Heroes of Evangelion: An Iron Will

by Krahae

An NGE – Iron Man story. When it finally looks like Shinji can begin atoning for NERV's mistakes, he's again thrust into the fray, an unwilling hero against an enemy with a familiar face, and his own tools at their fingertips. Some MGS elements. AU.

1. Chapter 1

Heroes of Evangelion

An Iron Will

I O I

"I'm sorry, sir. There's nothing else we can do."

Shinji nodded slowly, as the third specialist that week gave him the same news. The woman went to the door and the usual small debacle that was Section-2 debriefing her. Anonymity was a luxury he didn't have, but the same net that had once held him, he found, could hold information, if used properly. He didn't ascribe to the methods of his father, but the intimidating legacy of that branch of his company still carried weight.

Dying. It wasn't an easy thing to swallow, but he'd spent the better part of his recent life dealing with news that as his quirky girlfriend said, 'sucked'. Mana always managed to put a happy spin on things, he recalled fondly, sliding the black uniform's zipper back up. A simple thing, it too was a legacy of his father. It'd taken him a while to not see the man when he looked in the mirror, wearing it. It was a hard thing to think forward about, be positive over, but he managed.

Being told you had six months to live was hard to put a positive spin on, he had to admit. Not nearly as easy as making up for a man's lifetime of sins and errors.

The first hint something was wrong came a few years, five to be precise, after the madness that was Third Impact. Naturally, he'd been more concerned with other things. Rebuilding NERV in the wake of his father's death. Dealing with insanity that was the Human Instrumentality Project, after the UN shut down what they could root out of SEELE, or tried to. Wading through the grief of losing his best friend Rei, and then muddling his way to happiness with Mana. It had been busy times, good times. Work had kept his mind from recoiling down into darkness after what had happened, and the company that Mana offered did wonders for his sense of self.

Sufficed to say, a few chest pains, some odd dizziness here and there hadn't been a priority.

"How am I going to tell her," he wondered, staring out over the parking lot of the clinic as Section-2's drivers and his own guard moved to see him safely to the GeoFront.

The trip back was a good time, he figured, to look back and see what led him to this place. Stifling a sardonic laugh, he poured a glass of bourbon, and watched the ice melt slowly into the amber liquid. He smiled mirthlessly. "Here's to things, that never change," he toasted the driver, and tossed back the drink, falling into a reverie.

I O I

Another mouthful of the amber liquid, and Shinji knew he's be sick. "Damnit, the recycler is down again," he informed the new lead of Project E, Maya Ibuki, as they continued to run tests against the new entry plug mechanics. Shinji hadn't thought that after Third Impact, much would remain of NERV, but to his surprise, and young naivety, his father had made quite a few arrangements.

NERV as fate would have it, was a private organization, funded and sanctioned by the UN but not directly controlled by them. The why of this became clear as time went on, and Shinji learned more of what the monster that was NERV really was. Accountability.

The one thing that always seemed at the center of such things, be they full military institutions, para-military bodies like NERV, or even contract mercenary groups. The UN didn't want the reins, because if it came back that NERV was their hound, they'd be held responsible. It seemed the only person who did want that role, also happened to have drastically different aims for what it would become, than what he'd been tasked to.

Organized as it had been, what material and property it had jurisdiction over, fell under the domain of personal wealth. This seemed utterly improbable to Shinji, as he read over the data provided by Kozo Fuyutsuki, soon after his father's death, but if Gendo Ikari had been anything, it was a meticulous planner. Less the doting parent and more the scheming mastermind, the Commander of NERV had secured such things from the UN via his contacts in SEELE, to assure his singular dominion over all things Evangelion. That was, after all, his entire motivation for establishing the corporation. If he dominated and controlled Project E, and therefore NERV, then his ultimate goal was mere child's play to achieve.

Children, ironically, had played a critical role in his downfall. The man didn't even leave a will, but because of Shinji's biology, the man he'd never thought of as a true father had been his ultimate benefactor. "Try to adjust the filters again, I think the carbon nanoweave is just too porous."

"Right, Boss."

After the UN tribunal, the monumental task of dismantling a war machine that was an entire city and then nearly a dozen international offices, branches and subsidiaries had become the focus of nearly a year's worth of debate, but the initial gravity of things was immediate to see. NERV was too tied up in the global economy to shut down. Post Third Impact society was already a steaming mass of madness, with the world barely recovering from the potential of annihilation, compounded with the knowledge that there was something, mysterious and terrible, that had just barely avoided happening.

Or had happened, but been reversed by one Child's iron will.

Economically speaking, taking down Tokyo-3 would bankrupt the entire Hakone area. Not to mention, those people housed there, and living inside the very heart of the corporation would then be dislocated. The same scene occurred globally. NERV, like it's name suggested, had become central to too many things.

"Aoba, reroute the flow systems from the Lake, and get me a fresh feed," the order instantly obeyed, Shinji tried to stifle his ever-present sickness at the thought of where the LCL was coming from, what the source had been, and even now, what they were doing. "Also, what's the status of the L2 project, I've not had time to hit the office yet."

Maya leaned forward and queued her microphone, "I'll get Mana on the line."

"Thanks."

In time, the Tribunal that the UN set up had placed Kozo under arrest, and most of the lead developers and planners for Project E worldwide were also in similar boats. Those people too close to the Instrumentality project and it's goals for humanity, could not be redeemed, and even Shinji had to admit, speaking with the old man, he did have a solid hand in things. The MP Eva teams were as a lot imprisoned, but that wasn't enough. Inquiries were performed, and more trials, NERV the shining star in a new Salem Witch Hunt. Things were looking dire, for everyone, as the world wanted a scapegoat, needed someone to blame, and there was nothing more unifying than a common enemy. That had stopped abruptly when Shinji, quietly working with the remaining scientists, friends and companions from the Tokyo-3 division, had come up with some startling facts.

Shinji cycled the LCL in his plug manually, toggling the system from the modified control wings in his deck. "Alright, lets try the recycler again. Maya, does it look alright on your end?"

"Green here, Boss."

"... I hate it when you call me that, by the way."

"I know, Boss." He could hear the bridge staff twittering in their seats.

Sighing, Shinji again cursed the day he got that postcard. And thanked heaven for it. "Begin the test."

What they'd found, set the medical and scientific communities on their ear. The genetic advances of the Nephilim Project, Rei's birthright, had some astounding side benefits. Her nature, and how she'd come to be were that project's legacy, the combination of Lilith-born genetic material and human had been a milestone in the fields of not only molecular bioengineering but also genetics. The possibilities that the project pioneered branched and spread out, potentially touching every aspect of human medicine. Genetic tagging and earmarking of all degenerative conditions. Scanning for and prevention of long-term, ribonucleic faults. The short term results showed a therapy, theoretically, easily obtained and manufactured, that could cure or prevent 25 percent of modern congenital diseases, and cancers.

The trials against NERV screeched to a halt, almost overnight.

Project E had been reinstated, with those that passed the Tribunal's litmus tests at it's head, with a watchdog group ordained by the JSDF locally, and the UN internationally, to overlook the progress and allocation of funds. NERV had taken that first real step, in saving human lives. Shinji, modest as always, had attributed the success to Rei.

"She was the inspiration of the Nephilim Project. A woman, born of the hope for peace, flawed by the hand of man. Her origins, though ignoble, lead her to the life of a hero. She will always, always stand as our guiding light. Our guardian angel. Let her sacrifice, a life made empty and hollow by human callousness, but driven by a heart that held nothing but love, stand as a beacon to us all." The press conference at which Shinji had addressed the ethics of using the research used to create Rei, for his new NERV idea, had spawned that impromptu epitaph for the blue-haired girl. That speech had been placed on a plaque, which graced her statue outside the grounds of the GeoFront, and was mirrored above in Tokyo-3.

Time had passed, as they worked. Shinji was no bioengineer, mechanic, scientist or even had the vaguest idea how the system worked, when he took the reins of NERV, a rank amateur among giants. He had piloted, but if anything had been proven about Shinji Ikari since his time in Tokyo-3 began, it was his will to survive. And survive he had. Survived and flourished. Watching, learning and doing all he could to make up for so many other's mistakes, he'd finally come into his own.

"Shin, I have your status on L2 here."

Mana's voice cracked over the comm circuit, and despite the bitter, bloody tang of LCL in his mouth and nose, Shinji smiled. "Copy, what's the lowdown, Mana?"

Taking a breath, the auburn haired woman settled beside Maya with a grin, stealing away her console microphone with a small nod of apology. "Marginal success. The original Lilith samples proved insufficient to sustain a viable clone body, or organ material. We could not do a full growth clone as... well. It was Lilith."

Chuckling, Shinji had to concede that point. "Not like we could, or would, clone one of those again." Pausing, his mind cast back to his time as a pilot and the somewhat cheerful cast on his face faltered.

"You OK there, Boss?"

"Maya..."

"Shin," Mana's voice stilled his admonishment, and he snorted LCL and shook his head slowly. Still ruled by women, he mused quietly. His longtime girlfriend and now supremely competent executive liaison had managed to be his buffer and lens, when it came to the business that was NERV. At once she softened his sometimes blunt or awkward interactions, and also kept his focus sharp, always sure to keep the vital things under his eye. She blamed the JSDF upbringing, and being a shadow of her lab-rat father. He surmised she was just brilliant and a fast study. "Anyway, we're making progress on the other side of things. Team three has been building microcellular organelles, Mitochondrial factories, that have shown a production synthesis approximate to half our needed material quota. The team estimates a 97.6 percent match to Lilith-type LCL within the quarter."

He allowed himself a smile, reaching up and running a hand over his chin. "Excellent. Then I want the proposals for the new NP recombinant systems started immediately. I want project ideas and portfolios on my desk in one month."

The goal, currently, of NERV was to perfect and reliably offer the benefits of the Nephilim Project's findings, to the public. NP recombinant technology was depended on two main factors: A steady supply of LCL for the body to be suspended in, maintaining tissue support and homeostasis, and a sufficiently complex nanomechanical soup that would be used to flush the body of impurities, repair damage, and in the event, make the needed changes.

Nanomachines were the path to go, as the other option, retroviruses, were still hard to culture effectively. Protein based and fully bio-absorbable nanomachines were much easier to produce, sustain, predict, and dispose of. They also had the benefit of not having the word 'virus' in their name, which as Shinji's PR team assured, helped things immensely. "Let it be magic and multisyllabic, but never try to pretty up the plague," one had said. The process and logic behind what the NP system offered, depended on those two key technologies, and as things stood, they required each other. Without the primordial soup of LCL, the machines cannibalized the body for materials and the lack of a medium by which it could be controlled, and without the machines, LCL was no more than an icky bath, that you could soak in indefinitely.

If the recyclers worked, he swore as another mouthful of the fouled amber stuff curdled in his throat. "Damnit, who built these filters!"

I O I

"Mr. Ikari, we've arrived."

Starting back to awareness, Shinji saw the gentle, angular rise of NERV central before him, and took a steadying breath. Looking to his glass, his brow rose. The cup of bourbon had been finished, during his daydreaming. Pouring himself another, he took the glass with him, as an aide rushed to his side, portfolio in hand. "Sir, I have the day's current news and itinerary."

The standing Director of NERV Enterprises stared at the young man and blinked. "Where's Mana?" Without waiting for an answer, he strode off, a Section-2 shadow behind him as he stalked up the small foyer to the main doors. The aide blinked, mouth working silently, before running to catch up to the human dynamo.

"Sir! Sir!" Finally pulling astride the man, who still hadn't slowed, the aide opened the first portfolio and started rambling off stock numbers, trying to detail the various holdings NERV had that were key to the business's success. "And also the stock in WCD is up-"

Shinji pulled to so sudden a stop that his drink sloshed out of the cup slightly. The wind from the door's opening ahead of him set his dark hair flipping into his face, as he stalled, "Hold on. WCD is up?"

"Yes, sir. Western Carbon Dynamics stock took a heavy upswing this morning," the aide explained, thinking the Director happy with the news. Additionally, he was pleased that Director Ikari was finally paying attention to him. "I have to say that their new venture in the-"

"Sell it all."

"E-excuse me?" Shrugging, the man started down the hall again, as the flustered aide scratched a hasty note and jogged after. "Sir?!"

"WCD is our main supplier for carbon nanoweave correct?"

Consulting the portfolio a moment, the aide didn't see Shinji's amused smirk in his direction. The question was rhetorical, and he knew the answer already. "Yes, sir. They provide most of our outsourced carbon needs."

"Sell it all. Also, tell me what the current resource funding for branch... Three is. I need the monthly pool level."

Perplexed the man obliged, "Branch four is at sixty-eight percent resource pool, down... ten percent since last month, sir."

Nodding quietly, Shinji took another long drink from the glass tumbler he held. "Sell it all. Put a memo for resources to draft a five percent shift to bolster branch three."

"B-But sir!" The man went quiet when Shinji turned his eyes to him, the color gone that dangerous stormy gray that was infamous in NERV for meaning trouble. Nodding hastily, his objections forgotten, the aide made the needed notes to put Shinji's orders into action. He didn't remind the aid to leave him, as he entered the main offices, his father's previous lair, and crossed the now busy room to his spartan desk.

Sitting and heaving a sigh, Shinji looked out the windows, down onto the bustling hive that was the NERV workforce. Gone were the Eva cages, long since abandoned for research space and development labs. The many stories of dead air zones had been filled, the invasion of the JSDF doing them an underhanded favor by cracking he base's shell. Airlifted materials had proven simpler to work with and transport, speeding the rebuild of the structure, and the revamping of it's offices and space.

His chair swiveled, and he looked out over the office, it's floor littered with standing cases, glass cubes and towers, memorials to the past. Working and model copies of the technology Evangelion had wrought. Progressive edged tools, positron containment systems, cyclic energy refraction systems. Mechanical schema for the first artificial S2, supersolenoid, engine. The phrase was misleading.

Solenoids, simply, were coils of material, through which a current passed to generate a magnetic field. Practically, a simple on-off system, analogous to an electric valve. Dr. Katsuragi, Misato's father, had through study, found a parallel in the biology of Angels, but on a much more complex, much grander scale. Shinji stood and looked over the schematic again, marveling at it's complexity.

Dr. Katsuragi's research was done against Adam's original S2 engine, dubbed so because it was originally thought to be responsible for the AT field phenomenon. Work on this went parallel to the first attempts to really understand the thing that was then classified as Adam.

Shinji had access to all this, now. He knew, as much as one could, as much as one wanted to know about the Evas, Angels, the fabled Dead Sea scrolls. If the knowledge, information was there, it was available. He could see why SEELE styled themselves the heralds, gods even, of a new age for man.

Those attitudes were the fuel for the destruction that was Second Impact, when the First Angel, then simply Adam, had been reduced to a dormant, seed form again. Supposedly, that same S2 engine, organ, had been the cause. Activating it incorrectly inside of Adam, had reduced almost all the being's mass to energy.

Again, it all came back to the S2 engine.

Angels, those things that were resonances of Adam's influence and byproducts of it's will, all bore that same technology, something absent in Lilith and those things of it. It was what defined and separated those two entities, and made them incompatible. Perhaps that was why, initially, the scientists who were doing such things to Adam, took the course they did. Envy.

Shaking his musing away, Shinji looked over the schema again.

This supersolenoid engine had as much resemblance to a simple solenoid as that device had to a kitchen magnet. Forces of electricity drove the simple device, whereas the S2 was driven by a complex subatomic reaction, finite in capacity, that freed parity-bond particles and had them change values, perpetuating the reaction at the quark level. Thus, the Angels had their 'infinite' matter-to-energy conversion engine. The source of their fabled power. A human work, which his teams were still after decades trying to perfect, could not compare. The best they'd managed, which was written here, was a palladium-lattice device, that held a charged torus of excited hydrogen. Palladium's only claim to fame was that feature, but it had become fabled itself as research continued.

"To think. Such a pretty metal, once used by engravers to avoid the tarnishing that silver acquired, could absorb and contain nine-hundred times it's volume in hydrogen." A solid state reactor. The limitation of the current, and then, fusion technology was that it was large, expensive to start, and hard to maintain. Palladium changed that, simply by it's nature. It's ability to hold the charged, reactive mass of hydrogen made things so much simpler. It was both control rod, and containment field. It limited the amount of energy that could be released from the reaction, and that which could be injected. More excitable forms of the metal yielded heavier yield reactions. Pressurized toroids of gaseous palladium hexafluoride were the first step, and from there the succeeding ones only became smaller, and smaller.

Or so he was told. Grinning ruefully, he could understand the logic, but how his teams came up with these things, he'd never fathom.

Shinji was no slouch, in the practical science department, despite not being the burgeoning genius Maya was, or the subtle social engineer that was Mana. Having been exposed to Project E since nearly his birth, the young Ikari had grown up, and then matured, around high science. His arena, was the realm of theory, and there he excelled. He also, grudgingly admitted, had his father's talent for leadership. This he tempered with compassion, though, which was why NERV wasn't the dreaded, totalitarian, para-military megacorp it had been. Now it was just a totalitarian, para-military megacorp, with stocks and had a listing on Wall Street and Nasdaq. But science, technology were the basis for that success. Soon, the last of his great plans would be accomplished, and then Shinji felt, he'd really have repaid his father's debt to mankind. The S2 mk II, still in planning, was a more efficient, and less costly, version of the original, backwards engineered from salvaged Angel biology. It would solve not only the vast needs of NERV for energy, it would also be key, if successful, in balancing the world's energy crisis. If they could get it functional. So far the best they'd managed, was the new reactor under NERV HQ, which discreetly powered the site. This of course, was not on the UN books. Secrets, like old habits, were both addictive and had a tendency to die hard.

He had initially experienced qualms about using alien organs as possible templates for energy sources, but the practicality of it was too alluring. "Clean energy, limited only but the reactive mass, and bandwidth of the outbound circuits. Inert once offline, with no waste. Mm, sexy." Chuckling at his use of Mana's catchphrase, he sighed, remembering the other thing that he had to work on today.

He found it amusing, that he could stand in front of a hall of scientists, and expound the virtues of this new technology, and do it well, yet he could not fathom telling the one person he was closest to, the one more critical factor in almost every aspect of how he dealt with NERV, one small, easy thing.

Telling her he was dying.

The irony of it wasn't lost on him. Shinji Ikari and irony were long bedfellows.

I O I

He sat up too fast, his heart fluttering and vision going dim at the edges. He could hear Mana asking him something. She seemed far off, her voice muted, as the woman's arms snaked about his shoulders, trying to keep him upright as they stood, walking along the halls of the base. "I'm fine, really. Just a little woozy," he tried to assure her. Shinji had no idea if his words even came out correctly.

"I'd blame your drinking, but you're uncharacteristically sober today," she'd jibed, her expression grim. "How long has this been happening?"

"How long?" Shinji tried to muster the energy to lie, and only managed a laugh. "What makes you say this has 'been going on'?"

"Section-2, for starters."

Making a sour expression, Shinji once again, perhaps for the five-thousandth time, cursed that internal agency. "Knew I should have scrapped them when I got the place. Like fumigating for roaches, you know? Necessary housekeeping."

"Shin," Despite his state, he could feel the exasperation rolling off her. This was always a bad subject with Mana, probably due to her upbringing, and how intertwined it was to the JSDF. "You realize that the oh, I don't know, weekly assassination attempts are only avoided because of them, right?"

"It's no more than monthly, and yes, I know." Steadying his breathing, Shinji tried to regain some of his composure. He didn't care about the public opinion thing, but had insisted on recuperating out of the common view. It was more that he guiltily clung to even these painful moments, alone with Mana, and cherished each one he could scrape, steal and bully his way into. Currently, the two were the sole residents of a very spacious broom closet. "Just because I hate them, doesn't mean I don't need them. Or appreciate them."

"Somehow, I don't think hating something, and appreciating it can really happen, in this universe, Shin."

"You obviously never got to know Asuka the way I did," was his reedy retort, his breath still not coming in the proper cadence. The look she shot him could have backed down his father. He had to break that glare, and an idea formed in his clearing mind. Mana started and shot him a smoldering look. "Well, you seem to be recuperating quickly."

Favoring her with a slight grin, Shinji slid his hand somewhere less scandalous. "Complaining, Miss Kirishima?"
"I may start, since you moved your hand..."

An hour later, he was re-buttoning his shirt, but not from more pleasant activities. "Nothing?"

"I... really don't know, Boss," Maya had acquired the odd habit of addressing him that way, some time after the reformation of NERV. It had seemed so hard for her to deal with someone so young as her superior, so to maintain the public face of things, and add a bit of levity to the situation, they'd come up with her trademark moniker for him. Initially he was amused by it, but when it'd become her standard way to address him, it'd quickly lost some of it's amusement value. "It scans like congenital heart disease, but doesn't seem to react to any kinds of normal treatment. Perhaps when the NP system is fully functional..."

Shinji laughed, low and with a smile. "Do you think I have that much time?"

Maya just looked away.

"How about what's causing it? These things usually show up early in life, don't they?"

Nodding, the tech dug back into her data, glad to be given something more comfortable to do, than try to mock up some nonexistent bedside manner. She was lousy with bad news. "From what I can gather, it's either the result of some flaw you received from recorporating after the fourteenth, or from your massive exposure to reverse AT fields during... " her voice went still, as the woman started to visibly shake. Shinji slid off the table and crossed to her side, laying a steadying arm about her shoulders, guiding her to a chair.

"Hey, it's OK. I get what you mean... just sit a sec. Alright?" When she nodded, sniffling, he turned, and sighed. He'd gotten better at comforting people, but still wasn't good at it, after all this time. And here she was upset about one of the most painful parts of his life, as well. Standing, Shinji took a breath and let it loose slowly, remembering the first time he'd tried to comfort someone... "Yeah, hope you're watching this Misato," he muttered, hand clenching at his side.

"What, Boss?" Maya punctuated her question with a hiccup.

Rounding on the young tech, Shinji kneeled down and took her hands in his, smiling up at the woman, peering into her brown eyes intently. "Listen, hey...hey." Maya's tears were sniffled back, and she looked down into the deep, blue eyes peering back at her. "There. There you go. Now, remember back then? Back before Third Impact?"

Lip quivering, the young woman nodded, memories of those horrible days surfacing in her eyes. "...yeah."

"Good. Then you also remember that despite it all, from the Third Angel, to Third Impact, I made it. I survived. Right?" Maya nodded, "Good. Good, you remember. Then keep that in mind, because too much is still going on. Too much is left to do, NERV still needs me, even if you guys are the real brains about town."

Laughing quietly, Maya wiped at her eyes and regarded him with a half smile. "And what does the Invincible Shinji bring to the table?"

"Why, my sparkling personality," leaning forward, he rested his forehead to hers. "Seriously, though. You're the brains. Mana's the face, the branches are the hands. Thousands of people make up the body, and all I do, all I am is... is."

"Heart, Shinji." Reaching up to run her hand along his cheek, the young tech leaned forward, her breath warm on his chin. "Heart..."

"I see you're feeling better." Shinji started, the sudden motion knocking the two's skulls together rather painfully. "Shall I tell the proposal team to assemble or will you need some time, Director?" Mana stood, smirking and leaning against the door to the examination room.

Rubbing at the bruise he was sure would be visible in the next few minutes, the young Ikari grinned up at his executive Assistant. "I think we're done here, right Maya?"

"Right, Boss," one eye still shut, the now nervous head of the technical division busied herself with putting away all the various analytical tools that had been laid out. This conveniently also let her avoid the burning gaze of the most formidable woman in NERV. "I'll have the full diagnosis and results sent up soon."

Collecting her employer, the smirking woman led the way down the corridors, Shinji trailing a pace behind. "That wasn't what it looked like."

Raising a brow, Mana regarded him briefly, "and what did it look like?"

"It looked like... Ah, I was..."

"You were?"

"I was trying to comfort-"

"Oh she looked very comfortable," Mana's blue eyes, nearly a match for his own, glared back over her shoulder.

"Mana, slow down," pausing a moment, he leaned on the wall to catch his breath, panting slightly. Immediately the auburn haired woman was at his side, looking up at him intently, searching his face for a sign of trouble. Grinning suddenly, the young man slipped an arm around her shoulder. "You know me. Better than anyone."
"I know you're trouble," sighing, Mana leaned on the taller man, as they made a discreet path along the deeper hallways to the conference room. "Knew you were trouble when I learned you were living with that lush and the demon. Knew it when I saw Ayanami staring at you every day."

"Did she really stare?"

"She always stared," chuckling, the woman elbowed him half-heartedly. "But you know what?"

"What? You going to tell me it was love at first sight? Or that love conquered the lines of orders and borders and brought us together, despite being on two sides of the same coin?"

"You're such a sap." Laughing openly now, Mana ruffled his hair, as the two stopped outside a keyed panel that would let them into the waiting room, through a side door. "What I was about to say," she said, straitening his collar and tie, as he pulled the wrinkles from her sleeves. "Is that I like trouble."

"I'll make it a point to get into more," he quipped, earning him foot planted on the arch of his own. "OK, ow."

"Straiten up, we're here."

Looking from his cramping foot to her incredulously, the Director of NERV blinked as the wall collapsed to the sides and the board room spread out before him.

I O I

"Sir?"

Wandering down memory lane again, Shinji berated himself quietly. "Yes, what is it?"

"There's another memo from the Security Council waiting for your attention, sir." The aide from earlier stood, looking nervously through the door at him.

Shinji waved the man in, searching under his desk for the bottle he knew was there. He came back up a moment later with a full cup and a smile. "So, what do the old men have to say today? And where's Mana?"

The man seemed to shift uncomfortably on his feet. "The... they requesting additional information about the allotment of funds that were diverted from branch four, seven and nine to branch... three. In Germany."

"There was no fund shift. It was a clerical error that was addressed in the last meeting I had with the Secretariat. And the ESC." Leaning forward, Shinji rested his chin on a hand, but didn't focus on the man. "Every dime that comes into NERV, has a label when it leaves. Meaning, that though we are a privately owned, publicly traded company, every aspect of our economics is tracked thanks to my father's legacy. If those fund shifts actually happened, then we would be shut down. End of story."

In his first show of backbone since that morning, the man gestured insistently at the folio he held."Th-then who sent this memo?"

Shinji smiled at the man, shrugging and taking a draw from his glass. "You tell me." Turning to his left, he seemed to nod to the blank wall. "It's time."

Section-2 agents seemed to materialize from the walls, as Mana stepped out and crossed to Shinji's side. NERV's Director sat stoically, watching the proceedings with a slight interest. "They keep getting worse," Mana stated, taking the memo and peering at it critically, as she settled at Shinji's right.

The aide, looking around himself and at the Section-2 agents that surrounded him with wide eyes, finally fixed his gaze on Mana. "Y-you you're supposed to be sick. S-supposed to not be here."

"I don't know what rag you're working for, but they obviously didn't send you the memo," she replied, slipping the false paper into a folio she was carrying. "I never take a day off. Never." Shinji motioned with his finger, and the agents closed in and took the man into custody. He moved off without complaint or resistance, merely another actor trying to capitalize on a program they'd implemented some time ago. "Track him back to his employers, find out who he works for. Then get the data to me."

"Yes Ma'am."

The awkward debacle vacated Shinji's office, and he loosed a sigh, resting the glass against his forehead. "Was that necessary? I really think you need a new hobby."

"What? Shutting down tabloids and spin rags is fun," Mana purred, settling on the corner of his desk and folding her hands across the lap of her skirt. "Besides, it minimizes the amount of further slander we have to deal with in the future. Which, in the long run, will help us get out from under the UN's thumb."

Shinji laughed ruefully at this. "Why would we need to? I'm content to be something that I can let the light of day shine on. I don't like secrets." This statement left a bitter taste, unrelated to the drink in his hand, lingering in his mouth.

Running a hand over her eyes, Mana nodded, mirroring Shinji's sentiment. "I know. And I know how you feel about this, really I do. You have to look at this from my side though, even though I ultimately answer to the JSDF and your keepers, the stress on the company is amazing."

"I know, it's in the psychological reports every month. 'Stress via constant observation'. Anxiety."

The auburn haired woman nodded. "So, the sooner that you get NERV out of that spotlight-"

"The sooner the JSDF reassigns you, and I quit, and go to boot camp."

Laughing at their long-time joke, she leaned over and straitened his collar. "You know I'd stay."

Nodding, he simply stared off, eyes unfocused. A lifetime's worth of thoughts kept circling around his head, and now, alone with her, something of that was breaking free of his usual calm. "Mana, what are we here for?"

The sudden change in topic, from anyone else would be taken in stride. Her her razor wit would compensate, engage her verbal fencing reactions, and from there it would be a delicate dance of point, counterpoint and feint that would let her analyze precisely what the person wanted, wanted to hear, and what her ideal response should be. From Shinji, she automatically turned all that off and answered frankly, her first impulse. "What?"

"Exactly. I mean, I had a purpose before," standing, Shinji slipped a hand over her shoulder, staring out at the memories in their display cases. "I was a pilot."
"And I was a spy, sent to gather intel on you, and ultimately betray you."

"You did a great job, by the way," Shinji replied, favoring her with a grin. "No, what I mean is... now. What are we here for. We've survived all three Impacts. The one that started the earth's life processes, the one that man began to usurp a faulty ideal of God, and the last in an attempt to become God." Heaving a sigh, Shinji turned and looked out into the space, formerly occupied by the cages. "What are we, as humans, meant to do? We became the predominant species on earth. We defeated the spawn of Adam. What now? What's our great challenge, our magnum opus?"

"Shinji... those are questions, maybe without your milestones, that people have asked since... well since. I don't think you're going to find an answer that satisfies you. Not on the scale of humanity at least." Her face cast softly, Mana regarded her employer, long time friend, and fiancée with a small smile. "It's much easier, to look at yourself here. Like you said, you were a pilot. Is this about NERV? Has something gotten to you? One of those damn spin rags?"

"I... no. I just... Mana," he reached up then and took her hands in his, closing his eyes to keep from seeing the deep, tumultuous pools of cobalt that she was regarding him with. "I just have some things on my mind."

Laughing very lightly, Mana gestured to the corner, the well-cared for cello in it's place there, the darkened stand and seat easily overlooked. "That's you, with something on your mind. That's you," she pointed again, to the whiteboard on the wall by the desk, still filled with thought-flow diagrams, scribbled math and questions. "This is you," tilting his chin up with a finger, she sighed against his forehead. "So tell me Shinji, what is it you're trying so hard to not tell me."

"It's too soon. I... " laughing ruefully, he looked up and she could see again the young man, harried and worn that had been her target, so long ago. The image both lifted and made her heart ache. His next words almost made it skip. "Mana... I'm dying."

I O I

The core of Central Dogma, Terminal Dogma, so long the basis of Project E's dummy plug system, as well as the birthplace of the Evangelions themselves, had changed much it's first visit by Shinji Ikari. Perhaps named from Francis Crick's statement on the the matter of genetics, that information flowed in a single direction; DNA, to RNA, to proteins. This was later revised, at the discovery of certain viruses, that use RNA to alter DNA. Finally, the last step was made when protein-like complexes, produced by Lilith and carried directly in her blood, LCL, were found to have the potential to alter simple genetic structures. From these findings, the Nephilim Project began, and gave birth, literally, to Rei Ayanami.

Terminal Dogma, aptly named as it's ultimate purpose was not to relate the law and flow of genetic information, but rather the destruction and singularity of it. "I really don't see what sticking me in the aquarium is going to achieve here."

Three sets of eyes stared blankly at him, then returned to their work. "We're isolating what is causing the deterioration of your heart and nervous system, by analyzing it against some of the originally charged Lilin LCL that you had come in contact with, on your first activation with Unit 01."

"I think I saw that episode of Star Trek, wasn't it the one where his head ended up on backwards and-"

"There's likely some correlation between your time in Eva, or something along that timeline during which you piloted that caused this," Kirishima interrupted, glaring at the man in the tank. She wasn't a on the medical staff, or a scientist, but she insisted on being present, so Maya had allowed her to stand in as her assistant during the tests, and offering another pair of eyes and hands to the monitoring of the results. Also, it would keep her from exploring the possibility that one could in fact have sex in LCL, not something Maya doubted the woman would try, if left to her own devices.

"Not to mention, that due to the nature of our current progress in the NP system, we can halt any degenerative action that could be currently affecting your body," Kodama Horaki added, acting in as chief medical liaison, as Maya was working as her role of lead technician. Shinji knew he should be flattered that three of the brightest, most lovely women of NERV were so concerned with his wellbeing. That didn't change the fact he was currently treading 'water' in Rei's old clone vat. Naked. "We really need a new place to run these tests..."

Mana sighed, and looked up at the anxious man suspended in the amber tank before her. "I know, Shinji. But we are still in the logistics phase of this – we still have at least six months before a practical application for NP tech will be ready for prototype. There's tests, and applications, and then a literal sea of red tape, since this goes right at that human cloning ban perpendicularly."

Shinji sighed amber foam. "I know. Trust me, I know. Just... you weren't here."

Walking up to the foot-thick glass, Mana laid a hand there, smiling gently as Shinji drifted, tethered by a forest of electrodes, monitoring equipment and signaling relays. "I know. I would have been if I could."

"We're ready." Maya's simple signal had Mana scurrying to her post, as the man watched. He imagined, in a terrified corner of his mind, this same view, through crimson eyes. His father, coming in and watching him. Being analyzed and dehumanized at each turn, knowing that each individual aspect of self her acquired was only a flaw to be erased. Knowing that his life held no meaning beyond his designs, And worst of all... accepting those things.

Closing his eyes to banish those phantoms, he instead focused on a poem, something he received from Rei that he carried with him, in memory, since their last real conversation. "Mountains. Heavy are the mountains, but that changes over time..."

The others watched as the data flowed, progressed along the paths that would have been impossible before the advent of Evangelion. "He's meditating, during this. Still amazes me," Maya idly remarked, as she adjusted the density of charged LCL in the chamber.

"He's not meditating," closing her eyes, Mana stretched her neck slightly, face twisting in slight pain, then release. "He's talking to her."

Kodama looked up, letting the monitors do their work unattended for a moment. "Her?"

"Rei. He's talking to her. He does this, sometimes. More often since... since he'd gotten sick," crossing her arms, Mana paced about, her eyes switching between Shinji's slowly moving lips, and the readout before her. "After Third Impact, and seeing what he did, it's been like a prayer to him. I've heard him saying it before, on Tide Day." Recalling that holiday, Mana mused on it as her eyes swept over the readings, looking for those flags Maya had instructed her on.

Many countries had started observing the day after Third Impact, as Tide day. There was a general reverence for the ocean, a shared memory. All of humanity, pooled literally together there. A sentient, singular thing, coating the world like pearl does a grain of sand. Then it was over, that dream and memory. The world turned on, kept on moving. But the impression, the impact of it remained – some called it mass hysteria, some racial memory. Shinji, when she asked him about it, never spoke of what he thought, and only a deep look of pain in his eyes kept her from pursing that query. Mana had found Shinji, the year after Impact standing by the ocean, reciting an odd passage of poem or song, and in time had finally approached him about it.

It had been... awkward.

A few more minutes of his quiet benediction passed, and with a sigh Kodama rose from her station fitfully. "You should have told me," the eldest Horaki sister's lips pursed, as she tried to express her annoyance at a possible medical fact that had been omitted, and also worked at keeping an eye on the data before her. "Possible mental instabilities should be-"

Mana's eyes flashed over her terminal, "He's not unstable," she snarled, immediately calming. "He has a focus. If he didn't have... Rei, none of this would have happened. NERV, the NP system, all the advances that have happened would have been worth nothing." She was perhaps overstating things, but in truth it was Shinji's idea to turn the advances back on themselves, to maybe see what benefit the atrocities here could be. It was his drive to undo that, which had lead NERV out of darkness. "He was the will that drove things forward-"

"Mana..."

"He was the heart of the teams that pushed for the NP system to be revamped, and the only one with practical, real world experience with Eva and it's child tech-"

"Mana..."

Catching her breath, the woman looked to Maya and frowned, "What?"

"We have the results. We can get him out."

"Oh."

I O I

Those seated at the darkened table, were haloed in a harsh light, that picked them out and set to high contrast the lines of each face. The table itself was unremarkable, a simple, great circular thing. The people around it, though, were of note.

"Are we all in attendance... very well." Standing, the woman most knew through all of NERV as the second in command looked to each there, her eyes analyzing, measuring. "This meeting is hereby called to order." Normally, being held under such scrutiny would have a normal person wilting, or at least considering the closest escapes, but these were long-time associates, contemporaries and fellows to the woman. "The purpose of this council, and the object we will be deliberating until a suitable answer can be reached, lies in the fate of Shinji Ikari."

Faces rose, and dialogs were had. Representatives from all major and some minor divisions were present, some never before physically seeing the man in question. All in attendance had their measure in loyalty though. "What about the NP system?"

"Too far out," the voice was corrected, and faces fell, the easy answer denied them. "His condition is worsening daily. If this continues, we may have three months to six."

"There are the generation two LCL experiments... those have a higher sustainable life than the current Lilin LCL, if applied with the vectors."

Muttering commenced, but was finally silenced. "Too risky. Those could literally revert him back to a teenager, and the repercussions on nervous physiology would be debilitating."

More talk surrounded the table, and those in attendance were realizing quickly that things were not proceeding. That was until a chief of archives, his voice growing frail over time, took the floor. "Perhaps this isn't a single solution approach."

Mana eyed him, sizing the man up and recalling him from memory. "Explain, please."

"The NP system could be used in the future to cure his illness. Now, he is living on borrowed time. This is nothing new to the aged, but we now have much grander science to aid us.

"His degeneration can be stalled with the experimental NP system, and his condition stabilized by the same, until a cure can be found to permanently change his own bodies faulty coding. But those require a massive amount of raw power to be sustained. Those can, in the future be reprogrammed when the NP system comes online, for a full cure."

Maya, again called out the flaw in this idea. "We... would have no way to make this sustainable. He'd have to have almost daily infusions of activated LCL. They can only stay active very briefly. There's no way to use the LCL like this."

"There is a way, if he contained the energy source himself."

Silence fell over the room, as those in attendance looked from one to another with barely contained confusion. "I... how?" Mana's voice rang out, not confused but bearing a small kernel of hope.

Here, the man whose words they were hanging on like drowning men a raft, shook his head. "This I do not know. NERV is central to this new world. We build the machines, we program the computers. Within us, we have the power to save one life, though."

Maya's mind was working in objective mode, trying to find the answer to this puzzle. Finding some way to make the solution come out at her, and scream 'here'! It was the words the man spoke, that spurred her, set her mind to motion though. "Power... life." Gasping, she started shuffling about her notes, finally pulling free the last of them, a minor player she'd felt in this meeting but now suddenly critical. "The supersolenoid project."

Mana stood incredulous. "An S2 engine. You want to put an S2 engine... into Shinji?"

"We aren't in the dark ages of Angel propaganda here, Kirishima," a scientist heading the S2 project chided. "The engine isn't some mystical seat of the soul that was assumed, any more than the stomach is the 'golden engine' of ancient Chinese ideal." Shrugging the man continued. "Think of it like this.

"A solenoid, simple version. An electromagnet. The definition of the device is a three dimensional coil, that produces an EM field. Now, the basis behind the S2 project, was to build a whiteroom, technologically maintained version of the angel organ that provided the same function.

We originally picked the name "supersolenoid", because, in error, we felt the S2 was responsible for the AT field Angel's made. Now we understand what an AT field is and originates from. The S2 as we are developing it, is simply a massively powerful field generator, that in essence contains a stable fusion reaction."

"Would those fields not cause more problems? And well, a fusion reactor? That can't be good for you..."

Muttering erupted around the room, and another stood, this time a face Mana was intently familiar with. "The... palladium core of the current S2 engine... the lattice could be used as a low-bleed battery for excited hydrogen."

"A containement form?"

Conversation became heated again, but one thing had changed, since the small storm of ideas the aged archivist had fronted.

"I... I think it could work," Maya said, her eyes searching out Mana's as the woman sat at their head, despite the table's shape, watching with unbelieving eyes. "Mana?"

Her mouth working silently for a long moment, the auburn haired woman finally let herself fall, slumping into the seat with an audible sigh. "If it saves him. If it saves him, then lets make it happen."

Kodama Horaki stood at that, and it was with a rueful smile she regarded those around the table. "I don't think we've addressed the one problem with this."

Mana regarded her from her slumped position, looking through splayed fingers covering her face, "What would that be, 'Dama? Some medical concern with the oh I don't know, fusion reactor?"

"I wouldn't be a fusion reactor," Maya tried to correct weakly, but her voice had little strength.

Shaking her head, the eldest of the Horaki sisters paused a moment, letting the chatter about the table die down. "I think the factor we're all forgetting, is Shinji himself."

Mana's head impacted the table with a solid thump, her sentiments echoed around the table, "Well, fuck."

I O I

"Absolutely not!"

Kodama rolled her eyes and threw up her hands, looking over at Mana with her patented 'I told you so' glare. "Look, Shin, just let us explain-"

"No! You are not going to spend... how much would this cost?"

Aoba, drafted into the impromptu meeting had a moment of wishing he'd stayed in bed that morning. "Ah... from this facilities pool, it would only pull about one percent of the operating funds-"

"ARE YOU MAD?!" Shinji's outburst left the man winded and panting, before he spun the chair around away from the table. "No."

Mana stood and went to kneel down, looking into Shinji's eyes where he glowered out over the cages, the view from his office locked into perpetual motion. "Shin, listen. We still need you, and this would be a way for us to not only test these things, but save you. Will you please consider it?"

His eyes, a stormy slate looked back into her liquid blue and he sighed, shaking his head. "How can I rationalize it? At this point the money means nothing, it's what we do with it that makes this impossible.

"The UN and JSDF, they'd shut us down for a fraction of that. And don't think you can rationalize it by saving me. I'm the biggest thorn in their sides. Without me, this all would have been theirs, and NERV would be easily folded up in a pocket and forgotten." Shinji coughed, settling his throat with a drink from the cup he always seemed to be nursing. With a slight snarl Mana snatched the cup from his hand, spilling the alcohol across the floor.

"Will you look at me." When Shinji just closed his eyes and sighed, she slapped him, screaming the demand at him again, startling not only the young man but those others assembled. "You are all I have. Don't get noble with me Shinji. I know you're a hero. You don't have to prove it by dying. Here."

Mouth working silently, he swallowed but still shook his head. "I can't. I can't sacrifice all those here, all of those who's lives are a part of NERV..." he trailed off as the woman turned and stalked off, a hand up over her eyes.

"Damn you, Ikari," she muttered, before slamming the doors of his office behind her.

Sighing, defeated in so many ways, the Director of NERV turned his chair slowly and regarded those assembled, to convince him to save himself and damn them all, with tired eyes that didn't belong to someone only twenty years of age. "You're all dismissed. Take the day off, work. Whatever you want." Slowly, he spun the chair back around, letting them do as they liked.

The Horaki daughter remained, Hikari's sister he reminded himself. What had happened to Hikari, he wondered idly, until she laid a hand on his shoulder. "You have to forgive her. She's just worried, upset."

Nodding woodenly, Shinji didn't raise his eyes. Still, he looked out across the cages, remembering a giant that held a soul, not it's own. "I know. I just can't do as I please." Laughing mirthlessly, he looked up finally, and the intensity of his gaze burner her. "You think I'm ready for this? After all that time piloting, thinking any day I'd die, only to survive it and now this?"

She swallowed a knot in her throat and her hand tightened on his shoulder, shadows cast by her hair obscuring her eyes as her head bent. "I... I'm sorry."

"We all die," he stated slowly, evenly. "I just believe it's how we live that makes the difference." Kodama left him, and in the silence and cold of his office, Shinji contemplated. He set about arranging his affairs, but the finality of such a thing upset even his borrowed resolve and in time he just stopped, eyes distant and unfocused as they listlessly scanned the room.

He buzzed the desk Mana often used, knowing if not she, then another would be there. "Yes, Director?"

"I need to schedule a flight to Germany. Call Section-2 and make them aware, additionally have a memorandum sent to Miss. Kirishima. Prepare my plane, and call ahead to Branch three. I leave as soon as the engines are warm."

"Right away, Director."

I O I

Looking around he had to admit, the stories he'd been told about the countryside of Germany didn't do it justice. Gazing down at the Branch three complex, all he could think of was the cold, the wind and the rain that was pelting the small group as they took in the sights. "I really hate Germany."

"Sir?"

"Nothing," turning, the taller man gestured, and his retinue followed as he started down the path to the cars, idling where they had left them. His mind cast back to five, maybe six years ago, and a similar day where he watched the great towers and many buildings that made up his home retreat, safe to their sanctuary. Here, he mused, there was no sanctuary. "The staff are waiting?" A nod was his answer, and again his eyes, blue as the skies of this place, turned to the rise of Branch Three, as it rose up at the end of the road they'd travel. He was relieved that it looked nothing like it's sister branch in Tokyo-3, settling back into the back seat of the sedan. "Lets go see the family," he murmured to the bottle of bourbon as he poured a short glass for himself. Tossing it back he sighed, letting the warmth soak into him.

It was at the end of his sigh, that the first shell impacted the lead car and had the sedan erupting into a ball of fire and debris as his own vehicle spun out of control, crashing into the guardrail and then the embankment that guided the road to the valley below. Barely aware of what was happening, Shinji held on and looked around frantically, seeing nothing but fire and earth being tossed up in the wake of heavy gunfire. Not surprising, the thought that crossed his mind wasn't for his own safety, but regret over how he and Mana had parted.

Another impact, closer this time, threw the car on it's side, and here Shinji knew no more.

I O I

"I can't believe we missed this one," Mana remarked, as the woman she'd been using as a personal assistant was escorted out of the offices by Section-2 security. The two men were quiet and efficient as usual, and with a sigh she sat at the desk, usually her own.

So much was happening recently that she'd barely been there. She's promoted a woman from the administrative staff to take over clerical work, but somehow another of the damn moles had made it past screening. "Shin?"

Silence was the only response to her page, and she blinked at the intercom, checking it's connections. Rising, she went to the large doors and slipped inside quietly, calling again when the inky room didn't light to her presence, maintaining the same dark as when she'd entered. "Shin?"

A small, cold ball of dread took residence in her stomach, and the woman sped back to the desk the woman now being taken to a Section-2 questioning cell had been at recently. "Please," she begged, to no one in particular, hands flying over the untidy mess there. It took her a few moments, but finally she located the scraps of information, and over the next few minutes, pieced the clues together.

Uncharacteristically, she sat a score of minutes, staring vacantly ahead. The clocks on the wall told her the times, at each branch office. It was just half an hour past the time Shinji would be due at Branch Three. Security monitors showed him not entering the building.

Reaching mechanically, she pressed the key to page Section-2. "Yes, Ma'am?"

"Director Ikari is to be considered missing, presumably by force. Alert all Branches. I'll be in meeting with the JSDF."

"We'll see you there, Ma'am," the agent assured her, and she thanked him quietly, seeing herself to the doors as her mind tried to grasp what was happening.

Shinji was missing. As if things weren't already spiraling down, now this. Section-2 agents pulled her car around, and she was spirited to a meeting with the heads of the Japanese military, something she was not looking forward to. Opening her phone, she dialed a number from memory, "Yes, sir. Kirishima reporting in..."

---

A/N: Nope!