End of the Future
Chapter 9: Conspiracy Hypothesis

Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm doing wrong (to correct it).

Trigger Warning.

Reference to murder and suicide.

Ruins of Tokyo-3

"Doc? What do we do now?" Marty asked, while Jennifer guided the sobbing survivor to sit down on the sidewalk.

Doc looked wildly around, as if expecting a horde of survivors to arrive. "Well… I think we should wait a few minutes for our friend to calm down a bit. I am very relieved to find a survivor, I hope he will be able to tell us what in tarnation (1) happened here, and how he survived the Event. If it is repeatable, maybe we could use the same method to actually observe it."

"Observe it?" Marty asked, agitated by the idea. "Doc, I don't think that would be a good idea. What if whatever it was fails? Or if we are wrong about whatever it was?"

"Good point, Marty, very good point." Doc opened the first aid kit, and very slowly, spoke to the still sobbing survivor, in halting Japanese, tapping at his own chest. "(We come in peace. Let us see you health.)" (2)

The boy looked at Doc, and answered with a voice that seemed rough from lack of use, "(- — — medical exam?)

(Yes. Not my style, but I do mine best.)

The boy frowned, "(Are you a doctor?)"

"(Not medicine, just First Help, fine?)

Marty squatted next to them, and offered the boy a cereal bar. "(Wanna eat?)"

The boy nodded, and gingerly took the bar from Marty's hand. "Thank you." He said, in hesitant English. He opened the wrapping, and bit into the bar with tears in his eyes, "Fresh. Where you find?"

Doc looked at his young companions, then to the boy, "Seems your English is better than our Japanese." He smiled, "I'm Doctor Emmet Brown," again, he tapped at his chest, then he tapped at Marty's shoulder, "my friends are Marty McFly," Marty waved, "and Jennifer Parker." She nodded and said "Hi!"

"I'm Ikari, Shinji." He bowed his head, "I thinked I was the only one, apart from Asuka."

Doc kept on examining Shinji, there were a couple of scratches on his hands and one knee, efficiently, he disinfected then, and put band-aids on the small wounds. "And done. We'll change these tomorrow, okay?" He closed the kit. "Could you tell us what happened here? Who is Asuka?" (3)

"You don't remember? The Angel attacks? Third Impact?" Shinji asked, disbelief in his voice.

Marty shook his head, "It's complicated, just begin at the beginning."

Shinji took a sip of water, "Could we go somewhere else first?"

Jennifer nodded at the enquiring looks of Doc and Marty. "This place is creepy enough. Shinji, where's your home?"

He sighed, "it's close, I'll show you." He hesitated, "c-could we look for some food first? There are stores we haven't checked yet, but are far from the apartment." He pointed towards the edge pf the ruined city.

"Sure. We can carry a lot in the back of the truck." Marty said.

While they recovered all the cans and prepackaged food they could put on the truck's back, Shinji began his tale, though he would have to stop frequently, when the tale came to a specially traumatic point. Doc listened intently, using his small tape recorder to record his story for later review.

It was clear he skipped some parts, as his narrative jumped abruptly to him finding another survivor, his fellow pilot.

"Asuka and I are still at Misato's apartment, but we barely speak to each other. Could be worse, I guess."

Doc put the last box of instant soup in the truck. "How exactly could it be worse? I fail to imagine a worse thing than being the only two survivors."

Marty and Jennifer answered at the same time. "Being the only survivor."

Doc gasped. "I… I stand corrected."

Hill Valley, California, USA

Brown Enterprises HQ

Stantz and Spengler Workshop

Three Weeks After the Trip to Canada

"Hmm…" Dr. Egon Spengler adjusted his eyeglasses over his nose. "This is very unusual."

He turned the screen towards his friend, "Ray? Your opinion?"

Dr. Ray Stantz grabbed his pocket calculator and began to execute several equations, noting the results in his notebook. "Very unusual indeed, Egon. Could this actually be true? Teleportation? And Batrok Industries just let you guys buy the whole lot?"

"Yes, the CEO was in a hurry to get rid of everything Dr. Brundle had worked in. You read the police report?"

"No, I was designing the new system for the Mr. Fusion. I think we can shrink it to about the size of a big suitcase. We need some exotic alloys to work with. What happened?"

Egon nodded, "Very good, Ray. I'll see about getting those alloys." He set down a note in his planner. "Batrok Industries works in a similar way to Brown Enterprises, they sponsor interesting projects, help with financing, and partner with promising inventors to commercialize their patents. Apparently, one of their low priority projects was the idea of a scientist by the name of Seth Brundle, but he was involved in a couple of murders, and disappeared." (4) He took his glasses off to clean them. "The police found two corpses in the premises, identified as Veronica Quaife, Brundle's girlfriend, and Sthatis Borans, her exboyfriend and then editor of Particle Magazine."

"Never heard of it." Ray scratched his head.

"Limited circulation, but well regarded."

"What happened?"

"According to the police report, the most probable chain of events is this: a jealous Borans arrived to Brundle's lab to either threaten him into cutting ties with Miss Quaife or shoot him to death, possibly along Quaife herself. During the resulting fight, Brundle snapped Stathis' neck, almost certainly in self-defense. However, a stray shot killed Quaife; it is not known if Borans was alive the moment the shotgun went off. Brundle fled the place and hasn't been seen since. Bartok's CEO wants to distance the company from this scandal. Hence, his selling everything to Brown Enterprises." (4)

"Wow… no wonder they sold it cheap…" Ray passed his hand over his forehead.

"Curry's sons are working with Canadian lawyers to ensure whatever we can get from Brundle's research will be Brown Enterprises property. They have people looking for Brundle's next of kin, so we can pay them any royalties due. Never again, Ray. We just got out of a nasty set of lawsuits, I don't want another. It if means we have to pay a bunch of kids or ladies with cats, so be it."

Ray nodded, "Yeah… I hope to save enough to buy my house again…"

Egon tapped Ray's shoulder. "Mr. Fusion should be enough for that. Just give it a few years, a single unit can power a house without any problem. We just need to pass the EPA tests before going commercial. Doing it from here in California, through Brown Enterprises, means we won't have to deal with that guy… what's his name?" He snapped his fingers several times, Ray shrugged, "The idiot who pulled the switch on the containment unit." Egon shook his head, remembering the resulting chaos. "Anyway, once we get the EPA approval, we could start with portable generators for emergencies or camping.

Ray tapped the desk with the end of his pen. "Egon… do you think they could come back as, you know, ghosts? Violent death is correlated with many cases of ghosts."

"I won't discard the possibility now that you mention it. Let me get the PKE Meter. Emotionally charged events are another correlated factor. Though neither Winston nor I got any reports about ghostly activities at Brundle's loft during the interviews with the neighbors. He did use a few lab animals, up to a baboon, that was their only complaint; the baboon has been removed from the premises before the deaths. Though maybe there's a sort of incubation period before any manifestation."

"It seems to be the case. Usually the first reports are dated a few months after the victims's death." Ray noted.

"Let's keep it as a side project, Ray. Things are going well so far. I don't wish to alienate Doctor Brown. I'll inform him when he returns. He did give his permission as our nominal boss, but I would prefer to proceed with his acknowledgment. Using the PKE meter would be covered as passive use of our equipment. If we keep it on while we work it will alert us in case a ghost manifest, and won't interfere with our research."

Instrumentality.

The entity once known as Lilith and Rei Ayanami watched the encounter with senses no human could conceive.

Her body was almost ready, but the changes in location had delayed its preparation. At least they had not tried to harm Shinji. To the contrary, they seemed genuinely worried for him and eager to help him.

The former pilot had desperately latched onto them. The loneliness and rejection of his situation had taken its toll on him. He had never been particularly social, but now he was acting extremely emotional.

Outside the Apartment Building

48 Minutes Later

Marty parked the truck in front of the building Shinji had guided them to. They began to discharge the boxes, when Shinji dropped a bag of cans. He was deathly pale, his eyes wide open and his jaw hanging down. He trembled uncontrollably.

"Shinji! Are you okay?" Marty asked, grabbing him by the shoulders. Jennifer gasped, following his eyes.

At the other side of the street, the blue-haired girl stood unmoving.

Quickly, Doc pulled out a camera, taking several pictures in quick succession. "Amazing!" He mumbled, "She is the spitting image of the one we saw in Hill Valley!"

"Um, Doc? I think she is really the same girl!"

Jennifer nodded, "Even the way she stands is the same."

"(Hello, Miss.)" Doc greeted her, in hesitant Japanese. "(Could we talk?)"

Shinji finally found his voice, "(Ayanami? Is that you? Really you?)"

"(You know she?)" Marty asked.

"(I was Rei Ayanami. She is still a part of me, but I am also Lilith.)" She spoke in perfect English, with a barely noticeable Japanese accent, looking at Shinji as she walked towards the group. She turned her eyes towards the newly arrived, "(You are not, you we're not, part of Instrumentality. Who are you and how did you evade the Gestalt?)" (5)

The time-travelers exchanged an awkward look.

"Um…" Marty said, putting his hand up, "What's Instrumentality?"

A strange expression crossed Rei's face. Utter and absolute incomprehension.

Shinji looked at them. His eyes firmly on the ground before him. "Third Impact… Third Impact caused everybody's souls to…" he gulped, "…to…" he stumbled back until he was against the wall, and fell on his knees, hiding his face behind his hands, crying openly. Jennifer knelt beside him, and passed an arm over his shoulders in a half-hug.

Ayanami seemed to appear next to them, and put a hand on Shinji's shoulder. The boy trembled at the contact, torn between acceptance and rejection. She looked at the others. "Instrumentality was the last step in human evolution." She stood up, "All human souls ascended into a composite being, their fondest desires granted in Instrumentality. All human souls now reside in the sea of souls. Except for those souls who rejected the fusion, all human souls are a part of Instrumentality. I am its Keeper. You three have never been a part of Instrumentality."

Marty had to sit down. His mouth opened and closed several times, until he found his voice when he felt Jennifer's hand in his. "That's… that's horrible…"

Doc leaned back on the truck, his eyes wild and his hands shaking. "Forced evolution!"

"Humanity had reached an evolutionary blind alley."

"Preposterous!" Doc exclaimed. "Who decided that? On what criteria?"

"The Human Instrumentality Comitee." Rei answered, calmly.

"A Comitee?" Doc scoffed, interrupting her. "A Comitee designs a racing horse for Florida and you get a camel in the North Pole!" He swing his hands wildly. "Who gave them such power? Forget that, must have been a bunch of idiots!"

"Self-appointed positions, from the UN higher echelons, the Comitee was formed after Second Impact."

"As I said, idiots! As long as there is life, there is hope, Miss Ayanami! They not only committed suicide! They dragged everybody with them! You want to see an evolutionary blind alley?" He pointed at the Red Sea, anger in his voice. "It's right there! I am sure not many people will come out from there! Why should they? Everything is perfect there, isn't it?" He ranted. "Eternal and unchanging Paradise I bet!"

Rei gave a half-step back, pushed back by Doc's anger.

"They took away the most precious gift Mankind has." He shook his head, "Had. Has. Our Free Will. We could have…"

"Earth's ecosystem was deemed inviable after Second Impact." Rei noted. "Extinction was a matter of time."

"Oh, suuuure. And things are better now?" He answered sarcastically. "It wouldn't surprise me if Second Impact was deliberately caused by some idiot. That fairy tale about the meteorite in Antarctic stinks to a cover-up."

Rei kept silent. Doc snapped from his rant. "It was deliberate, wasn't it?"

She nodded slowly.

"Wonderful! Just wonder… ful…" Doc interrupted himself, his eyes unfocused. He began to laugh and dance like a puppet with the strings tangled.

Shinji raised his head, a small smile on his lips. It had been too long since he had heard laughter. Honest, happy laughter. Sarcastic cackling didn't count. "Is he okay?"

Marty squeezed Shinji's shoulder. "Oh, yes. He just had an idea. He will come back in a minute."

Author Notes

(1) Doc's love for the Old West shows.

(2) Neither of the three time travelers is really fluent in Japanese, and Shinji's English is very basic. Hopefully, I'm not too far from the kind of mistakes people learning a new language would make.

(3) In public releases, the age of the pilots is not mentioned. NERV kept a tight control over the information about the pilots. They even tapped on telephone calls, as Shinji found out during a call from Kensuke.

(4) Most of the events in The Fly happened as in canon. However, in this timeline, Veronica Quaife and Stathis Borans confronted the mutated Brundle. Borans tried to shoot him, but Brundle snapped his neck. As he died, a stray shot killed Veronica. But Brundle didn't flee the scene as the police believes; Veronica's death snapped him back to sanity, and he used the telepod to commit suicide by disintegration. There are several reasons why Batrok Industries sold them the project; one, they have no accounts of the telepods working, two, there is no hybrid baby; and three, having their scientist reported as a fugitive from a crime scene is a major scandal. The telepods are mostly intact, and Egon is working on recovering the data in Brundle's computer. At this point, he has the basic equations, and both he and Ray are smart and knowledgeable enough to understand Brundle's work. The technical details are a very different thing, and will require extensive work.

(5) An inevitable but never addressed effect of time travel to the future is that any traveler's departure to a future point of the timeline, implies their absence from the main timeline during the intervening time. Einstein traveled one minute into the future in the DeLorean's first trip, and during that minute, for all practical purposes, Einstein ceased to exist as part of the universe. Doc's departure from 1985 means that there was a timeline he wasn't a part of, between 1985 and 2015 (or 2016, for this story). The moment he returns from the future opens a new timeline that includes him again (replacing the other timeline in the process). That's the one we actually see in the movies and in this story.