Fanfic / The Girl Who Shouted I At The Heart Of The World

Rei Ayanami: For a long time, Eva was my only link to people... But now... I've found a reason to fight. There are things I desire to protect and a future for which I strive. There are people who I wish to protect as well... That is why I fight.

As she ends Third Impact and fulfills Shinji's wish to free humanity from Instrumentality, Rei Ayanami, knowing that this act will require her sacrifice, finds herself wishing that she too could also live as a human again, having finally realized how much she took her previous life(s) for granted. Before she truly fades away, however, she is suddenly offered an unexpected chance: a chance to go back to the beginning, a chance to start over, a chance to finally, truly, take control of her own life.

All of a sudden, she finds herself in a hospital bed, injured (again) but alive, and right before the day of the Third Angel's attack. The day the Third Child first arrived in Tokyo-3. The day her life changed forever. With a newfound lease on life, and armed with her knowledge of the future, Rei vows to use this chance to finally live and to avert the tragedy of Third Impact.

However, she soon discovers not everything is how she remembers. Angels she's never fought, trials and tribulations she's never faced. All the while, contending with her greatest challenge yet: navigating her relationships, both new and old, with the people who, once before, she never dreamed would ever play such a big part in her life, Rei soon learns that defying fate might not be so simple…

A twist on the usual formula of Evangelion Peggy Sue stories, "The Girl Who Shouted I at the Heart of the World" not only has Rei be the character sent back to the beginning of the story, but has her cross continuities entirely; having her originate from the Manga's timeline and finding herself navigating the events of the original Anime's timeline. Written by A.F. Oliver, the story can be read at Fanfiction.net here and at AO3 here.

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Heroism: Instead of following the established path of canon, Gendo’s actions and scenario ultimately change drastically due to his closer relationship with Shinji, Rei and to some extent Ritsuko in the story, turning him from arguably the main antagonist of the story into one of the key pieces in thwarting Instrumentality.
• Affectionate Nickname: Asuka often refers Rei by the nickname ‘Wonder-girl’. While she also does that in the dub of the series, in this iteration she uses the nickname a lot more affectionately due to her closer relationship with her.
• Almost Kiss: After Shinji and Asuka drink a few of Misato’s beers trying to forget about a particularly unpleasant day for both of them, the red-haired girl offers Shinji to kiss her, to which Shinji almost takes on the offer. He stops just before doing so, however, finally realizing his feelings for Rei in the process. Another instance of this happens in the aftermath of the battle against Armisael. Driven by the emotions caused by Rei almost dying, Shinji finally decides to confess his feelings for her, and tries to do so at the medical facilities of the Geo-Front where the girl is staying. Unable to put what he feels into words he decides to lean for a kiss, but Rei stops him before he is able to do so, due to her wanting to be honest about her origins and situation before accepting Shinji’s feelings.
• Adaptational Sexuality: It is heavily implied that Kaworu harbored romantic feelings for Shinji in the previous timeline, although in the one from the story he falls for Asuka instead.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Just before the events of End of Evangelion take place in the story, with all of the three pilots in a very subpar mental state, Shinji confronts Rei about her knowing about Kaworu’s angelic nature. The conversation doesn’t go particularly well, and the blue-haired girl ends up confessing her feelings for him in an attempt to prove that she cares for him. Another instance happens when Asuka confesses her love for Kaworu just before he reveals his true nature and descends to Terminal Dogma, having to fulfill his task despite reciprocating her feelings precisely for her safety.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Rei is the key to the Third Impact twice in the story. The first instance just in the first chapter, at the end of the manga timeline. The second, at the tipping point of the events of End of Evangelion in the story, with her deciding to fuse with Adam voluntarily to end her suffering.
• Awful Truth: Before being able to reciprocate Shinji’s feelings, Rei decides to bring Shinji to Terminal Dogma and reveal the truth about her origins and genetics to him. As expected, this completely shocks the Third Child, who leaves there unable to process what has been revealed to him.
• Become a Real Boy: Rei struggles with the fact that she is not a regular human due to her angelic nature during most of the story, but eventually her genetics become completely human after fusing with Adam and using its power to resolve the events of End of Evangelion
• Body Bag Trick: Kaji becomes a key piece in Gendo’s plans to stop SEELE’s scenario and, instead of actually being killed after the kidnapping of Fuyutsuki, his death is feigned by Gendo and the spy leaves the Geo-Front inside of body bag
• Borrowed Catchphrase: In a conversation about Rei and Shinji, Asuka mentions to Kaworu that the blue-haired girl ‘wants to ride his baloney pony’, this being a reference of Rei’s usage of this line in the alternate reality of the series episode 26.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Both Rei and Shinji are unable to reveal their mutual feelings for eachother in several instances. Ritsuko is also unable to speak about her feelings for Gendo with the commander until significantly later in the story. To a lesser extent the same happens with Hikari towards Touji.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: Both Ritsuko and Fujita smoke heavily when they are immersed in stressful situations
• Clone Angst: Rei struggles with her angelic nature and the fact that she knows that Gendo could decide to replace her with any of her clones if she acts out of line.
• Curbstomp Battle: Happens in most situations where Unit 01 goes berserk, notably against the Twelfth Angel, Leliel, and against the Fourteenth Angel, Zeruel.
• Darkest Hour: While the story doesn’t shy from putting the cast through unpleasant situations, the plot takes a significant turn to despair after Kaworu’s death and the events of End of Evangelion. Asuka’s mental health is almost completely shattered, and Shinji and Rei are both left in shambles after their conversation about the girl’s knowledge of Kaworu’s true nature, so much that the girl decides to voluntarily fuse with Adam in order to cause Third Impact on her own and end her suffering.
• Death Faked for You: In order to avoid suspicion, Gendo fakes Kaji’s death so he can more easily achieve his goal of revealing the truth about SEELE’s plans and his own previous scenario.
• Deconstruction: The story clearly deconstructs the typical Peggy Sue stories where the main character easily fixes each and every problem the original timeline due to their knowledge of it. While Rei knows a significant amount of information about how events will develop in this new timeline, she fails in several occasions to be able to change the outcome of many of them.
• Demoted to Extra: Misato, while still being a relevant character in the story, loses a lot of relevance in favor of Ritsuko, who upon learning about Rei’s time travel situation takes a major role in thwarting SEELE’s plans.
• Everyone Can See It: A significant portion of the cast notice that Shinji and Rei have mutual feelings for eachother, but they aren’t able to figure it themselves until much later in the story.
• Eye Color Change: Due to her genetics changing after fusing with Adam and preventing Third Impact, Rei’s eyes and hair color change from red to reddish brown and blue to silver, respectively.
• Eye Scream: Asuka screams in agony when one of the replicas of the Lance of Longinus pierce Unit 02’s eye much like in the canon timeline.
• Faking the Dead: Again, Kaji’s death is faked in order to avoid suspicion while he tries to uncover the truth to the Japanese government.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Rei and Asuka establish their friendship in this timeline like this, with their takedown of Gaghiel.
• First Kiss,Last Kiss: After confessing his love for him, Asuka kisses Kaworu before he is able to reciprocate his feelings. Unfortunately for them, this is also the last kiss they share, as Kaworu is forced to fulfill his task from SEELE in order to protect Asuka and the other pilot’s safety.
• First Snow: After the Third Impact is avoided Earth’s orbit is changed slightly, resulting in a significant drop in the world’s temperatures. This causes to snow for the first time in Japan since the events of the Second Impact.
• Fix Fic: While the story is a deconstruction of the typical Fixfic works, it does fit the premise. Rei fails at preventing several unpleasant events from taking place, but ultimately succeeds in preventing Instrumentality.
• Heel–Face Turn: Due to having a closer Relationship with his son, and after a revelation from Fuyutsuki about Yui’s intentions to remain inside the core of Unit 01, Gendo decides to stop pursuing his endgame and develops in turn a plan to stop SEELE’s plans to take place.
• Homage: Many of the titles of the chapters are references to the Evangelion OST and other works of fiction.
• In Spite of a Nail:
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite often playing the part of an uncaring, selfish person, Fujita is more than willing to risk his life in order to try to stop Third Impact from happening.
• Kids Raiding the Wine Cabinet: Trying to forget about an unpleasant day, Shinji and Asuka decide to drink a few of Misato’s beers during the events of chapter 25.
• Loveable Rogue: Kaji, once again
• Love Epiphany: Shinji is unable to realize his romantic feelings for Rei until chapter 25, just as Asuka offers him to kiss her. Rei is also unable to understand her feelings for him until Shinji is fused into Unit 01’s core after the battle against Zeruel and Asuka points the obvious truth to her.
• Love Makes You Evil: Gendo does a good number of despicable actions that even he regrets in order to fulfill his scenario and be able to be with his wife Yui again. To a lesser extent Ritsuko’s behavior towards Rei in the earlier parts of the story is also caused by her own feelings for Gendo.
• Maintain the Lie: Fuyutsuki, despite knowing the fact that Yui voluntarily stayed inside Unit 01’s core for her own goals, didn’t reveal anything to Gendo until after much later in the story.
• Mental World: Rei experiments an idealized version of the world just after she fuses with Adam, where she can indulge in her deepest desires. Angels and Evas doesn’t exist, Ritsuko is her older sister that lives with her, Asuka is still her friend, Kaworu is alive and Shinji has feelings for her. However, her own mind eventually rejects this reality due to being fake and not meaningful.
• Mercy Kill: Despite not wishing to cause the Third Impact or Instrumentality, Kaworu is coerced to still do so by SEELE, them threatening to kill Asuka and the other pilots if he refuses to fulfill his task. He eventually proceeds to Terminal Dogma similarly as in the other timelines, and asks Shinji to kill him in order to protect them all.
• Moral Dilemma: During most of the story Rei debates if she should tell others, especially Shinji, her situation regarding her knowledge of the other timeline and the events that are most likely to unfold, but ultimately fails to do so in fear of how they might react. Shinji is forced to kill Kaworu just like in the original timeline, much to his disgust despite his relationship with him not being as close as in other timelines. Shinji is forced to crush Unit 03’s entry plug during the battle against Bardiel in order to save Rei from the Angel, despite risking Touji’s life in the process, which ultimately causes him to lose a leg.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Despite being presented with solid evidence of the events that SEELE is planning, general Oda decides to completely ignore this evidence and destroy it.
• Old Flame: Much like in canon, Misato and Kaji still have feelings for eachother despite how their relationship ended years before.
• Parental Substitute: Upon discovering Rei’s situation and knowledge of the previous timeline, Ritsuko starts to see her in a new light, which slowly but surely ends up in her warming up to the blue-haired girl acting like a parental figure to her.
• Peggy Sue: Rei. However, unlike most she fails more often at changing the outcome of the events of her new timeline.
• Power Trio: The pilot trio, moreso than in the original series now that they're closer friends
• Rage Against the Reflection: Upon realizing her feelings for Shinji after he is trapped inside Unit 01’s core, Rei reflects about her origins and nature, and after feeling disgusted with herself for that she strikes her mirror with her fist in an attempt to destroy the very image of herself.
• Redemption Equals Death: After doing his best effort to stop SEELE’s plans and successfully bringing Shinji to the Eva cages during the events of End of Evangelion, Gendo perishes after a final conversation with his son.
• Redemption Quest: Once he realizes the error of his ways, Gendo puts his best effort in coming up with a plan to stop SEELE’s Instrumentality to take place. He eventually gives Kaji enough intel to be able to expose the committee's plans and fakes the spy’s death to avoid suspicion.
• Rock Bottom: Gendo enters in a state of despair once Fuyutsuki reveals to him the fact that Yui never actually wished to get out from Unit 01’s core to begin with, rendering his scenario moot. After Shinji bitterly suggests that Rei should stop loving him once the girl confesses her feelings during their conversation about the girl’s knowledge of Kaworu’s true nature, leaving the girl in a state of shock and despair.
• Sadistic Choice: During the battle against Bardiel Rei manages to get Unit 03’s entry plug out with Touji inside. However, the Angel’s core manifests inside the plug and began to infect Unit 00, forcing Shinji to choose between crushing the plug, possibly killing Touji in the process or letting the Angel infect Unit 00 and letting Rei be killed by it.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Rei’s main motivation during the story is to fix the unpleasant events of the previous timeline, with Instrumentality and Third Impact being the primary objectives. She fails at preventing a lot of the unpleasant outcomes from taking place, but eventually succeeds in preventing both Instrumentality and the Third Impact from taking place.
• She’sNotMyGirlfriend: Despite being obvious to a significant part of the cast that Rei and Shinji have mutual feelings for eachother, Shinji repeatedly denies that they have a romantic relationship whenever someone suggests the idea.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Due to Gendo’s change of mind about his scenario, Kaji is able to avoid being killed in the events of Fuyutsuki’s kidnapping.
• Take That!: Asuka states that she has “no interest whatsoever in dating some dumb fanboy” in chapter 25, which is a jab at how a significant portion of her fanbase acts towards her.
• The End of the World as We Know It: SEELE’s ultimate goal is once again Instrumentality: the unification of all mankind into a seamless mass of LCL that contains all of their souls.
• The Woobie: Most of the main cast experiments situations of despair where the reader is compelled to feel sorry for them. Clear examples are Rei during most of her moments of doubt and self despise at her nature and inability to make significant changes on this timeline or Shinji during most of the traumatic events that unfold on the story, particularly Touji’s coma and Kaworu’s death.
• Together in Death: Gendo seems to see Yui smiling at him moments before his death, convincing himself that he did what was right before succumbing to his wounds.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Gendo regrets a lot of the choices and actions he has to take in this timeline before his change of heart, but does them nevertheless because his end goal of being with Yui again makes it worth for him.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Rei and Shinji dance around their mutual feelings for almost the whole duration of the the story, and is not until much later in the story that they actually end up together. To a lesser extent this also happens with Asuka and Kaworu, who start developing feelings for eachother a little after they met, Misato and Kaji, who still love eachother despite how their relationship ended years back, and Ritsuko and Gendo, considering that the doctor’s feelings for the commander are clear but the man’s feelings towards her are not.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Rei is at her lowest point in the story during the events of End of Evangelion. After Shinji esentially tells her that he doesn’t want her in his life and Asuka assaults her in a violent rage, the girl is so desperate that she decides to fuse with Adam in order to start Third Impact and end all her suffering.
• Worth Living For: Rei understands that life is worth living despite the suffering that it entails after fusing with Adam in a similar way of how Shinji did the same during episode 26.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Despite having the knowledge about how many of the events of this new timeline are going to happen, Rei fails to make a significant change on plenty of them, illustrating that change is not as easy as simply having the knowledge of what is going to happen.