In Complete
by Corvus

How can two people so closely related be so
diametrically opposed to each other?

I do not understand it, truly, try though I might.
One is so calm, in control of everything he surveys, and the
other is controlled by all that surveys him. Is it true
that we all have a counterpart? If so, the counterpart of
the father is in the son, when it comes to Ikari Gendo and
Ikari Shinji...

Commander Ikari... The closest person in all the
world to me. The only person close to me. There needs be
no one else. I am complete and need only one to recognize
my completeness. No... there is more. Is there more?

Ikari Shinji. The Third Child. He will never be
complete. He seeks his completion in everything around him,
and yet he fears that which he knows to be true. Where did
he learn to run away? Is he afraid or is he fear? An
existance defined by fear and shaped of fear will never be
whole.

And yet...

Is there a spark of the father in the son? More than
once Shinji's soul has burst from its prison and driven him
to deeds almost beyond comprehension. Is this what Shinji
fears? Is there something inside him, as there is rumored
to be inside the Evangelions? And why must he continually
be prodded and provoked? Everything about him is a
question, never an answer. When I believe I have come to
understand him, I find I do not understand him at all. All
I understand is his shield of cowardice.

I understand so much more about Commander Ikari. I
have seen that which he shows to no one else. I have
touched that which drives him and I know what makes him who
and what he is. The answers are... simple. Everything
about him is an answer to me.

So why are Commander Ikari's answers incompatible with
his son's questions?

Surely lives must touch where blood is the bond, but
this does not seem to be the case. It is as if... It is as
if they are the two halves of one person, the two sides of
the balance in each of us, driven apart by... what? The
Angels?

Yes. That must be it. Their lives are bound by blood
and by more. They are bound by the people between them...
and I am one. We are the links between father and son. But
must we be? Should we be? Will Shinji become complete
through us? And is Commander Ikari incomplete without his
son?

Or do I take that place?

I have been Shinji's substitute... No, that is not
correct. I have been what Shinji could have been, what he
refuses now to be. A realization of potential that somehow
binds me to him as well as the Commander. Just one more
bond.

Am I harsh in my estimation of Shinji? Perhaps. I
have seen his kindness. He has reached out to even me,
though I have shunned his need for reassurance and
companionship, his desire for definition by what lies around
him. Do I overlook this kindness because he is weak? Do I
miss its absence in his father because Gendo is strong? Yin
and Yang, father and son... Ever more questions built on
the questions and answers of before.

I am certain of only one thing. They are both
incomplete. Yes, I see it now, more clearly than before.
But what does this mean? What does it portend? Even more
questions. Do the Angels know? What is this thing that
ties father to son yet drives them apart so?

And why am I suddenly unsure of my own
completeness?...