"W-what?"
Asuka's stuttered response to their situation at large reflected what the group as a whole was thinking, regardless of what world they were from.
This new Rei was an enigma.
At first, it appeared that her eyes were the only thing that were different, as well as the mountain of hair she had grown since her rebirth. But it rapidly became certain that there was a whole lot more going on behind those new leaf-colored irises. The only thing she seemed to remember for certain was her name.
She had no idea who the 'strange' people surrounding her were. She also didn't have a clue why she was sat in an odd pod-like object, wearing a peculiar skin-tight suit.
She was even more confused by the girl clinging onto a certain somebody's arm that looked just like her.
Standing up, albeit a little wobbly, this world's Rei wombled over to the frightened Rei holding onto Shinji for dear life, and glared at her. The new Rei's extra-length hair curled around her body and fell in front of her face, which she fruitlessly tried to blow out of her field of vision.
"Who are you?"
"I-I was k-k-kind of hoping I could ask you that..." Crimson-eyed Rei sort of whimpered into Shinji's back, the latter of whom was wondering if this wasn't all some insane hallucination.
"What is your name?"
"R-rei... Ayanami"
"But... I'm Rei Ayanami!"
As the two Rei's argued over who the real Rei was, Ghost Shinji and Crimson Asuka were having a heated debate over the memory-loss of their once fellow pilot.
"Maybe it's amnesia?" Shadow Shinji looked at the girl he had risked his life for countless times thoughtfully.
"And amnesia somehow knocked the red right out of her eyes huh?"
"You got any better ideas Asuka?" Shinji of the Dead glared at his former pilot-mate, who shot him an even more venomous glare right back.
"Lilith is dead. You remember Lilith right? That godforsaken Angel we apparently had locked up in the basement at NERV?"
"You and Rei died before you guys even knew about Lilith, how do you know about that?" Crimson Asuka groaned before pointing towards the sphere of faintly screaming crazy that floated above their heads.
"Instrumentality. Or at least, the part of it that almost worked."
"Oh..."
"Is that, 'Oh, that Instrumentality, the one where humanity's every secret is laid bare to everyone else' kind of 'Oh...'?"
"Ah..." Ghost Shinji didn't look too happy with what that apparently meant. Not that it meant much of anything to the rest of the group.
"And you know what, whilst we're on the subject, I saw all kinds of other worlds where we were fighting Angels and crap. There was this one world where you were standing over me whilst I was comatose in a hospital bed..."
"DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD ASUKA!"
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO THIRD CHILD!" After her roar of fury that silenced the whole group, Asuka continued bitterly.
"Who even does that? Who faps to an unconscious girl in a hospital bed, seriously?"
"YOU DID WHAT!?" It was the other Asuka's turn to scream, picking up the living Shinji by his shirt collar, shaking him around like a leaf in a hurricane. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME WHILST I WAS ASLEEP YOU FAPPY BASTARD!?"
"I...didn't...do...anything." Shinji managed to choke out whilst being subject once again to another angry Asuka's screaming two feet off the ground.
"And not to mention..." Ghost Shinji said adamantly. "This was a Shinji who existed in another world. Neither him..." He pointed to his other self currently getting asphyxiated. "Nor me did anything like that! We're innocent!"
Crimson Asuka shot the ghost a livid look that would shake hell to it's very foundations.
"You. Destroyed. The. World." She was seething with every syllable. The people around her were genuinely surprised she wasn't spitting fire. "If you weren't already dead, I'd kill you myself, here and now!"
"And...you do...all that weird stuff...to me...when I'm sleeping..." Meanwhile, living Shinji, on the verge of oxygen-deprived unconsciousness, blurted out something that caused the whole group to rapidly change their attention to the other fight.
"You..." Now it was Ghost Shinji's turn to look creeped out. "You utter hypocrite..."
With a face as rougé as her plugsuit, Crimson Asuka was at a loss for words. She just looked at her otherworld counterpart with a horrified expression. She only had one, despair-filled word to give.
"Why...?"
"THAT'S NOT... THAT'S... ARRGGHHHHHHH!" With her scream gurgling in frustration in her throat, the other Asuka dropped the near-dead Shinji unceremoniously on the ground, and started to back away from Mana and red-eyed Rei, both pointing charged bracelets at her.
"Today's been an odd kind of day, huh guys?" Hikari had been mostly silent for the whole trip. But with her first bit of dialogue since they left the school roof, Toji and Kensuke agreed. It had certainly been an odd kind of day.
"So the plan is, we go back to our world, find out as much as we can about the bracelets, Seele, and anything we could potentially use to fix this world." Shinji said as his ghostly counterpart nodded.
"We can't do anything here at the moment. The Angels no longer exist and have no reason to attack even if they did. Rei's new look seems to lend some credence to that theory." Ghost Shinji looked at the new Rei. "Though I would like to know where her memories ran off to."
The group assembled together, getting ready for departure. Shinji, looking a little worse for wear after Asuka's rough treatment, was looking forward to going home. He really didn't like the death-riddled atmosphere of this world.
Raising his hand, Ghost Shinji began to talk as his world started to fade away to black.
"Looking forward to our new life together." His maniacal grin was back, bringing with it some unpleasant thoughts.
"What did he mean by..." Before he could finish, Shinji found himself sitting on the roof of the school once again. It was night time, so they must have been in the otherworld for a lot longer then they all realized.
"We've missed all our afternoon classes!?" Hikari shrieked when she realised what time it was. "My perfect attendance record, gone..."
While the class president cursed the ghost for his awful sense of timing, the rest of the group began to head home, thoroughly exhausted after the events of the day.
Not a word was said as they all left the building. Quick goodbyes were shared as Kensuke, Hikari who was still sobbing, and Toji, attempting to comfort the girl left to go their separate ways home.
Which left the awkward atmosphere shared by Asuka, Shinji, Rei and Mana as they slowly walked the familiar route back to their abode. It was only when Misato's apartment building started coming into view that Asuka suddenly spoke up.
"Well, at least you aren't crazy!"
The others turned to look at her, deadpan expressions everywhere.
"What?"
"Shinji, the second you get home you need to summon and install a lock for your door."
"I'm starting to think a lock isn't going to be enough Rei."
"She has a bracelet too. A molester with the powers of a deity... That's terrifying when you think about it."
"WHAT THE HELL!?" Asuka yelled furiously at the rest of them. "I'D NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"
"I dunno... History's telling us that you're lying and horny as hell."
"I could say the same to you Mana Kirishima!"
"She could turn herself invisible, create a portal in her room that opens up in his, hypnotise him into sharing her wildest fetishes... gehehehe..." Rei had started to drool with a goofy grin as she counted all the things that could be done with the powers they all shared.
"You could turn him into a girl for a day... Shapeshift him into any form you could think of... Drown his body in chocolate..." Mana wore an identical expression to Rei as Shinji began running for the questionable sanctity of his room.
"You three are freaking me out! You're all perverted!"
Making it up to the apartment door a few minutes later, Shinji stopped to catch his breath before he opened the way into his veritable prison. Getting his keycard out of his bag, he hastily swiped it, intending to lock himself in his room and reinforce it as much as possible as the receiver beeped and a green light shone into his eyes, allowing him access.
Taking three steps into his home, he dropped everything he was holding as he saw the only thing that could possibly make his day a hell of a lot worse.
"Shinji, how the hell have you gotten so much faster..." Asuka huffed and wheezed as she made it to the door behind him. Looking up at the sight that Shinji saw, she wanted to scream agony to the center of the world.
"Welcome home guys, you sure are late!"
Ghost Shinji, Crimson Asuka, who was wearing what looked like the original's yellow sundress that was surely appropriated from the fuming girl's wardrobe and green-eyed Rei, wearing what looked like Asuka's short, black skirt and white tank top that also appeared to come from the same source, were all sitting on the couch watching what looked like a magical girl anime on TV.
The scene was wrapped up nicely by a clearly insane looking Misato sitting at the kitchen table, which was overladen with various types of strong spirits. A bottle of tequila was open and half-empty as the crazed woman looked at the front door, smiling with what looked like the intention that she wanted to eat them alive.
"Guyz! Can you *hic* tell the school tomorrow... that I'z taking a sick day? Or..." She finished the glass of straight tequila in her hand in one gulp. "geurhhh... or a *hic* mental health day?"
"Um... Misato, we can explain..." Shinji sheepishly tried to reassure the clearly shaken Misato, whilst wondering where on earth he would begin with this latest series of events.
"No need! Those three told me everything!" She wobbled an arm towards the inhabitants of her couch.
"Two Ashuka's, a Rei that had a major makeover where she traded all her memories and a dead Shinji that destroyed another world! With alienz and shtuff!" She burped as she poured herself another strong drink in front of the aghast Shinji, whilst the couch-side Asuka snickered.
"Some things never change."
"Wait til Mama Ikari finds out about thiz! She's gonna blow a musket! Cheers!" Misato giggled as she raised her glass in the air, before promptly passing out on the table, the contents of her glass spilling out all over the table.
The night was only beginning, but Shinji realized he might need a day off school tomorrow too, if only to have any chance in hell of sorting out all the mess that had happened tonight.
But when he finally managed to clear Misato and her assortment of strong alcohol off the table and get her into bed, the others had all already gone to bed, doppelgängers with their respective originals, and had the terrifying prospect of having to sleep in a room with a ghost standing watch over him all night.
"Please don't do anything strange to me."
"I would never dream of it." His ghost snickered as he lay on the floor. Something in his voice told Shinji he wasn't to be trusted.
Needless to say, the living schoolboy never got a wink of sleep that night.