MATERNAL PROGRAMMING
AUGUST 15th, 7:42 PM
NAOKO AKAGI'S OFFICE
"That should be about everything. I can push the new build out in the morning, but for now I just want to get this report in, and head home."
Naoko Akagi is a very busy woman on certain days, especially being Director of the Cyber Division. She took a sip of the now cold coffee and sighed, waiting for the printer to finish. As it printed, she began closing and saving her files, One to her Hard-drive, One to MAGI Servers, and One to backup servers. She could never be too careful.
"Maybe this security and stability patch will keep that Aida kid from breaking in all the time, give him a good scare."
She gave a slight chuckle, before putting her desktop to sleep. She grabbed her freshly printed report and began gathering her things for the night.
"Ok, do I have everything? Keys, wallet, phone, ID card?"
She began checking the items in her purse before nodding.
"Good, I have everything. I don't want to be locked out again. I don't want a cranky Shinji." She then got up, turned off the lights and left her office, locking it behind her.
As she strode down the now empty halls of NERV HQ, she couldn't help but reminisce of the time that this place used to look like some abandoned lab out of an old comic book.
Through the endless halls and corridors of the sprawling underground fortress, not once did she slow down or break her stride. She took one of the few elevators leading to the commander's office. As she stood there in the elevator, she once remembered that it used to have a clicker to show which floor it was on. Thank god they changed it, it would've driven her nuts.
The elevator door slid open with a ding, and she stepped out, continuing her trek to the bleak office.
She soon arrived at the large featureless doors labeled only as "Commander's office". She sighed and pushed the doors open, only to be hit with a strong odor.
"Whiskey."
There sat Gendo Ikari, the most feared man In Japan, drinking away his sorrows. Naoko slowly walked over to the drunken man and set her sheaf of papers down on his desk.
"Disgusting."
Just as she turned to leave, a hand grabbed her wrist. She spun around to see a bleary-eyed Gendo grabbing her.
"What the hell?!" Naoko yelped in surprise.
"Why do you care for my son!? Why don't you care for me?!" Gendo yelled in his drunken stupor. Naoko tried to get him to release his grip, but he wouldn't give up.
"Let go of me!" She cried out.
He tugged for her to come closer. "Why won't you care for me!"
"Maybe for the same reason Yui won't come back! Because you are a horrible person! Get off of me!"
In a quick flash, Gendo yanked her closer and struck her. She got loose and placed her hand on her cheek, a stinging sensation as she touched it.
"You bitch! You don't know anything about Yui!"
She turned to face him in blind white hot fury.
"I know damn well, she would not want to come back to a bastard like you! And as for Shinji- I took the time to get to know him, I actually care for him! I love that boy, unlike you! You only care about yourself, not even Yui! She probably stays inside the Evangelion to get away from you!"
Gendo fumbled over to her, knocking over the nearly empty bottle in the process.
"Don't you dare say anything like that!" He slurred out his speech, awkwardly making his way over to her, only to be shoved back.
"Don't you dare fucking touch me! And I warned you to never call him 'your son' again! If you even get near him, I will not hesitate to put a bullet through your head!"
And with that she stormed off, nearly knocking over a person entering.
"Naoko, what's going on?!"
"Get out of my way, Kozo! And keep that disgusting creature away from me and my son!" Fuyutsuki turned quickly to the departing woman, and then to the drunken man laying on the floor.
"Stand up, Ikari." The elder man said with a hint of disgust in his voice. He went over and yanked the drunken man up to his feet.
"Ikari, this is the fourth time this month I've found you like this. And this time, you've gone and actually struck someone! Even worse, it was Naoko Akagi! Do you realize what could happen if this gets out?!"
Fuyutsuki walked over and picked up the empty bottle. He sighed as he set it down on the table.
"Is this about your jealousy, Ikari? About how Yui still refuses to come out and that Shinji is having a better life than you?" His voice raised in annoyance.
"What will it take to snap some sense into you?! Do you want me to spell it out for you?! Yui doesn't want to come back!"
This sent Gendo into another fit of rage, trying to also hit Fuyutsuki, who simply dodged it.
Gendo fell onto the floor.
"You're pathetic Ikari. I suggest you start cleaning up your mess. Good Night."
And with that, Fuyutsuki left the awful smelling office, and left the drunken fool to his sorrows.
MATERNAL PROGRAMMING
EPISODE 4
"Mother is the First Other."
10:32 PM, AKAGI RESIDENCE
Naoko slid her keys in and turned, opening the front door of the house. "I'm Home," she said, taking off her heels and setting them on the rack. She took a look at the schedule on the wall and sighed.
Usual Expected Times Home
Shinji: Weekdays: 8PM, Weekends: 8PM
Ritsuko: Weekdays: 6PM, Weekends: Around 11PM
Naoko: Weekdays: 8:50 PM, Weekends: Around 8PM
"I guess I'm late again. Bastard held me up." She walked over to the kitchen and set her stuff down. As she took her stuff out, she spotted a tuft of brown hair peeking from the couch. She heard snoring, along with another sound. It sounded a bit crushed, but it was the sound of a ship.
She silently walked over to the couch to see Shinji with his phone in hand. He was asleep on a call. Naoko gently picked up to see who he was calling and saw a bit of red hair on the other side. She smiled a bit, before setting it down.
She quietly got a blanket from his room and gently laid it on him. She leaned over and gave a quick peck on the forehead before heading over to her room.
She didn't bother changing completely, only stripping down to her blouse and putting on some sweat pants before falling onto her bed. She pulled out her phone and put on some music. She saw a quick notification from her daily news that it was the day that Japan surrendered in World War Two.
"While we aren't fighting for imperialism here, we can't surrender again. If we do, humanity will perish. Not with a bang, but with a whimper."
She soon fell asleep, with the events from earlier still playing in her head. A somewhat grim expression formed on her face as she slept.
8:36 AM, SUNDAY
The scent of coffee tickled Naoko's nose as she stirred a bit, before lifting her head to sniff.
"Mmm, coffee."
She got up, and stretched in an almost catlike manner. She slipped on some slippers and walked out of her room. She shambled out into the living room and saw Shinji already making breakfast. She walked over to the kitchen and ruffled his hair, before going to get her daily brew.
"Morning, mom. How'd you sleep?" Shinji said with a cheerful chirp in his voice.
"It was rough, I have some things I need to do later." She poured herself a cup and took a sip. It tasted different than her usual.
"Hmm, this tastes different than our usual brand. Tastes… Richer."
"That's because it was given to us, by someone in the UN-"
Shinji turned to face his mother and saw a red hand mark on his mother's face.
"Who hit you?" Shinji said, his voice colder than she had ever heard.
"I had to slap myself to wake up-"
"Bullshit, someone hit you. Who did it?"
"Don't worry about it, Shinji. Please."
Shinji set down his cooking utensils and sighed.
"Was it him?"
Naoko was silent for a minute.
" Yes."
He threw down the towel he was using and scowled.
"I knew it. I fucking knew it!" Shinji stomped towards a drawer she knew he would go to. The self-defense drawer.
"Shinji, no."
Naoko laid her hand on his shoulder, only for him to brush it off. He still tried to go to it.
"Shinji, I said no." This time she had to grab him.
"Mother let me go." He struggled to get free.
"Shinji no!" She wrapped her arms around him, and resisted his attempts to escape. He squirmed around, to be freed, and kept repeating about how much he wanted to hurt Gendo.
She spun him around and held him tight, rubbing circles on his back, trying to calm him down.
"Shhh… It's alright Shinji. I'm fine. You don't need to do anything."
A moment of Shinji's ragged breathing could be heard, before he slowly calmed down.
"Shinji, look at me."
Shinji hesitantly looked at her with a sad expression.
"A-Are you sure?"
Naoko nodded with a sad smile.
"It's not worth it, Shinji."
With a sigh, Shinji wrapped his arms around his mother, and held tight.
Ping
Sirens
"Looks like we have a job to do, Shinji. I'll get the car ready."
And with that Naoko rushed off to get the car ready. Shinji sighed and got moving, grabbed his ID, and turned off the stove.
NERV HQ, BRIDGE
9: 13 AM
4TH ANGEL IS 22 KM AND APPROACHING THE FIRST DEFENSE LINE
UNIT 00: ESTIMATED LAUNCH PREP TIME: 4 MINUTES
UNIT 01: ESTIMATED LAUNCH PREP TIME: 5 MINUTES
"All Evangelion restraints are removed and ready for rail deployment. Pilots are onboard."
"MAGI has switched control over to the onboard Neural Processing System."
"Flooding Entry Plug and adding Enhancers."
"Batteries are charged and Railway Capacitors are at max."
Naoko watched as the bridge crew read their callouts and performed their tasks. Everything was normal, except there was a person missing. She turned to look up at the Throne of God, the spot where the commander sat at, to see it was missing the commander himself.
"Gendo isn't here. Probably resting that hangover of his."
"Rei, Shinji; how are you two?"
"I am fine. I'm just tired, that's all."
"I'm ready. Just launch when ready."
Naoko sat down at her station and sighed. He was still mad from earlier. Shinji had an unhappy look on his face, and mumbled to himself on TacNet.
"Shinji, TacNet is for communications, not for obscenities. Do you want me to take away your phone? I know Asuka wouldn't like that, since she calls you a lot."
That caused Shinji to stutter and apologize quickly, eliciting a collective chuckle from everyone on the bridge.
Shinji himself felt a tinge of silliness from his surroundings, so he did the next best thing. Just as the Evangelions moved to the launch pads, he said his quip.
"If you take away my phone, I'll hide the coffee!"
That got a reaction out of Ritsuko more than Naoko.
"You don't have to punish me for our mother's actions!"
"What? I can't hear you over the sound of me launching! Maya now!"
At the moment the launch bolts locked and the tubes cleared, both Units launched up at Mach 2.
Misato stepped up to the console and pressed the microphone.
"Once you arrive up there, We will send you two pistols on your left. Both of you will be deployed next to one another."
"Roger!"
"Copy that!"
Naoko watched as the two Evangelions halted at the top of the lift. Seeing them walk off and gathering their gear for the Angel approaching.
The Angel halted its advance in front of the two, and began to morph. Rei quickly began her assault on it, hitting it with a barrage of car sized bullets.
The Angel swiped its now white hot tentacles at the two units, tripping Unit 1 in the process.
The purple behemoth's body spun around, its head barely missing the tentacles, but still hitting the horn.
"Shinji!" Rei yelled, trying to pull him back up to his feet.
"Unit 1's Primary Communication Array has been severed, switching over to Auxiliary Telemetry Array."
At this point, Unit 1 deployed its Prog knife. The heavily bitcrushed sounds of Shinji's grunts could be heard over TacNet.
"Rei, I'll take care of the tentacles, try and destroy the core!"
"I'm on it!"
Unit 0 dashed In front of Unit 1, and began aiming at the core, getting in a few good shots at it.
Shinji swung with the might of a god angry at its creation. He managed to slice off one tentacle, before trying to go for the next. But he realized his blade had been damaged beyond practical slicing use. The blade, now dulled, was plunged into the head of the Angel, sending it into a frenzy.
"One more shot!"
Rei yelled, before realizing her clip was empty. The next best thing she did next: bashing the now useless pistol into the core.
The Angel screamed in what could only be assumed to be agony. A high pitch chittering could be heard repeatedly from the Angel as it thrashed around, desperate to defeat the two Evangelions.
Cries could be heard from the Angel as Unit 0 punched the core, smashing it to pieces. The pieces then turned into a blood red liquid.
Unit 1 walked over to the fallen Angel as it died and stomped on the knife that was still in the head, deeper into the Angel.
Shinji kept stomping, more and more, muttering something to himself.
"Stupid Bastard…"
"Heartless Bastard."
"Monster."
Unit 0's head turns to face the hornless Unit 1, stomping on the Angel's corpse.
"Shinji, I think that's enough."
Rei tried to grab the other Units wrist, but was yanked away before she could.
Naoko grimaced at this, and told Maya to cut off the connection. Shinji's rage was halted by the sudden disconnection, leaving him to simmer down in the Entry plug.
"Once recovery happens, send him to my office immediately." Despite them winning with very few damage, everyone had a chill down their spine as they heard Naoko's annoyed voice.
3 HOURS LATER
NAOKO AKAGI'S OFFICE
A freshly showered Shinji stepped into the messy office to find his mother typing away at the computer. She noticed him in the reflection of the computer monitor, and stopped.
"Shinji, have a seat." She said, pointing to a stool near her workbench. Shinji sighed and sat down. He knew he was in trouble.
"I defeated the Angel, what's the problem?"
Naoko took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"While I am proud that you defeated it with Rei, you can't lose your temper. Even if… Even if you are still mad at him."
Shinji tried to avoid looking at her directly.
"... Go get ready to go home. Rei will be coming with you for dinner. Ritsuko will drive you both home."
Shinji stood up and began to walk out, but Naoko stopped him. She got up and gave him a hug.
"Good job out there."
She then gave him a kiss on the forehead, which left a lipstick mark, not that he cared. He was happy like this.
Thank you all for your Kind Reviews, and for all the new Followers and Favorites!
A thank you to:
YourBlandestNightmare
Chad Commander
For helping with the chapter, and editing!
This is quite possibly the longest chapter Ive ever done!
Anyways, Stay tuned for the Next Update!
Til' time!
"And I promise there will be plenty of fanservice!"
-DerpymanMT