Genesis 1:2

Shigeru, Makoto, and Suiko saluted Maya as she entered the lounge. "Would you knock that off?" she asked in mock irritation as she searched her pockets for enough money to convince the vending machine to surrender it contents.

"Ma’am, yes ma’am!" Suiko said, clicking her heels together and saluting in perfect form. Shigeru and Makoto hid their grins behind their cups.

Maya blushed, attempting to hide her embarrassment by concentrating intently on her can’s pull-tab. "I really wish you wouldn’t do that," she said, sitting down next to them. "I’m not a drill sergeant."

"Ma'am, you’re right ma’am, you’re not," Makoto said, trying to hold back a grin, "but you’re still our superior and so must be treated with a certain amount of respect. Ma’am."

Suiko started to giggle and Shigeru was suddenly overcome by a violent fit of coughing. In spite of, or perhaps because of Maya’s glare, it took them several minutes to recover themselves.

Shigeru gestured towards his guitar, which was leaning against his seat. "Would you care to join us," he paused and smirked, "Maya? Having finished our long and extraordinarily arduous shifts we stopped in here to refresh ourselves before instituting a reign of fun over Tokyo-3."

Maya sighed, "My 'long and arduous' shift is just beginning. I just needed a quick break before getting back to work."

"That’s crazy," Makoto said sympathetically. "You were here before we were."

"And I’m going to be here long after you leave, too. It’s just that everything needs to be done yesterday."

Suiko scrunched her face in disgust. "Don’t you have anyone to help you?"

"Not like I need. There just isn’t anyone else left with my level of training." Maya drained off the contents of her can, pushed her chair back, and stood up. "It’s been nice talking to you but I need to get back to the lab."

Shigeru snapped off one last salute as she left and Maya couldn't help but grin at the antic. She felt herself riding an emotional high as she sat down in her lab and returned to the report on the pilots’ sync data. She even started humming to herself, her fingers keeping the beat as she typed.

"Dr. Ibuki."

Maya gasped and whirled around, snatching up a thick binder to use as a weapon. She hadn’t heard the door open but the Commander stood behind her, an inscrutable expression on his face.

"I-I’m sorry Commander. I didn’t hear you come in," Maya said, trying to calm her racing heart.

"I have a new task for you."

"I’m sorry sir, but I already have almost more than I can handle. I don’t think that I could-"

The Commander interrupted her, "I've already reassigned your less important projects so that you will have the time you need."

"Um, thank you sir. But—"

He didn’t allow her a chance to finish. "I need you to restart the dummy program."

Maya gasped, the binder dropping from her hands and scattering papers over the floor. "The dummy system? No, I refuse. I won’t do it. It was sick. It was cruel. I’m glad Dr. Akagi destroyed it."

"Dr. Ibuki, there is a time and a place for principles," the Commander said evenly, "and now is not it. You will restart the program."

Maya’s mind raced, desperately searching for an excuse to refuse the Commander’s request. "There's no one to base the system on. How am I supposed to restart it without a subject?" Maya knew the argument was weak but she hoped that it would dissuade the Commander.

He immediately dashed her hopes. "Rei will be used again."

Maya shuddered inwardly, wishing that she could find some way to spare the 1^st Child a repeat of what she'd undergone before. "There isn’t time to grow the clones."

"The process can be hurried without harming the development of the cores. It must be hurried, if they are to be ready in time."

Maya mustered her courage before speaking. "I refuse to put Rei through such an experience again. It’s inhumane."

"As I said before, principle is an insufficient excuse. Rei will participate because I ask it of her. So will you"

"I can’t do it, sir. I don't have the necessary knowledge."

The Commander seemed mildly disgruntled by her statement. "That may not be as much of an impairment as you think."

"Why?" Maya asked, trying to sound sure of herself. "Have you been hiding a savant behind your back all this time?"

The Commander turned to leave. "Don’t make the same mistake as Dr. Akagi by thinking that you are irreplaceable," he said as the door closed behind him. "No one is irreplaceable."

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The room was dark and cool. The only light was what dribbled in through the barred window on the door and the pale red, glowing, NERV sigil that adorned the wall.

The sigil was the cell's only decoration. By now, she could trace it with her eyes shut, following the edges of the half fig leaf, the double row of letters, the phrase that circled around it, a phrase that had come to contain so much irony when she said it.

"God‘s in His heaven." Ritsuko whispered. "All’s right on earth."

She sat in the corner of the cell, her back to the sigil. As far as she knew, she was the only one down here. No one answered when she called out and the guards only appeared when they brought her meals. They kept enough variation in her schedule that she didn’t go mad, but she could feel the darkness seeping in through her skin, chewing the edges of her soul ragged.

Light flooded into the cell as the bolt was suddenly pulled back and the door opened. Ritsuko clenched her eyes shut against its painful intensity, tears squeezing from between her eyelids as her outraged pupils tried to adjust.

Gendo waited a moment before speaking. "I have need of you."

"Finding that a cold bed isn't to your liking?" Ritsuko asked, and laughed humorlessly.

He continued as if he hadn’t heard her, "I need the dummy system."

She let bitterness fill her voice as she responded. "Why? Afraid for Rei? Are you fearful of losing your little surrogate?"

The comment seemed to reach the Gendo but his voice remained steady as he spoke. "We will need pilots for the new Evas and as a backups, in case the pilots we already possess prove unreliable."

"So why not just use more Children? Or has that lump of rock in your chest finally softened?"

"I no longer trust the Marduke Foundation's report. I fear that the candidate pool has been contaminated."

Ritsuko laughed and her voice was rich with irony. "You no longer trust the Marduke Foundation? You control the Marduke Foundation—or have your puppets become discontent to have their strings pulled and started cutting them," she scissored her fingers, "snip snap!"

"You will begin work on the dummy system."

Ritsuko turned around, her eyes squinting against the light. "No."

"You will change your mind," the Commander said, emphasizing the beginning of the sentence.

"No, I won’t."

A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "You can’t survive much longer down here. It will not take much more time before you simply… fade away."

His words mirrored her thoughts of only a few moments before and Ritsuko had to fight down a rising wave of panic and her voice quavered with uncertainty. "I won’t do it!"

Gendo continued as if she hadn’t spoken, "Your first task will be to cleanse the rarified LCL. There isn't enough time to process enough new LCL to meet our needs, so you'll have to extract the contaminates created by your rash actions with the first system." He paused for a moment to let Ritsuko make any interjection she saw fit. When she remained silent he continued. "You'll then start cultivating the clones. Our time is short, so their growth period will have to be accelerated. You will also eliminate the flaws in the memory transferal system. The gaps between the minds of Rei’s second and third incarnations are unacceptable."

"Does his highness wish me to have this all accomplished before sundown? Perchance you want me to clean the Aegean stables as well?"

"If you agree, you'll again have a use."

Ritsuko seethed inwardly. Gendo’s words echoed through her head. You'll again have a use. She'd known from the moment that he opened the door that she wouldn't be able to win this confrontation. Gendo knew exactly where to push her and his skills at manipulation would have put Machiavelli to shame. His offer was alluring: to take her out of this pit, to again give her a purpose. You'll again have a use.

"I'll do it," she said thickly.

He stepped forward and before she could react, clamped his lips down over hers. She let herself go slack, refusing to respond as he forced his tongue into her mouth.

When he finally let her go, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, resisting the urge to spit. "Is that all I am to you?" she asked, fury underscoring her words. "A means to an end? Is that all my mother was to you? Was that all Yui meant to you? Were we all just means to be used until we broke and then cast aside?" She advanced on him. "What does Rei mean to you? Will her body replace mine between your sheets in a few years, or has it already?"

Gendo’s face turned white with fury and when he spoke she could hear the barely restrained rage in his voice, "You are hereby reinstated to your former position and facilities will be provided for your work. Your status will remain as such as long as you remain useful. Rei will report to you as soon as you are ready to proceed." He turned swiftly, motioning for the guards to escort Ritsuko from her cell as he stalked down the corridor.

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Gendo waited for the elevator doors to close completely before venting his rage. He slammed the palm of his hand against the display screen repeatedly until the plastic cracked, then shattered. The gloves he wore and the thick scars on his palms protected his hand from the fragments but his wrist ached dully when he finally stopped.

Turning furiously, he searched for something else to vent his anger against. He prided himself on the finesse he had used to manipulate Ritsuko but he hadn’t expected her to turn around and strike back at him so effectively. She'd known exactly where to hit him and she'd hurt him. He wasn’t used to that.

When the elevator reached its destination he stopped the first technician he saw. "The display panel in that car has been broken. It needs to be fixed, immediately," he said, his voice a perfect example of authoritative calm.

The tech stammered a response and hurried off.

Gendo strode purposefully towards the command center, nothing in his manner suggesting the terrifying fury he had unleashed only moments before.

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"Asuka! You’re going to be late for school!" Misato shouted.

The door to Asuka’s room slid open and she emerged rubbing her eyes, clad only in her nightshirt. She stumbled into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Misato heard the sound of running water and then the bathroom door slid open and Asuka returned to her room, her condition unchanged except for the water dotting her face and hair.

A few minutes later, she came out fully dressed but her eyelids still drooped.

"C’mon, Asuka," Misato said, setting a plate of burnt toast in front of the girl, "you don’t want to be late for the first day of school."

"Why do I have to go to school?" Asuka griped. "I already have the equivalent of a college education"

"Why aren’t you excited? You’ll be seeing your friends again."

Nibbling around the more carbonized sections of bread, Asuka grumbled something that Misato didn’t catch, but sounded unpleasant nonetheless.

She glared at Asuka while opening the almost inevitable can of beer. She took a drink, then exhaled sanguinely. "I bet Shinji has a better attitude."

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Terry pounded on the door to Shinji’s room. "C’mon, Shinji, get up!"

"Leave me alone."

Terry glanced at his watch. "Damn it, Shinji, we’re going to be late for school!"

He heard the sound of movement within the room but the door stayed shut. "You can go without me. I don’t want to go to school," Shinji yelled, his voice muffled.

Grinding his teeth, Terry resisted the urge to drag Shinji out by his hair. "You may already have friends but I need to make some new ones and I need you to introduce me. Get up!"

"No!"

Stomping into the kitchen Terry filled a glass with water then returned to Shinji’s room and yanked the door open. "You’re asking for it, Ikari. Get up!"

Shinji was curled up in the middle of his sleeping mat, hidden beneath a mound of blankets. "No."

Terry walked over to the blankets, yanked them off and proceeded to dump the entire glass over Shinji’s head.

Shinji let out a startled yell and leapt to his feet., "That’s cold!"

"Whoops," Terry said sarcastically, "looks like your bed's wet too. You might as well stay up."

"You fight dirty," Shinji complained, wiping water from his eyes.

"No, I fight Australian."

Shinji sighed, surveying the sodden mass of his sleeping mat. "Fine, I’ll go."

"About time," Terry said peevishly. "You’ll be seeing your friends again. That'd be incentive enough to get me to school."

"I’ll see my friends again. That’s why I don’t want to go. I never got a chance to talk with Touji, after…." Shinji trailed off unhappily.

Terry sighed and started pushing Shinji towards the bathroom. "It wasn’t your fault. I’m sure that he doesn’t blame you."

"I nearly killed his sister, I nearly killed him. That’s a lot to be forgiven for."

"He’s an Eva pilot, too. I’m sure he understands."

"If you go to school, you’ll see Asuka." Shinji said unexpectedly.

Terry's face froze for a moment. "I’ve managed to avoid her despite being forced to live right next door to her. School won’t be a problem."

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Asuka stopped just inside the door and surveyed the schoolroom. Only half the desks were occupied; the rest of the students either had not or were not returning to Tokyo-3.

"Asuka!"

Hikari came running across the room, catching Asuka up in a hug. "I’ve missed you!"

Asuka smiled, returning the hug. "I’ve missed you too, Hikari."

The Class Rep let go of Asuka and took a step back. "It’s great that everything's getting back to normal. Now we can finally get on with our lives."

Asuka’s smile waned. "Normal, right," she said half-heartedly.

"Hey, Ikari!" Kensuke yelled, standing up at his desk and waving.

Asuka turned, noticing that Shinji and Terry were standing behind her, the 6^th Child pointedly not looking in her direction

Shinji paused as if unsure of what action to take, before walking over to Kensuke and sitting in an adjacent desk. "Hi, Kensuke. I don’t see Touji. I guess that he’s not here, is he?"

"Hello, Ikari," a voice said from behind Shinji, freezing him in his seat.

"Hello, Touji," he replied without turning around.

"It’s good to see you again." Touji said, sounding as if might actually mean it.

Turning, Shinji braced himself to face Touji; "It’s good to see—" He stopped talking, stunned. Touji was standing, standing, behind him, a wide grin on his face. He had his right hand in his pocket, his left hanging at his side; both feet were planted on the floor. For one wild moment, Shinji thought it all might've been a dream, that Unit 03, the dummy plug, crippling Touji were all tortured products of his imagination. The moment shattered as Touji took a step forward. His left leg bent stiffly at the knee and his left arm continued to hang unmoving at his side. "–you," Shinji finished.

Touji sat down and the smile he gave Shinji was only a little strained. "It’s amazing what they can do with prosthetics nowadays, isn’t it?"

"Hey," Kensuke interjected before Shinji could reply, "who’s the new kid?" He pointed towards Terry, who was still loitering by the door.

"That’s Terry St. John," Shinji answered. "He’s… the new Eva pilot."

Kensuke’s mouth flopped open in astonishment. "The new Eva pilot? Oh wow!" He started waving wildly. "Hey Terry! Sit over here!"

Terry glanced around then pointed at himself as if there might have been another Terry standing behind him that Kensuke was addressing instead. He walked over to where they were sitting and took the desk next to Shinji.

Kensuke started talking before anyone else had time to open their mouths. "You’re piloting the new Eva? I don’t believe it! Some people have all the luck! Why don’t I ever get a break?"

Terry leaned towards Shinji. "Is he always like this?" he asked as Kensuke continued to rant.

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

Hikari interrupted Kensuke's tirade. "Class rise!" she ordered as the teacher entered the room. "Bow!" He took roll then turned to the board and began lecturing as if nothing had happened since the last time class had convened.

The lecture's topic began to wander as if the teacher couldn’t quite remember what it was he'd intended to talk about, and Terry quickly lost interest. Glancing around the class he noticed Rei off in the corner, her chin cupped in her hand, her eyes focused on something outside the window. The students had all congregated near the front of the room, leaving a gulf of empty desks between them and Rei.

He leaned over towards Shinji. "Why is Rei over there by herself?"

Shinji’s face froze into a blank expression as he shrugged. "She’s not very social."

Terry leaned back in his seat. "Someone should go over there and talk to her."

"Is there anything that you would like to add to the discussion, Mr. St. John?" the teacher demanded suddenly.

"Uh, no sir. I will not be saying anything." Terry said, embarrassed.

Asuka snorted in disdain. "How dumb did that lobotomy make you? You’re using the wrong tense."

The teacher turned his attention towards her. "Were you saying something, Miss Soryu?"

"No sir," Asuka replied unctuously.

"Someone needs to slap her," Terry said under his breath, glaring at Asuka. His gaze softened when he redirected it towards Rei. "Someone needs to be friends with her."

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Students came streaming out of the school as the lunch bell rang, everyone spreading across the courtyard to find comfortable places in which to eat. Terry followed Shinji, Kensuke, and Touji but drifted away once it became apparent that all Kensuke wanted to talk about were the Evangelions and that neither Shinji or Touji seemed able to say more than a single sentence without embarrassing the other.

He noticed Rei sitting by herself in the corner of the courtyard, her lunch sitting untouched on the bench beside her, a textbook lying open in her lap. He stopped in front of her but bit his lip, unsure of what to say.

"You’re blocking my light," she said, not looking up.

"Oh, sorry," he said, stepping to the side. He glanced down at the book, but the page was a jumble of numbers and equations, more complex than anything that he’d ever encountered before. "Interesting book?" he asked earnestly.

"Yes."

"Is this seat taken?" Terry asked, indicating the bench next to Rei.

"No," she replied, still not looking up from her book.

"May I sit here?"

Rei didn’t answer, intent upon her book.

Somewhat uncomfortably, Terry sat down, setting his lunch next to hers and crossing his hands in his lap. "Are you glad to be back at school?" he asked, eager to break the silence.

Rei said nothing.

Terry felt his morale drop depressingly low at her continued lack of response. "I think it’s pretty nice to be around other kids again. Spending all that time around all those adults at NERV got pretty boring."

"I do not mind." Rei replied, still not looking up.

Terry, nonplussed by her reply, searched for something else to say. "You know Rei, you're pretty cute," he blurted out. "I mean, you’re really pretty, and, err…" he trailed off as she turned her head to look at him, giving him a glare colder than solid helium.

Terry scooted back to the edge of the bench. "I mean… I really like you."

"You do not know me," she said icily.

"Well, I like to think that I do. I mean, I see you a lot around NERV, and—"

"You do not know me," Rei said, interrupting him. She shut textbook as she stood and started walking back towards the school.

Someone standing behind Terry started laughing. "You’re trying to put the moves on Wonder Girl? You have got to be kidding."

"Why don’t you mind your own business, Asuka?" Terry said angrily, resisting the urge to turn around and slap her. "You törichte Mädchen."

"You’re just like your dear mommy," Asuka sneered, "crazy." She laughed as she left, the sound hanging in the air like a miasma.

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"So all of the Angels are gone, huh?" Kensuke pressed. "That means I’ll never get to pilot an Eva. Darn it, darn it, darn it! It’s not fair!"

"It’s not all it’s cracked up to be." Touji said, picking through his lunch.

Kensuke sobered at the remark, "Yeah, I’d suppose that you’d know."

"I’m sorry, Touji," Shinji said, not looking up from his bento.

Touji turned towards him. "Stop saying you’re sorry, Ikari. You’re starting to get on my nerves."

"Sorry."

Touji grabbed Shinji’s shirt with his good hand and pulled him forward until they were face to face. "Am I going to have to pound this into your head? What happened, happened. It won’t change no matter how many times you say that you’re sorry. So why don’t you just save your breath and our eardrums?"

"Sorry, To-, err, I mean, okay."

Touji sat back, seemingly satisfied. "That’s better." He patted his prosthetic arm. "This thing is pretty solid. You wouldn’t want me to punch you in the teeth with it."

"Hey, Shinji," Kensuke asked, "are you really really sure that there won’t be any more Angels?"

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Shinji, Terry, Touji and Kensuke left the school as a group at the end of the day, but Terry suddenly turned and started walking back "I forgot some stuff," he called over his shoulder, "I’ll catch up in a little while,"

He sat down near the door and watched the students as they left, waiting for Rei to come out. She was one of the last ones out but didn’t seem to notice him as he stood up and started walking behind her.

He followed her all the way to Tokyo-3’s refurbished downtown before she suddenly stopped. "Why are you following me?" she asked without looking behind her.

"I want to talk to you."

Without replying, Rei started walking again.

"Hey, wait up!" Terry yelled, running to catch up, panting slightly when he reached her. "Why won’t you stop for a second?"

"Why would you want to talk to me? I have nothing to say to you. What could you have to say to me?

"Well, if I don’t talk to you, how am I supposed to get to know you?" he asked, frustration gnawing at the edge of his voice.

Rei said nothing and her eyes never wavered in his direction as she continued walking.

"Okay, here’s an idea," he said. "One of the best ways to get to know a girl is to take her shopping." He grabbed her arm and pulled her over towards a store. The sudden action caught her off balance and she was forced to stumble after him.

"Right there," Terry said, pointing at a dress in the shop window, "that's a very pretty red dress. I think that it'd look very pretty on you. It matches your eyes."

"I do not like red." Rei stated quietly.

"See," Terry said eagerly, "now I know a little bit more about you."

"You embarrass me."

Terry ignored her statement and continued talking. "Now that I think about it, red isn’t really your color. Now, that dress right there," he pointed his finger at another dress, a white one this time, "that dress would look absolutely stunning on you. White's your color."

"It is a very pretty," Rei admitted, almost reluctantly.

Terry suddenly darted off, disappearing into a shop and returning a moment later, a white rose clutched in his hand. He held the rose next to her cheek, a frown of concentration on his face as if he was intently comparing the two. "White is most definitely your color."

He stepped behind her, still holding the rose. "I would like to give you this rose, but I’m going to have to ask you a small fee in return for it." Before she could react, Terry pressed the rose into her hand then kissed her lightly on the side of her neck.

Rei whipped around, blushing furiously—embarrassment, surprise, fury, confusion, or some combination thereof flashing across her face, her hand half raised either to feel her neck or to slap him.

Terry could feel the heat creeping up his face. "I-- I’m sorry, I—" he stammered then turned and ran.

Rei stared at the 6^th Child’s rapidly retreating back, her fingers reaching up to trace a single spot on her neck.

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The ever-present sounds of construction echoed around Rei as she opened the door to her apartment. She dropped her school bag and let the door drift shut behind her then continued into the apartment, forgetting to even remove her shoes. Her fingers still rested on the spot on her neck where Terry had kissed her and her mind was a tumult of emotions that she could not even begin to sort.

She was startled out of her thoughts by the shrill ringing of the phone. She picked up the receiver and listened for a few moments before speaking. "Yes sir, I will be there shortly."

As she hung up the phone she let her hand fall from her neck.

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Central Dogma seemed colder than before and Rei shivered as she stepped out of the elevator. Seemingly at random, she started walking down one of the apparently endless corridors, stopping in front of one of the hundreds of identical metal doors and opened it. The first thing she saw was Dr. Akagi hunched over a terminal, Commander Ikari standing next to her. Deja vu struck her with the force of a hammer blow: the curving tank, filled with LCL, the single eight foot cylinder in the middle of the room, innumerable tubes and pipes branching out from it and disappearing into the floor and ceiling.

Against her will, memories came bubbling to the surface of Rei’s mind.

A final memory thrust to the surface of her mind, one of the last gifts from her predecessor.

Rei whimpered, backing against the door. Her hand fumbled at its handle, but it had locked itself behind her. There could be only one reason why he would summon her here. Her declaration that 'she was now unique' echoed with cruel irony. "Not again. Do not make me do this again."

Gendo's voice was flat and unemotional. "You have to. We have need of the dummy system."

"Why?"

"You will do it because I asked you," he said, ignoring her question.

A voice seemed to laugh mockingly in her mind; You’d kill yourself if he asked you to, wouldn’t you?

And in her mind, her own voice replied, Yes.

"Yes," she said softly.

The Commander turned away from her and so did not see the single tear that formed in her eye, then quickly ran down her face. "Damn you," she whispered.