Neon Genesis Evangelion:
The Darkness Emerges
By Doffman
This is a recap chapter, with a few new pieces added in. Not as many as were in Drac's Chapter, but… Eh, what're ya gonna do?
Chapter 25:
Allen's Past
February 21, 1831.
Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration of his telegraph.
One minute/ 2011
"It's awake." The creature heard a voice. The creature had no idea what it was doing in existence, nor what hearing was. It just knew. He saw a light emanate from a short distance away, in the shape of a long sliver.
"Close the door. Too much stimulus for it at one time can be harmful at first." The same voice called to the second presence in the room. The creature could feel itself adjusting to the darkness. Objects could be made out through the dense blanket of night that held it warmly. The presence he had felt before solidified into a being, a bipedial creature with two arms. It was symmetric in its body features along its spine.
"Don't you think it's getting a bit big for its tube, Brad?" The second being asked the first. These two beings were similar in design.
"Yes, I believe we will have to take it out soon." The first being traveled a short distance towards a smaller machine, which was making noise and feeding out something thin.
"Brad, look! Its eyes are open! Hi there, little fella!" The second figure put a finger against the glass. The creature felt the warmth of the being's finger spread across the liquid that it was in. It was a pleasant feeling to have the heat to its body. It reached out to the heat source hoping for more. "Hey Brad! Look! It's touching my finger through the glass!" the second being said to the first excitedly.
"Please don't touch the glass, Brian. It's a very sensitive organism. It's not ready for high stimulation yet. That's why we can only use black light in this room." The first being addressed the second.
"Alright, alright." The second being removed its finger, making the creature feel cold again. The cold made the creature feel empty. It scraped against the glass gently, in hopes of making the warmth return.
"Amazing. It already has a heat preference. Things are ahead of schedule. It can see us as well! And hear! It can't taste or smell yet, due to the lack of a mouth or nose. That will be developing shortly…" The first figure said, ecstatic. The second figure smiled broadly.
"Three minutes of consciousness, and it already has three of the five senses. That's record time, I should think. I wouldn't be surprised if it had learned English already!" The second figure laughed.
"Oh, it does. Its cerebrum was implanted with a memory chip that is accessible to its mind. It understands Latin, Greek, German, English, Chinese, Japanese, and French. I believe that was all of them, but I'm not sure. I'll have to look on Commander Ikari's report." The first figure reached for a piece of parchment a short distance away from him. "It also understands Slavic and Morse Code, for reasons beyond me. The memory chip not only allows it to understand these languages, but also read and write them. Once it develops hands, that is."
"So, when will we be able to stop calling it "it"?" the second figure asked. The first figure thought about this slightly.
"MAGI said it had a 53% chance of being male, but I would like to wait until it is at least 80%. The creature would probably be upset if it ended up as a girl and we referred to it as a boy… I'd give it, at the rate it's growing, 5 more days. That ought to be a sufficient time to ask MAGI again. We will have to move it to a bigger tube. It hasn't developed a self-sustaining digestive system as of yet, so we can't remove it just yet. The next tube it is it will have to be heated, as well…" The first being left the room deep in thought. Seeing the first being leave, the remaining being put its finger against the glass.
"My name is Brian. What's yours, little guy?" The being asked tenderly. The creature decided that it liked the Being Brian better than the other being. The being Brian had been calling the first being Brad, so the creature thought that the first being's name must have been that.
"Gro…" the creature said. The creature felt its throat vibrate as liquid rushed through it. 'So that is how the Beings "Talk".' The creature thought. The creature was surprised by this thought greatly. These were the first thoughts in any language that it had. It was Japanese that had entered its mind first. The creature was pleased and delighted by this new discovery.
"Brad! It just cried out!" the Being Brian cried out with joy out the open door. The Being Brad immediately rushed into the room, and approached the tube. He tapped up against the glass lightly in a slight pattern. The creature developed a warm feeling in its head as its mind analyzed the data that it was receiving. "You may communicate to us like this." The finger said. The tapping against the glass was Morse Code. The creature felt a rush of joy as it tapped out its own message.
"Hello." The creature replied. The Being Brad smiled slightly, placing his hand on the glass lightly, providing a great source of heat. The Being Brian appeared confused. The creature looked at the Being Brian, causing The Being Brad to look at him as well.
"What's wrong, Brian?" The Being Brad asked. The Being Brian shook his head.
"Why are you tapping on the glass like that? You just told me not to." The Being Brian questioned his counterpart.
"It can understand Morse Code, idiot! It can already communicate with us! We are WEEKS ahead of schedule! Of course, now, we can't leave him alone… He'll get lonely… Wait. Brian, you don't understand Morse Code, do you?" The Being Brad asked accusingly.
"Well… Um… No, not really…" The Being Brian responded ashamed. The Being Brad nodded.
"Neither do many of the lab assistants. Well, let's see if our friend over seas was prepared for this." The Being Brad left the room a second time, leaving him alone with the Being Brian. The creature suddenly felt an urge to close its eyes. It had been thinking to hard, and now it was tired. It slowly closed it's eyes and curled up into a ball.
'Sleep…' the creature thought as it drifted off into dreamland.
Thirty minutes/ 2011
"Well, Dr. Akagi it appears that you have underestimated the creature's growth. In five minutes of consciousness, we had it talking to us in Morse Code. What say you now, my dear friend?" Brad said proudly. Ritsuko, as usual when Brad had outdone himself, rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Yes, yes. You are a great scientist. Moving on. Obviously you need something. You wouldn't be calling me long distance to gloat, would you?" Ritsuko smirked.
"I would never do anything of the sort, Dr. Akagi! Actually, I was wondering if you had planned ahead, as you always do, my dear friend!" Brad laughed.
"Let me guess. Your brother doesn't KNOW Morse Code." Ritsuko chuckled, and Brad nodded sheepishly. "The creature should be asleep for a minimum of six days. It should be sufficiently exhausted from its first consciousness. By then you should be able to let it out of the tube, therefore eliminating the need for a translating device. But, you know, It doesn't have a Mother. We don't want it to have any psychological trauma by being different from the other Children." Ritsuko commented.
"By the time that's a factor, it will look like a normal 10-year old child. There was a reason that I insisted Brian to be on the project, you know, Rit-chan. He ought to be able to convince Carie to adopt a child. He's already gotten quite an attachment to our little creature, and we all know that Carie can't bare her own children…" Brad's smile broadened. Ritsuko laughed.
"You're almost as good as I am, Brad! So not only is everything ahead of schedule, but all the unknown variables have been solved in one fell swoop. Very well done, Brad. But then again, I expected as much from you…" Ritsuko winked. "I'll check the creature's sex again with MAGI and Email you the results. Enjoy your baby-sitting, Brad." And with that, the vid-link blinked out and went dead. Brad sighed and went back to analyzing the creature.
February 28
Seven days, Twelve Hours, Thirty-five minutes/ 2011
The creature opened its eyes, slowly awakening from its long slumber. Its eyes had to get used to the unusual brightness that it saw. It had never seen a light so bright. It brought a hand up to cover its eyes, and was surprised by what it saw. On his appendage, which used to be a small stub, were four digit, and an opposable fifth. He had a hand like Brian's and Brad's. He looked down to observe more. He also had two legs. Truly, his body had taken on the shape of their bodies.
This caused him to smile. He then noticed that he was doing something odd. He wasn't breathing in and out the liquid anymore. He was a much lighter substance that he could hardly feel at all. He guessed that what he was breathing in now must be air. Then, another thought struck his mind.
He had been referring to himself as male. Mostly due to the fact that the equipment was there, his mind had just started to call himself as such, even though there was no conformation from Brian or Brad. He would have to ask one of them about it.
By this time, his eyes had adjusted to the bright light, and he began to examine the area. It was a large room and a few people were scurrying around busily. One in particular he noticed was Brian, at a large computer terminal, drinking a dark brown substance. Upon noticing the creature's awakening, he waved slightly, with a smile. The creature somehow felt reassured, and smiled back.
He noticed Brad move close to his tube, where he was busy playing with a few buttons and switches. The creature noticed the liquid in the tube slowly draining, and he found himself panicking slightly. He looked to Brad who was busy with his job, completely ignoring him. Brian, who had noticed the creature's discomfort, had walked to the side of the tube, and placed his hand on it.
The creature placed his hand upon Brian's, causing them both to smile. When the liquid completely disappeared, the creature found himself unable to stand, so he fell backwards, landing rather hard on his butt. The creature smiled stupidly. Brian laughed, and went about unsealing the tube. The procedure was rather simple, so they took the creature out of the tube and gave him a chair to sit in.
"He-Hello." The creature said weakly. Having only ever used his vocal cords once before, his speech was a little shaky.
"Hello. How are you feeling?" Brian asked in a curious tone.
"I feel a little weird… And my whole body feels heavy…" The creature said quietly. Brad had finished with his work, so he came and sat by Brian and himself.
"That's only normal. You have never been in an environment that wasn't liquid, and liquid tends to give buoyancy to the body, making it feel lighter. You'll get used to the extra weight." Brad said reassuringly. A thought had struck the creature as odd.
Brian's name was Brian.
Brad's name was Brad.
He didn't have a name.
"Do I have a name?" the creature asked suddenly. The creature really never thought far enough as to what was going on in his life. When you've only been conscious twice in your entire life, you really don't have much philosophical thought. He was now thinking about how things were happening and why he had been born in a tube. The chip that he had been supplied with for language had told him what necessary things he needed to know to live, as well as language.
This chip told him that children weren't usually born in tubes.
"Of course you have a name, doesn't he, Brad?" Brian said quickly. Obviously, neither had put much thought into it, and Brian had quickly put Brad on the spot to save himself.
"Er… Ah…" Brad said, caught off-guard. The creature smiled.
"Does this mean I get to pick my own name?" He said, trying to remove the guilt from his elders.
"Er… Um… Sure! Yeah, we had a name all picked out for you, but if you want, you know, you can go ahead and pick your own name!" Brad said quickly, sighing at the end. The creature then decided that he wanted to have a little fun with Brad.
"What was it? Maybe I'd like it better than the name I thought up!" He smiled innocently. He could almost hear the mental curses that were being shouted by Brad.
"Well, uh… Actually… Allen! Yeah! Ow!" Brian lightly stepped on Brad's foot, but said nothing. This act he found rather peculiar. However, he was too busy to analyze why Brian had stepped on Brad's foot, for he was rolling the name around in several different languages all in his head.
'Allen. A-le-n. Allen. Al-len. Hmm…' The creature thought. The creature liked this name.
"Allen it is! I like it!" Allen said with energy. Brad smiled with triumph over his brother, to which Brian just fell silent. The creature… Allen… wondered why Brian was upset, but he also remained silent. Allen's thought's were full of questions that he really didn't want to answer at the moment.
'My name is Allen,' He thought as Brad lead him into a room to do a test.
Seven days, Fifteen Hours, Twenty-Five Minutes/ 2011
"Let me get this strait. You want Carie and I to…" Brian stopped, looking at the child sleeping soundly on a mat in a sound proof room. He smiled slightly.
"Yes. It would help Allen along. You know the sort of questions he's been asking. 'Do I have a mother and father?' and, 'If I don't have a mother, does that mean that I'm a Freak?'. If you and Carie were to adopt him, there would be no such problems. He would have a mother and father."
"I don't think Carie would be too keen on raising one of our lab experiments. And she'd be pretty surprised to find a 12-year old sitting in her 10-year olds' bed, if you know what I mean." Brian said sadly.
"I have a story all written out for your wife. It even covers something if the child were to inadvertently say that he was born in a test tube. The growth factor would not be a problem. He stopped his rapid growth as soon as we removed him from the LCL. Don't worry, brother. I've taken care of everything. Besides, I can tell that you've grown attached to him…" Brad trailed off.
"What I find odd is that you named him after your departed son…" Brian began, but Brad yelled back.
"Shut up, Brian! You don't know anything! When he and Tasha died…" The man held back his tears by biting his lip.
"I'm sorry Brad. Sensitive subject. I shouldn't have said anything… I'll see what I can do about Carie, O.K.?" Brian took the proffered papers and headed to his car. Brian didn't see the slight smile appear on Brad's face.
March 1
Eight Days, Five Hours, Twenty Minutes/ 2011
"It's not the fact that you did it, Brian, it's the fact that you didn't consult me first!" Carie screamed at her spouse.
"Listen, Carie, he's all alone! He doesn't have anybody! He's such a good kid, too!" Brian said convincingly. Carie let out a long sigh and calmed down.
"What's his name?" She asked calmly.
"Tashiama Allen. His mother was an assistant at the lab. We found her body in an alley beside him, and he was greatly injured. We fixed him up at the lab, but we couldn't make him remember anything about his past. He had a nasty head wound, you see. He has this weird idea that he was born in the lab. But he's a good kid, Carie! Just meet him once! You'll love him instantly!" Brian pleaded.
"Alright, Brian. Alright. I'll meet him. I'm not promising anything, though. If I don't like the kid, you'll just have to find another place for him!" she said indignantly. Brian smiled.
"Thanks, Carie." He said, and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
Eight Days, Sixteen Hours, Five minutes/ 2011
Allen awoke to see some people shuffling around outside. He looked to see Brian and Brad talking to a woman with smiles on their faces. Brad noticed that Allen was awake, and excused himself from the conversation, and entered the soundproof room.
"I see that you're awake again. How are you feeling?" Brad asked curiously.
"I'm fine… Um… Mr. Brad? Who's that?" Allen asked politely while pointing at the woman that was talking to Brian. Brad smiled.
"That is Brian's wife, Carie. She may be your new mother. You see, Brian's been thinking about adopting you…" Brad said slowly. Allen could hardly hold back his jump for joy. 'If I had a mother and Father, that would mean that I'd be normal!' He thought. "Come on. I'll take you to meet her." Brad motioned him out the door.
However, for some reason, Allen felt uneasy. 'What if she doesn't like me? What if she doesn't want to be my mother? Gotta think fast! I have to be cute! I have to be pathetic! She'll like me then! But what do I say? I can't think of anything! Oh, no! What do I…" His thoughts went silent as he found himself standing in front of her. He couldn't think of anything to say.
"Hello, Allen." She said to him comfortingly. Allen suddenly got very nervous.
"Hi…" Allen said shyly. No words came to his head that he could say to her. Nothing came to him as a way to convince her to be his mother. So he just went right out and asked her.
"Are you my Mom?" He asked quietly. He could almost FEEL her heart melt at the question.
"Yeah. I'm your Mom." She said warmly. Allen smiled broadly and wrapped his arms around her waist in a hug. She returned the hug with great force. Allen had a mom and dad now. He was a normal kid now.
April 29
Five minutes prior/ 2015
"It worries me, Brian! Who will be next? It could be Greg, or Brian… Or you…" Carie spoke to her husband fearfully. "They are killing off all your lab assistants! Whoever they are, they don't like what you are doing there! Is it important enough to lose this many lives? Maybe if you stop the project…"
"We can't stop the project, Carie. I can't tell you why, but we just can't." Brian said sadly. He looked up and noticed that Allen had come out of his room. "Allen, what are you doing up? It's past 3." Brian asked him firmly.
"I'm sorry, Dad… I heard you and Mom yelling… Dad… Are you going to die…?" Allen asked with tears in his eyes. If someone killed his father, he didn't know what he would do.
"No, No, Allen! Don't worry about it!" He wrapped Allen in an embrace. "Nothing's going to…" The phone rang. Brian picked it up. His eyes grew wide with horror. He hung up the Phone quickly.
"Allen, go to bed. Now." Brian said firmly. Allen went to his room and closed the door. He could still hear them talking.
"Gregory Charles is in the hospital with repeated gunshot wounds to the chest. He isn't expected to survive the night." Brian said, calmly.
"Brian… What now?" Carie asked.
"I'm going to talk to Brad about that. He's coming over now." Brian said. Allen heard a car pull into the drive. "That must be him. I'll go talk to him. Maybe you should get some sleep, Carie." Brian suggested. He heard Carie walk to her room and close the door.
Thirty seconds later, a gunshot echoed from the driveway. Allen jumped up and ran out into the hall, fearful for what might be happening. He ran into Carie and fell over. A man dressed all in black, even a black mask walked into the room. He pointed the gun and fired.
The shot pierced Carie's skull in the middle of her forehead.
"Mother!" Allen cried out. The man in black smiled evilly pointed the gun at Allen, and fell over, dead. Brad was right behind the man, a gun still hot in his hand. Allen ran to Brad and wept, Brad hugging Allen tightly to him, whispering reassurances.
His mother and father were dead.
May 1
Three days, 5 hours/2015
Allen sat in his seat quietly, looking out the airplane window. Uncle Brad had taken him to the lab for a short visit, and gave him something to drink. Allen took a short nap and, when he woke up, Uncle Brad told him that they were moving to Japan.
Allen felt no objections, seeing as how Japanese was his first language anyway. Allen felt a great emptiness inside him, as if everything he had ever had was stripped away from him. He was no longer normal. Added to that fact, he could remember nothing as to what happened to him before his parents had adopted him.
Uncle Brad was frantically typing away at his computer, his left arm in a brace from where he had been hit by a gunshot wound earlier. Uncle Brad had booked them a Charter flight, and he had told Allen that when they made it to Tokyo, he would prove to the world that he was special. That he was better than everyone else.
'I don't want to be special. I don't want to be better than everyone else. I want to be the same as everyone else.' He thought.
'I want to have friends. I want to be normal!' His mind screamed as a tear rolled down his cheek.
'No. Boys don't cry. Normal boys don't cry. And yet… I've been stripped of my childhood, haven't I?' I have been stripped of everything. Even the little normality that I had once possessed.' He thought, face growing hard.
'It's no use trying to be normal. I must try to be strong. I have to prove that I'm not just a freak with no purpose. I am strong. I am Tashiama Allen.' Allen thought, leaving his childhood behind and becoming a man.
-Adam clusters are growing well. They are combining with Fuja and will soon become the final form. All is according to schedule.
-The Adam clusters, named "Allen", have achieved sentience. It is clear that, instead of achieving rebirth, we have awakened Adam, the original human. If he merges with the rest of Fuja, he will destroy all existence, such a thing that cannot be allowed.
-After an attempt on Allen's life by giving him poison, there was no effect. Bradley stabbed him several times in critical places with a knife, and he healed instantly. Allen cannot be killed. It was Bradley's advice that they make him an Eva pilot and inject the liquid that Brad created to destroy the Fuja cells in him into the LCL. Any other way would be useless.
-Adam is awakening, triggered in the fight against Bren, his AT Field activated, and the Darkness inside him began to emerge*…
{*Hence the title…}
End of Chapter 25