Modern Day Legend of a Rage-filled Anchor

by Traitor of All Traitors

When Shinji lost consciousness within the Dirac Sea, he was taken to a different Japan in a different universe. One where he is a legend of rage, and the only known male of any family with celestial blood with power like those demonstrated by women like Aya or Chidori. When the Mikage family discovers this, Shinji is left with two options: Help Aya and her friends or betray them.

30. The Strength to Persist

Creation began on 04-28-20

Creation ended on 08-25-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Modern Day Legend of a Rage-filled Anchor: The Strength to Persist

A/N: People can derive strength from those around them to move forward and make new strides towards a particular goal they have.

"…Shinji," Shinji heard his name being called out to him. "Shinji…"

Opening his eyes, he found himself looking up a ceiling high above him, indicating that he wasn't in an ordinary room. He tried to move, but his arms and legs didn't obey his brain. He tried to move his mouth, but that didn't work, either. Something was wrong. Why couldn't he move his body?

What is…going on here? He wondered to himself, turning his head to his right, seeing a retreating form in the darkness. Is that… Oh, no.

It was a large man in black clothing, glowing an unpleasant red, and it made Shinji fearful of the possibility of the man being none other than Gendo.

Gasp! Shinji awoke in the dark of his room, drenched in sweat and looking down at his palms.

It was…just a dream? He thought, feeling the nerves in his hands stop shaking.

It had been another week since he had recovered from his back injuries and left the hospital, still taking it easy until the time came where they would deal with Kagami and Gendo, get that artificial hagoromo away from them and keep the future from going down a negative path. He checked his clock, and it read that it was only two hours before seven.

Shine! His eyes received a sight of the sun starting to rise in the horizon, reminding him that he was living by the water because Magatama Town was a coastal area.

Again, it was a reminder that he was in a beautiful place that was devoid of any serious attacks from monsters out to destroy the human race…or a reminder of the fact that he currently resided in a world that hadn't been met with any heavy, environmental disasters like Second Impact, something he was also grateful for while here. If he could use the power of Frenzia's hagoromo to restore the world he originally resided in to a previous state that matched the current state of this one, it would help ease his conscience when he made his decision to relocate. He had given it some consideration, and he really wanted to make a go at life here, where he felt like he could actually live without feeling like a pawn in some twisted game with the stakes being so high. However, so long as his father and Kagami were still around, he and the others wouldn't be safe until they were dealt with in a way that kept them from continuing their cruel actions.

I'd better get up now, he decided, and got up out of bed. There's a lot to do…and so little time to do it all.

-x-

It was a pain, but even Asuka had to go home sometime. She and Rei rarely left home at the same time, her always leaving as soon as possible just to see Shinji, but this time was different. It wasn't that the Shinji they were now trying to be with was different from the one they knew, but it would've been a challenge just to have show him around school when there was still a series of issues that needed to be handled. So, for the time being, Shinji was exempt from being anywhere near the school grounds and both girls had to get through the day without letting anyone know that Shinji was around. That was something Asuka found more stressing than how people perceived her on account of her red eyes.

"You went through a year without Shinji being around," Rei reminded her. "What's a few more days compared to what will be a lifetime later on?"

"If you had to walk a mile or two in my shoes?" Asuka replied. "It'd be depressing, stressing…and feeling like you have an itch that you can't scratch properly because it's not on your arms or back. It's…on your heart somewhere."

"It sounds like you're referring to the…other areas of intimacy, sis."

"It does…sound that way, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does. I know it's none of my business to even ask such a question, but seriously…did it hurt the first time?"

"Did what hurt?"

"You know. It…the first time?"

Asuka realized that Rei was referring to that first time. People say that you never forget your first time, and most of the time that was the truth. But in her case, she didn't forget about her first time with Shinji. How could she? It happened on a rainy Mother's Day night, when Shinji needed affection…and she was with him that whole time.

"Yeah," she revealed to her sister. "It did hurt. Not in a bad way, though. When you love someone that much, you can endure whatever pain you experience. And once you experience that first time, everything else just seems to fall into place, like a puzzle depicting your life or something of the sort."

"Whoa."

"Here comes the bus."

Rei looked down the street and saw the bus coming to their local stop, and both girls ran to make sure they caught it and made it to school on time.

-x-

Although the day had only started, it was starting to feel like it would be a good day for Shinji. While he didn't have to stay in the house all the time, he just couldn't be seen by anyone that went to the school he used to go to until the matter with his father and Kagami was resolved. So, after breakfast, he walked along the beach, letting his bare feet feel the warming sand and the cool ocean waves. The warming breeze also felt good.

I want for more days like this, he thought again as he stopped by one of the magatama-shaped rocks that dotted the town on the beach, and placed his left hand on it. I want for there to be days where we can look back on days like this and reflect upon the good things that happened.

"I do, too," he heard his voice utter, but it was not coming out of his mouth.

Turning to his right, he saw…his counterpart, wearing a newer version of the blue and green kimono he had on when they met for the first time, and his face free of burns, a similar calmness over him. He should've been freaked by this, but Shinji actually felt calm by this phenomenon; it was different from the previous time they met in the internal boundaries of his own soul, as they were now out in the open, both enjoying the breeze and the sunlight.

"How does the climate feel to you?" He asked.

"I couldn't say for sure," he responded. "I'm out in the open, on this same beach I've walked on ever since I can remember…and I can't feel anything. Not the sand, not the breeze, not even the sun's warmth."

"Major drag."

"But it's okay. There are other things to do in the day."

"Yeah, there is. When do we begin?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question."

"I feel that I do after a nightmare I had last night."

"I've seen it, as well. Just bits and pieces, though, but your reaction to it was as clear as the day."

"My father. He may do something that upsets the calm and unleashes a new storm upon us."

The deceased Shinji looked away from stone and out at the ocean.

"Surprise wave," he uttered.

"Huh?" Shinji replied, and was soaked up to his waist by a tide. "Ah, come on! Really?!"

"Heh-heh-heh! They happen once or thrice a month. And you got caught up to the waist. That's not really bad."

"Is that right?"

"You get soaked up to your knees, you have luck in changing the fate of a stray dog for a day. You get soaked up to your hips, you get lucky just being able to help someone to cross the street during rush hour traffic. But soaked up to your waist or whole body…and just maybe…you get lucky to do everything you thought you couldn't do within a week if it took longer than a day."

"Sounds like a custom associated only to this town."

"A small town, small customs, but a small town that is still home."

"Yeah…it is home."

Then his deceased counterpart disappeared…and he sighed as he returned back to the house. If this custom was true in Magatama Town, then Shinji was fortunate enough to get soaked up to his knees. It meant that he'd be lucky enough to get done what could longer than a day. And there were a few things that needed to be taken care of.

-x-

A week or so on this ship and Gendo could barely stand being at sea. He had been at sea long enough just to retrieve the Lance of Longinus in his world, but that was just business, not…this imprisonment by some fool in another world that had other intentions that didn't match or exceed his own. And then, there were the people the Third Child stuck with, the very people that had influenced him to turn away from his grand design, including these warped doppelgängers of the Second Child and the boy's mother, who was clearly not someone devoted to science as his wife had been in the past. For all he knew now, Shinji was probably studying on how to obtain this power that belonged to the celestial matriarch of this world's version of the Ikari family, and probably from that same matriarch that he saw that sided with him. If it was true, then he needed an edge against his own son and have the means to take from him what should've been his right from the start.

What could he possibly do with such power, anyway? Gendo pondered as he paced around in his prison cell aboard the ship. What could he possibly have planned? What, does he think he can use the god-given power to restore a maimed world? Does he think he can make it so that the Angels will stop their attacks? Does he think he can actually have a life here with these people? This isn't his world! This isn't his right to decide what will and will not be for anyone! He's one of the pathetic! One of the little people that can't see anything! Power would be wasted upon him! Power should only belong to those that are willing to do anything, anything for greatness!

Meanwhile, Kagami and Gladys were examining another test result Alec had taken of one of Shinji's blood samples.

"It's still viable?" Kagami asked him.

"Yes, but it's showing signs of decreased activity," he explained. "Some of the cells have degraded, but the rest are still active. It's similar to the Hayflick Limit, only much slower."

"I'm sorry, the Hayflick Limit?" Gladys questioned.

"The limit of how long cellular activity within a given cell transpires before succumbing to degradation and eventual loss of function," he stated scientifically. "Basically, some of the blood cells within the samples we have of Shinji Ikari are…dying."

"But not all of them?" Kagami asked him.

"No, not all of them. Most of the samples are persisting, but some are degrading. We'll need new samples from the boy soon."

This meant they needed to get in touch with Wei Fei Li as soon as possible…and have him retrieve the Ikari boy; with everything as it was currently, they would need the boy more than ever. While they could've made plans to reacquire the previous C-Genomes they had released from their custody, Kagami didn't want to admit that he was still fearful of what Shinji might do to them if they made it seem like they were reneging on the would-be deal they had made when he showed up at Mikage International.

"I will not be held responsible for filling these halls with your blood," the tone in Shinji's voice echoed in Kagami's mind as he recalled the boy's threat to him if he went after more girls just because they had celestial blood in their veins. Even after he was injured by this Gendo, he still seems like a valid threat if crossed. However, he is still an invaluable path to a better future where humanity can transcend the planet and live beyond the stars.

While his superiors would be more interested in the artificial hagoromo than in the very project, Kagami had more hope in what inspired his project to begin with, wanting to create a new human race that was better than the ones that came before it. And to do that, he needed people like Shinji Ikari…while he was still alive.

-x-

Fuyutsuki wasn't all that concerned with the fact that SEELE was upset with the aftermath of how NERV dealt with the two Angels. No, he wasn't really concerned that they were upset with the loss of the Lance of Longinus; nothing he said or did would turn their perpetual frowns upside-down. And his concerns were more towards dealing with the Angels and making sure that the human race actually had a future worth embracing.

"…You do realize that without the Lance of Longinus," went SEELE 11 to him during the meeting, "we cannot use Lilith to achieve our goal, don't you?"

"And with Adam gone, our number of resources are thinner than necessary," SEELE 07 announced. "Commander Fuyutsuki, where are your moral obligations when these blatant actions diminish our cause further?!"

"I have no excuses for the way NERV handled the matter involving the two Angels," he responded. "It was my decision to have the Lance of Longinus used to dispose of them due to the lack of Evas available and lack of effective weapons available. If the situation were any different, I would've made a different decision."

Fortunately, this man had less personal intentions than Gendo had during his reign as commander, as SEELE saw no vendetta or desire to take control of the Human Instrumentality Project from them, which seemed likely to be impossible to achieve now.

"What of Evangelion Unit-01?" SEELE 01 questioned; if the Lance of Longinus was no longer available, they could make do with Lilith's artificial doppelgänger as an adequate substitute to their goal.

Fuyutsuki didn't like where this was going and responded, "It's been suspended from active duty after the incident with the Angel that invaded the Geo-Front, sustaining heavy damage in the process of defeating it."

"How long until it's repaired?" SEELE 08 demanded to know.

"Unknown. All three Evas were damaged extensively and will take several weeks to restore."

So long as they didn't ask how Unit-01 was after the battle, Fuyutsuki could live with saying whatever else he needed to say to these people. There had been an attempt made by the Dummy System-controlled Unit-01 to ravage the Angel in a bestial manner, but the Angel had made it difficult by refusing to let its S² Engine be devoured, resulting in the Eva tearing it up and tossing the pieces all over the base. If the Eva had managed to acquire an S² Engine, it would've been next to unstoppable…and more invaluable. But that didn't happen, and it didn't make their situation regarding the Angels any different from what it was already.

"See to it that they are ready for the next Angel attack," SEELE 01 told him.

"Understood, sir," he replied.

"You are dismissed."

Fuyutsuki left the chamber where the holographic monoliths resided, leaving the men behind them to converse alone.

"This Fuyutsuki," SEELE 12 uttered, "does he not have an agenda like Ikari?"

"There's no indication that he intends to usurp the Instrumentality Project for himself," SEELE 03 responded. "What about exposing our objectives?"

"No, he knows better than to cross that line," SEELE 07 reminded them. "He gave his research findings to Ikari before joining NERV; he probably doesn't know where became of them."

-x-

"Did you get soaked by a wave out there?" Yui asked Shinji when he returned to the house, seeing that half his body was damp.

"Yeah," he answered her.

"A lucky wave," went Anzu as she walked by with a teapot in her right hand. "It seems like today's going to be an important day."

"Yeah," Shinji agreed with her, and noticed how the teapot his grandmother was carrying seemed a little heavy. "Do we have guests coming over?"

"Only the ones involved in the matter that still needs to be taken care of," Yui reminded him. "Nothing better than calming tea before beginning anything."

Shinji accepted this truth and then said he'd be up in his room to change out of his damp pants before coming back down.

-x-

It was getting close to the conclusion after Shinji regained his bearings after his recovery. But there was a difference between getting close to the end of this series of unfortunate events…and being at the end of said series of events. This was what Aya, Aki, Toya, Yuuhi, Q-Chan, Chidori and Misato understood as they were heading back over to the Ikari house. The goal was to finally put an end to what Kagami had done in the beginning…and send Gendo back to his and Shinji's world. Once this was done, they could all stop feeling like they had to run or hide or be away from their loved ones, could go home, return to what remained of their past lives before everything changed.

But deep down, they knew nothing would be the same again. Even if it was a war and they were the ones victorious, nothing would be like it was before. There would still be the losses, the deaths that occurred, the friends and family they had lost and so on. But still, what little they had left would be worth having when this was over.

"…So, Katsuragi," went Yuuhi to Misato, "your grandmother has recovered fully and is on her way home?"

"Yeah," she answered him. "She'll be home when I get back."

"Are you sure you don't wanna just walk away while you're still able to?" Aki asked her as they came to a stoplight down the street.

"If I walked away now, I'd have regrets about not seeing this through to the end."

"Why do you have to make it sound like you have a death wish when you say it like that?" Chidori questioned.

"When I ended up at Mikage and they had me use my power to help make their fake hagoromo, I didn't feel alive after that. I mean, I was alive, but…I wasn't very talkative or emotional. Dead inside. And then Shinji had his blood used to restore me, and I felt alive again. I met all of you, and I felt more alive than I've ever been since I lost my parents and my little brother."

Aki and Aya could sympathize with her; whereas they lost their father and nearly lost their mother, it was only because of their unexpected heritage, but Misato lost the majority of her family, all save her grandmother, due to unexpected misfortune.

"I was in a bad place for a while," Misato had told them when she felt comfortable enough to talk about how they passed away. "I felt robbed of my life that day. Who else could feel that way after learning that they're the only survivor…of a pointless car accident?"

None of them could answer a question of that sort; none of them had experienced that level of loss at such an early age. The only people that could compare to her level trauma…were Shinji and Asuka; Shinji, who, in one life, lost his mother at an early age and was abandoned by his father, the same guy that was now trying to obtain what would never be his only because his own son could obtain it, and Asuka lost her parents in a plane accident three years after her grandmother passed away, which left her with no other blood relatives. And then, there was…Shinji, who didn't exactly lose his father because he never met him or even had a conversation with him, but who had an absent mother for much of his life because she, due to her wild days and indirection towards her future, wasn't much of an active participant in his upbringing, which resulted in his seeking love and affection elsewhere to fill the void in his heart. Yeah, when they thought about it deeply, it was Asuka and the Shinjis that could relate to Misato's loss of family.

"Believe me, it's a blessing to feel alive, not just be alive," Misato told them. "I'm willing to do whatever I can to help in order to avoid ever feeling dead inside all over again. Because I don't want anyone else to ever feel the way I did back then. I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Crossing the street, the group continued onward towards the Ikari house.

"Better to be part of the reason the bad guys don't prosper instead of being a bystander, huh?" Yuuhi stated.

"More or less," she responded.

"Hopefully, nobody dies in the process, either," said Aki to them. "Too many lies have already been ended as it is. It'd be nice to have it all end on a good note."

"Yeah," agreed Chidori.

-x-

If Asuka had any real say in any of this, she would've never gone back to school for as long as there were current problems that needed to be dealt with. Even as school was beginning to let out, she couldn't help but reflect back on the days long gone that were like a dream compared to the nightmare that was moving on without the people she loved most.

"Heh," she heard Rei go as they were in the locker room after gym finished. "I don't think I've ever seen you so excited to see the school day be over, Asuka."

"As important as I know school to be," she replied, "I don't want to think about it until everything else has been done. I mean, it'd be nice in the mediocre sense, but when there are other things to worry about, it just becomes so…"

"Insignificant?" Rei asked. "Plain? Removed from what we do understand? Yeah, I actually get that feeling. It felt nice to get away from it for just a little while when I left out of town to help the GeSANG music group a few days back. It felt good to be away from the trivialities of grades and educational pursuits. But if there's one thing I've learned about how I feel towards the mundaneness of my routine, it's really this: It's days like this, days where I can think about what I'm going to do later on, once the obstacles that hinder the desired goals to be pursued in the future, without moments of darkness or grief, with clarity… These are the days worth having a reason to go on for."

Asuka smiled as she slipped on her uniform skirt after her stockings. Her sister was absolutely right about these mundane days worth having. They were trivial, of course, but they were also a treasure in a world of intangible treasures that were worth persisting to keep from being taken by those that saw no value. Before she closed her locker up, Asuka took one last look at something she had kept in there for three months.

It was polished red and made of lightweight metal, resembling a pair of barrettes on a half-circle that could be hidden under hair. It was her headband from a Halloween princess costume that went out of fashion two years ago, but she kept that one part of it because it felt nice on her head. Except when she thought about Shinji's past in his world before he ended up displaced here, she realized that her doppelgänger had the same headband that was used to help the teens pilot the Evas. It was almost depressing to have to know that in one lifetime something you kept from an old costume was used in another lifetime to aid in operating a war machine in a war against extinction, a subtle reminder that there was such a thing as alternate dimensions, alternate timelines, other versions of yourself that were different from you because of different factors that led them down different paths.

"Tell me something, Rei," she spoke to her sister as she was replacing her gym shoes with her dress shoes, "what would you have done differently if you were in another universe and people saw you differently from who you are?"

"Me? I'd probably wear makeup first before deciding to be talkative and open about myself. Then I'd probably sing some old tune before telling people that I'm a changed lady. You?"

"Well, I wouldn't waste my time trying to be seen and heard by everyone if it's just one person that I want to be seen by…and I wouldn't try to stand out too much if I already do."

She reached into her locker and pulled out the old headband, only to put it in her backpack; it was just a piece of an old costume, nothing really worth having unless it was to play dress-up for another costume party.

"What now?" Rei asked her.

"Now?" She replied again. "Now, we head to where we want to be…and do what we can to ensure we have more of these mundane days to look forward to."

Rei closed her locker and followed her out of the gym.

-x-

Misato, Asuka and Rei had fallen asleep in the room around the mirror. They hadn't been home in the last two days after the defeat of the two Angels, paying the majority of their attention to whatever Shinji had been doing in the other world, which was limited mostly to just him being around the Ikari house while his friends were visiting and preparing to deal with his father. Anything else being done was few and in between other things. As Kaji showed up to check on them, he noticed how the mirror rippled and showed him an image of Gendo, who looked like he had done something very cruel.

"You pathetic brat," he heard him say to someone. "All you had to do was give me what I deserved and you wouldn't have paid the price you did just now. But don't worry about those jerks you chose to stick with. They'll be joining you soon."

Kaji got the sickening feeling that Gendo was talking to Shinji, but because the mirror didn't show Shinji, it was just a possibility. Then, the mirror rippled again, showing nothing but whatever was reflected in its view.

What was that about? He wondered. Was that a future event yet to transpire?

-x-

"Is that everyone?" Shinji asked his mother as he noticed everyone he had met since he arrived in town, with the sole exception of Suzumi.

"We're all here," said Aya to him.

He sighed and asked the next question that was the most vital one he felt he needed to ask them.

"Before we get started…does anyone want to get out for the sake of surviving what might be a struggle against Kagami and my father?" He went, just hoping that one or two of them would speak up and back out for the sake of living to see old age or some other desire that was selfish or selfless.

"Maybe we should go to the bathroom first," suggested Anzu. I have been alive for over fifty years, and if I'm fortunate, I may live for another thirty.

He just wants us to back out so that we don't suffer, thought Toya as he held Aya's left hand, but we're still in this to end it all. No more running. No more hiding.

We go in, get the artificial hagoromo, stop Kagami and Gendo, and we put an end to the project that was started with Ceres, Aki wanted to believe.

In a different future, Chidori understood, where we never met Shinji, some of us never meet. Some of us don't get to grow up, grow old or live to have a future. But we did meet Shinji, and he changed our fates, made it so that we're still alive, that we're not suffering because of people that see descendants of Tennyo as some sort of invaluable commodity for some crazy goal. I want to be able to look back on this with a smile because we all got to walk away and live on.

For peace, thought Yui.

For family and friends, thought Rei.

For everyone that has suffered because of Mikage, Yuuhi believed.

When nobody turned to walk away in front of Shinji, he sighed and knew that things were going to be unpredictable and beyond his ability to comprehend fully. All he could do was his very best to make sure that they all had a future where they would be able to look back on this as nothing more than a bad dream they were trying to wake up from. And this was why they were here right now, either unable or unwilling to walk away until the people, directly or indirectly, responsible for their problems were dealt with, either subtly or severely, whichever way ensured that they couldn't cause any more problems for them. But with Shinji, he knew what needed to be done; remove the resources that could cause difficulty and those that would exploit them would be no different from regular people unprepared for a problem of the largest sort.

"As crazy as I feel this is," he told them, "I can't really find it in me to call any of you crazy."

"We've all done some crazy things once or twice," said Asuka to him. "At some point, doing crazy things just become another form of activity."

"After this, there's gotta be a simple desire to be sought after," Chidori stated.

"How about laying on a beach for as long as y'all been uprooted or hiding or whatever? Yui suggested. "Just chilling and enjoying the water, cool drinks, fruit slices? Just good days."

"Well, we already have a beach," Rei pointed out.

"I make a nice tequila," Anzu added, just trying to lighten the mood.

Shinji smiled at them. Friends and family, something he would give his all to protect.

I would persist for them, he thought to himself.

Your persistence will be what separated you from your father, he heard Frenzia's voice say to him. You're nearly there, Shinji. The closest one by far.

The closest one by far?

You'll know…when you know.

With nobody else saying what could've been said, they all left out the Ikari house and walked down the coastal street. It would be half an hour before they were at the destination of their transportation and even longer for them to reach their second destination, which was where Kagami was currently.

Unknown to them, however, another pair of eyes were watching them from a distance. It was Wei Fei Li, making sure that Shinji was still alive after the injuries he had sustained from his father's wrath. Now that it seemed like the boy was going to pull through after his rather-miraculous recovery, he had informed Kagami of his current condition and was now under orders to make sure that Shinji was brought to him. Yet, it seemed like Shinji was already making certain of that himself.

To be continued…

A/N: Again, I apologize for taking so long to get back to this story. I hope you can forgive my absence. It seems like it's getting close to the ending, but still far from it. I'd like to hear from y'all what you think you will happen and what little glimpses of what has yet to transpire will make you assume you know what will happen. Peace and good health for all you out there.