I do not own the rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion, or any of the characters, equipment, or locations written in this fanfiction. The purpose of this fanfiction is merely for the non-profit enjoyment of other readers. If requested by Gainax, Hideki Anno, or other parties which represent aforementioned objects in this story, I will remove it promptly.
Prologue:
Gendo Ikari growled, delivering a swift right hook to his brother's jaw. "What do you mean you lost him?" Shinji stood beside his father and cried, duffel bag in hand, wondering what became of Raidon. "If Yui were here, she would beg me to kill you!"
"They're twins!" the elder Rokubungi snapped. "I must have seen Shinji twice, and just thought it was the both of them! For God's sake, they wear the same clothes!"
"That's so they don't get LOST!" the younger Rokubungi roared, gripping his elder brother by the collar, delivering another blow to the jaw. "I swear, if he is not found within two days, I will have your head!" The newly appointed commander thought for a few minutes. He could not trust his brother to watch over his remaining son, not now. He thought back through all the possible contacts he had, back to the acquaintance of his, that friend of Yui's who graduated with a teaching degree from that American university, and was living in Tokyo-2 at this time.
With a cold, remorseless tone, Gendo made his decision. "Shinji, you will live with a friend of your mother's. Until your brother is found, until it is safe, you cannot trust anyone from our family. Do you understand?" The boy clearly did not, now clinging to his father's leg, desperately wishing to stay with him. "SHINJI!" the man hollered. In an instant, the man was down on his knee, looking his son cooly in the eye. "Where I am going, you or Raidon cannot follow, not until the time is right."
Shinji nodded slightly, and still sobbing, accompanied his father to the waiting black Mercedes with the government flags waving in the cold breeze. "We will find your brother, Shinji," his father growled. "I swear it!"
Chapter I:
The young Ikari awoke from the night terror with a start, sweat soaking through his boxers and undershirt. He wiped his brow with his left palm as he tried to slow his breathing. Rising to his feet, he slumped to the door. Food would not settle his still churning stomach, but it would help replenish the expensed calories.
As he reached his door, there was a pounding from the opposite end, the silhouette of a girl in a very short night gown and long hair trying her best to restrain her temper. Shinji opened the door cautiously, which seemed too slow for his counterpart on the other side. She burst into the room, staring him down. "Just what is all that racket?" Asuka huffed. "You almost woke the whole neighborhood!"
"Leave me alone!" Shinji snapped back, taking the girl by surprise. He was still partly asleep, the world of dreams and the world of reality mixing, distorting his senses. Realizing suddenly his mistake, allowing the words he left to be expressed only in his nocturnal illusions to be heard in this world, by these people, he apologized. "Sorry, Asuka," he sighed.
"Don't apologize!" she retorted. "You finally stand up for yourself, and you back down so quickly? Sheesh, what kind of man do you hope to be?" Then she smelled the sweat, and observed the dark stains over his clothes. "Shinji..." she whispered, now aware of muffled thumps coming from Misato's room. "Shinji... what is this? What's wrong?"
"It's... something I just remembered," Shinji explained.
•••••••••••••
"How could you possibly forget about a brother?" Asuka whined softly, trying to remain stealthy in the dark confines of the apartment's kitchen. She would not receive an answer for a few moments, she realized, as Shinji had chosen just that moment to stuff his face with the improvised sandwich made in the American style. Soryu was amazed the quantity of lunch meats and cheeses packed in between the two slices of white bread. "How can you eat that much?"
Shinji shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, choosing to answer the second question first. "They're... very bad dreams," he whispered. "I burn a lot of calories if they're really bad." He didn't know why he felt comfortable around her, telling the Second Child his secrets, but after the incident with the Fourteenth Angel, his body finally recovered, something in the back of his mind stirred him to work harder, to make an effort. "I don't remember a lot of what happened when I was younger, before my mother died. But there are nights like this, when something comes back to me, just for a moment, then vanishes." He set the sandwich down on its plate, taking a deep swig of tap water. "Do you know what it's like to be found three blocks from home in your pajamas at two in the morning, screaming about things you can't even remember?"
She knew her dreams were intense, but not that intense. She had broken the habit of her neuromuscular system remaining active during her sleep years before. It was ironic, the German thought, how their situations were reversed. Here was a boy that wanted to remember the things he dreamt of, the things that scared the living daylights out of him, and here she was, wanting to forget the one thing she constantly dreamt of. "Once," the girl answered hesitantly. "It happened once, but I made it stop."
"Where did you end up?" Shinji asked, surprised there was something they could both relate to.
"My... mother's home office," the girl explained. "My real mother..."
"I'm sorry," Shinji answered instinctively.
Asuka shook her head, too groggy to be angry. "It isn't your fault, Shinji. Quit apologizing for things you can't control." She set her head on the kitchen countertop, slumping in the wooden bar stool. Shinji tried to stir the girl, shaking her left arm just below the shoulder. "Let me sleep, Baka," she grumbled.
"In the kitchen?"
Asuka nodded. She hated sleeping in bed. While the girl knew it was important to keep her skeletal structure healthy and avoid back problems in the future, the dream always found her in bed. It was only in the places one did not usually sleep, the places where she recovered her rest in an improvised fashion that the dream did not follow her.
"At least move to the couch so you can lie down," he grumbled. "You're going to feel horrible in the morning, sleeping like that." He spoke as though having experience, which he did. The occasions when the dreams followed him, he found himself in that very stool weeks before the girl's arrival, the cramps in his muscles nagging him for two days afterwards.
She did not know why he bothered, why he continued to care, but when Asuka Langely Soryu awoke again, checking the VCR clock for the time, she found herself in the living room couch, a light blanket from Shinji's room draped over her. Then the soles of her bare feet felt the toes of the Third Child, the boy cramped in a fetal position at the opposite end of the sofa. "Baka," she grumbled. "You'll regret lying like that in the morning."
Against all her emotional defenses, the girl rose to her feet, lifted the blanket, and pulled her roommate's legs to their full, extended length, before rolling him over on his back. Then, as quietly as possible, she returned to her portion of the couch, and trying as best to keep the boy's limbs from coming too close to her body, returned to the nocturnal world.
•••••••••••••
Misato jabbed at the two sleeping Children in the morning, trying to stifle a giggle as she mused over how cute the pair looked. Asuka was the first to awaken, cringing as her vision came into focus. "Sleep well?" Misato grinned.
"Don't even start, Misato!" Soryu grumbled. "The only reason I'm out here is because I fell asleep after the Baka woke me up last night!" Somehow, that didn't come out right, the redhead thought. She didn't wait for the woman to reply with an innuendo. "His nightmares were so bad, he nearly woke the entire neighborhood! Were you just too drunk to hear it?" She couldn't help but take another jab at the major when she could.
Katsuragi ignored the commentary, focusing more at the significant events of the prior night. She sighed, running her fingers through the boy's hair. "Hopefully they were better than the last batch," she breathed. "Asuka, if I call the school and report you both as sick, can you watch him for the day?"
Soryu raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" The lavender-haired woman, however, did not answer at first. Instead, she walked back to the fridge, retrieving the small bottle of prescription tablets. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" the girl shouted, before remembering the sleeping Child on the couch. Glancing at the VCR display, it was an hour before the both of them were expected to be in class.
Misato returned with the bottle of pills in hand, handing them to the girl. "If he's depressed-" she began. "Well, if he's depressed more than usual, make him take these. The instructions are on the label. I have to work a double-shift, so I can't take time off to observe him if there are any... difficulties."
"Difficulties?" Asuka ashed. She then studied the label on the bottle. "Hey, what the hell is this?" she screeched. "This stuff is a Class III narcotic! It's illegal unless administered by a dcotor! What are you doing with this-"
"It was orders, okay?" Misato yelled. She calmed herself for a moment, checking on the boy. Fortunately, he was still asleep. However, she should have been more concerned with the girl, Asuka shrinking back in fear. "When Shinji has a bad night like this, it can become... much worse."
Asuka half squinted, half shielded her eyes as the saline built up behind her eyelids. No, she couldn't show sympathy, not in front of this woman. "Misato," the redhead whimpered. "Just... what do you know about Shinji having... a brother?"
The major started towards the apartment door, but froze at the mention of the Child's sibling. The metal hatch slid back on its automated track as she returned to her cautious stride. "There are some things no one should remember. It seems to be a curse for us all those unwanted memories have to do with family."
•••••••••••••
Gendo Ikari stood over the intelligence officer's terminal, breathing in quick, furious gasps as he read over the man's shoulder. However, the ensign was used to this routine. When he had first arrived at his post in headquarters, the commander finding out about his skill at genealogical research, tracing the ancestors of wealthy families as well as searching for the survivors of Second Impact amongst the U.N. records, they had spent one day each week for the last two years on this project. The commander provided everything: detailed family histories with exact dates, paperwork, even monetary compensation, paying time and a half for his services. Since the last few weeks, however, especially after the declining synchronization scores of the Second Child, their search had been pushed up to four hours each day.
"I think I have something, Sir," he informed the commander. He hesitated for a moment, wondering just how his superior would react. "It's... a criminal record."
"Hmm," Gendo grunted, with no particular hint of emotional content. "Proceed."
"Well, it's what you'd typically expect of a runaway survivor of the Impact," the ensign explained. "Petty theft, trespassing, and two counts of vagrancy. There is... one item that concerns me, however. If you look at this name..."
The commander sneered for a moment. "Of course he would run to them."
"But, they're your in-laws!" the man exclaimed. "If he's been with them all this time, why haven't you heard anything-"
"They have never looked too fondly on our marriage, and after my brother's stupidity, well..."
The man nodded in understanding. "If I may be so bold, Sir," he began. "You can always ask him to return, if only to visit his brother. If the Ikaris have a problem, they could be escorted to the less restricted sectors of the base."
Gendo nodded. "A wise solution. Before we proceed, however, I would like you to store all of this data on this." The commander set a fist-sized flash memory palette before the officer, "CLASSIFIED" written in bold red text on a white label over the dull gray block. "Have all original documents erased from the original sources. Use any encryption necessary to hide your tracks."
"But... isn't that only the policy for-" He froze in mid-sentence, realizing at once the purpose of the search. "You... you truly are cold."
"I will let that comment slide, for now," the man answered. "If this operation succeeds, and the human race survives, I will accept any transfer request you put in, so long as you forget what you have been doing here."
"Understood, Sir."
The commander walked away from the terminal a few minutes later, the palette in hand. "Just remember, Ensign. Survival is our upmost priority. We have no need for the extra baggage of ethics."
End of Chapter I
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