Rei Ayanami was not human. She looked it. Mostly. The red eyes, blue hair and the pale skin weren't quite... normal, per se. Still. She blended in well enough, even if her behaviour made some people give her a double take.
The trick was: She was a clone. A genetically modified copy of one Yui Ikari, though that was only part of her makeup. The other donor of her ‘genetics’ if one could even call it that, was one hell of a mother. Some might call her an eldritch abomination. Others might call her an Angel. Others would call her Lilith.
The Second Angel was a mysterious being with bizarre powers. The progenitor of humankind. It had its own will and its own plan, but those differed sufficiently from Rei's that it could be considered an enemy. An adversary to overcome, but equally a tool to be used to get what she wanted. The one and only selfish desire that she had ever held within herself.
That desire being a happy ending for herself, for Shinji Ikari, and even for Asuka Langley-Soryu. And the rest of the world too. She supposed.
At first she had wanted to grant everyone a peaceful world where all was one, where there were no boundaries and every voice could speak in unity. But after thinking this over for a long time, Shinji had rejected her choice and returned to the world that had hurt him so many times. It made her heart ache, but this was one of the reasons she had started to care for him. Still...
All of this left her with only one choice.
"Who are you?" asked a certain familiar looking girl. Like looking into a mirror. Except, not. The unbandaged eye held consciousness, but loneliness, wisdom yet ignorance. So much could be found in these eyes, so much and still so little.
"I am... Your Guardian Angel," Rei told her past self, who was writhing in pain upon a hospital gurney. Yes. This plan was the best one. If only she could have controlled it a little bit better... No, this should still work. Time may have turned out to be more tricky to control than she had first expected, but now she had a grasp of what she could do. And how to minimize the effects of her earlier experimentations. The world could live with another Asuka, even if her past self may feel annoyed at having to deal with two of them.
<hr>
Meanwhile, in Germany: A television set was thrown against a wall.
"Was zum Teufel war das?!"
That pretty much sums up everything you need to know about what was happening with Asuka.
<hr>
Misato had been expecting oddities in her new job, but this took the cake. No, not just took it. It baked the cake, took it, ate it and then blamed it on its little brother. For whatever reason the JSDF was pursuing her and Shinji, and then she turns a corner and bam, there they are. Shinji looking a little taller and herself... with two horizontal lines beneath a star on her collar. The mark of a Major.
"Down!" the other her yells, pushing her aside and firing over her shoulder. "This way!"
Well, who was she to argue with her superior officer? Especially if that very officer was herself.
"Uhhhh?" Shinji - that is to say both of them - said while looking at each other. Great. Wonderful. Just what they needed. Misato was already expecting weird bullshit and this was weirding her out. Couldn't imagine how much therapy Shinji was going to need by the time this was done with.
"So? You have an idea of what's going on around here?" Misato asked the other her. "I mean, you're the one from the future, right? You must have a better idea of what's happening here."
"First of all: How do you know I'm from the future?" the other Misato asked. Right, of course that sounded suspicious.
"Crow's feet," Misato said, earning a scowl from the other her. Mean, but she couldn't resist.
"Hmph! I'm not that much older... It's actually his size, isn't it? My Shinji is much taller than yours."
No question of it then. This was her. That really was the reason. The height difference between them was quite noticeable.
"It must be all of those naked Reis we found in the basement," the future Shinji suggested.
"Huh? Who is Rei?"
What's this? Was future Shinji blushing? Well, that made sense. Rei was a bit weird but definitely very pretty. If he'd encountered a whole bunch of naked Reis in the basement, that would definitely play havoc with his -
Hold on! Back up a bit! "Naked Reis?"
"Turns out Ritsuko is a mad scientist," future Misato said through grit teeth.
"Hey now, I might get a little upset at times, but I'm not really mad -" Ritsuko said, suddenly stepping out from around a corner wearing a skintight wetsuit. The four of them stopped in their tracks, both Shinji's making rather blatant googly eyes at the pretty blonde wearing form fitting wet latex over her perfectly fine but not really as hot as Misato's body. The scientist slowly removed her goggles and then goggled at them. "Huh... I thought there was something in the lens making me see double, but..."
"Don't look at me, I'm in the dark too!" future Misato insisted. "One minute I'm dragging Shinji along to Unit 01 to fight off a JSDF attack, the next I'm running into my past self."
"You got any ideas knocking about that pretty head of yours?" present Misato asked.
"Maybe one of the Angels save scums?" Ritsuko suggested, a smirk on her face as she tried to lighten up the atmosphere. "Actually, it's for the best that you've arrived. We're going to have to send someone out there to deal with the Third Angel before he does too much damage -"
Suddenly, future Shinji burst right past them running off towards... Blast it! What was in that direction?
"He's heading towards Unit 01!" Ritsuko yelled. "Hold on, we should stop him before he does something stupid!"
<hr>
Shinji was in the process of doing something stupid. He didn't know how he'd wound up back here, but here he was and here he'd have to sort out some problems before they became problems. He remembered this day. How could he forget? It was burned into his mind, the day he first piloted Unit 01.
His father standing high above him. Peering down in a strangely condescending way. Bringing out the badly injured Rei. Forcing him to choose between piloting or allowing them to make her pilot instead. Was it any wonder he made that choice? In the end, it was always because of someone else that he managed to stop running away. No matter how much he isolated himself, he just couldn’t let others get hurt if he could do something against it.
And that wasn’t going to change today!
"Praise me!"
On the other hand he could be tackled to the ground by a girl who looked a hell of a lot like Asuka. Same hairstyle, same plugsuit, same general facial features. It was just... the smile didn't contain an ounce of smug sarcastic superiority that it normally had. No way was this girl Asuka!
"Praise me!" the girl yelled, having pushed Shinji down with a surprising amount of strength. She licked her lips and planted her hands firmly on his chest to pin him down. "Praise me! Praise me! Praise me!"
"A-Asuka?" Shinji quietly asked. "You're consci-"
And there was the kiss. Not holding his nose this time. It was every bit as forceful otherwise, which made it a bit hard for him to enjoy. Not impossible per se, but certainly not easy.
"Praise me!" Asuka insisted. "Dummy, dummy, dummy! You think you're the only one with an S2 Engine? Hahaha! Praise me! I followed your lead, and ate it whole!" W-wait, what? "Now Unit 02 doesn't need to rely on an external power source!" Wait, what! "So! Are you going to get on your knees and praise me already? Go ahead, I can see it in your eyes! Praise me!"
She offered him the top of her head, and Shinji reluctantly reached up to pat the girl on her scalp. "There, there?" he offered, trying to forget that earlier today he'd jerked one off while looking at the girl's naked chest. Sooo much therapy..
“Hihihi!” Asuka giggled while moving her head towards his patting hand and happily kicking out her foot like a dog. One could almost see a tail wagging behind her if they had a bit of imagination. "Praise me mooooore and maybe I'll kiss you again!"
That was not as much of a reward as it sounded. Shinji knew he had issues, but he wasn't a sub! He thought about that for a moment... Not that much of a sub!
"Huh... Wow!" the other him gasped, standing in the doorway with both Misatos and Ritsuko. "Man, how on earth did I ever get such a cute and affectionate girlfriend?"
Oh, but he had a feeling today was going to get even more complicated than it was already. To be Shinji is to suffer, after all.
- Present day Asuka insists on going to Japan.
- Future Rei continues manipulating time trying to get things right.
- Future Shinji isn't sure what to make of suddenly and inexplicably affectionate Asuka
- Gendo considers getting drunk. Which of them? Either. Both.
- Something else
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