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Chapter 42: "…I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger…"

"Captain Katsuragi…" Ritsuko said, closing in on the captain on the bridge.

She was staring out into the red vastness through one of the many windows of the bridge, the doctor had found her doing similar things the last few days once Unit-01 had been brought to the Wunder.

Now there was this.

"We've made a discovery with Unit-01."

"And that is?" the woman asked, not taking her gaze off the window before her.

Ritsuko eyed the handful of maintenance crews prepping the area for the ship's activation. They couldn't hide their wandering gazes every time and this wasn't something they needed to know.

"It's better we had this conversation in a more… private area."

Misato finally turned to the woman, eyeing her, and then the members of the crew working on the bridge. Nodding, the two women took their leave, making their way to a briefing room not too far away.

Shutting the door, the blonde handed the captain a report, mentally preparing herself for the emotions she was sure were about to be unleashed.

"They found it when they were stripping Unit-01 for parts." She explained, "An extra entry plug wouldn't hurt, and the LCL replenished our reserves."

Misato didn't express any emotions; her eyes were simply glued to the pictures in front of her.

What looked like a boy, in the same clothes she remembered, eyes closed and currently unconscious.

"It's been transferred to an isolation wing, it was alive, that we can confirm, but we don't really know what to think right now."

"What does your gut tell you?" she asked, finally handing the report back to Ritsuko.

Frowning, the woman really didn't want to have this problem at the moment "I say it's impossible, but… we tend to do the impossible a lot around here."

Misato nodded, "If it does wake up and somehow isn't instantly identified as a pattern blue, treat it as an enemy combatant, but bring it directly to the bridge discreetly. We don't need this getting out to the crew, talk with the team who pulled it out, and…" she stopped, taking a breath.

"Don't inform the other pilots."

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow.

"Chances are this isn't him; we don't need to be stirring up emotions right now."

"Do you really think they were settled in the first place?" The doctor asked, silently thankful Misato hadn't taken the news as poorly as she had anticipated.

The captain said nothing and just rested against the table in the center of the room.

"They weren't for any of us really." The blonde mumbled under her breath, leaving her superior and heading back to the bridge.

Misato just sat there alone in the situation room, not even the globe illuminated the area.

She let her thoughts drift back to last night when they had brought Unit-01 back.

Standing on the island of their largest aircraft carrier, Misato just looked down at the piles of metal scrap that had once been Unit-01's sarcophagus.

Sarcophagus, coffin, hell even the official documents had it listed as 'Tesseract', but no one used that term.

Sprawled out on the deck and illuminated by racks of floodlights, the humanoid figure of Unit-01 laid there. Or perhaps the remains of Unit-01 would be more specific. They would draw out all fluids and would extract the LCL before converting it for use in Wunder, they could use those scarce resources.

On the other half of the deck, Unit-02i was curled up, doing its best at taking up as little space as possible. The mismatched colors of rusty and corroded armor made it almost a humorous sight, a half dozen patch jobs fixing battlefield damage and the thing still refused to die. If only its pilot didn't refuse to drive it so hard, it might have held up better over the years.

Even though the whole deck was being used they weren't exactly using Over the Rainbow for launching aircraft, there was no need to transfer either of them until it had been fully prepped for Wunder.

Right now, there was no work being down though, nightfall was upon them, and it would soon be too cold to even be outside. The Arctic Ocean hadn't been their first choice, but it would have to do.

Pulling her jacket tighter, Misato braced herself as a gust of wind rushed over everything on the flight deck, nearly blocking out her hearing. But the sound of footsteps against metal grates drew her attention away from the sight under her.

"Pilot Shikinami reporting."

The sarcasm in that voice was not lost on her.

"Your mission was successful; you'll have a debriefing at 0900 hours tomorrow. Get some rest till then."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can tell it was a success." The redhead mumbled while shivering at the cold biting both of them. All she had was a jacket, cap, and plug suit, and pilot's plug suits weren't exactly meant for adverse conditions.

Misato said nothing to her subordinate and just went back to looking out over the EVA.

"Hard to believe we'd see it again." Asuka mumbled as she leaned against the railing, "Did Akagi figure out why the thing activated in orbit?"

"We'll discuss that at your debriefing."

"Hmm,"

The sound of the girl's footsteps was all that she needed to know that the girl had left. Idle chitchat had never been either of their strong suits, especially in the year's since she'd woken up

ʡʘʘʘʢ

"There has been a development."

The massive room that had been Gendo Ikari's office was more than accommodating the echoing of Fuyutsuki's voice

"Unit-01 has been successfully retrieved from orbit." The elderly man informed the commander.

"SEELE was foolish, tossing it to the heavens, treating it as waste." The commander mused; his irritation not lost on the older man.

"However, that is not new information, Operation US has been in planning for years. Is that it?" he growled.

"No. It appears… the Third Child was recovered from the entry plug."

"Alive?"

"Unconscious, contamination could not be determined. Our source inside WILLE has access, but even within their ranks it's been hidden from most of the crew, including the fellow pilots."

For a moment neither said anything, Fuyutsuki was doing his best to determine what exactly was going through the younger man's mind. Though he had to admit he rarely believed he truly understood the man these days.

"It seems this will be the second time your son has been brought back from the dead."

.

.

.

"Cancel our preparation for searching the villages." Gendo sat up "The ritual can be expedited with Unit-13's completion."

"Send out Mark.09, have it bring the Third Child back, by force if necessary."

"Do you think it is wise to do so? There's no guarantee his mind is intact."

"If he's damaged, so be it. The original plan will only be delayed briefly."

There was nothing left to say, as the older man left his colleague by himself in what was left of his 'office'.

"So, the prodigal son returns…"

ʡʘʘʘʢ

*Ahaaa*

The first intake of breath hadn't hurt so much this time, which was a welcome surprise really.

Shinji Ikari opened his eyes, meeting the cold sight of a metal ceiling…

An unfamiliar ceiling.

"This one's new." He mumbled.

"Oh, you're telling me!" a certain someone grumbled. Looking over, there she was, leaning against the wall, arms crossed in front of her chest and sporting the same bandages as always. The room was lit with a red hue, courtesy of some sealing pillars scattered around him.

"Do you know how boring it's been?"

Shinji tried to push himself up but stopped the moment he realized two bars of metal held him down. His body felt weird, the feeling of pins and needles ran all along with him for some reason.

"Hmmm"

"Yeah, you're strapped down there," she said, striding over to him. She leaned down, right next to his head, a sinister smiled on her face. "You know, I could do all kinds of things to you right now, maybe even a little payback for what you did while I was helpless."

Shinji just closed his eyes "Sure, knock yourself out," it wasn't like she could do anything physically. He just didn't care, he just wanted to sleep.

"Oh, just lay there and feel sorry for yourself, will you?"

He just sighed and closed his eyes, but it wasn't long before a door opened, and the sound of footsteps made their way into the room. Opening one eye, he spotted the back of a… well it wasn't a nurse he would know from NERV, and she must've been short for an adult.

And what was with that beret?

"Um, excuse me."

In all fairness, he should have expected her to scream, her back was to a presumably unconscious patient. What he could have never expected was for armed guards to rush in, guns drawn. He rolled his eyes at the theatrics and just shut them again, this wasn't turning out to be a very good reception for a new life.

Swiftly he was being carted along, with the wheels of his gurney being quite annoying as one of them was rather sticky, causing whoever was pushing him to crash more than once. Soon enough, however, he was in some sort of lift, though it was rather hard to tell due to his limited vision.

And the lack of real clothing was something he had become acutely aware of. Especially as his rather… exposed extremities were getting a bit more of a breeze than he was accustomed to due to the thin medical ground. He really didn't want to be shivering while no less than 4 men had guns trained on him, sudden movements, and all that.

It was rather humorous having Soryu standing there among them, making faces at the guards who were oblivious to their tormentor.

"All cardio functions appear normal, no signs of paralysis either."

Yeah, no signs so far… it wasn't like they let him get up and walk yet. From what he could tell that girl was talking on a phone, there was no one else there speaking, not a single word from the guards.

"Yes, his eyes are open."

The girl leaned over in front of him, with some sort of translucent screen with an eye tracker between them.

"Can you understand what I'm saying to you?"

"Go away," he muttered to her, he just wanted to sleep in peace, not that any of his dreams would let him of course.

"He's speaking clearly, seems fully cognizant."

He growled a bit "That's subjective...".

"No, he hasn't exhibited signs of a continuity of memory, only irritation."

"Oh, you're in for a surprise…" He muttered to himself; he was pretty sure the girl hadn't heard that.

She moved so he could see her again, he could tell since she blocked the rhythmic lights that indicated they were moving. Closing his eyes, he figured he could get some sleep while they went wherever it was they were going. Probably somewhere to throw him into an EVA if he had to guess.

The blocking of the rhythmic passing of lights told him she was leaning over him again, but he refused to open his eyes, whatever she was going to ask now, it wasn't worth answering.

"Do you recognize this person?"

"Probably, now go away.". He probably should have been nicer, the girl seemed nice enough, he almost felt bad that she had to deal with him. 'How to handle ageless 14-year-olds' probably wasn't in the NERV handbook.

"I need you to open your eyes please."

He sighed and did as asked, only because that voice lacked any malice or irritation at his behavior. In front of him, the same face he had seen in an incalculable number of mirrors stared back at him. Those deep blue eyes that had witnessed more than any of them had ever dared dream.

Shinji Ikari, Third Children, Pilot of Evangelion Unit-01.

A Failure. Again.

"Oh yeah, that's Shinji Ikari, now can you let him sleep?"

His eyes drifted downwards, to the collar now locked around his neck. He recognized the black and red band; it wasn't the first time he had to deal with Ritsuko's great inventions. He also noted his missing pendant, not that he really expected it to be there, someone must have confiscated it as soon as they saw it.

"Oh, that's fun, it's been a while since I had one of these..." He said lazily, before shutting his eyes again.

"I need a straight answer." The girl said.

"Sorry, I'm not in the mood to play twenty questions," he replied simply.

"I can't get a straight answer." She said, presumably to whoever was on the other side of her commlink.

There were no questions after that, instead, their ride had stopped, and the opening of doors only lead to them stopping his gurney somewhere new. Not that he bothered to open his eyes.

"Subject BM-03 now in custody."

Shinji lamented the idea of being called 'Subject' if these people thought they were going to be experimenting on him, they had another thing coming. He had his share of those experiences for plenty of lifetimes.

"Roger, undo the restraints."

That was Misato's voice.

Well then.

The metallic clamps released, the sound of their hinges unlocking reverberated in what apparently was a rather large room.

"You may leave now." Only the sound of safety being engaged told him the guards with guns were the ones receiving orders.

Shinji figured he would at least get up and stretch, he was sure that he'd probably open his eyes to see the familiar face of EVA Unit-01, but instead, all he found was another unfamiliar ceiling.

Pushing himself up, Shinji relished the popping of his joints and stretched leisurely while taking in the sight around him.

It was a spherical room, with possible over a dozen circular what looked like windows on one side. A whole multilevel structure of seats sprawled out like a rib cage with each one seemingly a terminal of some sort.

And at each one, a pair of eyes focused on him, all of them giving him looks ranging from annoyance to pure disdain. They weren't the three he knew, but what did it matter anyway? On a platform above the group, someone in a red trench coat stood, not bothering to even turn to look at him.

"What a cheery group," Soryu quipped, walking around and leaning in to examine them.

Shaking his head, Shinji just stood up and started walking towards a window, rubbing his arms for warmth as he went and hissing at the bitter cold of the metal under his feet. This world was definitely a write-off, if this was his introduction to NERV then he might as well call it quits right now.

"Shinji Ikari, can we call him that?"

Again, that was Misato's voice, but where was she exactly?

Lookup up again it was that jacketed figure talking with someone behind her, the voices were hushed enough that he could just barely hear bits and pieces. Clad in a hat and something over her eyes, Shinji couldn't recognize them.

"…Captain Katsuragi."

"Oh, that's Misato…" he whispered to himself. Suddenly a beeping and buzzing started to emanate from his collar, perfect, just one more thing.

"C'mon, you'll have to do better than a bomb collar." He said, reaching up and rubbing it.

"You'll never be allowed to take…" that girl that had asked him so many questions started but was interrupted as an alarm rang out.

A wall of red hexagons appeared, reading flashing 'EMERGENCY', just like had at NERV's command bridge.

Shinji rolled his eyes "Another Sachiel" he grumbled, but it was drowned out by the ringing alarms and the flurry of callouts from those manning the bridge.

"Hey, you think Wondergirl's been hanging around a bit longer than usual?" Soryu whispered to him, having already investigated each of the crew there.

Confused, Shinji looked around for what she was talking about only to lock onto the patch of blue hair. Sure enough, there was Rei Ayanami or at least something that looked like her.

She was standing in front of one of his former guards, waving her hand in front of his face, seemingly trying to get a reaction from him. Clad in her school uniform, it was jarring, to say the least.

"Wait, what?"

She disappeared only to reappear next to the girl with the beret, doing the same thing, trying to get a reaction as the girl leaned down and stowed the gurney away with some straps against the wall. When he watched Rei actually touch the girl and saw that hand went through her did it really start to interest him.

"That's… not normal."

Just watching the blue-haired girl go around and try to make contact with anyone had drawn his attention away from the shouting between the bridge crew. It wasn't like he would actually understand what was happening anyway. Something about antigravity and systems not being completed. He shivered again and moved his feet, maybe fixing the heat would be a good place to start.

"Asuka?!"

He swung around at that callout, watching Misato call into a PA mic, it was hard to tell if she was still watching him with those glasses, on. Why exactly did she need them anyway?

"It's up to you."

Soon after a shadow passed behind him and spinning around Shinji saw the massive body of Unit-02… swimming. So, they were underwater? This was a ship?

Interestingly he noted the flotation device around its chest and the UPV she was holding onto.

"Well, only took us how many lives but it looks like you don't have to worry about Gaghiel ever again, huh?"

"Alright," he clenched his fist. If he was out there alone…

"Misato, what about me?" he called up to the 'Captain'.

"All hands condition one, battle stations." She called out, ignoring his question.

The room turned red as low visibility lights replaced other white lights. The massive rib-like structure began to shift, and the sound of hydraulic actuators rang out as the seats began to rise into the air.

But no one gave him an answer.

His fist began to shake "MISATO!" He shouted, causing the bridge to fall dead silent.

"Let me help her! Get me in an EVA and let me help Asuka!"

Shinji didn't care if he was even supposed to know what was happening here. He needed to help her, he needed to fight alongside her.

"Listen closely Ikari," she said, taking off her glasses and glaring, "you will stay here until this is over, then I'll decide your fate."

The structure rose ever higher, until four sections of a sphere came over it, cutting it off from the rest of the room as the whole sphere retracted further.

The boy just blinked. What the hell was that about? What kind of world was this?

"Well, that went well," Soryu said.

His attention turned back to Rei, who was nowhere to be seen, not that it was too surprising, but it had been strange for her to stick around for so long.

His hand reached up to grab the Greek cross around his neck, only to grasp nothing. Remembering that it had been gone before he just shook his head and turned around to the red vastness and stared out at it.

Perhaps he should make a run for it, there was no point in being here if he was just some prisoner. Maybe this was some sort of clone life? That'd be pretty strange. It wasn't like he could run away while the four guards were here either, though just fast-tracking this life to its logical end seemed pretty enticing.

"And here I thought you gave up your deathwish lifestyle a long time ago," Soryu grumbled, leaning against the glass.

He was about to retort when the whole room began to shake, a deep rumbling was coming from somewhere, and he grabbed the nearest wall to brace himself just as everyone else did.

The view from the window changed, the red was soon replaced with blue sky, and he watched wide-eyed as it rose ever higher into the sky.

"What the hell is this thing?" He asked the girl across the room, who was doing her best to stay upright as well.

She was about to say something before the entire room rocked to one side, sending two guards flying as they lost their grip.

"The artificial gravity isn't working!" she yelled as again the whole room rocked in the opposite direction.

Shinji's grip was slipping from the railing he had latched onto, finally, he was sent flying with the others there.

Soryu seemed unimpressed by everything as she just stood there, unaffected by the rocking and just watching the calamity unfold with an unamused face.

He was sure at least two of the guards were knocked out, and the girl seemed dazed. Realizing this was his chance, Shinji waited for the right moment, bracing himself each time he landed against another wall.

Who the hell was steering this thing?

Finally managing to grab hold of a railing next to one of the doors leading into the bridge. Shinji hit the control panel next to it, thankfully opening the door.

Moving out into the hallway, it was a bit easier to manage the rapid spinning of the ship, and there were proper things to hold onto while he moved forwards, dodging random bits of debris that hadn't been fastened down.

Heading further into the unknown he had to admit, this whole situation was definitely in the running for the strangest world he had woken up to.

SHOUTOUTS!

fonte20nit – Thanks! Hope you'll enjoy it.

KingXanaduu – "You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

NoseGum – YES!

EvaPilotFair – THANKS!

SheriffJohnStone – Thanks and all in good time!

Akomis – Thanks! Hope you like what's to come.

UltraSpink of Da USA – Thanks!

skyf0x – Thank you for noticing those parallels haha. And the pendant, oh yes, that'll be very interesting.

tomdj1701 – Even more so now.

Berix – Yeah I think I'm going to just do 'Unit-02i' people shouting out IMPROVED all the time is just weird haha, plus they even call it that in 3.0.

Lupeskillz – Thanks for seeing that haha, and hope you enjoy the next few too.

calborghete – "Ladies and gentlemen… fasten your seatbelts."

dyinglittelstar – Thanks! I'm happy you enjoyed it!

JIM D. ZAS – Thanks! Enjoy the ride!

Guest – Oh, yeah haha.

Alright, here we are. What's going to happen next? Will Asuka find out about Shinji being alive? Why is Misato treating Shinji like an enemy? Why is there a vision of Rei walking around? And who hired that mantience crew? The heat now the antigrav? Find out next time on Drag… oh wait, *ahem* Relapse:∣▍!

Until Next Time.