Creation began on 04-16-15

Creation ended on 04-17-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

An Ancient Guardian: Hope for the Future

A/N: After a while, we'll see how this shall progress.

Shinji awoke from a haze, seeing the white ceiling above him. He thought what had happened to him was some sort of dream, that everything that happened was just a fabrication of his mind…until he realized two things that made him think differently about his recent experience. One was that he was wearing the Manacles of Exodia, and the other was that he couldn't feel his legs, just like when he awoke in the hospital and was informed that he may never walk again.

"Kami," he sighed. "Another unbearable ceiling."

-x-

"…The air's not as warm as it was yesterday," Ritsuko Akagi told Misato Katsuragi, as they monitored the investigation of the Third Angel attack, gathering Unit-01 and trying to collect whatever samples they could find of the Angel.

"What do you think that was that defeated the Angel?" Misato asked the faux-blond woman as Unit-01 was being airlifted off the street after being separated from the damaged building.

"Whatever it was, it was powerful enough to vaporize an Angel. We should be getting satellite images that will tell us if there were any secondary effects to what happened last night."

"Why would there be?"

"Better to be safe than sorry."

-x-

Strapping himself to his wheelchair, Shinji wheeled around the room he was in and approached the window to look outside. There was nothing but an artificial scenery of trees and a lake. Then, he turned his chair around and went over to the door to leave the room.

The halls were long and as unbearable as his room had been. Even with the few plants that were seen, there was too much of a measure of staleness in this facility.

"You're awake," he heard a male voice nearby a counter, and he saw an elderly man in a grayish uniform. "How are you feeling?"

Shinji didn't speak, but his hands gripping the handrests made the man understand that the young boy was getting tense.

Suddenly…

SCREECH! Shinji turned his chair around wheeled out of the hall, back to his room, wanting to be alone right now.

-x-

"…The Sub-Commander met with Shinji," Ritsuko told Misato.

"Oh? And how was he?" Misato responded.

"He…demonstrated a complete lack of communication."

"Well, he wasn't exactly met with kind words or sympathy when he got here. You read his file, right? He's been targeted by other kids and ignored by the adults."

-x-

At least in his solitude, he felt safe. In his solitude, there nobody around to hurt him or say bad things about him. The only thing that sucked about it was that the limits to his mobility, that whenever he was alone, he couldn't really go anywhere without there being restrictions. He could've used his upper body to move all he wanted, but he had his limits.

In the meantime, as he stared out the window, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki was in a conversation with Commander Ikari.

"…There is some doubt that he'll pilot again, Ikari," Fuyutsuki told him in his office. "I don't blame him, though."

"There's no one else that can pilot the Eva," Gendo responded to this possibility. "So long as they survive, that is what they'll do."

"But what good is your son…if he can't even walk, anymore? The medical staff examined his injury, and they concluded that the damage to his spine was irreparable, that it was made worse by further injuries he acquired over the last three years after he had recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital he was admitted to."

"Whether he can walk or not is irrelevant," Gendo expressed; no matter how anyone tried to say anything about what had happened or what could happen, his mind was already made up about his son.

-x-

Misato stopped by the medical ward to see Shinji, hoping he would speak to her now. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she was shocked to see him in a wheelchair; she probably would've looked the other way if he had a cast on one of his arms or legs and required crutches, but the sight of him in a wheelchair was disturbing. And then, there was the fact that he was, more or less, forced into the Eva against his will by his father, who didn't even express any concern over his son's inability to walk or defend himself from harm against the Angel.

"Hey there, Shinji," she greeted the boy who sat by the window. "How have you been?"

But he didn't respond to her; he shut her out like he did with everyone else.

Until…

"What do you want?" He spoke up.

"Just wanting to see if you're well enough to be discharged," she answered him.

"What, then?"

That was the question. Unfortunately, what NERV didn't anticipate for any measure of circumstance was the possibility of a physically-disabled person requiring the use of a wheelchair. There were halls, but nearly every way in and out of NERV HQ wasn't wheelchair-accessible…and the Third Child's legs didn't function for him at all.

"We're sure to figure out something," she tried instead.

Shinji never turned to face her, but responded, "I don't expect anything to change. Whatever happens just happens. The wind blows, buildings are either built or demolished, people come and go, and take what they will, leaving everything…and everyone else behind."

Misato hadn't expected him to speak with such fatalism, like nothing really mattered to him. But she had to take into consideration that after his accident, his outlook on his life had to have been altered by his experience around people that either harmed him or ignored him. And, probably after arriving to NERV and his cold reunion with his father, he had decided to view everyone at the agency with no intention of reaching out to them…or even the hope of them trying to reach out to him.

-x-

"…And we're to understand that you made your son pilot Unit-01?" A man bathed in green light asked Gendo during the meeting between him and the Committee. "And we're also to understand that he's disabled, being that he's confined to a wheelchair?"

"It would explain the reason why Unit-01 was unable to perform," a man bathed in red light expressed in disgust. "The subject in question no longer possesses the mental capacity to even think of walking."

"It was an unforeseeable circumstance," Gendo claimed. "With no other options at the time, we had no choice but to use the Third Child."

"That's your excuse, Ikari," a man bathed in blue light expressed. "Is it also your excuse that the unknown entity that attacked and defeated the Angel last night also affected the planet's axis, restoring it and pushing the Earth further away from the moon, causing the ocean tides to decrease to what passes for a natural level of pre-Second Impact waters?"

It was true that the recent discovery of the planet being further away from the moon (and the sun, in addition) caused the planet to undergo several changes to cope with the new distance, including the restoration of the planet's axis. With the reduction of the global water level, coastal areas and islands could be reclaimed and restored, and with the restoration of the axis, Japan (among other places) would see the potential return of the seasons that were lost fifteen years ago.

"What about the Instrumentality Project?" A man bathed in white light, wearing a visor, asked, getting to the point of their meeting with Gendo. "Can this still be achieved?"

"It is unknown at this point," Gendo answered; even he wasn't sure, though he was hoping to ensure that it would be carried out.

-x-

After bringing him his clothes and stepping out of his room, Misato waited for Shinji to change. She heard the rustling of a shirt being removed and replaced…and then heard wheels squeaking. A few minutes later, she heard sounds of struggling, like Shinji was attempting to get back in his chair.

The door opened, and the boy came out, his shirt rustled, and a small scrape on his left cheek.

Misato really felt sorry for him; it must've been difficult for him to do many things by himself, since it was next to impossible for him to trust people without trying to hurt him on purpose.

"Um, this way, please," she pointed the way out, and he followed her.

What also made her curious of him were those manacles he had on. According to the medical staff, an attempt was made to remove them, but they wouldn't come off his wrists…and they seemed to made of pure gold, which, if you found the right buyer, could've been worth a considerable amount to any that might've wanted them.

They reached an elevator and waited for it to open up. When it did, Shinji saw Gendo…and immediately turned around and wheeled away.

"Um, Shinji?" Misato questioned, going after him, while the elevator doors closed.

Shinji stopped by a hall of barbed wired windows, relieved to be away from his father.

-x-

"…So they don't want to live together?" Ritsuko asked one of the Bridge Bunnies, Makoto Hyuga, showing clinical concern over the Third Child and his lack of a residence. "Are you sure?"

"You were there when they saw each other," he responded. "The commander was unsympathetic and demanding, and the boy was unable to turn away without falling into the pool of the cage and drowning. What didn't make any sense any sense was that he hadn't received a call from his aunt or uncle after he got here."

Now Ritsuko was curious about this.

-x-

A motel. Misato Katsuragi had to check (and leave) Shinji in a motel. She started to feel even more sympathy for the boy because there weren't many places within the city that were built with accessibility for those that use wheelchairs in mind. At least the motel was just down the street from where she lived.

"It was the only place I could find that was wheelchair-accessible," she told Ritsuko over the phone while in the bathtub. "After what he's been through, I don't think he'll pilot again."

"So…what now?"

"Well, Section Two is watching the motel, but who knows for sure? Shinji seems like he's given up on living and trying to be helped. He looks at you, but it's like he's judging you at the same time, suspicious of your intentions."

At that moment, both thought back to the attempted battle between Unit-01 and the Third Angel…and the utter uselessness that Shinji demonstrated inside the plug. All he had to do was think about walking, but the Eva's first step resulted in the cybernetic organism falling to the street below. Then, the Angel picked him up and damaged the head. This clearly showed that the Third Child had no capacity for any thoughts revolving around walking, even if he could think about walking.

"If he were suicidal, he would've killed himself a long time ago," Ritsuko expressed. "Maybe he just doesn't know who to trust, anymore."

"Or he simply views people that are able to walk as being devious."

-x-

Laying on the bed in the motel room, Shinji looked up at another unbearable ceiling, pondering what could happen to him now. He truly hated his father's contempt over him (and he never even did anything wrong), why he had been requested to come to Tokyo-3, and how he had nowhere to go (not that he would dare go back to his ludicrous aunt and uncle's again).

What point is there to living when everything hurts? He wondered, and then looked at his manacles. Did such a guardian known as Exodia truly exist several millennia ago?

Then, he drifted off to sleep, unaware that he was being watched by someone other than a group of men in black suits stationed in an unmarked van outside his motel room.

He never even heard the sound of chains rattling on the floor or noticed the glowing, soul-piercing red eyes that never took their gaze off of him.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, here's the second chapter. Please, review or PM me.