Chapter Text
Sitting up in what was definitely a hospital bed, in a room full of what definitely was not normal hospital equipment, Shinji looked at the face in the hand mirror.
It was the pale, red-eyed face of Ayanami Rei, framed by a scruffy bob of powder-blue hair.
Why was it more comfortable than the lightly tanned, blue-eyed face of Ikari Shinji, crowned with neatly trimmed black hair? Why did a certain absence – or a certain pair of new presences – not feel bothersome? Why did this figure feel better?
Shinji twined a finger in those blue locks. The style felt a little off. It wasn't that it looked bad, or out of place. It was just... being a perfect double of Rei didn't feel right, even if having a face shaped like Rei's and a body shaped like Rei's did. Rei was Rei, and Shinji was...
Who was Shinji?
Shinji set down the mirror and looked up at the real Rei, standing by the bed in her plugsuit.
"Are you ready to get up?" asked the original. "Captain Katsuragi has a plan to defeat the Angel, but it needs both of us.
Angel? Shinji tried to remember. There had been an alert. There had been an Angel. Then... nothing, before waking up down here with all this machinery. "What happened? Why am I like this?"
"The Angel's attack overheated your entry plug. You were terribly injured. Dr Akagi transferred your soul into a clone of me, because there is no way for a single Evangelion to defeat this Angel."
Shinji wiggled fingers free of the familiar cellist's calluses. "So she... she turned me into a girl?"
Rei tilted her head. "I am not so sure that she turned you into one. But we can talk later. I brought one of my spare plugsuits for you. Your old one won't fit."