D'oh! Typed in the wrong address last time.
---
0:9--The Fall of the Mighty
        Asuka was not doing well in her simulation, which caused her to
think about why she might not be doing well in her simulation, which
in turn caused her to do even worse during her simulation, which...
        "Asuka, you're getting distracted!" Ritsuko scolded.
"Concentrate, and don't think about other things!"
        "I'm trying!" She yelled back, her brow furrowing in
concentration.
        "Trying isn't good enough, Asuka," Misato reminded her.
        "You don't have to rub it in," Asuka mumbled sourly.


        After the synchronization test, Misato made her way to a certain
meeting location and waited for a certain informant. (I would tell you,
but then I'd have to kill you.)
        "I'm here," Misato whispered.
        "All right." the informant cleared his throat. "Units 5-13 have
been produced."
        Misato's eyes widened in surprise. "The committee must really
be in a hurry..." she muttered.
        "Do you think that they're expecting a large scale attack?"
        Misato bit her lip. "Perhaps, but not in the way you're assuming."


        Later that night, at Misato's apartment, Shinji, Misato, Asuka,
and Radditsu were doing a splendid job of avoiding each other. Just
when Misato thought that they would pass the entire night without
saying a single word, the phone rang.
        "Asuka!" Misato called from her room.
        "I'm not getting it! It might be a call from 'Kaji-kun'." Asuka said
the name at a higher, school-girl-in-love tone of voice.
        Shinji sighed. "I'll get it."
        Asuka melodramatically put a hand to her forehead. "Oh, I'm
_so_ sorry for letting the Great Shinji do such a minimal task."
        Shinji ignored Asuka and picked up the receiver.
"Hai...moshi-moshi?" He listened to the voice on the other side of the
line, then offered the receiver to Asuka. "It's for you, from your
mother."
        "What? Mother? Give me that!" Asuka snatched the receiver
from Shinji and began to converse in rapid-fire German. A loud
"whoosh" sound was heard as Asuka's conversation went completely
over the head of the non-German-speaking Authoress.
        Radditsu looked at Shinji. "You know what she's talking about?"
        Shinji simply shook his head and shrugged.
        "...Guten Nacht!" Asuka put the receiver back with triumph. She
let out a long sigh. "Ach, what a drag."
        "At least you have a mother to talk to," Shinji pointed out,
suddenly brave again.
        "Oh, she's just my stepmother," Asuka said with a casual wave
of her hand. "Not that I don't like her or anything, but I just feel a bit
awkward around her..." Asuka frowned. "Wait a minute! Why am I
telling you all of this?!?"
        "Er, sorry?" Shinji offered timidly.
        "Argh!" Asuka stomped away.


        Asuka's synch ratio dropped even lower; at her current ratio,
she could barely get her EVA to move.
        "This is even worse then yesterday," Ritsuko stated with a
frown.
        "She's having a period," Misato explained to Ritsuko in a low
voice.
        Ritsuko shook her head. "That shouldn't affect her sync ratio."
she turned on the microphone. "Asuka, you're free to go."


        Asuka and Rei stood in the elevator, saying nothing due to the
extreme dizziness caused by the sudden scene change.
        Rei looked at Asuka.
        Asuka looked at Rei.
        The elevator descended.
        Rei blinked. Once.
        "Ha! I win!" Asuka gloated.
        "........"


        The next day, instead of going to school, Asuka went to where
her Eva had been stored.
        "Listen up," she addressed her mech with confidence. "I'm your
pilot, so you're to do what I say, got it?"
        "As you wish, Mistress Asuka," a deep voice intoned.
        Asuka nearly had a heart attack when she realized that the voice
belonged to Radditsu, who was now standing behind her and
smirking like the cat that ate the canary. Asuka was very tempted to
wipe that smirk off of his face, but remembering what had happened
the last time she tried to hit him, decided to stand there and fume
instead. Radditsu noted with some amusement that Asuka turned
almost as red as her hair.
        An alarm went off, indicating the approach of an Angel.


        A large circular double-helixed band of light orbited the Earth
silently.
        "Hmm..." Misato tapped her chin thoughtfully as she looked at
the image of the Angel. "Looks like we'll just have to wait until it gets
in range and knock it out of the sky." she turned to Maya. "How's Rei
and Unit 00?"
        "Both are fine," Maya reported.
        "Great." Misato hit the communicator. "Rei, move out and get
ready. Asuka, take the back and cover Rei."
        "Me? Back-up?" Asuka asked indignantly.
        "That's what I said, Asuka. You're going to be the rear guard."
        "No, way! I'm taking point." Unit 02 began lumbering forward.
        Back in the control room, Misato held up a hand to stop any
protests. "If she wants to prove herself, let her."
        "If Asuka screws up, can I be the next pilot?" Radditsu asked
half-jokingly.
        "I heard that, Radish-head," Asuka all but growled. "Just you
watch!"
        The ring of light continued its leisurely orbit.
        "Damn it, hurry up!" Asuka urged impatiently, aiming her
cannon. The crosshairs moved together at a snail's pace. Just as the
cannon centered on the target, something slammed into her mind with
the subtlety of a ton of bricks.
        o/ It's a Small World After All! It's a Small World After All...
o/
(Sorry, I don't know what came over me.)
        Asuka fired wildly as she felt the walls she had erected around
her being pried apart. "No!" She screamed. "Get out of my head!
Don't look at me!"
        "What in the world is going on?" Misato demanded.
        Ritsuko studied the readings coming from Asuka's Eva, and
frowned. "I'm not sure...it's almost as if...as if the Angel's trying to
come in contact with the psyche of the pilot..."
        Misato stared at Ritsuko. "Then what's going to happen to
Asuka?"
        "I don't know..."
        "No! NO! Stop!" Asuka screamed. The cannon had long ago
run out of ammunition--the large craters in the ground testified to
that--but she was continuing to shoot at whatever it was that was
overhead.
        A few feet away, Rei was preparing to fire the Really Big Arse
Gun. The crosshairs joined, and Rei pulled the trigger, gritting her
teeth as the recoil of the gun jolted through her Eva.
        She missed.
        Shinji, sitting in the entry plug of his Eva, winced at Asuka's
cries. "Let me go out there and help, please!"
        "No," Gendou answered. "The freeze on Unit 01 stands."
        Misato looked around the room and did a quick head count.
"Hey, wait a minute...where's Radditsu?"
        Someone pointed to a tiny figure on the screen that was flying
towards Unit 02.
        Mentally, Gendou was throwing a fit, but he kept his outward
composure. "Rei, go to Central Dogma and retrieve the Lance
Longini."
        Futsuyuki stared at Gendou. "You do realize what the
committee is going to think of this."
        Gendou clasped his hands. "That is irrelevant. The scenario
_must_ proceed as planned, and if I can't turn the clock backwards,
I'll make it go forwards."


        Radditsu landed on the back of Asuka's Eva and quickly found
the manual emergency eject button for the entry plug. He pressed it,
and the diesel-powered engine slowly pushed the plug out. When the
plug had fully ejected, Radditsu jumped onto it, and reached out
towards the levers that would open the plug.
        "Yeow! Hot!" his hand automatically darted back upon touching
the superheated metal. "Damn..." Radditsu stared at the plug for a
while.
        Asuka was breaking into hysterics, and Radditsu could hear it.
"Stop! Stop looking into me!"
        'If I were in there, I'd sure as hell like someone to get me
out,' he thought. Steeling himself, he spit on his hands, wrenched his
eyes shut, and grabbed the levers. With one mighty heave, Radditsu
forced the lever to turn. LCL began pouring out of the plug, covering
Radditsu in the sick-smelling liquid.
        Almost a the same time, Rei, who had by this time returned with
the Lance, took careful aim and ran three steps before launching the
projectile with the grace of an Olympic athlete. This time, she didn't
miss. The Lance streaked through its target into the darkness of
space, and began orbiting Earth's only (natural) satellite.
        Sinatra's "Fly Me To The Moon" suddenly broke out over all of
the loudspeakers.


        By the time Shinji found his way to Asuka, the clouds which had
been dissipated by the Lance had returned, and it was drizzling lightly
again. Asuka, though, didn't seem to care; she merely sat on the
ground and dripped a mixture of water and LCL.
        "Asuka?" Shinji ventured timidly, inching close to Asuka.
        "Why didn't you do anything?" Asuka demanded angrily,
unexpectedly grabbing Shinji by the collar.
        "I-I wanted to, but I couldn't!" Shinji gasped out as his air
supply rapidly diminished.
        Asuka shook Shinji like a rag doll. "You didn't even try! I had to
be rescued by Wonder Girl and Radish-head!" She looked like she
was ready to punch him, but dropped him instead and sank to the
ground, hugging her knees to her chest. "Stupid Shinji!" she repeated
over and over again between sobs.
        "Asuka, I..." Shinji dropped to his knees, startling Asuka into
staring at him. "I'm so sorry...I wanted to help, honest!" Tears welled
at the edges of his eyes. "Really, I did..."
        Asuka suddenly developed an overwhelming urge to kiss Shinji.
She shook her head. 'What in the world am I thinking? That's so
way Out Of Character!' She looked at Shinji again. 'But then, he
does look awfully cute when he's all guilty and apologizing like
that.'
        "Aw, to hell with it," Asuka muttered as she decided that she
didn't care less about her reputation as a bad-tempered, angsty teen.
        "Whaa--mph!" was all Shinji could say as Asuka's mouth
connected with his.
        Asuka held the kiss for as long as she had held her previous one
with Shinji before breaking it off. "I feel much better now," she sighed.
She shook a finger at Shinji. "Remember, this didn't happen." Shinji,
whose brain had completely shut down by now, could only nod
blankly. Asuka giggled. "You're so gullible, stupid Shinji!" She planted
a small peck on his cheek before sauntering off. Meanwhile, Shinji
began grinning like an idiot while his subconcious cheerfully hummed
'I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Weiner'. (It was either that or '99
Bottles of Ebisu on the Wall'.)


0:10--Rei's Soul
        What looked like a giant glowing piece of noodle hovered at the
edge of Tokyo-3, conveniently interrupting Gendou's "meeting" with
SEELE--which, in reality, mostly consisted of Gendou acting
unnecessarily mysterious and the SEELE members doing the old
song-and-dance about the "scenario", yadda yadda ya.
        "Radditz, sortie," Gendou ordered. "Or at least draw the Angel's
attention."
        "Hey, waitaminute!" Asuka protested. "That's _my_ EVA he's
piloting!"
        "Don't worry, Asuka," Radditz said sweetly. "I'll make sure I be
extra careful." he pushed the levers forward, but didn't get any
response. "What the--?"
        Back in the control room, Gendou only smiled and hid the wire
clippers behind his back.
        Meanwhile, out on the battlefield, the Angel was heading rapidly
towards Rei. Unit 00 reached out to grab the Angel, which it did, but
Rei gasped in alarm as something even stranger than Misato's
cooking--if that were even possible--began spreading up her arm.
She tried countering with her AT field, but that didn't seem to slow
the Angel's progress much. Through the haze of pain and the frantic
shouting from the speakers, Rei heard another voice.
        /Come, be [one] with me.../
        "[Who] are you?"
        The scenery changed, and Rei found herself floating in a field of
red facing a Super Deformed (and I do mean Deformed) version of
herself.
        "Come, be [one] with me..." the smaller Rei repeated.
        Rei shook her head. "You are the enemy. I do not wish to
become like you."
        "Is that so?" SD Rei smiled eeriely. "Too [late]. You already
have a [part] of me. A [gift], from me to you."
        A tear formed in Rei's eye and slid down her cheek.
"What...what is this [feeling]? I do not like [it]."
        SD Rei continued to smile. "This is [loneliness], Rei. An
[emptiness] that will eat you up from the [inside]."
        Rei touched the tear and looked at it. "I...I'm...[crying]?"
        Somewhere in the back of her mind, Rei wondered why she and
her mysterious companion had been speaking in brackets.


        "Move, dammit!" Radditz slammed his fists onto the Eva's
controls, to no avail.
        "The freeze on Unit 01 is cancelled," he heard Gendou state
over the speakers. "Move out and sortie."
        "Yes, sir!" Shinji answered with unexpected enthusiasm.
        "Shinji, develop your AT field!" Misato reminded Shinji.
        "Yeah, and don't do anything stupid like get yourself killed,"
Asuka added, not without some bitterness.
        "Hurry up!" Radditz urged. "I don't think Rei can hold up much
longer in there!"
        "I know," Shinji answered back solemnly.


        Rei opened her eyes and found herself inside her entry plug
again. She gasped when she saw Unit 01 charging towards her.
"Ikari-kun!" Then, out of the corner of her eye, she also saw Unit 02.
"Radditz-kun!"
        A mental scale appeared in her mind's eye. On one side was
Shinji, who cared about her, was nice to her, and the Commander's
son. On the other was Radditz, who also cared about her and was
nice to her, but wasn't related to the Commander in any way shape or
form, and was even from outer space. She weighed the two options
back and forth for a while before coming to her decision.
        "I shall have thee both!" she cried out as the Angel wrapped
around her EVA split into two and headed towards the other two
EVAs. Shinji managed to dodge the Angel, but Radditz was too busy
trying to start up Unit 02 to notice his impending doom.
Fortunately--or unfortunately, depending whose point of view you
were taking--Rei came to her senses and reversed her AT field,
drawing the Angel back towards her and keeping it trapped.
        "Rei, what are you doing?" Misato demanded. "Eject now!"
        "If I do, the AT field will disappear." Rei strained to reach the
self-destruct lever. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she grabbed it,
taking one last glance at the world outside before giving it a hard
yank.
        "REI!" Shinji and Radditz screamed (perfectly harmonized) as
Unit 00 erupted in a cross-shaped blast, taking the Angel with it.


        Vegita smirked. "Checkmate. Again."
        Freeza fumed quietly. How could he have not seen that Vegita's
gambit had been a suicide attack intending to take out his defense?
"Another game. Right here, right now."
        Vegita shrugged and reset the board. "You never get tired of
losing, do you?"
        The veins on Freeza's face looked like they were on the verge of
exploding. "Shut up."


        Down the third corridor of the third floor of the third wing of the
NERV HQ hospital ran Shinji, Radditz and Asuka. The three skidded
to a halt when they found Rei sitting in front of room 333, sporting
some bandages that looked oodly familiar to Shinji.
        "I'm so glad you're alive!" Shinji gushed.
        "Yeah! We were so worried about you!" Radditz patted Rei on
the shoulder. "Thanks a lot, Rei. I owe you one."
        Rei looked back blankly. "You do?"
        "You kept stupid Shinji and Radish-head from becoming Angel
food," Asuka said.
        Rei blinked. "I did?"
        "Don't you remember?" Shinji asked.
        "I don't know..." Rei looked away. "I think I am the third."
        "The third what?" Radditz wanted to know, but Rei didn't reply.


        Much later, Rei returned to her apartment. After removing the
bandages, she picked up the pair of tinted glasses resting on her
nightstand. Looking at her reflection through the slightly cracked
lenses, she idly twisted the frame, but the material proved to be too
resilient to give in to her half-hearted attempt to destroy it. A drop of
liquid landed onto the glass, followed by two more.
        "I'm crying," she noted. "I see tears again for the first time." she
paused, taking in the significance of this. "How very confusing."


0:11--I Think I'm a Clone Now
        Ritsuko's mood was getting progressively worse. Not only did
she have to see what was left of Rei after she self-destructed, but she
was forced to stand before the monoliths of SEELE as Rei's "deputy",
whatever that meant. Morever, she found out that her cat had died.
        "We don't mean to embarass you, Dr. Akagi, but this is an
important manner." the display on Lorentz's monolith read "Audio
Only", but Ritsuko wondered how true that was.
        "I don't feel embarassed," she lied.
        "Ah, such spirit, such fire," noted SEELE 02. "No wonder Ikari
is so attached to you."
        "However, it was Ikari himself who recommended you to speak
to us," interjected SEELE 03. "We only have a few simple
questions..."
        Of course, Ritsuko lied through her teeth during the entire thing,
but the SEELE members showed no sign of whether or not they
knew so. Finally, they allowed her to leave and get her clothes back.
        "She's a difficult one, but she's still useful," remarked SEELE 04
after Ritsuko was gone.
        "Yes. The time is drawing near," agreed SEELE 05.
        "Um..." you could almost see SEELE 06's thumbs twiddle.
"So...anyone for a game of bridge?"


        Ritsuko frowned as the display panel read "ACCESS
DENIED". Biting her lip, she tried again.
        "It won't work without my special pass," Misato explained from
behind her, pressing a gun to the back of her head and cocking it.
        "Kaji's handiwork, right?" Ritsuko asked.
        Misato only pressed the gun more tightly against the back of
Ritsuko's head. "Show me everything."
        "By all means." a soft shuffling could be heard in the darkness.
"But Shinji will be a witness to it as well."
        Misato handed Ritsuko a plastic card. "Open the door."
        Ritsuko obeyed and led Misato and Shinji into the heart of
Terminal Dogma.
        "This...this looks like Ayanami's room!" Shinji realized as he
looked around the lab they were walking through. The sparse
decorations, the small bed, even the beakers filled with water
resembled the First Child's apartment to the last detail.
        Ritsuko shook her head. "No, that should be the other way
around. She was born here."
        "Oh." Shinji looked around the room again and marvled at how
similar it was to where Rei was currently living.
        Misato guestured with her gun. "Shall we move on?"
        Ritsuko walked forward. "Of course."
        The three continued forward, but came to a stop again before an
immense skeleton.
        "What is this?" Shinji asked, staring.
        "The first EVA, a failed experiment." Ritsuko switched on the
lights, revealing row after row of similar skeletons.
        "A graveyard..." Shinji breathed.
        "A dumping ground," Ritsuko corrected. "You might not
remember, but this is also where your mother disappeared. She
brought you here to watch her experiment, and you saw everything,
including when everything went wrong."
        "Ritsuko!" Misato scolded sharply.
        Ritsuko only continued forward. "Come along. The more
interesting stuff is further this way."
        They continued walking until they came upon another set of
doors.
        "This is it," Ritsuko said as she slid the card through the slot.
"The truth about the Dummy Plug System."
        Shinji walked into the room and looked around the glass panels.
He let out a gasp as the lights behind the glass was turned on.
"That's--"
        The entire room was like a giant aquarium filled with Rei's. And
they were all naked. Shinji began to feel a little faint.
        "What...what is this?" Misato managed to asked after she
recovered from her shock.
        "The 'dummy' part of the Dummy Plug System," Ritsuko replied.
"And parts for Rei."
        "Is that..." Shinji swallowed, trying to keep his nose from
bleeding. "Is that human?"
        "Biologically speaking, yes, but Rei is the only one who truly has
a soul. The rest of them are nothing but vessels, so to speak." Ritsuko
pulled what looked like a remote control out of her pocket. "And I'll
destroy them, because I hate them."
        "Wait!" Misato grabbed Ritsuko's hand as she was about to
type in the commands. "You don't know what you're doing."
        "Yes I do!" Ritsuko snatched her hand back. "Destruction." a
haunting violin/piano melody began playing from somewhere. "After I
risked everything, even threw away my own body, I lost against
THAT. I can stand anything except THAT." she pressed a button on
the "remote".
        Shinji's nose erupted in a fountain of blood as all of the Rei
clones linked shoulders and began dancing the can-can. The
background music abruptly stopped and changed to a much more
upbeat tune at the same time. It was only a matter of time before the
overwhelmed boy passed out on the floor.
(Yes, I am very evil.)
        Ritsuko sweatdropped. "Oops, that was Gendou's 'secret
fantasy' button." she pressed a different button, and the music
changed back to the previous melody as the Rei clones dissolved to
the sound of childish giggling. She turned to Misato. "Mind if I skip
the rest of that angsty bit?"
        "I don't see why not," Misato answered. "The whole mood's
been ruined anyway."


        Ritsuko made it a point to ignore Gendou when he entered her
cell.
        "Why did you destroy the Dummy System?" he asked sternly.
        Ritsuko crossed her arms. "Because I felt like it. Besides, it
wasn't just the Dummy System that I destroyed, but Rei." Gendou
didn't comment. "Maybe now that she's not so easily replacable any
more, you won't take her for granted." then, almost in a whisper, she
added, "like you did to me."
        Gendou 'tsked'. "You disappoint me, Dr. Akagi."
        "You don't even think of me at all," Ritsuko shot back
accusingly.
        "Of course not. You, too, can be replaced." with that, Gendou
turned and left, closing the cell door behind him and leaving Ritsuko
to sit in the darkness once more.
---
-"Dot"


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