Creation began on 05-22-16

Creation ended on 05-23-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Different from You: Reversal

A/N: Due to a response from bladewolfzic, this is another variation of the Different from You story. I must warn you, though, this is as different as it can get in this version.

"…It's not my fault you slept in, Misato," went Ritsuko over the phone as the purple-haired Misato Katsuragi drove down the road to the location of the person she was tasked with picking up.

"Oh, yeah, blame me," Misato responded, turning left on the road. "I had to volunteer because nobody else seemed to want to do it."

"This is the commander's child we're talking about here."

"Yeah. Can't wait to meet him."

"Huh? Misato, did you get the file I had to copy?"

"Yeah, I did. Hold on, I gotta call you back later."

As she hung up, Misato sped up to the train station.

-x-

"…We're sorry," an electronic voice uttered to the person holding a payphone receiver in their left hand, "but the person you're trying to call has a voice mailbox that is currently not in service. Please try again at a later time."

They hung up and sighed. Then, looking away from the payphone, they faced a little boy dressed in a yellow shirt and blue shorts, with ragged, brownish-black hair, dark eyes and a friendly face. The boy turned to face them and merely waved his right hand at them. They sighed and gave a small smile as they waved back.

"You hate him because the people around you gave you no choice when it came to what happened," they recalled one of their long-ago therapy sessions, "but you love him because he's yours."

They continued with that mindset as they approached the little boy and picked him up; he had to be at least three or four years old.

"It looks like we're walking to where we're supposed to be going," they told the boy.

But before they could leave the station, the boy had dropped his toy, a stuffed, angel-winged panda. Before they could even pick it up, the ground started to shake.

"Whoa!" They both gasped, and the ground stopped shaking…but then started shaking again, with more force. "Whoa!"

Something large appeared from behind several buildings, looking like a large, aquatic humanoid with a bird-like face.

"Gah!" The boy screamed, and held on tightly to the person holding him.

Suddenly, a blue Renault showed up, and the passenger side door opened.

"Get in!" A woman with purple hair told them, and they jumped right in.

-x-

The Third Angel was being attacked from all sides by aircraft and tanks, but nothing seemed to stop it from advancing forward, towards an unknown goal. On the monitors displaying it in a secure location, several men in uniform were discussing different strategies on how to best stop it before it could reach its intended goal.

"Nothing's working," a technician informed them.

"Have all units pull out," one of the uniformed men ordered.

-x-

An explosion. A large one that wiped away an entire hillside and many of the buildings around it, even sending out a shockwave of debris that sent the Renault flipping once.

"Ow…" Misato groaned, landing on something soft and squishy beneath her head.

"Get off me!" She heard someone yell at her, and then felt soft impacts of sensation on her face; someone was hitting her. "Get off!"

She got up and looked at the person her, who looked agitated and frightened, panting from the exertion required to get her away.

"I'm sorry…" She started, but was cut off by the sight of the young person in front of her…and the little boy that had been the backseat when they shifted to check on him. "Are you Shinji?"

"Not by choice," the person responded. "It's been my accursed nickname ever since I can remember. My real name is Sakura, but everyone prefers to call me Shinji for some reason."

"You're…you're a girl?"

"Yes. Is that a problem?" The girl, Sakura, or Shinji (due to being addressed as that for some reason), questioned the woman.

Misato was at a loss for words. She had only taken a glimpse at the file containing information on the young woman, and didn't even take the time to evaluate the picture that came with it. And it was quite a deceptive photo, too; the ponytail had been easily hidden behind the head, and the shirt had hidden the delicate curves of the woman's sternum, making it easy to mistake her for a boy. But what didn't make sense was the little boy that was with her; he looked like he could pass for a male version of the girl, only younger and not pretending to be what he wasn't.

"Is it okay for me to talk now, Mommy?" The boy asked, which surprised Misato.

"This…this is…your son?" Misato asked her.

"I don't see how that's any of your business, but, yes, he's mine," Shinji expressed. "Yes, Shado, you can speak now."

"It is nice to meet you," the boy, Shado, expressed to Misato.

-x-

"…If you can beat this thing, Ikari, then the rest are your problem," one of the other men in uniform informed a man in his late-forties, dressed in a dark suit with a red shirt and red-tinted glasses. "Are you even sure your people can handle this?"

"Not to worry," the man, Gendo Ikari, expressed, "this is why NERV exists."

With the military's inability to defeat the Angel, even with an N² Mine attack, the order to deal with the invader fell on the paramilitary's hands.

"So, what happens now?" An older man, in his late-fifties or early-sixties, asked Gendo.

"Prepare to activate Unit-01," Gendo responded.

"But…we have no pilot."

"Not to worry. Another spare is being brought over."

-x-

As they were walking through the halls of the NERV base, Misato, since Shinji was taking the time to read the pamphlet she had given her earlier, read over the girl's file. She to wonder just how damaged the young mother was before even arriving to Tokyo-2 to be picked up.

Apparently, Shinji (whose real name was indeed Sakura) didn't have it easy at all growing up. Her maternal relatives weren't the least supportive of her, no matter what she did, and even forced her to wear her cousin's old clothes because they didn't want to be bothered with her needs. Then, some five years ago, the girl had been kidnapped and held captive for a week, and before the police could even find her and return her to her relatives, the man behind the kidnapping had already raped her before being shot down. Despite the extensive therapy sessions, young Shinji never truly recovered from the trauma, made more brutal when it was discovered she had been impregnated by her rapist and, despite the available alternatives, forced by her aunt and uncle to have the baby.

Good Lord, she thought, looking over at Shinji, who, despite her youthful face, seemed rather worn, and then at her son, who stayed close towards her, but paid as much attention as he could to his stuffed, angel-winged panda. It must be so hard on her to be reminded all the time of what happened to her.

Unfortunately, the file didn't explain EVERY detail necessary to know. There was no mention of why she was forced to have her son and not have an abortion, or why she was kidnapped to begin with.

Suddenly, Shinji stopped walking and dropped the pamphlet, dropping to her knees as she held her stomach, groaning in pain.

"Aurgh," she groaned, taking deep breaths.

"It was your fault, Shinji," she recalled her aunt telling her. "You were asking for it."

"You're nothing but trouble," her uncle told her. "You can't even defend yourself."

"They tell you not to fight, then put you down because you tried to fight," a boy around her age told her. "No wonder you're the worst type of child. You're an embarrassment, no matter what you do."

"Uh, Mommy?" Shado asked her.

"Stay back," she groaned at him, baring her teeth, and he stayed back.

She looked at him…and instead of seeing a small echo of herself…saw only that man's face. It made it hard to look at him sometimes, even though she knew it was never her son's fault.

"You can't do this to me!" She cried at her aunt and uncle when they refused to listen to her.

"We're doing this!" Her aunt enforced.

Damn them! She thought, starting to feel better, and got back up. Damn them all.

"Are you alright?" Misato asked her.

"I'm fine," she grunted, but it sounded like she was anything but fine.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, here's the first chapter of the reversal version. Let me know what you expect to see from future chapters.