Author's Note: Sorry about the extended wait on this part. School finally caught up with me. Enjoy, and keep the reviews flowing!

Neon Genesis Evangelion:

Apocryphal Rhythms

Part9

by ZERØ's Wings

Gendo, Ritsuko, and Fuyutski all hovered around Rei's crumpled form. The sun had finally slipped under the cusp of the horizon, and even its embers had darkened to bruised blues and purples. The room was soaked in the eerie cobalt glow of twilight.

About thirty minutes after Ritsuko began examining Rei in the NERV hospital ward, Rei passed a small amount of urine, blood, and a glowing, pink object about the size and shape of a marble. Ritsuko picked up the tiny S2 organ using a pair of surgical tongs, and studied it carefully under her microscope. After a moment she sat back and rubbed her forehead, deep in thought. "I think I'm beginning to understand," the doctor said at last. "Rei's body seems to be flushing out all elements of her angel physiology."

"Why is she unconscious?' Gendo asked, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.

"For one thing, she's lost an incredible amount of fluid. She's lucky to be alive, but the IV line should keep her that way. Also, her body has rejected the S2 implant. Now, she can only rely on a heart which is probably still in a prenatal stage of development. It must be working overtime to keep her alive, even in this comatose state."

"How will her rejection of the implant affect our project," Gendo asked in a narrow, dangerous voice.

Ritsuko shook her head. "There's absolutely no way that Rei could hope to fuse with Lillith," she said almost triumphantly. "She's a completely different person physically. Even the Yui Ikari in her has been lost in the rewriting of her DNA."

"That's unacceptable," Gendo said firmly. "You'll have to begin work on a new spare body. We'll implant the organ in it and go ahead with the schedule."

"But to do that, we'll need to splice and synchronize the current Rei's cells," Ritsuko argued back. "There's no way she'd survive that process!"

"Do as I say," was Gendo's abrupt, callous reply.

"You can't be serious!" Ritsuko screamed hoarsely. "As soon as your little girl becomes human, you just throw her away for the sake of the damn project? I thought I lost you to Rei. But now, it seems you don't even care about her! Are we all just your toys? Don't you care about anyone!!?" Bitter, hysterical tears dropped from Ritsuko's eyes and evaporated the second they hit her face, which was red and superheated from all that yelling at the top of her lungs. "How could you…" she whispered.

Gendo turned to his second-in-command and gave him a quick nod. Fuyutski dutifully took Ritsuko by the arm and dragged her back to the brig. As soon as he had left the room, Gendo whipped around furiously and punched a metal tray. The tray yielded an empty chime, and blood flowed from between Gendo's knuckles.

*****

Shinji sat in a fold-out chair at Asuka's bedside. He watched her chest rhythmically rise and fall. It was strange, seeing her in like this. It was the first time he had seen human body that was so utterly unresponsive, one in which the miraculous spark of life had been dimmed and she was little more than a self-sustaining hunk of meat. The fact that she still drew breaths and her heart still beat was a testament to her robust stubbornness.

Shinji drifted down the halls as if in a dream. The blanched halls were extremely bright, almost blindingly so. The curious, neutral scent of disinfectants covered every surface. Shinji saw the door labeled R. Ayanami. He opened it without feeling its touch. His hands registered no sensation. He floated into the room, unable to feel his own footsteps. The experience was incredibly surreal for Shinji. Nothing is real…nothing to get hung about. He couldn't believe anything about the room he was in, least of all the frail, unconscious body in the bed before him.

"Rei…" he murmured in disbelief. He voice had dropped to an inaudible, breathy whisper. "I need you to wake up. I can't be alone. Not now."

There was no response.

"I got so close to you…so quickly…why did this have to happen?"

No response.

"Come back to me, please. Without you, without Asuka, without," he winced, "…Kaworu…I'm nothing. I'd rather be dead." Shinji tried to cry, he tried so hard, but he had no more tears to cry with. His own body had betrayed him as well.

A nurse knocked on the door delicately. "I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over," she said quietly.

Shinji's shoulders sagged a bit, not quite slumping, but sort of falling into second gear. He turned around, and bore down on the nurse with a cavernous pair of eyes. In those watery blue orbs, the nurse could see straight through his head, and feel the moldy remnants of his broken soul.

"Sorry," she said gently. She shut the door and did not bother Shinji again.

The sun rose in the morning, brightening and darkening the room with drifting shadows and wispy clouds. The shadows grew out into the room as encroaching tentacles of darkness. Then, the fire of sunset. The serenity of twilight. The neutral darkness of a night sky. The sun rose and fell three more times, and Shinji remained in that chair. He had no concept of time. The world spun around him on its own course, guiding forces and bodies that he had no control over and even less understanding of.

On the fourth day of waiting, Shinji felt frail and empty, not because of his lack of food or sleep, but from a dawning hopelessness toward Rei's condition. He got out of his chair and walked shakily to her bedside. He collapsed in front of her and put his head down on her bed. Tears finally came to his parched, red eyes.

As Shinji wept softly at Rei's bedside, a soft, gentle hand settled on his forehead. The hand, smooth as lotion and carrying the faint scent of vanilla, ran delicate fingers through his hair. That scent, that touch, that perfect, innocent delicacy, was something that Shinji recognized instantly.

"Rei!" he cried out. He quickly modulated his voice, however, remembering Rei's weakened condition and the fact that he was in a hospital. "I'm…I'm very glad to see you Rei."

"Why?" she asked, exhausted and disoriented.

"Because…I love you," he said, not believing the frothy syllables even as they escaped his throat.

"That's good," she said in an odd voice. She made a sudden croaking noise, bowed her head, and threw up into Shinji's lap. He sat there, looking at the pile of vomit covering his pants, and he started to laugh. Shinji hadn't laughed many times in his entire life, and had really meant it even fewer times. It was this uncontrollable, bubbly laughter that came up from places that had been numb or dead in Shinji for years. Rei looked at him strangely, and her eyelids began to flutter. "I'm going back to bed," she said in her normally precise, formal voice. A moment later, she was out cold, and Shinji was left with a strange, silly little grin on his face.

End part9