Creation began on 02-11-21

Creation ended on 05-18-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji, the Psychic Child: Future

A/N: The epilogue.

Tokyo-3 had been abandoned by the people that could no longer bear to live there. Nobody could stand to be in a fortress city that had more blood on its hands due to the paramilitary agency that used the city as a battleground. Everyone had lost someone or more because of the agency that had been buried under the city, and the very thought of excavating for the bodies that were still buried was not being thought of due to the fear of structural instability. And the worst part was that it had only been two weeks after the last time anything of any significance happened.

"…Yeah, you can let her know that her nephew died keeping the little sister of another dead boy safe from getting killed by her sister's disgrace of a husband," Misato said before she hung up her cell phone and set it down on the countertop of the kitchen; trying to get in touch with Shinji's aunt and uncle to inform them that he was dead did not go as well as she had hoped it would. What is wrong with these people? What, did they hate their nephew that much to not want to know what happened to him?

She looked at the pictures that were all that remained of the children that had died because of NERV turning them into either cannon fodder, psychic monsters poisoned with hatred…or people with death wishes. The Horaki family had lost a daughter, Mr. Aida, who was fortunate enough to have gotten out of NERV HQ alive, had lost his only son, Nabiki Suzuhara had lost her entire family, including her big brother, who only agreed to pilot Unit-03 in exchange for better medical care for her, and the Soryu family, not really much of a family, lost a daughter. But one of the most troubling of losses was the one person that lost everything long before he had died.

Shinji Ikari, the person that might've been responsible for saving more than one life that deserved to live, lost his parents due to their own agendas, his friends because of their choices being dictated by the arrogant will of his parents, because of the Evangelion, whatever sanity he had left because of the madness that had enveloped him, and his very life because of the fact that he wasn't going to live after he made both his parents pay for their cruelty and ended up buried under countless tons of broken, bent and burnt metal that used to be NERV HQ. There was no point in even hoping he'd be dug up from the ruins; by the time anyone managed to excavate down to the bottom where Terminal Dogma had resided, his body will have decomposed beyond any capacity to be recognized by anyone that probably wouldn't have known him without any identifying marks.

-x-

"None of this was in the Dead Sea Scrolls!" SEELE 11 shouted to the others during the meeting. "Tokyo-3 has been abandoned, the Geo-Front has been reduced to a graveyard of scrap metal full of corpses that nobody's willing to go down to excavate, and we've lost Unit-01, Adam and Lilith!"

"And all because Ikari started messing with the limitations of the human mind and tapping into abilities that went too far for any one person to tolerate," went SEELE 05.

"Remain calm," said SEELE 01 to them, trying to regain control of the situation. "We need to reevaluate and contain this crisis."

"Contain the crisis?" SEELE 09 questioned. "There's nothing left to contain! Without Adam, Lilith, Unit-01 or the Spear of Longinus, we cannot achieve what we had invested much of our time and resources into achieving!"

"What about the production of new Evas?" SEELE 12 suggested.

"No, it's no use," SEELE 04 revealed. "Our scenario hinged on using either Lilith or her substitute, Unit-01, with the Spear of Longinus to bring about our salvation…and we've lost everything that was important in the plan. Even if we were to produce more Evas, we have no way of achieving the unification of all humanity. We are stuck in this despicable rut of a fate."

"Then, what do we do?" SEELE 02 wanted to know.

"There's nothing we can do," SEELE 07 insisted. "Disband the NERV organization and liquidate all its remaining assets."

They didn't have any other choice in the matter. Their scenario had been flawlessly formed in the beginning, but then it came undone in a matter of days. Even if they had the time and resources to rebuild the Geo-Front under Tokyo-3, the loss of Adam and Lilith would've more than likely eliminated any further attacks by the Angels if there was nothing left to lure them with. No, there was simply nothing left to salvage and nothing left to attempt.

"What of Unit-04 and the little girl?" SEELE 03 asked them. "We could still acquire the Eva and confirm whether or not it has the restored S² Engine and take it for further research and development, and we can have the girl neutralized."

"You're welcome to try," said SEELE 10 to him. "If we're stuck in this rut of a future, there's no point in going after that loathsome Evangelion that returned after the destruction of the Nevada branch. And as for the girl… She's not a threat to anyone, even if she is a loose end. She has nothing to offer and it'd be moot to go after her."

In the end, all SEELE could do was try to move on with their losses and rebuild their ruined order. They had lost their most precious assets and there was no getting them back. Oh, they blamed Gendo Ikari for all of this, but there was no point in being angry with someone that had been ripped to pieces by his own son, who had returned to put an end to his father along with anyone else that had done him wrong.

-x-

Because Nabiki had nobody left in the way of family, she was a ward of the state. And because her family had been involved with NERV, this left Misato the one best qualified to look after her until she could look after herself.

It had been a month since NERV was officially disbanded by the UN, and what remained of its assets were liquidated and transferred over to other organizations, such as the JSSDF. Nobody questioned it, not that they could, as NERV had been met with heavy criticism by some people that had different opinions about the agency. Not even Kaji could speak about the traumatic aftermath when he was reassigned back to the Japanese Ministry of the Interior; whatever information he had obtained from NERV was as good as useless when the agency was disbanded and the Evangelion project shuttered. Anyone that did have something to say had small incentives to keep it to themselves.

"How is she doing?" Kaji asked Misato, looking as Nabiki was playing with Pen-Pen in her room in their new setting in a different city.

"She's recovering from the trauma," Misato told him. "She still gets nightmares, but she sees a therapist and everything I'm supposed to do."

"And yourself?"

"I'm not over what happened…but I'm getting there."

"I don't think any of us will ever be over what happened."

"How goes the ministry?"

"People talk about politics…or finances…or whatever they want to talk about."

"It doesn't sound like your cup of tea."

"It never was my cup of tea."

"Nabiki still likes talking about him, even when there's very little to talk about."

"Shinji was her hero. He gave everything to keep her safe from harm."

"It's just so unfair, though. He loses everything and dies in the end, and everyone else has to go on like he wasn't around."

"That's not true, Katsuragi."

"Yes, it is. I tried contacting his aunt and uncle again, and they still refuse to acknowledge what happened. They're no better than that man was."

"They can't deny that Shinji existed. Nobody can. We can always pray that the mere thought of him haunts whoever thought very little of him…for as long as they live."

Meanwhile, Nabiki, having handed Pen-Pen a tea cup, looked up her bedroom window at the sky. It wasn't as dark as the previous day after a rainy season, but the obscured sunlight didn't make her happy. It would still be a while before she was completely over the loss of her brother, her father and grandfather…and Shinji…but as long as she was alive, she hoped that the next day would be full of a better future.

Things will get better, Nabiki, she heard a voice say to her, and she looked around the room.

Shinji? She wondered…and gave a small smile.

-x-

Sitting in a vast, white space with his head low, Shinji Ikari, or at least the last embers of his soul, hoped that one day in the future, he, Toji, Kensuke, Hikari, Rei and Asuka would be able to meet again. But under different circumstances than the ones that led to their ends. He had lived a short life, with a shorter chance of happiness that was never bestowed upon him. Or maybe the happiness was given to him, but in spades, just mere handfuls. So long as Nabiki got to live a long and happy life, he couldn't have asked for anything more than the opportunity to live in a better future with people that had been cheated by other people.

"Are you ready to go?" A voice asked him as a tall man in silver, samurai-like armor that appeared to be modeled after Unit-04, appeared beside him.

"Yes," he answered him, "I am ready to go."

The tall man then reached down for Shinji's right arm, picked him up and walked him away, disappearing from sight.

Shinji had no clue as to where he was going, only that this was the afterlife. Whether it was to a paradise or the underworld, he couldn't tell. Maybe, just maybe…he wasn't supposed to know until later on. He just thought of the people he lost, the people he cared about…and hoped to see them again someday.

To all that can find reason to believe in hope

A/N: My original ending was to have Nabiki be all grown up with a son named after Shinji, but that just didn't feel right with the way this was going a little. But hey, I want to hear from y'all what you thought. Yeah, SEELE giving seemed unlikely, but in other cases, when they lose their important pieces to their master plan, they don't seem able to go on and have to put it behind them. And Evangelion Unit-04/Rion's whereabouts, he could just be in the wind, staying out of sight and out of mind. And what did you think about the end with Shinji?