Creation began on 09-11-21

Creation ended on 09-12-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Different from You: One Year Later at the Inn

A/N: It's been a long time trying to find a way to update this story. I guess this way will suffice.

NERV had only faced five Angels within the past year after the Third Child fled with his childhood lady friend and fellow teen parent, and every time between varying periods of one-three months, with the last one being as recently as two months ago. It was one thing for NERV to have to make do with their limited resources to defend the human race from sure destruction by the Angels they rarely ever knew about because of the careful manipulation of the media, but it was another thing for NERV to try and maintain their effectiveness against the Angels when their secondary resource, those qualified to pilot the Evangelions, were either scared beyond reasonable doubts, behaved with either arrogance or indifference…or were indisposed of in one way or another, requiring the agency to constantly look for new candidates, which was a trying task for them. Contrary to the belief of the people that ran NERV, most weren't interested in what the paramilitary group was doing after they were suspected of foul play with at least fourteen teenagers from Tokyo-3 Junior High that either transferred out or were just reported missing.

This is insane, thought Misato Katsuragi as she had seen another former pilot get carted away by the medical personnel after another synchronization test went wrong, causing severe brain and nerve damage. First the Third Child runs away, then we lose the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Children, and the following children get injured in the Angel attacks, and now the Twelfth Child has suffered the loss of function in her legs because of the synchronization test.

There was a time when she wished that the Third Child had turned up somewhere and they could get him and bring him back to pilot the Eva, but it was he, his friend and their kids just dropped off the face of the Earth.

"…So, another candidate refused?" She heard Ryoji Kaji ask her as she walked down the hall.

"Horaki declined after learning that Suzuhara was approached after the death of the Aida boy after the Fifth Angel attack. It's not easy, trying to convince these kids to pilot the Evas after hearing what the alternative would be. All NERV seems to do is send the ones most unfortunate to their graves."

"Well, I may have something to alleviate the feeling of dread."

"I doubt that."

Kaji then showed her a picture he had found and explained where he found it.

"I spent seventy-five hours last week wandering around the social media sites and found this on a woman's page from Tsukumi," he revealed to Misato. "It's a location on Oshima Island."

"Does Commander Ikari know about this?" She asked him.

"Not yet."

-x-

Gendo was not impressed that it took a year just to find the location of the hideaway, as it was the last place anyone would think to look for someone. It was like the kami were taunting him or something. But that was then, and now was the time to make a plan of action against the Third Child and bring him back into the operation against the Angels. In his office, on his desk, a picture of Shinji, Rumiko, Shado and Toya were sitting at a table in a dining hall of some hotel located on Oshima Island, all smiles and watching an elderly man put on a puppet show of sorts in front of them.

You hid on an island too far from here and you thought you were safe from me? Gendo thought, angry at the fact that it took this long to find the boy. You will pay for wasting my time finding you if it's not the last thing I do.

-x-

A year since showing up that night at the Bodega Bay Inn, but a year that enabled the quartet to think about their future…since they couldn't revisit their past. Ever since meeting Andre Toulon and being given jobs to help around the inn, Shinji and Rumiko had time to reevaluate their present state; neither had a home to go back to, the fear of their children being taken from them the only repercussion in their future if anyone did find them or if they tried to go back, and the more he thought about it, the more Shinji couldn't find the logic or heart in returning to see a man that was as much a stranger to him as he was a nonentity to everyone that came to the inn when they came to get away from their lives elsewhere. In a different perception of their current living situation, at least they didn't have to worry about being looked for around here; rarely anyone visited the island nowadays, as guests were a rarity after the hotel was rebuilt in Japan.

If one has to hide from the world, a hotel doesn't seem like the worst place to be, Shinji thought as he did a final walk through the halls of the floor he was on before turning in for the remainder of the night. "Huh?"

Standing in the middle of the hall in front of the teen father, one of Mr. Toulon's puppets, the one called Blade, looked up at Shinji. At first, the boy was startled by the puppet's presence, but then chuckled to himself.

"Are you here to help me make sure that nobody that isn't supposed to be here is not here, Blade-Sama?" He asked the puppet, and saw it raise its blade arm up.

"They can't speak like we do," Mr. Toulon had told them once, "but make no mistake, they are as alive as you and I."

At first, Shinji was worried because he didn't want Shado to get hurt by the puppets, but Mr. Toulon assured him that so long as none of them made themselves a threat to the puppets, they would not make themselves a threat to any of them. And it made Rumiko's fascination with the reason why the elder's puppets were so capable of moving on their own greater. Plus, Shado had found three puppets to favor out them: Jester, Pinhead and Leech Woman (who, according to Shado, should have a better name because she didn't look scary). Combined with Toya's favoritism towards the Tunneler, Six-Shooter and Blade, the teen parents didn't have anywhere else to be for the time being.

"Much appreciated," he praised Blade, and walked past him.

Unbeknownst to Shinji, Blade was performing a request for the Puppet Master; as Toulon was not going to be around forever, even though he had been blessed with a second chance, he just wanted to make sure that Shinji and Rumiko were the best likely to be able to protect the puppets from falling into the wrong hands. There needed to be a successor, and, if need be, two would be just a good thing.

To be continued…

A/N: I apologize for taking so long to update this. What do you think?