A/N: this story has also been posted on AO3 as "Bastard Scions of a Cursed Planet." It started as just a Rule 63 fic, but I kept having "issues" with canon, so it is now officially an AU. The plot remains mainly similar, but you will notice differences.
Ch1
OPENING GAMBIT
X-X-X
"Unidentified object in the ocean sector!"
"Confirmed on visual! Routing images to main monitors!"
Commander Gendo Ikari sat at his desk overlooking the massive ops room. Vice-commander Fuyutsuki stood at ease behind him.
"It's been fifteen years, hasn't it." It wasn't a question. He knew the time even before it had come, just as Gendo had.
Gendo did not move by so much as a millimeter from his brooding pose. "Yes. There's no mistake. It's one of them." His eyes, hidden behind his eternal mirror-shades, narrowed ever so slightly.
"The day has finally arrived: the time of tribulation."
Fuyutsuki walked away, to talk to the other military leaders in the massive ops room. Gendo, however, remained at his desk.
"Your death will not have been in vain, Yui..."
X-X-X
Shina Ikari hung up the phone, sighing in defeat. All the lines were down and it seemed they wouldn't return soon. The monorail tram had stopped, and she was two stations short of her destination.
I guess I'll just walk it, she thought dejectedly. It would take hours, but it was not an impossible journey.
For a second, she felt she was being watched. She turned, and started. Her eyes widened.
A girl with azure hair and skin like salt was watching her from across the paved intersection...
Shina opened her mouth to speak, but the sudden take-off of a flock of pigeons interrupted her. When they cleared, the apparition was gone.
She looked around, wondering where the phantom might have vanished to, but she was rudely interrupted when the ground shook.
Her head snapped in the other direction, and the bottom dropped out of her stomach in uncomprehending fear.
A sixty-meter, in the flesh monster was coming around the hill at the edge of the town. The black, masked leviathan was moving towards her at an alarming rate. Although it could not have been specifically hunting her, directionless panic cleared her mind of any thought but that of escape.
As the shocks increased, Shina felt her footing becoming unsteady. She turned in a futile attempt to run, but a particularly massive tremor threw her violently from her feet.
There was a screeching of braked tires across tarmac. Shina pushed herself from the asphalt to see a car in front of her, the door open. A purple-haired woman with sunglasses was in the driver's seat.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Shina! Get in!"
"M- Miss Katsuragi? Is that you?" Shina shook her head, trying to clear the haze of the fall.
"Yeah, yeah-" she looked over her shoulder at the monstrosity moving ponderously towards them. "Just get in the car!"
Shina scrambled into the car, and Misato floored the gas pedal.
X-X-X
Sachiel narrowed its masked eyes, now bound within flesh, at the retreating car.
She has come, master, as you said she would. I was too slow to kill her.
But she is weak. Afraid. They are all the same - tiny, spineless, fearful. They are nothing before us.
Their master's voice carried silently across the endless gulf; silent as a shadow's scream, yet Sachiel heard every word.
Fear is good, Sachiel, but do not mistake fear for weakness. If she is truly a coward we have no cause for worry, but be wary, Sachiel; these beings are not as they seem. Weak as she was, their mother found a way to arm them. Were they truly weak and defenceless, they would have expired eons ago.
Sachiel turned its attention back to the aircraft buzzing around its body. It lashed out, destroying one of them instantly.
It was not as strong as some of the others, nor as crafty as its master, but it was determined not to fail.
X-X-X
Explosions pounded the massive creature as the car sped away from it.
"The U.N. army's gulf tank force has been wiped out. No matter how many rounds they fire, the missiles won't cause significant damage." Captain Misato Katsuragi was putting on a brave face, but she was clearly worried.
Shina was perplexed. "S- so, um..." she managed, "what is that creature, exactly?"
Misato smiled slightly. "You're awfully calm, given the circumstances," she said.
"Y- you think so?" Stammered Shina.
"Yes, you are. Now, that thing - yes, the immense monster - that thing is called an Angel."
Shina gasped. "What? It's, it's an Angel?" She couldn't believe the name would ever be applied to something as monstrous as the hideous black beast.
"No time to go into details right now," she said, her tone strangely calm. "All will become clear soon - "
At that point a HIT cruise missile detonated a mere six meters from the car, sending them pinwheeling madly and leaving a corkscrew of rubber streaks.
X-X-X
Shina crawled out of the car. Misato appeared to be ranting about how much repair work it would need, but Shina's attentions were focused on the leviathan that was approaching too quickly for comfort.
She stared, uncomprehending, at the colossal monster. The leviathan stared back.
It almost seemed to be studying her. She shivered involuntarily. The impression it gave was not so much malicious as it was coldly unconcerned; the monster was as far above Shina as a scientist was above the microbes on his glass slide.
It was certainly moving towards her. She turned to run as it loomed closer, but with a cry of "Shina! Duck!" She was knocked off her feet by a high-strung, purple-haired streak.
When she dared to look again, he was awestruck.
Another behemoth had appeared, moving argue a dead run. Its armored shoulder collided with the 'angel', knocking it off its feet. The evil black figure fell backwards into a building, which collapsed like cardboard beneath its weight.
"Th- there's another one?" Shina cried, panicking all over again.
"This one's on our side!" Shouted Misato.
Shina noticed that Misato didn't seem too reassured. Indeed, the purple Titan was nearly as frightening as the black beast. The armored giant was slimmer, and appeared to be shaped after a female form, but she was certainly no less imposing. If anything, the fearsome helmet design seemed even more malevolent than the white birdlike visage of the Angel.
The colossal humanoid reached down and righted the overturned car with a brush of her hand. Her armor made her look robotic, but Shina dismissed that thought. Her movements were too organic; her presence too alive to be a mere machine.
As the two massive figures fought their way down the street, Misato abruptly yanked Shina's collar. "We don't have time to stand around gawping. Get in the car, quick!"
Shina wasted no time jumping into the battered vehicle. As crazy as Misato's driving seemed, she had no desire to remain in the monsters' arena any longer than necessary.
As the vehicle sped away, Shina pressed her face against the rear window. "Our girl's getting beaten!" She cried.
And indeed, the purple mecha was not faring well. She had already been knocked to her knees, and the 'Angel' was preparing for another blow.
"I knew it," whispered Misato. "I knew Rei couldn't handle it. It's not the right one..."
X-X-X
"The pilot's in bad condition! Heart rate and blood pressure are dropping!"
"Psychic synchronicity is failing! Down to ten percent and falling!"
Gendo gritted his teeth. Of course she couldn't handle it. Let alone the mismatch, she was already wrecked from the activation test. How much worse are her injuries now?... "Organize a maximum speed extraction down route 192."
The massive steel shutters beneath the Evangel slammed open, and the plate beneath descended - dragging the damaged war machine down with it. The shutters slammed shut again with finality.
X-X-X
Shina looked back again, puzzled. "The helicopters... They're all flying away. Why's that?"
Misato's eyes widened. "Shit. Shit! Tuck your head into your lap and brace for impact!"
As Shina watched, the world around the monster dissolved into a white star, growing larger and larger. Her face froze in shock and she pulled her head down frantically.
The shockwave hit the car with the force of a train, overturning it and blasting it off the road like a toy.
X-X-X
"You see that? That's the power of an N2 mine!" One of the more overenthusiastic generals in the ops room had jumped from his seat. "The Evangelions are no longer even necessary!"
Gendo might have been a statue, for all the reaction he displayed. He knew that the massive thermonuke would have done little more than minimal damage through the beast's infernal shield.
The wall of defensive energy that their enemy maintained been designated an 'AT field'. No matter the name, the otherworldy barrier could not be severely damaged by mere localized nuclear fusion - while that much energy might have punched a momentary hole in the shield, it could not have done any permanent damage.
"Hang on," said one of the technicians. "We're still waiting for confirmation of target destruction."
"A blast of that force?" Laughed the loud-mouth. "Can there be any doubt?"
The technicians typed furiously at controls. "I'm picking up energy readings from the blast hypocenter!"
The obnoxious officer froze in place. "What?" He said, in shock.
"Restoring visual now..."
The screen blinked on, displaying the remarkably healthy-looking monstrosity. Its mask was cracked and it showed some minor burns, but it was clearly not even slightly fazed.
The other generals stared. "Our trump card..."
"We sacrificed a whole city, for nothing..." they looked utterly defeated. "It's a monster, a demon..."
Gendo smiled, lopsided and sardonically. If only they knew.
The high commander stood up. "Ikari, we've just received word from UN headquarters. Effective immediately, command authority of this operation is transferred to you.
"Let's see what you're capable of."
X-X-X
"We must field an Evangelion... however, Zerogouki is still in lockdown, potentially unstable. I do not think she can be risked." Gendo's eyes narrowed. "Despite the damage, we'll have to re-initialize Shungouki."
"But that's impossible... there is no pilot for her!" Came the outburst. "Rei is no longer-"
Gendo cut him off. "There is no need for concern. The reserve pilot has arrived." He was staring at an internal monitor.
Fuyutsuki was the only one who heard the rest of his musings.
"...or rather, the original pilot has arrived, to relieve the reserve pilot."
X-X-X
X-X-X
"Uh... Misato?" Asked Shina.
The purple haired NERV captain seemed lost in thought. "Yes, Shina?"
"Are you lost?"
"What? Of course not!" She said, hiding the facility map (which she did not understand in the slightest).
Shina lowered her head. "It's just, I think we've been through here at least once before..."
There was a hiss of opening doors.
"There you are!" A blonde-haired woman had appeared. "We're supposed to be on emergency schedule here, you know! Did you get lost again, Misato?"
"The - the facility's huge, Ritsuko!" Misato sputtered. "So what if I got lost!"
"We don't have time for this." Ritsuko turned to Shina. "Come. You are needed at the Evangel cage. Since Misato seems... Incapable, I will take you both."
X-X-X
The sign above the metal doors read, in blocky red letters, 'Evangel Cage 01'. The doors hissed open.
The room beyond was shrouded in darkness. From the echo of Shina's footsteps on the metal flooring, it seemed quite large.
There was a loud click, and the lights came on. Shina recoiled.
She was standing on a metal catwalk, suspended over a lake of strange red liquid. Not twenty feet ahead was the massive, terrifying visor of the purple valkyrie that she had seen fighting the Angel. She was sunk up to her shoulders in the liquid - it must have been incredibly deep.
And, facing the giant, was a figure Shina vaguely recognized.
Gendo Ikari turned to face his daughter. "Shina."
"Father." Shina's voice was flat and empty. "Why did you call me here, father?"
At that moment, a deep rumble sounded and the catwalk shook slightly. A voice came over the P.A. system.
"The Angel has reached the Tokyo-3 perimeter. ETA until it is directly above the geofront - three minutes."
Gendo turned his attention back to the girl. "Shina, this is Evangelion Unit 01... Shungouki." His voice was poised. "Right now, Shungouki is the only thing that can stop the Angel. But she cannot move without a pilot. That is why I asked you to come, Shina. You are the only viable pilot available."
"That... That's it?" Shina's shoulders were shaking. "That's the only reason you wanted me here? So you could use me?" Her hands clenched into fists. "Did you ever care about me?"
Gendo's expression did not change. "Shina..."
The pair stared at each other, father versus daughter.
Finally, in an unprecedented character-break, Gendo reached up and slowly removed his sunglasses. "Shina, I have done many things I am not proud of," he said. "As to having neglected you for so long, all I can say here and now is: I am sorry. But Shina, there is no time left."
There was another rumble, this one much louder.
"That creature... The Angel, Sachiel... It is coming here. It wants to kill everyone in the geofront. It wants to kill everyone on earth, in fact, but it will start with the geofront. If it is not stopped, the human race will be eradicated; every man, woman and child slain. Shina, Shungouki can stop it... But she needs a pilot."
Shina, however, was far beyond reason; she was seething with over ten years of bitterness. "No. No! Fuck you! I won't do it!"
A look of anger momentarily flashed over Gendo's face - and then it was replaced by a tired look. He sighed heavily. "... If that is how you feel."
Shina blinked, instantly suspicious.
Gendo turned back to face Shungouki, opening his phone. "Fuyutsuki? Is Rei awake? ... Then wake her up. The planned reserve is, eh, unavailable."
What was he playing at? Shina wished she could hear the other half.
"No, Fuyutsuki. I won't force her. ... Not only that, she's my daughter, Sub-commander. Like I said, wake up Rei. ... Well, she isn't dead, is she?"
Another pause. "Yes, I know it's cruel. I don't like it any more than you do. But if Shina isn't willing she won't synchronize. ... Yes, Rei is our only option - just get her here fast! Sachiel isn't standing idle."
A moment later, the cage doors opened again. This time, a medical gurney accompanied by four nurses came through. Shina noticed an I.V. drip being wheeled along with it.
The gurney came to a stop where Gendo and Shina stood. On it lay a girl of Shina's age, with striking blue hair and skin almost as pale as rock salt. She stirred slightly, displaying vibrant crimson eyes.
"Rei." It was Gendo's voice.
"Yes?" It was so soft as to barely be above a whisper.
"Shina will not pilot. You... You're all that's left. Can you do it?"
"Yes."
"Very good." Gendo pulled out his phone again. "Re-configure Shungouki for Rei again. Stand by for activation."
Shina's eyes widened as Rei pushed herself upright on skinny, bandaged arms, gasping at the pain. She tentatively swung her similarly wrapped legs over the gurney's edge. She didn't look capable of standing.
As Rei's foot touched the floor, there was another rumble, and a particularly strong tremor jolted the room. Several things happened at once.
Rei's gurney bucked and slid, throwing the injured girl off balance. On instinct, Shina dashed forward, catching Rei as she fell. She was light as a feather, even to Shina's scrawny physique.
The ceiling of the cage bent and cracked from seismic pressure. There was a flicker of darkness as several large flourescent light fixtures broke loose from their suspension and began to fall towards Shina and Rei.
And, above all, there was a titanic screech of ripping metal, and a deep splashing noise as something massive broke the liquid surface at high speed.
Then it was all over, before anyone had time to react.
Instead of the heavy lights crushing them, Shina felt only droplets of viscous fluid. She tentatively looked up.
Shungouki's titanic left hand, almost large enough to crush an 18-wheeler in its armored fist, was no longer submerged and restrained. It was held above the hapless girls, shielding them from the falling debris. In the background, Misato and Ritsuko were aghast the the leviathan had moved on her own.
Rei coughed. She was clearly trying to suppress the pain, but tiny cries of agony were forcing their way from her throat. Tears trickled from her tightly closed eyes.
There was no way a girl in Rei's condition could helm a war machine. Biting back her anger at her father, Shina carefully laid Rei down on the floor, then stood. "How... How can you make her do this?" she almost growled. "All right! All right, damn you, I'll pilot it!"
She half-expected her father to smile, but his tired expression persisted. "Thank you, Shina."
X-X-X
"Alright, Shina. Relax as well as you can."
Shina didn't think much of the suggestion. The 'entry plug', as it was called, smelled of electricity and blood. The fact that she was strapped to the seat might have been comforting in other circumstances - the straps were undoubtedly to prevent undue 'rattling' - but right now, they felt like a prison.
"Stand by for LCL injection."
Shina jumped as reddish-orange liquid began seeping into the plug. It had to be the source of the smell - the fluid reeked of the organic yet metallic odor of blood.
She squirmed as the liquid rose to her waist, then shoulders, then above her head. Her lungs began to burn.
"Shina, just breathe it in! LCL will supply you with oxygen better than air anyway."
Shina didn't much like that idea either, but after another few seconds her respiratory instinct forced the issue. With a cloud of bubbles, Shina sucked a lungful of LCL.
"Synchronicity at... 31 percent and holding."
Back in the control room, Misato whistled. "Gendo was right. Over thirty on her first time ever. She's a born pilot."
"Yes." Ritsuko was rigidly calm. "Thirty... Less than ideal, but not cripplingly low. She has a good chance."
"Mhm." Misato turned back to the control teams. "Ascension route confirmed. Eva unit 01 - launch!"
The massive gauss catapult boomed as the Evangel shot towards the surface of Japan.
X-X-X
Jarring.
That was the word, Shina decided, that best described piloting Shungouki. It was as if she had two bodies. Primarily she felt the cloth of her clothes, the swirling LCL, and the control yokes in her hands - but somehow she also felt the cracking asphalt beneath her immense feet and the hundreds of tonnes of hyperdiamond-fullerene armor hanging from her colossal frame.
And, simultaneously the most jarring and the most important, Shungouki's body was the one that responded to her movements.
In a way it was a great relief. There was no complex piloting process; Shungouki's movements were all directly translated from her own motor cortex. The match felt rough, however; there was a noticable loss of movement precision. She felt clumsy.
She suspected that was what the 'synchronicity' meant. Perhaps if she had a higher synchronicity, she might have finer control...
And then her reverie ended, as the catapult journey finished. The deployment platform locked into place with a loud boom, and Shina found herself - or rather, Shungouki - standing in the dark, evacuated nightscape of Tokyo-3.
And face to face with Sachiel. The monster was no more than eight blocks away - two or three steps, to a being of Evangel proportions. Misato didn't miss the fact.
"Shit, it's close! No time to deploy an Anti-AT rifle; Shina, you're gonna have to use the electroknife for this one. It's in your right shoulder wing!"
At the mention, Shina was aware of the weapon. It slid smoothly from the hyperdiamond pauldron, and she grabbed the hilt instinctively.
Sachiel turned, and its hollow eyes noticed Shungouki. It stepped forward, its massive arm extended.
Shina reacted without thinking, swinging the knife down in a sloppy but powerful slashing motion. Sachiel had not expected a violent response, and was unable to dodge.
As the weapon touched Sachiel's A.T. field, there was a beep and a crackle as the blade charged. Thousands of coulombs' worth of electrons poured into the blade -
And, with such a powerful charge difference, jumped. A thousand electric arcs burned through the A.T. field, its eldritch energies overcome by the raw force of a voltage in excess of a lightning bolt.
The electroknife drew a white line of crackling energy, too bright to look at, across Sachiel's torso. The Angel screamed a terrifying, freakish howl, and staggered backwards. A burned and smoking gash two meters deep ran from its left shoulder to its right hip.
Shina forced herself to exhale. She had cut the monster and it had bled. It was not invulnerable. She had a chance, no matter how small.
Unfortunately, she was not prepared for Sachiel to retaliate. The monster lashed out, grabbing Shungouki's arms, and pulled.
In that moment, Shina became acutely aware of what else 'synchronicity' entailed. Coincidentally, she also had a sudden surge of empathy for torture victims long ago in medieval Europe - specificaly, the ones that were racked.
Shina sucked LCL, the thick liquid muffling her raw scream as Shungouki's pain fed back into her body. Her arms were being pulled from their sockets, her muscles torn, her skeleton cracking as the Angel tried to rip the Evangel in half.
I am strength to thy weakness.
"Shina!" Misato's voice registered only dimly. "Shina, snap out of it!"
Shina did not respond. She could not. She was lost in a universe of pain.
Then Sachiel's right arm swelled, growing even more disproportionate to its already inhuman proportions, and its right hand squeezed around Shungouki's triceps.
There was a crack loud enough to echo around the evacuated city, and Shungouki's hand went limp, bent to an unnatural angle.
I am courage to thy fear.
Inside the entry plug, Shina bit her tongue.
"Shina! That's not your arm! Snap out of it!"
Shina coughed, dispersing streaks of dark red into the transparent orange liquid. She gagged reflexively; fortunately, she had not eaten enough to vomit.
Sachiel released Shungouki's arms, and Shina felt herself collapse to the pavement. The reprieve was short-lived, however, as the Angel reached down and grabbed hold of Shungouki's visor, pulling her back up.
Sachiel's strange arm-lance flashed, and Shina felt the impact like a jackhammer between her eyes. She screamed into the LCL, her body convulsing in agony.
I am stamina to thy fatigue. I am armor to thy vulnerability.
The lance hammered again, twice. Shina's vision began to run with strange colors as her pain nerves began to overload.
The lance landed struck one final time, piercing Shungouki's helmet and finally breaking Sachiel's grip. The Evangel flew backwards, crashing to a halt against the far building. Blood spurted from the hole in her visor.
I am pride to thy shame. I am defiance to thy judgement.
Shina went completely rigid as her body tried, and failed, to process the pain of the lance drilling a hole through her skull.
No longer are you tiny, weak, vulnerable, afraid, ashamed. No longer shall you fear; no longer shall you suffer their judgement to pass. You made me as thy kin, and as thy kin I give you my might.
I am the steel to temper thy iron.
I AM EVE ANGELION.
Finally, mercifully, Shina's overloaded nervous systemshut down. Her vision went black.
X-X-X
X-X-X
Shina's eyes snapped open. The ceiling was white.
Her head felt like it had been hammered by a bolt gun. There were no bandages and it didn't feel bruised, but she had a deep-seated headache that didn't feel like it was going to go away soon.
She tried to push herself upright, but gasped at the pain in her right triceps. There was a glaring ring of bruising just above her wrist, right where Sachiel had crushed Shungouki's arm.
She... she couldn't be dead. It wasn't agonizing enough to be hell - and after that battle, she knew what agony meant - and it certainly wasn't pleasant enough to be heaven. Heaven wouldn't have hospitals, anyway.
But if I'm not dead... then I must have survived the fight. How is that possible? I blacked out. Did the Angel just ignore me once I stopped moving?
"Ah, good. They told me you were awake."
Shina's father was standing in the doorway of the room..
"F- father..." she managed. "What... what happened?"
Gendo stepped forward and sat down in the inevitable visitor's chair. "Nevermind that, you were in an Evangel that almost got ripped in half. Are you alright?"
"Am I alright?" Shina almost laughed, but was made viciously aware of the cuts on her tongue. ""When has that mattered to you?
Gendo removed his orange sunglasses, rubbing his eyes. "It always mattered to me," he said at last. "I just... got distracted. For far too long. All I can ask is... please forgive me."
Shina's eyes narrowed. "I might consider forgiving you when you make up for nine years of abandoning me," she said bitterly. "What happened after I blacked out? How am I alive?"
"Dr. Akagi is still working out why it happened, but..." Gendo sighed. "Shungouki went berserk. We're still not entirely sure what causes Evangels to lose control like that, and we're trying to remedy it. But in this case it saved you. She got back up and attacked the Angel like a mad beast."
"What?" Said Shina. "Why... why do you rely on such unstable weapons?"
"Berserking is by no means a common occurrence," came a soft voice. "My own unit, prototype Zerogouki, is the most unstable Evangel, and she has only gone berserk a total of five times in the twelve years of her testing regimen."
Shina twisted her head to see the newcomer. Standing in the door was the bandaged figure of the girl from the Eva cage. Rei. Her name is Rei.She was clothed in a school uniform instead of a hospital gown, but still sported several major bandages.
"Rei?" Gendo turned. "Are you supposed to be walking?"
"My legs have sufficiently recovered. I am under orders not to strain them or walk for extended periods."
"...Alright, then." Gendo looked like he was about to say more, but his phone rang. "Commander Ikari speaking. ... Okay, I'll be right there."
He closed the phone. "Shina, Rei, I'm afraid I must cut this short. I will see you later." He stood, and strode out of the room.
A second later, Rei followed him, leaving Shina alone with her thoughts.
X-X-X
X-X-X
The sky. The sky goes on forever.
The earth is limited and the sky is infinite. The creatures we battle come to earth from the sky, through means unknown. Our original progenitors came from the sky to place us upon the earth. Supposedly the origin of all things is the sky. Adam and Lilith, darkness and light, evil and virtue, two sides of one coin, both originating from the endless sky. SEELE would have it that we are of the sky, like the Angels, and that our destiny in third imapct is to become one with the sky's will once more.
But I know better. I know many things I was never intended to know.
We are not creatures of the sky. We are the children of earth, bastard scions of a cursed planet, and it is the right to our life and our home that we battle for. For we are like rats to them, unwanted and unacceptable aberrations, creatures born without right or sanction, holding our tiny heads high as we defy the very gods that erred to spawn us. The earth is a tiny speck against the sun which is a tiny speck against the stars which are tiny specks against the galaxy which is a tiny speck against the universe which they control absolutely. And we, the smallest speck that is the earth, would dare defy the infinite sky. For it is in our nature; no matter how small we are proven to be, our pride will be greater than the sky can comprehend...
I hear voices by the exit...
"... As I am... aware that you do not wish to share my house, you have been assigned to quarter with Captain Katsuragi. It is my understanding that she volunteered for this, so do not worry about inconveniencing her."
Ikari-san is defying tradition to allow his daughter to be comfortable. Why does he do this?
"... thank you, father." And her tone is grudging... but is this not what she wants?
"You are welcome, Shina. Goodbye."
I stepped out the hospital doors in time to see Captain Katsuragi's car driving off. The commander watched it go for a minute, then sat down on the stone steps by the entrance.
He looks... tired. This is unusual. Ikari-san always moves with purpose. He is never idle.
"Commander?" I said softly as I approached.
He looked back at me. "Oh, hello, Rei. I didn't know you were being released today."
"I am recovered to the point of no longer needing intensive care," I quietly replied. "Why did you tell your daughter to quarter with the Captain?"
Ikari-san removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "She doesn't like me, Rei," he said at last. "As much as I'd love to pretend we're a family again... she isn't ready for that. Maybe she never will be. It's my own fault... all I can do is try to make her as happy as I can. She wouldn't want to live with me - hell, I sleep in my office six days a week anyway."
I blinked. "The comfort of the Eva pilots is important to you?"
He gave me an odd look. "Yes. Very. You children carry us all on your shoulders. Your well-being is second in importance only to stopping the angels."
Confusion. There is an incongruency between this information and the fact of the world... "If that is the case," I almost whispered, "why have I been quartered with Dr. Akagi for the past ten years?"
Gendo's eyebrows raised. "I'm... not sure i follow, Rei. Are you somehow unhappy with Dr. Akagi's accommodation?"
"Ritsuko..." Neglects me? Pities me? Does not view me as truly human? "... does not have much time for others. She is very busy."
"And you never told anyone? For ten years?" Gendo looked shocked. "I always knew you were stoic, Rei, but that... that's a little far. I know you're capable of more than that."
Why would I have told anyone? "It was the way things were," I replied. "I was given no indication that my circumstance should have been subject to change."
"Well, it should have been. And better late then never." Gendo opened his phone again, an uncharacteristic smile on his face as he did so. "Captain? I know you just left, but would you mind coming back here for a minute? ... Yes. How would you feel about one extra tenant?"
My eyes widened. Is he talking about me? I wondered what living with the captain would be like.
"Right. I'll have her things sent over tomorrow." He closed the phone. "Rei. Effective immediately, your new quarters are the Katsuragi residence. She will be here to pick you up shortly. Dismissed."
The commander stood, and began walking towards the Section 2 car that he had arrived in.
X-X-X