Creation began on 04-06-15

Creation ended on 04-11-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

An Ancient Guardian

A/N: The idea just came to mean while working on Different from You. Another story in a series of stories from different perspectives, alternate scenarios, and possible outcomes. A bit of a spoiler in this story is that you may see or hear of items from other stories.

He wheeled into an antique shop and looked at the old items that looked like they couldn't be found anywhere else in the world…unless you looked for them online. On the shelves, he noticed a Kama sickle on display, a sword, a recurve bow, even a gauntlet that looked like it had an eye on its backside, looking at the world.

As he past by an antique bottle, an ancient of a man dressed in a green kimono stepped out of the back of the shop and saw him.

"It's been three years since a young face was in my shop," he expressed. "What brings you here?"

"I just…thought I'd look around," Shinji uttered; in truth, he just wanted to forget about the letter he had gotten in the mail from his estranged father, who didn't even come to see him three years ago when someone that hated his mother decided to try and kill him in a hit and run, crippling him and depriving him of the use of his legs forever.

"Well, feel free to look around," the shopkeeper expressed. "You may find something you like…or you may find something that likes you. Strange things have happened in the years prior to the dawn of the new century."

So Shinji wandered around the shop, seeing many other things that seemed out of place for an antique shop. There were figurines that looked like they were collectible, action figures and resembled the four beasts of Asian mythology, with the dragon, while not blue or any variation of the color, fascinated him. Then, he saw a figurine shaped like a little girl…with a round tummy standing beside a white horse with a unicorn's horn on its head.

"The damage to his spine was devastating," a doctor had informed his aunt and uncle while he had been in and out of consciousness. "He'll never be able to walk again."

"It was a woman that hated his mother for causing her boyfriend's death years ago," his aunt had expressed to the police.

"He's bad luck," his uncle had expressed his opinion on Shinji. "All three of them are nothing but trouble to everyone."

And the worst had come after he went back to school, being troubled by the other students and ignored by the teachers, even when forced to the ground and barely able to get back into his wheelchair.

Suddenly, he looked over into the far back of the shop and saw a large statue with an Egyptian theme to its appearance. It looked like its head and torso were disproportionate to its arms and legs, which had chains shackled to them on manacles. But what caught Shinji's attention were the bands in its opened hands, as though this statue were presenting them to people.

They were manacles, to be accurate, with an eye engraved upon them with series of puzzle-like lines surrounding them, and the edges were rounded.

"I take it you've found something you like?" The shopkeeper asked him, returning from his inventory, and seeing him examining the bands.

"Um, no. I mean, I…" Shinji was caught off guard by the elder. "What is this statue called?"

"He is called Exodia, the Forbidden One," he answered the boy.

"The Forbidden One? Why is he called that?"

"According to Egyptian lore lost through time, Exodia was once the guardian to the Egyptian lord Osiris, the God of the Underworld. However, one day, Exodia was unable to protect the lord from his brother, and was condemned to the same fate as the lord. But Osiris was merciful to Exodia, and permitted him to return to life, but would be bound to a sacred ritual required to summon him and ensure protection to those that summoned him back. Since then, Exodia has been known as the Forbidden One because once he has been summoned and fulfills his duty to protect the one that summoned him, he doesn't appear again unless he is summoned. To honor him, a pair of gold bands, these bands, in fact, were forged from what was left of Exodia's original body and infused with his spiritual energies and bestowed upon those seeking his protection."

"That's…quite a tale," Shinji expressed, and then the shopkeeper took the manacles out of Exodia's hands and gave them to Shinji. "Huh?"

"I can see that you admire the manacles," the shopkeeper said to him. "Accept them as an offering. Something tells me you were meant to have these."

-x-

SMASH! Unit-01 was slammed against the building behind it by the Third Angel, incapacitating the young man that was forced by his cold-hearted father to pilot.

Inside the plug, his manacles, which he put on prior to getting off the train and arriving at Tokyo-2, started to glow in the darkness, casting an eerie light upon their wearer.

-x-

"…We can't eject the plug!" Maya Ibuki informed Misato Katsuragi. "We've lost all contact with the Eva!"

On the monitors showcasing the purple Eva, something began to appear in the air between it and the Angel, casting the buildings and night sky in a golden glow.

"What's going on now?" Ritsuko Akagi demanded.

The light then solidified and assumed the form of a large, hulking humanoid, brownish-gold, almost like it had been burnt or something, almost armor-like in its appearance, dressed in a brown loincloth or kilt, and wearing shackles with chains on its wrists and ankles. Another detail that stood out on the creature was what looked like an Egyptian-themed mask it was wearing because of the the chin and cobra it possessed.

"What is that?" Makoto Hyuga questioned, confused by the presence of this being.

The Third Angel fired its energy beams at the humanoid, causing an explosion, but when the smoke cleared, the humanoid was still standing…and now holding in its palms a glowing sphere, which it then fired off at the Angel.

"Iiiiieee!" The Angel shrieked when the blast hit it, obliterating it from the face of the Earth with such force that said planet moved a bit that the people could feel it.

"The Angel's gone," went Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki, and the humanoid disappeared soon after.

But Gendo Ikari was unamused; in his scenario, Unit-01 was supposed to defeat the Angel, but instead the invader was dealt with by an unknown, and he hated unknowns that didn't fit well with his plans.

To be continued…

A/N: Here's my prototype chapter. I hope it gets some traction.