Creation began on 05-08-21

Creation ended on 05-10-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Past: Aftermath Resolutions

Asuka wasn't sure what was going on outside her Eva, only that once her nerve connections were disconnected, she no longer felt the pain of her arms being cut off. Whatever was happening, she wished she could see it all. It was the same for Rei, as she sat in her plug wondering what was happening outside the Eva…and where Shinji could be at a time like this.

-x-

BLAST! Gamera had fired two more fireballs at the Gyaos, managing to cripple one wing on two of the remaining members, causing them to fall from the sky.

They fell into the forest section away from Mt. Fuji and were then preyed upon by their fellow Gyaos, no longer seen as members of the flock, just as food.

Gamera found this to be a sickening sight and fired another ball of fire at the Gyaos, but he only managed to hit just one more Gyaos before the rest flew away.

"Haaurgh!" The five remaining Gyaos shrieked as they ate what little of the crippled Gyaos they could before escaping. "Haaaaurgh!"

"Rrrrrraaurgh!" Gamera howled as his arms and legs generated white smoke as he took to the air after them; his only injury from a close call with one of the Gyaos was a deep gash on the left side of his shoulder that wasn't protected by his shell, but he couldn't let a superficial wound such as that prevent him from doing his duty to protect this world from his ancient foe. "Rrrrraugh!"

-x-

NERV's recovery of the two Evas and three Gyaos remains didn't tell them much, after seeing a giant turtle that could fly, several personnel were starting to wonder if there were other forces at work besides the one responsible for the Angels' return after fifteen years of absence.

"We need to figure out why the AT-Field doesn't work against these creatures," went Ritsuko as she looked at the gathered remains of a Gyaos head.

"Maybe there is no explanation to why," said Hiroko to her. "Maybe these Gyaos are just able to bypass any so-called defense that these so-called Angels possess…just to eat away at them."

"Your sarcasm is not helping."

"Whoever said I was being sarcastic?"

"What?!" They heard Misato yell, running past a guy that had informed her of something.

"What was that all about?" Both women expressed.

It wasn't even a minute ago that Misato was informed that Section Two had found Shinji unconscious on the side of a road a few miles from Mt. Fuji where the battle between the Gyaos, the Angel, Units-00 and 02 and the giant turtle took place. He wasn't seriously injured, but he had an unusual bruise on his left shoulder.

What was he doing all the way out here? Misato wondered; it was bad enough that he wasn't around to pilot the Eva against the Gyaos, but taking a detour outside of Tokyo-3 was just irresponsible of him when he was supposed to be on standby for the Angels.

"…Saying that a live capture of the Gyaos won't change Commander Ikari's mind about trying to get one of these things for research," Ritsuko told Hiroko as they were heading back to NERV HQ. "He's not the understanding type."

"Use common sense, Dr. Akagi," she responded. "These things have gotten bigger and stronger since the last time they were encountered. They can eat an Angel without any resistance and they've just proven that they can slice through your Evas like a knife through butter. They're carnivorous and willing to eat their own if they're wounded. You'd just be wasting your time and resources trying to catch a creature that we have yet to comprehend. I have no doubt in my mind that these things can even be controlled, either."

I'm starting to wonder how someone like you didn't get killed by these things earlier on, Ritsuko had the arrogance to wonder.

-x-

"…What were you doing out there, Shinji?" Misato asked Shinji when she found him sitting in the trauma ward of NERV HQ.

"Oh, hi, Mistao," he greeted her, moving his left shoulder to help with blood circulation.

Misato could see the dark bruise on the side of his neck and wondered how he got hurt.

"What happened?" She asked him.

"Nothing, I just… I went out to Mt. Fuji and saw the battle. I didn't know what was going to happen. I saw the Gyaos cut through Units-00 and 02. Are Ayanami and Asuka okay?"

"Yeah, they were fortunate."

"And…what of Gamera?"

"G…Gamera?"

"The giant turtle that came and fought the Gyaos."

"It took off after the ones that got away."

"That's a good thing, then."

"How is that a good thing? We have two Evas that are damaged and it'll take at least three days to repair them, and you weren't here to pilot Unit-01! We could've been in serious trouble because of the Angel or the Gyaos! We…we…"

But Shinji wasn't listening. He had just fallen backwards onto the bed and dozed off.

"Why, you little," she uttered, but then noticed that his left hand was clutching something.

Opening it, she found that it was that strange bead he had found after the Sixth Angel had been defeated. If it was some type of good luck charm, she wished it had given them some better luck than what they had met with earlier in the day.

Flash! She touched the bead and found herself in a city that she wasn't familiar with, surrounded by people that weren't Japanese, and they were walking around her like there was nothing wrong. And then, just as quickly as it happened, she was back in the hospital room with Shinji.

What was that? She wondered.

-x-

If Fuyutsuki had to choose a side in this meeting in Gendo's office, he'd be siding with Hiroko, hands down, against Gendo's insistence that NERV try to capture at least one of the Gyaos alive for study.

"Against the Angels and the turtle, a Gyaos would prove to be an invaluable ally," Gendo had stated a minor belief that Gyaos was likely to be controlled against Gamera.

"No way," Hiroko responded. "Gyaos isn't an ally. Not to NERV or anyone. They've already proven that even members of their own kind aren't allies, just their next meal if they can't defend themselves against something."

"And you agree with her, Fuyutsuki?" Gendo wanted to know.

"I do," he answered him. "If the turtle is indeed Gamera, then that means they're natural enemies. Gyaos is evil and Gamera is the only one that can stop Gyaos."

"According to some old tablet. You'd think the two of you could come up with a more-realistic scenario here."

Hiroko wanted to call Gendo out on his lack of belief in what they had discovered, but Fuyutsuki kept her from doing so by stating some new intel to the man.

"Okay, maybe the Gyaos remaining are still smaller than Gamera, except that there's no indication that Gamera is carnivorous like the Gyaos are," he explained to Gendo. "We've already confirmed that Gyaos are willing to eat anything they can, including humans and other Angels, which means that they're a risk to people if they decided to attack cities, which are densely populated with them. We ran tests on one the Gyaos' eyes that were found intact and discovered that they're extremely photosensitive. Cities should be informed and be prepared to defend themselves from the Gyaos."

Gendo found this information to be worthless, but since the Gyaos weren't recognized as Angels, NERV couldn't mask this knowledge.

Suddenly, the door to his office opened and Ritsuko and Maya came inside.

"We have a serious problem," Ritsuko told them.

"What is it?" Gendo questioned, and Maya opened a packet she had with them.

"We've finally mapped out Gyaos' chromosomes," she explained, and this is what we've discovered about them."

One of the photos showed only one, noodle-like object that was stated by Ritsuko to be Gyaos' chromosomes, and Hiroko and Fuyutsuki were horrified by this revelation.

"Just one pair?" Hiroko questioned. "How is that possible?"

"Chromosome pairs? But…this can't be right," added Fuyutsuki. "Humans have, what, twenty-three of them in our DNA?"

"Yes, twenty-three pairs for humans," Ritsuko explained, "thirty-nine for dogs, twelve for rice plants and twelve for frogs. It's really unnatural for these things to have just one pair. Unless it's not an evolutionary byproduct of the natural order."

"What do you mean?" Hiroko asked her.

"It's common knowledge that when an organism adapts to new environmental factors, its genetic structure mutates in order to survive. Because of this, there will always be waste that is built up during the process, taking thousands of generations over countless years. But the waste doesn't go away. It's still there, part of the organism's genetic structure. Gyaos has the genetic information of dozens of organisms…but doesn't have any of the waste. It would've needed countless chromosomes to store its genetic code…unless its genes were perfected from the very beginning. Its chromosome pair is a perfect pair."

"So, then…Gyaos is…not a natural creature?" Fuyutsuki questioned.

"No, it isn't," answered Maya. "Gyaos is an artificially-derived organism capable of independent thought and action."

"So, someone made this thing?" Gendo wanted to know. "People made Gyaos?"

"Not with existing technology, but yes," Maya answered. "Gyaos is manmade. Despite being older and looking organic, it's the most advanced organism on the planet. More so than the Evas are themselves."

"But wait, how is this a serious problem?" Hiroko needed clarification on. "What does this new discovery even tell us about the Gyaos?"

"It's capable of adapting to whatever environmental factors are thrown against it," Ritsuko revealed, "including the ability to manipulate its own reproductive system. Somehow, this creature is able incorporate whatever sexual functions it needs, adding 'Y' chromosomes to its 'X' chromosomes when necessary."

"Hold on," Fuyutsuki interrupted. "Now, 'Y' chromosomes…those are the male factor. I thought the tests you did on the remains of the Gyaos we found on the island and brought back confirmed that the Gyaos were all female."

"If they be both sexes at the same time, like a hermaphroditic chimera or something," Hiroko realized, "then that means that even just one of these Gyaos would be capable of reproduction on its own. And from what we know, there are probably four or five of them left, and that's just as bad for the world."

"If any of them start reproduction, it will be disastrous," Maya expressed, already fearing the worst was yet to come. They could lay thousands of eggs, feeding on us all, and we'd have nowhere to hide from them.

"It just as the tablet foretold before it shattered," Fuyutsuki told Gendo. "Gyaos is the shadow of evil. What else do you need to be convinced that capturing one of these things is not only impossible, but insane?"

Gendo looked at a picture of the Gyaos next to the chromosome pair. If he felt like saying it, he'd say that the Gyaos were just as worse as the Angels, except that these things eat Angels like how piranha ate whatever they could in the water. And the Evas were next to useless against them, as proven by their weaponry and the AT-Field.

-x-

Gamera had lost track of the remaining two Gyaos, but there was still time to stop them. They hadn't gotten big enough yet to begin their living extinction of all other lifeforms on the planet. So long as even one of these foes was left, the fear of the end would never rest. He flew back into the ocean just outside of Japanese waters to recoup; going after the remaining Gyaos would require him to be at his strongest.

-x-

Taking shelter for the time being in an open desert, the two Gyaos that were left were enraged at the lost of their allies as well as their food source. They were hateful of Gamera, but their hunger needed to be satiated.

"Grr," they growled, looking at one another; both had minor burns on their backs and fronts, meaning they were injured and needed to recoup.

They weren't injured enough to be incapable of flying, but they were injured enough to register to each other's brains as only one thing: The next meal was just within reach. In the night, only a vicious shrieking could be heard.

To be continued…

A/N: Now, we're getting somewhere towards how things went down in the film, but we're still a long way from the outcome. Gendo just had his eyes pulled open to the horror that the Gyaos represent and can't deny it, anymore. How do you feel about where this is going?