Chaos upon them all, left and right!

Rei

Heh, like you need to ask me on whether or not I was going to NOT take this Quest after THAT little bombshell?! You couldn't KEEP me away!

Moments later . . .

Elrondir

. . . .

Okay, let us recap here on what we are going to be getting ourselves into here. We know that this is a legit Quest because we'd just had a visit from none other than Agent 1 (the head of the Office of Chaos) wishing us all luck. Besides it being a nice gesture, I do believe that it clears up any small doubts I might still harbor that somehow our Aslan here is pulling our leg or something, setting up a most UNUSUAL Quest indeed, we know that this is a legit Quest. A few times there I'd had suspicions, really. I mean, why is an Elder Champion giving this Quest briefing instead of a Celestrial? I guess it has to do with the reason WHY the Rules and Agents are (through US) being allowed to intervene on the affairs of mortals more directly than normally allowed by their bosses. For whatever arcane reasons, I guess it must be some stand in for them, this Elder Champion from the Office of Good: Aslan. So, for whatever reasons we're getting to go into a reality which is being merged together (piecemeal or in whole) into a new one and . . . somehow play a moderating role in the possible (and very probable given the mixes here) wildfires that may break out between groups suddenly finding themselves thrown into a new and alien environment (next to strangers). How this merging is all going to take place remains to be seen. Just HOW badly will the geographic maps (or perhaps even the starmaps considering that Star Trek is going to be involved) is going to be messed up! And I hope that when the elements of Half-life (a game I've played off and on over the years . . .and which I give a basic rundown to the others) will NOT mean everything goes to Hell in a handbag!

I must say that I'm more than apprehensive at going anywhere in REAL life which Half-life being enacted for REAL (http:// en.wik ipedia .org/ wiki/ Half- Life). It's a game where you play a scientist named Gordon Freeman who has to survive both alien invaders who've found their way to Earth through a disastrous scientific accident AND a bunch of military "cleanup" crews bent on killing the invaders AND all involved in the accident (to cover it up). It's going to be . . .dicey when we get to the part involving THAT faction, let me tell you! AND one thing I'll tell you for free, I do NOT want to have myself or ANYONE headcrabbed (http:// en.wiki pedia. org/wik i/Headcrab)! Those miserable beasts are . . . scary! They get on a host body and take them over, turning the victim into zombies, for Creator's sake. The really scary thing is that while the headcrab is in control, there was mention in the game that the host's mind was still . . .active but unable to do anything but ride along. Prisoner in their own bodies as it were.

I don't know how exactly we're going to reason the monsters (intelligent and otherwise) from Half-life. Maybe we can enlist some help from the Enterprise or some such with high technology to . . . fight them to a standstill or defeat them! See, if in the game for Half-life 2 (which tells of events and such years after the first game) where all the Earth's armed forces are subdued and defeated by the invading aliens in SEVEN hours, total. Yeah, maybe compared to the United Federation of Planets or the other space going organizations out there the military might of 20th/21rst century Earth is a puny thing, but it isn't something to sneeze at for US. Honestly, we're going to be a VERY small bug to step on if we try going head to head with a force that can conquer the Half-life Earth in seven hours!

We're good, but not THAT good.

We've gotta play this smart and hope for a LOT of luck! The integration of all this alien real estate (from Star Trek, Half-life, and Neon Genesis) is going to happen all at once. IN what exact manner I'll be buggered if I know right now, but it'll happen all at the same time. The chaos that develops might not come to a head immediately, but the integration . . . instantaneous and seamless..

We're going in to minimize the chaos afterwards. I hope, anyway.

That said, the ideas that Rei throws out for at least making SOME kind of contact (hopefully beneficial) with NERV and Tokyo 3 (the spot where we're going to land for the start of this Quest) are rather . . . .bloody good. That is . . . if it works as planned. Rather hate having to have to try to pull off Rei off her analog, but then again I don't feel like watching another person being murdered in front of my eyes if things go south! Best hope for the best and hope for the positive doppleganger reaction because who else would best be able to win over our potential ticket into NERV HQ than Rei? I just hope that her faith in this upcoming encounter is not misplaced.

One thing I DO know for sure, though. The native we shall be encountering soon enough who calls herself "Rei Ayanami" will be the third one to call herself that.

. . .

Of course, there is ONE more possible outcome for this stunt we’re going to try: nothing. See, there is a possibility that NOTHING doppelganger like will happen when the Reis meet. I mean the two may be so different, spirit wise that the reaction cannot happen. I could speculate how THAT could happen (one being that the upcoming Rei is the amnesia suffering reincarnation of one Yui Akari), but why confuse you MORE than I’ve already might have done?

Confused? Welcome to MY world! ‘Tis the way the multiverse and all this reality hopping can be: confusing.

But whatever WILL happen, I do believe that I know what HAS happened before our upcoming visit and chat. It has all to do with the little hints our Great Lion here dropped. Remember just HOW we met OUR Rei? How we had just KNOWN (and were proven correct by her own lips) that she’d been just moments away from blowing herself and her Eva unit sky high? From what Aslan said, BEING that this Rei has not met anyone like us kind of means she’s been revived in a new clone body (and is missing a lot of memories from her time as Rei II).

Yeah, well pardon me. We’ve got to go now. Aslan’s going to sing a song and teleport us here and I do not believe I’ll keep him waiting. Got things to do and minds to mess with , you know. That and a blue haired girl to help with here.

In a dingy apartment complex, within apartment 402 with the sound of loud construction equipment running in the background a young woman with a stoic face looks at herself in a cracked and well worn mirror. She has removed the bandages put upon her in the hospital she’d checked out of earlier today. She did not remember the events that had put her there but somehow she knows . . . that she is the third.

Stoic mask still in place, she turns and looks at a pair of cracks and heat warped glasses. Unaware of events (read "all sorts of hell breaking loose" elsewhere in Tokyo 3 and elsewhere) she goes over and picks the glasses up, knowing that somehow they’d been important to her . . . but cannot recall as to WHY!

Stoic mask still in place, frustration causes her to tightly grip the glasses. They creak under the strain, only to stop when drops of salty water wet the lenses.

This blue haired and red eyed girl, age 14, stares at them. Let us call her Rei III for convenience, okay? And, oh by the way, this next line comes from the anime

"Are these tears?" she asks herself softly. "I see these for the first time, but it does not seem to me for the first time. I, am I crying? Why crying?"

. . .

Her prior incarnation, Rei II, was crying right before she’d been blown sky high, realizing she wanted to BE with one Shinji Akari. It was love of . . . some kind. Sisterly? Motherly? Lover? Wasn’t sure but she’d come to realize THAT much then.

Now?

She’s forgotten.

She then wobbles a little bit, a slight burn going through her body which passes instantly. The moment of unity has arrived and axiom wash has . . . unbeknownst to our young girl here done something to her.

Without a lot of technobabble let us just say that full blooded NGE Angels cannot exist in this reality. Physics are against it. Rei III here hadn’t had her Angel genes activated yet so for that she didn’t burst into flame (as say what happened elsewhere to OTHER lurking Angels, human appearing or stuck down hidden away and contained within NERV HQ). Instead, she’d been transformed into a normal human girl (albeit with blue hair, red eyes, an alabaster skin).

This transformation isn’t hasn’t been discovered yet but will soon enough make it’s existence known.

In the meantime, our still somewhat dizzy red eyed girl has dropped the glasses and is shakily reaching to retrieve them from the ground when the door knocks.

Without awaiting an answer, the door opens (this native Rei never bothered to get the door lock fixed) and a VERY familiar (if a bit older) figure comes in.

The fact that her older twin is dressed in a somewhat archaic (ala Terra Prime) fashion and has blue glowing wings is only of secondary concern to the startled Rei III. The feeling of . . . recognition and a feeling she’s not familiar with (NOW) sweeps through her.

Whatever this feeling it is . . . a small part of her whispers that she likes it’s warmth. As for who this other is, Rei III believe that it can only be . . .

"Mother Lilith?" she whispers in almost religious awe.

There was a grace and beauty to this woman. A fire within that Rei III feels from even where she stood. Something that she does not have within herself (only an acking emptiness within). Add in the glowing wings and what ELSE, the young clone thinks to herself, could this woman be?

The fact that at last check this female Angel had still been stuck in a giant form (ugly and flabby . . .unrecognizable as female . . .much less than the figure before her), in a coma-like state slips by her for right now. The fact that the Angel she’s thinking this twin of hers IS is stuck on a red giant cross, restrained deep within the bowels of NERV HQ is overlooked.

She’s too shocked to think clearly right now.

That said, you must realize something.

See, unlike Rei Quatermain (or Rei II for convenience’s sake), THIS Rei had been told more of the truth about her origins. She knows not where her human genes had come from, only believing her gaurdian (Gendo Akari) that that information was unimportant to her and her destiny.

What that destiny was exactly she’s not sure, only that it involved bringing about a bright future for humanity (though at the cost of her own existence). Then again, what right did she have at objecting. since she wasn’t really alive. Not as a person, anyway. She’d been created, not born. Those who were born only had that right, she’d been taught that particular lesson from childhood (of which she still retained the lessons burned into her mind despite her rebirth).

1. "No . . .but we are related to her in a roundabout fashion," Rei Quatermain smiles slightly, only to pause in concern. "You’ve been crying! Why? Are you alright?"

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