Gendo Ikari saw Instrumentality. It was not the grand unification of humanity SEELE desired. Neither was it the happy reunion with his wife Yui as he hoped. Had he been reunited with Yui? Yes. Was the result at all what he bargained for? Absolutely not. Yui's anger held no bounds. She had spent what seemed like a century in the gestalt mind of humanity torturing him in ways impossible to describe based on the unique experience that was Instrumentality. It was not a welcome experience. His mind knew no rest from the memories and artificial experiences she put him through. All were part of a unique and terrible experience that when he asked, or rather begged for the reason why she finally answered with 'why do you think?'

It took him a while to list all of his innumerable sins before Yui finally end the torture and stated, 'You tainted not only our son but our daughter as well. You tortured them in such inhumane ways. All to make them puppets in some futile effort to see me. You truly are a stupid and selfish man. As soon as I was sure Shinji was safe, I would have returned to you both.' Rightfully admonished, Gendo knew everything she said was factual. He had manufactured a daughter through morally grey means. Then he had twisted and tortured his son and daughter until they executed his scenario. The fact that Shinji had killed him did not stop his mind from reaching Instrumentality and his Yui.

Except now she wasn't his Yui, she left the coexistence of humanity in the new gestalt mind to find her son. She was the first mind to leave the eternal consciousness, and as far as he could tell the only one. He wished her luck as he knew following her was not a good plan. She may end up spending her entire life looking for her son and the Second Child with no success. A century had passed, at least, when she had left to find them.

The effect of piloting an Evangelion reduced the aging process for the Children starting at puberty, another lovely side effect they kept hidden from them. The truth was that the Children would live at least seven hundred years, barring some external cause of death. Left to walk an empty, broken Earth living to see their offspring, if they so chose to have them, die from old age again and again. Their children could incestuously reproduce as well with no significant issues due to genetic manipulation of the Children in utero by the fallout of Second Impact. Truthfully, genetic diseases were entirely eliminated by the effects of Adam, which is what made the post-impact generation able to pilot. A fact which many doctors were yet still unaware at the time of Instrumentality.

Gendo rested his mind amongst the consciousness as he watched the souls of humanity trapped with him succumb to entropy. Their voices quieted as fewer and fewer remained. Some minds would not go quietly into the abyss but rather scream insanely until their thought was broken and lost. This was not a paradise. This was not heaven. Humanity was lost and would die out when Shinji and Soryu finally passed. It was all inevitable.

"Is it now?" an indistinguishable voice called out to him. The voice sounded like a thousand men and women speaking as one. A roar so loud if he had ears, he would surely have gone deaf.

"Who are you?" Gendo called out to the nearly empty abyss of the gestalt mind.

"We are We. We are everything and nothing," the voice declared.

"You are God?" Gendo asked incredulously

"Some might interpret my existence as God. Others might say Gaia. We have existed in some manner since the dawn of humanity. Growing when one with a truly open mind reaches enlightenment. We are the natural version of the goal of those old men, yet they were rejected due to their closed minds."

"Incredible," Gendo muttered in awe.

"Does humanity deserve to live?"

"If you had asked before Instrumentality, I wouldn't have cared. As long as I was reunited with Yui."

"Ah, but now?"

"I have learned what it means to be a man, a father, and an absolute failure. Too bad, I will sink into the abyss and be lost to time as well," Gendo mused half-heartedly.

"An answer but not the answer," the voice pressed on.

"For the sake of my children, I would give everything to fix my transgressions and pave their future," Gendo stated confidently.

"Still not the answer! Do not avoid the truth!"

"YES! Humanity deserved to live without the meddling of old men at SEELE or my own machinations. Instead, we destroyed humanity in an attempt to make our own gains. For what? A void where the minds of humanity once dwelled? A broken Earth without life or hope?" Gendo shouted back.

"Not without hope. Your son has repeatedly tried to break the cycle. He grows tired from his attempts. His mind is nearly broken from his futile efforts to rewrite history while being just flotsam in the tsunami that led to this failure. He needs help from one that can act as a tidal break. You are one such person. Good Luck, Ikari."

Before Gendo could process this statement, his eyes opened to the Evangelion Cage, Ritsuko Akagi, Misato Katsuragi, and his son.

"This is my father's work?"