This is a story about the events leading up to, and including Third Impact, told from the POV of a different set of characters. It contains speculation of how the world outside of Tokyo-3 reacts to information regarding the Angle attacks and other Eva related events. It contains themes of conspiracies, and PTSD.
Disclaimer: I do not own Evangeline
Chapter One: Beyond Toyko-3
It was the usually stagnant weather Japan had known since the second impact. Yes, despite being late December you wouldn't know it from June the way it was.
Hikari was just making her way from the school she had been attending ever since they evacuated Toyko 3, to the hospital Toji had been moved to. Despite the impromptu move, she still managed to visit him nearly every day.
Hikari was just on the sidewalk right outside the front of the hospital and was about to head up to the main entrance when she heard something right behind her.
"Wait…wait up!"
Hikari turned around to see Kensuke running up, trying to catch up to her.
She stopped to let him catch up, and then to let him catch his breath.
After Kensuke's breathing returned to normal, he asked. "I thought we agreed to see him together?"
"You were taking too long at your club, and I didn't want Toji to wait too long for the meal I prepared for him. Hikari answered, holding up the lunch box she was carrying by the cloth it was wrapped it.
"We got into a conversation about the Battle of the Bulge, and it dragged on a bit. A lot of the club really likes talking about World War 2 over in Europe."
Kensuke had managed to find a club that shared his love of military history since starting at this new school.
"Well that's your responsibility. I can't be held accountable it you prefer talking about old wars with people you hardly know over visiting your recovering friend in the hospital." Hikari snidely says as she turns and heads for the entrance again.
"It's not like that and you know it." Kensuke said defensively.
"Be more punctual and I won't accuse you of such things." Hikari did know how much Kensuke cared about Toji, but she still cared about encouraging what she saw as good behavior among her friends. Even if she did leave her class rep position with Tokyo 3.
Hikari and Kensuke took the elevator up to the third floor where Toji's room was. They had visited enough to figure out his schedule for his daily routine of testing and physical therapy, and it usually lined up with him back in his room by the time the two of them got out of their extracurriculars. His family tended to visit mostly on the weekends, due to the work schedule of his father, and his sister's school schedule.
"Good afternoon Mr. Aida, Ms. Horaki." The old head nurse at the nursing station greeted Hikari and Kensuke as they entered the area. "Mr. Suzuhara is feeling well today."
"Thank you, Nurse Omoiyari." Hikari said as she bowed, holding the cloth of Toji's lunch box on both hands.
"Does that mean his attitude has gotten any better?" Kensuke jokingly asked.
"Let's just say we are eager to help him get back on his feet and back home." Nurse Omoiyari said with a light chuckle.
Hikari and Kensuke made their way down the hallway to Toji's room. The white, sterile feeling hospital hallway with the background noise of something beeping at any given time. The nurses did their jobs well. Even responding to the patients in a timely fashion. This was where they kept the patents who needed the lest attention, so the workload wasn't too much.
They reached Toji's room at the end of the hallway, right before a right turn into the next hallway. Entering, Toji was sat at his chair in the corner of his room. Channel surfing on the TV. This was how he usually was when his friends showed up.
Since his admittance to this hospital his condition had greatly improved. Not that there was much left to his recovery. The hospital back in Tokyo-3 saw he able to get back on his feet, begin recovery and physical therapy. And now he seemed to be back to his old self. And just as annoyed at being stuck in this place for this long as you would expect.
He had been insisting for weeks that he was OK, and healthy enough to leave, but his Doctors have been unwilling to discharge him. Even his father hadn't made too much effort in that regard.
"Hi Toji." Hikari and Kensuke said together.
"Hay guys, that time of day already?" Toji responded, happy to see his friends.
"We were actually running a little late, thanks to Kensuke's club." Hikari said
"At least I don't follow the class rep after class the try and give them advice." Kensuke said defensively.
"I think it's great that you found some other weird history nerds that share your interests Kensuke." Toji said with a bit of a laugh, which Hikari joined with her own.
"The history club is actually pretty cool. I've learned so much about old wars, and older versions of warfare."
"And we still don't know why you love military history so much." Hikari said as she placed the lunchbox, she made for Toji on the hospital table next to his bed. "And here's your lunch for the day Toji." She said happily.
"Nice, thanks Hikari, I would never be healthy enough to leave on the crap they feed me here." Toji said as he took the lunch box and opened it.
Hikari was pretty good about making sure Toji got the high protean meals he wanted, while still making them healthy, and good tasting.
Toji started on the ham and beef she had packed for him, dipping a piece of beef in soy sauce. "And here's something to wash it down with." Hikari said as she placed an energy drink next to the lunchbox.
"That ham looks really good?" Kensuke said.
"Here, have some." Toji said and passed Kensuke a slice of ham on a napkin.
"Thanks"
"I thought you said out needed all the protean you could get to heal up?" Hikari asked, as he sat on the bed, sounding a bit concerned.
With a mouth full of rice and veggies dipped in the soy sauce, Toji answers. "Maybe before, but I'm pretty much all better now. You should see me in physical therapy. I burn through whatever they tell me to do so fast. There are people there who can barely walk, but I'm moving like it's gym class back at school, and you both remember how well I do in gym, right.
"The hardest part of each day is the testing. They keep on taking blood, and then sticking me in some weird looking M.R.I. machine. And I can never get a straight answer about why?" Toji finished, sounding annoyed by the whole experience.
"If they're still doing all that, they must have a good reason?" Hikari reasoned.
"I don't know?" They have me in this wing that seems to mainly have patients almost ready for discharge, I mean I've had like tree roommate, and how I have the whole room to myself. And the ones that left where not as healthy as me. And my physical therapist seems to be bored with how well I'm doing, she seemed happy when I was getting better fast, but now she just goes through the motions."
"But what about those tests you keep having. They keep taking blood, and they brought in a special machine that they used to only have in Tokyo-3. They have to be worried about something to do all that?" Hikari said, sounding more concerned.
"It made sense back in Tokyo-3 because they were worried about some kind of affect from when I…" Toji suddenly paused. Hikari and Kensuke stared at each other, worried.
"Af…after what happened back there…" Toji resumed, trying to ignore his sudden pause, and Kensuke and Hikari allowing him to. "…They wanted to make sure nothing else happened to…to me. But they've had as much time as they could possible need to know all I got back in Tokyo 3 was some broken bones, so why pay out the ass to install a piece of tech from NERV way out here, why keep draining my blood like mosquitoes on a bender?
"You have a point…" Hikari wanted to go into more detail about why she agreed with Toji, but she knew better then to bring up anything about the Angles around him like this. "…But you also proved yourself wrong. They wouldn't still be doing all that if they didn't have a good reason."
"And what reasons could that be Hikari?" Toji said, starting to sound annoyed?
Hikari didn't know what to say. She wanted to say how worried she was for Toji's health and well being this whole time. That the unique situation of this has warranted everything being done. That no other Eva pilot went through what happened to him. That the idea of the Angels permanently hurting one of her friends terrified her more than anything, and all the medical testing in the world was worth it to know he was safe. But she knew better. She knew how Toji gets when they mention the attack he suffered. How angry and irrational he gets. She remembered what the Doctor told her, Kensuke, and his family. That he was not mentally ready to confront those fears himself.
"I don't know myself, but your doctors do Toji. They always say trust your doctor, so you should try it. There is no reason why they would keep you here if they didn't absolutely have to."
"You sound just like the nurses." Toji dismissively says.
Hikari didn't know what to add.
It was Kensuke who broke the following silence. "Ah, is it OK if I try to find something to watch Toji?" He asked holding the remote to the TV.
"Hah, yeah sure." Toji said, seeming to forget the intense conversation he just had with Hikari.
Toji stars at the floor for a few seconds as Kensuke proceeds to flip though some miscellaneous channels.
Wanting to let Hikari know he wasn't really mad at her, he asks her. "So, how are you doing at school. Are you really following the class rep around to give them advice?" Toji ended the last sentence with a bit of a laugh.
Happy for the change of subject, and a bit embarrassed by the implication Kensuke made about her, Hikari blushed a little and answered. "Oh, it's nothing like it sounds. I just walked up the rep a couple of times since we started going to this school and gave her a little advice. I don't follow her around all the time, and she really dose appreciate the helpful advice. I'm not some control freak you know." Hikari ends her sentence with a bit of a laugh.
Just then, Kensuke changed the TV to a news channel.
"And now, more the rumors coming out about the organization called NERV." A reporter on the TV said.
Hikari and Toji's attention is instantly drawn to the TV. The logo for NERV shown in the upper corner of the screen.
"Kensuke turn that o…" Hikari begins, but Toji interrupts her.
"No, I want to hear this, all we've heard are rumors, maybe this will explain them."
All three of them watched the news program, Hikari feeling nervous.
"In the weeks following the evacuation of the majority of Toyo-3's civilian residents, rumors regarding the inner workings of the NERV organization, headquartered in the city began to circulate. These rumors mainly concerned the selection process of the pilots assigned to the Eva project, but more recently, there have been leaks regarding a joint investigation between Japan Heavy Chemical Industries, and the United Nations committee in charge of overseeing funding and regulations regarding programs dealing with the so called Angel crisis.
"These leaks suggest that the experimental mecha known as 'Jet alone' might have been the victim and external sabotage. Causing its rampage at its public unveiling. These leaks have recently been confirmed. Now here to speak on the subject is a spokesman from JHCI."
The camera panned over the revile a man sitting next to the reporter. The graphics under said he was 'JHCI spokesman' He began to speak.
"Yes, we have been conducting an investigation. It was the UN committee that approached us, claiming to believe the head of NERV was behind the Jet Alone incident.
"They have provided us with resources to perform a thorough investigation. And we have since uncover irregularities. First of which was that malfunctions that caused the actual incident.
"Every engineer in the Jet Alone project triple checked ever component of the robot before the demonstration. Now we initially believed Human error obviously, but we couldn't find who made the mistakes. But it was the extra help that the committee provided that enabled us to do a more thorough check of everything that happen leading up to, and on the day of the incident. We have discovered gabs in the security date regarding the site where Jet Alone was stored for testing and maintenance. And more over. Several personal with clearance to access the project claim to not have be at work shortly before the demonstration, despite our logs saying otherwise. Add all of this to the timing, and it seems more suspicious. It's not that the Jet Alone project was without issues, but so many fail safes failing at just the right moment, and with NERV having so much to gain, this is a matter of public safety that the heads of such important organizations should not be guided by personal gain or biases.
The reporter spoke up again. "So, this investigation is still on going, but your company does suspect sabotage?"
"Yes, and the UN committee seems fairly confident that the head of NERV, a Mr. Gendo Ikari gave the orders."
"And speaking of Commander Ikari, an anonymous whistle blower has come forward regarding the pilot selection process.
"Although this was not exactly hidden knowledge, just about every active pilot has some familial relationship to a higher up at NERV. The first known pilot of the Eva program seems to be the adoptive daughter of Commander Ikari, the second the daughter of a lead scientist from NERV's German branch, and the third is Ikari's own biological son."
These being children we will not show names for pictures. But the whistle blower claims that children of high ranking NERV personal were given preferential treatment during selection. The whistle blower also claims that EVA unit-03 was, in fact sabotaged, it being the only unit that was not assigned a pilot related to NERV personal."
At the mention of Unit-03 Hikari looked over a Toji. He had taken the remote from Kensuke and was gripping it heard. She didn't want to risk upsetting him anymore, as he looked very tense, but still in control. So, she just turned her attention back to the TV.
"The whistle blower didn't claim that NERV intentionally cause the Angle attack involving Unit-03, but that they weakened protection built it to the mecha to prevent it.
"The supposed reasons for this are for NERV to maintain a large amount of control over each of the pilots. We cannot confirm any of this as of yet. The whistle blower has refused to revile their identity, claiming a threat to their safety from Commander Ikari.
"This is still a developing story, and we will update you as more details are reviled, so stay tuned." The reporter finished and the program cut to commercial.
Toji turned the TV off and took a deep breath He seemed to be taking a moment to gather his thoughts.
As he was doing that Kensuke spoke up. "Do people really believe that? I mean yeah NERV may not be the most open group in the world, but who would have anything to gain by messing with the Evas, and wasting pilots like that?"
"And Shinji's or Asuka's parents wouldn't put their own children through that for no reason." Hikari added.
"I don't know." Toji finally spoke up.
"What?" Kensuke said.
"What do you mean?" Hikari said.
"I mean I don't know if we should be that trusting of NERV?" Toji spoke with a bit of edge to his voice. Putting effort into keeping his cool on this subject.
"Are you saying you believe what they're saying about Shinji's Dad?" Hikari asked.
"No, it not that I think the news has got all the facts. It's just that ever since what happened to me, I couldn't stop thinking about how the hell they must be running things back at NERV.
"Children being put in control of military hardware like that. And so secretive? The Angels are totally mindless, it's not like one can get in as a spy, or sent anyone in for them?
"Your right Hikari, no parent should want to put their kid thought that, but have you ever heard Ikari, or Asuka talk about their parents? What if they are the kind of people to would do that?"
"Hold on" Kensuke spoke up. "You're not telling me you believe someone actually, knowingly wasted an Eva and put you in harms away, over some weird control thing!?"
Toji finally snapped that what his friend said. "That's not what I said you idiot!" Kensuke and Hikari backed away from Toji as he raised his voice. "I'm not saying everything on the freaking TV is true, just that NERV is a shady ass organization, and I really doubt they know what they're doing! How about this for theory, none of them do. NERV has screwed up, and the people who build the other robot screwed up, and no one wants to admit that they have no idea how beat the Angels, because that means admitting we're all fucked!" Toji ended, breathing a bit heavy. His rant was barely over when he realized he had just yelled at his friends, and he had gotten a slight pain in his temple.
After calming down completely, Toji apologized. "So…Sorry guys, I don't know what came over me."
Hikari was quick to answer back. "No…No your right, we shouldn't be too quick to trust NERV. Right Kensuke?"
"Yeah, right." Kensuke agreed. They both knew better then to dwell on it.
After a moment of awkward silence, Hikari spoke up. "So, anyway you said you don't need as much protein by you lunch boxes anymore Toji?"
Seeing the change of subject, Toji replied. "Ah actually, I would still like to keep my energy up, so no, don't change the amount you put in each box."
"OK, I got it."
The rest of their visit went on as normal, the tension left in the air from Toji's outburst quietly faded as they got back to talking about school stuff, and how each of their families were doing.
After words, Hikari and Kensuke were walking out the front door of the hospital, when Hikari thumbed Kensuke over the head.
"Idiot, you should know better than to bring that up in front of Toji like that."
"Aw, Jez I'm sorry, it just sorta slipped out, you heard the crazy stuff they were saying, you gotta see it for the nonsense it is right?"
"Or course I do, but Toji went through a lot back then, so topics like that are bound to upset him, regardless of who's right or wrong."
"Since when do you not care about being right." Hikari whacked him again.
"Aw"
"This is about Toji, not me, we need to help him feel comfortable before he can talk about that stuff openly."
Rubbing his head as they walked down the sidewalk away from the hospital, as the sun was going down, Kensuke said. "You know, skimming thought one book on PTSD while Toji was still in bad condition, after the doctor spoke to us, doesn't make you an expert."
"I'll have you know, I read the whole thing. I can teach you speed reading to if you would like."
Later that night.
In a secluded room in the upper levels of the hospital. A lone man in a lab coat sat at a desk full of files of papers, and a computer screen in the middle of it.
He was just double checking some of the more important information shown on the papers when the computer screen lit up. It wasn't a normal video call where he had to accept it. A strange symbol appeared on the monitor. It was a triangle pointing down, with a line down the middle, and on either side of the triangle where eyes, three on the left, and four on the right, captioning this image was two words "Sound Only" in bold letters.
"This this room secured?" A voice from the screen asked.
"The door is locked, there are no windows, and no licensing devices." The man answered back.
"Report and updates on the condition of the Fourth Child?" The voice demanded.
The man answered back. "None, special scanning shows no change in the dormant Angle cells within the subject's body. They continue to simply remain in his circulatory system. Undetectable without special imaging from the NERV equipment."
"Have you learned how the Angle cells have survived without their core, or if they can reform a core in the Child's body?"
"No, our working theory remains that the remaining cells contain no abilities of the original Angle and have no effects on the subject."
"Have you made any progress on removing the cells?"
"No, the cells in his blood can't be removed through normal means. They seem to simply avoid leaving his veins."
"Has the Fourth Child shown any signs of being aware of the presences of the cells?"
"No."
There was a pause from the voice from the monitor. This was how all of their conversation have gone. An agent from SEELE would call him and ask certain question about the injured EVA pilot (Not that he was very injured anymore). The scientist who was placed there at hospital to run these test on Toji started out more hopeful, seeing it as a great chance to learn more about the Angels, the greatest scientific mystery of his time, but quickly he found himself at dead end after dead end, and it seemed all there was was some rouge Angel cells that must have mixed into the his blood stream during the attack, and those cells became totally inactive as soon as their core was destroyed. They most likely have been feeding off of nutrients from his blood like most parasites. The scientist used everything he knew about Angel biology, being one of the few scientists who knew the subject that wasn't working at NERV. But he feared this may just be a strange accident with nothing to learn from it. He had recommended discharging the patient, and simply checking up on him occasionally, but SEELE's committee didn't like the idea. For some reason they seemed confident that it was best for everyone that Toji remind under their watchful eye, seemingly indefinitely.
The scientists had never actually met the boy, but he figured Toji must really want to go home by now, even his physical therapist had written multiple notes saying he was perfectly fine. But SEELE must also have some contacts in the hospital administrative office, because they refused to hear her out.
After some time, the voice of the SEELE agent spoke again. "Very well then, keep the testing as is, the child is not to be discharged."
The scientist felt like he had to finally ask. "His condition has not changed, I don't see any more need in testing him any further, at least not as this frequency, why do we really need to keep him under this much observation?" The scientist knew the worst thing they could do was not answer. He heard about what SEELE could do people who asked too many questions, but he didn't ask often, and they knew he could keep the secrets he had to.
Another short pause, then the voice spoke again. "We simply see the Child's condition as a liability right now, once that is no longer the case, the child will no longer need to remain there."
The scientist was surprised, it wasn't exactly a clear answer, but it was something.
Pressing his luck, he asked, "And when would that be?"
"You will be informed when that it. As will everyone else.
"That is all I can say right now." The monitor went blank.
The scientist was confused at that last line, not only was it vague, but it was not like SEELE to let out information for 'everyone', it could be the UN committee was going to declassify something, but he didn't see how that could affect Toji having to stay as a patient?
Being familiar with the cryptic nature of SEELE, the scientist didn't see the point of dwelling on it. It was already late, so he placed all the files in their respective cabinets and locked them. Then he walked, and locked the door to the spare room he was using as an office and made his way to elevator.
That same night, Toji was tossing and turning in his hospital bed.
"No, no, no!"
Toji was haunted by the same images that played in his head almost every night.
"Someone out there, can anyone hear me!?" Toji yelled the inside of his plug, as it was filled with more and more of the ghostly white fungus that was the 13th Angel.
The controls hadn't worked since the first second of the Eva's activation, and he gave up trying shortly after the attack began.
He was forced to watch though the monitors, the only thing that still worked, as Unit-02 was tackled to the grown and broken so it couldn't move. Toji then felt a rush of disorientation and his Eva flipped through the air and landed on Unit-00.
Toji heard the deep unsettling roars of the Angel from within the hijacked EVA body, and saw the white fungus spread from his Eva's arm to Rae's.
The infection of the blue EVA unit was only stopped by explosions from Unit-00 arms.
Toji felt utterly powerless as all he could do was imagine all the pain he must have caused Rae and Asuka, as the 13th Angle began to match towards Tokyo-3 again.
As the white fungus began to surround his body, he noticed a sound of something beating behind him.
Toji strained his neck to turn around enough to see what it was. He was still strapped to the controls and the back of the seat was too high up to make much out. But he was able to be make out a faint red glow that lit up in tune with the beating he heard.
His attention was brought back to the monitors as he noticed the Unit-03 hand rounded the corner of a mountain, and there was Unit-01 waiting just across a field.
"No, Shinji, get out of here, you can't beat this thing alone!" Toji called out, hoping the coms were still working one way at least. Toji remembered the state Shinji was in during his battle with the 4th Angel and didn't think he could handle a fight with an Angel that just took down two other Eva's in quick succession.
To Toji's horror Shinji didn't even fight back. The 13th Angel pinned Unit-01 against the side of a mountain.
"Is he afraid of hurting me?" Toji remember what these battles did to him, and he remember how poorly he treated Shinji before he knew what he was going through. And now Shinji was putting his life in danger for no reason just because Toji might be caught in the crossfire. "SHINJI, you stop acting like the idiot Asuka treats you as and fight back against this monster!"
Seemingly at Toji words, Unit-01 pushed the attacking Angel off of itself.
But Toji had no time to feel relief, of believe he might be rescued, because the purple Eva immediately grabbed a hold of the black Eva's neck. Toji felt the chocking sensation his Eva was being forced through, and he was just barely able to notice Unit-01 was moving differently that it usually did.
Toji felt the Eva's neck break like it was his own, the pain as horrible he trashed around in the control seat, the straps and white vines of fungus digging into his skin, leading to multiple cuts that began to bleed.
Still railing from the pain, Toji barely noticed as the monitor screens went dark.
He heard the sound of mental bending and scrapping against other metal from the outside of the plug.
Toji's breathing was ragged and heavy, his own blood was floating around his in think red globs. He heard the beating sound from behind him grow louder and quicker. Then finally, he heard the metal outside of the plug strain and dents formed as the inside of plug prepared to cave in.
"NNNOOOOO!" Was all Toji could say before the metallic inside of the plug was crushed in on him and he heard the rapid beating from behind him so silent before he lost consciousness.
To Be Continued...
A/N This was my first attempt at writing about things like PTSD, hope I did well.