ONE: "Parenting in the End Times"


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Angels. Yui Ikari always wondered why they settled on that name. Why not demons? Monsters? Star-spawn? The answer was that, to NERV's benefactors, everything had to be symbolic or have meaning.

It wasn't enough that they wanted to storm the walls of heaven and kick God off his chair, they had to slap their brand logo on the back as well.

The presentation board was plastered with information at the front of the meeting room, most pertaining to the giant kaiju-like creatures that were due to assault the humble city of Tokyo-3 any day now. A pointless staff meeting was perfect way to disperse the air of dread and anticipation looming over the shoulders of the NERV worker bees, to show everyone that even on the very eve of apocalypse, there was comfort in the routine and mundane.

There were six chairs in front of Yui, their only occupants being simple name-cards. Ikari Gendo, Ikari Yui, Fuyutsuki Kozo, Zeppelin Soryu Kyoko, Akagi Naoko, and Akagi Ritsuko. The original members of GEHIRN, the predecessor to NERV.

Yui needed to assemble them in order. But there was no right answer to be found here, only varying degrees of wrong.

Nearby, there was a loud grinding against hard floor. Yui glanced over, smirking. Her pride and joy, Shinji Ikari, was supposed to helping unfold and place all the chairs for the upcoming meeting in an orderly fashion along with Rei. Instead, he was dragging a chair across the room in the most annoying and passive-aggressive way possible.

"Shinji," Yui said. "I know you don't want to be here, but is that really necessary?"

"You said to arrange the chairs, Mom."

"You know what I mean." Yui gestured towards the entirety of the room. "This whole apparatus is here to support you, Rei, and Asuka. It's important for you guys to be here, so everyone knows what they're fighting for."

"Asuka isn't here."

And then Shinji nodded towards his adopted sister, Rei, who was dutifully taking another folding chair from the nearby stack. Occasionally Yui wondered if life would be easier if she conceived a girl and cloned a boy. But then, she tossed the notion into her mental wastebasket. There would never be another Shinji Ikari in her mind.

"Asuka's doing simulations right now." Yui turned back towards the chairs, moving Ritsuko beside Kyoko. Another mother-daughter spat was the last thing they needed here. "Which is a sight more productive than hanging out at the arcade with that Suzahara boy."

"She's just trying to get Doctor Soryu to pay attention to her."

From the mouths of babes. "In any case, I'm your mother, and I think your time is better spent here."

Yui knew what she was saying was bullshit. For what these children were likely to be subjected to, they deserved whatever they desired for the rest of their lives. But appearances were important, and right now her son needed the appearance of duty and structure.

"Whatever you say, Mom," Shinji said, finally picking his chair up from the floor.

She picked Gendo's chair up and moved it to the front, in the shadow of the presentation board. She started to move her own chair beside her husband's, but then thought better of it. Gendo was the Commander of NERV, and in this meeting Yui was merely another employee. People often joked that Yui was the true guiding intelligence behind NERV, a sentiment that she didn't necessarily agree with, but perceptions were perceptions and she couldn't go around emasculating her own husband any further.

Yui's own place couldn't be beside Naoko, simply because she didn't want to sit beside her, and it could be beside Professor Fuyutsuki but Gendo wouldn't like it. He wouldn't say anything to Yui about it, but Professor Fuyutsuki was still in love with her, and her husband's jealousy would be written across his face like an open book.

That left Kyoko's far side as the only open spot. Not the most pleasant position, but the best option for now. Yui would much rather listen to Kyoko complain about how their information was either outdated, wrong, or something she thought of herself years ago than the alternatives.

Yui felt a tugging on her sleeve. Rei stood beside her, pointing towards the center of the meeting room. Shinji was sitting down, playing a game on his phone, seemingly on break even though their meeting was about ten minutes away and there were only enough places for half the attendees to sit.

"Shinji," Yui said. "come over here."

"One second."

"Now. Please."

With a lethargic pace, Shinji made his way over, stuffing his phone into one of his pockets. Yui lowered herself into Naoko's seat, crushing the nametag; she couldn't say the act wasn't intentional. When Shinji was close, she took one of his hands into her own and guided him in front of her, taking his other hand as well when it drew near enough.

"Shinji, why are you acting out like this? Talk to me."

"I was just messing around on my phone, Mom."

"You've been behaving this way for days. What's wrong?"

The boy gave a heavy sigh. "I don't understand why I have to be here. Why I have to pilot, I mean. I'm not even good at it."

"You're getting better."

"It's still not good enough."

"Says who?"

"Asuka, Misato, probably Father as well."

"I think the Colonel is very supportive," Rei said. "in my experience, at least. Perhaps you have a different viewpoint."

Yui nodded at Rei's words. "If Misato is stern with you, it's just because she wants you to do well. We all do."

"I don't see why it even matters," Shinji said. "Unit-01 doesn't even work yet anyway. Neither does Unit-02. Asuka's spending all this time training to pilot a machine she can't even operate yet."

"Well…one day very soon, it's going to work. And then it will be your responsibility to pilot it. Rei won't be able to fight every battle on her own." Yui began kneading the soft skin of Shinji's palms, trying to calm him. "Shinji, if you truly don't want to pilot, then we don't have to go through with this. We'll find another way."

It was an emotional hand grenade that Yui had just placed into her son's hands. Shinji, for fear of disappointing everyone and most importantly Yui, wouldn't pull the pin. But if he did pull the pin, Yui didn't really have an answer other than to sit and smile as they both exploded into bits.

Yui took no pleasure in manipulating her son this way. It kept her up at night, occupied her headspace as she was working on solutions that would dictate the course of the world from here on out. But it was also necessary. There was no other pilot for Unit-01 than Shinji, and no other pilot for Unit-02 than Asuka. Let Shinji hate her guts as much as he wanted, when the boy was safe, and his future was secured.

As expected, Shinji acquiesced. "You're way smarter than I am, Mom. If you say I need to do it, then I'll do it."

Yui cupped her son's chin in her fingers.

"That's not true at all, dear. I'm the most foolish woman in the world, in fact."

-{{{}}}


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"Moving on to more pressing business," Gendo adjusted his coat, showcasing the most non-robotic movement that Yui had seen out of him so far in the meeting. "we will be maintaining a heightened level of alert at NERV for the foreseeable future. All employees are expected to work full shifts and likely over their assigned hours. We are expecting the first sighting any day now, and all stations must be ready to operate at one-hundred percent capacity."

None of the staff dared to groan or show derision in Gendo's presence, but Yui could feel a wave of discontent roll through the room. There were already rumors circulating about NERV being a money pit, or an elaborate way for politicians to move money around, with the vague threat on the horizon nothing more than a brazen excuse.

The Evangelions were even starting to written-off as an elaborate weapons test, Japan's response to technology the other nations of the world were already working on. Politics held little and less interest to Yui, but the idea of her life's work being reduced to a giant military toy stung. Not as much as ultimately being the tool of an apocalyptic death cult, but close.

"Are there any questions?" Gendo asked. Silence. There never were any, so he moved on. "Good. It is important that your families know the proper escape routes, when an attack does come…."

Kyoko, right beside Yui, began speaking under her breath. "Most of these people have a hard time navigating their way to the bathroom. How are they to know proper escape routes?"

"These people are our co-workers," Yui said, matching Kyoko's tone. "and they're not as stupid as you think, Kyoko. I don't think they're stupid at all, in fact."

The woman tilted her head at Yui, as if offended that she was even entertaining the thought.

"In any case, I think they're going to be up to the task."

"Well, I suppose they do actually work, rather than help arrange and re-arrange chairs when they have better things to do."

"Sometimes it's better to take a break, rather than beat your head against a wall over and over again." Yui nodded towards the side of the room, where Asuka was clearly prodding Shinji about something, while Rei sat and listened diligently. "And take some time for family, perhaps?"

"I'll rest when Unit-02 is operational. Not before." Kyoko crossed her arms. The thought of Asuka being alone bothered her, even if she didn't want to admit it. "My daughter's a big girl. She doesn't need a hug every five seconds."

"She might need one every five months, though."

Kyoko shook her head, violently hard enough that even Gendo took notice for a moment. "You know he's going to hate you by the end of this thing, right? And that's the best-case scenario."

"So, I should just break my son in half now and get it over with?"

"Better than putting another bandage on."

Yui bit back a choice comeback. The whole of the room hadn't yet noticed their little argument, but Yui could feel eyes upon them. This was a verbal spar they had reenacted for years now, ever since…well, ever since Kyoko was forced to move to Japan. It was unlikely to be resolved here of all places.

Gendo was going into the chain of command in case of the leadership being dead, unconscious, or otherwise out of pocket. So she thought, anyway. Yui loved her husband to death, but she had tuned him out about five minutes ago.

"We must look like the world's most nepotic organization right now," Kyoko said, leaning towards Yui again. "my daughter's a pilot, your son's a pilot and your husband is the organizational head. Fuyutsuki used to be your teacher. Akagi's daughter works right under her."

"Pretty sure Ritsuko would consider that a disadvantage."

"I do as well."

"You can't deny Naoko's talents, Kyoko. Her unpleasantness is a separate issue."

"I'll continue denying it until the day I drop dead. She won't get a lick of positive reinforcement from me. And you should be on the same page. It's only your precious husband she wants to sleep with."

"Gendo wouldn't touch her, so it doesn't bother me."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know." And it was simply a fact. Gendo couldn't physically bring himself to be intimate with that woman, any more than he could walk straight through a solid wall. "Just because your marriage was a failure doesn't mean that everyone else's is, Kyoko."

"That's a kind way of putting it."

Yui sighed at the humor in Kyoko's voice. "I see you still don't regret how it turned out."

"I don't regret anything."

"You're insufferable."

"I know. It's what makes me a better researcher than you. I'm willing to put everything on the line, damn the risks and damn what anyone thinks. You want to be a scientist in the top echelons, as well as a housewife and a perfect mother at the same time."

"I'm putting everything on the line as well, if you hadn't noticed."

"You used to be willing to do so. Now I'm not so sure." The woman's tone of voice indicated that their little debate was ending. "You had better find the old Yui, and fast. Things are only going to get uglier from here."

-{{{}}}-


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Yui took the scenic route home, and today, that included a detour to the old Artificial Evolution Lab. Her little outdated compact car sped up the hills around Tokyo-3 with some difficulty but managed to overcome them with a little effort.

Misato, auto aficionado that she was, once asked Yui she even bothered keeping this car. After all, Yui was one of the top scientists in Japan and likely the whole planet, and her husband was possibly one of the most powerful men on Earth. The truth was that Yui simply didn't care about having nice things, and neither did Gendo, really.

A house to live in, a car to drive, a job she enjoyed, and her husband and children provided for. And some intellectual pursuits to sate her natural curiousity. That was all Yui needed. Some men wanted to possess the whole world, and once they had it, would merely look up and covet the stars as well. Their hunger would never be satisfied, but for Yui, a place to call home was enough.

Shinji and Rei sat in the backseat, the boy on his phone and the girl reading a book. Kyoko didn't like that Yui had taken to Rei, as in her mind, the girl was a tool and she had a specific purpose. If Yui was being honest with herself, for a time she nearly felt the same way. But there were times Rei would crack a smile, or shed a tear, or simply say something that right cut to Yui's heart.

And soon enough, within the coming weeks or even the next day, Rei would be sent into unimaginable danger. And it wasn't the girl's fault, not one bit.

Yui pulled into the old parking lot of the Artificial Evolution Lab parking lot, the pavement broken and cracked by Mother Nature, ripe for an unsuspecting tire to puncture. They all filed out of the car; Shinji was blatantly confused as to why they were here.

"Mom?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Why are we at the old lab?"

"Just felt like taking a trip down memory lane," Yui said, winking at the boy. "just indulge me for a little bit, alright?"

The trio made their way towards the compound, careful of any sharp and unpleasant surprises waiting beneath their feet. Yui liked to think her old stomping grounds weren't in such a state of extreme disrepair.

"Alright. It's just…you know Rei gets sick if she doesn't eat by a certain time. And I'm starving too."

"I had a snack bar earlier," Rei said, stepping over a sign left in the grass. "I am fine."

"That's not real food."

"We'll stop somewhere on the way home," Yui said. "if anything's open. Or we can grab something hot from a convenience store."

"Not sure if that's real food either."

"Well, you're still getting your homework done, regardless of whether you end up cooking or not." The look on her son's face would have sent Yui into a laughing fit, but as a parent, she needed to maintain her composure. "Did you think I was going to let that slide because it's late and you're tired?"

"Mom, I've been helping you at NERV all day. Come on."

"You're not talking your way out of it, dear," Yui said. "I want you to get into a good school one day and be able to provide for yourself. And that starts with diligence and getting good grades."

"Can't I get a pass? For being an EVA pilot in training?"

"If you keep arguing, I'm going to have Asuka over to tutor you. Again."

The boy went silent.

The old complex had the ambiance of a horror film in a quiet moment, the ambient light from Tokyo-3 and the half-moon in the sky wafting through windows caked with dust and cobwebs. Papers were strewn across a reception desk, their intrepid group stepping on several scattered sheets as they progressed through the lobby. Not wanting to try the lights, Yui took a small flashlight from her coat pocket and twisted its top, illuminating the path forward.

Abandoned and dilapidated structures were common coin in the wake of Second Impact, an event which had ultimately killed over half the world's population. Buildings filled with bodies and broken dreams. Even the most advanced city in the world couldn't escape the encroaching decay that had swept the rest of the world, though it still hid in the outskirts for now.

It was a message. They couldn't simply hide in their fortress until the monsters went away, like a child with a nightlight under the covers. Or Tokyo-3 would end up like the building they walked through now, only filled with corpses that no one ever would find.

"You seemed angry after the meeting, Mom," Shinji said.

"I'm always angry after talking to Kyoko."

"What were you guys talking about?"

"Adult stuff."

"You always say that." Shinji's voice deflated, but he kept on. "Doctor Soryu doesn't seem to like anyone. Even you, and everyone likes you."

She sorely wished her son's words were true. If everyone truly liked Yui, then they wouldn't be in their current predicament. "Kyoko's a complicated woman, Shinji. But she's brilliant and devoted our cause for the time being, and that's good enough for your father and I."

They went down a flight of stairs; old as this place was, Yui wouldn't dare try the elevators even if the electricity wasn't switched off. The lower levels housed the heart of the facility: Unit-01's containment bay, and the panopticon of rooms around. Yui didn't know it was possible to spend so much time in one place, but give her a blindfold and place her in the doorway, and the woman could navigate the cavernous room on feeling alone.

Hubris was the constant companion of every great scientific mind, and its most dangerous enemy. But in this room, Yui truly felt the course of the world would have been forever changed, and by her hands. Had things not gone a certain way, Yui would have taken the helm for the moment that she could. Anything to save her precious boy.

Did Yui think she knew better than everyone else? That the rest of the world consisted of unruly children, and she was up at the white board giving them the lesson they needed? A little, to be honest, but not entirely. But mostly, Yui was simply in the right position, at the right place, at the right time.

The air in the abandoned containment bay still carried a scent that hinted of blood. Shinji's nose turned at the smell upon entering the room, and Rei stopped in the doorway a moment before continuing. Yui always figured they would get used to the scent, like they would if they worked out of a fish market every day, but they never did.

Yui shouldn't have been so surprised. She thought lying to her children would get easier as well, but it never did.

"Shinji, come here. You too, Rei."

She held each of them with a single hand, kneeling until their eyes were level with hers.

"You guys practically grew up here," Yui said, and the children both nodded. "and Asuka as well. I still remember Professor Fuyutsuki telling you guys not to run around the server room, or how you jumped up and down with excitement when you first saw Unit-00, and Unit-01 after."

Shinji cocked his head to the side. "This isn't one of those 'you've grown up so fast' moments, is it?"

"It is...but it's something else as well." Her voice was wavering, but she pushed through. "Back before Kyoko and Asuka moved to Japan, I was planning something. It didn't work out like I wanted, but I wouldn't have regretted going down that path, if I could have. But the culmination of all that work…"

Yui pointed towards the empty space in front of them, the containment tank below which the half-finished Unit-01 used to rest.

"It would have taken place right here. And it was all for you, Shinji. And if Rei had been here, it would have been for her too."

Judging by his face, Shinji hadn't the slightest idea where Yui was going with her little monologue, and that was fine. She simply needed to get these words out into the air, to someone.

"What were you going to do, Mom?"

"I'll tell you, at the end of all this." Yui smiled at him, trying to put the boy at ease. "I know this doesn't make much sense to you both, but I'm hoping one day it will. After all this is over."

She couldn't make eye contact with Rei. She tried, but somehow, she felt the girl would look in her eyes and know.

"I know all that already, Mom," Shinji said.

"But I need you to hear it from me, Shinji. There might come a day, very soon, where you feel like I don't love you, or like I don't have your best interests at heart. You might even end up hating me. I just...I need you to know. That I do."

In lieu of words, Shinji reached over and hugged Yui around the shoulders. Tears welled in Yui's eyes, but she sucked them up, just barely. The boy gestured towards Rei, and with hesitant steps, the girl closed the distance and wrapped one of her arms around Shinji, the other around Yui. Rei hugged them as if such a gesture was new to her, and much to Yui's regret, it likely was. She was never supposed to be loved, so why would she needed such affection?

Kyoko would have called this detour a meaningless distraction, sitting in an abandoned facility with her two children for purely emotional and nostalgic reasons. Loathe as Yui was to admit it, the woman was right. Yui had gone soft at precisely the worst time.

The fact of the matter was that Unit-01 and Unit-02, after around ten years of work and attempting to bypass the original…power source, were still not operational. There were plans, and their efforts were starting to bear fruit, but would they be ready in time? Rei couldn't fight the Angels forever, not by herself.

Yui pressed her face into Shinji's soft brown hair, and then Rei's blue. Enough stalling. It was time to get to work.

-{{{}}}-


-{{{}}}-

The first Angel was confirmed by radar at 0723 hours the next day, with visual confirmation occurring at 0725 hours, and blood type confirmation at 0730 hours. A rather rude awakening for the slumbering city of Tokyo-3, but one they were well prepared for.

JSSDF fighters sortied with the Angel with only one out of five returning, no effect on target. NERV began prepping Evangelion Unit-00 for launch at 0745 hours, against directives from the JSSDF and the UN, who elected to assemble an alpha strike with conventional military hardware before turning to what they considered to be a last resort.

Predictably, the alpha strike failed. The Co-Chief Scientific Officers of NERV, Yui Ikari and Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu, attempted to reason with the generals of the JSSDF and failed, resulting in a waste of time, resources, and lives. The JSSDF's weaponry had no effect on target, nullified by the Angel's AT Field.

After much grumbling and deliberation, the JSSDF and UN authorized NERV to utilize the All-Purpose Humanoid Decisive Battle Weapon: Evangelion. The moniker used to lead with 'Ultimate', but in a rare moment of mutual agreement between the CSOs Ikari and Soryu, they deemed the appellation to be too silly. The Test-Type Evangelion-00 would be utilized against the approaching Angel, and the battle-worthiness of the EVA series would finally be put to the question.

Now they merely needed to get the hundreds of engineers, data analysts, junior and senior scientists and programmers, and security guards working in lockstep together, then get the nervous fourteen-year-old pilot ready and send the Evangelion up to the surface to battle an alien abomination that they did not yet know the full capabilities of.

Simplicity itself.

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