Fifteen years ago the world as we know it was turned on its head. The event that came to be known as the Second Impact changed the course of human history, killing countless billions and scarring the face of the planet forever. I lived through that hell sealed in a tiny capsule, saved by my father so that I alone could live on into an unknown future.

For all the hardship and awful things that followed, I'd like to think I got off pretty easy compared to the kids who were born after the blast. Not only did they have to deal with the mess we adults left for them, but a lot of them were born looking...weird, with tails, wings, horns, and other things that have no right being part of the human body. No one really knows why or how it happened but we know for sure is that it's connected to the Second Impact somehow.

I really hope that when they all grow up they can forgive my dad's generation for everything that has happened in the last decade or so.

~Misato Katsuragi,

"Well you're looking rather out of it today, Misato," Ritsuko spoke as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

It was break time at NERV HQ, a few moments set aside everyday so that those who worked within its labyrinthine walls could forget – for a moment, anyway – the fact that the fate of the world rested firmly on their shoulders.

"Stick a can in it, Ritsuko! I was just thinking about the old days." Taking a sip from her coffee-filled mug, Misato stared a the ceiling as she leaned back in her chair.

"Oh really, more of your PSTD-induced flashbacks? Or is this about something else?"

"NO, I told you never to bring that crap up again!" Misato screamed. "But seriously, it's about Rei. Every time I see that girl I can't help but feel a little bad." She took another sip of coffee, this time accompanied by a strained sigh.

"It's not your fault she was drafted to pilot the prototype; its just a simple matter of statistics – she was just the most suitable for the role. That's all," Ritsuko calmly replied.

"It's not that either... just the fact that she looks the way she does. It makes me feel bad about everything my father and everyone else related to the Second Impact did. They doomed these poor kids to grow up looking like monsters just for the sake of some stupid science experiment."

Misato slammed her mug down on the table in front of her in anger, throwing small bits of plaster into the air as it broke apart upon impact.

"Oh, its that again, huh? I know it's hard to see Rei struggle to do everyday things with those wings of hers, but she's getting better every day. Someday in the future I'm sure she'll be able to live a normal life just like you or me. So don't worry about it; just be a good role model to the kids. It's all you can really do for them."

Ritsuko's all-too-logical approach caused Misato to furrow her brow, not because she was angry but rather that her old college friend was completely right.

"Fine, you win, Ritsuko. I can't do much for Rei or any other kids we drag into this war of ours. But I'll try my best to make sure they live a normal life as long as they're under our care."

"I'm sure you will Misato, you've always been everyone's big sister, even back when we were in college together. But, oh...speaking of new kids, I hear we've got a new pilot coming in soon. I'm sure the commander will brief you on the whole thing soon."

"Really? Are they another mutant like Rei?"

"Nope, we managed to snag a normal one this time – and on top of that, he's the commander's son as well."

"Ikari's son?! Wow, I really hope he has a better personality then his dad." Misato said with a sigh as she recalled the cold, calculating manner in which Gendo Ikari ran NERV.

"I really hope so to, Misato. I really do."

Ritsuko's voice and gaze were distant as her mind wandered to other matters. Thoughts of commander Ikari always lay close to the surface of her mind, invoking of feelings of both love and hate from within the core of her being.

"Yo, Earth to Ritsuko. Break's almost up"

Misato waved one hand in front of the science officers face, breaking the reflective trance she had induced upon herself.

"Right...right. Well, I'll see you later. We've got to get unit one online before the new pilot gets here."

"Later, Ritsuko."

Ritsuko left the break room in a hurry, scurrying off to direct the final preparations for the production-model Evangelion before its prospective pilot arrived and the battery of tests to analyze his fitness as a warrior and agent of NERV began. It was hard work, but with the fate of humanity in the balance, it was a job worth doing well.

"A normal kid, huh? I really hope he and Rei get along. The last thing we need around here is more conflict."

Her old friend gone off to work, Misato's quiet missives were heard only by her chipped coffee mug.

As she left NERV HQ, Rei Ayanami quietly walked to the nearby train station where she would be whisked home to eat a small meal, read a bit for class, and then go to sleep.

As she waited for the train, her school bag held firmly within her claw-like grip, several girls stopped to gawk and stare, giggling and gossiping among themselves as if she was some kind of circus freak.

"Do you think those are real?" the first girl whispered to another in a hushed voice.

"I don't know... maybe she's one of those weird mutants you heard about on TV!" the second girl among them responded in a similar tone.

"That has to be it!" a third yelled.

Rei in turn paid the girls no heed. She had long since grown used to the catcalls and whispers her classmates and even random passersby seemed so fond of hurling in her direction, and while she once took offensive to such statements, she now stood silently in the face of such commentary, providing no fuel to further their ignorant cries.

"If you will excuse me, I'll be going now," Rei spoke as the trained roared into the station.

Silently boarding the mass transit vehicle, she let out a small sigh of relief as she sped away at great speed from the sharply pointed words of those who simply did not understand her or the strange condition that had afflicted her.

Born in the aftermath of Second Impact, Rei, like many of her generation, had been stricken upon birth with a strange condition that had caused her to resemble a strange mixture of a human girl and a great bird. With wings where her arms should be and great talons adorning her feathered legs, she was quite the sight to behold.

Leaving the train, it was only a short walk to the old part of town where concrete structures stood in sharp contrast to the state-of-the-art buildings that made up most of the city. It was there, in one of these relics of the past century, that Rei Ayanami, pilot of Evangelion Unit-00, lived in a lonely apartment by herself.

Provided to her by NERV as a sort of payment for her service, Rei's apartment had been built with a normal human being in mind, making it rather difficult for one who possessed wing and claw to make themselves comfortable and at home. However, with many hours of careful modification, on NERV's dime no less, it had been made livable for Rei's vaguely avian lifestyle.

Rummaging through her bag with one of her wing-set claws, it did not take long for Rei to find her keys and unlock the front door of her tiny apartment. Within their was little that marked the fact that anyone even lived within. In one corner stood a nightstand while in the other lay a modified structure that best resembled a bird's nest and served as Rei's bed. It had been Misato's idea – "She's a bird and bird's sleep in nests right?" being her logic – but one that Rei never found all that amusing... though she did find the nest to be quite comfortable despite how ridicules it looked.

Putting her bag on the old dresser, Rei yawned a mighty yawn, stretching her impressive wingspan to the heavens as she did. It had been a long day between school and her work at NERV and she wanted nothing more in all the world then to lay down in her nest-bed and sleep away the rest of the evening.

With all her reading for the day done during her lunch hour, spent alone of course, Rei could do just that. Laying upon the bed, her wings tucked to the side, she stared longingly at the apartment's lone window that was just high enough to be visible from where she lay. The starry night sky beckoned to her nightly with dreams of flying freely among the clouds and stars. But it was nothing more then a passing whim as, in the ultimate of ironies, her wings did not function as they should. The human body was not meant for flight and, even with her unique anatomy and avian skeletal structure, she had yet to find a way to make her dream a reality.

Rolling away from the window with a pillow clutched between her snow-white wings, Rei blocked such thoughts from her tired mind. There was no point in torturing herself with dreams that would never come true, she thought to herself. For now it was time for bed, and within an hour or so of tossing and turning to find a good position to sleep comfortably she slipped off into the world of dreams, likely the only place she would ever truly be able to fly.