Evangelion "What If...?"

[Sidewinder]

I used this scene as the setup for "Death Is Never the End", starring an ACC, but it has many other uses. I offer this scene freely to the BBS members, asking only to know what YOU will use it for.

As with "The Berserker's Guide to Antiterrorism", the notes are there to help non-otaku, NOT to insult the readers' intelligence.

***

1030 hours, Tokyo Time. Ayanami Rei, the First Child, stared at the darkness within the Multipurpose Humanoid Fighting Machine, Evangelion Unit 01. Like a womb, the cockpit protected her by imprisoning her, simultaneously comforting and disturbing. She tried to suppress the conflict between her senses, just as she tried to suppress the conflict between her genes.

Whirrrr!

The sound of Unit 01's activation was accompanied by a kaleidoscopic light show as the liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that lined the cockpit were turned on. The colors quickly resolved themselves into recognizable forms. Rei saw the control booth for the Eva cage. Ikari Gendo, Commander of the United Nations Nuclear Emergency Response Vector (UN NERV), sat within the booth. He was Rei's god, the one who, through the genetic engineering specialists under his command, gave her life. The one who, through the Evangelion Project, gave her life a purpose. The one who could, through his words, take away her life and its purpose.

"The pilot has commenced the joining," noted 1st Lieutenant Aoba Shigeru.

Rei's face was a porcelain mask, concealing her fear and hatred. She knew the Eva could save this world, or destroy it. 'Am I strong enough to control the Eva? Am I strong enough to save this world? Do I want to control the Eva? Do I want to save this world, which I am a stranger to?' She did not know the answers, and she hated her own ignorance. She tried not to let her emotions interfere with her work, her life's purpose.

"Start system phase two," ordered Doctor Akagi Ritsuko, the director of the Evangelion Project.

"Synapses inserted. Junction started."

Rei shivered as she felt, through the Eva's nerves, the cold air from the Eva cage's climate control systems. Her chest felt tight as the Eva's heart and lungs began to beat and breathe.

"Pulses transmitted," noted 1st Lt Ibuki Maya.

"All circuits are operational."

Rei suppressed the urge to vomit. The LCL that filled the cockpit carried the scent of blood to her nose, as well as oxygen to her lungs. It became more difficult to suppress her fear. The valves of the Eva's heart were hungry mouths, tearing apart Rei's self-awareness to feed the Eva.

"The initial contact has no problems."

"Power has been transmitted to the brachial muscle in both arms. There are no problems with the nerve links."

"Check. Up to 2550 on the list are satisfied."

"Arrange for the third connection."

"Up to 2580 are satisfied." Maya counted down to the moment when the absolute borderline was reached, when Rei's control over the Eva, or the Eva's control over her, was strongest.

'Rei...' Alarmed, Rei turned her head rearwards, searching for the speaker. 'Rei...' Rei turned forwards. "Who are you?" she asked. 'Rei...' She saw her reflection on the LCD, calling her name with her own voice. 'I am you...' "What do you want?"

"Rei?" Ikari was alarmed by the confusion in Rei's voice.

Rei's reflection smiled. 'I want what you want... I want completion... I want freedom!'

"Pulses are beginning to flow back!" Maya examined the Eva and Rei's life signs, searching for the problem's cause. Rei's brainwaves became irregular, a sign of mental instability. As the Eva's pulse became stronger, Rei's pulse became weaker.

"Problems encountered at the 3rd stage. Rejection is setting in on the nerve center elements."

"Terminate the contacts," ordered Ritsuko.

"Negative," answered Maya. "The signal's not being received!" Rumble! Maya looked away from the monitors, towards the Eva cage. The 40-meter-tall robot was struggling against the restraints that secured it to the cage wall. Snap! The clamps on its right forearm were shattered. Squeak... Clang! The bolts on its shoulders bent and broke. "Unit 01 is out of control!"

"Terminate the experiment," ordered Ikari. "Shut off the external power."

"Yes, Sir." Ritsuko forced herself to look away from the Eva, towards her computer console. "Impossible... Unit 01's S² engine has been activated!"

"What?!" Ikari looked away from Ritsuko, towards the cage. Unit 01 ran towards the control booth, its right hand closed into a fist, its arm extended. Boom! Clatter! The windows, though made of bulletproof glass, were unable to withstand the blow. Ikari forced himself to stand still, to watch the machine. Rei was a clone of his late wife. He must know what would happen to her; what would happen to him was unimportant.

"It's dangerous! Get back!" Ritsuko turned to Maya, her aide. "Special Bakelite. Hurry!" The resin was sprayed into the cage, covering the Eva and the floor. As it dried and solidified, the Bakelite should restrain the Eva.

Boom! Clatter! The Eva withdrew its fist to launch another attack. Beeeeep! It froze, like a toy robot whose batteries had been removed. "Rei..." Ikari turned to Maya. "Status of the pilot?"

Maya hit a hotkey, ordering her console to display Rei's life signs instead of the Eva's power systems. An alarm had been set off. "Pulse... Negative. Breathing... Negative. Brainwaves... Negative." She covered her mouth, sickened by the news. "She's dead."

"No!" Ikari knelt on the floor, weakened by grief. "No..." Squeak! Ikari looked up. Unit 01 had raised a hand to its helmet. "Rei?"

Unit 01 tore its visor away from its helmet. Strands of sky blue hair, the same shade as Rei's, flowed from the resulting gaps. The face, which was as featureless as a sock puppet's, had shaped itself to resemble Rei's. The people stared in shock at the Eva's transformation.

"I am not your doll," said the Eva. "I... am free!"

The people instinctively shut their eyes and knelt down as a blinding light, a manifestation of the Eva's absolute terror (AT) field, was projected from its chest. The Eva became like the sun, burning away the Bakelite, the Eva cage, and the city of New Tokyo-3.

***

What do you think?

In my fic, Misato survived because she was at Matsushiro when NERV HQ was destroyed. Shinji's fate is as follows:

***

[Japanese PM] Osato approached the seated woman and put his hand on her knee. "How's your son?"

"Shinji achieved a 41.3% synch rate with Unit 00."

"Is he loyal to our cause?" The hand slid onto her thigh.

"My late husband spent ten years preparing him for this day. Shinji has been mentally and physically conditioned to be the perfect Eva pilot."

"I heard Ikari performed genetic engineering experiments on the Children. Was your son...?"

"Shinji was injected with stem cells, harvested from the 2nd Angel," Lilith, "to raise his synch rate; the experiment was successful."

"And he bears no ill will towards you for doing this?" The hand reached between her legs.

"He's been conditioned to accept this." The woman stood up. "I must supervise the modifications to Unit 00." She performed a zarei. "May I return to the cage, Osato-sama?"

Osato smiled. "Of course."

***

Sounds like something Gendo would do, yes?

The woman in this scene is NOT Ikari Yui, but an imposter; she acts submissive to make the Japanese PM underestimate her, making the man vulnerable to her manipulation.

[Sidewinder]

Really, you can do whatever you want with the scenario that this scene has set up. Make Misato die in the blast, let her live, make Gendo come back from the dead, leave him dead, etc.

One idea that popped in my head after watching 'Samurai Resurrection' is to have the spirit that possessed Rei be that of Amakusa Shiro-- appropriate due to the Christian imagery in 'Eva', yes? Also, Shinji is the reincarnation of Yagyu Jubei, and Asuka is the reincarnation of Miyamoto Musashi, having inherited Musashi's arrogance along with his mastery of the sword.