Another Time: 1 – The end of the beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or any of the characters they are the property of their respective creators. Please be aware that no profit is being made from this work of fan fiction.

Seventy years have passed now, seventy years since the day my life as an Eva pilot ended. The day that the JSDF attacked, and killed most Nerv personnel. The very same day that Unit-01 and I were used to begin third impact. It was in that single moment, that terrible instant where I was one with everyone that I made my choice…I rejected it. I turned away from the merging of souls and as I did so, third impact came to a halt. Souls swept outwards, their AT fields returning as they regained their physical forms. Unit-01 fell from the skies towards the earth, the force of impact tearing it apart. For an instant, I saw what I believed to be my mother's soul, standing beside my father's; both of them were smiling at me. Then the image faded as I was overtaken by darkness.

I woke once more to an unfamiliar ceiling lying in a hospital bed. I was to later learn the UN had sent a special task force to investigate. Having taken stock of the situation, they quickly moved to carry the survivors to safety. When they found me, I lay unconscious in the wreckage of Unit-01's entry plug, my uniform crusted with dried LCL. I was taken to a hospital in Tokyo-2 along with the others and that was where I had awoken. Professor Fuyutski sat beside my bed, his expression grim. He told me that my father was dead along with Misato. Fear gripped my heart then as images of the remains of Unit-02 flashed through my mind.

"What about Asuka?"

He lowered his head and in that instant, I knew the words he could not say.

"I'm sorry Shinji."

It was then the tears came, thick and fast. Soon the front of my white hospital gown, not to mention the bed sheets, were wet with my tears. Everything I had cared about was gone, now I was truly alone…

Weeks past, and slowly my strength returned. However, my mind remained as it was, trapped in an endless maze of grief and sorrow. Finally, on the day I was to be discharged, Professor Fuyutski returned. He informed me that he had purchased a small apartment in the city it had a spare bedroom and he asked me if I would like to come and live with him. Not knowing what else to do and having no other place to go I accepted.

In the years that followed the Professor became both my teacher and surrogate grandfather. I studied medicine under his tutelage, eventually becoming a doctor. Over the years, he told me the stories of when he had first met my mother and father and about the days he had spent working at Ghern. I was shocked by much of what he told me, I had known nothing of the secret organization, SEELE, or their plans to unite humanity through instrumentality, and ultimately the coming of Third Impact. For days I had been visited with terrible nightmares, shadowy figures reaching out and pulling strings that had become attached to my body, manipulating me as if I were nothing more than a puppet in a play. It was a long time before I realized how true those dreams were and sought to find out more, but by that time the Professor had long ago passed away…

On a happier note, during the time I attended college I was reunited with my friends, as their families had come here following the destruction of Tokyo-3.

Toji was the first person I met, I saw him one day when I was passing the sports fields. He had grown somewhat taller and now his lost limbs had been replaced with artificial ones he looked quite normal. For a moment, I had hoped that the horrors of the thirteenth angel had been purged from him but as I came closer and he looked up at me, I could see the sadness in his eyes. Despite the fact he was whole again, he still harbored some resentment regarding the prosthetic limbs as if a part of him had been lost that day. In time, he eventually returned to playing sports, finally taking up a job at the local high school, teaching the children basketball.

I was about two months after our initial meeting that he showed up at the bar we often went to with a girl on his arm. At first, I had not recognized her but after a moment something clicked in my mind. Before me stood a more mature Hikari Horaki, her brown hair now reaching down her back worn in a style reminiscent of Asuka's. She was a plain blue dress and was smiling widely. She had greeted me fondly, upon enquiring, she had explained the she and Toji was dating. I could not help but chuckle slightly at that, I had always known that he had a crush on her and was glad she felt the same way. Two years later, they were married in a chapel in Tokyo-2, with me acting as Toji's best man while his younger sister Mari acted as Hikari's maid of honor.

About a year after that, their first daughter was born; Hikari had insisted that I be the one to deliver her baby. It had felt awkward at first, performing such an intimate task on someone I knew, but I had calmed my nerves and everything went well. I could not help but smile as Toji held his newborn daughter in his arms for the first time; such was the look of fear on his face as he gently cradled the infant. When I asked them what they would name her he had turned to look at his wife and she nodded at him as if agreeing to an unspoken question. Toji then had turned back to me and answered with a single word…

"Asuka."

It was then that the tears came; all the pain I had been holding back for so long came all at once, forcing me to my knees. Toji passed Asuka back to her mother and moved to comfort me, not expecting me to react so violently. When I finally regained my composure I allowed him to help me to my feet, glad that he offered me his normal arm rather than the artificial one that was just another reminder of my pain. I apologized to them both before thanking them, I knew that if Asuka had been there she would have been honored that Hikari had named her child after her even if she was married to 'that Stooge'.

Their second daughter, Rei, was born two years later with their third, Misato, born four years after her. Each time they had asked me to be the one to perform the delivery and each time I had complied, glad to be able to bring joy to my friends, no matter in how small a way. I was always treated as a favorite uncle and often was asked to tell the girls stories of their namesakes and of the day long ago when I had been Shinji Ikari, Third Child and pilot of Evangelion Unit-01. The years passed and the girls grew up and left their parents home, although all three of them remained living in Tokyo-2. Toji retired with Hikari and they spend their days living peacefully in their apartment until he passed away aged eighty-three, Hikari joining her husband only hours later.

It was not until I had graduated from medical school did I see Kensuke again, his dream of joining the military never faded and at the age of eighteen, he had enlisted in the Japanese Armed Forces. After six years, he moved into the Intelligence Division having earned the rank of Major. On the nights I wasn't on call or visiting Toji and Hikari he and I would often go out drinking. He came with me to visit them only once; it had been awkward the whole night, everyone unsure of what to say. Memories of the JSDF's attack on Tokyo-3 remained and in some ways, Kensuke's actions felt like betrayal. Eventually he and Toji had got into a fight and he had stormed out, the two of them not speaking again. Kensuke eventually died when he was sixty-eight, leaving Toji saddened by the fact he never was able to apologize. We all went to visit his grave and their Toji had broken down for a moment, finally uttering the apology he had not been able to say.

Mari, Toji's younger sister, had eventually made a full recovery. She too studied medicine and for a number of years and when she moved to work in the Tokyo-2 hospital I took her on as my protégé. She eventually married another of my interns and moved to America. I still receive Christmas cards from her to this day, always asking me to come over and visit them. To this day I have always declined, there was always too much to do and I could never afford to be away for that long. Now, as my time is finally coming to an end I find myself regretting not going to see them at least once…

As the years went by, I slowly watched as all of my other classmates grew old and died. Sometimes I wondered why not me…other times I cursed god for forcing me to watch as everyone I knew passed away. Finally I was the last one remaining, the only person to truly remember the days of Tokyo-3 and the coming of the angels.

Once, long, long ago for a time I had searched for a way back. Searching for a way to undo the evils of Third Impact, and the conflict that preceded it. Five years I had wasted, never getting any closer than before. I could not understand then that it was not yet time, that everything I searched for would be unearthed by the mere passing of time, yet the unearthing of my answers would not happen in my lifetime. Now the hour grows nearer and my eyes grow heavy. Soon I will enter into death's eternal sleep, free of the passage of time. I walk over to my bed and lay down, my gaze returning upwards to a now familiar ceiling. Slowly, I reach over to the table beside my bed and take the photograph that lies there. My fingers tighten around its tattered edges as I bring it close to my face, my old eyes struggling to focus. As one of the blurred images resolved itself into the form of my younger self for the first time in years I smile. Standing beside me are Asuka and Rei, all three of us dressed in our respective plug suits. Slowly I allow my hand to fall to my side as the chill begins to creep over me. My lips crack as I try to speak, my tongue rubbing over the cracked and dry, aged skin.

"I will see you again, in another time…"

With my final words spoken my eyes slide closed and finally I am at peace. As the picture floats free of my fingers I draw my last breath, as it strikes the floor I am gone.

"And in other news Dr Shinji Ikari was found dead earlier today in his apartment. The doctors say that he died peacefully, his face still holding a smile. It seems that beside him lay a photograph, a picture of himself, Miss Asuka Langley Soryu and Miss Rei Ayanami prior to third impact. On this day, let us pay our respects to them, the people who once fought so valiantly for our lives…thank you Shinji, from all of us. This is Misato Suzahara saying goodbye.

A/N: I have decided to post this to gauge people's reactions to this story. I will warn you now I will not continue it until 02, No and In a Perfect World are complete but I though you might like an inkling of things to come.

Good luck & best wishes,

Hououza

Chapter preread by That Other Guy