Angelic Haven *COMPLETED*

The moon read only fifteen minutes to midnight when Shinji and Asuka both stood in front their Evangelions which sat back to back and had been for some time. For Asuka, it felt a little odd being back in her plug suit once more, seeing how it actually felt tight on her. Shinji wore a pair of black pants and a simple, sleeveless, white shirt with the receptors in his hair. He looked at Asuka as she stood beside her Evangelion. She was a beautiful girl, with curves in all the right places. Her flaming red hair hung haphazardly her shoulders and trailed all the way down past her spine. It made him blush to know that she was the Eve to his Adam.



"Well," she sighed. "Let\'s do this."



Shinji nodded and for a moment, all time stood still. It\'d be almost three years since they\'d been in their Evangelions. They looked at one another and Asuka huffed a little.



"Well, I\'ll see YOU on the other side."



She\'d turned her back to him and said,



"Count on it."



"Right. See ya...Asuka."



Shinji\'s surprise was just as vast as Asuka\'s when the Evas responded to their command to eject the entry plug. Before they even had a chance to get in, the ground began shaking.



"Now what?!" Shinji sighed.



"Shinji, do you hear that?" Asuka asked.



At first, Shinji didn\'t. But then, he could. It was something of a clear and pretty sound. Almost like a soft bell. Shinji felt his heart skip a beat for a moment as the sound called to him. Asuka and Shinji stood beside each other once more, both agape at the sight of the enormous whirlpool that had formed in the center of the ocean of red LCL.



"W...what\'s going on...?" Asuka barely managed.



The ground of the ocean began shaking violently, causing Shinji and Asuka to jump backwards. Dust and water began to rage until they could see a white light erupting from the center of the whirlpool. Through the dust, Shinji tried hard to maintain a visual, but could only see something with a light blue tint arise from the ground.



"Is...is that....?!" Asuka\'s panicked voice rang through the speakers.



Whatever \'it\' was, Asuka had a better visual on it than Shinji did. It wasn\'t until Shinji was overcome with a strong warmth flowing through body that he became uneasy. He\'d felt this once before...



"A...Ayanami...!"



From the whirlpool, Eva Unit 00 slowly began to resurface. Shinji was overcome with a powerful need to cry, but was it from his own emotions, or the emotions of the pilot of Unit-00? Was there even a pilot inside of it? It was silent for a moment before falling forward. Shinji grabbed Asuka, yanking her out of the way of the enormous tidal wave caused by the impact and hid behind Eva Unit 01 and 02. He held her tight as the water cascaded over their Evangelions and around them before it was quiet. Both panted and then looked at one another.



"W...was that really...?" Asuka began.



Shinji and Asuka stood up, looking from around their Evas. Evangelion Unit-00 was laying face-down in the water. Asuka slapped him forward and yelled,



"Well?! What are you waiting for?! GO GET HER, IDIOT!"



Shinji was more than surprised at Asuka\'s demand, but wasted no time. Shinji ran towards the ocean, diving into the water and eventually reaching Eva Unit-00. It\'d fallen completely silent. He climbed onto it and beat on where the entry plug was.



"Ayanami?! Ayanami! Are you in there?"



He almost fell off Eva when the entry plug opened with a whoosh. It fell into the water and Shinji dived after it, climbing on top of it, panting heavily. He opened the hatch as he\'d done once and the doors opened with a rush of steam. His heart skipped two beats when he saw Rei Ayanami, in her plug suit, her once short blue hair having grown all the way past her shoulders. She looked unconscious, but there was something very different about this Rei, unlike her previous clones. She groaned, her red eyes seeing the wet young man with shoulder-length brown hair, a sleeveless white shirt and brown eyes filled with worry.



"I...Ikari-Kun?"



"Ayanami...!"



He closed his eyes, tears cascading down his face.



"I\'m so glad..." he whimpered.



"I...I am too." she replied.



He looked at her, a small smile cresting her lips. He helped her out of the entry plug, noticing she was still dressed in her Plug Suit. She was just as curvy now as she was back then. Shinji\'s eyes widened as he saw Evangelion Unit-02 activate. It walked towards them, creating massive waves as it walked past them and grabbed Unit-00, towing it back to shore. From a speaker within Unit-02, Shinji heard Asuka\'s voice say,



"You\'d better thank me later, wondergirl! Shinji, hurry up and get back to shore, I\'m not towing that plug back!"



A small sound came from Rei and Shinji realized that for the first time, she giggled. She smiled at Ikari and he, at her. They made it back with the help of Asuka who reluctantly came back for the ejected entry plug keeping Ikari and Ayanami afloat. They all reached shore and Asuka exited her Unit-02 with somewhat of a proud smile.



"Well, well, I actually had to save Wondergirl and Shinji."



Shinji and Rei would let Asuka have her victory for now. Ayanami panted with a small smile.



"Am I...really here? Am I alive?"



"You are alive. You...Rei..." Shinji began.



Rei looked at Shinji, admiring how two years could change someone. His hair was longer and he\'d traded his fourteen-year-old body in for a more muscular version of what was now his sixteen year old body. Rei could feel emotions more so now than ever. She looked at the post apocalyptic world. Was it because she was trapped in Eva for so long...?



"I HATE to ruin the mood, Wondergirl..."



Rei looked at the sixteen-year-old German/Japanese pilot. Her hair was still the same fiery red, yet there was something different about her attitude.



"But how did you come back like that? I thought Unit-00 was destroyed?"



Rei shook her head, looking at her two, fellow pilots.



"That me...was not me."



Shinji and Asuka couldn\'t have looked more confused. Rei sighed, closing her eyes as she recalled her experience.



"I was the willing soul of Evangelion Unit-00. I was the original \'First Child\'. After Dr. Yui Ikari-San...I was the second test subject. I am the original Rei. But, during start-up, I had reached four-hundred-percent sync ratio..."



Shinji knew all too well about that. Once you reached 400% sync ratio, you became the new dominant soul of whatever Evangelion. Except for Asuka\'s mother, Kyoko Sohyru, whose maternal instinct had been locked away inside of Evangelion Unit-02, explaining why Asuka\'s mother, when she was alive, had no actual maternal feelings towards her daughter.



"So, are you telling me they continuously drew out your soul from Unit-00 just like they did my mother\'s from Unit-01?"



The rage in the boy\'s eyes wasn\'t hard to miss. If anything, it gave him more of a reason to hate his father. Rei laid down, staring at the red sky with a small sigh.



"All three clone Reis were drawn from me...Because my soul was trapped in Unit-00, that is why my second clone, Rei II went through that horrible accident during the activation test. They called said it happened because of \'Mental instability on the part of the pilot\', but...it hurt knowing they tried to replace me. When Third Impact happened...I was finally freed from Unit-00. Ikari-Kun..."



Rei sat up, looking at Shinji. She was positive of the feelings she\'d felt for him.



"Everytime my second clone got inside of Unit-00, I could feel her true feelings. The more she was inside of me, the more I began to learn about...emotions and what I wanted. We met once before...Ikari-Kun. Do you not remember?"



Shinji closed his eyes a little, remembering their naked bodies meeting in the sea of LCL after Third Impact.



"You rested your head on my lap and told me your fears. That was the real me."



Shinji remembered meeting her. So, were the clones of Rei nothing more than original copies of the original form born of his mother? Rei extended her hand with a small blush.



"May I hold your hand again?"



It had been two years since he\'d held her hands when they were connected by the pelvis in the sea of LCL where they \'existed everywhere and nowhere at the same time\' or, \'A place where you don\'t know where I begin and you end\'. Shinji looked at her hand with a blush, then smiled.



"Sure."



Rei removed the sleeve of her Plug Suit, wanting to really feel his hand holding hers. The moment their hands touched, Rei and Shinji felt at complete ease and peace. Asuka just sighed, ignoring it. Stupid Shinji...But she supposed she could let Wondergirl have her moment for now. The three Evangelion Pilots stood up, looking at the red sea of LCL. Rei went on to explain how when the world was covered in LCL and washed away, the pieces of her exploded Evangelion called out to it\'s missing pieces buried beneath the ocean floor. Rei was finally called into it at last, this time, as the main pilot and not as it\'s dominant soul. Things went dark afterwards, only for her to awaken with longer hair, a more mature build and looking into the eyes of her precious Ikari-Kun. Despite all of the feelings her clones had poured into her whenever they manned Unit-00, she knew the feelings her clones had for people, for things...were definitely real. That included her feelings for Shinji Ikari. But Rei knew she\'d been called back for a reason...Because she was to aid in creating a world with a future worth creating.