A/N:

Hi.

I always thought Yui was one of the most fascinating figures in EVA, and with the Rebuild movies drawing to a close, it doesn't seem like she's going to get much more fleshed out. This isn't the first fanfic written about what would happen if Yui survived, obviously, but I wanted to try my hand at it.

If I had to describe the aim and general feel of this of this fic, it would be: "Evangelion 2021". I wanted to combine the best parts of the television show and the movies, as well as put my own spin on certain things. Along with the Yui angle, it's kind of meant to be a 'Rebuild of the Rebuilds', I guess. Whether I succeeded or not will be up to you to decide, but hopefully you enjoy it.

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Prologue

"A Loophole in Limbo"

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"Life is a dice game, dear. Let's take a little risk."

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ARTIFICIAL EVOLUTION LAB; HAKONE, JAPAN

APRIL 3rd, 2004

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The air reeked of blood, which Professor Fuyutsuki found to be prophetic in a way; if the experiment today was a failure, their bodies would make the smell even more pungent.

A maze of wires, documents, and various devices littered the room in which Kozo Fuyutsuki and Gendo Ikari were working in; standing with his face pressed against the window, little Shinji watched his mother working on top of the purple monstrosity known as Evangelion Unit-01. Fuyutsuki merely needed to watch the child's face to know what his mother was doing. Yui was practically rock-climbing against the giant mess of machinery and flesh they had made; whenever the woman moved up or down, Shinji's face followed; and when Yui waved at her son, the little boy dutifully waved back, bouncing with excitement at the attention his mother paid him.

Ikari sat brooding at a desk, the eerie blue glow of the computer reflecting off of his glasses as endless figures and charts populated the screen. The man was little more than an assistant to his wife, who was the true mastermind behind the project, but he was useful in his own way. Fuyutsuki could grant the man that one clemency, for Yui's sake. A brute, yes; blunt with his words, yes; but Ikari had a certain cleverness to him, and his appetite for running through menial and tedious work for the sake of his wife was boundless.

There were rumors that Gendo Ikari was simply using Yui for her connections and grant money, but truly, Professor Fuyutsuki didn't see any credence in them. On paper, the accusations made sense: again, Ikari was little more than a lout in a lab coat, but he had a rugged charm and an alleged heart of gold that seemed to draw innocent girls such as Yui like moths to a porch-light. But, underneath the gruff, Fuyutsuki could tell the man truly loved her; Ikari followed Yui like a hungry puppy whining for table scraps, and Yui was more than happy to have the man wrapped around her finger.

It was almost disappointing. Fuyutsuki held a torch for the woman, even still; if Ikari's motives were truly less than genuine, Fuyutsuki could have the man thrown out on the street – perhaps Yui would even consider him as a prospect afterwards.

Fuyutsuki lifted the coffee cup to his mouth and drank; the brittle, brown liquid wasn't exactly the nectar of the gods, though after getting three hours of sleep in as many nights, it might as well have been vintage wine. The benefactors of the lab were growing insistent on a show of progress; when working outside of the bounds of human understanding, a slow and steady approach was best. They were knitting and hemming the same cloth which caused Second Impact, after all. Progress was all good and well, but if a small top-secret lab in Hakone ended up being the reason why humanity was knocked back to the Bronze Age, Fuyutsuki was certain their sponsors would be even less pleased than they were now. If they weren't dead, that is.

The most frustrating aspect was that Fuyutsuki didn't know who was more displeased, or their exact level of displeasure. SEELE was upset because the relentless testing and honing of Project E was throwing their vague, apocalyptic timetable out of whack; the Japanese government and the JSSDF were upset because, for one affront or another, they wanted to drop the EVAs on Beijing and Washington to let the world know who was the new superpower was once and for all; and the UN was upset because even when they weren't actually vexed about something, they would manufacture a reason to be.

The small, unregistered lab in Hakone was simultaneously the most important and most dangerous place in the world – at least, if your names were Yui Ikari, Gendo Ikari, or Kozo Fuyutsuki.

Fuyutsuki looked over at Shinji, who was oscillating with nervous joy, and smirked. He couldn't bring himself to like the boy; it wasn't the fault of Shinji, who was a delightful bundle of laughs otherwise, but he represented the eternal bond between Yui and Gendo. A bond which was unlikely to ever be broken. The resentment was petty and unwarranted, Fuyutsuki knew, but he couldn't shake the feeling.

"Ikari," Fuyutsuki said, gesturing towards Shinji with his coffee cup. "this isn't a daycare. Hire a babysitter if you both need to work. You have the money."

Ikari looked up at Fuyutsuki, and nodded towards the holding tank where the Evangelion was stationed; Yui's voice came over the intercom. "Sorry, Professor Fuyutsuki. It was my idea."

"You thought the day of the EVA's trial run was an appropriate day to bring your son, Yui?"

Yui's laugh echoed throughout the room. "I wanted him to see the bright future ahead of us, Professor. Today is a big day for humanity, after all."

"It's not a big deal, Professor," Doctor Naoko Akagi said as she rounded the corner, a clipboard stuffed with papers held against the crux of her right arm. "as long as Shinji stays away from the holding area, he should be fine." The woman ruffled Shinji's hair. "Isn't that right, little one."

The boy nodded with vigor. It still seemed an unnecessary risk to Fuyutsuki; outside of scientific theorem – Fuyutsuki could argue with God Himself about formula and theory – he couldn't find the steel in his heart to deny Yui anything, so the man let the issue drop.

"Gendo." Naoko walked up behind Ikari, placing her hand on the back of his chair; it took an effort for Fuyutsuki not to scoff. Yet another casualty of Ikari's so-called rugged charm. "I think Yui's about to initiate the experiment. It's time to finally turn this thing on."

Ikari stood, straightening his lab coat. Fuyutsuki noticed bags under the man's eyes; though, he only needed a mirror to see that it would be hypocritical to chide the man. "Well, let's see what the fruition of all of work has amounted to, and hope that we didn't waste the GDP of Ireland on a monstrosity that doesn't even work."

"You're far too optimistic, Ikari," Fuyutsuki said. "I'm merely hoping that we don't start another Impact here. A simple waste of UN grant money would be charitable, in my opinion."

Yui Ikari had volunteered for the first 'contact experiment' since Second Impact; when some poor, unlucky soul in Antarctica had reached out and touched Adam for the first time, the entire world had shaken to its foundations. The hope behind the experiment was that when Yui touched the creature's core, they would initiate the part of Second Impact where a giant, biological creature of near god-like power awoke – under their control, of course – and not the part where fifty-percent of the Earth's population died and survival was made untenable for massive proportions of the biosphere.

There wasn't a whole lot of proof that the Adam experiment was repeatable, however, considering the initial 'test' was only run once. So, truthfully, Fuyutsuki wasn't certain what would happen when Yui touched the Evangelion's red core. He had once scolded Gendo Ikari for hiding underneath his wife's skirts, but Yui had made it clear that his was her decision; once her mind was set, Yui Ikari would not be deterred from her stated course of action, at any cost.

Ikari picked Shinji up, cradling the boy so he could 'sit' on the crux of the man's arm. The boy snatched Ikari's glasses right off his face and wore them, eliciting a chuckle from both Naoko and Gendo. Tapping a nearby intercom with his finger, Ikari spoke to Yui in the holding tank. "Yui, I think we're all ready. Shinji's watching you."

The young scientist in the holding gave a wink and a salute to the gathered audience above, then lowered her harness down to the creature's red core.

"Are we recording?" Yui asked.

"Yes, dear." Ikari gave his wife a thumbs-up. Fuyutsuki noticed Naoko's face twist with annoyance for a moment; it was pathetic, in his opinion, that the woman could hardly contain her jealousy for even one moment. "I think we'll designate this 'Evangelion Prototype Contact Experiment 01'."

"Sounds good to me." Yui took a deep breath. "This is Doctor Yui Ikari, bioengineer and metaphysical biologist, and today we will be undertaking the first Contact Experiment with the Evangelion Test Prototype. In attendance are: Gendo Ikari, First Scientist of Gehirn and my husband; Kozo Fuyutsuki, formerly Professor of Metaphysical Biology at Kyoto University and my mentor; Doctor Naoko Akagi, Chief Scientific Officer of Gehirn and designer of the in-progress MAGI Supercomputer System."

Yui winked again, and everyone knew whom it was directed towards. "And last, but certainly not least, little Shinji Ikari. My pride and joy."

Fuyutsuki chortled to himself. "Were you still my student, I would knock your score down a grade for that, Yui. Science is science, and family is family."

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." They saw Yui pressed her finger against her chin, regarding the red sphere in front of her with some curiousity. "The purpose of this experiment is to replicate the conditions which awakened Adam, the First Angel and progenitor of Second Impact. If successful, the Evangelion Test Prototype should come alive, but under human control. It is my personal belief that this would represent the biggest achievement of human engineering since the first spaceflight, and safeguard our species against those who would threaten us.

"With that, I will now initiate the Contact Experiment, and give the core of the Evangelion a portion of my DNA."

All of the gathered individuals on the bridge watched with bated breath, as Yui Ikari reached out and touched the red core of the Evangelion. Fuyutsuki couldn't help thinking of Michelangelo's famous painting as Yui reached out and touched the sphere with her finger…

…and disappeared.


The facility which housed the Evangelion Prototype was silent, a darkness coating the abandoned hallways and incessant machinery of the lab. It seemed all life had abandoned the laboratory, save for scurrying rodents and sequestered families of insects eating away at the walls. The room where once hurried and bustling scientists in their stained lab-coats worked was left in a dilapidated state; a computer monitor sitting on a desk had its screen shattered, a pair of glasses left on the desk snapped in half. Dried coffee from a dropped cup laid on the ground, the styrofoam container cracked from the fall.

In the holding tank, a giant of flesh and steel waited. Its innards were displayed for all who cared to look. There were orange clamps on its shoulders, as if the creature were being prepared for transport to another location. The armor of its head possessed a bestial quality, though its eyes were long dormant – the plating of the rest of its body seemed to be in-progress, as they had only completed the steel girding halfway down its chest.

The mechanical giant was the result of countless man-hours, resources, and the hearts and souls of the most brilliant scientists on the Earth. And, most importantly, the boundless love of a mother for her son. These scientists believed this glorious machine would one day be the salvation of mankind.

On the steel walkway beneath the monstrosity, there were: research papers, printouts of various charts and graphs, and various electronic devices all strewn about the floor. A long black skirt, a pink blouse, and a dirty lab-coat laid untouched; for all the reverence and caution this area was shown, it might as well have been a crime scene.

A woman's body dropped onto the walkway. At first, the body laid lifeless.

Then it coughed.

Yui Ikari was pale and emaciated; her brown hair a wet mop atop her head. She continued to cough, her naked body cold and dripping, as if she had jumped into the Arctic Ocean itself. Her mind was a jumble, full of half-remembered events. Only a vague recollection of where Yui was and how she arrived at this place remained. She clutched at the discarded lab coat close to her, using the article of clothing as a makeshift towel to dry herself off with.

The once latent eyes of the beast – the Evangelion, Yui remembered that much – were alight. One of its hands grabbed Yui, clutching her body though leaving her head exposed. Somehow, the Evangelion demonstrated perfect control of its limbs; it exerted enough force to keep Yui from falling through its hand, but not enough for the woman to feel uncomfortable in its grasp. The EVA's hand lifted Yui to its red eyes, and regarded the woman for a time. It felt like minutes before the Evangelion released Yui from its grasp. The creature's eyes went dormant once again.

From this moment, Yui knew two things: first, she needed to find Shinji. Wherever the boy was, whomever the boy was with, Yui needed to find him. Had Yui left him with someone? She examined the golden ring on her second-to-right finger. Right. She was married, but to whom? Yui would find out, and then, she would travel to this person and Shinji would be with him.

And second – that this wasn't according to plan. Not at all. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.