's not doing well."
"Tell me something that I don't know," Ritsuko said, her voice weary. "Even with the new synchronization protocol, he's consistently failing to activate the Evangelion."
"You're the ones who've been insistent that we absolutely need him for Third Impact," Misato said, voice filled with acid. "If it was my call, he'd be out of the city for some actual rest and recuperation. The boy's lost the only person,"
"He hasn't lost Rei," Ritsuko interrupted. "He just thinks that she's been crippled and probably badly disfigured. I can understand him being upset, but there is such a thing as taking it too far." Misato rolled her eyes at her friend.
"He's taking it better than Gendo did when he lost Yui, by all accounts," Kozo said, carefully sipping his steaming coffee. "When can we let Shinji see the new Rei?"
Ritsuko leaned back in her chair to stare at the ceiling. Her own cup of coffee sat on the table, and while she was exhausted, it was still too hot for her to sip at. "It's still far too soon. As far as they know, she's been taken out of the isolation casket today and is in the critical care ward. As wonderful as the LCL was, there is a limit to its effectiveness. Presenting him with the new Rei now would be too much. The timeline we've decided on is already too compressed."
"Shinji wouldn't know that." Misato objected. Her cup was already half empty. "He doesn't know anything about the medical side of the house despite all the time he's been laid up in it. Besides, do you really think he'll ask any questions? Have you seen him lately? We're killing him."
"He's not stupid, Misato. And Asuka certainly isn't. If we pop out a perfectly good Rei on them barely a week and a half after the catastrophic loss of Unit-00, they'll know something is up."
"And how do you expect to pass her off on them, even after the proposed timeline?" Misato snapped back. "Regrowing her skin is one thing, but what about all the other injuries?"
"We'll shave her head and wrap her in bandages and put her in a cast. She's been told that she needs to pretend to be injured." Ritsuko's response was cold, her anger just underneath the surface of her words. "This version of her is assimilating the memories faster than the predecessor, so she won't be as out of it, but she'll follow orders."
"Ladies, please," Kozo said, spreading his hands and trying to placate the irate women. "We'll all worn out and on edge. The current situation with Shinji is unfortunate, yes. But just like with the loss of Unit-00, there isn't much we can do. We can only pray that once we can safely introduce the new Rei into the pilot pool, his scores will increase again beyond the threshold of activation. In the meantime, we need to be doing everything we can to prepare for the final Angels."
"Our stores of support and defense munitions are so low they might as well be nonexistent," Misato sighed, turning back to the stack of papers before her. "Fabrication is doing their best, but they can only process so many munitions at a time. Our fabrication about the Commander's secret mission aside, outside support is nonexistent. The JSSDF won't return our calls, and the UN Liaison office in Kyoto was closed down. The remaining NERV sites report that all freight shipments are being refused, so we can't draw on any of the stores off-site, but we had already plundered most of them to begin with."
"SEELE must be confident we're close to the end as well then," Kozo mused. "Well, that does make me feel a little better about my own prognostications, but it's hardly reassuring."
"If they are closing down the lines of communication we had with the official governments, they must be certain indeed," Ritsuko agreed. "They've never trusted Gendo, but they've always let the façade of cooperation stand. They just think that we want to be the ones to rule the new oversoul instead of them. They won't wait long to strike after the last Angel shows its face."
"Well, we better hope the next Angel wants to engage in melee combat with Unit-02 and that it's not a corruptive, assimilating one." Misato sarcastically huffed. "Because we've basically only have Asuka and her sword left. Maybe a half dozen magazines for the pallet rifle."
"That is grim," Kozo said, pulling out a report from the stack of papers in front of him and flipping through it. "What about the particle weapons? I know they are not as maneuverable as the pallet rifles, but can't we do something to set them up as a stationary battery?"
"With what workforce?" Misato asked, shaking her head. "I don't have enough technicians to set something like that up, even with the MAGI doing the design of the emplacements. What work crews we have are fairly limited, and that's going to take specialty work from people we no longer have."
"What about Unit-00's support crew?"
"Kozo, supporting the repair and upkeep of an Evangelion is very different from the installation and servicing of high-powered particle weapons," Ritsuko replied. "There's a limit to what they can do, and any mistake in the installation would be disastrous. It's too much of a risk, even with the scaled-down systems."
Kozo sighed again but let the matter drop. "How long do you think we've bought for Gendo? Do we risk waking him back up now?"
"The growth of the ADAM sample has drastically slowed down, but it continues nonetheless." Ritsuko pulled out a folder from the bottom of her pile of paperwork. "I don't recommend waking him up unless something changes in the current situation. As it is, I don't believe that we're at risk of the embryo being capable of resisting our control yet. But," and here her voice tightened, "But if we go more than three months at the current rate of growth without seeing the next Angel, we may need to consider initiating Impact ahead of schedule."
"I think we have no more than two months before the next Angel arrives," Kozo replied.
"So we only have to hold out for two more months." Misato sighed and threw back the rest of her coffee, grimacing at the taste. They had run out of their stores of the good stuff, and the current stockpile of grounds was decidedly acidic. They also had nothing to use as creamer either, so everyone was drinking it black, which was not her favorite way. "Two months is a long time, but also not long enough."
"Asuka is showing good progress, if slow." Ritsuko offered, sipping at her coffee. "It's slower than when she first started out, but there's a definite improvement."
"But will it be enough?"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka tried not to glare at the pair of technicians passing by in the hall, who were studiously avoiding look at her as she pounded on the door to Shinji's rooms. This was the tenth day in a row that the boy had ducked out from eating, and she was not going to put up with it. Both he and Rei had been persistent in getting her to eat with them until she had finally given up on the fight, and if he thought she wasn't about to return the favor, well, he was in for a surprise then.
"Shinji Ikari, you will open this door, or I'll open it for you!" she demanded in German first before repeating herself in Japanese. Hearing no response or sign of movement from within, she resumed her pounding.
"Don't think you'll outlast me!" When no answer seemed to be forthcoming, she turned and stared into the black lens of one of the security cameras. "Open that door for me," she commanded, not caring if it was the MAGI or Section 2 who overrode the lock on the door. "Now."
There was a satisfying click from Shinji's door as someone on the other end of the camera complied with her orders. After giving a nod of acknowledgment, she spun on one heel and marched into the darkened room, one hand seeking the light switch.
Wrinkling her nose at the smell of stale LCL, she came to a stop and stood over him as he lay in bed, having thrown a pillow over his face in response to the lights coming on in the common area. With merciless intent, she ripped the pillow away and threw it into a corner.
"You are going to shower again, and use soap this time," she announced, voice ringing off the walls of the small space, "and then we're going to get something to eat. Do not," she threatened, "make me scrub you down myself. You have ten minutes." She crossed her arms, watching him.
Seeing no indication from the boy that he was about to comply with her instructions, Asuka shook her head, grabbed him by the heels, and started dragging him off in the direction of the shower. It wasn't as if she hadn't ever seen him naked before.
For someone who isn't eating properly, he weighs a ton, she mentally complained, dropping her grip on his ankles as he flailed his arms around and got to his feet.
"Fine," he muttered, voice dark, glowering at her. But he got to his feet and headed to the small shower. Asuka turned around and went back into his room, looking to secure clean clothing for him to wear. Nodding to herself as she heard the shower start, Asuka sighed and glared around the room.
The accommodations at Misato's apartment had hardly been extravagant, but there was definitely something to not being holed up underground in a windowless box. The pilots' current accommodations were on an interior floor and did not face or open up into the Geo-Front itself for security concerns. These small featureless rooms were never planned for long-term use but had been intended as temporary overflow housing. Even now, the inhabitants of the rooms made little more use of them than just a place to sleep.
If Shinji had just been moping because Rei was on a trip someplace else, his insistence on staying in here would be enough to send his mental wellbeing into a tailspin by itself, let alone him being worked up over her injuries. Grabbing a clean set of clothing from his closet, she went back to the common area and set them inside the small washroom on the sink.
"You need to do some laundry," she said, raising her voice to be heard over the shower. "We're going to do that after dinner."
"Fine," came the unenthusiastic reply.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka must be feeling better about herself, Shinji thought to himself as he moved among the shrubs with his watering can, brows furrowed. She's certainly acting like she's the queen of the world right now. At least she wasn't completely useless in Unit-02, unlike me.
Despite everyone's repeated declarations of him not being at fault for Rei's injuries, Shinji still felt responsible. After all, hadn't he always managed to eke out a victory every other time he'd faced an Angel? Even when dealing with tactical setbacks, like with the Fifth, Sixth, and Twelth Angels, he'd always managed to somehow come out on top.
This time, he had been a detriment to the mission. The Angel had been defeated in spite of him. If he had been able to properly synchronize, Rei wouldn't have been out there alone, and she certainly wouldn't have been forced to blow up her own Evangelion.
Before the Angel had shown up, he had thought it would be better to support them outside of it, like before with the simulations. Reality had put that idea to rest. If he was going to be of any use, he needed to be doing it in Unit-01. The problem was that he had no idea how to get Unit-01 to do anything he wanted.
Despite the new system with the dummy plugs they had cobbled together, he could barely make the Evangelion move. Before, synchronizing with Unit-01 had been easy, almost effortless. While it had taken him some time to consistently reach the highest levels he had outside the berserking incidents, it had never been an issue to get it to go. Now, whenever he got into the Entry Plug, it was like slipping into a tub of cold water.
Shinji was so lost in his thoughts that he completely missed noticing the young man as he approached. Shinji jerked backward as the boy politely coughed.
"I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" Kaworu said, his face and voice cheerful. "I was told you were out here in the gardens."
Shinji looked him over, trying to place him. He seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite remember where he had seen him before. "I'm sorry, I was too caught up in my own thoughts," Shinji half-heartedly apologized.
"It's not a problem, Shinji!" the boy exclaimed, a wide grin crossing his face, but his voice lower than one might expect. "There's certainly a lot to be thinking about."
"I'm sorry, but have we met?" Shinji asked, looking for (and failing to find) Asuka.
Tabris put on a hurt expression. "I'm Kaworu Nagisa. We met once last year. I'm a new Evangelion pilot, remember?"
Frowning, Shinji tried to recall the other boy. He vaguely remembered the name Nagisa. "I'm sorry, but I don't really remember. It's been a while, and a lot's happened."
"Truer words have never been spoken," Kaworu said, accepting the apology with another smile. "My arrival here was greatly delayed by a number of things, but they've finally seen fit to release me to NERV."
"I guess that I missed the announcement," Shinji tonelessly replied. It was possible; he hadn't really been paying much attention to anything that wasn't directly forced on him, but this was the sort of thing Asuka would have talked about enough that he should have picked up on it.
"It was a last-minute decision," came the smooth response. Kaworu gently took the watering can from Shinji and started to sprinkle water on some of the plants. "NERV-Berlin is preparing to ship my Evangelion. They've managed to work out a deal, and it's going to be delivered in a few days. I won't be on the official roster until it gets here."
"Oh," was the only thing Shinji said in response, watching the boy. His heart was obviously not in the conversation, and he wasn't going to pretend to be interested in the conversation for the sake of being polite.
"There seems to be a great deal less to do around here," Kaworu dryly observed. "Is this all you do for amusement now? Water these shrubs?"
"I suppose."
Well, I guess that will have to do for now! Here," he said, offering the can back to Shinji. "I have to go and meet with some of the higher-ups." He smiled again, a soft, easy smile that seemed to stretch from ear to ear. "I'll catch up with you again around dinner time. It'll be a date!" He winked at Shinji and walked off.
As he walked away, shielding himself from view again as he passed a small cluster of trees, Tabris' face darkened, his normally cheerful features twisting into an angry scowl. Not only had Rei done something to Shinji's soul, but she had also so poisoned the boy that he was so hung up on her that he could not remember meeting him!
She would pay for her arrogance. Shinji belonged to him, and he would not put up with her continued interference. She had no hope of stopping him in his mission, yet she carried on trying to obstruct him. A foolish child, overly impressed by her own power, unwilling to see that she was entirely outmatched.
No matter, he thought as he turned his attention to seeking out ADAM's psychic call. It was faint, buried beneath the overwhelming thrum of Lilith and the lesser cacophony of his sister, but it was there. It was ready, ready to be consumed and reunited with his flesh. He would take up the mantle of ADAM and complete the tale begun long ago. He smiled again as he passed through the guarded entrance to worm his way deeper into NERV.
I will not be denied my destiny or my prize.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Even when nervous, Rei was generally a composed individual, not given in to physical displays of her discomfort. There were always subtle signs visible to those who knew her well, but overall, she did a fair job of mimicking her ultimate role model.
Right now, she was very discombobulated. She was filled with nervousness and was generally in a state of disarray. She had pulled all her attention away from her other projects, and the body she was currently inhabiting was pacing back and forth in the fourth commandeered laboratory, as it had the most open floor space. As before, when she had been concentrating fully on the defeat of the Angel, she felt overfull, like she was spilling out the edges of her body. This time, however, the issue before her was not the defeat of the newest Angel but the behavior of Shinji.
It would not be entirely truthful to say that the conversation with Agent Kaji where he had raised concerns over Shinji's place and actions after Third Impact had left her untouched and unconcerned. It was an issue she had not considered before, placing full faith in the Commander to ensure things were taken care of after her death.
While she acknowledged the spy was primarily acting out of self-interest, she could admit that there was room for concern.
Now that she had direct evidence of his behavior following her alleged injuries, she had moved from concern straight into panicked alarm.
His behavior was not quite at the level of being outright self-destructive, but it did showcase a lack of concern for oneself. Despite the assurances of her survival by the others, he was neglecting his own wellbeing. Due to the need to conceal her true nature and the nature of the Scenario, she still had to wait out the determined time before she could be reunited with him. At best, it would be another two weeks before she would be allowed to receive him as a visitor on a limited basis. It would be at least a further three weeks before she would be released from the hospital wing entirely.
Rei found herself suddenly full of doubt over his prospects following her death.
Now that the issue had been raised and then seen to be a valid threat to his wellbeing, Rei had availed herself of the vast information stores of the MAGI and greater internet. The prognosis was grim. Reactions such as his were exceedingly common. In fact, there had been entire studies done on the reactions of surviving members of couples where one or the other had perished in Second Impact.
In cases where the survivors behaved like Shinji, it was only a matter of time before they killed themselves. This was not what she wanted. Not at all.
But her options in gathering more data were limited in the extreme; due to the circumstances she currently only had access to Dr. Akagi and Agent Kaji, and neither was going to be a useful resource. Dr. Akagi did not know that she knew about Shinji's current behavior and asking such questions would reveal her activities that ran counter to their orders. The most likely outcome would be further restriction from Shinji, which would do the opposite of resolving the situation.
On the other hand, seeking further counsel from Agent Kaji was not desirable either. He would only seek to capitalize on the situation to try to distance her from the Commander and entice her to work against his aims.
Rei spread her greater awareness out from the pacing body, taking stock of the current tasks her drones were doing. Preparations were nearly complete for handling Tabris. After the loss of Unit-00, she shifted the clones assigned to the Lance project to assist the other projects, and everything was either ahead of schedule or on time.
Pulling back into the primary body, Rei looked around the lab, trying to think but finding no answers.
In normal circumstances, I would seek out the Commander for his advice, but that avenue is closed.
Rei thought about the room where her father lay in as close to suspended animation as they could make him, seeking to hinder the ADAM embryo's growth until such a time as their plans could be realized. She had been to the cavernous chamber only once before, shortly after he had been interred there. While she had no doubt about the loyalty of the inner circle towards the Commander, she wanted to see him herself.
I have read that people are often able to talk through problems they face simply by describing them to a confidant. The listening person may not need to offer advice.
Rei did not think that the current situation was as simply worked through as that, but she found herself growing more and more concerned with Shinji's behavior and likely actions in the future. She needed to find a path to ensure his survival and wellbeing while fulfilling her purpose in the Commander's Scenario.
Dr. Akagi would tell her to not worry about it.
Agent Kaji would tell her that she needed to worry about it.
What would the Commander say?
For as long as she had lived, she had known that one day, she would die in the service of the man who had created her. Her purpose, her destiny, her reason for existence had been set the day he had welcomed her into the world in a room not unlike the one she was currently pacing in. She had never doubted it, never doubted him. She had looked forward to the day she would fulfill her destiny. She had eagerly awaited it, in fact.
Then Shinji had arrived. Her purpose was not changed, her destiny not altered, but she while she did not fear the arrival of her final day, or look upon it with trepidation, she would rather it be later than sooner. Each day she spent with Shinji was to be cherished. She knew that her death was needed in the Scenario. His was not. She did not know what exactly the future held past Third Impact or where he figured in the Commander's plans, but she would not be there with him.
The current situation was untenable. She was in that most hated situation- where one had no way to obtain information to establish a method of experimentation or a path forward. She could not let the current situation wait and play out on its own. She had attempted that when dealing with Shinji's internment inside Unit-01, and it had almost been a disaster. She had waffled on what to do with Agent Kaji after his discovery of her lab and subsequent capture. That situation, too, had not been as satisfactory as she would have liked.
She had always preferred a methodical approach to any situation, trusting in her ability to experiment, draw data and form conclusions, but she could admit there was value in Asuka's approach of taking action, any action, as soon as possible.
While Shinji's current behavior and mood would doubtlessly be soothed upon their reunion, she had to know. She had to be certain of how he would be following Third Impact.
I will go visit the Commander and attempt to 'talk it out' to resolve the situation.
Rei left the lab, heading down the hallway towards the elevators.
The Commander must be obeyed.
Her stomach clenched as she thought about the security camera footage she had watched of Shinji listlessly moving his food around on the plate. Of the dark circles under his eyes. Of him slowly moving through the motions of life. Of him being dragged around by Asuka in a near mirror of their situation only weeks before.
The Scenario must be fulfilled.
She thought about him lying down in the gardens, unmoving as Asuka tried to cajole him into tending to the plants. Entering the elevator, she pressed the button to the lowest available level.
I must obey the Commander. I must trust in his work.
Despite trying to reassure herself of her surety of purpose, Agent Kaji's repeated questions still haunted her.
When faced with the prospect of Shinji's recovery from Unit-01 being beyond all possibility, her immediate decision was to orchestrate a full, unrestricted contact experiment to join with him. If there had been any possibility of recovering him in other ways, she would have done so.
What would she do if he was dead? Her stomachs clenched and heaved at the idea.
Her reactions to his being in danger had always been immediate, if tactically suboptimal in Asuka's estimation. Threats to her relationship with him had also been dealt with as severely as possible. Shinji's death would be a major issue for the Scenario, yes, but what about her?
What would I do if he was dead?
She shuddered at the thought, feeling bile rise in several hundred throats.
Even in the beginning, before she had come to love him, she had always been more than willing to sacrifice herself to secure his wellbeing. That had been a matter of simple economics; she was replaceable, and he was not.
Things had dramatically changed since that fight with the Fifth Angel, where she had moved to shield him and the positron sniper rifle from the deadly energy blast.
The equation had changed, first by their growing love for one another, and then by the change in the exact nature of her replaceability.
Any foe that had sought to do him harm, from the Angels to the JSSDF, had been dealt with, all without regard to herself. Let one body die, let a dozen perish; she would march hundreds of clones into fire to protect him. If he were hurt at the hands of Man or Angel, she would be avenged.
But what would she do if he died? What should she do? What could she do?
She could do nothing for him after her death. Her soul would be consumed in Third Impact.
The elevator doors opened, and Rei stepped out into the dim corridor. She would have to traverse this floor to another set of elevators to finally reach the floor where her father slept. The more direct routes were not available to her, and so she had to make do with the more circuitous path. It was not normally an issue for the girl, but now it gave her more time to think and stew on the problems facing her. It was not a welcome thing.
The Commander must be obeyed. The Scenario must be fulfilled.
Try as she might, she could not stop the doubt and worry in her heart from making those words sound hollow and empty.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Misato looked up from her desk as her office door opened. Shinji stood in the doorway, and her heart sank when she saw how awful he looked. He had always been the most emotionally vulnerable of the pilots and the most emotionally open. Rei could hide behind the stoicism enabled by her heritage and being raised by Gendo, and Asuka shielded her vulnerabilities with aggressive bravado, but Shinji's emotional vulnerability had always been plain to see. It was part of why she had wanted to take him in with her so that he wouldn't be isolated here at NERV and Tokyo-3.
He looked like a wreck, like death warmed over. He was taking Rei's 'injuries' hard, and Misato could only imagine what he would be like if the girl had actually died in battle. A shiver ran down her spine as she cursed herself, Ritsuko, Kozo, and Gendo for all that they were doing to these kids. She cursed the Angels, she cursed SEELE, she cursed them all.
"Shinji, come in! What can I do for you?" Misato tried to keep her voice light and somewhat cheerful, but her words and tone rang hollow in her own ears. The only thing to be cheerful about was that they expected this hell to be over within three months, but she could hardly tell him that.
"When is Father coming home?" Shinji asked as he entered the office, his pace slow, feet barely picking up from the floor. He did not walk so much as he listlessly shuffled. His voice was as hollow as his eyes, empty and lifeless.
"I can't say, Shinji," Misato said, setting down the paper she had been reading. "He's been trying to drum up support and a new line of supplies. Negotiations aren't going very well." She made a disgusted face, but her disgust was directed entirely at herself as opposed to the fictional situation the boy's father was allegedly in.
"Has he asked about Rei?" Shinji asked, staring at Misato, the slightest note of hope entering his voice. "He'd come back home for her, wouldn't he?" His eyes went slightly wild now, and Misato hated herself for the sudden flash of relief that the security agents had confiscated his pistols. "He wouldn't come back for me, I know, but he'll return for her, right?"
She rose from her chair in a rush and quickly crossed over to envelop him in a crushing hug. He didn't react at first, just standing there in her arms. He had grown so much since his arrival, standing almost as tall as she was, but he felt so small in her embrace.
"It's okay, Shinji, it's okay." She tried to tell him, her words coming out in a choked mess. "He'll be back as soon as he can. Rei will be okay. We'll all be okay."
"It's all my fault," he whispered into her collarbone, the tears leaking from his eyes, the first warmth she had felt from him. "I couldn't help her. I failed her."
"Shhh," she said, hugging him tighter. "It's okay, it's okay."
He broke down in tears, and she brought him to the couch along one wall. It was where she had been sleeping of late, so behind in the massive amount of work that needed to be done to try and keep their heads above water. Deep, body-wracking sobs shook him and filled her office as he bawled his eyes out.
Misato continued to make reassuring sounds as she pulled out her phone and typed a message to Ritsuko with one hand.
"Everything will be better soon," she said, voice soft, words lost amidst his heart-wrenching sobbing. She didn't know if she was trying to convince him or herself.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Sneaking away in the middle of the night would be stupid, which is why Kensuke loaded up his modified MAGI core and several projects into the back of the farm truck in the early morning and took off in the middle of the day when the sound of the truck starting and driving away wouldn't alert anyone.
He had made it to the primary highway three hours later when his phone began to ring, and it was still ringing three hours later.
His family was probably upset at him stealing the truck the way he had, but bigger things were at stake here.
The modified MAGI core was now running in a more permissive mode, but it wasn't entirely unrestricted. He couldn't take the chance that there was some NERV backdoor built in that would alert them to what was going on.
So far, though, the nascent AI was quickly processing through his and Asuka's work, and it had told him things he felt she needed to know.
Things like that there was no possible way for the thing she was synchronizing with inside the Evangelion to be just a stripped-down MAGI AI. Control systems with small details that tied into other systems to show a system designed to actively restrict and inhibit synchronization beyond mere safety protocols for the pilots.
The new AI was currently working on resolving his last failed analyses with the information that Asuka had been able to send out.
Kensuke tried to avoid looking at the traffic cameras as he passed them, acutely aware that the moment his family reported him and the truck missing, the police would notify the officers working the roads. Then, in a few days, if he had not turned up, someone would be assigned to trawl through the recorded footage. He had to make it back to Tokyo-3 before they found him.
Getting there without drawing attention to himself would be tricky, but it was doable. He just had to stay under the speed limit and make sure the truck wouldn't draw any other attention. No broken lights, nothing falling off the truck, nothing to make a bored officer see him and realize that he matched the description of a runaway. Or that the boy driving the truck was just a little too young to operate on the roads.
How he would get into Tokyo-3 and see Asuka was a different set of problems. He doubted he could just waltz into the place, things being what they were, but he would cross that bridge once he got there.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka worriedly watched as Shinji picked at his food with the same listless energy he had applied to everything else for the last three days. He looked terrible. He looked like someone who had just tragically lost a loved one.
This is what I had expected Rei to look like. This is what I expected her to act like, when we first lost Shinji.
But where everything had pointed to Shinji being dead and gone then, with only misguided and sentimental fools trying to delude themselves and hold onto hope, now everyone acted like Rei was still alive, if only badly hurt.
She had not told Shinji what she had seen inside Rei's Entry Plug. She had not described to him that awful barely alive wreck, that eyeless face of blistered flesh giggling in the gloom, a broken arm lifting up to greet her as she climbed up into the tube.
Asuka did not want to believe the girl was dead, but she found the official prognosis hopelessly optimistic. But even if she was wrong again, and Rei really was going to be fine, where did that leave them?
She was going to be the only capable pilot.
Asuka might have been elated at that once, but no longer. She wanted the assistance and backup of the other pilots, but with the destruction of Unit-00 and the spirit of Unit-01 refusing to show itself, that meant she was it.
Asuka versus the Angels, one girl against inconceivable might, with the world's fate hanging in the balance by a thread.
She had dreamed about this, once.
Her past self's naïveté was disgusting.
Oh, they might be able to cobble together some of the unfinished Evangelions that NERV still had control over, but getting the component pieces to Tokyo-3 would be a nightmare all on its own. That was also before addressing whether the spirit or spirits of that frankenstiened Evangelion wanted to cooperate with Rei.
Knowing that Unit-01's spirit had been particularly feral and barely cognizant did a lot to explain why they had called it the O-9 'oni' system before Shinji came along. He had somehow gotten it to take an interest in him and synchronized. There was no guarantee Rei would be able to make the same arrangements with the new unit.
"You need to eat something," she said, finally breaking the silence. "You hardly ate anything yesterday."
"I'm not hungry."
"Do you think starving yourself is going to help Rei any?" She tried to keep her voice soft and light. "Look, they said she was responding well to the treatments." Trying to get him to cheer up was like pulling teeth. "They said we'll be able to visit her for a bit after confirming that she's stable."
He made no response as he pushed the vegetables and rice around in his bowl. Asuka's own serving was halfway gone. His was barely touched.
"Shinji Ikari!" Asuka snapped, causing him to flinch and look up at her. "I am an incredibly patient and forgiving person, but I will absolutely lose my patience if you think that I'm going to let you see your badly injured girlfriend looking like this."
Sitting straight up in his seat, Shinji's face clouded with anger, but as he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off before he could.
"Be quiet! I don't care what you have to say for yourself. When you were sucked into Unit-01, everyone was sure you were a goner. I thought you were dead. There was a massive shrine set up in front of your stupid beast of an Evangelion, and people kept lighting candles in front of it." She was not going to admit that she had also done so, although it had been at Toji's request. "Rei never, never ever, for one single, solitary second thought that you were beyond her reach. She claimed, in the face of all available evidence, that you were alive inside of it. She never gave up hope you would come back to her."
Asuka glared at Shinji with all her might, and he had the grace and good sense to look embarrassed.
"She is recovering from catastrophic injuries, and the last thing she needs is to see you looking like this. You are going to eat your food, and you are going to get some sleep. So help me god, you will look nice, healthy, and optimistic when we visit her when she's ready to have visitors. And this is going to happen even if I have to strap you to a chair and force-feed you or give you sedatives. Do you understand?"
"It's my fault that she's hurt in the first place. It's,"
Asuka slapped him, the sound of her palm hitting his cheek ringing in the cafeteria. All other conversations came to an abrupt halt as all eyes focused on them until Asuka's imperious glare forced them to return to their trays. "Don't even start with that garbage." She leaned in towards him, pushing her face right up into his. He hadn't reacted to the slap except to turn his face away, but she forced him to look at her. "She doesn't blame you for this. You didn't blame me for you losing your leg. I didn't blame her for me losing myself in my bad fight. She doesn't blame you for this."
She leaned further into him, pushing him back in his seat. "We've all had a bad turn at Kriegsglück. You, me, and now her. It doesn't mean that any of us are at fault as long as we did what we could."
"I couldn't do anything! I-"
"I couldn't do anything for you in the battle with the fourteenth Angel," Asuka growled back, cutting him off. "Both me and Rei ate shit in that battle, remember?" She pushed against him some more, her forehead grinding against his. If he pulled back any further, she would have to climb over the table to stay inside his personal space. "Remember, Shinji? Remember how we got our asses handed to us? How we needed you to sacrifice everything to save the day?" She pulled back to return to her seat, crossing her arms and glaring at him. "Trust me, I know what it feels like to feel useless." She looked away, face twisted in a scowl. "I thought you were dead. You were cut in half, god damn it! I never thought that their cockamamie plan to stick your mind back into a clone body would work."
She turned back to stare at him, expression flat. "Rei always said that you were alive. That you would come back. She's more alive now than you were then. So, you had better fucking eat your food before I get angry."
"I get it, I get it," Shinji said, shoveling food into his mouth after Asuka pointed at his tray again. "Why do you care anyway?"
"Why do I care? Why do I care?" Asuka's glare somehow intensified, and her voice increased in volume and pitch. The other denizens of NERV gave the pilots a wide berth in the halls and common areas, but even so, the ones nearest to the otherwise empty table flinched away from her. "I care," she said with a haughty sniff, "because we're pilots. Because it's what she deserves from you," she stressed, "and because I owe her." She took a sip of her tea. "Because she's our friend."
Shinji focused on his food, avoiding her stare as she continued lecturing him.
"You're the only person she's going to want to see when she gets to have visitors. Do you want to show up looking like you've been hit with a truck?"
"We are the only support we have. If we don't look out for each other, nobody will." She shook her head. "I'll admit to being harder on you two than was maybe necessary, but look at the facts. It's us against the Angels. And I really mean just us. High Command is completely hopeless. They had no idea what to do with you when you were inside Unit-01. They dithered and dallied for months on end, running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They have no more a clue of what's going on than us, and when Rei makes it through this, it's going to be in spite of them." That's if she makes it through this. "When we walk into her hospital room to see her, it's because of her strength. Not because of some miracle plan from High Command."
Her eyes softened as she returned to her own tray of food. "We only have each other. Only the pilots know what it's like inside those things. You, me, Rei, Suzahara- only we know what it's like to stare down oblivion and make it blink. How many times have we done this stupid song and dance? How many times have we saved the world? How many times have they actually helped?"
Shinji's chopsticks paused halfway to his mouth as he began to speak but thought better of it when her eyes narrowed again.
"These assholes couldn't fix you. You came back on your own, and they still can't figure out how you did it. They couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions printed on the heel. We're the only ones who we can depend on. So eat. Sleep. Take a shower. Because when Rei wakes up, it's not High Command that's going to be sitting next to her. It's going to be us."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Tabris was smiling as he entered the cavernous room in the very depths of the Geo-Front, down below Terminal Dogma. While it was far from unusual for the boy to be smiling, his current smile was one of smug satisfaction. They had hidden the ADAM sample here, but his persistence had paid off, and he had finally located it and the missing Gendo Ikari. The room was darkened save for a small circle of light centered on the isolation casket and attending equipment. Lilith's presence here was overpowering and nearly drowned out the psychic pull ADAM emitted, but he had found them all the same. Now, all he needed to do was collect ADAM, call up Unit-01, and pay a visit to Lilith.
This charade was almost over.
"I know you're here," he cheerfully called out to his hidden sister. Rei dutifully stepped forward into the circle of light, looking as nonplussed as ever, a white lab coat thrown on over top of a NERV jumpsuit. "There you are, my wayward sister! How did you enjoy the sensation of death?"
Rei watched him draw closer, his posture and attitude of one utterly comfortable and sure of their victory.
"Nothing to say? Well, I hope you found it as exhilarating as I did," he grinned and looked down at the casket. "I suppose it's a fitting place for him, buried underground in a casket. The irony is delicious, isn't it?" His eyes flicked back to his sister, and his smile grew cold and cruel. "You can continue to give me the silent treatment, but without Unit-00, you have no way to defeat me. Your pouting is undignified."
Rei said nothing but pulled a hand out of her coat pocket. She held a small pistol, which she leveled at Tabris.
"Do you really think your little toy is going to hurt me, Rei?" he mockingly asked, putting his hands up in simulated fright. "Without an AT-Field of your own, you will have no hope of stopping me."
Rei pulled the trigger, firing until the magazine was empty. Each shot had ricocheted off the shining barrier of his AT-Field as he stood beyond it, an amused expression on his face. With a casual look of disdain, he shaped the AT-Field into a weapon and crushed the girl, who wordlessly exploded into LCL.
Looking around the room, he chuckled. "Well?" he asked, spreading his arms out in a welcoming gesture. "Do you want to continue to try to stop the inevitable?"
The only response was several hundred Rei clones opening fire with a combination of battle rifles and machine guns she had acquired from the security stores. Tracer fire burned in lines from all across the room, from the ground level and up into the furthest reaches of the cavern. Bullets flashed off his AT-Field and sprayed outwards from him at all angles. He started to laugh, loud and clear against the chatter of the weapons. Eventually, the clones ran out of ammunition and the guns went silent.
"Did that make you feel better?" he asked, the smile still on his face irritating Rei more than his laughter.
She stepped forward again in a new body, this one also wearing a lab coat. How many of those things does she have? Tabris wondered idly.
"You were instructed to stay away," she says, finally breaking her silence. "You have decided to flout my instructions."
"You continue to amaze me!" Tabris laughed; this time, it was a vicious, nasty laugh, a cruel ringing thing. It was the laugh of a man with his hated enemy powerless and in his grasp. "You can use so many of these lifeless bodies, but you insist on putting them to such mundane ends." He cast out with his AT-Field again, ready to crush his sister's newest mouthpiece.
Rei's eyes glowed red, two burning embers in the dim light, and all the other clone's eyes lit up simultaneously. A field of hexagons flashed before her, forming a shield around herself and the casket.
Tabris could see many things that other people couldn't, and he began to laugh again, an entirely honest and genuine laugh of mirth. He slowly spun around in a circle, looking at the faint whisps of light feeding from each of the clones into the shell that blocked him from ADAM.
"How utterly fantastic!" he said, marveling at the display. "So you can use them to generate an AT-Field! Before, you needed Unit-00 to project the field to defeat me. Now you've amassed an army of clones to feed you their minuscule grains of power."
He stopped laughing as he completed the spin and turned back to look at the clone hiding behind her AT-Field. "But it will not save you in the end, little sister. No, we are now complete with this farcical game, and I will have my prize. I don't know what you did with him, but now he's changed. The Song of his Soul has been altered, and it is no longer the beautifully broken melody that I love. I will have to spend a great deal of time, I think, to retune him into a more pleasing strain, but I will have that time."
"Interesting," Rei said, her voice so soft that it was almost inaudible to the non-angelic. "You can tell that something has changed, but you do not know what or why."
Annoyed at the commentary, Tabris sneered at her, the look of anger marring his features. "What are you babbling on about? I know that you are weak, and your powers pale in comparison to mine, but surely you can see that the nature of his soul has been altered!"
"His soul…" Rei said, wonderingly, only halfway paying attention to the increasingly angry boy as her mind raced to process this information. She let out a small gasp as things clicked into place, and a look of unbridled surprise washed across her features. "The AT-Field is the Soul!"
Now it was Tabris' turn to look surprised, his mouth dropping open as he gaped at his sister. "Are you so ill-informed that you didn't know this? What did you think you were battling with this whole time?"
Rei's face snapped back into her usual display of unemotional detachment. This was not the time to process the new information she had received and extrapolate further from it.
She did not need to do anything as mundane as looking around the room to see the state of her clones. They were all tied directly into her consciousness, and she no more needed to look at them to know where they were than she needed to know where her hands or feet were.
She was still weaker than her brother, and the extra clones arrayed around them in the room were not protected by the AT-Field- by her soul. With what she now knew, she might be able to generate a protective barrier without the added proximity of her clones, but this was also not the time to conduct that experiment.
Now was the time to finish dealing with Tabris.
"I have been fighting them with Science," Rei replied.
"You will never be a match for me!" he said with a shake of his head. "I admire your struggles, and your parlor tricks are amusing, but your pathetic little toys won't do you any good." He held up one arm, spreading his fingers wide. "Watch now, closely."
He swung the arm down, and all the excess clones in the room were pulped into LCL. None of them cried out in pain, and the only sound was of wet splashing and the clatter of dropped weapons.
Only the Rei before him remained in the room.
"As things currently stand, your assessment that your Angelic powers exceed my own is correct," Rei noted. "This has been an illuminating experiment thus far."
"Rei, are you still trying to put on a brave face?" Tabris asked, exasperated. "I think we're past the point where you can pull off a believable bluff, don't you?"
"I do not need to bluff," Rei said, sounding faintly insulted. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him, watching him with dangerous intent.
Tabris took a half step backward as she smiled, a grim thing of cold mirth as she silently laughed at him.
"Eyes," she announced, pulling her hands out of her pockets. She held a radio control in one hand, and she pressed the singular button without further elaboration.
A loud clank sounded in the room, a dull, heavy sound, and the background hum of machinery that had filled the air intensified a thousandfold. Bright blue light bathed the chamber as the particle gun Rei had installed into the room's ceiling fired down on where they stood.
His AT-Field splashed into existence but shattered under the power of the accelerated ions. He had only the merest fraction of a second to glare his hate at Rei before they disintegrated and his core detonated.
Almost half a kilometer away, Rei stood up from the chair she had placed by the actual isolation casket containing the Commander's unconscious form. The major task was complete, and she left the chamber to head back to her labs, intent on exploring the ramifications of Tabris' revelation to her on the nature of the AT-Field.
You are too much like the Angels, she thought as she walked, tracing her way through the maze of tunnels. You are too impressed with the power given to you by the Fruit of the Tree of Life, and you ignore the Science of Mankind at your own peril. With each step she took, she began to concentrate more power within herself, testing the feeling of her soul. It was by Science that you were wrought, and you would do well to not forget that fact. Even if I was confident in my ability to overpower you alone, why would I forsake Science? Why would I turn away from the thing that has separated Mankind from the Beasts ever since we first lifted a stone to hunt prey?
She flung her soul out from her body, feeling it infuse into her clones. It is through Science that we illuminated the dark of night. It is through Science that we warm our homes in the cold of winter. Every problem will be solved, every obstacle destroyed. It is through Science that we illuminate our path, and it is through Science that we will forge our future.
You are not needed in that future.
Red eyes flared like twin supernovas.
You are not needed at all.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Slightly further away, Lilith moaned and wrestled against her restraints, flinching back in fear from feeling Rei's soul flooding across the Geo-Front, feeling thousands of bodies writhe with infused will and purpose.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"You have once again failed to subdue Ikari's creature," Keel Lorenz observed, watching the young man dress. "Some on the council say you cannot complete your task."
"I've allowed her to have her amusements," Tabris responded, his voice light but respectful. "She is ultimately incapable of stopping us. She must resort to trickery and low cunning to see any success against me." He was not concerned about what the others on the council thought. Keel was the only one that mattered. The others had their purposes, but Keel's word was the will of the council. None would defy him. Only Gendo Ikari dared to do so, but he also had his purposes, although his usefulness was at its end.
Keel studied the boy's true form, seeing the figure of light that was his soul. The power it represented was the only reason he had been allowed to awaken for a third time. Keel had punished him in the past for his failures, and the boy knew he existed at the old man's continued whim. "We have begun to make our moves. With the other Angels defeated, the final day draws near. There is no more time for idle amusements or diversions."
Tabris finished dressing and genuflected before Keel. "She once told me that I would need to bring more of myself," he said, looking up from where he kneeled. "Let us see how happy she is when I show up in my multitude."
"The fate of destruction," they recited in unison, Tabris smoothly rising to his feet, "is also the joy of rebirth."