Rules, Agents, and former NGE Angels. . .

Rei II

Oh thank GOD he's here! If any particular race out there (if the personification of a particular force of nature could be entity out there could termed as such) could help me get back to where I belong, it would be a Rule (with maybe an Agent being a close second in my humble opinion). If any particular Rule would be willing to do it I shall have to say I believe that it would be THIS particular Rule: Rule 5792. Say what you will but when someone of that stature should go and bend the rules he lives by just for your own sake, then I fear that I cannot feel anything but . . . a rather deep fondness for the guy. Yes, I do believe if I should ever try to pin him down into saying that he made a blatant exception in my case, intervening into my life (for the better), I shall only be embarrassing him (and myself). But still I do so very much believe that he took a special. . . interest in me.

Not that I complain!! It could have been SO bad, if he had not!

"Nice to see you as well Rei," the Rule says, smiling (actually smiling!) back. "Pardon though while I talk with Lilith here."

But I shall see about perhaps getting the G-man here a gentle hint on hurrying his spiel up and getting you and your sister back where you’d accidentally teleported away from, he adds. Yes, your parents and family are almost besides themselves in worry about what just happened back there so I’ll make sure of it.

Turning back to Lilith after that, he continues on as if nothing had been exchanged between us.

"Or would you prefer I call you Rei . . . or even Yui Akari?" the Celestrial asks gently. "Unlike your twins over there all three names apply directly to you as a person, my dear former Angel."

Say what?!

Did the Rule just imply that this Lilith had been, in earlier incarnations (as it were) been me (uh . . . an analog of me?) AND the mother or Shinji Akari? If so, then why did I not feel anything at all like I had for my sister, Rei III? I didn't even feel a trace of doppleganger reaction, positive or negative.

The fear and . . . well, hate I'd felt towards her may have been . . . premature (I'm old enough and mature enough to admit I may have jumped to conclusions about Lilith's character), but still!

"I also have rather similar business with Rei III," the Rule adds (just a trace of a smile on his lips), looking over at the red winged twin of mine. "A matter of the Champion Question, shall we say?"

"Huh?" I and the other females in the room blink and ask in surprise.

Okay, let us just say that I am VERY surprised for some reason at this latest turn of events. By the looks of it, the others are either surprised (or just plain confused) as well.

I know I'd just missed something here.

I mean with ME, I got into being a Champion through my brief brush with being an Angel which put me UNDER the Rules' authority, as a TOOL of sorts. That would have been all fine and well with a Drone Rule (who are without a atom of compassion or mercy), but not only did he get me OUT of that mess (a chance at being a normal human being) but had even offered me a chance at something . . . . better.

Am VERY happy to have become a Champion, thank YOU! While perhaps a Champion's life can be . . . odd at times at least we are MUCH more than tools, with no choice in our actions. We can even, if we wish, turn DOWN a Quest.

Let us see Lilith get away with that back when SHE was an Angel!

. . .

And if she's being given a chance to becomes a Champion, that has to say something about her character, eh?

Lilith

The others freeze in their tracks, frozen between ticks of the clock in this . . .odd realm I suddenly find myself within. Just business between me and the Rule and nobody else to overhear us.

. . .

I do not know what is more frightening, the fact that this Rule is so . . . human (all others I even remember meeting were so . . . .cold and emotionless). The fact that this Celestrial (my BOSS!) appears to be on friendly terms with my blue winged twin over there (good GOD, I thought that Champions were only a MYTH!), is . . . .absolutely astounding. And frightening!

And crushing, in a VERY real way. It all just rushed back to me, the reality I am under. I . . . AM still just a puppet.

Sob!! I have no choice in my fate if I am an Angel under a Rule! Hell, I have no future but a LOT of pain and sorrow if . . .

Rei II . . . my twin over there is a Champion and she . . .

I am in SO much trouble. Do not know why or how, but I am in SO much trouble! Surely I must be if I should be involved in the business of a Champion, the very human agent (stand in) for Rules in business which requires a . . . soft touch. I mean, I did not believe for one SECOND the half mad ramblings that male of the Tabris clan gave about one Champion in particular named Elrondir (a name clearly stolen and slightly altered from J.R.R. Tolkien) in the Chamber of Guaf (a . . . waiting room in this case between Assignments to bring about the "End of the World" in one fashion or another).

It had been told in a disjointed and disturbing manner, but Elrondir's name kept on coming back and back up. That and that particular half mad Tabris (who'd yelled on and on about his destiny being denied) that Elrondir had been a Champion. I didn't listen to him much, but one thing had stuck: Champions were NOT to be triffled with and were a deadly breed! One of OUR station does NOT cross someone of that high position and expect to get off lightly: as witness the lingering madness that followed that Tabris even into death.

No, a voice says to me in my mind, the Rule's mental voice. Dear one you misunderstand the business at hand deals with YOU becoming a Champion, if you so wish. You could refuse and even live out the remainder of your life, free to chose your own fate as a normal human being if you so desire . . . with no fears of being called BACK yet again to be . . . a tool or puppet.

. . . .

"What?" I whisper, shocked.

Now, do not get me wrong. I am not slow or stupid by any stretch of the imagination. I was not born yesterday either (have been around longer in some ways than humanity). And while I generally believe whatever a Rule has to say or tell (even if it can be the MOST absurd sounding thing, those Entities can make it true without even trying to snap a finger), I must be . . .dreaming?

The Rule goes onto explain. Explain what a Champion's job actually is and all that.

Wondrous.

. . .

This is not a dream. It's too . . . .weird to be anything I could EVER dream up, no matter HOW insane I should ever become in the course of things.

But . . . .could I actually be getting an offer for freedom?

That . . . is almost as scary of thing as anything else I could think of happening today.

. . .

"You . . . are serious and this is really happening?" I whisper, a feeling welling up within my being.

A slight nod yes from the Rule is all I need and I suddenly find . . . I am tempted in such a DEEP manner that as to not be believed.

Normalcy has it's draw for me, after the life I had led as Rei. Free to make my own way in life, to live it as I wish it. However, I could have THAT as a Champion. To do what a Champion does has . . . a mad appeal for me for SOME reason.

. . .

It . . . has a siren's call to it, the Championship. And as my old mate Adam was falsely reputed to have done been tempted into eating the "Forbidden Fruit" by that . . . one woman who got (at least in MY timeline) wrongly credited for being the mother of all of humanity. I was the mother of humanity . . . in my reality, anyway.

Guess that there are Liliths out there who were as evil and twisted as I'd heard . . . . who'd done things to deserve the bad press I'd garnered over the eons.

No matter. Eve has offered me the Fruit and I . . .eat of it. It's . . . .sweet.

"But before we make this official and I summon my Chaos counterpart to witness this," the Rule interrupts my acceptance.

. . .

That had been most startling, the idea that Champions work for both Chaos and Order.

"May I add that you get one wish granted for joining?" the Celestrial adds. "It's not limitless but it can do a LOT. As little as perhaps giving you back a more normal, non-winged appearance to perhaps causing a bit of matter rearrangement for this Earth to erase the destruction that Third Impact had been in the process of doing?"

Oh good grief, why not twist my ARM after I'd already decided on . . .

. . .

Then again, while the wings aren't exactly . . . .terrible (had gotten SUCH a rush actually flying around with them . . . wonderful), I would be remiss in UNDOING the damage done. SEELE, Nerv's masters, had been able to somehow actually START the process of Third Impact (long story, don't ask). If I was to NOT undo it, then life for all of Earth would be one step closer to impossible (and Hellish).

Unlike a LOT of Champions, I am told, I'll be able to stay here on my homeworld. Too many strange and unusual things have happened here to disqualify it from being a homebase AND being that somebody named AK-47 and her kind (droids? What exactly are droids?) will be paying a visit to visit ME as they make a Headquarters/Homebase here for themselves. The Rule adds that AK-47 (who has spaceships that traverse the stars, for God's sake) shall be a most helpful member of the Clan of Champions being set up in this reality.

I should SAY so!! If Earth is a dead end for mankind, then amongst the stars we should be . . . getting out of the shadow of extinction.

Hm, I wonder if that may have been what ONE of the ways out of the need for Instrumentality my twin had been . . .

Nevermind, not important right now at least.

Remains to be seen just what kind of person this droid will be, but in the end that is just frosting on the cake in the end. Wearing wings forevermore (like some stereotypical angel from the storybooks) is hardly a burdensome price to pay for it!

. . .

Not that I'm finding the ideas of having wings (and flying with them) too . . . terrible. I'm . . .. really beginning to like them, honestly. Feels SOOOO good, really.

The Agent is summoned. My wish granted (to occur after business with my red winged twin is completed) and I know that as things seem to jump (whatever Rei III wished for came and went without me witnessing it) . . . that life is going to be VERY special for now on!

But in the mean time, I look down at the shattered glasses in my hands and smile a bit in the moonlight. The effected time jump (sort of akin to that Omega 13 from that one Star Trek movie parody: Space Quest) to a bit before the mess that brought about so much death an chaos in the end with the attack arranged by SEELE upon NERV. That has put me in a position to undo death and damage done.

My . . . what a gift!

A brief telephone call to the right people and then a wonderful flight by wing to parts unknown and out of reach of SEELE and NERV until that droid arrives, and THEN things shall be VERY interesting (and amusing to watch) indeed.

1. Change is in the air and I plan on enjoying it too the fullest, especially a rather painful talk I shall give my treacherous husband for having abandoned and hurting OUR own son for so long!

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