A Simple Girl's Silence (part 7 of 7)

a Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfiction by Ancient Rime

Back to Part 6
The hospital room had been dark and silent. Asuka had no family to 
care about her current condition. She was alone in a world where there 
was no Rei. Her attachment to that blue-haired wonder was equivalent 
to nothing else she had ever known. She often wondered in her dazed 
dreams inside that comma, why she had not told her earlier that she 
loved her. The silence of these dreams were breathtakingly painful. Up 
until now, they had been but images of the past that ran through her 
mind like a slide show of regret. Her mother, Shinji, Rei... The 
battles against the Angels, they were all present in them.

When a person falls into a coma, there is often no escape for that 
person. Science, till the day still had no exact remedy other than 
prayer for someone who had fallen into such a state. Very often, the 
person suffers a sever lapse of memory and cannot remember even who 
they are or their family, let alone what the previous state had been 
like. Thus we have no accurate account of what important facts of the 
human sub-conscience are exposed in this state. Asuka's injuries 
hadn't been too terrible, or so the doctors thought. But, on the first 
night of her stay she had slipped deep into a coma.

Asuka's dreams had been in stages of complexity. Before she had not 
been troubled by neither color, nor sound. The dream that had begun to 
emerge in the back of her mind now possessed image, color, and sound. 
Like most dreams, Asuka's was presently in the third person. She was 
herself, but there was something about herself that felt strange. She 
looked down at her hands, they were tiny. She realized then that she 
was in her childhood body. 

Before her was Rei, also as a child. The two young children stared at 
each other for some time, and Rei was the first to speak in a calm and 
gentle voice.

"You're Asuka Langley aren't you? I've heard about you."

The background looked familiar. It seemed to comforting to Asuka, who 
embraced it dearly. The field of sunflowers around them were in full 
bloom, and the scent of spring was present. Asuka, small as she might 
have been, certainly did not lack the ferocity of her former self in 
this delirious dream. 

"Oh yea? What've you heard?" The small child tapped its foot with an 
irate beat. Rei simply smiled widely.

"I heard a whisper that you loved me. Is that really true Asuka?" 
Asuka's eyes went wide as they filled with tears. She nodded softly. 
The end had been the beginning, her dreams had taken her to the origin 
of the love that she felt. Rei laughed softly.

"Then why don't you come to me Asuka?" At that moment, Rei seemed very 
far away. Asuka's tears fell rapidly from her eyes that seemed to 
blend with the eternally blue sky. Rei seemed to be getting further 
and further away. Asuka got to her feet and ran as fast as her 
childhood legs would carry her. Her voice was shaky and pleading.

"Rei! Please don't leave me! Please don't leave me here alone! I have 
nothing else!!"

Asuka ran with the fire that she felt burning in her soul. She 
sprinted in leaps and bounds, but the faster she ran the further Rei 
seemed to be getting from her, as if Asuka had been traveling at the 
speed of light, and all time and space were lying to her. She had 
finally reached the edge where Rei's wings magnificently unfolded on 
her youthful body, now as she looked normally in the present. Asuka 
skidded at the edge of the field where the earth came to an end, and 
watched Rei take flight. Those wings illuminated the sky as the beat 
against gravity. Hundreds of red balloons began filling the air. Asuka 
stood her present size, she was now equal to Rei. Rei laughed softly.

"Grab hold on to one Asuka, Come with me to heaven! Come and be one 
with me."

Asuka flung herself blindly off the edge of the world, and clung to 
the nearest red balloon which would drag her higher, and higher, 
soaring beyond reality with Rei. She had finally realized that love 
was far beyond the reaches of men's understanding, way beyond the 
horizon of reality. Love was simply the border that separated the 
earth from the sky where wishes are sent and miracles and dreams 
originate.

All of the pretty colors had begun to fade into one. The white had 
begun to filing to her dream, and she could sense that something was 
tugging at her heart. Much like someone who has been under water too 
long, she felt a hand trying to pull her away from this beautiful 
dream in which she wished to stay forever. The white became brighter 
until colors began to refill the area that she called her world. The 
object before her slowly began to come into focus. 

"Hi... Hikari? Is that... you?" Asuka's voice was groggy, she could 
hardly believe that this was real. She had lost the ability to 
decipher the real world from dreams, it had been so long. Hikari's 
smile widened.

"Asuka! You're okay!" Hikari reached down and hugged her dear friend 
who equally embraced her. Within that soft embrace, Asuka looked 
around the hospital room. Red balloons were tied to her bed post, 
there were flowers on each night stand, sunflowers and tulips. There 
was a cake on a small yet decorated table left of the bed. Asuka sat 
up in bed slowly.

"What is ... all of this?" Hikari giggled.

"Well, you couldn't come to the party I was going to hold today... So 
we brought the party to you! It was all Rei's idea. You were right all 
along Asuka, she is a good person after all!"

Asuka's eyes grew glassy with affection, she gasped softly with 
adoration, the love overcoming her. Her eyes moved endearingly over to 
Rei, and a simple tear of joy was shed, which trickled down her cheek 
and ended up on her lips. Asuka had begun to wonder if this were just 
another wishful meaningless dream when the tear made it to her lips. 
She tasted the salty tear, and she knew that this had to be reality. 
Hikari moved to the side as Rei handed Asuka her present. Asuka took 
it smiling, and embraced Rei with tears of joy.

The party was incredible. Never had Asuka been brought to be so close 
to those who she had hardly thought of before. Later that day it was 
just her, Rei and Hikari. Hikari had left when her mother went to pick 
her up, and Rei and Asuka were left alone. Rei was her usual quiet 
self. The release papers had been signed, and Asuka was now free to 
do. Rei took it upon herself to help Asuka pack her things back up; 
which only consisted of her plug suit, a set of clothing, and the only 
present she hadn't opened yet. 

On their way home, Rei had decided to take a detour. They had ended up 
in the very field of flowers where this whole adventure had begun. 
Asuka sat down softly, and rested back on her arms. Rei had sat beside 
her. Asuka was leaning back further when she hit a lump in her book 
bag. She tried to ignore it for the time being. Rei sat down And 
smiled gently at Asuka, and spoke in a voice that actually contained 
emotion.

"The world has been empty without you... Asuka. While you were 
sleeping, I finally found my true self. I have a right to feel the 
emotions that I do towards you." Asuka smiled taking Rei's hand into 
her own. Her memory had not failed at all, which was nothing short of 
a miracle. She looked softly into Rei's eyes. Rei quietly looked away, 
when Asuka lifted her chin.

"Rei... Don't look away from me. I've searched even in my dreams for 
you. I love you. And I always have. I was so scared that... That I had 
waited to long to tell you that finally."

Asuka shifted uncomfortably, when she pulled the bog from her book 
bag. She smiled down at it gently.

"I'd forgotten to open it. I guess I saved the best for last." Asuka 
gently removed the red wrapping paper, and the tissue paper that 
encased the gift. From the depths of the box she produced a delicate 
crystal figure. At the very top rested two doves in flight. Connected 
to the tails were the streaming paths which they had flown, forever 
made fondly visible in crystal. The paths connected to make an eternal 
circle. Asuka found herself at the end standing at the beginning, with 
Rei at her side. There were no more words. Asuka gently took Rei's 
hands up in her own and kissed her lips ever so sweetly. Relativity, 
all things in life are inevitably intertwined into one, eternally 
true.

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