The next scene opens up obviously, creating the mystery of the nightmare attack as a whole. Ritusko's theory that Rei caused it is simply a hold-over from the series regarding Unit 00's initial berserk incident. To digress, I believe the most logical choice for the Soul of Unit 00 is Naoko Akagi (Ritsuko's mother), because of the berserk incident. Naoko died killing Rei's first body, so naturally she'd be willing to kill Rei as Unit 00 later. Realizing she can't do that, turning on Ritsuko and Rei together in the later incident with Shinji is a good way of taking out the girl that took Gendo from her, and her daughter who did the same. I can easily be mistaken, but it has some logic to it. Back to the commentary. Ritsuko's other behavior in this scene may seem quite odd, especially to a die-hard fan. Why does she care about Rei's psychological well-being? This is directly in relation to the initial nightmare incident, and the growing sense of guilt Ritsuko has about what she helped Gendo do for so many years. And, of course, a crying Maya is almost as good at sucking up reader-sympathy as vulnerable Ayanami-sama. And, of course, the real point of this section is the nightmare attacks of Shinji and Asuka. I think they're both quite self-evident, but a point of interest in Asuka's is that it is actually the offical End of Evangelion event, without my interference at the beginning of Kenosis. Making the canon a nightmare is a pretty heavy-handed condemnation in my book, but hopefully it's subtle enough for hard-core fans to swallow. It's also important to not jump to conclusions in comparing Rei's reaction to her nightmare, and the relatively calm reactions of Asuka and Shinji. Rei's came at a juncture when her entire personality and emotions were shifting and in a state of doubt. Getting hit with a traumatic nightmare striking at the very foundation of self-percieved self will make someone extremely vulnerable and frightened. Asuka and Shinji simply got a nasty experience. And, yes, officially, the nightmare attacks are in random order for plot-convenience. The cause is not specifically choosing its targets in any given order. The fact that it has not attacked Cirus yet is possibly due to his uniqueness, which is explained later. I thought the drop in synch was a logical sign of the nightmare because the attack was distracting from synchronization with the Eva itself. With Asuka and Shinji ready to help with the city to get their minds off the nightmares, the section ends.

There are very limited, but important issues regarding the next section. The lightest, is Misato's interaction with the Commander and Vice-Commander. Her psychological analysis of the pilots is openly opinion, not the author trying to give even more subtle attacks on the canon. Cirus probably does have more mental discipline than Shinji or Asuka, but Rei's flaws are emotional, her mind is totally disciplined. I narrated bluntly that Misato 'lied' because I have a horrible tendency to forget my own hidden meaning in a dialogue (this is probably where the double-dialogue theme came from, too, now that I think on it.) She knows Cirus cares about Rei, too much to turn on her for an order. The next issue, more important, is Fuyutsuki's character in his interaction with Gendo. This scene may be a bit abrupt in its portrayal of Koso's disagreement with Ikari. This was deliberate, because the moment Third Impact failed, Fuyutsuki started to grow uncomfortable. I always percieved Fuyutsuki as a good man who was trapped by circumstance into doing the only thing that would help humanity along. That perception is debatable, but I find it convincing enough. And lastly, the edit of including the 'Room of Gauf' reference seems to break my rule of not editing the plot-line. This is actually not a plot-edit, but rather a correction of an error, a hole in the plot. The fact that no new children were being born was a vital sign of Third Impact. That data is proven wrong in Kenosis. Further debunking of the canon to help change the track of the plot. The original was missing this reference, and it's quite important.

Giving Asuka some rare page-time on her own (I had to make myself, believe me...), the real purpose of this section is to show that Ikari and Cirus do not get along. Ironically, the actual dialogue between them as added in as an edit to the original draft so long ago. I took the description of what Asuka saw, and found out what kind of comments would fit it, producing the current dialogue. Odd, but nifty, if I do say so myself. Also, Asuka is probably the person who sees Cirus' distant, harsher personality more than anyone. Gendo sees his violent side more, *chuckles*.

Just to be clear about the final section, Cirus is only inviting Rei to his place at any hour or day, because it's the only place other than her own he can actually make that offer for. Rei is simply aware of the privacy of a person's living space, and so sees what Cirus is willing to do for her. Cirus would probably shoot himself before he put the moves on Rei... That said, it's a very interesting scene, because it shows how deeply Cirus feels about how Rei is treated and how she percieved herself. Squeezing one's fist enough to draw blood is hard. Though the scene has a sad mood, I do enjoy it. Ayanami-sama just makes everything better, *grins*.