Having resolved to avenge Zero, Shinji decided to rest and drifted off to sleep.
In his dream, his body became transparent. When he opened his eyes again, he was shocked to find himself somewhere that looked like hell.
Towering stone pillars reached into the clouds, eerie light shone all around, and channels of lava crisscrossed the ground. It was like hell itself.
"What is this place?!"
A deafening roar violently interrupted his thoughts.
An enormous monster appeared before Shinji... No, more accurately, it was an amalgamation of monsters.
Its height and width were impossible to gauge.
It had a demonic head with two horns, exposed fangs filling its gaping mouth, and eyes so ferocious that he couldn't meet its gaze.
A fissure ran down the middle of its massive body, with lava churning inside, and a pair of demonic wings spread from its back.
Most terrifying of all, its body was covered in writhing monsters of every kind, all roaring.
The Combined Monster—Beludora.
"That's terrifying!"
Shinji wanted to flee in terror, but once his panic subsided, he realized the monster couldn't see him.
Then he noticed a black-and-red... Ultraman on the monster's head.
He seemed to be one of Zero's people, but his hideous face made it obvious he wasn't one of the good guys.
While Shinji was pondering this, six differently colored beams shot toward the Combined Monster.
Following the beams to their source, he saw five Ultramen. Their appearance put him at ease, and two of them were firing a beam together.
The other two beams came from a spacecraft and a monster, respectively.
Beams powerful enough to reduce an Angel to ashes only produced a few sparks and slightly staggered the Combined Monster.
"Are they going to lose?" Shinji watched nervously.
Just then, a familiar voice reached his ears.
"Aaaah!!!!!"
He looked toward the source of the voice.
That familiar figure—it was Zero! Wielding a great blade formed from his head sluggers, he flew toward the Combined Monster and slashed viciously at the black-and-red Ultraman on top.
"The entire universe will be mine!!!"
The black-and-red Ultraman roared defiantly.
"Then let me smash that ambition for you!"
A green light flashed.
The Combined Monster exploded, its shock wave sweeping across almost the entire planet.
The other Ultramen gathered around Zero, congratulating him on his victory.
Shinji was utterly stunned. If that battle had taken place on Earth, the planet would definitely have been destroyed.
And Eva? What a joke. Against that monster, Eva wouldn't even count as trash.
As for who had stood out the most... That was Zero, of course. His voice sounded incredibly young compared with the other Ultramen, and Shinji couldn't comprehend how he had defeated that seemingly invincible Combined Monster with a single slash.
So this was Zero's power?
No wonder. Ramming an Angel to death really was... as easy as lifting a foot for him...
As for the Angels... They didn't seem like much now. Compared with those monsters, they were practically ants beside elephants.
"Wake up!"
Shinji woke from his dream to find Zero's huge face right in front of him.
"Does anything still hurt? I didn't check you thoroughly earlier."
"Zero, I saw you in my dream."
Shinji recounted his dream to Zero.
"Looks like you entered my dream. That was my first real battle. I defeated Belial, a traitor to the Land of Light, and saved the Land of Light from disaster."
Zero gave him a brief explanation of the great crisis that had struck the Land of Light.
"So, pretty cool, wasn't I?" Zero swiped his nose with swagger.
"You were amazing." Shinji sat up, only to feel a sharp pain in his lower back.
His lower back had also been injured when Ramiel hit him.
"Don't move. Let me." Zero took control of Shinji's body, held a hand over the wound, and began healing it.
Shinji caught sight of the surveillance camera on the wall.
"Won't they see you? There's a camera there."
"I've already tampered with the video data. They can't see this part."
He was secretly glad he still remembered the techniques X had taught him.
The door opened. It was Rei Ayanami.
Zero hurriedly stopped what he was doing, trying to hide it.
"I saw what you just did."
"You're not really Ikari, are you?"
While Shinji's head was still buzzing, Zero decided to come clean.
"What a pain... Never mind. I'll tell the girl the truth."
Zero's spectral image appeared before Rei Ayanami.
An ordinary person would probably have jumped in fright at the sight, but Rei Ayanami showed no reaction whatsoever.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm from the M78 Nebula in another world..."
Zero briefly explained how he had arrived and how he and Shinji had become one.
"And that's how Shinji and I became one. Of course, I haven't taken over his consciousness. I only borrow his body from time to time."
"I hope you can keep our secret, because if the people at this base find out, they'll definitely do unforgivable things to Shinji."
"Of course, I certainly wouldn't let that happen."
"Please, Ayanami..."
Ayanami remained silent.
"How about this? Would you mind telling me about yourself?"
"About myself?"
"I don't know how to talk about myself... All I know is that fighting the Angels is the one thing I have to do right now. Other than that, I don't know what it means to be alive, or anything else."
Since asking wasn't getting him anywhere, Zero decided to use a technique he had never tried before.
"Would you allow me to access your memories?"
"Huh? You can do that?"
Shinji hadn't expected Zero to know a technique like that.
"We of the Ultra Race can indeed do that through our powerful psychic abilities."
Rei Ayanami showed no reaction to those words and merely asked coldly, "Is that an order?"
"No," Zero said. "It's a request. You can say yes or no."
Zero also suspected that normal ways of communicating might not work on Rei Ayanami.
Rei Ayanami nodded expressionlessly. "I agree."
Although none of this felt quite real to her, she still sensed that Zero, standing before her, could help her.
"All right, I'm going in. Close your eyes."
Zero's spectral image turned into a ray of light and entered Ayanami's head.
The process went exceptionally smoothly. The span of Ayanami's memories was nothing like that of a fourteen-year-old child.
Zero found the very beginning.
Rei Ayanami was taken out of a cultivation chamber.
I see. So this girl is a clone.
Zero went through Ayanami's memories from the moment she emerged until the present. The only things that caught his attention were that Gendo Ikari sometimes showed particular concern for Rei, that she soaked in LCL fluid after being injured, and that she regularly needed medication to sustain her body.
Just as Zero finished and prepared to leave, he heard a voice.
"You must not interfere in the affairs of this world..."
"Who are you?"
There was no answer, and Zero left Ayanami's memories.
He now felt sympathy for Rei, too.
"How did it go, Zero?"
Zero briefly explained the situation, then brought up something he had noticed earlier.
"Shinji, have you noticed that Ayanami's profile looks a lot like yours?"
"Does it?"
Shinji looked at Ayanami's profile, and suddenly, memories buried for a long time rose to the surface...
"Why... She does look like me, but she looks even more like... Mom?"
"Then that makes sense. Maybe that old bastard used your mother's genes to clone Rei Ayanami for some purpose."
"In other words, Rei Ayanami counts as your younger sister..."
"What?!" Not only Shinji, but even Ayanami was surprised.
"That clears up this question, but we still don't know what that old bastard is planning."
Zero decided to find a way to address Ayanami's psychological issues, or at least give her a goal.
"Rei, can you tell me what you fight for?"
"I... I fight for my bond with everyone," she said, finding an answer.
"My bond with everyone... Apart from that, I have nothing..."
"I can only do what everyone wants me to do..."
Given what this child had experienced, it was no wonder.
"Don't say you have nothing. Shinji and I are both willing to stand by you. Whatever else, you're biological siblings. Shinji and I are partners, so that makes you my partner, too. Right, Shinji?"
"That's right, Ayanami. No, my little sister."
Shinji picked up where Zero left off.
"Then, for now, fight to find the true meaning of bonds. We'll help you along the way."
"Oh, and Shinji fights to protect the lights of every home."
After giving it some thought, Rei Ayanami answered.
"Yes. I'll keep your secret, and I'll give your suggestion serious thought." Ayanami nodded.
She turned toward Shinji and awkwardly said, "Big brother."
"That's more like it."
After saying it, Ayanami suddenly remembered what she had come here to do.
"I'm sorry I forgot about this earlier. I came here to explain tonight's..."
"...specific arrangements for Operation Yashima."
Before you continue