From: Garnax X-Remarq-Mlgw-Version: RemarQ MLGW Version 0.1 (28Jan00) X-Envelope-From: garnax@lysator.liu.se ______________________ Becoming Human ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Author: Mats Forsen (garnax@lysator.liu.se) (Formerly named "Ayanami wa hito ni naru") This story is set in the 22nd episode. It diverges exactly at the middle of the episode when the angel appears. This is my first attempt at a fanfic so C&C is greatly appreciated... Seeing as there doesn't seem to be any clearcut answer in NGE as to how Ayanami Rei works, especially with regards to the transfer of soul/memory between clones I've written down how I see it and applied that to the fanfic, read at the end of the text if interested. Previous chapters and my other stories can be found at: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~garnax/fanfics.html Neon Genesis Evangelion and everything isn't mine. Don't sue me. Revision 0.4, 1999-10-23 Thanks go to: Likatare, people on IRC who discussed NGE with me --------- Prologue: The Beginning --------- The personnel in the control room looked up at the big viewscreen. The sighting of the 15:th Angel had just been confirmed, but it was just hanging there in orbit silently like a stalking predator. Misato thought the whole situation over and wondered out loud. "So, does that mean that it's looking for a place to land? Or that it's going to destroy us from up there?" Makoto didn't need to think long before glancing back at her and voicing his opinion. "We can't attack it easily from this position." Misato nods and continues that line of thought. "Unless it comes into our range, there's nothing we can do." She pauses for a moment before saying: "The EVAs can't destroy an enemy that's in orbit." She thinks hard and runs a few plans through her mind before coming up with the only alternative that even has a possibility of succeeding. She glances over at Maya and asks: "What's Rei's status?" Maya answers promptly: "She and Unit 00 are both in good condition." Misato acknowledges her and barks out in a commanding voice: "Sortie Unit 00. Prepare for extreme long range firing. Unit 02, Asuka, be ready to sortie as her back up." Inside her EVA Asuka has a surprised look on her face. "Back up? Me? For Unit 00?" Misato responds cooly with: "That's right, take the rear guard position." Asuka is starting to get angry and growls: "You can't be serious..." Just as she is about to blurt out something in the heat of anger she pauses and gets a scared look on her face as she suddenly realizes this might be the beginning of them replacing her as a pilot. Her face runs through the gamut of emotions from pure rage that they dare question her superiority to the fearful doubt that she might actually be bad enough to warrant it. After cooling off she finally resigns herself to follow orders no matter how much she might hate them so that she doesn't give them any further reason to remove her. She glares mightily into the video pickup and angrily chokes out: "Hai." Misato isn't fazed at all but just nods her head and commands: "EVA Unit 00 launch!" ------ The blue EVA Unit 00 is standing still in the rain as a huge rifle rises from a hidden compartment in the ground. Rei maneuvers her EVA into taking the rifle and starts to aim at the target. Although the Angel is far out of visual range the EVA has superior aim so she lets the computer handle it. Shigeru gives a status update over the intercom: "The target is still out of range." Predictably Rei doesn't react at all and just keeps waiting for the rifle to lock onto the Angel. Just as the crosshairs start to line up a bright ray of light strikes down from the Angel at the unsuspecting EVA and pilot. Inside NERV headquarters alarms go off and the personnel rush to find out what the ray is and how to counter it. Misato looks stricken and cries out: "The Angel has a particle beam weapon?!" Shigeru checks his monitor and responds with: "Negative, there are no thermal emissions being detected." Maya gasps in surprise at what she sees on her monitor and informs the others with a desperate voice: "We've got abnormal readings in her psychograph! Mental contamination is about to begin!" Ritsuko can only stand and look amazed as she tries to figure out how that could be possible. "The Angel's making a psychic attack? The Angels don't understand our minds that well!" ------ Inside the EVA Rei is feeling a most strange sensation. It is so distracting that her finger squeezes the trigger prematurely. The rifle fires but the shots are too low and miss the Angel. The feeling intensifies and she somehow senses that she is no longer alone in the EVA. Curiously (or as curious as Rei can get) she glances around the entry plug but cannot see anyone else present. The feeling is not unlike that which she gets when she tries to sync with her EVA. Therefore she rationalizes that there must be someone else trying to interface with her mind. She is so puzzled by this sensation that she doesn't answer the frantic hails from the control room. ------ Inside NERV headquarters everything is in chaos with people trying to figure out what is happening. The ray didn't seem to be affecting Unit 00 much other than that Rei had stopped answering. Looking over Makoto's shoulder she asks: "What's the result of the beam analysis?" Makoto answers: "It's an energy oscillation pattern on a visible wavelength. It's similar to an AT Field, but we don't know much more." ------ The presence in her mind starts showing her pieces of her memory. Puzzled at this behavior she wonders if it is trying to communicate with her. The memories become more and more vivid and increase in intensity so much that it is hard for her to focus on reality. She sees in her mind a place she will never forget, it is the room where her first incarnation died. The scene plays out for her as she remembers it. The memory of Ritsuko's mother slowly squeezing the life out of her is very realistic, the pure hatred in her eyes is unmistakable. Rei starts having trouble to breathe because the feeling of her throat being crushed is overwhelming. If this was anyone else than Rei that person would probably be screaming insanely at reliving such traumatic memories, but all she felt was a mild nausea and confusion. She couldn't understand why the entity in her mind was showing her that memory, what purpose could it have in communication? Somehow sensing that it wasn't having the desired effect, the Angel tried even harder in searching for a memory to traumatize the pilot. It tried flashing memories of Shinji insulting his father and Asuka slapping her for being a doll but nothing seemed to have any effect. Rei watched the memories flash by in confusion, she recognized that they were not 'happy' memories, as much as she could apply the term to herself. She had been told repeatedly by commander Ikari that emotions were unnecessary and that the project was more important so she had never taken them into consideration. ------ People inside the NERV control room continued trying to analyze the ray. Maya thought she heard Rei mutter something low under her breath so she increased the volume until they could make out what it was. Slowly they began to make out what she was saying: "What is the purpose of this?.... Why are you showing me these memories?...". Misato kept her cool exterior while burning with fear for the Child inside. ------ The Angel would have screamed in frustration if it had been capable of it. It desperately searched for anything that could have an effect on the strange lilim piloting the copy of Lilith. It couldn't understand why it didn't have any effect? Had it been completely misinformed as to how the lilims think? It examined the lilim harder and noticed something that had escaped its notice before, probably since it would never have expected it. The lilim seemed to have a connection to Lilith! It actually seemed like the lilim was using part of Lilith's soul. No wonder that ordinary lilim emotions were beyond this particular lilim. Now that it knew what to look for it gathered up its mental powers and prepared to make a thrust at that link. ------ Rei had been getting more and more confused and couldn't understand how she was supposed to react to this playback of her memories. Suddenly the memories stopped and she wondered if it was over. Within seconds however she felt an incredibly excruciating pain in her mind. She screamed out her pain as loud as she could. It felt like someone was ripping her life essence from her body. The pain just kept going on and on and she felt herself growing numb. ------ In the NERV control room everyone paused as Maya suddenly exclaimed excitedly: "Mental contamination is stopping!" Just as Misato was getting her hopes up her ears were assailed by an incredibly high scream that sounded like someone having their body crushed slowly while being immersed in acid. Her ears were ringing with the sound as someone turned down the volume on the speakers. Glancing up at the main viewer Misato could feel the blood freezing in her veins as she saw Rei spasm uncontrollably while screaming her lungs out. Looking over at Maya she screams out: "How's Rei?" Maya answers with a panicked voice: "Her situation is critical! The mental contamination is crossing her ego borderline!" ------- Chapter End ------- What happens next? Will Rei die? Whatever happened to Asuka? ------- Here is how I perceive Rei: Rei was created by Gendo and company for the sole purpose of initiating third impact. Gendo indoctrinated her her entire life to suppress her emotions and thus become his perfect tool. Since it would be stupid to make such a weapon without any safeguards he purposefully made sure she liked him. As an example just look how she talks to him compared to other people. Thus Rei thinks emotions are superfluous and accepts anything Gendo tells her as truth. I mean, Gendo couldn't have her refuse Third Impact just because she cared for someone right? She probably carries her emotions on to Shinji because he is Gendo's son. Shinji is the only one other than Gendo she shows emotions too.. When Asuka badmouths him she actually speaks up.. They cannot activate another clone while one is alive since that clone is using part of Lilith's soul to keep it conscious. Attempts at waking multiple clones have just ended up with one active one and the rest braindead. When Rei dies the soul-part returns to Lilith and can then be used for the next clone. This is just pure speculation on my part but it doesn't seem to clash too much with canon NGE but if someone else has a better idea I welcome discussing it privately. (don't spam the newsgroup) / Mats Forsen, garnax@lysator.liu.se