AN: Hello everybody! This is my first (and for now only) Evangelion fic. At first I'd thought of making it a oneshot, but then changed my mind and decided to break it in three parts. The next parts will be posted as soon as I can.
Each scene of this story shows a different event of this AU, with hints about the rest. Whatever isn't shown or hinted at is up to the reader's imagination. I hope this doesn't discourage you and that you'll be so kind as to leave a review.
And last but not least, many thanks to Gryphon117 and Panther2G (also known as Strypgia) for their invaluable advice.
The lesser evil
A man is an angel that has become deranged, Joe Fernwright thought. Once they - all of them - had been genuine angels, and at that time they had had a choice between good and evil, so it was easy, easy being an angel. An then something happened. Something went wrong or broke down or failed. And they had become faced with the necessity of choosing not good or evil but the lesser of two evils, and so that had unhinged them and now each was a man.
-"Galactic Pot-Healer", by Philip K. Dick
Part One: Before
An ancient nursery rhyme says: "For want of a horseshoe nail, a kingdom was lost".
This, of course, is just an allegory, one used to teach people that even the most seemingly insignificant of their actions can have great consequences. The same applies to those cases where the presence or absence of a single individual can irredeemably change the course of history.
Take for example Gendo Ikari, nee Rokubungi. Head of GEHIRN first, and then NERV. Husband to Yui Ikari, father to Shinji Ikari. Despised by many, loved by few. Although he worked for the secret organization known as SEELE, to implement their Human Instrumentality Project, his real goal was to use this project to reunite with his dead wife. And in order to do so, he manipulated events and people around him, including his own son.
But what would happen if Gendo was removed from the equation? What if, somehow, he had died before he could begin to seriously influence the events that followed Second Impact?
Some of you may think that this would lead to a happy outcome. But you would be wrong. Because, despite being a very unpleasant person, Gendo Ikari was in fact the only real obstacle to SEELE and its plans. To prove this, we will take a look to a far corner of the multiverse, to a world where Gendo Ikari died soon after the contact experiment that robbed him of his wife...
XXXXXX
Tokyo-3 cemetery
June 6th, 2010
Kozo Fuyutsuki hadn't set foot in Tokyo-3 for almost six years. And if it had been up to him, he'd never have gone back there. Too many bad memories, too many things he'd have loved to leave behind. Most importantly, the city was essentially SEELE's playground. And he wanted nothing more to do with SEELE, the old men and their goddamned secret plans.
But Shinji had insisted. He wanted to see the place where mom and dad rested, he'd said. Kozo had been reluctant at first, but in the end he'd given in to his young charge's request. He'd had to. When Shinji looked at him with his eyes, Yui's eyes, the old teacher's resolution always vanished.
And so here they were, standing in front of the graves of Gendo and Yui Ikari, the sun shining high in the sky and the cicadas singing in the background.
Fuyutsuki sighed. To be honest, he hadn't come here just for Shinji. Until now, he'd never gone to visit his former student's grave. It was about time he came to pay his respects to her...and her husband, to a lesser extent. Even though it was only Gendo's grave that had a body in it. It was the proper thing to do.
Yui...
"Sensei?"
Shinji's voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned and looked at him. "Yes? What is it, Shinji?"
The boy cleared his throath. "I...I wanted to ask you some things...about my parents."
Kozo nodded. He'd expected this. "Sure. What did you want to know?"
"Well, how they met...what kind of people they were...and..." The young Ikari seemed to hesitate for a moment. "And...how they died."
The old man raised an eyebrow. "Why do you want to know how they died?"
"I'm just curious. You...never talked about it."
Fuyutsuki nodded. Shinji was right. He'd never told him about how his parents had died. "Well, it was an accident in both cases. Your mother died while working...on an important scientific project of hers." He couldn't tell Shinji the full thruth. "Your father was devastated by her loss, and spent the next days almost like in a trance. He barely paid attention to his surroundings. That's why one evening, while he was walking back to his apartment, he crossed the road and didn't see the approaching car."
Shinji had a sad look on his face. "Oh...poor dad."
"It happened so quickly that he didn't feel anything." Fuyutsuki continued. "It must have been like going to sleep." At least, that's what the police reports had said. "And I'm sure that, when he woke up, your mother was right next to him." He added finally, for the boy's sake.
Shinji's lips curved in a light smile. "Then now they're together and happy!"
"Yes, Shinji. They were always happy when they were together." That was true. He recalled the few occasions he'd seen Gendo and Yui together, back at the university and later, and they had seemed quite happy indeed. "They were both students at my old university. That's where they met. It was love at first sight." Fuyutsuki wasn't sure of that, though. But even if it wasn't true, he had no way of knowing.
"As for your other question...well, I wasn't very close to your father. But Yui Ikari was the sweetest and smartest woman I'd ever met, and if she chose Gendo as husband, he must have been a good man, don't you think?" That was something he'd always thought. If Yui had willingly decided to marry that man, she must have seen something good in him, even though he still didn't understand what.
Shinji nodded. "Yes...you're right, sensei."
Fuyutsuki stroke his hair affectionately. Shinji didn't remember much about his parents, so it was easy telling him things that weren't exactly true. He didn't like lying, even when it was for a good reason. But the thruth was too ugly for Shinji to handle, too painful. And the last thing he wanted, was for Shinji to suffer. Even though at first he'd decided to leave GEHIRN and become his legal guardian only to honor Yui's memory, he'd soon come to love the boy like a son. That was also the reason why he'd made that deal with SEELE. His silence, in exchange for his and the boy's life.
"Oh my, look who's there!"
That voice...Kozo abruptly turned to his left, barely noticing Shinji's confused stare. And there, walking calmly toward him and wearing a black dress, was one of the last people he'd expected or wanted to meet.
"Hello, Fuyutsuki." Naoko Akagi, current director of GEHIRN, smiled at him. "Fancy meeting you here. And I see you aren't alone."
"Doctor Akagi..." said the old teacher. It had been some years since the last time he'd seen her, but she didn't seem to have changed too much. "Long time, no see. What brings you here?" They'd never exactly been friends, but he saw no need to be rude.
"The same reason as you, I suppose. I wanted to visit an old friend's grave." She looked at Shinji. "And you must be little Shinji."
The boy looked at the woman. "Yes, but...who are you?"
"Shinji, this is doctor Naoko Akagi." said Fuyutsuki. "She is an old acquaintance of mine...and you parents, too."
"You knew my mom and dad, ma'am?"
"Yes, Shinji. Me and your parents were very good friends. We even worked together for some time." She lowered herself and stroke his left cheek. "You know, you look a lot like your father." she said, in a tone that Fuyutsuki didn't like. "I'm sure that, in a few years, you'll be his spitting image." There was something in her eyes that induced Shinji to step away from her and go even more near his legal guardian.
The old teacher frowned. He decided it was better to leave that place before she said something dangerous. "Well, it's been good to see you again, doctor, but it's getting late and we really need to go."
"So soon?"
"Yes, if we stay even just for a few more minutes, we risk missing our train."
"Oh, what a shame. I was hoping to talk with you about the old days. Well, I guess we'll have to do it some other time, yes?"
Kozo nodded. "I'll call you the next time we'll come back."
"Good, I hope it won't be another six years." she smiled. "Goodbye, then. And goodbye to you too, Shinji."
Shinji just waved his hand and followed his legal guardian as they started walking away from doctor Akagi.
As soon as they were far enough, the boy said: "Sensei?"
"Yes?"
"We...we aren't coming back here, are we?"
Fuyutsuki smiled. "No, Shinji."
The young Ikari gave him a smile of relief. "Good."
