Creation began on 08-30-21
Creation ended on 02-14-22
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Darkness becomes Light
Nothing was salvageable, anymore. This left NERV in the ultimate bind right now. Not only was Lilith gone without a trace, there was a new Angel in space that none of their Evas' weapons could reach. This and the likelihood that they would encounter the mysterious machine that dealt with Unit-03 and the Fourteenth Angel for the third time, Gendo, who was furious over the loss of Lilith and the Dummy System's lack of progress due to Unit-01's apparent incompatibility with the autopilot, was looking at a complete dismissal from his command over NERV unless he had something to give the Committee to curb their agenda to remove him from the paramilitary agency.
"How are we supposed to fight an Angel that we can't even reach due to it being in space?" Misato questioned Ritsuko as Unit-00 and Unit-02 were standing in the city in the rain. Shinji, if you have a method, I hope it helps before this Angel does something to cause a problem.
-x-
There was a strength in his combos that Shinji saw as the potential to overcome an adversary that others couldn't face without suffering unnecessarily. Right now, in his mecha combo, emerging from the mist of the city's background, standing a few feet away from the Evas, he had only the tidbits of information that Misato and Asuka gave him prior to proceeding with the immobile operation to dispose of the Angel. But even tidbits of knowledge was still knowledge that could aid in overcoming a threat to the lives of many.
"Okay," he went, using his Hoversword and Rad Rocket Magisword in tandem in his mecha. "Takeoff in three…two…one!"
The soles of his mecha's legs generated smoke and heat as the entire construct took to the sky like a rocket being blasted off into space.
-x-
"…Get out of here," gasped Shigeru as all of the command center saw the robot return and take to the sky. "That thing can fly?"
"Not even the Evas can do that yet," Maya expressed.
"It's making us look bad every chance it gets," added Misato, just for the sake of appearances; whatever sword combo Shinji used to make his mecha capable of flying, it was impossible to mirror or even surpass.
Gendo was furious. Not only had that mysterious machine returned, but it was able to fly into space, something the Evas weren't able to do because they hadn't been expected to combat an Angel that preferred to remain adrift in space over the Earth. However, just because the machine could fly didn't mean that it could defeat this Angel. If it failed, it would be disposed of by this Angel, and whatever remains could be salvaged by NERV.
"What's its ETA?" Misato asked Hyuga.
"Ten seconds out," he answered her, and the nearby satellites gave them a distance-based view of the two beings. "It bested an Angel that took control of an Eva and another Angel that we were never able to face. What do you suppose are the chances that it can defeat this Angel?"
"If I gambled? I'd want to believe that the mecha can defeat the Angel without taking a severe beating from it."
Suddenly, the Angel unleashed a…beam of light against the mecha.
-x-
He saw the memories of his past, his fears and anger over the severance of his relationships with his parents…but all these memories did was remind him of what he used to have, what he thought he used to have, all that he would ever have…and none of them ever mattered when the people involved ceased their actual involvement in his life. His parents, both of them, were no different from strangers that had names without faces or faces without names, and they couldn't hurt him any more than they already had when he was little; once he gave up the Eva, he realized that his future was different from what they had wanted for him…if they ever truly had a future intended for him beyond the Eva at all…like he did when he discovered the Magiswords. They were on different paths, and his was wherever he chose to go that didn't bring him back to them just so that they could exploit him again.
You're only telling me what I already know and have to look past, he thought as he selected a Magisword from his inventory. Show me anyone I hold close to my heart, and I will show no mercy to you.
Suddenly, he saw a memory of Vambre Warrior, the day she was killed by that guardian of the Revival Magisword. It was the first time he felt so much hatred at anyone or anything that could cross the line and rip someone else from the living world. Even though he now had the power to recall people from the realm of the dead, he couldn't forget about the anger he felt over the mere possibility of people getting killed by strange creatures that existed in a strange world he needed help to survive in until he could find a way back to his own.
"VAMBRE!" He remembers yelling at her dying. I will show no mercy to you.
"Zetsuei Magisword!" The voice announced, and then Shinji added another Magisword. "Crystal Clear Magisword!"
"Super Teamwork Combo: Intangible Shattering Ribbons!" Shinji yelled, and his mecha generated two ribbons made of crystal from its arms that shot across the space between it and the Angel, impaling the adversary's body.
"IIIIIIIIIIEEE!" The Angel shrieked as its body contorted slightly; somehow, these crystal ribbons were defying the laws that gave it its ethereal form and causing it pain.
Pierce! A third ribbon made of crystal erupted from the mecha's mouth and shot through its core, fracturing it.
Shatter! The Angel exploded into countless pieces, as though it were made of glass, sending some of its remains falling to the planet below as they burned away entering the atmosphere, and some remains hit the mecha, not even harming it.
Closing his eyes for a moment, Shinji processed this turn of events, and then opened them as he had the mecha return to the Earth.
"Conviction," he sighs, "determination…out of control by being in control."
-x-
"There's no trace of the Angel's AT-Field," Maya informed Ritsuko and Misato.
"Are we sure nobody's claiming responsibility for this thing?" Ritsuko questioned.
"Nobody, not Japan Heavy Chemicals, not the Russians, not the French, Koreans or even the Americans are claiming they have anything to do with this mecha that makes the Evas seem like a joke," went Shigeru.
"Is someone trying to do better than NERV?" Hyuga asked. "It'd be crazy just to think that this thing was made by aliens."
"Now, that's crazy," Maya claimed.
Keep on guessing, Misato thought as they lost sight of the mecha (despite seeing that it looked like a colossal version of a young man in a school uniform, nobody could really see that in its entirety). The less you know, the better.
"Have the Evas return to base," Gendo ordered, upset over this third victory that made NERV look further incompetent.
-x-
"…Hey, kid," went a man with an umbrella as he saw Shinji sitting beside a tree as the rain started to let up, "what are you doing out here?"
"If anything asks," Shinji replied, "I'm just minding my own business."
Using his Legendary Swordmecha Magisword for the day had taken a different toll on Shinji than the previous two times he used it to face the Angels. But with a little rest and some food, he'd be back to his usual self. Taking this period to relax his mind, he thought back to his days in Rhyboflaven, when he met with Princess Zange and had to help the Warriors retrieve an item for her from a dungeon. It was from that errand that he ended up acquiring a new Magisword he had yet to find a use for after his initial use of it to battle its four-armed guardian.
"You seem to have a lot of anger for someone so young," Princess Zange had mentioned to him once after meeting him.
"Yeah, it's…it's complicated," he explained the matter as simply as he could; however, she understood that he kept most of his anger in check, never harming other people that didn't deserve his wrath.
"Be careful, though. Anger, especially too much of it, is dangerous when it consumes you, body and soul."
Maybe I should've reconsidered Vambre's suggestion of aromatherapy, thought Shinji as he looked up at the cloudy skies as the rain stopped falling.
-x-
"…What if it's the Committee that's controlling the mecha?" Kaji asked Misato, suggesting that the people behind making sure NERV was funded were the ones behind the robot fighting the Angels before the Evas could.
"What?!" She responded. "That's bull! If they had something like that in the works a long time ago, they would've used it before we ever got to use the Evas against the Angels. Why wait until Unit-03 became infected by an Angel to act?"
"Why does anyone do anything?"
"Greed? Commitment? Pride? Desperation?"
Kaji found any of those reasons to be the most accurate one, but the question behind any of them would always be the same one: Why? But on the other hand, Misato was taking this quite well, probably because it meant the pilots didn't have to face the Angel without suffering some sort of repercussions in the process.
"I wonder what Shinji will be making tonight?" He heard her say.
"Huh?"
"Shinji. He said he was trying something different tonight."
"How is he doing with all of this free time he has?"
"He's, uh… He's like a regular teen right now; he only has school and other things young people his age should be worried about. He'd be no different from other people if he had a crush on someone and asked them out on a date or to see a movie or something."
"That…would be an everyday miracle."
Meanwhile, Gendo was facing ridicule over NERV's inability to dispose of the Angel; even if it were possible for NERV to claim credit, the credibility of the Evas had taken a shot that made their performance falter utterly.
"…Three Angels taken out by the same robot that nobody's taking responsibility for," SEELE 05 informed, "and the last one in space, an environment that the Evas weren't intended to function in, something this machine was able to do without difficulty. It makes your agency seem ill-prepared for any eventuality of an Angel that is in an environment that the Evas are incapable of fighting in."
"We didn't expect an Angel to appear from space and be outside the range of the Evas' weaponry," Fuyutsuki explained, which was the truth. "And we didn't know what the Angel was capable of. We're fortunate that this mysterious robot appeared when it did and dealt with the Angel. It could be decades away from what the Evas are capable of doing, technology-wise."
"And with no group, organization, corporation or small nation working on anything remotely similar to what that mecha used," SEELE 02 claimed, "it makes narrowing down potential suspects next to impossible. There's no base of operations, no funding into research projects, no list of individuals working for anyone or anything that we don't know about. How is it that we have no information on this robot? Something of this sort, there would be constant maintenance required to ensure its operational capacities."
"And there's no information on the whereabouts of Lilith?" SEELE 11 asked.
"There's nothing," Gendo revealed; no matter what they did, there was nothing to discover that would lead them to wherever Lilith was, and nobody that wasn't supposed to know about Lilith could say where she was, either. "Lilith is just…gone."
"Without Lilith or the Lance of Longinus, the Instrumentality Project is for naught," SEELE 06 declared, and the rest of the holographic monoliths, the men behind them, were furious over this revelation. "Someone either knew what to do about this or at least guesstimate how to decide things that would result in this debacle that affects us all."
"You suspect a traitor among us?" SEELE 01 questioned.
"Maybe the traitors are within NERV."
"Nobody at NERV had anything to do with this," Fuyutsuki stated. "Everyone that knew about Lilith didn't possess the means to dispose of her. It was impossible to do so without anyone knowing about it."
"What about the Third Child?" SEELE 04 suggested.
"Former Third Child," Gendo corrected. "What he does with his time now is of no concern for NERV. His dismissal from the Eva program is…"
"Questionable. He walked out on you due to a difference in beliefs over how to deal with the Unit-03 incident, as he didn't accept the fact that you operate under a fixed logic that the pilot wasn't worth trying to save. He refused to accept such a logic based on his own belief that even one life lost is wrong if there was no effort put in to save the person. Are you sure he couldn't have had anything to do with this?"
"The chances of the former Third Child having something to do with the disappearance of Lilith, or even the defeat of the last three Angels, are astronomically impossible to prove. He was erased from the records and his operational responsibilities over Unit-01 were transferred to the First Child. He still resides in the unit of Major Katsuragi, but merely as a student of a grade school pursuing his education, nothing more, nothing less."
"And what does he do with his free time?" SEELE 01 questions.
"For all we know, he just spends his time doing his homework. It was mentioned that he cooks meals for the Katsuragi unit. Beyond that, there's nothing else that can be said about him. He's a…a cipher, a nonentity. There's nothing remotely tying him to anything unusual."
It was a truth due to the fact that Shinji had no actual knowledge of Lilith or why the Angels were attacking the human race, no understanding of the Evas or even any memory of his past involving the Evas. The chances of Shinji knowing anything or even being capable of anything to cause them problems jeopardizing their ambitions…were as nonexistent as the possibility of the planet returning to its previous state of being. Still, even if there was a chance of the boy knowing something about what they were doing, it wasn't like he could do anything to impede them. He was just one person, and he had nothing to use against them; they had the technology and resources to aid them in carrying out their agenda…and he had barely any pocket change to buy something as trivial as junk food.
"…Still," went SEELE 07, "we should hear from him what he does with his time now. He was directly involved in the Twelfth Angel incident, and upon his return from wherever he ended up, our demand to question him was denied by Major Katsuragi on the grounds of medical incapacitation. He should be recovered enough by now to answer some questions of his own volition. If he has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear from us."
That was an understatement; anyone SEELE took interest in that might have been a hindrance to their goals often had the displeasure of being removed from society like a weed from a garden. And if they felt the former Third Child was hiding something from them, they wouldn't hesitate to have him dealt with.
"He was questioned slightly by Major Katsuragi and the Second Child," Fuyutsuki tried to convince them that speaking to Shinji was unnecessary. "He barely had anything to say about where he ended up in the aftermath of the Angel's destruction. It was…like a demented dimension where people ate slugs as a primary source of nutrients and vegetables. The people were intelligent, but not particularly bright. It took him five years just to find a way back to this dimension, resulting in his medical leave of absence after he was recovered by Japan Heavy Chemicals. He was fortunate just to survive his return."
"Still, we will leave no stone unturned,"'SEELE 01 declared. "We'll speak to the former Third Child ourselves and decide whether or not he has anything to do with the current state of difficulties NERV has been faced with."
As much as Gendo wanted to both believe and disbelieve that his son had anything to do with the disappearance of Lilith and the defeat of three Angels, it seemed unlikely so. There was no way that his son would have access to such advanced technology this mysterious mecha possessed. It was just too…ridiculous. There was just no way.
-x-
Practicing with his bokken on the roof of the building again, Shinji cleared his mind of what had occurred two days ago. Even though he used his First Aid Magisword to make sure he wasn't suffering from any secondary effects the Angel might've had, his consciousness, his mental comfort zone, had taken an unexpected blow. One of the things that practicing his swordsmanship helped him with is venting his frustrations safely so that he didn't hurt anyone that didn't deserve it. And like every other fighting style, this kept his mind clear and disciplined, not giving into his anger and working with it to his benefit.
"Shinji?" He heard Misato behind him, and he lowered his bokken to the ground and turned to face her. "You've been up here for four hours now. Aren't you tired?"
"Yeah," he answered her, "but it's up here right now that I feel like I can vent without hurting anyone. Two days ago was different from the other days."
"I can't pretend to understand what you mean, but I get it when you say it like that. You want to talk about it?"
"I felt like my past was being dredged up and violated a little. A subtle…but very brutal reminder…that we don't live in a perfect world. There's always going to be someone or something out there that makes our lives difficult than they're usually supposed to be. In the end, it always seems like there are factors that make people's lives worse before they start to get even a little better."
"There is nothing remotely better about what's going on now. I just heard from Kaji…and the Committee that make sure the UN funds NERV are looking to speak with you."
Shinji tilted his head to his left side and uttered, "What do you mean, they're looking to speak with me?"
"Ever since your return from the aftermath with the Twelfth Angel incident, they've been curious about what went on while you were in that shadow. While you were in recovery and later resigned from NERV, I've tried to keep them from speaking to you at all; believe me, nobody wants to speak before some strangers and be asked questions that seem impossible to answer because they don't have all the answers to the questions being asked. But after the last Angel attack, they want to make sure nobody's hiding anything from them."
Shinji sighed and sat down in the chair away from them.
"They suspect me of holding out on whatever there is to hold out on?" He questioned.
"Yeah," she answered. "Please, tell me you have an ace that will keep them from knowing about the Magiswords or Rhyboflaven or Lyvsheria or anything else of the sort that kept you from going crazy."
"I might have just the thing to keep anyone I don't want anyone I don't trust knowing about anything personal from knowing about the Magiswords. Will they fire my father if they find out I don't know anything?"
"As far as I know, he's trying their last nerve. It's likely that they will fire him."
"All the more reason to deny anything about knowing anything relating to the Angels or the mysterious mecha. When do they want to see me?"
"Tomorrow afternoon."
-x-
School was a bit of a buzzkill right now for the students of Tokyo-3. It wasn't the teacher that droned on and on about the aftermath of Second Impact or the lack of current information, but rather the lack of recreational interest that appealed to the minds of the young people. Physical education had been suspended and home economics was reduced to boring lectures. If anything, all the students were learning about was that their future was destined to be dull and without any actual joy.
"Hey, Shinji," went Toji as Shinji turned to face him during the teacher's droning about the Second Impact aftermath, "what are the chances that we might get some excitement back in our days? You know, like an event of fun or a circus or something?"
"In this city?" He countered. "The only thing I've ever seen that was ever of any actual excitement around here since I showed up was the buildings rising out of the ground. Beyond that, I've seen nothing else of any actual significance worth being interested in. It's hard to be interested in anything around this city."
"Not if the excitement is kept away," said Kensuke. "What do you say you flip a coin and decide what sort of excitement gets to be experienced?"
"You're asking for an unlikely reprieve from the dullness of right now."
"Pretty please, Shinji?" They heard Asuka ask beside him. "It's not like we have anything else to look forward to right now."
And Shinji still had the meeting with the UN Committee that wanted to speak with him on whatever it was they wanted to know about anything that might've related to the Angels or the mecha that appeared and made their lives hectic. Before he left the apartment, he used his Selective Memory Magisword in tandem with his Legendary Knowledge Magisword to suppress whatever knowledge he had that could get him or Misato into trouble, thereby shielding himself from any suspicion; however, this was only a temporary solution until after the meeting was done. If he wanted to avoid a repeat, he'd have to use the combo again.
"I gotta take a leak," he told them as he got up; the teacher just kept droning on about the aftermath, unaware that one of his students had walked out the door.
Hikari could've stopped Shinji, but she was too bored by the lecture to fulfill her duties as Class Representative in its entirety.
"Attention, everyone of Tokyo-3 Municipal Junior High!" They heard a voice five minutes later, and it wasn't coming from the loudspeakers. "Are you bored? Are you stiff? Are you wishing for some excitement from the dullness you're currently plagued with by a failing education system?"
Some students had to say "yes" to all of them while the teachers were just surprised to hear the voice speaking from somewhere.
"Then I suggest you come outside and turn your frowns upside-down!" The voice instructed.
A brief flash of light emanated from outside the windows and the students saw something that seemed impossible.
"Oh, my gosh!" Hikari gasped, seeing that much of the school grounds (along with much of the streets and neighborhood) had been occupied by what looked like a…makeshift amusement park, with balloons, stuffed animals, and several larger structures made of crystal and metal, forming a pair of Ferris wheels, a roller coaster, three swing rides, and it looked like the place was still expanding, attracting people inside other buildings and coming out of their homes. "Is this real?"
A bird flew by the window and uttered, "I've seen crazier things than this…and it doesn't get any realer than this right now. Someone wants to see y'all have fun today. You only live once. Go, enjoy yourselves. Go…have…fun!"
-x-
"…Nobody saw it coming!" A man on television said in front of a camera and reporter as NERV HQ was watching the live stream of what was happening. "I was just sleeping in when the strange noises started, and then a voice spoke up, telling the kids at the school down the street to come out and play. Then, it started inviting other people to come to this crazy amusement park that was just built on the streets and around the school. It was unbelievable."
"…We were just packing our bags for leaving the city," expressed a woman in front of the camera, "when I saw a roller coaster with kids on it fly past my kitchen window. At first, I wanted to believe that it was just a dream, or that I was on something I shouldn't be, but then someone on a flying sword came by and tossed me a stuffed bear and said I should enjoy myself. Someone livened the mood today. Some of us needed this."
"Do we have anything on whatever this is?" Gendo asked as they saw images of the makeshift amusement park, seeing that it was impossible to have been made in just one day or even a few minutes, as that was when it started appearing.
"Everything was quiet this morning until this all showed up," Shigeru responded. "Nobody saw or heard anything before this happened. It's a…regular miracle that's unspoken of."
"It feels more like an act of the gods," went Maya, seeing several teens posing in front of the cameras with large balloons and stuffed animals.
"Yeah, it does," Misato agreed with her, but she was the only one that knew the truth behind this miracle. Shinji, this is very different from what you usually do with those swords of yours. It raises more suspicion than elation…unless, of course, you're on TV with everyone else, then suspicion dies down.
She only thought that way because she saw Shinji being seen on TV alongside his friends and an uncomfortable Rei Ayanami, carrying medium-sized stuffed animals as they were getting ready to ride a Ferris wheel. As he was seen interacting with the others, this masked his potential involvement in the creation of the amusement park.
"There you have it, folks," a woman reported in front of the cameras. "A mysterious amusement park that just appeared out of nowhere, made from strange crystals and metalworks, and rides stretching across the neighborhood. It's like a dream come true for people, and it's happening in a city that has been known throughout its small history as a battleground in a negative light. Some people believe this may only be for today, but at least it has the people's interest and… Oh, my goodness, they have a hotdog stand the size of a limousine! Go to commercial, please!"
Fuyutsuki couldn't believe his eyes when he saw people on a roller coaster soaring through the air above a few of the buildings, swinging from another ride or just listening to music in the background. It really did seem like a dream come true for the day. The sight of people just enjoying themselves and taking it for what it was worth right now, not worrying anything else that they could worry about later.
Gendo was disgusted by this turn of events. It was similar to the mysterious mecha that appeared the last three times an Angel did, only this was more…childish and carefree. It took people away from their responsibilities and turned them into thrill seekers. Beyond that, it would probably hinder the Committee's plan to question the former Third Child about whatever was possible for him to know about.
-x-
The people were enjoying themselves, and Shinji was happy for them. It was the first time he had actually put his Magiswords to use for a large number of people since he got back to this dimension instead of for just a handful; his use of them to face the Angels without the Eva didn't really count, as it involved conflict, and he didn't want anyone to know that it was him. The looks on their faces, the cheers of laughter from their mouths. If he could've done this every so often, just to let them have a good time, he would've.
"…So…this is what people do when something unusual happens around them?" Rei asked.
"More or less," Shinji answered. "It's called having fun. People like to have fun as long as they're not really hurting anyone. Didn't you ever have fun when you were little?"
Although Shinji could suspect that Rei, being someone that wasn't exactly known by anyone in the public, he wanted to hear from her instead of relying on recovered memories that were buried deep in his psyche that left him scarred by his parents. He didn't want to keep the albino girl at a distance, but unlike the others that he confided in about the Magiswords and their unlimited value to him, this girl was still under the hold of his father, so he couldn't trust her to keep a secret, even if he wanted to.
"No," she answered him.
"You're saying you never had fun?" Kensuke questioned. "You must've had an awful childhood to know nothing about fun. People can't appreciate life without fun."
"No fun, no joy," went Toji. "No laughter, no passion. No thrills, no…no…"
"Satisfaction?" Asuka suggested for him.
"Yeah! No satisfaction! That's exactly how fun is supposed to be! People need fun in their lives! If all people did was work, they'd be no different from soulless drones, doing only what they know or are told, and nobody wants to live like that."
Rei found this odd to accept. People needed order and stability in their lives, but they didn't want to be stuck in a loop? They get up, they eat, they go to work, they work, they leave, they go home, they eat, they sleep, they bathe, and they repeat the routine the next day? Was there more to living than merely a routine?
"People that spend their lives eating the same things over and over again may want to try something new when they get tired of having the same thing," said Shinji to her. "People that could try food from one fast food place may decide to experiment with another fast food place and try the food there. There have even been people that don't eat meat that try to create a meat-free substitute made from plants that have a similar texture and taste to meat. One company in the US is making meat substitutes that have had some progress with getting people to stop eating meat. Some people like beef, others prefer pork and some are seafood lovers. I've yet to try their products, but I plan to. If they're as good as they strive to be, I'd recommend them for you to try. They'd probably be the closest thing to actual meat without ever needing to try meat."
"I'd…appreciate that, Ikari-Kun," she told hold her.
As the friends walked down the people-occupying street, they were impeded by five men in black suits and glasses. They resulted in Shinji having a frown; he knew who they were, and wasn't happy that they were here right now.
"Shinji Ikari," uttered one of the men to them. "We're from NERV HQ, and we need you to come with us."
"On what grounds?" Shinji demanded. "I resigned from NERV, so there's no reason to bother with me."
"Commander Ikari requests your presence," another suit explained. "Please, come this way."
Shinji sighs and gives in.
"I'll see y'all later," he told his friends and handed over his medium-sized stuffed panda to Asuka. The sooner we get this over and done with, the sooner I can get on with my life.
Rei watched as Section Two took Shinji away. She didn't understand why his father wanted to see him if he decided to cease piloting the Eva; if he couldn't pilot, he served no purpose. And from what she did understand, Shinji resigned from NERV after the Thirteenth Angel attack due to a difference between himself and his father over saving lives and sacrificing them, meaning that his file was erased from NERV following his resignation. This meant Shinji had no obligation to aid NERV any further than he already had, albeit reluctantly.
Why does Commander Ikari want to see him again after he resigned? She wondered to herself, then looked down at her medium-sized stuffed sea lion.
-x-
"…Section Two have him and will be here in twenty minutes," went Hyuga to Misato, informing her that Shinji had been picked up from the makeshift amusement park. "Any idea why the Committee would want to speak with him? For real?"
"There's suspicion that he might know more than I tried to convince them of not knowing due to the brief time spent in the Twelfth Angel's shadow. Apparently, whatever Shinji could tell them will help in deciding what they'll do to Commander Ikari."
"So, the father's position as the leader of NERV depends on whatever the son tells the people in charge of making sure the agency is funded against the Angels?"
"More or less."
"What are the chances that Shinji will deny anything that might've happened in the Twelfth Angel before ending up in another dimension where he spent five years looking for a way back to this one?"
"I wouldn't blame him for denying anything; people can lie more than they tell the truth, but can one truly lie if they have no knowledge of anything that might've happened in the time they were gone or during the time they've been back?"
"Can one lie if they know nothing? No. It's impossible to lie if you know next to nothing but what you knew beforehand."
But Misato hoped that Shinji could be convincing enough to the Committee about his lack of knowledge of specific events they could ask him about. If they were able to put two and two together regarding him, there'd be no telling what they'd do to him. The last thing she needed to know was that he'd be incarcerated for some trumped-up charges or forced back into NERV's service by them because they felt he was useful again.
Shinji, I hope you can fool them with your limited knowledge, she thought, really wanting to see him back at her apartment later rather than never.
-x-
A light shone above Shinji as he sat in a folding chair in a dark chamber. He'd been waiting for ten minutes and was losing his patience. Whoever these people were, they had no respect for the value of other people's time; the world didn't stop and start on a whim for anyone for any reason. While time was an illusion for the enlightened few, he still had respect for the limitations of time and how people had basic needs in their daily routines. He really wanted to return back to Misato's and get back to what he was used to doing.
"Shinji Ikari," he heard a voice speak to him as another light shone from above a man with a visor on his face. "How nice of you to make time to speak with us."
Four more lights shone above four more men, making it seen like a trial instead of a simple meeting to Shinji.
I don't like this, he thought. "From the way I was informed, it was implied more as a threat than a request. What is this all about?"
"As the only one to have any direct involvement with the Twelfth Angel prior to its destruction," a second man spoke, "we wish to know whatever might've happened during the time you were stuck in the Angel."
"There's nothing much to say."
"We'll be the judge of that belief," a third man replied.
Shinji was most fortunate that he locked away his knowledge of the Magiswords and his involvement in dealing with three Angels before NERV could.
"Did at any point in the time spent within the Angel did it attempt to converse with you?" The visor-wearing man asked him.
"No, sir," he answered back. "I was locked away in the Entry Plug for hours with just my thoughts to keep me company. Why would an Angel want to talk? They don't seem like the type to actually want to talk…unless they had a sign saying so."
"No visions or voices during the time you were trapped?"
"No."
"What happened afterward? After NERV made an attempt to destroy the Angel while salvaging the Eva by dropping every N² explosive left in the world into the shadow?"
"During that time and probably after it, I must've been asleep."
"Asleep?"
"Yes. After the life support started to fail, the temperature dropped and I felt drowsy. I must've lost consciousness after a while, because the next thing I knew, I woke up someplace else."
"Someplace else?" The second man spoke. "From what we were informed by Dr. Akagi, the Angel's shadow was suggested to be a passageway to another dimension, a reality different from this one. Is that what you mean when you say that you were someplace else?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you were there for the equivalent of five years?"
"That's right."
"How did you manage to survive over there for that duration of time?"
"There were people living over there. I was found by two of them and brought to their house to recoup. I was most fortunate."
"What kind of people were they?" The third man asked Shinji.
"I don't understand your question, sir," he replied.
"Were they intellectual? Were they primitive? Were they advanced? Did they live in a community similar to the ones you'd find here? Did they live in cave systems? Were they advanced enough to live in the sky or deep oceans?"
"They were mostly farmers and regular people of a developing country, sir. They were smart, but not scientists or mechanics."
With his majority of knowledge locked up to protect himself, all Shinji could say about Lyvsheria was that it was a farming community and that the people there weren't as developed as the people from this universe were most of the time. They had an education system and a monarchy, but anything beyond that, he couldn't reveal to these people.
"And they were able to help you find a way back to this dimension when the attempt to defeat the Angel resulted in your absence from the Eva?" The visor-wearing man questioned him.
"Yes," he responded.
"How so?"
This was the moment of truth. As much of the truth as he could tell without giving up too much of his past with the Warriors for Hire.
"There were…these two people, the same ones that found me when I came to over there, and they were the most helpful. A brother and sister that worked whatever jobs they were hired for by others in their community to make their living. So I hired them to help me find a way back. Whatever we ended up finding along the way that could be used as compensation for their services, I gave to them as payment."
"And what did you find along the way back here?" The third man asked him.
"Treasure," he lied; there was treasure to be found, but for him and the Warriors, the most desired treasure were the Magiswords, with everything else needed only to pay for other needs, such as rent or food. "Gold coins and jewels. What was I going to do with any of it if it didn't help me get back here? It might've aided in having financial aid for a while, but what, then? What good was having money if it didn't suffice for what I really wanted?"
"What good is having money, indeed," said the visor-wearing man, "when it doesn't get you what you want? New question: This mysterious mecha that has appeared and disposed of three Angels, what do you know about it?"
This was another moment of truth for Shinji. He needed to protect himself from these people and his father. Nobody except those he trusted enough to confide in could know anything about his Magiswords and their effectiveness against certain threats to those that possessed them or potential benefit to those in need.
"I…only know that I admire it for its effectiveness against the Angels," he claimed. "It looks like an action figure dressed in clothes. Beyond that, there's nothing else I can really say about it. I just admire it for its abilities. No more, no less."
"Are you certain of this?" The third man asked him. "Even the most minute detail could help us better understand it? Something you might've overlooked or thought little of?"
"No. I'm sorry, but there's nothing more I can say about it. I know nothing about it. I just assume what some other people assume about it, that it was made by some corporation from some other part of the world."
These men had been informed of this belief from various people from Tokyo-3; none of them were certain of who built this mecha they were calling a new hero against the monsters that appeared to kill them that operated more smoothly than the Evas did, and was able to do things that they couldn't do at all. There was no telling how any company, nation or person could and would build such a remarkable robot without the United Nations or SEELE knowing about it and putting an end to it before it ever saw the light of day. This was beyond any of them.
"Very well," the visor-wearing man gave in; if this boy knew nothing about the mecha, he was next to useless to them. "One final question: Will you consider returning to NERV and piloting the Eva again?"
Shinji frowned and sighed.
"No, sir," he replied. "I can't do that again. Not when there are orders given that go against my personal beliefs and betray my conscience. The only reason I piloted in the first place was because of that jerk that wanted me here to begin with, just to exploit me. He could've sent for any other person in the whole country that wasn't me, but instead of choosing any of them, he chose me, the one person that he treats the most with contempt and sees only as a lackey. I'd sooner see him out on the streets than work for him again."
If that didn't convince them that he was not worth their time, he wasn't sure what would. But he had nothing else to add to his responses; he was done with NERV and the Eva. He wanted to move on, move past it and live for himself instead of for his parents.
"Very well, then," all five of them responded to him. "Thank you for your time."
The door behind Shinji opened and he got up and turned away. When the door closed behind him, a new light shone above Gendo Ikari, who was watching from the shadows during the entire meeting; his expression one of contempt.
"Well, Ikari," said one of the men to him, "it would seem that your…son…is as clueless about anything as everyone else, and he's the only one that had any direct involvement with the Angel when he got stuck in its shadow."
"I would've asked more direct questions and pressed harder," Gendo replied. "He could've lied to your faces for all you know."
"The chair he was sitting in had special sensors in it that read his body," another of the men uttered. "If he had tried to lie about anything he was asked, there would've been a heightened response he wouldn't have been able to hide."
"Anybody can beat a polygraph test."
"But was he ever subjected to one, even once?"
As far as Gendo knew, Shinji had never been placed under any test where he was questioned to tell the truth. But if he had never been subjected to any lie detection tests before, it was likely that anything he answered to would be the truth; he never knew his son to be capable of deception regarding anything.
Another light shined from above, this time on Misato Katsuragi, who had been present during the meeting, as well, watching in silence as Shinji had been questioned.
"And it would seem that Major Katsuragi was wise to protest against questioning him before," the visor-wearing man stated. "His time within the Angel, his survival by being displaced in another dimension, his return and lack of information on the mecha that has appeared, it's all for naught. And his resignation and rejection of returning to NERV also show that he's devoid of any knowledge regarding anything that has happened recently."
"You didn't even ask him about anything that has happened near the area of the junior high school," Gendo reminded.
"If he was clueless about the mecha, then he was just as in the dark about any of that nonsense that occurred earlier," one of them expressed. "Has he confided in you about anything, Major Katsuragi? Anything at all?"
"Only what he feels he can't tell anyone else," Misato explained.
"Such as?"
"How the inside of the Entry Plug smells of blood, how he can't stand the neural feedback that causes him to experience physical harm, or the fact that the Angels are called Angels when it makes zero sense to him."
"He's the only one that ever questioned everything NERV does," Gendo retorted. "All he and any other pilot ever needed to know was that the Angels were out to destroy the human race. It's not hard to understand anything beyond that much."
"Except he could never accept anything at face value, Commander Ikari," Misato insisted. "You taught him that because back when he tried to speak with you about anything that excluded NERV or the Eva, you would shut him down, preferring to focus only on the operation to defeat the Angels. Now, he's lost any interest in anything you do, business or otherwise."
"If he can't do as he's told when he's expected to, then he's of no further use."
Misato hated how he could treat his own son with such coldness. It was no wonder why Shinji felt he had to do all that he did when he returned with the Magiswords he had and begun plotting to tear things down.
"Enough," the visor-wearing man told them. "I've heard all I need to hear for today. Expect an update within seventy-two hours."
This was going to be a long, very long three days. What were they to expect?
-x-
He should've left the base afterward, but Shinji wanted to take one more look at Unit-01 before shutting that door behind him for good. The artificial tomb of his mother was as insane as he decided she was for choosing to forgo her life as a regular person to serve as this blight upon the world. His disgust towards it, his father and herself elevated his contempt towards his family and their line of work. They could've chosen to be doctors or bakers, musicians or novelists, but instead, they chose to be egomaniacs, wannabe puppet masters and false gods, and he wouldn't support their ambitions.
"I hate you," he uttered to the purple Eva, hoping his mother heard his disappointment, and then he turned to leave the cage.
"Shinji?" He heard Misato as she showed up. "What are you still doing here?"
"Wanted to know if you'd be working late tonight."
"Oh. Yeah, I have to do the nightshift again."
"You're in luck, then (Shinji reached into his backpack and pulled out a bento). Because of that amusement park that just appeared out of nowhere, I didn't get to eat this today. Help yourself to it until you get back home."
"Thank you, Shinji."
He then left there headed towards the elevators.
Misato looked at the bento, grateful to Shinji for offering it to her; the vending machines were barely enough to satisfy her after a while. She hoped the next Angel wouldn't appear for at least another month. Then, she looked up at Unit-01, reminded that Yui Ikari had given up her life to this monstrosity when Shinji was just a toddler, and could sympathize with Shinji over how awful it felt to have next to no parents involved in your life, when one of them orchestrates for their work to kill them in a sad attempt for some semblance of immortality and the other one just leaves you alone for over ten years and only calls you to exploit you. There was no way to overlook this or even forgive this when something like this just…hurts worse than any knife, gun or punch ever could hurt. The emotional turmoil it causes the heart just becomes irreversible.
And the worst part of knowing the truth is knowing that you could've come back at any time, whether someone tried to restore you or not, she thought, but you chose not to return. You chose to be a false god…and Shinji can't forgive you for that choice.
-x-
"…That surprise amusement park that just appeared out of nowhere was really amazing today, Shinji," Asuka praised him as they sat in the living room that night, an hour after he got back from NERV.
"Yeah," he responded, polishing his Magiswords, "it really was."
"What do you suppose are the chances that your father will be relieved of his command?"
"I hope they're very likely. It's the same with the Angels that remain; I hope the next one doesn't show up for as long as possible. Gives people more time to recover and forget about the last Angel attack."
"And how many Angels are there that remain?"
"After this last one that attacked, there should be only two."
"Only two left? That sounds like a letdown."
"Don't be too disappointed. The ones we face at the end may be the ones most unlikely to go down easily. It's when the kid gloves come off that you know the fight gets serious. You don't know what someone's going to do until after they do it."
"And…what that Angel did to you?"
"It wasn't anything I've already experienced before being thrown back in my face. If it had been anyone else, they'd probably experience the same thing, but worse. If all that Angel could do was dredge up people's past memories in an attempt to understand their psyche, it was a threat only to their mindset and emotional strength…in a similar manner as the Evas are."
Asuka couldn't fault him for his clarity on that belief. Just piloting the Eva meant leaving yourself vulnerable to it each time you got inside the Entry Plug.
"What will you do after all of this?" She asked him.
"If I can restore the environment with the swords, little by little, that might take a long time…but then I'd want to head back to Lyvsheria, afterward," he answered her.
"It was not an advanced place…but quiet and like something out of a dream?"
"There wasn't much violence over there and the people were simple; it's a subtle place to live in and just…let time fly."
There was no other way Shinji could describe that place he ended up in after the Twelfth Angel incident. And for five years, it had been his home, his refuge, his domain to safeguard against other threats. Not to mention that it was the only other place where he had people that were the closest to a real future he could grasp for himself.
"Hey, tell me about your combo moves again," Asuka told him, wanting to hear about them again. "Which ones were your best ones and favorite ones to use?"
"Oh, those combos? Well…"
-x-
Gendo wouldn't have beat around the bush and wait for the boy to answer once he had ample time to work on his responses. He would've grilled the brat until he broke down. And now, his fate was to be decided within three days by SEELE, based simply on what they heard from the boy when he was questioned by them. They weren't in the business of being moral of ethical when faced with the fate of mankind against an enemy that was out to dispose of them.
As he sat in his office, contemplating how the boy made it so difficult for all of NERV to do what was necessary to save the human race. All he needed to do was pilot the Eva and face the Angels, no more, no less, and he refused and resigned after the Thirteenth Angel because a pilot candidate was placed in danger, and it was someone he knew, someone he didn't want to see placed in danger because of what they did at all. Was he the only one here that questioned everything and everyone when all he had to do was what he was told? Why did he have to be so…defiant and judgmental of all that they were trying to achieve? And where in this other universe he ended up in for five years did he get all wise and turn away from his grand design?
He had to know more than he let on, he thought. There's no way he could hide everything from the old men or myself! Nobody's allowed to have secrets if they interfere with the scenario!
To be continued…
A/N: Took a little longer than I had expected, but here's the new chapter. I hope you enjoy it until the next update. Not sure when the next chapter will be made, but there are other story chapters that need to be made and posted in due time. Maybe Modern Day Legend of a Rage-filled Anchor or A New Cause or Attack on Titan: Yin and Yang, or maybe something else entirely new. Until then, read and review, please.