MARCH 20th, 2015

MEDICAL CENTER, NERV HQ

10:28am:

Shinji's eyes opened wide, accompanied by a light gasp. He squinted almost immediately at the bright, white lights shining directly above him. For a minute, his mind raced as he tried to remember where he was or how he even got there.

He was too stunned to think about anything for a moment, not sure of exactly what was going on. All he saw was a ceiling he couldn't recognize. This certainly wasn't his Aunt's house.

'I don't know this ceiling...'

And then it hit him.

As Shinji's thoughts gathered, he was finally able to recollect all the events from the previous night. Little by little, it all came back to him; the escort to Tokyo-3, meeting with his father again, and the Genetics Plug he was put inside of. And then there was the surreal nature of the experiment itself. But what struck him as strange was that he couldn't remember leaving the machine itself. He could recall the sensation of waking up, but his mind simply went blank thereafter.

Shinji slowly turned his head, wanting to get a sense of where he was. He could tell it was a hospital room as evidenced by the medical technology and the overwhelming whites the room was colored in. The sound of his heart monitor was the only thing making a sound of any kind.

He also found that his body was in a lot of pain after Ritsuko's experiment. It was truly a stark contrast to what he felt inside the machine during the coding process itself. It was as if he could feel nothing, but felt an extreme pleasure throughout his body at the same time. And as soon as he felt himself coming back to reality, the bliss turned to pain.

But aside from the pain itself, something felt slightly off about his body.

'They should've told me about these side effects. Everything really hurts.' He thought. 'Something doesn't feel right about this...'

Shinji sighed. So much had happened in so little time. All he wanted now was some time for himself to recoup after last night's events. But he knew he would get no such luxury. The whole point of the project was to get his training over and done with in no time. And with how much his entire body ached, he genuinely felt like he had overexercised himself.

And then he thought back to those implanted memories.

'Why did I think back to all those moments so suddenly?'

The artificial memories his mind was implanted with had actually tricked his brain into believing he lived out those false moments he saw inside the plug. After the implantation process, he was fully convinced that he had gone through boot camp training himself.

'And that strange feeling I got in there of not being alone... what was all that about?'

Shinji was taken out of his thoughts once he heard the door open, revealing the very scientist that had run the experiment on him.

"Good morning." Said Ritsuko with a sympathetic smile on her face.

"Morning, Doctor-" He paused for a bit. "-sorry, what was your last name again?"

"It's Akagi."

"Ah, sorry about that. I think my head's a little cloudy after last night." Shinji said, looking down.

"No worries. I suspected that might've been the case." She assured him. "I was sent here to address just that, actually. But first thing's first, how are you feeling right now?"

"Kinda awful, actually. I can barely move my body because everything's aching." Shinji answered her.

"Interesting..." Ritsuko said under her breath as she wrote down what he described to her. "Aside from that, is there anything else you feel? Headaches? Do you feel any irregularities inside your body at all, like urinary problems and such?"

"No, nothing like that. Just soreness everywhere."

She wrote more notes down and proceeded to put her clipboard and pen down and walked to some cabinets on the other side of the room. Ritsuko opened one of them up and calmly pulled out a syringe, filling it up with a light but effective pain reliever.

"This will help alleviate the pain just a little." She said.

Ritsuko walked back up to him and injected the needle into his arm, having made Shinji flinch just a little in reaction to it. She heard him let out a tiny wince, as his muscles were still very tender and sensitive to touch, let alone a needle injection.

"Sorry about that." She said.

As she removed the syringe from his arm, she walked over to the sink and proceeded to dump the used needle. Then she picked her clipboard and pen up again, as well as a chair to sit alongside Shinji's hospital bed.

"Okay, I just have some questions to ask you regarding the experiment we ran yesterday." She stated. "How much do you remember about last night? Do you have any recollection of where you were, and what you were doing from the moment you stepped into the laboratory?"

Shinji looked back up at the ceiling, thinking back to the previous night's events again.

"I remember just about everything... but I don't think I was awake when I got off that machine." He described.

"You actually were, but only momentarily." Ritsuko said. "Do you not recall us helping you out of the plug?"

"No, not at all... What happened?"

"Well-" She began. "-you expelled all the L.C.L from your lungs. I'm guessing you were pretty lightheaded afterwards, because you actually vomited on the platform once the medical team helped you down."

Shinji's eyes widened a little, feeling extremely embarrassed now despite not remembering anything that Ritsuko had just described to him.

"Oh my god... I'm- I'm so sorry... I don't remember any of that all."

"It's okay. We weren't exactly sure what the plug's effects on your body would be, we just want to make sure you're okay." She said. "Do you still feel sick at all?"

"No, just really tired." Said Shinji.

As Ritsuko jotted down more notes, Shinji suddenly thought of his father again. He knew he had been there by the time the experiment had started. So he wondered if there was any kind of concern that might've come from seeing his own son get really sick and pass out in front of everyone.

"Now, about the-"

"Can I ask you something real quick, Dr. Akagi?" He asked, though not meaning to interrupt Ritsuko. "Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe after we're done here."

"It's no problem at all, Ikari. Go ahead, what is it you want to know?"

He gulped nervously.

"Did father-" He stopped, trying to find a way to phrase his question. "Was he- well, did he worry at all?"

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow.

"Worry about what?" She asked.

"About me. Y'know... when I fainted down on that platform and all. Did he stick around at all? Or ask about me?"

His question was followed by a bit of an awkward silence. Already, he could tell by her hesitation to answer that Gendo probably didn't stick around or ask about his son's well-being. Either way, he just wanted her to be honest about it.

"Well, um... I can't say that he didn't care. But he had to leave as soon as the experiment finished." She finally said.

Shinji sighed with great disappointment, and Ritsuko was now feeling a little bad about it herself.

'I mean, what did I honestly expect at this point...' He thought. "Yeah... makes sense."

Ritsuko bit her lip a little, really feeling the awkwardness of the situation now. But she didn't want Shinji to let it bring him down some more, and tried to make it not sound as bad as it may have seemed.

"Well, uh, you know... he's a really busy man. And after all, his position here at NERV is more important than everyone else's. He and the Sub-Commander are hard at work 24/7. So he just had more important business to attend to, that's all."

But almost immediately after saying that, she realized how poor her choice of words ended up being.

"Mhm..." Said Shinji.

Ritsuko was never one to talk about such personal matters. Unlike Misato, she often didn't bring in emotions to her conversations. And though we was a respectful person, she always found herself getting lost when certain topics became so personal or dealt with sensitivity towards one's own life.

Which is why she had wished she just said nothing instead.

"Um... let's resume, then." Ritsuko said a little awkwardly. "Now, when you were inside the plug and the experiment began, what was that like? Is there any way you can describe how it felt? Or maybe even what it looked like?"

Although Shinji was still upset, he decided to just go along with her questions regardless.

"Well-" He began, realizing that trying to describe what happened inside his mind was going to be more difficult than he imagined.

Ritsuko's pen hovered over her clipboard as she waited for an answer, but she looked over at him once she saw that he was having a hard time trying to explain what it was like in there.

"Having a hard time?"

"Yeah, kinda." Said Shinji. "It's just- everything about it was so surreal."

"Well that's a start. What about it would you say felt so 'surreal'? Did you feel anything, be it physically or emotionally?" She asked.

"That's the thing... I think that when the process started, it was like my body went completely numb. I couldn't feel anything at all; my arms, legs... nothing! But at the same time, there was this amazing feeling I got while I was inside that machine. It was like I was in the most comfortable bed in the world, or something... it seriously felt amazing."

The blonde scientist already took the notes down as he recalled his sensations of being inside the Genetics Plug.

"And as for the memories, does that ring any bell to you at all?"

"Memories?" Asked Shinji. "You mean... those visions I had of boot camp? Yeah, all of that kind of came out of nowhere. But it didn't last too long, it just flashed through my head for a moment."

Ritsuko grinned a little.

"So you actually remember doing all of that?" She asked, to which Shinji nodded.

"Yeah, of course I do. But- wait, how do you know I thought about all that?"

"Because you never actually did any of those things." She revealed. "All of that, everything you saw... none of it actually happened. Those memories are artificial. We implanted them in your head."

Shinji turned his head over to look at her to see if she was being serious.

"What? No, I did do all of those things..."

But now it was beginning to make some kind of sense in his head the more he thought about it, forcing him to question if he was wrong or not.

"Didn't I?"

"Remember yesterday, when we said that the machine would train you for battle without any of the required training?" She asked him.

And then it all made sense.

"Oh my god..." Shinji said in shock, feeling a little embarrassed at having forgotten about that.

"Yes. I can see it worked well!" Said Ritsuko, finding his widened eyes humorous.

"B-But, how? All those memories feel so vivid! All those recruits I was training with, they felt real! How is it that they're not- w-what?"

"Don't think about it too much, Ikari. We got our end result, so you're basically ready for combat now. All we have to do is put you through some simulations we have here in HQ to make sure you can actually go into battle. But so far, I'm glad to say this experiment was a success." She said, having taken all the notes she needed from him.

Ritsuko stood up and placed her chair back where it originally was set, turning for the door to make her exit.

"Thanks for your time, Ikari. The aching should subside soon enough, but let me know if it doesn't." She said.

But just before she was able to leave, Shinji began to think about that presence he felt inside the Genetics Plug. He wondered if she might've had some kind of explanation for what that might've been, and why he felt that he wasn't alone during the coding process.

"Wait, Doctor-" He said, catching her attention.

"Yes?"

"Just one more thing. While I was inside that contraption of yours, and was going through that 'surreal' phase, I felt like I wasn't alone in there..." Shinji tried describing. "If that makes any sense."

Ritsuko's interest had been piqued, but she didn't pull up her notes to write what he was saying to her down.

"How so? Did you see anything?"

"Well, n-no. But, something about this weird presence felt so familiar... and I don't know why." He said.

"Familiar?" She asked.

"Yeah, like this was someone I've known before. But from a long time ago. And strangely enough, I felt really safe when I was with them..."

This was a very interesting piece of information to Ritsuko. Though she didn't write any of this down, she knew that Gendo would most definitely want to hear about this. Because deep down, she knew exactly what this presence Shinji was talking about might be.

Or rather, who it was.

"Thanks for sharing this with me. I might just be useful." She said to him with a kind smile. "Rest up, now."

And then she left, closing the door behind her.

Shinji was once again alone in his hospital room. By now he was feeling his body sores lessen, but probably only due to the painkiller he was injected with. He'd still feel some pain for the days to come, so it was just something he'd need to deal with as best he could. But despite his muscles finally relaxing, his mind didn't.

'Father... you really could care less about me, couldn't you?'

He sighed once again and closed his eyes, tired of the colorless unfamiliar ceiling he was stuck having to stare at.

'At least I have some time to rest.'

GENDO'S OFFICE

11:01am:

"A presence?" Asked the Commander.

"Yes sir, and he described it as feeling unusually familiar despite not knowing what or who it may be." Ritsuko said.

She, Gendo and Fuyutsuki had already discussed the success of the memory implants and that Shinji had believed the memories to be his own. But the added detail Ritsuko had just brought to their table was something none of them had expected to surface.

"Did the young Ikari mention anything about a vision? Or a voice? Anything at all?" Fuyutsuki asked Ritsuko.

"Nothing, sir. Only that he didn't feel alone after he partly fused with the L.C.L."

Gendo sat over at his desk, contemplating exactly what to do with this new piece of information. Although they had already studied what L.C.L was capable of and how to properly control it, not much was known about its effects on the human body and mind. What they were able to do to Shinji only succeeded because of years of meticulous research. But they weren't about to put him through tests they were unsure of.

The Commander then looked over at a picture frame he had placed on his desk, one of the very few things he kept on there besides whatever he had to currently work on. Ritsuko noticed this, but turned her attention back over to Gendo.

"Your son also detailed feelings of safety when feeling said presence. Like he was being protected by it." She said. "If that really is the case, should we consider running him through the plug a few more times?"

Gendo shook his head.

"Our current goals concerning him have already been met. Maybe in time, but for now we will focus solely on getting him out on the battlefield."

Ritsuko nodded.

"Will there be anything else, doctor?" Asked Gendo.

"No sir." She replied.

"Then you are dismissed."

After she left, Gendo and Fuyutsuki were left to discuss her findings among themselves. All this time, the two men and Ritsuko thought they knew everything about the machine. They were completely sure that nothing unexpected would come out of it during the experiment. But now, they were beginning to question the Genetics Plug's properties.

"What do you think of all of this, Ikari?" The Sub-Commander asked to an unmoving Gendo.

"Why do you ask?"

"This 'presence' your son spoke of, and how familiar it felt. And how safe he felt around it. You don't think it could be..." Fuyutsuki said, looking a little shocked.

"In the current moment, we cannot be so sure. But this does bring about a possible issue." Replied Gendo. "If this aspect of the machine was not able to be picked up in our previous tests, then it raises the question of just how predictable this asset truly is."

Fuyutsuki nodded.

"I see. I suppose we can always further work the plug's properties out with Dr. Akagi before shifting our focus with it over to Human Instrumentality."

Gendo looked at his picture frame once more.

"Yes. Only then will the world know true peace." He said.

As much as Fuyutsuki wanted this war to end, the plan Gendo had set NERV to follow was always something that didn't sit well with his mind. He knew it wasn't the Commander's desire to save their nation and put an end to all this death. Fuyutsuki knew it was all a cover. Gendo could care less about his nation, and especially all who was around him.

All except one, of course. Fuyutsuki sighed.

'I wonder... if Instrumentality pans out exactly the way Ikari wants, will the suffering truly be over? Or will we only increase the suffering of others and only find a sham at the end of the tunnel?'

*RRRIIIIING* *RRRIIIIING*

The Commander's phone went off unexpectedly, the man usually only having received scheduled calls. Whenever it was unplanned, it was either because of an emergency or a rather unusual conversation of some kind. And unbeknownst to both men, it would be the latter.

Fuyutsuki decided to pick up the phone.

"Commander Ikari's office, this is Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki speaking."

He stood silent for a few seconds, then looked over at Gendo with a rather surprised look on his face.

"It's Major Katsuragi, sir."

MEDICAL CENTER

8:27pm:

After hours of resting and uneven patterns of sleep, Shinji was finally able to feel his body recovering a little. Though he still felt a little sore when moving his limbs, he could finally sit up again. He could even walk now, but only with the assistance of a crutch Ritsuko had ordered a nurse to bring to him.

At the moment, Shinji sat on his bed facing the window, watching over the Geo Front's artificial sky depicting night time.

The city still baffled him. It was opposite NERV HQ, so he was getting a good look of the entire skyline. He could even see a distant line of traffic in mid air made up entirely of Spinners. It perfectly went along with the bright and colorful neon lights the skyscrapers of the Geo Front carried with them. It was like one giant arcade that spanned miles of city blocks.

'What a crazy sight.' Thought Shinji.

But no matter how much he tried to distract himself with the pretty view, he couldn't help but think of his father.

"Did he stick around at all? Or ask about me?"

Then he thought back to Ritsuko's answer.

"Well, um... I can't say that he didn't care. But he had to leave as soon as the experiment finished."

Shinji sighed again.

'That's just it, doctor... he didn't. And he probably never will.'

He decided he had grown tired of staying in this room for so long. Even with the impressive view of the city, he had already looked at it for about an hour or so and it brought him no peace of mind. Shinji decided he'd take a walk around the medical center to get his mind off of things for a while.

Even though it wasn't an ideal place to take a stroll in, it was better than staying in what Shinji thought of as a soul-sucking room.

"G-Gaah, come on..." He let out, feeling his muscles still fight him as he tried to stand.

Shinji was able to get himself up as he focused his weight on the crutches. He could move again, albeit a little awkwardly. He made his way to the phone that was hooked on the wall and called the front desk to let them know he was going for a walk.

Then he left his room, looking at the number it was so he would remember which one to come back to.

On the wall opposite where each room was located, a much longer window gave each passerby more to look at. But this was a much less entertaining view by all means, as it only showed the parking lots of the Medical Center and the dark night sky. If it hadn't been for the streetlights down below, the sky would be pitch black.

Shinji figured they only placed those windows there to break from the monotony of the sterile white walls the place was already full of.

'What a depressing view.' He thought.

But just as he continued his walk, he caught someone a little further down the hall. They were actually standing there, with one hand on the glass, just watching the view of nothing. Shinji found this a little strange considering the view was so drab.

But even stranger to him, was this person's hair color; baby blue.

'That's... odd.'

He could see that whoever they were, they had gone through a bit of a rough patch. Their head was full of bandages, and one of their arms was in a cast and hung off of a sling. They too were in a hospital gown just like Shinji, but whatever happened to them looked much worse.

'Could they... have fought in battle?' He wondered. 'Am I looking at a soldier right now?'

Shinji had guessed that whoever that was, was most likely a girl. There was something about their look that struck him as feminine. But he found himself strangely curious about whoever they were. There was something about their stance and how they were spacing out that caught his attention. From his position, he couldn't get a good look at their face, as they were facing the window.

For no particular reason he decided he'd walk up to them. He thought of only passing by, as he wasn't the most social person. But even he thought this was an unusual action for him to take.

But just as he started to make his way towards their direction-

"Shinji?" He heard coming from right behind him.

He turned around, revealing the voice to be none other than Misato herself. She looked a little confused, having not expected to see him out and about.

"Oh, hello Miss Misato." Shinji greeted her.

"What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be resting?" She asked.

"I've been resting for a little while now. I guess I got tired of sitting around doing nothing..." He said. "So I decided to take a little walk around. Ritsuko said it was okay as long as I let the front desk know about it."

"Oh, okay!"

Misato walked over to Shinji now, who she knew was struggling to move around as much as he'd like to.

"What brings you here?" He asked her.

"Oh you know, just wanted to check in on you is all! You didn't look like you were doing really well last night. Guess that's why I'm a little surprised to see you up already." Misato replied. "Say, you wanna get something to eat down at the cafeteria?"

At first, Shinji was hesitant to accept her invitation. He often liked being alone in his walks, preferably with the aide of the music from his S-DAT.

But after thinking it over a little more, he realized he probably owed it to her anyway. After the confused emotions he felt the previous day when he and Misato made their way over to the Geo Front, he recognized that she was the only one being kind to him at all. More so than his own family back home.

'And it's not like I'm going to be seeing her all the time, anyway...' He thought. "You know what, yeah... That'd be nice."

"Great! Just follow me to the cafeteria, I'm sure you don't know the layout of this place just yet." She said.

But right before Shinji followed behind her, he turned around one more time to see if the mysterious blue-haired person was still there. Not surprisingly, they weren't. He didn't even see the person leave their spot at the window. It was like they had just vanished, and popped out of existence.

Something about them had him intrigued.

"Whatcha looking at, Shinji? Everything okay?" Asked Misato, having noticed that he hadn't followed her yet.

He quickly turned back around.

"Oh, uh... it's nothing."

CAFETERIA

8:36pm:

Shinji sat alone at his table awaiting Misato. She had offered to bring his food for him so he wouldn't have to walk more than he needed to, so he asked her to bring him a salad and some hot soup. As he waited, he had a look around at all the other patients admitted to the Medical Center, studying their injuries and trying to think up how they might've obtained them.

There were the usual no-brainers like someone with a broken limb. Others looked a lot more serious, like a freckled girl he saw with half her face covered in gauze.

He wondered just how many of the kids that looked around his age were Eva troops. There were a variety of injuries each patient carried with them, and some of the worst ones made him really worried about stepping out into the battlefield. It was that thought that killed his curiosity, so he resumed to looking back down at his table.

Not too long after, he could see Misato walking towards him with their food.

"Okay, so I didn't know exactly which one you wanted so I picked you mixed veggie soup to go along with your salad." She said as she approached their table.

Misato settled their food tray on the middle of the table, revealing to Shinji exactly what she picked. Much to his shock, this fit-looking woman could eat an astonishing amount of food; a cheeseburger with a side of fries, a soda, a bag of chips she purchased from a nearby vending machine, a portion of jello, and mashed potatoes with gravy.

It almost made him sick to his stomach seeing such a grotesque amount of food, and he wondered if she could even finish all of it.

"Wow... that's a lot of food." Shinji admitted.

"Not if you're me it's not!" Said Misato all cheerily in a playful tone.

He really found her to be a strange person. But she was nice, so she wasn't bothered too much by it.

"Alright Shinji, bon appetit!" She said in excitement.

Shinji dragged his hot bowl of soup and plate of salad over to him and focused on eating, wanting to avoid looking at Misato's choice of dinner.

'That's how someone my age would normally eat...' He thought.

As he delicately sipped from his spoon, Misato was busy chowing her food down like she was a starving street dog. Not too long after, she cracked open her soda and downed a few gulps, returning to her main meal without any delay.

"Aaah, I love me this kind of fatty food. Sooo tasty... you know, you didn't have to get the healthy stuff. Rits said that you're in good health. It's just your body that hurts right now. I could've gotten you some of the good stuff!" She said.

"Heh, not really my kind of thing, Miss Misato." He said to her. "I prefer the healthier kinds of meals. Something nourishing while still being tasty. But hey, to each their own I guess."

"Ah, what a responsible kid you are. I wish I had that in me when I was your age."

Then they both resumed their eating. They didn't know each other all that well, so there wasn't really much to talk about. Even though her outgoing personality was a little weird to someone like Shinji, even he had to admit that she was just being nice. She didn't have the table manners that he had grown so accustomed to at home, but that didn't really bother him that much.

'Man, I couldn't imagine her having a roommate... can't imagine anyone wanting to live with someone who eats like that. But, she'd probably know better than to be like that living at home with someone else.'

Then the topic he had in his mind of living at home reminded him of something; Just where was he going to live?

'Oh yeah, speaking of which-' He thought. "So Miss Misato, did you get to find out where I'll be staying? And if I could live independently?"

Misato looked at him dumbfoundedly as she swallowed the rest of the food in her mouth. She had completely forgotten that this was one of the reasons she came to visit him in the Medical Center. She wiped her mouth with a napkin and downed a little more soda to wash her food down a little easier.

Then she cleared her throat.

"Yeeeaah, about that..."