Creation began on 07-10-18
Creation ended on 07-11-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: NERV's next move
Asuka might as well have been relieved of her duties as the Second Child with what happened as she returned to the Geo-Front. With Unit-02 destroyed and scattered across the previous battlefield because of Shinji's response to NERV's demands, she was powerless, and she hated feeling powerless. Not only that, she wasn't sure how to move on from this defeat she was dealt by the deranged couple that was Shinji and Kaede.
"Stupid pairing," she uttered to herself.
The elevator she was in opened up and she saw Kaji and Misato.
"Hey, Asuka," the unshaven man greeted her. "Glad to see you're back."
"You saw what he did over there," she told them. "He destroyed my Unit-02!"
"And Ms. Sogen threatened to hurt you if you ever went back there and if Commander Ikari sent anyone else back there," Misato informed her. "She's dedicated to him, and feels he gave her back the hope her step-grandfather took from her."
"She actually said she loves him. How can she be in love with him? Doesn't she know how depraved her can be?"
"Asuka, there's something about their relationship you should know about."
"What do you mean?"
"It turns out Ms. Sogen asked him one day if she had a chance with him," Kaji revealed.
"She initiated it?" Asuka questioned.
"We checked the internal system of Unit-01 and found a current memory of Shinji's that revealed them on the island of an aircraft carrier where they talked about it," Misato explained to her. "It turns out Ms. Sogen doesn't have a preference for someone she asks if she has a shot with being involved with. She understands that the Eva is just a tool used by him to spread hope to the people; she chose Shinji because he was the first person to give the people such hope. Even if he didn't have the Eva after everything's said and done, even if he was doing something else, she still wanted to know if she had a shot with him."
"He asked her if she meant it," Kaji added on, "and she did. Then they both stated that they had no experience with such a relationship, but that didn't stop her from hugging him."
"Just how serious do you suspect their relationship to be now?"
"Based on how the girl put her foot down on you and then lifted you up over her head singlehandedly when she threatened you, she's not looking to break Shinji's heart or see him suffer just because of his father or anyone else affiliated with NERV," stated Misato to her. "And this is a girl you yourself asked if she wanted to marry him and have kids with him one day."
"The worst question I ever asked her."
-x-
The two Titans in Terminal Dogma were as lifeless as the immobile Lilith on the cross. Devoid of sunlight had made them virtually docile and incapable of harming a human as Gendo stood in front of them. They looked down at him, but didn't move an inch.
He was pondering his next move; the pilot candidates for Unit-03 weren't most likely to serve him due to there being no sure fire way to keep them in check should he ever send them to the other world to deal with his son. With Unit-02 destroyed, the leader of NERV had to come up with a different plan that was short of deploying an entire army and slaughtering people that would jeopardize his control over Unit-01 and the Third Child.
"Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida are both ill-suited to pilot Unit-03," Ritsuko had expressed her professional opinion on the candidates, "and Hikari Horaki barely has any interaction with the Third Child. Even if there was a chance of any one of them piloting the Eva and going over there to convince him to surrender the Eva and the girl, he may do the same to them that he did to Unit-02 when the Second Child attempted to persuade him to surrender, and they used to live together under Major Katsuragi. And the Dummy System is still being developed."
I may have to get the old men to deploy an army or an N² bomb if nothing else works, he thought, not wanting to consider one other option unless he actually had to. If he makes me have to go over there where it's dangerous and I have no authority, he's as good as relieved of his duties as the pilot of Unit-01 and incarcerated in a prison somewhere.
Gendo wanted not to go there at all to retrieve the Eva, but the longer it was there, the more difficult it would be to get back. His son simply had no idea what really made Unit-01 more valuable than any other Evangelion, not just the fact that consuming Titans or even the abandoned remains of the ones used by the girl that chose to be his girlfriend. Of course, he made sure that nobody apart from himself and three others under him know what made the purple behemoth invaluable.
Damn it, boy, don't you dare make me come to you just to get what is mine and should be mine, he thought, angry over the whole situation his son was making difficult for them.
-x-
"…Most of the personnel here are beginning to suggest a parting of the ways with the Third Child," went Fuyutsuki to Misato and Kaji in the cafeteria the next day. "If he can't be persuaded to return to this world, then it's a waste of both time and resources to try and force him and acquire the Sogen girl for her Dark Titan."
"Oh, yeah?" Kaji questioned. "Try telling that to Commander Ikari. He's not going to listen to anyone or stop until he gets those two back in his possession and has the girl in NERV custody."
"If it's between further research on someone with Titan abilities and the wrath of a boyfriend with the power of an Evangelion that has become a symbol of hope for an endangered race of people," said Misato to them, "I'd rather put up with the boyfriend that wouldn't hesitate to inflict harm on any that made the mistake of taking her from him and her parents."
Further access to Unit-01's internal system enabled NERV to explore other memories that had been recorded from Shinji's mind, including him spending time with Kaede's mother and stepfather and learning of said girl's sour history with her step-grandfather. The memories were a record of what the boy had done while on an island that people had been forced to live on behind three concentric walls for as long as they could remember, and he was the people's key to a door that had been closed off to them for a long time. The worst of his memories were of when he had to face Asuka and made the hardest choice of his life as a pilot, had to live with the initial guilt that he had murdered innocent people that had been turned into Titans long ago, and had to accept the fact that once he defected from NERV, he knew he was probably as good as incarcerated or even executed for his decision.
"And you don't regret not being able to go back to your world after everything?" Kaede's mother, this Christine Sogen, had once asked Shinji, almost two days after he had destroyed Unit-02.
"I'm learning to live with many of the choices I've made since I found out about many things that have been kept from the people and so on, Mrs. Sogen," he had answered her. "The one thing I hope never to do again, now that I have more clarity, is to cross the sensitive line between life and death."
Misato had seen that, despite the harsh reality of his circumstances and the weight of it all, Shinji still had his morality, his sense of right and wrong, things he was willing to do…and things he wasn't willing to let happen, even if he didn't have any say in the matter. It was only because of this morality, his good nature and drive to be the people's hope that kept him from killing Asuka that night he officially defected from NERV. Even if Asuka had goaded him into the choice that stripped their agency of two Evas instead of one, he still couldn't do the unforgivable or unthinkable.
"Short of sending an army and attacking innocent people that have nothing to do with our cause, I see no further reason to try and force Shinji to return," she expressed.
Ring-ring! Fuyutsuki's phone rang, and he answered it.
"Fuyutsuki," he uttered, and his expression became one of concern. "How long ago was this?"
A minute later, he hung up and looked at the two in front of him.
"That was Dr. Akagi," he explained. "Ikari has requested the service of the JSSDF. Their orders are to take Unit-01 back by force, even if it means destroying it and the island settlement it's on."
It finally happened. To their greatest shock. Gendo Ikari…had finally crossed the line.
"How long?" Misato demanded.
"Three weeks. Just long enough to give them time to replenish their N² arsenal…and give Shinji an ultimatum before declaring war."
The purple-haired woman wasn't sure how things could get any worse than they were expected to be, but knew that, even if he defected from the agency, Shinji had to be warned of what his father had planned to do to the people he was protecting. Something of this sort was just going too far and echoing previous wars that occurs in the past…but the new wrinkle was that one world's people were going to bring harm to another world's people over a resource that, while technically, belonged to one of them, was in the possession of another world's people, along with a rogue child who would face serious repercussions if he were apprehended.
"I know you informed the Survey Corps that anyone with the power of the Titans will only have them for fifteen years before it leaves them in favor of new vessels to inhabit," she remembered Shinji's memory of Kaede asking him of a personal question from a few days ago, "but how long do you think I'll really last with the Dark Titan, which is different from the previous Nine Titans?"
"If I have faith in how different your Titan is," he had responded, "I hope it's as long as you live to see old age. Maybe fifty…or sixty…or ninety years. Depending on how a person maintains their exercise routines, dietary practices and other health concerns, it's anyone's guess at how long any one person can live until their last day. Even I don't know how long I'll live…but I'm willing to spend every second I can with you."
If he was trying to make a joke of it because he wasn't sure how long himself, he certainly has honesty regarding this lifespan thing he seems to have discovered about people that can turn into one of these Nine Titans, she thought as she knew he had to be warned of future events. Damn it, Shinji, how do you get into the worst of unexpected situations where we don't really have any obligation to be involved?
-x-
It was quite peaceful in the brief time Shinji and Kaede had off from the Survey Corps while they made plans their to go to Marley and settle the discord between them and Eldia for good, so they just laid on a grassy hill in between Walls Maria and Rose, looking up at the sky.
Evangelion Unit-01 was three feet away from the hill, just in case they needed to head back to the coastal city.
"Shinji?" Kaede spoke.
"Yes?" He responded.
"What are you thinking about right now?"
"Right now? What Historia offered us if she had to become the new ruler of Eldia. She really wants people she can trust to help her rule in a proper way. Either as advisers or even co-rulers if that's where she's going. I'm considering accepting her offer…but I want to know what you think about it?"
"What do I think about it? Well…if honesty's what she's looking for in people she wants to trust, I want to be someone she can trust…except I don't know if I can be honest with her…when there's something wrong with what I want across the ocean."
Shinji was slightly depressed by her desire for revenge against her step-grandfather. Even if it was viewed as wanting closure and justice against an ex-family member that betrayed them, he had his own degree of trouble coming to terms with his willingness to look the other way regarding this desire.
"Shinji, if I were to ask you to do me a favor, I'd like for it only to be that you do your best to keep me from going down that dark tunnel people aren't known to come back from…because I don't want how I feel about that man to come between us."
He rose up to look down at her.
"That's not a favor, Kaede," he informed her. "That's a promise…and I promise to make sure you don't go down that dark tunnel…even if it means I have to be the one to get him."
She slowly brought her right hand up and closed it into a loose fist before opening it again. It was a sudden challenge for her to keep calm…but she thanked Shinji for saying that.
"I probably don't look the same when I'm angry to you," she confessed.
"Anger stains people, but only as much as we allow it to. It's our responsibility to keep our anger in check, which is a trying one."
"You once said that…your last name has two different meanings, right? What were they?"
"Written in one kanji, a Japanese way of writing, my last name means 'anchor', like the anchor of a ship to keep it from drifting away. And…in another kanji…it means 'anger'…or 'rage'."
"What does my last name mean? I mean, does it mean something in your language?"
"Yeah. Your name Sogen means 'meadow'."
"Like this grassland around us?"
"Yeah. Your first name has a translation in my native language, too, you know."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Kaede means 'maple', like the leaves on a tree. Maple leaves. Basically, 'Maple Meadow', 'Kaede of the Meadow', 'Kaede no Sogen'."
"And maybe one day…when we're older…'Kaede of the Anchor', 'Kaede no Ikari', 'Kaede Ikari'."
"Or 'Shinji no Sogen', 'Shinji of the Meadow', 'Shinji Sogen'."
"Oh, really?"
"Hey, it could happen."
"But men marrying into the families of their love interests shows subservience or whatever it means when they have no brothers."
"And I don't have any sisters."
"We'll let fate decide in the future."
"I'll hold you to that, then."
Kaede got up and straddled Shinji on his sides, smiling down at him.
"Eh-heh-heh!" She giggled.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha!" He laughed.
It had been quite a while since they last had any time to just be together without some sort of situation involving the two nations that might've been all there were left in existence in this world. The anger and fear of the unknown was there, but it wasn't bothering them as much right now.
"Shinji, have I ever told you that you're just as attractive as a girl often is because of your face?" She asked him.
"No, really?"
"Yeah, you do (she sat atop his legs). It's almost puzzling at how you can look so handsome. It's like…that androgyny thing you mentioned that people sometimes have. But I like that about you. It makes you pretty."
"Thank you. Your gray hair makes you pretty, too. You stand out in a good way."
"My hair is a blessing from my father."
She then fell to his left side and looked up at the sky with him.
"Maybe we should help Historia run Eldia," she told him, considering the offer to help the girl of royalty. "What do you think?"
"If we want to be honest, trustworthy people to the young lady, we should be honest, trustworthy people to the young lady," he answered.
"But…how do we be honest to someone that has to lead a nation?"
"We speak our truths, free of deceit, trickery and manipulation."
"Easier said than done, Shinji."
"Only if put in the effort to embrace honesty."
"Even when you don't know everything, Shinji, you know enough, and that's another one of your best traits. Should we go see her now?"
Shinji thought about it, but told her, "Let's wait another hour. I still want to enjoy the time we have away from the Survey Corps."
"Okay."
-x-
"You petulant child," Gendo frowned, sitting at his desk as he looked at the footage of his son's memories recorded from within the Entry Plug, seeing the gray-haired girl beside him on a beach near the coastal city that they both protected. "I'm going to break you by breaking your pretty distraction."
His plan to use the JSSDF was simple enough: Send the army to the other world and drop several or so N² bombs all over the island to eradicate the Third Child's reason for being there, then have the soldiers go to the island and execute any survivors…and then apprehend the girl if she was a survivor and bring the boy back in chains along with what remained of Unit-01. No matter how powerful the Eva had become due to the Titans it consumed, there was no way it could withstand the full force of several non-nuclear explosives powerful enough to incapacitate at least two Angels for several hours and several days, respectively.
To be continued…
A/N: Expect a miracle to happen.
Omake (Pacific Rim Uprising-influenced)
The Sixth Angel, Gaghiel, getting pummeled to near-death by the Dark Titan's fists, retreated back into the ocean water to get away from her and the Titan-empowered Evangelion Unit-01 as it defeated the Third Angel, Sachiel, with three punches.
"Yeah! That's right!" The Dark Titan yelled as Unit-01 came by. "You better run!"
"Thanks, Kaede," Shinji spoke through the Eva's loudspeakers. "We were able to defeat one Angel and drive the second away, saving the city and its people."
"Heh-heh. These so-called Angels aren't so tough," the Dark Titan laughed, and then gave the retreating Angel of Fish the middle finger with both her hands. "I'm bad."
In his plug, Shinji snickered at his girlfriend's gesture.