Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Evangelion, they all belong to Gainax. The Rei Ayanami clones in this fan fiction (the Ree) and Mari are based off of Gregg Landsman's story 'Nobody Dies' and I strongly recommend you read his fanfiction. This story contains spoilers for Nobody Dies and should probably not be read by those who are not reasonably up to date on the series.

Summary for non-readers of Nobody Dies:

If you're determined to read this story without reading Nobody Dies, here's what you need to know. Nobody Dies diverges from canon Evangelion when Yui Ikari decided not to go through with the experiment with Unit-01 that would have merged her with the Evangelion. The plot diverges there in two ways important to this story: Rei and her sister clones the Ree are crazy awesome cloud coo coo landers who in many ways take after their 'big Mommy' Lilith, and the battles with the Angels have gone quite different. Back up pilot Mari Illustrious Makinami was possessed by the core of a Angel and lead a attack on NERV, only to be 'killed' when the possessing core was destroyed.

Evangelion: Mari and the REE

The last thing Mari Illustrious Makinami remembered with any clarity is talking to Uri, then... a odd sort of blackness. Her memories seem buried under a layer of gauze or seen through smoky glass, unable to be understood.

The purple haired woman with glasses blinked as she looked around her, trying to get her bearings. The teenager stood in a green field, the grass stretching off around her as a gentle breeze ruffled her hair. Oddly the air carried no distinctive scent, something that made her frown in concern.

"Yaa!" Mari squeaked in surprise as a life sized three dimensional image of Yui Ikari simply appeared in front of her out of nowhere.

"You're awake, good," Yui smiled warmly as the older woman asked in a motherly way, "Mari, how do you feel?"

"Confused," Mari quickly shot back, "Where am I? What's going on?"

"You suffered a type of neural damage in the last angel attack," Yui explained patiently, "you're probably suffering some memory loss too."

"Oh," Mari said, blinking as she tried to process that. "So... where am I?" she asked again.

"You're in a comatose state," Yui explained carefully. "Too keep your brain active we've connected you to a virtual reality program we were running as a temporary measure. Once we can help you, we'll disconnect you from it."

Mari felt... oddly calm about all this, thought she suspected it might have something to do with just being a mind in a machine, apparently. Still, she figured this had to be better than being dead... "What virtual reality program am I in?" she had to ask.

That was when Yui looked kinda sheepish. "Well, we needed to get you hooked up pretty quickly, and it was the only program we have running continuously...."

Mari suspiciously asked, "What program?"

"Ah... maybe you should just meet them," Yui sighed. "Girls!" she called out.

"Heee~ey!" the six copies of Rei Ayanami suddenly popped up out of nowhere to pounce on the totally unprepared Mari.

"Ack!" Mari yelped as she was engulfed by white plugsuit clad albino teenagers. "Can't... breathe!" she yelped as her face was mashed into a pert bust. 'This must be what they mean by Marshmallow hell,' she thought dazedly.

"Girls!" Yui yelled, "Get off her!"

Mari breathed out a sigh of relief as they reluctantly climbed off her, then yelped as she was groped by one of the girls, "Hey!"

"Kiko!" Yui scolded, "Stop that."

"Yes, Mommy," Kiko let go reluctantly, then even offered Mari a hand up.

"So I'm in here with the Ree?" Mari asked Yui, as the girls looked at her much as a school of piranha looked at innocent swimmers.

"Yes, this is a virtual reality simulation we run constantly in Magi-00," Yui explained, "it gives the girls a medium to interact without breaching their containment, as well as educating them and keeping them entertained."

"I guess that makes sense," Mari admitted.

"To be honest I'm hoping your interacting with the Ree will be good for them," Yui added, addressing Mari on a channel that was private from the Ree, "while I've done my best to raise them, they lack socialization."

"Don't go in private mode," a Ree with the number one on her plugsuit complained, "it makes us feel left out."

"Sorry, Iti," Yui said gently. She looked at Mari, "Let me introduce them. This is Iti, Siyon, Nana, Hatchi, Kiko and Zyuu."

"Nice to meet you all," Mari bowed.

"Have fun playing," Yui waved then her image winked out.

"Yay!" Iti cheered, "Now we can play with you all the time! We don't get to meet new people often and you're a Evangelion pilot! Have you gotten to squish a Angel yet? Our sister Rei gets to squish Angels all the time which isn't fair because we could do it too and...."

Siyon cut in, "Hey, can you show us how this 'sex' thing works? We've been to websites and the last time we got out we played with Kensuke...."

"With a turnip!" Hatchi added cheerfully, crowding in close to both Siyon and Mari.

"But I don't think that's how it's supposed to work," Siyon mused. "Though he seemed to enjoy it," she added cheerfully.

As Kiko and Zyuu also tried to chime in Mari held up her hands as she yelped, "Be quiet" All six girls quieted down, giving her big, puppy-dog eyes. She smiled at them, "Just slow down and take it easy, I'm going to be here for awhile."

"She's right," Zyuu agreed, grinning.

Mari looked around at the green fields stretching off into the distance as she asked curiously, "Is it all like this?"

"Oh, no," Kiko told her earnestly, "we can make the environment whatever we want, within limits." She smiled slightly as she mused, "I think our little Mommy just wanted to give you a placid place to adjust for a bit."

Mari smirked, "Well, I don't normally do placid." She smiled as she added, "Why not show me the sort of places you girls go to play in?"

Iti grinned, taking her hand and Mari could 'feel' them moving from one file into another, reality shifting around them. They emerged on a battlefield, the wreckage of a city around them as they were attacked by... giant killer bunny mecha?!

"Grab a chainsaw and join in!" Nana yelled, materializing some kind of chain-sword and charging into the attack.

"Ah, what the hell?" Mari materialized a similar weapon and attacked.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Several days later, Mari was attending a virtual 'class' along with the Ree, doing so in a simulation of Shinji's classroom. Like the Ree she wore a girl's school uniform, having learned to alter her clothing almost at will. Tuning out the droning teacher Mari accessed her virtual diary and began to input a entry.

As I get to know the Ree, I'm starting to get a sense of them as individuals. Iti tries to be the most 'mature' of them, and other than Rei is the closest thing to a leader they have. They're all very fun loving, with a energy level well above normal, but they each prefer their own activities.

I am a bit creeped out at how obsessed around procreation they are. The girls have a laser-like focus on having babies...

Babies.!

"Would whoever took over my keyboard please stop that?" Mari asked subliminally to the Ree.

"Sorry," one of the girls answered sheepishly.

"And stop reading over my shoulder," Mari added.

"Yes," she sighed.

As I mentioned, the girls have a major thing about procreation. They really enjoy watching Shinji's class in VR, and look rather lustily at Kensuke Aida, Shinji himself and the other boys. I also need to remember to mention to Yui that they've broken the 'parental block' on their internet access and have been visiting some pretty sketchy sites. 4-chan, several adult ones and something called spacebattles.

The only Ree who isn't focused on banging the male gender is Kiko, who seems to have the opposite interest. In addition to me she's apparently groped Asuka and Kyouko Soryu, though how she managed the last one is beyond me. She's approached me after the first groping and we've talked, thankfully without any overt sexual moves. She's even helped me learn to access the other Magi.

Using that access I've finally figured out my condition and why I'm here with the Ree. It looks like when I was possessed by Ramiel my mind moved into it's core, and when Uri killed it, my mind took over. I'm stuck inside the core, possibly forever. I'm also a semi-Angel, which is why Yui can't let me run around free, too, a lot like the Ree. I'm not happy about the situation, obviously, but it could be a whole lot worse. I could be dead.

"Ms. Makinami," the teacher got her attention at last and pointed at the board, "can you please answer the question?"

'How boring,' Mari sighed as she stood up and did so.

Later that day Mari and the girls finished off another simulation, this time with them all piloting copies of Evangelion against a multiple Angel attack. It was a very fun game, Mari found, but it wasn't quite the same as reality. She missed the feeling and scent of the LCL, and mused about editing it into the game somehow.

"Hey, Nana?" Mari asked, staying in her virtual plugsuit for a while, "Are these games also training in case we need to defend NERV?"

"Probably," Nana agreed, shifting out of her '3' labeled plugsuit into street clothes, "our little momma is clever that way."

"That she is," Mari agreed, mentally running through the other games and wondering how many of them were training, in different ways. After a moment she realized ALL of the games were, except possibly the killer bunnies. 'Well,' she mentally corrected herself, 'it could be some kind of urban combat training, I suppose....'

Kiko cleared her throat, catching everyone's attention. (Well, what she really did was send a non-verbal hail to them all, but it felt like someone clearing their throat.) "Could I borrow Mari for some alone time?" she asked.

Iti looked at the others, the girls communicating silently, then nodded as she answered, "Sure, as long as it's fine with Mari."

Mari hesitated a moment, then shrugged. "Sure," she said, moving over to Kiko and the two of them shifting to another area.

While the Ree got along well and played together often, they also respected each sister's need to have 'alone time.' Along with that they respected Mari's need to get away, and had even developed some kind of arcane schedule for each sister to spend time with her. Mari didn't mind it, though at times she felt like the husband in some kind of strange group marriage. Or a harem.

The room was a virtual replica of the Tokyo-3 public library, though deserted of people. They appeared near a corner with comfy couches to sit in and Kiko lead her toward them, sitting down on one and waving for Mari to sit opposite her.

Mari sat down, willing her plugsuit away and replacing it with street clothes, a t-shirt and shorts. Kiko went with a school girl's uniform again, though the top was unbuttoned more than usual. "So," Mari asked, "what can I do for you?"

"Uhm," Kiko looked down at the floor then blurted it all out in a single breath, "Iwanttoaskyouafavor!"

Mari decoded that after a moment and noted Kiko's fierce blush. "What favor?" she asked.

Kiko actually looked more embarassed as she admitted, "I've never kissed anyone before...."

Mari blinked, looking at the teen in surprise. "You haven't?" she asked, "Not even your sisters?"

"Well, I've kissed my sisters," Kiko waved that off, "but that's not the same thing." She looked at Mari earnestly, "Please, Obi-wan, you're my only hope!"

Mari broke up laughing at that, smiling at the young woman. It wasn't like she had any serious issues with the idea of girl on girl, anyway. Hell, considering her Mom ran off with a woman she might even be predisposed to it!

"All right," Mari agreed, "one kiss."

"Right!" Kiko smiled. She suddenly turned shy as she murmured, "Show me how?"

"Sure," Mari agreed.

Gently Mari cupped Kiko's face in her hands, bending close as she pressed her lips to the other girl's lips. Kiko leaned into her, her lips parting in excitement as Mari kissed her chastely, then pressed gently with her tongue. Kiko got the idea and the kiss deepened, then reluctantly they pulled apart.

"Wow," Kiko murmured, her eyes wide.

"That," Mari told her with a grin, "is how you kiss."

"Wow!" Kikjo yelped, bounding up then practically knocking Mari over, looking down at her excitedly, "Can we do it again?! And this time can I take off your shirt? You've got such nice ones and I wanted to touch 'em all the time we were kissing, and....."

"Calm down," Mari laughed, fending her off like a oversized puppy. As Kiko sat back, pouting, Mari sat up again, laughing. "Yes, you can kiss me again," she told her, faintly surprised at how fun it had been, "and then I'll tell you about getting to first base, second base and third base."

"Bases?" Kiko blinked.

"You'll see," Mari grinned as she kissed her again.

End.

Notes:

It hasn't exactly been covered what sort of environment the Ree live in in 'Nobody Dies.' We know that they're in Terminal Dogma and have to stay there or they might die/turn to Angels, but other than that not much is known. The idea of them having a shared virtual reality seemed to make sense, and it gives Yui a means to prepare them if they can be released eventually.

Mari's character is based mostly off my reading Nobody Dies and other fanfic, as I have not seen the Second new Evangelion movie. (Her having a lesbian mother is also from Nobody Dies.) Kiko is also mostly my take, tho admittedly Kiko did bust out with the other Ree and grope Asuka.