Creation began on 09-16-22

Creation ended on 09-18-22

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Different from You: Fatherhood

A/N: What happens when someone who has no relationship with his father suddenly has to be one to someone else who suddenly winds up with him? Anime-based, set during the Twelfth Angel incident.

Shinji was starting to forget that he was cold and tired. He had been in the Entry Plug for over fifteen hours now and would soon be dead. The silence was unpleasant, but it didn't really bother him right now; he couldn't hear much of anything as his eyes closed.

"Daddy!" He thought he heard a little kid's voice just now. "Daddy!"

He thought it was a memory of his, except it sounded different; the kid's voice was at a different tone…and sounded…not like a boy's voice. A while later, he had lost consciousness inside the plug. Maybe a little more than lost consciousness. He didn't even feel a small hand reaching out to caress his left cheek.

"Daddy," the voice went again.

-x-

They were going to bomb the Angel with every N² explosive they had just to salvage whatever they could of the Eva. It wasn't even a matter of whether or not the pilot survived; all NERV really cared about was Unit-01, not Shinji. But then again, it was the same for any other pilot; they were a secondary concern, something Misato Katsuragi detested. As she stood by and watched as the counter reached zero, indicating that sixteen hours had passed, it was likely that Shinji was either dead or near-death in the plug without oxygen or food; there was no way anyone could survive in such a confined space for such a long time.

Ritsuko Akagi was about to give the command to commence the operation…when the shadow-like two-dimensional body of the Twelfth Angel started crumbling like an earthquake took hold of it!

"What's going on?!" She demanded.

"We don't know!" Maya Ibuki replied at her terminal. "Everything is going haywire!"

"There's instability within the shadow!" Makoto Hyuga added.

"Could it be Shinji?" Misato asked.

"That's impossible," Ritsuko claimed. "The power inside the plug should be depleted!"

Suddenly, the Angel's three-dimensional, zebra-colored shadow turned black as a tear appeared on its side, spilling a red fluid out onto the ground below. A second tear appeared and people could make out what looked like…hands forcing their way out of something! As the enlarged tear of the shadow sphere was pulled back, a dark red-colored Unit-01 tore its way out in a display of blood, terror and rage, roaring in fury as it escaped from the Angel!

"My Gott," Asuka Langley Soryu gasped from inside her Eva. "Is that what I'm piloting?"

Within Unit-00, Rei Ayanami remained silent, unsure of how to react to this turn of events.

"What in God's name have we made this from?" Ritsuko pondered.

As the Eva tore its way free from the sphere and slammed onto the ground below, Misato was wondering what NERV intended to do with the Evas AFTER the Angels were all defeated. What exactly did they intend to do with them after the Angels were gone?

As the sun shone over the horizon, Unit-01 stood in the middle of the streets, darkened by the red stains all over its body…and its armored face like that of a demon engulfed by hate. If there was ever something that could be used to represent a force of dread, it was Unit-01.

-x-

The recovery unit had extracted the plug from the Eva, setting on the street to extract the pilot once the deteriorated LCL was expelled.

Misato was about to approach the plug when one of the men raised his voice and arms.

"Hey!" He went, pointing to something that came out of the plug's emergency hatch, and then it fell to the ground below, sliding across the street.

It was small, covered in red like the Eva and plug, and slowly moving.

"Stand back!" Another man yelled, raising a submachine gun at the small form.

"Wait!" Misato raised her voice, looking at the form, swearing that she had seen something like it from before. "Medic!"

-x-

Opening his eyes after what felt like a long time, Shinji stirred from unconsciousness and found himself in the trauma ward of the Geo-Front. He was no longer wearing his plugsuit, replaced by linen patient garments with that sterile smell.

"You're finally awake," he heard a voice say to him as he turned his head to the right, seeing Misato sitting in front of him. "You've been out of it for two days."

Shinji looked at left wrist and saw an intravenous line bandaged on it, supplying him with nutrients that he wouldn't have been able to get while out cold.

"I…I had the strangest dream," he told Misato. "I kept hearing this little voice…and my father was saying things that were awful and I didn't want to hear him say anything more than what he already said. And then…there was this little kid in front of me, reaching out to me."

"That's a crazy dream," she responded. "Do you remember anything from before the Twelfth Angel, Shinji?"

"I thought I heard a voice towards the end after the life support started to shutdown, but I'm not sure if it was real or just a memory from my childhood."

"So, then…you don't know anything about the kid?"

Shinji looked at her and asked, "What kid?"

-x-

What were they to do with this person? It put NERV in a new bind for the time being; the Entry Plug was supposed to have only the Third Child inside it, but Major Katsuragi discovered the unexpected stowaway that had no business being in it at all…and was just as near-death as the boy. And if it wasn't something as unusual as how this person ended up in the plug with the boy, it was what NERV had learned during the forty-eight hours the two were unconscious.

"…How is something like this even possible?" Kozo Fuyutsuki questioned as he, Dr. Akagi and Gendo Ikari were in the latter's office. "The Eva was intact and still functions, and there was no indication that the plug was ever opened, so how did this child end up in there with the Third Child before the Eva escaped from the Angel?"

"It is suspected that the Twelfth Angel was connected to another dimension," Ritsuko explained. "During the time the Eva was trapped inside the Dirac Sea that made up its body, it would've been subject to whatever was going on around it. Still, it may not be a matter of how this child wind up inside the plug…but why this particular child was inside the plug."

Gendo wasn't convinced, though; all NERV knew as a whole was that this kid was in their custody after being found inside the Eva with the Third Child, but not who they were. If it was ever made public knowledge, it would make a scandal that could persist due to how impossible it had to be.

"Where is the child now?" He asked Ritsuko.

"Still unconscious in the trauma ward," she answered.

"We need to have this matter silenced."

Beep. Ritsuko took out her tablet and received an alert.

"We may not be able to," she uttered. "That was the trauma ward. The Third Child has come to…and Major Katsuragi has informed him."

"She informed him when she had been instructed not to?" Fuyutsuki questioned.

"It was a requirement to make sure that he could be questioned for anything relating to the Angel before there was a chance he forgot everything because of the lack of oxygenated blood to his brain. He claims to have no recollection of what occurred inside the Eva, but then he was informed about the kid."

"And?" Gendo questions.

"He has only a faint recollection of hearing a kid's voice, but he can't confirm if it was an actual voice or a memory."

-x-

It was against most of the medical protocols, but Shinji wanted to see this kid that he was told was in the plug with him when he was rescued from the Angel.

"Are you sure you don't know this kid, stupid?" Asuka asked him, ignoring the fact that he needed his IV pole as a support for his weakened legs.

"If I knew who they were, I wouldn't be confused by the question," he replied.

Standing outside the room the mysterious child was laying in, Shinji could see that they were likely four or five years old, with dark hair and a small face that seemed like any other person's when deprived of any sustenance or sense of hope that not even an intravenous drip could help replace. But there was something else about this kid that seemed…unsettling to Shinji.

"Who are you?" He wondered as he walked into the room to get a closer look at the child.

Suddenly, the child mumbled something. It was low, almost like a whisper. They muttered something again, a little more discernible to the ears, and Shinji was able to recognize the voice this time; it was the same voice he heard in the Entry Plug.

"What'd they say?" Misato asked him as she came in; since Shinji was closest, he was the only one to hear anything. "What'd you hear?"

"All I heard was… 'Daddy'. She said 'Daddy'."

"She?" Asuka questioned. "This kid's a girl?"

To be continued…

A/N: Here's the beginning. Sorry about ending it with Asuka questioning the gender of the kid, but I wanted to keep their identity unknown until the end. So far, only the higher-ups at NERV know some of the child's identity, but Shinji will have the biggest connection when she awakens to see him. Until the next chapter, have a peaceful period of clarity of mind and health of body.