2010-02-22 - Cutscene: Brand New Day

Leo Stenbuck sits, alone, on the bed in the late Rei Ayanami's apartment. Thanks to Rei's lifestyle, the place barely felt lived in at the best of times, but the way it feels now is an entire level beyond that. Not haunted, per se; Leo has either seen too little of the supernatural in action to believe that it's really haunted, or perhaps has seen enough of it to realize for sure that it isn't. He isn't sure which is more accurate, but either way, the apartment feels eerily empty.

All that remains to him of Rei is in a pile at the foot of the bed. NERV wants to claim that she survied, that she's still alive... but he knows better. It's wishful thinking, and as much as he'd like to think she somehow survived, he knows she didn't. He watched it happen... no one could have survived that. Not even with a miracle.

The belongings aren't much. A cardboard box full of cloth bandages; a broken blue Haro, that Leo is reasonably certain didn't work even when she first got it; a few pictures, all of them of himself and Rei together; and... a pair of glasses. Judging by the make, they belong to one Commander Ikari.

Leo has been staring at this assortment of belongings for... he's lost track of how long. Several hours by now, at least. He hasn't cried, which is as surprising to him as it likely would be to anyone else. It isn't that he's been forcing himself not to; in fact, he'd very much like to just fall apart.

But it won't happen. For whatever reason, tears won't come.

As he has been over and over since the moment it happened, Leo is playing through the chain of events from the day before. Yazan... the ragged scar on his thigh throbs at the recollection of the man called The Beast. He had never liked him. Hated him, even. But he hadn't thought he would ever do something like this. He was supposed to be loyal... one of them. Not a good guy, but a Good Guy.

His betrayal has shaken Leo's convictions. He had stood up for Yazan, in a sense, so many times... and he had been wrong. What else was he wrong about? He has always believed fully in the sanctity of life... but this, this is all new to him. Has Yazan really lost all traces of humanity? Does he deserve to die?

He's been asking himself the same question over and over, all day. And now he's finally reached an answer.

Leo doesn't care if Yazan deserves to live, or deserves to die, or if he might yet be redeemed. All he cares about is punishing him. Killing him. Making him suffer. Tearing him apart with his bare hands. Maybe that makes him a sinner, or a murderer, or just a bad person.

He doesn't care about that, either. He finally sees what it seems others always have. Yazan has showed him the light.

"'You need this done to you'," Leo quotes aloud, voice bitter. He sighs heavily... and then, strangely compelled, reaches down to poke at the box of bandages. After a few moments, he finds what he's looking for; a long, clean, and mostly intact bandage.

He lifts the strip of cloth up and, with a few deft hand motions, ties it around his head like a bandana, letting the ends fall down his back. It is the least he can do, to keep his memories of her close at hand.

Leo goes back to staring at the thigs sorted on the floor, for several more long minutes. Eventually, he quietly stands up, collects the pictures and Haro in his arms, and leaves the apartment.