Story: NGE Ghosts of the Future

"Pervert," the other her said. "I saw the look in your past self's face when you sat in my lap!"

Damned insecurities, that's all they were! Trying to make her hesitate in front of the vaunted Third! Well, it wasn't going to happen. Nobody told Asuka Langley Sohryu what to do, even if it was herself doing the telling!

"I can't speak German," the other Shinji suddenly said, just before Asuka tried turning her beloved Unit 02 on. Right. Of course he probably didn't. Might as well make this easy for herself and switch to a Japanese command base. She'd have to get used to the language anyway. She wasn't doing this because the voices were telling her to, she was simply following her own initiative and intelligent reasoning. That's all!

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Shinji, the real one wearing her spare plugsuit that was getting washed a hundred times and then burned after all this was over with. "Both of us in the cockpit at the same time, that seems a little bit..."

"What's the matter, Third? You've got the best seat in the house to enjoy the show!"

Off in the edge of her peripheral vision, Asuka was keenly aware of the other her blushing, then facepalming, and on the other edge of that same vision was the other Shinji steadfastly looking away from the two of them and twiddling his thumbs. What? What had she said that was so strange?

<i>"Abort! Stop the Eva activation sequence!"</i>

That was the Admiral. Ugh, so annoying! If there's any one thing someone with a lot of pride detests, it's someone else ruled by an equal amount of pride. Hmph! Did that old man not get it? An Angel can't be beaten by conventional weapons! You need AT Fields to counter AT Fields!

Besides which, taking the chance to show off to Kaji was something she'd never give up. Not ever!

<i>"Don't listen to that moron, Asuka. Go for it!"</i>

Just like Misato. Asuka's eyes twinkled mischievously. She was ready. She was born for this moment. Let all of the training since then show the world what kind of genius she really -

"Ugh, was I ever really that stupid?" the fake her asked. "Heading out there in B-Type equipment, what was I thinking?"

Wait, what was that?

"It's a good thing Misato thought of using the boats to blow it up," the fake Shinji said. "Otherwise, we'd have been finished."

Huh? Huh?! What was this now?!

<hr>

Ever since she could remember, Asuka had been called a genius. She read above her level. Understood complicated maths and science at half the age the subjects would normally be taught. She could perform calculus by the time she was eight as easily as others that age might add or subtract. The teachers would then praise her for being so, so smart.

That was how it always was. She'd show off her reasoning, people would tell her how smart she was. By now she was measurably equal to supposed experts in at least three different scientific fields. Sure, she didn't understand the full method through which the Evangelions worked, but that was outside her field of study and she always felt confident that if she were permitted to, even Doctor Akagi would find her insights incredible.

Which neatly led into the crux of her current issue. What was the point of being a genius, but not being able to tell a single living soul?

"I forgot how many teeth that thing had..." the fake Shinji said. Fake. No, perhaps "other" would be more reasonable. She was stalking around her new bedroom in Misato's place with those two hovering around making life hell for her. "It's funny, that gave me nightmares for about a month after... But compared to what comes later it was pretty nice."

These weren't just voices in her head, were they? Sure, nobody else could see them and sure, nobody else could hear them but they were more than neurosis or the start of some onset yet also deeply rooted psychological problem that she was more than intelligent enough to resolve having identified it. Nope. This was much more than that. They knew things they couldn't have possibly known. They talked about events that didn't happen yet, or events that had just happened as though it was the second time they had been through them.

"Shut up," the other her scolded Shinji. "Let me talk to her, I'm sure that she'll listen to what I have to say. Ahem! Asuka, I am -"

"A psychic projection of my future self," Asuka sniffed, and then set about inspecting her fingernails. "No doubt come here to warn me about some Unsinn or other. Ich bin kein narr."

"Oh ja, du bind! War ich so übermütig?" the other her retorted. How dare she! " Guh! Why did you not listen to me sooner, you stubborn little girl?!"


"Well, if you're going to take that kind of attitude I could just continue to ignore you," Asuka sniffed. "Now that I know things are going to go this badly, I'll be able to keep a better eye out for the warning signs. Thank you very much for your advance warning!"


Which was when Misato suddenly appeared out of nowhere. At first Asuka was sucking in air, worried that she'd just been caught out talking and arguing with herself. That wasn't the sort of thing one would easily be able to justify. They would think the stress had gotten to her. They would think she couldn't handle it, and had snapped after her very first battle. All her training would be for nothing. She'd be washed out. For her own good, they would say. She'd have to find some other means to use her training, intelligence and beauty, which wouldn't be difficult, but also wouldn't be nearly as important as piloting Unit 02.

For a single moment the normally proud, arrogant and abrasive young genius had a moment of clarity, the realisation that the project did not need her so much as she needed it. The sight of Misato had left a dark, bottomless pit open beneath her feet, and she feared being swallowed whole by it... Then she noticed this Misato was floating, and the pit closed up, then was banished to the endless seas of denial in the back of her mind.

"Girls, please stop arguing. This is getting us nowhere," the ghostly Misato admonished. "Asuka, you can't really say that you are prepared for the worst-case scenario when you do not know what it actually is."

Yeah. Whatever. Asuka rolled her eyes and then quite deliberately walked through the phaantom Misato. That should make her point pretty explicit. None of you really matter anymore. Now that Asuka Langley Sohryu was on the case everything would be -

Would be tripping balls. As soon as Asuka had walked through Misato, something really quite bizarre began to happen. It turns out that interacting with a ghostly psychic energy field from the future had some rather odd side effects. The world felt like it was turning inside out, upside down, inverted all the colours and then slowly dragged them all back to where they were starting from. But that wasn't even the weird part. The really weird part was what had happened to Asuka by the time reality was done with her.

1. She has Misato's full womanly figure.
2. She's acquired a part of Misato's personality.
3. Misato is controlling or influencing her actions.
4. Asuka has a powerful one-way psychic connection to the modern Misato.
5. Something else