Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion, support official release
The Weltall silently traverses through the time vortex at a steady pace.
In the Console Room, several tools and loose wires litter the floor as Adam fixes the navigation system. "Okay, now if I put this twist here, then it should…" He twists a wire and welds it into the rest of the circuit board followed by the sound of beeping. A smile appears on his face as he turns to everyone. "I did it!"
"Did what?" Toji asked.
"The Navigation system. I finally got it working again." I said.
That got everyone's attention. "You did?"
"Yup!" Adam takes a piece of cloth and wipes the sweat off his forehead.
"Does this mean we can go home?" Shinji asked.
"Definitely!" I cheered. "Now all that's left is to enter the coordinates and we'll be on our way home." He begins to type in the coordinates and enters them, however, the lights in the console room suddenly turn off as well as every other device in the room.
"Was something supposed to happen?" Kensuke asked.
"Adam?" Rei asked.
Adam fiddles with the computer. "I don't understand, it should have worked."
Suddenly, everything in the room comes back on with a noticeable rumbling as the ship begins to move.
"What's happening!?" Toji shouts.
Adam checks the computers, "We are veering off course!"
The Weltall begins to turn around and blasts off at full speed, surprising all of her crew as they attempt to get in order.
"What the hell is happening!?" Asuka shouts.
The Weltall exits the vortex and the first thing the crew sees is pure white and ridges of ice everywhere.
"Is that what I think it is?" Hikari asked.
Shinji and Kensuke's eyes are as wide as saucers with stars in them.
""IT'S SNOW!"" The two boys shout simultaneously with excitement.
Since the Second Impact, the planet's changed axis has caused the climate to irreversible change causing some countries to lose their seasons. In the case of Japan, the country has been locked in a perpetual state of summer with children never being able to experience the other seasons.
Adam walks to the terminal and tries to access it. "It seems we're somewhere in the Arctic Circle."
"Why would Weltall bring us here?" Hikari asks.
Asuka huffs. "It's probably because our dear captain has no idea how his own ship works."
Adam rolls his eyes.
"Why don't we go outside?" Everyone looks skeptically at Kensuke. "I mean, none of us have ever seen snow before and we'd probably never be able to do this again so why not enjoy it?"
Adam cups his chin. "That's not a bad idea, Kensuke."
"But what about the navigation?" Shinji asked.
Adam checks the computer. "It seems to be running fine, but I can't be too careful."
"I am not going."
Everyone turns to Rei. "What did you say?"
"I am not going to join you out there." Rei states.
"Why not wondergirl?" Asuka asked.
Rei turns to the icy landscape. "I… have a bad feeling."
Everyone stares at the First Child.
"Um… I'd like to stay." Everyone turns to Hikari. "I'm not really comfortable in the cold."
"I'll stay here, too." Toji states.
"To spend time with Hikari?" Adam teased.
Toji scoffs. "No, why would I want to spend time with a girl?" Hikari smacks him in the back of the head. "Ow!"
Well then, let's get ourselves some coats." Everyone walks out of the room leaving Toji, Hikari and Rei by themselves.
Asuka throws a snowball at Shinji. "C'mon Third, how can you call yourself an EVA pilot if you can't even throw a snowball."
Shinji glares at Asuka and retaliates, but misses and makes Asuka laugh at his poor aim.
At the same time, Kensuke is recording everything with his trusty camera. "I can't believe I'm seeing snow! Actual snow! I can't wait to show this to everyone back home!"
Meanwhile, Adam is busy leisurely building snowmen as someone comes up to him.
"Adam, can you please get Asuka to stop!?" Shinji pleads as Asuka throws more snowballs at him.
"Know your place, pleasant!" Asuka exclaims as she continues her onslaught.
Adam laughs at this but then hears something peculiar from the distance. "You hear that?"
Hear what? How pathetic Third is right now?" Asuka said.
"You don't hear it. It almost sounds like…" Something then comes into view.
It was some kind of heavy-duty truck for the snow hooked to a trailer and stopped beside us. The door opens revealing the driver inside. "What are you kids doing out here without supervision?"
"Um…"
"Whatever, just get in. I'm on my way back to the research facility anyway. I swear I don't get what those nerds were thinking, bringing their kids here like it's some kind of field trip." The driver grumbles.
Seeing no other option, the trio get on the truck and they drive away.
Meanwhile, Kensuke hears the sound of the truck and finds that he is all alone.
"Hello? Where did you guys go?" Kensuke calls out.
"So what are your names anyway? I can't keep calling you kids forever." The driver asked.
"I'm Adam."
"S-Shinji."
"I'm Asuka, a pleasure."
"No last names?" The driver asks but shrugs. "It's cool, I doubt I'll see you kids again after this or even remember me. Us grunts are easily forgettable. Just yesterday, two of us died during a blizzard and we discovered their frozen corpses early this morning."
"O-Oh… I'm sorry." Shinji said.
The driver sighs. "It's fine, I hardly knew them anyway. I just hope I live long enough to go back home, I just wanna see my family again."
As the truck drives through the snow and ice, something comes into view. It is a massive dome with cars and other kinds of equipment placed all over the area. The truck drives up to a checking station where the driver shows them a badge. The guard nods and opens the way forward where the truck drives inside into a hangar.
"Well, we're here kids." The driver gets out and we follow suit. They begin to talk to someone as we look around and then a guard walks up to us.
"May I see your ID?" The guard asked.
Shinji and Asuka begin to grow anxious as they can't give them what they want. Adam, on the other hand, calmly goes through his coat pocket and pulls out a wallet. He opens it and shows it to the guard and nods.
"Alright, you're all cleared." The guard walks away.
Shinji and Asuka's eyes were as wide as saucers at what they just saw and quickly rushed towards Adam.
"What did you just do!?" Asuka whispers.
Adam turns around and shows them a wallet with a blank piece of paper on it. "This is the psychic paper. When shown to a person, it could usually induce them to see whatever the user wished them to see printed on it. In this case, I showed the guard the IDs to this place."
"But... how did you get something like that?" Shinji asked.
"I made it." Adam instantly replied.
"...what?"
"Yeah, I made it as part of a little experiment of mine back in school." Adam puts the waller away. "I never had a reason to test it on someone before, but I'm glad that it actually works."
The EVA pilots are astounded by this. This guy not only has a time machine, but also managed to create a piece of paper that can hypnotize anyone who takes a look at it.
Just who the hell are you Adam?
"But wait, why didn't the psychic paper work on us when you showed it?" Asuka asked.
Adam cups his chin. "Well… if I had to theorize, it's probably because you guys aren't able to perceive things to a higher degree unlike the adults here."
A tick mark appears on Asuka's forehead. "Are you calling me stupid!?"
Shinji nervously chuckles.
"No, no, no, not like that. I'm just saying you guys don't have that big of an imagination. But whatever, let's just go inside."
The group goes inside the facility, walking through a narrow metallic hallway until they come across a half-opened door. Inside is a breakroom with a fridge, a microwave, a stove, along with miscellaneous items.
Adam walks up to a fridge and opens it. "Hey, are you guys hungry?"
"Yeah, I could go for a snack." Asuka said.
"Um, are you sure this is a good idea?" Shinji meekly asked.
"Relax Third, it's not like we'll get caught or anything." Asuka turns to Adam. "Right?"
Adam pops open a strawberry soda. "Yup. Thanks to the psychic paper, anyone who sees it will think and believe that we're part of the staff." He tosses some drinks to the duo. "So, relax a little."
Shinji reluctantly opens the can and begins to slowly drink the beverage. But he hears something that he was not expecting.
It's a girl's voice.
A VERY familiar voice.
"I want to see my father!"
"Young miss, your father is in the middle of a crucial experiment and he requires that no one interrupts him."
Two people walk into the breakroom. The first is a man wearing an orange winter coat and mask covering his face, but that isn't what was shocking.
What was shocking was the person who is with him.
Glaring at the man is a girl who's about their age wearing a similar outfit with long dark violet hair that is wavy with bangs parted to the sides and dark brown eyes.
"Oh. My. God." Asuka said what's on their minds.
"Please reconsider, Ms. Katsuragi."
"No! And besides it was Mom's idea for me to come, not his! He could give less of a damn about what I do with his precious tools!" Y. Misato exclaims.
"Ms. Katsuragi-"
"Hmph!" Misato crosses her arms and pouts, entailing that they are done with this conversation.
'Is that really Misato?' Her future roommates thought simultaneously.
The researcher turns to us. "Um, excuse me? Can I ask you to watch over the young miss for a while? I have to run a few diagnostic check-ups before we can begin the experiment."
Adam shrugs. "No problem."
"Thank you so much." The researcher looks at Misato. "Please behave." The researcher leaves.
Misato sighs. "Great, now I'm stuck here." She turns to Shinji. "So who are you dorks anyway?"
"Uhhh…" Shinji tries to come up with something and glances at the others who are giving him obvious signals not to tell her anything. "O-Our parents brought us here to see their e-experiment l-like you."
Asuka and Adam sigh in relief.
"Hm, alright then. The name's Misato, Misato Katsuragi. Nice to meet ya~" Y. Misato said.
"I-I'm Shinji."
"Call me Adam."
"And my name's Asuka. How do you do?"
"Misato stares intensely at Shinji. "Say… have we met before? You look familiar."
Shinji is now visibly shaking. "W-What are you t-talking about!? I-I have never seen you before in my life!"
Misato narrows her eyes at the Third Child before she shrugs. "Forget it, it doesn't matter anyway." She then walks past us and heads towards the fridge.
Asuka wastes no time and grabs Adam and Shinji and drags them to the edge of the room.
"Hey, what's the big idea? If you want to make out, there are better ways to do it." Adam teases.
Asuka gets flustered. "Shut up! That's not what I dragged you for!" She shrieks. "Do you realize where we are!?"
"What are you talking about?" Adam asked.
"We're in the South Pole." The duo turns to Shinji. "This is the South Pole. The experiment… this is where it happened."
"Second Impact." Asuka states.
Misato searches the fridge for something. "If this is the day where everything goes to hell, then we should get the hell out of here. Fast."
"But we can stop it, Asuka. Here and now." Shinji counters. "We can stop the Second Impact from ever happening. We can save billions."
"And risk causing a paradox? Dooming the present by having it erased." Adam retorts. Shinji, there are some parts in history that cannot be altered or rewritten no matter how much we want to, otherwise the consequences will be astronomical." Adam explains. "Look I understand you want to help, but we can't force time to do our bidding, that's not how it works."
"But-"
"Just drop it, Third. Your brother made his point." Asuka said, this time without her snark or temper.
Shinji's downcast eyes stare at Adam who only gives him a solemn look. At this point, Misato walks towards us with a soda in hand and senses the tense atmosphere. "Hey, you guys look like someone died."
Awkward silence is her only response.
"...anywaaaaays, I'm gonna explore the base a bit. You can come if you want." Y. Misato said.
The trio look at each other before nodding and leave the break room together. The base itself is pretty mundane, the people walking around from one place to another attending to their duties. A few of them would glance our way before quickly going back to what they were doing. It's evident that they stand out too much since they are likely the only children in the facility.
"Miss Katsuragi!"
The group turns to a familiar voice as the scientist that escorted Misato runs towards them. "I've been looking all over for you. Dr. Katsuragi wants you at the test site right away."
Y. Misato blinks in surprise. "He does?" She whispers, appalled that her father wants to see her. "Fine, let's go. It's not like I care or anything."
"You're such a tsundere, Misato." Adam said.
Misato blushes in embarrassment. "S-Shut up, I'm not!"
"That's what a tsundere would say~" Adam cheekly sang.
Shinji looks at Asuka.
"What are you looking at?" Asuka asked.
"N-Nothing!" Shinji exclaimed.
"Idiot…"
The guide leads us down to an elevator and we all get on it. He then inputs something on the panel and the elevator quickly starts to move.
"So what do you do here exactly?" Adam asks.
"We're researching something that crashed here billions of years ago. Dr. Katsuragi believes that it will help us understand the origins of all life and the source of its power. He hopes that by unlocking this being's power, it will grant humanity limitless energy."
The shaft vanishes as the elevator descends, revealing the large red organic chamber beyond. Shinji's eyes widened as this is the exact same chamber that lies below NERV, down to exact detail.
"Holy shit!" Asuka shouts. "It's like we're inside a person's body!"
Y. Misato is repulsed by the sight. "This is disgusting…"
Adam stares blankly at it, as if in a trance. Memories begin to play in his head at random, of a similar place with a person holding his hand. Has he been here before? Why was his father with him?
It doesn't make sense…
The elevator stops at the final floor. As the doors open, they are greeted with a narrow pathway littered with power cables along with several different machines. The group walks through the path and eventually reach an observation deck where they see a group of people working on something.
"System couplings are all secured."
"Insertion system is in place."
"Shell integrity within acceptable parameters."
"Good, begin Contact on my signal." The commander ordered. He has violent hair like Misato but is slowly fading into gray on his sides. On his neck is an iconic cross necklace that Misato will one day wear. He turns around and sees us. "Ah, you're here. Thank you for bringing Misato here."
"No problem, Dr. Katsuragi."
Dr. Katsuragi turns to the trio. "And who might you three be? I don't recall meeting you here."
"Well, I'm Adam." He turns to the other two. "He's Shinji and that's Asuka. Our parents decided to bring us here." Adam shows the doctor his psychic paper.
"Ah I see, I understand." Dr. Katsuragi said. "You may stay and watch the experiment, so long as you don't cause trouble."
"Yes sir." The trio said simultaneously.
Dr. Katsuragi stares at both Shinji and Adam. "Hm…"
"Is something wrong sir?" Shinji asked.
"You two look like a colleague of mine. He left yesterday in a hurry without any explanation though." Dr. Katsuragi said. "A shame, I wanted him to see this experiment."
'That person… could it be…' Shinji thought.
"Misato…" Dr. Katsuragi kneels in front of his daughter. "I brought you here because I want you to see this. The bright future that I'm making for you. I know I haven't been involved in your life, but this is the least I can do."
"Father…" Misato said.
Dr. Katsuragi stands up and looks back at his team. "Commence the Contact Experiment."
"Roger. Initiating startup sequence."
Outside the observation deck, machines are connected to an "egg" buried in the ice. The egg's surface has an appearance similar to the moon,
"Insertion process initiated."
A needle inserts itself into the "egg" and injects something into it. After a few moments, the egg emits an ethereal glow.
"Reaction detected. Power levels are rising steadily."
"Keep it steady." Dr. Katsuragi.
Suddenly, alarms come to life as everything begins to shake violently.
"Massive power influx detected within the S2 Engine!"
"Direct monitor's disconnected!"
"The main system is scrambled! It's overflowing!"
"Abort the experiment! Cut the main power!" Dr. Katsuragi yells.
The technicians try to shut it down, but nothing is working.
"It's no use, we can't cut the power!"
"We'll have to manually cut the power from the main circuit. Does anyone have an axe?"
Cracks begin to appear on the egg as the world shakes more violently..
"Power is rising beyond tolerance levels. Meltdown evident!"
"Shut it down, shut everything down!"
An ethereal loop appears above as multiple hands of light begin to rise within the white egg phasing through everything around. Reality begins to bend uncontrollably as people panic and try to run and then something rises from the egg as if it was just born.
It stares at everyone with its dead eyes and they are engulfed in a blinding light.
From somewhere, a pair of beady yellow eyes open, pulsing with unknown power.
Adam groans as he is awakened by the loud sounds of alarms. The first thing he notices is the destroyed roof and dangling electrical cables. Slowly and painfully, he slowly removes the debris off his body and stands up.
"Hello…? Asuka? Shinji? Misato?" Adam calls out. "Is there anyone here?" He steps on something and notices a puddle of orange liquid. It isn't the only one as Adam sees multiple orange puddles on the observation deck. "What the hell happened?" He walks around but finds no one, so he walks towards the exit and heads towards the elevator. As he walks through the pathway, he spots a familiar figure on the ground.
"Asuka!" He rushes towards her and checks her pulse, "she's alive…" Adam tries to wake her up, but she is out cold. He picks her up and walks towards the elevator which happens to still be functioning. He walks inside and the elevator takes the two up, "hope Shinji and Misato are alright."
Shinji POV
It hurts…
Those are the only words that keep playing in my mind on loop. Dr. Katsuragi's experiment failed and my sight was bleached white. I heard people screaming followed by the sound of a balloon popping… and then silence. I don't know what happened to Adam and Asuka, I hope they survived.
And Misato…
Where is Misato?
I try to stand up, my legs tremble as I gather the necessary strength to walk only to stumble and almost fall and I realize that I twisted my ankle. But compared to the pain I had to endure from having been stabbed, shot in the chest and my hands being stabbed clean through, this is nothing.
I walk through the burning remains of the base, there are orange puddles everywhere. LCL? Where did it come from? I somehow end up in some kind of large area, destroyed by whatever happened here but then I see the back of Misato.
"Misato!" I run towards her, but what is she… staring… at…
Five massive giants stand in front of her. They all have two dots for eyes and one dot on their chests. They also have halos above their heads and wings on their backs.
I couldn't say anything… words can't describe what I was seeing. Misato seems to be in the same position. The giants just stare down at us, not doing anything. It's like time is standing still for them. I didn't know what to do or what to say… and then I heard something. Someone was screaming, a scream full of horror and despair.
It didn't take long for me to realize that the scream was coming from Misato as she collapsed from the shock..
Without much thinking, I grab Misato and run. Run as fast as I can far from those things. I run through the ruined corridors of the base and noise a shadow looming above me. A massive hand is trying to grab us, but I jump at the last second before it grabs me. The shockwave sends us flying forward and crashing into an iron rod that stabs me through my left shoulder.
"Ahh!" I scream in pain as the metal rod digs into my muscles and bones. "M-Misato…" I look around and see the downed form of Misato not too far from me. I muster the strength to pick myself up, desperately trying to ignore the excruciating pain coming from my left arm.
I walk towards Misato and grab her. She is injured and bleeding, but is very much alive. Thank goodness. I wandered aimlessly through the facility until something caught my eye. "Is that…?" It's the same cross necklace that Dr. Katsuragi was wearing it, right next to a puddle of LCL. Without a second thought, I grab the necklace before discovering an intact capsule that looks very similar to an entry plug further inside. I open the capsule and place Misato inside along with the necklace and at that moment her eyes slowly open.
"Father…?"
I closed the hatch tight before she could say anything else. I quickly collapsed beside the capsule, exhaustion finally taking over. I'm losing a lot of blood and I don't know if Adam and Asuka are even alive. Is this how I will die? Born in the future only to die in the past? That makes no sense. I have so many regrets, so many things that I've never done and so many things that I want to take back. But maybe it's better like this.
The future is a living nightmare… where good people are left to die. What good is there to fight for a world that'll just die on its own in the end? Ridiculous…
"Shinji?"
My eyes widen at the familiar voice and look up to see Adam standing in front of me carrying Asuka.
"You're alive…" Adam manages to say. "That's… good…" He promptly collapses to the floor along with Asuka, they must have been walking around injured and exhausted for who knows how long.
My eyes grow heavy, it's so hard to stay awake in this state… to live with the pain.
I hope that… my past self doesn't make the same mistake… as… me…
A shadow looms over the destroyed room as a massive hand reaches out for them.
Normal POV
Gasp!
Shinji's eyes snap open and the first thing he sees is a plain white ceiling. "Another unfamiliar ceiling."
"You are awake."
Shinji turns to see Rei sitting beside him. "Ayanami…?"
"We are just outside the stratosphere." Scene cuts to the Weltall in its robot form looking down from space as Second Impact enters its final stage. "Escaping the implosion was no easy feat."
"I see. Thank you Ayanami." Shinji said.
"Your praise is unnecessary as neither I nor the others rescued you." Rei states.
"What?" Shinji asked, confused.
"It was the Weltall." Rei replies, shocking Shinji. "It began to move on its own and flew straight towards the facility you were all in and protected you."
Shinji looks around and sees Adam and Asuka occupying the other beds. "And… what about the capsule? The one that was next to me."
"It seems that the capsule has drifted away to the ocean and has been picked up by a rescue boat." Rei states.
"I see. That's good." Shinji sighs and relaxes. 'Father… you were part of the expedition to the South Pole. Why? I feel that the longer I'm here, the more questions keep piling up.' He thought. 'And Misato… she never talks about her past. Does she remember me or is she actively blocking out the memories of that day?'
One thing is for sure, there's a secret that somebody's trying to hide, and Shinji's not sure if he'll be able to handle the truth once we find it.
Author Notes
Here is the new chapter. It was a bit hard to write for this chapter and it shows with the quality.
Reviews and comments are very appreciated.
Peace~