This chapter is pretty long considering to the others and it's the last chapter in this VOLUME. ENJOY

Chapter Thirty-Three

Fear

Rei arrived at her intended location, looking out toward the city. Her eyes widen. The entire city, as far her eyes could see looked partly destroyed with half submerged buildings. It was like numerous bombs had been dropped leaving nothing but ruins and destructions in their wake.

Am I still in Japan? She thought looking at the scenery.

Then her eyes found a familiar figure on the streets..with a flash of red hair, dressed in a military outfit. Even in the distance, she recognized her.

Asuka…Mate…

Rei quickly head down the stairs of the building, and out onto the streets feeling the pain in her bandaged arm. Arriving into the street where she had seen Asuka, looking around herself.

It was deserted.

"Asuka," she called, her voice sounding oddly muted in the strange silence.

Rei wished she had at least a weapon, to defend herself since this place didn't look remotely friendly, for it reminded her of the slums of old Tokyo.

It was then she came across a group of people, all of them armed with large guns and dressed similarly as to how Asuka had been. The group hasn't noticed her yet, and Rei cautiously approached them, not wanting to be seen yet. Friendly or not, she didn't want to startle them.

"…she just returned," one of them was saying, "Guess the mission went bad."

"Yeah, and she was so sure that it would succeed," another said, sounding sympathetic.

"Sometimes, I still wonder about her."

"What are you doing?" a voice said right behind Rei.

The girl turned around, finding…

"Hikari."

The name was out of Rei's mouth before she could stop herself. It really was Hikari, dressed for battle but not in Hunter's outfit, more military like and a gun was in her hands. Hikari must have seen her eyes for she suddenly raised her gun at Rei and yelled.

"VAMPIRE,"

Her yell had drawn the attention of the group Rei was listening to before she could retaliate; she was hit by something on the back of her head before falling unconscious.

Cold water was splashed upon her face, snapping her out of the unconscious state she was in. first thing she found out that her hand were tightly tied behind her back, her bandaged arm were throbbing painfully. The second was that she was staring at an unfamiliar face, looking at her with hate and disgust.

"Finally awake eh, bloodsucking bitch," he growled, "I still wonder why the boss didn't want us to kill you yet…"

Then the heavy looking door behind him creaked a little as it opened, letting two people into the room. One of them was Hikari thought she was armed with an automatic weapon on her front and the other one was no other than Asuka herself. She was dressed in similar outfit as Hikari as she had a cut scar on the side of her face, probably from a knife by the look of it. Her blue eyes were like icicles as they stared at her hatefully which brake a little of Rei's heart.

"Who sends you to spy on us?" Asuka asked, her voice holding no warmth.

Rei blinked at the question. Spying? What is she talking about?

"I…I don't…"

"I said who send you bloodsucker?" Asuka snarled.

Rei could feel nothing but hurt and confusion. Why was Asuka so…cold toward her? Why was she hated by her mate? Why did her mate…looks at her with such disgusted eyes…?

She was brought back down to Earth by the sound of a clicking gun, finding the barrel of the weapon right into her face.

"Don't make me her ask you again," Hikari growled, looking ready to shoot.

"No one had sent me," Rei answered.

Hikari snorted at the answer, but Rei only had eyes for Asuka, whose blue eyes showed no emotions within them.

"You expect me to believe that?" Hikari said.

"Believing me or not," Rei continued, her eyes still on Asuka, "That will be your choice."

A few moment of silences passed within the holding cell that Rei was in, and then Asuka spoke.

"Leave us."

"Asuka…," Hikari started but the redhead cut her off.

"I can handle myself Hikari; I want to talk to her alone."

The two stared at each other, fighting a battle with their eyes, and then Hikari seems too agreed and then walked out followed by the man and then the door was slammed to a close. When they were alone, Asuka approached Rei and took a seat on the ground in front of her, the blue eyes observing Rei carefully.

"You're a pureblood aren't you?" she said.

Rei nodded.

"For a vampire," Asuka said, observing her face, "You are…different."

Rei blinked in confusion.

"You don't stare at us Hunter with hatred nor disgust," the redhead continued, "I can read people's emotions quite easily…and Vampires either have anger, bloodlust or darkness within them. You, on the other hand, you don't have any of those, if I didn't know better, I would have thought you are only a young terrified human girl."

Rei looked downward.

"That makes me incline to believe that no one had sent you to spy on us," Asuka said, "and that you were telling the truth."

Rei looked up, relief running through her body.

"But even so, I don't trust you," Asuka told her, "Nor Vampire in general. You will stay here until I figure out what to do with you."

Rei swallowed but gives her a nod.

Asuka give her a sad smile before standing up walking toward the door.

"Why didn't you kill me on sight?" Rei asked.

Asuka had opened the door and looked at her.

"Something about you…reminds me of someone I knew a long time ago."

Then the door closed behind her and locking it.

Rei didn't know how long she stayed in that room. She could have been in here for hours, days, weeks even she wouldn't have been any wiser. The occasional shaking of the Earth around her, makes her wonder what could be big enough to causes such phenomenon. She knew it couldn't be earthquake for they don't occur so often. Her arm had healed itself, thought the process had went slowly. She heard footsteps outside of her cell doors from time to time, but no one opened it, and sometimes Rei can heard them talking about her in low whispers…

Then, after so long, someone unlocked the door causing her to look up as she took in the scent. The person approached before kneeling in front of her.

"You're still alive, huh?"

Hikari, she thought.

"Must be quite a disadvantage to live like this," Hikari continued, hatred evident in her voice, "After so long…you must be quite thirsty…"

The scent of blood wafted in her nose, making her lean toward it with a slight groan, but Hikari left it out of reach.

"Why don't you escape?" Hikari asked her, "Why do you still stay in your capture?"

Seeing that she wasn't responsive, Hikari slammed a punch into Rei's face making the latter turn her head sideway.

"I don't care what you told Asuka," Hikari growled, taking hold of Rei's hair forcing the vampire to look at her, "Look at her with those eyes again...and I'll fucking kill you."

She had her gun on Rei's chin.

"Just give me a reason."

"Hikari," a voice from behind her said, "What are you doing to the prisoner?"

The girl turned around finding Asuka standing at the doorway, with her arm crossed. Hikari stepped back from Rei and Asuka approached, snatching the bag of blood from Hikari's hands and kneeled in front of Rei. Opening the top of the bag, she started to feed it to Rei.

"W…What are you doing?" Hikari asked.

"Giving her food," Asuka said, "That's the reason you came down here with the bag isn't it? Or did you had something else in mind?"

Rei was drinking the blood…no matter how strange the taste was... she was drinking it, sighing in relief as she sated her thirst...if only for a while...

"I'm taking her outside," Asuka said, unlocking Rei's arms.

"You can't trust Vampires Asuka," Hikari told her.

"I don't," Asuka said, "But, I can trust her…for she is the one who saved my life constantly when I was only a teenager…isn't that right, Rei?"

Rei looked up at her, shock and surprise in her eyes.

"I remember Rei, I remembered everything," Asuka said to her taking her into a hug, "I never thought I'll see you again…"

"How can you…" Hikari started.

But she never finished since she was stabbed form behind, a look of utter shock crossing her face before falling down. The attacker's face was masked, dressed completely in black with a single eye right in the middle of the mask.

"SEELE," Asuka whispered.

She threw Rei on the floor and summoned her Lance which appeared out of nowhere as the attacker charged at her. Rei lied there on the ground, her entire body feeling like lead. She wanted to go help Asuka but her body won't answer. Then the attacker did a maneuver sending the staff out of Asuka's hand and stabbed Asuka straight throught. She stared at it, too shocked to even move as the redhead simply falls over and die.

"ASUKA," Rei screamed.

The entire hallway cracked at the pain and heartbreak that was tied to Rei's emotions. Her eyes fixed upon the redhead body's…not wanting to believe it…not wanting to see that her mate had died…

"So, this is the great Rei Ayanami's worst fear," a voice said, "I must say, I never saw this coming."

TO BE CONTINUED ON VOLUME 9

A mysterious arrival? Who could it be?

Yeah, it was a pain these past days to work on this Volume. and i've already started working on the next Volume which will be up sometimes at the end of the week at earliest...that is if i don't get lazy..or if this story didn't get any reviews. Hope you readers enjoyed this story and check out my other Evangelion fic, EVANGELION FIGHTER with chapter 7 uploaded.

Jacques0 out.

R&R.