Creation began on 05-17-15
Creation ended on 05-20-15
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Discovery
A/N: "I don't want your suffering, I don't want your future!" Professor X says in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
"…Hey, he's waking up," Shinji heard someone say as he came to, having lost consciousness after the Eva.
Opening his eyes, he found himself in a dungeon-like room with a small light above his head.
"Another unbearable ceiling," he groaned, getting up, and then he noticed at least three people in front of him.
They looked a little older than he was, dressed in military-looking uniforms, and wearing strange gear that looked like blades attached to gun handles.
"You're awake now," the blond-haired woman in front of him expressed. "How are you?"
Before Shinji could answer, he realized that he was shackled to the cot he was on.
"What is the meaning of this?" He asked them, raising his shackled arms up.
"It's a precaution," she answered him. "We don't know what you are, human or Titan. Identify yourself immediately, sir."
"My name…is Shinji Ikari."
"Are you human or Titan?" A gray-haired man asked him.
"I'm human. What is a Titan?"
"Those things that look like people, only bigger and have a taste for human flesh," explained the third person, a blond-haired boy. "Um, that giant, purple thing you were found in. Just what is it? We initially thought it was some sort of new Titan, but it looks like it's made completely out of metal."
"Purple giant? Oh, you mean the Eva. It's a… It's a giant, synthetic machine that was designed to fight against giant monsters called Angels."
"Angels? Giant monsters? Are they like the Titans?"
Shinji nodded in the negative; he had never seen an Angel that was similar to what he learned were the Titans that he had faced when he arrived here, wherever "here" was.
"I don't know what is going on, exactly, but I have one question that deserves an answer," Shinji expressed, "and that's just where am I?"
"You're in the Trost District," the blond-haired woman explained. "It's a town located on the southern side of Wall Rose."
"Wall Rose?"
"The Wall we found you by when we were facing the Colossal Titan."
"The Colossal Titan? You mean, that giant with no skin that I cut up?"
"That's right."
-x-
Setting up base tents around Unit-01, the Survey Corps had been tasked with keeping the purple giant in check and protected from potential theft and Titan assaults.
Eren and Mikasa, standing just under the Eva's lowered head, were wondering if the giant could come back to life on its own.
A horse and rider came by, approaching Erwin Smith, who supervised the detail over the Eva.
"The boy found inside this giant came to an hour ago," he revealed to Erwin.
"And has he explained anything about this giant and how it works?" Erwin questioned.
"Not in that many words, sir."
"Explain."
"He was questioned about it, and all he was able to say was that it's called an Evangelion, or 'Eva' for short. With everything else that he said, it doesn't seem like either are from around here or beyond the Walls where Titans could be found."
"What do you mean?"
"They just fell from the sky, so it's more than likely that they came from some other place. Possibly another world, even."
"How is such a thing possible?"
"If I knew, sir, then I'd know how to defeat the Titans myself."
The man explained what he learned from Shinji about the Eva, about how it was designed to face monsters that were vastly different from the Titans, and where they were from.
"…So, it's clear that they're from a place where there were buildings that could…sink into and rise out of the ground."
"That sounds almost like a fairy tale," Erwin commented. "Never mind this…Evangelion, then. What about the boy's background?"
"That was something he was even more hesitant on talking about," the man said. "He was sent for by his father one day…and then forced to face an enemy he knew nothing about, with very little hope of surviving. He's been facing these…Angel monsters ever since the day he met his father. Before that, his childhood can only be defined as a poor upbringing. He lost his mother at an early age and his father abandoned him, leaving him in the care of a teacher and having very little contact with him. No friends or other family relatives, despite hailing from a place that had millions of people, living an isolated lifestyle no different from our lives behind the Walls."
Eren and Mikasa overheard the entire conversation and wondered who this Shinji Ikari really was and how emotionally damaged he had been.
-x-
After eating and being given a pair of clothes to walk around it (he'd been in his plugsuit ever since waking up in the room he was placed in), Shinji was permitted to walk around the Trost District as long as he was escorted by a Stationary Guard.
It's like an old town from centuries I've only heard of, Shinji thought as he walked down the old roads, seeing the damaged buildings and walkways caused by the Titans.
While some of the deceased civilians had been collected and disposed of, there were still a few left that Shinji took notice of, and it took him a lot of effort to hide his woe and disgust over the dead bodies.
"How long have these…Titans been attacking everyone?" He found the will to ask that question.
"Over one-hundred years," the guard escorting him answered.
One-hundred years?
"We're at the brink of extinction because of them. At first, they couldn't breach the Walls, but then the Colossal and Armored Titans appeared five years ago. And then, just a few days ago, the Colossal had reappeared again…and again. They took most of the land within Wall Maria and almost forced us to retreat to Wall Sina if they took Wall Rose."
"That must've been when I showed up."
"I heard that you used that purple giant to kill the Colossal. Almost hard to believe someone like you killed a Titan that massive and caused the other Titans to retreat. You must either be lucky or blessed."
Seeing some people entering the undamaged buildings (probably their homes or shops), Shinji wanted to say that he was neither lucky or blessed, but the sight of a little girl being picked up and held by her father kept him silent.
-x-
"…We've checked the neck of this giant, and our blades couldn't make a dent in its armor," one of the female members of the Survey Corps informed Erwin. "Whoever built this thing clearly didn't want it going down easily."
Erwin looked up at the horned giant and thought that such a thing could be extremely useful against the Titans if it could be controlled.
"Orders, sir?" He was asked by the woman.
"We might need the boy's help," he expressed, already hoping that the people could be aided by this giant.
-x-
With the destruction of the Twelfth Angel, NERV had expected to regain Unit-01, but all they obtained from its defeat was Angel blood splattered everywhere within reach and extensive damage done to an insignificant portion of the city it was in. There was neither an Evangelion or a pilot salvaged from the operation to eliminate the Angel.
"This isn't good," Ritsuko sighed, unable to comprehend why the Eva didn't return after using all of their remaining N² arsenal that they had at their disposal, although the head and torso of it should've survived mostly intact.
Misato was crushed. The Angel had been defeated, but, in her mind, the cost was just too high; the Eva didn't matter as much as Shinji had.
Rei was equally devastated, but was unsure of how to actually treat this loss.
Asuka, while not one to display any emotion towards anyone that she viewed as competition, regretted egging Shinji to take on the Angel on his own. She might've disliked him, but not to the point of wanting him killed, just out of her way.
Commander Ikari will not like this, Ritsuko realized; with the apparent loss of Unit-01, Gendo Ikari's wrath was all but assured, and nobody would be exempt from it.
-x-
Looking into his cup of water, Shinji was unsure of the reason he was requested to be seen by this Dot Pixis guy, only being informed earlier as the sun started to set that he had requested an audience with the boy. So all he could do right now was sit and wait.
What could they possibly want with me? He wondered.
"So, you're the one that everyone in the Garrison's been talking about?" He looked to his left and saw an elderly man that was balding.
"Are you…Dot Pixis?" He asked him.
"Indeed, I am," the bald man answered.
"I was told you wanted to see me, but not why."
"It concerns your…Evangelion."
"Oh."
"You've been told about how the people have been living behind the Walls for over a century, right?"
"Yes. Because of the Titans, nobody has been able to live outside the Walls, so nobody's sure if there are more people beyond them."
"Well, there have been several attempts over the years to expand beyond the Walls…but with no success. But…now that the Colossal Titan's gone, the Survey Corps wish to try and expand humanity beyond the Walls again, but this time, they want for you to join them with your Evangelion."
"You mean…you want my help against the Titans?"
"Yes. Would you consider helping us take back the lands the Titans have taken over the years? We'd be grateful for your assistance."
Of course, helping to face the Titans would mean piloting the Eva, but this time against an enemy that looked like people, only bigger and were man-eaters and were as nude as the people they devoured were when they drew their first breath.
"…We already have one edge against the Titans by having a lad who's able to turn into one," he heard Mr. Pixis express, which caught Shinji's attention in an endangered way.
"Huh?" He reacted. "Someone here can turn into a Titan?"
"Oh, there's no need to worry," Mr. Pixis assured him. "He's of no harm to anyone, except the enemy Titans. He helped us clear the town of them when they invaded a few days ago. A bit of a shock when it was discovered, but we've, more or less, accepted him for what he's capable of."
"Oh. You almost had me worried for a moment. But to be honest, I don't know if the Eva would be of any help to anyone. I mean, I was able to get it working again, but that was probably by sheer luck. I barely know anything about the Eva. Half the time, I don't know if I control it…or it controls me. Nobody else was able to pilot it back where I'm from."
"There were others? These Evas?"
"Only three. Of course, since I'm here, they're reduced to two. I don't think my father is worried about my disappearance, though."
"Why is that?"
"He was never once said a kind thing to me. The only time he ever gave me praise was when I piloted the Eva, and even that was just one time."
"That's rough," Mr. Pixis expressed his sympathy to him; he could understand why most people wouldn't want to throw their lives away for any reason that resulted in a great change, and how most children that joined the military usually had no other influence to guide them towards other, potential futures within the Walls. "But what of now? You're the only one that can decide what to do with your life as long as you're here."
And truth be told, Shinji just wanted to walk away from fighting and try to find a meager life wherever he could. But somehow doubt that such a possibility existed for him, back then and now. While the battlefield of the Angels was intense, the battlefield of these Titans didn't seem similar to what he had been forced into; the Colossal had been the largest of the Titans encountered so far, while the rest of them had been less than twenty-meters in height, so an Eva that could function would be like a human stepping on a roach or some other small pest. And then, there was the fact that Unit-01 had consumed some of the Titans and restored its power and extended the time regulator to over five minutes. If he could limit the time used until there were enemy Titans to consume (if there was even the possibility of extending the time limit of the Eva's internal battery), then there was a possibility of actually helping these people take back their world from these giant man-eaters.
And there's no Angels to fight, he thought, feeling that he could actually help these people. "Maybe I can get the Eva to eat more of the Titans."
-x-
In his office, Gendo Ikari was pondering how to make sense of his scenario now that Unit-01, his primary piece, was gone. The Eva was instrumental in achieving his goal, but now, without it, there was no way to achieve his desired outcome. He might've still had Adam and Lilith, but the soul he longed to reunite with was gone, beyond his reach and the reach of NERV's existing science and technology. There was no further point in him going on, anymore.
"The Committee was not happy to know that Unit-01 was lost," Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki expressed; it had been a week since the Twelfth Angel's defeat.
Gendo didn't say anything, and Fuyutsuki didn't expect him to.
-x-
Rising from the ocean waters, two giant humanoids stood, overlooking the ruins of a former city. They looked at each other, unsure of where they were, only that it was immensely different from where they used to reside.
The giant on the left looked like a person of a feminine build, with short, blondish hair and a complete lack of skin, displaying measures of muscle and bone tissue.
The one of the right had the build of a hunched man, but the majority of its appearance, while lacking skin, possessed various plates of a hardened, bone-like material that served as a substitute.
-x-
"…So, you're okay with this?" Armin asked Shinji, who was in his plugsuit once more, about to climb into the Entry Plug still protruding out of Unit-01.
"Yeah," he answered back. "I mean, it's just giants that are mostly around three-fifteen-meters tall, right? The Colossal was sixty-meters tall and Unit-01 is one-hundred-meters tall. I was told that the chances of any Titan being of similar height to the Colossal are very slim."
"Yeah…and you took out the Colossal, so, thanks to you, we may have the upper hand against the Titans for the first time in a long time."
Shinji then closed the Entry Plug and resealed the Eva, letting the LCL refill the plug.
When Unit-01 activated, it carried a large tent with a wooden base to transport the Survey Corps to Wall Maria in order to venture beyond it in the hopes that the Titans weren't around.
"Why us?!" Armin screamed, as several of the members had to use their blades lodged into the wood to hold their ground; it was quite a surprise to be witnesses to an Eva's speed, as its height and mass should've made it similar to a Titan…to a degree, but it was moving like nothing could stop it.
Shinji watched his timer and had used only less than three minutes so far. By the time he had consumed four minutes of the Eva's power, he had reached Wall Maria.
"Incredible," went Levi; it would've normally taken them a day or two to get from one of the Walls to the other.
But what really caught their attention was what was moving away from Wall Maria.
Titans, moving through the hole that had been made by the Colossal Titan five years earlier, at an unsteady pace.
"They're still running," uttered Mikasa.
To be continued…
A/N: What do you think so far?