Shinji laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling, for once his ears not filled with his headphones.
He laid there and thought, thought of his new memories, and of his old ones. They all seemed real, mostly because all of them were.
There were lots of memories of watching family members die. Others were of being beaten to an inch of his life. The worst part was that as he recalled these he could almost feel the pain, like when in eva. Though it did not actually affect your body you still could feel it as if it was real. There were several memories that he couldn't quite understand because the person was blind or deaf. There were even memories of being mentally retarded.
As all of this raced through his mind he just laid there eyes open staring at the ceiling but not seeing it.
Hours went by and still Shinji lay there until it was 9:00 in the morning, about the time that Shinji usually got his waking call when his redheaded room mate was feeling well. Of course because of her change of memories this was one of those days.
"SHINJI NO BAKA! GET UP AND MAKE ME MY BREAKFAST!" screamed a certain feisty German girl who was particularly hungry and sore this morning for no reason she could put her finger on. In response to this outburst she got a reaction she wasn't used to from the third child, silence. She screamed again, but only succeeded in awaking Misato, who was also feeling strange for no apparent reason.
"What are you screaming about this early in the morning Asuka?" groaned a half asleep Misato as she dragged herself towards the refrigerator for her first morning beer.
"Baka Shinji won't get up and make me breakfast!" stated an obviously angry Asuka.
"Hey Shinji, get up before Asuka tears your door out of the wall, again." Said Misato in a annoyed voice. She had not yet had the chance to drink her first beer and was really not in the mood for this, but her answer from the third child was the same that Asuka had gotten, silence. Feeling slightly worried she walked to Shinji's door and opened it with Asuka looking over her shoulder.
"THAT BAKA IS STILL ASLEEP!" Asuka shrieked at the sight of the motionless Shinji lying on his bed.
'I wonder how he could sleep through her bi...' Misato's thought was cut off as she realized that Shinji's eyes were open. She walked up to him with Asuka close behind wondering what the heck was happening.
"Shinji! SHINJI!" Misato said nervously while waving a hand in front of his eyes. She shook him lightly, then when getting nothing in response harder. Pretty soon she had her hands on both of his shoulders and was shaking him as hard as she could. Still getting no response, except for the flopping of his head, she dropped Shinji on the bed and whipped out her cell phone dialing incredibly quickly.
"Hello! Ritsuko! Quick! Something is wrong with Shinji get a med team over here as fast as you can!" She screamed into the phone then picked up Shinji's limp carcass and carried it out of his room.
Asuka just stood there staring in shock at seeing her roommate in such a state. It seemed to remind her of something or someone from her past. The lifeless eyes digging deeply into her own, but of course nothing like that had ever happened to her so she figured that she must just be imagining it. After she snapped out of her deep thoughts she realized that Misato and Shinji were no longer in the room. Quickly exiting the room to see what has become of them, she found that the med team had just arrived and was already wheeling a lifeless Shinji out on a stretcher with a worried Misato close behind. Standing there watching him be wheeled away made her almost want to do something to help, but knowing that she could do nothing she let the feeling slide away. Although, as she stood there and watched him be taken away she couldn't get the thought out of her mind that he reminded her too much of a lifeless doll, and that bothered her horribly though she didn't know why.
Two weeks later
"So where's Shinji?" asked a curious Hikari. School had started again much to Asuka's disappointment though she was happy she could see Hikari again. Hikari's family had moved back to Tokyo 3, bringing Penpen, now that the angels had all been destroyed. Other families were also moving back to rebuild and fill the once deserted Tokyo 3.
"That baka is in the hospital." Stated a slightly annoyed Asuka who was bothered by the fact that in her first meeting with her best friend in a long time and she was already asking about someone else.
"What happened to him?" asked a worried Hikari. Though her and Shinji were never close she still considered him a friend and worried about him.
"He's in a coma" the words were barely out of her mouth when Hikari gasped loudly.
"How long has he been like that?"
"About two weeks I think" Asuka said in a nonchalant way not wanting to let on that she was actually worried about him.
"Two weeks? But the last angel was killed over a month ago. Wasn't it?" questioned a confused Hikari.
"That's the weird thing. It wasn't an angel that did it to him. In fact we don't know what happened. One day me and Misato found him like that lying on his bed" Coldly stated Asuka, still trying to keep up her charade. "Not like it matters, right?"
"Have you visited him yet?" asked Hikari.
Asuka, who was starting to become angry at her constant questioning of a secretly sore topic and seeming disregard to Asuka's well being shouted, "NO! WHY WOULD I WANT TO VISIT THAT BAKA!" and put her head on her desk just as the teacher walked in.
Hikari just stood there confused at what had just happened. She had just tried to find out how Shinji was, besides Kensuke was returning tomorrow and would want to know where his fellow stooge was. She then noticed that the teacher had come in and went through her daily responsibilities as the class rep promising to herself that she was going to apologize to Asuka at lunch, though she wasn't really sure what she was apologizing for.
In a dormant hospital room lies a young boy. Though this boy's body looked normal enough if you could see his thoughts then you could see what made this boy different that most. Slowly his eyes gained more focus and he uttered two words before falling into a light slumber. "Unfamiliar ceiling."
"Why was third impact not initiated?" questioned a large pillar with the number five on it.
"Our plans were perfect, but not everything went along with the plan, such as the failure of the dummy plug system in the eva series." SEELE member one said in a slightly irritated way.
"We are all aware of the fact that the eva series is unusable, but the question is what will we do now to start third impact?" number seven asked.
"There is nothing we can do. With all of the angels destroyed and the disappearance of Lilith and Unit one, along with the disassembly of the other units and the failure of the eva series there is no way to initiate third impact." Keel Lorenz stated calmly. In all truth he did not really want to initiate third impact and did not know why he ever did. There was something that he had wanted out of it, but he couldn't remember what it was. This conversation was a reminder of what spoiled little children he had been conspiring with.
"Now that there is no way to complete the human instrumentality project SEELE will be permanently disbanded." Stated Keel who was finally ready to lay his plans to rest and end his life in peace.
"What! You can't be serious! After all these years of planning and working you're willing to just end it like that!" shouted number three.
"You must realize that we have lost. There is no longer any way to accomplish our goal. Even with our years of planning, somewhere an error was made and now it is too late. There is nothing we can do. This meeting is over. I expect to never hear from any of you again." Keel's monolith disappeared and was soon followed by the rest one after another most mumbling about the unfairness of this or the time and effort that had been spent.
Keel walked to his bed and laid down on the spot he had been sleeping for countless years. He hadn't moved since he had been married to a loving wife who had picked this house specifically. He never had the heart to part with it even after his wife had passed away of old age and he continued to live on. He turned his head to look at the spot where his wife used to lie many years ago and realized that tonight he would go to be with her again. He couldn't remember why he had put off this day and continued to live for so long, but he now realized that it didn't really matter. Nothing really mattered anymore. He then reached into his drawer and retrieved the remote for his pacemaker. He turned the knob until it reached zero. He laid back, closed his eyes, and never awoke.
At the same moment as Keel closed his eyes Shinji opened his. He slowly sat up and looked around. He was alone in a hospital room. He knew this scene well, he certainly had been in this situation before. Shinji found and pressed the button that called a nurse. Several minutes later his door opened and in walked said nurse.
"Oh! You're finally awake."
"How long have I been in here?" asked a stiff Shinji.
"About two weeks." Stated the nurse matter of factly.
"May I leave now?" Shinji asked, hopeful that he could leave this place he hated so much.
"I just have to run a few tests then you're free to go." This wasn't normal procedure for a pilot, but because Shinji was a pilot who no longer had an eva and there were no angels around any longer, not to mention that they had been doing tests on him through out his time there, the doctors had no reason to keep him for longer than necessary.
Two hours later Shinji was in the waiting room calling Misato on a payphone.
"Yes, yes Misato. I'm fine. Alright, goodbye." He hung up the phone and sat in one of the seats waiting for Misato and hoping she wouldn't get herself killed with the way she drives.
The ride home was uneventful. It consisted of Misato asking questions and receiving one-word answers. After realizing that Shinji still wasn't feeling well she decided to keep quiet. When they arrived home Shinji, instead of being greeted by his other roommate, who was at Hikari's house, was greeted by a complete and utter mess. Beer cans and empty instant packages, along with other random trash, were strewn around the floor, on the table, and even in Penpen's fridge, which did not seem to bode well with the recently returned penguin.
"Where's Asuka?" Shinji asked.
"She's over at Hikari's." Misato answered.
"Alright" Shinji said seemingly with no emotion, then walked to his room and closed the door. Misato who was expecting Shinji to start cleaning right away was surprised.
"Does this mean you won't clean up?" she asked through the door only to get a quiet maybe later in response.
Shinji who was currently feeling like he was hit by a metaphysical train laid on his bed, put in his headphones, and fell asleep.
The next morning Shinji was woken up by Misato.
"Shinji, Shinji, get up." Misato said while lightly shaking Shinji.
"Why are you waking me up this early Misato?"
"School started again while you were in your coma and your teacher called to tell me that if you miss anymore you won't be able to pass the grade. I told him you had just been released from the hospital, but because the doctors couldn't really find anything wrong with you I don't really have a reason to keep you here. I'll tell your teacher that you can't make it if you want me to though." Misato said with a hopeful smile.
"I'll go" Shinji stated weakly, sitting up as he did so.
Misato walked out of the room and Shinji got out of his bed. He looked around his room. Everything seemed different than last time he looked at it. He got dressed and walked into the kitchen where he looked at what Misato had put on the table for him to eat. He politely declined the seemingly toxic food and left the apartment only hearing a quick, more for me, from Misato before he closed the door. He walked to school only stopping at the entrance to look at the school in a seemingly different perspective. He then opened the doors and walked in.
Shinji quietly opened the doors to the school, walked to his classroom, sat in his seat, and laid his head on his arms not even noticing the surprisingly filled classroom, the fact that Hikari and Kensuke had said "Hi Shinji," or the fact that everyone stared at him after this.
Everyone except Rei that is. Rei continued to stare at that particular spot of sky she seems to like so much.
The majority of the student body stared because they were new and had never seen the eva pilots before and were not even aware that they went to this school until they were told by other students. They knew that the third child's name was Shinji and that he was in their class. Had no one said hi to Shinji, no one would have ever suspected he was a pilot.
For the entire class Shinji never moved. Not even a twitch.