Rei Ayanami is one very mysterious and controversial person. She was selected by NERV to be the first child. She is the "mass-produced" child of NERV. In reality, she is a clone of Gendo Ikari's wife, Yui, and the second angel and mother of all life, Lillith. There were three Rei's in the series. The first was killed by Dr. Naoko Akagi, who then killed herself. The second Rei is the one most people idolize and love. Rei II is the most popular of all the characters of Evangelion. She provides a bit of comic relief, as odd as it seems, with her almost vulcan-like attitude. She never tries to show off. When she is ordered to do something she complies. This angers fellow pilot, Asuka Langley. Rei II loves Gendo. She keeps his glasses on her window sill. Gendo saved her in an activation test gone wrong. Rei almost dies in the battle against the fifth angel but Shinji saves her in an almost identical fashion. Rei II saved Asuka after EVA-02 was incapacitated by hurling the Spear of Loginus at the angel, piercing the AT field and killing it. Rei II died when the fifteenth angel "made contact" with her and then attempted to attempted to kill Shinji. In order to protect him, she self destructed her EVA, taking out the fifteenth angel. Rei III merged with Lillith to induct the third impact.