President Shinji Ikari
Prologue
My idea for this fanfic emerged from the California recall. If an actor can become the leader of a state or country, why not an Eva pilot?
Chapter1: Introduction
In End of Evangelion, the Third Impact occurred and Shinji was given a glimpse of what the world would be like if everyone died. Sensing the sheer loneliness that'll bring, Shinji wishes everyone to return back to his world; everyone who died between the 3rd Angel attack and the 3rd impact were brought back to life in the world with one exception. Gendo wished to remain as one with his wife Yui in spirit and did not wish to return.
This fanfic continues where End of Evangelion left off except at the end, Shinji is all by himself on the beach without Asuka. Asuka is still alive but Shinji doesn't know that for sure. With no one besides him and nothing to do, Shinji fall asleep to the rhythm of the waves, and when he wakes up, he's back in Misato's apartment with almost everything intact like before the Third Impact except that Kaji had taken Asuka's place.
"Shinji! Can you hear me?"
"Mi... Misato?"
"Ah.. you're alive, Shini", says a familiar male voice.
"Kaji-san? I thought you were..."
"It's OK, Shinji.", he replies.
"You had been asleep for the last 3 days.", Misato tells him.
"But the Third Impact... no, it must have been a dream. How's father? Asuka? Rei? Toji? Kaworu?"
"When I finally awakened, almost a week had passed. A huge invasion force arrived and I had been shot.. that's all I can remember."
"Misato.. I'm sorry.. I couldn't --"
"It's OK, at least most of us are fine. I'm sorry to tell you about your father. He was nowhere to be found and his uniform was found floating in a puddle of LCL."
Shinji hears Rei's faint voice in his head, "Your father chose not to return but to be come one with your mother." Tears streamed down Shinji's eyes.
"Have we been able to find Asuka?" Kaji casually inquired.
"She left no trace. It seems everything belonging to her has been wiped out completely, as if she had never existed. No body, no clothing, no nothing."
The next day...
"Stand Up! Bow! Sit down!"
"I'm Kaworu Nagisa, nice to meet you all!"
Shinji was shocked after hearing the name then realizing who was speaking it. After school, he approached Kaworu directly away from the rest of the crowd.
"Oh, hi again, Shinji. You must be wondering, right? Remember when I told you that it's my destiny to live forever?"
"Kaworu! I'm so sorry for what I had done to you!"
"It's alright, Shinji. The fact that I'm here standing by you is all that counts."
Weeks later at NERV headquarters...
Kaworu arrived and has been reassigned to pilot the recently finished Unit 14. He managed to sync with it without too much difficulty though his ratio plateaued out at 90% instead of the 400% he had with Unit 2 prior to the 3rd impact. News arrived of Dr. Akagi and Fuyutsuki's resignations. With Gendo dead, Misato took over the position as commander and Kaji as vice commander. The remains of the Eva series were scattered around the world with portions contained on every single continent (except Antarctica which had been destroyed in the 2nd impact.) Unit 1 was still fully intact when it was found off the Mediterranean coast in Egypt and promptly shipped back to NERV Japan. Various countries launched top secret operations to salvage the remains of the Eva series and Unit 2 in constructing their own Eva series though most countries cooperated and returned the remains to NERV.
On one seemingly ordinary and uneventful day, Shinji is sitting in the entry plug for his unit for yet another round of sync tests. Once the tests were over, the entry plug would not eject.
"Oh no, this can't be happening again!", Maya screams.
"Shinji!!! No, why did Ritsuko have to quit?", Misato thought.
Inside the entry plug, Shinji begins to lose perception of the walls of the plug and hears a familiar voice.
"Shinji, can you hear me?"
"Rei? Ayanami?"
"No. Shinji, my child..."
"Mother?"
"Shinji, I'm so sorry.. I don't know how you'll ever forgive me. You might never truly understand how I felt but I cared for you.", a male voice also called out to him.
"Father?"
"Every time you pilot the Eva, we will be watching over and protecting you."
"One more thing, Asuka's has returned and is alive. Though she may not know it, she needs you dearly. Please go look for her."
Before Shinji could respond, the entry plug ejected and a tearful Misato hugged him.
"Shinji, you're unharmed! Please don't do this to me again!"
"Well, I was only out for 5 minutes, at least that's how long it seemed to last."
"You were stuck for two full days!"
13 Years later...
NERV Japan used the salvaged remains of Eva 02 and the Eva series 5-13 and completed a new Eva series. These Eva's, unlike the first units, accepted 90% of all pilots placed in the entry plug, and even if the pilot was rejected, there was little risk to their life. The only drawback was that sync ratios rarely exceeded 100% and were almost always unacceptably low if the pilot's age was over 25. Shinji was recently promoted to Major in NERV in addition to being the head pilot, continuing to pilot his Unit 1. Misato, Kaji, Kaworu, and Kensuke all celebrated though Shinji didn't feel it was anything special. Something seems to be bugging Shinji within.
It's been over 5 years since Shinji even thought about Asuka. With the Angel wars over, the work at NERV became considerably less demanding which left him plenty of free time to travel. He aimlessly searched 50 different countries in hopes that he'll coincidentally run into Asuka on the street or something. None of his trips provided him with even the slightest clue of where Asuka had gone. Though he had faith in his parents' word of Asuka's existence, he couldn't deal with losing her. He vowed to forget about her completely.
Meanwhile, NERV intelligence has reported that the new dictatorship in the United States has invaded Iran. Iran's NERV facilities have been demolished to rubble while their Evas were stolen and the respective pilots kidnapped. Rumors of the US military seizing NERV facilities on the East Coast have also been popping up.
"Shinji, Kaworu, Kensuke, and Rei, start packing your essentials for the next week or two. We'll flying in 3 hours.", Misato directed the four experienced Eva pilots.
"Where to?", Shinji inquired.
"San Francisco 2. The main US branch of NERV is begging us to send in reinforcements for the anticipated attack by the US military forces which are due to arrive in about 24 hours."
To be continued...